gaps left by his lack of formalized education. That he did well is attested to by the forceful style and eloquent appeal of his later editorials.
Owen was married at twenty-one, and became the father of a family of six—two sons and four daughters. He remained a printer until 1850, when, leaving his family in New York State, he journeyed to Callfornia by way of the Isthmus of Panama. A few months later he returned to New York, but came back to California in 1851. Obtaining employment as a messenger on the Sacramento River for the firm known as Gregory's Express, which was shortly after sold to Wells Fargo & Company, he remained at this work until 1853 when he again returned to New York.
For eight years the future editor of the Mercury appears to have been busily employed as farmer and teacher. For three years of this time he served as superintendent of schools for Cayuga County, and in 1857 he was elected to the assembly of the State of New York.
In 1861, just a few months before the beginning of the Civil War, Owen moved his family to San Jose and there established his home. Soon after his arrival, he and Benjamin H. Cottle purchased the San Jose Telegraphy changed its name to the Mercury and began immediate publication with Owen as editor. Owen and his paper gained a national reputation. Politically the editor was Republican, and throughout the war he was in the main loyal to Lincoln.
The second phase of his political career began in 1 862 when he was elected to the California legislature as a representative from Santa Clara County. He was reelected in 1863 and was Speaker pro-tem during part of his second term. From 1882 to 1885 he was a trustee of the State Library. He retained his affiliations with the Mercury until 1885, and he died in San Francisco in 1895 at the age of sixty-eight.
The second newspaper in San Jose was the Tribune^ a weekly which was established in 1854. In 1855 it was sold to George O'Daugherty. He vigorously opposed the Republicans in general and the Mercury in particular during 1 861 and 1862. The Tribune was suppressed for eight months in 1862 and 1863, by order of General George Wright, for alleged seditious activity. It resumed publication later in 1863, but was shortly afterwards sold to Francis B. Murdoch, a Republican.
II. REACTION OF THE MERCURY TO GOVERNMENT POLICIES DURING THE CIVIL WAR
Although the immediate cause of the Civil War was the question of the preservation of the Union, by October 1861, the editor of the Mercury was of the opinion that the end of the war would see the end of slavery in the United States.^ That the Federal Government intentionally had been careful to evade the slavery question in the early stages of the war was conceded by
