Year: 1869

Inc newspapers are discussing
the immigration of the Chinese into
this country Some of them favor
their coming, as a valuable addition
to our means of producing material
wealth; while others oppose it, on
the ground that it brings into CON-
petition with our present laborers a
much cheaper class, and thus re-
duces wages, while it also tends to
degrade the national character by
mingling with it an inferior type of
humanity. The Californians, upon
whom the matter forces itself in a
practical shape, since they have
already 100000 Chinese in their
State, with more continually ar
riving, seem to dislike this addition
to their population, and both their
laws and their customs discourage
it. A Chinaman in California has
no civil and scarcely any social
rights. The testimony of his coun-
trymen is not received in court, so
that their suits for money due
usually fail for want of witnesses.
He is taxed far beyond what citizens
are taxed, and personally he can be
abused by any ruffian with impuni-
ty. The question is, whether other
States shall follow the example of
California, and whether we shall, as
nation, combine ito forbid the
Chinese and other Asiatics access to
our territory.


At the risk Of being laughed at
by that school of politicians who
take no account of moral principles
in determining their action, we ven
ture to suggest, that before we pro-
ceed to decide whether or not we
will permit the Chinese to settle
among us, we had better first con-
slider whether we have the moral
right to do so. Can we say to any
class of human beings, either di-
rectly or indirectly, that they shall
not live in any part of this globe
where, in the exercise Of the free
dom with which the Almighty has
endowed them, they may choose to
take up their abode? We are all
children of one common Father


dependent upon His bounty as well


for this fruitful earth upon which
He permits us to exist as for that
existence itself. Is it not pre-
sumptuous folly for any class OF


race to undertake to monopolize the


smallest portion of the domain thus


generously confded to their keep


ing2 Should we not by so doing


forfeit our own right to its enjoy.


ment?


Besides, Europeans and the de


scendants of Europeans show re-


markable inconsistency in propos


ing to adopt the policy of excluding


Asiatics from their domain. Fol


centuries they have been knocking


for admittance as travellers anc


traders into the various countries O.


Asia, China in particular; and The


doctrine has been advanced in con


nection with that subject, by more
than one eminent politician, tina
the mere fact that nation refuses


to hold free and open intercourse


with the rest Of the world is {


ground of war. At this very mo


ment the American and Englisi


merchants in China are eXerting al


their energies to obtain from the


Chinese Government the privilege


Of residing, travelling, and carrying


on trade and manufactures as freely


in China as at their own homes


How absurd for us, then, to turl


round and do the very thing to the


Chinese which we have been 81


long in the habit of denouncing a


illiberal and unjust when practicet
toward ourselves!


Again, before we undertake tn
exclusion of the Chinese, let us con
slider whether we can carry ou


the undertaking by any means shor
, of their wholesale murder. Chin
teens and swarms with popula
ton barely able to maintain itself il
time Of good harvests, and in year
Of famine, owing to the want of a
organized system of charitable re
t lief for the sick and destitute, he
people melt away by the million
, Escaping to this country means
therefore, to the poorer Chinamer
: life; remaining at home, death
Unless we station executioners g
| every port, and shoot down lik
r dogs every Chinese passenger tha
attempts to enter it, we cannot kee
1 out the objects Of our hostility
5 We should hardly dare to go t
this length. and yet the preser
5 laws of California, which stop onl
: little short Of it, do not, as W
e see, serve to prevent Chinese in


migration altogether. They onl
l discourage the better class of ilnm
4 giants, and admit those whose u
5 ter wretchedness at home make
t them reckless of any suffering nc
! incompatible with bare life. Thel
t too, in addition to this impuls
;. from behind, there is an attractio
e in front. The South demands Ch
/ nese labor to till their desolate field
!. Our new railroads want them fo
a the work of digging and gradin
}. and rock blasting. There is ca
r for them as domestic servants an
S mechanics in iDnumerable localitit
n now suffering for the lack of labo


skilled and unskilled. These tw
: forces combined give to the streal
S of Chinese immigration a strengt
d which we cannot resist, howev'
# desperately we may try to do so.-
v Neao York San.


q ~A Menu his jury having col
S victed a man of murder now fine