ecessors but early in 1848 he resigned because of the censorship exercised over his editorials. In his final adieu he says he refused to edit a one man paper (referring to Gov. Abernethy) edited in that man's interest, as demanded; hence his dismissal. He strongly deprecates the establishment of a censorship of the press in Oregon.[1]
For one year, February, 1848, to February, 1849, Aaron E. Wait was editor of the Spectator. That paper was issued on September 7, 1848, suspended, and then resumed October 12, 1848, explaining, "That 'gold fever', which has swept about 3,000 of the officers, lawyers, physicians, farmers and mechanics from the plains of Oregon into the mines of California, took away our printer also—hence the temporary non-appearance of the Spectator." Wait's connection with the Spectator ceased February 22, 1849, and the paper was edited in a desultory and irregular sort of fashion until October 4, 1849, when it appeared with Rev. Wilson Blain as editor and George B. Goudy as printer. On April 18, 1850, Robert Moore appears as owner with Blain as editor, but in September D. J . Schnebly appears as editor and announces that hereafter the Spectator will be a weekly at $7 per annum.
Beginning with volume six, number one, September 9, 1851, Schnebly appears as owner, and C. P. Culver, associate editor after November. By February of 1852 the Spectator had become a distinctly political journal with Whig tendencies. In March, 1852, it suspended, not to appear again until August, 1853. It gradually grew weaker and was sold to C. L. Goodrich in March, 1854, and was permanently suspended by him in March, 1855.
This, the first newspaper on the Coast was not a great factor in shaping the political destiny of Oregon Territory. The Spectator had been published under all the difficulties of the frontier. Mail communication and
- ↑ Spectator, January 20, 1848.
