The Exclusion Act of 1882 was shaped by the economic downturn, but also by a deep-seated racism that, while it excluded some Asians, led to the lynching of numbers of Asians and African Americans in the 1880s and 1890s. It also melded with chaotic and tragic economic conditions in the West to produce a series of wars waged by the U.S. army against Indians. The American Protective Association was organized to advance the argument that it was time, if not past time, for immigration restriction, because racially Americans could no longer be improved upon. The rubbery qualities of racism and social Darwinism were remarkable. A leading spokesman of the New South, Henry Grady of Atlanta, declared that white supremacy was merely the right of character, intelligence, and property to rule. Along with the African Americans and Indians, Chinese immigrants were given a close-up look at this racism.