The Lottery That Wasn't: A Commissioner's Moral Standoff in 1876 Seattle
While the county board approved a gambling license for Val Wildman to fund a road project, one commissioner filed a formal protest, declaring the legislature's authority void and refusing to legitimize vice.
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.
PROTEST.
The undersigned, one of the Commissioners of the county of King, in the Territory of Washington, and acting as one of the Board of Commissioners of said county at the August session of said Board A.D. 1876, in the matter of "Granting a license to Val Wildman to open and conduct a lottery, under an act of the Legislature of Washington Territory, entitled An act to aid in the construction of a wagon road across the Cascade Mountains" approved Nov. 12, 1875.
The undersigned hereby makes and requests it to be placed on the records of this Court, his unqualified objections to granting said license, as he believes this Board has no legal right to grant the same, and believes also that the above recited Legislative act is void for want of proper authority in said body to pass such act; and the undersigned having tried to have this Board reconsider and reject said application, and being unsuccessful, he now asks to have this his protest entered upon the records of the Board, and which is accordingly so done.
D.W. McMILLAN.
In 1876, Seattle was already grappling with the tension between civic development and moral regulation, using gambling revenues to fund infrastructure like roads across the Cascades. Today, as Washington State continues to debate the social costs of legalized gaming and cannabis industries, this document serves as an early example of local officials questioning the legality and ethics of taxing vice for public good.
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