Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/25

 POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 17 sitionist' and as a matter of course is regaining his health. Sup- porting a government is not his specialty." From the latter part of 1862 onward, from the exigencies arising from the prosecution of a great civil war, many difficult questions of policy arose., as regards both men and measures. The solution of these various questions disclosed the political differences existing in the ranks of those supporting the Gov- ernment, which had thus far been scarcely noticeable. Opposi- tion to Lincoln's administration began to organize. As repre- sentative of this general opposition, and showing the several grounds on which it was based, the attitude of the Oregon Statesman furnishes an excellent example, and as such will be followed in some detail. At the same time that Emancipation was being forecasted as an issue, the personal element was also being injected into the situation by the removal of General McClellan, a Democrat, as commander-in-chief of the armies. 2 Bush's loyalty to McClellan led him to criticize Lincoln severely for trying out so many generals. 3 He accused him of weakness and vacillation in yield- ing his better judgment to the clamor of radicals and fanatics of whom he said: "the nigger is their chief stock in trade." Referring to the Union Democratic victories in the fall elections in the East, Bush interpreted them, not as an expression against the war but as "simply a victory against party dogmas in the conduct of the war."4 He contended that the radical Republi- cans or politicians who had elected Lincoln had cried, "all parties are dead," adding sotto voce, "except the Republican party." Where they were not in the majority they had said, "away with parties," but where they were independent they had run Republican tickets. Democrats were expected not only to cease to become Democrats but to become Republicans, supporting the Administration in all its party measures, a 2 "We have the news of McClellan's removal here. People and papers who know something about the merits of the matters are expending their opinions freely pro and con and it looks as if the matter would be taken into the next Presidential election, provided that political carnival is not deferred until after the war." Deady to Nesmith, Nov. 22. 3 Statesman, Nov. 3, editorial, "The President and His Generals." 4 Statesman, Nov. 17, editorial, "The Lesson of the Hour."