A Hostile Arrival at the Land Office
Local Democrats express outrage as a new federal land office register assumes power, fearing his appointment signals a partisan strike against the city.
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.
Capt. O'Toole, the new register of the Seattle land office, succeeds Col. T. M. Reed today. Local Democrats are not at all placated now that Capt. O'Toole is on the scene. They inveigh against him as a bitter enemy of Seattle and insist that his appointment will do the local Democracy a great deal of harm. His Democracy is questioned, but his hostility to Seattle is not. He will probably be kept busy dodging the daggers of the Democrats who have suffered for their loyalty to Seattle. O'Toole has already appointed Percy Smith of Bellingham as his first clerk, and indicated that he may need more assistants to handle the 2,000 Port Angeles settlers' claims currently requiring investigation.
“He will probably be kept busy dodging the daggers of the Democrats who have suffered for their loyalty to Seattle.”
This item illustrates the extreme politicization of federal appointments in the 19th-century territorial and state governance, where a land office position was effectively a political combat post. It highlights the historical importance of the Seattle Land Office in managing the massive influx of settlers to the region.
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