Pacific Chivalry – Encouragement to Chinese Immigration

A burly figure wearing a hat labeled CALIFORNIA yanks a Chinese laborer backward by his queue while cocking a boot to kick him. The victim—rendered in the buck-toothed, slant-eyed caricature standard to American illustrated press of the 1860s—raises his hands in helpless appeal. A sign planted at right itemizes the legal arsenal used against Chinese residents: Courts of Justice Closed to Chinese / Extra Taxes / 'To Yellowjack'. The caption's bitter irony is the whole argument: California calls this chivalry and encouragement. Nast, a staunch Radical Republican, attacks the Democratic Party's western wing for brutalizing the immigrant workforce the Transcontinental Railroad had just finished exploiting. The caricature dehumanizes its subject even as it argues for his rights—a contradiction Nast never fully resolved.