The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1886-04-17
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
A Full Text of the Presidents Message
Respecting Treaty Rights Of
Chinese Subj ,cts.
Individual Hardshlps Due to Ambiguous
and Defective Acts OF Congress-
Conditions Physically Impos-
sible to Perform.
THE MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, April 1.-THE following
is the full text of the Presidents message
sent to the Senate yesterday respecting the
treaty rights of Chinese subjects;
10 the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States:
! transmit herewith for the consideration
of Congress, with view to appropriate legs
laton In the premises, report OF the Secrc'
tary Of State, with certain correspondence
touching the treaty rights of Chinese
subjects other than laborers, to go and
come of Their own free will and &C
cord, In my annual message of the Sth
Of December last l said: I'm the ap
pl cation Of the acts lately passed to eX-
ecute the treaty Of 1880, restrictive Of the
INN grafton of Chinese laborers in the
United States, individual cases of hardship
have occurred beyond the power of the Elk
ecutlve to remedy and call ng for judicial
determination" These cases of individual
hardship are due to the ambiguous and de
fective provisions of the acts of Congress
approved respectively on the 9Th of May,
lSSt, and 9TH of July, 1894.
The hardship has in SONS cases been
remedied by the action of the courts In
other cases however where the phraseology
of the statutes has appeared to be conclusive
against any secretion on the part of the Off
GERS charged with the execution of the law,
Chinese persons expressly entitled to free
admission under the treaty have been re.
fused landing and sent back to the country
whence they came, without being afforded
any opportun ty to show their right to their
privilege of free ingress and egress which it
was the purpose OF the treaty. to secure. In
the language of one of the decis ons of the
Supreme Court, to VIII oh have referred:
THE suppostion should not be INDUCED
that Congress- VIII lie processing to faithfully
| execute the treaty stipula tons and recog
nizing the fact that they secure to n certa n
class the right to go from and to the United
States, intended to make its protection de-
| pend upon the performance of condit' ons
which it was physically impossible to per.
| form" United States reports.)
The act of July s. 1884, imposes such an i'm
| possible condition not providing for the
adm ssion, under proper certificate, of
| the cases most likely to arise in ordinary
commerce al intercourse. Article l OF the
| treaty prov des that the limitation shall sp-
ply only to Chinese who may go to the
| that Chinese subjects whether proceeding
to the United States as teachers, students,
| merchants. or from curiosity, shall be
allowed to go and come of Their own
free will and accord and be granted
all the privileges accorded to citizens
| of the most favored nat on. Section of the
| Chinese Immigrat on act of 1884 purports to
secure this ght by means OF certificates OF
! the status, which certificates shall be the
| sole evidence to establish their right OF
| entry into the United States. But 1t provides
| for the issuance of certificates in two cases
only, namely Chinese departing from China
| and Chinese who may at the time be subject
| of some government other than Oh ma A
| purpOrting to execute treaty with China in
| respect of Chinese sub ,ects. enacts formal
| tiles as it regards subjects of other govern
| ments than China
| call the attention of Congress to the fact
that the statute makes no provisions for the
| numerous class of Oh nese persons, subjects
| of other countries than China, who desire to
| come from such countries to the United
| states. They may not lie subjects of tho
| country where they res de and trade, yet il
| such Il Chinese subject head of house Al
| Kong Kong Honolulu, Havana or Colon de
| sires to come here he must produce pre-
| scribed form of cert ficate n English, ISSUED
by the Chinese Government If there be a
| h place of res 'dence no representative Of
China competent to issue such form of Ger
| tifcate, he can obtain none, and is b!
this law uniustly debarrcd from entry
to the United States. There be ny
therefore, no prov sion by which suci
persons may prove their exemption, the Sec
rotary of the Treasury undertook to remed!
| the omission by rccogn'z ng as lawful certlfi
| Gates those issued by Chinese Consuls o.
| d plomatc officers at the foreign port whei
advised by the United States Consul. Th
seems just application of the spirit of thu
law. He, however, went beyond the spirit o
the act by providing circular dated Janu
certificate by the Tn ted States Consul at thu
port of departure in he absence OF Chimes
representative For it is clear that the inter
vention of the Ur'ted States Consul was in
| tended by the act to be supervisory only. ]
became necessary. therefore, to amend tn
circular, and this was done on the 18th o
June following, by striking out the claus
prescribing original certiicaton by Un,te
States Consuls
the complaint of the Chinese Minister /
his note of March "a, 1886, is that the Chimes
merchant, Lay Sang, OF King Lee & Co. Sa
Francisco, having arrived at San Francisco
from Hong Kong and eXhib ted a certfcat
of the United States Consul at Hong Kong a
to his status as a merchant, was refuse
permiss on 70 land and sent back to Hon.
Kong. Whine his certificate was insufc en-
! under the present law, it is to be remen
bered that there is at Hong Kong no repre-
sentative of China competent to issue tn
required cert ficate.
The intent Of Congress to execute tn
treaty is thus defeated and conditions ar
eXacted by the act which i'm the words of tn
Supreme Court. are physically imposs bl
to perform This anomalous feature shoul
be reformed in order that the recurrence G
such cases may he avoided and the imput,
ton removed which would otherwise rel
upon the good faith of the United States
the execution of their solemn engagement
GROVER CLEVELAND.