atural and inherent
right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the
rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and
whereas in the recognition of this principle this government
has freely received emigrants from all nations, and invested
them with the rights of citizenship; and whereas it is claimed
that such American citizens, with their descendants, are subjects
of foreign states, owing allegiance to the governments thereof;
and whereas it is necessary to the maintenance of public peace
that this claim of foreign allegiance should be promptly and
finally disavowed: Therefore," etc.

Thereafter, in the first term of the Administration of President
Hayes, in the December Session of 1878, a bill was introduced
which, almost defiantly, as it seemed to me, violated the
faith of the country pledged by the Burlingame Treaty. There
had been no attempt to induce China to modify that Treaty.
I resisted its passage as well as I could. But my objection
had little effect in the excited condition of public sentiment.
The people of the Pacific coast were, not unnaturally, excited
and alarmed by the importation into their principal cities
of Chinese laborers, fearing, I think without much reason,
that American laboring men could not maintain themselves in
the competition with this thrifty and industrious race who
lived on food that no American could tolerate, and who had
no families to support, and who crowded together, like sardines
in a box, in close and unhealthy sleeping apartments.

I supposed that the labor of this inferior class would raise the
condition of better and more intelligent laborers. That,
however, was a fairly disputable question. But I could not
consent to striking at men, as I have just said, because of
their occupation. This bill was vetoed by President Hayes,
who put his objections solely upon the ground that the bill
was in violation of the terms of the existing Treaty. The
House, by a vote of 138 yeas to 116 nays, refused to pass
the bill over the veto.

But in 1880 a Treaty was negotiated, and approved by the Senate
and ratified July 19, 1881, which relieved the United States
from the provisions of the Burlingame Treaty, and permitted
the exclusion of Chinese laborers. I made a very earnest
speech, during a debate on this Treaty in Executive Session
of the Senate, in opposition to it. The Senate did me the
honor, on the motion of Mr. Dawes, of a vote authorizing my
speech