Why gentlemens agreement

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 s and s. While they were initially welcomed, the honeymoon was short-lived. Efforts to halt Chinese immigration intensified after the Civil War. In fact, Dr. While that effort failed, the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law in 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. Finkelman explained that, until the mids, it was basically illegal for people to leave Japan, so there were very few Japanese in the United States. A treaty with Japan in had assured free immigration, but as the number of Japanese workers in California increased, they were met with growing hostility.

In August , Japan agreed to deny passports to laborers seeking to enter the United States; this, however, did not stop the many workers who obtained passports to Canada, Mexico , or Hawaii and then moved on to the United States.

Racial antagonism intensified, fed by inflammatory articles in the press. On May 7, , a Japanese and Korean Exclusion League was organized, and on October 11, , the San Francisco school board arranged for all Asian children to be placed in a segregated school. President Roosevelt, wishing to preserve good relations with Japan as a counter to Russian expansion in the Far East, intervened. While the American ambassador reassured the Japanese government, Roosevelt summoned the San Francisco mayor and school board to the White House in February and persuaded them to rescind the segregation order, promising that the federal government would itself address the question of immigration.

This was followed by the formal withdrawal of the San Francisco school board order on March 13, The agreement was superseded by the exclusionary Immigration Act of Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. All rights reserved. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. I hope that my message will smooth over their feelings so that the government will quietly stop all immigration of coolies into our country.

At any rate I shall do my best to bring this about. Densho Encyclopedia Context and Summary. Resources Harper's Weekly. Government letters; Journal articles. What class of immigrants does President Roosevelt wish to block?