The Clerkship Scandal at City Hall
A municipal court clerkship nomination is derailed amid allegations of a secret deal to trade the position for political favor.
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.
Charges that there was a 'job' in the appointment of E. H. Bragg to be clerk of the municipal court led to a refusal of the delegates to confirm him. It is reported that he is incapable, owing to a physical infirmity which prevents his writing, of filling the office, but that he offered to fail to qualify if the council spared him the mortification of rejection. He expressed his willingness to take a subordinate position in another department, leaving the place open for A. G. Graaff, a young Democratic attorney. The first intimation was a motion by Delegate Carlisle that the vote by which Bragg was confirmed be reconsidered. Mr. Carlisle had heard that before the confirmation, Bragg had placed his resignation in the hands of certain members. Mr. Carlisle desired that such a bargain should be dragged into the light, noting that the people were already looking with suspicion upon the jugglery of office. The house refused to confirm the appointment by a vote of 6 to 2.
“The people were already looking with suspicion upon the jugglery of office, and he hoped that that body at least would place the mark of its disapproval upon any such nefarious proceeding.”
Local political maneuvering in 1893 Seattle over clerkships and committee chairs highlights the long-standing tension between party machines and government transparency. The 'jugglery of office' remains a perennial concern in Seattle civic life, reflecting the ongoing struggle to ensure merit-based appointments over political patronage.
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