Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-02
THE RIGHT TO CONE"

EDS. REcoRDUEIoN: Your friendly editorial
criticism Of one ofmy utterances in a memorial
address before the Grand Army is based, L
think, on a slight misconception of my mean
ing. The statement that the pilgrims of the
nineteenth century who land at Castle Garden
have as good a right to come, If they behave
themselves as had those OF the seventeenth
century who landed at Plymouth Rock" was
not covert plea for unrestricted pauper i'm
migration either from Europe or Asia. By the
phrase pilgrims of the nineteenth century" ]
meant to designate those who. like the pilgrim
fathers, seek in this land a refuge from oppres-
sion and who voluntarily come here TO better
their condition and to be no longer aliens but
americans. fair and uniOrCed construction
of that language can not make it apply to the
Chinaman who Insists upon bringing with him
70 our shores his national vices, his pagan Gus
tom, his allegiance to a foreign despot, and his
debased mode Of life, the result of centuries of
barharsln nor to the pauper criminal and
dangerous classes of Europe.
The right OF immigration is not an absolute
one; neither is any other civil orpoliteal right.
Lite, liberty and the pursuit of happiness even
are not inalienable rights the Declaration OF
Independence to the contrary notwithstanding.
BEL maintain that they who come to our
shores in the spirit of the pilgrim fathers have
the same natural right to come that they had,
aud that God has spread out the rolling rich
ness OF our vast prairies and plains and valleys,
that the hunger-bitten peoples who swarm in
the human anthills of Europe might leave the
WORKOUT Old World and here find new lease
Of life becoming ultimately asSimilated and
absorbed IN this great nation +. K. Ollie.
The reverend gentlemans language was
quoted by the RECORD Union from his
own manuscript. 1t was given an inter
probation that was the plain and obvious
intent Of the words, and not strained Or
contorted meanings. The gentlemen's en-
barrassed explanation amounts, we beg
leave to say, to a withdrawal of his ora
torical expression, since he admits that
an absolute right to immigration does not
exist. That he carries this admission to
an issue with the Declaration of indie
pendence as to what is an inaienable right,
is simply raising another political heresy
not now necessarily involved in this de-
bate. 1t is quite evident that the only
difference between the RECORD UNION and
the accomplished divine is this, that while
politically he admits the right of the
United States to deny admission to immi-
grants resides in the people thereof, and
therefore that the absolute right to come
does not exist in any people, he adheres to
a sort of higher law doctrine of the natural
right of the hunger-bitten of Europe to
swarm to our plenty and fatten. We have
only the disposition to be perfectly fair
with the speaker, but, sincerely, we fail to
discover wherein his language justifes the
conclusion that he did not include the
Chinaman in his declaration of rights /;
there was no exception stated But since
the reverend gentleman admits that the
Monaghan is not within the category of
those having the right to come, we venture
to suggest the inquiry, who determines
what classes fall within or without the
natural right? And, again, does not the
fact of an exception destroy the doctrine
contended for ? The truth is, the RECORD
UNION is willing to admit that the earth
is the Lords, and the fullness thereof" but
our good friend, Mr. Ollie, insists upon the
addendum-" America is the aliens and
the fullness thereof-except in certain
cases.