Territorial Legislature Declares Allegiance to the Union
As the clouds of civil war gather in the East, the Washington Territorial Legislature takes a firm stance for the preservation of the national Union.
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The present appalling conjuncture of our public affairs is calculated to excite in the heart of every loyal American, feelings of the most anxious solicitude and profound alarm, prophetic of the direst calamity that civil liberty has ever yet been called upon to endure. We, therefore, representing the present Legislative authority of Washington Territory, an integrant portion of our common country, deem it our privilege and solemn duty to express our sentiments: That we consider the preservation of our existing national Union as the first of all patriotic duties. We utterly discountenance—as fraught with incipient treason—all projects for a Pacific Confederacy. Washington Territory covets only the distinction of exhibiting, first and last, her devotion to the entire Union, as created by our ancestors, consecrated by their blood, and bequeathed to us, the palladium of civil and popular rights.
“Washington Territory covets only the distinction of exhibiting, first and last, her devotion to the entire Union.”
In April 1861, just as the Civil War began, the Territory of Washington feared isolation from the fracturing states. Today, the debate over regional identity versus national belonging remains a recurring tension in Pacific Northwest politics.
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