olutions; but no
conclusions were reached until the last session. Early in December
(1878) a bill was introduced by Mr. Wren of Nevada, "to restrict the
immigration of Chinese into the United States," and was referred to
the Committee on Education and Labor. It was reported to the House by
Mr. Willis of Kentucky on the 14th of January, and on the 28th, after
brief debate (maintained in the affirmative by the California members
and in the negative principally by Mr. Dwight Townsend of New York),
the bill was passed by _ayes_ 156, _noes_ 72, considerably more than
two-thirds voting in the affirmative.

The bill called forth prolonged debate in the Senate. The senators
from California (Mr. Booth and Mr. Sargent), Mr. Thurman, Mr. Mitchell
of Oregon, and Mr. Blaine, took the leading part in favor of the bill;
while Mr. Hamlin, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Mr.
Conkling, Mr. Hoar, and Mr. Stanley Matthews, led in opposition. The
bill passed the Senate by _ayes_ 39, _noes_ 27. The principal
feature of the measure was the prohibiting of any vessel from
bringing more than fifteen Chinese passengers to any port of the
United States, unless the vessel should be driven to seek a harbor
from stress of weather. The bill further required the President to
give notice to the Emperor of China of the abrogation of Articles V.
and VI. of the Burlingame treaty of 1868. A large portion of the
debate was devoted to this feature of the bill,--the contention on one
side being that fair notice, with an opportunity for negotiation,
should be given to the Chinese Government, and on the other, that as
the treaty itself contained no provision for its amendment or
termination, it left the aggrieved party thereto its own choice of the
mode of procedure.

The argument against permitting Mongolian immigration to continue
rested upon facts that were indisputable. The Chinese had been
steadily arriving in California for more than a quarter of a century,
and they had not in the least degree become a component part of the
body politic. On the contrary, they were as far from any assimilation
with the people at the end of that long period as they were on the
first day they appeared on the Pacific Coast. They did not come with
the intention of remaining. They sought no permanent abiding-place.
They did not wish to own the soil. They built no houses. They
adhered to all their peculiar customs of dress and manner and religious