Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/269

Slavery Question in Oregon. 245 into the Uuiou party and gave Lincoln's administration cordial support. ^Vhen the call for the Union convention was being made, some Republicans objected to going in with the Salem clique," and one of the clique, B. F. Harding, proposed that the "call should be to all citizens regardless of previous political affiliations, excepting the Salem clique," an idea so preposterous that the objectors did the principal laughing. Such qualities as the Statesman editor possessed, made his office at once a harbor of refuge, the headquarters of of- fense, an arsenal of assault against the quips and anathemas of its foes, and by such employment rendered its party unconscious of the actinic rays of civilization which every- where else were dispelling the gloom of the still surviving barbarism. In this aspect was it not a criminal conspiracy against light and knowledge, as truly so as any partisan pur- pose for merely personal ends? Of course I recognize this to be an after-view, from a standpoint elevated by years of costly experiences and social accumulations of an ethical and economic character, and therefore not a proper estimate of individual character at that time, but partisanism, though declining, is still in the ascendant and is as great a menace to progress in truly democratic government as ever. In the editor of The Oregon Argus, William L. Adams, the States- man editor found a foeman worthy of his steel. He is de- scribed by George H. Himes in his history of the press of Oregon as a forcible political writer and speaker," also as "a master of cutting invective; fearless and audacious to the fullest degree; had the pugnacity of a bulldog, never happier than when lampooning his opponents, and his efforts were un- tiring." No doubt these were the qualities called into active exercise by the kind of politics which ruled in Oregon during Mr. Adams' career as editor of The Argus, but a larger view should be taken of him. Before coming to Oregon he had been a teacher and preacher in the Campbellite denomination and held his principal function and duty in life to be that of a reformer, a worker for the dissemination of truth, and was