Show The Scott Law Officially Construed WASHINGTON July 27The text o the opinion of the attorneygeneral in regard t the transit of Chinese laborers a follows fol-lows DEPARTMENT orJcsTice l WASHINGTON July23 1880 f To the Secretary of the Treasury SirI have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your two communications upon the subject of Chinese laborers passing pass-ing through the United States in the course of tbeirjourney to or from other countries he ono underdate of July 1 lost eiiclos nga letter from John W Foster consul of the Chinese legation and the other under date of July 20 enclosing one from the acting secretary of state and a copj of a telegram from the Chinene monister You state that certain Chinese laborers arrived at the port of New Orleans and are now awaiting a determination of the question ques-tion as to whether they have a right to pass through t San Francisco for the purpose pur-pose of embarking for China and I will hercforer thank you for an expression of your opinion this question at a early a day a possible In reply I would say that the same question arose under the act of May 01S33 22 statutes at large 58 and was submitted t this department and the opinion of December De-cember 2o 1832 reconsidering another opinion given The conclusions reached in that opinion I believe were correct Moreover More-over it appears that from that time the do partment of state uniformly and the treasury treas-ury department generally recognized and acted upon the construction there given at east down to the passage of the gven October Oc-tober 883 Manifestly the act of July 51884 2 statutes at large 15 did not render the opinion inapplicable t the question ques-tion submitted nor does the act of October 11838 known u the Scott exclusion net 2 statutes at large 5 affectitsapplication That act was directed t Chinese laborers who had been or might be residents and related to their departure and return I have been able t find no other legislation bearing materially upon the question but it is possible that some of the collectors of customs to whom you refer may have been influenced by the stringent provisions of the act of September 231833 2 statutes at large mj Tne restrictive provisions of that act however by its very terms do not take effect until the date of the exchange ex-change of theratifications of the pending treaty which date has not yet arrived I therefore adopt the carefully considered opinion of this department of December 2 1832 as expressing my views upon the question you submit without additional argument I return the enclosures u requested argment quested Very respectfully 0 W CHAPMAN Solicitor General Approved W H MILLER Attorney GeneraL Gen-eraL |