CRIMES AGAINST THE CHINESE
Harper’s Weekly, November 21, 1885, page 755 (Editorial)
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.
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."

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.
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.
Harper’s Weekly, November 21, 1885, page 755 (Editorial)

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