Six years later, on returning from Yreka, California, where he had made some money, he was elected state senator. At that time he was a leader in the organization of the new Republican party in Oregon. His service to the party, and later, to Abraham Lincoln, was such that, after his election to the presidency, Lincoln appointed Adams collector of customs at Astoria. Lincoln was a subscriber for the Argus before his nomination for president.
Adams chose Oregon City as the scene of his first journalistic labors; and, with David Watson Craig, one of the best-loved figures in pioneer Oregon journalism, as his foreman and right-hand man, he got out his first issue of the Oregon Argus April 21, 1855.(86)
Adams was almost an ideal political organizer. He was (87) "Fearless and audacious to the fullest degree, had the pugnacity of a bulldog"—just the kind of "happy warrior" for the occasion. At the "Free State Republican convention" held in Albany, February 11, 1857, he was appointed chairman of a committee of three to prepare an address to the people of Oregon.
After four years at the helm of the Argus he turned the paper over to Craig, who continued it until its consolidation with the Oregon Statesman at Salem, October 24, 1863. George H. Himes (88) and Joseph Gaston (89) credit Craig with much of the writing for the Argus attributed to Adams. While Gaston gives the impression that the best of the work was Craig's, Himes, who also knew both men intimately and followed their work with the interest of journalist and historian, divides the credit between them. While Craig did, anonymously, set up a good bit of original editorial for which he received no public credit, Adams did a lot himself, and his talents have not been overrated,
People were as slow paying newspaper subscriptions as they always have been settling with the doctor; that sort of thing was the undoing of Dryer on the weekly Oregonian. This letter received by Mr. Craig not long before the Argus was merged in the Statesman, may indicate why it proved too difficult to keep the Argus going (90):
Belpassi, Jan. 9, 1863Mr. D. W. Craig,
Dear Sir
There is a man living near Oregon City that is owing me 16 dollars that is now due. I have written to him to pay it to you. If he does not pay it I ask your indulgence until the first of May as I will then have other means coming in to pay you.Yours truly,
W. H. Goudy.
The following news-editorial in the Argus May 7, 1859, is typical of the way in which news and editorial were combined in
