Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/348

 340 W. C. WOODWARD other Union documents; also to labor with honest men likely to be controlled by old party associations, to get them to realize the enormity of the situation, with the disgrace which would result if they adhered to the false advice of pretended "Union but peace" men. The Argus spoke, December 21 in a leader on the "Next June Election." That there should be united action on the part of those supporting the Administration, was freely ad- mitted. It disapproved the idea held, as it said, by some Re- publicans that a full Republican ticket should be nominated without taking any steps toward securing the co-operation of the loyal portion of other political parties. However, it strong- ly objected to the plan of attempting to blend two parties, hitherto antagonistic and unrelentingly hostile on vital issues, into one party, upon a common platform. It declared that no bond of union would be strong enough to hold them together ; that it would be building a structure that sooner or later must be torn down. It favored one of two plans : first, the nomina- tion of a Union ticket by a state Republican convention ; or, second, the holding of separate conventions by the Republicans and Union Democrats these two conventions to confer to- gether and agree upon a ticket satisfactory to all parties. The partisan Republican attitude was clearly expressed in a letter to the Argus written by C. Hoel of Salem, dated Decem- ber 20. It was directly in answer to the Statesman, which had said that it would willingly accord the Republicans a monopoly of the renown if it thought they they, single-handed, could best conserve the Union's existence. But it was not to be as- sumed, added the Statesman, that the Republican party would be able to do all the fighting, furnish all the means and do all the voting necessary to putting down the rebellion. Hoel replied that if the proposition to be inferred from this were true, the portion of the people carrying the elections would have to pay all the taxes. He aptly reminded the Statesman that when, during the last Indian War it had insisted that all military appointments should be confined to the Democrats, it