The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-08-12
BY HENRY E. HIGHTON.

which frequently engendered turbu
lence and crime. They had not tho
slightest capacity even to comprehend
American institutions Or American
civilization. They paid no attention te
American law. except under compul
sion. The conception of the family ol
the home was unknown among them
The opium joint was the most conspic-
uous feature in their settlements. They
practiced intolerable vices, which Were
communicated to American youths, OF
both sexes. They demonstrated theil
utter inaptitude for American citizen
ship and exerted a demoralizing infiu
ence.
Some of these structures, palpa bly, &C
curate as against the coolies, do not
apply to the better class of Chinese,
docile, industrious and law abiding, to
be found in the Hawaiian Islands. But
, there is a still broader and deeper
sense. in which it came to be recog-
nized by the closest thinkers, the wis
est statesmen and the soundest citi-
zens generally, that, while their enor-
NOUS numbers and their inclination to
emigrate rendered them dangerous,
there was little room in American
States for Chinese laborers. Without
balancing comparisons, they are funda-
mentally different from the body of
American citizens, physically. intellect
ually and morally, and their accession
in large numbers would tend to destroy
the Republic. This conclusion was
forced upon the mass. of our citizens
by observation and experience. The
mission of the United States is the de-
zens, and the resulting improvement
of mankind. Our political system can
not co-exist with slavery or any form
of serfdom or with non-assimilating
elements of population. Our entire his
tory, since 1887 has demonstrated that,
in our internal relations, so far as
human prescience can discern, it is es-
sential to the integrity and prosperity
of the country that the supreme object
should be the growth of true citizen
ship, resting upon the moral and re-
ligious unities, with the family as the
root of our social and political struc-
ture.
EXCLUSION LEGISLATION.
It results from what has been thus
briefly sketched, that it is inaccurate
and unjust to attribute our exclusion
legislation to mere prejudice, or to the
violence Of mobs. On the contrary, it
is based upon the coolest judgment of
national conditions and necessities. As
to the legislation itself, it's history
proves how carefully and gradually it
was framed. On August 18th, 1859, an
excellent commercial treaty between
China and the United States was rati-
fled. In 1868, in the face of the facts
which had been rapidly accommodating,
Arson G. Burlingame, acting on behalf
of China, negotiated amendments to
this treaty, which in their commercial
features We're beneficial, but which, ex-
cept in the matter of naturalization, let
down the bars and virtually placed this
country at the mercy Of hordes of Chi
nese aliens. Within ten years a treaty
or legislation, or both, for the safety
of the country, was imperatively de-
President Hayes, in his veto
of March 1st. 1879, recognized
the situation in the following words:
1.-THE lapse of ten years since the ne
SolldllOfl Ol Tie treaty, mas
exhibited to the notice of the Chinese
as well as to our people,
the working of this experiment of i'm
migration in great numbers of Chinese
lahorers to this country, and their
here of all the traits of
race, religion, manners and customs,
habitations, mode of life, segregation
here, and the keeping up of the ties
of their original home, which stamp
them as strangers and sojourners, and
not as incorporated elements of our ma
tional life and growth
On November 18th, 1880, the Chinese
Government, by treaty, agreed that the
United States, which possessed that
power exclusive of treaty, might regu
late, limit or suspend the incoming of
Chinese laborers. Under this treaty,
by the act of May 9Th, 1882, they We're
excluded for ten years. Amendments
to render the act more effective were
approved July 5th, 1884. In his message
Of December Sth, 1885, President Cleve-
and justified the legislation by refer
eHce to the action of other countries,
notably the Dominion of Canada, in
which he said Chinese immigration was
regulated by laws more exclusive than
our own" In 1886 China voluntarily