The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-02

ecutive, enioined by this provision OF
the act, the main substance q al
| to define and secure the rights OF our people
| in respect to access to residence and protec-
tion In and trade with China. The actual
| provisions in our favor In these respects were
| framed to be and have been found to be ade-
commerce, and by the concluding article we
receive an important guarantee that should
at any time the Ia Tsng Empire grant 10
another nation or to merchants or citizens
OF any nation any right privilege or
favor connected with navigation, commerce,
political or other intercourse, which Is not
conferred by this treaty, such right, privilege
aud favor shall at once inurr to the benefit of
| the United States its public officers, mer-
chants and citiznns against this body Of stip-
| ulations In cur favor and this permanent en-
| gagement of equality in respect of all fnture
concessions to foreign nations. The general
promise OF permanent p ace and goou offices
| on our part seems to be the only equivalent.
| Reference Is then made tn the visit Of Mr.
| Burlingame, and then quotations from arti-
| cles and OF the treaty. The message con-
| tinues: An examination OF these two articles
| in the light Of experience are influential in
suggesting their necessity. 1t will show that
the fifth article was framed In hostility to
what seemed the principal mischief TO be
guarded against, to wit: The introduction of
Chinese laborers by methods which should
vile importation and not Of voluntary
Immigration Of freemen seeking our
shores upon motives and In q manner
conservant with the system Of our instltu-
tions, and approved by the experience Of the
nation. Unquestionably the adhesion of the
government OF China to these liberal princi-
pies OF freedom in immgra ion with which
we were so familiar, and with which we were
so well satisfied, was great advance to-
ward opening that empire to our civilization
a fut N ra
of greater and greater practical results In
the diffusion throughout that great popula-
tion Of our arts and Industries, our
manufactures, our material improvements,
religion, which seems to uS so i'm
portant to the welfare of mankind. The first
clause Of this article secures the acceptance
by China of the American doctrines OF free
migration to and fro among the peoples and
races Of the earth. The second clause, how
ever, In its reprobatation Of any other than
an entirely voluntary immigration by both
the high contracting parties, and In the re-
ciprocal obligations, WHEREBY we secured the
solemn aud unqualified engagement Onthe PAL
Of China to pass laws making 1t a penal offenee.
fora citizen of the United States or Chinese
subjects to take Chinese subjects either to the
United States or to any 9th foreign cOun-
try, without their free and vo untary consent,
constitutes the great force and value of this
article
Its importance, both In principle and in It's
practical services toward our protection
against servile importation In the guise of
Immigration, cannot be overestimated. 1t
commits the Chinese government to active
and efficient measures to suppress this ini-
uuitous system where these measures are
most necessary and can be most effectual. It
gives to this government the footing OF q
treaty right to such measures and the means
or opportunity Of insisting upon their adop-
ton OF complaint, and resentment at their
neglect.
The fifth article, therefore, IL 1t falls short
Of what the pressure of the later experience
OF our Pacific States may urge upon the at
tention OF this government as essential to the
public welfare, seems to be in the right di-
TectiOn, and to contain an important advan-
tage, which once relinqushed cannot be easily
recovered. The lapse of ten years since the
negotiation OF the Burlingame treaty has ex-
hibIted to the notice OF the Chinese govern
ment, as well to our own people, the working
OF this experiment OF immigration, In great
numbers, of Chinese labOrerS to this country,
and their maintenance here of the habits OF
race, religion, manners and customs, hablta-
tion, mode Of life, segregation here, and the
keeping upsof the ties OF their original home.
which stamp them as strangers and sojourn-
ers, and not as Incorporated elements OF our
national life and growth. This experience
may naturally suggest the reconsideration OF
the,subject as dealt with by the Burlingame
treaty, and may properly become the occasion
Of more direct and circumspect recognition
In renewed negotiations.
Of the difficulties surrounding this political
and social problem it may well be that to the
apprehension OF the Chinese government no
less than our own, the simple provisions OF
the BurliDgamc treaty may need to be re-
placed by more careful methods, securing the
Chinese and ourselves against larger and
more rapid infusion Of this foreign race than
our system OF industry and society can take
up and assimilate with ease and safety.
regard the very grave discomfort OF the
people Of the Pacific States with the present
working of the Chinese immigration, and their
still graver apprehensions therefrom In the
future, as deserving the most serious atten-
tion Of the people OF the whole country, and
sollcitOus Interest on the part of Cong ess and
tne Executive. Ii this were not my Judgment
the passage Of the bill by both houses OF Con-
gress would impress upon me the seriousness
ol the situation. when majority Of the rep
resentatives OF the people OF the whole coun-
Try thought to justify SO serious a measure
Of relief.
An argument is then entered into to show
ttaat Congress by legislative enactment can't
aDfDSaUe treaty. InStan, es have some
times occur red when the ordinary legislation
Of Congress has, by its conflict with some
treaty obligations of the government towards
D foreign power. taken effect as an infraction
of the treaty and been judicially declared 70
be operatf We to that result, but nei,h encS
legislation, nor such judicial sanction of the
N moment OF treaty. On the contrary the |
treaty In such a case still subsists between tha
and the casual infraetion is rao
paired by an appropriate satisfaction In the /
OF the treaty. The bill before |
me does not enjoin upon the President the /
abrogation of the entire Burlingame Treaty. |
much less of the principal treaty which it Is |
5he supplement.