Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 8 x 10, March 10, 1888. President Cleveland directs the Secretary of State to “cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to a Full Power, authorizing Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State to negotiate and sign a Convention between the United States and China to prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States.” Signed neatly at the conclusion by Grover Cleveland. In fine condition.
The California gold rush brought many Chinese to the United States. They were welcomed initially because of labor shortages, but after the Gold Rush, and as the Chinese population increased, their hard work and willingness to work for less pay drove racial tension and prompted violent attacks against Chinese immigrants in the Western United States. In 1886 major riots broke out in Seattle, prompting China and the US to enter into negotiations to limit immigration. Negotiations failed, and President Grover Cleveland signed the Scott Act, which permanently banned the immigration or return of Chinese laborers to the United States. Expanding upon the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the Scott Act left an estimated 20,000-30,000 Chinese outside the United States at the time of its passage stranded.
With little fanfare, President Grover Cleveland mentioned this in his 1888 annual message to Congress: ‘In a message accompanying my approval, on the 1st day of October last, of a bill for the exclusion of Chinese laborers, I laid before Congress full information and all correspondence touching the negotiation of the treaty with China concluded at this capital on the 12th day of March, 1888, and which, having been confirmed by the Senate with certain amendments, was rejected by the Chinese Government. This message contained a recommendation that a sum of money be appropriated as compensation to Chinese subjects who had suffered injuries at the hands of lawless men within our jurisdiction. Such appropriation having been duly made, the fund awaits reception by the Chinese Government. It is sincerely hoped that by the cessation of the influx of this class of Chinese subjects, in accordance with the expressed wish of both Governments, a cause of unkind feeling has been permanently removed.’
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