The Political Battle for the New West
As Washington prepares for statehood, national parties prepare for a heated contest over legislative control and future congressional influence.
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.
There promises to be a hot contest for the political control of the new states of North and South Dakota, Montana and Washington, which will be admitted to the Union during the coming autumn. The importance of the forthcoming election in the four new states will be better understood when it is remembered that eight additional senators and five additional representatives in congress depend upon the result. Should the republicans gain all four of the legislatures to be chosen, it would so increase their majority in the senate as to leave them in substantial control of that body for a term of years. Today I talked with several of the shrewdest politicians in the party upon the subject, and was surprised to hear them say that the entire result is uncertain. The people are dissatisfied with the administration regarding land policies, and feel that the evils they complain of have continued uninterruptedly. The new states will be taken into the Union amid a political excitement such as has never before been known in the history of that region.
“The new states will be taken into the Union amid a political excitement such as has never before been known in the history of that region.”
This article captures the specific, high-stakes political maneuvering that occurred in 1889 as Washington Territory transitioned to statehood. It highlights the recurring theme of Western distrust of federal land administration—a tension that persists in modern regional politics.
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