Washington’s Citizen Soldiers Prepare for Duty
While the upcoming National Guard encampment at Chambers Prairie promises camaraderie, it serves a serious, dual purpose: law enforcement and the maintenance of civil stability.
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.
The entire National Guard of Washington Territory will go into camp at Chambers Prairie, near Olympia, on the evening of July 5th, and will remain in camp for eight days thereafter. Every effort will be made to make the encampment a success without any loss of interest for the citizen soldiers. Strict discipline will be enforced and there is every reason to believe that the encampment will be of incalculable benefit to the military organization of the territory. While it is true that the guardsmen are looking forward to the camp with anticipations of pleasure, they realize that the week spent at Chambers Prairie will not be devoid of work. There will be fun enough, no doubt, but there will be work, too. The guardsmen will have a taste of camp life with all its varied details. There will be work as well as play, and it will be for the former rather than for the latter that the encampment will take place. The National Guard was not organized for fun. It is an organization maintained in the territory for a definite purpose, and that is to assist the civil authorities and to give to the law-abiding citizens of Washington a feeling of security which they could not enjoy but for the presence in their midst of a trained and equipped military force. While it can be relied upon to aid the authorities at any time upon call, the National Guard affords the people of Washington all of the advantages and none of the disadvantages of a standing army quartered in their midst. Its maintenance may be regarded as a measure of economy for the government as well as of security for the people.
“The National Guard was not organized for fun. It is an organization maintained in the territory for a definite purpose, and that is to assist the civil authorities.”
The tension between the 'fun' of military training and its role in domestic policing resonates with current debates over the domestic deployment of National Guard troops. Today, as in 1889, the presence of such forces is debated as both a symbol of civic security and a potential overreach into civil matters.
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