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CRIMES
AGAINST THE CHINESE |
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Harper’s
Weekly, November 21, 1885, page 755 (Editorial) |
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It is not
surprising that individuals of a race whose entrance into the
country has been prohibited by law should be treated with contempt
and cruelty by the more brutal part of the population. But it is to
the credit of Americans that, however strong the feeling of
hostility to the Chinese may be, the recent outrages upon
"Chinamen" in Wyoming and Washington Territories are not
the crimes of natives, but of foreigners, whose presence in the
country is much less desirable than that of the Chinese themselves.
These crimes are peculiarly mean and dastardly because of the small
number of persons in the country who are guilty of being Chinese,
and because the number is constantly decreasing. Nor would the
crimes occur except for the consciousness of the general although
passive support of the community, which was the real support of the
Ku-Klux outrages in the Southern States. |
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The duty
of the government toward these unhappy victims of a stupid hatred is
plainly defined in the treaty with China:
"If Chinese
laborers or Chinese of any other class, now either permanently or
temporarily residing in the territory of the United States, 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." |
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In accordance
with this obligation the government ordered troops to Wyoming, and
upon the outbreak at Tacoma and Seattle the President issued a
proclamation requiring the rioters to disperse and retire peaceably,
which was promptly obeyed, and indictments have been found against
the Mayor of Tacoma, who is not an American, and other ringleaders
of the mob. This action is an assurance to the forlorn Chinese that
they are not entirely abandoned to tormenters even within the
jurisdiction of the United States, and to the people of the
Territories that if humanity and a sense of justice do not inspire a
public protest against such wrongs, there is happily a legal remedy. |
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The few Chinese
now scattered through the Western Territories are as much the wards
of the government as the freedmen in the Southern States after the
war. The proclamation of the President, the movement of troops, and
the indictments show the disposition loyally and honestly to enforce
the law. The attacks upon the Chinese are especially monstrous, but
we recall, in the recent campaign, during which the whole subject of
national politics was drawn into discussion, but one vigorous
allusion to the Chinese wrongs, and that was in the speech of
Senator Hoar at the Massachusetts Republican Convention. We are glad
to see that the citizens of Seattle have organized themselves to
repress the crimes, and to co-operate with the government. |
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Harper’s
Weekly, November 21, 1885, page 755 (Editorial) |
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