Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/27

 POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 19 hoods as Pat Malone 8 has been retailing in much better style for months past. While such men as Malone deserve to be beaten with rods, he of the Salem concern deserves to be thrashed with scorpions. . . . The President's blow at the cause of the rebellion. . . . gave the seces- sion squirt at Salem a long coveted opportunity to plunge his carcass into the stinking pool of treason, with his 'Union' cloak drawn closely round his breech as a tempta- tion to real Union men to follow. The same instinct and innate love of doing something dirty that led this black- hearted villain and white-livered scoundrel, among our Oregon volunteers in 1855, to stab Whigs has now prompted the whining cur to pin his nose to the seat of McClellan's breeches and raise a yell over his removal as a persecution of a Democrat. . . . The whole object of this sheet is to assist in breaking down the Administra- tion. . . . It is for the Union if slavery can be pre- served, to again stink and rule the government. . . . Some men may differ with us, but we have no time to argue with those who are green enough to wish to carry adders in their bosoms till they are stung to death If there is any hope for the success of pure principles in Oregon, Union men must scotch this new head of the hydra-headed snake of secession at once." On the other hand, the feeling manifested toward Bush by the organized Democracy was no more cordial, as is made evi- dent by Malone in the Corvallis Union : "The political harlot of the Salem Vampire has had a new revelation ! He has learned a new 'lesson' from the signs of the 'hour.' But he has reached the end of his tether. The wrigglings of the reptile in his efforts to steal into the Democratic party only breeds a big disgust. "9 In defending himself and like Union Democrats, Bush showed how zealously they had upheld the Administration and only hesitated now at the manifestation of its growing partisan ten- dencies. He charged that there was a growing movement to reorganize the government as well as a rebellion to destroy it, referring to the determined efforts to free the Negroes. He 8 Editor of the Corvallis Union at this time. 9 Quoted in Argus, Feb. 14, 1863.