The Newspaper Feud That Defined Pioneer Politics
When the 'Tacoma Ledger' accused a political rival of switching parties for personal gain, a blistering public retort revealed the cutthroat world of territorial power brokers.
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.
North Yakima, August 1, 1886. Editor Post-Intelligencer: Several weeks since, the Tacoma Ledger published a statement to the effect that it had received a marked copy of the Signal containing an abusive attack on Mr. Beriah Brown, and that it had also received from me a request that the Ledger republish this abusive article. The Ledger’s article went on to draw the conclusion that, being a 'traitor' to the Republican party, I was now a full-fledged Democrat. As I had never published a word or a line in opposition to Mr. Brown, and had never sent a marked copy of my paper to the Ledger, I wrote the editor calling attention to his false statement, and requested him to make a correction. Although the editor of the Ledger has had my letter before him for some time, he has not had the honesty, the justice or the manliness to even refer to it through his paper. This is just such conduct as I would naturally expect from a cowardly cur who was brought out from the East to do the dirty work of a land-grabbing, town-booming corporation. There is, however, an underlying purpose in these falsehoods which has some public significance. The independent, anti-monopoly Republicans united with the Democrats last fall to battle the railroad company’s tools from political power in this Territory. In order to regain their footing, these howling outcasts are just now making a tremendous effort to stir up a feeling of jealousy and hostility between the original supporters of the Democratic party and those who assisted them last fall. They are making much over the fact that I have received an official appointment while some Democratic aspirants have not been successful in securing positions desired. As to my own appointment, it is well known that many hundreds of the leading Democrats of the Territory had united in urging my name for consideration by the present administration. Having never applied for the position to which I have been named, I would promptly decline to accept if I deemed my appointment a matter of injury to the Democrats, but so long as the lamenting is confined to the railroad organs—the same old gang that has been so vehemently opposed to forfeiture of the unearned land grants—I shall enjoy their discomfiture by holding fast. J. M. Adams.
“This is just such conduct as I would naturally expect from a cowardly cur who was brought out from the East to do the dirty work of a land-grabbing, town-booming corporation.”
Long before digital echo chambers, the territorial press functioned as the primary battleground for civic power. This 1886 grudge match between editors echoes modern-day battles over local media accountability, corporate influence in land development, and the volatile nature of coalition politics in a rapidly growing region.
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