The Paradise of Thieves: Seattle’s 1876 Corruption Crisis
When the Territorial Legislature legalized gambling to fund a mountain road, Seattle residents warned that the city was becoming a lawless playground for criminals.
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.
The Territorial Legislature, at the last session, enacted a law legalizing lottery gambling in this county, for the ostensible purpose of 'aiding in the construction of a wagon road across the Cascade Mountains.' Under this act, the County Commissioners assumed the right to license the practice of gambling devices which bear no relation whatever to the terms of the law. Gambling has been made a public pursuit under the color of law, and those to whom the enforcement of the law is entrusted acquiesce in it. The natural consequences of such a system have followed: gambling of every kind is carried on with impunity; the town has become the resort of professional gamblers, sharpers, pick-pockets, and burglars of every grade. Why not? When our officials license gambling, who shall say that it is a crime to pursue the same calling on private account? Is it not natural that the desperate characters who live by preying upon the community should regard a place where such practices are legalized and tolerated as the 'paradise of thieves,' and resort to it for the purpose of plying their vocation. Hardley a night passes that some desperate crime is not committed. On Saturday night no less than three of our citizens in different parts of the city were assaulted by foot-pads, and Mr. J. R. Robbins was knocked down with a deadly weapon, seriously wounded, and barely escaped with his life.
“Why not? When our officials license gambling, who shall say that it is a crime to pursue the same calling on private account?”
In 1876, Seattle residents decried how 'legalized' gambling and official corruption created a haven for petty crime, a sentiment echoing modern debates over whether civic neglect and unchecked vice drive urban decay. The frustration with a 'City Marshal and organized police' who are under pay yet arrest few offenders remains a sharp, recurring critique in Seattle's political history.
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