Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/196



188 DOROTHY HULL

public at this particular time, than was the untimely exposure of the plot by the press.

Although Democracy had been triumphant in 1856, it was soon evident that the breach in the ranks of the party was growing wider and wider. The Civil War in Kansas had served to swell the numbers of the Anti-Nebraska men in Ore- gon, as in all the northern states. Republican organization in Oregon proceeded apace. 1 The Kansas strife also reversed the stand taken by the majority of Oregonians on the statehood question, and in the election of 1857 the vote for statehood was carried by a majority of 5938. 2 The change in sentiment was due to the dread instilled in the hearts of the people lest scenes might in the future be enacted in Oregon correspond- ing to those in "Bleeding Kansas." The securing of state- hood as soon as possible seemed the best method of prevention.

The question of statehood having been once decided upon, the main issue was whether Oregon should be slave or free. This was a question on which the Democratic Party as a Party dreaded to express itself, as a dissension was sure to follow. In order to avoid this shoal the Democratic Party passed a resolution; "That each member of the Democratic Party in Oregon may freely speak and act according to his individual convictions of right and policy upon the question of slavery in Oregon without in any manner impairing his standing in the Democratic Party on that account provided that nothing in these resolutions shall be construed in toleration of black re- publicanism, abolition, or any other factor or organization arrayed in opposition to the Democratic Party."

Many prominent democratic leaders in Oregon took the pro- slavery side, and three out of five democratic papers were rabid advocates of slavery. Hence, although two-thirds of the Democratic Party were probably in favor of a free state con- stitution, there seemed imminent danger .that slavery would be fastened on Oregon. 3

1 Woodward, in The Quarterly, XII, 130.

2 Woodward, in The Quarterly, XII, 135.

3 Argus, Sept. 5, 1857.