The Newspaper War of Port Townsend

The Democracy of Port Townsend thought they could not keep up their party organization without a newspaper organ. They got a newspaper organ; and now all the respectable portion of the party wish they hadn’t. They find that an organ which can only play disgusting tunes, and draws its inspiration from squaw dance-houses, is not exactly the thing to promote harmony or inspire respect in a community outside of the hoodlum element. Not succeeding in getting any responsible printer or experienced editor to run the machine, its management was assigned to a small specimen of a county attorney, a rural edition of Uriah Heep, with the deprecating bearing of a scared coyote, and less knowledge of political economy than he has of the rules of social intercourse or legal pleadings. The ostensible editor is one Williston, called ‘Doctor,’ who has achieved some notoriety of a questionable character. He was one of the colony of Indiana paupers whom Gen. Milroy attempted to quarter upon the Indian Department of this Territory. The paper is published on the idea that Democracy is the lowest strata of organized society, and that its success depends upon pandering to the most brutal instincts and degrading vices of humanity. It gave the endorsement of publication without protest to a communication from the keeper of a squaw brothel, just out of jail, charging three leading Democrats—the Sheriff, the member of the Territorial Council, and one of the most reputable law firms in the county—with the infamous crime of conspiring to rob prisoners. Not one editorial article has yet appeared in that paper discussing Democratic principles, and scarcely one is free from personal vituperation.