60 A Chinese American Protest

Published letter to Governor John Bigler from Norman Asing as published in the San Francisco Daily Alta California, May 5, 1852

Introduction to Primary Source:

Norman Asing’s pointed letter to Governor John Bigler reflects the concerns of many Chinese immigrants living in the United States in the 1850s. Initial welcome had turned to hostility, and as anti-Chinese sentiment grew, Chinese immigrants found themselves the target of racial violence and efforts to permanently drive them out of California. Anti-Chinese politicians and labor leaders depicted the Chinese as a threat to the life and livelihood of white Americans. The California legislature reacted by declaring the Chinese a menace to the well-being of the state’s mining industry. In response to public demands for action, Governor Bigler gave a speech on April 25, 1852, echoing the arguments of anti-Chinese labor leaders and advocating for restrictions on Chinese immigration. The San Francisco Daily Alta California published Asing’s letter to Bigler on May 5, 1852. The letter boldly attacks and counters anti-Chinese rhetoric at the same time that it represents the heroic efforts of the Chinese American community to directly combat racial prejudice.

Primary Document:

To His Excellency Gov. Bigler,

Sir:—I am a Chinaman, a republican, and a lover of free institutions; am much attached to the principles of the Government of the United States, and therefore take the liberty of addressing you as the chief of the Government of this State. Your official position gives you a great opportunity of good or evil. Your opinions through a message to a legislative body have weight, and perhaps none more so with the people, for the effect of your late message has been thus far to prejudice the public mind against my people, to enable those who wait the opportunity to hunt them down, and rob them of the rewards of their toil. You may not have meant that this should be the case, but you can see what will be the result of your propositions.

I am not much acquainted with your logic, that by excluding population from this State you enhance its wealth. I have always considered that population was wealth; particularly a population of producers, of men who by the labor of their hands or intellect, enrich the warehouses or the granaries of the country with the products of nature and art. You are deeply convinced you say “that to enhance the prosperity and to preserve the tranquility of this State, Asiatic immigration must be checked.” This, your Excellency, is but one step towards a retrograde movement of the Government, which, on reflection, you will discover; and which the citizens of this country ought never to tolerate. It was one of the principal causes of quarrel between you (when colonies) and England; when the latter pressed laws against emigration, you looked for immigration; it came, and immigration made you what you are—your nation what it is. It transferred you at once from childhood to manhood, and made you great and respectable throughout the nations of the earth. I am sure your Excellency cannot, if you would, prevent your being called the descendant of an immigrant, for I am sure you do not boast of being a descendant of the red men. But your further logic is more reprehensible. You argue that this is a republic of a particular race—that the constitution of the United States admits of no asylum to any other than the pale face. This proposition is false in the extreme; and you know it. The declaration of your independence, and all the acts of your government, your people, and your history, are against you.

It is true, you have degraded the negro because of your holding him in involuntary servitude, and because for the sake of union in some of your states such was tolerated, and amongst this class you would endeavor to place us; and no doubt it would be pleasing to some would-be freemen to mark the brand of servitude upon us. But we would beg to remind you that when your nation was a wilderness, and the nation from whom you sprung barbarous, we exercised most of the arts and virtues of civilized life; that we are possessed of a language and literature, and that men skilled in science and the arts are numerous among us; that the productions of our manufactories, our sail and work-shops, form no small share of the commerce of the world; and that for centuries colleges, schools, charitable institutions, asylums and hospitals, have been as common as in your own land. That our people cannot be reproved for their idleness, and that your historians have given them due credit for the variety and richness of their works of art, and for their simplicity of manners, and particularly their industry. And we beg to remark, that so far as the history of our race in California goes, it stamps with the test of truth the fact that we are not the degraded race you would make us. We came amongst you as mechanics or traders, and following every honorable business of life. You do not find us pursuing occupations of degrading character, except you consider labor degrading, which I am sure you do not; and if our countrymen save the proceeds of their industry from the tavern and the gambling house, to spend it in the purchase of farms or town lots or on their families, surely you will admit that even these are virtues. You say “you desire to see no change in the generous policy of this Government as far as regards Europe-ans.” It is out of your power to say, however, in what way or to whom the doctrines of the Constitution shall apply. You have no more right to propose a measure for checking immigration, than you have to assume the right of sending a message to the Legislature on the subject. As far as regards the color and complexion of our race, we are perfectly aware that our population have been a little more tanned than yours.

Your Excellency will discover, however, that we are as much allied to the African race or the red man as you are yourself, and that as far as the aristocracy of skin is concerned, ours might compare with many of the Euro-pean races; nor do we consider that your Excellency, as a Democrat, will make us believe that the framers of your declaration of rights ever suggested the propriety of establishing an aristocracy of skin. I am a naturalized citizen, your Excellency, of Charleston, South Carolina, and a Christian too; and so hope you will stand corrected in your assertion “that none of the Asiatic class,” as you are pleased to term them, “have applied for benefits under our naturalization act.” I could point out to you numbers of citizens, all over the whole continent, who have taken advantage of your hospitality and citizenship, and I defy you to say that our race have ever abused that hospitality or forfeited their claim on this or any of the governments of South America, by an infringement on the laws of the countries into which they pass. You find us peculiarly peaceable and orderly. It does not cost your State much for our criminal prosecution. We apply less to your courts for redress, and so far as I know, there are none that are a charge upon the State as paupers.

You say that “gold, with its talismanic power, has over-come those natural habits of non-intercourse we have upon your people, and the people of other countries, who have migrated hither? Why it was gold that filled your country, (formerly a desert,) with people; filled your harbors with ships, and opened our much coveted trade to the enterprise of your merchants.

You cannot, in the face of facts that stare you in the face, assert that the cupidity of which you speak is ours alone; so that your Excellency will perceive that in this age a change of cupidity would not tell. Thousands of your own citizens come here to dig gold, with the idea of returning as speedily as they can.

We think you are in error, however, in this respect, as many of us, and many more, will acquire a domicil amongst you.

But, for the present, I shall take leave of your Excellency, and shall resume this question upon another occasion; which I hope you will take into consideration in a spirit of candor. Your predecessor pursued a different line of conduct towards us, as will appear by reference to his message.

I have the honor to be, your Excellency’s very obedient servant,

NORMAN ASING.