William Jennings Bryan to Woodrow Wilson

William Jennings Bryan to Woodrow Wilson

Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925

WWP18025

1913 September 17

William Jennings Bryan writes to Woodrow Wilson concerning the desire of the Japanese to secure civil rights legislation for Japanese immigrants to America.

Wilson Papers, Library of Congress, Library of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence

WWP17944

My dear Mr. President

As the Japanese Ambassador is to call on you at 2:30 tomorrow, I send a memorandum, which he left with me to-day, of the interview between Ambassador Guthrie and the Japanese Foreign Office.
You will notice that Ambassador Guthrie is reported as having expressed his personal concurrence in the draft agreement proposed by the Japanese Government. I have explained to the Ambassador that this was Mr. Guthrie’s personal opinion and not a concurrence which he had been authorized to give for this Government. The Ambassador recognized that it was purely personal.
I have explained to the Japanese Ambassador the difference between what you did in California and what he asks you to do here, namely, that in California you tried to persuade the legislature not to make a discrimination against the Japanese or any other people but that you did not discuss with them their right to make the distinction.
In making the treaty which they now ask, you would put yourself in the position of denying to the states the right to make distinction. He recognized the difference between the denial of a right and the failure to exercise the right. I have explained to him that you would be willing to give any assurance that you could of your readiness to advise other states against discrimination and your willingness to advise California to amend their anti-alien law to the extent of permitting a Japanese land owner to dispose of his land by will and to permit his heirs to take it by inheritence for one generation, but I have also explained to him that you do not feel justified in presenting to Congress a treaty that will deny to the states the right to discriminate. I have tried to show him that to present such a treaty without being assured of the support of the Democrats would subject you to the danger of raising a fundamental issue that might impair your ability to secure other legislation needed by our people. I have expressed to him a willingness to confer with the Democratic Senators after the passage of the currency bill with a view to ascertaining their opinion, with the understanding that if you were assured of the support of the Democrats of such a treaty you would be willing to enter into it. I have also explaines to him that you would not be willing to have this verbal assurance made public, because to do so might put you in opposition to the Senators as effectually as the presentation of a treaty would.Ambassador Chinda will tell of you several treatises which we have made embodying the provisions which he asks, and for my part, I am perfectly willing to share responsibility for such a treaty if its ratification can be secured, because I do not think that a state should be permitted to discriminate against any partciular class of foreigners. If alien land laws are desired, they should be made to apply to all aliens alike. It is not fair for a state to endanger international peace by acting independently of the rest of the states on a matter that concerns other nations.
I have gone over the ground as I discussed it with the Ambassador in order that, when you confer with him, you may be fully informed as to what has been said.

With assurances of respect, etc.,
I am, my dear Mr. President,
Very sincerely yours,
WJ Bryan


The President,The White House.

Letter

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924