| OCR Text |
Show It is tolerably certain that President ?[Arthur's] veto of the Chinese bill will give the democrats heavy reinforcements at the next elections held on the Pacific coast, both state and national. The comments of the California press upon the veto indicate a feeling of deep disappointment and indignation respecting it which, it is claimed, is slurred by republicans and democrat alike, and some of the republican newspapers have admitted the great advantage the veto will give to the democrats at the next elections. The president, however, is likely to have an opportunity to retrieve, at least in part, the political prestige lost to the administration and party by the veto, as ?[another] ?[ont, and] Chinese bill passed the House on the 17th inst. ?[instance]. It is a modification of the measure ?[closed] by the president and passed by a vote of 101 to 37, a large majority. If it receives an equally emphatic approval in the Senate, it is not likely that the president will try the experiment of another veto, as more than the two thirds vote necessary to defy him will have been secured. Besides this, there has been such a storm of indignation occasioned by the veto that it is unlikely President Arthur will care to face another like it; hence we may look to see severe restrictions placed upon the immigration of Chinese into this country. Thus the old and vital principles of the American constitution and of that theory of human rights that gave rise to it, are being attacked and subverted, one by one. Chinese immigration once restricted, a precedent will be established that will very likely be used in future as a ?[pretext by] a law to prohibit the coming to this country of the natives of other countries, and the character of our glorious union, as an asylum for the oppressed of all nation, that has so long been its proud boast, will be destroyed. |
