Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/393

 OREGON AND CALIFORNIA RAILROAD 351 at present is at a deadlock eleven to eleven, but I am strongly of the opinion that the East Side will finally suc- ceed in getting a resolution through giving the grant to the road that first builds and stocks fifty miles. Yours confidentially, and with high regard J. H. MITCHELL Hon. M. P. Deady, Portland, Oregon. Office of Oregon Central Railroad Co. Salem, Oct. 16 —1868. Dear Sir :- Yours of the 13th inst received and contents noted, and for which I am sincerely grateful. I showed it to Mr. Powell with strict injunction that he was to consider it strictly a confidential communication and I think it had a good effect. Judge Stout has been a friend to our enter- prise from the first, as must be evident to all from the course he has taken in the senate. As to Nez., He has constantly stated that he was not in the fight. He has been over but twice since the Legislature has been in session and then only to remain a day. Mr. Holladay however understands him to be not unfriendly to East Side. Well tomorrow, (Saturday) the great fight will, I presume, take place in the Senate. Both armies of Lob- byists have been resting upon their arms for the past week, but so near to each other that the skirmishing of the picket guards could be occasionally seen by a close observer. Judge, I may possibly be mistaken as to the result, but if I was as sure of $10,000 as I am that we will beat them, I would feel safe on money matters for the next few months. I believe that we will succeed and that too in getting a square designation in favor of East Side. Still while this is the way I figure it, there is, it is true, frequently a 'slip between the cup and the lip' I believe we ought to succeed for I regard that organization on the West Side as one born in fraud, cradled in infamy, and one that ought in Justice as well, to all honest men in Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill Counties, as to the people of the whole State, be perpetually damned— Yours in haste J. H. MITCHELL