Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/316

 308 W. C. WOODWARD majority of four votes, so close was the election. Barton Curl led the ticket. The judgment of Bishop was vindicated. Linn county had always been counted a Democratic stronghold and this revolution in his own county so weakened and discredited Smith that he was practically eliminated as a serious candidate for the United States senate. 1 The hopes of both Lane and Smith were dashed by the general result of the election, by which the political complexion of the ensuing assembly was determined as follows : Lane Dem- ocrats, 19; Douglas Democrats, 18; Republicans, 13. Clacka- mas, Yamhill, Washington and Umpqua counties went solidly Republican. The Douglas ticket won in Marion; the Lane tickets for the most part in Lane, Polk, Benton, Jackson and Josephine. In other counties the results were divided. Sheil, the regular Democratic nominee for Congressman, was victor- ious over Logan by a majority of 103 votes. The Statesman took no notice of this part of the contest. There was no pro- vision in the State Constitution for the choice of a Congress- man at this time, and Bush maintained that the election was illegal and void a mere political trick of the Lane Democrats. In fact it was electing a representative in Congress eighteen months before his term would begin. While engrossed in the excitement of state politics, the Ore- gon politicians were at the same time keeping in close touch with national political affairs and were following the fortunes of the various aspirants for presidential nominations at the approaching national conventions. It is interesting to note who were some of the pre-convention favorites in Oregon. Among the Democrats, while Lane had received the official sanction as the candidate of the Oregon Democracy, it has been shown i Smith refused to consider himself eliminated, as indicated in the following, reprinted from his own paper the Democrat, of Albany, in the Argus, July 21, 1860. This quotation likewise furnishes an example, though somewhat an exaggerated one, of the license indulged in by the Oregon press during this factious period: "Asohell Bush who runs the Salem smut machine, the club-footed loafer Beggs and Nesmith, the vilest and most loathsome creature that wears the human form on the Pacific Coast, are asserting that We are politically dead! Dead!! Never! Never!! No, Never!!! Let these cut-throats, assassins, murderers and their bastard vagabond allies in this county, put that in their pipes and smoke it!!!!"