The Governor’s Hotel: A Scandal of Misplaced Charges
When an out-of-town politician accused Washington Territory Governor Watson C. Squire of war profiteering during the anti-Chinese riots, the business community and local Democrats rallied to defend his integrity.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
While a man occupying public position is a proper subject for criticism, there is a limit beyond which even political hostility will not justify a person. When Mr. Voorhees, in an interview with a New York Sun reporter, uttered that Governor Squire prostituted his high office to personal motives during the Chinese troubles, he uttered a deliberate lie. He cowardly took advantage of the fact that the buildings selected and taken by the United States officers for their troops belonged to Governor Squire, to assert that the Governor was animated in declaring martial law by a desire to personally benefit himself. The facts of the case, proven by documents and letters from gentlemen of the highest standing, show the buildings were taken against his express desires. In fact, he lost money on the arrangement. The protest signed exclusively by Democrats is a complete vindication of the Governor and one of the highest compliments that could be paid to a public man. The letters of the officers who were in command at the time leave no room for doubting that the Governor was in no way instrumental in having his buildings selected. All of the appended documents taken together show the utter groundlessness of the charges made by Mr. Voorhees.
“The protest that is signed exclusively by Democrats is in itself a complete vindication of the Governor and is one of the highest compliments that could be paid to a public man.”
This 1887 controversy over a politician's property and local emergency housing echoes the modern, perennial Seattle tension between private ownership and civic duty. Just as Governor Squire had to defend the optics of his buildings being used for public necessity, contemporary Seattle leaders often navigate the complex intersection of land-use policy and political character attacks.
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