The Insurrection Act has been invoked 30 times. Two of them were in Seattle

Thanks to “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, the Insurrection Act of 1807 has been in the news lately. Today I learned that, of the 30 times the act has been invoked, two of them were in Seattle — three months apart.

The first time was in response to the Tacoma Riot of 1885 — one of many instances of anti-Chinese violence on the West Coast in the late 1800s. Tacoma’s entire Chinese population was expelled, its Chinatown was burned down, and two men died. According to the Brennan Center, after the riot President Grover Cleveland issued Proclamation 274, to prevent the violence from spreading to Seattle.

Just three months later came the Seattle Riot of 1886, which — though it still resulted in the expulsion of most of the remaining Chinese community — fortunately resulted in no Chinese fatalities. President Cleveland issued Proclamation 275, though by the time troops arrived the violence had ended. (Read more in the “Anti-Chinese Rioting in Washington Territory, 1885–1886” section of The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders 1877–1945.)

The only other time the Insurrection Act has been invoked with respect to Washington was also by President Cleveland, during his second term. Proclamation 367 related to the Pullman Strike. As its title states, it covered “Parts of the States of North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, and California and the Territories of Utah and New Mexico,” but no federal troops were ever sent to Seattle under its authority.

Benjamin Lukoff

Born and raised in Seattle, Benjamin Donguk Lukoff had his interest in local history kindled at the age of six, when his father bought him settler granddaughter Sophie Frye Bass’s Pig-Tail Days in Old Seattle at the gift shop of the Museum of History and Industry. He studied English, Russian, and linguistics at the University of Washington, and went on to earn his master’s in English linguistics from University College London. His book of rephotography, Seattle Then and Now, was published in 2010. An updated version came out in 2015.