National Republican., 1876-05-20


vanced wave of this current of migra
ton setting in from the westward which
has alarmed the Caucasian element through
out the entire Pacific slope, and given rise
to serious apprehensions on the part of
Congress as to the expediency of at once
enacting stringent laws prohibiting Its
further extension, as well as providing by
treaty for its absolute exclusion from our
shores. 1t is hardly necessary to apprise
our readers, in alluding to this increasing
Oriental exodus, that We refer particularly
to the endless Asiatic hordes which are
most populous human hive on the face of
the earth, and whose habits of life, i'm
moral practices and degraded condition
have aroused just indignation and rendered
them utterly repugnant to all with whom
they have been brought in contact.
We all know that China has among the
four hundred millions of her subjects many
absolutely distinct classes-we would al
most say races, so clearly are the degrees
of rank defned-which number among
them millions of wonderfully intelligent
and ingenious people, who are essentially
people of the arts and Of trade, and
which in the changing aspect of the world
must eventually become an important and
most potent factor in determining that diff
cult problem Of the age evolved by the
antagonism of capital and labor. 1t has
been but recently that we have been en-
sbled to obtain an interior view of China
and the Chinese. But, since we have had
but bare glimpse of them, we have been
astounded at the extraordinary vitality and
productiveness of Chinese industry. We
have been amazed whilst we have contem-
plated the stir and hum and hustle of this
enormous hive of human beings, living and
apparently prospering by the mechanic arts,
agriculture and commerce. In country
the most densely populated on the globe
the inhabitants are, from necessity, indus
trious, and, from necessity, simple In their
tastes and frugal in their habits, and it is
these commendable attributes that render
them, it may be, desirable, and certainly
the chealest producers in existence. They
are not instinctively immoral or totally
depraved. They are decile and pacific,
and with the same advantages would COM
pare not unfavorably with those occupying
similar stations IN life, wherever they may
be found. Here our description of one
class, or rather a portion of the Chinese
community, embracing a dozen different
castles, ends, as it is by no means this class
with which we have to deal-at present, or
whose presence has created such serious
disturbance throughout the States of the
Pacific coast.
There is another and very large-possi-
bly, the largest, and unquestionably the
lowest class in China-which is intuitively
degraded and abandoned; whose monstrous
practices exceed anything ever discovered
in the history of human depravity, even in
the vilest cesspools Of European bestiality.
Grimes against nature, hitherto unknown
among the most degenerate, are disclosed
in sickening detail, while examining into
the domestic life of these debased multi
tudes. 1t is this class that has persisteatly
and doggedly resisted all efforts of the phi
lanthropist to humsnize, or to raise even
in slight degree, above the level of its
own utter degradation. 1t is this semi
barbarous class that is now threatening to
inurdate, with its diabolical depravity,
the civilized element on the Pacific
slope, and which comes among
us like swarm of locusts to depart only
to make room for the myriads that are to
follow. 1t is this class that engenders and
fosters the only system of human slavery
We have among us, and which statutory
enactments SO far seem powerless to pro-
hibit. 1t is this mass of abject creatures
who come not here as permanent settlers
but as slaves, bound for service for long
terms of years, at exorbitaRt rates, to the
most unscrupulous AID exacting of their
own race, who hold them in complete
thraldom, through their superstitious
dread of the torments of Chinese hell,
whenever a disposition is manifested to
prove unfaithful to their obligations in dis
closing to the authorities the conditions of
their servitude as a means of regaining
their freedom. 1tisa well known fact that
the great volume of the Chinese male in
flux into this country is in direct violation
of laws relating to the suppression Of the
coolie traffic; and nearly the entire, ifnot the
whole, female importation is in open disre-
gard Of similar enactments prohibiting the
introduction of Chinese women for i'm
moral purposes.
1t is, moreover, quite obvious that the
Chinaman, of whatever rank in the social
scale he may be, in migrating from his
own country is almost invariably averse
to carrying his family with him, and is
ever unwilling to establish in the land of
his temporary residence even the question
able marital relations which obtain in
China. The Chinese of California and other
Pacific States are by no means exceptions
to this rule, and it is, therefore, with their
distorted ideas of morality, to be expected
that in any land where they are sojourning
in any considerable numbers they will seek
to crafty their lusts through Just such
means as have resulted in discharging into,
the Pacific ports brothel after brothel load
Of Asiatic prostitution. And 1t is sadly to
be feared if in the cause of morality: these
wretched females are excluded, that their
exclusion will only be substituted by acts
of lechery among the males ten-told
more revolving. How, best to mitigate, if
not entirely eradicate, these growing ulcers
upon the body polite. which are rapidly In
fusing their poison into our system of social
economy, is question that deserves most
careful consideration, and one that calls for
the greatest promptitude of action. The