Part Two The Washington Constitution and Commentary, Art.X Militia

The militia of the Washington Territory had been tested on several occasions in the years before the constitutional convention and had proved itself to be effective. In 1886 volunteers were called to reinforce federal troops responding to riots in Seattle and Olympia, in which mobs had dragged Chinese workers from their homes and marched them to the ports to be shipped away. Despite the militia’s service, the territorial legislature made no appropriations for compensation for the services of the full-time officers or volunteers. Pleas for funds by the militia’s...