Bayard also clashed with Hayes on the issue of Chinese immigration. In 1868, the Senate had ratified the Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing an unrestricted flow of Chinese immigrants into the country. Bayard criticized the treaty because it treated Americans and the Chinese as equal races, when he believed the latter was inferior.Beth Lew-Williams, The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America, 173 Harvard University Press (Cambridge 2018). As the economy soured after the Panic of 1873, Chinese immigrants were blamed for depressing workmen's wages. During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, anti-Chinese riots broke out in San Francisco, and a third party, the Workingman's Party, was formed with an emphasis on stopping Chinese immigration. Bayard favored some restriction on Chinese immigration and voted in favor of a Chinese Exclusion Act in 1879, which passed both houses that year. Hayes vetoed the bill, believing that the United States should not abrogate treaties without negotiation. The veto drew praise among some New England Republicans, but was bitterly denounced in the West. After the veto, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward suggested that both countries work together to reduce immigration. Congress passed a new law to that effect, the Chinese Exclusion Act, in 1882. Bayard supported this new act, which became law with President Chester A. Arthur's signature that year.
Bayard also clashed with Hayes on the issue of Chinese immigration. In 1868, the Senate had ratified the Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing an unrestricted flow of Chinese immigrants into the country. Bayard criticized the treaty because it treated Americans and the Chinese as equal races when he believed the latter was inferior.Beth Lew-Williams, The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America, 173 Harvard University Press (Cambridge 2018). As the economy soured after the Panic of 1873, Chinese immigrants were blamed for depressing workmen's wages. During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, anti-Chinese riots broke out in San Francisco, and a third party, the Workingman's Party, was formed with an emphasis on stopping Chinese immigration. Bayard favored some restriction on Chinese immigration, and voted in favor of a Chinese Exclusion Act in 1879, which passed both houses that year. Hayes vetoed the bill, believing that the United States should not abrogate treaties without negotiation. The veto drew praise among some New England Republicans, but was bitterly denounced in the West. After the veto, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward suggested that both countries work together to reduce immigration. Congress passed a new law to that effect, the Chinese Exclusion Act, in 1882. Bayard supported this new act, which became law with President Chester A. Arthur's signature that year.