The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-11
EXCLUSION OF CHINESE.
The GeaTy Act Under Fire in the
Supreme Court.

tion as to White Witnesses Declared
noonstitutional-The Sixth Section
Looked Upon as Violative of the
Treaty Rights of the Chinese.
Washington, May 1O.-The special ses-
sion Of the supreme court to-day to hear
argument upon the constitutionality of
the Geary Chinese exclusion act, upon APP
peal from the Judgment of the United
States circuit court for the Southern dis
trict of New York, attracted an attend
ance that more than exhausted the
limited accommodation of the court room.
The visiters included many prominent
members of the bar and a large number
of ladies. The argument was opened by
Joseph H. Choate of New York for the
petitioners for a writ of habeas corpus
for Fong Yue Ting, Wong Quan and Lee
Joe. MIR. ChOate said he believed it was not
permissible for counsel to seek to i'm
press upon this court the impor-
tance and magnitude of the questions in
volved ia cases submitted for its adjudi-
cation. Nevertheless, he said, he would
so far tranSgress the rule as to state
broadly the two questions at issue They
were, first, shall one hundred thousand of
unOtfending and helpless residents of this
country, under the authority of an act of
congress without review by its courts, be
transported to the seashOre and thence
deported to their native country; and,
second, in case the Emperor of
China shall tomorrow feel inclined
to follow the example Of this great and
enlightened country and expel from his
domain the Americans residing therein,
shall the voice of this people, either
through its government, its press or by
individuals be prevented from uttering
single protest. Mr.. Choate prefaced his
argument with a statement Of the facts
in the three cases, which, he said differed
chiefly in being initiated at various stages
of the operation of the law.
THE RESTRICTION AS TO WITNESSES
It appeared from this that Lee Joe's
case presented, in addition to the ques-
tions involved in the others, the constitu-
tionality of the provision of the exclusion
act requiring Chinese to present white
witnesses in support of their right to re-
ceive certificate. Some of Mr.. Choates
points were, that the court cannot impute
to congress the intent by the sixth sec
tiOn of the act to Danish from the soil of
the United States Chinese laborers, who
at the time of the passage Of the act,
or at the lapse Of one year from its pas
laborers entitled to remain in the United
States unless expressly required to do So
because such enactment would be a gross
violation of treaty rights, and because
there is no power in congress to expel
friendly alien residents except as a pun
ishment for crime. That the third article
of the constitution is clearly violated in
three respects by the sixth section of the
act first, in that it attempts to vest execu-
two in TTTifnA
whereas judicial power is to be vested
only in the courts of the United States ;
second, so far as it confers judicial power
it attempts to confer it upon an individual
udge of no particular court and not on
any court. and also on the collector and
executive officer; and, third, because the
third article provides that the judicial
power shall extend only to Ceases" and
what is to be brought by the act before a
United States judge is not a Cease" The
section of the act under discussion is, in
effect, a bill Of attainder and is UncOnSti-
tutional as violation of subdivision 3,
section 9, article l of the constitution,
and finally that the power sometimes
called police regulation, does not reside in
congress.
SAFETY THE SUPREME LAW.
Mr.. Aldrich, the solicitor general, ap-
peared on behalf of the United States,
and argued in favor of the constitutional
ity of the Geary law, concluding his argu-
ment with this paragraph: Assuming
the maxim that the safety of the people is
the supreme law, then the police power
in its relations to every subject of danger
must, under our law, rest either in the
states or the United States or the people,
If it is assumed that Chinese
alien labor is public danger
Threatening the safety of the people, then
the power to cope with it rests some
where If not in the United States, then
it is in the states or the people. If the
latter it occurs to me that the Chinese
residents of this country have need to re-
peat the old prayer that they may be
saved from their friends (or counsel), for
if they can induce the court
to hold that the power does
not belong to the federal government, but
yet rests in the people Of the several
states, no person who has witnessed the
evils Of Chinese immigration and COM
petition with our labOrers can doubt that
the people of the states afflicted there
with will promptly rid themselves Of the
baneful presence by appropriate legisla-
tion to that end. The last state
of the Chinese in the country
would then be worse than the former, for
when the act now under consideration
seeks only to prevent the preparation of
frauds upon the government through the
incoming of other Chinese labOrers
claiming to be entitled to admission be-
cause Of former residence, any action by
the people Of the states most directly af-
fected would probably be drastic in its
character, with the purpose not Of pro-
tecting the government and the duly ac-
credited Chinese but of eXpelling entirely
from their domain an obnoxious race"
CONCLUSION OF THE ARGUMENT.
j. Hubley Ashton of Washington con-
cluded the argument Traversing some
what different ground from that covered
by his associate, Mr.. Ashton argued that
the question presented to the court CON
cerned the fundamental principlesofA Amer
lean constitutional liberty, the right TO
freedom, property and the pursuit of hap
piness Of many thousands Of persons living
and laboring long and peaceably under
the protection of the constitution and
laws of this land as well as the friendly
international relations between the.
United States and China and the welfare
OF American citizens and American inter
ests in that great empire.
Throughout the progress Of the argu-
ment the court and spectators alike gave
marked attention.
Mr.. Choate, in the course Of his re-
marks. referred 10 the assertion IN the
printed argument Of the solicitor general,
that the Chinese residents Of this country
had failed 10 register under the law in
pursuance 10 the advice Of counsel son
Tho fs,rl fpHfsr 20 said Mr. fhpafI ttrltr td-