Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/240

 216 T. W. Davenport. this was the kind of party supposed to be normal to our form of government. There is no better evidence of the predomi- nant selfishness of those in control of the great political parties than the admission by them that political parties are impracticable without official rewards for partisan service. Certainly such parties could not survive a change of that character, and well they could not, for the government dis- sociated from the spoils system would become responsive to the g^^neral interests and the people being emancipated from partisan control and freed from partisan employment would exercise their faculties in the solution of social problems and striving for improvement. I have deemed it proper to dwell at some length on the nature and tendency of political parties as they have existed in the United States, in order to account for the astounding discrepancy between the conduct and character of men as private citizens engaged in productive industry, and their doings as partisans. That while in matters and things non- partisan, as neighbors and fellow citizens, they are com- municative, candid, kindly, reciprocal and regardful of the general interests, yet they seem to think it proper, when en- gaged in works called political, to do whatever is necessary to maintain or promote party supremacy, which in practice means to yield obedience to the controlling powers of the party. And though they may admit that some things done by the party or individuals of the party may be wrong, yet their party is better than its opponent, and in general main- tain the maxim "our party right or wrong." And especially is it -desirable to think of this aspect of life when viewing the attitude of the largest portion of the Oregon people, with ref- erence to the slavery question after its reopening by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, and the injection of the squatter sovereignty doctrine into American politics by the over-ambitious "Little Giant," Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. After a long and extensive acquaintance with the Oregon pioneers, I am constrained to declare them an exceptionally