Seattle’s Acting Mayor Ousted in Mystery Resignation
Dr. Sweeney resigns after a sudden, suspicious removal by the board of aldermen, sparking rumors of gambling influence.
Acting Mayor Sweeney has resigned, after having been summarily and uncere moniously removed. The corporation counsel has decided that it is now Acting Mayor Miller, although the board of aldermen, after electing him, declared through their presiding officer that they had not elected him. And the public continue to look on in silent wonder, apprehensive as to what may happen next. This whole fiasco has a most peculiar look. There is evidently something behind it all that has not yet been disclosed. Unless there was some good reason for him to step down and out Dr. Sweeney has pursued a course that will hardly be approved by the people of the city. If, as Dr. Sweeney claims, the action of the board of aldermen was induced by pressure brought to bear by the gamblers to secure his removal, he owed it to himself and to the city to resist such an arbitrary and unprecedented exercise of power for a corrupt purpose.
“The whole matter is one of public interest, and the public are entitled to know the facts.”
Political turmoil and suspicions of 'gambling' interests pulling the strings of City Hall remain a persistent theme in Seattle’s history. This 1893 power struggle mirrors modern anxieties about external influence on municipal governance and the opacity of local political maneuvers.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.