Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1886 — THE CHINESE QUESTION. [ARTICLE]

THE CHINESE QUESTION.

President Cleveland Seudi a Message to Congress on the Recent Outrages. ' » He Says the Power of the Government Should Be Exerted to Punish Wrong-doers. j The President sent to the Senate and House of Representatives, on the 2d inst., a message on the subject of the outrages committed in the West against the persons and property of Chinese residents, and with it a note from the Secretary of State to the Chinese Minister containing an exhaustive statement of the whole Chinese question. The President’s message is as follows: To the Senate and House of Representatives: It is made the constitutional duty of toe President to recommend to the consideration of Congress from time to time each measures as he shall judge nfecesßary and expedient. In no matters can toe necessity of this be more evident than when the good faith of the United States under the solemn obligation of treaties with foreign powers is concerned. The question of toe treatment of toe subjects of China sojourning within the jurisdiction of toe United States presents such a matter for the urgent and earnest consideration of the Executive and toe Congress. , In my firstjcmnal message, upon the assembling of toe present Congress, I adverted to this question. (The President here quot s toe passage from his message upon the Chinese question.] At the time I wrote this the shocking occurrences at Rock Springs, in Wyoming Territory, were fresh in the minds of all, and had been recently presented anew to the attention of this Government by toe Chinese Minister in a note which, while not unnaturally exhibiting some misconception of our Federal system of administration in toe Territories while they, as yet, are not in the exercise of the full measure of that sovereign self-government pertaining to the States of toe Union, presents in truthful terms toe main features of the cruel outrage there perpetrated upon inoffensive subjects of China.

In the investigation of the Bock Springs outbreak and toe ascertainment of the facts on which toe Chinese Minister's statements rest, the Chinese representatives were aided by the agents of the United States, and toe reports submitted, having been thus framed and recounted facts within the knowledge of witnesses on both sides, possess an important truthfulness which could not fail to give them great impressiveness. The facts, which so far are not controverted or affected by any exculpatory or mitigating testimony, show the murder of a number of Chinese subjects in September last, at Bock Springs, the wounding of many others, and the spoliation of the property of all when the unhappy survivors had been driven from their habitations. There is nos. , allegation that the victims, by any lawless or j. disorderly act on their part, contributed to bring about a collision. On the contrary.it appears that the law-abiding, disposition of these people, who were Bojuurners in our midst under the sanction of hospitality and express treaty obligations, was made the pretext for the attack upon them. This outrage upon law and treaty engagements was committed by a lawless mob. None of toe aggressors, happily for the national good fame, appear by the reports to have been citizens of the United States. They were alions, engaged in that remote district as mining laborers, who became excited against toe Chinese laborers, as it would seem, because of their refusal to join them in a strike to secure higher wages. The oppression of Chinese subjects by their rivals in toe competition for labor does not differ in violence and illegality from that applied to other classes -of native or alien labor. All aro equally under the protection of law, and equally entitled to enjoy the benefits of assfired public order. Was there no treaty in existence referring to the rights of Chinese subjects, did they come hither os all other strangers who voluntarily resort to this land of freedom, of self-government, and of laws, here peaceably to win their bread and to live their lives, there can bo no question that they would be entitled still to the simo measure of protection from violence and the same free forum jfor thqjredress of their grievances as any other alliens. So far as the treaties between the United states and China stipulate for toe treatment of the Chinese subjects aotually in the United States as the citizens on subjects of the “most favored nation” are treated, they create no now status for them—they simply recognize and conform a general and existing rule, applicable to all aliens alike; for none ore favored above others by domestic law, and none by foreign treaties, unless it be toe Chinese themselves in some respects. For, by the third article of the treaty of Nov. 17,.1880, between the United States and China, it is provided that if Chinese laborers, or Chinese of anv other class, now either permanently or temporarily residing in the territory of the United Stateß, meet with ill-treatment at the hands of any other persons, the Government of the United States will exert all its power to devise measures for their protection and to secure to them the same rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions as may be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most-favored nation, and to which they are entitled by treaty. This article may be held to constitute a special privilege for Chinese subjects in the United States, aa Compared with other aliens, not that it create*., any peculiar rights which others do not share, but beoause, in case of ill-treatment of toe Chinese in the United States, this Government is bound to “exert 411 its power to devise measures for their protection," by securing to them toe rights to which: equally with any and ail other foreigners theyiare entitled. Whether it is now incumbent upon the United States to amend its general laws or devise new measures in this regard I do not consider in the present communication, but confine myself to the particular point raised by the outrage and masiaore at Bock Springs. The note of the Chinese Minister, and the documents which aocompany it, give as its belief an unexaggerated statement of the lamentable incident, and present impressively the regretable circumstance that toe proceedings in the name of jnstice fer the ascertainment of the crime and fixing the i responsibility therefor were a ghastly mockery I of justice. So long as the Chinese Minister, under his instructions,’makef this the basis of an appeal to the principles and convictions Sol man Sind no , exception can be taken. But when be goes further, and, taking as his precedent the action of the Chinese Government in past instances ' where the lives of American citizens and thelx property in China have been endangered,argues a reciprocal obligation on toe part of the United States to indemnify the Chinese subjects who suffered at Bock Springs, it becomes necessary to meet his argument and to deny most emphatically the conclusions he seeks to draw as to the existence of such a liability and toe right of toe Chinese Government to insist upon it. I draw the attention of toe Congress to the latter part of the note of toe Secretary of State of Feb. 18, 1888. in reply to the Chinese Minister’s representations,- and to invite especial consideration of the congent reasons by which he reaches the conclusion that, While the United States Government is under no obligation, whether by the express tefems of its treaties with China or tho principles of international law, to indemnify these Chinese subjects for losses caused by Such means and under the admitted circumstances, jet that in viow of the palpable and discreditable failure of the authorities of Wyoming Territory to bring to justice the guily parties or to assure to the sufferers an impartial forum in which to seek and obtain compensation for the losses which those subjects have incurred by lack of police protection; and considering further the entire absence of provocation I or contribution on the part of the victims, the Executive nfay be induced to bring the master to the benevolent consideration of Congress in order .that that body, in its high discretion, inay direct toe bounty of the Government in aid of innocent and peaceful strangers whose maltreatment has brought discredit upon tho country, with the distinct understanding that such action is in no wise to be held as a precedent, is wholly gratuitous, and is resorted to in a spirit of pure generosity toward those who are otherwise helpless.! • *4- • The correspondence exchanged is herewith Submitted for the information of Congress. Groves Cleveland. Executive Mansion, Washington, March 1,1896. John B. Gough is said tohave had what is called a strong presentiment that he, wonld not survive the present year. Hes frequently told his friends® that he would never see 70, which would have been in August, 1887. Col. Pat Donan has been visiting Washington, and is shocked at the wickedness he saw there. He predicts that America’s capital is in danger from the Lord's wrath aa were Sodom one, Gomorrah. A. C. Wheeler, of the New York World l has taken the lecture-platform for the purpose of refuting Jr lectures.