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Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 |
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After the revision of the Burlingame Treaty went into effect on July 19,
1881, Congress was quick to act on restricting Chinese immigration. In March
1882, Congress passed the first Chinese exclusion bill. It banned the
immigration of Chinese laborers (skilled or unskilled) to the United States for
a period of twenty years. It also required Chinese laborers already residing
within the U.S. to carry a passport and excluded all Chinese from American
citizenship. President Chester Arthur vetoed the bill, believing that the twenty
year provision would violate the 1880 treaty and that the other restrictions
were undemocratic. Congress was unable to override the presidential veto, so
flags were hung at half-mast in San Francisco. |
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Supporters of exclusion then reduced the period of suspension to ten years
and dropped the internal passport provision. Chinese in the U.S. were still
banned from becoming citizens but were allowed to travel freely within the U.S.,
in accord with the 1880 revision of the Burlingame Treaty. This time, President
Arthur signed the bill into law on May 6, 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act, as it
came to be known, broke with the American tradition of open immigration and was
the first federal law aimed at restricting a specifically named ethnic group.
Three months later, Congress passed a general immigration law that levied a
fifty-cent tax on all new immigrants and excluded persons in certain categories
from entering American territoryconvicted criminals, the insane, and those
likely to become taxpayer-supported. |
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Sources consulted:
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Charles J. McClain, In Search of Equality: The Chinese
Struggle against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1994)
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Justus D. Doenecke, The Presidencies
of James A. Garfield & Chester A. Arthur (University Press of Kansas,
1981)
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