Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/69

 POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 61 and Brown a minority report. O. Humason of Wasco moved that both reports be referred to a new committee, without reading. The motion carried by the close vote of 71 to 68, the new committee comprising Humason, J. C. Hawthorne, J. F. Miller, John Whiteaker, Chas. Hughes. Their report, presented the next day, was accepted. The struggle in the first committee suggests the expiring efforts of Johnson's friends in Oregon for Democratic vindication of the President. The platform was even longer than that of 1866, covering a range from a declaration in favor of liberal Congressional aid for a judicious system of railroad improvement in Oregon to a resolution of sympathy for the Irish in their struggle for civil liberty. It opposed the "sharing with servile races the priceless political heritage achieved alone by white men." The recon- struction acts and the usurpation by Congress of judicial and executive functions were denounced with a gusto which left nothing to be desired. There were the usual resolutions de- claring for the sacredness of the Constitution, limited powers of the federal government and the sovereignty of the states over their internal affairs. The platform called for the equali- zation of the burdens of taxation, the payment of the public debt in like currency as contracted and the taxation of United States securities. S.F.Chadwick, John Burnett and J. H. Slater were nominated as Presidential electors. As delegates to the National Demo- cratic Convention, N. M. Bell, W. W. Page, O. Joynt, Beriah Brown and P. P. Prim, were chosen. Hayden presented a reso- lution instructing them to vote for G. H. Pendleton as the Democratic candidate for President. Brown opposed it vigor- ously, asserting that he never had and never would serve under instructions. This was but an echo of the struggle in the committee on resolutions. Hayden suggested to Brown that he could easily resign, which the latter promptly did. J. C. Avery was elected delegate in his place and the Pendleton resolution was adopted. The apparent inconsistency between the Pendleton instructions and that plank of their platform