Articles V. and VI. of the Burlingame treaty, relating to the free immigration and residence of Chinese in the United States.
This radical legislation indicated a great change in public opinion since the Burlingame treaty was proclaimed with such gratification ten years before; but this open disregard of international obligations shocked the moral sense of a large part of the American people, and led to such an expression of public sentiment as caused President Hayes to veto the bill, and it thus failed to become a law. The President in his message on the subject, while he appealed to Congress to "maintain the public duty and the public honor," recognized that the working of the Burlingame treaty had demonstrated that some modification of it was necessary to secure the country "against a larger and more rapid infusion of this foreign race than our system of industry and society can take up and assimilate with ease and safety," and he expressed the opinion that, if the Chinese government was approached in the proper spirit, the desired modification might be secured without the discredit to the nation which would result from the proposed legislation.
The President, in accordance with this policy, appointed in 1880 a commission, consisting of Dr. James B. Angell, president of Michigan University, John T. Swift, of California, and W. H. Trescot, a former assistant secretary of state, to proceed to Peking and secure by negotiation a change in the provisions of the treaty of 1868 respecting the immigration of Chinese to the United States. This commission was received in a
