Page:Political Censorship in the Oregon Spectator.djvu/4

238 In his final editorial, Curry vehemently reproved the association and its treasurer, Governor Abernethy, saying: "It [The Spectator] . . . has become the property of one individual, subject to his will, pleasure and dictation and intended to be made the advocate of his peculiar doctrines and opinions—the instrument of his petty ambition." He declared that "since the censorship of the press in Oregon" he had lost all desire to edit the Spectator, preferring to "wait until the time shall come when the truth shall not be interdicted, nor the press muzzled."

Three months later Curry established the second printed English-language newspaper in the Pacific Northwest—named, significantly, the Oregon City Oregon Free Press. It soon adopted a motto: "Here shall the Press the people's rights maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain." Curry's first editorial in the Free Press presented his views about the dismissal:

The Spectator, in its next edition, ignored Curry's comments.

Until August 14, 1848, when the Oregon Country became a Territory, the Free Press served as a mouthpiece for opposition to the provisional government. The newspaper was discontinued on December 16, 1848, when its printer left for the California gold fields, and Curry's health, in his words, had reached a "wretched condition."

Meanwhile, a third newspaper had been founded in Oregon, the Tualatin Plains Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist. Estab-