Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/177

Rh of men whom they regarded as transient, whose places they coveted.

There is always presumably a coloring of truth to charges brought against public officers, even when used for party purposes as they were in Oregon. The democracy were united in their determination to see nothing good in the federal appointees, with the exception of Pratt, who besides being a democrat had been sent to them by President Polk. On the other hand there were those who censured Pratt for being what he was in the eyes of the democracy. The governor was held equally objectionable with the judges, first on account of the position he had taken on the capital location question, and again for maintaining Kentucky hospitality, and spending the money of the government freely without consulting any one, and as his enemies chose to believe without any care for the public interests. A sort of gay and fashionable air was imparted to society in Oregon City by the families of the territorial officers and the hospitable Dr McLoughlin, which was a new thing in the Willamette Valley, and provoked not a little jealousy among the more sedate and surly.