grades. Washington has three state normal schools: one at Cheney,
one at Bellingham, and one at Ellensburg, and each of them is under
the management of a board of three trustees appointed by the
governor with the concurrence of the Senate for a term of six years,
one every two years. The State College of Washington (1890) at
Pullman, for instruction in agriculture, mechanical arts and natural
sciences, includes an agricultural college, an experiment station and
a school of science. The University of Washington (1862) at Seattle
embraces a college of liberal arts, a college of engineering and schools
of law, pharmacy, mines and forestry. Whitman College (Congregational,
1866) at Walla Walla, Gonzaga College (Roman Catholic,
1887) at Spokane, Whitworth College (Presbyterian, 1890) at Tacoma
and the University of Puget Sound (Methodist Episcopal, 1903) at
Tacoma are institutions of higher learning maintained and controlled
by their respective denominations.
Finance.—The revenue for state, county and municipal purposes is derived principally from a general property tax, a privilege tax levied on the gross receipts of express companies and private car companies, an inheritance tax and licence fees for the sale of intoxicating liquors. Real property is assessed biennially; personal property, annually. For the two years ending the 1st of October 1908 the total receipts into the state treasury amounted to $10,854,281.42 and the total disbursements amounted to $11,053,375.13. The net state debt on the 1st of October 1908 amounted to $967,576.38.
History.—The early exploration of the western coast of North America grew out of the search for a supposed passage, sometimes called the “Strait of Aman” between the Pacific and the Atlantic. In Purchas his Pilgrimmes (1625) was published the story of Juan de Fuca, a Greek mariner whose real name was Apostolos Valerianos, who claimed to have discovered the passage and to have sailed in it more than twenty days. Though the story was a fabrication, the strait south of Vancouver Island was given his name. An account of the various Spanish and English explorers has already been given under Oregon and need not be repeated at length here.
In 1787 a company of Boston merchants sent two vessels, the “Columbia” and the “Washington” under John Kendrick and Robert Gray (1755–1806) to investigate the possibility of establishing trading posts. They reached Nootka Sound in September 1788, and in July 1789 Captain Gray in the “Columbia” began the homeward voyage by way of China. Captain Kendrick remained, erected a fort on Nootka Sound, demonstrated that Vancouver was an island and in 1791 purchased from the Indians large tracts of land between 47° and 51° N. lat. for his employers. On the homeward voyage he was accidentally killed and his vessel was lost. Meanwhile Captain Gray in September 1790 sailed from Boston on a second voyage. During the winter of 1791–1792 he built another fort on Nootka Sound and mounted four cannon from the ship. With the coming of spring he sailed southward, determined to settle definitely the existence of the great river, which he had vainly attempted to enter the previous summer. Captain George Vancouver (1758–1798), in charge of a British exploring expedition then engaged in mapping the coast (1792–1794), was sceptical of the existence of the river, but Captain Gray, undiscouraged, persisted in the search and on the 11th of May 1792 anchored in the river which he named Columbia in honour of his ship. The later claim of the United States to all the territory drained by the river was based chiefly upon this discovery by Captain Gray, who had succeeded where Spanish and British had failed. The territory became known as Oregon (q.v.).
The first white man certainly known to have approached the region from the east was Alexander Mackenzie of the North-west Fur Company, who reached the coast at about lat. 52° in July 1793. With the purchase of Louisiana (30th April 1803) the United States gained a clear title to the land between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains as far north as 49° and, because of contiguity, a shadowy claim to the region west of the mountains. In 1819 Spain specifically renounced any claim she might have to the coast north of 42°, strengthening thereby the position of the United States. Just before the purchase of Louisiana, President Jefferson had recommended to Congress (18th January 1803) the sending of an expedition to explore the headwaters of the Missouri, cross the Rockies and follow the streams to the Pacific. In accordance with the recommendation Meriwether Lewis (q.v.) and William Clark, both officers of the United States Army, with a considerable party left St Louis on the 14th of May 1804, ascended the Missouri to the headwaters, crossed the Rockies and, following the Columbia river, reached the ocean in November 1805. The return journey over nearly the same route was begun on the 23rd of March 1806, and on the 23rd of September they reached St Louis.
The story of the struggle of the rival British and American companies to control the fur trade, with the final dominance of the Hudson's Bay Company has been told under Oregon and need not be repeated. Since the country was considered to be of little value the question of boundaries was not pressed either by Great Britain or the United States after the War of 1812, and by a treaty concluded on the 20th of October 1818 it was agreed that “any country that may be claimed by either party on the north-west coast of North America, westward of the Stony (Rocky) Mountains shall be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention to the vessels, citizens and subjects of the two powers.” On the 6th of August 1827 the convention was continued in force indefinitely with the proviso that either party might abrogate the agreement on twelve months' notice. Meanwhile Russia (17th April 1824) agreed to make no settlement south of 54° 40' and the United States agreed to make none north of that line. In February 1825 Great Britain and Russia made a similar agreement. This left only Great Britain and the United States as the contestants for that territory west of the Rocky Mountains between 42° and 54° 40', which by this time was commonly known as the Oregon country. American settlers in considerable numbers soon began to enter the region south of the Columbia river, and in 1841, and again in 1843, these settlers attempted to form a provisional government. A fundamental code was adopted in 1845 and a provisional government was established, to endure until “the United States of America extend their Jurisdiction over us.” North of the river, the Hudson's Bay Company discouraged settlement, believing that the final determination of the boundary controversy would make that stream the dividing line. Though there were a few mission stations in the eastern part of the present state of Washington (see Whitman, Marcus), the first permanent American settlement north of the Columbia was made in 1845 on the Des Chutes river, at the head of Puget Sound at the present Tumwater. Others soon followed in spite of the efforts of the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, Dr John M‘Loughlin, and these permanent settlers finally carried the day.
Interest in the Oregon country developed with the increase of settlers and of knowledge and a demand for the settlement of the boundary dispute arose. The report of Captain Charles Wilkes, who visited the coast in 1841–1842 in charge of the United States exploring expedition helped to excite this interest. In the presidential campaign of 1844 one of the Democratic demands was “Fifty-four forty or fight.” By a treaty negotiated by James Buchanan, on the part of the United States, and Richard Pakenham, on the part of Great Britain, and ratified on the 17th of July 1846, the boundary was fixed at 49° to the middle of the channel separating the continent from Vancouver Island and thence “southerly through the middle of the said channel and of Fuca's Straits to the Pacific Ocean.” A dispute later arose over this water-line. The act establishing a territorial government for Oregon was approved on the 14th of August 1848, and the first governor, Joseph Lane (1801–1881), assumed the government on the 3rd of March 1849. Following the increase of population north of the Columbia, the territory was divided, and Washington Territory was established on the 2nd of March 1853, with the river as the southern boundary to the point where it is intersected by the forty-sixth parallel, and thence along that parallel to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, thereby including portions of the present states of Idaho and Montana. The first governor, Major Isaac I. Stevens, of the United States Army, took charge on the 29th of September 1853, and a census indicated a population of 3965, of whom 1682 were voters. Olympia was chosen as the temporary seat of
