Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Third Session of the Fortieth Congress

Mr. Cleveland to Mr. Brown

San Francisco, July 27, 1868.

Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 21st instant, requesting information about the Chinese in California, and have the honor to submit the following statement, which, from the shortness of the time given me for its preparation, and my other duties, is necessarily brief and general, but, I hope, embodies the information you desire.

The Chinese constitute a large and important element in our society. They have so intimately interwoven themselves in our life and business, they fill so many employments, their occupations are so numerous, they serve us in so many capacities, they contribute so much to the revenue of our city, county, and State governments, in addition to the large sums paid to the federal government for import duties, special and other taxes, that public men now regard them as a valuable part of our permanent population. Their sudden removal would cause a great and lasting injury to our State. It would paralyze many branches of industry, by depriving them of the cheap labor by which they are sustained. It would cause a diminution in our State revenue of at least one-fourth, and would be regarded as an inconvenience by almost every citizen. Our commerce, our public carriers by land and water, our merchants and mechanics, and, in fact, all who have anything to sell, whether it be merchandise or labor, would suffer by the expulsion of a large population that does much to sustain them.

The first Chinese immigrants to this State were two men and one woman, who arrived in the fall of 1848. Three hundred and twenty-three arrived in 1849, and 447 in 1850. The Chinese are timid, and fearful of engaging in any new enterprise until a few of the more adventurous of their countrymen have proved it, by their experience, to be both safe and profitable. This accounts for the meagerness of their early emigration. So soon as they were fully satisfied, by many letters and frequent intercourse with their returned countrymen who had been successful, they began to come in much larger numbers. During the year 1851, 261 Chinese who had succeeded in this State, having acquired what seemed to them a fortune, in the mines, and as washermen and laborers, returned to their own country. The glowing accounts they gave of the mineral wealth of California, the demand for labor, and its generous compensation, when confirmed by their own success, produced a great effect upon their countrymen, and created a feverish excitement in their own province, that of Canton, which resulted in something like the gold fever that raged among our own people, and led to the same results, unprecedented emigration to the land of promise. Eighteen thousand four hundred and thirty-four arrived during the year 1852, nearly three times as many as in any subsequent year, except 1854, and almost equal to the” number for the past five years. Immigration then fell to 3,212 in 1855, and has never been very great since, the highest number being 7,620 in 1860, and the lowest 2,351 in 1866, the average for the 13 years ending December 31, 1867, being 4,773.

The following table exhibits the immigration from, and the emigration to, China to the 1st of July, A. D. 1868, according to the records of the custom-house at San Francisco:

Immigration from, and emigration to, China to the 1st of July, 1868.

Year.	Immigration.			Emigration.		Remaining.
	Males.	Females.	Total.	Total.	Excess over immigration.	Excess over immigration.
1848	2	1	3			3
1849	323		323			323
1850	447		447			447
1851	2,716		2,716	261		2,455
1852	18,384	50	18,434	2,056		16,378
1853	3,917	399	4,316	4,405	89
1854	14,450	513	15,063	2,386		12,677
1855	3,188	24	3,212	3,328	116
1856*	4,935	95	5,030	2,675		2,355
1857*	5,383	423	5,806	2,675		3,131
1858*	5,358	323	5,681	2,675		3,006
1859	3,100	427	3,527	2,907		620
1860	7,312	308	7,620	2,079		5,441
1861	5,997	510	6,507	2,151		4,356
1862	5,583	442	6,025	3,001		3,024
1863	7,149	32	7,181	2,510		4,671
1864	2,756	175	2,931	3,086	157
1865	2,375		2,375	1,945		420
1866	2,350	1	2,351	3,015	664
1867	3,779	27	3,806	4,167	361
1868, (to July 1)	5,101	16	5,117	565		4,552
Total	104,705	3,766	108,471	45,887	1,387	63,958

An examination of this table will show several interesting and important facts. During five years the emigration exceeded the immigration, and among these years are the two last. This, taken in connection with the really moderate immigration, the great number who have returned to China, and who are constantly doing so, and the fact that all Chinese hope and expect to spend their last days in the “flowery kingdom,” ought to be sufficient to dispel the fears of some of our public men, who, in our legislature and elsewhere, have expressed their apprehension that the 400,000,000 inhabitants of the Chinese empire were about to be poured into our State. The great fluctuations in the immigration, the number for one year being from two to four times as great as for the next, have been owing to the action of our people and government in reference to the Chinese population. Thus, on the 23d of April, 1852, Governor Bigler sent a special message to the legislature against the Chinese, and asking for legislation to put a stop to their coming. This, with the great hostility it created towards them in this State, was reported to China, but not soon enough to affect immigration for that year. During the next year, 1853, immigration suddenly fell from the 18,434 of the preceding year, to 4,316, so that at the end of the year the State had, with the deaths, about 400 less Chinese population than at its commencement. This feverish hostility abated, and we see the result in the figures for the next year, 1854, when 15,063 arrived, and only 2,387 went back to China. Early in 1855 a law was passed imposing an immigration tax of $50 upon Chinese, and increasing their mining tax, and the people were excited to great bitterness, and acts of hostility were committed against them which resulted in loss of life and property. When these facts were reported to China, the tide of immigration was suddenly arrested, and the number who came, mostly in the early part of the year, was only 3,212 against the 15,000 of the preceding year, and the emigration to China was 3,328. The members of the legislature soon saw their error and repealed one of the obnoxious laws, while the other was declared unconstitutional. The consequences were seen the next year in increased immigration and diminished emigration. In 1858 a law was passed by our legislature prohibiting the immigration of Chinese into this State, and the immigration fell the next year from 5,681 in 1858 to 3,527. The law was declared unconstitutional by our courts, and immigration increased to 7,620 in 1860. I think I have stated sufficient facts to show how the immigration of the Chinese to our State has been affected by hostile legislation. The rapid increase in immigration during the first two quarters of the present year is owing to the demand for laborers upon the Pacific railroad, and the development of the mineral resources of Montana, Idaho, and Nevada.

A brief review of the legislation of this State in relation to the Chinese may not be uninteresting. The Chinese have been principally wronged and discriminated against in three ways: first, by imposing upon them a mining tax not collected of others; second, by the prohibition of their testimony against white persons; third, by imposing an immigration tax not collected of others. There have been many other acts and classes of hostility in legislation, by which they have been injured, and attempts have been made to drive them from the State, but I must necessarily confine myself to these mentioned.

At the first session of our legislature, in 1850, a law was passed imposing a tax of $20 per month on all “foreign miners.” This was not intended to act specially upon the Chinese, whose numbers here were then inconsiderable, and had not yet excited apprehension. The legislation against the Chinese dates from the 23d of April, 1852, when Governor Bigler sent a special message to the legislature upon the subject of Chinese immigration to this State. He said, “I am deeply impressed with the conviction that in order to preserve the tranquillity of the State, measures must be adopted to check the tide of Asiatic immigration, and prevent the exportation by them of the precious metals, which they dig up from our soil without charge, and without assuming any of the obligations imposed upon our citizens. I allude particularly to the class of Asiatics known as ‘coolies,’ who are sent here, as I am informed, and as is generally believed, upon contract to work in our mines for a term, and who at the expiration of the term return to their native country.

* * * * * *

“I therefore respectfully submit for your consideration two distinct propositions: 1st. Such an exercise of the taxing power by the State as will check the present system of indiscriminate and unlimited immigration. 2. A demand by the State of California for the prompt interposition of Congress by the passage of an act prohibiting ‘coolies’ shipped to California under contracts, from laboring in the mines of this State. With the consent of the States, Congress has a clear right to interpose such safeguards as in their wisdom might be deemed necessary. The power to tax, as well as to entirely exclude this class of Asiatic immigrants, it is believed can be constitutionally exercised by the State.”

It is not necessary to say anything about the ignorance and misunderstanding of the Chinese, upon which this message was based. It created a profound sensation in the legislature, and throughout the State. Meetings of the people were held in all the mining counties, and resolutions passed prohibiting the Chinese from working in the mines. They were subjected to many outrages—driven from their claims, robbed, and murdered. The message was referred by the legislature to a committee, who divided, making two reports, both against the Chinese, but differing in the measures proposed— one recommending their heavy taxation, and the other their expulsion from the State. The excitement somewhat abated, and no law affecting the Chinese was passed.

Every session of the legislature devoted considerable time to the discussion of the Chinese question, but the first legislative enactment specially directed against them was in 1855, when a law was passed raising their miners’ tax from four to six dollars per month, and providing for its increase by two dollars every succeeding year. The consequences of this law and its impolicy were soon manifested. Many of the Chinese miners, unwilling, and others unable, to pay what they regarded as an unjust tax, stopped work. The revenues of the mining counties, which had been largely made up of the miner’s license tax, dwindled down to less than one-half. Merchants and mechanics who had relied upon the Chinese for much of their business, suffered serious loss. The Chinese merchants in San Francisco wrote to their correspondents in China not to forward any more goods, and to detain the cargoes in ships about to sail. Many of the Chinese, despairing of justice, returned to their own land, and others were preparing to do so. The people were suddenly undeceived, much of their delusion was dispelled, and they discovered that the despised Chinaman was really an important element in the population. The country press denounced the obnoxious law and demanded its repeal. Their efforts were seconded by public meetings in all parts of the State, and resolutions and memorials calling upon the legislature to repeal the law. It was done at the next session, 1856, and many of the threatened evils averted.

The legislature, at the session of 1855, also passed “an act to discourage the immigration to this State of persons who cannot become citizens thereof.” It imposed a tax of $50 on every Chinese passenger who entered this State. The collection of this tax was resisted, and the law was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of this State, in the case of the People vs. Downer, 7th California, p. 169, Thus by her judiciary was this State saved from the consequences of the folly of her legislature. Had the constitutionality of this law been sustained, Chinese immigration to this State would have bean arrested and stopped, those already here would have been driven away, and the large China trade, upon the continuance and growth of which the prosperity of San Francisco so greatly depends, could have been annihilated and driven from us, doubtless to our wiser and more liberal British neighbors at Victoria.

But the legislature would not take warning or learn wisdom from the past. Powerful political combinations were formed to compel the expulsion of the Chinese from this State. Candidates for the legislature were elected upon their pledges of hostility to the Chinese. Some were honest in their efforts to legislate them out of the State; others were pledged to aid such legislation; some did not dare to oppose it; a few were honest enough to request justice for the Chinese, and make futile efforts to obtain it. The Chinese were prohibited from giving testimony in any case where white persons are parties.

The consequences of this law have been the unpunished robbery and murder of the Chinese. Up to the beginning of 1862, 88 Chinese were murdered by white men, 11 by collectors of the foreign miner’s tax, and but two of the murderers have been convicted and hung. This fact, which is a matter of record, is not creditable to our legislature or courts. The Chinese miners have been robbed of over $1,000,000, almost without any attempt to protect them.

In 1858, the legislature of this State passed “an act to prevent the further immigration of Chinese or Mongolians to this State.” It made the bringing or landing of any Chinese within this State a misdemeanor, punishable with a fine of from $400 to $600, or imprisonment for not less than three months; or both such fine and imprisonment. Section 2 provides that “the landing of each and every Chinese or Mongolian person or persons shall be deemed a distinct and separate offense, and punished accordingly.” This law has been declared unconstitutional, and never enforced.

The legislature of 1860 passed “an act for the protection of fisheries,” which requires all Chinese fishermen in this State to pay a monthly license tax of $4. As the constitutionality of this law has not been tested, it is still in force. It is clearly unconstitutional.

The legislature of 1862 passed “an act to protect free white labor against the competition of Chinese labor, and to discourage the immigration of Chinese into the State of California.” It imposed a tax upon all Chinese, male and female, except miners, and those engaged exclusively in the cultivation of tea, coffee, sugar, and cotton, of $2 50 per month. This law has also been declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of this State, in the case of Sin Sing vs. Washburn, 20 California, p. 534.

All of these laws, including those declared unconstitutional, still remain upon our statute books, and a stranger, unacquainted with the decisions of our courts, but looking only to our laws, might well wonder at the injustice and folly of this portion of our legislation. The legislation of our State against the Chinese presents a strange and mortifying contrast to that of the English colonial government of Victoria, on our coast, where they possess rights, and are awarded a protection that is denied them here. In no other civilized nation would the Chinese be debarred from the right of testifying against those who had wronged them in person or property; nowhere else would a large and peaceable industrial population, greatly needed, be persecuted and wronged to drive them away. By no other people would violent and persistent efforts be made to destroy the large and valuable commerce of Asia with its ports, by insulting and injuring, almost beyond endurance, those by whom it has been built up and is maintained.

Having shown the hostility of the legislature of this State towards the Chinese, I think it proper to say a few words about the hostility of the people. If the people had been kindly disposed towards the Chinese, our statute books would not be disgraced by unwise, unjust, and unconstitutional enactments against them. Ever since the message of Governor Bigler, in 1852, there has been a strong feeling of antipathy to the Chinese in this city, and throughout the mining counties of this State. Organizations and societies, many of which still exist, have been formed to force their expulsion from the State. I am informed that there are now nearly a dozen such in this city, and from one to six in every mining settlement in the State. As already stated, they have required candidates for public office to pledge themselves to use their efforts to oppose the Chinese. In this way they have exerted a powerful influence upon the legislature and upon public opinion. Miners have repeatedly passed resolutions and notified to Chinese in their neighborhood that they would not be permitted to work in the mines, and have enforced their commands by violence. They have only been allowed to work mines which white men have abandoned as worthless. When they have been fortunate enough to obtain a good claim, it has often been taken from them by white minors without compensation, and if they have resisted they have been robbed and murdered. Bands of white desperadoes have been organized for the express purpose of robbing and killing the Chinese. Over 100 unpunished murders, and over $1,000,000 worth of unrecovered stolen gold dust attest the extent of their depredations and the injustice of our courts. In nearly every large city and settlement in this State, where the Chinese live in considerable numbers, they have been the objects, of mob violence, their houses sacked and burned, and their persons subjected to violence. In Sacramento and San Francisco these outrages have been repeated and sometimes rapidly recurring. Gangs of white laborers, who would not work for the wages offered them, have collected and attacked the Chinese laborers, whose only crime was that they Worked cheap rather than starve, and, by supplying the labor market to some extent, prevented the perfect success of combinations to control it, and have driven them from their labor, assaulted them with stones and clubs, wounded and killed them, and have for a time set the officers of the law at defiance in their efforts to preserve the public peace.

We need a healthier state of public opinion, which shall require and obtain just and constitutional legislation for the protection of the Chinese in the rights that pertain to them as human beings, as well as those which they can claim as a part of our population. All laws discriminating against the Chinese should be repealed, and they should be protected in their persons and property. This cannot be done so long as the miner’s license tax and immigration tax are collected solely of them, and they are not permitted to testify in our courts.

There is a large and influential class of our citizens, composed of merchants, manufacturers, capitalists, and educated men, who appreciate the importance of Chinese labor and trade to this State, and are in favor of treating them fairly, repealing the unjust laws that oppress and wrong them, allowing them to testify in our courts, and effectually protecting them in their persons and property. They have been represented to some extent in every session of our legislature, and at the last nearly succeeded in the enactment of a law allowing the Chinese to testify. It is but justice to our own people to say that the great body of the party hostile to the Chinese is made up of laborers, who choose to consider them as competitors, and of foreigners, whom a sense of consistency and justice ought to restrain from a persecution of other foreigners. The mob which have attacked the Chinese have consisted in great part of the nations of Europe. If the result depended solely on the action of native-born Americans, the Chinese would speedily have had justice done them.

In connection with this subject, I would call your attention to the treaty made by our government with China in 1858, with the provisions of which you are doubtless familiar. It provides (Article I) that the two peoples “shall not insult or oppress each other for any trifling cause, so as to produce an estrangement between them;” that (Article XI) “all subjects shall be protected from all insult or injury of any sort; that if citizens of the United States shall commit any improper act in China, they shall be punished only by the consul, according to the laws of the United States;” that (Article XXX) “should the Chinese nation grant to any nation, or the merchants or citizens of any nation, any right, privilege, or favor, connected either with navigation, commerce, or political or other intercourse, which is not conferred by this treaty, such right, privilege, and favor shall at once freely inure to the benefit of the United States, its public officers, merchants, and citizens.”

This treaty is the law of the United States as well as of China. While it contains no positive provision for the extension to the Chinese of the rights and privileges granted to us, yet we are bound in justice and honor, under it, to give to the Chinese resident among us such of them as may not be inconsistent with our federal Constitution. No one who has ever read that Constitution will contend that it would be in violation of its letter or spirit to extend to their persons and property the same protection given to natives of Europe. It is in violation of its spirit to withhold it. For the honor of our nation, the interests of our country and the maintenance and growth of our rapidly increasing commerce with Asia, it is our duty to make the residence of the Chinese among us safe and respectable. We are too great a nation, our institutions are too democratic, our laws generally too liberal and just, our position too commanding, our influence too great, to afford to allow semi-civilized China to outdo us in humanity, public spirit, liberality, and justice. And yet, if the laws of California, and the position of the Chinese in this State, be the basis of our judgment, we must make the humilating confession. The government of China has just reason to complain that we have not observed our treaty stipulations, and to call upon us, as we would upon them, for protection to her citizens in our territory.

It would be considered presumptuous for me to suggest, further than I have already done, the remedy for the wrongs and injustice hereinbefore recited. I think that if the matter was brought to the attention of the Executive and Congress, their wisdom would enable them to suggest proper measures for obtaining the desirable result proposed. I will state in this connection, that within a few days the telegraph has brought us the news that a new and more liberal treaty between the United States and China, with reciprocal rights and obligations, is likely to be ratified. The prospect of receiving greater protection than they have done, by virtue of its provisions, has given our Chinese residents much satisfaction, and greatly excited their hopes.

There is no data, other than that furnished by the custom-house, upon which I can now base my estimate of the number of Chinese upon this coast. The number of immigrants, according to the table given on page 4, is 108,471. This number is much too small. Judging by partial statements furnished to me by the Chinese companies of their members, at least 10,000 should be added, making a total of 118,471. Ship-masters have in numerous instances made false passage returns, in order to save themselves from the payment to the State of five dollars per head for all their passengers. As one evidence of the incorrectness of these returns, I will state that the whole number of female passengers from China for the first two quarters of this year, according to the custom-house record, is 16, when in fact 25 came on one vessel.

The following table exhibits, as accurately as I can now determine it, the Chinese population on the Pacific:

Total immigration to July 1, 1868		118,471
Total emigration for the same time	45,887
Add for errors	2,000
Estimated deaths	6,000
		53,887
Total number now on this coast		64,584

These are scattered about through our States and Territories somewhat as follows:

In California, about	43,584
In Oregon, about	2,000
In British Columbia, about	2,000
In Nevada, Idaho, and Montana, about	17,000
	64,584

We may divide the Chinese in this State into city and rural population. As nearly as I can ascertain, they are distributed as follows:

In San Francisco	10,000
In Sacramento	1,000
In Marysville and Stockton	1,000
In other towns in the State	5,000
	17,000
Residing in the country in small settlements, on farms and on the railroad, and in the mines	26,584
	43,584

The occupations of the Chinese in this State may be classified as follows:

Whole number in the State		43,584
Number of women		4,000
Number of males		39,584
Merchants and traders	2,000
Engaged in manufacturing for themselves	2,000
In other occupations	1,000
Wash-houses	1,800
Laborers in factories and in other capacities in cities and towns	3,500
Mechanics	1,000
House servants	3,000
Laborers on the Pacific railroad	10,000
Miners	13,084
Farm laborers	2,000
Fishermen	200
		39,584

The following table exhibits the licensed occupations of the Chinese in San Francisco for the years 1867 and 1868:

	1867.	1868.	Decrease.	Increase.
Wholesale dealers	21	19	2
Retail dealers	40	56		16
Manufacturers	24	26		2
Tobacconists—cigar makers	33	41		8
Apothecaries	9	10		1
Physicians	9	9
Pawnbrokers	5	4	1
Wholesale liquor dealers		3		3
Retail liquor dealers	2	7		5
Peddlers	2
Butchers	10	9	1
Eating houses	8	7	1
Intelligence offices	9	7	2
Distillers	1	1		1
Theaters	1	2		1
Total	173	200	7	37

The following table exhibits an estimate of the amount of business done by the Chinese merchants and manufacturers of San Francisco during the year 1867:

Amount of sales by merchants	$20,000,000
Value of 19,000,000 cigars made, at 25 cents per thousand	475,000
Value of slippers made	75,000
Value of clothing manufactured	25,000
Value of jewelry manufactured	8,000
Value of blacking manufactured	2,000
Value of other manufactures	10,000
	2,595,000

The tax paid to the United States government by the Chinese, on manufactures alone, amounted to nearly $100,000.

The amount of business done by the Chinese in manufacturing can perhaps be better estimated by returns made to the assessor of United States internal revenue by the principal merchants and manufacturers.

Returns of cigar makers, 1867.

Bing Fon	$1,196,300
Sing Chong Shing	953,400
Sing Ur	920,350
Sang Yu	890,300
Sing Shing & Co	1,555,800
Total returned by five manufacturers	5,517,150

Returns of slipper makers. 1867.

Ah Git	$9,737
Sun Yat	22,982
Sen Sam Lee	6,534
Value of slippers made by three manufacturers	39,253

Amount of jewelry returns by Tin Tuen manufacturer, 1867, $2,071 50. Return by Teck Chung for March, 1868, of blacking manufactured, $138.

Returns of sales by four Chinese merchants for the first quarter, 1868:

Augh Kee & Co	$24,000
Sun Chong Kee & Co	20,000
Hop Kee & Co	17,000
Wing wo Sang & Co	12,000
	73,000

The incomes returned by Chinese in San Francisco for 1867 are as follows:

Tung Yu	$3,908
Chy Lung	2,000
Fork on	1,308
Hop Kee	643
Wing wo Soong	1,918
Wing Soong	816
Sin Chong Kee	1,049
Quong Chy Lung	216
Tan On	372
Hop Yick	173
Hung wo Tong	51
	12,454

Imports at the port of San Francisco, from China, for the past four years.

Year.	Tea.		Rice.		Smoking opium.	Other articles.	Total.	Duty.
	Pounds.	Value.	Pounds.	Value.
1864	1,387,138	$363,820	19,382,090	$586,820	$210,514	$697,895	$1,859,049	$1,022,502
1865	700,760	177,333	27,850,444	978,211	232,039	553,876	1,940,459	963,419
1866	1,042,509	291,389	25,442,098	868,613	225,610	567,900	1,953,003	1,009,345
1867	1,237,060	445,686	14,649,431	413,157	480,434	343,525	1,682,802	1,095,031
Total duty.								4,090,587

Export of specie to China, from the port of San Francisco, for the same years.

1864	$7,888,973
1865	6,963,522
1866	6,527,287
1867	9,031,504

Export of merchandise to China, from San Francisco, for four years.

1864	$1,895,940
1865	1,296,211
1866	1,399,005
1867	697,950

The foregoing tables, showing our commerce with China, which has been built up, and is maintained by the Chinese merchants of San Francisco, exhibit some important facts. I will here observe that the importations from China, by other than the Chinese, are inconsiderable. All the opium, tea, rice, and most other articles, being such as silks, medicinal plants, and articles of food used by their countrymen in this State, are imported by them. They supply our own merchants here with these things. The Chinese use all the opium, it being prepared for smoking, and most of the rice, and a large proportion of the tea imported in this port. During the past four years the Chinese merchants have paid to the United States government the sum of more than $4,000,000 in gold for duties alone. The United States government is therefore so much the richer for their presence. If the Chinese were to leave this State, and return to their own country, our trade with China, being almost wholly maintained by them, would be destroyed, and that source of present and prospective prosperity to this city would be lost to us. The development of that trade must depend upon the action of the Chinese, and that will be largely governed by the manner in which they are treated by our people, the character of our legislation affecting them, and the sufficiency of the protection that is extended to their persons and property. If our resident Chinese merchants and capitalists felt secure in this country, they would greatly increase their business, in a few years double our trade with China, and invest much of their capital in this country in the development of its resources.

The following table, prepared by the officers of the Chinese companies in this city, for the joint select committee of the legislature of this State, in 1862, upon “the Chinese population of the State of California,” shows the expenditures made by the Chinese in 1861 for the benefit of our government and people:

Amount of duties paid by Chinese importers into the custom-house at this	$500,000
Freight money paid to ships from China	180,683
Passage money paid to ships from China	$382,000
Head tax	7,556
Boat hire	4,767
Rents for sstores and storage	370,000
Licenses, taxes, &c., in State	2,164,273
Commissions paid auctioneers and brokers	20,393
Drayage in San Francisco	59,662
Farming in the interior of the State	360,000
Paid for American products in San Francisco	1,046,613
Paid for American products in the State	4,953,387
Paid for fire insurance in the City	1,925
Paid for marine insurance in the City	33,647
Paid for steamboat fare to Sacramento city and Stockton	50,000
Paid for stage fare to and from the mines	250,000
Paid for stage steamboat up-river frights	80,000
Water rates for Chinese miners	2,160,000
Mining claims, brought by Chinese miners	1,350,000
Total	13,974,909

This table may be relied upon as substantially correct. From such data as I have already examined, I think the aggregate might be increased for the year 1867 to $18,000,000 in gold, being nearly $45 for each one of our white population, estimating it at 400,000. This is much more than one-half of the total yield of our gold mines in this State for the same period. That the State, in all branches of its government, and all classes of its people, is greatly benefited by this considerable expenditure of money, and that all branches of business and industry are quickened and sustained by it, is too self-evident a truth to need argument for its demonstration. If it was suddenly suspended, all branches of our government—city, county, and State—would lack sufficient revenue to pay their expenses, and would need to resort to greatly increased taxation upon the white population to obtain it. A commercial crisis would be inevitable, many of our merchants and business men would be ruined, and all classes of our citizens would suffer loss and inconvenience.

The effect of the China trade upon our shipping interest is very great. We have a large tonnage engaged in carrying freight and passengers between this city and China. It is sustained by the Chinese immigration and the commerce created by the Chinese merchants. Even the mail-steamship line between this city and China and Japan depends for its support upon Chinese passengers and freights. I think it is hazarding nothing to say that, if the Chinese support were withdrawn from it, it could not be maintained without very great loss to its owners. The estimate made by the Chinese of the amount paid by them in 1861 for freight and passage to ships from China alone is $562,683. It will be at least $700,000 for the present year. I think the amount paid by them during this year to ships engaged in the China trade will equal $1,000,000.

There is a very mistaken impression outside of this State that the Chinese in California are only miners and merchants. In fact, they fill so many employments, and are engaged in so many branches of industry, that it would be almost tedious to enumerate them. The following is a brief statement of their occupations in this city:

1.	Wholesale merchants	19
2.	Retail merchants	56
3.	Manufacturers	26 & 41, 10
	1—of cigars, employing about	1,500
	2—of slippers, “ “	400
	3—of clothing, “ “	100
	4—of jewelry, “ “	25
	5—of blacking, “ “	5
	6—of tin and copper ware “	25
	7—of other things, “	25
4.	Distillers	1
5.	Physicians	9
6.	Apothecaries	10
7.	Wholesale liquor dealers	3
8.	Retail liquor dealers	7
9.	Restaurants	7
10.	Butchers	9
11.	Portrait painters	2
12.	Engravers and sign painters, about	6
13.	Clerks	10
14.	Mechanics: 1—Carpenters; 2—Tailors; 3—Workers in metals; 4—Shoe-makers	1,000
15.	Wash-houses, employing about	1,000
16.	Intelligence offices	7
17.	Fishermen, about	40
18.	Wood and lumber dealers	3
19.	Pawn-brokers	4
20.	Hucksters	20
21.	House servants: 1—General servants; 2—Cooks; 3—Waiters; 4—Nurses	1,500
22.	Laborers, about	1,000
23.	Factory hands	200
24.	Porters and servant in stores, about	100
25.	Cobblers and thinkers	100
26.	Pedlers:	3
	1—Of fish
	2—Of vegetables	18
27.	Pedlers among themselves, about	40
	1—Of fruits; 2—Of cooked food and soups, &c.	50
28.	Street scavengers, about
	(Rag and bone pickers, gatherers of paper, &c.)
29.	Employments among themselves:
	1–School teachers	4
	2—Barbers, about	30
	3—Priests and attendants upon the temples, about	20
	4—Employed in their own stores or shops	1,000
	5—Employed in their manufactories:
	(1) Of cigars	1,500
	(2) Of slippers	400
	(3) Of clothing	100
	(4) Of jewelry	25
	(5) Other, about	50
	6—Tailors, about	20
	7—Boarding houses	30
	8—Actors and employes in the two Chinese theaters, about	200
	9—Employés in gambling houses, and lottery houses, and opium shops, about	200
	Chinese thieves, about	50

This estimate, when taken in connection with the number of female Chinese here, accounts for the Chinese population of 10,000 in this city, and shows their honest and also their disreputable employments, and will enable you to form a judgment of their usefulness to our community.

It is an interesting fact, not generally known, that all the Chinese trades and occupations, when those engaged in them are in sufficient numbers, have their trades’ unions, which are more perfect in their organization and comprehensive in their purposes than those formed by our own people. All engaged, whether it be as employer or employed, belong, and have equal rights. Their purpose is to meet and consult for the general good, and establish uniform rules as to hours of labor, manner of carrying on business, prices paid and charged for certain work, &c. Thus, in this city, the cigar-makers, slipper-makers, manufacturers of clothing, washermen, &c., each have their trades’ union.

I have not time to comment upon the different occupations of the Chinese, but must content myself with merely naming them.

The Chinese in this State are, as they have been described by all travelers in their empire, a quiet, law-abiding, industrious people. They are always at work in some way, and earning something, though it may be but little. Unlike many of our laboring class, they never remain idle because they cannot get all they choose to ask for their labor. A Chinaman will live where and when a white man would starve; and for this reason, that he will labor for a small sum which, perhaps, will only provide him with the commonest necessaries of life, while the white man, stickling for what he considers a principle, will not consent to receive less than the full value of his services. It is this fact, among other things, that renders Chinese labor particularly valuable to our State. It is cheap, reliable, and persevering. Their employers are not fearful of strikes and sudden suspensions of work, to their great injury. When Chinese contract to work for a certain term, there is no danger that they will fail to keep their engagements. I know that there are individual exceptions to this, but the rule is true. But for the cheap Chinese labor our cotton and woolen mills upon the Pacific could not be sustained so as to compete with New England. New manufacturing enterprises are agitated, and they all base their calculation of prosperity upon Chinese labor. Chinese laborers are quite as honest, and more patient and persevering, than whites, and by many are preferred to them.

Many persons have speculated about what Chinese labor is capable of doing for this State, and have been very enthusiastic in their predictions of its effects upon our future prosperity. This branch of the subject is interesting, but the limits of this article will not permit me to pursue it. Their labor might, and probably will, make this State blossom like the rose, and turn its desert places into grain fields, tea, rice, sugar, coffee, and cotton plantations, and vineyards and orchards; but I fear that these things are far distant in the future. Many things must be done; a great change must take place in public opinion, and the Chinese must be encouraged and protected, before it will be safe to make such calculations.

Our farmers and manufacturers have in the Chinese an inexhaustible supply of cheap labor, which, if they choose to take advantage of it, will enable them to extend their operations and enterprises almost without limit. Two thousand Chinese are now employed on our farms, and 1,000 in our factories. Their numbers can be almost indefinitely increased.

If properly protected and encouraged, the Chinese will yet buy farms and establish factories, both on a large and small scale. They have both the capital and enterprise. Many of them possess considerable means, and others great wealth, which hitherto, owing to their sense of insecurity in our State, they have concentrated in China, except so far as it was needed for their business here. Let them feel perfectly secure, and they not only will not send away their surplus capital, but will keep it here, and add to it from China, and use it for the development of our State. They are shrewd, enterprising, well-trained, and successful business men. If they feel secure in establishing tea and rice plantations in our State, they will yet do so. The new branches of business, manufacturing and other, which they have originated, established, and made successful in this city, demonstrate their enterprise and ability better than theorizing can do.

The great objections urged against the Chinese are, that they are pagans, foreigners, and work cheap. It is not necessary to consider these at length. If no man who is not a true Christian was permitted to labor, more than one-half of our white laborers would be debarred from employment; and if they were required to be attendants on Christian churches, not more, probably less, than one-fourth would be eligible. It is absurd to attempt to make such a distinction against the Chinese. The fact that they are foreigners is an objection that, if valid, might be applied against all but native-born Americans; because, in fact, a man born in China is no more of a foreigner than one born in Europe or South America. The cheapness of Chinese labor is one of its strongest recommendations. Men very naturally attempt to obtain as much for their labor as they can compel their employers to pay. It is equally natural that capitalists should endeavor to cheapen labor as much as they can. The one class operates as a salutary check upon the other. The full supremacy of either would bring ruin upon any State.

It is not dear, but cheap labor that develops and enriches a nation. England, France, and Germany do not send us millions of dollars’ worth of manufactured goods because those states are older or richer than ours; but because they possess abundance of very cheap labor, which enables them to make and send us goods which, even with the addition of heavy duties, are cheaper than we can make them. If our capitalists could obtain labor for one-half the price paid in those nations, we could make and sell the very articles we now receive, to them. What is true of manufacturing is equally true of all other branches of industry. When this State can command enough cheap Chinese labor, our exports of agricultural products alone—grain, wine, and fruits—will be more than four times as great as the yield of our gold mines.

Before dismissing the subject of Chinese labor, it may be as well to say that there are no “coolies” in this State, and there never have been. Emigrants obtain the money to pay their passage in various ways: some have money, others sell their property and obtain it; some borrow from friends or relations, some pledge their families as security for the loan. They come of their own option, and when they arrive here are free to go where they please, and engage in any occupation they will. Those who arrive in this city without means are assisted by their countrymen, and loaned money to go to the mines or engage in some other labor, and aided in obtaining employment. They are as much free agents as our own people. A great and wide-spread misapprehension has existed on this subject, which has caused much of the hostility to the Chinese.

I do not think it necessary to say much about the Chinese miners in this State. In the early years of the Chinese immigration they comprised the great body of their people. As already shown, they do not now number one-third of their population in this State. Their numbers have been and are now steadily decreasing. They are engaging in other occupations. Most of them are placer miners. There is very little quartz mining done by them, except as laborers in American mines. Of the 13,084 miners, about 2,000 are working for American mining companies. They are afraid to work under ground, and for that reason confine themselves to surface mining. I only know of one exception to this, in the case of a body of Chinese employed in an American mine in the northern part of this State, The Chinese miners have paid to the counties and State from $4,000 to $8,000 a year for foreign miners’ license tax. They pay large sums to Americans for water and mining claims. By reference to the table on page 539, it will be seen that they paid to Americans in 1861, for these two items alone, the large sum of $3,510,000. They rarely work any claims or mines but such as have been abandoned by white men because they were considered too poor to pay for working. The Chinese miners, like all other classes of their people, are contented with a compensation that our race regards as inadequate. It is impossible for me at this time to form a reliable estimate of the amount of gold taken out by them. I greatly doubt if it has ever exceeded $5,000,000 in any one year, or would amount to more than $3,000,000 for the year 1867. It has been estimated by American merchants in the mining counties, and by themselves, that seven-tenths of their earnings find their way into the hands of Americans for taxes, purchase of mining claims, tools and machinery, clothing, food, &c. It is unjust that this useful class of laborers should be specially burdened with an onerous tax, and should be specially discriminated against, denounced, and persecuted; what they take from the mines is not loss, but gain to the State, as but for their labors the gold they obtain would lie hidden in the earth and be of no benefit to any one.

The Chinese cannot be called either ignorant or stupid. It is generally known that all can read and write. It is certain that all have received some degree of education, though, as with us, it differs according to the wealth and social condition of the individual. They are intelligent and quick to learn. The rapid progress of some of the Chinese in schools where they are taught English is astonishing. They are very anxious to acquire our language, and pay large sums to private tutors who teach it to them.

As a class, the Chinese are quiet, peaceable, law-abiding people. They give our authorities comparatively but little trouble. Their offenses are mostly venial, and consist of gambling, opium smoking, and petit larceny. A large portion of the females are professional prostitutes. The officers of the Chinese companies have always exerted themselves zealously, and with much success, to purify the morals of their countrymen, to restrain them from violations of our laws, and to bring the guilty to punishment. They have rendered valuable aid to the officers of the law in the administration of justice.

I will here insert, as evidence strongly corroborative of my views, a few extracts from a report made to the legislature of this State on the 11th of March, 1862, by a joint select committee thereof, “relative to the Chinese population of the State of California.”

“If there is any proof going to establish the fact that any portion of the Chinese are imported into this State as slaves or coolies, your committee has failed to discover it. The present laws in force in regard to this class of our population, in the opinion of your committee, impose upon them quite as heavy burdens as they are able to bear, and in many instances far beyond their ability to stand up under. Your committee trust that no more legislation will be had calculated to oppress and degrade this class of persons in our State.” * * * * * * * *

“And for this $14,000,000 which we gather from the Chinese population, what do we give them in exchange? Mainly, thus far, the privilege to work, in the mines, on bars, beds, and gulch claims, which have been abandoned by our countrymen and other white men because, by their intelligence and skill, they could find other diggings where they could do better.

“Such claims to all but the patient, moderate Chinese, would otherwise have remained idle and unproductive. In towns and cities we have washmen and cooks, who to some extent compete with imported servants from Europe, and this is about the only competition which some 50,000 peaceable, patient, and industrious Chinese immigrants have, thus far, produced in California. Surely if this declared evil were doubled, or magnified tenfold, it need not create alarm in the breasts of cautious and fearful citizens.

“We have about 80 Chinamen working in the Mission woollen factory, which by reason of their cheap labor is able to find employment for some 70 white men. With high rates of labor, this valuable enterprise could not be prosecuted in this State.”

* * * * “With cheap labor we could supply all our own wines and liquors, besides sending large quantities abroad.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“It is charged that the Chinese demoralize the whites. We cannot find any ground for the allegation. We adopt none of their habits, form no social relations with them, but keep them separate and apart, a distinct, inferior race. They work for us; they help us build up our State by contributing largely to our taxes, to our shipping, farming, and mechanical interests, without to any extent entering these departments as competitors; they are denied privileges equal with other foreigners; they cannot vote, nor testify in courts of justice, nor have any voice in making our laws, nor mingle with us in social life. Certainly we have nothing to fear from a race so contemned and restricted; on the contrary, those Chinamen who remain here are educated to our standard.” * * * * * * * *

“The practice of Chinese prostitution by their women is as abhorrent to their respectable merchants as it is to us. They have made several efforts to send these women home to China, but their efforts have been frustrated, under the plea that this is a free country and these women can do as they please.”

* * * * * * * * *

“The convictions in the police court, San Francisco, for the year 1861, were—whites, 2,783; Chinese, 168. Average of Chinese about 1 in 16. The 24 hour sentences as above stated average about 130 per month. About three-fourths of the Chinese convictions are women, (prostitutes,) arrested from the alleys about Jackson and Pacific streets.

“Your committee were furnished with a list of 88 Chinese who are known to have been murdered by white people; 11 of which number are known to have been murdered by collectors of foreign miner’s license tax, sworn officers of the law. But two of the murderers have been convicted and hanged. Generally they have been allowed to escape without the slightest punishment. The above number of Chinese who have been robbed and murdered compose probably a very small proportion of those which have been murdered, but they are all which the records of the different societies or companies in this city show. It is a well-known tact that there has been a wholesale system of wrong and outrage practised upon the Chinese population of this State which would disgrace the most barbarous nation upon earth.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

“Instead of driving them out of the State, bounties might be offered them to cultivate rice, tea, tobacco, and other articles.”

The foregoing statement embodies substantially the information you desire, though it is necessarily given in a very concise form. I regret that I am not now able to make it more elaborate and comprehensive, and consequently more interesting and valuable.

There are many things connected with the residence of the Chinese in this State, as their religion, customs, way of living, manner of doing business, their companies, &c.,

of which I have said nothing. They would hardly add much to the value of this paper.

There is one branch of this subject, viz, its influence upon the relations of our government with China, of which I have said nothing, because it belongs peculiarly to your office and consideration as our minister to that empire. That the residence of a large Chinese population in this State has already excited a powerful influence upon the Chinese government in our favor I think there can be no doubt. To it we owe the selection of one of our countrymen, the Hon. Anson Burlingame, as special ambassador from that empire. Hitherto England has been the great power in China, but it is a fact well known to residents of that country that our nation is fast gaining the ascendency, and we have reason to hope and believe that it will not be many years before we will exert a preponderating influence with that government. There are already many indications that this change is taking place. The time will come when most of its trade will be monopolized by our commerce, and thus greatly increase this branch of our national industry and wealth. The government of China naturally feels a keener sympathy and a higher consideration for a nation which gives a home and employment to 75,000 of its people, and to and from which they are constantly passing, than for countries to which its subjects do not go, and in which circumstances do not invite their residence. The influence of the large Chinese population on this coast in our behalf is considerable, and is steadily exerted. The safer and more honorable the residence of our Chinese population is made, the greater will be their exertions, the more potent their influence with their government for us, and the higher will be the consideration in which we are held. In failing to make a proper use of the opportunities and means afforded us by the residence of the Chinese here, we neglect our duty and interest in not using all honorable means to establish and maintain our ascendency in Asia. The prize is within our grasp if we will only stretch out our hands to obtain it.

After I had written a portion of this paper I attended, by invitation, a meeting of the presidents of the six Chinese companies in this city, representing the entire Chinese population on this coast, because they all belong to these companies. I read what I had written, stated that it was prepared at your request, to be laid before the United States government, and that you are disposed to do them justice. They expressed themselves much gratified. They said that, if protected by just legislation, they would greatly extend their business, increase our trade with China, and invest their capital in the permanent improvement of our State; that they would purchase real estate, and feel an interest in the country, and endeavor to aid in its development. They have a keen sense of the wrongs that have been inflicted upon them, and under which they now suffer, and hope that they may yet be freed from them and be protected in, their lives and property. At my suggestion they are preparing a paper on behalf of the Chinese population on the Pacific, embodying a recital of their grievances, and the legislation and protection they deem essential to their peace and security. When completed, it will be a valuable and interesting public document.

In conclusion, I do not know that it is necessary to add anything to what I have already written. I have shown how the Chinese came among us, their numbers, where they reside, and what they are doing. I have stated, their wrongs, legislative and other, that have been inflicted upon them, and from which they suffer, and have intimated the redress they require. I believe them to be a very useful and valuable part of our population, contributing much to our prosperity, and it is my earnest hope, in common with the better class of our citizens, that they may receive adequate protection and justice. Humanity and justice, no less than interest, require this of us.

It is possible, by injustice and persecution, to drive the Chinese who are here to foreign countries, as to the colony of British Columbia, where a wiser and more liberal policy is pursued toward them. Such an event would be a great public calamity to us, inflicting, it is to be feared, permanent injury upon our commerce and State. It is also possible, by being just and humane, to attach them still more strongly to us, and make it their interest as well as ours to enrich us with their labor and trade. It is to be earnestly hoped that we may speedily decide to do them justice. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

DANIEL CLEVELAND.

Hon. J. Ross Browne, United States Minister to China.

1. As I could not obtain any record of the emigration for these years from the custom-house, I have taken the average of the two years before and two after it, and think it must be very near the true number.
2. As I could not obtain any record of the emigration for these years from the custom-house, I have taken the average of the two years before and two after it, and think it must be very near the true number.
3. As I could not obtain any record of the emigration for these years from the custom-house, I have taken the average of the two years before and two after it, and think it must be very near the true number.