The Political Promise of a Pioneer City
An 1888 editorial hails Benjamin Harrison's candidacy while touting Seattle’s rapid transformation into a booming industrial powerhouse.
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 Republican party presents to the people of the United States its candidate for the presidency in the person of General Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, a brave soldier of the Union and a statesman whose record is without flaw. Every workingman can support the statesman who was among the first to record himself as unalterably opposed to the importation of contract labor into the United States. As General Harrison enters the White House as the choice of an overwhelming majority of the American people, we look to the growth and greatness of Republicanism coinciding with the rise of Seattle. Seattle currently boasts a population of 20,000, with over 70 steamboats making the city their headquarters. With 8 broad gauge railroads, extensive coal yards, and active foundries, Seattle is rapidly becoming the great city of the Pacific Coast. We offer free manufacturing sites to those who wish to invest in our future, and we invite all to see the prosperity that the protection of American industries has wrought.
“The new leader of the Republican party is one who is in entire harmony with its every principle and aspiration; he is one who is in every respect representative of the party.”
This 1888 editorial reveals a Seattle obsessed with rapid growth, industrial protectionism, and the allure of 'free' land for manufacturers. The language of 'future great city' echoes the relentless development cycles and housing expansion rhetoric that continue to define Seattle's urban identity over 130 years later.
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