POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 53 the treatment of Oregon by the two Administrations. In an editorial on "The Difference," Bush says the places will be now rilled by Oregonians and the salaries received and ex- pended at home, instead of being "gobbled up by a set of foreign mercenaries and taken out of the country." The only consolation the Whigs had in the tide of Democratic success was found in the rejection by the Senate of the nomination of the Durham leader, Pratt, for chief justice. 1 General Lane, who was by this time the idol of the Oregon Democracy, re- turned to succeed Gaines as governor on May 16th. But this was merely to gratify the personal desire of Lane, 2 as it was understood that he would run again for delegate, he having in fact been already nominated. He accordingly resigned three days after succeeding Gaines, which elevated Geo. L. Curry, the secretary, to the position of governor. It has been shown that organization of the Democratic party in Oregon was first effected in 1852. It was not com- plete, but the several county conventions had put party tickets in the field and forced partisanship to the front. The issue of the movement as shown in the election results, and the triumphs of the Democracy which followed, served to confirm the Democrats in the determination to perfect a permanent organization. Flushed with success, they entered upon the campaign of 1853 with zeal and aggressiveness. The first Ter- ritorial Democratic convention met at Salem, April llth and 12th, at the call of the Territorial central commmittee, ap- pointed at the Democratic caucus the year previous. Lane was nominated to succeed himself as delegate, receiving 38 votes. M. P. Deady and Cyrus Olney, associate justices, received 11 and 5 votes respectively. The convention expressed itself as feeling the necessity, in organizing the party in Oregon, of making it "thorough, radical and efficient" and appealed for hearty co-operation to this end. It is interesting to note that the spirit of expansion which had taken hold of the National iPratt's confirmation was defeated by Senator Douglas on personal grounds. zLane, Autobiography, Ms., p. 58.
