The Trial of a Seattle Anti-Chinese Rioter
In 1885, a local judge delivers a blistering instruction to a jury, reminding them that the 'stranger and sojourner' are entitled to the equal protection of American law during a time of rampant xenophobic violence.
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 person upon whom the great wrong of murder is said to have been done, which is charged against the defendant, was a Chinaman, called in the indictment Fang Woe. These Chinese are sojourners among us, and aside from any political enactment specifically referring to them, are entitled upon our soil to the equal protection of our laws. A land where the stranger and sojourner is not safe is not the land for a free people. It seems to be the idea of many in the western part of this Territory that for the whites to make the Chinese go by making them fear today is not unlawful, and indeed that every method of compelling them to go is peaceable, providing skin and bones are left unbroken. This doctrine is monstrous. To prove how monstrous, just reverse the situation: would it be lawful for a squad or committee of Chinese to go to your house or mine and try to intimidate us for any purpose whatever? In this country there is but one law for the citizen and the stranger. What is law for the American is law for the Chinese. The National honor is expressly plighted by solemn treaty and statute—the supreme law of the land—that the Chinese shall be protected in life and property. On whom rests the burden of maintaining this plighted honor of the Nation? It rests on those who are here where the Chinese are, and where they need the Nation's help. The question today with us here is whether our record shall be that of loyalty and patriotism or disloyalty and shame.
“A land where the stranger and sojourner is not safe is not the land for a free people.”
This 1885 court instruction reveals the deep tension in early Seattle history, where civic leaders struggled to maintain the rule of law against mob violence aimed at Chinese residents. It serves as a stark reminder of Seattle’s history of exclusionary labor riots and the recurring civic challenge of protecting vulnerable minority communities during times of economic and social volatility.
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