“A Perpetual Ovation” in Port Townsend for Major Morris
From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:
The very first issue of The Democratic Press (August 31, 1877) covered a visit to Port Townsend by Treasury Agent William Gouverneur Morris. It is safe to say the reporter was not impressed.
A GILT-EDGED FARCE
“Port Townsend has been the recipient, recently, of a visit from Major Morris, Special Agent of the Treasury Department. This individual was sent here ostensibly for the purpose of inspecting affairs pertaining to the Custom House, Marine Hospital, etc., which errand was sufficient to insure him a hospitable reception by Custom House officials.”
“Doubtless the gallant Major will long remember his biennial visits to Port Townsend. Certainly no where that his arduous duties, as a Government Inspector may call him, will he receive more downright gushing homage than was lavished upon him here by those whose affairs with the Government he was sent here to inspect. Quartered, with his family, at the residence of the contractor for the Government hospital, no pains or expense were spared to render his stay a perpetual ovation. The gallant Inspector spent the time while here in fishing and hunting, wining and dining, always under guard by some of the official brotherhood. Supplied with a pack of deer hounds and ample escort, he was carried in state about among neighboring islands in a steamboat, rioting amid the finest hunting grounds and trout-streams in the Territory, slaughtering the timid deer by dozens, in pure wantoness, to cast the carcasses to the dogs and crows.”
“But all good times must have an ending. An order from the Department called our festive Nimrod back to San Francisco, to attend the investigation of Custom House affairs in that city. We would like to read his official report of this visit to Port Townsend. No doubt he remunerates our obsequious officials by an abundance of fulsome flattery in return for their zeal in fawning over him while here.”
“He has gone from among us– vamoosed– and the Custom House folk breathe easier. But the ruby glow of a blooming nose is missed, which was wont to illuminate the sample rooms of our wholesale liquor houses a few short weeks ago, and the bummers who polish the counters and the heads of beer barrels in those institutions, while waiting for free drinks, listen in vain for a familiar voice, which in maudlin accents rehearsed pointless jokes and retailed obscene stories. Gone like the shadow of a beautiful vision! Vanished like the memory of some pleasant dream!”
Major Morris actually had quite a record. The book Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics gives the vital statistics on his career: MORRIS, William Gouverneur, collector of customs, lawyer. B. in Morrisania, N.Y., Dec. 25, 1832; father was Army officer; collector of customs, Key West, Fla., 1849; B.A., Georgetown Coll.; LL.B., Harvard U.; clerk, Calif. Supreme Ct., 1857-; fought in Civil War; U.S. Marshal, Calif., 1865-74; special agent, U.S. Treas. Dept., 1875-; made 2 trips to Alaska; collector of customs for Alaska, Sitka, 1881-84; died in Sitka, Jan. 31, 1884; buried in Nat. Cemetery, Sitka. Mem., Masons, Loyal Leg., GAR. Republican.
Another brief, but colorful description of Morris comes from pioneer James G. Swan, who described the Treasury Agent in 1880: “The major was short of stature, with duck legs and a ponderous belly …” (found in Thomas Warner Camfield’s Port Townsend : vol. 1. An Illustrated History of Shanghaiing, Shipwrecks, Soiled Doves and Sundry Souls)
The Democratic Press appears to have ceased publication in early 1881. It is available on microfilm from the Washington State Library.
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