The Territory’s Muskets Were ‘About as Dangerous at One End as the Other’
A Pierce County taxpayer audits the 1859 Legislature: condemned arms, a new enrolling clerk, and the old habit of hoping Congress will pay.
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 of the Puget Sound Herald:
I notice that the present Legislature is not at a loss for ways and means to deplete the Territorial Treasury. Now, as I happen to belong to the county which contributed more to that fund than any other in the Territory, I claim the right to consider it my business to keep an eye upon the manner in which it is expended. In the first place, it is noticeable that the fund is yearly drawn upon to the amount of about three hundred dollars for cleaning and repairing what are designated as Territorial Arms. I do not know about the quality of all these arms, but judging from those I saw in use during the Indian war, and the one I had the honor of shouldering, they are about as dangerous at one end as the other, and the point where a bullet will hit, fired from one of them, cannot be calculated upon for any distance over ten yards, even in the hands of marksmen, so as to be sure of hitting an object the size of a man. The idea has occurred to me that they probably are a lot of condemned U.S. muskets, little better than no muskets at all. If this is the case, I am inclined to the opinion that the money laid out in keeping them up could be more judiciously expended by purchasing new ones, which, in my opinion, would be of some use.
I also notice that the present House has passed a bill to pay $4 per day, from the Territorial Treasury, to an enrolling clerk—a thing which no previous Legislature has ever done, though they notably needed such a clerk quite as much as the present one. I should not be surprised if they employed clerks to the important committees yet, if the funds hold out. Another view of the matter has presented itself. Past Legislatures have employed chaplains with the expectation that they should look to Congress for pay, and I believe they have never yet succeeded in getting any money from that distinguished source. Now that the people of this Territory have been taxed, all these claims for per diem should be paid and allowed out of the Territorial Treasury. All of which is respectfully submitted to the people.
“They are about as dangerous at one end as the other.”
The letter is an early Washington version of a familiar audit: a taxpayer asking why public money is going to obsolete equipment and new administrative posts. Its complaint that the muskets were “about as dangerous at one end as the other” also captures a frontier government trying to arm a militia on the cheap—a problem that still echoes in debates over public procurement and legislative perks.
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