242 T. W. Davenport. excuse for existence. A very interesting conference ensued ; a committee was appointed to stir up the apathetic Whigs and invite them to attend the next meeting, but nothing fur- ther came of it. The secretary left out of his report, printed in The Oregon Argus, the name of Dr. Benjamin Davenport and omitted to state the place of meeting, which was credited to Silverton, seven miles distant, and it was so included by the Bancroft historian. The time was not ripe; but there was one consolation, the people sooner or later comprehend and move. There were three more at our meeting than attended Abraham Lincoln 's first meeting. He made the only speech on that occasion, and it was short and to the point. He said: "I knew that Hern- don would be here and I knew that I would be here, but the third person present is more than I expected. Now let us go out and talk to the people." It was sometime, however, and after much talking, that the people heeded the call and were able to, leave the old pro-slavery and non-committal parties. So it always is. Nothing short of an earthquake or some- thing similar can sunder the ties of an average partisan. The proposition to form a State government, submitted to the people by the Legislature of 1853, was defeated at the next June election by a vote of 869 ; submitted again in 1854, it was defeated in 1855 by a vote of 413 ; submitted again in 1855, it was defeated in 1856 by a vote of 249. It was sub- mitted again in 1856 and judging from the decline in the opposition to it, that it would carry at the next election, the Legislature provided that at the June election of 1857 dele- gates should be elected to the Constitutional Convention which should assemble at Salem on the second Monday of August next thereafter, in case the Constitution carried. The Terri- tory at that time had a population of about 45,000, not nearly enough to entitle it to one member of Congress, according to the ruling ratio, but the number of Democratic aspirants to office and the need of three more Democrats in Congress who would side with the South on all questions affecting the in- stitution, were of the necessities which knew no law.
