Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/231



ceive the caucus nomination. An unprecedented bitter fight was made against Mitchell but on the third ballot, by the help of a sufficient number of Democrats, he was successful. He had been a candidate during the session of 1882 to succeed Senator Slater, but after 75 fruitless ballots, and at the last moment of the session, Hon. J. N. Dolph, Mitchell's law partner, was chosen.

The effect of this senatorial contest was far-reaching and profoundly affected the fortunes of the two dominant political parties of Oregon for the following twenty years. Direct Railroad Connection. The dream of the Oregon pioneers and, indeed, of many of our national statesmen, that the time would come when there would be railroad connection between Oregon and the eastern part of the United States, was realized on November 24, 1883, when the "last spike" was driven which held the rail that spanned the last gap between the O. R. & N. railroad, building eastward from Portland, and the Oregon Short Line which was extended westward from the Union Pacific. There is a great deal of HENRY viLLAKD history between the first sug gestion of building a road along the forbidding banks of the Columbia River and its actual accomplishment. The difficulties of construction which were overcome on the stretch between Bonneville and The Dalles are said by railroad men to be greater than are to be found on a similar length of line elsewhere in the United States. In some places the workmen were suspended from the tops of cliffs by ropes in order to drill for blasts in the perpendicular walls. At one tirac