Mr. CONNESS. Mr. President, I have failed to learn, from what the Senator has said, what relation what he has said has to the 1st section of the constitutional amendment before us; but that part of the question I propose leaving to the honorable gentleman who has charge of this resolution. As, however, the State of California has been so carefully guarded from time to time by the Senfrom Pennsylvania and others, and the passage, not only of this amendment, but of the socalled civil rights bill, has been deprecated because of its pernicious influence upon society in California, owing to the coatiguity of the Chinese and Mongolians to that favored land, I may be excused for saying a few words on the subject. If my friendfrom Pennsylvania, who professes to know all about Gypsies and little about Chinese, knew as much of the Chinese and their habits as he professes to do of the Gypsies, (and which I concede to him, for I know nothing to the contrary,) he would not be alarmed in our behalf because of the operation of the proposition before the Senate, or even the proposition contained in the civil rights bill, so far as it involves the' Chinese and us. The proposition before us, I will say, Mr. President, relates simply in that respect to the children begotten of Chinese parents in california, and it is proposed to declare that they shall be citizens. We have declared that by law; now it is proposed to incorporate the same provision in the fundamental instrument of the nation. I am in favor of doing so. I voted for the proposition to declare that the children of all parentage whatever, born in California, should be regarded and treated as citizens of the U.S., entitled to equal civil rights with other citizens of the U.S. Now, I will say, for the benefit of my friend, that he may know something about the Chinese in future. that this portion of our population, namely, the children of Mongolian parentage, born in California, is very small indeed, and never promises to be large, notwithstanding our near neighborhood to the Celestial land. The habits of those people, and their religion, appear to demand that they all return to their own country at some time or other, either alive or dead. There are, perhaps, in California to day about 40,000 Chinese from 40 to 45,000. Those persons return invariably, while others take their places, and, as I before observed, if they do not return alive their bones are carefully gathered up and sent back to the Flowery Land. It is not an unusual circumstance that the clipperships trading between SanFrancisco and China carry at a imn. 3 or 400 human remains of these Chinese. When interred in our State they are not interred deep in the earth, but laid very near the surface, and then mounds of earth are laid over them, so that the process of disinterment is very easy. That is their habit and custom; and as soon as they are fit for transmission to their own country they are taken up with great regularity and sent there. None of their bones are allowed to remain. They will return, then, either living or dead. Another feature connected with them is, that they do not bring their females to our country but in very limited numbers, and rarely ever in connection with families; so that their progeny in California is very small indeed. From the description we have had from the honorable Senfrom Pennsylvania of the Gypsies, the progeny of all Mongolians in California is not so formidable in numbers as that of the Gypsies in Pennsylvania. We are not troubled With them at all. Indeed, it is only in exceptional cases that they have children in our State; and therefore the alarming aspect of the application of this provision to California, or any other land to which the Chinese may come as immigrants is simply a fiction in the brain of persons who deprecate it, and that alone. I wish now to address a few words to what “the Senfrom Pennsylvania has said as to the rights that California may claim as against the incursion of objectionable population from other States and countries. The State of California at various times has passed laws restrictive of Chinese immigration. It will be remembered that the Chinese came to our State, as others did from all parts tot‘ the world, to gather gold in large quantities, it being found there. The interference with our own people in the mines by them was deprecated by and generally obJectionable to the miners in California. The Chinese are regarded also, not with favor as an addition to the population in a social point of view; not that there is any intercourse between the 2 classes of persons there, but they are not regarded as pleasant neighbors; their habits are not of a character that make them at all an inviting class to have near you, and the people so generally regard them. But in their habits otherwise, they are a docile, industrious people, and they are now passing from mining into other branches of industry and labor. They are found employed as servants in a great many families and in the kitchens of hotels; they are found as farm hands in the fields; and latterly they are employed by 1000s indeed, I suppose there are from 6 to 7,000 of them now employed in building the Pacific railroad. They are there found to be very valuable laborers, patient and effective; and, I suppose, before the present year closes, ten or 15,000 of them, at least, will be employed on that great work. The State of California has undertaken, at different times, to pass restrictive statutes as to the Chinese. the State has imposed a tax on their right to work the mines, and collected it ever since the State has been organized a tax of 4 dollars a month on each Chinaman; but the Chinese could afford to pay that and still work in the mines, and they have done so. Various acts have been passed imposing a poll tax or head tax, a capitation tax, upon their arrival at the port of SanFrancisco; but. all such laws, when tested before the supreme court of the State of California, the supreme tribunal of that people, have been decided to be unconstitutional and void.