Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1875-04-10
OLYMPIA. SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 10, 1875.
AN uNTENABLE PRECEDENT.


deprives the people of the privilege of
selecting, through their Legislature,
such officers as they are compelled to
nav for their services. While that jour
nal is too shrewd TO assume that the
principle for which we contend is wrong,
and " can see no reason why the people
of a Territory of the United States have
not clear right to regulate their own
domestic institutions in their own way,
it assumes that the people never had
any voice in the selection of Terri
torial officers, because they have not
voted directly for the candidates elected
to the several positions. If this view is
correct, then indeed popular govern
ment is failure. The laws made by
the representatives of the people, which
constitute quite as much the subject OF
" bargain" and " caucus" manipulation
as any other of their acts, are, by pur-
ity of reasoning, not the acts OF the
people, and might just as we'll be EN-
bodied in proclamation of the Execu-
tive defining the rules which shall gov
ern the courts in passing upon all
questions affecting the life or the prop
erty of the citizen. The position is so
antagonistic to the theory of free gov
eminent and its practical workings, that
it must be rejected by those who be-
lieve in the capatility of man for self
government. The form which recog-
nizes the people as the fountain OF
power, from which all authority is de-
rived, acting through their legally
elected representatives, is the outgrowth
of the highest state of civilization, and
owes its origin to the profound study
and observation of the ablest minds of
the past century. tits directly opposed
to the feudal system which considered
the king the embodiment of power and
the people mere serfs, whose mission it
was to furnish the means of subsistence
for the nobility and the hordes of Off
GERS appointed by the king. The ten
dency for the past few years, as we
indicated in previous article, has been
to revive these kingly prerogatives, and
reverse the first great principle which
underlies our Government; and we con-
fess that we are surprised that even the
zeal of q new convert should have in
Auenced our venerable contemporary
to give his sanction toa measure so rad
ically differing from the teachings of a
lifetime sustained by no better sub
terfuge than that the masses, or their
agents, have become SO fearfully corrupt
that the very essence of our nationality
has been lost. He appears oblivious of
the fact that corrnption may exist in
high places, or that his plan for regen-
Grating the body polite is not liable to
all the objections he urges against the
former system.
The editor of the Dispatch fortifes his
position as recruit under the new dis
pensation, by quoting Democratic pre-
cedent, but in this he is even less in
genuous than in advocating the measure
as a matter of principle. He alludes
to the fact that when the Northwestern
Territory was organized, in 1889, the
Executive was empowered to appoint
the subordinate officers. 1t must be
remembered, however, that the district
of country embraced in that subdivision
was almost wilderness at that time,
of unknown extent and peopled by un-
wieldy material to mold into form
having anything like the characteristics
of an Independent government. When
it was divided, and other Territories
were created, the same Objectionable
feature was retained in their Organic
Acts, very probably because nobody
thought of making the change. In the
year 1913, Oregon was admitted as q
Territory, under Democratic Admin
istration. with the powers of the people
greatly enlarged-the Legislature and
the people electing all officers not paid
by the general Government. The same
provision was incorporated in our Or
ganic Act, where it has remained until
now, when it devolves upon Republic
can Administration to take away q clear
iy defined right of the people and
abridge the privileges of citizenship.
If Democratic rule was wrong at the
outset, the error was corrected, and that
act should be placed to the credit of the
party; and if the policy which influ-
enced the change was right, the Repub-
lican marty. channad e haek To what mn.