The 'Fanatical Old Ass': A Local Political Feud in 1876
A fiery editorial from the Seattle Daily Tribune attacks the federal appointment of General Robert H. Milroy to a territorial post, painting him as a moralizing carpetbagger who failed to earn the respect of his own neighbors.
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.
An anonymous writer communicates to the Tribune what purports to be a 'Record of Gen. R. H. Milroy.' We have no disposition to detract from him, nor do we entertain an unkind sentiment towards him personally, and should not probably have made a comment upon his recent appointment, had we not heard it attributed to the active influence or neglect of Judge Jacobs. It is no reflection upon his military record or moral character to say that he is not personally popular. It is a significant fact that his biographer mentions but a single instance of his having held office by popular election. Like Gen. Howard, Gen. Milroy affects extreme piety; confines his social relations almost exclusively to his Church and temperance organizations, and makes violent aggressive war upon every form of amusement connected with the use of cards, spirituous, vinous or malt liquors. He makes no allowance for the differences between an old settled and a new unsettled state of society and would enforce public and private morality by pains and penalties, instead of by moral suasion. When the Commissioners of the Confederate and Federal Governments for the exchange of prisoners found Gen. Milroy's baggage to consist chiefly of articles of female apparel, captured from defenseless homes, the Confederate Commissioner insisted, and the Federal Commissioner declined, to receive it as private property. Now, we do not believe Gen. Milroy was a thief, but that he conscientiously regarded it as a patriotic duty to 'despoil the Egyptians.' We do not doubt his honest intentions, but we do believe that if there is a stupid, bigoted, fanatical old ass in this Territory, he is the man.
“We do not doubt his honest intentions, but we do believe that if there is a stupid, bigoted, fanatical old ass in this Territory, he is the man.”
This 1876 editorial reflects the perennial tension between federally appointed territorial officials and local populations—a power dynamic that remains a central theme in Western politics. The Tribune's critique of a 'carpetbagger' outsider attempting to impose moral codes on a frontier society mirrors modern arguments about local control versus national policy interference in Pacific Northwest civic life.
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