But if they come for citizenship, then, as I said this morning, do they give the pledge of loyalty to the Republic; and how can you fear them, if they enter your courts and with oaths and witnesses ask to be incorporated with our…

Does the Senator suppose that he feels more keenly the oath which he took at that desk than a Chinese might feel it?

What! a soldier, and afraid!” What! a Senator of the United States anxious about a million of Chinese twenty-five or thirty years from now absorbed in that mighty one hundred millions which will then compose our population!

Let the Senator put trust in the Republic, and those ideas which are its strength and glory.

The Senator from Oregon wound up another passage by charging me and those who voted with me, particularly myself, with an intention, or with conduct calculated,--I quote now his own words,--“to put the destinies of this nation into the…

By what hocus-pocus, by what necromancy, by what heathen magic will these Joss-worshippers obtain the great ascendency?

Why, Sir, it is to disparage this Republic of ours, it is to belittle it, when you imagine any such thing.

The peril exists only in imagination; it is an illusion, not a reality.

Has any Senator read the system of Confucius, uttered before that of the Saviour, and yet containing truths marvellously in harmony with those which fell from his lips?

Throughout this great, populous empire the truths of Confucius have been ever regarded as we regard our Scriptures.

They are the lesson for the young and the old, and the rule for government and for rulers; they are full of teachings of virtue.

And yet will any Senator rise here and say that a Frenchman, that a Russian, shall not be admitted to naturalization?

Well, Sir, I think the people of Massachusetts know their Senator well enough to be assured that he is willing to have justice on this earth.

They desire to see the Declaration of Independence no longer a promise, but a living letter.

I stand here on the ancient ways,--those ways that were laid down by the Fathers of the Republic, and where I wish forevermore to keep the Republic sure.

I insist that at this day, at this stage of our history, the statutes of the land shall be brought into harmony with the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence.

Strike out the word “white,” which nowhere appears in the Constitution, and which is positively prohibited by the Declaration of Independence.

And so this question will never be settled until it is settled according to the great principles of justice.

Adopt the amendment which I have proposed, strike out the word “white,” and the harmony will begin.

From this time the debate will proceed, and what is said here will find its echoes and reverberations throughout the whole land and be returned to us from the Pacific coast, never to die out until the good cause prevails and all the…

Why, Sir, the words of the Declaration of Independence were not uttered in vain.

They are living words, by which this country is solemnly bound, and from which it can never escape until they are all fulfilled.

Therefore do I entreat you, Senators, do not lose this precious opportunity.

It comes to you now unexpectedly, perhaps; but what is there in life more golden than opportunity, whether to country, to community, or to individuals?

Use it wisely; use it bravely; use it so that you will secure peace, harmony, and reconciliation.