of the Oriental, namely, the laboring classes, The greater portion of this paper is devoted to the consideration of the most recent of the laws of California discriminatory against aliens, that is the law of 1913 prohibiting the ownership of agricultural lands by persons not eligible to become citizens of the United States. An attempt is made to show the rights under the existing treaty and whether such rights are denied by thelaw, The controversy arising from this discriminatory legislation has been the alleged abrogation of treaty rights. The conflict between State laws and treaty provision raises the question of the limit of the treaty-making power of the United States. In other words, How far can the treaty-making power go in guaranteeing rights to aliens in the States ? This is a question that has never been settled, for no court has ever held that the limit has ever been exceeded oreven reached in any of the treaty negotiations up to the present time. That some such limit exists, cannot be doubted, and where the probable limit lies and the extent to which treaties have been upheld, is brought out in the following pages. Chapter II. Anti-Chinese Legialation. With the great influx of immigration in to California The y at the time of the gold discoveries in that State, the Chinese made their first entrance on the Pacific coast. were not far behind the first great wave, in point of time, to arrive. By the end of 1851 it was estimated that there were 25,000 Chinese in California engaged in placer mining, as domestic servants and in manual work1. That they should ever become a menace to the people of that state and provoke the opposition that was later brought against them, was not predicted at that time, for they were met with themost favorable reception at first. To quote from the "Daily Alta California" for May 12, 1852: "Quite a large number of the celestials have arrived among us of late, enticed thither by the golden romance that has filled the world. Scarcely a ship arrives that does not bring an increase to this worthy integer of our population. The Chinese boy will yet vote at the same polls, study at the same schools and bow at the same altar as our own countrymen."2 It was not long however, before there was a general opposition to all foreigners in the gold fields.3 Although it was the miners opposition that became the first effective 1. 2. 3. Coolidge, Chinese Immigration, p.17 Ibid. p. 25. force against the alien, there had been as early as 1849 opposition expressed from another source, and that was from Gen.P.F.Smith, who, when sent to Panama to take charge of the troops there, declared that he would exclude all persons from the gold fields of California, not American citizens.1 Congress, however, never took any action to authorize such proceedings so that nothing ever came of it. In California's first constitution, adopted in the year 1849 bona fide residents were given the same rights as native born citizens, though there was a growing sentiment against the foreigner. In the opposition to and the discrimination against all foreigners that followed immediately upon this time the Indian, South American, Hawaian and even the French, suffered as much at the hands of the American as did the Chinese later.2 The first opposition against the alien in California, to find expression in legislation, occurred at the placer mining camp at Sonora, in July, 1850, when resolutions were passed forbidding foreigners to mine in that district and ordered them to leave in fifteen days. This action was directed against all foreigners alike, whether he be brown, black or yellow.3 This resolution was followed in the same year 1. Cong.Doc.s.n. 577, pp.704-3 2. Bancroft, Dist. of California, vol.3,p/255 |