The Oysterville Affair Remains Unpunished
A prosecutor declines to pursue charges in a notorious Pacific County incident, admitting that a jury conviction would be impossible.
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.
M. D. Egbert, Pacific county's prosecuting attorney, while passing through Astoria on the way to Walla Walla, was interviewed by an Astorian reporter, who asked him, 'What are you going to do about the Oysterville affair?' He said: 'I will not prosecute. It would be no use. I believe those men were guilty. Everyone in Pacific county believes the same. Without expressing any opinion as to last Saturday's action I am confident that any attempt to prosecute the perpetrators of the act would only result in additional expense. Were I able to secure an indictment, it would be impossible to get a jury to convict. This thing is done, and cannot be undone.'
“This thing is done, and cannot be undone.”
This story refers to the lawless nature of 1890s county politics, where mob actions were sometimes treated as beyond the reach of the judicial system. It serves as a reminder of how 'justice' was often dictated by local consensus rather than rule of law in early Washington frontier towns.
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