The General Who Couldn't Say 'No' to a Bigot
Lt. Col. George Newton’s stinging reply to a letter writer reveals the ugly underbelly of Seattle’s civic elite in 1897.
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.
A Deserved Rebuke.
On Sunday, Sept 26th, the work which obstructed navigation at Hell Gate in New York Harbor was successfully demolished by General Newton and nobody was hurt. The blast was tremendous, but neither work nor man was injured by this triumphant triumph of engineering.
The explosion happened on Sunday, one very just man, Mr. Watson, addressed a long letter to Gen. Newton on his failure to send an invitation, intimating that he was making such show of the same as Gen. Newton left without the following deserved reply, which shows that his chief blow up bigot as well as trick:
HALLS PORT, Sept 27.
Mr. Watson: I have received your communication from you, dated Sept 26th, in which you decline an alleged invitation from me to witness the explosion at the Hell Gate on Sunday the 26th inst. You take a great deal of pain to go out of your way to violate the cannon courtaairs of tal-fourn [likely 'cannon' or 'common'] etiquette.
I take this occasion to inform you that I did not invite you, nor even knew of your invitation until the receipt of your refusal of acceptance. The truth is I left the matter of invitation to the Chamber of Commerce and to Lieutenant Willard, U.S. Engineers, with instructions to invite a certain number of gentlemen. I find that in case there was a mistake.
Your obedient servant, GEORGE JOHN NEWTON, Lieutenant-Colonel
This 1897 exchange between Lt. Col. George Newton and a local citizen named Watson highlights the rigid social hierarchies of early Seattle. While Newton was a respected engineer overseeing major infrastructure projects like the Hell Gate demolition, his public rebuke of Watson for 'violating etiquette' underscores how civic power was often wielded to exclude or shame those outside the established elite circles.
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