May 6, 1882, Washington D.C. –Today,
facing an inevitable override of his previous veto President Chester A. Arthur
signed the Chinese Exclusion Act putting hatred and discrimination toward
the Chinese and Asians into law.
Many things led to this day
and the pressure to change the Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868 gave free migration of Chinese residents into the United States and gave
China the “Most Favored Nation” trade status. What had seemed a good idea in 1868
had become an untenable situation to White Men who labored across the nation
setting down railroads and digging in mines. These White Men had grown to hate
the Chinese as much as they hated the free Blacks. Both groups provided cheaper
labor and were hated by the White men.
President Arthur’s April 4 VETO
of the Chinese Exclusion Act was not out of any benign sense of equity and belief
the Chinese were equal to the White man, but one of serious consideration for the reputation of the U.S. on the international stage and the possible
economics of passing a law that voided a treaty that had already been
renegotiated to limit labor immigration and allowed no women.
“I am persuaded that if Congress
can feel that this act violates the faith of the nation as pledged to China,”
Arthur told Congress in a prepared statement regarding his veto. “It (Congress)
will concur with me in rejecting this particular mode of regulating Chinese immigration
and will endeavor to find another which shall meet the expectations of the
people of the United States without coming in conflict with the rights of
China.”
Arthur was primarily concerned
with the economics of having labor in the United States disrupted when the nation was just beginning to shake off the Long Depression of the
1870s. During this global economic contraction, unemployment had often been 8.4
percent in the U.S. which affected White labor far more than the Chinese who
worked in worse conditions, which is saying something considering the terrible
conditions of labor everywhere, and for less pay.
The idea that Chinese labor was
significantly depressing the wages of White men became one of the leading
political issues facing the nation after the Economic Panic of 1873 that
started the Long Depression in the U.S. California was already enacting
anti-Chinese labor laws on the state level well before 1882. However, the 14th
and 15th Amendments to the Constitution often blocked these laws
when litigated.
White-on-Chinese violence
increased through the 1870s with the Chinatown Massacre in Los Angeles in 1871
where at least 6 Chinese men were killed. The 1877 San Francisco Riot, the complete
destruction of Denver’s Chinatown in 1880, Denver’s frontier Chinese community
never recovered. Across the West chapters of the KKK came into existence that targeted
the Chinese as did “Anti-Coolie” societies. These bigoted and violent groups
were often egged on by the press. Andrew Jackson King, editor of the Los Angeles
News called the Chinese a foul blot on the country and a hideous repulsive
curse on the country.
Arthur’s economic objectives were progressive
for American history just as the Burlingame-Seward Treaty had been with trade
and immigration policy. The Exclusion Act negated this and was the first major immigration
law in national history. Arthur has taken a modern beating for signing it yet as a political choice it was pragmatic for his own agenda. He had not been the elected
president but was the Vice-President who replaced James Garfield just four
months into Garfield’s term.
Arthur signed another immigration law that placed a head tax on immigrants who came in
through certain ports like Baltimore. It also restricted criminals, the insane,
or "any person unable to take care of him or herself.". The Chinese
Exclusion Act followed the Page Act of 1875 that blocked Chinese women from
coming into the country, Before this America had open borders and placed no
limits on immigration.
Even with the Chinese Exclusion
Act becoming law on May 6th, 1882, it was far from the end of
intense violence against Chinese and Asian immigrants. The 1880s were a bloodier
decade with massacres in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and Hells Canyon, Oregon. These two incidents left over fifty dead.
Tacoma, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and many other cities in the American West forced the Chinese out. These incidents were fed primarily by legal
discrimination and prejudice, but also economic fears and health concerns. In
Colorado and Wyoming, it was believed the Chinese were spreading Tuberculosis and
other diseases.
As bad as the Exclusion Act was
it led to other even more restrictive immigration acts. As the restrictions were set to end in 1892,
the Geary Act was passed extending the Exclusion Act for another 20 years. Then
the Immigration Act of 1917 was passed, written by White Supremacists and
Racists. It barred all immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands and
created literacy tests for Eastern Europeans.
From the early years of expansion
in the West from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast Asian Americans, but
especially the Chinese faced the same violence and unequal laws as Blacks in
the Jim Crow South.
Sources:
https://thomasnastcartoons.com/resources/the-burlingame-treaty-of-1868
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