Observations on the Chinese Laborer [pp. 91-99]

Observations on the Chinese Laborer.
neighborhood, instead of unprotected foreigners or other victims. To such men as
these, concession is encouragement to farther
aggression. If they and the Chinaman cannot abide peaceably together in our land
(and I think so long as we encourage with
faint blame their outrages, instead of bringing down upon their cowardice the heavy
hand of stern condemnation and efficient
public authority, we have not proved that
they cannot), it is a point that we ought to
very seriously consider, which should go;
which threatens most the existence of our
institutions.
This brings me to the contribution I wish
to add to Mr. Sargent and "J.'s "discussion.
Mr. Sargent speaks for the many Californians who would set apart the Chinese from
all other races, and discriminate to the last
degree against it; "J." for the few who
would discriminate against no one. I would
speak a word for those-possibly not so few
as they seem-who would grant the general
thesis that we may and should exclude any
class that seems inimical to the virtue and
prosperity of our country, but would push
more closely, and, as it seems to me, more
candidly, than the anti-Chinese party, the
question of who are inimical.
Let me say just here, however, that I do
not regard such discussions as these as having any influence in regard to the action that
will be taken in the matter, for I do not think
our exclusion policy reversible. That policy
is a foregone conclusion. When the laboring class unite in a persistent, definite demand for anything, they always get it, unless
some more powerful resistance stands in the
way than will ever be brought to bear in this
matter. No Pacific member in Congress will
refuse his aid to anti-Chinese legislation;
neither national party will alienate the vote
of the Pacific Coast. The question is practically settled.
But it is none the less desirable that we
should have more rational discussion of it
than we have had, more candor and liberality, for the sake of our own reputation for
brains and conscience; and-more important yet-for the sake of continuing in pos
session of our full allowance of brains and
conscience, for they do not flourish in an atmosphere of intolerance. It is nonsense to
talk of any people as the Chinese have been
habitually talked of in our press and on our
platforms. Every educated man knows that
the Chinese, whatever their faults, are not a
race to be set down with indiscriminate invective. They are a race that has produced
sages, scholars, inventors, patriots, among the
greatest the world has known, a race of many
virtues and great intelligence. Every one who
has known Chinamen personally, knows that
a great deal of what is said of them is sheer
untruth-either mendacity or the product of
a brain so excited by intolerance as not to
know what was untruth. For instance, one
of our most reputable journals printed two or
three years since a contribution, in which it
was urged that a Chinaman was not a human
being, had no soul, and no claim of common
humanity on us. The proof offered was that
laughing and crying were the distinctive
marks of the human animnal, and no one
had ever seen a Chinaman laugh or cry. I
am not certain that the major premise is
zoologically correct, but I can bear witness as
to the minor premise, for I constantly see the
Chinamen that come under my observation
laughing as merrily as children, when they
get to skylarking among themselves, or when
their mastery of the language proves sufficient to convey an American joke to their
comprehension. I have seen them stand
and laugh with bashfulness, too, when making a little present, or undergoing some other
socially trying interview. They are stoical,
reticent, and proud, and it is probable that
few people have ever seen them cry: yet I
have known one Chinaman to sit down and
cry with vexation because his bread would
not rise; another to shed tears of indignation
over a breach of good faith that had been
practised on him; and another to walk to
the window to hide his tears at parting with
a baby he had become attached to in the
family where he worked.
This no-soul doctrine is, of course, an extreme instance, but still an instance, of the
way in which a great deal of the anti-Chinese
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