Hiring "the Dregs of Asia"

Last month, the Director of the American Studies Program at Stanford, Dr. Shelley Fishkin, spoke at the U.S.-China Peoples' Friendship Association regarding her research : The Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project (See part one.) The idea for a railroad put forth by President Lincoln was necessitated by the agonizing time it took to get from west to east, the inefficiency of travel and communication. To construct the most difficult part (the stretch through the Sierra Nevada) one of the owner's, Leland Stanford, suggested using Chinese labor. See Part Two.

This was an odd suggestion at the time.  This was right after the California gold rush when many Chinese had left drought, famine and war in China, and come to the U.S. to seek out their fortune. The Chinese were accused of taking all the jobs, of having strange eating habits, of being barbaric. 

"Leland Stanford," said Dr. Fishkin, "in his inaugural address as Governor of California in 1862,  had promised to rid the state of 'the dregs of Asia,' meaning the Chinese people."

But, in 1864, the businessman Stanford--one of the owners of the Central Pacific, and no longer governor-- decided these “dregs” would be his best bet.

(To be continued. Next: The Forgotten Majority.)