One Customs Job, Two Promises, and a Party on the Brink
A federal patronage fight between John Collins and Hugh Wallace, layered atop a King County apportionment grab, had Republicans threatening an open row in Tacoma.
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.
PORT TOWNSEND, Aug. 25.—[Special.]—A fight is on between John Collins and Hugh Wallace over the federal patronage at the disposal of Collector Saunders. The latter has a very lucrative place in the office of deputy collector of customs at an annual salary of $1,500, which is now occupied by B. House, a Republican hold-over. It appears that Mr. Saunders sometime ago promised the office to Frank Sullivan, a protégé of Mr. Collins. Later Hugh Wallace asserted his authority and it leaked out that Saunders had also promised the appointment to a Mr. Gaines, of Washington County, Missouri, a relative of Mr. Wallace. This made Mr. Collins very wroth, and he and Mr. Sullivan, armed with letters written by the collector, wherein he had offered the billet to Sullivan, went to Tacoma and laid the matter before certain members of the state central committee. This, coming on top of the Tillicum jugglery whereby King County is to be robbed of six votes in the state convention and the vote of Pierce County increased in like proportion, came very near precipitating an open row.
The threatened loss of the support of the Seattle Telegraph caused the committee to urge Collector Saunders to ignore Wallace's demand and give Sullivan the position. To satisfy Wallace, Gaines was promised a position in the marshal's office after election. That is the situation today. A conference is to be held next week between Wallace, Saunders and Collins, or their representatives, and the whole matter will then be settled. This is the last office Saunders has at his disposal, and he wants to make it go as far as possible.
“This is the last office Saunders has at his disposal, and he wants to make it go as far as possible.”
Patronage fights and apportionment math still shape Puget Sound politics: a single job becomes a proxy for which faction—and which newspaper—holds leverage. The episode shows how a seemingly minor customs appointment could threaten an open party war.
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