The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1882-05-04
In. inuepenuent'J
The Presidents Veto.

The Presidents Veto.
The overwhelming mass of the
American people said Amen with q
hearty approval when learning that
the President had vetoed the Infamous
Anti-Chinese Bill. We use the word
Infamous to characterize the bill,
since this is just the right term. The
thing is as bad as the term. The idea
that the United States should by law
erect upon its entire coast an impene-
trable wall of exclusion against all
Chinese laborers, skilled and unskilled,
there to stand for twenty years, and
thus discriminate against Cinnamon
as race and honest labor as an en-
ployment, thereby reversing policy
that is a hundred years old and from
which the country has derived meal
culable benefits, and all this to crafty
the unreasonable passions Of mere
fragment of the whole people-yes,
this idea is not to be contemplated by
just, impartial, and especially Chris
tian minds without the feeling Of alb
horrence. The whole scheme of ex-
clusion is despicable and mean to the
last degree, without any good reasons
for it and in defiance of the best rea-
sons against it. 1t is contrary to all
our antecedents and utterly unworthy
of the character of the American peo-
pie.
If we speak strongly ON this sub
ject, it is because we feel strongly.
We are opposed to exclusion in any
form, or for any period, or in applica-
ton to any race that may peacefully
seek home on this continent. Mon
golians have just as much right to
come here to better their condition as
our Pilgrim Fathers had to land at
Plymouth Rock for the same reason;
and we would have this same right
sacredly maintained, with no discrim-
ination against race or color. This
may be called sentiment. Sentiment,
then, let it be. 1t is we'll to remem-
ber that sentiment is both the back
bone and the impulse Of our whole
political system.
The Presidents reasons for the veto
are such as became him to state, in
returning the bill to the Senate, with
out his signature The prominent
reason is the fact that, while the bill
processes to execute the recent treaty
with China, it is virtually a fraud
upon the treaty; and this the Presi-
dent most conclusively shows. An
absolute exclusion of immigration on
the part of Chinese laborers for TWEEN
ty years is not regulation or limita-
ton Of such immigration, but posi-
tive and absolute prohibition during
the lifetime of nearly generation;
and this the treaty expressly declares
shall not be done. The President sets
out this point with great clearness
and leaves no doubt in any candid
mind as to the propriety of the veto
on this single ground, if there were
no other. Good faith required that
he should not give to the bill the
force of law.
What the President says as to the
odious passport system which was IN
troduced into the bill must commend
itself to every right-thinking man.
This system, as he remarks, while
"undemocratic and hostile to the
spirit of our institutions" is 'fast
disappearing in Europe before the
progress of liberal instutions" He
doubts the wisdom of putting an en-
tering wedge of this kind into our
laws" and we'll he may. To require
the Chinese, who are here under the
protection of the Burlingame Treaty,
to register their names and obtain
passports if they wish to leave this
country and return, is to violate the
spirit of this treaty, as well as to in
troduce an odious policy into the
practice Of the Government, and that,
too, in the face of the fact that the
governments of Europe are themselves
abandoning it.
The President also says some very
sensible things in regard to the i'm
policy, as well as the bad faith, Of the
exclusion proposed in this bill. The
states on the Pacific slope, especially
California, have already derived vast
benefit from commercial intercourse
with China, and the future is rich
with promise, if the United States
maintain just and friendly relations
with that country. The Pacific States
contain ample evidences that the Chi
nese immigrants who have come here,
so far from being curse to them,
have by their industry and skill
largely contributed to their develop
ment. The President alludes to the
well-known facts of the present and
the promises of the future, as furnish
ing an economical and commercial
reason why he could not give his as
sent to this bill. We commend his
reasoning on this point to the specia
attention of the people in the Pacific
States. He thinks more wisely fol
them than they seem to think fol
themselves.
1t is a noticeable fact that the lead
ers of the Democratic Party, III Con
gress and out of it, have seized upoI
this anti-Chinese excitement IN tn
Pacific States as the means OF maxim!
party capital, just as in other day
Democrats at the North espoused tn
cause of slavery in order to win tn
votes of Shareholders 1t has been tn
, characteristic Of Democracy for tn
/ / I,.+ eo,+,- ,,,o,., 70 cro Gov ,pyt h pCr n