Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-05-01

The Second Anti. Chinese Bill.
On Friday the second anti-ChiLese
bill. which, some time since, passed the
House, also passed the Senate, and now
it goes to Mr.. Arthur for his signature.
1t is a noticeable fact that all the Demo
cratic Senators present voted for it, and
that the Republicans, as a rule, voted
against it, only those Republican Sena-
tors from the far West favoring the
measure. 1t is, in substance, very nearly
the same bill as the vetoed bill, the only
difference of any consequence being that
it excludes the Chinese for ten instead OF
twenty years.
If. however. the exclusion had only
been for one year. the principles involved
are identically the same, and these prin-
ciples are what both parties are forced
to confront II is very doubtful CUES
ton whether any law prohibiting Chi
nese naturalization exclusively is in &C
cord with the United States Constitution.
Congress has a right to refuse natural-
cation to al immigrants for ten, twenty
or fifty years if it chooses, but under the
express wording of our organic law
namely, that Congress shall provide an
Uniform rule of naturalization, it is diff
cult to see how Africans. Germans, Eng
lish, Irish, Italians, and, indeed, repre-
sentatives Of every nation on the globe,
can come here and freely enjoy all the
blessings to be conferred by American
citizenship, while the Chinese alone are
excluded.
This is one difficulty in the way Of
anti Chinese legislation which presents it
self alike to all parties in the country; but
there is another, particularly connected
with such legislation, which commends
itself especially to the consideration of
the Republican party, and that is the
race issue necessarily involved. 1t was
the Republican party which first did
away with the idea which had existed
from the earliest days of the republic up
to about fifteen years ago, that this was
a white mans government, and it was
the Republican party which fastened
upon the country the doctrine that all
men were created equal, and that no
distinction should be made IN this land
of the free, either politically or so
cislly, against any man, without
regard to race. color or previous
condition. 1t was the action of that
party which made such scenes as that
witnessed on Thursday last in the United
States House of Representatives possible,
when Lynch. the colored contestant for
the seat of Mr.. Chalmers, of Mississippi,
was permitted to address the House and
berate his white opponent as champion
fraud, who, though he had occupied a
seat in Congress for five years. had al
ways carried his election through fraudu-
lent practices, and stood before the coun-
try "a monument to rifed ballot boxes
and stifed justice" No doubt, too, if the
truth was known, it would be ascertained
that this colored aspirant for Congress
sional honors had been taught this, and
other high flown epigrammatic utterances
in which he INDUCED against his white
opponent. by some of those very Western
Republicans, representatives from sec
ton which few years ago was ardently
anxious to do away with all race distinc-
tions, and fasten negro suffrage and civil
rights bills upon the country, because
they thought such measures would tend
to humiliate the whites of the South; but
who have now suddenly found out that
a white mans government is an absolute
necessity to the West.
This, then, is, after all, the great ques
ton presented by the agitation of the
Chinese problem, and the Republican
party will have to face it. The Democ,
racy can, if they see fit, vote against
| Chinese citizenship with consistency, but
the Republicans cannot DO so, nor can 9
Republican President approve any meas
ure of that character without fla
grant self qualification. If, therefore,
this present or any other anti-Chinese
bill becomes a law, it will most likely
prove the entering wedge to split into
fragments the now established theory
that this is not white mans govern
ment, but that its privileges are open tc
the whole world When that principle
is destroyed, the Republican party must
necessarily stand before the world as the
greatest laundering political orgauiza
ton whose misrule was ever permitted
to curse any land.