Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/372

 Oregon. While negroes, either slave or free, were not wanted by the majority of the people of the Territory, it was now generally agreed that statehood and slavery should be again submitted to vote as soon as possible, and with those the question whether free negroes would be allowed to settle in the new state.

Dryer was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention as a representative of Multnomah and Wash- ington Counties, by nomination of the Washington County convention of the American party, held April 25, 1857, and that convention declared itself uncondi- tionally opposed to the introduction of slavery into Ore- gon. John R. McBride, then a very young man, was elected from Yamhill County upon nomination of a repub- lican convention opposed to slavery and favoring admis- sion as a free state. Besides these, the free state dele- gates included E. D. Shattuck, John S. White and Levi Anderson of Washington County; Jesse Applegate and Levi Scott of Umpqua County; Martin Olds, R. V. Short, R. C. Kinney, of Yamhill County; David Logan, of Mul- tnomah County; John W. Watts, of Columbia County; William Matzger, Henry B. Nichols and Haman C. Lewis, of Benton County; and W. H. Watkins of Josephine County. These were of various political views, but were mostly old time whigs with pronounced bias in favor of a free state. The remainder of the convention, about forty-two in number, were democrats of various shades.

The platform adopted at Salem, April 13, 1857, at the democrat state convention, which Dryer called "an august body of office holders, office seekers, and Lane worshippers," provided by resolution that in the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention no discrim- ination would be made between democrats favoring or opposing slavery in the future state of Oregon, and the question should be submitted in a separate clause to be voted on by the people.