Vancouver Paper Acknowledges Sympathy for Expelling Chinese Residents
A 1885 dispatch from the Vancouver Independent reveals the chilling, unchecked spread of anti-Chinese sentiment as communities across the Washington Territory debated the forced removal of residents.
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 Vancouver Independent was pretty loud against the anti-Chinese agitators at first, but it has discovered that it made a mistake so far as the popular sentiment is concerned, which it acknowledges in the following editorial: 'Upon inquiry the fact is developed that the sympathies of the people of this community are largely on the side of the indicted men at Tacoma, who forced the Chinese out of their city. This is a peaceable and law-abiding community, and very many of the people realize that Tacoma has violated the terms of the treaty with China and the United States statutes, but there are few who actually want to see the Tacoma people punished. It is simply the exhibition of the force of public opinion on the Chinese question. All our people, without exception, would like to see the Chinese disappear from our midst, and once their places be supplied with white labor, the Chinese would scram or leave within a few months under the pressure of the necessity of the labor given. Ours, like many other communities, is obliged to put up with the evil of the Chinese presence. The opinions of the majority here are opposed to what this paper has heretofore expressed on this subject, and should anyone have to stand for trial in this bailiwick we very much fear the United States District Attorney would have cold comfort. It is hard for one who likes to stand by the law to see it nullified by public opinion in special localities, but there seems to be no remedy for such a state of affairs on this coast.'
“All our people, without exception, would like to see the Chinese disappear from our midst.”
This article documents the rapid normalization of xenophobic violence during the 1880s, reflecting a terrifying period of labor displacement and legal erasure. Today's housing and labor discourse, while vastly different in tone, still occasionally sees the weaponization of economic anxiety against marginalized communities—a reminder of how quickly 'popular opinion' can be mobilized to justify civil rights violations.
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