Territorial Standoff: Senator Dolph on the Chinese Question
Debating the role of federal troops and the rights of labor in Washington Territory.
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.
Mr. Dolph addressed the bill of Senator O’Neill, concerning the interests of Washington Territory. He argued that the territory was entitled to protection. Referring to the recent anti-Chinese riots, Mr. Dolph said that the labor of Washington Territory was not protected in the same way as other states. He added that the people of the Pacific Coast were at odds with the policy of bringing Chinese to this territory. He noted that the peculiarity of Washington Territory was its contiguity to British Columbia and the opportunity for many Chinese to arrive via the Canadian Pacific Railway, in violation of the laws of the United States. Although National troops had been called for, the people of Washington territory had arranged matters before the troops arrived.
“The people of the Pacific Coast are at odds with the policy of bringing Chinese to this territory.”
This debate captures the volatile atmosphere of 1886, where anti-Chinese sentiment was explicitly tied to labor protectionism and border security. It reflects a period when the U.S. government struggled to assert control over the social and racial conflicts defining the Pacific Northwest.
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