Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/378

 350 T. W. Davenport. quainted since arriving in Oregon, came and asked me why we did not nominate a ticket at the convention. Well knowing that he would use my answer on the canvass he was just starting upon, I said, "We did intend to nominate a ticket, but when we came to consider the matter all round, we thought our cause would be advanced further by voting the Douglas ticket." "Yes, yes, I see," said Uncle Dickey, and off he went to join his companions. And here let me say a word or two relating to him, that, although he was unschooled, he had had a varied and valuable experience in practical matters per- taining to frontier life in Missouri, where he had been a foremost man, a justice of the peace, a pillar of the Baptist church, and being of large and strong mould and courageous disposition, and from habit an advocate of whatever cause he favored, he was influential among his fellow citizens and an opponent that it was not safe to ignore. He had, too, been a member of our constitutional convention. So, Mr. C. P. Crandall of the Douglas ticket was deputed to canvass with Uncle Dickey. At their first debate, I think it was at Sub- limity, Uncle Dickey "took the bull by the horns," as he said, and charged the Bushites with having sold out to the Black Republicans. Crandall, in his reply, remarked that his old friend Miller was not a man to make damaging charges recklessly and asked for his authority. Uncle Dickey did not shy the demand and said that he got it from headquarters, and being pressed for the name of the person said, "T. W. Davenport." Mr. Crandall insisted that his opponent must have misunderstood his informant and wished him to state the exact language used by Davenport. As Uncle Dickey could not recollect the exact words, the allegation was suspended for the time. Crandall called on me the next day and wanted to know if I had told Uncle Dickey that the Bushites had sold out to the Republicans. Certainly I had not, and the language used by me was reported to Mr. Crandall, who at the next meeting entered a specific denial on the authority of Davenport. That evening Uncle Dickey came to see me, sorely perplexed, and