The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-03-03
FAIRNESS.
The President Wants it for
the Chinese.
HIS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
Concerning the Rock Springs Out
rage - His Merciful Re
concentrations.
FAIRNESS.
HIS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
The President and the Chinese.

WASHINGTON, March 2.-The rresi-
dent sent the following message to Com
gress to-day:
To the Senate and House of Representa-
tires:
1t is made the Constitutional duty of
the President to recommend to the con-
sideratiOn of Congress, from time TO
time. such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient. In no mat
tiers can the necessity of this be more
evident than when the good faith of the
United States, under the solemn obliga-
ton of treaties with foreign powers, is
concerned. The question of the treat.
ment of subjects of China sojourning
within the Jurisdiction of the United
States, present such matter for the
urgent and earnest consideration of the
Executive and Congress. In, my first
annual message, upon the assembling of
the present Congress, l adverted 10 this
question. (The President here quotes
the passage from his message upon
The Chinese question and continues.)
At the tune l wrote this, the shocking
occurrences at Rock Springs, in Wy
oming Territory, were fresh in the
minds of all and had been recently pre-
Sented anew to the attention of this
government by the Chinese Minister, in
note which, while not unnaturally ex-
hibIting some misconception of our
general system of administration
IN the Territories, while they
as yet are not In the exercise
of the full measure of that sovereign
self-government pertaining to the
States of the Union. presents in truth
full terms the main features of the
cruel outrage then perpetrated upon
inoffensive subjects of China. In the
investigation of the Rock Springs out
break and the ascertainment of facts on
which the Chinese minister's statements
rest, the Chinese representatives were
aided by agents of the United States
and the reports submitted having been
thus framed and recounted the facts
within the knowledge of witnesses on
both sides, the possession of an import
ant truthfulness which could not fail TO
give them impressiveness. The facts
which. SO far, are not controverted or
affected by any exculpatory or mitigat-
ing testimony, show the murder of
number of Chinese subjects, in Septem-
Der last, at Rock Springs, the wound
ing of many Others and the spOliat on
of the property of all when
the unhappy survivors had been driven
from their habitations. There is no al |
legation that the victims, by any lawless |
or disorderly act on their part, contrib |
uted to bring about the collision; on |
the contrary, it appears that the law
abiding disposition of these people, who |
were sOjourners in our midst, under the |
sanction of hospitality and express |
treaty obligations, WAC made tue pre- |
text for the attack upon them. This |
outrage upon law and treaty engage
ments was committed by alawless mob. |
None of the aggressors, happily for the
national good fame, appear, by the re
ports, to have been citizens of the |
United States. Il
They were aliens, engaged in that re-
mote district as mining laborers. who |
became excited against the ChiLe e
laborers. as it would seem, because of /
their refusal to join them in strikes to |
secure higher wages. The oppression OF |
Chinese subjects. by their rivals in COM
petition for labor, does not differ, in
violence and illegality, from that ap-
piled to other classes of native or alien
laborers. They are equally under the pro-
lection of law and equally entitled to
enjoy the benefits of assured public Or
der. Was there no treaty in existence re-
ferring to the rights of Chinese subjects;
did they come hither as all other
strangers who voluntarily resort to this
land of freedom, of self-government and
of laws, here peacefully to win their
bread and to live their lives, there can
be no question that they would be en-
titled to the same measure of protec-
ton from violence and the same free
form 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 of the
Chinese or subjects of the "most favored
nation" are treated. They create no new
status for them, they simply recognize
and confirm the general and existing ri lie
applicable to all aliens alike, for none are
favored above others by the domestic
law, and none by the foreign treaties,
unless it be the Chinese themselves, in
some respects. For by the third article
of the treaty of November 18th. 1880,
between the United States and China,
it is provided that if Chinese laborers or
Chinese of any other class, low either
permanently or temporarily residing III |
the territory of the United States meet |
with ill-treatInent at the hands of any |
other persons, the government of the |
United States will exert all its power to |
devise means for their protection and |
to secure to them the same rights, priv
ileges. immunities and exemptions as
may be enjoyed by the citizens or sub. |
jects of the most favored nation, and to |
which they are entitled by the treaty. |
This article may be held to constitute |
special privilege for Chinese subjects in |
the United States, as compared with |
other aliens, not that it creates any pc |
culiar rights which others do not share,
but because, in case of Entertainment OF |
Chinese in the United States this gov
eminent is bound to exert all its power |
to devise measures for their protection.
by securing to them rights, to which |
equally with any and all other foreign
ers, they are entitled. Whether it is
now Incumbent on the United States to
amend their general laws or devise new
measures in this regard, do not con-
slider in the present communicat ton.
but confine myself to the particular
point raised by the outrage and massa-
ere at Rock Springs The note of the
Chinese Minister and the documents
it give as its belief an
statement of the lament