Up to this time our uncovenanted hospitality to immigration, our
fearless liberality of citizenship, our equal and comprehensive
justice to all inhabitants, whether they abjured their foreign
nationality or not, our civil freedom, and our religious toleration
had made all comers welcome, and under these protections the Chinese
in considerable numbers had made their lodgment upon our soil.
The Burlingame treaty undertakes to deal with this situation, and its
fifth and sixth articles embrace its most important provisions in this
regard and the main stipulations in which the Chinese Government has
secured an obligatory protection of its subjects within our territory.
They read as follows:
ART. V. The United States of America and the Emperor of China
cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to
change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of
the free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects
respectively from the one country to the other for purposes of
curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents. The high contracting
parties therefore join in reprobating any other than an entirely
voluntary emigration for these purposes. They consequently agree to
pass laws making it a penal offense for a citizen of the United States
or Chinese subjects to take Chinese subjects either to the United
States or to any other foreign country, or for a Chinese subject or
citizen of the United States to take citizens of the United States
to China or to any other foreign country, without their free and
voluntary consent, respectively.
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