The Delegate Who Did Nothing
Washington Territory’s representative in Washington D.C. faced scathing criticism for a term defined by absolute political inertia.
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.
At this time, when the session has just reached an end, the average citizen of Washington Territory will ask himself how either he or his Territory has been benefited by the deliberations of the lawmakers. There are many measures to which the people of Washington Territory are deeply interested. What has been done concerning them? We have had a Delegate on the floor of the House of Representatives to look after the interests of the Territory. What has he done? The question is a pertinent one. What has he done? As the citizen asks these questions, the pen is likely to grow as blank as the paper on which Mr. Voorhees' achievements might be inscribed. The Delegate has done nothing. Not one measure of the many to which the people of Washington Territory are so deeply interested has become a law. It would be harsh to say that Mr. Voorhees has deliberately neglected the interests of his constituents, but if he had set out to deliberately neglect them, he could not have done so more. He has simply leaned back in his seat and did nothing, said nothing, and thought nothing. He will explain in his mellifluous way the glaring discrepancy which exists between what he has done and what he promised the people he would do.
“The Delegate has done nothing. Not one measure of the many to which the people of Washington Territory are so deeply interested has become a law.”
The frustration of being represented by a 'placeholder' politician while regional interests remain neglected is a timeless theme in Seattle history. Much like modern constituents concerned with federal funding for local infrastructure or housing, territorial residents in 1887 felt the sting of a representative who treated his seat as an exercise in inactivity.
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