Jerome A. Hart (1854–1837) published the Argonaut, a San Francisco weekly. He started as a reporter and, in 1891, took over as editor. He was still a young man, about twenty-three in 1877, when Denis Kearney’s anti-Chinese movement got underway. Despite his youth, Hart was, as he himself explains in his memoir where this excerpt comes from, well situated to observe Kearney, Isaac Kalloch, and other key players of the movement. As a reporter whose editor had regular conversations with Kearney, Hart made a practice of overhearing and followed the story closely.
There was much unemployment in 1876, 1877, and later, most of which was attributed by the California workingmen to the presence of Chinese laborers. . . .
In the midsummer of 1877, a group of San Francisco working-men called a mass-meeting to discuss their grievances. . . .
The meeting took place in a large vacant space next to the City Hall — usually called “The Sand Lot.” . . . On the outskirts of the meeting, various agitators stirred up the crowd to riot, and . . . [an] anti-Chinese mob rioted for three nights, destroying many Chinese wash-houses. Several persons were killed. . . .
The apprehension of the officials and the employing classes showed the workingmen their power. They therefore determined to organize a Pacific Coast Union. On August 18, Denis Kearney issued a call for a meeting on August 22; it met, organized under the name of “The Workingmen’s Trade and Labor Union,” and elected J. G. Day President and Kearney Secretary. . . .
The sudden irruption of Kearney into California politics impressed Eastern editors and politicians with the belief that opposition to Chinese immigration originated with him. . . . These jeremiads were based on ignorance, for California had for many years been opposed to Chinese immigration. Kearney discovered no new issue; all he did was to capitalize an old issue in order to win over the discontented workingmen. . . .
A summary of the legislative measures concerning the Chinese will show the early opposition in California to Chinese immigration. . . :
1858. California legislature passes law forbidding Chinese to land on California coast except by stress of weather. Declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. . . .
1863. California legislature passes law excluding Chinese from public schools.
1867. California legislature passes a law (leveled at Chinese) declaring illegal all living rooms containing “not less than five hundred cubic feet of air to each person.” Sustained by the Supreme Court.
1870. California legislature passes law imposing $1000 to $5000 fine for “bringing Chinese into State without certificate of good character.” Declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
1876. California legislature passes law forbidding Chinese to work on county irrigating ditches. . . .
Source: Jerome A. Hart, In Our Second Century: From an Editor’s Notebook (San Francisco: The Pioneer Press, 1931).
Evaluating the Evidence