safely said that the subject is exhausted. Better speeches and better arguments have been made by men of greater philosophical capacity upon the subject of race dissimilarities and the race conflicts which have gone on from the earliest of times. The nature of race growth and national growth, in connection with this question, I think may safely say, has been fully considered, and the judgment of the people of the Pacific Coast has settled, undoubtedly, upon the conviction that the best of the argument is altogether in favor of the proposition that the presence of the Chinese on the Pacific Coast, in our social life, in our industrial life, and even in our political life, is detrimental. We cannot add to or strengthen that argument in this Convention, and the point now is to furnish a practical solution to the question; and the man who can now bring forward a plan which will remove one single Chinaman-stating, sir, nearly the exact language of the great constitutional lawyea, sir, even a sick Chinese baby-may be said to have accomplished more in the right direction than all the great mass of speeches and all the literature upon this Chinese question put together. We should endeavor here to deal with it as practical men; we should endeavor to bring out of the chaos of ideas, out of the vast amount of dissimilarity in execution, or in the method of reaching the evil, some point upon which we can all harmonize and agree-some point on which we can determine what power the State possesses, and in what manner that power shall be exercised for the purpose which all pretend to have in view, and that is, to relieve this State, and to relieve posterity on the Pacific Coast, of what is deemed to be a curse. We profess to have at heart the future welfare as well as the present good of the people of the coast; and, therefore, sir, the discussion now ought to be restricted to the legal aspects of the questions involved. I assume that gentlemen are sincere when they admit that the presenceing of an alien race, with whom we cannot deal in accordance with American ideas, and in accordance with our free institutions-I assume, I say, that they are sincere when they tell us that they wish to rid the State of the curse; that they wish to do it in accordance with constitutional principles. Now, our forefathers, back to the time of the revolution, and back beyond the revolution, whenever the subject of the presence of the black man in America was brought up, and the institution of slavery was discussed, declared that it was an evil, declared that it could but have an evil effect upon the destiny of the country. Thomas Jefferson said that slavery was the sum of all evils. George Washington said that all his compatriots were anti-slavery men, and their idea and the idea of the fathers was that this was a white man's government. That, sir, is the cry of the party to which I belong to-day, and I was glad to see the Chairman of our committee reiterating that cry, which, it is true, fell into derision after Stephen A. Douglas proclaimed it; fell into certain derision on account of the sentimental view taken by many good people of the United States of the African and his deplorable condition. But it is none the less true. It is none the less strictly in accordance with the American idea that this is a white man's government; a government of Caucasians, established by white men, and for white men. Whenever we talk about treaties; whenever we talk about the comity of nations, it is understood and comprehended within that term that we mean the comity, the international law which exists among civilized and Christian nations. this alien race; knowing little or nothing about them-it never aimed any of this legislation at all at the relations which have sprung up on the Pacific Coast, and which are, sui generis, without precedent. The Burlingame treaty is another stumbling block, constantly thrust in the way of those who sincerely and honestly feel that this subject is of over-shadowing importance, and that by Congress and by State power it must be regulated, and the people must be relieved. The Burlingame treaty-abundant authority can be brought in here, and books piled up here, covering every table in this room, to show that a treaty, or the provisions of a treaty, do not override a constitutional enactment by Congress, or by the States of the Union in their Constitutions, when it does not conflict with the Constitution of the United States. I am yer, Jeremiah Black. That, sir, has summed up the whole controversy in a nutshell. Otherwise what would be the condition of this people? What would be the condition of American government? What would become of the sovereignty, which we declare to reside in the people, if the King or Emperor of Germany and the President of the United States might meet together, and by a convention among themselves, establish an internal law of the State, or the laws that should govern the people of the United States? A most extraordinary and monstrous doctrine that would be! The Burlingame treaty, therefore, is but in the nature of a law, subject to repeal the moment it comes in conflict with the sovereign power of the States, acting within their legitimate spheres, to legislate upon a subject over which they have control. The treaty goes down, and there is no question about it. An independent and free minded people, living upon their own soil, within their own jurisdiction, maktheir own laws, cannot be tied hand and foot in that way, and it is idle to seek to bring to bear upon them such a monstrous doctrine as that is. Now I come to the subject directly in hand. I do not maintain that the report of the Committee on Chinese Immigration has furnished any solution of the question, or a practical solution of the question. It is undoubtedly crude. It is undoubtedly very crude. Much of it looks undoubtedly like what would be called the legislation of the dark ages; or as some one has expressed it, Hottentot legislation. That is true. It bears that appearance. But the line of demarcation between those who say that the State can do nothing, the whole resting within the control of Congress, and those who maintain that the State does have some power, that the State does have some control in the premises, must exist somewhere, and therefore all this matter has been brought before the Convention by that report. Every single party that has put forward candidates and platforms in this State, has declared in general terms in favor of the exclusion of the Chinese, or in favor of a prohibition of their further immigration. They have declared it constantly in their platforms. It has been the hobby-horse on which, undoubtedly, they have ridden into office. In the last election, for members in this Convention, generally speaking, it was declared strongly by all, and the Workingmen adopted as their battle-cry, "The Chinese must go.” The non-partisan platform, upon which, Mr. President, you were elected, uses language like this, declaring it to be an evil, and pledging themselves to go to the verge of constitutional power. I do not know When we talk about the rights enjoyed by an American citizen any- but that they were going to go out on the ragged edge a little beyond, to where on the Continent of Europe, and the rights of the citizen of any rid the State of the curse. What was done by the members from the of the nations of Europe upon American soil-which I am glad to know country, or how they were pledged, I know not; but I assume that a are respected-which am glad to know are treated with greater liber-majority who came up to this Convention, came up here with pledges in ality as time rolls on; it means the people of white races, and the people their mouths, made to their constituents and to the people of the State, of a Christian country. There is no doubt of that. That was the kind that they would do something; that they would do whatever they of a government that our forefathers established. And all the inter- could after consultation and discussion had developed a proper concepnational law and comity of nations, and the intercourse of nations which tion of the power of the State; they would do what they could to relieve has grown up, and upon which the principles that are now recognized the people of this infernal curse. Now, as practical men, the question among civilized nations have been established, and recognized univers-is, first, are the members willing to keep that pledge in letter and spirit? ally, has been in accordance with this theory that a government was Are they willing, if they can be convinced of the existence of the sought to be established upon these shores, and upon this continent, of power, to go ahead and make use of that power? The first question white men-Anglo-Saxons, and those who could be brought within the that presents itself, sir, is this: Can anything be done in this direction great political fold, and incorporated into the great plan of our govern- by any proper amendments to the Constitution? The question is not ment, and merged as good citizens, and as contributors to the prosperity now what view will be taken of this action east of the Rocky Mounand the elevation of the nation. That was their idea, sir, and it never tains; the question is not what view will be taken of it in Europe, has been doubted-or never would have been except for certain compli-or what view will be taken of it in the Empire of China; not at all, sir. cations that have arisen in this country in consequence of the existence We are acting for the sovereign whose territorial lines are bounded and of African slavery, and the enfranchisement of the slave, and the legis-defined, and we must act up to our pledges without reference to their lation which has arisen for the protection and the regulation of the extraneous considerations at all. Nobody has to review this action rights of that people. It is sought now to be made use of here in Cali- which we perform here but the people of the State of California. No fornia, and in Congress, for the protection of a people that Congress and one has aught to say with regard to the Constitution, or the character of the fathers never dreamed of, nor thought of, or expected upon this the Constitution we make here, except the sovereign people of the State coast, and that is the Mongolian race. Now, we hear allusions made to of California, unless we make an anti-republican Constitution, and the Fourteenth Amendment, the last amendments to the Constitution of then the Congress of the United States, under the Constitution, will be the United States, and the Civil Rights bill, by those who profess to be authorized to interfere. But outside of that, there is no limit. anti-Chinese in sentiment, and yet who are continually deploring the Then, sir, what power has the State, by amendments to the Constiwant of any power outside of Congress. I will not trouble the Conven-tution, to reach this question? There is the great question. There is tion with authorities, but I think I may safely say that the view which I have here presented is the view taken by the Supreme Court of the United States, and established in the Slaughter House cases-that the legislation known as the Fourteenth Amendment, and the laws of Congress passed in pursuance of that amendment, had reference to the enfranchised slaves of the South; that their eye was upon that people; that they were seeking to protect them, in all that legislation; and to confer upon them the right of suffrage in what was called the anti-Kuklux legislation, and in the Civil Rights bill. And the direct intent of the law-making power was to protect the people lately enfranchised in the Southern States; and it is so distinctly affirmed in the Slaughter House cases by the Supreme Court of the United States. Congress is three thousand miles away from the Pacific Coast. Ignorant, as may be safely said, or almost entirely ignorant of the true situation of affairs here, knowing little or nothing of that which we know from day to day by sight, by sound, yea, sir, by smell! of the effect of a question which this Convention must solve. I take up section one, and I comment upon that. There is no objection to it, except simply that there is nothing in it. It is a perfectly harmless thing, and I assented to its being incorporated in the report as a member of the committee. A general declaration of the power which resides inherently in the State is contained in that section, but unfortunately it is followed up with some qualifications to which I object. I offered a section to be incorporated into the Preamble and Bill of Rights, which I understood to be satisfactory to a majority of the members, but it failed to be incorporated in there, because they doubted the propriety of inserting it in the place where I proposed it. A general declaration of the power of the State-that is, that the people of the State have the inherent sole and exclusive right of regulating their internal affairs, and the whole thereof; that they are the judges of whatever is detrimental or dangerous to the well-being of the State, and have the right to use the power of the State to prohibit and prevent it. That is a better statement, in civilized community to protect itself. Nor is that confined to the Chinese. I know that a nuisance of any kind is compelled to vacate by the strength of public opinion alone where there is an absence of the machinery of Courts and civil law to enforce the remedies. There is a fundamental right inherent in the people to protect themselves from that which is destructive of their peace, their comfort, and their well-being. And so I maintain that the section which I offered to be inserted in the Preamble and Bill of Rights is a broader, and a fuller, and a better declaration of the power than that which is contained in section one of the report of the Committee on Chinese. There is nothing asserted there which does not already exist as a part of the sovereign power without the declaration, and I object to it because the qualifications therein stated do not reach the evil. We do not object to the Chinese population particularly, or individually, or even collectively because they are vagrants, because they are paupers, because they are infected with contagious diseases, but we object to them because they belong to an alien civilization. That is the reason. What is the population of this country? What is the unwritten idea of the growth and building up of this State? It is, sir, that we plant houses; it is that we create cities; it is that we contribute to the general prosperity and enter into the great mass of useful material to the building up of the State. These do not. They cannot in any sense of the word be said to contribute anything to American civilization, but they constantly draw from it. That is what is the matter. In our fathers' times-I must go back to them, though I want to keep to the question as near as I can, and I have not the voice to go fully into the question now-our fathers understood this matter. Our fathers found, when they struck the shores of the Atlantic, a people already there with prior rights. A people, sir, who are still said and still described by those who have made a study of peoples, to be derived from the same stock as the Chinese. The Asiatics probably are an Indian race-are understood by the best scholars to be. They are the sort of people our ancestors found upon the shores of the Atlantic when they came there. European civilization and Christian civilization obtained a foothold on a strip along the shores of the Atlantic, whilst these people were there, by assumed have driven that people silently, slowly, and constantly before them, from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific, until they have almost disappeared from the face of the earth. my opinion, of the power, than this which is contained in this first section of the report of the committee. It is a fair statement of the power. In my judgment it comprehends the whole of the general declaration of the power that resides in the people of a sovereign State. Some objection may be made to it, because it is going toward State's rights too strong. I think not so. I think it is clearly within the decisions-all the decisions upon the subject-and the line of demarcation between Federal and State authority; no restrictions upon the judgment of the people of the State. There, sir, rests the king-pin. There rests the keystone of the whole arch, and that is its ultimate resort. Who is to decide? In whom is the power of judgment lodged? That, sir, is the question. Who is to decide this question? Is it the Congress of the United States, three thousand miles away, ignorant of our situation here, that is to decide upon the internal aspects of this question-and the infernal aspects or is it the people of the State, those who are directly affected by it? That, sir, is the great question; and I insist upon that right of judgment on the part of the people of the State over this subject-matter, and I say that it has never been denied before in Christendom. It never has been held anywhere that any free-minded and intelligent people could be compelled to tolerate a nuisance, they themselves knowing it to be a nuisance, eating out their civilization, demoralizing their youth, and sapping the foundations of their political and civil liberty, and threatening its very existence; that people could have that nuisance inflicted upon them, and maintained among them, without the power of judgment, and the power of dealing with it themselves, it never was heard of before; and if the doctrine was sought to be promulgated, and sought to be enforced in any manufacturing community in Europe, in London, in Manchester, in Sheffield, that a body of foreign alien laborers were to be thrown upon that people, in less than twenty-four hours the Trades Union would pour two million of people into Hyde Park, protesting in tones of thunder at the very foot of the throne, against the damnable outrage. We are limited by the terms of the first section of this report in the exercise of that judgment to the proofs that the obnoxious parties are paupers, are vagabonds, or are afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases a matter which no man can prove. We know that the labor-treaties, by assumed fair dealing, and not by conquest exactly. They ing class coming from China are brought here under contracts for terms of service and labor for years. We are morally convinced of it, but we have no proof. It cannot be established in any Court of justice. These laborers now in all the fair fields of industry on the Pacific Coast, seattered over your agricultural lands, and in your mines, and in domestic service, are healthy people, in the general sense of the word, and can strip down as clean men as the majority of this Convention, and let Dr.It was, in point of fact, to strip it of all disguise, from first to last a conO'Donnell examine them. They are inferior in muscular development, in brawn and brain, to the white man, but healthy people in the main. Here and there in the large cities of course are prostitutes, and of course there are diseases, perhaps. Maybe there are lepers. I think most of it is venereal disease; but it is not that we object to. That is not what the people of the Pacific Coast and the laboring and working men complain of. There never has been a time that it was not competent for the authorities, by the exercise of the powers which they enjoy, to have rid the State or the cities from that part of the curse. I suppose the reason why it has not been done is that there is metallic argument against it, drawn from the coffers of the Chinese Six Companies. I suppose that without any constitutional provisions at all, if one half, yea, one quarter of the truth be told, or has been told, with regard to the Chinese quarters in San Francisco, the municipal authorities of that city have had power to expel them without the city limits. I do not think there has been any question about that, sir. I do not think that the Burlingame treaty, the Fourteenth Amendment, or the Civil Rights bill would have been considered infracted by any municipal regulation for the abatement of that nuisance. I have seen it. I have seen a quiet community up in the mountains here in which this foreign alien people have settled, and wherever they settle they immediately draw together in some little quarter. They are like a small or a large devil fish, according to their members, wherever they plant themselves down everything else begins to get away, moves off, gets out of there. That devil fish has planted itself in San Francisco, and it throws out its arms and takes in one block at a time. There seems to be some sort of poisonous exhalation from it which makes everything else get out of there. Even the hoodlums, thieves, robbers, and low pros-do it; and while the sentimentalists of the East talk about the brothertitutes among the whites get away from there. They cannot stand it. They evacuate, absquatulate, and leave the octopus there all alone. Then it reaches out and takes in another part of a block, and again everything disappears before them as if from some deadly blight. It is like the feeding upon pasture lands of a flock of sheep. I do not wish to injure the business of the sheep herders in the Convention, or the sheep raisers, but they do say that when they take a flock of sheep into a certain sec-severity or barbarity of our proceedings. tion, and they feed over that section, that thereafter cattle and horses and all the more nobler sex of domestic animals refuse to go there. They will not feed there after the sheep have tramped over it and fed there. And that is the way with the Chinese. Whenever they set themselves down they are masters of the situation; everything else seems to want to leave. As I have said before, they start a Chinese quarter. They establish a wash house, gambling house, and a house of prostitution. They are a noisy people, and they are a nuisance to quiet people. People living around cannot sleep at night, and are disturbed by the noise and the lewd women, etc. Finally, in some places, they are invited to go away. I know of a case, only a short time ago, over in the mountains. They were there, and they troubled the neighborhood. The people told them to leave and go away. They talked about their civil rights. The citizens gave them a few days to go, and they did not go. Then they went there with their wagons, loaded up their plunder, and moved off all they had there. They told them about the situation, and not to come back there. No one has raised anything about the Burlingame treaty, and no constitutional provision has been infracted. It seems to be the right of a Mr. De Toqueville, the most able writer, perhaps, who has discussed American institutions, characterizes the treatment of the Indian by the people of the United States as barbarous. So it was in many senses. stant war of extermination. That is all you can say about it. And why was it, sir? I suppose if there is a Providence overruling all, that it was because the demands of that Providence and His overruling designs intended the continent for European civilization, and for a white man's government. And our forefathers, when in the light of their blazing homes they pursued the fleeing savage and shot him down, never stopped to discuss the morality of the method, or the causes of that blazing home. He hunted him away because he had no other means of dealing with him. He drove him before the white man's civilization because he could not civilize him-because he could not Christianize him, and there were, all over that broad land where prosperity has built the happy homes that dot the Mississippi Valley, and all of the great Atlantic Coast, the lands are all wrenched from the people that were there before them-wrenched by the hand of power from a people driven at the point of the bayonet, and by the bullet, from before the advancing tide of civilization-because, in the Providence of God, the way had to be opened for the white man's civilization. And that is the best argument that is possible against those who object to saying that we must reserve part of it from the refluent wave of that same kind of hostile civilization that comes from the Orient back to the West. We stand at the very gate of the reservoir that hangs like some high cloud over the people, not only of the Pacific Coast, but of the United States-a great reservoir with five hundred million hungry souls to draw from, which may burst at any time and inundate not only this shore, but flow across the Rocky Mountains and overwhelm the people of the whole United States. I say we must stop the crevasse, we must prevent the inundation anyway, barbarous though it may be, it is our duty to hood of man and the fatherhood of God, we can tell them that we are trying to preserve them in their homes, in their temples of worship, and in their schools, where they teach the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God; for if they do overrun them, as it is possible for them to do, and it is possible in the inscrutable designs of Providence that they should, we labored to prevent it. Do not talk to us about the The American Indian and the Chinaman possess different kinds of civilization to our civilization. They differ in the methods in which they resist it, but it is none the less resistance. The American Indian is opposed to it. He opposed it by savage war; he opposed it by direct and open onslaught upon that civilization which he saw coming. In his ignorance, in his barbarity, and in his vice he had none the less a steady, stern, inflexible will which resisted any advance of civilization, and consequently there could be no other result except the conflict which came. But the Chinese oppose a different kind of warfare to our civilization, and in my judgment it is a more dangerous warfare, for it is an insidious, slow-eating kind of warfare on our civilization, against which you cannot raise an arm as you could against that sort of civilization which attacked you openly, and which you could crush by means of your power. The police power of the State has no specific or legal definition, but the line of demarcation has to be found, not in what is expressed, not in what has been decided particularly by the Courts, but it is to be found. in an examination of the powers that have been granted to the Federal Government. Before the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, and the other amendments, the power of the people over this subject, and over the admission of what, in their opinion-their judgment exercised upon the subject for themselves-determined to be obnoxious persons, was not questioned. The power was not questioned. The decisions in the Passenger cases, which have been quoted extensively already, fully and explicitly affirm the right of the people in the exercise of their jurisdiction over their internal affairs, and the regulations affecting the morals, the health, and the general welfare of the State was not denied. Now, so far as we are dealing with the question is concerned, the only effect of the Fourteenth Amendment and all the legislation of Congress thereunder, if any at all, as I claim, was to regulate the relations of the black people of the Southern States with the whites. That was the effect of that. Now, it is true that language is made use of in that amendment, and that language is made use of in the Civil Rights bill, which seems to imply that all persons found upon American soil, wherever the Constitution has sway, are entitled to the equal protection of the laws, and not to be abridged of any of their rights, or of the rights that are granted to any other person. On the face of it, I say, that seems to be the inference and necessary implication to be drawn from that Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights bill. But the peculiarity of them is this: it is well expounded in the views of Judge Black, and in the views of General Butler, that the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to operate upon citizens-intended to operate upon citizens of the United States. In the first part of the article it makes use of the word "citizen." It says: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." Now, following after that, comes language which seems to be plain to the understanding of all persons: "Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Equal, how? Equal protection, in what manner? It is not to be construed or understood that the rights and privileges enjoyed by the citizen must necessarily be enjoyed by every person who comes within the jurisdiction. Not at all, sir. And therefore it is, in my opinion, that the effect of the amendments, and the intent of the amendments, and all the legislation thereunder, is to affect the citizens whose rights and privileges can be abridged, whilst aliens and those who have not become citizens, and who cannot be clothed with the rights of citizenship, shall not be permitted to enjoy those rights. Now, what are the powers of the State? (I must hurry through, for I am getting very tired.) What are the powers of the State over its internal affairs? And what are the internal matters over which the State has power? I wish, gentlemen, to come right square up now to the question. Has the State got any power? And if we point out to you the powers which the State has got, are you willing to exercise those powers? Are we going to confine ourselves down to the simple regulation of paupers, vagrants, and criminals; or shall we say the State has power to determine for itself that the whole class of people are obnoxious and dangerous to its well-being, and to bring that power to bear for the purpose of preventing and prohibiting that evil. Let us take the subject of the internal matters of the State, and of the right to catch fish. as an illustration. Does any man deny that the regulation and the exercise of that power is not proper to the State? Over the waters of the State, tide waters and all, except for the purposes of navigation and commerce, does any man deny that the State has absolute control? That it can admit to the privileges, for instance, of fishing in these waters, none but citizens and deny it to all others? If he does, I should like to see that man. Seven, five, or nine thousand Chinese live by fishing. Are gentlemen willing to say that the State, having this power, shall prohibit five, seven, or nine thousand Chinamen from exercising the right to catch fish in the inland waters of the State? The question is not new. Is that barbarous? The question is not new. Do you want to starve them out? The question is, will you exercise the power? You say you are willing to exercise any power of State. I tell you of a power. are you willing to bring it to bear? And I have a word to say on this question of starving them out. I do not know but it might be made to fit in with this first section. If we have got to find them out to be paupers, the best thing we can do is to make them paupers, and then we have got power to send them out. That would be a natural and logical conclusion of this method of dealing with the question. We do not propose to let them starve, but if they are paupers, we propose to send them out to starve somewhere else. Why not say they shall not fish in the waters of the State, make them paupers, and then exercise the power which we have to send them out of the country. the Take the other question; take the subject of the right to carry on a business, trade, or occupation. It is a regulation over which the State has undoubted power. It cannot deny to its citizens, but it can deny to every one else the right to a license. Are gentlemen willing to exercise that power and take from the Chinese the right to do business? they cannot do business, then of course they become paupers; and they are immediately put upon the same footing with the fisherman, and we can send them out. If any public work would employ them, but, on the suggestion of my friend from Los Angeles, Colonel Ayers, I have no objection to its going in. The Supreme Court can set it aside if it wants to. We are not worse off. So as to section five: "No person who is not eligible to become a citizen of the United States shall be permitted to settle in this State after the adoption of this Constitution." I have this remark to make in regard to that, and I wish to call the attention of gentlemen to the posture of this question. We can make these declarations; we can insert them in the Constitution that we make; we can take the Chinese to the Courts, and wherever there is a doubt upon the question, I am in favor of taking the decision of a Court in this way-the only way in which I know it can be done; but I want something to fall back on. I insist that we shall not be left helpless and stranded after the Supreme Court of the United States has declared that these provisions conflict with the Constitution of the United States. We have had, sir, for years and years, the same old thing. We have had platform declarations. We have had efforts in Congress to bring the subject before their attention ignored; so much so that, as I understand it, there has never yet been a vote taken upon it in Congress. The ayes and noes, or any kind of a vote, has never been taken in Congress upon the question in any shape whatever. So little attention has been paid to our constant and reiterated demands for relief that I do not know that even a committee has ever reported upon the subject at all. Now, sir, we are proposed to be remanded to the Courts on every questionable and doubtful proposition declaratory of extremely questionable and doubtful purposes. And shall we be left there? No sir! I insist that we shall reserve still the power in the Constitution constituting the basis and framework for a legislative superstructure in the State of California upon the subject. I insist that we shall declare-positively and strongly declare-these rights, and these powers, police powers of the State, and direct the Legislature to erect upon it a system of laws by which the Chinese that are here will be excluded, and by which they can be driven out faster than they can be brought in. I say it can be done! I say it must be done. And I say I want to see it done, for the reason that Congress must be awakened, the great American people must be aroused. Men are there constantly at the doors of Congress, and in the President's chambers, insisting it is not the actual and genuine sentiment of the people of the Pacific Coast that this immigration must be stopped. We must demonstrate to them that we are in earnest. Yea, sir, we must startle them. I am in favor of shocking their sensibilities, and then they will know, sir, that we are in real earnest. What will be the consequence? MR. AYERS. Do you think that there is anything that could shock the sensibilities of the East on this subject more than to adopt a section in the Constitution declaring the power of exclusion to exist in the State? MR. BARBOUR. Yes, sir, I do. I think they would be more shocked by saying that if the worst comes to the worst that we are willing to use the public power of the State to starve them out. I do, because they might say we are trying to bully when we say that they shall not land here; but they know we have got the other kind of power, and seeing us propose to use it, they may say, "These people are in earnest. They are going for blood!” Why is it that Chinamen come here? What is it that draws them to these shores? Demand for labor. If nobody employs them they will not come, will they? If they cannot get employment they will not come. That you may say is a maxim of political science. Men move from the love of food more than for mere conquest, and if they come here, they come here for food and employment. Destroy the demand and you destroy the immigration. If they see in the East that we are striking at the very demand for labor itself, they can but say, "These people are in earnest, if they are barbarous and cruel." I am in favor of startling them. I am in favor of doing it so because I am willing to have either one of the consequences to happen. We try to reach them by saying, "Aliens ineligible to become citizens of the United States," because we do not want to affect foreigners of other countries. We can say that and take our chances. We do not actually know, by the decision of the highest tribunal, that they are ineligible to become citizens. The best decision that we have ever got, of course, declares them ineligible; but it is that sort of a decision that may be reversed to-morrow, and the highest tribunal may declare them to be citizens of the United States. Other Courts of record in the United States have admitted them, and are admitting them to citizenship. Congress might, at this session, amend the naturalization laws so that they could, unquestionably, become citizens. Perhaps we will drive Congress into doing that, who knows! We had better drive Congress into doing something than to have this eternal contempt of the demands of the people of the Pacific Coast, for then, sir, we would be compelled to fall back on our own resources, knowing that there was no hope there. But it might have the other effect. Gentlemen are always claiming and contending here that it would be a shame and a stain that would bring the blush to the cheek of a Californian to have such provisions in the Constitution, or our statute books, as apparently in defiance of our American civilization. I say, sir, that if under the spur of our resolute determination and our the Constitution and from the statutes. It can be done simply and absolutely. It need not remain there when the effect intended has been produced in any other way. But the country must be awakened. It must be awakened as by an earthquake shock to the determination of the people of the Pacific Coast that something must be done, and some relief must be granted. And if it is possible to cut them off from every avenue of employment, and within the power of the State to do so, and it can be demonstrated on this floor that such would be the effect, where is the gentleman who opposes such measures, can reconcile it with his declarations to his constituents that he was willing to go to the Take for an instance, the subject of forbidding corporations organized under the laws of the State from giving employment to this class of peo-earnestness Congress should act, it is not difficult to remove them from ple. Is there any question about the powers of the State to impose that sort of a condition upon corporations? They hold their franchises subJect to the condition that the State may alter, amend, or repeal them, and if no one denies the power, it cuts them off from another great source of employment. Are gentlemen willing to go in for that? True, it will starve them out, but they become paupers, and then we take them as paupers and send them away. Take again the subject of excluding them from employment upon any public work. I suppose there is no man who will object to the exercise of that power. I do not think nowadays that any man engaged in very verge of constitutional power for the purpose of doing so. It does not need, sir, that it be done instantly and at once. It does not need that the vast army of Chinese laboring on this coast shall be suddenly, at one fell swoop, cut off from all employment, but that they shall be worked out. That is the plan, and the idea; we all hope, we all desire, we all prefer, that Congress should close the Golden Gate against their further immigration, but the question has resolved itself simply into this: If Congress will not act, are you willing to do so here in the State of California? We are placed in this predicament that we cannot ascertain the action of Congress before this Convention shall adjourn. If we could, we might make a last appeal to them to step in now and forbid Chinese immigration, and we could attend to those that are here. But we have no such opportunity. We must act then as if we had no other resource. We must act as if the question was upon us to decide for ourselves, to regulate for ourselves, and to regulate it in the best and most efficacious manner. Now, sir, what is that manner? With every disposition on earth to conform as nearly as may be to the ideas of civilized mankind, and the ideas of justice, and of humanity, I do say and I do insist that promptitude of action is imperatively demanded by the exigencies of the case-promptitude of action, sir, in order to save the fair cities and the fair fields of California from being the scenes of carnage, of riot, and of blood, I speak whereof I know. speak whereof I know when I assure gentlemen of the Convention, and every one within the sound of my voice, that an uprising is hard to be restrained to-day. I have been, sir, upon the inside. The reverence for American institutions, the reverence for law and order, appealed to, has produced its effect. There does exist yet in the minds of our people an earnest and prayerful desire that they may not be driven, as they believe it will become imperatively necessary for them yet to be driven, to resort to that course taken by the revolutionary fathers when they went upon that ship in Boston harbor and flung overboard the contraband tea. God spare us that sort of a revolution, sir. We should avert it if possible. We should give them some gleam of hope that something will be done at home, by peaceable and constitutional means. They are not anxious to rush into these things, but they do know their power and it cannot be denied. It cannot be denied that a great majority having within their control the destinies of this State, having expressed time and time again the determination, find themselves continually denied the rights they ought to have, continually forestalled in the occupation of the avenues of labor by this alien race, are discontented. It is for that reason, sir, that here and now I call upon this Convention for some promptitude of action, whatever that may be, which shall be an effectual, startling, and convincing awakener of the people of the Eastern States, of Congress, and the ruling powers, to the fact that we are in earnest, resolute. The last biennial message of his Excellency the President of the United States, supposed to present for the consideration of Congress all matters affecting the welfare of the people of the United States, has not one single syllable touching a question which is the overshadowing and paramount subject of discussion at every fireside on the Pacific Coast; not one syllable; not one line! Deaf, indeed, to all prayers seems to be the ears of these that are now in power. I see the hour for recess has arrived, and I will give way for a motion AFTERNOON SESSION. from the conflict which impended over it so long, and wh burst with such terrible effect upon it. But they were not experience. They temporized. They felt they could not yi kind of labor which in their day they contended was the o labor with which they could develop the resources of thei the country. And that same argument has been made on the floor of th tion. We have been told here that Chinese labor is deve resources of this country; and we are told now that Chine necessary to the further development of the country. Memb proclaim these sentiments in the nominating conventions; th proclaim it on the stump. If they held any such opinions to make it known before the election. They admitted the conflict; they admitted the evils resulting from the presence nese, and yet they now tell us they cannot work their mi present rates of labor, and that the present wages for white too high. I admire the honesty and candor of the gentleman from So Stuart, who makes no secret in this Convention as to what is. He believes that a great many of the landholders of th not work their land with white labor, at the present rates of I would rather hear men come out squarely and oppose these for some cause, than to see them indifferent-assenting to t of the evils of Chinese immigration in the abstract, but unwi anything practical to abate the evil. I contend, however, the tleman from Sonoma is mistaken in his premises. I contend labor market of California could be instantly deprived of source of supply, there would be an influx of white labor vacancy. It will be governed by the law of supply and dem ate a demand for labor, and inform the white laborers of t that they will not be compelled to come in competition wi labor, and they will come. You have but to call for white 1 will come. There is no doubt about it in the world. It has sir. It has looked over the fields, it has sought to obtain th ment, but it was forestalled, and it did not stay, because the g occupied-because free labor would not volunteer to place its petition with slave labor-or that which is similar in alı respect to slave labor. There might be present hardship to the industries of the the cessation of a hundred thousand laborers, if that is a corre of the number. I admit that there would be a depression pr the sudden withdrawal of this number of laborers. But is i nitely better for the interests of the entire community, for th of our future industries, and for the people of California a Pacific Coast, than that so much suffering, so much hardship upon them? Now, I do not propose to go into an elaborate discussion of t or of the various sections of this report, but with regard to t of regulation I have this to say: I do not desire to be left h powerless by what I fear will be the decision of the Suprem the United States. I do not say that these provisions cover are exactly such as this Convention ought to adopt. But I I insist, that it is demanded of us here in this Convention t make some use of the internal police power of the State, in of the restraint being denied by Congress, or in the event other provisions be declared null and void. When we ent State, which is called a political community, we make a co all the other members of that community, and to that extent certain of our rights. A given number of the members of th tion may enter into an agreement among themselves, by 1 bind themselves, by certain forfeitures, not to employ Chi They are legitimate agreements. They may be enforced. that the State, having the power to make these regulations, is i and authorized to do the very same thing. I maintain tha may impose upon its citizens certain disabilities, in the eve The Convention reassembled at two o'clock P. M., President Hoge in employing that kind of labor, because it comes within the p the chair. Roll called and quorum present. CHINESE IMMIGRATION. MR. MILLER. Mr. President: move that the Convention now resolve itself into Committee of the Whole, the President in the chair, for the purpose of further considering the report of the Committee on Chinese. Carried. IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. of the State. It has the right to determine what kind of 1 judgment, and the presence of what kind of laborers are det the welfare of the State; and whoever employs it, whoeve mental in bringing that kind of labor into the State, to the instrumental in maintaining a nuisance; and, therefore, it is for the State to impose that condition upon its citizens, at leas come within its jurisdiction with regard to subject-matters of With all that class of persons who hold public offices, and exe and privileges granted by the State, the State has a right to i kind of conditions upon them-the State may name the clause-co nominee. They may say that the Chinese-puttin THE CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment to section tion squarely-may not be ineligible to citizenship, no matte seven. SPEECH OF MR. BARBOUR-CONCLUDED. MR. BARBOUR. Mr. Chairman: I was presenting to the consideration of the Convention the conflict, the irrepressible conflict, which is impending over the people of the Pacific Coast by reason of the presence of a Mongolian population. I maintain that the conflict, in the very nature of things, unless a feasible remedy can be found, is inevitable. It is, sir, an irrepressible conflict between two entirely dissimilar civilizations-aye, sir, between two different systems of labor, as was tha ald insonmocikla conflict between the free white labor of the North Courts may decide; and it is within that power, and withi eral authority of the State, to impose these conditions upon th the conditions upon which they may exercise these rights and But I go beyond all, that, sir, and I say that it comes wi ought to be placed upon the ground of the great sovereign p State. Here is what is confessed to be the greatest nu imposed upon a free and enlighted people, drawn here by stances, the result of the growth of the State under the law and demand, which was in the beginning considered unwor ticular attention, but which has grown to such proportions power to send them without our limits. And it is our duty to impose this duty upon the Legislature, which has control of the machinery. I am willing to take section one upon that ground. I am willing to take section two, which forbids the employment of Chinese by corporations. I am willing to take section three, which forbids their.employment upon public works. I am willing to take section four, because it will hold at least until overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States. I am willing to take section five upon the same ground. Now, I understand the majority of this Convention are content to take this section, but desire to stop there. Now, sir, I can very readily perceive, under certain constructions put upon this section, how it will result; that we will deserve at the hands of the people the charge that we have done nothing. I can see how every single one of these sections may be rendered nugatory, because they do not-not one single one of them-come squarely down to a declaration of the duty of the State, to bring the arm of sovereignty, to bring its police power to bear directly upon this question. That is exactly where we differ. The Legislature and the municipalities will have no power. We not only want to give them power to do it, but we ought to impose the duty upon them. And it is for that reason that the succeeding sections, six, seven, eight, and nine, or something similar to those sections, ought to be incorporated in the Constitution, or submitted in separate sections. These sections are as follows: SEC. 6. Foreigners ineligible to become citizens of the United States shall not have the right to sue or be sued in any of the Courts of this State, and any lawyer appearing for or against them, or any of them, in a civil proceeding, shall forfeit his license to practice law. No such foreigner shall be granted license to carry on any business, trade, or occupation in this State, nor shall such license be granted to any person or corporation employing them. No such foreigner shall have the right to catch fish in any of the waters under the jurisdiction of the State; nor to purchase, own, or lease real property in this State; and all contracts of conveyance or lease of real estate to any such foreigner shall be void. SEC. 7. The presence of foreigners ineligible to become citizens of the United States is declared hereby to be dangerous to the well-being of the State, and the Legislature shall discourage their immigration by all the means within its power. It shall provide for their exclusion from residence or settlement in any portion of the State it may see fit, or from the State, and provide suitable methods, by their taxation or otherwise, for the expense of such exclusion. It shall prescribe suitable penalties for the punishment of persons convicted of introducing them within forbidden limits. It shall delegate all necessary power to the incorporated cities and towns of this State for their removal without the limits of such cities and towns. SEC. 8. Public officers within this State are forbidden to employ Chinese in any capacity whatever. Violation of this provision shall be ground for removal from office; and no person shall be eligible to any office in this State who, at the time of election, and for three months before, employed Chinese. SEC. 9. The exercise of the right of suffrage shall be denied to any person employing Chinese in this State, and it shall be sufficient challenge that the person offering to vote is employing Chinese, or has employed them within three months next preceding the election. I introduced into this Convention a proposition to instruct the Judiciary Committee to report to this body the legality of submitting separate articles to the people, to be ratified or rejected, and I was in hopes they would have done so before we reached this article. I am informed they have made up their minds, and I suppose the probabilities are that we will be advised that it is not competent for us to submit separate articles for the people to vote upon. They may be right, and they may be wrong. I am of the opinion that it will be satisfactory to a large portion of the people to be allowed to vote directly and squarely upon this Chinese question; and if the outcome shall be that a majority are in favor of, or opposed to restrictive legislation, then it will have no validity; but on the contrary, if a majority do decide in favor of this legislation, it will be a direct and positive announcement: first, of the opinion of the people of the State of California; and second, that it will leave the Legislature power to do something for the accomplishment of this result. I have taken the opinions, as far as I have been able to do so, upon this question, and I believe they are willing to submit-outside of the Constitution to the electors of the State of California, directly and squarely, the proposition whether this State shall bring to bear her police and internal power for the purpose of expelling the Chinese from our,midst. Many tell us that the question of Chinese commerce and the Chinese here are so mixed up with the laboring interests, bound up with it, that if you take the honest sentiment of the people of California, it will be found to be against restrictive legislation. Sir, I am perfectly content to risk it to the people, though I know that many who pretend to be antiChinese reformers secretly employ Chinese, and are secretly in favor of Chinese labor. I know that to be true, sir. I am willing to take the chances on that. I am not afraid but the honest sentiment of a large majority of the people of California will be found to be on the right side, if taken in a fair and square election. Now, sir, I have spoken long enough, I suppose, both for my own good and the comfort of the Convention, but I have endeavored to plead the cause of the workingmen of this State before this body. I have endeavored to present the claims of that numerous class, but whether rightfully or wrongfully I know not. I have come to the conclusion, from the character of the legislation that has taken place; from the character of the events constituting the history of this coast for the past ten years-I say I have come to the conclusion that they have no friends among the powers that be. Whether rightfully or wrongfully, sir, I say that the workingmen of the State of California have lost confidence entirely in those who shape the legislation of the country, and they have done so because, notwithstanding the loud professions-the reiterated professions of friendship and devotion to the cause of labor and to the rights of laboring men-they have seen year after year roll away and nothing done-no, not one single step taken in the direction of reform-and come before this Convention pleading their cause; and we would plead it in a sincere way. And I say to this Convention now, I demand, sirs, in the name of the workingmen of the State of California, that something more than mere obstructions, and humbug, and pretense, be dealt out to them hereafter. They want some practical work, something that will produce practical results. Nay, more, sir. Not alone for them do I appeal; I do so in the interests of the rising generation; I do so in the interests of humanity; I do so in the interest of the future prosperity of the Pacific Coast, and of California, which is my home, which has held me so far, and which will probably be my home so long as I live, and my resting place when I die. [Applause.] MR. JOYCE. Mr. Chairman: I would like to offer a substitute for section one, as it at present stands. THE CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment of the gentleman from Los Angeles. The amendment was adopted. MR. JOYCE. I offer a substitute for the whole business. THE CHAIRMAN. Send it up. THE SECRETARY read: "SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of Mayors of incorporated cities, and the Supervisors of counties, after the first day of May, eighteen hundred and eighty, to see that no Mongolians be allowed to reside within the limits of their respective cities and counties; and it shall be the duty of the Governor of this State, in case of the inability of such Mayor, or such Supervisors, to use all the power of the State in assisting such Mayors and such Supervisors in enforcing the provisions of this section. "SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to make all the necessary laws for the enforcement of the above section." THE CHAIRMAN. The question is on the substitute. SPEECH OF MR. JOYCE. MR. JOYCE. Mr. Chairman: I offer that substitute for this reason: it seems to be unanimous, or very near unanimous, in this Convention, that they are all in favor of adopting some measure that will rid the country of the Chinese. Now, sir, it strikes me that being adopted, there is no possible means of labor being brought into competition with the Chinese after the enforcement of this. There is no necessity of dealing with the increase of the Chinamen in future, because, if they cannot reside here, they will have no anxiety of coming here. I believe that before the rebellion a majority of the border States had provisions preventing free negroes coming into their States. I believe, in a great many cases, these laws were executed; and I believe if this provision be embodied into the Constitution there will be no difficulty in the future in dealing with this thing. In the next place there is another principle back of it. If there are any counties in the State that desire to have Chinese, they can use the local option means. If the people desire to get rid of the Chinese in good faith, the sovereign will of the people can instruct their officers to do so. I do not see why this will not solve this Chinese question in a very simple way. SPEECH OF MR. BARTON. MR. BARTON. Mr. Chairman: Upon this subject, sir, I desire to say a few words, if I can have the attention of the committee for a few moments. This is a subject, Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the committee, more vital to the State of California and the whole Pacific Coast than any or all other questions that have ever been presented to the people of this coast. Year after year we have remained with our hands tied; year after year have we seen the Democratic party, and the representatives of the Republican party, assembled in this hall, and announce to the people of this State that they were positively opposed to the further importation of Chinese, and engrafting in their platforms, and upon their banners, in glowing colors, that infernal deception, calculated and designed for the purpose of creating sympathy and political prestige. Year after year have they inscribed upon their banners in every campaign this deception. Year after year we have heard these California demagogues (some of whom we find in this Convention to-day, sent here by the people to represent the people's interests), afraid to raise their voices on this floor on behalf of the people. Sir, I have been waiting for some of these great men who occupy seats here to rise up, statesman-like, and let me hear them place themselves either in favor of the people of the State of California and her institutions, or in favor of continuing this Mongolian curse. I perhaps feel more deeply than many of you. I I have been a citizen of this State long enough to rear a family to manhood, and I find myself and my children brought down by force of circumstances and misfortune to a level with these slaves, and yet I maintain my dignity. I stand here to-day to defend my dignity and my manhood; to defend the principles of our government and of the people of the country, and that is what I am here for to-day. The representatives of the working people of this State, in the Legislature of eighteen hundred and sixtysix and eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, asked to have engrafted upon the statute books that where the State granted aid to corporations, the parties receiving such aid shall not be permitted to employ Chinese labor thereon, and I am sorry to know that my Democratic friends and my Republican friends, in both branches of the Legislature, almost solidly voted against the proposition. That is a matter of record, and gentlemen need not take my word for it. Three several times when that measure was brought up, our Democratic friends and our Republican friends voted solid against it. The people asked that when the State was giving aid that the work should be done by white labor, and on these three several occasions the friends of labor, so called, turned their backs upon the people and voted against the proposition. As to the evils of Chinese immigration, allow ine to say right here that I do not believe, when you come right down to the real sober |