# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 13/Number 1

THE QUARTERLY
of the
Oregon Historical Society
Copyright, 1912. by Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages
By The Editor
The Quarterly with this number presents the initial paper of a series designed to give a synthetic view of Oregon's past. The youth of the state need particularly such an account of the making of Oregon as will appeal to the imagination and lend itself to the forming of a realistic picture of the different stages of the process through which the, land and the people as we have them today came to be—all for the purpose of inspiring the liveliest and most enlightened sentiment.
The word patriotism in its derivation suggests mainly associated effort in the winning and in the defense of the home land. Thanks to the world peace movement, the indications for the future are that sentiment for the land we call our own must arise out of different associations and ideals cherished in connection with it. The people to lead in the world's civilizations henceforth will commemorate rather the policies that result in the making of a happier and richer national or commonwealth home than in any achievement in wresting that land from another.
Man's co-operation with the forces of nature towards making his heritage a better dwelling place cannot be begun too soon. To evoke a commonwealth spirit aiming to promote the highest welfare of those to come after us nothing can be more useful than an exercise of the imagination in picturing truthfully the ​stages through which this Oregon home of ours has, as a whole, passed in coming to its present development.
Mrs. Ellen Condon McCornack, in the introductory paper of this series, gives a delightful sketch of the conditions that obtained here when this section of the globe was in preparation for the advent of man.
The indefatigable research of her father, Thomas Condon, Oregon's most illustrious scientist, provided the materials for this picture. In the early sixties, while Oregon was yet a wilderness and isolated from the world, he began an assiduous labor of love, that of reading the story of Oregon's past as recorded in the exposed strata of rock found in different parts of the state. His work of nearly half-a-century led to discoveries that contributed most important elements to the perfecting of the theory of evolution, the nineteenth century's most important addition to the world's body of scientific knowledge.
A GLIMPSE INTO PREHISTORIC OREGON
By Ellen Condon McCornack
PREFACE
In preparing this sketch our principal source of information has been the chapter on the Willamette Sound from "The Two Islands," by Professor Condon, but we, are also indebted for facts and suggestions to the following publications: Dana's Geology, Chamberlain and Salisbury's Geology, a publication by Professor Osborn of Columbia University, The Encyclopaedia Britannica and the writings of John Fiske, George Kennan and others.
INTRODUCTION
The children of modern Egypt, Persia, India and other nations of antiquity, while studying the history of their country, find a rich background of centuries of historic life which they are taught to reverence.
The children of modern Europe, too, have a priceless heritage in their historic relations to classic Greece and Rome. But the children of the New World find but little of this historic background as part of their nation's life. While we of the Northwest have least of all, for we even lack the unique chapter of Colonial history of which our Eastern States are so justly proud.
In order to supplement their usual study of history, The Oregon Historical Society wishes to offer to the schools of our state a few sketches of Oregon's geological history, that, while the children of the Orient are studying the growth of dynasties and pyramids built by the, power of the few and degradation and oppression of the many; the children of the Northwest may be studying some of the long rich chapters of its ancient life and the upbuilding of its mountains. While the children of Europe are learning of the rise and fall of kingdoms, so interwoven with the hatred, jealousies and crimes of ambitious men and women; the children of the Northwest may be peering into the mysteries of God's creation and noting the rise and ​fall of continents, the upbuilding of our majestic snowpeaks and the evolution of our forest life.
This change of historic background is not offered as a substitute but as a compensation. And yet, it has its advantages. Do you cavil as to the result on character? If the mind of man grows by what it feeds upon, the experiment may result, as is hoped by some, in the development of a nobler race, whose children have minds of breadth, purity and poise caught by breathing the atmosphere of the spirit of creation.
The thoughts of those interested in this plan have naturally turned to the writings of Professor Condon and, in order to carry out their wish, the wellspring or source from which the material for this sketch has been largely drawn is the chapter on The Willamette Sound from Professor Condon's "Two Islands." But such additions have been made as will farther adapt it to the study of the boys and girls of Oregon.
PART I
Long ago the climate of the northern part of the earth began to grow cold. And for a time it seemed to grow colder and colder until almost all of its land was covered by a sheet of ice. Of course the grass and shrubs and trees quietly fled before this ice sheet. Then the horse and camel and reindeer and all other herb-eating animals had to follow their food or die from cold and hunger. But when the flesh-eating animals, such as bears and tigers, found their prey had gone, they, too, joined the army of life ever moving toward the South in front of the creeping ice sheet. Sometimes it would be warmer for a while and the plants and animals could travel a little further north, but the increasing cold was sure to drive them south again. This long continued cold has been called the glacial period or Age of Ice.
If now you have a simple map of Oregon and Washington (your geography map will do), you can trace the rivers and the mountains and see the country better as we talk. You see Oregon is nestled in between the high mountains and the warm Pacific Ocean and so was not covered by the great ice. sheet. But it was high and dry with its coast line several miles further west than now; and with many snow-covered mountains and long rivers of solid ice, or glaciers, winding from the mountain tops far down to the valleys.
After thousands of years, when this age of ice was passing away, we find our Pacific Coast was slowly sinking, while the waters of the sea were creeping higher and higher until all of our coast valley lay drowned beneath the ocean. The Pacific Ocean pushed the waters of the lower Columbia further and still further inland until after a long period of time they stood three hundred feet or more higher at the mouth of the Willamette than they do today. From the present site of Astoria to near that of St. Helens the old Columbia became a grand entrance channel, from five to twenty miles in width and eighty miles or more in length, broad and deep enough to float the greatest fleet of battleships.
It is doubtful if the Columbia river itself ever received more ​water from the mountains than it did at this time, for its numerous tributaries were fed by many melting glaciers still lingering from the age of ice. In some places where the river gorge was narrow, as at the Cascades, the waters must have been very deep. While beyond The Dalles, near the mouth of the Des Chutes, there was a large "lake like extension of the river" where this great volume of water could quietly write, its own history, for here it deposited layer after layer of sediment in which it carefully buried the bones and teeth of the animals that roamed on its shores or were washed down from the mountains when this lake stood over two hundred and fifty feet above the present surface of the Columbia. At this time, too, the Walla Walla Valley and the Valley of the Yakima were flooded and were writing other chapters of the same old history.
If the encroachment of the sea crowded back the Columbia until it produced such high water in Eastern Oregon and Washington, what was its effect upon the valley of the Willamette? When the waters stood over three hundred feet above their present level at the mouth of the Willamette they evidently covered the whole valley from the coast mountains to the Cascades and from the Scappoose Mountains on the north, to the hills that surround Eugene on the south. And it was a beautiful body of water, one hundred and twenty miles in length and fifty miles or more in width, for not only was the level valley covered but the waters had quietly climbed the lower slopes of the foothills until they stood far above the present altitude of the church spires of Portland and Salem.
In the northern part of this Willamette Sound the Chehalem Mountains formed a fine wooded island from which could be seen the broad bay that covered Tualatin plains, on whose waters one might have sailed more than a hundred feet above the present towns of Forest Grove and Hillsboro. Across a narrow straight from Chehalem was the island of the Dundee Hills and from both of these elevations could be seen the great expanse of waters and the many distant snowpeaks of the Cascade Mountains. Perhaps the largest of these islands was ​the present Polk County Hills reaching from near Salem northwest to Amity. Then there was the island of the Waldo Hills and Knox's, Ward's and Peterson's Buttes of Linn County, while far to the south there were small low lying islands, the buttes of Lane County, and old Spencer towering above them all in his solemn dignity.
We have seen that Oregon still had many glaciers, that were remnants of the age of ice. Glaciers, as you know, are only slowly moving and solidly frozen rivers. But the waters of a river pass swiftly on leaving the larger stones found in their pathway, while a glacier slowly reaches out or down and freezes to the loose stones as it passes on, making them a part of its own frozen mass. When in the progress of its journey it reaches warmer waters, a great mass of ice often splits off from the front of the glaciers and the iceberg sails away like a phantom ship, carrying the frozen load of rocks which it has gathered in the heart of the far distant mountains. It was so on the Willamette Sound. We have no native granite in the valley, but throughout its entire length from near Portland and Forest Grove to near Eugene, granite boulders, varying from hand specimens to the weight of several tons, were dropped into the Willamette Sound by melting icebergs. An eminent authority assures us that very large boulders found in Yamhill County are of British-American type of granite. And these must have been carried through Puget Sound across the Columbia Valley and into Willamette Sound from some point beyond our northern boundary.
PART II
For ages before the ice period many varieties of the horse and camel had made their home in Oregon. But as the climate became colder a part of these evidently migrated to South America, while it is thought many may have died of some ​A GLIMPSE INTO PREHISTORIC OREGON 9 demic, or have been killed by fierce wolves or other flesh-eating- animals. From whatever cause our long line American horses and camels seem to have entirely disappeared. But in spite of the loss of the camel and the horse, some very large animals lived on the shores of the Willamette Sound. There was a great ground sloth, the Mylodon, whose an- cestors had recently come from South America over the newly- made Isthmus of Panama. He was larger than the rhinoceros, a great, clumsy creature with massive limbs armed with long, stout claws. Professor Owen, the English scientist, thought that instead of climbing trees, as do his smaller modern rela- tives, Mylodon planted himself firmly on his great heels and broad, stout tail, then grasped the tree with his strong arms and worked and wrestled until the tree was either broken off or pulled up by the roots, when he was ready to dine on its juicy twigs and leaves. He seems not to have been a very dangerous animal and perhapsi could not defend himself against the wolves, bears and great cats that must have been so common in our Oregon woods. There was also a large ancestor of the buffalo, the Broad Faced Ox, with horns larger and head wider than the modern buffalo, and skull so thick that it left but little room for brains. It lived along the Columbia River and undoubtedly roamed in herds all over the northwest. But perhaps the most common animal around the Willamette Sound was the elephant. There were at least two kinds, the Mastodon and the Mammoth. The Mastodon was much like the elephants we have seen in the, circus or menagerie, except as to its grinding teeth. It must have found abundant food in Oregon, for it lived in part upon the tender shoots of spruce and fir trees. But the most interesting of the elephant family was the enormous mammoth which is said to have "weighed more than twice as much as the largest modern elephant and was almost one-third taller." He lived in all parts of North America and Europe and some very fine specimens or mum- mies, after being kept in cold storage for thousands of years, were taken from the ice or frozen ground of Siberia, with not ​10 ELLEN CONDON McCoRNACK only the skeleton but the muscles, skin and hair all in a fine state of preservation. These northern specimens and perhaps all Mammoths had a mane and a coat of long, dark hair with short wool, reddish brown hair beneath. Their ivory tusks were of very great length, some of them curving downward then out and upward until they formed almost a complete circle. It is difficult to see how this circular tusk could be used for tearing down branches, twigs and leaves for food or as a weapon of warfare, and perhaps this difficulty may partly ac- count for the fact that the fantastic circular form has long since passed away, while the straighter tusks remain until now. Africa is supposed to have been the original home of the elephant and our American forms traveled over a land bridge into Europe on through Asia and over another land bridge into Alaska. PART III The limited verdure of the age of ice was a chapter of the past, for the climate of the Willamette Sound was warmer and the forests even richer and more varied than we find them now. We would expect to find grand forests of pine, fir, spruce, red- wood, cedar and hemlock trees and against this dark back- ground of conifers to see the star-like blossoms and light green foliage of the dogwood, the creamy tassels of the ocean spray and the golden yellow of the Oregon grape, just as we see them now. The islands, too, would have their many grand old oaks, their mountain laurels, rhododendrons and flowering cur- rants and beneath them all a bright carpet of many flowers. Among the birds, too, we should expect to find man> of our modern friends. The bright oriole with its long pendant nest, the many warblers and their sweet songs, the meadow lark with notes so full of exultant joy or of tender pathos that, heard in our land of long ago, they would almost seem to foreshadow the coming of the human soul. But was there no human eye to see ? Were there no shelters of skins and boughs under the oaks and firs of those picturesque ​A GLIMPSE INTO PREHISTORIC OREGON 11 islands? Were no canoes waiting among the willows and the maples along the shore while their owners hunted elk and bear upon the mountain side? Were the voices of happy children never heard across those waters? We do not know. There might have been, for it is well known that man lived in South America at this time, and it has long been claimed, though per- haps not quite proven, that man lived in North America and even in California before the time of which we write. While Europe has a rich chapter of very ancient human history, tell- ing of the "Cave Dwellers," who lived in England, France, Belgium and other countries, when this same Mammoth ele- phant still lived in Europe and America. Let us borrow for a time, some of those people who made their homes in caves, and in imagination transfer them to our Willamette Sound. No scientist will object, for they really belong here and this old Oregon was far too beautiful to have no human beings hunting in its forests, fishing in its streams or building little villages upon its wooded islands. But what kind of people were the Cave Dwellers ? We sup- pose they must have been savages, but they were certainly a very interesting people, perhaps the ancient ancestors of the Eskimos of the far north. They lived in caves because they found many caverns already fashioned in the limestone hills of Europe. They knew nothing of metals, such as bronze or iron, but made their weapons of chipped flint and horn or bone. They had spearheads, scrapers and large implements of chipped flint. They made lances and bodkins and bone needles and used cooking hearths, so we know the women had already learned to cook and sew. But they also carved in bone and ivory and drew pictures of the Mammoth and the reindeer, the horse and ox, and made drawings of fish and flowers. Their heads, too, show well-developed brain power, and we know their minds must have been quick and active for they were sur- rounded by all kinds of fierce, hungry animals, many of them larger and stronger than man himself, and yet he held his own and prospered while many varieties of those great animals have long since become extinct. ​12 ELLEN CONDON McCoRNACK Let us imagine one of these primitive men standing on some eminence and looking out over our beautiful Willamette Sound. He sees the long, graceful shore line as it winds in and out of the many harbors formed by the submerged valleys of the smaller streams. He sees the broad expanse of waters with its many picturesque islands. He sees the stately evergreens, the great oaks and beautiful flowering shrubs upon the sunny hillsides. He sees the grand Cascade Mountains crowned with their lofty snowpeaks. But does he see all this as the Mammoth sees it, or does its beauty touch his soul ? When the earth trembles, as it often does, and loud rumblings come from the mountains, what does he think? He looks to- ward Mt. Hood in its pure majestic beauty, does he worship the mountain, or does his mind rise above and worship its creator ? Suddenly he sees white clouds of steam pouring from the mountain top, then with violent earthquake and loud explosions, he sees showers of glowing cinders and stones and jets of fiery liquid hurled far upward into the dense black cloud now spread- ing above the mountain. Why does he turn suddenly away from the awful grandeur of the scene and throw out his long bare arms and lift his eyes to the pure blue sky, where only one white cloud is drifting? Is it the dawn of prayer? When later on an iceberg comes gliding slowly across the waters, its beautiful icy pinnacles glistening in the moonlight, perhaps it seems to him the wandering spirit of that snowpeak driven out by the wild demon of fire. Sometime while digging an excavation through the, rich, deep soil the old Willamette Sound has left us, some one may find the bones and large grinding teeth of the Mammoth elephant, and mingled with them may be human bones or human imple- ments of chipped flint and a fragment of carving, perhaps even a picture of the long-haired Mammoth drawn with flint upon a piece of ivory. This discovery would be of great interest to scientific men, although it would not surprise them, for it has long been considered among the possibilities. But to us who are interested in Oregon's history it would open a rich and very ancient chapter of human life. ​A GLIMPSE INTO PREHISTORIC OREGON 13 You know it was Professor Condon who discovered the Wil- lamette Sound, and that he also first described and named it. In his book, "The Two Islands," we find these thoughts: "That fine old Willamette Sound may, in the days of the Mam- moth and the Broad Faced Ox, have welcomed to its scores of sheltered harbors, the ancient hunter, who, in his canoe, if he had one, floated one hundred feet or more above the present altitude of the church spires of Portland and Salem. A few more mill races dug, a few more excavations of winter floods, more careful search where mountain streams washed their trophies to their burial under still waters, and the question, Did man, too, live there then? may be set at rest as it regards the
RISE AND EARLY HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON—VI
By Walter Catleton Woodward
CHAPTER XIII
The Issues of War
CHAPTER XIII
THE ISSUES OF WAR
It has been seen that from the beginning of the war, the Statesman had been most energetic in support of the Administration and most aggressive in demanding a vigorous war policy. It not only supported the Administration but attempted to lead, or rather, drive it. The first manifestation of dissatisfaction, in fact, was occasioned by what Bush termed the one remarkable phase of the war the leniency of federal authorities toward traitors. He complained that the most notorious and virulent offenders, taken even in arms, were almost invariably treated more like honored guests than felons that they were. He, maintained that there was such a thing as sinning against humanity by overdoses of kindness and that the war would prove a contemptible failure if a "sickly sentimentalism" should let the "demons of secession go free, to repeat again the dread tragedy of rebellion."
For the first time, the Statesman distinctly questions the Government's policy in an editorial, October 6, 1862, on "The President's Proclamation." This referred to the preliminary proclamation issued September 22 by Lincoln, that unless the inhabitants of the revolting states returned to their allegiance by January 1, the slaves should be declared free. In the first place, such a policy at this time was held to be unnecessary and impracticable. But, more to the point, were the words: "It is not the loss that will fall upon the slave states that we object to. ... but the Government will have on hand at the, close of the war a 'Negro question' which will present more difficult phases than any shape in which the question has ever yet been seen." Another instance was this of the accuracy with which Bush foresaw and foretold the results which were to grow out of the war. From this time on the Statesman became more and more critical of Lincoln's policies. In a private letter to Nesmith, Deady wrote, October 22: "Bush is turning 'oppo​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 17 sitionist' and as a matter of course is regaining his health. Sup- porting a government is not his specialty." From the latter part of 1862 onward, from the exigencies arising from the prosecution of a great civil war, many difficult questions of policy arose., as regards both men and measures. The solution of these various questions disclosed the political differences existing in the ranks of those supporting the Gov- ernment, which had thus far been scarcely noticeable. Opposi- tion to Lincoln's administration began to organize. As repre- sentative of this general opposition, and showing the several grounds on which it was based, the attitude of the Oregon Statesman furnishes an excellent example, and as such will be followed in some detail. At the same time that Emancipation was being forecasted as an issue, the personal element was also being injected into the situation by the removal of General McClellan, a Democrat, as commander-in-chief of the armies. 2 Bush's loyalty to McClellan led him to criticize Lincoln severely for trying out so many generals. 3 He accused him of weakness and vacillation in yield- ing his better judgment to the clamor of radicals and fanatics of whom he said: "the nigger is their chief stock in trade." Referring to the Union Democratic victories in the fall elections in the East, Bush interpreted them, not as an expression against the war but as "simply a victory against party dogmas in the conduct of the war."4 He contended that the radical Republi- cans or politicians who had elected Lincoln had cried, "all parties are dead," adding sotto voce, "except the Republican party." Where they were not in the majority they had said, "away with parties," but where they were independent they had run Republican tickets. Democrats were expected not only to cease to become Democrats but to become Republicans, supporting the Administration in all its party measures, a 2 "We have the news of McClellan's removal here. People and papers who know something about the merits of the matters are expending their opinions freely pro and con and it looks as if the matter would be taken into the next Presidential election, provided that political carnival is not deferred until after the war." Deady to Nesmith, Nov. 22. 3 Statesman, Nov. 3, editorial, "The President and His Generals." 4 Statesman, Nov. 17, editorial, "The Lesson of the Hour." ​18 W. C. WOODWARD demand "too impudent for concession." The result had been that the loyal Democrats had formed Union Democratic tickets wherever Republicans had made party nominations and had elected them so generally as to strike the country with complete surprise. Bush thus gave evidence of growing restiveness under his close associations with Republicanism. As a striking sequel to Dr. McBride's prediction made in February,* is the following extract from a letter of Deady to Nesmith, dated November 22 : "Bush is breaking ground against his Republi- can brethren and the time is not far distant when he and they will quit the entente cordial it only exists in name now." The Argus strongly supported the policy of the Emancipa- tion Proclamation and on December 6, 1862, for opposing it made a venomous attack on Bush in an editorial under the sug- gestive caption: "The Lion's Skin Torn From a Donkey." 6 This editorial, while intemperate in language and radical in its presentation, presents so good a view, both of the attitude of the Republican radicals toward the Statesman at this time and of the position which Bush had assumed toward the Adminis- tration, that it is freely quoted in the following excerpts : "Now that it has made all the money out of the Union party it expects to, this sheet has thrown off its 'Union' cloak far enough to show its teeth which are now gnash- ing in real Corvallis Union style, at the President for proclaiming freedom to the slaves, at Congress for abolish- ing slavery in the District of Columbia, and at the Govern- ment generally for adopting what it terms the policy of 'freedom-loving Austria' for suspending the writ of habeas corpus. . . . This sheet lets no opportunity slip to charge the Government with peculation and fraud, to cry down and depreciate its currency, 7 to rail at anti-slavery men as abolitionists. . . . and in short to play Into the hands of rebellion by such sly jeers and villainous false- 5 Supra, p. 342. 6 "Bush and Little Preach (Billy Adams) are throwing mud at each other in fine style. The Statesman begins to read as of yore." Deady to Nesmith, Dec. 18. (Adams still wrote for the Argus though Craig was now in direct management of the paper.) 7 The Argus vigorously urged the acceptance and use of the legal tender notes at par. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 19 hoods as Pat Malone 8 has been retailing in much better style for months past. While such men as Malone deserve to be beaten with rods, he of the Salem concern deserves to be thrashed with scorpions. . . . The President's blow at the cause of the rebellion. . . . gave the seces- sion squirt at Salem a long coveted opportunity to plunge his carcass into the stinking pool of treason, with his 'Union' cloak drawn closely round his breech as a tempta- tion to real Union men to follow. The same instinct and innate love of doing something dirty that led this black- hearted villain and white-livered scoundrel, among our Oregon volunteers in 1855, to stab Whigs has now prompted the whining cur to pin his nose to the seat of McClellan's breeches and raise a yell over his removal as a persecution of a Democrat. . . . The whole object of this sheet is to assist in breaking down the Administra- tion. . . . It is for the Union if slavery can be pre- served, to again stink and rule the government. . . . Some men may differ with us, but we have no time to argue with those who are green enough to wish to carry adders in their bosoms till they are stung to death If there is any hope for the success of pure principles in Oregon, Union men must scotch this new head of the hydra-headed snake of secession at once." On the other hand, the feeling manifested toward Bush by the organized Democracy was no more cordial, as is made evi- dent by Malone in the Corvallis Union : "The political harlot of the Salem Vampire has had a new revelation ! He has learned a new 'lesson' from the signs of the 'hour.' But he has reached the end of his tether. The wrigglings of the reptile in his efforts to steal into the Democratic party only breeds a big disgust. "9 In defending himself and like Union Democrats, Bush showed how zealously they had upheld the Administration and only hesitated now at the manifestation of its growing partisan ten- dencies. He charged that there was a growing movement to reorganize the government as well as a rebellion to destroy it, referring to the determined efforts to free the Negroes. He 8 Editor of the Corvallis Union at this time. 9 Quoted in Argus, Feb. 14, 1863. ​20 W. C. WOODWARD alluded to Gov. Andrew's threat that Massachusetts would give no more troops unless the slaves were emancipated, and intimated that those stood better by the Administration who criticized and acquiesced than those who coerced, overawed and bullied it against its convictions. He declared he should con- tinue to stand by the Administration in all matters of right and criticise it when he thought it was wrong. 10 In allusion to the offer of a bet which had been made that within three months Bush would be a red hot secessionist, he replied that while he was in favor of maintaining the Government at every hazard, he wouldn't destroy it, either to enslave or liberate "niggers;" that he believed it to be a government of white men, and that if the liberties of that race could be preserved, he regarded it of comparatively little consequence what fate might betide the "nigger." 11 He declared that the radicals' test of loyalty had become, not, "Are you for the Union?" but "Are you for Emancipation?" 12 As for him, he was for the Union first and the Union only. The Emancipation Proclamation 13 and the removal of McClellan were the two rocks on which broke the Statesman's loyalty to Lincoln. In March, 1863, Bush laid down his scepter as editor of the Statesman. C. P. Crandall and E. M. Waite secured the paper, the former acting as editor. The policy continued to be that which had been adopted by Bush that of criticism of the Ad- ministration. In November of the same year, the Argus and the Statesman were consolidated under the name of Statesman, the paper being published by the Oregon Printing & Publish- ing Company, the directors of which were J. W. P. Huntington, Rufus Mallory, D. W. Craig, C. P. Crandall and C. N Terry.'4 Radical Republicans and Douglas Democrats were thus asso- ciated together in the directorate. Loyalty to the Union was reaffirmed and with the change of management the tone of the 10 Statesman, Dec. i, 1862, editorial, "Standing by the Administration." 11 Ibid., Dec. 8. 12 Statesman, Dec. 15. 13 "After 12 o'clock to-night I suppose there will be no slaves in the rebellious states so Abraham's proclamation says. The shackles will fall at his word, I 'spect."- Bush to Deady, Dec. 31. 14 Statesman, Nov. 2. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 21 paper changed. There was no more depreciation of Lincoln and laudation of McClellan. The Statesman resumed its unwaver- ing allegiance of 1861. As far as actual political events were concerned, the year 1863 was an uneventful one in Oregon. There were no political campaigns no elections. However, it was a critical year. The various fortunes of the conflict in the East were closely fol- lowed in distant Oregon. As the prospect for the success of the Union arms grew darker, secession sympathizers in Oregon be- came more rampant. The Dalles Mountaineer, a Douglas Democrat paper, announced near the end of the year that six Oregon newspapers had been suppressed as treasonable, : s in the following order: Albany Democrat, Jacksonville Gazette, Eu- gene Register, Albany Inquirer, Portland Advertiser and Cor- vallis Union. Their suppression was acquiesced in by the Mountaineer, but it expressed a doubt as to whether they had done half as much injury to the Union cause as the blind parti- san Republican papers which had steadily endeavored to instil the belief that to be a friend of the Union it was necessary to subscribe to the doctrines of such crazy fanatics as Wm. Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. It charged that the aim of "these miserable apologies for newspapers" had been to force every man either into the abolition or secession ranks, and that apparently it had been a matter of indifference with them which of the traitorous factions he joined. Evidence is thus fur- nished from another source of the Union Democratic sentiment against emancipation. A series of resolutions was introduced October 2, 1862, in the Confederate Congress and referred to the committee on foreign affairs, recognizing the practical neutrality of the States of California and Oregon and the Territories of Washington and Nevada. The resolutions suggested the advantages which would result to the people thereof upon an immediate assertion on their part of their independence of the United States and proposed the formation of a league, offensive and defensive, between the said states and Territories and the Confederate 15 Quoted in Statesman, Dec. i, 1863. ​22 W. C. WOODWARD States of America. 16 It was well understood in Oregon that the plotters for a Pacific Republic were merely biding tfyeir time, waiting to strike until the further success of the Confed- erate armies should render the Union cause hopelessly des- perate. 17 It was for this reason, together with the danger of Indian outbreaks, that the companies of the Oregon volunteer regiment of cavalry, which had been enlisted for service in the war, were retained in the Northwest. The organization of secession sentiment in Oregon was rep- resented in the Knights of the Golden Circle. There were about ten circles in the state among them two at Portland, two at Salem and one each at Scio, Albany, Jacksonville and in Yam- hill County. 18 Fortunately, their operations were seriously handicapped, as two spies employed by Oregon's Adjutant- General, C. A. Reed, kept him fully informed of the work and plans of the Knights. A plan to assassinate Reed and capture the arsenal and several attempts to capture government arms are declared by him to have been apprehended and frustrated. Complete lists of the membership of the order were secured and on these lists appeared the names of nearly all the prominent Democratic 19 editors and politicians. The Knights divided on the question of the overt act in connection with the scheme of a Pacific Republic. Some were anxious to raise the standard of revolt in Oregon while others dissented. But in the dark days of 1863 the secession Democrats were not the only ones to whom the idea of an independent govern- ment on the Pacific Coast, appealed. One of the very promi- nent men in the state, both then and for nearly a half century afterward, a leading participant in the Union movement, argued openly in the state house with the state secretary and treasurer and before the Adjutant-General, in behalf of a Pacific 'Re- 16 Reported in Statesman, Dec. 8, 1862. 17 Conversation with Judge Williams. 1 8 Statements relative to the Golden Circle are based on a personal interview with C. A. Reed, of Portland, who was Adjutant-General for Oregon during the war. 19 In this period the term "Democratic," unmodified, refers exclusively to the Democrats who remained in the party organization and opposed the Union movement the Democrats known as Copperheads and Secession Democrats. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 23 public. "Now is the time to strike," he urged. "We are the natural allies of the South and the North will be in no position to oppose us." The Adjutant-General called him into his office and threatened him with arrest for treason if he repeated the expression of such sentiment. A few Union victories followed and the man in question made a public address in Salem in favor of upholding the Union. 20 In the fall of 1863, by which time a considerable number of Union Democrats had broken with the Administration, there were continued references in the press to attempts being made by the Democratic leaders to unite the various factions of their party under one standard. 21 Many were the defiant allusions made by the Statesman during this period to the Copperheads the peace-at-any-price men, the real allies of the South. At the same time, under its new management, it attacked those who had supported the Union and who still professed to be War Democrats, but who were now in favor of leaguing themselves with the peace or Secession Democrats of the state, thus making the "tail for the snake of secession." To them, represented by such men as Bush, Harding and Thayer, it gave the name of Coppertails. The Statesman scoffed at their belief that the Copperheads would permit them to fix up a policy and plat- form suitable for loyal men to stand upon, and said, "The Democratic party as now constituted, is, nine-tenths of it, for peace at all events." 22 In defense of its position it quoted the platform as proposed by James O'Meara, leader of the Oregon Copperheads, the last plank of which read : "We are for peace, now and always, and shall regard any peace honorable that is conformable with the independence of the Northern States." In the closing days of the year, the Loyal Leagues made their appearance in Oregon. In April the Statesman had reported 20 This incident was carefully related to the writer by Mr. Reed with the request that the name be withheld. 21 "The secessionists of this state are taking immense trouble to reorganize the 'Democratic party.' Let them reorganize till the archangel blows his trumpet it won't make them any more numerous. ... It is still the same old Copperhead brigade. . . . Go ahead, old snake, you can't put on a skin that won't be known and 'spotted.' " Statesman, Dec. 7, 1863. 22 Statesman, Dec. 14. ​24 W. C. WOODWARD that the New York papers announced that on March 9 a pledge was drawn up and signed by thousands of men in that city, binding the signers under the name of the Loyal National League, to an unconditional loyalty to the Government of the United States ; to an unwavering support of its efforts to sup- press rebellion. The League was a secret organization, estab- lished to bear the same relation to the Union cause that the Knights of the Golden Circle bore to that of the South. It was also given impetus by the action of those Union Democrats who had broken with the Administration and who were now consid- ered obstructionists by the unconditional supporters of the war. On account of the secret nature of the organization there were no references to it of a local nature by the Republican papers until February 29, 1864, when a leader appeared in the States- man "Union Leagues Golden Circles." "The Copperhead mind of this state is terribly alarmed about the introduction of the Loyal Leagues," said the Statesman, which, after showing that patriotism was the motive of the one and treason of the other, declared that there ought to be a Loyal League or Union Club in every precinct in the state. The "Union League of America for the State of Oregon," was organized at Portland, December 14, 1863. The initiative was taken by Governor Gibbs, the organization being effected through a dispensation granted to A. R. Elder of California by the Grand Council of that state. 23 It was provided that the Grand Council should be composed of the twenty-five persons named in the charter and of one delegate from each subordin- ate council in the state. The officers chosen were : Grand Presi- dent, Gov. Gibbs; Vice-Presidents, E. D. Shattuck, A. G. Hovey, Stephen Coffin, Thos. Frazar, S. M. Gilmore ; treas- urer, Addison M. Starr; secretary, H. C. Coulson; marshal, M. F. Mulkey; sentinel, E. L. Jones; herald, E. J. Northrup. Others of prominence among the charter members were W. Lair Hill, Thos. H. Pearne, John H. Mitchell, Dr. Wilson 23 In July, 1909, Mr. Himes, curator of the Oregon Historical Society Col- lections, secured possession of the record books of the State League and of the Multnomah Council No. 2, containing in each case the constitution, proceedings and list of members. To these the writer was given access. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 25 Bowlby, W. C. Johnson, Thos. Monteith and Hiram Smith. Dispensations were recorded for the establishment of councils throughout the state. The Drew resolution, to be noticed later, was the only matter of political significance noted in the re- corded proceedings of the State Council. The Multnomah Council, Number 2, was organized at Port- land, December 28, and attained a membership of over two hundred. Judge Geo. H. Williams was elected president, Levi Anderson, vice-president, Joseph N. Dolph, assistant vice-presi- dent, and J. J. Hoffman, secretary, with other minor officers. The active political work of the League is indicated by action taken at a meeting on March 22, 1864, when a committee was elected to confer with a similar committee from Council No. 10 of South Portland to select suitable persons to be put in nomi- nation for the various city officers. The two councils went into a joint nominating convention, March 26. At the meeting of the Multnomah Council on April 4, resolutions were intro- duced by J. N. Dolph and adopted, to the effect that no mem- ber of the Union League who gave his support or vote in favor of independent candidates of doubtful loyalty, should be con- sidered a reliable Union man. This was the sequel to the ac- tion of Amory Holbrook and a few followers in bolting the regular Union nominations in Multnomah County and putting out an independent Union ticket. Division of sentiment appar- ently followed the passage of the above resolution. On April 12 after "animated discussion" a resolution was passed severely deprecating the conduct of certain members who had talked against the League and had endeavored to persuade persons from becoming members. At the same time, a committee was appointed to solicit the attendance of members at the next meeting, which was indicative of growing indifference. The last meeting of the Multnomah council of which record was made was held May 3, 1864. At a special meeting of the Grand Council of the State League held April 19 a resolution proposed by Judge Williams was adopted, protesting against the appointment of J. W. Drew as paymaster in the army on the ground that he was a man of ​26 W. C, WOODWARD doubtful loyalty and opposed to the Administration, and asking the President to remove him. Copies of the resolution were ordered sent to the National Grand Council at Washington and to the President. This raised the ire of Senator Nesmith, largely responsible for Drew's appointment, and was the occa- sion of a private expression on his part on the Loyal League in general and on some of the dramatis personse in particular. "I am ignorant of your opinion of that organization in Oregon called the Loyal League," he wrote to Deady, 2 * "but I know that your sense' of justice, if not your abhorrence of secret political organizations would force you to condemn so low, vile and dirty a trick. For my own part I regard the organiza- tion with more detestation than I did the Know Nothings. Its Origin and perpetuation in our state is only for the benefit of such lying, dirty demagogues as Gospel Pearne and Guts Gibbs who own, control and run it in Oregon." And Nesmith, though elected to the United States Senate in 1860 as a Democrat had been loyally supporting Lincoln in the prosecution of the war. The Loyal League had a brief course in Oregon. It was organized from patriotic motives, but judging from the records of the councils examined, it found no direct mission to fulfill and dissipated its energies in little political bickerings which were its undoing. The campaign of 1864 opened early in the year. The Union State Central Committee met at Salem, January 6, and issued a call for the various precinct and county conventions, leading up to the state convention to be held at Albany, March 30. 25 The Statesman urged all loyal men to enter upon the campaign with vigor. The Union element of the state lacked organiza- tion, it contended. The Copperheads were declared to be using all the, whips and spurs of party drill clubs, open and secret, and lodges of the Golden Circle, through which "vile lies, false teachings and rankling passion" were disseminated. Union party meetings began to be held over the state. One of the most important of the early meetings was one held at LaFayette 24 From College Hill, Ohio, July 18, 1864. 25 Statesman, Jan. n, 1864. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 27 February 23, addressed by Judge Williams, Judge Boise and T. H. Pearne, who were the principal speakers in the campaign, on the Union party side. The meeting heartily endorsed Lin- coln's policies, including his amnesty and reconstruction policy, decried the "peace, peace" cry of the opposition and denounced the Democratic party for its affiliations with secessionists. Despite the patriotic assertions made at the time the Union movement was launched, patriotism and politics had refused to become divorced. As long as there were remunerative offices to be filled, this was inevitable. Late in 1862, Bush had claimed that the, Republicans in general were insincere in their expressed desire to ignore party lines. But through all the many political vicissitudes the Statesman had succeeded in maintaining what was an apparent life lease on the lucrative office of state printer. And now the Oregonian had some very pertinent comments to make upon the subject of non-partisan patriotism. 26 It assented to the idea that the Union party should be conducted without reference to past political affiliations of its members. Not, it declared, because the Republican party as such, had done any- thing inconsistent with the Union organization, "for the last is the natural result, the mere continuation of the former. It is in fact the same, with a different name, adopted to save the political pride of those who did not feel disposed, even for the sake of the country, to call themselves Republicans." Contend- ing that the Republicans were greatly in the majority in the Union party, the Oregonian asserted that it could not be de- nied that they had manifested a generous disposition to share honorable positions with their former opponents. In this the Oregonian avowed acquiescence. "We are opposed, however," it continued, "to the disposition which is sometimes too plainly manifested, to demand as the price of adherence to the cause of patriotism the entire control of the Union party, not for its welfare, but that those who have been managers of the Demo- cratic party may maintain their position as political leaders. It is all very well to say, let there be no distinctions in regard to former politics, but when this is only observed on one side, dis- 26 Oregonian, Feb. 13. ​28 W. C. WOODWARD trust is awakened. The Union party has been cheated by this kind of management and for that and other good reasons, sin- cere Union men will insist that there shall be frank and decided devotion to the cause of the country alone," This tacit appeal to "sincere Union men" was evidently efficacious as Mr. Pit- tock, publisher of the Oregonian, received the nomination the next month for state printer! There was this inevitable jealousy between the two parties making up the Union organization. There was also the factor of personal interest and ambition, always quick to make capital out of an appeal to patriotism. The Douglas County Union convention condemned the practice "prevalent in this state" of men who held offices, actively engaging in political meetings and influencing men by promise of patronage, as a practice cal- culated to corrupt conventions and legislatures. 2 ? Further- more, there was political jealousy between different sections of the state. Southern Oregon demanded political recognition. The Oregon Sentinel of Jacksonville asserted, March 12, 1863, that when the war broke out, "whisky-soaked, taunting treason was hopefully jubilant in Southern Oregon" and that loyal men felt that but little was wanting to create revolution and parti- san warfare in their midst. But the treasonable doctrines that had been taught us as the tenets of the Democratic party had been spurned and refuted, the wavering had been recalled to their allegiance, and now the southern part of the state asked in no uncertain tone for the nomination by the Union party of Orange Jacobs as Congressman, or of some southern man who would look out for the interests of his own district. 28 Subjects to which the Southern Oregonians demanded attention were their mining interests, the opening and protection of an emigrant road into their section and a proper disposal of the Indians which were on their borders. The Jackson county convention in its instructions for Jacobs, declared that the northern part of the state having had four representatives and five Senators in the past four years, the South should have the undisputed 27 Deady correspondence, March 23, to San Francisco Bulletin. 28 Oregon Sentinel, March 19, 1864. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 29 right and privilege to furnish the next Representative. At the same time, it passed the resolution : "It is indispensable to the unity, harmony and success of the Union organization that we ignore all local issues and political divisions on local in- terests, which only inure to the advantage and success of fac- tionists and the common enemy !" 2 9 A good example, this, of the difficulty, which characterized the period, of harmonizing political theory and practice. As the war advanced the polit- ical considerations party, personal and sectional tended to en- croach more and more upon the purely patriotic. The Union State Convention heartily endorsed the war meas- ures of the Administration, including especially the, Emancipa- tion Proclamation. The prospective amendment to the Consti- tution abolishing slavery was championed. The Amnesty Proc- lamation was approved as a peace measure both honorable and magnanimous. Locally, a resolution was adopted against tax- ing mines "a Morgan for the election to catch miners' votes for somebody."^ It was the one concession granted to the Southern Oregon voters. On the first ballot for nomination of a Congressman to suc- ceed J. R. McBride, the leading candidates and the votes given them were: McBride 11, W. C. Johnson 9, Dr. Wilson Bowl- ley 4, O. Humason 15, J. H. D. Henderson 34, Joel Palmer 10, Orange Jacobs 25. 3I The fifth and deciding vote stood: Hen- derson 60, Palmer 31, Jacobs 21. Henderson, a Presby- terian minister and a school teacher, might be consid- ered a charter member of the Republican party and rep- resented the radical element in it. This was his first appear- ance in politics, except for his canvass for a seat in the legis- lature in 1854 on the Maine Law ticket. Sectional jealousies were largely responsible for the defeat of McBride for renom- ination. Oregon was at this time asking for a branch United States mint and McBride's disposition toward having it located 29 Oregon Sentinel, March 19, 1864. 30 Deady to the San Francisco Bulletin. 31 Proceedings, in Statesman, April 4. ​30 W. C. WOODWARD at The Dalles raised a strong feeling against him in the west- ern and most populous part of the state. The vote on state printed 2 stood : Pittock of the Oregonian, 57 ; Craig, of the Statesman, 50. For the first time since it was established in 1851, the Statesman lost the state printing of- fice. H. N. George, Geo. L. Woods and J. F. Gazley were nominated for Presidential electors. As delegates to the Na- tional Convention^ T. H. Pearne, J. W. Souther, F. Charman, M. Hirsch, Josiah Failing and Hiram Smith were selected and instructed to vote for the renomination of Lincoln. In commenting upon the results of the convention, the Ore- gon Sentinel said that considering the strength that Mr. Jacobs carried into the convention, "we are prepared to congratulate Congressional aspirants in Southern Oregon that there is no show for you." However, in its next issue, April 9, it at- tacks, both on the grounds of principle and policy, the proposi- tion of a few disgruntled ones to bring out an independent Union candidate. The latter were advised that if they wanted to get the Union party of Oregon to send a citizen of the south- ern counties to Congress or the Senate, they must change their tactics ; that the politicians of the Willamette had the power to control all these little matters and that nothing was to be gained by fighting or finding fault with them. While factional differences were making their appearance in the Union ranks, there was by no means entire harmony in the Democratic party. The Southern secession element was for peace at any price. On the other hand, many of those who were now returning to their old party allegiance, dissatisfied with Lincoln's administration, still professed to be War Demo- crats and demanded the continued prosecution of the war but only for the maintenance of the Union. Illustrative of this lat- ter attitude is the following resolution passed by the Polk County Democratic Convention : "We are in favor of prose- 32 The election of a printer at this time was necessitated by the death of Harvey Gordon who had been elected in 1862. 33 It is significant that according to the proceedings, the references in the convention were merely to the National Convention, the prefix Republican being studiously omitted. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 31 cuting the war for the purpose of suppressing rebellion, main- taining the Constitution and executing" the laws ; but we are opposed to any war for the abolition of slavery, or for any other purpose but for the maintenance of the Constitution and Union." In contrast to this was the following statement of O'Meara, one of the leaders of the secession Democrats : "The Democratic party is opposed to the present unnatural, unjust, savage abolition war. Our leaders must say so in obedience to the party command. There is no such thing as a prosecution of this war for the restoration of the Union and the supremacy of the Constitution." The platform adopted by the Democratic State Convention which met at Albany, April 13, demonstrated the truth of the prediction which had been made by the Statesman, that the Copperheads would erect no platform upon which loyal War Democrats could consistently stand. The first plank renewed faith in and devotion to the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798-1799. 34 There was an "irrepressible conflict" between this and the third plank which condemned the actions of the rebellious states. This is explainable by the evident, labored attempt to satisfy two elements in the same platform. How- ever, the same resolution went on to condemn and denounce "that usurpation of tyrannical authority which prohibits the return of those states to the Union, until they shall have made their constitutions conform, not to the will of their respective people, but to suit the anti-slavery views of President Lincoln and his party." An amendment of substitution was offered to this resolution declaring that the Union had not been dissolved and that when any seceded state should be brought back to its allegiance either voluntarily or by force, it should be restored to all its constitutional rights and privileges, free from all Con- gressional or executive dictation. The amendment was de- feated by a vote of 76 to 11, demonstrating the secession strength in the convention. Usurpation, tyranny, fraud and all violations of the Constitution and laws were condemned whole- sale in the usual terms. As a special mark of denunciation, 34 Proceedings, Statesman, April 18. ​32 W. C. WOODWARD the abolition of slavery was singled out and characterized as unjustifiable, revolutionary and dangerous. Another attempt to bait the Douglas Democrats is found in the resolution: "We endorse the sentiment of Senator Douglas that the Government was made on a white basis for white men," etc. The Conven- tion declared it would hail with joy, peace on the basis of the Crittenden Compromise or any honorable basis and condemned all attempts to hinder such settlement as evincing unworthy partisan hate and malice. With a fine show of patriotic zeal the assembled Democrats capped their resolutions with a dec- laration against all secret political organizations as being sub- versive of our Republican form of government! Adequate mental reservation is to be presumed to have been made by the Knights of the Golden Circle in attendance. The fact that Ex-Governor Whiteaker was chairman of the convention is suggestive of its political animus. Col. J. K. Kelly, who had made the race for Congress as the candidate of the National Democrats in 1858, was now named as the regular Democratic nominee. 3 ^ He received 71 votes and his competitor, Benj. Hayden, 14. No nomination was made for state printer. A. E. Wait, Benj. Hayden and S. F. Chadwick were nominated for Presidential electors and Benj Stark, L. P. Higbee, W. McMillan, Jefferson Howell, John Whiteaker and N. T. Caton were elected delegates to the National Demo- cratic Convention. In the campaign which followed, the first plank of the Demo- cratic platform was made the center of attack by the Union party. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions were shown to be the source of nullification and secession doctrines and Oregon Democracy was charged with at last fighting under its true colors. Lane came out from his seclusion and made a few "Copperhead, secession speeches." 36 Governor Gibbs and Judge Williams, especially the latter, were the leading Union 35 "However he may dislike abolitionism, he does not believe in the anarchical and seditious teachings of the Resolutions of 1798. He is dragged into the canvass by those who desire to have the benefit of his ability and good name. If the party could elect, he would have been the last man selected." Deady, April 20, 1864, to San Francisco Bulletin. 36 Statesman, May 30. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 33 speakers. The Democrats made a desperate effort to carry the state or at least to win enough seats in the legislature to give them a voice in the election of the next United States Senator. To this end they centered their efforts in certain counties. 37 In the June election Henderson was victorious over Kelly by a majority of 2643, the latter carrying but the four counties Columbia, Jackson, Josephine and Umatilla. 38 The Democrats elected but seven members of the legislature ; two in the sen- ate, one each from Josephine and Linn ; five in the house, three from Jackson, and one each from Josephine and Umatilla. 39 The member from Umatilla was La Fayette Lane, son of the old General. It was for the legislature of 1864 to elect a successor to Senator Harding.-* Both Harding and Nesmith had been giving the Lincoln administration good support in the United States Senate. Oregon's Republican Congressman, McBride, had written to the Argus March 13, 1863, lauding the two Democratic Senators for devoting their energies to the support of Lincoln in overthrowing the rebellion. The Oregonian, March 18, 1864, cheerfully credited Harding with having "gen- erally reflected the wishes of the majority of his constituents in his congressional action." Nevertheless, neither Harding nor Nesmith was in accord with the Republican policies that were rapidly being developed by the issues of the war. They, and particulary Harding, had taken positions that were not at all satisfactory to those to whom they owed their election.^ 1 They were far from representative of the Union party in Oregon in 1864. Hence, naturally, Harding was not considered seriously for re-election. The two recognized candidates were Judge Williams and T. H. Pearne. 37 In Polk county, voters were colonized in large numbers from outside districts to vote for the Democratic ticket (see Statesman, June 6). 38 Official returns in Statesman, July 18. 39 Statesman, Sept. 5. 40 When Nesmith and Baker were elected Senators in 1860, the latter was elected for the short term, ending in 1864. On his death, Stark filled the vacancy by appointment until the Legislature of 1862 elected Harding to serve the remaining two years. 41 Oregonian, Dec. 19, 1863. ​34 W. C. WOODWARD In the organization of the legislature John H. Mitchell was elected president of the senate and now started on his long political career which was to be inextricably woven with the political history of the state. The senatorial campaign of 1864 was singularly free from any suggestion of "unclean practice."^ Deady wrote to the Bulletin, September 13 : "The matter is decently and quietly managed on all hands. No open rooms, no free drinks or eleemosynary eatables. Plain, earnest men are gathered about in little groups discussing the election, with reference to the good of the country and some particular project or person." The first ballot, taken September 15, stood : Wil- liams 27, Pearne 20, W. H. Watkins 2, J. F. Miller 6. The vote for the latter represented the Democratic strength minus one vote, that of Curl, who voted for Williams. The third ballot resulted in election, Williams getting 31 votes, Pearne 16, Watkins 2 and Miller 6. At last Judge Williams realized the ambition from the achievement of which his pronounced free state doctrine had heretofore been largely instrumental in preventing him. He was at this time considered a Republican practically, though he had never avowedly become so. It was at least well under- stood that he would never go back to the Democratic party.-" Considering the great place which Oregon's "Grand Old Man" has had for over a half century in the history of the state, the characterization which was made of him at this time by Judge Deady, is full of interest :*4 "He is clever in both the English and American sense of that much used and much abused word ; is generous and unsuspicious and does not long cherisb ill will towards any one. Personally, he is popular with the peop 1 e arid his election is very generally satisfactory or cheerfully ac- quiesced in. ... Though earnest, he is not destructive and will help build up rather than tear down. He is a good popular speaker, clear and distinct in his ideas, always forcible, often 42 "The cleanest in the history of the state," said Judge Williams to the writer. "I didn't spend a dollar and used no influence whatever with members, and I don't believe Pearne did." 43 Personal statement of Judge Williams. 44 Correspondence, Sept. 19, to San Francisco Bulletin. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 35 eloquent and sometimes rises into the region of imagination and adorns his speech with pure poetic gems.45 . . . Judge Williams is a man of today and draws his inspiration from the associations and wants of the present." At this session of the legislature the notorious Viva Voce ballot law, by which the Democrats had made "daylight shine through the Know Nothing Wigwams" in 1855, again put in its periodical appearance. A bill of repeal was introduced in the house and was supported by the five Democratic members and opposed by all the Union members, in the realization that circumstances alter cases or, as an onlooker put it, that "What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."4 6 Meanwhile, the Presidential campaign was in progress, and was rapidly becoming very active in Oregon. "Old Abe" and "Little Mac" were the watchwords of the contending parties. Clubs were formed in every direction. The Loyal Leagues were being disbanded by the Union men and Lincoln and Johnson clubs substituted for them. Many prominent Democrats who had been identified with the Union organization were now sup- porting McClellan, among them, Bush, Nesmith, Harding, Thayer, Hayden, Grover, Elkins and Humason. The attitude of Senator Nesmith was well expressed in what was known in Oregon as the "Milwaukie letter," dated at Milwaukie, Wis- consin, September 2, 1864, and written to Harding, who had returned from Washington to Oregon. Nesmith had just at- tended the National Democratic Convention at Chicago. His letter is important as showing the position of a certain class of loyal war Democrats who had been faithfully supporting the Lincoln Administration in prosecuting the war. He confessed that he took no particular interest in the canvass, yet, regarding McClellan as an honest man and a patriot, he should prefer to see him elected for the reason that it would remove the ob- stacles to terms of peace. In case the war continued, he thought 45 As an example of his apt, poetic expression he addressed informally a company of friends who called to congratulate him in the evening of the day of his election. In thanking them for efforts in his behalf, he said: "I will write these obligations upon the tablets of my memory and recite them daily as the rosary of my friendship." 46 Deady, correspondence, Oct. 22, to Bulletin. ​36 W. C. WOODWARD that McClellan would be surrounded by more competent and honest advisers than those by which Lincoln had been, and that the war would be prosecuted with more ability and vigor. He voiced his objection to the mixing of the slavery question with that which was the prime object of the war the preserva- tion of the Union. However, as far as the Chicago platform itself was concerned, he said it consisted of vague and glitter- ing generalities, and that he had no unity with the "peace bait" if it meant recognition of the Southern Confederacy. Indeed he pledged his best efforts to Lincoln toward bringing about a successful termination of the war. On the other hand, Judge Deady, who at the opening of the war was a radical, pro-slavery Democrat of the Breckinridge .school, supported Lincoln in 1864. The following keen char- acterization of the situation is found in a private letter written by him to Nesmith, November 12 : "I took no part in the election of consequence, but voted for Lincoln. This change of Presidents every four years to make a new deal of the offices, is the curse of the country and is as much the cause of our present troubles as all other things combined. Besides I have no very exalted opinion of Mac at best. He is neither one thing or the other. Mr. Lincoln I think a pure man, means well and is gifted with as much good common sense and saga- city as often falls to the lot of men, particularly Presidents. . . . The people are the authors of most of Mr. Lin- coln's mistakes (if they be mistakes) and as usual now seek to hold him alone responsible for them." It is evident from the contents of the newspapers prior to the November election that there was felt a vague alarm over the country at large of a Copperhead conspiracy of some nature that might result in revolution in the North in case of Republi- can success at the polls. That this alarm was strongly felt in Oregon, is clearly shown in the following notice which ap- peared in the Daily Statesman, November 10 : "The Mayor of this city has called a meeting tonight for the purpose of conferring in relation to the apprehen- sion which is generally diffused, of an armed outbreak. It has been thought best by men of all political organizations ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 37 that such a meeting should be held and it is hoped that everybody who attends will do so in a fair, candid and calm spirit, so that the uneasiness now prevalent may be effectually removed." The meeting was held, pacifying speeches were made, and a committee composed of both Copperheads and Union men J. S. Smith, N. T. Caton, R. P. Boise, C. G. Curl and J . C . Peebles was appointed to draft pacificatory and reassuring res- olutions which were reported to another meeting held on the fol- lowing evening. "There was a meeting to suppress insurrection at Salem last night," wrote our faithful chronicler Deady to Nesmith. "Don't know how much cause there is for it, but suspect there is some truth in the statement that arms have been shipped here from California and distributed through the in- terior of the state." Oregon gave Lincoln a majority over McClellan of 1431 votes.47 McClellan carried nine counties Baker, Benton, Jack- son, Josephine, Lane, Linn, Tillamook, Umatilla and Wasco but with small majorities ranging from 10 in Benton to 119 in Umatilla. Lincoln's majority in November was only about one-half what Henderson's had been in June. The Union vote in the state had not fallen off it had increased by over 1100 votes; but the Democratic vote had increased by nearly 2500. In the hitherto sparsely settled districts of Northeastern Ore- gon, the Democrats gained nearly 1000 votes in the five months. The vanguard of "Price's Army" had arrived. The cloud the size of a man's hand could be seen on the political horizon of the Union party.
CHAPTER XIV
POLITICAL REALIGNMENT
The feeling of political uncertainty which pervaded the Nation after the death of President Lincoln and the inauguration of Andrew Johnson, was strikingly reflected in Oregon. Political chaos reigned for months. The political associations which had resulted from the war were on the verge of dissolution over the issues which the war had raised. Readjustments were being sought, very cautiously and warily. But in all this political shifting, the new President was an important factor. The fact that he was an unknown quantity added to the confusion of the situation which political conditions in Oregon would have rendered sufficiently confusing at best. Every faction and every .newspaper was busily trying to find itself politically, in relation to the President. Each faction was accusing all the others of crafty designs and selfish purposes. The unmodified Democrats hated Johnson and hated the Bush-Douglas-McClellan factionists who were evidently preparing to become Johnson Democrats. One wing of the Union party, whose exponent was the Statesman, was loyally supporting Johnson, but looked askance at the Bush faction. The members of the latter were accused of planning a flank movement for the purpose of capturing the Johnson idea for their wing of the Democratic party and thus knocking out the foundations from under the Union party's platform. The other wing of the Union party, led by the Oregonian, was already reflecting the radical Republican movement of the East by covertly attacking Johnson. The Oregonian and the Statesman were again manifesting that cordial hatred toward each other which had characterized the days of the old Democratic Regime, when the columns of each were made lurid by the flaming pens of Dryer and Bush. Each was soon applying the epithet of "Copperhead" to the other.
Harding was now regarded as an apostate by the Unionists. On his return from Washington in March, 1865, the Statesman, in what might be termed a prose version of Whittier's "Ichabod," grieved over him as lost to the Union cause which ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 39 had honored and trusted him.* 8 Bush and Harding were looked upon at the close of the war as the leaders of the Douglas- McClellan men in an effort to reorganize the Oregon Democ- racy on the basis of President Johnson's policy. The States- man spoke of this as "a flank movement intended to capture our Union platform" and said, "Democrats are welcome to a place under the Union banners, with Andy Johnson as our leader, but we would much rather they would come in open day."49 The Statesman labored to show professedly loyal Democrats how impossible and unnatural was a union between them, under the leadership of Bush and Harding, with the secession, unre- constructed Democracy of the state, under the leadership of O'Meara and Malone. The latter was characterized as "the real Democracy of these latter years" which "will hang on to the old resolutions of 1798-1799 and vote with the Southern disorganizers, nullifiers, Mexican and English exiles arid the Booths and Surratts generally. They don't like the Govern- ment, never did and don't intend to." "What then, is your duty as citizens?" asked the Statesman in an editorial, "A Few Words to Democratic Subscribers. "$ "Plainly this: cast in your votes and influence with the party that has the ability and strength to conduct the affairs of the Nation successfully." But if on the one hand the Statesman was desirous of head- ing off Democratic reorganization along the lines suggested, no less anxious was the Copperhead Democracy itself. It desired Democratic reunion but not reorganization under the auspices of Bush and Harding, whom it characterized as "disorganizing reorganizes." Its attitude, was forcefully expressed by Malone in the Oregon Reporter, published at Jacksonville:* 1 "Let not the men who stood the brunt of battle for the last four years, allow the Salem nest of Puritan sneaks who led their followers into the abolition ranks and cannot now get them back take the lead of them. These infamous 48 Statesman, March 20, 1865. 49 Ibid., October 2. 50 Statesman, July 31. 51 Quoted in the Statesman, Sept. 25. ​40 W. C. WOODWARD renegades have no party no strength. Having led their followers into the camp of the enemy, Bush and Harding are officers without privates. They have no party, but de- sire to get back and take the lead of ours. ... To thwart these men next June, let the legislative tickets be watched in the various counties. These fellows who elected Baker in 1860 must be punished. . . . Until these Judases are dead and buried and their memories made in- famous, there can be no clean foundation on which to build a Democratic party in Oregon." To add to the complexity of the situation, a controversy was raging in the ranks of the Copperhead Democracy itself, be- tween two of its leading papers, the Albany States Rights Dem- ocrat, edited by O'Meara and the Eugene Review, edited by Noltner. O'Meara insisted on "committing the party to an unequivocal endorsement of the most extreme doctrines ever taught by the politicians of the Calhoun school." He fought Johnson and opposed the idea of the party's adopting a policy of expediency insisted on remaining unreconstructed, in brief. The Review on the other hand wished to follow the expedient policy adopted by the Northern Democracy. It inclined toward Johnson and wished to profit by the strife between him and the Radicals. Thus, in 1865 we find on one hand, the Union party with its two Statesman-Oregonian, later Johnson-anti-Johnson, wings. On the other, the organized or Copperhead Democracy with its discords. And between the two organized parties fluttered the following of Bush and Harding, who, in the lan- guage of the old fable, had hardly determined whether they were to be beasts or birds. The manner in which, within the next three or four years, these various factions were fused and aligned in two political parties and the influences which brought about that result, it will be the purpose of the remaining pages to show. The Oregonian had spoken on the subject of reconstruction as early as the summer of 1864 and voiced clearly the congres- sional attitude. It held that before the seceded states should be readmitted to the Union they must first "be divested of all sovereign capacity and pass through a probationary territorial ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 41 existence." 52 But after Lincoln announced his policy, the Ore- gonian reversed its attitude and supported it, holding that the states had never been out of the Union and attacking Sumner's territorial idea both as unhistorical and impolitic. 53 The first serious treatment of the subject by the Statesman appeared May 29, 1865, in a leader "Is It Reconstruction?" It asserted that the very term "reconstruction" implied a previous dissolu- tion. This had not been admitted by Lincoln, was not admitted by Johnson or by any sound, safe leader in the Union party and could not be it asserted, without admitting at once the whole secession theory. It championed Lincoln's doctrine, that the Government was dealing with individuals, not with states. On one hand it deprecated the attitude of the radicals, like Chandler, Sumner and Wade who looked upon the subjugated states as reduced to Territories, and on the other it objected to the contention of the Democrats in congress that the southern states had not been disorganized and that they were entitled to resume their federal relations with their existing secession or- ganizations and officers. The Statesman used the term "reor- ganization" in place of "reconstruction" and said in conclusion : "The work of reorganization will probably be brief and will have but one obstacle the status of the Negro. The work of pacification will require much time and careful management." The Oregonian had a few good words for Johnson during the first weeks of his term, but ere long began to oppose him, very mildly at first, in his reconstruction policy. What might be termed mild, question-mark editorials appeared in the Ore- gonian in the early fall of 1865. November 11, it asserted that, while it would not have been safe to follow the radicals implicitly, it was by no means wise to utterly discard their suggestions. It admitted that as the President had chosen to consider the rebel- lious states as never having withdrawn from the Union, it became necessary to follow out a line of policy which should be consistent with itself and which should not interfere with the rights of the states as separate political communities. Neverthe- 52 Oregonian, July 23, 1864. 53 Ibid., March 4, 1865. ​42 W. C. WOODWARD less, the Oregonian declined to acquiesce in such a policy which in general terms it admitted to be logical and necessary. It furthermore opposed Johnson for extreme clemency toward "the rebels" when he had said on his accession that treason was a crime and must be punished with severity. The Oregon Sentinel, which represented the Union party in the southern part of the state, declared the best test of a man's Unionism to be that he was a firm, consistent supporter of the Johnson Administration, exactly as the support of the Lincoln Administration had been the test during the war.54 Even after the veto of the Freedmen's Bureau bill in February, 1866, which marked the decisive break between Johnson and Congress, the Sentinel was conservative and declared its allegiance to the President. It made the statement that of the eight Union papers in Oregon, six favored the veto, agreeing that it was necessary and that the President had not and would not aban- don the Union party and go to the Democracy ; that only one paper had abused President Johnson for his vetoes On February 24, the Oregonian frankly admitted the schism between the President and Congress. It accused Johnson of ignoring the latter; of having pursued a plan which was ob- noxious to a very large proportion of the loyal people of the country ; of recognizing with political power, the rebels. "The Union party does not want to break with President Johnson. It is loth to declare its dissent from his policy. . . . But it will no longer potter with rebels nor will it consent to have the advantages of the great and costly victory it has gained, frit- tered away. . . . We will not abandon the President ; let us wait and see if he will totally abandon us." In a two column editorial, "A Decisive Hour," the Statesman, February 26, treated, rather dramatically,, the opening political feud at Washington. After defending the grounds on which 54 Sentinel, Oct. 21, 1865. 55 Ibid., March 17, 1866. The opposite view is given by Deady in a letter to Nesmith, March 2: "The Statesman sustains the President, but I know of no other Union paper or leading influence that does in this state. I know nothing about the merits of the Freedmen's Bill, but the reasons he gives for its veto I think radically wrong as is his whole theory about the states of the late Southern Confederacy. I suppose you agree with the President and I fancy are a candidate for the Senate." ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 43 the veto was based as being in harmony with all the precedents, teaching and policy of Lincoln's Administration and avowing that it would therefore sustain him to the utmost, the Statesman made the following somewhat fervid utterance : "The radicals in Congress have abandoned both the Union party and the President. . . . The Copperheads are ready to catch at anything to divide us. They are now hurrahing for Johnson but cannot tell why. . . . We will be fools and recreant traitors if we permit the Copper- heads to champion the President. We are his proper and rightful defenders. ... As a Union party we must endorse Johnson unanimously. We must do it now. Your President has not deserted you. He has not gone to the Copperheads. . . . Never fear. Seward stands by Johnson ; the people stand by Johnson," etc. The Oregonian replied in like vein in a long editorial in which it practically read the Statesman out of theUnion party :5 6 "The President seems disposed to sever his connection with the great Union party, and the Oregon Statesman goes with him. So do the Review and the States Rights Democrat. . . .57 The Statesman has found its long sought opportunity. . . . The combination against the Union party which it foreshadowed, has been effected. . . . The 'Johnson party' is born! . . . The Statesman is 'for Andrew Johnson against all his enemies.' We are for the whole loyal party and will not sever our connection with it to go with a single person, even though that person be the one who has all the federal offices at his disposal. The Democratic party in the coming canvass will go for Pres. Johnson. He will be their champion. And as the Statesman sustains him against the Union party, it may find its proper associations with the Review and the Democrat. But there will fee no division in the Union party. The little circle of 'mutual admiration' men who make the Statesman their organ may slough off if they will. The party will be far better off without them." These two quotations, the one from the Statesman and the other from the Oregonian, show clearly the opposite positions which the two leading Union papers of Oregon held and the resulting attitude which they manifested toward each other. 56 Oregonian, March 3, 1866. 57 Statesman, April 17, 1865. ​44 W. C. WOODWARD From this time on, the Oregonian attacked Johnson as unre- servedly as any well recognized political opponent, and as viciously. The views of the two journals as to the proper status of the Negroes, freed by the war, were almost as antithetical as on the general question of reconstruction. Governor Gibbs called a special session of the legislature, to meet December 5, 1865, to consider the Thirteenth Amendment which had been pre- sented by Congress to the various states. The Amendment passed the senate by a vote of 13 to 3 and the house by a vote of 30 to 4. The seven Democrats of the assembly vigorously opposed it. The Statesman was almost alone in opposing the call of the special session, arguing that the settling of the question at that time would rob the Union party of a good issue in the approaching campaign, and that it would entail useless expense. Emancipation suggested, almost immediately, other vital issues anent the future of the Negro, which began at once to receive attention. The chief of these issues was naturally that of negro suffrage. The first explicit statement on the question made by the Statesman appeared October 2, 1865. It came out squarely against the issue and was inclined to ridicule those Union men, and especially the office-seekers for their delicacy in discussing the subject or avoidance of it altogether. In a sentence, its objection to the enfranchisement of the Negro was this : "We do not believe that any democratic or republican form of gov- ernment can successfully govern two separate and distinct races of people in large numbers with equal political rights to both races." The Oregonian did not yet give an explicit expression on the issue, satisfying itself with giving space to a few innuen- does at the position of the Statesman, which called forth the rejoinder "The Statesman has expressed its opinion plainly upon this, the most important question of the day, while the Oregonian, with its usual want of manly frankness, is waiting to see which way it will be prudent to jump."s8 58 Statesman, Oct. 30, 1865. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 45 At the special session of the legislature above referred to three resolutions upon the subject were passed. The first an- nounced agreement with Pres. Johnson in his position that suffrage is a question that constitutionally belongs to the states, and not to Congress and that suffrage is a political and not a natural right. The second applauded the Negroes for loyal support of the, Union and declared it the duty of Congress to guide and assist them in attaining to the highest standard of which they were capable. The third declared that if the Negroes did not fare well in the South under the new conditions, Con- gress should take steps toward colonizing them in a new state of their own. The Oregonian, November 18, deprecated "set- ting the whole state in an uproar by discussing with vehement warmth" a question that "is not now and probably never can become a matter of paramount importance here." It asserted it to be a matter for each state to settle for itself and still did not commit itself on the general issue. Beginning in the year 1866, the Democratic papers of the state pushed the subject to the front in the effort to force a political issue in the approaching campaign on the subject of negro suf- frage or as they presented it, negro equality. The Oregonian, whose great anxiety was to avoid such an issue, was finally, May 5, goaded into the expressive, effective retort : "One cannot pick up any Democratic newspaper without finding these terrible words (Negro equality) staring at him from all parts of the page. . . . The world has furnished many remarkable instances of 'the ruling passion strong in death,' but the Democratic party has been per- mitted to become about the most remarkable example on record. Born of the slavery interest, nurtured by the profits of human bondage, hoisted to and kept in power by the slave trade and propagandist and now dying of an overdose of 'nigger' and self-administered treason, the Democratic party will have no consolation not derived from recollections of the 'nigger' and strongly objects to being buried in anything but a 'nigger' shroud, a 'nigger' coffin and a 'nigger' grave. It will expire with 'negro equality' last on its mortal tongue," Interest in and preparations for the election of 1866 began to ​46 W. C. WOODWARD be manifested very early. In November of the preceding year, in an editorial, "The Slate Made Up," the Oregonian made a bitter attack on the Statesman and "the little knot of chronic office-seekers who hover about the state capital," for trying to dictate the ticket to be nominated by the Union party. It ac- cused the Statesman, Nesmith, Harding and a few others, of making it up from among their own ilk, asserting that there was but one of the old Republican party among the "Clique's elect." In another attack, December 2, under the caption, "The Salem Program," the Oregonian charged the Statesman and its following with arranging to organize a third party a conserv- ative Union party, shutting out the radical Copperhead Demo- crats on one side and the radical Republicans on the other. From this time each paper labored to show that it represented the real Union party in Oregon. In 1865 the Democrats began to claim the next election on the strength of the emigrant vote, a good indication of the ex- tent and political nature of which had been given in the presi- dential election of the preceding year. Immediately at the close of the war it seemed to be generally understood that there would be a general emigration of Southern refugees to the Northwest, and the papers took up the discussion as to the legal and political status of such as voters. The legislature of 1864 passed an act prohibiting any one voting in Oregon who had been directly engaged in the rebellion, saving his rights under Lincoln's amnesty proclamation. This law was modified at the special session of 1865 in a way which the Statesman declared made it "just such a harmless affair as any guerilla from Price's army would desire." 5 ^ It asserted that there were five or six hundred rebels in Oregon who had never taken either the amnesty oath of Pres. Lincoln or Pres. Johnson and objected strongly to allowing such a vote. It demanded that the Confederate rebellion be treated as something more odious than a Democratic holiday. In the language of An- drew Johnson "treason should be made odious." 59 Statesman, Jan. i, 1866. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 47 The Union State Convention of 1866 met at Corvallis, March 29. A young man from Multnomah County served as secre- tary of this convention. Since May of the preceding year he had been editor of the Oregonian and had already given evi- dence of that ability which was to give that journal the political prestige in Oregon which had been held by Bush and the Statesman and which has later given the editorial page of the Oregonian a national reputation. The young man was Harvey W. Scott. The platform adopted was a clever piece of political strategy, in which its framers succeeded admirably in their evident de- termination to be as vague as possible on the struggle between Congress and the President and on the issues confronting the country. 60 It declared that as to the best plan of restoring the late revolted states to the exercise of all their functions in the Union and as to the legislation necessary to freedmen, loyal men "may honestly differ." A remarkable echo, this, sugges- tive of the days of the old Democratic regime when good Democrats were accorded the privilege of honestly differing on the slavery question. That "obstinacy and pride of opinion" was rebuked, where or by whom displayed, that would give strength to the enemies of the Union through discord and di- vision among the friends. The third resolution expressed a desire for a full recognition of all civil and political privileges to the people of the revolted states, as soon as compatible with national safety and the protection of the loyal people in those states. 61 Imprecations were heaped on the men or party who would countenance repudiating the national debt. A further evidence of the attempt to suit both the strict and loose con- structionists in the Union party was found in the declaration - "We will as we ever have, support the State Governments in 60 Proceedings, in Statesman, April 2. 61 Deady, April 6, to Bulletin: "This is evidently the work of those who sympathize with Congress and at the same time are not disposed to dogmatize, so as to leave no room for those who lean toward the President to act and vote with the party. It assumes rather than asserts that the relation of the 'late revolted states' with the Union is a matter within the authority and power of Congress. In the end, much depends upon the instincts and personal proclivities of the candidate who stands upon it." ​48 W. C. WOODWARD all their rights, as the most competent administrators of their domestic concerns and the surest breastwork against anti- republican tendencies ; and preserve the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor." Another vivid reminder here of Democratic platform building in ante-bellum days. The Satesman manifested ill-concealed signs of disgust over the platform while the Democratic view was pungently expressed by the Oregon Daily Herald, April 5, which caustically ar- raigned the resolutions for their glittering generalities, double- dealing, misrepresentation and evasion. At the end of a long string of questions which it claimed had been totally ignored by "the Corvallis wire-pullers," the Herald asked "Shall President Johnson be supported in his praiseworthy attempts to restore the Constitution to its pristine vigor? Or shall the Radicals the Jacobins of America assume power and over- ride the Constitution?" In selecting the ticket, the policy which Oregon had adopted of electing a new man for Congressman for each succeeding term was followed and Rufus Mallory of Marion was named to succeed Henderson. He had been a Douglas Democrat and was one of the directors of the Oregon Printing and Pub- lishing Company, which published the Statesman. He was characterized by Judge Deady 62 as a man of very fair natural abilities a practical politician with his ear to the ground to catch the drift. Eastern Oregon was recognized in the nomi- nation of Geo. L. Woods, of The Dalles, for governor, a man of eloquence and prepossessing appearance. S. E. May and E. N. Cooke were renominated for state secretary and treasurer, respectively, and W. A. McPherson of the Albany Journal was named for printer. The platform adopted by the Democrats in state convention at Portland, April 5, was a lengthy one, treating the various issues in some detail. 63 However, it was by no means free from those "glittering generalities" with which the Herald had charged the Union resolutions such as an expression for 62 Deady, April 6, to Bulletin. 63 Statesman, April 23. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 49 the support of the state governments in all their rights and the Federal Government in all its vigor. The congressional policy relative to the South was heartily condemned and Presi- dent Johnson was as heartily and unequivocally endorsed. The shade of Senator Douglas was again tacitly invoked for aid in leading Douglas Democrats back into the fold, in a resolution endorsing his expression that this Government was made on a white basis for white men, hence "we are opposed to extending the right of suffrage to any other." The platform denounced as a base insult to the gallant living and heroic dead, the efforts of the Radicals to convert the Nation's victory into a partisan triumph, seeking to make the late war one of conquest, instead of suppression of the rebellion for subjugation instead of re- storing the Union, for the Negro instead of the white man. Centralization of power, the protective tariff and the system of national banks were, opposed and the taxation of United States bonds demanded. James D. Fay 6 4 of Jackson was nominated for Congress ; Jas. K. Kelly of Wasco for governor; L. F. Lane of Multnomah, for secretary ; John C. Bell of Marion for treasurer ; James O'Meara, of the States Rights Democrat, Linn, for printer. Editor O'Meara now found himself running for a lucrative office on a platform which strongly endorsed President Johnson whom he strongly opposed. 65 He accordingly came forth cheerfully with the manifesto "We shall stand by the Presi- dent. To be with the President is to beat back fanaticism." 66 An interesting and significant characterization of the per- sonnel in general of the two state tickets is found in a private letter from Senator Nesmith, dated at Washington, May 20, 1866, to Judge Deady. "It seems to me," he writes, "that the Democratic ticket with the exception of Kelly is such a one as Jeff Davis himself would select, while the other is such as no one ought to select. The first is controlled by men who de- 64 "Of Irish descent, a little fellow with a gamey manner florid, fluent, ready and impudent. A thorough going anti-coercion Democrat." Deady, April 6, to Bulletin. 65 Supra, p. 40. 66 Quoted in Oregonian, April 28. ​50 W. C. WOODWARD sired to see the. Government disrupted and the latter is con- trolled by those who desire to keep it so. I sympathize with neither. I was in hopes that the conservative men of the state, would combine upon the President's policy and give some prac- tical aid in restoring the country to its former prosperous con- dition barring however the institution of slavery to which you were once so devoted. I perhaps expected too much of trading politicians who have more regard for party than for country." The bitterness and desperate nature of the campaign which followed' is better reflected in the Oregonian than in the Statesman, the former throwing its whole strength into the fight. It made a specialty of showing up the records of all the Demo- crats connected with the campaign and quoting past treasonable utterances by them, thus rendering the, campaign bitterly per- sonal. As a last appeal to voters it begged them to "give the old traitor, Jo Lane, another kick," asserting that if the Demo- crats gained the legislature, Lane was to be sent back to the Senate. The Democrats laid stress upon what they termed the fanatical and disruptive measures of the Radicals in Congress, charging that the Union party was composed of disunionists. They were insistent in their demand for the taxation of United States bonds, were strong against the tariff, and were hysterical over threatened "Negro equality." 6 ? On the whole, the Union party nominees and campaigners took the side of Congress as against Johnson. The Statesman, now the only Johnson paper in the Union party, became very much subdued in its attitude even to the extent of endorsing the reconstruction report of the Congressional committee. 68 The Unionists denied the im- putations of the Democrats on the subject of negro suffrage, some maintaining that this was not an issue in the canvass, others expressing their opposition to the principle. The result of the election was very close, especially as com- pared with the results of elections since the forming of the Union organization. The whole Union ticket was elected, the 67 "Shall U. S. bonds be taxed? Shall the toiling millions of this land pay the taxes of the rich? Shall negroes be placed upon the same social and political footing with white men," etc. Oregon Daily Herald, April 5. 68 Deady to Nesmith, June u. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 51 majorities ranging from 277 6 9, given to Woods for governor, to 600 for May. The majority given to Mallory for Congress- man was 553. The composition of the new legislature was-, senate Union 15, Democratic 7; house Union 26, Demo- cratic 21.7 Here was plainly demonstrated the returning Democratic strength the drift toward political realignment. The legislature of 1862 had contained three Democrats ; that of 1864, seven ; that of 1866, twenty-eight. The Union party had gained nearly 500 votes since the presidential election of 1864, but the Democrats had gained over 1300. The Statesman said the result was quite as good as it had reason to expect ; that the immigrant vote was much larger than any one expected, but that the Union ticket had either di- vided that vote or largely recruited from the McClellan vote of the last election, else it had been defeated. ? l The Oregonian asserted bluntly that much of the increased vote was due to the immigrations from Price's disbanded forces, "all of whom gave aid and comfort to the Democratic ticket in Oregon as they did to the rebellion in Missouri. "? 2 In noting that some of its exchanges viewed the election as a Radical triumph while others claimed that it was an endorsement of Pres. Johnson's course, the Oregonian asserted that men of candor would not claim that a victory, achieved by a party which sustained the congressional policy throughout in direct opposition to that of Johnson, was a very brilliant victory for the President. "The victory was fairly gained," it declared, after the severest con- test ever known in the state." 73 The Union party was turning strongly toward the Congres- sional side of the great political controversy in the early months of 1866. The temporary espousal of Johnson by the Demo- crats of the state greatly accelerated this tendency and practi- cally forced the wavering ones in the Union ranks to associate 69 This was the majority as found by the Legislature which canvassed the returns. See Oregonian, Sept. 15. 70 Statesman, July 30. 71 Ibid., June 18. 72 Oregonian, June 9. 73 Oregonian, June 30. ​themselves with the Radical element of the party. A Conservative Union party in Oregon, under the leadership of the President, as desired by Senator Nesmith, was made impossible. Whatever danger there was of a division of the Unionists was averted, and the way was paved for the future rehabilitation of the Republican party. The situation was forcefully expressed in a private letter from Judge Deady to Senator Nesmith, dated August 9, 1866: "You ask me to recommend a man for the place (U. S. Marshal) who is a Johnson man—who is neither a Radical nor an opposer of the war. This is a narrow field in this state. Most decent people here are either with Congress or opposed to it. The latter class are generally Democrats and were opposed to the prosecution of the war."
As early as March 6, 1866, a club had been formed at Washington, D. C., by leading senators and others who supported Johnson. In June the executive committee of the club called a "National Union Convention" to meet at Philadelphia, August 14, for the purpose of effecting a national organization of the conservative Union forces. Senator Nesmith was prominently connected with the movement, and was a member of the executive committee. Other Oregon representatives at Philadelphia as given by the Oregonian, September 22, were: W. H. Farrar, or "Slippery Bill Farrar," McClellan Democrat, a member of the committee on organization; Ex-Governor Geo. L. Curry, Copperhead editor of Portland Advertiser, which had been suppressed, vice-president for Oregon; E. M. Barnum, secession Democrat, member of committee on resolutions. Senator Nesmith was the only man representing Oregon at this National Union Convention, who was a consistent Union man, and the Oregon representation was probably fairly suggestive of the political complexion of the convention at large.
The calling of the Philadelphia convention and the enthusiastic notice given it by the Democrats all over the country was an added and decisive influence in uniting the Union elements in Oregon on the side of the Radicals. The Oregon Sentinel, ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 53 which only six months before was championing Johnson, now denounced the Philadelphia Convention and those connected with it. "We will yield Mr. Johnson to the Democracy cheer- fully and feel satisfied that he rightfully belongs there. . . . Johnson & Co. were forced to ally themselves to the Democ- racy in order to gratify their egotistical ambition and we have the mortification of seeing those whom we chose as leaders, made the silly or perhaps willing tools of men who can outwit them in political chicancery." The Statesman, which had so zealously espoused Johnson, likewise began to weaken as the strife between the President and Congress developed, and after the call had been issued for the meeting of the National Union Convention. D. W. Craig, formerly of the Argus, had secured the controlling interest of the Statesman75 and in August, 1866, sold the paper to Benjamin Simpson, a Union Democrat, who had been one of the directors of the Oregon Printing and Pub- lishing Company. Craig's editor, J. Gaston, said in his parting salutation "Let us stand, not for men, but for principles. If we divide into 'Johnson men' or 'Radicals,' into 'Douglas Demo- crats' or 'Republicans/ we but abandon the field of politics to the control of unmitigated Copperheads. "? 6 This was a de- cidedly different tone from that which had characterized the Statesman heretofore. But the accession of the new management marked another change in the checkered career of the paper. "A change has come over the spirit of the Statesman," announced the new edi- tors, the sons of the new proprietor, Sylvester C. and Samuel L. Simpson, in their salutatory. "Already you have heard the farewell shot of the retiring editor and now, ere its echoes have died away, we come to renew the battle. . . . Opposed to the Utopian ideas of fanatical reformers, yet having no sym- pathy with treason, we shall calmly yet earnestly discuss every measure for the restoration of the states and the general weal of our common country." The Statesman accordingly renewed 75 Geo. H. Himes, "History of the Press of Oregon," in Oregon Historical Quarterly for December, 1902, p. 360. 76 Statesman, Aug. 13. ​54 W. C. WOODWARD its allegiance to Johnson, espousing the Philadelphia Convention. It declared for the re-election of Nesmith as senator against the attacks directed against him by the Oregonian and savagely attacked negro suffrage. The "middle of the road" position, which the Statesman now assumed was a difficult and untenable one. As Deady had keenly observed, this was a narrow field in Oregon, or better, it was a wide field but very thinly populated. The political exigencies were sharply dividing the people into the Radical Unionists on the one hand and the Democrats on the other. Few indeed were they who maintained a middle position, and the Statesman was thus now the spokesman of a very small constituency. As the weeks passed, it seemed to realize the hopelessness of its position. On November 5, 1866, in answer to critics, who prophesied for it a speedy dissolution, the Statesman gave expression to a despairing protest which is here quoted in part as portraying very accurately the feelings of those who struggled against the political currents which would take them to one extreme or the other : "There must be a golden mean somewhere between" sympathy with rebellion and the worship of thick-lipped deities. . . . Surely there is a love of country which shall not combine with too great a veneration of the Negro. . . . With Stephen A. Douglas we entertain a few somewhat heretical notions about this being a white man's government and do not propose to yield them. . . . But there is one platform that is wide enough for us all support of the Union, and for the flag, love and loyalty. The Statesman was with the Government in the Valley of the Shadow' and shall not wander from its faith when the night is scattering and brighter fields are opening be- yond. ... A liberal policy toward the conquered states was the one, in our judgment, most worthy of the Nation and best calculated to harmonize the clashing an- tagonisms of a broken Union and soothe the virulence of a discomfited people ; and for that, no excess of radical ma- jorities shall drive us to the confessional." By this time, after the fall campaigns in the East in which the President had demonstrated his personal foibles, the States- man felt compelled to abandon him. But yet while "blushing ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 55 for his imprudence in trailing the robes of office in the filth of brutal crowds," it declared itself to despise above all things "that party whose bosom is a shield to such infamous outlawry and whose banner is the protection of swaggering vagabond- ism." Thus did the, Statesman hurl final defiance at the Re- publican element which now wholly dominated the Union party. In the following month, December, 1866, the paper was sold to the owners of the Unionist with which it was merged, the name of the Statesman being dropped. The Oregonian., in announc- ing the demise of its old rival, granted that it had one time absolutely controlled the politics of the state but observed that its final plunge into the depths of Johnson "conservatism" had been too much for it. 77 Within a few years the old name was re-adopted but the days of the Statesman as an important factor in the political history of Oregon, were over. The Oregonian was the true exponent of the Union party as now constituted. The spirit of the party is exemplified in an editorial, December 15, 1866, on "Radical Reconstruction," which hailed with satisfaction the fact that Congress "is push- ing forward fearlessly." "The work of reconstruction is now to begin from the foundation and will go back to where it stood on the surrender of the rebel armies. . . . The ac- tion of the South has made it necessary. Traitors will take back seats. Loyal men will govern. Reconstruction, radical, thorough and complete., is to begin." Democratic support of President Johnson in Oregon was brief and fleeting. For the expediency of the, hour, the Demo- crats championed him in the spring campaign of 1866 as a flank movement against the Unionists. But their support was never hearty and sincere and the June election was hardly over before this became evident. On July 18, Deady wrote to Nesmith, "The Democratic papers here, are beginning to show their teeth at Johnson and Seward and I am quite sure that they will do the same towards you when it comes to the pinch." The Oregon Herald, now edited by Beriah Brown, formerly editor of the San Francisco Democratic Press/ 73 was 77 Oregonian, Jan. 5, 1867. 77-a In which Brown had act led to the gutting of the establishment on April 15, 1865. 77-a In which Brown had unsparingly criticised President Lincoln, which led to ​56 W. C. WOODWARD made the official organ of the Johnson Administration in the State and thus remained a staunch Johnson advocate. The other Democratic papers refused to follow its lead and made the Herald a target for their splenetic shafts. The Oregonian, in commenting upon the efforts of the Herald to commit Ore- gon Democrats to Johnson, thus aptly characterized the Oregon Democracy : "This Johnsonized organ has made a grand mis- take. Oregon Democracy is not the sort of material the official appointee supposed. It is radical. It is earnest. Its ideas are precisely those which animated the late Confederacy. It will adopt no half way measures. It cannot be warped from this policy to that, as in other states. It never had any sympathy with the Philadelphia Convention or regard for Johnson. It will not tolerate anything but the most extreme doctrine. In supposing the party might be made somewhat more conserva- tive, Johnson's organ has made a grievous mistake. "78 The term of Senator Nesmith was about to expire and it was for the legislature of 1866 to choose his successor. Serving in such a momentous period, embracing the whole of the Civil War, he had rendered conspicuous service to the Union.7 8a As Congressman McBride had written home,79 Nesmith, deserting his Democratic confreres, had supported nearly every Adminis- tration measure for the prosecution of the war. He exercised a large influence in the framing of some very important measures and some of them passed through the aid of the one Democratic vote. During his six years in the Senate no Oregonian had gone to Washington without feeling a sort of proud consciousness that his senator was a man among men and that it was something worth while to be known as one of "Old Nes' constituents/' 80 Under these, circumstances he might apparently, have expected re-election at the hands of a legisla- ture which was safely Union. But there was hardly even a possibility of such. On the issues which had arisen out of the war, he had disagreed with the Republican element of the 78 Oregonian, Jan. 12. 78-3 Nesmith was a member of the Committee on Military Affairs. 79 Argus, March 13, 1863. SoDeady, Oct. 27, 1866, to Bulletin. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 57 Union party. In the policy of reconstruction he was now valiantly holding to a conservative or middle position. This did not suit Oregon politicians who "would that he were either hot or cold." He was in the position of the Statesman lead- ing a cause which had few followers. Individuals might dream of third parties, founded upon the policy of the President, the utterances of the Philadelphia Convention or "any other nar- row isthmus between these two great oceans of popular senti- ment and passion." 81 But it was all a dream and especially in Oregon. Differing with him as to the policy to be pursued toward the South, 82 Judge Deady, quondam pro-slavery Demo- crat, had in July written his friend Nesmith frankly of the situation : "I believe that you have more friends in the Union party than the other,, but the Union party of this state, particu- larly the brains and conscience of it, is thoroughly on the side of Congress and against Andy. And I do not think any per- sonal considerations (and all these are in your favor) will induce them to support anyone for the Senate that does not agree with them on this issue and all questions included in it." In a word, Nesmith was crushed between the upper and nether millstone. The Republicans considered him a Democrat, which was not unnatural, considering that he had been elected as such, had supported McClellan and was now the supporter of Johnson, and opposed the Republican policy anent the freed- men. On the other hand, the rock-bound, unreconstructed Democrats hated him with a cordial hatred. They disliked him politically for the support of the war and they cherished against him a personal grudge for his alliance with the Republicans in I860, which sent him to the Senate and resulted largely in the overthrow of the Oregon Democracy. The situation in which Nesmith found himself was more than suggestive of the general situation in Oregon. Political differentiation had been effected 1 i Ibid. 82 "Although I think you are altogether estray in your present political predilections, yet you are as likely to come around right as others who might start in so." Deady to Nesmith, Aug. 14, 1866. ​58 W. C. WOODWARD along new lines political realignment was rapidly being affeeted. 8 3 The senatorial election of 1866 was the first of a long series of political intrigues and imbroglios which have been associated with the history of the Republican party in Oregon and which have made the state noted for its senatorial vendettas and deadlocks. And it is at least significant that in this first fac- tional fight, appeared the man round whom the fierce political warfare of the state was long to rage John H. Mitchell. Gov- ernor Gibbs was the Union caucus nominee for senator, with 21 votes, Mitchell following with 15. Had all who entered the caucus abided by its decision, Gibbs would have been elected with one vote, to spare. But three members bolted the caucus nominee, and the highest vote which Gibbs received during the contest was 33. 8 s The first ballot stood : Gibbs, 33 ; J. S. Smith, Democrat, 21; Nesmith, 9; scattering, 6. The votes given Nesmith were from Democratic members. From the first to the eighth ballot there was little change, except that Nesmith's support went to Smith. H. W. Corbett received one vote on every ballot until the, eighth, when he received 5. The ninth ballot : Gibbs 20, Smith 30, Corbett 9, Jesse Applegate 4, W. C. Johnson 5. From then on to the fourteenth ballot Corbett in- creased slowly, Gibbs again attaining his maximum strength on that ballot. The Democrats changed from Smith to J. K. Kelly and on the fifteenth ballot transferred their support to Ex- Governor Whiteaker. W. C. Johnson then withdrew the name of Gibbs in the interest of party harmony and nominated Cor- bett. The sixteenth and final ballot read : Corbett 38, Smith 14, Prim 7, Kelly 5, Nesmith 4, Whiteaker 1. Some of the Union members, in switching from Gibbs to Corbett, took occasion to 83 Deady, Oct. 27, to Bulletin. Nesmith, Washington, D. C., Nov. 13, to Deady: "I knew from the first that I had no party in the state and that there was no show. Some Republicans commended my course in support of the war. . . but denounced me freely because I was not in favor of its prosecution after the rebels had ceased to resist. Besides, I was not up to their standard with respect to the superiority of the negro over the white man. On the other hand a portion of the Democracy could not forgive me for having supported the war and because I did not support the rebellion." 85 Oregonian, Sept. 29 and Oct. 6. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 59 denounce bitterly the bolters who had thwarted the expressed will of the party organization. They asserted that they had been assured that if Corbett were not elected, Nesmith would be, which fear they declared made it easy for them to support Corbett. Antagonism was evident between the Union members and Nesmith. In commenting on the result, the Oregonian, October 6, said : "The second great triumph of the present session of the legisla- ture has been achieved by the Union party. The ratification of the Constitutional amendment was the first victory; 86 and this is now fitly followed by the election of a United States senator who is in the strictest sense identified with the Union party of Oregon and of the Nation." Deady characterized Corbett as "a Radical in thought and a Conservative in action, a man of strong convictions, but temperate and moderate in speech and conduct." 8 ? From the permanent organization of the Oregon Republican party in 1859 until 1862, the new senator had been chairman of the state central committee. Though the old Repub- lican leaders were generally averse to giving up their own party organization for an alliance with the Union Democrats in 1862, the determination of the question devolving largely upon Corbett, he yielded to the entreaties of the Douglas lead- ers and signed the joint call for the Eugene convention which led to the formation of the Union party. While the break between Johnson and Congress drew the political lines in such a way as practically to separate Republi- cans and conservative Democrats, both clung to the name "Union," each denying to the other the right to use it. Not until the spring of 1867 did the Oregonian use the name "Republican" in designating its political party. May 25, it declared it to be the imperative duty of the "Union-Republi- can" party to keep its organization compact and perfect, in preparation for the great campaign a year hence. June 22, in an editorial "The Republican Party," it explained and de- 86 The Fourteenth Amendment passed the Legislature by the following vote: Senate, 13 to 9; House, 25 to 22. See Statesman, Sept. 24. 87 Deady, Oct. 3, to Bulletin. ​60 W. C. WOODWARD fended the use of the new name or rather, the resumption of the old one. The trend of political affairs at Washington during 1867, naturally tended still further to make for political solidarity in Oregon. Feeling became more intense as the political warfare at Washington became more and more pronounced. It be- spoke a heated campaign in the state in the approaching elec- tion of 1868. The real sentiment and animus of the people are often more truly portrayed in resolutions adopted in county conventions than in state, where the platform makers proceed with more conservatism and caution. For example, the Polk County Democrats declared in March, 1868, that they would oppose with force if necessary, "any attempt of the abolitionists to impose a President upon the people of the United States, elected by the negro vote of the ten states now under military despotism/' The reconstruction act was de- nounced as revolutionary and treasonable and its immediate repeal demanded. 88 On the other side some of the Republican county conventions spoke aggressively against Johnson, "the treacherous apostate/' 8 9 and endorsed the impeachment pro- ceedings. The Clatsop Republicans declared that the abomin- able secession heresy of states rights, as expounded by the leaders in the secession Democratic party, was too absurd to be entertained by any unprejudiced man of sense or patriotism.^ The Democratic State Convention met March 19 at Portland. The committee on resolutions Col. J. E. Ross, R. B. Cochran, Benj. Hay den, Beriah Brown and J. H. Slater, appointed in the morning, were to report at the afternoon session.9 1 The convention re-assembled at 3 o'clock but the committee was not ready to report. Brown, editor of the Herald, Johnson's organ," said there seemed to be an irreconcilable difference in the committee and suggested that it be instructed to bring in two reports. At 7 in the evening, Hayden presented a majority 88 Daily Herald, March 21, 1868. 89 Wapato Union Club resolution March 18. 90 Daily Oregonian, March 20. 91 Proceedings, Daily Oregonian, March 20, 21. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 61 and Brown a minority report. O. Humason of Wasco moved that both reports be referred to a new committee, without reading. The motion carried by the close vote of 71 to 68, the new committee comprising Humason, J. C. Hawthorne, J. F. Miller, John Whiteaker, Chas. Hughes. Their report, presented the next day, was accepted. The struggle in the first committee suggests the expiring efforts of Johnson's friends in Oregon for Democratic vindication of the President. The platform was even longer than that of 1866, covering a range from a declaration in favor of liberal Congressional aid for a judicious system of railroad improvement in Oregon to a resolution of sympathy for the Irish in their struggle for civil liberty. It opposed the "sharing with servile races the priceless political heritage achieved alone by white men." The recon- struction acts and the usurpation by Congress of judicial and executive functions were denounced with a gusto which left nothing to be desired. There were the usual resolutions de- claring for the sacredness of the Constitution, limited powers of the federal government and the sovereignty of the states over their internal affairs. The platform called for the equali- zation of the burdens of taxation, the payment of the public debt in like currency as contracted and the taxation of United States securities. S.F.Chadwick, John Burnett and J. H. Slater were nominated as Presidential electors. As delegates to the National Demo- cratic Convention, N. M. Bell, W. W. Page, O. Joynt, Beriah Brown and P. P. Prim, were chosen. Hayden presented a reso- lution instructing them to vote for G. H. Pendleton as the Democratic candidate for President. Brown opposed it vigor- ously, asserting that he never had and never would serve under instructions. This was but an echo of the struggle in the committee on resolutions. Hayden suggested to Brown that he could easily resign, which the latter promptly did. J. C. Avery was elected delegate in his place and the Pendleton resolution was adopted. The apparent inconsistency between the Pendleton instructions and that plank of their platform ​62 W. C. WOODWARD declaring that good faith and justice demanded that the public debt be paid in like currency as contracted, did not seem to disturb the equanimity of the assembled Democrats. J. S. Smith was unanimously nominated for Congressman. The Republican view of the convention was expressed in the following declaration made by the, Marion County Union- Republicans: "We recognize in the names presented by the Copperhead Convention at Portland a very decided predomi- nance of the rebel element and the exclusion of every so-called 'War Democrat' from a place on their ticket, which reminds us forcibly of the fact that we are again fighting the same old adversary in another campaign and demonstrates the political axiom that a Democrat can no more change his politics than the Ethiopian can his skin or the leopard his spots. "92 The Union-Republican platform, adopted at Salem,, March 24, endorsed the work of Congress as unreservedly as the Democrats had condemned it ; 93 spoke for the preservation, at the ballot box, of the fruits of the war ; favored the admission of the representatives of Southern states in Congress "at the earliest practicable moment when the public safety will per- mit ;" condemned every scheme for the repudiation of the whole or any part of the national debt and denounced the proposition to pay in legal tender notes those debts contracted to be paid in specie, as only a milder term of repudiation ; encouraged foreign immigration and met the Democratic "Irish" plank by expressing sympathy for all people struggling for civil and re- ligious liberty ; acknowledged debt of permanent recognition to American sailors and soldiers for saving the country ; bespoke liberal federal appropriations to aid in the construction of railroads. David Logan was nominated for Congressman, receiving 56 votes as against 51 for P. E. Sullivan of Polk County. Orange Jacobs, A. B. Meacham and Dr. Wilson Bowlby were named for Presidential electors and Josiah Failing, J. L. Parrish, Max- well Ramsby, M. Baker, C. C. Beekman and H. R. Kincaid, as 92 Daily Oregoni?n, March 24. 93 Proceedings, Daily Oregonion, March 27. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 63 delegates to the National Convention. The convention was unfortunate in the selection of its congressional nominee. While a man of marked ability, Logan's habits made him a vulnerable candidate, There was great dissatisfaction over his nomina- tion and his defeat was freely predicted at once by members of his own party. 9 4 The temperance and church people deserted him, especially the Methodist Republicans, Smith, the Demo- cratic nominee, being a Methodist. The campaign of 1868 was marked by that vehemence of party feeling which had always rendered Oregon politics in- tense and strenuous. The Oregonian made a target of the first plank of the Democratic platform, which expressed renewed allegiance to the time-honored principles of the Democratic party. It insisted that these principles were embodied in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, with their offspring of nullification, secession and rebellion. On the subject of re- construction, the Democrats demanded the admission of the Southern representatives in Congress at once and now main- tained Lincoln's position that the seceding states had never been out of the Union. The question of repudiation, or the payment of United States bonds in gold or paper figured prominently. But more noisily discussed than all was the question of negro suffrage and equality. The Democrats ac- cused the Republicans of standing for universal negro suf- frage. This the latter denied, maintaining that the colored men had been enfranchised in the Southern states as a measure of necessity in reconstruction, but that those states, when again in the Union, would each have power to regulate the suffrage for itself. But the Democrats returned continually to the at- tack with such convincing arguments as, "Do you want your daughter to marry a nigger?" "Would you allow a nigger to force himself into a seat at church between you and your 94 In a letter to Nesmith, March 27, Deady said Jesse Applegate was instru- mental in securing the nomination of Logan, controlling nearly all the southern county votes and capturing J. G. Wilson by making him chairman of the convention. "Billy Adams, Medorem Crawford and Huntington are furious and all swear they will not support Dave. Billy says openly that he will vote for Smith. I think that all the federal officers are opposed to Dave, while he is defiant and swears that if he is elected their heads shall tumble." ​64 W. C. WOODWARD wife?" and "D n a nigger!" On two points they kept up an incessant clamor they lost no opportunity to denounce "niggers" and "taxes." 9 * The June election resulted in a decisive victory for the Democratic ticket and the first defeat which the Union party had suffered since its organization. Smith was elected con- gressman over Logan by a majority of 1209 and the Demo- crats secured 43 of the 69 seats in the legislature, each house of which had a Democratic majority. The Oregonian took the defeat philosophically 96 and after the first shock sought to ex- plain how it happened. It stated that ever since the Califor- nia election of the preceding fall when an 18,000 Union ma- jority in that state had been turned in to a 9,000 Democratic one, it had been very difficult for the Union party to maintain its ground in Oregon. The Dalles Mountaineer, Democratic, attributed Logan's defeat to the finance question and the heavy taxes that the people were now compelled to pay. It even went so far as to assert its belief that if a vote were to be taken in Oregon upon the question of paying the national debt, the latter would be repudiated. 9 ? But the Union-Repub- lican press maintained that their defeat was not attributable to defection in the, ranks of their party, but that it was entirely owing to accessions to the Democratic party within the past two years from the disbanded Confederate armies to the "in- flux of a rebel, guerilla population" which had been emigrating westward to escape the consequences of reconstruction. 98 The election figures at least partially supported the Union-Repub- licans in this contention. The latter had barely held their strength shown by the election of 1866. The vote for Logan, admittedly not a strong candidate, was 300 above that given Governor Woods two years previous. But the Democratic vote had increased by 1800 in the same period, and, what was 95 Daily Oregonian, June 5. 96 "All that we have to say at this time is soon said. We are beaten. We (the Union party) are too big to cry and we are too badly hurt to laugh." Daily Oregonian, June 2. 97 Quoted in Daily Oregonian, June 8. 98 Oregon Sentinel, June 13, Daily Oregonian, June 12. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 65 more to the point, practically one-third of this increase was registered in the three northeastern counties alone Union, Grant and Baker which were steadily being populated by the Southern emigrants. And it is not to be supposed that these three counties received all this emigration. Five months later the Democrats carried the state for Sey- mour against Grant, for President. But in the November elec- tion the Democratic majority, 165," was so small that the influence of "Price's Army" as a determining factor in the po- litical readjustment in Oregon was more than ever pronounced. In an editorial on the result, "Oregon a Lonely Mourner for the Lost Cause," the Oregonian announced : "Price's rebels have once more come to the relief of the Copperhead cause. The reinforcement was opportune." The suggestive, though highly colored characterization of the much heralded "army" followed: 100 "It appears that Price's boys in Eastern Oregon can be relied on to give any required majority for the restora- tion of the 'Lost Cause.' The nomadic rebel Democracy of the country lying between the waters of the Missouri and up- per Columbia, combining the characteristics of the wild Indian and the unreconstructed rebel, can change about from one place to another to suit the exigencies of elections, voting now in Oregon, again in Idaho, Montana or Washington and back again in Oregon when the next occasion requires. . . . They constitute the Democratic flying brigade, operating on the frontier. It is anything but agreeable to have a majority of the actual voters of the state beaten by this wandering rebel horde who live nowhere and help to bear none of the burdens of government." Whatever the influences to which the returning Democratic majorities of 1868 were attributable, the fact remained, the ante-bellum political status in Oregon had for the time been re-established. Upon the new issues which had arisen, two distinct parties had aligned themselves. Upon these and ever new occurring issues the future political battles of the state 99 Daily Oregonian, Dec. 4. 100 Daily Oregonian, Nov. 10. ​were to be fought. Whatever its potency might continue to be elsewhere, the rallying cry of "Save the Union!" would no longer win political victories in Oregon.
Having first reviewed the situation in Oregon in the anteTerritorial period, as a basis of political development, the writer has attempted to give a faithful portrayal of the rise of political parties in Oregon; of the manner of their organization and of the influences by which party organization was maintained. It has been the intention to present a view of the political life and activity of this early period. The history of the slavery question in Oregon has been followed in an endeavor to show how extensive and how all-inclusive was the influence of the great National issue. It effected the organization of a new party and the overthrow of the Democratic regime and the disintegration of the Oregon Democracy. The general breaking down of old party lines on the opening of the war and the alignment of the people into the two classes of Union and Disunion, has been shown. And lastly, the process of political adjustment and realignment, growing out of the issues raised by the war, has been followed, leading up through the elections of 1868 which resulted in returning victory for the Democrats.
NOTE ON SOURCES
Necessarily, in treating a subject of this nature, great dependence must be placed in the newspapers of the period, as sources of material. First, in the records of what actually took place—reports of conventions and meetings of various kinds, resolutions and platforms adopted, legislative proceedings, etc. Second, fully as important, but to be used more guardedly, the expression of public opinion upon those passing events, this public opinion being registered in editorial comment, contributed articles and in oral public expression. Obviously, to measure public sentiment at all accurately by newspaper utterances, it is necessary to have before one, papers representing the various political points of view. In this the writer has been fortunate. From the time political activity in Oregon really begins, newspapers of opposite political tendencies have been available.
Of these, the Oregonian, the Oregon Statesman and the Oregon Argus have been relied upon most extensively. They were the most representative of the Oregon press and extended over the greater part of the period under consideration. On the period of ante-political organization, access was had to the Spectator, and, in a limited degree, to the Western Star, Milwaukie, changed to the Oregon Weekly Times in June, 1851. Next in importance to the first three journals mentioned should be named the Oregon Weekly Union, the exponent of anti-Union sentiment in the Civil War era. Other papers directly consulted, were the Oregon Weekly Times, the Oregon Sentinel and the Oregon Daily Herald. Indirectly, yet other papers have been frequently used, by means principally of editorial utterances reproduced in the above mentioned journals.
Closely related to, but differing slightly from the Oregon newspaper sources, is the correspondence of Judge M. P. Deady to the San Francisco Bulletin, to be found in what is known as the "Deady scrapbook," in possession of the Oregon Historical Society. In Judge Deady the capacities of keen observation and trenchant expression were combined with the faculty of being able to write with a minimum of personal, ​68 W. C. WOODWARD political bias. For this reason, these letters, covering the crucial period of the sixties and written for the perusal of out- side readers, are almost invaluable. The same may be said of his personal correspondence. Supplementing the newspaper material in a very important manner, is the private correspondence, in the Oregon Histor- ical Society collections, of many men who were the most ac- tive participants in the politics of the time, notably Joseph Lane, Asahel Bush, J. W. Nesmith, Judge Deady and Jesse Applegate. In this connection may be mentioned also the per- sonal interviews with such men as Judge Geo. H. Williams, former Adjutant General C. A. Reed, W. R. Bishop and Geo. H. Himes, who, either from actual participation or observation, or both, threw much light on the events of a half century ago. Other primary material used was the collection of Oregon pioneer documents to be, found in the Bancroft Library of the University of California. These are largely memoirs and relate principally to settlement and to the period of the Provisional Government. As representative of these may be mentioned, Jesse Applegate's "Views of Oregon History," Deady's "Ore- gon History," Peter H. Burnett's "Recollections of the Past" and Elwood Evans' "History of Oregon." Likewise covering the period of the Provisional Govern- ment are Grover's "Oregon Archives" and a volume, "Unpub- lished Documents, Oregon Archives," Ms., in the Bancroft Library. Of secondary material used, the "Quarterly of the, Oregon Historical Society," 1900-1909, contains much that has been suggestive and helpful. Such contributions, for example, as "The Genesis of Political Authority in Oregon" and "Social Evolution in Oregon," by J. R. Robertson, and "The Slavery Question in Oregon," by T. W. Davenport, are typical of va- rious articles dealing with both social and political beginnings in Oregon, together with various phases of political develop- ment. The printed Proceedings of the annual meetings of the Ore​Oregon Pioneer Association have been used to some extent for material on the period of settlement principally.
From the nature of the subject, the assistance to be obtained from secondary books, has necessarily been slight. Such books as have been used for reference have been sufficiently cited in the footnotes.
APPENDIX I
The Vote on the Adoption of the Oregon Constitution, November 9, 1857.
(From the official returns published in the Oregon Statesman, December 22.)
Constitution Slavery Free Negroes Counties Yes No Yes No Yes No Benton ... 440 215 283 368 132 459 Clackamas. 530 216 98 655 113 594 Clatsop ... 62 37 25 71 25 65 Columbia.. 30 66 11 84 24 66 Coos 68 26 19 72 10 79 Curry 117 14 35 95 8 121 Douglas . . 419 203 248 377 23 560 Jackson . . 465 372 405 426 46 710 Josephine . 445 139 155 435 41 534 Lane 591 362 356 602 97 783 I inn . . 1111 176 198 1092 113 1095 Marion ...1024 252 214 1055 76 1115 Multnomah 496 255 96 653 112 587 Polk 528 188 231 484 53 584 Tillamook . 23 1 6 22 1 25 Umpqua . . 155 84 32 201 24 181 Wasco 55 89 58 85 18 122 Washington 265 226 68 428 80 393 Yamhill ... 371 274 107 522 85 521 Total ...7195 Maj'ties .3980 3215 2645 7727 5082 1081 8640
APPENDIX II
The Vote in the Presidential Election of 1860.
(Official returns in the Statesman, Dec. 3.)
County Douglas Lincoln Breckenridge Bell Benton 140 202 381 3 Clackamas 173 409 324 3 Clatsop 38 68 29 Columbia 38 46 30 Coos 88 71 22 3 Curry 69 42 53 6 Douglas 288 321 502 23 Jackson 406 394 675 88 Josephine 221 261 371 32 Lane 166 492 555 8 Linn 312 580 671 5 Marion 864 598 286 17 Multnomah 364 570 261 5 Polk 390 180 215 4 Tillamook 8 11 13 Umpqua 72 151 75 3 Wasco 147 168 255 2 Washington 134 360 140 3 Yamhill 213 420 216 7
Totals 4131 5344 5074 212
THE EARLIEST TRAVELERS ON THE OREGON TRAIL
By T. C. Elliott
This year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eleven is commemorative in the basin of the Columbia River. Eighteen hundred and ninety-two marked our first centenary, when Prof. John Fiske crossed the continent from Cambridge to deliver before the Oregon Pioneer Association at Astoria an address in honor of the discovery of the Columbia River by Capt. Robt. Gray. In 1905 the Lewis and Clark Exposition (really suggested by the Oregon Historical Society) at Portland most fittingly commemorated the transcontinental explorations of that wonderful expedition. During this present year of 1911 there have already been held exercises at Astoria to celebrate the coming of the Tonquin by sea with its division of the Astorians, and at Kettle Falls in honor of the arrival there of that great pathfinder David Thompson from Canada; and now during these closing days of the year in this beautiful valley of the mountains is gathered this company to recall the presence here in December, 1811, of the land division of the Astorians under the leadership of Wilson Price Hunt. And what a passing was that one hundred years ago in contrast with the luxurious train service that brought your visitors to this city today! Traveling on foot, reduced to dog and horse flesh for food, and even that very difficult to obtain; weary, faint and anxious, their leader "pushed on from day to day, with no other alternative to be sure but still courageously inquiring for the Columbia River which he knew must be ahead of them could they survive to reach it. Those were the first white men yet known to have passed through Eastern Oregon: all honor to their passing!
It is not the purpose, of this address to retell the story of that journey in its detail; others will have done that and it is being religiously brought to your attention by the press. ​72 T. C. ELLIOTT Rather let me refer briefly to the early development of this particular part of the transcontinental route then traversed for the first time and to a few of the fur traders, American and Canadian, who were prominent in the exploration and trade of the Columbia River basin, of which this valley is a part. We of today have personal recollection of that sudden rush to Alaska almost within the last decade, of how men of cul- ture and of career took part in the isolation, exposure and dangers incident to that remarkable movement. Bearing that in mind it is possible to better appreciate the call in earlier years of the fur trade to the men of family name, of educa- tion and of marked commercial ability who undertook and en- dured the hardships and associations common to such a life. Be it remembered that it was the fur trade that brought the Cabots to the coast of North America; the fur trade that following the voyage of Capt Cook lured the Yankee trading vessels to the Northwest coast of America and to the discovery of the Columbia River; the fur trade that opened the first transcon- tinental way across the Rocky Mountains at the sources of the Columbia; the fur trade that saved Oregon to the United States (if such a term is ever proper) by the opening of this track across the plains and mountains and furnishing our gov- ernment with information as to the country and actually mark- ing the way for the pioneer. And this Valley is located di- rectly upon the Oregon Trail. First in priority of travel and trade to be mentioned is Wil- son Price Hunt, who led the way through this Valley and passed none too comfortable a night here just one hundred years ago. Search the pages of your biographical dictionary and you will fail to find his name, but the building occupied by the Central National Bank upon one of the principal business corners of the historic city of St. Louis marks the location of his family residence ; he had been in business there before being associated with Mr. Astor and returned to that city after the affairs of the Pacific Fur Company were wound up. Mr. Hunt was a gentleman and a scholar. He was born in New Jersey in the year 1782. and doubtless endured troublesome ​EARLIEST TRAVELERS ON OREGON TRAIL 73 nights in that state as well as in this valley, for that was before the control of the birth of mosquitoes by scientific de- vices. He was therefore less than thirty years of age when here one hundred years ago. He later became one of the prominent men of St. Louis when that city was the emporium for the entire region West of the Mississippi and by Pres. Monroe was appointed postmaster and held that office for nearly twenty years, and that when it meant something more than mere political skill to be appointed to such an office. He married in later life into a leading family and died there in April, 1842. With his neighbor, Gen. William Clark, an earlier traveler on the Columbia, he was one of the charter members of Christ Church, and his name plate appeared upon a pew in the former edifice of that, the oldest Protestant Episcopal Church of the Great Southwest. He was also prominent in Masonic circles. Upon Mr. Hunt devolved the chief authority in the conduct of the affairs of the Pacific Fur Company on the Columbia, and but for his enforced absence from Astoria the business of the Company might possibly have been brought to a different conclusion. We read of his passing bon mots and crossing commercial swords with Count Baranoff at Sitka, in Alaska, and of his purchasing for ten thousand dollars upon credit only the brig Pedlar at the Sandwich Islands in order to return to the Columbia and protect the interests of the Com- pany, transactions which reflect handsomely his forcef ulness and integrity. Quite appropriately might his name be honored by tablet or monument in this city, or by a peak of the Elkhorn Mt. range, as the man who first traveled the Oregon Trail from Shoshone Falls to the Pacific Ocean. Wilson Price Hunt did not see this Valley again, nor did many of those who were, in his party. The following summer (1812) a few of the Astorians returned through here, Mr. Robert Stuart to carry dispatches to Mr. Astor and Messrs. Crooks and McClellan to quit an enterprise with which they were already disgusted ; their journey to St. Louis lasted until the following spring and was full of peril and hardship. In spite of that Ramsay Crooks became eloquent about the coun​74 T. C. ELLIOTT % try he passed through and Thomas H. Benton in his "Thirty- Year's View" speaks of being entertained by Mr. Crooks at Brown's Hotel in Washington for days with descriptions of the region beyond the Rockies, while he, Benton, in 1821, was waiting for Missouri to be admitted to the Union and his credentials as its first senator to be passed upon by the Senate ; and it was this same Ramsay Crooks who helped to inspire Dr. John Floyd of Virginia to introduce that first measure ever introduced in Congress respecting the occupation of Oregon. Ramsay Crooks after 1813 became prominent in the fur trade of the Lakes and was in charge of Mr. Astor's interests there. And by way of diversion the opportunity offers here to retell a story of Mr. Silas B. Smith's of Clatsop Plains before the Ore- gon Hist. Society in 1899. Speaking of the arrival in the Colum- bia in 1840 of the ship Lausanne from New York with the rein- forcement of Methodist missionaries Mr. Smith said : "It was arranged that we should take passage on the ship. The bar pilot had been engaged at Honolulu, a sailor who had entered the river once twenty years before. No wonder there were terrors on the bar ! At Baker's Bay an Indian by the name of Ramsay was engaged as river pilot, the same who was interpreter on the, Tonquin at the time of her destruction at Clayoquot. He had only one eye but was a good pilot. Ramsay was his Eng- lish name ; it came, I think, from Ramsay Crooks, given the same way as General Joe Lane gave half his name to the Rogue river chief who was afterwards known as Chief Joe. * * * Above Oak Point a special express from Dr. McLoughlin met us with vegetables and fresh provisions ; with the express was a mulatto with the high sounding name of George Washing- ton. He had a statement from Dr. McLoughlin that he was a river pilot. Of course, with such a paper from the Doctor, he was immediately installed as chief pilot, to the great humilia- tion of Ramsay. George, however, did not run the vessel many miles before he placed her high on a sand bar. It was Ram- say's opportunity; stepping to the captain and pointing to George Washington, he said, 'He know how to cook the meat, he no pilot, you let me pilot ship and me run her aground, ​EARLIEST TRAVELERS ON OREGON TRAIL 75 you take a knife/ and with a pantomimic sweep of his hand he drew it across his throat. It is needless to say the Indian was reinstated as pilot." In the summer of 1813 also a small party of Astorians passed eastward through this valley under the leadership of John Reed, who is described as a Hibernian. Among them were the interpreter, Pierre Dorion, and his wife, and the in- structions were to trade and trap for furs on the streams now known as the Weiser, Payette and Boise during the fall and winter. This party were killed by the Indians, all except the faithful Madame Dorion, that mother of the first child of white parentage to be born in Eastern Oregon, which event took place in this Valley on Dec. 30th, 1811. She found her way back to the Columbia in the spring of 1814 and among those to whom she related her story was the next fur trader of whom I would especially speak, Mr. Donald Mackenzie, who was then bound for New York by way of the Columbia and Saskatchewan and Montreal with the report of the final winding up of the Pacific Fur Company's affairs at Astoria and with drafts to the amount (according to Mr. Ross) of eighty thous- and dollars in his belt. The terms of the sale to the Northwest Company included transportation from Astoria to Montreal for such Astorians as wished to return. With the passing of the Astorians from the Columbia the use of this trail appears to have been discontinued for fours years, There may have been straggling white hunters passing over it but we as yet have no record. It remained for this same Donald Mackenzie to return to the Columbia before the Snake Country trade was again undertaken ; and that was in the year 1818. Quite likely Mr. Mackenzie passed through this valley on an exploration trip during the winter of 1817-18, but of that we are not certain. Donald Mackenzie is a fur trader who has not yet received merited attention for what he accomplished on the Columbia. In family line he is said to have been related to Sir Alex. Mackenzie who made that first journey across the continent by land in 1792-3 and established British rignts north of the 49th ​76 T. C. ELLIOTT parallel which made the political cry of "Fifty-four Forty or Fight" look so ridiculous to our diplomats in 1844-5-6. Donald Mackenzie had seen service in the fur trade in the Indian Coun- try of British North America with the "Northwesters" of Canada and joined the Astorians under some special induce- ment. At Cauldron Linn (at Milner, Idaho, about twenty miles above Shoshone Falls) in October of 1811 with a few others he separated from the main party and found his way to Astoria a full month in advance of Mr. Hunt, having suc- ceeded in forcing his way through the rough mountains along the east bank of Snake river and across Salmon river to the Clearwater and thence to the sea in canoes. If he had differ- ences with Wilson Price Hunt they were only those common to the different dispositions of men, and incident to his own really superior experience in the field life of the fur trade to that of Mr. Hunt himself ; and his service with the Pacific Fur Company was both intelligent and valuable. He returned to the Columbia in the fall of 1817 as a chief factor in the Northwest Company with instructions to assume the manage- ment of all the business of that Company in the Interior, as distinguished from that of the Coast and lower river, and especially to develop the trade in the Snake Country which he knew from actual observation to be so valuable. Donald Mackenzie was a wonderful man to deal with In- dians ; his influence over them was remarkable, due to his powerful physique and activity as well as his tact, courage, endurance and daring. (Washington Irving relates in "As- toria" his bold entrance into the lodge of one of the robber Klickitat chiefs at Wishram Celilo in quest of a rifle that had been taken from the whites). His hair is said to have been of the color some people prefer to call sandy and his weight about three hundred and twenty pounds. This would make him a very good physical duplicate of our own President Taft, but golf would have been slow exercise for him. He was a great pedestrian, could outwalk any of his associates and was continually on the move. The first thing that Donald Mackenzie did after getting the ​EARLIEST TRAVELERS ON OREGON TRAIL 77 trade of the various posts of the upper river organized to best advantage and himself making a flying trip to the Snake coun- try, was to erect a Fort at the mouth of the Walla Walla river as a base for the Snake country trade. This was named Fort Nez Perces., but came to be more generally known as Fort Walla Walla (and the site is even now platted as such on the county records of Walla Walla County although a mere sand and gravel flat without improvement at the present day). This was in the summer of 1818. Not at all daunted by the lateness of the season, Mr. Mackenzie then organized his first Snake Country expedition. Quoting from Mr. Ross we are told that "the expedition was composed of fifty-five men of all denomi- nations, one hundred and ninety-five horses, and three hundred beaver traps, besides a considerable stock of merchandise ; but depending upon the chances of the chase, they set out without provisions or stores of any kind." * * * "The party took their departure at the end of September, in the full view and amid the cheers of all the natives. Turning his back, there- fore, upon the rest of his extensive charge, with all its ease and fruits of comfort, Mackenzie, without any second or friend in whom he could confide, placed himself at the head of this medley, to suffer new hardships and face new dangers, in the precarious adventure." This is the party which undoubtedly passed through the Powder River Valley in October of 1818 and began to break up into small parties and occasion the leader much trouble in this very vicinity. Mackenzie led the main party clear to Black Bear River as he called it and leav- ing them there himself returned to Fort Nez Perces, arriving after traveling six hundred miles on snow shoes in mid-winter, accompanied by only six companions. Here was a winter journey not yet awarded poetic recognition and illustrating the energy, tirelessness and leadership of this man ! On his return trip to the Portneuf that spring Mr. Macken- zie (desiring to know the practicability of transporting his furs by water route) accomplished a feat that seems to us remark- able in the light of present day navigation; he ascended the Snake river from the, mouth of the Clear water to the mouth of ​78 T. C. ELLIOTT Burnt river through what we know as the Box Canyon in a Canadian batteau or barge. Four of his companions returned to Fort Nez Perces down through the Canyon again in the bateau with the following letter to Mr. Ross: "Piont Suc- cessful, Head of the Narrows, April 15th, 1819. The passage by water is now proved to be safe and practicable for loaded boats, without one single carrying place or portage; therefore, the doubtful question is set at rest forever. Yet from the force of the current, and the frequency of rapids it may still be advisable, and perhaps preferable, to continue the land trans- port, while the business in this quarter is carried on upon a small scale. We had often recourse to the line. There are two places with bold cut rocks on either side of the river, where the great body of water is compressed within a narrow com- pass, which may render those parts doubtful during the floods, owing to rocks and whirlpools ; but there are only two, and neither of them are long." With but two companions he con- tinued on across the plains of Idaho and his letter continues: "I am now about to commence a very doubtful and dangerous undertaking, and shall, I fear, have to adopt the, habits of the owl, roam in the night and skulk in the day, to avoid our enemies. But if my life is spared, I will be at the river Skam-naugh (i. e. the Boise), with my people and return, by the 5th of June. Hasten, therefore, the outfit, with some addi- tional hands if possible, to that place. A strong escort will be advisable, and caution the person you may send in charge to be at all times, both day and night, on his guard." Their route followed the well established trail through this valley, and the value of the beaver skins packed through here, two packs of sixty pounds each to the animal, would surprise us, if known. Time is lacking to follow Mr. Mackenzie during his four years' development of the trade in the Snake country. From his journals quite surely were taken the names that became at- tached on the Arrowsmith (London) maps to many of the localities of the Upper Snake river region; Brule (or Burnt), Owyhee, Weiser, Payette, Malade, Portneuf and others ; and if these journals could become available it is almost certain that ​EARLIEST TRAVELERS ON OREGON TRAIL 79 they would reveal him to have been a visitor to Great Salt Lake, the actual discoverer of which is still in doubt. In the fall of 1821 news was received at Fort Nez Perces that the name Northwest Company had passed out of legal existence and the trade been consolidated under that of the Hudson's Bay Company ; this marks the beginning of the, use of that powerful name on the waters of the middle and lower Columbia. This news rather disturbed conditions for the time and the command of the Snake Country expedition leaving in the Fall of 1822 was entrusted to Finan Macdonald, a clerk, but whose knowledge of the country of the upper Columbia basin could hardly have been excelled by anyone, for he had reached its waters with David Thompson in 1807-8 and had been west of the Rockies ever since. He it was who passed this way in the fall of 1822, but having ideas of his own as to a more direct route to and from the hunting grounds returned the following year across the mountains northward to the Bit- ter Root Valley and through the Flathead country to Spokane House. The career of Finan Macdonald is but little known and he is given only passing mention; his ideas of the better route were tried out during 1823-4 by Alex. Ross and the use of the trail from the Columbia to the Boise, by way of Powder river was again discontinued by large parties but undoubtedly used by detached trappers and couriers. During the organization of the Pacific Fur Company in 1809-10 an office was necessarily maintained in Montreal ; Don- ald Mackenzie was one of those especially active there in the selection of the voyagettrs for the overland party. Employed for a time in Mr. Astor's office was a young man whose father dignified the position of "J ust i ce of the Court of the King's Bench" at Montreal, the Honourable Isaac Ogden. This young man, the youngest of a large family of children and his father's favorite, tired of the study of law in comparison with the glamour of the fur trade ; and there is reason to suspect from traditional accounts that he was given to youthful activities not necessarily vicious which disturbed the serenity of mind of his mother and her activities in society. (See Bancroft's ​80 T. C. ELLIOTT Hist, of N.-W. Coast). He entered the employ of the North- west Company in 1811 (just one hundred years ago), and his daring career as a clerk in that Company on the Columbia and elsewhere was known to Donald Mackenzie, with whom prob- ably Governor Geo. Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company consulted as to the difficulties and importance of the Snake Country trade. At any rate Peter Skene Ogden (a name now familiar and honored in Oregon history), is the next fur trader to be noticed as a traveler over this trail. He assumed command of. the Snake Country expedition in the winter of 1824 and set out from Flathead Fort about the middle of December of that year at the head of "the most formidable party that ever set out for the Snakes/' consisting of "25 .lodges, 2 gentlemen, 2 interpreters, 71 men and lads, 80 guns, 364 beaver traps 372 horses." His first year was disastrous in that nearly half his men deserted under persuasion of a party of Rocky Mt. Fur Company (American) trappers, but for all that he passed through this valley en route to Fort Nez Perces about the first of November, 1825, with a goodly num- ber of beaver skins in his packs. The story of the career of Peter Skene Ogden could well occupy an entire address. He is the man whose name became tradition around Great Salt Lake in Utah so that upon the arrival there of the Mormons the present city of Ogden was christened in his honor ; the man who first explored the region of the Humboldt river, who first recorded the name of Mount Shasta, who first explored the central and southern Oregon country which is now being so rapidly developed ; the man who hastened up the Columbia immediately after the massacre of the white people at the Wai-i-lat-pu Mission in 1847 and ransomed the fifty or more women and children held in cap- tivity there by the Cayuse Indians. This story has been re- cently published by the Oregon Historical Society and is avail- able to such as desire it at your Public Library. You are more especially concerned in his associations with this particular Val- ley and the mountains which surround it and streams which flow through it. The Wilson Price Hunt party passed through ​EARLIEST TRAVELERS ON OREGON TRAIL 81 here under conditions of dire distress, but their situation was not one whit less serious than that of Peter Skene Ogden's party of trappers while crossing the Elkhorn mountains from the waters of the John Day river to those of the Powder or of Burnt River in the winter of 1825-6. A few entries from his journals will tell that story in his own words : "Thursday, 26th (January, 1826). Ice forming- on river; course east by north 8 miles over a lofty range of hills bare of wood N. E. Here we leave the waters of Day's River. Since joining Mr. McDonald, allowing we had one hundred hunters, had we not our traps we must have starved to death. Where the Indians of this part reside in winter I cannot (tell) ; have no doubt concealed in the mountains. * * * "Friday, 27th. My guide refuses to proceed, says road is bad and horses require day's rest. I was obliged to comply. Thank God, when we get across the mountains I trust I shall soon reach Snake River or south branch of the Columbia; 9 beaver and 1 otter. "Saturday, 28th. Our guide says there are 6 feet of snow in mountains ; impossible to pass in this direction ; must try an- other. Many in the camp are starving. For the last ten days only one meal every two days. Still the Company's horses must not fall a sacrifice. We hope when we get across the mountains to fare better ; today 4 beaver. "Sunday, 29th. Three inches of snow ; raised camp for S.E. 6 miles ; our guide says he intends to return. A horse this day killed ; on examining his feet, the hoof entirely worn away and only raw stump. "February 2. We are now on the waters of the south branch of the Columbia. "February 3. This surely is the Snake Country; as far as the eye can reach, nothing but lofty mountains. A more gloomy country I never yet saw; too ( ?) horses killed for food today. "Saturday, February 4th. We have taken 85 beaver and 16 otter on Day's River; my Snake guide brought in 4 sheep (Ibex). He says this is Burnt River. ​82 T. C. ELLIOTT "Feb. 5th. Course E. N. E. Crossed river three times and found the ice sufficiently strong to bear our horses One of the men detected this day stealing a beaver out of another man's trap; as starvation was the cause of this he was par- doned on condition of promising not to do it again. "10th Feb. Followed the banks of Burnt River S. S. E. 10 miles. One horse killed. Nearly every bone in his body broken. Two of the men could not advance from weakness. We have been on short allowance almost too long and re- semble so many skeletons ; one trap this day gave us 14 beaver. "11 Feb. Crossed Burnt River within 3 miles of its dis- charge into Snake River or South branch of Columbia. It has given us 54 beaver and 6 otter." But such experiences did not discourage in the least; the following season always found him at the, same post of re- sponsibility and subject to the same exposures. Those respon- sibilities were even greater than had existed in earlier years because the American trappers had arrived from across the divide of the Rockies and the competition was more keen and the Indians more troublesome. On his way to the Portneuf in 1827 Mr. Ogden found Rocky Mountain Fur Company trap- pers at work as far west as the Weiser river and heard of them even in this very vicinity. And with three thousand beaver skins in his packs valued at between ten and twenty thousand dollars at Fort Vancouver it meant some care and responsibility to journey from the extremes of the Snake Coun- try (Pocatello or Winnemucca for instance) to the Columbia, often with less than a dozen people in his company. The usual custom was to leave Fort Nez Perces in September by the trail leading up the Walla Walla river as far as the Forks of that stream, five miles above Milton, Oregon ; to cross the Blue Mountain Range by what has become the Toll Gate road to the lower end of the Grande Ronde Valley at Summerville (and there they used to cut the lodge or tepee poles for the season) ; thence they passed through the Grande Ronde Valley and over the divide to the Powder river usually making a camp for the night at the large spring, called by them a fountain, now ​EARLIEST TRAVELERS ON OREGON TRAIL 83 quite certainly located about five miles from this city and ap- propriately called Ogden's Fountain; and from here by the regular road to the Snake River at Huntington. It was along in this Valley that Mr. Ogden would begin to divide his party into detachments, sending them in different directions upon different streams with instructions to meet again at a certain place and date ; and rarely were the appointments missed. The whole party would return to Fort Nez Perces again in June or July following. In the summer of 1829 Mr. Ogden was ordered to conduct a party to California and he turned over the Snake Country Brigade to his worthy companion John Work (or Wark as spelled in Scotland) who succeeded to its difficulties and dan- gers. Our record of the journeys of John Work is not yet en- tirely available and we are unable to speak at length. John Work was another forceful fur trader who left his track along most of the streams of the Columbia basin. His journals were kept very regularly and usually with some elaboration, and to him we are indebted for much of the detail that can be stated with accuracy concerning those early days. His body lies buried at Victoria in British Columbia where the family line is perpetuated through descendants of William Fraser Tolmie, who married one of his daughters. Mr. John Work continued in charge of the Snake Country trade (as far as we know), until 1832-4, when that irrepressible Yankee from Cambridge, Mass., Nathaniel J. Wyeth, twice crossed the plains and moun- tains to compete with the Hudson's Bay Company for the com- merce of the Columbia and built Fort Hall on the Upper Snake. And with the advent of the American travelers from across the Rockies we will consider this chapter complete. The development of the "Oregon Trail" may be otherwise termed an example of "the survival of the fittest to survive." The white man has followed in the track of the red man ; first on foot, then on horseback, then in the wheeled wagon or "horse-canoe," a little later in the passenger coach, later still in the Pullman, and finally in the automobile. When Wilson Price Hunt fell into direst extremity the Shoshone Indian con​84 T. C. ELLIOTT sented to show the way his people had traveled, from the time he could remember and earlier. This was the road used by the Cayuses on their way to the buffalo country ; for the plains and valleys of Southern Idaho and Oregon and Northern Utah and Nevada were once the range of the buffalo. This was the war track connecting the Snake with the Nez Perces nations, for it was the nature of the Indian to maraud. With the ad- vent of the white man came commerce, then habitation here and there, and progress step by step to the civilization of the present day. Such centenaries as this, .which recall the deeds and men of
CENTENNIAL OF ARRIVAL OF FIRST WHITE MEN IN BAKER COUNTY.
By George H. Himes
It was a happy as well as a timely thought on the part of Rev. J. Neilson Barry, rector of the Protesant Episcopal Church at Baker, Oregon, to begin early in 1911 to agitate the question of celebrating the one hundredth aniversary of the arrival of the first white men in the Powder Valley. These men were led by Wilson Price Hunt, a partner of John Jacob Astor, who left St. Louis on March 12, 1811, and constituted the overland section of the Astor Expedition. Mr. Barry followed the suggestion by making a critical study of the route followed, so far as it is described by Washington Irving in his "Astoria," and other books relating to the subject. And furthermore, from the time when the expedition left Snake River on its way to Powder River Valley and on westward to the locality where Baker is now situated, and on beyond to Grand Ronde Valley, a distance of over one hundred miles, Mr. Barry explored the route the Hunt party followed, by rail, bicycle, wagon or on foot, as the necessites of the self-appointed task required. By describing these experiences from day to day and comparing the trails he found with the roadways of the present time in the daily papers of his city for several weeks prior to the date fixed for the celebration—December 28th—much interest in the event was aroused among the citizens of Baker.
During the afternoon of the day appointed two auto loads of the, guests from outside of Baker—among them Judge Stephen A. Lowell and Senator C. A. Barrett, Pendleton, T. C. Elliott, Walla Walla, Washington, Senator Walter A. Pierce, Hot Lake, and George H. Himes, Portland—were taken to "Ogden's Fountain"—Peter Skene Ogden's camp, Sept. 30, 1828—and camping ground of Hunt one hundred years ago—both on the "Cold Spring Ranch," six miles south of Baker, owned by Mr. D. H. Shaw. This trip was made in the teeth of a fierce snow storm, which gave the participants a ​hint of the conditions which both Ogden and Hunt and his men frequently encountered, to say nothing about the contrast in the method of locomotion.
At six o'clock P. M. a banquet was given at the Geiser Grand Hotel, with over one hundred of Baker's principal citizens present in addition to the guests from abroad. Two especially interesting characters David Littlefield and William H. Packwood were in attendance as guests of honor. Mr. Littlefield is the only survivor of the party which discovered gold in Griffin's Gulch, about nine miles from Baker, in August, 1861, and Mr. Packwood is the only surviving member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention of August- September, 1857. Mr. Charles H. Breck, of Baker, was toastmaster and responses were made by a number of the visiting guests.
At eight o'clock the formal exercises were held at Nevius Hall, with Judge William Smith, of Baker, presiding. The principal address was given by T. C. Elliott, Walla Walla, Washington, and his subject was "The Earliest Travelers on the Oregon Trail." This address appears in full elsewhere in this number of The Quarterly. Judge Lowell, Senators Pierce and Barrett, Mr. Littlefield, Mr. Packwood and Mr. Himes followed with short addresses; emphasis being given by each speaker to the educational value of preserving the memory of historical places and the actors connected with the same.
At the suggestion of Mr. Himes the following telegram, signed by Mr. Elliott, Director, and himself as Assistant Secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, was sent to the American Historical Association in session at Buffalo, New York: "Citizens of this place and members of the Oregon Historical Society are celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the entrance of Americans into the Powder River Valley. This body of men, led by Wilson Price Hunt, was the overland section of the Astor party. We send you greeting."
An announcement was made by Judge Smith that the centennial of the discovery of Hot Lake, Union County, would be
NOTES
A few years ago the State of Kansas provided for the mark* ing of the course of the old Santa Fe Trail across that State; last year a commission created by act of the legislature of Nebraska undertook the marking of the old Oregon Trail throughout its course in that state. Would it not be seemly for the State of Oregon to take cognizance of its wealth historical prestige?
The legislature of Indiana at its last session provided for the initial steps toward erecting a building which shall house the state library and museum. This building is designed to be a "permanent memorial for the centennial of Indiana's statehood." The state and local archives of that commonwealth have been examined as to their safety and the need is seen for the permanent and proper housing of these records. It is being strongly urged that all documents, both state and local, which are not in current use, be placed under the care of the department of archives and history.
At the eighth annual conference of historical societies held at Buffalo in December one of the two principal subjects of discussion was historical society buildings. The speakers emphasized the need of clear and definite ideas of the purposes to be served by such a building. Among these were that it should be useful to as many people in a community as possible; that it should contain an auditorium of ample size, thoroughly equipped for entertainments and especially for illustrated lectures; the offices should be adapted to the sort of work to be carried on and that the building should contain some place where the quiet essential to historical and literary work may be found.
At the third annual conference of archivists, also held in conjunction with the meeting of the American Historical Association at Buffalo, the problem of protecting archives from fire was the main topic of discussion. This was suggested by the recent catastrophes at Albany and at Jefferson City. Constant supervision, with fire-fighting apparatus in readiness, was counted indispensable even in a building structurally fireproof.
* ↑ The revised edition of "The Two Islands" bears the title, "Oregon Geology."
* ↑ The Eagle Creek Mountains of Wallowa County, the Elk Horn Mountains of Baker County, the Stein Mountains of Harney County, all had their glaciers. Mt. Good and the Three Sisters and probably all the high peaks of the Cascade Range had their many and diverging glaciers.
* ↑ Statesman, June 30, 1863, editorial, "What Shall be Done with the Traitors?"
* ↑ W. A. Dunning, "Reconstruction, Political and Economic," p. 73.
* ↑ NOTE.—An address delivered at the centenary exercises at Baker, Oregon, December 28, 1911.