| The President has signed the Chinese exclusion bill, but it is a bill unworthy of the United States. The object, indeed, is proper, and the Chinese Government had frankly expressed its willingness to co-operate with us to prevent the immigration of Chinese laborers. A treaty to that effect was negotiated. The Senate suggested certain amendments, to which the Chinese Minister assumed that his Government would agree. But before the decision of that Government was known, a bill was hurried through Congress in desperate haste, as if there was a pressing emergency, violating treaty stipulations and insulting the Chinese Government, which then declined to ratify the treaty. |
| The refusal, under the circumstances, was required by self-respect, and it cannot be justly held to imply that China would not consent to an exclusion which its Government had proposed, when arranged in a fair and seemly manner. The whole transaction is part of the game of the campaign, and its reflects no honor upon the American name. |
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