"Race, Federalism & Diplomacy: Looking at the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1908"

Monday, July 18th, 2016

Dr. Paul Finkelman, a legal historian who specializes in race relations and the law, was the TR Site’s featured speaker in June.  While his talk was called “Race, Federalism, and Diplomacy: Looking at the 1908 Gentlemen's Agreement,” he explained that agreement within the larger context of how the definition of so-called “bad immigrants” has morphed over time.

At the outset of his remarks, Dr. Finkelman reminded the audience that the United States has always – and remains today – a nation of immigrants.  What constitutes legal immigration has changed over time; so, too, has the idea of who is a “good” immigrant versus a “bad” immigrant.  In fact, according to Dr. Finkelman, the idea of “good” versus “bad” immigrants has been around for a very long time.  He pointed to William Bradford, the English Separatist who helped found Plymouth Colony in 1620 and served as its governor for many years.  In his various memoirs, Bradford mounts early attacks on “bad” immigrants, whom he referred to as “undesirables”.

Moving forward, the Alien Acts of 1798 were passed at a time when war between the United States and France seemed likely.  Collectively, they were designed not only to limit the political influence of immigrants, but also to discourage “bad” immigrants in the first place.  Among other things, the laws made immigrants from “enemy” nations completely ineligible for citizenship, changed the residency requirement for naturalization from five to fourteen years, and allowed the president to detain or deport aliens deemed "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States”.

A little more than a generation later, anti-immigrant sentiment and (in particular) anti-Catholic sentiment was so strong in the United States that the Know Nothing Party emerged and attracted many followers during the 1850s.  Locally, Millard Fillmore provided a high-profile connection to this movement and his position on the issue of immigration cost him the Catholic vote when he ran for New York State Governor in 1844.  In the 1856 presidential election (after having already served as president), Fillmore ran as the standard bearer of the Know Nothing Party, after professing his “dread and apprehension at the corrupting influence which the contest for the foreign vote is exciting upon our elections.”

As a counterpoint to the nativist ideas of the mid-19th century, Dr. Finkelman asked the audience to consider Abraham Lincoln’s words, from a letter dated August 24, 1855:

“How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we begin by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, andforeigners, and Catholics.’”

Lincoln saw immigration as vital to the nation’s continuing growth and thought that excluding immigrants from political participation was counterproductive.  From a practical point of view, it is also important to note that immigrants made significant contributions to the Civil War effort.

That said, even Lincoln was willing to place restrictions on Chinese immigration.  The earliest Chinese immigrants came to California during the Gold Rush of the late 1840s and 1850s.  While they were initially welcomed, the honeymoon was short-lived.  Beginning in 1852, California passed a series of laws (like the Foreign Miners’ License Tax) targeting Chinese immigrants.  Efforts to halt Chinese immigration intensified after the Civil War.  In fact, Dr. Finkelman pointed out that some lawmakers from California did not want the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to extent to Chinese immigrants.  While that effort failed, the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law in 1882.  It was the first law to significantly restrict immigration to the United States, and dramatically decreased the number of Chinese immigrants.

One might wonder why anti-immigrant legislation was so focused on excluding the Chinese, and seemed to ignore -- for instance -- immigrants from Japan .  Dr. Finkelman explained that, until the mid-1880s, it was basically illegal for people to leave Japan, so there were very few Japanese in the United States.  Japan itself was undergoing a dramatic transformation (brought about by the Meiji Restoration), from a feudal society to a modern/westernized country.  By the time Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States, Japan had already emerged victorious from a war with China and was well on its way to establishing itself as a world power.

Shortly thereafter, Japan and Russia clashed over territorial ambitions in Korea and Manchuria.  Japan’s victories were a surprise to many and reaffirmed its position as a formidable military power.  When TR helped broker a peace between the two nations,  he came away from the talks with a great respect for Japan and the Japanese people.  TR found the Japanese negotiators to be honorable and trustworthy.

California, which was experiencing an influx of Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s, did not share TR’s admiration and saw the newcomers as “bad” immigrants.  In 1906, San Francisco’s Board of Education announced plans to force Japanese students to attend racially-segregated schools.  Japan was outraged and viewed the plan as a violation of the 1894 treaty it had signed with the United States, which guaranteed Japanese expatriates the same rights and privileges as American citizens.

TR was also pretty outraged by the situation, but since race relations and public education were both regulated at the state/local level at the turn-of-the-20th-century, his options -- even as the nation’s president -- were somewhat limited.  When his request that the San Francisco school board reconsider its plan fell on deaf ears, TR’s best bet was to challenge the ordinance in court (hardly a speedy way to resolve an issue with international implications!).  Meanwhile, in a letter to a Japanese official, he explained that the American system of government makes it difficult for the federal government to respond quickly to local statues.

In an effort to save face while addressing the concerns of all involved, a so-called Gentlemen’s Agreement was negotiated. Under the terms of this “handshake” deal,  Japan agreed to limit emigration (this was preferable to the United States adding insult to injury by actually restricting Japanese immigration).  Further, the United States was given the right to exclude indirect Japanese immigrants (those arriving from, for example, Canada or Mexico). Once this was in place, San Francisco school board rescinded its segregation order.

Dr. Finkelman lamented the Gentlemen’s Agreement as a turning point in US-Japanese relations.  Prior to this episode, most Japanese believed that the US was a “friend” of Japan.  This perception was dramatically changed by the events of 1906-08 and, according to Dr. Finkelman, was the first step in declining relations that eventually led to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

By way of conclusion, Dr. Finkelman asked the audience to consider the how the categories of “good” and “bad” immigrants have shaped the nation’s history.  He also encouraged us to think about how these ideas live on in our contemporary world.

-- Lenora M. Henson, Curator / Director of Public Programming

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