The clumsy machinery of legislation kept bungling on,
irresponsive to the principal needs and interests of the times.
An ineffectual start was made on two subjects presenting simple
issues on which there was an energetic pressure of popular
sentiment--Chinese immigration and polygamy among the Mormons.
Anti-Chinese legislation had to contend with a traditional
sentiment in favor of maintaining the United States as an asylum
for all peoples. But the demand from the workers of the Pacific
slope for protection against Asiatic competition in the home
labor market was so fierce and so determined that Congress
yielded. President Arthur vetoed a bill prohibiting Chinese
immigration as "a breach of our national faith," but he admitted
the need of legislation on the subject and finally approved a
bill suspending immigration from China for a term of years. This
was a beginning of legislation which eventually arrived at a
policy of complete exclusion. The Mormon question was dealt with
by the Act of March 22, 1882, imposing penalties upon the
practice of polygamy and placing the conduct of elections in the
Territory of Utah under the supervision of a board of five
persons appointed by the President. Though there were many
prosecutions under this act, it proved so ineffectual in
suppressing polygamy that it was eventually supplemented by
giving the Government power to seize and administer the property
of the Mormon Church.
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