Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-06
THE CHINESE INVASION.
Response of the Citizens Executive Com
mittee to TgnS Hong Ting.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Ii thursday 5 issue Oh
the Daily Bee of this city communication
appeared. signed Tuug Hong Ting, said to
be Chinese merchant, and purporting to
be "a plea from Chinaman,n but evil
IDENTIFY the handiwork of paid advocate.
The Executive Committee of the Citizens
Anti-Chinese Association of Sacramento
have felt reluctance to reply to an article
distinguished for its bitter personalities
and its innuendoes against class of citizens
rather than by any arguments upon the
questions at issue. Nor would the COM
| mittee make reply to this concealed and
cowardly attack were it not to correct some
misrepresentation and false statements.
The class of citizens whom he attacks
| needs no defense, for none are more hon
| orable, none more enterprising and none
more philanthropic than are the subjects of
this vituperation.
The question now agtating the public
mind is too important to be injured by the
ridicule of any class of our citizens who
may spouse it. That man is not honest
who will appeal to the baser passions of
| our nature to support his cause, especially
if it be a religious prejudice he invokes
When a citizen takes refuge belinda Pagan
name to stir up religious animosities, he
| many sublime truths that fired the minds
of our patriotic sires, none were dearer to
them than the right to worship God ac-
| cOr.iing TO the dictates of each mans con-
science. An appeal to religious animosi-
| ties is unworthy an American citizen
Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentle, all
are, and of right ought to be, equal
before the law. In avowing and maintain
ing this truth, we do no violence to the
rights of the Chinaman. He is not of us,
or with us. In the plea of this American
| lied Chinaman he disavows all connection
with our Govemment-only wants to live
in the land as a slave, with no ambition
! above the brute providing his bones are
returned to China.
In this g plea" the Chinese advocate mis-
! represents history. He says: We, the
| Chinese, were invited to come here and
| work and live with you" What are the
facts? Going back to theyear 1852, we find
| John BgIer-" Honest John"-in special
| message TO the California Legislature, ask
| ing that body to devise means TO prevent
the immigration of the Chinese to our
shores. In this mesa the Governor por-
| trays in vivid language the evils to our
State arising from this source. He calls
| upon the Legislature to do all
| in its power to prevent their coming to our
shores or being permitted to reside in the
State. This was sixteen years before the
| Burlingame treaty. He submits two dis
tinct propositions to that Legislature
| First, such an exercise of taxing powers as
will check the indiscriminate and unlim-
| tied Asiatic immigration ard second
demand by the State of California for the
prompt interposition of Congress to the
same end.
This message can be found in the Jour
nal of the Senate for 1882. pages 1913, to and
including 37S-six pages of protest against
Chinese Immigration.
In accordance with his recommendation.
a committee, consisting of Ralston, Soule,
Esteil, Fry and Warner, was appointed.
who made lengthy and able report This
report declares, among many other things,
that ''the presence of this class of men
among us is destructive to the best interests
o. the State and dangerous to its peace.
They come not as freemen to seek an asy-
INN from their oppressorS or with a mo-
| tive to become citizens; but they come
here as serfs or hireiings of mas
| ter" etc. This committee was composed
| OF three Democrats and two Wings and
warned the Chinaman and the American
of the danger of such Immigration. The
report says: d" From the best information
| your committee can obtain, they believe
| there are no less than four hundred mill
| ions of inhabitants in the countries whose
people are subject to the provisions of the
| law we propose 20 enact We find that
| labor in China is worth from four to ten
cents per day. Labor is so cheap that ami
NAL power Is seldom used Reference is
then made TO the facilities of reaching US.
and the committee use the following Ian
| guage: I'VE thus can see the China serf
| working side by side with the American
citizen whose father stood by Washington
in the revolution, and who stood himself
| by the colors of his country in
| the war that won us this beau
| tiful land. We are compelled to
| this will not be tolerated: men will not be
| degraded by working side by side with
Asiatic slaves. It needs no Solomon to
predict the result; disputes will take place,
| blood will flow, to be followed by the ex-
pulsion of this population, who will be
| driven from this State by violence instead
of law. Everything conSpires TO forbid the
! immigration OF the Chinaman. They can
/ not become citizens, and our State Consti-
tuition prevents their being slaves" Such
was the language of Legislative commit
tee IN 1852. Governor Bigler gave another
message against this barbarous invasion in
| 1854, and still another in 1856. Governor
J. Nicely Johnson followed in the same
strain. Governor after Governor, and Legis-
lature after Legislature have, by their acts
protested against this Chinese immigration
All the political parties have had an anti
| Chinese platform, couched in the strongest
| language All the newspapers, or nearly
all, have united in protests, in threatenings
and warnings, sent all over the world upon
this subject the torch has shed its light
in the way of warning; riots have given
evidence that the people of America do not
! ant the l,hInnsa harn ha Mood IF
a poor Chinaman has added to the coloring
of the pictures of protestation, and yet. in
the face of these facts, an intelligent advo-
| vate OF the Chinese, assuming the garb of a
merchant, declares, We, the Chinese, were
| invited to come here" Not dav passes
but every Chinaman in the land hears him
self denounced for having forced himself
into all the avenues of labor; taken the
| place of the Door suffering woman who. but
| for him, might have comfortable place as
| a laborer III some respectable family, or
might make a comfortable living in some
| laundry or factory
Their miserable mode of life enables
| them to bring down the price of labor until
| the man Of family sees the children of his
love ragged and hungry around him.
| Does this merchant, who descants so learn
! edly about the Jews, the Germans and the
Irish, believe that it is our duty to extend
W THESE creatures tne privileges that we at
! ford our fellows from civilized countries?
We have natural right to protect our
selves. This was most emphatically illus
| trated by the many centuries the Chinese
allowed none to enter their borders Amer
lea has as much right to protect herself as
! has the great Celestial nation.
Way does this attorney compare the
Irish, the Germans, the Jews and others
with the horde from China? These ma
! tons love liberty. They compre-
bend freedom. They are ambitious
to become citizens, and many of
them become bright lights among
cur statesmen. These people are men.
Shame upon even paid attorney that
will so far forget his manhood as to com
pare this class of immigrants to the Chi
nese horde. These civilized and Christian
people are with US and of us. and want to
become citizens, while the Chinese are in
| their ambitions but little removed above
the brute. They have no NOR
atty. They are notorious as thieves.
They don't comprehend the marital rela-
tons. Human life is of small import to
them. The people of every other nation
| come to us imbued with principles of mo-
rality and virtue. These creatures come
with some vague idea of a Joss, but none