Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/250

 226 T. W. Davenport. dreaded arbitrament of war, the only possible solution of the question at issue. This retrospect is not indulged as being new to history, but as a side-light to the situation in Oregon at that time, whose people were in far more danger of the introduction of slavery among them than the people of Kansas were at any time. True, they were not harassed by any border ruffian invasion or any flagrant interference of the Washington ad- ministration, but their apathy or rather their slavish subservi- ence to party discipline was truly appalling. There was no election for President in the Territory in 1856 ; no lining up for the war of ballots, and therefore a good time for the people to consult together dispassionately regarding their mutual interests. But upon the great ques- tion which was profoundly agitating the nation, and especi- ally as applicable to themselves, they were (with such excep- tions as will be hereafter mentioned) as silent and uncom- municative as though such matters were light and trifling, or did not at all concern them. It must be kept in mind that more than three-fifths of the Oregon people were partisan Democrats, and as it was known that they were divided in opinion upon the question of slavery in Oregon, although they were united in support of the pro-slavery propaganda at Washington, it was the policy of the party managers not to permit any discussion of the question here, and take no party action whatever. Of course this appeared to be the only rational way to keep the party together. An outside ob- server, given to thinking, and assuming that Democratic peo- ple were sane, would infer at once that the party was held together to subserve some more important purpose than deciding whether Oregon should be a free or slave State, and he would inquire, ''WhatV No doubt he would be some- what puzzled in his quest for the ''what." Tariff, internal improvement by the general government, strict construction of the Constitution, national bank, compromises concerning slavery— or anything the party had ever professed— all had disappeared, swallowed up by the one over-shadowing ques-