2. From J.F. Caples to Portland City Council, 1879

Oregon District Attorney J. F. Caples wrote this letter to the Portland City Council warning about the city’s violation of a state law banning the employment of Chinese laborers on public works projects.

From the 1850s through the early 1880s, Chinese laborers immigrated to the Pacific Northwest in significant numbers. This period of Chinese immigration coincided with the rise of the organized labor movement in the United States. As a result of the willingness of large businesses to hire Chinese laborers at lower than average wages, racial and labor conflicts soon developed in the region between Euro American workers and the Chinese immigrants. While some business leaders sought modest protections for their low-wage Chinese laborers, some political leaders exploited the racial fears of the Euro American workforce. In Oregon, one result of this conflict was the passage of a state law in October 1878 that forbade the use Chinese labor in street improvements and public works projects.