The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-05-16
ooNsrIrUTIoSAL1rY OF THE eEARY ACT,

The Supreme Court has obliged the
President and Secretary Gresham by
giving them a prompt opinion in regard
to the constitutionality of the Chinese
exclusion act, but Mr.. Cleveland and his
Secretary cannot regard that opinion as
in any sense complimentary to their
legal acumen or as affording them any
escape from the blunder they committed
when they suspended an act of Congress.
The court, with three dissenting Opin-
ions, has affirmed the constitution
atty of the Chinese exclusion act. It
WINS the opinion of the lawyers of the
Six Companies that the act is unconsti-
t%utional. Upon that opinion the Presi-
dent and his Cabinet surprised the
country by declaring the law suspended
until the court should pass upon
its constitutionality. Perhaps it
would be more exact to say that,
the President and Secretary Gresham
having surprised the country by send
ing ''my commissioner to Hawaii to
override the regularly appointed min
lister of the United States to that gov
eminent, in defiance of the plain provi-
sion of the Constitution, intelligent peo-
tional outbreak of Mr. Cleveland and
his advisers. If the Supreme Court had
sustained Mr.. Cleveland and his advis-
ers in their judgment that the Low is
upoonetifntiocol fba;r eronansion Of tha
law could have been defended in part
on the ground of their superior wisdom
regarding it; but now the defenders of
the administration a do nothing OF
the sort. 1t has not only suspended a
law in violation of the Constitution, but
it has put itself in an attitude of hostil-
ity to the law before the world. How
ever, the court having set aside the
opinion of the President and Judge
Gresham, as il, has been wont TO dc, it
may be assumed that the administration
will 10Y proceed to enforce the law,
since it is scarcely possible that it will
further suspend the enforcement of q
law which the Supreme Court has de-
clared to be constitutional.
The enforcement of the law threatens
serious consequences. The Chinese gov
eminent has always been averse to the
policy of shipping it's subjects to this
country for o few years, to return with
n sum of money which, to a Chinamap.
is a fortune and a source of wealth for
tha Civ C1rDoptoo ps,k <ho c1nnrad
policy of discrimination against Chinese
laborers which the United States has fol-
lowed with measures of increasing Sc
verify is said to have finally aroused the
anger of the rulers of China. who are
men of high intelligence and spirit. An
exclusion act confined to the subjects
of the Emperor OF China is q stigma be-
fore the world upon his people which
he will resent, and, probably, with re-
taliation. There are many Americans
in China. The leading churches have
had missionaries there for years, and
there are American colonies in its large
cities. It is altogether probable that.
V it the Chinese government does
not adopt a policy of retaliatory exclus-
ion, the Chinese people. who have al
ways been hostile to the presence OF
foreigners, will break the restraints OF
the government and make it impossible
for Americans to live in that country.
The people of the United States cannot
complain if China adopts what may be
called q responsive policy.