Angell Treaty of 1880
The Angell Treaty of 1880 was a significant agreement between the United States and China that aimed to modify immigration policies concerning Chinese laborers. Following his appointment as the U.S. minister to China, James Burrill Angell led negotiations to amend the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. The impetus for these negotiations arose from growing concerns in the U.S. about the influx of Chinese immigrants, particularly in the western states, where their presence faced increasing opposition.
Signed on November 17, 1880, the treaty sought to regulate rather than completely prohibit Chinese immigration, reflecting a period of heightened tension regarding labor and cultural assimilation. This treaty effectively ended the era of unrestricted Chinese immigration and set the stage for future legal actions against Chinese immigrants, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which rescinded many protections previously afforded to them. The Angell Treaty thus marked a pivotal moment in U.S.-China relations and immigration policy, highlighting the complexities surrounding labor, cultural integration, and international agreements during this era.
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Subject Terms
Angell Treaty of 1880
The Law: Agreement allowing the United States to regulate, limit, or suspend immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States
Date: Signed on November 17, 1880
Significance:By placing restrictions on the number of Chinese workers permitted to immigrate to the United States, the Angell Treaty marked a turning point in the U.S.-Chinese relationship on immigration issues that paved the way for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which suspended Chinese immigration for ten years.
In 1880, James Burrill Angell, president of the University of Michigan, was nominated as minister to China by U.S. president Rutherford B. Hayes. Angell was confirmed by the Senate on April 9, 1880. Angell’s first task was to negotiate changes to the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 that would reduce the number of Chinese immigrants moving into the western United States. Angell and fellow members of the treaty commission to China, John F. Swift and William Henry Trescot, traveled to Peking (now Beijing), China, in June, 1880, to seek an agreement.
Using the argument that Chinese laborers did not readily assimilate into American culture, Angell and his colleagues negotiated a treaty to regulate and limit the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States but not to prohibit it outright. The resulting Angell Treaty was signed on November 17, 1880, and proclaimed U.S. law on October 5, 1881. This treaty ended free Chinese immigration to the United States and separated U.S. trade interests from the immigration issue. It also provided an avenue for anti-Chinese lobbyists to push for an exclusion law. Most of the protections that the treaty secured for Chinese immigrants were reversed by passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Bibliography
Lee, Erika. At America’s Gates: Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
McClain, Charles J. In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.