Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/399



ADMISSION OF OREGON 371

doing so? Certainly not. I think the Republican party has another, and, to my mind, a less difficult mission to perform, and that is, to preserve its own consistency.

These are some of the palpable objections that have been urged on this floor. I come now to some for which I thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hughes). He has pre- sented to the House some secret objections which the Repub- licans are said to have to the admission of Oregon. The first is, that the Republicans are opposed to the admission of Oregon because it is a Democratic State. Now, sir, does not the gen- tlemen from Indiana understand that the Republican party is not so devoid of sagacity as to fail to see that to reject a young state for the reason that it is Democratic would make it Democratic forever ? Does the gentleman from Indiana find anything in the history of the Republican party which justifies such conviction of its stupidity, as would lead him to say that the Republican party, as a party, is opposed to the admission of a free state because her people had chosen such politics as seemed to them best? Does he not see that sagacious Repub- licans, finding that the Republican party in Oregon is now in a minority of only a few hundred votes, understand that if Oregon be admitted by their action, and were thus set free from the influence of Executive patronage, she would very soon become a Republican State?

But further than that: the gentleman brings up another secret reason why the Republicans would oppose the admis- sion of Oregon. That secret reason is, that, in case of the failure of the people to elect a President, and in case of that election coming to this House, there will be a vote from Oregon against the Republican candidate, which may procure his defeat. Now, does not the gentleman from Indiana under- stand that any such position of the Republican party would secure its defeat? That if it were stupid enough to take a position against the admission of free States, because their Constitutions were not universally approved, it would require more than the vote of one state, either in Congress or out of