country "The Beautiful Land" and the Union standard "The Flowery Flag." Before the enactment of the coolie legislation by Congress several thousands of Chinese had come to California, attracted by the discovery of gold and by the demand for labor at high rates of wages; but under the American laws the system of enforced labor was not permitted and the coolie trade never extended to the United States. The cost of transportation of many of the Chinese laborers who came to California was advanced to them by firms or companies at Canton or Hongkong, and they signed contracts to refund the sums advanced out of their wages, but they were perfectly free as to their movements and service when they reached the United States.[1]
Although the United States had prohibited its citizens and vessels from engaging in the coolie trade, it agreed to the insertion of a clause in the Burlingame treaty to give to its laws the solemn guarantee of an international compact, by which it was made a penal offense for a citizen of the United States or a Chinese subject to take the citizens or subjects of the other nation to any foreign country without their free and
- ↑ For reports of American ministers as to coolie trade, H. Ex. Doc. 123, 33d Cong. 1st Sess. p. 78; S. Ex. Doc. 99. 34th Cong. 1st Sess.; S. Ex. Doc. 22, 35th Cong. 2d Sess. 623, 632, 661, 670; S. Ex. Doc. 30, 36th Cong. 1st Sess. 59, 185, 424; For. Rel. 1871, pp. 114, 150, 210; 1873, pp. 205, 207; 1875, p. 293; 1878, p. 96; 19 Chinese Repository, 344, 510; Martin's Cathay, 31, 160; Seward's Travels Around the World, New York, 1873, p. 253; Harper's Mag. June, 1864; N. A. Rev. Jan. 1860, p. 143; Williams's Hist. 346; Williams's Letters, 414; Speers's China, 421. For laws of Congress, U. S. Rev. Stat. secs. 2158-2164; 18 St. at L. 477.
