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21 The Debate on the Chinese Exclusionary Act and Its Repeal
jobs as had followed previous wars.102
102AAmerica, Asia, and the Future,@ 82.
As can be seen, then, a multitude of arguments were offered both for
and against the repeal of the legislation just as many arguments were
made for the passage of it. The debates over the decision to pass this
controversial piece of legislation in 1882 were much more intense and
thorough than the debates to repeal the act in 1943. In 1882, the debatewas prolonged over many days in Congress. The act to repeal the
legislation was debated for on a few hours over a couple days to pass
both the House and the Senate. In 1882 when the measure was first
enacted, the country was divided regionally over the issue. The western
and southern states favored the measure, while the northeastern and
middle western states were opposed to the law. The act to repeal the
legislation, though, did not appear to be regional. The western states
that had fought the hardest for the measure were some of the same ones
who were leading the fight to repeal the legislation in 1943. Many of thearguments in the two debates were the same. The protection of
American laborers was foremost in the passage of the act as well as in
the opposition to its repeal. Other major arguments that appeared in
the debates were the economic motives both for and against Chinese
immigration, and unfortunately, racism was also deliberated at length.
In the end, though, it was decided there was no special need to continue
to restrict only Chinese immigration. By the 1940s there were already
many measures to restrict immigration from all regions and countries of
the world so that the Chinese were no longer perceived as a threat toAmerican interests. However, the first step in this restriction of
immigration began in response to this question of Chinese immigration.