The Looming Treaty Conflict
Washington state leaders fear that a new proposed treaty between the U.S. and China might undermine local exclusion laws.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The announcement that the state department, with the full knowledge and consent of President Cleveland, has been engaged in the consideration and preparation of a new treaty with China, has provoked a great deal of adverse criticism among representatives from the Pacific coast. The Chinese minister has long been anxious to obtain a new treaty with the United States, one that should abrogate the recently enacted stringent laws excluding his countrymen. The administration's policy, as seen in the tariff bill, is claimed to be the greatest good to the greatest number, irrespective of the injury to any particular locality. This makes it seem likely the president will ask the senate to ratify such a treaty, which cannot fail to be hateful to the people of the Pacific coast. However, the senate stands committed to anti-Chinese measures, and senators would not stultify themselves by ratifying a treaty that would abrogate these restrictions.
“The senate, however, stands committed to anti-Chinese measures.”
This article highlights the deeply entrenched xenophobia that defined 19th-century Washington politics. It captures the tension between federal diplomacy and the local anti-Chinese movement that sought to codify racial exclusion in law.
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