Aftermath and Indictments
“Evidence…warrants me in saying that short of firing upon the flag of our country no greater outrage was ever committed against the laws and government of these United States.”
W.H. White, U.S. Attorney, in a telegram to Attorney General A.H. Garland, November 13, 1886
The Tacoma Chinese tried to seek justice for their wrongful expulsion in court. With help from Chinese merchants in San Francisco, they persuaded a federal prosecutor to issue indictments against 27 men
including Mayor Weisbach
on charges of conspiracy and insurrection.
The indictments, issued in late 1885, were overturned, reinstated, and then overturned again in 1886. At one point, charges were dismissed on the grounds that women illegally served on the grand jury. A new grand jury convened in 1887, but jurors refused to reissue the indictments and the 27 local men were never held accountable.
Tacoma's expulsion of the Chinese people and its ongoing discouragement of resettlement earned the city an inhospitable reputation. Chinese were not seen in the city again until the 1920s.
Welcoming Reception
“The Tacoma Twenty-seven were taken to Vancouver, Canada and read their indictments. A trial was set for April 1886 and bail fixed at $5,000. Upon returning home to Tacoma the 27 men were greeted as heroes. The Steilacoom town band serenaded their train… Cannons boomed to herald their approach to the city, and a welcoming procession [of Tacomans] led a torchlit parade. Speaking for the white women of Tacoma, Rose Stannous expressed her gratitude “to you citizens who have heard and listened to the voice of labor, you fellow citizens who have cleared this city of slave labor… To Tacoma you have given the distinction of being the first city in this country which has solved the Chinese problem without violence.”
Edited excerpt taken from Murray Morgan's book "Puget's Sound: A Narrative of Early Tacoma and the Southern Sound," 2003
Compensation for Losses
When informed of the acts against her countrymen, the Chinese Imperial Government filed official protests regarding the violence. They urged prosecution of the violators and an indemnity payment to China by the U.S., for the losses suffered.
The U.S. Congress, after much debate, finally agreed to pay indemnities to China. The checks were paid to the Chinese government. It is unknown whether any of the afflicted Chinese ever received the benefit of any of the funds.
Straw Hats, Sandals, and Steel: The Chinese in Washington State, 1985, Lorraine Barker Hildebrand. . This historical marker is in North End in Tacoma in Pierce County Washington