The Railroad’s Grip on Washington Territory Politics

To Mr. [Redacted], Secretary of the Territorial Democratic Committee: By accepting and retaining the secretaryship of the Territorial Committee, you gave an implied pledge to the Democratic party to use your best endeavors to secure the success of the party in the territory. Yet your attitude during the campaign was a standing argument against the Democratic candidate and in favor of his opponent. You accepted the position to alter the platform and the nomination of Mr. Voorhees had been gained. The platform was dishonest to the core. It declared for the restoration of the public lands to the public domain in language so insincere and subvertive; it contained such brutal provisions for securing not only justice to the railroad company, but such liberal and generous ones for it as well, that the honest Democrats like Mr. Stewart of Walla Walla questioned whether it did not go too far in the interest of the railroad company. On the question of the restoration of the public lands to the public domain, which seems to have stirred you against the agitation, it did not go as far as did the national party platform. You personally made no canvass of your own county for Voorhees, nor did you see that any were made for him by others. Further, on the supposed offer of free passes to the railroad company, I have it upon the authority of one of the members of the Walla Walla committee that tickets to and from the convention were sold to delegates by the railroad in the guise of what looked like ordinary tickets. This was your maneuver, and you calculated to blind and deceive the public.