Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/351

 POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 343 in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war for the suppres- sion of rebellion, who thought more of country than of party prejudice and who were willing to unite for the election of a ticket upon such a basis without reference to former po- litical associations. All such voters were requested to meet in the several precincts of the various counties on March 22 to choose delegates to county conventions to be held March 29, which in turn would select delegates to a state convention to be held April 9 at Eugene, for the purpose of nominating a Union ticket for state officers and member of Congress. The apportionment of delegates for the various counties was given. The call was signed, first, by H. W. Corbett, E. D. Shattuck and W. C. Johnson, as the Republican State Central Com- mittee; second, by Samuel Hanna, as chairman of the Demo- cratic State Central Committee; third by forty-three more or less prominent members of the two parties, among whom were A. C. Gibbs, Alonzo Leland, John McCraken, W. S. Ladd, R. J. Ladd, S. G. Reed, David Powell, S. J. McCormick, A. L. Lovejoy, D. P. Thompson, R. P. Boise, C. N. Terry, Lucien Heath, B. F. Harding, J. R. McBride, Benj. Simpson, Jos. Magone, R. C. Geer, B. J. Pengra, E. N. Cooke, I. R. Moores. There appeared, following the call, a statement to the Re- publicans of Oregon made by the state committee, explaining and defending its action in not calling a regular Republican convention as it had been instructed to do. The members of the committee disavowed the right or desire to dissolve the Republican organization or to recant any Republican principles. But being unwilling to do anything to distract the Union sen- timent in the approaching canvass, they deemed it unwise to call a party convention with a view to the support of a dis- tinctively Republican ticket. An appeal was made to the loyal people of the state, to Republicans especially, to support zeal- ously the Union movement. In the same issue, the Argus, despite its objections to such a plan, came out in earnest sup- port of the proposed action. In accordance with the call, notices of county Union conventions began to appear. They