Judson Asks Seattle: Why Can't Washingtonians Fill Their Own Offices?
At a Seattle mass meeting, the Democratic candidate for Congress made outsider rule the issue.
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.
By those who were present we learn that the Judson meeting at Seattle on last Monday evening was a grand success. Hon. J.P. Judson, Democratic candidate for Delegate to Congress, was received with hearty applause by the numerous friends present. He dwelt particularly on the injustice of our not being allowed to elect our Territorial officers, arguing that official positions were sent here to be filled by men who are strangers to our people, unacquainted with and careless of our wants. Were he sent to Washington, he said, he would at least try hard to secure the appointment of resident citizens to Territorial offices. He remarked that the only charge the opposition could bring against him was a political one. He was followed by remarks from Dr. Thomas Burke and Frank Clark, Esq.
“He dwelt particularly on the injustice of our not being allowed to elect our Territorial officers.”
Washington Territory could not elect its own territorial officers, and Judson made that grievance the centerpiece of his Seattle rally. The argument over who gets to govern a place—and whether appointed outsiders answer to local needs—still shapes fights over federal lands, D.C. statehood and local control.
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