act which, in my opinion, can be
modified to advantage.

The classes of Chinese who still enjoy the protection of the Burlingame
treaty are entitled to the privileges, immunities, and exemptions
accorded to citizens and subjects of the most favored nation. We have
treaties with many powers which permit their citizens and subjects to
reside within the United States and carry on business under the same
laws and regulations which are enforced against citizens of the United
States. I think it may be doubted whether provisions requiring personal
registration and the taking out of passports which are not imposed upon
natives can be required of Chinese. Without expressing an opinion on
that point, I may invite the attention of Congress to the fact that
the system of personal registration and passports is undemocratic and
hostile to the spirit of our institutions. I doubt the wisdom of
putting an entering wedge of this kind into our laws. A nation like
the United States, jealous of the liberties of its citizens, may well
hesitate before it incorporates into its polity a system which is fast
disappearing in Europe before the progress of liberal institutions.
A wide experience has shown how futile such precautions are, and how
easily passports may be borrowed, exchanged, or even forged by persons
interested to do so.

If it is, nevertheless, thought that a passport is the most convenient
way for identifying the Chinese entitled to the protection of the
Burlingame treaty, it may still be doubted whether they ought to be
required to register. It is certainly our duty under the Burlingame
treaty to make their stay in the United States, in the operation of
general laws upon them, as nearly like that of our own citizens as we
can consistently with our right to shut out the laborers. No good
purpose is served in requiring them to register.

My attention has been called by the Chinese minister to the fact that
the bill as it stands makes no provision for the transit across the
United States of Chinese subjects now residing in foreign countries.
I think that this point may well claim the attention of Congress in
legislating on this subject.

I have said that good faith requires us to suspend the immigration of
Chinese laborers for a less period than twenty years; I now add that
good policy points in the same direction.

Our intercourse with China is of recent date. Our first treaty with
that power is not yet forty years old. It is