The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-04-05
CHINESE IMMIGRATION.
SPE e CH
OF
HON. C. z. HOOKER,
n Congress, Mareh p, 1882.

n Congress, Nareh p, 1882.
Mr. HOOKER. / had not expected, Mr..
Speaker, TO speak in reference to this bill
until had examined the treaties we had
formed with the Chinese, and the provisions
Of this bill. / feel greatly inclined to 20
VITA the gentlemen from the Pacific coast,
representing the States lining the Pacific
coast, on this question, because it is q
question, Ir. Speaker, in which they aud
their interests are peculiarly involved.
And it Is with great reluctance, and indeed
with dtIidence in regard to my own judg-
nent, that | oppose what they seem to
regard as essential to the welfare of the
States on our Pacific coast
Some years ago | voted for a bill which
proposed to regulate and restrict Chinese
immigration, while member of this House,
aud | am willing now to vote for a bill
which shall cl0the our Government by the
power of its legislation with a 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
a member of Congress, and have persistent
ly insisted that the treaty obligations of the
Government of the United States with the
aboriginal tribes that inhabited this terri
tory before our ancestors came here should
be fulfilled in good faith according to the
terms of the treaty. Aud / am unwilling
to see any measure of legislation adopted in
this country which shall be adopted in Yio-
lation of the spirit and the letter of
solemn treaty obligation you have made
with these people. [ shall, therefore, when
the proper time comes, move to limit this
suspension of Chinese immigration to ten
years instead of the twenty years proposed
in this bill. And | shall propose that be-
cause believe that in the next decade we
will be able to learn how far it is the inter-
est of this country and the duty of this
country to prevent this immigration.
| do hot belong to the class of gentlemen
represented by my friend from Ohio, TMr.
Butterworth, who have lost faith in the
Iion, 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 Gospel dispensa-
tion of the common Master of the whole
human race. / do not believe it. l am not
prepared, and | hope this House is not
prepared, to say that the Mongolian nation
atty which embraces in China four hundred
and thirty-four millions 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
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 treating with another !;
in the whole history of your national exis-
tence for century, you have been trying to
break down what you call the Chinese walls
within which they have excluded them
selves from the rest of mankind. 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 missionaries bearing the
olive-branch of peace and good will to all
the very policy which for a CEN
tury yon have attempted by your di-
plomacy to break down in China and Japan.
Wonderful history of Wonderful people
l say, sir, do not believe in restricting
the power of American civilization to plant
Its standard like the cross of Christ where
ever the human race exists, of whatever
color and of whatever language
GApplause | have said that we
nave had a severe test of this; ard we
have had it, sir, with reference to these
people whom we have with us here More
than century ago they came speaking in
the unmeaning gibberish of the Guinea
negro. They were brought here by the
agency of Northern people.
They were taken from the wild iungles of
Africa, where the camelopard and the tiger
bounded in the vast amphitheater of 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 overrul-
ing Providence (which shapes our ends,
rough-hew them how we will, transplanted
them to the slumbering savannahs of the
fower-scented South.
There they took root and grew and -four
ished and waxed strong under that patriarch
al institution which am now about to hear
for the first time recognized in its large and
intelligent benefcence and philanthropy.
In contact with the Caucasian race, those
slaves, at the expiration of century from
the time they were first brought here, all at
once, as Minerva sprung from the thigh of
Jove, armed cdp-d-pie to contend with the
animals of the forest and to proclaim her
triumph-so this people, ignorant, unedu-
Gated, uneducable as it was thought, unre-
ligious as it was thought, far more pagan
than the Chinese, at the expiration of one
century, when the manacles were stricken
from their limbs by the proclamation of
Mr.. Lincoln and the results of the war,
they sprung at once into the arena flaming
with the intelligence of the nineteenth
century. They have occupied your pulpits
and your school-houses and your halls of
legislation, and have even been represented
BY distinguished Senator in the other end
of the Capitol, while fall-fedged African
spoke in the very citadel of liberty at Bos-
ton to the descendants of the men who
fought at Bunker Hill.
l am not afraid, therefore, when see the
results upon the colored people, when see
the intelligence they have attained, when
see their religious feelings, (for they are
an emlnently religious people, when see
the wisdom and prudence which they man
ifested during the war of the rebellion, as
you term it, and which they have maniies-
ted since-I am not afraid, are you, gentle
men, that your civilization and your power
to plant the cross of Christ and the princi-
pies of liberty shall find in the oldest nation
of the world people incapable of appreeia-
ting them
/ have said that | want to observe the
treaties with these people. have said that
they have exhibited most wonderful pa
tience It is within the memory, no doubt,
of my distinguished friend from California,
Mr.. Page, to whom / give all credit for
the earnestness and zeal and the patriotism
by which / have no doubt he is influenced
but it is within his memory, no doubt,
that when this Chinese wall had been bro
ken down in China and Japan, when the
ports of that country had been opened to
our commerce and ours had been opened to
theirs-it Is no doubt within his memory
that when Mr.. Burlingame, who with Mr..
Seward negotiated the treaty Of 1868, re-
turned to the shores OF the Pacific coast and
landed in the great city Of San Francisco,
upon that beautifdl bay where the evening
sun throws its light in magnificent splendor
upon the Golden Gate Of California, no
4 "a. - Al