Answer: Pixley gave his testimony to the Joint Committee of the two Houses of Congress on Chinese Immigration in 1876. This suggests that American voters’ opinions about Chinese immigration were largely negative, xenophobic and fearful of losing their economic and political power to the Chinese.
Explanation: Pixley was a former Attorney General of California and a prominent Republican politician who opposed Chinese immigration and suffrage. He argued that the Chinese were a perpetual, unchanging, and unchangeable alien element that could never assimilate with the American people or culture. He also claimed that they degraded and dishonored labor by working for low wages and undercutting the white workers. He feared that an increased Chinese immigration would overwhelm white majority rule in California and threaten the American civilization.
Pixley’s testimony reflected the widespread anti-Chinese sentiment that prevailed among many American voters, especially in California, where most of the Chinese immigrants settled. The American voters blamed the Chinese for the economic depression of 1873, the competition for jobs and resources, and the decline of moral standards. They also resented the Chinese for their different appearance, language, religion and customs. They viewed them as inferior, heathen and un-American.
The anti-Chinese movement led to various discriminatory laws and policies against the Chinese, such as the Foreign Miners’ Tax, the denial of citizenship and testimony rights, the anti-miscegenation law, and the exclusion of Chinese from public employment. The most notorious example was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned all Chinese immigration for ten years and was later extended indefinitely. The act was the first federal law to restrict immigration based on race and nationality.
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