The Militia vs. The Populists
A political firestorm erupts in the state capital after the local People's Party claims Seattle's guardsmen acted like drunken hooligans.
The story, cleaned up
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The highlight of all items of interest among militiamen last week was the trip to Olympia and the subsequent attack on them by the People's Party club of that city. The incident appears to have been spurred by Governor Elisha P. Ferry’s recent message to the legislature, in which he lauded the militia for preserving order and upholding laws against mob violence, stating that the state's obligations to the National Guard were greater than the guard’s to the state. With this as a text, and citing alleged cases of drunkenness, Populists attacked the existence of the guard, arguing it 'had better go out of business.'
Colonel J. Green, of the First Regiment, vehemently denied the charges. He noted that during the inauguration of Governor-elect McGraw, many citizens approached him to offer high praise for the command's conduct. Chief of Police Savidge of Olympia also publicly denounced the Populist claims as untrue, asserting that the guardsmen remained orderly throughout the event. While the militia claims they were busy acting as a bulwark for law and order, their critics view them as an aggressive state apparatus that has outlived its necessity.
“The enemies of the guard object to the state maintaining any body which is ready to uphold law and order at a moment's notice.”
This 1893 skirmish over the legitimacy of the National Guard highlights a recurring tension in Washington politics: the role of state-sanctioned force versus civil oversight. Today's debates over police funding and the use of the National Guard during civil unrest echo these same questions of whether these organizations uphold 'law and order' or represent an overreach of state power.
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