Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1879 — Gen. Grant and the Chinese, [ARTICLE]

Gen. Grant and the Chinese,

A correspondent of the New York Herald gives a description of the reception given to Gen. Grant by the English and Chinese merchants of Penang, on the confines of the Chinese empire. In an -address by the Chinese merchants they express regret at the treatment their countrymen are receiving in the United States and the opposition to their admission into the country. They invoked the influence of their guest m favor of a more liberal policy. In reply the General said he knew nothing of the bill which had been passed by Congress beyond what he had learned in English newspapers. He said that the opposition to Chinamen in the United States, so far as it is illiberal, is the work of demagogues. Demagogues ha*d at various times attempted to arouse public prejudice against immigrants of other nationalities, but the good sense and generous feeling of the great body of the American people had always frustrated such attempts. There was a legitimate opposition in his country to receiving Chinese as coolies, carried thither on conditions which made them a species of bondsmen, subject to the will of their importers, The Unit-

ed States, having abolished slavery, could not 'tolerate a species of semislavery thrust 'upon their soil from abroad; but he believed the American people would receive and protect Chinamen coming of their own free will, and remaining at liberty to dispose of their labor as they please after their arrival. He added that his deep interest in the subject would lead him to make careful inquiries into the nature and conditions of the emigration from China during his visit to that country.