Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/246

 238 W. C. WOODWARD which might threaten the unity and harmony of the party organization. It has been seen how such unity was endan- gered by the rise of the slavery question in Oregon and by the Dred Scott decision. Further trouble was encountered in the attempt to maintain harmony in the face of the disagree- ment between President Buchanan and Douglas over the Lecompton constitution in Kansas. The reflection of this controversy is first found in Oregon in January, 1858. 1 In February Bush expressed his opinion privately in favor of Douglas' position. 2 Publicly, he approached the question very gingerly and in the Statesman did his best to belittle and smooth away the apparent discord between the two national Democratic leaders. "There is no difference between the President and Mr. Douglas in matter of any vital principle in- volved," he declared. 3 After epitomizing Buchanan's conten- tions, he said, "Mr. Douglas denies all these conclusions and raises issues of fact tending to vitiate their basis." This was as near as Bush came in 1858 to supporting Douglas with whom he was in sympathy. Having summed up the situation diplomatically, he added the words of paternal admonition, "We cannot encourage our (Oregon) Democracy to turn much attention to this subject until it shall assume more tan- gible shape or involve some more important principle." The Linn county Democrats, whose declarations in conven- tions were generally those of the Democratic orator and leader, Delazon Smith, asserted that the Kansas difficulty could never rise to the dignity of a national issue ; that they regarded the difference of opinion between President Buchanan and Sen- ator Douglas as "both honest and courteous"; that "members of the Democratic party may everywhere differ in opinion to i "Jo Lane's Times which had just committed itself and the Oregon Democ- racy to the Douglas and Walker horn of the Kansas swindle, has changed its coat since Jo Lane has sent in his instructions, and came out last Saturday with a flaming endorsement of Buchanan's plan of subjugating Kansas, although it still contends that the Constitution should have been submitted to the people of Kansas." Argus, Jan. 30. 2"As to the position of Buchanan and Douglas they are both right in one sense. I think Douglas' position is undeniably correct. . . . But the conduct of the free state men in Kansas, in refusing to vote for delegates to the Consti- tutional Convention, leaves them without much right to complain and I am not not certain but that I would vote for the Lecompton Constitution if I was in Con- gress." Letter, Bush to Deady, Feb. 12, 1858. 3 Statesman, March 2,