Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/340

 332 W. C. WOODWARD through the land, are the friends of the Union to take advice from its enemies and forbear to use a harmless precaution?" Flag raisings were opposed by the Southern sympathizers as tending to fan animosities and incite sectional enmities. Vio- lence was threatened in some cases if the determination to raise the Stars and Stripes were persisted in. Adams claimed to believe that nine- tenths of those opposing Union meetings and flag raisings, did so, not from disloyalty to the government, but from a silly belief that they were Republican demonstra- tions; that in this belief they were encouraged by the leaders of secession in Oregon. He stated that in passing through the country he found that all the Douglas Democrats and nine- tenths of the Breckinridge Democrats were loyal and opposed the efforts of secession organs to make party capital out of na- tional troubles, while they lauded the patriotic position of the Statesman and Portland Times. But Adams' estimate was evi- dently like election forecasts given for a purpose. On May 28, Gov. Whiteaker issued a long address to the people of Oregon on the situation, in which, while professing loyalty to the Union, he took strong grounds against Union meetings and disapproved the war. 1 The following sentences from the message are of no little significance, coming as they did with the official sanction of the state government : "These are not Union meetings, but are creating disunion directly in our midst. . . I suspect that there is about as much patriot- ism to be, found among those who have no anathemas for any portion of the country even if they do not think the Union can be preserved by the sword, as in the hearts of those who cry havoc and blood at every breath. ... In God's name what good is this war to bring the country ? None ; positively none." The weight of the official sanction, however, was not sufficient to deter the militant "Parson" from branding "poor fiddling Whiteaker or 'Old Cat-Gut' " as "the biggest ass in the state" and "at heart as rotten a traitor as Jeff Davis." 2 The attitude of Oregon's Southern Democracy is exemplified 1 Union, Tune 8. 2 Argus, June 8.