Was he
to be denied a living in his own country because of these strangers? For
this reason the working people became very bitter toward the Chinese.
Their complaints were carried to Washington, and because of them the
government finally arranged with China for the restriction of
immigration, but not, however, before the matter caused much trouble in
California.
During the years 1876-77 times were rightly called "hard" along the
Pacific slope. Often laboring men could not get work, and their families
suffered. The blame for all this was unjustly given to the Chinese, who
were several times badly treated by mobs. The general discontent led at
last to a demand for a new state constitution, which many people thought
would remedy the evils of which they complained. For twenty-five years
the old constitution had done good service. On the day it had been
signed, Walter Colton, alcalde of Monterey, wrote thus of it in his
diary: "It is thoroughly democratic; its basis, political and social
equality, is the creed of the thousands who run the plow, wield the
plane, the hammer, the trowel, the spade.
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