We wish ... to ask the American people to remember that the Chinese in this country have been for the most part peaceable and industrious. We have kept no whiskey saloons, and have had no drunken brawls, resulting in manslaughter. . . . We have toiled patiently to build your railroads, to aid in harvesting your fruits and grain, and to reclaim your swamp lands. . . . In the mining regions our people have been satisfied with claims deserted by the white men. As a people we have the reputation, even here and now, of paying faithfully our rents, our taxes and our debts.421

Chinese Question, a Californian View. - In a recent number of a popular magazine, a Californian writes:

[These Chinese laborers] house themselves in rough huts of five or six rooms. Such huts no respectable white family could occupy without a feeling of social degradation. They sleep in bunks or in lofts, from six to twenty in a house, and cook over a furnace or broken stove. The cellars beneath are . . . opium dens. ... The ordinary diet of the vast body of Chinese laborers consists of tea and rice, and a few varieties of vegetables.... The common foods of America, bread, butter, milk, sugar, and coffee, the dried fruit, the various meats and delicacies which add so much to the wellbeing and content of our laboring classes, never appear upon the tables in the Chinese quarters. . . . Their dress is scantier than that of the humblest white workman. . . It is safe to say that the average cost of food and shelter to the Chinese laborer in California is not more than $5.00 per month. . . .422

Others, however, say with Hannibal Hamlin :

I believe in principles coeval with the foundation of government, that this country is the "home of the free," where the outcast of every nation, where the child of every creed and of every clime could breathe our free air and participate in our free institutions.423

STUDY ON 6.

1. Make a list of the countries of Europe from which our immigrants come, putting first the country which sends out the most people to us, second the country which sends the next largest number, etc. 2. Why do all these people come to us, instead of staying at home? 3. What reasons do you see in the case of the Irish immigrants described? 4. What proves that it was not their own fault they were so poor in the old country? 5. How can they get rich in this country? 6. Why is it better for them to go out West than to stay in the East? 7. Why do some people think we ought to let everybody immigrate who wants to come? 8. Why can a Chinaman work for less than an American? 9. If both do their work equally well, which will get the work to do? 10. What will happen to the other? 11. What class of Americans will not want Chinamen to immigrate? 12. Who will want them to come? 13. Why should the Chinese think it strange that we do not like to have them come? 14. If the immigrants stay with us, what can we do to change them into Americans? 15. What use have we for those who stay? 16. Where did your own family come from as far back as you can find out about it? 17. What makes you an American?

7. LIST OF IMPORTANT EVENTS, 1865-1895. A. 1865-1869. - Second administration of Abraham Lincoln.

Andrew Johnson, Vice-President. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Johnson becomes President.

1865. Reorganization of Southern States on President's plan; he appoints provisional governors, who call conventions of white voters, who make new constitutions; these repeal the ordinances of secession, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery forever, adopted by all the states.

Longfellow, Bryant, Whittier, Emerson, Bancroft, Parkman, Hawthorne, continue their work.

Francis Bret Harte begins his work, writing novels and poems on American subjects, largely Western.

Henry James begins to write his novels, dealing with American and foreign society.

Cornell University founded.

1866. — Atlantic Ocean Telegraph successfully laid between Newfoundland and Ireland. Tennessee readmitted to the Union.

1867. Alaska bought from Russia by the United States for $7,200,000. Nebraska admitted to the Union.

Congressional Reconstruction Acts passed over the veto of the President. (See p. 377.)

Congress passes the Tenure of Office Act over the veto of the President, forbidding him to remove high officers without the consent of the Senate. 1868. President Johnson removes Edwin M. Stanton from his office as Secretary of War; impeached by House of Representatives; tried and acquitted by the Senate.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, readmitted to the Union.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, giving negroes full rights as citizens, adopted.

William Dean Howells begins his stories of American life and society.

B. 1869-1877. — Administrations of Ulysses S. Grant, candidate of

the Republican party.

Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President, 1869-1873.
Henry Wilson, Vice-President, 1873-1877.

1869.- First Pacific Railway com

pleted.

Hubert Howe Bancroft begins arranging his materials for a great history of the states of the Pacific slope.

1870.

Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia readmitted to the Union. Union complete. Continuous troubles in South with carpet-baggers and from the Ku Klux Klan.

1871. Treaty of Washington with Great Britain, in regard to the Alabama Claims, the Fishing question, North-western boundary. According to this treaty, all these matters are referred to Arbitration.

1872. — The Geneva Arbitration decides the Alabama Claims. (See p. 379.)

The Credit Mobilier affair; bribery of members of Congress by the Pacific Railroad.

Prohibition party organized for a national campaign.

1873. War with the Modoc Indians.

1875.- Whiskey ring in the West; a combination of whiskey dealers to cheat Congress out of the taxes on whiskey.

1876. Colorado admitted to the Union.

War with Sioux Indians, led by Sitting Bull, on account of the invasion of the Black Hills by the miners; massacre of General Custer and his force. Celebration of the Centennial of the Declaration of Independence.

Anti-Chinese crusade begins in California. (See p. 388.)

Disputed Presidential election; the matter referred to an electoral commission, which decides for the Republicans.

1877-1881.- Administration of Rutherford B. Hayes, candidate of the Republican party.

William A. Wheeler, Vice-President.

1877. Indian War with Chief Joseph and the Nez-Percé Indians, on account of their removal from their old reservation.

Many railroad strikes; at Pittsburgh nearly a hundred lives are lost. About this time electric lights, electric telephones, and other applications of electricity become common.

1879. Great development of New Mexican mines begins.

1880. Treaty of United States

with China, limiting immigration.

George Washington Cable begins writing his stories of Southern life.

1876.- Johns Hopkins University founded.

Henry W. Grady begins his work as editor in Atlanta.

C. 1881-1885. — Administration of James A. Garfield, candidate of

the Republican party.

Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President.

After Garfield's

assassination in 1881, Arthur becomes President.

1881. 1882.

Trouble with Mormons about polygamy.

Standard Oil Trust established. Beginning of Trusts.

1883. — Beginning of Civil Service Reform by act of Congress. 1884. Armed mob of Cincinnati citizens tries to lynch murderers con

fined in the jail, because the courts are not severe enough.

Many independent voters (Mugwumps). Prohibition party enters Presidential field. Beginning of a new American navy.

Bartholdi's statue of Liberty enlightening the World presented to America by France.

International cotton exposition held at New Orleans.

D. 1885-1889.

- Administration of Grover Cleveland, candidate of Democratic party.

Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice-President.

1885. Negotiations for building Nicaragua Canal begin.

Outrages against Chinamen.

1886. Bartholdi's statue received.

Many great strikes; notably a street-car strike in New York and Brooklyn; one of railroad employees; and one of Chicago packers.

Knights of Labor strongly organized. Socialist riots in Chicago, in which eighty persons are killed. Anarchists arrested in Chicago for inciting to riot and bloodshed.

1887. Chicago Anarchists executed. Labor riot in New York City. Important strikes during every month of the year.

Difficulties with England in regard to fishing rights in the Canadian waters and in Behring Sea. - Dawes Bill passed. (See p. 398.)

1888. Much bribing of voters in the Presidential election; ballot reform agitation begins; many mugwumps. Much talk of a political union with Canada.

Congress passes a bill prohibiting Chinese immigration for twenty years. Great railroad and other strikes, with riots.

- Administration of Benjamin Harrison, candidate of the Republican party.

Levi P. Morton, Vice-President.

1889. - North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington admitted to the Union.

Trouble with Germany over Samoa; settled by a conference.

Oklahoma in Indian Territory opened to settlement.

Three days' festival in New York in memory of the completion of the Constitution by the Inaugural of Washington.

Troops ordered out to disperse striking miners in Pennsylvania.
Legislation against trusts begins.

United States declares that it alone has fishing-rights in Behring Sea; England maintains that Behring Sea is a part of the Pacific Ocean, and free to all.

Ballot-reform laws passed in various states.

Pan-American Congress, representing ten American Republics, meets at Washington.