The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-03-03
THE CHINESE QUESTION.
president CLEVELAND'S MES
SAGE TO THE SENATE,
He Says They sust Be Protected
In All Their Treaty Rights
and Privileges.

Congress to-day:
The Message.
To the Senate and House Of Repr senta
tives;
1t is the constitutional duty of the
President to recommend TO the con.
sideration of the Congress, from time
to time, such measures as he shall
judge necessary and eXpedient. limo
matter can the necessity of this be
more evident than when the good
faith of the United States, under the
solemn obligation of treaties with
foreign powers, is concerned. The
question of the treatment of the sub
jects OF China sojourning within the
jurisdiction of the United States,
presents such a matter for the urgent
and earnest consideration of the execu-
tive and of Congress. In my first an
nual message upon the assembling Of
the present Congress, adverted to
this question.
The President here quotes the pas
sage from his message upon the Chi
nese question, and continues: At the
time / wrote this the shocking occur
rences at Rock Springs, i'll Wyoming
Territory, were fresh in the minds of
all, and had been recently presented
anew to the attention of this govern
ment by the Chinese Minister in a
note which, while not unnaturallv
exhibiting some misconceptiOn Of our
federal system OF administration in the
Territories while they are not in the
exercise of the full measure of the
sovereign self-government pertaining
to the States OF the Union), presents
in truthful terms the main features of
the cruel outrage there perpetrated
upon
INoFFENsIvE SUBJECTS or CHINA.
In the investigation of the Rock
Springs outbreak, and the ascertain
ment of the facts on which the Chi
nese Minister'S statements rest, the
Chinese representatives were aided by
the agents of the United States, and
the reports submitted having been
thus framed, and recounting facts
within the knowledge of witnesses on
both sides, possess an impartial truth
fulness which could not fail to give
them great impressiveness. The facts
which, so far, are not controverted or
affected by any eXculpatory or miti-
eating testimony, show the murder of
a number of Chinese subjects in Sep
tember last at Rock Springs, the
wounding of many Others and the
spoliation of the property of all when
the unhappy survivors had been driven
lom their habitations. There is no
allegation that the victims by any law
less or disorderly act on their part
contributed to bring about a collision.
On the contrary, it appears that the
law-abiding disposition Of these peo.
pie, who were sojourners in our midst,
under the sanction of hospitality and
express treaty obligations, is made the
preteXt for the attack upon them.
This outrage upon law and treaty en-
gagements was committed by a lawless
mob. None Of the aggressors, happily
for the national good fame, appear by
the reports to have been citizens OF
the United States. They were aliens,
engaged in that remote district as
mining laborers, who became excited
against
THE CHINESE LABoRERs,
as it would seem, because of their re-
fusal to join them in a strike to secure
higher wages. The oppression of Chi
nese subjects by their rivals in the
competition for labor does not differ
in violence and illegality from that APP
piled to other classes of native or
alien labor. All are equally under the
protection of the law and equally en-
titled to enjoy the benefits of assured
public order. Was there no treaty in
existence referring to the rights of
Chinese subjects, did theycome hither
as all other strangers who voluntarily
resort to this land of freedom, of self
government and of law, here peace
ably to win their bread and live their
lives, there can be no question that
they would be entitled still to the
same measure of protection from vio-
lence, and the same free forum for the
redress of their grievances as any
other aliens, So far as the treaties
between the United States and China
stipulate for the treatment for the
Chinese subjects actually in the
United States as the citizens or sub
jects of the "most favored nation" are
treated, they create no new status for
them they simply recognize and
confirm a general and existing rule,
APPLICABLE TO ALL ALIENS ALIKE,
for none are favored above others by
domestic law, and none by foreign
treaties, unless it be the Chinese
themselves in some respects, for by
the third article of the treaty of No
vember II, 1880, between the United
States and China, it is provided that,
"Article 3-If Chinese laborers, or
Chinese of any other class, now either
permanently or temporarily residing
in the territory of the United States,
meet with ill-treatment at the hands
of any other person, the government
of the United States will exert all its
power to devise measures for their
protection, and to secure the same
rights, privileges, immunities and ex-
emptions as may be enjoyed by the
citizens or subjects of the most favored
nation, and which are entitled by
treaty. IlllS dTIlCle may De nptu 10
constitute a special privilege for Chi
nese subjects in the United States as
compared with other aliens-not that
it creates any peculiar rights which
Others do not share, but because in
case of ill-treatment of the Chinese in
the United States, this government is
bound to exert all its power to devise
measures for their protection" by
securing to them the rights to which,
with any and all other for
eigners, they are entitled. Whether
it is now incumbent upon the United
States to amend their general laws, or
devise new measures in this regard.
do not consider i'm the present
communication, but confne my
self to the particular point
raised by the outrage and
MASSACRE AT ROCK SPRINGS. 4
The note of the Chinese Minister,
and the documents which accompany
it, give, / believe, an unexaggerated
statement of the lamentable incident,
and present impressively the regret
able circumstances that the proceed
ings in the name of justice for the as