Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-22

pass and enforce ordinances to restrict
Chinese residence within certain definite
limits; therefore, etc.
Thereupon the San Francisco Examiner,
with ludicrous assumption of sapience,
declares that Mr.. Bingham has met the
objections of the Federal Court, and
framed an ordinance that has the indorse-
ment of "the best legal talent" that it is
constitutional and not in violation of the
treaty.
1t is simply amazing that any journal
claiming even the minimum of intelli-
gence should advance SO absurd propo-
sition. As the most brilliant example of
assinine expression on record, we quote
from the Examiner:
| The preamble of the order recites the fact that
\ by the Chinese Interpretation ofthe Burlingame
| treaty Americans in China are restricted to Ger
tain parts of certain cities This is designed, of
course, TO lay the foundation for similar treat
| ment of Chinese in America and any Judge but
} Judge Sawyer would probably hold it to be
| pertinent and conclusive Judge Sawyer knew
| very well when he nullified the former Bing-
! nam ordnance now Americans were treated in
| China. II the doctrine of reciprocity, which is
| SO popular with the rest of us just now, had
been of any value in his mind he would have
| taken it into account then.
| 1t every law had to be preceded by preamble
/ reciting all the circumstances that made it
proper to pass it before the Courts would give it
effect, the statute books would supersede the
cvciopedia as compendiums of ell human
knows dge. The legislative power in framing
| laws usually assumes some knowledge Of the
ordinary facts of social life on the part cf the
| judiciary 1t is the misfortune of the san Fran
| cisco Board OF supervisors that i'll dealing with
the Federal Courts it cannot safely take any
| thing of this kind for granted The objection
| that the regulation OF the residence Of Chinese
/ is III violation of treaty stipulations is met by
! the pres mble showing that the Chinese treat
Americans in the same way
The stupidity of this argument must be
apparent to the most superficial thinker.
The American in China does enjoy the
privileges of the most favored nations. If
the Examiner does not know this it is even
more ignorant than we had supposed it to
be. The idea of the recitation in the pre-
amble of the proposed ordinance, we are
gravely told, is to inform the minds of the
Courts, it being assumed that the Federal
Court that heard the recent case was igno-
rant of the fact recited.
This is puerile, it is worse, it is driveling
senility and intellectual imbecility. Would
the Eraniner really have its readers be-
lieve that the attorneys who argued the
case before the Federal Court did not mar
shal the arguments (?) recited in the pre-
amb!e? The chatter about the doctrine of
reciprocity applying to the case in ques-
ton is the rankest exhibition of un-
breeched ignorance ever brought to our
attention. 1t causes the blush of shame
to mantle the cheek for the sake of re-
spectacle journalism, when such blubber-
ing and boyish methods are INDUCED in
editorial columns.
1t will be news to the world to learn
that the municipal authorities of San
Francisco have the power to avenge the
supposed wrongs of the people of the
United States. If Congress has invested that
municipal meddler with the office of visit
ing upon China punishment for that of
which the United States has never yet
complained, it has been reserved for the
Examiner to enjoy the exclusive" priyi-
lege of publishing the fact to an awe
stricken world. If the doctrine of the ordi-
nance championed by the Examiner is good
for anything at all, it will justify the Su-
pervisors of San Francisco in ordering the
beheading and quartering of every China
man in San Francisco when next we hear
OF massacre of Americans in China
If the ordinance wet-nursed by the En-
aminer complies with the requirement of
the Constitution that guarantees to all
persons within our bounds the equal protec-
tion of our laws and ordinances, then the
iurists of the nation have wholly miscon-
strued the meaning of the closing sentence
of the Fourteenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States.
The subject is only of value as illus
trating the amazing ignorance that is some
times manifest in brazen and reckless
journalism, and the astonishing stupidity
that develops now and then in municipal
legislatures.