Asia-Pacific in the Making of the Americas: Toward a Global History

Protesting Chinese Exclusion

Since his teaching responsibilities hardly taxed him at all, Williams devoted substantial time and energy to the plight of the Chinese living in the United States. By the late 1870s, the so-called “Chinese question” had become the topic of a national debate. The anti-Chinese movement began in California where most of the Chinese population lived and worked. After the market crash of 1873 threw many Americans out of work, demagogues like Dennis Kearney, who claimed to speak for the interests of white labor, castigated industries for letting white workers go and hiring less expensive Chinese immigrants in their places. Kearney simultaneously used incendiary language to incite unemployed white workers, prodding them to channel their rage towards the Chinese. At political rallies and in the newspapers, the Chinese were painted as human vermin who took industrial jobs from deserving white Americans, added nothing to society, and sent their earnings back to China. In 1877, Kearney started the Working Man’s Party, whose members rallied under the slogan, “The Chinese must go!”  

In 1878, Kearney took his anti-Chinese campaign onto the national stage. Though pro-business politicians in the Republican Party might have defended the Chinese, their pragmatism instead dictated that they too adopt an anti-Chinese platform. Many joined in the ruthless scapegoating of the Chinese so as to secure some of the anti-Chinese vote. In 1882, this tragic drama culminated in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. A nation that had once critiqued China for its exclusionary policies towards foreigners had built its own Great Wall out of legislation. 

Filled with indignation, Williams stepped forward as an advocate for Chinese immigrants in the late 1870s and early 1880s. He gave talks on the subject, published several articles that refuted the arguments of the anti-Chinese demagogues, took a trip to Washington to address Congress, and even sent a letter to President Rutherford B. Hayes arguing against the exclusion of Chinese immigrants. This letter was written by Williams and contained dozens of signatures from members of the Yale faculty. 

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