The Territory That Demanded Its Right to Grow
When Washington was treated like a 'rotten borough' in Washington D.C., the local press fired back to prove the territory was ready for statehood.
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.
In the Post of Friday last was an editorial reflecting seriously upon the earnest efforts now being made by the citizens of Washington Territory, through their upright and faithful Delegate, Mr. Brents, and numerous friends in both Houses of Congress, for the passage of an enabling act, with a view to the early admission of that Territory as a State of the Union. The Post’s assumptions were erroneous and its conclusions unjust.
How are we to understand this language: 'According to the census of 1880 this latest rotten borough contained in all 75,116 people.' Why a 'rotten borough?' The phrase is wholly inapplicable in the English local sense, nor is it true in any literal sense. There is no allegation of any improper conduct in the management of the finances of the Territory. She has no public debt; on the contrary, the Auditor reported in October, 1881, a cash surplus of $26,017.39 in the Treasury. Her executive officers, her Legislature, and her intelligent and industrious population stand as fair as those of any State in the Union.
The Post says that 'it is not claimed there has been any great increase since the enumeration.' That is precisely what the people of Washington Territory and their representative do claim. By the census of 1880 to the 30th of June it was 75,116. Let it be remembered that four-fifths of all emigrants to Washington Territory go by overland routes and arrive generally in July, August, and the autumn months. It may be safely and truthfully asserted that twenty thousand emigrants arrived there in 1880 after the closing of the census books on the 30th of June.
Logging, milling, coaling, fishing, farming, stock-raising, manufacturing, and railroad building are carried forward just in proportion to the number of men who can be obtained to do the work. With a limited supply of men last year more than three hundred miles of first-class railroad were built and are now in successful operation. Party spirit should never enter into the question of giving sufficiently mature communities their rights of self-government. Every man with a spark of patriotism in his soul feels a sense of national pride in watching the development of the Territorial communities into States of the Union.
“Party spirit should never enter into the question of giving sufficiently mature communities their rights of self-government.”
This 1882 editorial captures a classic Washington struggle: the tension between local growth and the perceived indifference of the federal government. Much like today’s debates over regional infrastructure funding and political representation, the territory of 1882 was fighting to be taken seriously as a booming economic engine rather than a forgotten outpost.
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