Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-10-25
THE CHINESE QUESTION.
Position of the Republican Party
and Of the Nevada Senator.

and Of the Nevada Senator.
SENATOR JONES has from the beginning
of his active life been an open antagonis
of the. unrestricted immigration of the
Chinese to the Pacific Coast. He has al
ways been known for his outspoken
opinions on this subject. In his first
Senatorial canvass he took occasion to
place himself on record before the people,
and especially was that the case in the
closing speeches of that campaign. Since
| he has been in the United States Senate,
his votes have been recorded in favor of
the propositions submitted by Senator
Sargent and other representatives of the
Pacific Coast States. When the question
| entered the arena of national politics, the
Nevada Senator was its foremost cham
pion. He was delegate from this State
to the National Republican Convention,
held in Cincinnati June II, Is and 16,
1876, at which President Hayes and Vice
President Wheeler were put in nomina-
ton. In that Convention the Senator
was assigned to the Committee
on Platform, of which General Joseph r.
Hawley of Connecticut was Chairman.
In that committee Senator Jones intro
duced and strenuously advocated resolu-
ton which declared that Chinese immi-
grafton and competition is virtually ser
vile in its character, and is, morally,
socially, economically and politically, an
unmitigated evil, which should be posi-
lively and peremptOrily prohibited. He
also demanded that Congress leGslate on
this question, claiming what Mr.. Sargent
of California has since so ably demon
stated on the floor of the Senate, that no
treaty could bar the sovereign right to |
enact laws for the benefit of the whole |
people. Mr.. Jones urged that the Repub- |
lican platform demand the abrogation at
the earliest possible day of those clauses
Of the Burlingame Treaty which give sup
port and protection to Chinese immigra-
ton. He was met in committee, not
90 much by direct opposition to
his arraignment of the evils pro-
iuced by the presence of the
Chinese, as by fears of the pro-
posed measures being regarded as an in
reference with the principles maintained
~ this Countrywide right of every indi-
yidual to choose voluntarily his own allie
,iance, and its corrollary, the free right
,atted the fallacy that the prohibition of
he Chinese WAS in any sense such an in
difference or denial, taking the ground
ather that their presence was contest
etween two forms of civilization-one
Ugh and aspiring, but not yet chrystal-
zed the other embodying a low and !
shaping and use, having no aspirations, !
)aded with vices, and animated only by
he ambition of the parasite-feeding on
Their and more stalwart lives, until they t
ere destroyed or consumed. 1t was then t
bjected that the people in general did I
OF apprehend the character of the ques- I
on, that the facts were unknown to the f
)untry at large, and tina: the true policy .
as to demand a careful inquiry into s
lem. The following, being the eleventh Il i
ank Of the National Republican plat il
rm, was framed and reported by the a
and adopted after an animated 7
,bate, by the convention f
II. IT is the immaculate duty Of Con- d
'ess to fully lnUestQate the effect of u
e immigration and importation of a
on the moral and material n
tereets Of the country.
This resolution was acted upon, and a
publican Senate carried through the IL IL
pointment of a joint committee, under Ii
g Craftsmanship of the late Senator o. i IL
Morton, to make the investigation de- "
anded. The report of that committee at
s had a great deal to do with the enor- 70
)us increase of general knowledge of h,
q subject and the active advance of pub pi
sentiment in supported the position pr
cupied in this and the other Pacific ~
ates ON the Chinese question. Imme- III
ateIy on the reading of the platform, o o.
:, E. L. Pierce of Massachusetts, made VIC
peech against the eleventh resolution, H 1e
claring that it was in spirit violation in
the Declaration of Independence and wi
being contrary to the doctrine of ar
ristian equality among all men and wi
es. Mr.. Axtell briefly replied, and was i'm
lowed by SENATOR JONES, who said: tn
IT. President and Gentlemen Of the Convention tic
D not propose after SO long and tedious FRI
sion as you have had to-day, and in view of m.
vast amount of business you have to per- sh
N, to occupy the attention of this Oonven- OF
more than very few minutes on this ques- gr