The Port Townsend Loyalty Meetings
Citizens organize to refute allegations of disloyalty published in regional newspapers.
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.
Following reports in the British Colonist, Alta California, and the San Francisco Evening Bulletin accusing the citizens of Port Townsend of secessionist sympathies, the community held a public meeting at the local court house on September 27, 1862. Hon. S. Dyer opened the proceedings, and Rev. B. C. Lippencott was chosen President. The assembly formally declared the charges of 'questionable and disloyal' conduct to be 'flagrantly untrue.' A committee was appointed to travel to San Francisco and Victoria to identify the authors of these reports and demand a retraction, resolving that the community 'owe it to our self respect to ascertain who is the author of those accusations.'
“We owe it to our self respect to ascertain who is the author of those accusations, and that a committee be appointed for the purpose.”
This event captures the intense pressure of the Civil War era in the Pacific Northwest, where newspapers acted as the primary battlefield for rumors of treason. It serves as an early example of 'fake news' accusations and the lengths to which a small community will go to protect its reputation in a national political climate.
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