The Geary Act

Thomas Geary

            During the year of 1882, there was an act that was passed and signed by Chester Arthur that denied entry to any Chinese laborer at that time.  This act would be known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, and it was originally written to be last for only ten years.  As the years went by the end of the Chinese Exclusion Act was nearing it alarmed government officials. When the Chinese Exclusion Act expired in 1892, a democratic senator by the name of suggested and supported the renewal of the act. In addition to extending the allotted time of the act by ten more years, the Geary act also added even more requirements upon the already existing rules of the Chinese Exclusion Act.  Some new rules of the act required every legal Chinese laborer register their name to acquire a certificate of residence and identification and carry it around with them at all times.  The act also denied bail to the Chinese in habeas corpus proceedings, this meant that the individual in question had to remain detained for the whole proceeding process. Another new requirement states that forging any certificates, not having one, or falsely stating that you are a race other than Chinese would be punishable by a year hard labor or deportation back to China. This just goes to show the Geary Act was incredibly harsh on the Chinese community because it only applied to the Chinese race. Even during that time, the United States government didn’t require any other racial group to carry around certificates of residence with them. In response to the passage of this act, The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association along with the Chinese Equal Rights League took action and tried to shine light on the wrongful doing of the Geary Act. 

Example of a certificate of residence

The Chinese Equal Rights league was successful in its movement to show that unconstitutionality of the act showing that it was a type of “taxation without representation.” This caused a major uproar within the Chinese community and even caused a ruckus among people that were legitimately U.S. citizens.  This act caught so much attention with the U.S. public there were protests against the Geary Act all along the country.  Several incidents happened where Chinese laborers refused to pay for registration and the matters were brought to the Supreme Court. Even by appealing these cases, the ruling was against the Chinese immigrants showing the power of the Geary Act. A few years later during the year of 1902, the Geary Act was again renewed with no terminal date included.

By Joshua Lasky