Clinton A. Snowden

“ Some of the coal mining companies, a few of the mills, and a few private individuals had employed them, when it had been difficult to procure white labor, but now that that difficulty was past, most of them were glad to secure white laborers again. A few had Chinese house servants who had proved so satisfactory that they wished to retain them, but these were not many. The Chinamen therefore were left with few to defend them, except those who were not willing to see them driven out by violence. ”

“ The man Stewart seems to have had no part in the agitation, and no relations with the agitators, until he appeared in the mob on First Avenue on the day he was wounded. He was not a resident of Seattle, but had come to town that morning to see the excitement, and like one who “passeth by and meddleth with strife not his own,” he had fallen into trouble from which there was no escape. He and the others who had been wounded were carried to express wagons, by which they were taken to the hospital. Stewart died on the following day, but all the others recovered. ”

“ At the first fire one of the noisiest and most aggressive rioters, a man named Stewart, fell mortally wounded, and several others were hurt. Stewart was a large powerfully built man and, although mortally wounded tried again and again to rise, at the same time cursing the guards and calling upon the mob to attack them. But they could not be encouraged to do so, and while they delayed the two militia companies arrived, and thus reënforced the guards were able to hold their ground until the mob gradually dispersed and permitted them to escort the Chinamen to their quarters. ”

“ Nineteen-twentieths of the able bodied men could be depended upon, as he thought as a posse comitatus, in case the lawless and viciously inclined should make any open attack. Sheriff Byrd thought there had been no disposition to show harm to the Chinamen in Tacoma, but he was not satisfied that his town would escape trouble should they refuse to go by the 1st of November. A large number of men were taking an active part in the expulsion movement, and should they meet with resistance from the Chinese, trouble would be sure to follow. ”

“ In order to show the lawless element that it would not be permitted to resort to violence without opposition, a public meeting was called, which was addressed by several speakers, all of whom favored the maintenance of the law, and the preservation of public order. C. H. Hanford, then assistant prosecuting attorney, after outlining the dangers of the situation, as he saw it, suggested that the most effective service law-abiding citizens could render at the time, would be by declaring their purpose to sustain the law, and by pledging themselves to sustain the sheriff in maintaining order. ”

“ The agitation which began in Seattle and Tacoma in the summer of 1885, had gradually spread to other towns and villages in the western part of the territory, and to the coal mines in King County, in a few of which the Chinamen were working, when on September 4th, the people at Rock Springs, Wyoming, drove the Chinamen out of the coal mines at that place, killing eleven of them. News of this outrage was applauded by the agitators, and those who were accustomed to listen to them. ”

“ On the 29th, the governor was invited to attend an anti-Chinese meeting in Tacoma, but being unable to be present he sent a letter saying, that while he sympathized with the American workingmen in their efforts to have the Chinese peacefully go, “the condition distinctly is peace; maintain law and order, and the victory will be yours.” ”

“ A few agitators and mischief-makers were protesting, but they secured little attention and few followers, until the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, threw many men out of employment, a considerable portion of whom drifted across the line to Seattle, Tacoma and other towns along the Sound.
From that time forward the agitators and mischief-makers found it easier to get the attention of the multitude than they had done. The idle always have time to listen, and are easily persuaded that somebody other than themselves is responsible for their idleness. ”

“ If you do not protect yourselves you have only to look to the step beyond; which is, simply, the fate of Wyoming and the speedy interference of the United States troops.”
In Seattle the agitation had been carried on during September and October as noisily as in Tacoma, but it did not have the secret or open encouragement of the sheriff as it had in Pierce County, and the law-abiding part of the community took a bolder stand in opposition to it. ”

“ On October 27th, the governor visited Tacoma and addressed a mass meeting of its people, and on the following day received a letter from a prominent resident of that city, assuring him that “there is not a man in Tacoma who does not fully recognize the difficulty of the position in which you are placed by the prevailing agitation, and the patient good sense with which you have up to the present, met and surmounted that difficulty. ”

“ About midnight an attempt was made to put some Chinese on a train, which was to leave at 4. a. m. and run them off to Portland, but the train was guarded by the military, and was sent out ahead of time. About the same time a company of Home Guards was sent to the dock, where the anti-Chinese committee was watching the Chinamen, and drove them away. Members of the guard were stationed at all the approaches to the dock to prevent a return of the agitation, and after that all was peaceable till morning. ”

“ Parades were organized in which tableaux, showing women in chains, and children supposed to be starving as a result of competition with cheap labor were exhibited, while numbers of banners or transparencies with denunciatory inscriptions were displayed, all of which amused or excited the idle, and alarmed the timid, disturbed and unsettled business and made conditions, which were bad enough at the beginning, even worse than they otherwise would have been. ”

“ But the agitation was kept going just as vigorously as if nothing had yet been accomplished. “An anti-Chinese Congress” as it was designated by those who arranged it, was summoned to meet in Seattle September 28th, and self-appointed members came from all directions to attend its deliberations. All the labor organizations were represented. The mayor of Tacoma presided. Most of the active agitators attended and made speeches. A long series of high-sounding resolutions was adopted, their final declaration being that all Chinese must leave Western Washington by or before November 15th. ”

“ Finding that the guards would shoot, and shoot to kill, the rioters could not again get up courage to make a second attack, but they remained for a long time to hurl impotent abuse at the militia, the guards and the Chinese. ”

“ The streets were patrolled by the militia, and the soldiers not on duty were held at their several quarters ready for service. The authorities spent the night in preparing to resist any violence on the morrow. Governor Squire telegraphed to General Gibbon that a serious conflict between the civil authorities and the mob was probably, and requested that troops be sent at once from Port Townsend. But the general could not act without authority from Washington and so replied. ”

“ He denounced the proceeding of the mob at Tacoma, and declared that he would rather live under the rule of the Autocrat of all the Russias, than under that of a dozen or twenty lawless men, who were the worst kind of tyrants. ”

“ Its moral effect was good, but it did not put a stop to the work of the turbulent element. A grand jury was in session at the time, and in his charge to it Chief Justice Greene had carefully pointed out its duty with regard to persons who might be conspiring to violate the laws. The Chinese who were in this country were entitled to the protection of the laws, and all privileges and immunities under them, equally with all white persons. ”

“ He had been detained at the wharf in arranging some matter with Captain Alexander in regard to the Chinamen he had already taken on board, and did not reach First Avenue until the shooting was over. He then, at the sheriff's solicitation, did what he could with the others, to keep the crowd from pressing too closely upon the guards, and so provoking another volley. He describes the scene as one of intense excitement. Several of the rioters were doing their best to encourage others to make an attack, but not one of them offered to lead it. ”

“ He had long been known as the friend of the oppressed against the oppressor, and up to this time he had been a general favorite among the laboring people, whose cause he had invariably championed, when there had been occasion. ”

“ But rigorous as this tax was it did not prevent the Chinese laborers from coming to the territory in considerable numbers and the census of 1885 showed that there were 3,276 of them engaged in various occupations within its borders. There was at that time no very serious opposition to them. Work was abundant and everybody was employed who cared for employment. ”

“ A company of about 150 of the law-abiding citizens was organized, the command of which was given to Captain William McMicken, whose long service during the civil war peculiarly fitted him to use such force to good purpose. ”

“ It spread quickly to the smaller towns, and was received with peculiar interest at the coal mines and the hop fields where some growers, who had been unable to procure the usual number of Indians to harvest their crop, were bringing in Chinamen for the purpose. ”