Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/383

Slavery Question in Oregon. 355 heat of the senatorial conflict had developed the feeling again^st the California interloper who had come to Oregon with no other purpose in view than a selfish ambition to reach a high position to which the people of his adopted State would not elevate him, and this feeling was to be neutralized. Aye, more; for it there must be substituted a broader, higher, nobler and more generous spirit that would have a sovereign contempt for narrow geographical divisions. But to discuss the question was to revive it. So, to the auditors the speech was purposeless, indeed, they were beguiled into forgetfulness of purpose, and were wafted along on a stream of poetical allusion, fervid and inspiring eloquence, charming rhetoric, chaste and temperate compliment, which it wa.s not in human nature to withstand. Next day the atmosphere of Salem was national and gave back no echo to the croakers. Baker had won by enchantment. The motives and inducements which govern in the election of a United States Senator, as the American people have often observed, are not all political or even defensible, and the election in 1860 was no exception to the general rule. Verily, wouldn't an election wherein the electors were actuated by motives pertaining to the general welfare, be worth going far to see ? So, in that pivotal year, political principles of various denomination, partisan prej- udice, personal favoritism and animosity, selfish interests of inscrutable feature; the high and the low, the patriotic and the base, conspired together and from the medley emerged a verdict which was very fortunate for the continuity of the Republic. Fortunately, the clear-sighted historian must regard the denouement, for it gave two votes in the American Senate to the support of the administration of Abraham Lincoln, whereas the election of their opponents, Deady and Williams, would have resulted in leaving the loyal State of Oregon at zero in the national councils, in many matters pertaining to the rebellion. There is no doubt but Judge Williams would have proved equally with Nesmith, a friend to the adminis- tration's policies of conducting the war, but that M. P.