Court Scene in Portland
Dogberry. Oh that he were here to write me down—an ass! but, master, remember that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.—Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV, Scene ii.
Breach of the Peace.—Irving vs. Praebsel. Denison presiding. It being already proved, by evidence on both sides, that defendant had assaulted plaintiff without any cause or provocation: held, that he was perfectly justifiable in doing so. It likewise being proved to the satisfaction of the court, by the evidence on both sides, that plaintiff ran away immediately on being assaulted, to save himself from further aggression; held, that plaintiff committed a breach of the peace, and would be held liable for casts. Plaintiff paid the costs. The court adjourned.
"A Daniel! O, wise young judge."
—A Looker-on.
Press freedom and rights were a live topic in those pioneer days, they always have been from the earliest days of printing. The Oregonian commented December 20, 1851, with forceful frankness on an alleged attempt to control the press in its reporting of legislative proceedings, saying:
We find the following in the proceedings of the so-called legislative body assembled at Salem:
"Mr. Waymire offered the following resolution, and pending discussion thereon, the council adjourned:
"'Resolved, by the council, 'That when any editor of any public journal wishes to have a reporter in the council, he shall ask leave, and upon leave being granted, he shall give name of the reporter he wishes to act for him, and he shall be under the control of the council.' (Lost, 6 to 2; Deady absent.)
". . . If this is not going in for the freedom of the press with a whole hog liberality, then we are no judge of bristles."
The fight for press freedom and rights was sometimes confusingly involved with partisanship and newspaper rivalries. A resolution introduced by Delazon Smith, later founder of the Oregon Democrat at Albany and one of the first two United States senators from Oregon, in the lower house of the Oregon legislature, as reported in the Oregonian for December 30, 1854, directs attention both to two pioneer newspaper reporters in the young territory and to the state of reporters' rights in Oregon at that time. The Oregonian handled the situation in the following editorial-news item:
