Washington Territory

“ On the other hand, despite its local peculiarities, Washington's labor history follows the general pattern of that of the country as a whole and consistently reflects national influence and events. Washington's growth was part of the westward expansion of the Nation, and of its railroads, industries, and finance, following the Civil War. The beginning of modern development in the Territory was marked by a great influx of settlers from the industrial East and Middle West. Population increased from 23,955 to 357,232 between 1870 and 1890. ”

“ The only real competitor of Puget Sound on the American coast is British Columbia, but British Columbia cannot vie with Washington Territory in the production of the materials of commerce, and Canada at large furnishes no such background as the United States. ”

“ Eastern Washington may be described as a vast rolling plain, traversed in all directions by rivers and creeks, the principal of which is the Columbia, having for its tributaries in this Territory the Snake, Spokane, Walla Walla, Winachee, Okinakane, Yakima, and Klickitat, with many of minor importance. ”

“ A new Republic is to be formed, consisting at first of ten states, three to be formed within the present limits of the State of Cali- fornia, three in Oregon Territory, two in Washington Terri- tory, and two from western portions of Utah and New Mexico. The basis is to be a confederated government similar to yours on the Atlantic Side. The great Pacific Railroad is to be abandoned, and every obstacle thrown in the way of its con- struction, while the argument at the hustings is to be made to the people that the government at Washington has refused the road to the people of the Pacific. ”

“ Treaties are negotiated with Puget Sound and Juan de Fuca Strait tribes. 1855 Indian war is waged both east and west of the Cascades; Klicki- tat Indians fail in an attack upon Seattle and later are severely defeated at Connell's Prairie. Eastern Washington is closed to settlers and miners. 1857 Governor Stevens is elected to represent the Territory in Con- gress. Territorial charter is granted Northern Pacific Railroad. 1858 Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe is defeated near Rosalia. Colonel Wright defeats Indians at Spokane Plains and Four Lakes. Eastern Washington is opened to settlement. ”

“ It should be kept in mind that in the study of the National Capital we are studying the seat of government of the greatest nation in the world, a city that was laid on a broad, firm foundation, and although neglected for decades during the last century, the twentieth century has seen Washington transformed into a city in keeping with the dignity, power, and wealth of this great Nation. ”

“ With a population now reaching up toward a million and a half, and with all the forces that make for industrial, commercial and agricultural supremacy in full swing, and gathering new momentum yearly, Washington is moving onward and upward toward a position among the very elect of our great sisterhood of states. ”

“ The Independence and Lexington are brilliantly dressed; the flags of all nations stream over them in a gorgeous arch. A salute of twenty-eight guns from the Independence has expressed the homage of each state to the occasion. Even here, and among the native population, Washington is known, and his virtues are revered. People speak of him as a being exempted from the weaknesses of our nature—as one commissioned of Heaven for a great and glorious purpose, and endowed with the amazing powers requisite for its accomplishment. It is the character of Washington that will never die. ”

“ The plans for these projects required authorization by Congress and time to make necessary land purchases; but at the present time there is indication that they will be completed in the near future. The day has come when the Greater Washington, or the metropolitan area of Washington, is being brought into the scheme of development of the National Capital. ”

“ There never was half the unanimity among the people before, nor a tithe of the zeal upon any subject, that is now manifested to take Washington. From the mountain tops and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is one wild shout of fierce resolve to capture Washington City at all and every human hazard. ”

“ Until the middle 70’s, Washingtonians of all colors had home rule, elected their own officials under a territorial form of government similar to that now practiced in Alaska and Hawaii, where mayors, legislators, judges and other lower-level officials are elected. ”

“ Property in Washington is exceedingly sensitive, the people alarmingly callous. The men are fine-looking, the women homely. The latter have plain faces, but magnificent busts and graceful figures. The former have an imposing presence and an empty pocket, a great name and a small conscience. Notwithstanding all these impediments and disadvantages, Washington is progressing rapidly. ”

“ SCENERY. If Washington is mighty in forest possession, provided with fuel for centuries in its coal beds, rich in precious metals, with great open waterways full of fish roads from the ocean and millions of fishes in its inland waters, with game upon its thousand hills and its vast plains loaded with waving grains and red with luscious fruits, still its crowning glory is its matchless scenery. ”

“ Washington, indeed, is a far more perfect character. Washington stands alone and unapproachable, like a snow-peak rising above its fellows into the clear air of morning, with a dignity, constancy, and purity which have made him the ideal type of civic virtue to succeeding generations. No greater benefit could have befallen the republic than to have such a type set from the first before the eye and mind of the people. ”

“ The road winds along through the trees, climbing to fairer and fairer reaches of view over the plain of Washington. I had not fancied that there was any such lovely site near the capital. But we have not yet appreciated what nature has done for us there. When civilization once makes up its mind to colonize Washington, all this amphitheatre of hills will blossom with structures of sublimest gingerbread. ”

“ These circumstances added much to my satisfaction on my first day’s visit to the seat of Government. I met and shook hands with many old friends, residing either here or in Georgetown. Washington no longer presents the outside of vice, and that circumstance speaks highly of those, who have so zealously laboured to improve the morals, and mend the hearts, of the great mass of the citizens. Their labors must have been great, otherwise such success would not have followed their works. ”

“ Attracted by timber, free lands, minerals, railroad construction, the fish industry, irrigation, and power developments, successive waves of settlers have come to Washington: dissatisfied and restless folk from the older States; Southerners, ruined and uprooted by the Civil War; immigrants from Europe and from the Orient; and discouraged farmers from eroded, worn-out lands of the Middle West. Each group has brought its distinctive folkways, which have modified and enriched the cultural life of its new homeland. ”

“ From the aristocratic tables and home comforts of Mount Vernon and Belvoir, the youthful Washington began roughing it in the forests and along the streams of the Shenandoah. He had begun to adapt himself to the primitive conditions of his country and to share the coarse fare of the commoners that composed the civilization of the new world. ”

“ Unless you can get the ear of a Senator, or a Congressman, or a Chief of a Bureau or Department, and persuade him to use his “influence” in your behalf, you cannot get an employment of the most trivial nature in Washington. Mere merit, fitness and capability, are useless baggage to you without “influence.” The population of Washington consists pretty much entirely of government employees and the people who board them. ”

“ From 1880 to 1888 the progress made in Washington was phenomenal, and was felt in every direction—in commerce, manufacture, banks, corporations, schools, growth of towns, improved styles of building, construction of railroads, mining, agriculture, and society. New towns had sprung up among the firs and cedars, the Puget Sound country, and out of the treeless prairies almost in a night; and hitherto unimportant villages had become cities with corporate governments, grand hotels, churches, colleges, and opera-houses. ”

“ Georgetown, built partly on the heights of the Potomac River, west of Rock Creek, was a municipality before the site of the Federal City was selected, and is sometimes designated as West Washington. Anacostia, Brightwood, and other names given to the settlements in the District away from the main centre of population are still in use, but have no civil significance. The steam railroads enter the city from three different points and centre in two depots, one north and the other west of the Capitol building. ”

“ DESPITE the multiplicity of means of communication today, many people still conceive of the State of Washington as virtually a frontier wilderness, accessible only to the rugged and the adventurous. This impression derives in part no doubt from the State's geographic location, in part from its historical association with an Indian war, and in part also from frontier fiction, which usually offers an exaggerated, romantic account of pioneers, cowboys, lumberjacks, and desperadoes. ”

“ In spite of numberless receptions, levees, balls, hops, parties, dinners, and other reunions, there is, properly speaking, no society in Washington. Circles are said to exist, but, like that in the vortex of the whirlpool, they are incessantly changing. Divisions purely arbitrary may be made in any community. ”

“ It increased its holdings of real and personal property, the avails of which were all devoted to the purposes of the institution. It was in existence when the territorial government passed out of being and the state of Washington was incorporated into the Union, and it is conceded by both sides in argument that no question which requires to be decided on this record calls for a consideration of any of the events or legislation which were a part of the transition from the territorial form of government to statehood. ”

“ Washington is in a Slave State. Would anybody have advised that President Lincoln and his Cabinet, with all the members of Congress, of the House of Representatives and the Senate, from the North, with their wives and children, and everybody else who was not positively in favour of the South, should have set off on their melancholy pilgrimage northwards, leaving that capital, hallowed to them by such associations,—having its name even from the father of their country,—leaving Washington to the South, because Washington is situated in a Slave State? ”

“ Few centres of great energy lived in illusion more complete or archaic than Washington with its simple-minded standards of the field and farm, its southern and western habits of life and manners, its assumptions of ethics and history; but even in Washington, society was uneasy enough to need no further fretting. ”

“ Washington has no need of you. But in every moment, from the time he drew his sword in the cause of American independence to this hour, living or dead, the American people have needed him. It is not important now, nor will it be in all the coming years, to remind our countrymen that Washington has lived, and that his achievements in his country’s service are above all praise. ”

“ Washington, in full uniform of a Virginia colonel, a white-and-scarlet cloak, sword-knot of red and gold, his London-made holsters and saddle-cloth trimmed with his livery “lace” and the Washington arms, his aides also in uniform, with the servants in their white-and-scarlet liveries, their cocked hats edged with silver, bringing up the rear, attracted universal notice. Everywhere he was received with enthusiasm, his fame having gone before him. Dined and fêted in Philadelphia and New York, he spent ten days with the hospitable royal governor of Massachusetts. ”

“ The survey-lands lay on the Shenandoah, near the site of Winchester, and beyond the first range of the Alleghanies, on the south branch of the Potomac, [459] about seventy miles above Harper's Ferry. This kind of life was well fitted to train young Washington for his future career: a knowledge of topography taught him how to select a ground for encampment or for battle; while hardy exercise and exposure invigorated a frame naturally athletic, and fitted him to endure the privations and encounter the dangers of military life. ”

“ Purchasing lands in Westmoreland County and establishing his residence at Pope's Creek, not far from the Potomac, he became, in due course, an extensive planter, a county magistrate, and a member of the house of burgesses. He distinguished himself, also, as colonel of the Virginia forces in driving off a band of Seneca Indians who were ravaging the neighboring settlements. In honor of his public and private character, the parish in which he resided was called Washington. In this parish his grandson, Augustine, the second son of Lawrence Washington, was born in 1694. ”

“ And yet today what would the Washington of 1754 be called—fighting redskins and foreigners with splendid relish in a far distant portion of the country to gain possession of an almost pathless wilderness?
Washington had, first, an extraordinary knowledge of the West which he championed. Into Lord Fairfax's wild acres he went in his teens to earn an honest dubloon a day. Each step of the young Washington in those early years was fraught with the weight of destiny itself, and never has human life showed more plainly the very hand of God directing, preparing, guiding. ”