Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-10-16
DEGRADING AMERICAN LABOR.
Tho Republican Party Pioneer
In Legislation Against IN
W0rkmeu.

To the Editor of the N. Y. Sun-Sir
1t Is a curious fact not generally know
that the first and only law ever passe'
BY congress expressly authorizing tn
importation of foreigners under con
tract to perform labor for a stated tim
in place of our American workingmen
was put through the two House
when the republicans had an over
whelming majority in each. 1t is true
also, that the record fails to disclose
any opposition to that atrociOn
measure on the part of republicans il
either House. Its champion in tn
senate was the Hon. John Sherman o
Ohio, and In the house the Hon. E. b
Washburne of Illinois.
The bill is entitled can act tt
Encourage Immigration" 1t passed
both houses July 2, 1864, on a con-
ference report signed by Sherman ant
Anthony on the part of the Senate, anC
by Washburne and Window on the par
of the house, the democratic conferree!
refusing TO sign, and it was approved
by the president July 4, 1864, which
was the last day OF the session.
The managers of the bill exhibited
impotence to put it through before the
close of that session. June 81, on
motion of Mr.. Sherman, "all prior
orders" of the Senate were postponed,
and the bill was taken up and passed,
the ground of haste being, as stated by
the Ohio Senator, that" wages were
very high" in this country, and we
needed importation on that account.
In the house Thad Stevens had moved
to 60 into Committee of the Whole on
one of the great appropriation bills,
but withdrew his motion on Wash
burne's earnest-appeal, and the pauper,
alien contract labor bill was passed
without q word of manly opposition
from the republican side, the Demo-
Gratis being 30 lew in that house that
they could not enforce the demand of
Mr.. Pendleton of Ohio for a call of the
yeas and nays.
The bill itself, aside from the outrage
it proposed to infliet upon American
workingmen in putting their labor in
competition with that of imported
is a prime curiosity. AS it
appears in the statutes at large, section
l authorizes the president to appoint a
commissioner of immigration, subject
to the direction of the department of
state, at a salary of 80 500, with three
&c. The remaining sections,
section 2, provide for a
United States emigrant Office in New
York city, with n commissioner,
who is authorized to make contracts
with railroad companies Sc, to carry
imported wOrkmen to their destina-
ton; for exempting such alien laborers
from military service; appropriates
$25, 900 for carrying the law into effect,
and specifies the number of clerks to
be employed, salaries, tenure of office,
&c. The sting is in section 2, which is
in the following words: .
"All contracts that shall be made by
to the United States in
countries in conformity to re-
gulations that may be established by
the said commissioner, whereby
emigrants shall pledge the wages Of
their labor for q term not exceeding
Twelve months, to repay the expenses
Of their emigration, shall be held to
be valid in law, and may be enforced
in the courts of the United States or of
the several states and territories; and
such advances. if 10 stipulated in the
contract, and the contract be recorded
the recorders Office in the county
W here the emigrant shall settle, shall
operate as a lien upon any land there
after acquired, until liquidated by the
emigrant, whether under the homestead
when the title is contaminated, or
On property otherwise acquired by the
smigrant ; but nothing herein contained
shall be deemed to authorize any con-
.ract contravening the constitution of
he United States, or creating in any way
he relation of slavery or servitude."
Everybody knows that swarms OF
aliens have been imported into this
country under contract since the pass
age of that act; that they have worked
heir appointed time at wages utterly
.ruinous to American workmen, and
then returned to their saualid homes in
They came with no intention
Of becoming citizens of the United
The perpetrators of this griev-
Gus outrage against American work
ingmen find their apology in the repub-
lican law above quoted, and which
may justly be styled the pioneer act in
assaults on American Labor.
In the light of this law there is some
thing like grim irony in the declara-
on this subject found in repub-
lican platforms of late years. A. w.