POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 57 Union party. In the policy of reconstruction he was now valiantly holding to a conservative or middle position. This did not suit Oregon politicians who "would that he were either hot or cold." He was in the position of the Statesman lead- ing a cause which had few followers. Individuals might dream of third parties, founded upon the policy of the President, the utterances of the Philadelphia Convention or "any other nar- row isthmus between these two great oceans of popular senti- ment and passion." 81 But it was all a dream and especially in Oregon. Differing with him as to the policy to be pursued toward the South, 82 Judge Deady, quondam pro-slavery Demo- crat, had in July written his friend Nesmith frankly of the situation : "I believe that you have more friends in the Union party than the other,, but the Union party of this state, particu- larly the brains and conscience of it, is thoroughly on the side of Congress and against Andy. And I do not think any per- sonal considerations (and all these are in your favor) will induce them to support anyone for the Senate that does not agree with them on this issue and all questions included in it." In a word, Nesmith was crushed between the upper and nether millstone. The Republicans considered him a Democrat, which was not unnatural, considering that he had been elected as such, had supported McClellan and was now the supporter of Johnson, and opposed the Republican policy anent the freed- men. On the other hand, the rock-bound, unreconstructed Democrats hated him with a cordial hatred. They disliked him politically for the support of the war and they cherished against him a personal grudge for his alliance with the Republicans in I860, which sent him to the Senate and resulted largely in the overthrow of the Oregon Democracy. The situation in which Nesmith found himself was more than suggestive of the general situation in Oregon. Political differentiation had been effected 1 i Ibid. 82 "Although I think you are altogether estray in your present political predilections, yet you are as likely to come around right as others who might start in so." Deady to Nesmith, Aug. 14, 1866.
