File:Wasp 1877-12-08 (Keller) - The First Blow at the Chinese Question.jpg

English: Selected description from inside front cover: The procession of some ten thousand men through the streets of San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day, had more significance than is usually accorded to public parades. It was a determined expression of public opinion upon a question that is of more importance to us as a community than any mere political sentiment. It was an out- pouring of Labor's legions to effectively confute the assertions of Morton's committee that the people of San Francisco were contented with the present industrial condition, and that the presence of the Chinese is looked upon by the majority of the people here, more in the light of a blessing than the curse that it is.

... There can now be no doubt whatever of the sentiment of Californians with regard to the Chinese question. The people are al most as a unit. The respectable portion of the Press is unanimously opposed to Chinese immigration and employment. That there are some papers in favor of the Coolies — the Call and Record-Union for instance — only shows that the influence of moneyed monopolies is still powerful here; but it does not affect the question materially.

A peaceable demonstration was necessary to show the people of the Atlantic States, that there can be no Chinese compromise on the part of Californians. The liberties and even the existence of the white race on this Coast are threatened. This is what this grand movement means. There must be redress. If the Federal Government continues to ignore our petitions, trouble will come of it. It is definitely settled that the people of California will not much longer submit to the heathen invasion. They will become free, or they will be definitely and absolutely subjugated. Which shall it be ?