“Justice … Professionalism … Service … since 1886.” It appears on the front of every issue of the Bar Bulletin. If you noticed it, did you wonder what it meant? Seattle’s social climate the year of the founding of the King County Bar Association was significant to the culture that emerged then and grew to characterize the KCBA as a strong advocate for social justice.
In 1886, there was a recession on and unemployment was high. The timber and railroad business that sustained the Pacific Northwest was down. Less like today, there were distinct classes: the early settlers and their well-off professional associates; an insurgent class of laborers and small-business people, feeling very pessimistic about the promise of wealth the land had once held; and finally, a group that could serve as a scapegoat for everyone else’s perceived bad luck: the Chinese.
Many of the laid-off timber or mining workers joined the nationwide agitation that began in the 1880s against Chinese immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act had been passed by Congress in 1882. The act prohibited further immigration of the Chinese into the United States, except for a small group of ministers, scholars and merchants, and prohibited the Chinese already here from becoming U.S. citizens.
There were anti-Chinese riots throughout the West: Rock Springs, Wyoming; Newcastle, Oregon; and Black Diamond and Tacoma in Washington. Seattle’s divisions also widened, with two white-citizens groups forming. One was a vigilante group, which advocated direct action and deportation. The second was known as the “Law and Order” group, whose leaders advocated legal means to limit and expel the Chinese population
Lawyers were conspicuous among the leadership in both groups. George Venable Smith and Junius Rochester were vocal among the vigilantes. Judges Thomas Burke and Roger Greene were among the Law and Order advocates, concerned that vigilante action would hurt the reputation and, hence, the economic well-being of the growing city. Both groups met feverishly throughout the last months of 1885 and early 1886 — separately and, contentiously, together.
Tensions were so high that the U.S. Secretary of War issued an order for federal troops to be sent to Seattle. When they arrived, however, they treated the Chinese almost as badly as had Seattle’s citizens. Though some calm was restored, the inevitable confrontation exploded on the streets.
In the early morning hours of February 7, 1886, the vigilante group rousted from their beds hundreds of the Chinese living south of Yesler along Washington and Main, and marched them toward a ship at the end of Washington Street, the Queen of the Pacific, bound for San Francisco.
Mid-morning, the Law and Order group marshaled its forces. A Chinese man had rushed to Judge Burke’s house for help. Burke contacted U.S. Attorney W.H. White, and the two rushed to the dock. The territorial governor was in town at the time and, at the urging of the Law and Order group, issued a proclamation warning that the people who had marched the Chinese to the ship would be punished. The vigilantes gave no ground and maintained control over the Chinese on the dock.
At the courthouse at Third and Jefferson, a Chinese man appeared before Judge Greene and asked that a writ of habeas corpus be issued against the ship’s captain because the Chinese were being unlawfully detained aboard the ship. The judge issued the writ and it seemed to end the possibility of the deportation for that day.
The next day the Home Guard — the local militia — met little resistance from the tired vigilantes and it took control of the dock. The Chinese went before the court of Judge Greene. Though the judge told them they need not go aboard the ship, most of them, having just marched several blocks through lines of angry Seattle citizens, were very willing to do so.
The group was then marched back to the dock. In a scene reminiscent of the expulsion of the Japanese in the 1940s, about 350 Chinese were loaded onto the dock at the end of Washington Street. The ship, however, could only take 196. Because another ship was not expected for several days, George Venable Smith suggested that the Chinese remain on the dock.
The Home Guard decided to the contrary, and the Chinese people returned to their homes. Unfortunately, as they began to march through the angry crowd, pushing, shoving and fights erupted. Eventually rifles were fired and five men were wounded. One of the injured, a logger, died of his wounds several days later. Though it is perhaps apocryphal, it was rumored that Judge Burke, somewhere in the crowd, had fired the shot that killed the logger.
Order was restored later the same day when Governor Squire proclaimed martial law, and President Cleveland made it official that evening. Though some members of the vigilante group were later tried, no one was ever convicted of any crime arising from the anti-Chinese riots.
Founding the King County Bar Association
Out of the social rubble that resulted from the riots rose the King County Bar Association. As early as 1870, Seattle lawyers met in informal meetings, usually to eulogize a recently deceased colleague, and John McGilvra often chaired these meetings. But no formal bar association existed. In 1884, Seattle lawyers Orange Jacobs, Roger Sherman Greene, I.M. Hall, C.H. Hanford, W.H. White and McGilvra were appointed to formulate plans for a bar association.
It was not until 1886, after the anti-Chinese riots, that the association was organized, in part to condemn and censure those attorneys who had participated in the vigilante action against the Chinese. It was the feeling of many in the bar that the lawyers who were vigilante leaders should be punished in some manner for their participation in the illegal riots and other activities surrounding the expulsion of the Chinese.
In keeping with this sentiment, in May 1886 charges of unprofessional conduct during the anti-Chinese riots were proffered against Rochester and Smith, and their suspension from practice was demanded.
The bar eventually passed a strong resolution against the anti-Chinese agitation in general and in favor of law and order. By a 37-to-1 vote, the bar passed a resolution condemning all members of the bar who had acted with the mob. Smith’s was the lone dissenting vote. Afterward, Smith went off to help found a utopian community at Port Angeles. Rochester continued to practice law in Seattle and later became one of the first University of Washington School of Law instructors.
The founding 24 members of the King County Bar Association drafted its constitution and bylaws along the lines suggested by the informal committee in 1884. The venerable John J. McGilvra was elected the Association’s first president.
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Marc Lampson is a grant and contract specialist at The Information School at the University of Washington. He is also a former editor of the Bar Bulletin and the author of “From Profanity Hill: King County Bar Association’s Story.” The book is available for purchase by calling the KCBA at 206-267-7013.
