At the time I wrote this the shocking occurrences at Rock Springs, in
Wyoming Territory, were fresh in the minds of all, and had been recently
presented anew to the attention of this Government by the Chinese
minister in a note which, while not unnaturally exhibiting some
misconception of our Federal system of administration in the Territories
while they as yet are not in the exercise of the full measure of that
sovereign self-government pertaining to the States of the Union,
presents in truthful terms the main features of the cruel outrage there
perpetrated upon inoffensive subjects of China. In the investigation of
the Rock Springs outbreak and the ascertainment of the facts on which
the Chinese minister's statements rest the Chinese representatives were
aided by the agents of the United States, and the reports submitted,
having been thus framed and recounting the facts within the knowledge of
witnesses on both sides, possess an impartial truthfulness which could
not fail to give them great impressiveness.
The facts, which so far are not controverted or affected by any
exculpatory or mitigating testimony, show the murder of a number of
Chinese subjects in September last at Rock Springs, the wounding of many
others, and the spoliation of the property of all when the unhappy
survivors had been driven from their habitations. There is no allegation
that the victims by any lawless or disorderly act on their part
contributed to bring about a collision; on the contrary, it appears that
the law-abiding disposition of these people, who were sojourners in our
midst under the sanction of hospitality and express treaty obligations,
was made the pretext for an attack upon them.
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