On the 13th day of last month I approved Senate bill No. 3304, "to
prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States." This bill
was intended to supplement the treaty, and was approved in the confident
anticipation of an early exchange of ratifications of the treaty and its
amendments and the proclamation of the same, upon which event the
legislation so approved was by its terms to take effect.
No information of any definite action upon the treaty by the Chinese
Government was received until the 21st ultimo--the day the bill which
I have just approved was presented to me--when a telegram from our
minister at Peking to the Secretary of State announced the refusal of
the Chinese Government to exchange ratifications of the treaty unless
further discussion should be had with a view to shorten the period
stipulated in the treaty for the exclusion of Chinese laborers and to
change the conditions agreed on, which should entitle any Chinese
laborer who might go back to China to return again to the United States.
By a note from the charge d'affaires _ad interim_ of China to the
Secretary of State, received on the evening of the 25th ultimo (a copy
of which is herewith transmitted, together with the reply thereto), a
third amendment is proposed, whereby the certificate under which any
departing Chinese laborer alleging the possession of property in the
United States would be enabled to return to this country should be
granted by the Chinese consul instead of the United States collector,
as had been provided in the treaty.
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