Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/73

 POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 65 more to the point, practically one-third of this increase was registered in the three northeastern counties alone Union, Grant and Baker which were steadily being populated by the Southern emigrants. And it is not to be supposed that these three counties received all this emigration. Five months later the Democrats carried the state for Sey- mour against Grant, for President. But in the November elec- tion the Democratic majority, 165," was so small that the influence of "Price's Army" as a determining factor in the po- litical readjustment in Oregon was more than ever pronounced. In an editorial on the result, "Oregon a Lonely Mourner for the Lost Cause," the Oregonian announced : "Price's rebels have once more come to the relief of the Copperhead cause. The reinforcement was opportune." The suggestive, though highly colored characterization of the much heralded "army" followed: 100 "It appears that Price's boys in Eastern Oregon can be relied on to give any required majority for the restora- tion of the 'Lost Cause.' The nomadic rebel Democracy of the country lying between the waters of the Missouri and up- per Columbia, combining the characteristics of the wild Indian and the unreconstructed rebel, can change about from one place to another to suit the exigencies of elections, voting now in Oregon, again in Idaho, Montana or Washington and back again in Oregon when the next occasion requires. . . . They constitute the Democratic flying brigade, operating on the frontier. It is anything but agreeable to have a majority of the actual voters of the state beaten by this wandering rebel horde who live nowhere and help to bear none of the burdens of government." Whatever the influences to which the returning Democratic majorities of 1868 were attributable, the fact remained, the ante-bellum political status in Oregon had for the time been re-established. Upon the new issues which had arisen, two distinct parties had aligned themselves. Upon these and ever new occurring issues the future political battles of the state 99 Daily Oregonian, Dec. 4. 100 Daily Oregonian, Nov. 10.