The Chinese and the Courts in the Pacific Northwest: Justice Denied?

Abstract

SUCH WAS THE VIEW in 1871 of a Montana editor toward the latest immigrants, the Chinese. His attitude was shared by many non-Asians in the United States during the nineteenth century, and it had been commonplace since the arrival of the first Chinese. The Chinese began migrating to the U.S. in the 1840s during the California gold rush. Economic motives apparently prompted most to take the voyage, although a significant number in later periods came to the New World under duress. Population data available. from the U.S. census indicate that the Chinese increased rapidly until 1890, the first count following enactment of national exclusionary legislation in 1882. The Chinese had never constituted more than 0.2 percent of the total population of the U.S., but their economic impact was considerably more significant than mere numbers indicate. Almost all were adult males who were concentrated in the West, especially in California and the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana,