Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/435

Rh latter party did not differ, except in its native Americanism, from the republicans. As time passed, however, the republican sentiment grew, and on the 11th of October a meeting was held at Silverton in Marion county, when all opposed to slavery in free territory were invited to forget past differences and make common cause against that influence, to escape which many through toil and suffering had crossed a continent to make a home on the shores of the Pacific. Other assemblages soon followed in almost every county.

When the legislature met in December, it was as it had always been a democratic body, but there were enough opposition members to indicate life in the new movement. Few bills of a general nature were passed, but the drift of the discussions on bills introduced to allow half-breeds to vote, to exclude free negroes from the territory, to repeal the viva voce bill, and kindred subjects plainly indicated a contest before the state constitution could be formed. An act was once