hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

CHAPTER XIV.
CHINESE, THE LABOR AGITATION, AND POLITICS.
1868-1877.
COMING OF THE MONGOLIANS—NOT WELCOME IN CALIFORNIA—ATTITUDE OF
THE MINERS—DISGUSTING AND ALTOGETHER DAMNABLE—LONG BUT
POWERLESS LEGISLATION AGAINST THEM—TREATIES AND COMMISSIONS—
OUR MASTERS OF THE HOD AND SHOVEL—KEARNEYISM—MONOPOLISTS
DENOUNCED—SAND-LOT SPEECHES—RIOTS AND ARRESTS—SAFETY COM-
MITTEE—LABOR ORGANIZATIONS—THE WORKWOMEN'S PARTY BECOMES
A POWER—DECLINE OF COMMUNISM—MORE ELECTIONS, LEGISLATURES,
AND REPRESENTATIVES.
SHIP-LOADS of paper and printer's ink had been
spoiled, and breath enough wasted to sail those ships
in reiterating the proposition of aliens of other
lands congregated in California that "the Chinese
must go," although according to some authorities the
western shore of the continent was theirs by right of
discovery. 1 They were frequent visitors to and residents
of Mexico, 1 and were employed at ship-building
or other labor in Lower California within historic
times, from 1571 to 1746, and even in Los Angeles,
Alta California, in 1781.
•
See Vol. III., Native Races, chap. ix.. this series.
* Chevalier fancied he saw about Acapulco the evidences of many inter*
mixtures. In the Historic Chretienne de la California mention is made of a
Chinoia ship-carpenter. Villa-Sefior y Sanchez in his Theatro Americano,
1746, relates that the Chinese were numerous in and around Acapulco. The
Japanese in 1681 were ordered out of Mexico, and were forbidden to carry
away more than 2,000 ducats each, from which it appears they were successful
tradesmen. The Chinese themselves assert in their year-book, that certain
Buddhist priests crossed into Alaska, explored the coast to Mexico, and
penetrated to the Aztec empire, 1,000 years before Corte*s. President Porter,
of Yale college, places the number of Chinese arrivals in the U. S._between
1820 and l5Wj^TT^Oel5CfifiiU84PiUid l&)(Lekt-35r—This refers to immigrajtj'to'Jeastern
ports. For facts and opinions concerning the Chinese I
have consulted someTiundreds of volumes and thousands of newspapers, as
well aa the official report ordered by the state senate at a recent period.
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