Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-03-27
The Republican Party and the Chinese
~ Question.

One of the specters which will con-
front the Republican National Conven-
ton upon its assembling at Chicago is
the Chinese question. Four years ago,
it will be remembered, at Cincinnati,
the party convention took strong ground
on that question. The delegates from
the Pacific States insisted that strong
ground should be taken. They had
been instructed by their constituents to
demand that the Republican party
should commit itself to the doctrine of
Mongolian oppression or extinction as
a condition precedent to receiving the
votes of California, Oregon and Nevada.
They dared not go home and ask Re-
publicans to vote for the candidate of
the convention unless they could take
with them the solemn assurance that
the party was entirely sound on the
Chinese question. and that the Cali
fornia doctrine iii relation to the rights
and wrongs-of the celestials was
cherished by the entire Republican
household as one of it's most sacred
political convictions.
Thus adjured, tie party felt that
strong ground must be taken, and
promptly took it. With scarcely dis
senting voice, the convention courage
ously declared that it was So the immdi-
ate duty of Congress to fully investi-
gate the effect of the immigration and
Importation of Mongolians on the moral
and material interests of the country"
There was no trimming or evasion,
it will be observed; no shally-
ing or delay, or procrastination.
mediate, and it was to be full. It
| To hoo ,sol
| terests" of the country alone, but upon
| those high 8. moral interests whereof
the party has SO long regarded itself
the especial custodian. In word, it
was a grand. spontaneous proffer Of
party sympathy with the Republicans
of the Pacific Slope in their noble indig-
nation against the almond-eyed immi-
grant from far Cathay; and although it
took the Pacific Republicans, who saw
it for the first time in cold and unimpas-
stoned type, some time to realize its
grandeur, its spontaneity and its SYM
pathetic quality, they were easily per-
suaded by their representatives to ac-
cept it in the same cordial spirit in
which, according to those representa-
tives, it was rendered. So accepting it,
they gave the Republican candidate
their votes, and sat them down to wait
for the expected extinction of the China
man.
And they are still waiting. Little by
little it has dawned upon them that the
/ grand spontaneous utterance of the con-
vention was humbug, the sole object
of which was to hoodwink the voters
and capture the votes on the shore Of
the Pacific. AS they ponder the fact that
the Republican party never did anything
toward solving the Mongolian question
and realize that its leaders never in
tended it should do anything, beyond
the making of promises which meant
nothing and could be easily broken
they begin to look forward te
the coming convention as an oppor-
tunity for asking pertinent and embar.
RAISING questions. The Conklings anc
| the Camerons, the supporters of Blaine
and the supporters of Sherman
there are going to be any--would dc
well to prepare themselves for answer
ing these questions. They would d6
well. also, to prepare satisfactory an
swers. No promise of investigation
will be sufficient. If the votes of Cali
fornia and Nevada are to be had, OF
even expected, for the Republican can
didates, the Republican Convention viii
have to take positive ground in respec
to the checking OF forbidding of Chimes,
immigration and the abrogation of al
treaties which stand in the way.
, That the convention will hesitate
about taking this ground, or any othe
which is deemed necessary to the secur
, ing of votes, there is no reason to doubt
! but there is possibility that in takin,
it the party will be involved in some
,, thing like contradiction of the cen
tralizing doctrines to which it stand
committed and which have so re
: Gently been approved by a Re
publican Supreme Court. Right o
wrong in itself, the Californi
, opposition to the Chinaman an
the California method of carrying tina
opposition into effect embody togethe
; doctrine of State-rights as advances
as any that can be extracted from tn
: Virginia or Kentucky resolutions. Th
i newspapers of the Pacific slope see thi
: and comment on it in way that ind
e Gates very clearly the sort of contre
a versy that awaits the Chicago Conver
: ton. The Eureka Sentinel, for il
: stance, a Nevada paper which believe
r in the doctrine expressed in the formul
O "the Chinese must co." SAYS:
n There is a ludicrous side to this anti-Chinet
! business in the California legislature; Ever
u thing that has been attempted involves ii
l. doctrine of State-rightS in the brOadest sens
n The idea of single State of the Union settir
: :. up in opposition to law or treaty stipulatto
f anything, and State, too, with Republics
~ Legislature and Governor. According to tt
y Republican idea, as applied to other question
q the lawmakers of the Golden State are guilt
each and them.