William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

“ [257] wants roast turkey and cocktail, and a good supply of each.” Under a system of equal laws, the Negro would be unable to keep a footing in the labour market of America, in presence of his thrifty, docile, and intelligent brother of the Yellow race.

Ah Tim invites us to his shanty, where his wife makes tea, and his two little boys roll and wallow in the mud. Tim is a curious fellow; cold, prosaic, worldly; with the hard and callous brain which American poets have not ascribed unjustly to the “ Heathen Chinee.” Unlike his countrymen as a rule, Tim is a man of politics. He owes no money to tihe companies. He has no reason to fear their spies and head-men. He is a native of the soil, and has no wish to see Canton. He wants his rights; he wants to have a vote; he wants his neighbours to have votes. Tim was the first Chinee born in California. As a native, he has the right of standing for any office. If he had his dues, according to the American Constitution, he might stand against General Grant for the Presidency. But the White people in California set the Constitution at defiance, as Ah Tim believes, by pretending that the legal maxim, “every man born ”