Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/213



Volume VIII]

In response to a suggestion by Professor H. S. Lyman, made several years ago, that I would write an account of the slavery agitation, preceding the vote upon the Constitution, I began this article without any design of writing what might properly be called history, for, not possessing a library sufficiently supplied with data, and not living near the sources of such information, I saw the impracticability of giving more than a rather disjointed and rambling sketch of the leading persons and incidents of that decisive, but, to most people, unimportant period. Mr. Lyman judged, from the fact that I was one of the participants in the so-called agitation and very interested in it, that my knowledge would enable me to write instructively upon the subject, and thus preserve some facts fast passing into oblivion. But facts are not of full value without correlation and an exhibit of the motive which produced them. A homicide may be startling, but the chief interest and instruction relating thereto lies in the answer to