The Judge, the Marshal, and the Restaurant Rumor
A federal judge denied a Tacoma newspaper's claim that he had plotted with election marshals—and defended the government's right to police the polls.
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.
To the editor: On Thursday afternoon Marshal Brown took luncheon with me at Shaw's restaurant on South Third Street in this city. We sat at a table in the public dining room. I paid the bill. The only persons in the room while we were there, besides Brown and myself, were the manager of the house, the waiter, a lady with a little child, and Judge P. C. Ellsworth. This circumstance is all there is to give color to the false report of a conference between Marshal Brown, Clancy, Crabtree and myself, published in the Tacoma Daily Ledger. No conference between the parties mentioned has been held at any time or place. I have not at any time or place objected to the appointment of deputy marshals to serve on election day, nor advised against it. I am not afraid of United States marshals, and I am unable to conceive of any reason why other peaceable and law-abiding citizens should be. I denounce the efforts being made to create a sentiment antagonistic to national authority as unpatriotic. — H. C. Hanford, United States District Judge.
“I denounce the efforts being made to create a sentiment antagonistic to national authority as unpatriotic.”
Federal election monitors remain a live partisan issue, and Hanford's letter shows the same charge—that officials are coordinating to intimidate voters—being fought out in 1892. His defense is oddly modern: a precise accounting of who was at lunch and a claim that enforcing election law is patriotic, not partisan.
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