The Waterfront Showdown: Anti-Chinese Tension in 1885 Seattle
When rumors swirled of a pro-Chinese organization in Seattle, the city’s labor leaders and local officials met to define the limits of the anti-Chinese movement.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The committees appointed by the late anti-Chinese congress, together with the committee from Tacoma, held a meeting last evening in the office of George Venable Smith, in the Post-Intelligencer building. Mayor Yesler, Sheriff McGraw, Judge Kellogg and one or two others were invited to be present. Mr. Cionm, the Knights of Labor organizer, made a speech, during which he stated that while in Whatcom a report was circulated that an organization had been formed in Seattle to aid the Chinese in their resistance of the movement, and that the citizens there had told him that if any interference with the contemplated torchlight procession, or demonstrations, was made by the Opera House crowd, or any other crowd, they would muster 500 men armed with Winchester rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition each, and on two hours notice could go to Seattle to put down that opposition; that the people of Ballard had also volunteered to furnish 150 armed men for the same purpose. Mayor Yesler and Sheriff McGraw addressed the committees, denouncing any talk of violence or lawlessness. Mr. McGraw said that he had no more objection to an anti-Chinese torchlight procession, as such, than he had to a temperance one, so long as it was carried on lawfully, and no violence was done to life or property. The members of the committees pledged themselves to orderly and lawful action; they pledged themselves to assist in preventing and putting down anything like lawlessness or violence.
“When white men are required to mine and sail to take the same wages given to Chinamen... they naturally feel unjustly dealt with.”
This 1885 snapshot captures a dark chapter in Seattle’s labor history, where economic anxiety was weaponized against Chinese immigrants. The rhetoric of 'corporations' versus 'the people' echoes in contemporary debates, reminding us that local organizing is often fueled by deep-seated fears about identity and belonging that persist in our urban politics today.
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