It is beyond the scope of this chapter to deal with this subject exhaustively, but in order to enable my readers 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.