Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/374

356 and made choice of Ex-governor Gaines, against four other aspirants. The majority being for Gaines on the first ballot, T. J. Dryer and A. G. Henry withdrew, leaving M. A. Chinn and A. Holbrook. Gaines then received sixty-three votes and Chinn three. The convention adopted as its platform, "General Gaines against the world," and the campaign opened. A movement was put on foot by the religious portion of the community to form a temperance party, and to elect members to the legislature on that issue; and a meeting was held for that purpose April 16th, which was addressed by George L. Atkinson, H. K. Hines, and W. L. Adams, the last named a rising politician, who in the spring of 1855 established the Oregon Argus, and advocated among other reforms a prohibitory liquor law. As the paper was independent, it tended greatly to keep in check the overweening assumption of the Statesman, and was warmly welcomed by the new party. The Oregon Argus was printed on the press and with the materials of the old Spectator, which closed its career in March 1855. The editor and publisher, Mr Adams, possessed the qualifications necessary to conduct an independent journal, having self-esteem united with argumentative powers; moreover, he had a conscience. In politics, he leaned to the side of the whigs, and in religion was a campbellite. This church had a respectable membership in Oregon. Adams sometimes preached to its congregations, and was known pretty generally as Parson Billy. The mistakes he made in conducting his paper were those likely to grow out of these conditions. Being independent, it was open to everybody, and therefore liable to take in occasionally persons of doubtful veracity. Being honest, it sometimes betrayed a lack of worldly wisdom. The Statesman called it the 'Airgoose;' nevertheless, 'it greatly assisted in forming into a consistent and cohesive body the scattered materials that afterward composed the republican party.' The Argus continued to be published at Oregon City till May 1863, D. W. Craig being associated with Adams in its publication. Six months after its removal, having united with the Republican of Eugene City, the two journals passed into the hands of a company who had purchased the Statesman, the political status of the latter having undergone a change. Salem Directory, 1871, p. 81. Adams had in the mean time been appointed collector of customs at Astoria by Lincoln, in 1861, and held this position until he resigned it in 1866. In 1868 he travelled in South America, and finally went to New England, where he delivered a lecture on Oregon and the Pacific Coast, at Tremont Temple, Oct. 14, 1869, which was published in pamphlet form at Boston the same year. The pamphlet contains many interesting facts, presented in the incisive and yet often humorous style which characterized the author's writings as a