An Historical Analysis of Alien Land Law: Washington Territory and State 1853-1889

An Historical Analysis of Alien Land Law: Washington Territory & State 1853-1889t Mark L. Lazarus HPI* I. INTRODUCTION From its earliest days as a territory until the present time, the area now known as the State of Washington experienced a diverse range of policies regarding alien land ownership. Throughout most of Washington's early history as a territory, the alien land laws-influenced principally by the need to stimulate immigration for economic growth-were nondiscriminatory and served to encourage alien land ownership. However, during the period immediately prior to statehood, the territorial lawmakers enacted legislation under which some aliens-most notably the Chinese and Japanese-were restricted from certain kinds of land ownership. This restrictive approach, which was incorporated in the state's constitution and which continued through the middle of the twentieth century to disable aliens from fully enjoying the rights of their nonalien neighbors, was the product of several factors. There were economic fears concerning industrial labor competition and the domination of agriculture by absentee landowners. There were also the insidious forces of xenophobia and bigotry. Aliens did not regain the unfettered right to own land in the state until after World War II, as restrictive alien land laws were gradually eliminated in response to the changing economic and social realities of the post-war years. Hence, modern-day aliens in Washington now stand in the same position as did their predecessors during most of the years before statehood; their right to own land is unrestricted by discriminatory alien land laws. The purpose of this Article is to analyze the historical t ©1987, by Mark L. Lazarus III. * Mark L. Lazarus III is an international trade consultant and Chinese linguist. He received his B.A. from the University of California at Davis and his J.D. from Southern Methodist University. The author expresses his thanks to his wife, Myrna S. Coenraad, for her love, grace, and patience. 198 University of Puget Sound Law Review [Vol. 12:197 development of Washington's alien land law from the birth of the territory in 1853 to the drafting of the state constitution in 1889. Because alien land law necessarily involves relationships among people, this Article focuses not only on historical legal sources such as statutes, constitutional material, and judicial opinions, but also on the underlying social forces that compelled change in the law. This Article consists of three sections, the first of which is a brief discussion of the common-law roots of alien land disability in feudal England and its subsequent application and transformation in colonial and post-Revolutionary War America. The second section traces the origins of Washington Territory's first alien land statute and considers the factors responsible for the pre-statehood evolution of that law. Included in the second section is a discussion of an early abortive attempt to achieve statehood that also signalled a turning point in the evolutionary development of Washington's alien land law. The third section explores the drafting of the state's constitutional provision that restricted the landowning rights of aliens. This section continues by discussing further statutory disabilities imposed after statehood, the judicial interpretations of the constitutional and legislative restrictions on alien land ownership, and the constitutional amendments that ultimately resulted in the elimination of the alien land disability altogether. The Article concludes by summarizing the main themes of the historical development of Washington's alien land law. II. THE COMMON LAW ALIEN LAND DISABILITY The common law, as inherited by the American colonies from England, did not permit aliens to own land on an equal footing with subjects of the crown. Aliens could take land only by act of the parties through sale, devise, lease, or gift, but the right to hold onto land so acquired was limited because the English monarch had the prerogative to claim an alien's land holdings without compensation through a divestment process known as "inquest of office."' Moreover, because this potential 1. 2 W. BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES *293. See also McGovney, The Anti-Japanese Land Laws of California and Ten Other States, 35 CALIF. L. REV. 7, 18-19 (1947) [hereinafter McGovney]; Sullivan, Alien Land Laws: A Re-evaluation, 36 TEM. L. Q. 15, 16 (1962) [hereinafter Sullivan]. Although an alien buyer of land stood to lose both his price and his land if forfeiture occurred, a citizen who sold land to an alien was 1989] Washington Alien Land Law for forfeiture followed the land on conveyance, an alien could convey only a defeasible title at best, regardless of whether the acquiring party was another alien or a crown subject.2 A further disability existed, because aliens were considered to lack "inheritable blood," and thus were not permitted to take or convey land by operation of law.' Two consequences resulted from this feature of the common law alien land disability. First, land that might otherwise go to an alien by operation of law escheated to the sovereign unless an eligible heir of the decedent could be found. Second, untransferred land remaining at the time of an alien landowner's death automatically escheated because aliens were deemed to have no legal heirs.4 Thus, the alien at common law was truly under a disability. At most, he could do little more than occupy land. Land ownership, to the extent that it was possible, was a hollow state of affairs; not only might the alien lose his land and purchase money, his ability to convey land was diminished by the fact that those who acquired his land also acquired his disability of potential forfeiture. And, due to a lack of "inheritable blood," he could not provide for the future of his family's real property interests with any degree of certainty. Such uncertainty, coupled with the threat of forfeiture of land acquired through an act of the parties, made investment in improvements to the land a risky matter. The origins of the common law alien land disability are somewhat cloudy. It is generally accepted that the disability arose in thirteenth-century feudal England.' Chief Justice Coke rationalized the crown's prerogative to seize alien landholdings in wartime as a measure to protect the secrets and revenues of the realm, and in peacetime as a means to assure sufficient English freeholders to serve as jurors.' However, it permitted to keep the price. McGovney, at 19. Inquest of office is also referred to as "office found." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 712 (5th ed. 1979). 2. McGovney, supra note 1, at 19; Sullivan, supra note 1, at 16. 3. 2 W. BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES *249. See also McGovney, supra note 1, at 18; Sullivan, supra note 1, at 16-17. Here, operation of law includes intestacy, dower, and curtesy. Sullivan, at 16. 4. 2 W. BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES *249. See also Sullivan, supra note 1, at 161 (...truncated)