Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-04-27
The TIc-Tics OF Jesse Butler.

the intelligent representative of o
class and of a sentiment. Jesse
would write better by the avoid.
ance of gush. Poets gush; and Jesse
is o poet. Shakespeare embraces
poets in the same category as luna.
tics and lovers. Poets are nothing
unless classical. Jesse is too clas-
sical, and, hence, obscure. What
does Jesse mean when he tells us,
in his late vagary in the Erpress,
that had he more space he "would
scorch the foul, gold-fed Cerbe-
russes with the contempt that half
a million liberty-loving men and
women feel for them"
This is strong but trashy. The
plural of Cerberus is Cerberi, and
Cerberus was a faithful watchdog
in Il hot place. Jesse should not
use worde of the meaning of which
he is ignorant. Jesse takes too
much credit in being Working
man. We take it, he is not one
from choice; but, as the rest of us,
would cease to be one as soon as he
could live without labor. But, to
Jesse's points: He lauds the new
Constitution because it inhibits
natives of China from becoming
oil hnl 10 al,
that, Jesse, was injected into the
document to hoodwlnk and bam-
boozle such innocents as you. Our
country has been in existence for
over a century, aud, perhaps, it
contains some five naturaliZed Chi
namen. Why, Jesse, you ought to
know by this time that the "lep-
rous and moon-eyed" ones despise
American institutions. No more
intense patriots than your emil
grants from your Flowery King
dom. They love their native land
with more ardor than the Switzer.
The Emperor of their country is
the brother of the sun-the highest
dignitary on earth. COnfucius
teaches them love of country and
ancestry. So much do they detest
these United States they will not
suffer their dead bodies to Iinger
upon our soil. This was one silly
sop TO you "Cerberusses," Jesse, of
the Workingmen's party. In an
swering article 2, section l, Jesse,
we have likewise responded to arti-
Gle 4, section 6, of your quotations.
But you dwell at length on article
Is section 8, which prohibits the
employment of Chinese on certain
characters of work.
These aud like demagogic
and puerile provisions have
exposed the new instrument to de.
risive laughter in the East of our
country and in Europe. They are
regarded as silly and nugatory.
We agree with you, Jesse, as a
matter OF policy, that Cinnamon
should not DO employed at all; but
1t is not the province of a Consti-
tuition or of IL statute to prohibit
you or an artificial creature, as a
corporation, from employing a
mule, or Chinaman, or a Russian.
EAo " Cil lHbCld you
your meals at the Pico House. 1t
is this absurd and clap-trap legisla-
tion in the new document-bait for
gudgeons-that has rendered it
supremely ridiculous.
We now come to your long Sec. 4
of Art XIX, upon which you have
spent poetic rant and vituperative
verbiage worthy OF the author of
the section. 1t ponderously starts
forth, "the presence of foreigners
Ineligible to become citizens of the
United States is declared to be dam
gerous, &C." Soeyery body thinks,
my dear working frield, that is, if
in large quantities. But, is the
presence of two or three of such
terrible danger? And yet your
vaunted section "peremptory"
forces the Legislature, of which
you shall be a member, jesse, to
stamp out the presence of those
two or three. But you admit,
Jesse, in your sonorous and exple-
tive and poetic article, that some
Chinamen have become 'citizens
of the United States" And that
admission is a concession that
China citizenship is free thing
outside of California. Then,
again, this matter of citizenship is
an affair alone of the Federal. Gov
ernment. What child's play, then,
for our new Constitution to touch
upon it? There could be no other
purpose than to gull such simple
tons as you. The intelligent of the
workingmen freely admit that the
new Constitution has made no adj
vance on the Chinese question
that it has left the matter as it
found it, with q few glittering but
meaningless generalities which
have exposed the instrument to
jeer and ridicule.
If you are serious, Jesse, you are
very weak and witless, and should
at once withdraw from public gaze
as Constitutional expounder. We
rather opine you are more of sue
cess in tic-ticks than in tacticks.
The truth is that the Working
men delegates in the Convention,
though ferociously rampant at
first, were soon persuaded by
the legal minds in that body
that the Chinese question
was beyond State Conventional
and State legislative power-that
its favorable solution lies entirely
with Federal power. 1t will not
do, Jesse, at this late day to poetize
upon the subject. We commend
you as an excellent retriever of de-
cayed clocks and fair weaver of
tinkling but rather insipid verse;
but Kearney himself will not EN-
brace you as Constitutional law
yer. The great Webster became
timid as he approached Consti u
tional queries, and yet you, Jesse,
; dispose of them as you would brush
dirt from the dial of q watch. And
now we come to Art. XIX, Sec. 2,
of yOIIr immaculate chart that pro.