The Senator and the Payoff
A Kittitas County legislative candidate’s signed letter reveals a brazen scheme to secure a US Senate seat through financial bribery in Seattle.
In October 1892, George Bradley, a resident of Wenatchee, acting as an intermediary, produced letters written by Francis E. Madigan, a Republican candidate for the state legislature from Kittitas County. In these letters, addressed to U.S. Senator John B. Allen and Seattle businessman Fred Grant, Madigan explicitly offers his support and the influence of his district in exchange for money to 'treat the boys.' Bradley testified that he traveled to Seattle and met with Fred Grant at the Occidental Block, where Grant paid him one hundred dollars and promised four hundred more, stating he had no money on hand but would attempt to raise it to secure Madigan's vote for the Senator. The correspondence, which Madigan requested be returned to him after delivery, was instead placed in legal hands as proof of the transaction.
“I want you to favor George Bradley. He has stood by me and I have the greatest confidence in him, and he can do more for the Republican ticket than any other man in the valley. We must have more to treat the boys.”
This 1892 scandal over 'treating the boys' and buying influence reveals the transactional nature of early Washington politics, where legislative votes were treated as commodities. It mirrors modern concerns about campaign finance and the outsized influence of money in the Seattle political ecosystem.
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