Chief Justice Waite Visits Chinatown
After a late-night tour of Seattle’s Chinatown, the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice declares his support for Chinese exclusion.
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Chief Justice Waite, of the United States Supreme Court, who is here on a visit, went through Chinatown last night. During the visit, the Chief Justice frequently expressed his disgust at the scenes presented. 'I do not believe in bringing any more Chinamen here,' he said. 'But those here should not be maltreated. Their immigration should stop, and I am now firmly convinced that the restriction act was not passed any too soon.'
“I am now firmly convinced that the restriction act was not passed any too soon.”
Chief Justice Morrison Waite’s visit to Seattle’s Chinatown occurred during a period of intense, often violent, anti-Chinese sentiment that led to the forced expulsion of Chinese residents from the city the previous year. His endorsement of the restriction acts highlights how federal policy was shaped not by objective distance, but by the same local xenophobic fervor that fueled the exclusion movement in the Pacific Northwest.
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