The Seattle Petition Against Chinese Labor
A group of prominent attorneys and citizens petition the territorial legislature, demanding the passage of exclusionary labor laws despite constitutional concerns.
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.
To the Legislative Assembly of Washington Territory: We, the undersigned, your constituents, sincerely regret your action in causing the unfortunate postponement of certain bills introduced by Mr. Munday, of this county, and passed by the House of the Legislative Assembly, having for their ultimate object the curtailment of the evil resulting from the competition between Chinese labor and free American labor. We understand that these bills were defeated solely upon an argument in view by you urging that they were unconstitutional. You are aware that section 1850 of the Revised Statutes of the United States provides: 'That all laws passed by the Legislative Assembly shall be submitted to Congress, and if disapproved shall be null and of no effect.' We urge upon you, as our Representative, to rectify your mistake by securing the speedy passage of the bills referred to, to the end that they may be submitted to Congress under said section. If Congress has the right to enact laws to prevent Chinese laborers from coming to this country, surely it has a right to enact laws to prevent Chinese laborers in this country from usurping places which should be filled by our own laboring classes. If these acts were unconstitutional, as you claim, we submit that since others, as able lawyers as yourself, believe them to be constitutional, you should resolve the doubt in favor of the law, and allow the courts to determine them to be unconstitutional, if they are so.
“We believe it to be every man's duty, in and out of the Legislature, to do all that he can to protect American labor against the disastrous competition of the Chinese.”
This petition captures the volatile climate of 1886 Seattle, where anti-Chinese sentiment was reaching a fever pitch, resulting in mass riots and forced expulsions. The tension between local economic protectionism and federal constitutional authority remains a recurring theme in Washington politics, mirroring contemporary debates over local control versus national policy.
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