Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/40

24 Worth, Bartlett Curl, Asa McCully and James P. Tate, of Linn; Joseph Bayley, John Duval and R. B. Cochran, of Lane; G. W. Keeler, J. B. White and J. N. T. Miller, of Jackson; Ira F. M. Butler and C. C. Cram, of Polk; Robert Mays, of Wasco; B. Stark and A. C. Gibbs, of Multnomah; A. Holbrook, W. A. Starkweather and H. W. Eddy, of Clackamas; Samuel Parker, Robert Newell. C. P. Crandall and B. F. Harding, of Marion; M. Crawford and S. M. Gilmore, of Yamhill; Wilson Bowlby, E. W. Conger, of Washington; J. W. Huntington, of Umpqua; and George T. Vining, of Josephine. B. F. Harding was elected speaker of the house.

Soon after the legislature assembled it became apparent that there was to be a fusion between the Douglas democrats, as they were called, and the republicans, in consequence of which Senators Berry, Brown, Florence, Fitzhugh, Monroe and McIteeney, friends of Lane and Smith, vacated their seats, and, as the saying was then, "took to the woods.' This left the senate without a quorum. Warrants were issued for their arrest, but they were not found. Governor Whiteaker made an earnest and patriotic appeal to the absentees to return, and after an absence of ten or twelve days they resumed their seats in the senate. Soon after, a joint convention was held for the election of United States senators. There were fourteen ballots, and the votes, with some scattering, were about equally divided between J. W. Nesmith, E. D. Baker and George H. Williams. On the fourteenth ballot some of my supporters, under the pressure of the Salem clique, went over to Nesmith, and he was elected. The vote on the final ballot stood: For the long term, twenty-seven for Nesmith to twenty-two for Deady. For the short term, twenty-six for Baker to twenty for George H. Williams.