The Secret Plot to Liquidate Seattle’s Elite
A deathbed confession unearths a forgotten 1886 conspiracy by radical socialists to assassinate prominent Seattle figures, including the city's founder, Arthur A. Denny.
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.
Mr. Jordan, a man who, before he died, went to see Arthur A. Denny and Dollar Horton, revealed a secret. Six months ago, these men were approached by a man who had detailed a plot to kill ten or twelve of the prominent citizens of Seattle, including Mr. Denny, H. L. Yesler, D. T. Denny, Thomas Burke, and others. The man who communicated the plot to Jordan was one of fifteen who were arrested on the morning of February 8th. The plot was organized by this man and kindred spirits who were indignant over the contemplated raid of the militia on the socialists. Mr. Jordan declared he was the leader of the plot and that he would make it known to the intended victims; that it should not be carried out if he could prevent it. Jordan stated he was actuated by good motives and that he was against any deeds of violence. There is no doubt in the minds of his old friends that his death was caused or hastened by the excitement consequent upon this connection.
“The mirror is no flatterer. Would you make it tell a sweeter tale?”
This 1886 report of a 'socialist assassination plot' reflects the intense class anxiety of late 19th-century Seattle, a city then rapidly transforming from a frontier outpost into a labor-industrial hub. Similar to today's rhetoric surrounding political polarization, the newspaper frames the 'socialist' threat as a looming, existential danger to the city's power elite, though the historian must always read these 'confessions' against the era's tendency to criminalize organized labor and radical political dissent.
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