in Congress a bill limiting to fifteen the Chinese passengers that any ship might bring to the United States on a single voyage, and requiring the captains of such vessels to register at the port of entry a list of their Chinese passengers.  The Senate added an amendment requesting the President to notify the Chinese Government that the section of the Burlingame treaty insuring reciprocal interchange of citizens was abrogated.  After a very brief debate the measure that so flagrantly defied an international treaty passed both houses.  It was promptly vetoed, however, by President Hayes on the ground that it violated a treaty which a friendly nation had carefully observed.  If the Pacific cities had cause of complaint, the President preferred to remedy the situation by the “proper course of diplomatic negotiations."[47]

The President accordingly appointed a commission, under the chairmanship of James B. Angell, president of the University of Michigan, to negotiate a new treaty.  The commission proceeded to China and completed its task in November, 1880.  The new treaty provided that, “whenever, in the opinion of the Government of the United States, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States, or their residence therein, affects or threatens to affect the interests of that country, or to endanger the good order of the said country or of any locality within the territory thereof, the Government of China agrees that the Government of the United States may regulate, limit, or suspend such coming or residence, but may not absolutely prohibit it.”  Other Chinese subjects who had come to the United States, “as travelers, merchants, or for curiosity,” and laborers already in the United States, were to “be allowed to go and come of their own free will,” with all of the “rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions which are accorded to the citizens of the most favored nation.”  The United States furthermore undertook to protect the Chinese in the United States against “ill treatment” and to “devise means for their protection.”

Two years after the ratification of this treaty, a bill was introduced to prohibit the immigration of Chinese labor for twenty years.  Both the great political parties had included the subject in their platforms in 1880.  The Democrats had espoused exclusion and were committed to “No more Chinese immigration”; the Republicans had preferred restriction by “just, humane, and reasonable laws.”  The bill passed, but President Arthur vetoed it on the ground that prohibiting immigration for so long a period transcended the provisions of the treaty.  A bill which was then passed shortening the period of the restriction to ten years received the President’s signature, and on August 5, 1882, America shut the door in the face of Chinese labor.