Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/301



In the Oregon Journal of April the 4th of this year, the same day on which the above named person departed this life, a staff editor of that paper gave quite a lengthy account of the public services of the deceased statesman, with an earnest desire, no doubt, to be entirely accurate in every particular. But, as often happens, there was an error or two which should be corrected, and I have waited four months for some one more intimately acquainted with Judge Williams than myself to make the correction.

I have felt so kindly to the Judge on account of the inestimable public services he performed at a time when the Nation was passing thru its most critical period, that I would not give voice or pen to lower the tone of what I might consider extravagant eulogy; but in this case, as the writer has credited him with services he never performed (I should say, charged him with acts of which he was not guilty), I am moved to the task of setting the matter straight before it is quoted as veritable history. The Judge was a member of the Convention which framed the Oregon Constitution, and the Journal writer made the statement that he (the Judge) made speeches in the convention in opposition to slavery and after the convention had finished its labors and before the vote was taken upon the organic law, he canvassed the Territory in advocacy of a free state. Now, neither of these statesments is true, and any one well acquainted with Judge Williams would set them down at once as being inconsistent with his known character.

It was well understood by the people of the Oregon Territory that the question of slavery therein would be decided by a popular vote, and that the functions of the constituent assembly in relation thereto would be fully performed when it had adopted a form of submitting it to the people. So it will be