Twenty-Four Officers Wanted the Adjutant General Gone
A petition against Adjutant General O’Brien reached the governor, who refused to demand a resignation—prompting a theatrical outburst from Tacoma’s “Little Corporal.”
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.
Lieutenant Arthur Mulligatawny Howell of Tacoma handed to the governor on Saturday a petition signed by twenty-four officers of the 1st regiment, asking him to request the resignation of Adjutant General O’Brien. The governor said he could not ask Adjt. Gen. O’Brien to resign any more than he could ask Auditor Reed or Secretary Weir to resign. Then Lieut. Howell asked him how it would be about appointing a court of inquiry, or a court martial, but in relation to this the governor was uncertain. When Lieut. Arthur Mulligatawny Howell told Napoleon Bonaparte Fife what the governor had said, the Corsican soldier, according to the Tacoma Globe, arose in his wrath and thundered out: “I tell you the governor has a right to demand his resignation, or to order a court martial, and it should be done promptly.” That settled it. O’Brien will probably now shake in his military boots until the commands of “The Little Corporal” are obeyed, or until the twenty-four officers resign or are court martialed. In the meantime, shake or no shake, the adjutant general’s term does not expire until three years hence.
“I tell you the governor has a right to demand his resignation, or to order a court martial, and it should be done promptly.”
A petition from twenty-four officers to remove the adjutant general became a test of civilian authority over the state militia. The governor’s refusal and the theatrical pushback show how personal and public the fight over military appointments could be—a reminder that command controversies rarely stay inside the barracks.
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