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MR. STUART. No; I employ white men too.
THE CHAIRMAN. Keep order!

MR. O'SULLIVAN. When they can get cheap and nasty Chinese labor then they despise their white fellow man. But society in California is to blame for the tramps. Society is to blame; and society will be to blame if this infernal Chinese curse is not got rid of. It will be to blame for a terrible revolution in this State. The gentleman would like to change the naturalization laws if he was in a Constitutional Convention of the United States. He talked about his native Americanism. Well, I was not aware that the gentleman was an Indian. I believe they are the only true native Americans. I am an American, thank God! An American by adoption; born in Ireland; and am proud of being an American. I have fought under the stars and stripes, and was willing to go and fight and will always be when this country is in danger. Men are not asked where they were born when defenders are wanted for the American flag; they are not asked where they were born. The naturalization laws of the United States are open to them and they always will be, thank God; for men of the narrow views of Mr. Stuart are few and far between amongst true Americans, thank God for it. He talks about working. I have worked every day of my life in California for thirty years; for three years mining with pick and shovel, and I was a tramp then in Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties-a tramp with blankets, pick and shovel on my back. I have tramped since in the State as a journeyman printer. I have tramped from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and I am as good as that gentleman. I have tramped, and there are just as good men as any citizen of the United States, native born Americans too, poor unfortunate men that cannot get a day's work to do because the Chinaman is preferred-the infamous, dirty, Chinese cheap labor is preferred. He boasted of his working, and said he thought he could claim to be a workingman. That was probably intended as a fling at the Workingmen's delegates here; but I can assure the gentle man that we are all workers-I am, with both hands and brain-and I have always earned an honest living in California, thank God. And so have my fellow delegates of the Workingmen's party here.

sans.

REMARKS OF MR. LINDOW.

opportunity some other time. Somebody else will spring up so soon as I go off.

REMARKS OF MR. VACQUEREL.

that I, as a foreign-born citizen, protest against. I will challenge any
MR. VACQUEREL. Mr. Chairman: Assertions have been made here
ism, which are liberty, equality, and fraternity, on the principles of
man to discuss that question upon the great principles of republican-
Christianity and the principles of humanity. Now, sir, on the princi-
ple of liberty. The Constitution of the State of California, section one
and section two, declare that we have an inalienable right to defend our
lives and liberty; consequently if our life is in danger our liberty is also.
Whether our life is at stake by a tiger, or whether it is at stake by star-
the right to defend our life, and if we do not, our liberty is speedily
We possess
vation, it is always at stake, and will not be any safer for it.
gone. Certainly a man is free to do good or evil, but whether he does
moment he does an evil he destroys his liberty. All these things are
good or evil he has to meet the consequences of his acts. The very
necessary. Then follows the punishment which is to bring him back to
the paths of virtue, justice, and truth. Therefore, as Chinese immigra
tion is an evil it tends to destroy liberty; and in the pure name of liberty
I oppose Chinese immigration. Now, sir, on the principle of equal-
ity I will oppose it. When I say equality, I do not mean the size of the
of duties as well as rights. Now, gentlemen, can any government exist
man. I do not speak of his economy, or his religion, but the reciprocity
can any society or nation exist, in which every citizen has not some
without duties, is the great maxim upon which repose all human
amount of duties to perform? No duties without rights, no rights
society. Equality of rights, equality of duties. But do the Chinese
perform the same duties as any other foreigner-as it is always
thrown in the face of foreigners? Does the Chinaman perform that
forming the same duties they cannot claim the same rights, and there-
same duty that these other foreigners do? I deny the assertion that per-
fore on the ground of equality I oppose Chinese immigration.

Christianity, fraternity, and humanity; these three great walls which
have been thrown often at the face of the opponents of Chinese immi-
gration. It is for humanity's sake, and the sake of the Christian faith,.
that I say to these men, and to all those who bring them here, and
those who employ them, do not tramp upon our liberties, upon our
rights. Let us be men. Let us be women. Do not try to bring us to
despair. Respect us, if you want us to respect you. Do not try to starve
us, if you do not want to be starved. Listen to the voice of reason.
Hear the people's cry. Watch the popular wave which is rising every
moment. Read the history of the past, and learn from it lessons of
prudence and wisdom. Some revolution will teach us charity and for-
bearance. Yes, I would be charitable, and I am, but when I look about
heart for a moment forget that this misery has been brought upon them
me and see my comrades in misery and their families destitute, can my
by the presence of these Mongolians. I ask myself, whether, in order to
be charitable to the Chinese, I must let my neighbor starve and die of
hunger? No! There is a reason that forces every man to take this
stand. It is a stern fact and we have to meet it boldly; it moves slowly
and surely, but it has already produced and shown its effect last Winter.
According to the laws of nature there is no effect without a cause. We
Starvation stares us in the face, and with it degradation and crime. Why,
now see the cause-the Chinese-and the effect will soon produce itself.
Mr. Chairman, did our forefathers give their lives so freely for this land
which they have sprinkled with their blood? And are we, in this very
century, going to submit to an aristocracy of blood? To men who have
lost all sense of justice, all sense of Christianity, and all sense of humanity?
Who, for the sake of furthering their own views, are willing to starve
their fellow men.
crime will bring its punishment. Do they not think that one day they
Blind they must be if they cannot see that their
may be called to answer to these very people for their crime? They
know their time will come, but I am afraid it will be too late. Let us
meet this question fairly and honestly. Let us take the responsibility
that rests upon us; and, after having done what is right, then let the
minority be responsible for what we have done. [Applause.]
THE CHAIRMAN. The Sergeant-at-Arms will keep order.

MR. LINDOW. Mr. Chairman: I am a mechanic, and a tailor by trade. I am not ashamed of it, at all. I left the bench to sit here and make a Constitution. That is my intention. We are talking about the Chinese. I never have employed a Chinaman, and I never will as long as I can wear a boot on my foot. I always employ white men, and I always made headway. My way was when I commenced to work-our standard was to go ahead. Now the gentlemen make their expressions of tramps. That is easy enough to be done. I got a young gentleman now working for me only nineteen years of age. If I so cut down his wages and give him a dollar a day, if he don't want to go to work for that of course he will go as a tramp, because he is able to make more than a dollar a day, and I could go and put a Chinaman in his place what will do the work just as well. It is the white men that makes the tramps. The Chinaman is not to blame. He came here and looked for work, but it was the workingman what looked at the dollar business, too, and which I don't call just as much as nothing at all; not for white men. Where shall he get his clothes from? I want the gentleman to answer that question, if he can live for a dollar a day. I lived fifteen years in the City of San Francisco. I know the whole constituency of the non-partisan, and the way they were elected, and I am certain that the gentleman tramped on the platform with his feet, because it was in Platt's Hall, and they said: "This time we mean it; there is something to be done for you in the Constitution, and we can put a clause in there not to let Chinese come any more." But the people was so often deceived before, as Colonel Barnes said, that they would not believe the non-partiNow here we get it right away, and the gentleman goes back on the people for doing something. Where there is a chance to do something for the people he goes back on it. That is not the idea of the workingman. We will fight, and we will have something in the Constitution that will rid this Chinese curse from this shore. And we will put a clause in the Constitution for to not let them come any more. Our children will be relieved of it. I thank Godfor the most part I fight for them-that we will succeed and get a clause in the Constitution so that they will be relieved. For that reason I think, coming here as workingmen, we must do our duty and not go to work and say that they are tramps. I cannot see what the tramps are. If he has got no means of support he must go tramping. Who has built up the State of California anyhow? Who has built up the City of San Francisco? Was it the Chinese? I ask any gentleman on this floor if it was the Chinese what brought the City of San Francisco to that what it is to-day? If them Chinamen had been in this State there would not be a City of San Francisco to be seen, grown up in that short time. But suppose it has grown, it is only the workingmen has built it up. Men got little savings of five hundred dollars put in real estate, and got a home for three thousand dollars, or three thousand five hundred dollars, and paid for it in installments in ten years. That is what has built the city up. But the Chinamen were put in their places. So wages were cut down to four dollars, and three dollars, and two dollars a day. Many workmen paid on real estate there for five or six years, living in their own houses, but he could not work and pay the installments, and his property was sold, and he and his family runs around the street. That is what the Chinamen bring in here. That is the good they do. You can buy property cheaper now than you could five or six years ago. Men that paid thirty thousand dollars for their property, now you can have it for ten thousand dollars, because it won't be worth anything twenty years from now if this immigration is not stopped. You can have a whole fifty vara lot for the taxes you are willing to pay. That is the prosperity of Chinese. Now, Mr. Ayers, President, I am willing to quit now for to-night, because I will get an Barbour,

MR. WICKES. I will be brief in the remarks I shall make. I know

that the best part of our time has already been dissipated. I now move that the committee rise, report progress, and ask leave to sit again.

Carried.

IN CONVENTION.

THE CHAIR. Gentlemen: The Committee of the Whole have instructed me to report that they have had under consideration the report of the Committee on Chinese, have made progress, and ask leave to sit again. MR. BEERSTECHER. Mr. President: I move we adjourn. Carried.

And, at eight o'clock and forty-five minutes P. M., the Convention stood adjourned until nine o'clock and thirty minutes A. M. to-morrow.

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SACRAMENTO, Tuesday, December 10th, 1878.
The Convention met in regular session at nine o'clock and thirty min-
utes A. M., President Hoge in the chair.
The roll was called, and members found in attendance as follows:

Andrews,

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THE JOURNAL.

THE PRESIDENT. There is a resolution before the Convention. MR. BEERSTECHER. I second the resolution.

MR. DOWLING. My object in offering that resolution is that a committee going from this body and interviewing the President and Senate, and laying the case as it is, in its true light, before them, would have more effect with the President of the United States and the Senate than any memorial sent them. I think the resolution is worthy the consideration of this body.

MR. CROUCH. Mr. President: I move to lay the resolution on the table. The motion prevailed.

PUBLIC LANDS.

MR. WYATT offered the following resolution:

Resolved, First-That we, the delegates of the people of the State of California, in Convention assembled, do most respectfully instruct our Senators and request our Representatives in Congress to use their influence to have passed a law reducing the price of the public lands in this State, within the limits of any railroad grants, to one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and to enable bona fide settlers upon said lands to homestead one hundred and sixty acres thereof-the lands belonging to the United States Government being the refuse or third rate lands, and mostly embraced within the foothills or mountains, and in most instances much subject to drought and scarcity of water, making it necessarily expensive to improve and utilize said lands. Resolved, Second-That we respectfully instruct our Senators and request our Rep. resentatives to use their influence to have passed a law restoring to preemption and homestead all the lands within the limits of forteited railroad grants in this State upon the same terms and conditions as before said grants were made. Resolved, Third-That a copy of these resolutions be sent to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress,

MR. LARKIN. I move the adoption of the resolution. MR. WYATT. Just one word. The railroad grants by the Congress of the United States to the various railroads within the limits of the State of California have been made, from ten to fifteen and eighteen years. Where the railroads have been completed and the grants have been made effective to the railroad companies, all the better portion of the even sections within these railroad límits have of course been either appropriated or purchased by settlers upon the grounds. There is, however, a third class land included in these grants that is yet open to preemption and homestead settlement at the double minimum price. That is to say, that a party can preëmpt or homestead eighty acres, or buy eighty acres, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre. These lands, in consequence of the length of time they have been in the market, have been picked and culled until those now remaining in the market are not worth the double minimum at which they are holden. It is, then, with a view of putting them within the reach of any and all settlers who may desire to take them up that it is asked that the double minimum be taken off, and that they be restored to the market at the The second resoold rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

lution refers to another class of lands. Many grants have been made to railroads in this State which have been forfeited upon non-user of the charter of the railroad company. They stand blocked, both in the even and odd sections, against settlement. For this reason I ask that this resolution pass, and that our Senators and Representatives be instructed to take the double minimum from these lands.

MR. VAN DYKE. Mr. President: I think the resolution probably is

MR. BEERSTECHER. Mr. President: I move that the reading of a very good one, but the delegates cannot understand it from hearing it the Journal be dispensed with and the same approved. Carried.

PETITION FOR LIEN LAW.

MR. CONDON presented the following petition, signed by a large number of mechanics and other citizens of California, asking that a provision be made in the Constitution for a lien law:

To the President and members of the Constitutional Convention :

GENTLEMEN: The undersigned respectfully represent that the practical working of the present legislation, and decisions of Supreme Court based thereon, regarding the rights of mechanics, material-men, and laborers to a lien for their labor and material furnished, is such that those who in a measure depend upon such law for just protection fail in nearly all cases to obtain it, because of the inefficient working of said law. Wherefore, we pray you to declare, in our organic law, the right of every mechanic, material-man, and laborer to a perfect lien on the thing whereon his labor has been expended, or for which his materials have been furnished.

Moreover, we would state that we would be satisfied with amendment number one hundred and sixty-seven, introduced by Mr. Van Dyke, on October tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and read and referred to Committee on Miscellaneous Subjects, as follows:

"SEC.. Mechanics, material-men, artisans, and laborers of every class shall have a lien upon the property on which they have bestowed labor or furnished materials, for the value of such labor done and materials furnished, and the Legislature shall provide by law for the speedy and efficient enforcement of said liens." And your petitioners will ever pray.

Referred to Committee on Miscellaneous Subjects.
MR. WELLIN presented a similar petition.
Referred to Committee on Miscellaneous Subjects.

THE BURLINGAME TREATY.

MR. DOWLING offered the following resolution: Resolved, That a committee of three be chosen by the Convention, whose duty it shall be to proceed to Washington at once and present a memorial to the President of the United States, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, requesting an immediate modification of the Burlingame treaty, so that Congress will be enabled to enact a law prohibiting the further immigration of Chinese to the United States of America.

Resolved, That the said committee place the Chinese question in its true light before Congress, and make the necessary arguments regarding this Mongolian plague, setting forth the grievances of the Pacific States and Territories on this subject.

Resolved, That this Convention provide in the Constitution so that the expenses incident to the occasion be paid by the State.

read at the desk, and it should be either printed or referred. I move that it be referred to the Committee on Land and Homestead Exemptions. They can examine it, report it, and have it adopted. We cannot consider it this morning, because the delegates have not had an opportunity to examine it.

MR. WYATT. Mr. President: I suppose it would be well to have the resolution lay over until to-morrow, or next day. I am in favor of the passage of the resolution at the earliest day possible. Congress is now in session, and unless the resolution is forwarded at a very early day it will do no good at the present session of Congress. It is simply to take off the double minimum and restore the lands to the original government price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and the right of preemption and homestead to one hundred and sixty acres, instead of eighty acres. I am willing that the resolution should lie over, and be printed in the Journal, to be taken up to-morrow morning.

MR. HUESTIS. I make that motion.

MR. BLACKMER. Mr. President: I would call the gentleman's attention to the phraseology of the resolution. I see that he uses the expression "instruct our Senators and request our Representatives." Now, I think that we have no right to instruct the Senators of this State. It should be in the form of a request. I suggest that it should be fixed before it is printed.

MR. WYATT. I am willing to conform to the phraseology suggested by the gentleman.

The motion prevailed.

COMMITTEE CLERK.

MR. OVERTON offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That the sum of ten dollars be and is hereby ordered to be paid out of

the funds of this Convention to J. J. Flynn, for services rendered as Clerk of the Committee on State Institutions and Public Buildings.

THE PRESIDENT. It will be referred to the Committee on Mileage and Contingent Expenses.

MR. OVERTON. The committee kept their own minutes, but this THE PRESIDENT. It will have to go to the committee under the rules.

CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

MR. MILLER. Mr. President: I move that the Convention now resolve itself into Committee of the Whole, the President in the chair, for the MR. BROWN. I move that the Convention resolve itself into Com- purpose of further considering the report of the Committee on Chinese. mittee of the Whole.

Carried.

one.

IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE.

SPEECH OF MR. BEERSTECHER.

pose of delay. Such a Commission is unnecessary, because Congress THE CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment to section can by one Act wipe out the existing Burlingame treaty, and it is not necessary to appoint a Commission at all, because it has been repeatedly held by the Supreme Court of the United States that even where the treaty was not directly repealed, yet if any Act of Congress was passed, which was in conflict with an existing treaty, that Act of Congress vitiated the existing treaty. It being conceded, therefore, that the General Government's agreement of delegated powers, and that whatever is not expressly given to it yet remains with the States, and as a part of the reserved powers of the States, I call attention to the opinion of Mr. Justice Woodbury in the License Cases, as reported in the fifth Howard, page six hundred and twenty-nine; and I would here say to my friend, Mr. Stuart, that these opinions are not the opinions of what he said were minority Judges, but they are the opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States, rendered in eighteen hundred and fortyseven, and have never been reversed, changed, or altered. Mr. Justice Woodbury says: "It is the undoubted and reserved power of every State here, as a political body, to decide, independent of any provisions made by Congress, though subject not to conflict with any of them when rightful, who shall compose its population, who become its residents, who its citizens, who enjoy the privileges of its laws and be entitled to their protection and favor, and what kind of business it will tolerate and protect, and no one government, or its agent or navigators, possess any right to make another State, against its consent, a penitentiary, or hospital, or poorhouse farm for its wretched outcasts, or a receptacle for its poisons to health and instruments for gambling and debauchery. Indeed, this Court has deliberately said: We entertain no doubt whatsoever that the States, in virtue of their general police power, possess full jurisdiction to arrest and restrain runaway slaves, and remove them from their borders, and otherwise to secure themselves against their depredations and evil example, as they certainly may do in cases of idlers, vagabonds, and paupers."" (Prigg vs. Penn., 16 Peters, 625.)

MR. BEERSTECHER. Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the Convention: It is not iny desire or object to enter into a general discussion of the evils of Chinese immigration, or the Chinese presence in this State. But I deem it necessary, in order to controvert and, if possible, to meet some of the claims and the assertions of gentlemen upon this floor in relation to the right of the State to regulate the Chinese residents and the Chinese action in this State, to say a few words in reference to the law applicable to this case, as I understand the law to be. It seems to me, Mr. Chairman, that there has been too much scope, too wide a latitude allowed to the decisions that have been rendered upon the subjects touching Chinese residents and Chinese immigration in this State. With due deference to the opinions and the assertions of gentlemen upon this floor as to the power of the State to regulate this matter, I believe that the State has the power, that the State has the full power, to deal with and solve the Chinese question. I do not believe that it is necessary to have recourse to Congress. I believe, to-day, that there is a reserve power inherent in the State of California, and inherent in every sovereign State in this American Union, that has never been delegated, that has never been surrendered, that has never been robbed from the States, because, Mr. Chairman, I believe, sir, that in these latter days there has been a tendency to rob the States of their rights, and the time has come when persons who desire to see American institutions perpetuated, who desire to see the spirit that actuated the founders of this country carried out in its true intent and purposes, that they should rise up and see to the centralizing efforts at Washington. It is conceded by all jurists, and it has been repeatedly decided, that the Federal Government was a government of delegated powers. That there were no original powers lodged in the Federal Government, but that all of the powers possessed by the General Government were those that were expressly delegated and given to it by the charter of its creation-the Constitution of the United States. Now, in the Constitution of the United States, there are just two powers lodged in the General Government, which it is claimed inhibit the State from acting upon the Chinese question, as to their immigration, or as to their residence. The first is the power of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. This is found in article one, section eight, paragraph three. It is claimed that Congress has the exclusive right to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and upon this it is claimed that the State would have no power to prevent the landing of immigrants, whether they be Mongolians, or whether they be of any other race, upon the shores of a particular State. The second power is the treaty-making power, which is vested also absolutely and exclusively in Congress. Therefore it is claimed, that, first, under the right to regulate commerce; and, second, under the treaty-making power, we are debarred from acting in this

matter.

In the same case Mr. Justice Grier used the following language: "It has been frequently decided by this Court, that the powers which relate to merely municipal regulations, or what may more properly be called internal police, are not surrendered by the States, or restrained by the Constitution of the United States, and that consequently, in relation to these, the authority of the State is complete, unqualified, and conclusive.' Without attempting to define what are the peculiar subjects or limits of this power, it may safely be affirmed, that every law for the restraint and punishment of crime, for the preservation of the public peace, health, and morals, must come within this category. As subjects of legislation, they are from their very nature of primary importance. They lie at the foundation of social existence; they are for the protection of life and liberty, and necessarily compel all laws on the subjects of secondary importance, which relates only to property, convenience, or luxury, to recede, when they come in contact or collision, salus populi suprema lex.'"

A State forming part of the American Union is nothing less than a family forming a part of a community, and as well might the municipal government-as well might the Board of Supervisors of San Franciscodictate what sort of men should dwell in the families of that city as for the Congress of the United States to dictate to the State of California, or to any other State of this American Union, what sort of people should dwell within its boundaries, providing the inhabitants or citizens of that State did not desire these people to remain there. The whole social fabric is founded upon the family, and our government is founded upon the States. If you destroy the family you destroy the social fabricyou undermine and destroy civilization-and if you deny the power of the States you destroy the American Union, and you are drifting into absolutism, and you are drifting into monarchy-and I think we are going there rapidly.

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"If the right to control those subjects be complete, unqualified, and conclusive,' in the State Legislatures, no regulations of secondary importance can supersede or restrain their operations on any ground of prerogative or supremacy. The exigencies of the social compact require that such laws be executed before and above all others."

I call attention to the record of Story on the Constitution, page three hundred and seventy-five, in which Mr. Story discusses the power, the scope, and the force of a treaty. Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that we have given too much sanctity to the Burlingame treaty. The people at large believe a treaty to be a component of the Constitution. They believe a treaty to be a firm law of the land; but a treaty is neither a component part of the Constitution, nor is a treaty a firm law of the land in any constitutional sense of supremacy. A treaty is a mere Act of Congress. It has no further force, and it has no further effect than an Act of Congress has. And whenever an Act of Congress is unconstitutional, if the treaty endeavors to enact the same thing, the treaty itself is unconstitutional. If the Congress of the United States endeavor to encroach upon the reserved powers of the State; if the Congress of the United States endeavor to legislate in relation to the internal concerns of the State; if they endeavor to pass upon the police regulations of a State by a mere Act of Congress, that would be unconstitutional and void. If Congress by a treaty endeavor to do the same thing, that treaty is unconstitutional and void, because a treaty has no more sanctity, no Speaking of police regulations and internal regulations, he says: more force, and no more effect than a local Act of Congress that has only "It is for this reason that laws which protect public health, comforce and effect in this country. Mr. Story says, paragraph 1508: "The pel mere commercial relations to submit to their control. They restrain power to make treaties' is, by the Constitution, general; and of course the liberty of the passengers, they operate on the ship which is the it embraces all sorts of treaties, for peace or war; for commerce or terri-instrument of commerce, and its officers, and even the agents of navigatory; for alliance or succors; for indemnity, for injuries, or payment of tion. They seize the infected cargo and cast it overboard. The soldier debts; for the recognition and enforcement of the principles of public and the sailor, though in the service of the government, are arrested, law; and for any other purposes which the policy or interests of inde-imprisoned, and punished for their offenses against society. Paupers pendent sovereigns may dictate in their intercourse with each other. and convicts are refused admission into the country. All these things But, though the power is thus general and unrestricted, it is not to be so are done, not from any power which the States assume to regulate comconstrued as to destroy the fundamental laws of the State. A power merce or to interfere with the regulations of Congress, but because police given by the Constitution cannot be construed to authorize a destruction laws for the preservation of health, prevention of crime, and protection of other powers given in the same instrument. It must be construed, of the public welfare, must of necessity have a full and free operation therefore, in subordination to it; it cannot supersede or interfere with according to the exigency which requires their interference." any other of its fundamental provisions. Each is equally obligatory, I also call attention to the words of Mr. Justice McLean in the same and of paramount authority within its scope; and no one embraces a right to annihilate any other. A treaty to change the organization of the government, or annihilate its sovereignty, to overturn its republican form, or to deprive it of its constitutional powers, would be void; because it would destroy what it was designed merely to fulfill, the will of the people."

case:

"The States, resting upon their original basis of sovereignty, subject only to the exceptions stated, exercise their powers over everything connected with their social and internal condition. A State regulates its domestic commerce, contracts, the transmission of estates, real and personal, and acts upon all internal matters which relate to its moral and political welfare. Over these subjects the Federal Government has no exclusively delegated appertain to the General Government."

In a note to section eighteen hundred and forty-two of the same work, it is said that though a treaty is a law of the land, it is as much sub-power. They appertain to the State sovereignty as exclusively as powers ject to repeal as any legislative act, and that any subsequent Act of Congress conflicting with it has the effect of repealing it pro tanto. And, Mr. Chairman, the decisions which are pointed out, and upon the Mr. Chairman, that brings me to the fact that when it is spoken of authority of which it is stated we cannot prohibit the immigration of appointing an International Commission for the purpose of abrogating Chinese, and that we cannot regulate their presence among us, have never or modifying the existing Burlingame treaty, it is merely for the pur-attempted to go to that extent. The trouble is this: it has been stated

that these decisions went entirely beyond their intent, entirely beyond their scope, and entirely beyond the authority that was given to them by the Courts that rendered them. The Legislature of this State has attempted to meet and to solve this problem, but in their legislation they have gone too far: they have met the Chinese immigrants while they were yet within the protection of the laws of the United States; while they were yet part and parcel of the subjects protected by that exclusive regulation of foreign commerce vested in Congress. These laws attempted to levy a tax, attempted to put a restraint upon Chinese immigration, while Chinese immigration was protected by that exclusive power vested in Congress. But neither the Supreme Court of the United States nor any other Court, State or Federal, have ever decided that the State, after the Chinese have landed within the territorial limits of the State, do not have the right to control them. The distinction is very clearly pointed out by Mr. Justice McLean in his opinion, on page five hundred and ninety-two. He says: "The police power of a State and the foreign commercial power of Congress must stand together." There is no conflict between the two. The foreign commercial power of Congress brings the goods or persons into the harbor. It brings the goods or persons up to the dock, up to the wharf; but when the Chinaman leaves the ship, and when the goods leave the ship; when the Chinaman walks upon our streets and goes into our houses; when the goods are taken from the ship and placed into our warehouses and become the property of citizens of this State; when the Chinaman desires to become an inhabitant of this State and to dwell here, then the power of Congress ceases the moment he places his foot upon the wharf. The moment the goods are carried over the gang-plank of the ship, then the police power of the State attaches. The trouble with the legislation of this State heretofore has been that they always attempted to go on board the ships. They attempted to cross the gang-planks, and we cannot do it, because the United States law is around and about that ship as a wall, and keeps us from it. We dare not go on the gang-plank; we dare not enter the ship, because there the powers of Congress are preeminent and exclusive. But when the Mongolian leaves the ship, when he comes within the territorial limits of the State, then he is within the jurisdiction of the State, and the State has got the exclusive power over him, and Congress has got no further power at all. Mr. Justice McLean says:

"The police power of a State and the foreign commercial power of Congress must stand together." Because they can stand together. There is no conflict between the two. There is an end of the one and a commencement of the other. They do not overlap each other; and where we have erred every time in the State legislation, has been that we have gone beyond our power. "Neither of them can be so exercised as materially to affect the other. The sources and objects of these powers are exclusive, distinct, and independent, and are essential to both governments. The one operates on our foreign commerce, the other upon the internal concerns of a State. The former ceases where the foreign produet becomes commingled with the other property in the State. At this point the local law attaches, and regulates it as it does other property." That decision has never been reversed. It stands unreversed to-day, and none of the cases that have been carried to the Supreme Court at Washington have ever reversed that decision, and it is the supreme law to-day. It is clear, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, can read it. It says, again: "The one operates upon foreign intercourse, the other upon the internal concerns of a State. The former ceases when the foreign product"-be it a Chinaman or be it a bale of cotton (it makes no difference at all as regards the decision)" becomes commingled with the other property of the State. At this point the local law attaches, and regulates it as it does other property"-or other people within the confines of the State.

Dese.

Mr. Chairman, I have examined the report of the Committee on ChiI have examined the first section, and after the examination of that section I was not at all surprised that the Chairman of the committee could defend the section, and could state to the Convention that he was in favor of section one. Section one is not obbjectionable in any sense. Section one would not be objectionable to Colonel Bee. Section one would not be objectionable to the Chinese residents of the State of California, because section one simply means nothing at all. Section one is a mere declaration of the powers that exist and are inherent in the State, and always have existed, and always have been inherent in the State. The trouble seems to be that there is a belief that we can confer power upon ourselves; that by making a Constitution, and by having certain sentences printed in that Constitution, that we can delegate and vest powers in ourselves. Now, the Constitution is no charter of liberties at all. A Constitution, in the American sense, is a mere restriction of powers, and is no delegation, and never can be a delegation of powers. All these powers are inherent in the people, whether they be expressed or unexpressed, and the Legislature can act without any declaration of this character.

told that we were exceeding our powers. We have never attempted to say, "You cannot stay here;" and we have never been told that if we did say that we would be exceeding our powers. I believe that we can say to the Chinese, "You cannot stay here;" and I believe we can say, "We propose to regulate you, even the short time we do allow you to stay here."

As I said in the commencement, I do not desire to speak in relation to the damaging and blighting influence of the presence of the Chinese. I merely desire to state upon this subject, that unless the Chinaman is driven from the State the white man will be obliged to leave the State. I speak for the young men. I speak for the rising generation. I speak for the men that stand here to-day and expect to stand here after many of this Convention have passed away. ask, on behalf of the young men of this State, that they be not obliged to compete with Mongolian slave labor. A young man has no chance in this State to-day if he is a workingman. It does not matter for the opulent. It does not matter for the people that live in palaces, that wear silk dresses and diamond rings. It makes no difference to them whether their laborers be Mongolian serfs, or white free men, or white free women. But it does matter to the white free man and to the white free woman that are obliged to labor for their daily sustenance. There is not a man upon this floor to-day, Mr. Chairman, and I challenge contradiction by any gentleman here, who will say that a white man or a white woman can compete against Chinese serf labor. I do not desire, as I said, to enter into the minutiae and into the details of the subject, but it is a well known fact, as has before been said upon this floor, that if the white man works for a dollar a day, the Chinaman can work for fifty cents; if the white man can work for fifty cents, the Chinaman will work for ten cents. We cannot compete with them. This is what has driven the boys of San Francisco into hoodlumism and the girls into houses of prostitution. It is because labor has become degraded, and labor ought not to be degraded. Labor ought to be ennobled. Wherever a mongrel and servile class are the laborers of a country, in that country labor becomes degraded in the eyes of the people; and labor to-day is looked upon by a large class of people in the State of California as being degrading and debasing. It is for the rising generation that we ask that a provision be inserted in this Constitution forever saying to the Chinaman, "Halt! Thus far and no farther! You must leave this country! You must go out! You must surrender it to the people to whom it belongs." You must give it to the young man and the young woman for their heritage if you expect to wipe out hoodlumism. If you expect to wipe out crime you must wipe out the presence of the Mongolian in our midst. I desire, at the proper time, to offer, as an additional section, the following:

"SECTION All persons of foreign birth, before engaging in any manner of employment on their own account, or for others, within this State, shall first procure a certificate of authority; such certificate shall be issued to any applicant of a race eligible to citizenship under the laws of the State, without cost, by any Court of record of the State. No person of foreign birth shall engage or continue in any manner of employment in this State unless possessed of such certificate; nor shall any person, copartnership, company, or corporation, directly or indirectly, employ any person of foreign birth within this State, unless such person possess such certificate. The Legislature shall provide for punishment of violations of this section. Prosecutions shall be maintainable against both employers and employés. Each day's violation shall constitute a distinct offense."

SPEECH OF MR. KLEINE.

MR. KLEINE. Mr. President, and gentlemen of the Convention: What would you think of a man that would ridicule and that would trifle at the death bed of his father, or mother, or sister? What would you think of him? You would say he is a villain, or a knave, or a fool. Any man of feeling would forbear to do so, and yet, Mr. President, yesterday I had to witness such an outrage. Mr. President, and gentlemen of this Convention, we have fifty delegates on this floor who would not be here to-day if it was not for the Chinese question, and they dare not deny this. They would not be here-perhaps some of them would be at day's work for one dollar and fifty cents per day; and yet when this question came up yesterday they went out in the lobby, and treated it with utter contempt. If this is the conduct of gentlemen I ask you to inform me of the meaning of a gentleman. I do not read it so in Webster's Dictionary. I acknowledge that I was elected as a delegate to this Convention on the Chinese question, and, gentlemen, this question is to me as solemn as the grave. I cannot trifle with it. Why? Because I see the future before me. I see this country will be overflowed by a lot of degraded Mongolian serfs. Gentlemen of the Convention, I used to live in the Southern States when the slave-owners looked upon the white man that worked as "common white trash." A feeling of superiority is manifested among these coolie employers towards their white brother that has to work for a living. Mr. President, I tell you this is a question to me as solemn as the grave. I have no heart to trifle with it. Why, I can see as plain as I see my hand before me, that this State is doomed for the white man who has to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Already we see that our white brothers and sisters have to go and look round for a job to work for a

But, Mr. Chairman, I propose to vote for section one, because, at all events it will express what is the will and the wish and the opinion of the people and of the Convention. I am in favor of every section of the report, even the most ultra section. If these sections, all of themand perhaps there are some of them that would not be constitutional-at all events, the Chinese of this State will be obliged to take these sec-dollar a day. tions into the Courts and have their rights decided; and in that way the people of the State can only gain, and they will never lose, by the adoption of this report. That the absolute power to regulate the Chinese residents within the confines of this State rests with the State is inherent in the people to-day, and can be expressed by their representatives in Legislature assembled, I have no doubt; not the least. We can drive them from the confines of this State to-day, but, Mr. Chairman, I have serious doubts whether we can say to them that they cannot come here. We can say to them, "You shall not stay here." We have attempted to say, "You cannot come here;" and we have been

Gentlemen, any nation that will look upon labor as degrading, that nation cannot stand. And you talk about the Burlingame treaty! The Burlingame treaty is a fraud from the beginning. I can prove this to you. When Mr. Burlingame made the treaty, the Government of China didn't hardly know nothing about it. And Mr. President, and gentlemen of this Convention, you remember that when Mr. Burlingame came back he lived only a few years. He died. He died almost in despair. Now we look a great deal to Congress. Now, gentlemen, I tell you Congress will never do anything for us. This Mongolian invasion is a combination between capital and the churches, and you know it.

I will tell you how. I will prove this to you. The churches, both Protestant and Catholics-Protestants more than Catholics, I am sorry to say-they tell you that we will bring the Chinese coolies to this Pacific Coast and convert them to Christianity. Now, Mr. President, I will prove to you now, and to the gentlemen of this Convention, and those that hear my voice, how they have succeeded. For the last twenty-seven years-I, myself, am a resident of the State over a quarter of a century, and I know whereof I speak-for the last twenty-five years-listen-for the last twenty-five years only about one hundred and fifty out of two hundred and fifty thousand has been converted to Christianity, according to the testimony of about fifteen ministers of the State of California. I can read about this. Mr. Blakeslee, a Congregational minister, says that during his mission only about forty or fifty has been converted, and out of these fifty half of them have been instructed in China, and not a single one of these converts who have made a profession of Christianity has ever assimilated and adopted our manners in any shape or form, but they have remained the same coolies. The same degraded coolies that they were before. What has these long-faced preachers done? They have driven our poor white men, our white boys, and white girls into hoodlumism. They have made our poor white girls what? Prostitutes! It is almost impossible for a poor white servant girl to find employment in a white family. No! The mistress of the house wants a Chinaman. She wants a Chinaman, why? He is very handy. She can say, "John, do this," and John does it, and John never says a word. He keeps quiet; only when he goes home to his shanty in Chinatown, and then he tells all about it-what he has seen, and what he has heard. There you see what the missionaries have done by importing Chinese here. Rev. Mr. Gibson went to China for the purpose of converting Chinamen. He remained there several years, but the work was so self-denying he did not remain, but came back right in the midst of Chinatown, where he gets a fine, fat salary. Christian charity always begins at home. It is almost impossible for a white man to get work, and I assure you, Mr. President, and gentlemen of this Convention, there is not a place in the civilized world-listen!-there is not a place in the civilized world that would submit to such an outrage as the people of the Pacific Coast. There was never a government in the civilized world that would degrade its citizens to the level of the slave, only this government. And let me tell you, I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I believe, as God is my witness, that the working classes will rise in a mass, they will not submit to such an outrage. These men that have fought your battles through the late war-you have stripped their children, you have! You take away their rights, and now what are you doing? You take their children and start them off for low, coolie, servile laborers. But would these coolies defend you when your country is in danger? Will they march to the front as our servants marched upon the late war? No! They will laugh at you; and then you may call upon the tramps that you now say one dollar a day is enough for; then you will call upon these men to defend you; but these men, remember, will not defend you. They will do their best against you, and they would do right! Now, gentlemen, perhaps some of you remember-I don't know, perhaps some of you were slave-holders in the South-they drove negroes, they bought and sold negroes. I know a few of them here. I lived in the Southern States, and I tell you the slave-holders always looked upon the white people that had to work for a living-it was a common expression-the poor white trash." The poor white trash! That is the expression the slave-holders used to make of the white people, and that is certainly the case now with those that employ coolies. They do not care for the white man, for the poor white man, only when they are in trouble. Now, gentlemen, let us look at it now-at the coolie question. Are they a benefit to us? I tell you they have extracted one hundred and eighty million dollars from the State of California in the last twenty years. Every dollar a Chinaman receives, ninety cents goes back to China. Now, we have forty thousand of these coolies, servile laborers, in San Francisco. That is an average of forty thousand dollars a day they draw out of circulation. Now, what would be the benefit supposing our white fellow citizens would be there. Wouldn't that remain in the State? Wouldn't our city be prosperous? But no! The white rich aristocrats and the moneyed aristocrats they want the Chinaman, and the white girls and the white boys they can go to perdition. If they only succeed in converting one Chinaman, they do not care whether ten thousand white girls and boys go to perdition.

Now, let us look at it in another light. Are the property holders benefited by it? Every China quarter in Chinatown-every property is depreciated. Chinatown to-day, in San Francisco, would be the best and healthiest part of San Francisco if it was not for these coolie slaves. All the neighborhood around there is depreciated-the property is depreciated. The Chinaman is very shrewd in one sense. He is wil ling to pay. He never fights against big rent at first; but as soon as he has possession of the property he dictates his own price, and he will get it for his own price all the time, for John knows that wherever he occupies a place it cannot be occupied by any intelligent race, and therefore John has in one sense a little more shrewdness than some of our white people.

Now, let us look at it in another light, gentlemen. Sir, I have listened to my young friend here who made a remark yesterday that California was a prosperous State in spite of the Chinese. Now, I differ with him, and I will show you where he is mistaken. California to-day is the most degraded and impoverished State in the Union! And I will show you why. California, I admit, is a prosperous State for the railroad kings. I admit California is a prosperous State for the bank robbers. I admit this; but California and the Pacific Coast is the most degraded Ilace for a poor white working man to come to. If a white man has to come here let him come, and let him be on an equality with the Chinaman. I know some of these aristocrats. They were poor here once,

but they remember not the day when they were poor, and they care not for their fellow white citizens. Gentlemen, I must say, with all respect to my adopted country, the Americans-some of our Americans-they are the meanest men on the face of the earth! They do not care a continental for their fellow man as long as their pockets are filled. Now, again, I have heard men say, "Have the Chinamen not the same right as a European?" Now to compare the coolie importation with European immigration is absurd; and no man that is possessed of common sense would use-would make use of such an assertion. To compare the Caucasian-you who have been raised where we all came from-to compare them with the low Chinese coolies! No one but an insane man could make such an assertion. The European comes here, gentlemen, and does something to improve our country. He comes here with the same religion, with the same feelings, with the same principles which we possess; and we shake hands with him, and we do right. He improves the country, and he fights for the country. Over one hundred and fifty thousand souls fought under the stars and stripes that were naturalized citizens. Would one hundred and fifty thousand coolie slaves fight for you? Not much! Will they fight for you? If you think so, you must be very far back, sure. Now the coolie-I appeal to the old pioneers-I appeal to you, gentlemen, who have been pioneers of California, and you will bear witness with me that since the last twenty-eight years have you ever known any Chinaman that assimilated with us? If I told you "yes," I would tell you a lie. I have never known not one yet. I have known some of them since fifty-four, and I know them to-day, and they are the same to-day as they were in fifty-four. Are these the people we want here?

Now you are talking about the Burlingame treaty. I will tell you something about the Burlingame treaty. As I told you before, it is a fraud. Why? Because it is a one-sided treaty. How can we remedy this? Look here, what we done by an Act of Congress, approved July seventh, seventeen hundred and ninety-eight: "All treaties between France and the United States are declared null and void, and no longer obligatory on the United States." The United States could declare a treaty null and void with the French Government, but you tell me that we could not do it with China. And something else. The American citizens are not subject to the laws of China, while Chinese are subject to the laws of the United States. England has a treaty with China. What does England do? What do the colonies in Australia do? They manage these affairs, and to-day Australia is a very hot place for the Chinese. They cannot remain there because the government don't want them there. But then you say, if we break the treaty we won't get tea. Gentlemen, we got tea before we made the treaty with China. We will get all the tea we want. No nation upon earth except this would allow it. For three thousand American merchants our country is to be overflowed with slave labor. The Pacific Steamship Company, what are they doing? They have a contract with the Six Chinese Companies to bring these coolies here, and no coolie can leave this State without a certificate. He cannot go without a pass from his masters. The negro in the Southern States could never absent himself without a permit from his master or mistress, and this steamship company are not allowed to take any Chinaman back to China without he has a permit from the Six Chinese Companies.

Now, according to the testimony of all the ministers, doctors, and lawyers in San Francisco, they all testify that the Chinese are a curse; that ninety-nine out of one hundred Chinawomen are prostitutes. We have the testimony of Dr. Toland. We have the testimony of Rev. Otis Gibson. He himself testifies that ninety-nine out of one hundred Chinawomen are prostitutes; and our government knows it, and we all know it; and our fine State government in California knows it; and yet, in the face of all these witnesses, they say: "Oh, we can do nothing with it; we can do nothing with it!" Why can't they do nothing with it? Because they are owned, body and soul, by the Six Chinese Companies. And if gentlemen could see to-day the influence which these Six Chinese Companies have upon our Federal, State, city, and county officers, you would be surprised. Is it possible for human nature to go so low? And yet, this is a fact. All the witnesses have declared it so. And now, I tell you I have no hope whatever in Congress. Congress will do nothing for us, let me tell you. We have pleaded to Congress for the last ten years, and they have said: "Wait; wait a little longer." And that is all the comfort we get; and our poor and the rising generation are condemned to an everlasting servitude. That is just the result connected with this China question. This coolie importation will never be stopped except the hardy sons of toil stop it. If they don't stop it, they have to work like the Chinaman. Don't look to Congress; don't look to the aristocrats, they don't care nothing for you. They have lost their four million of slaves and they want these serfs in their place. Remember that! They want these serfs in their place. They are not satisfied, and the Chinese are the only nation that can furnish what they want.

Therefore, gentlemen, remember I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet; but one fact I know, that the Chinese curse will never be cured except the people rise in a mass; and you know self-preservation is the first law of nature, and also the first law of nations. Any government that will allow a degraded race to come and degrade its citizens, such a government is not worthy of respect. Such a government is not worthy of respect, and such a government is not with the people. Therefore, I say the only remedy will be, the sons of toil must rise and get rid of the coolie servitude, or else the coolies will get rid of you. There is only one thing to be done; either you must leave or the coolie must leave! [Applause.]

SPEECH OF MR. BARBOUR.

MR. BARBOUR. Mr. Chairman: The temper of this Convention is probably against the further discussion of the social, economical, and political aspect of this question. In that sense I suppose it may be

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