OREGON'S NOMINATION OF LINCOLN 209
trict of Columbia in the roll call, was interrupted twice by a voice, "How about Oregon ?" Whereupon he answered :
"Oregon is a constituted State and there was no question about Oregon."
Evidently the voice was not informed that Oregon had been admitted as a State fifteen months before, on February 14, 1859
Oregon spoke again when the convention was considering the report of the committee on resolutions and platform. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, moved to amend by inserting a clause of the Declaration of Independence, relating to the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This amendment was lost, after Thayer, proxy from Oregon, said :
"I agree with the venerable delegate from Ohio [Giddings] in all that he has affirmed to this convention concerning the privileges of the Declaration of Independence. There are also many other truths than are enunciated in that Declaration of Independence truths of science, truths of physical science, truths of government, and great religious truths; but it is not the business, I think, of this convention, at least it is not the purpose of this party, to embrace in its platforms all the truths that the world in all its past history has recognized. (Applause.) Mr. President, I believe in the ten commandments, but I do not want them in a political platform."
"Giddings left .the convention and then, to placate him, his amendment later was adopted, on motion of George William Curtis, of New York, one of the youngest delegates from that State.
"The platform was adopted amid demonstrations of the wild- est enthusiasm," says Holland's The Life of Abraham Lincoln (chap, xv.) "An eye witness of the scene says: 'All the thou- sands of men in that enormous Wigwam commenced swinging their hats, and cheering with intense enthusiasm ; and the other thousands of ladies waved their handkerchiefs and clapped their hands. The roar that went up from that mass of ten thousand beings is indescribable. Such a spectacle as was pre- sented for some minutes has never before been witnessed at a convention. A herd of buffaloes or lions could not have made a more tremendous roaring/ "
We have narrated Oregon's part in the momentous con- vention that took three days at Chicago, May 16-17-18, 1860, to choose the Great Emancipator and the saver of the Union.
