Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/235

226 Salem that perhaps few realize that it was not always published in that city. When the capital was moved to Corvallis, for a few months in 1855, however, Asahel Bush, printer-publisher-politician, moved along with it, going back to Salem with the final shift of the seat of government back to that town.

The next paper in Benton county—the first that really was a Corvallis institution—was the Occidental Messenger, started by Avery in June, 1857.

The "Ox" became the Democratic Crisis, with Odeneal as editor-publisher in February, 1859. Odeneal, soon tiring of his paper, cast a longing eye on J. H. Slater's bookstore. It happened that just about that time Slater was dreaming of what he could do if he just had a newspaper to play with. So they swapped, and Slater be came the editor-publisher.

The name Democratic Crisis didn't sound business like enough for the new owner, who changed to the Oregon Weekly Union. It supported Breckenridge and Lane in 1860. After the election of Lincoln, Slater urged that Oregon take a neutral stand the impending war, and, May 18, 1861, vowed his unalterable opposition to possible "war of subjugation" in the south. After the firing on Fort Sumter the paper, whose name was becoming a misfit (it was called the Onion by Bush of the Statesman, who had become a strong supporter of the preservation of the Union), grew more outspoken for the secessionists. finally was suppressed by the government in 1863 for pro-southern utterances, as were several other newspapers in Portland, Eugene, Jacksonville, and Albany, and never was revived.

Slater, however, was not the editor at the time of its suppression; that "honor" belonged to Patrick Malone. Slater was of statesmanly stature, it seems. Admitted to the bar while in Corvallis, he later, while a resident of La Grande, became representative in congress and United States senator.

There was considerable pro-slavery sentiment, even, Dr. J. B. Horner says, a certain amount of negro slavery, in the Willamette valley at the time, and war feeling ran high in Oregon. The Corvallis Gazette was established 1862 as a stanch Republican, Lincoln-following newspaper, with T. B. Odeneal as editor. This the same Odeneal who had edited Avery's Ox and the Democratic Crisis, but, like Bush at Salem, he had been converted to the Union cause and the policies of Lincoln. W. F. Boyakin was editor in 1865. Later the 60's William B. Carter, assuming the editor ship, advocated Republican policies and also swung the Gazette over to the support of prohibition, making the paper the official organ of the grand lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars in Oregon. The courage of the temperance policy from a business point of view may be realized when recalled that half the business