A Bureaucratic Duel in Mason County
A tart, hilarious correspondence reveals the friction between an autocratic Adjutant General and a defiant county official in early Washington.
Olympia, Wash., Jan. 8, 1892. County Auditor, I have not yet received your list of persons liable to military duty for 1891. Forward them at once, or proceedings will be instituted against you. R. G. O’Brien, Adjutant General. Hon. R. G. O’Brien: My Silly-Pathetic Friend, enclosed you will find a certified list of persons, residents in Mason county, liable to military duty. I submit the same in awe and dread, hoping the receipt of the same will calm your perturbed and bellicose spirit. Now, my callow soldier, would it not have been cheaper to have given your orders without appending a threat? Hereafter you will please remember the military list of Mason county embraces all the inhabitants thereof; we are all fighters from away back, 'wild and woolly and never carried below the knees.' I take the liberty to inform you that the military list was filed in this office January 18, 1892. There are many things for you to learn, however, but life is too short, therefore erudition is beyond your reach; better go hold your dalliance in a soap factory. J. W. Day, Auditor of Mason County.
“I submit the same in awe and dread, hoping the receipt of the same will calm your perturbed and bellicose spirit.”
This exchange highlights the historical tension between state centralized power and county-level autonomy. The auditor’s sharp-tongued wit captures a specific flavor of frontier politics that often prioritized personal honor over administrative compliance.
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