Abstract
A study that analyzes The Chinese Argument, an 1882 Parian-ware figural group produced by the Union Porcelain Works, as a political object shaped by the intersecting forces of post-Reconstruction racial ideology, protectionist economics, and partisan messaging. Through close visual analysis and extensive contextual research, the article argues that the sculpture translated Republican concerns about labor competition, immigration, and national identity into a neoclassical allegory that affirms selective inclusion and racial hierarchy. Its triadic composition—featuring a White boy and Black boy sheltered within an eagle’s nest above a struggling Chinese man—materializes a racial logic in which Black Americans are granted conditional, paternalistic inclusion while Chinese immigrants are categorically excluded. Drawing on contemporaneous political cartoons, world’s fair displays, and anti-Chinese rhetoric, the analysis situates the object within a broader ecosystem of nineteenth-century visual culture that deployed allegory to discipline public sentiment. The essay demonstrates how the sculpture reflects the ideological commitments of Thomas Smith, UPW’s politically active owner, who aligned Republican protectionism with support for Chinese exclusion. It further contrasts the work with representations of Black and Native American figures in sculpture to show how race was encoded differentially according to political utility. Ultimately, the article argues that The Chinese Argument functioned as a material manifesto of a new racial regime: one that reconciled the Republican Party’s emancipation legacy with nativist labor politics by redefining citizenship through economic nationalism and civilizational exclusion. The sculpture thus provides critical insight into how decorative arts shaped, affirmed, and circulated the emerging infrastructure of American racial governance