Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The convention between our Government and Chile having for its object
the settlement and adjustment of the demand of the two countries
against each other has been made effective by he organization of the
claims commission provided for. The two Governments failing to agree
upon the third member of the commission, the good offices of the
President of the Swiss Republic were invoked, as provided in the
treaty, and the selection of the Swiss representative in this country
to complete the organization was gratifying alike to the United States
and Chile.
The vexatious question of so-called legation asylum for offenders
against the state and its laws was presented anew in Chile by the
unauthorized action of the late United States minister in receiving
into his official residence two persons who had just failed in an
attempt at revolution and against whom criminal charges were pending
growing out of a former abortive disturbance. The doctrine of asylum as
applied to this case is not sanctioned by the best precedents, and when
allowed tends to encourage sedition and strife. Under no circumstances
can the representatives of this Government be permitted, under the
ill-defined fiction of extraterritoriality, to interrupt the
administration of criminal justice in the countries to which they are
accredited. A temperate demand having been made by the Chilean
Government for the correction of this conduct in the instance
mentioned, the minister was instructed no longer to harbor the
offenders.
The legislation of last year known as the Geary law, requiring the
registration of all Chinese laborers entitled to residence in the
United States and the deportation of all not complying with the
provisions of the act within the time prescribed, met with much
opposition from Chinamen in this country. Acting upon the advice of
eminent counsel that the law was unconstitutional, the great mass of
Chinese laborers, pending judicial inquiry as to its validity, in good
faith declined to apply for the certificates required by its
provisions. A test case upon proceeding by habeas corpus was brought
before the Supreme Court, and on May 15, 1893, a decision was made by
that tribunal sustaining the law.
It is believed that under the recent amendment of the act extending the
time for registration the Chinese laborers thereto entitled who desire
to reside in this country will now avail themselves of the renewed
privilege thus afforded of establishing by lawful procedure their right
to remain, and that thereby the necessity of enforced deportation may
to a great degree be avoided.
It has devolved upon the United States minister at Peking, as dean of
the diplomatic body, and in the absence of a representative of Sweden
and Norway, to press upon the Chinese Government reparation for the
recent murder of Swedish missionaries at Sung-pu. This question is of
vital interest to all countries whose citizens engage in missionary
work in the interior.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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