The Cause of Early Chinese Immigration

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

From The Real Chinese in America by J. S. Tow, 1923.

It is unfortunate that the Chinese who first came to the United States were of the laboring class. It is more unfortunate that the first influx was in large numbers. This class of people have made a very unfavorable impression upon the American public towards the Chinese people; they caused great friction for many years between this country and China; and they created misunderstandings between the two peoples.

Although they have been excluded, the ill-effects of their presence still remain. Even today, the general American public would not readily recognize a Chinese gentleman. He is usually taken for a Japanese, as he is well dressed and has a good appearance.

The earlier class of Chinese immigrants has been responsible for the ill treatment of the Chinese in this country. The merchants, students and others who have treaty rights to enter the United States still have to bear hardships which they would not have to bear if that earlier class of their countrymen had not come.

The coming of the Chinese to this country in large numbers began about 1850, from which date the number of Chinese immigrants increased every year. In 1854, 13,100 were admitted. They all came from Canton, or to be exact, from Kwang Tung Province whose capital is Canton, the city being the port of their departure.

The 1860 census reported 34,933 Chinese in the United States. In spite of the rapid increase in Chinese population in this country, Chinese immigration was favored; and though the average annual rate of Chinese immigration in the next few years was 3,000, a treaty was signed between this country and China in 1868 to encourage, more immigration. The following article was part of the treaty:

“The United States of America and the Emperor of China cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively, from the one country to the other, for the purpose of curiosity, of trade or as permanent residents.”

(Proclaimed July 28, 1868.)

Furthermore, the Act of the same year revising the Statutes of the United States provided the following paragraph which was intended to encourage foreign immigration:

“Whereas, The right of expatriation is a natural and inherent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and

“Whereas, in the recognition of this principle this government has freely received emigrants from all nations and invested them with the rights of citizenship; and

“Whereas, it is claimed that such American citizens, with their descendants, are subjects of foreign states, owing allegiance to the government thereof; and

“Whereas, it is necessary to the maintenance of public peace that this claim of foreign allegiance should be promptly and finally disavow,

“Therefore, any declaration, instruction, opinion, order or decision of any officer of the United States which denies, restricts, impairs or questions the right of expatriation, is declared inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Republic.”

(Act of July 27, 1868.)

The result of this treaty and this law was an even greater influx of Chinese immigrants. In 1870 the Chinese population in this country was 63,199, an increase of 28,000 in ten years. The next decade saw a still greater increase and in 1880, the peak of Chinese immigration was reached, namely 105,465.

To know why the Chinese came to this country in such numbers during those two decades, where they went and what they did in this country, it is necessary to review the conditions in California in that period.

California was then not yet developed. Its settlements were few and inconsiderable when the vast area west of Missouri was opened for settlement. It was too isolated, too remote and too difficult of access to receive any great increase of population. State after state had been admitted into the Union since the annexation of California. Many of them had outstripped her in growth.

With all her wonderful resources she was too heavily handicapped to make great progress. She lacked water communications and primarily needed railroads, particularly a trans-continental railway. Her swamp lands needed reclamation; her mines, opening; her farms, cultivation; and other industries needed developing. But the accomplishment of these great works which brought California the riches and glories that are hers today, came sooner than expected. And the Chinese, so condemned and despised in that whole region, were largely instrumental in bringing about that result.

The Chinese who were brought to this country were mostly assigned to these great works in California. It was towards the close of the ’70s when the demand for Chinese labor gradually decreased. The Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railways were completed; the 5,500,000 acres of swamp lands in California were mostly reclaimed; the mines there and in other western states were opened; the farms on the Pacific coast were developed, and general industries in the West reached a much higher stage of development than ten or twenty years before.

Meantime, a great flood of European immigrants arrived in California; they were also of laboring class. The labor elements had been organized and began to assert their influence. They gradually became powerful and were now able to sway the whole western country in politics. And not until then it was discovered that the Chinese were useless, undesirable and unassimilable immigrants!

The question of Chinese immigration thus entered politics in this country. It became a subject of the party platform, and even of planks in a presidential campaign. Finally the whole country yielded to the demand of the anti-Chinese party.

The Chinese, who were invited here to develop California, who were guaranteed protection by treaty and statute, were now subjected to mob violence in the hands of those who organized themselves mainly for the purpose of securing better treatment for themselves!

In 1880 the government of the United States signed a treaty with China, securing the latter’s consent to a temporary suspension of immigration of Chinese laborers into America. And in 1882 the first exclusion law was passed by Congress.

Tow, J. S. The Real Chinese in America. The Academy Press, 1923.

J. S. Tow

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