The Great Territorial Rifle Scandal
Legislators in the late assembly faced public backlash for voting themselves government-issued military rifles as personal loot.
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.
Our Legislative report in a late issue, in alluding to the passage of a resolution providing that each member and officer of the late Legislative Assembly should receive a U.S. rifle out of the Territorial arms, described the resolution as a project whereby each member voted himself a rifle. While this is practically true, yet it may seemingly reflect upon those members who refused to perpetrate such an audacious burlesque upon parliamentary propriety. The time may come when arms will be needed to defend our people, their firesides and homes. When wanted, where will they be? We confess we were surprised when we saw members of the assembly publicly receiving and parading through our streets, armed and equipped, as the Resolution directs.
“A majority of the assembly deliberately voted under the sanction of an oath, that its members and officers... were entitled to rifles, sent here by the National Government for the defence of the Territory and its people, not as perquisites or stealings of a Legislative Assembly.”
Public outrage over politicians misusing taxpayer-funded resources for personal gain remains a constant in Washington political life. The irony of lawmakers arming themselves with weapons intended for public defense echoes the ongoing tension between civic duty and political corruption that Olympia has faced for over 160 years.
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