randall maple <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
    Twain spent his career with tongue in cheek and delivered his stretchers between the lines. With this in mind, if might behoove all to look behind his emphatic acknowledgment, "I am a Boxer." Considering the word "box huckleberry" may need yet another EXPLANATION and prove to be the tale wagging the dog.
  Randall Maple,
   
  Below are Twain's words (as quoted in the NYT) followed by an analysis on the matter provided to me by Jim Zwick last November. I sought Jim's clarification based on my contention that the tongue-in-cheek-type phrase was not "I am a Boxer" but "...I believe in driving the Chinaman out of this country," a statement not at all consistent with the bold and controversial pro-Chinese stand Twain took in essays like "To the Person Sitting in Darkness", "To My Missionary Critics" and other works and speeches of his later years. 
   
  From The New York Times,  24 November 1900:
   
  As far as America is concerned we don't allow the Chinese to come here, and we would be doing the graceful thing to allow China to decide whether she will allow us to go there. China never wanted any foreigners, and when it comes to a settlement of this immigrant question I am with the Boxer every time.
   
  The Boxer is a patriot; he is the only patriot China has, and I wish him success. The Boxer believes in driving us out of his country. I am a Boxer, for I believe in driving the Chinaman out of this country. The Boxers on this side have won out. Why not give the Boxer on the other side a chance?
   
  From Jim Zwick's email to Randy Abel, 13 November 2007: 
   
  The "I am a Boxer" speech was intended to influence perceptions of what was going on in China at a time when Chinese exclusion was not a controversial topic in the U.S. He was using it to point out the hypocrisy of most Americans who insisted on Chinese exclusion at home but condemned the Chinese for wanting to exclude foreigners from China. At that time, his statement would have no influence on Chinese exclusion but might have had an influence on perceptions of what the U.S. and others were doing in China. By claiming that he wanted to exclude Chinese from the U.S., he made the statement in a way that might make people favoring Chinese exclusion more prone to agree with his support of the Boxer Rebellion. It's a common debating tactic. "Let's agree that... But that proves my point that...." Twain was essentially saying that everyone agreed on excluding Chinese from the U.S. If they were right on that position, then Chinese should be allowed to exclude
foreigners from China.

If he had made that statement at a time when Chinese exclusion was being debated, it might have a different meaning. The Chinese Exclusion Act would not come up for debate again until 1902 (and not much of a debate at that) so U.S. attitudes about the Boxer Rebellion was the only relevant issue when he gave that speech in November 1900.
   
   
  I'm grateful to have been edified by Professor Zwick's insights, and I appreciate your engaging this discussion, Mr. Maple. I hope that you'll be so kind as to provide your reading of what "stretchers" might lie between the lines of the speech. 
   
  Cordially,
  Randy Abel

       
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