Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/26

10, and General Lane was a thorough-going party man. He was a born politician. He knew how to flatter and please the people. General Gaines had been Governor of Oregon under the Fillmore administration, and had more dignity than affability in his manners. Both candidates were officers in the Mexican War, and General Gaines had been in congress from the State of Kentucky. The Whig convention adopted as a platform, "General Gaines against the world." The democratic platform was made up of the usual platitudes of a party platform. The canvass was somewhat exciting and the candidates indulged in some unpleasant personalities, but the Oregon Statesman, the organ of the democrats, and The Oregonian, the organ of the whigs, exhausted the vocabulary of invective and abuse in speaking of their opponents. The chief speakers for the democrats in this campaign were General Lane, Delazon Smith and Judge O. C. Pratt. Those for the whigs were General Gaines and T. J. Dryer. General Lane was elected, receiving six thousand one hundred and thirty five votes to three thousand nine hundred and eighty-six for General Gaines. Jackson County cast the largest vote of any county in the territory, giving to Lane eight hundred and nineteen and Gaines six hundred and seventy-seven. Marion was next, with a vote of seven hundred and forty-two for Lane and four hundred and seventy-one for Gaines, and Linn next, with a vote of seven hundred and eighty-three for Lane and three hundred and ninety-nine for Gaines. Multnomah at that election gave Lane three hundred and forty, and Gaines two hundred and sixty-seven votes. The proposition for a state government was defeated by a vote of four thousand four hundred and twenty-two for to four thousand eight hundred and thirty-five against it. On the tenth of February, 1855, John McCraken was appointed marshal of the territory.