The Siege of Seattle: A City Under Martial Law

After four days of alarm, anxiety and unrest, the supremacy of law and authority of the government are once more maintained within the limits of Seattle. The city has through a crisis of the most serious nature and has come out stronger, better and more worthy of universal respect and confidence than ever before. The citizens have met the occasion unitedly and determinedly, and have shown to the world that here in the city of Seattle, the grand spirit of Americanism, the love for American institutions and the determination to uphold American laws, is so absolute and so general that the citizens do not hesitate to leave their offices, their stores and their workshops and risk their lives and their property in defense of their country's honor and their country's laws. The citizens did not leave their homes and risk their lives to protest the Chinese because they loved them, or because they were not anxious for them to leave the city and the country. On the contrary, among those who enrolled themselves in defense of the law were many who have long been known for their outspoken friendship for American labor and their unqualified opposition to the importation of either the coolie labor of Asia or the pauper labor of Europe. It was not a question of friendship for or hostility to Chinese labor, but a question of supporting the laws or of seeing them disregarded.