which provided for free emigration, residence, or travel, and the privileges of the educational institutions. When this treaty was concluded, he said, it was regarded by the whole nation as a grand triumph of American diplomacy and principles. It was especially a recognition by China of what might be called "the great American doctrine" of the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and his allegiance,—a doctrine for the recognition of which by the governments of Europe the United States had been struggling by negotiation ever since it had a national existence, and had succeeded with them one by one.
In conclusion the chairman of the committee contended that labor must needs be free, have complete protection, and be left open to competition. Labor did not require that a price be fixed by law, or that men who live cheaply, and can work for lower wages, shall, for that reason, be kept out of the country.[1]
The report of the committee was submitted just before the termination of the Forty-fourth Congress, in February 27, 1877; but the subject was brought before the next Congress, and after considerable discussion a bill was passed through both houses which so greatly restricted the immigration of Chinese into the United States that, in the language of the President, it fell "little short of its absolute exclusion," in direct violation of the Burlingame treaty of 1868. But in addition to this the bill provided for the abrogation of
- ↑ S. Report No. 689, 44th Cong. 2d Sess.; Misc. Doc. No. 20, 45th Cong. 2d Sess. As to immigration and the Six Companies, Speers's China, chaps, xvi., xix., xx.
