Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/394

 366 T. W. Davenport. was peaceable on the Santiam. The few Yankees up there have not broken the peace, have theyT' "No. But this abolition war has been going on for over two years, and it is time that every Southern man should show his colors. There are a good many more rebels in Oregon than you think. We have a company in the Forks, one in Albany Prairie, one in Benton County, one on the Long '^'om, one in Douglas County, and two in Jackson County, and there are lots of our friends east of tJie Cascades, and we are going to get together in the Forks and make it warm for the nigger worshippers." "Well, suppose you call together one thousand men in the Forks, how will they be fed? You don't expect every soldier to feed himself — that would be a queer sort of an army. There would have to be a commissary department, and that means a treasury with sufficient funds to purchase supplies and pay cost of transportation. Of course you have thought of all this, and that at least ten persons must contribute or be taxed to keep one soldier even in idleness. For a moment, fancy one thousand men camped over at Scio. and living on their own resources, for you know there was never an Ameri- can community willing to donate to support an army even for defense, and you could not levy a tax. For my part, I would be willing to let you try that experiment, for in less than two weeks every man would go home cursing himself, and trying to forget that he was ever such a damn fool. I can assure you, however, that no such military gathering in opposition to the United States authorities would be permitted, and if your sympathizing brethren were so reckless as to resist the order to disperse, they would be arrested at all hazards and sent to jail. The proper place, in my judgment, would be the asylum for idiots and the insane. The Confederate flag would not cover them as prisoners of war." "Ben, do you suppose we are such cowards as to surrender, and while they are arresting us, some of them would be snuffed out."