USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 23
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 23
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 23
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23 Stat. Wash., 1854-5, 6, 8, 9.
24 Paul K. Hubbs of Port Townsend was president of the council. A. M. Poe said that he was pledged not to vote for removal. Letter of Poe to W. S. Ebey, in the Enos Collection.
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was the haste of the legislative traders, that the all- important enacting clause was omitted in the wording of the bill locating the capital, which thereby became inoperative. It was also illegal in another point, hav- ing located the capital permanently,25 which the legis- lature had no right to do, according to the organic act of the territory.
Another act was passed at the same session requir- ing the people to vote at the next election upon the seat-of-government question, which being done, Olym- pia received a large majority over all competitors.26 This result brought on a contest similar to that between Oregon City and Salem, a part of the legis- lature going to Vancouver and a part to Olympia, neither place having a quorum. Two weeks were spent in waiting for a decision of the supreme court upon the validity of the opposing laws, when it was decided that for the reasons above named Olympia still remained the capital; and that although the vote of the people carried with it no binding force in this case, yet the wish of the people, when so plainly ex- pressed, was entitled to consideration by courts and legislatures.27 This settled the matter so far as the capital was concerned, the Vancouver seceders re- turning to Olympia,23 where the capital has since remained.
Previous to the removal of the seat of government to Vancouver, Governor McGill having become re- sponsible for the proper outlay of the government appropriation,29 in which he was opposed by the same
25 Olympia Wash. Standard, Feb. 28, 1861; Ebey's Journal, MS., vi. 391; Steilaroom Puget Sound Herald, Feb. 28, 1862.
26 Olympia, 1,239; Vancouver, 639; Steilacoom, 253; Port Townsend, 72; Walla Walla, 67; Seattle, 22; scattering, 23. Olympia Wash. Standard, Apr. 19, 1862.
27 The opinion was given in reference to the case of Rodolf vs A. Mayhew et al., where there was a question of jurisdiction, the court being directed to be held at the 'seat of government.' It was argued by Garfielde, Lawrence, Chenoweth, and Hubbs; Evans and Lander, contra.
28 Olympia Wash. Standard, Dec. 23, 1861; S. F. Bulletin, Dec. 23, 1861; Or. Statesman, Dec. 23, 1861.
29 Neither McMullin nor Gholson would give bonds, and Judge McFadden, who held the drafts, was about to send them back to Washington.
215
UNIVERSITY.
clique of politicians which effected the subsequent trade, had let contracts for clearing the land donated by Edmund Sylvester for the site of the capitol, and preparing the foundations of legislative halls and ter- ritorial offices. The removal of the capital by the next legislature was a part of the political programme, which in the end failed in fact and intent. But the adverse proceedings delayed the erection of a state- house until 1863, when there was completed a struc- ture of wood at Olympia which has served the purposes of the territory for many years.
The university was suffered to remain at Seattle on condition that ten acres of land should be donated for a building site where the commissioners should select it. This condition was complied with by A. A. Denny giving eight acres, and Edward Lander and C. C. Terry the remainder. The corner-stone was laid in May 1861, but the university for many years failed to rank above a preparatory school, partly through mismanagement of its funds,30 and also by
30 The legislature, in Jan. 1862, re-incorporated the university, which was previously chartered in 1860 while it was located on the Cowlitz prairie, creating a board of regents consisting of Daniel Bagley, Paul K. Hubbs, J. P. Keller, John Webster, E. Carr, Frank Clark, G. A. Meigs, Columbia Lan- caster, and C. H. Hale, in whom was vested the government of the institu- tion. Three regents were to be elected each year, the length of the terms of the first nine to be determined by lot. In case of a vacancy the governor might appoint. The regents had power to elect a president of the board, and a president of the faculty; to fix the number of assistants, and determine their salaries. They could reinove either, and could appoint a secretary, librarian, treasurer, and steward, and remove the same; but the treasurer could never be, in any case, a member of the board of regents. They were entitled to bold all kinds of estate, real, personal, or mixed, which they might acquire by purchase, donation, or devise. The money received for the sale of lands or otherwise was to be paid to the treasurer, and as much as was necessary expended by the regents in keeping up the buildings aud defraying expenses; the treasurer only to give bonds, in the sum of $15,000 to the gov- ernor. There was also a board of visitors to consist of three persons, and both regents and visitors were to receive pay out of the university fund for their actual and necessary expenses, all orders on the treasurer to be signed by the secretary and countersigned by the president. Wash. Stat., 1861-2, 43-6.
In an act in relation to the management and safe-keeping of the moneys arising from the sale of university lands, another board, called 'university commissioners,' whose business it was to locate and sell the two townships of land granted by congress to the support of a university, were associated with the regents and other officers named above, all together constituting a board of directors, with liberty to loan the fund derived from the sale of land, or any part of it, at 12 per cent interest, and for any time from one to ten years,
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reason of an insufficient population to support a higher order of college.
the loans to be secured by mortgage on real estate of twice its valne. The interest thus accruing was to be set apart for the support of the university, and to be under the control of the regents, the principal to remain an irre- ducible fund. The laws required annual reports from both boards and the treasurer. Id., 60.
On the 10th of October, 1862, a primary collegiate school was opened for pupils of both sexes, under the charge of A. S. Mercer, assisted by Mrs V. Calhoun, the terms to continue five months. The reports of the different boards showed that in 1861 20,524 acres of the university land had been sold; bringing $30,787.04, and $30,400.69 had been expended in the erection of buildings. The receipts for lands in 1862 amounted to $16,748.03, of which $10,215.73 had been expended on improvements, leaving $6,959.24, on band, and 28,768 acres of land unsold. Wash. Jour. Council, 1862-3, app. xvi .- xx.
The president of the board of regents, Rev. D. Bagley of the methodist church, was also president of the board of commissioners to select and sell the lands of the university, and so zealous was he to sell, and so careless was he in his accounts, that the legislature of 1866-7 repealed all former acts granting authority to the boards of regents and commissioners, and appoint- ing a new board of regents consisting of B. F. Dennison, D. T. Deuny, Frank Mathias, Harvey K. Hines, and Oliver F. Gerrish, granting them power to make full investigation of the affairs of the university and report thereupon. Wash. Stat., 1867, 114. The new board elected Dennison president, Denny treasurer, and William H. Taylor secretary.
In the mean time there had been several changes in the school. W. E. Barnard appears to have been the second president of the faculty, if such a board could be properly said to exist, and he resigned in April 1866, the re- gents appointing Rev. George F. Whitworth, who accepted upon an agree- ment that the salary should be $1,000 in coin, payable quarterly, in addition to the tuition fees, and the free use of the buildings and grounds. The grade of scholarship was low, as might be expected under the circumstances of the recent history of the country, and the number of pupils probably never ex- ceeded 60, nearly all of whom belonged to Seattle. The new board of regents found $5.85 in the treasury, and only 3,364,7 acres of land remaining unsold out of 46,080 acres donated by congress. About 8,000 acres had been sold on credit without security, and about 11,000 on securities which were worthless, and at prices illegally low. For the remainder of the 25,456 acres remaining after the erection of the university buildings, there was nothing to show but about six dollars in money and between 3,000 and 4,000 acres of land. In their report to the legislature, the board made Bagley in debt to the university $13,919.34 in coin, and responsible for the other losses sustained by the uni- versity fund, having illegally acted as president and treasurer of the board, and disburser of the moneys received. Rept in Wash. Jour. Council, 1867- 8, 76-104. On account of this condition of affairs the school was closed in June 1867, and the buildings and property taken in charge by the new board. The report of the new board of regents being referred to a select committee of the legislature, the findings of the regents were reversed, and $2,314.76 found due Bagley from the university for services. The committee exonerating Bag- ley consisted of Park Winans, John W. Brazee, and Ira Ward, assisted by Rev. H. K. Hines of the methodist church, and member of the board of regents. Id., 187-202. Nothing was done by the legislature at this session except to appoint A. A. Denny and W. H. Robertson regents in place of D. T. Denny and H. K. Hines, whose terms had expired, Wash. Stat., 1867-8, 78, the assembly not knowing how to act in the matter. At the session of 1869 a report was made by the regents showing that $1,112.52 had been received into the treasury, $1,335.86 of which had been paid in liquidation of debts existing under the first regency; and $68.20 re-
217
McGILL AND WALLACE.
The administration of McGill, although an acci- dental one, was energetic and creditable. He com- bined, like Mason, executive ability with that savoir faire which left those who would have possibly been his enemies no ground for hostility.31 His attitude during the San Juan and extradition difficulties was dignified and correct, leaving a record alike honorable to himself and the territory.
The appointment of Governor Wallace in 1861 was followed immediately by his nomination to the delegateship of the territory. In Washington as in
maining in the treasury. The school had been reopened on the 12th of April 1869 by John H. Hall, who agreed to teach three years for $600 per annum. There were 70 students in attendance, 23 of whom were not residents of Seattle, and the university was not incurring any debts. Wash. Jour. House, 1869, 149-53. The governor, Alvan Flanders, declared in his message that 'everything connected with the management of the university lands up to 1867 can be described only by saying that it was characterized by gross ex- travagance and incompetency, if not by downright fraud; and that the history of the institution was a calamity and a disgrace,' all that remained of the munificent grant of congress being a building possibly worth $15,000. He suggested asking congress for further aid, which if granted should be protected from similar waste. Instead, congress was memorialized to bestow a grant of swamp and tide lands for school purposes and internal improve- ments, Wash. Stat., 1859, 527-8, a prayer it was not likely to listen to after the use made of the former liberal grant. The university struggled along, unable to risc out of its slough of despond for almost another decade. The first assistance reudered by the legislature was in 1877, when it appropri- ated $1,500 for each of the years 1878 and 1879 to defray the expenses of tuition, and establishing 45 free scholarships, the holders to be between the ages of 16 and 21 years, and bona fide residents of the territory six months before their appointment. Each councilman and each assemblyman could ap- point one from his district or county; each of the district judges one, and the governor three from three different counties. Wash. Stat., 1877, 241-3. The first graduate was Miss Clara McCarty, in 1876. The annual register for ISSO shows 10 graduates in all, only one of these, W. J. Colkett, being of the male scx. The faculty consisted in the latter year of the president, J. A. Anderson, and wife, Louis F. Anderson, A. J. Anderson, Jr, with 3 male and 3 female assistants. President Anderson raised the standing of the institu- tion, which continued to improve, and has turned out graduates very credit- able to it and the succeeding faculty.
31 McGill was Irish, having immigrated to the U. S. at the age of six years. He came to S. F. in 1857, returning to Washington, D. C., in 1858, where he was assistant, and then acting, private secretary to President Buchanan. In 1859 he was one of the commissioners of the court of claims, until made secre- tary of Washington. On his retirement from executive office he resumed the practice of law, and in March 1862 was elected U. S. prosecuting attorney for Puget Sound district. He was also elected a member of the territorial assem- bly for 1863-4 on the republican ticket. For a time he was president of the board of regents of the territorial university. In 1868 he revisited Ireland. Quigley's Irish Race, 414-16.
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THROUGH FOUR ADMINISTRATIONS.
Oregon, the democratic party, as such, had been forced to abandon its ancient rule, and it was now the party of the union which held the reins of government. Wallace had been a whig; he was now a republican. That was the secret of his sudden success. Running against Garfielde, democrat, and Judge Lander, inde- pendent, he beat the former by over 300 votes, and the latter by 1,000. Yet the legislature of 1861-2 voted down a series of resolutions presented by repub- lican members sustaining the course of the general government and discountenancing the project of a Pacific confederacy.32
The democracy were not yet willing to resort to arms to save the union from overthrow by their po- litical brethren of the south, and the legislature was democratic still. But the following session of 1862-3, very soon after convening, the joint assembly passed very strong resolutions of support to the government in suppressing the rebellion, partly the result of in- creasing republican sentiment, and partly also, no doubt, from a feeling of sorrow and regret for the loss of the territory's one war hero, I. I. Stevens,33 and not a little from a fear of losing the patronage of a republican administration.
32 There appears upon the journal of the council a set of loyal resolutions, sent up from the house, which are 'referred to the committee on foreign rela- tions, with instructions to report the first day of April next'-two mouths after adjournment! Wash. Jour. Council, 1861-2, 207-8. The members who com- posed this council were James Biles, A. R. Burbank, John Webster, Paul K. Hubbs, B. F. Shaw, Frank Clark, J. M. Moore, J. A. Simms, and H. L. Caples. The house then made a second attempt to pass some joint resolu- tions of a loyal character, but they were voted down before going to the council, The yeas on the second series were John Denny, father of A. A. Denny, M. S. Griswold, Lombard, McCall, John F. Smith of Clarke county, J. S. Taylor, William Cock, and J. Urquhart. The nays were John Aird, C. C. Bozarth, J. R. Bates, Beatty, Chapman, B. L. Gardner, Gilliam, T. D. Hinckley, Holbrook, T. Page, John H. Scttle, Smith of Walla Walla county, B. F. Ruth, Thornton, Edward A. Wilson, W. G. Warbass. Not voting, J. L. Ferguson, William Lean, A. S. Yantis, and Williamson. Olympia Wash. Standard, March 22, 1862.
33 General F. W. Lander, who belonged to the R. R. expedition of 1853, and who laid out the wagon-road on the south side of Snake River to Salt Lake, a younger brother of Judge Lander, though he could not be said to be a resident of Washington, was held in high esteem for his services. He died of wounds received in battle at Edwards' Ferry, much regretted on the Pa- cific coast. Olympia Standard, March 22, 1862; Or. Statesman, May 5, 1862.
219
GOVERNOR PICKERING.
The resignation of Wallace on his election as dele- gate was followed by a brief interregnum, during which the secretary, L. J. S. Turney, acted as governor. The next appointee was William Pickering of Illi- nois,34 who arrived at Olympia in June 1862. In December Secretary Turney was removed and Elwood Evans appointed in his place. Evans' commission having been sent to him without a bond, Turney re- fused to vacate the office.35 Both claiming the exclu- sive right to act, the financial affairs of the officials and legislators were for some time in an embarrassed con- dition. Pickering proved to be acceptable as an executive, and Evans was well qualified for the secre- taryship; so that peace reigned in the executive office for a longer term than usual, and the legislature me- morialized congress against the removal of Pickering in 1866-7, but a commission having already issued, he was forced to give way. During 1865 Evans was acting governor, filling the office to the satisfaction of the territory as well as the republican party.
Since the days when the first collector of customs, Moses, had worried the Hudson's Bay Company, and other British men, ship-captains, and owners, and since Ebey had established a deputy on the disputed island of San Juan, matters had proceeded quietly in the customs department. Ebey was succeeded by Morris H. Frost36 of Steilacoom, who held the office for four years, and C. C. Phillips of Whidbey Island followed for a short term of nine months, when, in August 1861, the new administration sent out from Ohio an
34 Pickering was a Yorkshire Englishman who came to the U. S. in 1821 and settled in Ill., where for thirty years he had known Lincoln, from whom he received his appointment. He was 60 years of age, and was sometimes called William the Headstrong. Pacific Tribune, June 8, 1872. On the ap- pointment of a successor he retired to a farm in King co., but soon after re- turned to Ill., where he died April 22, 1873. His son, William Pickering, remained in Washington. Seattle Intelligencer, April 27, 1873.
35 Or. Statesman, Dec. 29, 1862; Wash. Scraps, 146; Sen. Jour., 39th cong. 2d sess.
36 M. H. Frost later resided at Mukilteo. He was born in New York in 1806, removed to Mich. in 1832, and to Chicago in 1849. He crossed the plains in 1852 and settled on Puget Sound. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., xxi. 1.
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THROUGH FOUR ADMINISTRATIONS.
incumbent named Victor Smith, who was not only clothed with the powers of a collector of United States revenue, but commissioned to inquire into the manner in which the government moneys were disbursed in other departments-a treasury spy, in short, who en- joyed the confidence of the authorities at the national capital, but who, as it turned out, did not possess the requisite discretion for so dangerous an office, the con- sequence of which was that others, through jealousy perhaps, were spying upon him.
The first offence of which Victor Smith was plainly shown to be guilty was that of plotting to remove the custom-house from Port Townsend to Port Angeles, upon the pretence that the former place was not a good harbor in all weathers, but really, as it was averred, that he might speculate in town lots, he be- ing shown to be the owner of a fifth interest in the Port Angeles Company's town site.37 A legislative memorial was forwarded to congress in December 1861 in favor of Port Townsend, and asking for an appropriation to erect a suitable custom-house at that place.
Another offence of the imported custom-house offi- cial was that he was an abolitionist, a word of hatred and contempt to the democracy. To be an intermed- dler between master and slave, and to attempt to alter the settled order of things in the district of Puget Sound, where an appointee from the east was likely to be regarded as an interloper, were serious counts against the new collector. It was not long, therefore, before an apparent defalcation was discovered, and an outcry raised which made it necessary for him to repair to Washington.
In the interim, and before he reached the capital, Secretary Chase, whose confidence Smith seems to have enjoyed to a singular degree, recommended to congress the removal of the custom-house from Port
37 The company consisted only, it was said, of H. A. Goldsborough, P. M. O'Brien, and Smith.
221
PORT TOWNSEND AND PORT ANGELES.
Townsend to Port Angeles, and a bill was passed re- moving it in June 1862.38 This redoubled the ani- mosity with which the Port Townsend faction regarded the Port Angeles faction. Nor was the feeling les- sened by the action of the government in first apply- ing to Port Angeles the operation of a "bill for in- creasing revenue by reservation and sale of town sites."3 Under this act, the land which the original town company had claimed and surveyed for the city of Cherburg was reserved by the government, which resurveyed it and sold the lots at auction to the highest bidder, the company not neglecting their opportunity to secure a perfect title.
When Smith departed to Washington to explain to the proper authorities the condition of his accounts, and showed that the alleged defalcation was simply a transfer of $15,000 from one fund to another,40 in which action he was borne out by authority vested in him by the treasury department, he appointed J. J. H. Van Bokelin deputy inspector and collector for the period of his absence. Hardly was his back turned upon Port Townsend when Captain J. S. S. Chaddock of the revenue-cutter Joe Lane, acting upon information received, proceeded to take posses- sion of the custom-house, where he left installed as collector Lieutenant J. H. Merryman of the revenue service. This was in June 1862. In August Victor Smith returned to Puget Sound in the steam revenue- cutter Shubrick, commanded by Lieutenant Wilson, and demanded of Merryman the surrender of the keys of the custom-house; but this Merryman refused unless he were shown Smith's commission from the department at Washington, or his special authority for making the demand, neither of which were pro- duced. Instead, Smith returned to the cutter, had her brought into the harbor, her men armed, her
38 Sen. Misc. Doc., 67, 37th cong. 2d sess .; U. S. Acts, 127-8. Smith was reputed to be a cousin of Secretary Chase. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., xvii. 43. 39 Briggs' Port Townsend, MS., 32-3; S. F. Bulletin, July 24, 1862.
" Olympia Standard, Aug. 23, 1863.
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THROUGH FOUR ADMINISTRATIONS.
guns shotted and brought to bear upon the town. Two officers with a party of marines then landed and demanded of Merryman to deliver up to them the custom-house keys, but were refused. Upon this Wilson himself went ashore and made a formal requi- sition for the possession of the custom-house papers and moneys, when the government property was sur- rendered, and to avoid further trouble, taken on board the Shubrick, where the business of the office was transacted until it was removed to Port Angeles in September.41
The people of Washington territory had never yet been granted a satisfactory mail communication, but by an arrangement of the postal agent with the Eliza Anderson, a passenger-steamer running between Puget Sound ports and Victoria, had for some time enjoyed a sombre satisfaction in being able to get word to and from Victoria in a week. But on the arrival of the Shubrick, Smith, who was authorized to introduce re- trenchment into the public service wherever it could be done, assumed charge of the mail service, and made the Shubrick carrier, which having a regular route away from the mail route, was anything but a proper mail carrier. This disturbance of their already too limited means of communication roused a tornado of invective about the ears of the self-constituted postal agent.
Immediately after the belligerent performances of the Shubrick, Governor Pickering, attended by United States Marshal Huntington, Ex-governor McGill, Major Patten of the regular service, and a number of citizens of Olympia, repaired to Port Townsend on the Eliza Anderson, to inquire into the conduct of Col- lector Smith in threatening to bombard that town. But the witty and audacious revenue gatherer ex- hibited his correspondence with the secretary of the treasury, and smiling benignly, assured his visitors that whatever they might think of his methods, he was un-
41 Olympia Standard, Aug. 9, 1862; S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 11, 1862.
223
ARREST OF SMITH.
doubtedly a favorite of the power which made them, as well as him, of which he was able to furnish abundant evidence. Although this could not be gainsaid, there still remained the suspicion that the confidence of the government might be misplaced, and a few days later, when the Shubrick stopped at Port Townsend to leave and take the mail, Marshal Huntington attempted to board her with a warrant, but was not permitted to do so. On the 13th the Shubrick sailed for San Francisco, to which place she conveyed the collector, leaving the Eliza Anderson to carry the mails as heretofore, to the great joy of the business community.
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