Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/236

 228 -W. C. WOODWARD ization was most pronounced among the opposition. The Clat- sop county Republicans declared in convention that "whoever is a loyal partisan, of whatever party, is no patriot." In ac- cordance with this sentiment, they stated that they acknowl- edged no allegiance to the Republican party, further than it should adhere to its avowed principles. 1 The Yamhill Repub- licans announced that while believing in the propriety of party organization, they were diametrically opposed to any partisan usage that tended to paralyze the will of the citizens. 2 The first Democratic convention for the nomination of state officers met March 16. 3 It reaffirmed the Kansas-Nebraska doctrine of squatter sovereignty in one resolution of its plat- form and in the next endorsed the Dred Scott decision "as an authoritative and binding exposition !" President Buchan- an was warmly endorsed, leaving the inference that he, in his coercive, Lecompton constitution policy in Kansas was to be supported rather than Douglas, who stood out for that "Kan- sas-Nebraska doctrine" for which the convention so strongly declared ! The famous fifth resolution adopted the year before was reaffirmed. The assembled Democrats, to add the cap sheaf to their illogical resolutions, proceeded to "hail with gratifi- cation the efforts of the Democratic Administration to initiate the construction of the Pacific Railroad" and earnestly called upon Congress to "exercise all its constitutional powers to forward the great enterprise of the age." 4 L. F. Grover, a member of the Salem Clique, received the nomination for Congressman, and John Whiteaker, an irreconcilable, pro- slavery man, was nominated for Governor. Bush, who had been elected from year to year by the legislature as Territor- ial Printer, was nominated for State Printer. This gave him his first opportunity for personal vindication at the hands of the people, in the face of the attacks made upon him as polit- ical autocrat and tyrant. i Argus, March 20. 2lbid., March 27. 3 The different party organizations nominated state tickets in the spring of 1858, so that state government could be put in operation as soon as Congress should pass an act admitting Oregon into the Union. However, members were elected as usual to the Territorial legislature at the June election at the same time that a state legislative assembly was chosen, in view of the fact that Congress might delay action in the matter. 4Statesman, March 23.