to understand the exact situation it is necessary to supply
a short historical summary. In 1868, on account of the pressing need
of good laborers for the construction of railways and other public works
in America, the Governments of China and the United States,
concluded a treaty which provided that "Chinese subjects
visiting or residing in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges,
immunities, and exemptions in respect to travel or residence
as may be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation."
It was a treaty negotiated by that great American statesman, Secretary Seward,
and announced by the President of the United States to Congress
as a "liberal and auspicious treaty". It was welcomed by the United States
as a great advance in their international relations.
It had also the double significance of having been negotiated
by a Chinese special embassy, of which a distinguished American diplomat,
Mr. Anson Burlingame, who was familiar with the wishes and interests
of the American people, was the head.

But within a few years the labor unions on the Pacific coast
began to object to the competition of Chinese laborers.
Soon afterward the Chinese Government, to its intense surprise,
was informed that the President of the United States
had delegated a commission to come to Peking to solicit
an abrogation of the treaty clause to which reference has been made.
The Chinese Government was naturally unwilling to abrogate a treaty
which had been urged on her by the United States with so much zeal,
and which had so lately been entered upon on both sides with such high hopes.
Long and tedious negotiations ensued, and finally a short treaty
was concluded, the first and second Articles of which are as follows: