The Capital Crisis of 1861
A fiery letter to the editor captures the volatile politics of Washington Territory, as Pierce County residents accused the legislature of a 'corrupt bargain' over the location of the capital.
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.
To the Editor of the Standard: When the submission of a free people whose rights have been invaded increases in proportion to the wrongs they have suffered—when, instead of rising to arms and resistance, they sink into obedience—the time must surely arrive when that submission will cease to be a virtue. Sir, in the name of two-thirds of the voters of Pierce county, I speak. Justice, honor, and a decent respect for the opinions of a free people, demand that I should proceed; for their rights have been invaded and their liberties threatened. Our people, through the ballot-box, delegated to their representatives a power which they had not the honesty to support nor the ability to protect. A crime of the blackest dye has been committed. The delegated power of our people has been usurped, their sacred rights wrested from them; but the day of judgment is at hand. A decent respect for the common sense of our people forbids that I should dwell at much length on the great advantages accruing to us from the location of the capital at Olympia. They see and feel it. Now when we consider that all those great elements embrace an area on the Sound between the head waters at Olympia, Port Townsend, Island, and Whatcom counties, we look in vain for some explanation from our representatives for voting the capital to the frontier of Oregon. Arise! then, Olympia; take the lead in this great work; and if there be a noble Grecian among you, let him to arms, and like the brave Leonidas haste to the Pass of Thermopylae, meet the robbers of our rights in the gap, and show them that the hand that deposited the ballot which elected them to office can grasp the dagger to prostrate them lifeless at our feet.
“The hand that deposited the ballot which elected them to office can grasp the dagger to prostrate them lifeless at our feet.”
Long before Olympia became the undisputed permanent seat of government, the capital location was a bitter, roving prize. This 1861 letter illustrates the intensity of early territorial feuds, where regional identity and accusations of legislative corruption made simple administrative decisions feel like matters of life and death.
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