Mr. Blaine to Mr. Lincoln.
Washington, October 22, 1890.
Sir: A concurrent resolution was approved by the Senate of the United States on May 2, 1890, and by the House of Representatives October 1, 1890, to the end of securing treaty stipulations for the prevention of the entry into this country of Chinese laborers from the adjacent countries, in the following words:
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the President, if in his opinion not incompatible with the public interests, be requested to enter into negotiations with the Governments of Great Britain and Mexico with a view to securing treaty stipulations with those Governments for the prevention of the entry of Chinese laborers from the Dominion of Canada and Mexico into the United States contrary to the laws of the United States.
The Government of Her Britannic Majesty can not have failed to perceive the grave embarrassments attending the application of diverse legislation to Chinese persons entering the ports of two neighboring countries, while a long stretch of inland frontier between those countries remains unguarded, or can only be watched with difficulty in order to prevent the influx by land of such Chinese as may have entered the adjacent State, whether lawfully or unlawfully. In case of Chinese surreptitiously entering the territory of one State, in violation of its laws, for the sole purpose of effecting transit across its jurisdiction and so gaining unlawful access to the neighboring State, the evil has lately reached such proportions as to suggest that a remedy is to be sought in the common interest of both countries.
I have therefore, by direction of the President, to instruct you to sound the Government of Her Britannic Majesty as to its willingness to enter into negotiations to the end proposed in the concurrent resolution above quoted, and, should a favorable disposition be manifested, you may ask a general expression of views as to the stipulations most likely to comport with the legislation of the Dominion of Canada concerning the treatment of Chinese labor immigration, together with a special consideration of the expediency of so shaping the negotiations by mutual understanding as to insure a reasonable uniform application of preventive measures in the United States, Great Britain, and Mexico.
I am, etc.,