Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 9/Slavery Question in Oregon, part 2

Oregon Historical Quarterly Volume 9

Slavery Question in Oregon, part 2 by Timothy Woodbridge Davenport

See also Part 1

2913499Oregon Historical Quarterly Volume 9 — Slavery Question in Oregon, part 2Timothy Woodbridge Davenport

The Quarterly
of the
Oregon Historical Society.

Volume IX.]

DECEMBER, 1908.

[Number 4

[The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages.]

SLAVERY QUESTION IN OREGON—II.
By T. W. Davenport.

Any account of the anti-slavery men of Oregon, which omits the name and services of Joseph Magone, is inexcusably deficient; for he was considerably above the average, physically and mentally, and though somewhat erratic at times, he performed valuable service for the Oregon people. In 1847 he received the appointment of Major of the volunteer force raised to punish the Cayuse Indians for the murder of Dr. Whitman and family, and thereafter was generally known as Major Magone.

The Major was of distinguished personal appearance, of unusual activity, energy and endurance, of chivalric instincts, acute perception, had a prodigious memory, was adroit in argument, forceful in speech, dearly loved controversy, and was generally present to take part on all occasions of a public nature permitting contests. Thus endowed, it would be strange if he had not loved argument for argument's sake, but there was considerable opportunity for the exercise of his faculties in advocating his opinions, which were, in great part, at variance with the habits of the times. His equal rights tenets were very broad, taking in all the tribes of men, women and children. Temperance, woman suffrage, education, never failed of his support, and his fealty to the principles in his category never wavered for the sake of political preferment, which, no doubt, would have pleased him, but which passed him by on the other side. He was a radical; and radicals, as every one knows, are never wholly trusted: an intellectual gladiator whose help was always welcome to somebody at some time. Now here, to administer discomfiture to a slavery propagandist who lacked the virtue of discretion; now there to cheer the condemned pioneers of the woman suffrage movement; anon as earnest and trenchant champion to demolish the defenses of King Alcohol; or in default of foes, taking part in the exercises of educational associations, where his peculiar talents again found scope and appreciation, for they were tempered by remarkably genial expression. Still, he was more feared than loved; his temperament was too igneous, his intellect too exacting, his ego too prominent, for continuously pleasant companionship. During the regime of suppression, the arena for debate was comparatively deserted, and so the Major lacked the fullness of opportunity, but he deserves recognition by those he has served. His home was nearly on the boundary between the counties of Marion and Clackamas, where he had selected a section of the most valuable land to be found in the State.

On the Waldo Hills, in the east part of Marion County, lived the Rev. Thomas H. Small, an emigrant of 1853, coming from east Tennessee. He was born in Kentucky and had lived from birth there and in Tennessee; was a true southerner in his love of the South and its people, but he had grown out of harmony with their peculiar institution. One of his brothers, living in Alabama, and others of his near relatives were slaveholders, and while, for their sake and that of the social peace, he could refrain from preaching and talking against slavery, his moral and religious convictions were too deep and his pride of personal character too strong to get along agreeably in a community which construed silence into an offense. He was too earnest to smile and shilly-shally in presence of conduct that was contrary to Christian duty, even for the sake of peace. While a delegate to the Presbyterian Synod which met at Pittsburg, he spoke of the difficulty of being a Christian and holding slaves, a confession which made him an undesirable citizen of his much loved South.

The disagreement had become critical, and as he saw no prospect of any amelioration in the social environment in the slave States, and his large family of sons and daughters would probably become involved and interested in perpetuating human chattelhood, he resolved to emigrate to Oregon, where the state of society was in harmony with moral precepts and left men conscience free. His coming to Oregon was, as he said, a great deliverance for himself and family, and also a wholesome addition to our pioneer society, which soon after needed men of high moral principle and unshakable firmness of purpose to resist the machinations of the malign power from which he fled. And Mr. Small's presence here was alone of great assistance, as it afforded an object lesson of the mutual and irreconcilable antagonism which slavery engendered among even members of the same family. During his southern experience he became acquainted with all phases of the slave system, and while he seldom spoke of the atrocities inseparable from it—for he considered the southern people as good as those of the North—he laid all the blame upon the system, which he denounced as a school of barbarism.

Mr. Small was a very strong character; on first acquaintance seemingly stern and imperious in bearing, but really a genial and companionable person, independent himself and desiring others to be the same. He was a steadfast and loyal friend, and exercised a strong influence in favor of righteous living.

A familiar presence among the opponents of the Oregon democracy, prior to the year 1859, was "Old John Denny," of Marion County. The word "old" was not hitched on to his name, from any levity or disrespect, but from his venerable appearance and admiration for his excellent qualities of head and heart. He was not an orator, as the word is generally understood, and though old fashioned as to pronunciation, and home-educated, it was reported that Abraham Lincoln said of him, he could make a better off-hand speech than any other man in his county. He was an industrious reader and thinker, full to overflowing of wit and wisdom, which made him one of the most instructive and charming of fire-side companions. As one educated man said of him, "He was chock-full of home-brewed philosophy which went down about the roots of things." He was nominated for Governor, much against his wishes, by the Republican State convention which met at Salem in the spring of 1858, the year that the Democratic party in Oregon split in twain and most of the nominees of the Republican convention resigned from the ticket to encourage the fight. It is recorded somewhere that Mr. Denny also withdrew, but against the record, I assert that the resignation was without his authority. Shortly after the publication of his withdrawal, he made a speech in Silverton, during which one of his old Illinois friends called aloud, "Uncle John! it is reported that you have resigned in favor of the softs, is that so?" The questioner was rather abrupt but Mr. Denny replied without hesitation and with a humorous conversational drawl, "Eli, you have known me a long time and should have a better opinion of me than that. Why should you expect that after a long life spent in fighting the Goths I would at last surrender to the Vandals?" He was fertile and ever brain-ready for casting such thunder bolts, and was never known to be caught out. In the winter of that year he stayed all night at my home on the Waldo Hills, at which time he desired me to go with him to Seattle, which he predicted would become a great city. He was quite old; as he said, "with one foot in the grave and the other ought not to be out;" but his mind was vigorous and youthful and this, with his large experience, made him a most valuable citizen, in fact, a teacher everywhere.

In the spring of 1854, people in the Waldo Hills, busily engaged in farming, heard of an exciting political canvass going on in the towns and at the polling places in Marion County, in which the Democratic candidates were said to be getting the worst of the fight. It was quite odd and wholly unexpected, as the Whigs had made no nominations, in fact Slavery Question in Oregon. 313 had never made any in the county, and to ascertain what it all meant, the farmers took a day off to see the show as it revolved near them. Several of us attended the meeting at the school house, within the site of the present town of Sil- verton, and after hearing the debate, we did not wonder at the general stir among the people and the consequent solicitude of the Democratic candidates, who though above the average of representatives from the "cow counties." were not habitual and trained public speakers. Their lone opponent, on the other hand, was extraordinarily gifted for such contests. He was a forcible and attractive public speaker, a capital story-teller, skilled in logic, an accomplished rhetorician whose diction and copious vocabulary needed no amendment to fit it for the press. He was new to the territory, having arrived overland in the fall of 1852, and engaging in the confinement of school teaching, but few persons had heard of him. But from the time of this notable canvass everybody heard of (>rauge Jacobs and learned something of his histoiy— that he was a native of Michigan, a graduate of the Ann Arbor Law School, and had a State reputation as a temperance lecturer. In 1854 Democratic politics was overshadowing in Clarion County and permitted little else to grow. Indeed, if I were to pei-sonify it. I should liken it to a great, rollicsome, thought- less fellow, over-bearing through ignorance, but of naturally good heart, and had had his own way so long that he con- sidered himself a normal outgrowth of human nature. Something more than ordinary was needed to awaken the sleeping faculties of the Marion County people, and so some Methodist ministers, having heard ]Mr. Jacobs speak, solicited liim to run for the Legislature on the Maine-law platform. That he came within twelve votes of being elected in the banner county of democracy, is sufficient proof of the thor- oughness of its presentation. The monstrosities and absurdi- ties of the license system in a country governed by law and among a people striving for the improvement of society, were as exhaustively shown as they ever have been since, after fifty years' experience with alcoholic demoralization. Mr. 314 T. W. Davenport. Jacobs ran again the next year, 1855, but a Democratic Legis- lature had in the interim enacted into law the viva voce or open ticket system of voting, the more effectually to prevent Democrats straying away from the party and its principal rendezvous, the saloon, whereby the Maine-law candidate was left far in the rear on election day. The law was aimed mainly at those Democrats who had gone into the Knownoth- ing lodges, but it told as well against any sort of departure from the Democratic fold. The editor of The Statesman said it was to make people honest (ol course, he meant Democrats) ; certainly it made them party slaves. Not all of the Democrats were tipplers, but so large a part of them w^ere that the saloon habit was prima facie evidence of Democracy. And on the other hand, the habit in an anti- slavery Whig raised a doubt as to the genuineness of his politics. Indeed, liberty for the white man was so all-embrac- ing—liberty to make slaves of others, to indulge depraved appetites to the detriment of individuals and society, that Democratic editors declared all so-called sumptuary laws an infringement of personal liberty, and therefore opposed to Democratic principles. The editor of The Argus, Parson Billy Adams, published frequently that the Democratic idea of liberty was merely libertinism. And if we appeal to reason as a guide for human conduct and admit the right of any human being to make a slave of another, have we not removed all limits to the gratification of his personal desires? can any- thing less be denied him? Moral principles are cast aside and the individual wavers and wanders the victim of blind impulse. Finding the law in Marion exclusively Democratic, Mr. Jacobs emigrated to Southern Oregon in August. 1857, and there easily took first place as a public speaker. His arrival was quite opportune, for with this gift and an attractive com- panionship, he gave much strength and adhesiveness to the free-state proclivities in Jackson County. He went into the school house again, but his sphere of lucrative employment was much broadened. The Democrats of Jackson County, though largelj^ in the majority, were not of the shut-mouth, Slavery Question in Oregon. 315 boss-doniiuated and exclusive variety, like those in the Wil- lamette. They had minds of their own and spoke their opin- ions freely, even respecting slavery, which was then a mooted question among them, and as many of them were from the Southern States, the pro-slavery sentiment was very strong in the county. They did not fear that discussion of the question would compromise their standing as citizens or DemocratSj and so the social cleavage did not follow party lines. Litigants cared nothing about the politics of an attorney-at-law ; so that he could succeed before a court and jury. Every question stood upon its own merits in Rogue River Valley. Likely this dissimilarity resulted from isolation, for the people of that mountain-framed valley were far removed from the settle^ ments north and south of it. Three days' travel over a diffi- cult mountain road and through a twelve-mile canyon, almost impassable in the wet season, separated them from the Umpqua, and nearly as far over a higher range of mountains they were compelled to travel to reach the settlements in California. No doubt the Rogue River people felt the inde- pendent spirit which characterizes sequestered peoples the world over. As they depended upon getting their merchan- dise from San Francisco by another mountain road from Cresent City, a port on the Pacific, there was talk at one time among them of asking to be annexed to California, but this was before General Hooker was detailed by the Govern- ment to improve the road through the twelve-mile canyon, leading northward to the Umpqua and Willamette. It has been observed that mountains, rivers, and seas make enemies of nations that would otherwise be friends, and this fact depends, no doubt upon the estranging effect of non-inter- course. I was amused at one time in the '50s upon hearing Ben Harding remark that the Democratic members of the Legislature from Jackson County had no politics but Jackson County. Likely he experienced some difficulty in managing them with reference to party interests. And likely, too, theii) independence of spirit was the result, in some degree, of the large per cent of the gold-mining population, whose minds 316 T. W. Davenport. were constantly employed about other matters than politics. Far more exciting to them, were placers, nuggets and rich strikes, than the hugger-mugger of political caucuses and conventions. Neither did their interests lie in the direction of slave labor or the slave code, and they said so with em- phasis, and with no care for its effects on their parties. Jackson County was reported to be in favor of slavery, and early in the summer of 1857, I presume that the claim of the pro-slavery men was well founded. But the free expression of opinion permitted there showed that Judge Williams' free- state letter was stirring the minds of the people and leading them into sane ways of thinking, and to the loss of the pro- slavery element. The anti-slavery agitators there were very few in number, though fair in ability and strong in character, and they argued the question from the ethical standpoint, which however is not very effective in immediate results among average human beings. When ethical truth takes hold of a human, it is lasting, for prejudice and all minor questions become obsolete. "Free niggers," the scarecrow of the pro- slavery men, ceases to be an alarm, but there are few persons who have the power to awaken men to the generous sympa- thies of equal fraternity, and Rogue River Valley had none competent to the task. Knowing this, and that so-called radi- cal talk included the defense of ' * free niggers, ' ' which all but the radicals opposed, the pro-slavery leaders proposed a public debate of the slavery question, E. D. Foudray and S. M. Wait being the proponents. Mr, Foudray was a Kentuckian of edu- cation and ability, one of the best known business men in the county, a man of large influence, of good presence, and possessing that peculiar dignity claimed for high-toned South- ern gentlemen. Mr. Wait was the owner of the flouring mill at Phoenix, a very earnest talker, and quite a proselyter for his opinions. Their statement of the question was very adroit. The Con- stitution presented the question to the voters: Slavery— Yes cr No ; Free negroes— Yes or No. Mr. Foudray said he would stand for slavery and against free negroes, while his opSlavery Question in Oregon. 317 ponents should stand against slavery and for free negroes. The supposition with him was, that no free-state man would or could be found to accept the proposition, or in case of acceptance, the result would be a wrangle among the free- state men over the admission of "free niggers" to the new State; in either case a discomfiture to the opponents of slavery. He miscalculated as to both suppositions, for Mr. Jacobs and Samuel Colver promptly accepted the challenge, and the result of the contest showed he had never heard the question debated upon its merits and by an advocate thor- oughly skilled in polemics. The meeting was held at Phoenix the first week in November, two or three days before the elec- tion on the Constitution, and was largely attended by citizens from all over the county. The building was packed to over- flowing — many standing within hearing distance around it. Mr. Foudray's introductory address showed him, at least, to be a master of fence. He desired it to be distinctly under- stood that they did not propose to make slaves of anybody who is now free; we shall not ask for the revival of the African slave trade. On the other hand, if slavery in the United States did not exist, and not an African within its borders, we should object to the introduction of slavery any- where. But slavery is a fact in this nation of ours ; it is here under the protection of law and the compromises of the Con^ stitution, and which ever way we decide the question for our- selves will make no more or less slaves, no more or less freemen. So you see that if we decide to bring some of those already in slavery to help cultivate our large farms, we will not be ag- gravating matters so far as the slaves are concerned, rather bettering them if anything, and we shall be improving our own condition in supplying cheap labor, which we can never have so long as gold mining pays a free laborer better wages than the farming interests can afford. After amplifying these views to a considerable extent, Mr. Foudray launched out into a rambling dissertation concerning the evils of free niggers," negro equality, miscegenation, etc. Mr. Colver fol- lowed him, and presented to the audience his observations 318 T. W. Davenport. concerning miscegenation in the South where he had lived. Mr. Wait took his turn, and Mr. Jacobs closed the debate for that evening. Mr. Jacobs was willing to accept the restrictions placed upon the question by Mr. Foudray and say that it was not as to whether there should be more or less slaves in the United States, but as to whether the Oregonians should introduce slavery as a feature or ingredient of their political and social institutions. He had no doubt that the Oregon people were pretty well informed by printed publications that had been circulated, as to the expediency of adopting slavery here, but he was willing to look at it from a moral point of view, which so far had not been attempted, and he expected to show that what is moral is expedient and that what is immoral is inex- pedient; in fact, to make it appear to rational men that if morality and expediency are not synonymous terms, they are as closely related as lightning and thunder. He remarked the fact that the audience was made up of believers and unbe- lievers, as respects religious matters, and therefore would not refer to scripture for authority as to what is moral or the reverse, but seek the definition in the nature of things. In- deed, there is no need of going to the Pentateuch to find out what is right and what is wrong, and there is no pertinence in telling you the distinction between the two kinds of actions, for you all know it, even though you may never have read a line in the Bible or never been drilled in such catechism. How old does a child have to be before he knows it is wrong to steal from his playmate, though he may never have been told so ? He knows that he will be liable to the same treatment and he feels that he will be separated from him socially. And this is the genesis of moral evolution. Morals grow unavoida- bly out of the social state, and without such a state morals are the merest fancy. Robinson Crusoe alone on his island could commit no immorality. Think of it! In his isolation he could do nothing wrong, as respects morals. But when he had secured the release of his man Friday, then he was under some moral obligations, and when he returned to England, his Slavery Question in Oregon. 319 moral obligations increased to suit the social complexities there. And why is this true? except that the social state is the sine qua non of human existence. Without it man is nothing— the same as one bee without a hive. Everything pertaining to individual freedom, inconsistent with the social state, is surrendered to it or for it. Nearly everybody has read that melancholy plaint which the poet attributed to Alexander Selkirk on the island of Juan Fernandez : Oh, Solitude! where are thy charms^ That sages have seen in thy face ? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place. But there is one thing we should bear in mind, viz. : that the surrender or rather the restriction the individual undergoes for the sake of society is less in that society where the social units are equal in rights, than in one where some are endowed with special privileges. For an illustration, turn to the slave- holding States of this Union, where the privilege of holding men in bondage is a feature of society, and all know that the non-slaveholding portion of the community are restricted in their liberty to an extent that the people of Oregon would not tolerate for a moment. How would a citizen of this county take it, if when he called for his mail, he were told that it had been adjudged incendiary and burnt? How would an Ore- gonian like to be subjected to surveillance concerning the books in his library or the newspapers he might subscribe for? And yet that is what will happen here sooner or later, w^hen slavery shall have been established. The Southern people are not at fault in censoring the press and prohibiting free speech, or in other means they have taken, from time to time, for the security of their system, for so long as it con- tinues such means are appropriate and necessary. The vSystem itself is at fault; it is wrong morally because it intro- duces a false principle into the social organism, one that produces disorder, interferes with the progressive tendency of mankind, requires the social units to part with rights for which there is no compensation to be found in such societj^ 320 T. W. Davenport. and in various ways tends to diminish the fraternal sympathy which is the key note or cohesive principle that makes man- kind communal beings. Hence we may assume that moral actions and principles are those which are promotive of a harmonious and progressive social state and that immoral actions and principles are those which produce an opposite result. In other words, that morality means progression and immorality means retrogression ; that what is moral is expedi- ent and what is immoral is inexpedient. Depend upon it, slavery in Oregon will be no different from slavery in Ken- tucky and Tennessee. The same means will have to be adopted here as there. Let no one deceive himself as to that matter. The bloodhounds will be here to track the fugitive from ser- vice, and their discordant music will be heard in the mountain nooks and canyons surrounding our serenely beautiful valleys. So will the auction block, the cat-o-nine-tails, the branding iron, the manacles, the slavedriver and his traffic, which heeds no human tie, fraternal, paternal, filial or marital, as applica- ble to the slave. And as respects the part the non-slaveholder must bear in this scheme, there will be the night patrol for every night in the year, and the taxation to support it. There will be the absence of free schools, the suppression of knowledge and of free speech, a censored press, annoying surveillance, and a subservience to autocratic control, all of which will be progressively bad as time rolls on. Nothing is more true and evident than that a false principle in society is an evolver of evils which continually multiply and im- poverish the social state. Slavery in every Southern State is more cruel and exacting to the slave, more onerous and re^ pressive to the "poor white trash," than in colonial times. Then, with some show of truth, it might have been called a kindly and patriarchal institution and Uncle Tom's Cabin Avould have been sadly out of place. Even now it may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but the growth of greed and the progressive propaganda of slavery will soon leave it in the rear. Our pro-slavery friends are so accustomed to asso- ciating the terms "free niggers" and "nigger equality" with Slavery Question in Oregon. 321 social equality that their ideas are quite vague and incoherent. A very little thought upon the subject will serve to show that they are unduly frightened, in fact, that they are suffering from a sort of nightmare. We have only to look among our- selves to see that though we are all equal before the law and each is free to pursue his own course and make his living in Ids own way, yet that our social aggregations depend, not upon that, but are determined by the mutual affinities of the associ- ates. That is the law which holds them together and with which statute law has nothing to do. If attempted it would be wholly irrelevant and powerless. And further, no white man, however well educated and endowed, would seek or endure uncongenial companions, though said to be socially equal. Freeing a man, of whatever color from slavery is no assault upon the social freedom of others, or any hindrance to the formation of social groups, which depend, as we have seen, upon affinity of sentiment and feeling. Our op- posing friends should think of these natural and therefore irreversible laws and dispel their fears. It may not be out of place to say, that there is no aspect of the question to be decided next Monday which should give our pro-slavery neighbors any encouragement, for there is no valid basis for their contention. Our Constitution makers have fixed it so that slavery, once adopted here, is irreversible except by consent of the owners of slaves, who though they may not number a dozen, can hold the State to slavery against the wishes of the million others. So there is no room for experi- ment; the decision Monday must be final and for all time. Jackson County is so nearly balanced between the opposing forces that some persons have felt considerable anxiety as to the general result but there is no danger pending. These lovely Western valleys will never be cursed by that institu- tion which even now threatens the perpetuity of the great American Nation. The people of Oregon will vindicate their attachment to free institutions and after their decision there will be no murmurings of discontent from the minority who 322 T. W. Davenport. will feel in their inmost souls that the popular verdict is true and righteous altogether. This must have been a notable debate, as it made so pro- found an impression upon the audience that several of them remembered the heads of discourse and were able to reproduce them after the lapse of forty years. Especially could the disputants recall the statement of the question and the trend of the argument, which has been given in the language of the writer, as there was no verbatim report and nothing more accurate than human memory, but as those with whom I talked, at various times since, were in substantial agreement, I have thought the episode sufficiently attested to be worthy of a place in this history. One man said it was a vote-maker for the anti-slavery cause, and if so must have turned the scale in Jackson County, as the returns showed only twenty- one majority for freedom, while the free negro was excluded by a vote of sixteen to one. Will it, or will it not, be a stunning fact to our posterity, that in a poll of 837 voters only forty-six of them were willing that the negro should be free to make his domicile in this great State and pursue such avoca- tions a^ his God-given faculties inspired him to? And with- out asking whether the time will ever come when the negro shall be treated as a man and a brother entitled to equal rights, let it be set down as a fact that, in the year 1857, only forty-six white men in Jackson County, Oregon, had the humanity and courage to declare such a conviction. One disappointed Democrat said, Jacobs could outtalk our fellows." Another survivor remarked that Mr. Fondray and Mr. Wait made a poor showing. In truth, what other showing could be made? In ancient times, when slavery was the alt- ernative of death, to prisoners of war, there was a rational basis for that condition, but as a substitute for industrial freedom in the light of the nineteenth century, it was an. absurdity without a parallel. Very likely the proponents of slavery were outclassed, but in the nature of things they were at great disadvantage. In all the controversy from the be- ginning to the end of the agitation in the United States, no Slavery Question in Oregon. 323 Southern statesman ever proposed a discussion with the abolitionists as to the ethical basis of chattel slavery. Most students of history are familiar with the scathing rebuke ad- ministered by John Randolph of Roanoke to a Northern rep- resentative in Congress who had shown his recreancy to free- dom. "I envy not the head or the heart of that man from the North, who rises here to defend slavery upon principle. ' ' Possibly this Phoenix debate may be considered a small affair as affecting the general result, but I have given it a promi- nent place for the reason that, so far as any one knows, it was the only public debate involving the basic principles of human society, ever held in the Territory, and for the further reason that it has escaped the notice of our Oregon historians. The disseminators of free-soil sentiment in Jackson County had been doing effective work among a population so thor- oughly engrossed by the excitement of gold mining that it was a difficult task to attract their attention to even as important a matter as the character of their own institutions, and hence those advocates are worthy of remembrance by future genera- tions. Samuel Colver, senior, was one of the Ohio pioneers before 1800, assisted General Lewis Cass in the survey of the public lands, an uncompromising foe of slavery and a man of rare force and influence in that State, where he resided for more than fifty years. He and his wife (octogenarians) emigrated to Oregon in the spring of 1857 to reach their two sons, Samuel and Hiram, both talented and educated and equally earnest with their sire in propagating anti-slavery doctrines and proclaiming the horologue of freedom. There too was Uncle David Stearns, a radical of the radicals, an Esop in form and manner, adroit, pungent and thought-pro- voking; one of a class of men who are generally considered handicaps by the moderates in the same service, but who are as necessary to progress as pioneers to state-building. One con- trast may be observed between them and the so-called safe and sane persons who constitute the bulk of reform movements; they are the undismayed propagators of the faith which the followers dilute and ameliorate — as it were, sugar coni to 324 T. W. Davenport. suit the palates of the multitude. These dreaded radicals (to the conservatives) have their uses; indeed, without them the pole-star of truth would suffer entire obscuration, and the timid conservatives become "abject and lost, covering the flood." There also was John Beeson, another radical, who added to that offense by being a friend and protector of the aborigines whose cause he pleaded so earnestly as to give him a national reputation and a vote of local ostracism. Un- doubtedly he committed a tactical blunder in trying to stop the Indian war in 1855 and '56 by ad-hominem arguments leveled against the white depredators ; not that his allegations were not more than justified and admittedly so by the great majority of the Rogue River people, but that when our red brothers go upon the warpath, driven to it in nine cases out of ten by the predatory few hanging about the margin of civilization and claiming to be white, there is no avoidance of the conflict which in the nature of things is racial, and no permanent peace practicable until the United States has taken the red men under its protection and out of the way of the greedy pale faces. General Wool, in his report to the War Department, corroborated John Beeson as to the exciting causes of the war, but he too was in error in supposing peace possible, except in the way above indicated. All our experi- ence is to the effect that the two races cannot live peaceably as joint occupants, but those two good men had not rightly weighed that experience. That was their error, and almost a virtue. An anecdote of that time may not be out of place here. The Indians, under the command of their two chiefs, Sam and John, were posted in a very strong position on Table Rock at the lower end of Bear Creek Valley, and their scouting parties were out committing depredations and making travel unsafe, when John Beeson visited Hiram Colver at his home half a mile from Phoenix. Mr. Colver was well known to all the Indians thereabout and enjoyed their confidence to a high degree. So Mr. Beeson had come to him to get his assistance in suspending hostilities. He wanted Mr. Colver Slavery Question in Oregon. 325 to go with him to the Indian camp and persuade them to cease their warlike operations and thus prepare the way for an amicable conference by both parties for the adjustment of mutual wrongs. He laid the war to bad white men, which was admitted, and also that the settlers to a man were indis- posed to a conflict; indeed, had done nothing to provoke it— also admitted. Then said Mr. Beeson, ' ' Come with me and we will tell the Indians the truth about this matter; lay the blame where it belongs, and have this w^ar stopped before it goes any further." Mr. Colver, who, though as much of a humanitarian as his visitor, was more discreet and answered as foUow^s: "Well, Friend Beeson (in a drawling nasal tone peculiar to him), you may go to Old John and exercise your powers of persuasion upon him, and if you come back with your scalp fast on your head, I will go with you tomorrow." Mr. Beeson didn't go. The Indians knew aA well as those gentlemen that the white miscreants who were continually upon them, were but a small fraction of the population, but they also knew that the white population did not exert them- selves to discover and punish the guilty persons who seemed to enjoy complete immunity among their brethren. They knew that the Hudson's Bay Company held both races equally responsible for wrong doing, but they could not understand w^hy we did not do likewise. They were short as jurists, and concluding that the whole race was their enemy, made indis- criminate war. Among the less active, but still worthy of honorable men- tion, was George Woolen, a man of herculean frame, mild mannered, temperate of speech, wise in counsel, seldom moved from the even tenor of his way ; his great force and firmness seeming to be automatically adapted to every occasion. Under a given set of conditions everybody could foretell what George Woolen would do; he would do what he thought to be right with reference to the general interests. In a word, he was a plain, straightforward anti-slavery man who exercised his influence without fret or friction. Though so mild and re- ticent, he sometimes astonished his neighbors by putting in a 326 T. W. Davenport. weighty speech at a time when it proved to be the climax of argument. I shall have occasion to refer to him again after the secession movement began in the spring of 1861. There were the three Anderson brothers, Joseph, Firm, and the preacher ; John McCall, John Wagner, Lindsay Applegate and his numerous sons, and John C. Davenport, who was nominated for the Legislature by the first distinctively free- state convention held in the Territory. Of course, he was not elected and no one was disappointed. My visit to Rogue River Valley in October, 1857, termi- nated the first week in November, a day or two before the Phoenix debate; and the election upon the Constitution oc- curred while I was detained by sickness at Cartwright's, at the north base of the Calapooia Mountains, as before men- tioned. On my way home the day after election, I made numerous inquiries as to the spirit manifested on that day, and all along the road the same answer was given— no excite- ment, no argument concerning slavery or free negroes ; every voter silently gave to the judges his open ballot and talked, if at all, upon other subjects. Even the returns scarcely at- tracted attention, and judging from the universal silence which prevailed, all were desirous of blotting out the record, so far as concerned the individuals who voted to implant the ancient barbarism. Of the 2,645 who were thus recorded, only a few, maybe a dozen, were sufficiently prominent to pass into history, the identity of all the others being lost in the general verdict, and not one has been known to claim a share in it. Looking only at the slave system and its dead-sea fruits, one can scarcely restrain his disgust for such people, and exclaim with sorrow for their depravity, "merciful is oblivion." But such a state of mind is neither philosophical nor just. Strange as it may seem to those born and reared in a free State and nurtured in a social atmosphere vibratory with the ethical maxims of equal and exact justice to all of God's creatures, those same 2,645 voters (in the usual proportion as to num- bers) were good people and wholesome citizens. There were no better neighbors, no more loyal and steadfast friends ; non? Slavery Question in Oregon. 327 who in all the relations of life— joyous in our joys, sorrowing in our sorrows, partaking with us uncomplainingly of what- ever vicissitudes — none were nearer or dearer to us, who, true to our antecedents as they were to theirs, looked upon them as specimens of the moral paradox. But in all this, there if is nothing enigmatical, for it is in entire accordance with natural law, that human beings take the color of their environ- ment, subject to the modifications which varying hereditary qualities bring to bear, producing all shades and hues of conduct from dark to light— exhibiting under the social en- vironment of slavery, the Shelbys, St. Clairs and LeGrees ; under the social environment of free institutions, the broader fraternal spirit approximating the thesis "the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. ' ' So, there is no wisdom or justice in estimating the character of human beings without taking into account the social soil which produced them. Neither is there wisdom in railing at and inflicting pain upon them with the expectation that thereby their nature will be modified to any considerable extent, for, as we have seen, opinion and conduct are the results of conditions into which they were born and over much of which they have but little control. As one philosopher says, morals are habits," and everybody knows that society is the mother of habits. Wilber- force says that the way to virtue is by withdrawing from temptation. There is another consideration to be noted before leaving this topic, viz. : that very few, if any, who favored the intro- duction of slavery, had ever held slaves, and therefore, had not been perverted by the practices accompanying such a relation. They had never experienced the intoxicating con- scieusness of unlimited power over the lives and fortunes of their fellow creatures— a consciousness that the restraints of law and society were removed, and the human chattels leit to the doubtful contest between the passions and the conscience of the master; in truth an unequal contest, as experience proves, of the still small voice against the two monster pas- sions of human nature, avarice and sensuality. So, those 328 T. W. Davenport. good people were not impelled by slaveholding habits to the decision they registered, which was more of an error of the head than the heart, a sort of outside view of a situation they had never felt, and which they had very imperfectly considered. There is another aspect which should lead us to a charitable judgment of those pioneers, who, probably, were not ac- customed to critical inquiry. The dominant political forces of that time were all on the side of slavery and exerted to propagate the assumption, very soothing to the pride of the lordly Anglo-Saxon, that the negro was an inferior animal, so inferior that he could not be entrusted with freedom, and it was so by the ordination of the Almighty; that he was not a citizen and had no rights which a white man was bound to respect. Add to these the studied silence of a majority of the people upon the subject, and the example of some of the ablest men in the Territory who were inculcating such senti- ments, and no one should wonder that uninquiring but well- meaning citizens fell in with the political current. Now, it is a fact that the persons who were foremost in the anti-slavery work were also foremost in other reforms, and classed by the Democratic editors as temperance fanatics, ghost-seers, free- lovers, meddlers with everybody's business, etc., all of which tended to discredit them in the minds of uninformed people — and is it not a wonder, in view of all this, that many more people did not vote for slavery and expel the fanatics? After close inspection I have observed that when good men go wrong they are carried along in the corrupted currents of this world, set in motion by forces over which they have little or no control. And by good men I mean those who, under ordinary temptations would not depart from the path of rectitude; or adhering to the previous metaphor, those who are capable of resisting the ordinary currents of corruption. Or it may mean those who would do right, but whose minds have been employed so unremittingly with business affairs that they have never been awakened to the ethical relations arising from social life; or those who have been perverted ])y Slavery Question in Oregon. 329 I'alse education. For an illustration I will mention the case of a free-state man, an immigrant to the Oregon Teri'itory from Kentucky, who said that while in his native State he had no doubt as to the rightfulness of slavery and that he considered abolitionists (of whom he had heard) the same as horse thieves. Though ignorant and unacquainted with every- thing not found in his own narrow path, he was not a dull man or deficient in judgment, for the change from a slave to a free country was sufficient to enlighten him. He was a man of stern purpose and would do the right as he saw the right, against all odds. He was by nature a virtuous man, but accepting slavery, into which he was born, as being In accordance with God's will, he would have assisted in punish- ing an abolitionist as he would any other malefactor. Some persons may exclaim, ' ' How dull he was ! ' ' Not so, I am sure, for people found him to be remarkably sagacious in dis- cerning the right side of disputed questions and he was often chosen as referee. No just estimate can be formed of the native character '^f human beings w^ithout taking into account the state of their environment, the social, industrial, and political conditions in which they are placed, and which are potent factors in deter- mining conduct. This is undeniable; indeed, it is platitudi- nous, but Government in its practice, exerts its remedial efforts against the inherited, material endowments of the transgressor, when it is well known that such inheritance is susceptible of slight modification, even by the severest penal statutes. Excluding from consideration the wolves in humau shape who are outlaws to any form of human society— it is irrational to expect that average human nature or individiui is will be superior to the vibratory social influences which affect them, and more irrational to expect that the moral status of society can be raised by picking out a human being here and there from the concatenation, and punishing them. But such has been the function of government, even when it has not been, by its maladjustment, an instigator of the prevailing aberration. This fundamental error is due in great part to 330 T. W. Davenport. the doctrine of free will which inculcates the notion that man is a free moral-agent; that human beings have the power of free choice, either of good or evil, and therefore should be held responsible for their actions, under all conditions not involving their sanity. In support of such a contention, the believer says, "I can certainly do as I please, as I choose." Certainly. The words please and "choose" stand there in the place of the word will. But can you please, choose, or will to do a certain thing or not to do it, where there is no change of circumstances? "Certainly I can." "Well, then, spit in my face." "Oh! (laughing in derision) that would be foolish— but my will is free." "If so, spit in my face." ' ' Why, that would be absurd. " " Certainly, the act would be foolish and absurd, and more, it would be an offense against your sense of propriety, your kindly feelings for me, your friend and lover, and you could not be hired or persuaded to commit yourself to such an outrageous action. ' ' It is barely possible that you might be insulted, provoked, maddened to a state of mind suited to such an act, but then you would know that a change of circumstances had preceded the will. There is no case possible, none imaginable, in which a compelling impulse, either of affection, sentiment or pas- sion, or a combination of them, does not precede the volitional forces which bring on action. To call this fatality is a clear misconception of the nature of things. It is the furthest removed from the old notion of fatality; that whatever else may occur before it, that specific event at the time and place and manner will surely arrive. On the contrary, the doctrine of causation teaches that if we would avoid disagreeable events, we must avoid or modify the conditions which produce them. And as the conditions we have in view are social, in- dustrial and political, and all of them within the power of human beings collectively, the sphere and function of g')v- ernment takes on a rational aspect. We have been accustomed to take a partial and outside view of things, and looked upon man as the originator of his conduct, the chief actor who should be held solely accountable for what is done, when a Slavery Question in Oregon. 331 deeper insight reveals that the fact that he is not an origi- nator but a product of pre-existing forces, a matrix containing impressions of all before ; that if we regard him as an agent, ■ve must think of him as being under duress of antecedent qualities gifted with predilections that, to a great exen+, shape his course through life, and that his conduct is as much in accordance with natural law as the flow of a river which, though it may not be arrested, may be diverted in its course, by dikes and headlands. Nothing is free in this world. There is no such possibility in nature as irrelevance in its incidents. Everj^ occurrence is both cause and effect ; a vibrating link in the chain of causation. So, will, instead of being free and disconnected, is an effect, a resultant of certain mental states and varies with them; and the mental states depend upon inherited endowments and the environing conditions. Every person capable of thinking recognizes such a causative series as being true and to talk otherwise is the direct nonsense. The propensities, passions, affections, moral sentiments, all of them blind, acting hastily and impulsively, without the well prepared guidance of the intellectual faculties, terminate in thoughtless conduct; and very much of human conduct is hasty and ill-considered or the consequence of false notions accepted as truth. But whatever may be the character of the action, the will is only a blind medium of transmuting or transmitting the mental impulse or conclusion into conduct. Under this aspect of man and his attributes, what becomes of the old ideas of individual responsibility and penal infliction.^? as an offset for transgression ? It must pass away and cease to perplex the cogitations of lawmakers. The rational func- tion of legislators is to remove the causes of transgressions and, if punishment is not applicable as a deterrent, it is executed through ignorance or prompted by malevolence. For- why inflict pain upon any human being for an action which, under the existing conditions, was inevitable? The foregoing dissertation is not indulged for the reason that its principles are new to philosophy or foreign to legisla- tion, but because their practical application is very limited 332 T. W. Davenport. and the doctrine of free will is still preached. And althougJi the Oregon Constitution, in its bill of rights, demands that ' ' laws for the punishment of crime shall be founded upon the principle of reformation and not of vindictive justice," yet with laws so administered, but little progress has been made in deterring those criminally inclined, and likely for the reason that the most numerous and influential conditions of crime, though removable, are not reached by the one fear of punishment. Notwithstanding these patent facts, book educa- tion and penal laws seem to be the trusted remedies for th*^ cure of misconduct, instead of removing the temptations arising from unjust laws and other maladjustments in society, which are especially fruitful of criminality. It is entirely within the truth to assert that society is not now and never has been governed in conformity with the basic principles of man's nature so as to produce or even approximate a normal state. And, indeed, such a state has never been the purpose of the governing classes, though always declaring in favor of justice. From sheer selfishness, rulers have been unwilling to practice justice. They dare not deny the Golden Rule, but not one in ten thousand has the fraternal courage to adopt it a® a rule of action. It is said the Golden Rule is impractical in gov- ernmental affairs, and from an inspection of them, who can divine the purpose ? for the course holds good to neither pole— at best a compromise of good and ill, a paltry average of human selfishness. But let that pass and inquire how can we judge of the moral turpitude of offenders or the moral worth of the law-abiding, without an examination of natural laws, and the statute laws they are required to obey? How shall we know of the degree of human worth, without such exami- nation, the temptation to which men are exposed, and from them obtain a proximate standard of practical morality ? The fact that a person is a law-breaker may not be to his dis- credit; rather to his credit. That depends on the law and the attendant circumstances. Disobedience to laws that are an offense to human rights, is a proof of virtue. The penal colonies of Great Britain were peopled in great part by lawSlavery Question in Oregon. 333 made criminals whose offenses consisted in asserting in practice their natural right to a share in the bounties of nature, and as might be expected, the descendants of the so- called criminals are the reformers of the twentieth century. Probably the time will never come when unrestrained self- ishness will cease to complicate and vex the task of human government; if indeed it does not constitute the principal need for government as an institution; but all the more dofvs the necessity exist for a scientific basis of the governmental function, which so far in the world's history has been a matter of experiment, apparently following the line of least resistance. It is the lack of a philosophical basis that renders government such a hotch-potch in every form it has assumed, and at times presents phenomena compelling the conviction that human nature has a very unstable and fluctuating quality, sometimes seeming to descend to the depths of total depravity and at others rising to admirable moral heights, when in reality there has been no change in its nature, only the removal of a governmental or social restraint, or by some inducement, reward or bribe by the same powers, or perhaps the opening of new avenues for the employment of his fac- ulties, one or all tempting him from the normal or accustomed way. Saying nothing further of the governments in aristo- cratical and monarchical countries than that they are the residuum of ages of conflict between the people and those who aspired to rule them; in other words, that it is the art of tempering robbery to the robbed, in such a way as to avoid a conflict threatening the stability of the system, we should consider government under our equal rights system, as tho art of social correlation with the intent of establishing justic3 as promised by our Constitution. And though, so far, we have signally failed, and fallen below the results in countries where no promise of equality was ever made, we should know- that republicanism is not to blame, that human nature has noc changed, but that our spoils system of politics with its bribes and rewards for partisan service, were too much for the average politician to bear. 334 T. W. Davenport. When the writer began this article his intention was that it should end with the adoption of the Constitution and tbe decision as to slavery in Oregon, but as he proceeded with the work, it became more and more apparent that the lesson derivable from the conflict would be incomplete at that period, for there was a marked distinction between the interest mani- fested before and after that decisive event. From a high- class, rational standpoint, one would be inclined to say that the major interest or involvement would have occurred before the vote, but so far as can be judged by the actions of men, it seemed otherwise. The persons who took an active interest in defeating slavery in Oregon were not numerous, but as sood as statehood was assured and partisan relations established with the Republican organization reaching to Washington, there was a great accession to the Republican party in Oregon. Many men who till then had taken no part in any movement or demonstration in opposition to slavery here, and some who were of indeterminate affiliation as respects the question, rallied to the party conventions and were active participants therein, as though they were native to the manor born. Very likely this manifestation of preference, or invigoration oi' spirit, depended upon several causes set in motion by the change from a Territory to a State, but whatever they were, creditable, discreditable, or indifferent, there is a lesson in it just the same. That a large part of the Oregon people should have be^n uncommunicative and inert when the great question was pend- ing, and after its decision become active partisans in a work which they had refused, needs inquiring into. Silence upon the slavery question was not a rational strategy for anti- slavery men, though it was mentioned as an excuse for the silent Democrats. It was a very silly excuse and it did not cover their nakedness. Their silence has been accounted for on rational grounds. When politicians seek to carry an elec- tion they are far from silent; they want every man to use his voice as well as his vote. In such a contest the expression of an earnest opinion founded upon reason and the inutire Slavery Question in Oregon. 335 aspirations of the human soul, never acts as a boomerang, and if the anti-slavery men of Oregon had thrown their weight into the balance in the year 1856, there would have been no anxiety upon the subject in 1857 and there would have been no need of a plebiscite upon it at any time. That they did not do so was not from fear that the expression of an opinion against slavery would promote it, but from other reasons which have been set forth in previous pages, reasons too which serve to emphasize the tendency of partisan habits to divert people's minds away from a proper and critical examination of the real issues at hand. The manner in which the question was met here, tended to cultivate and foster the notion or claim of the extremists of the South, that slavery, as an institution in the United States, was entitled to equal rights with free institutions; that the equities were the same, and that the only question up for decision was one of financial expediency which every man could or should decide for himself. All that he needed to determine it was a slate and pencil— no need of books relating to morals or history; no call for agitation, conventions or other modes of forming and expressing public opinion; just simply market reports of the price of slaves and the products of their toil, with perhaps some allusion to the superiority and dignity of the master class. This was the aspect in which our Southern brethren desired the Oregon people to view the question, and the Oregon politicians so ruled. And why this billing and cooing with the sable wench, when the question was whether her baleful progeny should inherit the earth? Was it genuine love or even decent respect? Neither — it was the merest coquetry made necessary in the game of politics which had been debauching the American people for half a century. It was only by such adulation of the harlot that the avenues leading to public employment were open to the office-seekers of the North ; and that such an inducement could sink a whole party into vassalage is a humiliating com- mentary upon human nature. But just this kind of denou- ment must be expected when a party has abandoned its prin336 T. W. Davenport. eiples and ceases to live for any worthier purpose than preying upon the commonwealth for individual benefit. And indeed it is a herculean if not impossible task and one which permits of no intermission, to hold a political party up to the high ground of equal and exact justice, while at the same time, it is the source and dispenser of emoluments and powers coming from partisan success, and which may be increased by the victors. I am confident that it is not in human nature to estab- lish or maintain popular government upon any such basis. It was easier to do so fifty years ago than now, but the experi- ment has signally failed. We are further away from a reign of justice now than in the early days of the republic, despite the fact that chattel slavery is gone. For in its place we have compulsory wage slavery and the grind of relentless corporate power, which is more exacting than the oligarchs of the South ever were. There is no color line to limit the extent of corporate greed or mitigate the penalties of poverty. And the powers which so dominate the commonwealth have been enthroned by the government acting in the name of and by the authority of the people, through their representatives. And how could such misgovernment arise? There is one sufficient answer to this question, viz: By and through the extra-legal, voluntary, political machinery, intended as an auxiliar to government, but really its corrupter. The spirit and principles of the Jeffersonian Democratic party were good— indeed, formed the basis of any and every government by the people, but the spoils system of politics corrupted it and extinguished every spark of its original aspiration. With- out the public patronage the slave power could not have sub- jugated the party of Jefferson; without it, that power could not have dominated the party of Lincoln ; and without it, the silent Democrats and Micawber Whigs of Oregon, would have joined in one prolonged and joyous shout proclaiming to all the valleys the genius of universal freedom. And it may be assumed for a certainty that without it, squatter sovereignty would never have been promulgated and accepted as an Slavery Question in Oregon. 337 article of political faith and practice by the people of the territories. A political party which governs by rewards of the spoils of victory and subsists upon contributions from the bene- ficiaries of privileges which it grants, is a monstrosity which no form of popular government can tolerate and live; it is a combination impossible of co-existence with freedom and justice, and the American people must abolish it or see their grand experiment perish from the earth. In the spring of 1858, at the close of the state Republican convention of that year, a secret session was held to discuss some private matters relating to the inner work of the party. At this meeting a delegate from Yamhill County proposed that Colonel Baker, of California, be invited to stump the State for the Republicans. Undoubtedly, the proposer expected that it would meet with general approval, but instead it met with almost furious opposition from several of the young, inex- perienced and ambitious members who really could give no good reason for objecting. They were aspiring and did not like to be overshadowed. Of course it was not to be expected that Baker would bear his own expenses, and to the proposi- tion of the writer to raise a fund to defray them, there were some sarcastic remarks, about turning the party of great principles into a mercenary organization. E. L. Applegate (whom everybody knew as Lish— with a long "I") who had ridden on horseback 300 miles to attend the convention, in which I met him for the first time, tried to make us merry with our deficiencies, by saying in his comical drawl, I can say squat-ter-sov-ran-ty as well as Colonel Baker. " As I was young in the business and had no other purpose than the pro- motion of our principles, the manifestation of ambitious selfishness in these aspiring politicians was more amazing than amusing to me. Several of them were of fair ability, but there was no one sufficiently prominent to be above envy. David Logan was much the ablest and most experienced, but his political convictions were somewhat hazy and so he did not stand well with the stalwarts. 338 T. W. Davenport. The Democrats were divided into two hostile camps that year and were fighting each other with a ferocity peculiar to factional quarrels arising from self interest, and so, there was a fine opportunity for the Republicans to make an inning. But lacking a spirited and prominent leader, the work of the state convention was dropped, its nominees resigned, and the party units contented themselves by looking on or voting with the warring Democrats. The nominal division was the reg- ulars (Salem Clique) against the irregulars, and the former won. The leaders of the regulars were in large part Douglas men, and the others got their animus from the Buchanan admin- istration. Likely the offensive proposition turned down in the Repub- lican convention bore fruit, for Colonel Baker, hearing from his Oregon friends directly, or seeing the proceedings of the secret meeting, which were fully reported to the Oregon States- man by an eaves-dropping Democrat, saw his opportunity and emigrated with his family to Oregon in the winter of 1859-60, taking up his residence in Salem, sometime in January. Many of the Oregonians had heard the Colonel on his stumping tours in the Western States, some were old acquaint- ances from Illinois, and all lost no time in greeting him with a hearty welcome and renewing old acquaintance. It was a red-letter time for the inn-keepers of Salem, for there was a general pouring in from all quarters to see and shake hands with the most eloquent American living. And his tact as an entertainer was fully equal to his skill as an orator. There was nothing fussy or fulsome in his manner; he was neither reserved nor effusive ; his hand-shake was not that of a poli- tician or a dilettante. And though he had come among enemies as well as friends, both of whom from different motives were desirous of seeing something to find fault with, they looked in vain and went their way all thinking better of themselves, his political enemies shorn of their animosity and his political friends jubilant in the thought that the stock of the Black Republicans stood at par in the market. Slavery Question in Oregon. 339 It would be a superficial judgment to say that the Colonel was not a good actor and that there was not good judgment used in his social intercourse, but the real secret, if one, was in the fact that Ned Baker was just what he appeared to be, in English a fine fellow and full of fraternity. And when we come to reflect further, how can there be an orator in the full sense, without the coalescing sympathies which put him at one with the whole human heart ? The Colonel was a ' ' rara avis" in other respects; his memory of faces and names was a wonder. Men whom he had not seen for twenty years and whom he had not known intimately, were recognized instantly and their names were at tongue's end. And the most difficult acquirement of all— one the lack of which gives our public men the most trouble, is the knack of proportioning one's attention to the various grades of men without offence. Evidently all cannot be treated alike ; there must be suitable adaptation, and the ability to do this consti- tutes what, in our present vogue, is called a good mixer. But the Colonel could go through with a free-for-all interview and leave no stings in the expectations of men. His must have been a bountiful soul, or else he became passive to the social fluctuations and let nature take its course. In any event everybody was pleased. A great change came over the coun- try after the advent of the Colonel. For the accommodation of the people who came to see him, he had to keep open house, and this being insufficient, a part of the day, he held court st the largest hotel in town, and in a few weeks had seen and captured all who met him, and knew more of the social and political condition of the state than any man in it. Every person knew what brought the Colonel to Oregon, that it was in the main a selfish purpose— political ambition. But there was no offence. I heard one man sarcastically lament that the Blacks had no man fit to be United States Senator and had to import one. This, however, was a compliment to the im- port. The voice of the Syren was heard in the land and the rough yawp of partisan Democracy became dulcet from sheer imitation. The epithet dam-Black-Republican" was short340 T. W. Davenport. ened by leaving off the first adjective, and later, among all but the hopelessly rude, the black disappeared. An immense crowd gathered at the capital city on the 4th of July, 1860, to partake with Baker of its glorious memories, and it seemed mutual— a spontaneous evolution of spirit, fus- ing them into one. The past of the nation was there; the dramatis personae of the Revolution was before them on the stage, and the Grand Old Man, beautiful, graceful, sublime, was introducing them to his auditors. Until then they had only heard of the Revolution and the great actors in it — now they had seen them and partaken of their spirit. When Colonel Baker arrived in Oregon, the Democrats were well supplied with public speakers of ability, chief among them by popular judgment being Delazon Smith, of Linn County, and his admirers were inclined to compare him with Baker. Such comparisons, however, are generally futile, for how can things essentially different in quality be com- pared? Mountains can be compared as to height and breadth and figure, but when the words greater and greatest are applied to men gifted in speech which may have more hues than a rainbow, there is little meaning to them. Delazon was, without doubt, an able stump speaker and an effective politi- cal campaigner. Hie had a clear, sonorous voice and dis- tinct enunciation ; had a good, firm face and sturdy form, was not lacking in language, warmed up to climactic utterance and energy, but with all these fine qualities, the spirit and mes- sage of his speeches touched only a part of his audience, for they did not involve the higher, nobler parts of man's nature. He had a more sonorous and far-reaching voice than Baker, but the '^Yox humana" is something more than sound and' conveys more than words with a dictionary meaning. It can convey feeling; may be a vehicle for soul transmission, and has a timbre characteristic of the speaker which words cannot describe, but which makes an echo or response in brain regions inaccessible to the mere declaimer. These soul overtones which accompany the voice, psychologize the audience beyond the power of words. Little can be known, by reading a speech. Slavery Question in Oregon. 341 of its effect upon the audience who heard it delivered. That grreatest of English orators, Charles James Fox, said that a great speech did not read well. There is much in a great presence, even in repose, and an English statesman said that Daniel Webster was a walking false pretense, for no man could be as great as Webster looked. Emerson (I think it was) describing the scene at the dedication of the Bunker Hill monument, said that there were two things which did not disappoint the eye, Webster and the monument. Senator Lodge, in his biography of Webster, says: "no one ever came into the world so physically equipped for speech." And McCall in his Centennial oration in 1901, said '"He possessed as noble a voice as ever broke upon the human ear." He was barely six feet high, but looked taller, and his presence was so imposing that McCall said : ' ' This enormous personality was not sluggish, but in time of excitement it was full of animation and dramatic fire." He was generally in a state of repose, and Sydney Smith compared him to an anthracite furnace that only needed blowing. He was seldom full}^ aroused and was at his best only on great occasions. At the time of the Bunker Hill oration before alluded to, the crowed was so great and pressing to get nearer the speakers' stand that those in front, in danger of being crushed, called to Mr. Webster to have the people stand back. Webster, who had not begun his oration, came to the front of the platform and called out, ' ' Fellow citizens, those in front are being borne down and you must fall back and give them room." Those near the middle cried out, "We cannot stand back; it is impossible." Webster stretched out his arm and in a voice that reached to the furthest limits of that vast multitude, exclaimed, "Stand back, stand back, fellow citizens, nothing is impos- sible on Bunker Hill." That command, so uttered by the God-like Daniel, would have moved a mountain, and the dense pack of humanity, swayed as by a single impulse, gave room. 342 T. W. Davenport. Webster's greatness is expressed by the words power and weight, physical and intellectual, and in these he surpassed all other Americans, if not all human kind. But there are other ingredients of human nature to be reached, besides rea- son and judgment and the sensitiveness to the impact of great force— other heart strings to be played upon by the orator, Mr. Webster was not endowed to touch them. This is illus- trated by the difference in judgment among men as to the merits of great orators. Gen. W. T. Sherman heard Webster's Seventh-of-March speech upon the compromise measures in 1850, and also Clay's upon the same, and he gave his opinion concerning them in his Memoirs. He thought Webster's tame and ineffective in comparison, as undoubtedly it was upon the Senate, but superior in effect upon the minds of the people who read them both. Clay's speeches did not read as well as Webster's ; Clay had a noble and impressive presence, too, but not indic- ative of so much power. One poet described him as "he of the fearless soul and brow, ' ' but no such tremendous effect was ever produced by him upon an audience or the mind of the nation as was that of Webster in reply to Hayne. Clay, hav- ing a more sensitive temperament, was more easily brought into the oratorical mood, and so never disappointed public expectation. We have Webster's word that eloquence is not to be compassed by the tricks of rhetoric, that it does not come from afar; it must be in the man and in the occasion. As Horace Greeley once said, "a great speech has a great man behind it." And he might have gone further and required that the great man should be in a state of prime efficiency, that his whole soul should be intensely emotional and irradi- ant. But at last the greatness of oratory must be judged by its effect upon the audience, taking into account the antagonisms of bigotry, superstition, prejudice, selfishness, ignorance, required to be removed or neutralized, to bring an audience into harmony with the speaker. And though a great presence is perhaps a great help, there are effects, pro- found and permanent, involving the affectional and altruisSlavery Question in Oregon. 343 tic faculties, which do not require the imposing physical presence to reach them. Of this there have been some notable instances, of which only one may be cited. Very likely none of the millions of school children in the United States ever heard or read of the name of Samuel Lewis, of Ohio, who was nominated for Gov- ernor of that State, by the free-soil party in the year 1846, His name does not appear on the list of orators, and yet. notwithstanding this and his mild and undistinguished pres- ence, he could quell the turbulence of a mob that would hang Wendell Phillips; would divest it of prejudice and melt it to sympathy with the lowest of God's creatures, if they would consent to hear him at all. It must be borne in mind that the famous orators of Amer- ica, Phillips and Beecher excepted, never placed themselves in entire antagonism to the prejudices of the people— the mob spirit. All were more or less conservative, going with the current. They did not essay for themselves any such task as was undertaken by the abolitionists. It was not in accord with their judgment, perhaps, but they did not champion the cause of free speech for the abolitionists, as they should have done, Webster was an anti-slavery man in opinion ; he could declare slavery to be a great moral and political evil, for that was agreeble to his manhood, but he did not plead the cause of the slave. It is easy to float with the current, easy for an orator to raise a shout by voicing the sentiments, passions and preju- dices of an audience, but that is not a good test of oratory. The real test is in evoking from human beings a response in opposition to their governing tendencies. In view of this and accepting the truth that great excellence is acquired by great trials, an American orator said that eloquence was dog- cheap to the abolitionists. And Wendell Phillips, in answer to a young friend who asked him how to become an orator, said Take a course of mobs. Webster never took a courjse of mobs, so really was not fully developed. 344 T. W. Davenport. Sam Lewis, after graduating as a Presbyterian minister, took a course of mobs. He began by allaying the mob spirit in Cincinnati, Ohio, and won freedom of speech for every one. It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that he was not, in many respects, a great man. True, he was not a great, strong, energetic animal. On the contrary, he was physically w^eak and did not impress people by an exuberance of spirit. He was tall, dark, lathy, and his reserve force was no menace or challenge to the mob. Though a faultless rhetorician, there was no display, no playing with the voice, no stress or empha- sis to attract attention. There was freedom of movement but no gestures that one would remember. His eyes were dark but not large, and did not, like Webster's glow and rivet the attention with awesome power. His voice had no dramatic quavers of pathos, and ordinary people would be incompetent to explain how with his calm flow of speech they were held enthralled and in tears, unconscious of time, divested of the paltry incidents of life, prejudice, greed, self love, pride of station, and possessed by a spirit of chaste and elevating fra- ternity. To infer that such effects were wrought only on super-sensitive souls would not be an approximation to the truth. Hiis audiences were not thus selected; they were, as American audiences generally are, of all kinds and classes. Of the thousands that he addressed at every meeting only a few were free from the conviction that the discussion of the slavery question, was futile as to the slave, and at the same time a menace to the peace and prosperity of the Northern people. A great majority of his hearers were intensely hostile to the free-soil movement, for there was no denying that the denunciation of slavery as an unholy and immoral institu- tion, tended to inflame the people of the South and provoke them to disunion. The Whigs of Ohio at this time professed to be opposed to the extension of slavery, but they were equally opposed to any sort of discourse calculated to offend our Southern brethren. It is well to remember, too, that Aboli- tionists were still subject to assault and liable to be treated to rotten eggs, free transportation on fence rails, or a coat of Slavery Question in Oregon. 345 tar and feathers, any where outside of the Western Reserve. As a rule the people of Ohio knew little of slavery and cared less. In theory they were opposed to the institution, but it was a theory which did not reach to their hearts or purses. About their only source of discomfort was the agi- tator and the ominous cloud of disunion which hovered around him. From personal knowledge I can affirm that it was curiosity to hear Sam Lewds explain how the free-soil move- ment could be made to harmonize with the general interests, that brought people to his meetings. But he did not explain and he indulged in no constitutional argument to prove the right of free speech, nothing to show the futility of depending upon the two great parties to ameliorate the condition of the slave or to prevent extension. All sorts of current politics were unmentioned and unmentionable. He expatiated in a different country and after a few minutes all were dispos- sessed of antagonisms, saw with him, felt with him and ex- perienced an invigoration, or rather, a newness of spirit which w^as to them both a surprise and an enigma. Old silver-gray AVhigs and dyed-in-the-wool Democrats would rise up during the pauses of the discourse, and with tears streaming down their faces, embrace as long separated brothers, pledging themselves to resist by every available means the extension of slavery over the territories of the Union. In the words of Goldsmith, those who came to scoff remained to pray. And how was such a mental metamorphosis brought about ^ By the strength and skill of the orator ? It was all so strange, so ex- cessive, so seemingly unnatural, that I am loth to give it the name of oratory. People often shed tears at the recital of wrongs endured, of cruelty suffered, but did all of thousands ever before melt in tears until the fountains were exhausted and the features distorted in sympathy until they were sore and required the hands to smoothe them and soothe them? Was the cause of such effects, oratory? or was it magic— the art of the conjuror? Truly, Sam Lewis set up the auction block and sold human chattels, separated husbands and wives, parents and children, tore asunder every human tie, but there 346 T. W. Davenport. ^vas none of the art of the actor. Through the transparent medium of inimitable speech, Lewis exhibited the victims of oppression, excruciating under the lash and the branding iron; their bleeding hearts were laid open to sight; the slave was seen to be a human being in agony, body and soul. And the cause was as visible as the effects. It was slavery— normal slavery, and not it's so-called abuses. Some will say that such spasms of sympathy are short-lived, which is cer- tainly true, for human nature cannot continue excessive action in any of its departments. But the relapse is not to the former stupid standard of self-service. There has been a diversion; the crust of indolent habit has been broken never to reform with its original strength ; access to the sympathetic nature is less difficult than before. After this wonderful campaign, the Whig orator, Billy Bebb, the most famous of Tom Corwin's students, found the Buckeyes a changed people. His oratorical climaxes raised no shouts ; the expounder of whiggery elicited no enthusiasm, and in a sort of despair he shouted the question, "Is Sam Lewis God Almighty To which an irreverant listener re- sponded in the affirmative, eliciting the first round of ap- plause. The people of Ohio were on higher grounds, and the slave-catcher was unwelcome thereafter. I doubt if any other man in America could have accom- plished such results. And it is idle to suppose that an orator can produce effects from aroused sympathies in which he is not affluent. There is no such thing in human nature as universal versatility. No man can be great in all departments of human endeavor, and hence the difficulty of comparing orators of different casts of mind. Colonel Baker, though possessed of much, indeed, of unusual versatility, would have been wholly incompetent to the task. The effects he wrought were of a totalty different nature, those of heroic enthusiasm in which the sterner virtues impelled men to do and dare in a glorious cause, and every cause he espoused was glorious— he made it glorious. In the language of Macaulay, "His chivalrous soul would not suffer him to decline a risk,** and Slavery Question in Oregon. 347 so with him it was "our country right or wrong," patriotism run wild, and while Abraham Lincoln opposed the Mexican AYar, Baker resigned his seat in Congress to raise a regiment and take an active part in promoting the schemes of the slave- holding oligarchy. Notwithstanding this inconsistent escapade in the Mexican War, he was anti-slavery in sentiment or rather in feeling, for no such knight errant thirsting for ad- venture, could endure, even in imagination, the fetters and cramp of slavery. His innate feeling was not so much moral as an aspiration for brilliant achievement, which he was noble enough to share with all the w^orld. The division of the Democratic party which occurred in 1858 had not been healed, and while there were several alleged grounds of dissension, such as the tyranny of the Salem Clique, opposition to General Lane, the slavery question, party regularity, etc., the cleavage at the time of Colonel Baker's arrival was that of Douglas vs. the administration, and the animosity between the factions was quite bitter, even more than between them and the Republicans. In most of the counties they met together in convention and the stronger faction excluded the other from representation. In Marion County the Douglas men were in the majority, and having control of the party machinery, nominated the following persons for the Legislature: B. F. Harding, Robert Newell, Samuel Parker, and C. P. Crandall. Later the friends of General Lane and the administration met in convention and nominated a ticket composed of good and substantial citizens, mostly of the pro-slavery type, unlettered, inexperienced in legislative affairs, but very much in earnest in promoting their opinions, and not at all lacking in mother wit. Taking advantage of the growing discontent with the Salem Clique and Mr. Bush as the accredited head of it, they stigmatized their Democratic opponents as the "Bushites. " In this they no doubt erred, for Mr. Bush promptly responded with the very descriptive and truthful title, The Beetle Heads." The nominees on the Lane ticket were good neighbors but withal aged and dull, and the epithet was so pat there was no dodging 348 T. W. Davenport. it. Still, with this handicap they had some claims to Demo- cratic support. They were honest and frank to assert their fealty to the administration of James Buchanan, which would go far with strong partisans, and they were not backward in charging the Bushites with treachery to the party and of being tinctured with Black Republicanism. It was at this juncture of affairs that the Republicans of Marion met in delegate convention at Salem to nominate candidates for the Legislature, and there was much probabil- ity of electing them. The Colonel treated us to a thrilling fifteen-minute speech, and after the noon adjournment met with us in a private conference, at which he counseled against making nominations and in favor of voting the Bush ticket. Of course it was well known that in any probable event the Republicans would constitute but a small minority of the Legislative Assembly, and alone could elect no one, but that in combination with the Salem-Clique members could elect the Colonel along with one of their number. Said he: "We will assume that the members from Marion will be Republicans, but the canvas will drive into opposition those Democrats who are really with us in principle, whereas, if we fall in with them at the election, they will be almost compelled to unite with us to save themselves from defeat by the friends of the administration, who are in the majority in other parts of the State. I am sure that great events are barely in the future, in which the friends of popular government will have to bear a prominent part. The Douglas men are at heart with us and we shall need their help." Then, in one of his intro- spective moods, when his eyes seemed to retire and return with added lustre, he said, "The old Democratic barrel is falling to pieces, and why should we, who need some of the staves, hoop them together?" Is it strange that this prophetic metaphor was the climax of argument? The Republicans of Marion had borne the stigma of "Black" so long that they were disinclined to sur- render their first favorable opportunity to reap a victory at Slavery Question in Oregon. 349 the polls, but this was a feeling, whereas their judgment inclined them to Baker's broader view. The delegates had been instructed by their constituents to nominate a full ticket, and they must have some good ground for disobedience. Knowing how easy it is for mere politicians to patch up their personal differences with political equiva- lents, we desired some sort of personal guarantee that the Bush nominees would be duly mindful of their obligations, but of course this could not be given in words. We must at least feel of them. So, for that purpose, I called on Mr. B. F, Harding, their shrewdest manager. I said: "Mr. Harding, I have called to see if it is safe for the Republicans to vote your ticket this year." He laughed and asked me what conclusion I had come to. "Why, I think it a pretty good scheme." ' ' How many votes can you poll V he queried ? Answer, "Five hundred." "Why don't you claim more?— a politician would." We discussed the situation for a short time, after which he said, "Some of your Republican brethren have asked us to pledge our votes to Colonel Baker in return for your help at the polls, but you know better than to ask it; you would not do it if you were in our place. ' ' "Surely you are right," I said. He then remarked, "Crandall is the only one you need to talk to." I saw Mr. Crandall, who asked me directly, ' ' Are you going to make nominations?" "Yes, unless you give me your word that you will vote for Colonel Baker for United States Senator. ' ' He asked, "Is my word good to you alone?" "Yes," I answered. ' ' Then you have it, ' ' he replied. I notified the Colonel, and we adjourned without nomi- nating. Soon after our adjournment, the head of the Lane ticket, Richard Miller (Uncle Dickey), with whom I had been ac350 T. W. Davenport. quainted since arriving in Oregon, came and asked me why we did not nominate a ticket at the convention. Well knowing that he would use my answer on the canvass he was just starting upon, I said, "We did intend to nominate a ticket, but when we came to consider the matter all round, we thought our cause would be advanced further by voting the Douglas ticket." "Yes, yes, I see," said Uncle Dickey, and off he went to join his companions. And here let me say a word or two relating to him, that, although he was unschooled, he had had a varied and valuable experience in practical matters per- taining to frontier life in Missouri, where he had been a foremost man, a justice of the peace, a pillar of the Baptist church, and being of large and strong mould and courageous disposition, and from habit an advocate of whatever cause he favored, he was influential among his fellow citizens and an opponent that it was not safe to ignore. He had, too, been a member of our constitutional convention. So, Mr. C. P. Crandall of the Douglas ticket was deputed to canvass with Uncle Dickey. At their first debate, I think it was at Sub- limity, Uncle Dickey "took the bull by the horns," as he said, and charged the Bushites with having sold out to the Black Republicans. Crandall, in his reply, remarked that his old friend Miller was not a man to make damaging charges recklessly and asked for his authority. Uncle Dickey did not shy the demand and said that he got it from headquarters, and being pressed for the name of the person said, "T. W. Davenport." Mr. Crandall insisted that his opponent must have misunderstood his informant and wished him to state the exact language used by Davenport. As Uncle Dickey could not recollect the exact words, the allegation was suspended for the time. Crandall called on me the next day and wanted to know if I had told Uncle Dickey that the Bushites had sold out to the Republicans. Certainly I had not, and the language used by me was reported to Mr. Crandall, who at the next meeting entered a specific denial on the authority of Davenport. That evening Uncle Dickey came to see me, sorely perplexed, and related the controversy in full. I remonstrated against the liberty he took in changing the form of my communication, at which he said, "I am not a high learned man and I want you to answer in my language, and I know you will tell the truth. Did you sell out to the Bushites?"

"Surely we did not."

"Well, what did you do?"

"We bought in."

Uncle Dickey turned away in utter disgust, and I never heard any more of the buying or selling. It is almost needless to say that the Beetle-head ticket did not appear with many figures on election day.

This combination, begun in the spring, was no doubt carried forward during the summer, though I was not a factor in it. Presumably, Colonel Baker was, and not strange either, for there was little difference between him and the Douglas men, in principle. Baker was not a stickler for theoretical consistency; not a faultless doctrinaire. What he admired most was the result, and believing that the Little Giant's Squatter Sovereignty in practice would prove to be a boomerang to its original promoters, he adopted it from the beginning. Some people, not understanding this phase of Baker's intellectual character, have accused him of being a vacillator for the sake of political advancement. The difference between him and Douglas was in this: Douglas said he did not care whether slavery was voted up or voted down in the territories, but Baker did care and gave his voice and influence in favor of freedom everywhere. So, anti-slavery, squatter-sovereignty Democrats in the Oregon Legislature could very consistently vote for the Colonel.^[1] At that September session in 1860, the Legislature was composed of three parties, the two wings of the Democratic party and the Republicans, neither of which could elect a Senator, but a fusion of any two could. A union of the Republicans with the administration Democrats was not to be thought of, and a union of the two wings was scarcely less unnatural, if real Democratic principles should weigh with the anti-slavery Douglas men. In his address before the Legislature of 1899 (see Oregon Hist. Quarterly of 1907, March number, page 22) Judge Williams said: "The agitation of the slavery question had now reached a crisis. The good-Lord, good-devil style of politics had become disgusting. I made up my mind that, as far as my opportunities allowed, I would resist the further aggression of the slave power, and oppose the election to office of those who favored it. Accordingly, in the month of March, 1860, I went into Linn County to the residence of Delazon Smith and said to him: 'Delazon, I have come here to beard the lion in his den (Smith's friends called him the Lion of Linn). I am going to canvass Linn County, and my object is to beat you and General Lane for the Senate. Come on and make your fight.'" They traveled and stumped together, and whether as the result of this canvass or of the scurrilous stories told about Delazon as to his habits during the brief period he was in Washington as Senator from Oregon, has never been determined, but in the session of 1860 he was not a formidable candidate. Judge Williams was a candidate, however, throughout the session, but finally failed and attributed his defeat to the Salem Clique, with whom the Judge was never a favorite. It was a memorable contest, which made and unmade the political fortunes of several persons, and was from

Slavery Question in Oregon. 353 the first an apparent game of chance which no one could quite understand. The combination begun in Marion County was the chief feature of the session, and of course was stoutly resisted by the administration Democrats. Six of their Senators aban- doned their seats and in the parlance of the time "took to the woods," at the beginning of the session, but returned and resumed their places, in answer to an appeal from the Gov- ernor. Though a strong partisan, he was patriot enough to place country above party, and for his firm stand at this session and sundry other services, John Whiteaker deserves to be kindly remembered by the people of Oregon. Near the close of the session, Colonel Baker, despairing of success, posted notices announcing that he would deliver an address to the citizens of Salem and vicinity, the first of a series favoring the election of Lincoln. I had remained at home so far, but upon hearing of this, started at once and afoot to dissuade the Colonel from such hasty action. When I had reached the point where the State House, now stands, I saw him rapidly approaching on his way home, and perceiv- ing me he came up and in a hurried manner said, "We have failed and tonight I shall begin the campaign for Lincoln. ' ' "Oh, no," I replied, "don't let us give up the ship yet." He repeated some military maxim as to what a General would do when his men were becoming disheartened after long maneuvering in front of the enemy without success, and seemed fixed in his opinion that the case was hopeless. Con- tinuing, he reminded me of what I had told him at the time of our spring convention, that Crandall would support him, but he has not and he makes speeches from day to day and no one knows what he is driving at. "Crandall gave me his word as I told you at the time, and I think he will do as he agreed." "Well, what does he mean; what does he wantT' "Want? Why he is as poor as a church mouse and, though a lawyer, is without clients. Presumably he sees that your election will open for you a broad and brilliant avenue, and 354 T. W. Davenport. he would be above the average of human beings if he did not peer around for something that vt^ould be to his own advan- tage. He must be given employment. I hear that one of your California friends is intending to buy Oregon war scrip in case you are elected,— why not give Crandall the job and thus kill two birds with one stone?" Without another word the Colonel turned about and walked rapidly towards Republican headquarters, leaving me to pur- sue my weary way alone. My personal knowledge extends no farther, but the Colonel was elected a short time afterwards; Crandall was for him and, according to newspaper account, bought scrip. The campaign for Lincoln did not begin that evening as published, but the two co-operating candidates, Baker and Nesmith, made non-political speeches to a large and much delighted audience. Nesmith was sl fluent, effec- tive and forcible speaker, but the disparity between the two was too apparent to be a matter of doubt. Baker at that time was 49 years of age and, according to the dictum of an Osier, should have been past his prime and on the down-hill side of life, but though his top-head was bald and the surrounding locks were beginning to show some signs . of frost, his face was plump and ruddy, his voice firm and clear, and in action was as agile as in youth. Evidently he was in the full flush of vigorous manhood and opulent with reserve force. Like Henry Clay, the moment Baker faced an expecting audience, the tide of life began to swell and the brain to glow. He was always equal to the occasion, and this, if not a great, was to him a critical occasion. He was not yet elected to the Senate, and though Crandall had been won over, there were still some obstacles in the way which an admiring and enthusiastic public sentiment would go far to remove. So, on that delicious even- ing the citizens of Salem, the strangers and sojourners at the Capital City, were treated to oratory. Baker, when he rose to speak, first stood for a moment or two face to face with his audience, getting in rapport with its moods, and he never misread them. There were many in that assembly who did not favor the Colonel's ambition, and the Slavery Question in Oregon. 355 heat of the senatorial conflict had developed the feeling again^st the California interloper who had come to Oregon with no other purpose in view than a selfish ambition to reach a high position to which the people of his adopted State would not elevate him, and this feeling was to be neutralized. Aye, more; for it there must be substituted a broader, higher, nobler and more generous spirit that would have a sovereign contempt for narrow geographical divisions. But to discuss the question was to revive it. So, to the auditors the speech was purposeless, indeed, they were beguiled into forgetfulness of purpose, and were wafted along on a stream of poetical allusion, fervid and inspiring eloquence, charming rhetoric, chaste and temperate compliment, which it wa.s not in human nature to withstand. Next day the atmosphere of Salem was national and gave back no echo to the croakers. Baker had won by enchantment. The motives and inducements which govern in the election of a United States Senator, as the American people have often observed, are not all political or even defensible, and the election in 1860 was no exception to the general rule. Verily, wouldn't an election wherein the electors were actuated by motives pertaining to the general welfare, be worth going far to see ? So, in that pivotal year, political principles of various denomination, partisan prej- udice, personal favoritism and animosity, selfish interests of inscrutable feature; the high and the low, the patriotic and the base, conspired together and from the medley emerged a verdict which was very fortunate for the continuity of the Republic. Fortunately, the clear-sighted historian must regard the denouement, for it gave two votes in the American Senate to the support of the administration of Abraham Lincoln, whereas the election of their opponents, Deady and Williams, would have resulted in leaving the loyal State of Oregon at zero in the national councils, in many matters pertaining to the rebellion. There is no doubt but Judge Williams would have proved equally with Nesmith, a friend to the adminis- tration's policies of conducting the war, but that M. P. 356 T. W. Davenport. Deady, a pro-slavery Democrat of pronounced aristocratic type and a candidate of the Breckenridge wing of the party, would have been other than a critic and objector to all radical measures for crippling the resources of the rebels, cannot be doubted. As a Senator from a loyal State, it would have been against both his interest and his principles to secede, and con- ceding what has been claimed for him, that he was opposed to disunion, still favoring as he did a restored union with slavery, his course in the Senate would not have been in harmony with Lincoln, who would restore the union at all hazards. Deady was a large figure in Oregon, and though not an orator, yet with his grand physical proportions, his legal acquirements, his rigid respect for law and order and constitutional limitations, and his social accomplishments, he would have been a large figure even at the national capital, and perhi a boulder in the way of the providential tide which was uprooting the deadly Upas that had borne the fruit of disunion. He was, however, a sagacious person and practical withal, and his admirer, John R. McBride said of him, in his address to the Oregon pioneers in 1902, before quoted from: "He believed in a government that had force behind it, and when the rebellion began in 1861 he became as ardent a champion of the Government as any Unionist in the land." As Federal Judge in Oregon he accepted the new regime and occupied thenceforth a commensurate place in the affairs and affections of the people. But few men ever inherited such an admirable physical and mental constitution as Colonel Baker ; at once sensitive, elastic, strong and enduring. He seemed to be immune to the weak- nesses and ills which affect ordinary human beings, and so he was always ready for action. He was supremely ambitious, not, as is so common, for the acquirement of power and wealth, but for grand and brilliant achievement in the great contests of life. And in his exuberant imagination, opportunity be- came to him, who never felt humiliation, fruition and a crown of laurel. Hence his election to the Senate raised him to the summit in a career for which he had long striven and at a Slavery Question in Oregon. 357 time when fate stood pointing the way to immortality as the reward of supreme endeavor. The immediate future seemed big with events, and his old friend and compeer, Lincoln as President, would bring to view still higher summits and broader vistas to stimulate his ambition, wherefore Baker began a triumphal march from the Oregon metropolis to the Golden Gate, addressing the people by the way. His speeches were amazing in their patriotic fervor and altitude, lifting the electorate from the sordid plane of mere self-service and parti- san jealousy, into the generous and starlit atmosphere of heroic social service. The climax was reached in San Francisco in his immortal speech at the theatre, during which one of the re- porters, Frank Pixley, threw away his pencil, rushed bare- headed into the streets and gesticulating wildly, cried at the top of his voice, ' ' Come in ! Come in ! The Old Man is talking like a God." He was near to the condition of the Hebrew prophet who was translated and the whole audience w^as swayed into ecstasy. Baker's whole course from this time until the fatal blunder at Ball's Bluff was the most brilliant and surprising in our history. His speeches in the Senate and the one at Union Square, New York, were such as only Baker could make, and no one can have any just compre- hension of their effects upon an audience by reading them. One must have seen that perfect form in action, must have heard that soul-laden voice, must have witnessed the inde- scribable effects of those wonder-working eyes, to have any proper measure of the power and influence of E. D. Baker. Shortly after the senatorial election, I went again to Rogue River Valley, accompanied by my family, to remain over winter. Democratic politics was as dominating there as in 1857, but not so one-sided, as it was split in twain, the Breck- enridgers claiming the greater part. Though sadly in the minority, the followers of the Little Giant were quite resolute to maintain his principles, and refused any coalition with the ether wing which treated them to the name, Mulattos," a bad stroke of policy, for vinegar never catches flies. When we arrived in Phoenix, Colonel Baker had been there and 358 T. W. Davenport. made a speech which stirred the political elements profoundly. The Republicans were in fine spirits and a Lincoln Club was organized with Mr. Jacobs as president, and at the first meeting a resolution was passed inviting the opposition of all shades to come and take part in the discussions. And espe- cially was this invitation to the Mulattos, who alone responded to the call. And as the Baker policy of squatter sovereignty had become the policy of the Oregon Republicans, at least it had not been protested, the Mulattos found themselves in congenial company. The Bell-Everett cause had some sup- porters, chief among them being James C. Tolman, and it is a curious fact that Jackson County contained more than two- fifths of all the trimmers in the State ; 88 to 211 was the exact ratio. On the day of election Mr. Tolman asked my brother JohJ, which ticket he intended to support. The Lincoln ticket," was the prompt answer. Better vote with me, John, for Bell and Everett, and no matter which of the others win, you can get off on the winning side." Probably, not all of the 211 who voted the Bell-Everett ticket were trimmers, but if so the proportion was not startling, in comparison with the total vote of the State— 211 to 14,853. When great and critical (questions are imminent, it is cheering to note that only a litle over one per cent of the American electorate are too ignorant, too cowardly or too meanly selfish to assist in deciding them. In the latter part of October, Delazon Smith, a Brecken- ridge elector, and T. J. Dryer, an elector on the Lincoln ticket, came to Phoenix and made speeches, the last of their joint canvass of the State. So, I had a good opportunity to hear those two noted speakers and compare them. I had heard Smith on several important occasions when there was much to bring out his talents, but on that quiet October day, before a hundred or so of citizens, he delivered the ablest speech I ever heard from him. There was no call for oratorical splurge or political clap-trap ; no endeavor to stir up personal or race prejudice, but a clean and thoughtful presentation of the questions at issue between the two sections of the Union, and in a manner at once earnest, solemn and reflective. Still, there Slavery Question in Oregon. 359 was nothing heroic about it, no glorious and invigorating ap- peal to moral and intellectual manhood, no uplift from the habitual subservience of Northern Democrats, and in these re- spects was chilling and darkening to those who were hopeful of amelioration of the perpetual assault upon the original prin- ciples and purposes of the fathers. I had never heard Dryer, and as his reputation for public speech was barely second to Delazon's, and there was such a fine opportunity offered him for triumphant repl>', my ex- pectations rose with the occasion. Besides, nature had given him a good, solid, earnest face, with a flash of brilliance in it, and from his appearance as he sat upon the platform listening intently to his opponent's arguments, the audience were an- ticipating a real duel. The introduction to his address was unlike anything his auditors ever witnessed. He began gestic- ulating furiously, accompanying it with as furious an out- pouring of voice but without articulate utterance, and this performance was continued until people were beginning to doubt his sanity, when he very coolly informed them that that was his summary of Delazon's speech. Notwithstanding his explanation, the audience saw nothing rational in such an antic, and nothing he said afterwards, which in fact was very trite and tame, could efface the rude shock he had given them. If it had been a clever imitation of the tone and gesture of his predecessor, it might have served as allowable political spice, but it was wholly foreign to everything that had oc- curred. Smith, who had tarried after the close of his own speech, evidently to hear what course his opponent would take, turned and walked away without giving it even the merit of disgust. In the larger and original view of the framers of the Con- stitution, the after-claim of slavery to perpetuity, was a revolutionary divergence pure and simple, and the continual harping by Democratic orators, of the rights of slavery and the threat of disunion, was enough to disgust any one who failed to recollect that the bulk of the American people had been educated in this school for almost two generations and 360 T. W. Davenport. were therefore entitled to serious argument instead of Mr. Dryer's sovereign contempt. Nothing of a political nature, worthy of note, occurred in Southern Oregon until the spring of 1861, w^hen, after tke bombardment of Fort Sumter, the pro-slavery sympathizers began to be heard from again. Of the nineteen counties in the State at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, Jackson was the fourth in population, gave more pro-slavery votes and a greater percentage of them than any other county, and three years afterwards gave a greater vote for Brecken- ridge and Lane than any other, wherefore it was assumed by those of Southern sentiment, that Jackson County would be at least neutral in the contest. As a bit of humor it was re- ported that the Butte Creekers, living in the north end of the county, had in fact seceded. Indeed, if the prevailing talk were to be taken as proof, the whole of Jackson had gone out. Earnest Unionists were reminded every day that the public peace depended upon positive knowledge as to the position the vv^hole of Oregon would take in the approaching struggle. There was no election near at hand by which to ascertain public sentiment, and the State and county officers were elected before the issue arose, and most of them were Demo- crats. Calling public meetings and passing resolutions was in effect to precipitate wrangling with no decisive response. Really the time for talk had past and the time for action had come. A conference with the leading Republicans of Phoenix developed only divided counsels, and deeming delay dangerous, I drew up a subscription paper to obtain money for the pur- pose of raising a liberty pole and a United States flag. The real purpose was to segregate the political elements of Jackson County, and it was a method which dispensed with argument and would rally round the flag many whom argument would only confuse and who from habit and the delicious memory of other days would exult at sight of the starry banner of the Republic. Subscribers were limited to 50 cents and, after signing, I presented it to Harrison B. Oatman, a Republican, Slavery Question in Oregon. 361 Avho, after inspecting it, asked with fearful emphasis, "Why, man, do you want to see blood run here in Phoenix ^ ' ' "Oh, no, my friend, this is to dispense with blood letting." But he did not sign, then. The next man I presented it to was a Breckenridge Demo- crat, who was called One- Armed Tabor. I told him of Oat- man's fears, to which he replied, "When it gets so that an American citizen is afraid to raise his country's flag, it is time for him to go down into his boots, and 1 am not there yet." My brother, John, Orange Jacobs, S. E-edlich, a Jew (the Jews were all loyal), signed, and later Mr. Oatman— who was no part of a coward— reconsidered his hasty speech, assisted in raising the pole and flag, and later in recruiting a military company of which he became First Lieutenant. The news went abroad, subscriptions came without asking, and as a surplus was undesirable, many had to be refused, but were permitted to sign as honorary members. A Dutchman by the name of Barnyburg procured a 100-fooi pole from the mountains, and Mr. Redlich and I stood guard over it of Jiights until patriotic women had made the flag. In the meantime, the enemy came with a protest. A Mr. Wells, well known in the county, a very strong Southerner, came to the store of Redlich and Goldsmith, where I was employed, to inform us that the flag-raising would not be permitted. Bje introduced the subject in this style, "I hear that you are intending to raise a Yankee flag here in Phoenix next Satur- day, and I came to tell you that it will cause blood to flow. ' ' I said, "Mr. Wells, you have been misinformed, the flag we shall raise is not a sectional flag, but the flag of the Union you have marched under many a time and shouted for much oftener." "Oh, that's a Yankee rag now, and it is not mine." At this juncture George Woolen, who sat near, put his big hand upon Mr. Wells' knee and, looking him squarely and almost fiercely in the face, said, "Mr. Wells, that flag will go up Saturday and woe be to the man who raises his hand 362 T. W. Davenport. against it. ' ' In the language of the poker table, the Yankee had called the Southerner's bluff and took the pot. Late the next Friday, E. L. Applegate dismounted from his mule at the store and his first words were these: "I heard several days ago that there is to be a flag-raising in Phoenix tomorrow and I thought I'd come down out of the Siskous and see about it, for from what I've heard some of our Southern brethren say, you may need help." (The last word he gasped out convulsively.) Whether from fear or detaining employment, not as many att^^^ded the pole-raising as were expected, but with the help of wives, daughters, sisters, the tall flag staff was firmly planted upright without a halt or accident while some half dozen or more Southern sympathizers witnessed the event from the veranda of Pat McMannus' store, a few rods distant. One guy rope was managed by the women with the assistance of Samuel Colver Sr., an octogenarian immigrant from Ohio in 1857, and a pioneer to that State before 1800, as mentioned in previous pages. He was awarded the honor of raising the flag and he suggested that the girls should share it with him. And in that crisis, it was verily a thrilling sight, the National banner aspiring to the top-mast like a living sentient thing, and unfurling grandly to the breeze, in response to the patriotic impulse of blushing, blooming maidens and tottering age. But exultant as were the feelings of that little assembly, at this ascension of the sacred symbol of national unity, liberty, order and law, there was no shouting ; it was a solemn service, a conscientious performance of duty, for the future seemed to every one dark and portentous. Later, the expected ones arrived, and to this earnest, prayerful congregation, speeches were addressed by 0. Jacobs and E. L. Applegate. The flag at Phoenix went up every morning at the rising of the sun, and strange what courage the sight of it gave to timid souls. They soon waved in Jacksonville and all along the road north and south. Our Southern sympathizers were not wrong in their dread of the flag, for it was an assertion of sovereignty, a challenge to submission or combat, and they Slavery Question in Oregon. 363 were wise enough to engage in no useless struggle, and no fuither protest was made. I left Kogue River on the first of June, and everywhere on my way north the signs of loyalty were visible. Disloyalty, whether much or little, was in hiding, and likely those affected dth it were never so numerous as noisy, and then gave no intimation of discontent. There was a Fourth of July celebration at Salem in 1861, and such a one as no American ever witnessed until then. The national anniversary, as we had known it, had but little ra- tional connection to the great events which it was intended to commemorate, but had grown to be a day for recreation and amusement; a time for thoughtless revelry and buffoonery. True, the reading of the Declaration was never omitted and there was an oration having some reference to our revolu- tionary history, but these performances had become per- functory, stale and unprofitable; a mere ceremony that the sooner past over, the less interference with the thoughtless wassail which reigned supreme. It was a rare occasion, indeed, when an orator of sufficient force and earnestness appeared to turn the attention of the people into serious and profitable channels. But in 1861 the crisis which had been long fore- boding and often postponed by compromise, had at last ar- rived, and the old time revelry was as inopportune as mirth at a funeral. The gloom was thick upon us and there was no thought of trifling. The people had gathered in from far and near, came in wagons and carriages with their families, on horseback, afoot, every one holding a flag as though it were the ark of his refuge, all moving in procession this time from a sense of duty, and as silent as Spartan soldiers going into battle. I viewed the procession from a balcony and as it passed, voiceless, solemn and stern, I could not repress the visions, w^hich rose on my sight, of carnage, of victories and defeats, but whether of ultimate triumph I could only hope and the uncertainty brought from my eyes unaccustomed torrents of tears. 364 T. W. Davenport. 1862 Celebration. The loyal citizens of Oregon met and greeted each other at the celebration of 1862 with a more energetic hand clasp and brighter faces than in 1861, for many things had happened to lighten the burden they then carried. The gloom of the first battle of Bull Run, which obscured their horizon, had been dissipated by the sunburst of Donaldson and Shiloh. The men of the West, with admirable foresight and resolu- tion, had risen in their might, devoted to the arduous task of freeing the Father of Waters from the grip of rebellion, that the argosifco of wealth borne upon his magnificent tide should go unvexed to the sea, and that no alien power should sit portress at his "watery gates." There might be reverses, but the path of duty and destiny was plain, and that of itself was a great exhilaration. And, besides, the general election in June had been an overwhelm- ing victory for the Union party, thus proclaiming that Oregon was a loyal unit of an indivisible republic. Not the least cheering fact in the series was, that a large majority of citizens can lay aside party names and subordinate partisan issues in the interest of the commonwealth. May it ever remain so. Notwithstanding all this, it was well known that there were several thousand persons of Southern birth and lineage who deeply sympathized with their brethren of the sunny land whence they came, and were barely held in leash by the superior powers which environed them. Indeed, some of their young and more ardent sons had gone South and enlisted in the service of the confederacy. Those remaining were not contented with silent and inactive sympathy, but secretly organized themselves into companies, or squads, under the name of Knights of the Golden Circle, to be prepared for any emergency. Union men also organized Union League Clubs. And thus this combustible material continued in juxtaposi- tion, ready to be set in conflagration by a spark, until the military events of the years 1863 and 4 had rendered the Con- federate cause entirely hopeless. How near w^e came to such an insane outbreak as was contemplated by the madcaps in Slavery Question in Oregon. 365 certain favorable contingencies, will never be known, but that such was imminent was the prevalent opinion among those cognizant of the secret work of the Knights. Of course they were not drilling and preparing their guns (muzzle- loading rifles brought across the plains) and amunition for protection against the assaults of Unionists, for they knew there was no particle of danger from such a source, so long as they did not raise the flag of rebellion against the legally constituted authorities. No! such was not the animus; they were miseducated, misguided enthusiasts, attached by kindred ties of blood and fond recollection to a brave and generous people, struggling against fearful odds for their independence. It was not, with many of them, the cement of slavery which attached them, as I knew very many had voted against the adoption of the institution in 1857. One communication I had from the lips of Hon. B. F. Harding may throw some light upon the occult conditions of that period, and I will give it from memory as I heard it from him a quarter of a century later. It was, I think, in February of 1863, when a man by the name of McDonald, living in the forks of the Santiam River, in Linn County, a very influential person and well known in the adjoining counties, came to see Mr. Harding and notify him of what was about to happen, so that he might keep out of harm 's way. Mr. Harding had been his confidential friend and legal adviser for many years, and he was impelled to give his old friend a word of warning. There was an interesting colloquy which I will give from memory. McDonald began: ^'Ben, we rebels in the forks of the Santiam are going to begin work next week. We have got our guns and amuni- tion ready, and have endured Yankee domination as long as we can. ' ' "What," asked Harding, you are not going on the war- path, are you?" "Yes, we are." "Who is it you are going to fight? I thought everything 366 T. W. Davenport. was peaceable on the Santiam. The few Yankees up there have not broken the peace, have theyT' "No. But this abolition war has been going on for over two years, and it is time that every Southern man should show his colors. There are a good many more rebels in Oregon than you think. We have a company in the Forks, one in Albany Prairie, one in Benton County, one on the Long '^'om, one in Douglas County, and two in Jackson County, and there are lots of our friends east of tJie Cascades, and we are going to get together in the Forks and make it warm for the nigger worshippers." "Well, suppose you call together one thousand men in the Forks, how will they be fed? You don't expect every soldier to feed himself — that would be a queer sort of an army. There would have to be a commissary department, and that means a treasury with sufficient funds to purchase supplies and pay cost of transportation. Of course you have thought of all this, and that at least ten persons must contribute or be taxed to keep one soldier even in idleness. For a moment, fancy one thousand men camped over at Scio. and living on their own resources, for you know there was never an Ameri- can community willing to donate to support an army even for defense, and you could not levy a tax. For my part, I would be willing to let you try that experiment, for in less than two weeks every man would go home cursing himself, and trying to forget that he was ever such a damn fool. I can assure you, however, that no such military gathering in opposition to the United States authorities would be permitted, and if your sympathizing brethren were so reckless as to resist the order to disperse, they would be arrested at all hazards and sent to jail. The proper place, in my judgment, would be the asylum for idiots and the insane. The Confederate flag would not cover them as prisoners of war." "Ben, do you suppose we are such cowards as to surrender, and while they are arresting us, some of them would be snuffed out." Slavery Question in Oregon. 367 "Very likel}^; and suppose you killed a hundred or five hundred, which is improbable, your fate would be just the same. There would be no let-up until your entire force were killed or captured. Your old muzzle-loading rifles, that you brought across the plains, and which served effectively^ for killing game and Indians, are antiquated weapons as against the breecliloaders, which can be fired five times to your once. Besides, the United States soldiers stationed at Vancouver would be sent against you, supplied with cannon, shot and shell, with which they could destroy you and keep out of range of your squirrel guns. Mac! you and I have been friends a good while; you have come to me for advice fre- quently, for which you paid me, but now I am going to offer you advice gratis, and I insist that you shall follow it to the letter. You go home and advise your Confederate friends to keep the peace. R-emain perfectly quiet; do nothing and say nothing to stir up strife or ill feeling between Union men and rebel sympathizers. You should not feel humiliated at such a course, for it is wisdom to do so. If all your friends in the State should begin hostilities, and succeed in holding all of the country south of the Calapooia ]Iountains, it would not affect the result of this national contest a feather's weight. You and your friends in Oregon cannot hasten or retard the end a moment of time. You have it in your power to bring destruction to yourselves and families, but I insist that you shall not do it. You are good people, and I want to be near you and have the pleasure of your society as long as I live. ' ' "Mac" did as he was advised, and lived respected and trusted by all good citizens, and his descendants occupy prominent positions in society. There was enough division in Oregon to have brought on a destructive frenzy similar to that in Missouri, and would have done so but for the long distance separating it from the insurgent States, and the policy of the government in not diminishing our home guard by recruiting here. 368 T. W. Davenport. On the 3rd of June, 1861, died Stephen A. Douglas, the precipitator of the conflict which disrupted the Union for four awful years. The Little Giant, presumably, had not the slightest anticipation of what happened, for like many another ambitious son of man, self aggrandized, was projected upon the future, which ever way he looked. His success as a governor of men, while being borne by the current, was so great that he was mis led to believing himself the master of the current, but the Divinity which shapes our ends, he, in common with all mankind, ha i not comprehended, and to his perplexity and dire disgrace, ne found himself a wreck upon the off shore. He committed many blunders, even when viewed with reference to his own selfish interests, as all men do who leave out of their calculations the moral laws inherent in human affairs; but he proffered all the atonement in his power, by exhorting his followers to attach themselves to the defenders of the Union, which he professed to love as well as Webster or Clay. His influence in turning them to the sup- port of Lincoln's administration was, no doubt, valuable; at least, we felt it to be so in Oregon ; and in the spring of 1862, the union of forces thus formed, placed the State Government, in all its branches, in the care and control of those who had no mental reservations to weaken their loyalty. Considered as to age and physical ability, the demise of Douglas was entirely unaccountable. He was but a little over fifty, of great vital powers, admirably formed, not a weak spot in his make-up, big-chested, big-brained, had a deep and powerful voice ample for all occasions, and we must infer that he is another instance among the many who, from disappointed ambition, have dropped, from sheer dejection of spirit, into untimely graves. But those who fight in some great cause, God's new Messiah," are not dismayed and dejected by personal defeat; they are sustained and soothed by an undying hope and self- consecration, even when the material form is incompetent to sustain its vitality. Douglas, however, was not so actuated, was not so sustained. His better impulses were over-borne, Slavery in Oregon. 369 and he served ignobly the malign power which cast him off contemptously "to lie in cold obstruction and to rot." It is seldom that human beings desist from a wrong course when once fairly started upon it. As Byron said of Napoleon : ' ' A single step in the right had made him the Washington of worlds betrayed; a single step in the wrong has given his name to all the adverse winds of heaven." The reason for continuance is patent; they have changed environment, taken down one standard and set up a different one and before they have committed one overt act, they are the bond servants of another master. It required an overpowering light from heaven to turn St. Paul. There were plenty of moral lights about Douglas, but he heeded them not, or was oblivious to them. The taunts of his political opponents should have stirred him to self-exami- nation. With veiled and courtly sarcasm, Seward remarked, when some one prophesied Douglas ' election to the presidency, "No man can be elected President of the United States who spells negro with two g's." At another time he said, "Doug- las ' coat tails hang too near the ground. ' ' In his debate with Lincoln, how could he help seeing and feeling the dwarfed moral position he occupied? He must have seen it, but his associations, the cheering thousands actuated by no higher spirit and purpose than himself, would have enthralled a far better man than he, and he continued the contest, despite everything, to the bitter end. It is related that Douglas stood beside Lincoln and held the hat and cane of his successful rival during the delivery of his inaugural address, and is it possible that while thus con- trasted, the baffled conspirator against light and civilization, did not feel most oppressively the vast disparity between their destinies, and what else was there left for him but to counsel his followers to assist the real giant,— f^iant in physical stature, giant in intellect, giant in moral elevation, who never more than compassionately rebuked him— then go home and give up the ghost? 370 T. W. Davenport. Seldom in the history of mankind has there been an instance of such summary and deserved retribution as was experi- enced by Stephen A. Douglas. Born and nurtured amid free institutions, and raised almost to the summit of power, then, when the preponderance over barbarism wa^ assured, turning his talents to overthrow what had been gained and arrest progress, was not his fate well deserved? My task is finished, and people who estimate the value of history by the fearful and astounding incidents which make lurid the annals of nations, will decide that the episode I have attempted to describe is of little value, that it is too tame and not worth while, in fact, that there is no lesson in it. True, there was no invasion, no insurrection, no unlawful con- spiracy, no governmental interference, not even a street brawl or fisticuff, no bloodshed, and, so far as known, no intemper- ate or insulting language between those differing in opinion. But it must be a morbid taste which relishes only that in history which is illuminated by the outbursts of the militant spirit in human beings, and the proper office of the phil- osopher is in tracing back the casual chain of events to its point of departure from the path of rectitude, and determin- ing the conditions which produced it, thus fortifying against future aberrations. And, indeed, history is valueless without such investigation, and philosophy has not come to its own until the means of immunity can be shown. The crucial point for philosophical investigation is the point of divergence, and the American people, as well as all others, are too heedless of the divergences, and so, sooner or later, find themselves struggling against powers which have grown from apparently trifling concessions they unwittingly granted, or evolved from devices they adopted with no other intention but to conserve the public interests. And it is well to remember, that though a condition may be intruded into the social order by the volition of man, whether it be well or ill as respects the normal status of the social organism will be irrevocably determined by the evoluSlavery Question in Oregon. 371 tionary process of natural law. Our lawgivers, however, act as though nature's edicts are not mandatory or are placable. Or possibly they think that man's actions are not governed hy such laws; that whether he will or will not do a certain thing or follow a certain course is within his own keeping. So, they expect to prohibit big gambling and permit little gambling; grant little privileges and be exempt from the encroachments of multiplied privileges; give a premium on selfishness in one place, and remain free from its spreading and growing exactions everywhere; found political parties empowered to reward its managers and promoters with the spoils of office, and yet not witness the evolution of political machines and bosses at variance with the public interests and coalescent with all forms and phases of human greed. Notwithstanding the advance in the arts and sciences, in biology and sociology, the great mass of people have no expert knowledge as to what human beings will do in a given set of circumstances, and so, government, in its best estate, is an experimental affair. But it is a cheering sign that there is a growing interest in and a more critical examination of social problems and resulting discoveries of social wrongs, and to those thus engaged, several lessons worth while will appear in the preceding pages. And in any event, what a grand employment, tracing cause and effect, essaying the concatena- tion of the universe and aspiring to become the high priests of nature. And there is no exclusion— all may enter the temple, the prince and the beggar— all may come enrapport with the oracle— all may propound questions, and the answers will be true and righteous altogether. It has been my desire ever since beginning this article to give the names of all those citizens who contributed by their voice and influence, as well as their votes, to the founding of the free State of Oregon, but after listing all that I knew personally and obtaining the assistance of D. ^ . Craig, editor and publisher during those years, I feel sure that the list will fall short of my purpose, and that perhaps some of the most 372 T. W. Davenport. deserving have been omitted. But however faulty in this respect, the reader may rest assured that it is not from want of a desire to recognize merit where merit is due. Many persons of distinction do not appear in the list, for the reason that their sphere of activity did not begin until after the decision of the que^ lOn in 1857. Some others who were prominent as opponents of the ruling Democracy, prior to that event, are not included, for the reason that they were neutral upon the slavery question. The Methodist Episcopal Church North was credited with being anti-slavery, but few of its members engaged individually in promoting free-state sentiment. And so far as I know, even among those who actively engaged in extending the free-state cause, the in- alienable rights of the negro were seldom mentioned. The colored brother had few defenders, and to the others, the low moral tone, or rather the lack of moral tone, observable in Judge Williams' free-state letter, should not have been offensive. MARION COUNTY. D. M. Keene Wm. Porter

E. N. Cooke

Dr. P. A. Davis Dr. Chitwood Leander Davis James Campbell Wm. Engle Jos. W. Davenport John Batchelor

John Denny

Fletcher Denny

Jos. Magone
Wm. Greenwood

J. H. Bridges

Rice Dunbar
Benj. Davenport

Pones Wilbur I. H. Small N. D. Simons Ai Coolidge

Thos. H. Small

=Daii'l Waldo YAMHILL COUNTY. W. H. Odell S. M. Gilmour

Dr. James McBride

Sebastian C. Adams Geo. L. Woods '^W. L. Adams

John R. McBride

T. R. Harrison Neill Johnson W. B. Daniels Aaron Payne PI. V. V. Johnson Slavery Question in Oregon. 373 LINN COUNTY. Ovigen Thompsou Dr. Tate Wilson Blaine Thos. S. Kendall W. T. Matlock W. C. Johnson Thos. Pope J. S. Kynearson B. J. Pengra Joel Ware J. W. P. Huntington Thos. Scott Hiram Smith

John Connor
Htigh N. George
J. B. Condon

CLACKAMAS COUNTY. Leander Holmes Hezekiah Johnson G. H. Atkinson W. A. Starkweather LANE COUNTY. J. H. D. Henderson Thomas Condon DOUGLAS COUNTY. Dr. Watkins

Jesse Applegate.

J. E. Lyle E. D. Shattnck Levi Anderson H. Hicklin Thos. H. Pearne S. Coffin POLK COUNTY. Mr. Olds WASHINGTON COUNTY. S. H. Marsh Mr. Walker A. Hill W. D. Hare MULTNOMAH COUNTY. C. M. Carter J. Terwilliger

T. J. Dryer

Dr. Davis

John C. Davenport
Saml Colver, Sr.
Sam'l Colver, Jr.
Hiram Colver
John Beeson
David Stearns

JACKSON COUNTY.

E. L. Applegate

Lindsay Applegate

John McCall

John Anderson Firm Anderson

Orange Jacobs

♦Those marked with an asterisk have been mentioned in preceding pages.

↑ The following letter by Colonel Baker to William Taylor, State Senator from Polk County at the time, and Ira F. Butler and C. C. Cram, Representatives from the same county, all Democrats, gives Baker's views on the main political issue:
"Salem. September 21st, 1860.

"To Messrs. Taylor, Butler and Cram.
"Gentlemen: As you desire to know my opinions as to the doctrine of intervention, I give them with pleasure. During the congressional canvass in California in 1850, I said in substance in a speech made at Forest Hill, reported in the Union and a copy of which I will furnish you, 'That I was in favor of the doctrine of non-intervention by Congress, or anybody else, with the people of the territories as to their domestic institutions; that I thought it wise and moderate and just to permit them to govern themselves as to slavery as well as other domestic affairs, as they thought fit.' As I thought then, so I think now; and whether in the Senate or out of it, I shall carry out these opinions.
"Very respectfully your friend,

"E. D. Baker."

[p379-1] The following letter by Colonel Baker to William Taylor, State Senator from Polk County at the time, and Ira F. Butler and C. C. Cram, Representatives from the same county, all Democrats, gives Baker's views on the main political issue:
"Salem. September 21st, 1860.

"To Messrs. Taylor, Butler and Cram.
"Gentlemen: As you desire to know my opinions as to the doctrine of intervention, I give them with pleasure. During the congressional canvass in California in 1850, I said in substance in a speech made at Forest Hill, reported in the Union and a copy of which I will furnish you, 'That I was in favor of the doctrine of non-intervention by Congress, or anybody else, with the people of the territories as to their domestic institutions; that I thought it wise and moderate and just to permit them to govern themselves as to slavery as well as other domestic affairs, as they thought fit.' As I thought then, so I think now; and whether in the Senate or out of it, I shall carry out these opinions.
"Very respectfully your friend,

"E. D. Baker."

[1]

Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 9/Slavery Question in Oregon, part 2

Navigation menu

Search