Workingmen's Party of California

"The Chinese must go" redirects here. For the play, see The Chinese Must Go: A Farce in Four Acts.

The Workingmen's Party of California (WPC) was an American labor organization, founded in 1877 and led by Denis Kearney, J. G. Day, and H. L. Knight.^[2] Its famous slogan was "The Chinese must go!"^[3]

Workingmen's Party of California
Leader	Denis Kearney
Founded	1877; 148 years ago (1877)
Dissolved	1883; 142 years ago (1883)
Ideology	Anti-Chinese racism Populism
Political position	Left-wing[1]
Slogan	"The Chinese must go!"
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

Organizational history

Denis Kearney, founder of the Workingmen's Party of California

As a result of heavy unemployment from the 1873–1878 national depression, Sand Lot rallies erupted in San Francisco that led to the Party's formation in 1877.^[4] In 1879, the party won 11 seats in the State Senate and 17 in the State Assembly. They also rewrote the state's constitution, denying Chinese Americans voting rights in California.^[5] The most important part of the constitution included the formation of a California Railroad Commission that would oversee the activities of the Central and Pacific Railroad companies that were run by Crocker, Huntington, Hopkins and Stanford.^{[failed verification][6]}

The party took particular aim against cheap Chinese immigrant labor and the Central Pacific Railroad which employed them.^[7][8] Their goal was to "rid the country of Chinese cheap labor."^[9] Kearney's attacks against the Chinese were of a particularly virulent and openly racist nature, and found considerable support among Californians of the time. This sentiment led eventually to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

By 1883, there were no WPC members left in either the State Senate or the State Assembly.

Kearney's party should not be confused with the Workingmen's Party of the United States, which was mostly based in the Eastern United States. The branches of the Workingmen's Party of the United States that were in California were absorbed into the Workingmen's Party of California after the latter was growing at a rapid rate and had adopted similar language.^[10]

Members

The Chinese must go!

City officials

• Denis Kearney, party president
• J. G. Day, party vice president
• H. L. Knight, party secretary
• Isaac Smith Kalloch, Mayor of San Francisco (1879–1881)
• Washburne R. Andrus, Mayor of Oakland (1878–1880), candidate for Lieutenant Governor (1879)
• James R. Toberman, Mayor of Los Angeles (1872–1874, 1878–1882)
• William Jefferson Hunsaker, Mayor of San Diego (1888)
• Abel Whitton, President of the Berkeley Board of Trustees (1878–1881)
• John F. Godfrey, Los Angeles City Attorney (1876–1880)
• Cayetano Apablasa, member of the Los Angeles Common Council (1877–1878), candidate for State Senate (1880)

State officials

• Samuel B. McKee, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (1880–1887)
• George Stoneman, Rail Commissioner (1880–1883), Governor of California (1883–1887)
• William F. White, candidate for Governor (1879), Bank Commissioner (1879–1887)
• James J. Ayers, candidate for U.S. Representative (1879), State Printer (1883–1887)
• John W. Bones, California State Senator (1878–1880)
• John P. West, California State Senator (1880–1883)
• Warren Chase, California State Senator (1880–1883)
• William J. Hill, California State Senator (1880–1883)
• Robert Desty, California State Senator-elect (1880, not seated)
• Charles C. Conger, California State Senator (1880–1883)
• Thomas Kane, California State Senator (1880–1883)
• Thorwald Klaudius Nelson, California State Senator (1880–1885)
• Joseph C. Gorman, California State Senator (1880–1883)
• Martin Kelly, California State Senator (1880–1887)
• John S. Enos, California State Senator (1880–1883)
• Pierce H. Ryan, California State Senator (1880–1885)
• Charles W. Cross, candidate for California Attorney General (1879), California State Senator (1883–1887)
• Thomas J. Pinder, California State Assemblyman (1881–1883), California State Senator (1887–1891)
• Samuel Braunhart, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881), California State Senator (1897–1900), Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (1900–1906)
• J. E. Clark, California State Assemblyman (1878–1880)
• Elihu Anthony, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• William W. Cuthbert, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• Stephen J. Garibaldi, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• William J. Sinon, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881, 1883–1885)
• John J. McCallion, California State Assemblyman (1880–1883)
• Jeremiah J. McCarthy, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• Garrett Pickett, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• John Burns, California State Assemblyman (1880–1883)
• Patrick T. Gaffey, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• Michael Lane, California State Assemblyman (1880–1883)
• John J. McDade, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• A. B. Maguire, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881), Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (1900)
• Stephen Maybell, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• Jeremiah Levee, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• Anderson N. Walker, California State Assemblyman (1880–1881)
• Dennis Geary, California State Assemblyman (1881–1883)
• Horace J. Jackson, California State Assemblyman (1881–1883)

Federal officials

• John R. Glascock, candidate for U.S. Representative (1880), U.S. Representative (1883–1885)
• James G. Maguire, California State Assemblyman (1875–1877), Judge of the San Francisco County Superior Court (1882–1888), U.S. Representative (1893–1899)

Other members

• Carl Browne, cartoonist
• Henry George, economist