Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-07-04
HIS CHINESE REC0Rn

SO much has been said about Mr..
Harrison S Chinese record that we have
taken some pains TO get at that record
for the information OF our readers who
regard that as his weakest point, and
with the aid of that reliable democrat
ic paper, the st. Louis Republic. we
herewith present 1t.
According TO careful republican COM
putations published last week. Harri-
son voted fourteen times in favor of
Chinese cheap labor. lie made this
record, it must be remembered, Just
after he had entered the senate, when.
he was essaylng a role of manly indie
pendence, and only changed his attitude
when he began to think of himself as a
presidential possibility. He first took
ground on the anti Chinese labor bill
vetoed by President Arthur. AS dis
cussed in the senate in February and
March, 1882, it provided for the exclus-
ion Of Chinese labor for a period twen-
ty years. Mr.. IIoar, Of Massachusetts,
proposed the following amendment:
That this bill shall not apply to any skilled
labOrer who shall establish that he comes to
this country without any contract by which his
labor is the property of any person other than
himself.-lCOngressiona Record, volume 81.
page 1,7l6.l
The same page of the record shows
that the republican nominee for presi-
dent voted for the free and unrestricted
immigration OF the skilled Chinese
labor as proposed in this amendment.
This amendment was also proposed:
Provided further, that any laborer who
shall receive n certificate from the United
States consul at the port where he shall en-
bark that he Is an artisan coming to this coun-
try at his own expense and of his own free
Will. and has established such fact to the salts
faction OF such consul shall not he affected by
this bill.-ICongressional Record, volume %.
page LII.
Harrison voted for this amendment
on April 4, 1852. AS will be seen. its
intention was to prevent any effective
restriction of the Mongolian in-pour.
When the bill was put on its passage
over the veto Harrison gave his vote to
defeat it. Congressional record, vol.
53, page 2,6l7.l When the second bill
was prepared to eyade the objections
urged by the president to the first, -Har-
rison voted to strike out of it its most
important sections. They were as
| follows:
section H-Hcreafter no state court or court
of the United States shall admit Chinese to
citizenship, and all laws i'm conflict with this
act are hereby repealed.-[Congressiona Rec
ord, volume 81 page 3,41I.
Section l6-That the words Chinese laborers''
whenever used in this act shall be construed 10
mean both skilled and unskilled Iaborers and
Chinese employed i'm mining Congressional
Record, volume 81, pages 3.4lO-II.
On April IS, 1882, he voted against
the bill Ito execute treaty stipulations
with China" which made it unlawful
Ito land or permit to be landed any
Chinese labOrers in the United States. >
imposed heavy penalties on owners and
officers of vessels violating its proyis
ions and proposed the forfeiture of the
vessel to the United States. The bill
also prohibited all courts from admit
ting Chinese to citizenship. 1t became
law May Is, 1SS2.-[Statutes at Large,
volume p, page IS.