The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-04-26
The chineae Question.

+ for the South, he does not come up TO
the height of the argument as he is ae-
customed to do in dealing with great
questions of public policy. Labor is
not the only, nor the most important
consideration of the subject Of immi-
grafton. Admit for argument sake,
that the Chinaman will perform salts
/ factorily the mere routine of labor re-
quired in the household, the farm and
the factory, still we insist, if his pres
ence is a social and political evil, and is
to disturb our country with another
race problem, better ten thousand times
that he should never put foot on our
shores. Emigrants from Europe pos
Isess assimulating elements. They will
not come to destroy the peace of the
country with ano her question of race ;
with another problem of vsxatious an
tagonism and uncertain probabilities.
Emigrants from Europe, as another
contemporary has well observed, are
come from the countries that we all
came from, and there are none that can
not in time be assimilated to the great
American people, in color, tongue, man
ners, industry, political ideas, and re-
ligion. If it be said that the Jews are
a dissimilar race, we answer that theirs
is an exceptional and peculiar case.
They are here, and have been from the
beginning, and are here to stay. They
have remarkable traits, and are an
elevating, progressing, not debasing,
tagging race They have lived in all
ages and nations, and have conformed
in general things. They have genius
for adaptability and universal nation
atty; and with their wonderful indus
try, and enterprise are an acquisition to
any country: As to the Chinese, if
their labor is to bring with it the
curse of social leprosy, God forbid
that it should ever come. In gov
eminent, the ideas Of the Asiatic
race are as wide apart from the Ameri-
can, as the poles. In religion, the diff
ference if possible, is greater. In NOR
ais, they may not be utterly degraded,
but they have sounded all the depths of
depravity. To show what depths of
degradation they have reached, We will
quote from Bayard Taylor's Travels in
India, China, and Japan. 1t was writ
ten in 1854, before the troubles rose on
our Pacific slope, and is an impartial
opinion expressed by an eminent author
and obseryant traveller:
/ It is my deliberate opinion that the Chi
/ ae8e are, morally, the most debased people
/ on the jace Of the earth. Forms of vice which
| in other countries are barely named are in
/ China so common that they excite no COM
ment among the natives. They constitute
the surface level, and below them there are
deeDs on deeps of deprdUity so shocking and hOr-
y-ible that their character cannot eren be limited.
| There are some dark shadows in human ma
! ture which we naturally shrink from pene
trating, and | made no attempt to collect
! information Of this kind but there was
enough in the things which | could not
avoid seeing and hearing-which are
brought almost daily to the notice OF every
foreign resident-to inspire me with pow
erful aversion to the Chinese race Their
touch is pollution, and, harsh as the opinion
may seem, justice to our own race demands
he IN
soil.
Our necessity for Labor" is not ur-
gent enough to supply it from such a
polluted source; and there is 10 moral
or polite obligation on our govern
ment to make this country an abiding
place for the otfscourings of race so
deep down in hideous depravity that
words can lot depict it. Again we will
adopt the ideas of contemporary who
has clear apprehension Of the ques-
ton:
No du y rests upon US to give asylum
to any people who are not desirable as
members of the body polite. We are not aware
tina any maintain that Chinese are desira-
bic members Nei her the capitals employer,
nor hoodlum side of the labor question reaches
all of the matter. The aim of our republican
political economy is not TO get cheap labor but
to improve the laborers condition To import
cheap laborers is quite the reverse of the asylum
business. To import people because their de-
graded mode of living enables them to work
more cheaply than our own people, is to i'm
port force to degrade our own, On the other
hand, the character OF the cause Of our lakoFers
in this matter has been dishonored by the bru-
tality of class who want to live without labor
1r visible means. /.
Eager for labor" deluded by the no
lion that the Kingdom Of China with its
four hundred millions of population {
would supply it, and possessed with the
sentiment that this country should be
IN asylum for all corners of every race,
,rade, class, and popularity, years i
Igo California threw wide open her por- 1
ais and invited immigration from that g
It came. Her people have t
ried it, and their experience is that it e
an unmitigated curse, from which they t
re praying the general government in I
he exercise of its full control over the c
natter, to deliver them. The expert p
nee of California is lesson enough for c
Il. It was in response to the prevail a
ng sentiment of the country, that the e
National Convention of the Republican v
arty, held at Chicago, in 1880. unani- e
1ously adopted platform containing o
he following plank Il
Since the authority to regulate immigra-
on and intercourse between the United
tatea and foreign nations rest with the
ongress of the United States and the Y
power, the Republican party, ci
egarding the unrestricted immigration of n
lie Chinese as matter of grave concern
ent, under the exercise of both these al
owers, would limit and restrict that immi- ~
ration by the enactment of such just,
nmane, and reasonable laws and treaties as a.
Il = Al. Il l.