Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/74

 were to be fought. Whatever its potency might continue to be elsewhere, the rallying cry of "Save the Union!" would no longer win political victories in Oregon.

Having first reviewed the situation in Oregon in the anteTerritorial period, as a basis of political development, the writer has attempted to give a faithful portrayal of the rise of political parties in Oregon; of the manner of their organization and of the influences by which party organization was maintained. It has been the intention to present a view of the political life and activity of this early period. The history of the slavery question in Oregon has been followed in an endeavor to show how extensive and how all-inclusive was the influence of the great National issue. It effected the organization of a new party and the overthrow of the Democratic regime and the disintegration of the Oregon Democracy. The general breaking down of old party lines on the opening of the war and the alignment of the people into the two classes of Union and Disunion, has been shown. And lastly, the process of political adjustment and realignment, growing out of the issues raised by the war, has been followed, leading up through the elections of 1868 which resulted in returning victory for the Democrats.

Having traced the political history of the state to this point of post-bellum readjustment, the purpose of the writer has been fulfilled. The Democratic party maintained in the main its advantage for a few years, after which honors were for a time pretty evenly divided between the two parties. The Republican party gradually assumed the ascendancy again, but the fierce factional struggles which have taken place within its ranks, have many times deprived it of the victories which its numerical superiority would imply. The story of these later political struggles is interesting—partaking often of the dramatic and sensational. However, they were not shaped and dominated by the force of great National and vital issues to the extent that were the earlier political activities, to the period of which the writer has confined his efforts.