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272 stories matching speaker
- The Day Washington Was Born: A City Holds Its Breath
As the nation celebrates statehood, Seattle gathers in a packed hall to hear speeches on liberty, land fraud, and the future of the 'Queen City.'
- The Treasurer They Refused to Seat
A thousand men packed Seattle's Armory to demand that John W. Maple take office as county treasurer, threatening a tax strike against King County commissioners — until a collection plate emptied the room.
- A Preacher Was Hissed for Defending Seattle’s Catholics
At a packed American Protective Association meeting, Rev. Clark Davis called for tolerance and warned that bigotry would fail — then heard jeers from members who wanted red meat.
- Nativist Rally at Ranke Hall: 'Close the Gates'
In 1895 Seattle, an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant A. P. A. meeting warned of 'unrestricted immigration' and claimed Catholic nurses secretly baptized Protestant infants.
- The Anti-Catholic Crusade Comes to Rake's Hall
A Seattle crowd packed a nativist A.P.A. rally to hear a Baptist pastor demand that immigrants prove their patriotism—or take the first train home.
- Three Thousand Pack the Armory to Cheer Debs and Denounce Pullman
Seattle workingmen and their allies fill Armory Hall to hear the strikers' side of the fight — a night of fiery speeches, white ribbons of peace, and one heckler hustled out the door.
- Washington's Fourth Legislature Adjourns After a Marathon Final Day
Lawmakers pass 53 bills, defeat a school-book trust, kill a Seattle-Tacoma bridewell, and bury woman suffrage for at least two years.
- Seattle Packs a Theater to Mourn Frederick Douglass
A month after the great abolitionist's death, the city's Black community fills the Seattle Theater with music, prayer and eulogy — and hears him compared to Washington and Lincoln.
- Washington House Speaker Says Courts Can Save Tide Lands
Speaker J. W. Feighan argues that Washington's tide land giveaway is unconstitutional and calls for a citizens' lawsuit to halt the sale.
- Seattle's Silver Crusaders Packed the Armory and Demanded a Free-Silver Senator
Populists, Democrats and Republicans found one thing to agree on in 1895: unlimited silver coinage—and a Legislature that would send a silver man to Washington.
- The Governor Tells Olympia to Tighten Its Belt
In 1895, Governor McGraw used his message to demand retrenchment, railroad reform and a quick end to the U.S. Senate fight so lawmakers could get to the people's business.
- The Anti-Catholic Crusade That Filled a Seattle Hall
In 1895, an overflow crowd packed a Masonic hall on Pike Street to hear the American Protective Association promise a nativist 'second grand army' against the Catholic Church.
- Cheers, Hisses and a Canal: The Night Tacoma Cheered the Ditch It Was Told Would Ruin It
At a packed Republican mass-meeting in Germania Hall, speaker after speaker dared the crowd to believe the Lake Washington canal would destroy Tacoma — and the crowd roared back that it would not.
- The Governor's Booster Sermon for Washington Territory
Gov. Newell told a Whatcom crowd that timber, coal, fisheries and harbors made the territory's future inevitable—and that the greatest city would rise at the entrance to the Straits.
- Single Tax vs. the Saloon: A Seattle Debate on Land, Liquor, and Power
At Freed's Hall, Henry George's followers and Prohibitionists argued over whether taxing land or banning drink could break the grip of monopoly and the whisky trust.
- The Battle for Seattle's Soul
On the eve of a contentious city election in 1886, two rival political factions clashed at the Opera House, setting the stage for a fight over the future of labor, law, and the anti-Chinese riots.
- The Political Brawl Over Seattle’s Debt
At a heated series of ward meetings in 1892, Republicans and reformers clashed over city finances, corruption, and a controversial proposal to tax 'abandoned women and gamblers.'
- Seattle's $100,000 Night: The Armory Meeting That Sold the Ship Canal
Boosters packed the Armory in 1895 and pledged a fortune for locks and bridges on a Lake Washington canal—payable only after a ship made the passage from Elliott Bay.
- Who Gets to Rewrite Seattle's Charter — the Council or the People?
A crowded, argumentative hearing at City Hall: the Chamber of Commerce is accused of a 'somersault,' a lawyer sneers at 'the people,' and Dr. Ramsey answers a councilman with a line of Latin.
- The Temperance Storm Brews in Seattle
Prohibition advocates take to the stage in 1886, igniting a fierce debate over morality, city control, and the role of the working man in a changing Washington Territory.
- The Battle for an 'Open' or 'Closed' Tacoma
Democratic mayoral candidate George I. Wright disputes the paper's characterization of his platform as he addresses citizens at a local meeting.
- The Speakerless Session: A Legislative Standoff
After seventeen ballots and tense debates over legal swearing-in procedures, the Territorial House finally elects a Speaker.
- The Fiery Orator of the Social Revolution
A profile of Kate Sadler, the renowned socialist speaker whose stirring rhetoric was said to captivate audiences across Washington.
- Workingmen Open a People’s Forum—and Hear That Olympia Sits on a Volcano
Two hundred residents packed Columbia Hall for the first of a series of public-question meetings, where speakers warned of hard times and one declared the city was on the edge of an eruption.
- The Anti-Mason Preacher Who Had Been Initiated Himself
Rev. P. B. Williams told a Seattle Lutheran crowd that secret societies were draining churches and breaking up homes. Pressed on his own Masonic past, he reluctantly admitted he had joined a 'clandestine lodge' in Chicago.
Also about this, in other words
- The Loudmouth of Pioneer Place
A citizen complains to the Post-Intelligencer about a street orator using obscene language and attacking religions, urging police intervention.
- A Republican Orator Tames a Crowd in Yakima
Andrew F. Burleigh wins over a skeptical Yakima audience with cool reasoning, effectively silencing a People’s Party heckler.
- The Speaker’s Gavel Clash
In the Territorial House, a subtle procedural error leads to a public confrontation over how legislation is truly passed.
- The Southern Orator Who Won Over Seattle
A fiery, nostalgic speech by James Hamilton—the self-proclaimed 'original' permanent chairman of the Democratic state convention—leaves a Portland journalist speechless.
- The Political Stump in Old Seattle
A skeptical local editor critiques a 1880 Democratic congressional candidate’s visit to Seattle, dissecting his oratory, his 'Solid South' rhetoric, and the harsh realities of campaigning in a territory without a vote.
- Street Preacher Faces Trial for Pioneer Square Sermon
A street orator's right to speak on public planking sparks a debate over whether the Salvation Army's influence creates a double standard for public space.
- A Recruiting Tour of the Sound
P.E. Brewer, a member of the Puyallup tribe, travels the Sound to recruit students for the Chemawa Indian School.
- Democratic Campaigners Hold Curbside Rally
Congress candidate Roscoe M. Drumheller and speaker William Goodyear appeal to Kennewick voters from the seat of an automobile on Second Street.