History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 30

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880

USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 30
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 30
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 30

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45 An 'act to create and organize the county of San Juan' out of the islands forming the Haro archipelago was passed October 31, 1873, the county seat being temporarily located at the old landing of the Hudson's Bay Coul- pany.' Charles McCoy, Samuel Trueworthy, and Joseph A. Merrill were ap- pointed county commissioners. Wash. Stat., 1873, 461-3.

46 The building of this railroad was made a labor of love by the volunteer work accorded to it. The governor and territorial officers, and all the most prominent citizens, worked at clearing and grading on regular days, called field-days, when their wives and daughters accompanied them to the place indicated by the superintendent of construction, and carried with them ample stores of provisions, which, being prepared and served by them with much mirth and amiability, converted the day of labor into general holiday.

47 Struve had been in the regular army as a soldier, having enlisted in the Ist regiment of dragoons in 1854. The New York Sun of April 28, 1875, ac- cused him of desertion for having failed to report himself to a provost-marshal within 60 days after the issuance of Lincoln's proclamation of March 11, 1865 -which failure, according to law, made him forever incapable of holding office. But this stigma was explained away subsequently, the president having, owing to some peculiar circumstances, cancelled his enlistment and ordered his discharge. Olympia Wash. Standard, Oct. 3, 1875. Struve married a daughter of H. M. Knighton, mentioned in my History of Oregon. He was prosecuting attorney of the 2d jud. dist for 1868-9, and for a time was editor of the Vancouver Register.

48 N. H. Owings was born in Indiana. He served in the union army dur- ing the rebellion. At its close he was appointed register of the land-office in Colorado, and subsequently held the office of special agent of the postal rail- way service. Olympia Wash. Standard, March 31, 1877.

264

GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.

four biennial sessions of the legislature,49 during which time the laws were frequently amended and improved, the legislation of Washington being from the first liberal and progressive. The revised statutes of the United States, approved June 1874, made some changes in the mode of filling territorial offices. Jus- tices of the peace and all general officers of militia were required to be elected by the people, in such a manner as the legislature might prescribe; but all other officers not provided for in the revised statutes should be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the council. This new system of appointment re- moved from the governor the opportunity of exercis- ing any arbitrary power, and affected all territories alike.

The democratic convention of 1874 renominated McFadden, who, being at that time ill in Pennsylva- nia, telegraphed the withdrawal of his name. B. L. Sharpstein of Walla Walla was then made the nomi- nee of the party for delegate to congress. Sharpstein was a lawyer of good abilities who had represented his county in the territorial council in 1866-7. J. M. Murphy of the Olympia Standard was chairman of this convention, which met at Vancouver.

The republican convention, which met at the same place, chose Thomas H. Brents5 of Walla Walla

49 The officers of the legislature in 1873 were William McLane president of the council, Beriah Brown chief clerk, J. N. Gale assistant clerk, Levi Shelton sergeant-at-arms, William Fowler door-keeper, C. A. Huntington chaplain. In the lower house N. T. Caton was speaker, Charles W. Frush chief clerk, Jason E. Ebey assistant clerk, W. Gness engrossing clerk, Mary O'Neil enrolling clerk, Jacob Isaac sergeant-at-arms, and Rev. P. E. Hyland chaplain. Wash. Jour. Council, 1873, 5-7.

50Says W. C. Johnson of Oregon City, in an address before the Oregon Pioneer Association in 1881: 'Brents got his start in the "brush end" of Clackamas county. His father in early days was county commissioner. Young Brents learned something in district school, was for a short time in college at McMinnville, Yamhill county, read law, practised in San Fran- cisco several years, and then settled at Walla Walla, where he acquired a good practice and is highly esteemed. He is exceedingly industrious, book- islı in his tastes, and is one of God's noblemen-an honest man.' Portland Oregonian, June 21, 1881. Brents was at one time expressman in the upper country, about 1861-2, during the excitement about the Nez Perce and Salmon River mines.

285

ELECTION OF DELEGATE.

chairman, and nominated Judge Jacobs for delegate. Jacobs immediately resigned the chief justiceship, which was eonferred upon Judge Lewis, the vacancy created by his promotion being filled by S. C. Win- gard, United States prosecuting attorney, whose place was taken by John B. Allen of Olympia.51 Jacobs was elected by a large majority, the counties east of the mountains for the first time casting the greater number of votes for a republican nominee52 for the delegateship, showing that the elass of voters which in 1862-4 overflowed from the south-western states upon the Pacific coast was being either eliminated or outnumbered.53

The demoeratie convention of 1876 nominated John Paul Judson, son of John Paul Judson, senior, who settled on Commencement Bay in 1853, where New Tacoma now stands.54 He was a member of the legal fraternity of the territory, of good talents and unas- suming address; but he was unable to carry the terri- tory against Jacobs, who was reelected by the repub- lican party. At the following congressional election in 1878 Thomas H. Brents was returned by the same party, and served two terms in congress. At his first election he ran against N. T. Caton, demoerat, also of Walla Walla, beating him by over thirteen hundred votes out of thirteen thousand.

The platform resolutions adopted by the democrats in 1878 were, 1st, unalterable opposition to the dis- memberment of the territory, and approval of state

51The position was first offered to R. H. Milroy, late superintendent of Indian affairs for Washington. Allen was spoken of asa 'rising young man.' Olympia Pacific Tribune, Feb. 12, 1875.

52 Id., Nov. 1874. Sharpstein had 3,560; Jacobs 4,934.

63 The Olympia Transcript, May 12, 1877, remarks that 'Andrews, recently appointed clerk of the U. S. court at Seattle, is the first eastern Washington man ever appointed to a federal position on Puget Sound.'

54J. P. Judson, Sr, emigrated from Prussia to the U. S. in 1845, and set- tled in Ill., where he resided until 1853. His son was born in Prussia in 1840. He earned the money in mining on the Fraser River with which he paid for two years' schooling at Vancouver. In 1863 he was territorial libra- rian, and chief clerk of the house of representatives in 1864, after which he was employed as school-teacher until he finished his law studies in 1867. He was a partner in the law office of Judge McFadden. Walla Walla Union, Oct. 7, 1876.

286

GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.

government; 2d, extension of time to the Northern Pacific Railroad; 3d, improvement of the Snake and other rivers by the general government. The 6th resolution declared the Indian-reservation system a failure, and called for the breaking-up of the tribal relation, or the consolidation of reservations into one, which should be under military control. The 5th res- olution charged upon the republican party a wide- spread commercial distress.

The platform of the republicans protested against an irredeemable currency; favored extension of time to the Northern Pacific Railway, provided it should construct twenty-five miles of road annually; approved the restoration to the public domain of the lands of the branch line originally located over the Skagit pass of the Cascades; besought government aid in the construction of the Seattle and Walla Walla rail- road;55 opposed the dismemberment of the territory; urged the passage of an enabling act for state pur- poses by congress; denounced Chinese immigration and the existing management of the Indians.56 From these two schedules of party principles and aims the general drift of territorial affairs at this period may be gathered.

Ever since 1867-8 a movement had been on foot to annex to Washington that strip of country forming a handle to Idaho on the north, comprising the counties of Nez Perce, Shoshone, and Idaho.57 These counties did not all lie in the "long narrow strip" described in a legislative memorial to be only fifty miles wide, but congress was asked to assume that they did. And these veracious memorialists did "further show" that

55 The Seattle and Walla Walla railroad was built in the same manner as the Olympia and Tenino road, by the exertions of the people of Seattle. The first ground was broken in 1874, when on the Ist of May the citizens, men, women, and children, turned out and graded a mile of road before nightfall. On the 14th they repeated this action and graded another mile. Having made this beginning, the work was carried forward, and 20 miles of road intended to be the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific was completed. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 15, 1883.

56 Olympia Transcript, Oct. 19, 1878; Olympia Standard, Sept. 14, 1878.

57 See petition of Washington legislature, in Wash. Stat., 1867-8, 176-7.

287

VIEWS OF THE PARTIES.

the representatives of the said counties in order to reach Boisé City were compelled to travel through a large portion of Washington and Oregon, a distance of over 500 miles, at a great expense to their territory; to cure which evil, it was claimed that they desired to travel 125 miles farther, at the expense of Washing- ton, to reach Olympia!

There was, indeed, a wish on the part of those inhabitants of Idaho north of the Salmon Range to be reunited to Washington. In 1873 another memo- rial was passed in the legislature of Washington, setting forth the benefits to be derived to the north of Idaho from annexation,58 which received as little attention in congress as the former one. Not long after, a scheme was found to be on foot to create a new terri- tory out of eastern Washington and northern Idaho, this being the dismemberment to which both repub- licans and democrats were opposed in the laying-down of their principles.

Both parties were agreed in disapproving of the reservation system, which had brought on another Indian war, in which that portion of the Nez Percés which acknowledged Joseph as chief had massacred an entire settlement in Idaho and alarmed the whole country.59 Both parties wished for the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and favored extension of time as a means to that end. Both believed the time had come for a state constitution, being satis- fied that as a territory congress would ignore their demands for internal improvements, harbors, and coast defences, with an unjust degree of parsimony on one hand and favoritism on the other.60

65 Wash. Stat., 1873, 608.

59 Sce History of Idaho, this volume.

60 From the report of the secretary of war for 1883 it appears that the whole amount expended on river and harbor improvements in the United States between 1789 and 1882 was $105,796,501, the most of it subsequent to 1861. Tho whole share of the Pacific coast in these appropriations amounts to $2,157,233, of which California has had $1,492,428, Oregon $649,305, Idaho $10,000, and Washington territory $5,000! S. F. Chronicle, Jan 25, 1884. Population and apportionment of representatives aside, such parsimony, where a proper degree of expenditure would produce more magnificent results

258

GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.

The legislature of 1867-8 passed an act to submit the question of calling a constitutional convention to the people at the next general election, but the meagre vote polled in 1869 showed them to be indifferent or undecided. The legislature of that year passed an- other act calling for a vote in 1870, and making it the duty of the next legislature, should there be a majority in favor of a convention, to provide for the holding of it.61 Again the people were indifferent.

The legislature of 1871 repeated the enactment of 1869, with the addition that the governor should give notice in his proclamation that the legal voters of the territory were required to vote for or against a state convention, but with the same result as before. In 1873 another act was passed of a similar nature, in the hope, by mere iteration, to bring the voters up to the mark of taking an interest in the matter. The whole vote cast "against convention" was less than a fourth of the popular vote for delegate, but enough to defeat the movement.

In its turn, the legislature of 1875 took up the sub- ject, passing another act similar to the last,62 which called out in 1876 a vote of over 7,000, and a majority for convention of 4,168. Accordingly the succeeding legislature63 appointed a state constitutional convention to be held at Walla Walla in June 1878, the delegates being elected in April.

than in almost any portion of the union, is a short-sighted policy in the fed- eral government, which every year renders morc distasteful to the people on the Pacific coast.

61 Seattle Intelligencer, May 23, 1870.

62 The president of the council in 1875 was B. F. Shaw, chief clerk A. J. Cain, assistant clerk C. C. Perkins, sergeant-at-arms Charles Stockton, door- keeper Frank Lampson, enrolling clerk Emma Nichols, engrossing clerk Clara Gove. Speaker of the house Elwood Evans, chief clerk R. G. O'Brien, assist- ant clerk S. L. Crawford, sergeant-at-arms Luke Moore, door-keeper F. M. Jones, enrolling clerk James A. Hughes, engrossing clerk Estella Galliher. Wash. Jour. House, 1875, 6-10.

63 T. M. Reed was chosen president of the council in 1877, and T. B. Mur- ray chief clerk. In the house, R. G. Newland was elected speaker, and R. G. O'Brien chief clerk. Olympia Wash. Standard, Oct. 6, 1877. Miss C. E. Myers was chosen enrolling clerk, and Miss S. Galliher engrossing clerk, for the house; Fannie Baldwin enrolling, and Anna Knighton engrossing, clerk for the council. Wash. Jour. House, 1877, 7-8. In the council were 5 repub- licans and 4 democrats; in the house 16 republicans and 13 democrats.

289

SHALL WASHINGTON BE A STATE?

Notwithstanding the election of delegates took place as ordered by proclamation of the governor, the newspapers complained of the apathy of the people, accounting for it by saying they feared the movement would fail in congress. But the real reason was, that a majority of the voting class were willing that con- gress should continue to pay the expenses of the mu- nicipal government until the population, then less than 40,000, reached the number of 124,000 required by the general apportionment bill to give them a member of congress. Outside of Washington it was admitted that if any territory might claim exemption from the law it was this one, possessing an immense area and great resources, and lacking only population, which would rapidly be drawn thither when it should become a state, with all the advantages of equality with the other Pacific states.64 At home the argu- ments put forward to overcome the apathy of the people at large was the increased value of property likely to result from admission into the union, which would more than offset the expense of state govern- ment; the appropriations which would be due, and the position of north Idaho, which was waiting to be joined to Washington, but could not be until the lat- ter should be admitted, with this territory included within its present boundary.65

In the mean time the delegate in congress, Jacobs, acting on the result of the election of 1877, introduced, by way of an entering wedge, a bill for the admission of Washington as a state of the union, in December 1877. After it was settled that there was really to be a constitutional convention, the subject of a name for the future state was discussed more than any of the more important issues, a large number of the inhab- tants clinging to the name of Columbia, by which it was first presented to congress for territorial organization. 66

64 S. F. Chronicle, Dec. 28, 1877; Id., April 8, 1878; S. F. Bulletin, June 29, 1878.

65Olympia Transcript, Oct. 24, 187S.

66 Olympia Wash. Standard, April 6, 1868. HIST. WASH,-19

290

GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.

The convention met at Walla Walla June 11, 1878, a delegate from northern Idaho being also present, but without a vote. A new boundary was fixed for the eastern portion of the state, including the panhandle of Idaho. In the declaration of rights it was said that "no person on account of sex should be disqualified to enter upon and pursue any lawful business, avocation, or profession,"67 but all attempts to have stricken out the word 'male' as a qualifi- cation for voters failed. The instrument gave the legislature power to amend itself, made the sessions biennial, gave that body authority to adopt the sys- tem known as the preferential system in dealing representatives, and limited its sessions to forty days. Special legislation was forbidden; no lotteries could be authorized, or divorces granted. The courts were reorganized; taxes made uniform under general laws; the power to tax corporate property could never be suspended; the public school fund could never be reduced; educational and penal institutions should be provided; the legislature should have power to change the location of the seat of government, which

67 This declaration of the rights of women was the outcome of several years of effort on the part of the advocates of woman suffrage, the apostle of which was Mrs Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon, proprieter of the New Northwest, a journal devoted to the enfranchisement of women. She began the canvass of Oregon and Washington in 1870, making at first rather awkward attempts at oratory, but rapidly improving, until her speeches on the suffrage question commanded attention everywhere. Mrs Duniway attended the Walla Walla convention as a reporter. An act was passed in 1871 with the evident design of putting an end to Mrs Duniway's seiges of the legislatures. It declared that 'hereafter ne female shall have the right of ballot or vete at any pell or election precinct in this territory, until the congress of the United States of America shall, by direct legislation upen the same, declare the same to be the supreme law of the land.' Wash. Stat. 1871, 175. However, in 1879 an act was passed entitled " An act to establish and protect the rights of married women,' as follows: 'Sec. 1. All laws which impose or recognize civil disabilities upon a wife, which are net imposed or recognized as existing as to the husband, are hereby abolished. Sec. 2. Henceforth the rights and responsibilities of the parents, in the absence of misconduct, shall be equal.' The framers of this absurd law did net perceive that they were merely heaping responsi- bilities upen women without allowing them the means of adequately dis- charging them. Nor did the Olympia newspaper editor see mere clearly when he called this 'the first married woman's emancipation bill on this continent.' The bill, such as it was, passed without a dissenting voice. Olympia Standard, Nov. 21 and Dec. 6, 1879.

291

THE CONSTITUTION.

should be submitted to a vote of the people at the general election next following the adoption of the constitution; the qualifications of voters who were citizens of the United States were a residence of six months in the state, and thirty days in the county, and aliens must have declared their intention of be- coming citizens six months before voting. Three articles were left to be voted upon separately, namely, local option, a temperance measure; woman suffrage; and the annexation of the panhandle counties of Idaho.

Such, briefly, was the instrument which occupied the delegates twenty-four days in completing. It was submitted to the people at the November elec- tion for delegates, and by them adopted.63 Congress had passed no enabling act; the convention was purely voluntary, and therefore the constitution in- effectual until ratified.

Delegate Thomas H. Brents, elected in November, offered the state of Washington for adoption into the union immediately on taking his seat in congress, but the candidate for the honors of statehood was not re- garded in the national legislature with favor, although a rapid growth had set in with the development brought about by navigation and railroad companies, and the territory was in a solvent financial condition.

The members of the legislature of 1879 were still largely of the pioneer class, about half the members having resided in the territory for twenty-five years. The other half were young men of more recent immi- grations,69 the newer element promising soon to be the

68 The following is a list of the delegates: W. A. George, Elwood Evans, and S. M. Gilmore were delegates at large; S. M. Wait, B. F. Dennison, and Charles H. Larrabee, from the judicial districts; C. M. Bradshaw, H. B. Emory, D. B. Hannah, Francis Henry, A. S. Abernethy, George H. Stuart, O. P. Lacey, L. B. Andrews, from council districts; and J. V. Odell and Alonzo Leland were delegates from north Idaho. A. S. Abernethy was elected president of the convention, W. Byron Daniels secretary, assisted by William S. Clark, Henry D. Cook, sergeant-at-arms, John Bryant and John W. Norris, messengers. Id., June 22, 1878.

69 The New Tacoma Herald, Oct. 30, 1879, is my authority for the follow- ing condensed biographies: President of the counsel, Francis H. Cook, born

292

GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.

founders, and to become themselves builders of em- pire. In the judiciary there had occurred a change

in Ohio; age 28; came to the territory in 1871; publisher of the Herald. Elliot Cline, born in Pa; age 60; immigrated in 1852; farmer by occupation; residence New Dungeness. J. H. Day, born in Va; age 60; immigrated in 1862; druggist; residence Walla Walla. S. G. Dudley, born in N. Y .; age 45; immigrated in 1874; farmer; residence Seattle. R. O. Dunbar, born in Ill .; age 45; immigrated in 1846; lawyer; residence Goldendale. J. B. La Du, born in N. Y .; age 45; immigrated in 1853; farmer; residence Monnt Coffin. John McGlynn, born in Ireland; age 34; came in 1872; hotel- keeper; residence La Conner. L. M. Ringer, born in Va; age 44; came in 1873; merchant; residence Almota. A. F. Tullis, born in Ind .; age 49; im- migrated in 1832; farmer; residence Chehalis. Allen Weir, chief clerk, born in Cal .; age 25; came in 1860; publisher; residence Port Townsend. Samuel Greene, assistant clerk, born in Mass .; age 42; came in 1874; farmer; residence Seattle. W. R. Andrews, enrolling clerk, born in Mich .; age 28; came in ISG1; lawyer; residence La Conner. Emma Knighton, born in Or .; age 21; came in 18G0; residence Olympia. J. H. Wilt, sergeant-at-arms, born in Ohio; age 26; came in 1876; teacher; residence Walla Walla. G. W. Brant, door-keeper, born in Mo .; age 25; came in 1852; wheelwright; residence Vancouver. Ruth Bigelow, messenger, born in the territory; age 19; residence Olympia, Robert Wilson, watchman, born in N. Y .; age 47; immigrated in 1855; hatter; residence Walla Walla. J. R. Thompson, chaplain, born in Eng .; age 38; came in 1870; presbyterian preacher; resi- dence Olympia.

In the lower house, George H. Stewart, speaker, born in Ind .; age 48; immigrated in 1850; lawyer; residence Vanconver. J. N. Baker, born in Ky; age 32; immigrated in 1853; farmer; residence Oakville, Chehalis co. H. Blackman, born in Maine; age 32; came in 1872; lumberman; residence Snohomish City. C. Catlin, born in III .; age 35; came in 1850; farmer; res- idence Freeport, Cowlitz co. M. F. Colt, born in N. Y .; age 42; came in 1865; merchant; residence Walla Walla. P. D. Jornp, born in Denmark; age 34; came in 1860; hotel-keeper; residence Utsalady. J. M. Deware, born in Scotland; age 55; came in 1839; farmer; residence Walla Walla. Levi Farnsworth, born in Maine; age 70; immigrated in 1850; shipwright; residence Yakima. J. J. Foster, born in South Carolina; age 55; came in 1861; farmer; residence Wahkiaknm co. T. C. Frary, age 39; came in 1876; physician; residence Pomeroy. J. E. Gandy, born in Wis .; age 32; came in 1865; physician; residence Puyallup. D. C. Guernsey, born in Wis .; age 34; came in 1871; merchant; residence Dayton. M. V. Harper, born in Tenn .; age 40; immigrated in 1853; surveyor; residence Goldendale. S. W. Hovey, born in Maine; age 46; came in 1857; cashier of Port Gamble Mill Co .; residence Port Gamble. D. F. Percival, born in Maine; age 39; came in 1872; farmer; residence Rock Creek. J. A. Perkins, born in Ill .; age 38; came in 1861; farmer and land speculator. F. C. Purdy, born in Tenn .; age 52; settled in 1854; farmer; residence Skokomish. F. M. Rhoades, born in Ohio; age 47; immigrated in 1847; farmer; residence Key, Thurston co. Henry Roder, born in Germany; age 54; came in IS51; farmer; residence Whatcom co. B. F. Shaw, born in Mo .; age 51; immi- grated in 1844; farmer; residence near Vanconver. L. P. Smith, born in Maine; age 64; came in 1869; watchmaker; residence Seattle. Alfred Snyder, born in N. J .; age 51; came in 1870; salesman at Port Blakeley. D. J. Storms, born in Ohio; age 65; came in 1872; farmer; residence Waits- burg. J. A. Taylor, born in N. Y .; age 54; immigrated in 1845; farmer and agent for farm machinery; residence Walla Walla co. M. R. Tilley, born in Ind .; age 45; immigrated in 1832; livery-stable; residence Olympia. S. Troy, born in Pa; age 46; came in 1873; farmer; residence New Dun- geness. A. H. Tucker, born in N. H .; age 40; immigrated in 1852;

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 30

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: San Francisco : History Co. Number of Pages: 880

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880