The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1882-04-01
CONGRESSMAN HOOKER


"
II on
CHINESE IMMIGRATION.
Mr.. Hooker-I had not expected, Mr.
Speaker, to speak in reference to this bill
until had examined the treaties We hat
formed with the Chinese, and the prOvis
ions of this bill. feel greatly inclined tC
90 with the gentlemen from the Pacific
coast, representing the States lining the
Pacific coast, on this question, because il
is u question, Mr.. Speaker, in which they
and their interests are peculiarly involved
And it is with great reluctance, and in.
deed diflidence, in regard to my own judg.
ment, that oppose what they seem to re.
gard as essential to the welfare of the
States on our Pacific coast.
Some years ago l voted for bin which
proposed to regulate and restrict Chinese
Immigration, while member of this
House, and am willing now to vote for a
| bill which shall clothe our government by
the power of its legislation with right to
limit aud to regulate Chinese immigration
| If we shall think it necessary. But | am
| opposed, Mr., Speaker, upon principle to
| violating any treaty obligation into which
we enter with any people. have stood,
| sir, upon this floor since it has been my
| fortune to be Il member of Congress, and
have persistently Insisted that the treaty
obligations of the government of the
| United States with the aboriginal tribes
that Inhabited this territory before our
ancestors came here should be fulfilled in
good faith according to the terms of the
treaty. And | am unwilling to see any
measure of legislation adopted in this
country which shall be adopted in viola
tion of the spirit and the letter of Il solemn
treaty obligation you have made with
these people. l shall, therefore, when the
proper time comes, move 10 limit this sus-
pension of Chinese immigration TO ten
years instead OF the twenty years proposed
in this bill. And | shall propose that
because | believe that in the next decade
we will be able to learn how far it IL to
the interest of this country to prevent this
immigration.
do not belong to the class of gentlemen
represented by my friend from Ohio Mr..
Butterworth) who have lost faith in the
power of our country to extend its civili-
zntion, its laws, its morals, its high sense
of duty everywhere. We have had, Mr..
Speaker, very solemn test of the power
of American civilization. You tell me
that the Cinnamon who come here are
ignorant and stepped in vice, incurable,
not TO be reached even by the great Cos
pei dispensaton of the common Master of
The whole human race. | do not believe
Il. l am not prepared, and l hope this
House Is not prepared, to say that Mon
golian nationality, which embraces in
China four hundred and thirty-four mil
lions of the human race, and in Japan
thirty-nine millions Of the human race,
am not prepared to say, as AN American
citizen and as Congressman in the
United States Congress, that the power of
civilization and religion cannot reach
these people,
why, sir, what have you been doing 2
In the century of your national existence
which you have just passed, from the pri-
mary treaty which you made with these
people down to the very last treaty which
they made with you, witnessing on their
part the most singular moderation ever
shown by any nation in treating with
another: in the whole history of your
national existence for century, you have
been trying to break down what you call
the Chinese walls, within which they have
excluded themselves from the rest OF man
kind. And just, Mr.. Speaker, as you have
accomplished this, just as you have opened
the ports OF China TO your trade, just as
you have opened the ports of Japan to
your trade, just as you have sent your
bearing the olive branch OF
peace and good will to all mankind, you
propose now to adopt the very policy
which for century you have attempted
by your diplomacy to break down in
China and Japan. Wonderful history of |
people!
l say, sir, do not believe in restricting |
the power of American civilization TO |
plant its standard like the cross Of Christ |
wherever the human race exists, of what |
ever language. (Applause.l l have said |
that we have had severe test OF this (; |
and we have had it, sir, with reference TO |
these people whom we have with us here.
More than century ago they came speak
ing in the unmeaning gibberish OF the /
Guinea negro. They were brought here |
by the agencyof Northern people.
They were taker frem the wild jungles
Of Africa, where the eamelopard and the
his native land. They were brought here |
and settled In the inhospitable region OF
New England. They were found unsuited
TO that cold and Incorporate climate, and /
that same philanthropy, guided by that
oyerruling Providence (which shapes our /
ends, rough-hew them how we will,"
them TO the slumbering /
savannahs Of the hower-scented South.
There they took root and grew and
fourisbed aud waxed strong under the
patriarchal institution which 1 am now /
about to hear for the first time recognized
in its large and intelligent benefcence and
In contact with the Cau-
rasian race, those slaves, at the expiration
Df century from the time they were first
brought here, all at once, as Minerva
sprung from the thigh Of yoye. armed ceP-a-
Die 10 contend with the animals Of the /
Iorest and to proclaim her triumph-so
his people, fgnersut, uneducated, unedu-
able as it was thought, unreligious az IL
was thought, far more pagan Than the
chinese, at the expiration Of one century,
when the manacles were stricken from
heir limbs by the proclamation OF MI.
Lincoln and the results Of the war, they
prtlng at once into the arena flaming with
he Intelligence Of the nineteenth century.
rhey have occupied your pulpits and your
and your halls Of Legislation,
md have esen been represented BY dis
lnruished senator In the other end Of the
:apital, while a f1Il-hedged Afnean spoke
n the very citadel OF liberty st Bosfon 70
1s.esndeuts Of the men who fought NJ
GIr1mrnia. tLsrefore, whsn A zee
fhe coiorcd people, when
neukbey have attained,
Guz feelings lfor
b people), when
kuce they mani
rebellion, -
kte MANI
Epn gem
- the