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148 W. C. WOODWARD crat, Judge Williams had lost caste and influence with his party for no other crime than that of having published an ar- ticle in the Salem organ in favor of a free state. 1 And that while the Judge had been virtually ostracized for writing one letter against the introduction of slavery in Oregon, neither of the editors who were zealous in sowing pro-slaveryism broadcast over the Territory, nor Deady who had made stump speeches for slavery during the last canvass, had failed to raise themselves in the estimation of the "nigger-driving wing, while not a single driven-nigger, so far as we are aware, has had the audacity to whimper a syllable of doubt as to their orthodoxy as Democrats." The viewpoints of the Oregonian and the Argus, the two radical anti-slavery organs, have been given. Their statements are not presented as conclusive evidence. They were prob- ably colored by partisan prejudice. But Dryer and Adams presented the situation as they saw it and it was generally so accepted by their readers. The correctness of the presenta- tion of the conditions made by the Oregonian and Argus and of the conclusions drawn, can be determined to a great degree by the evidence presented by the opposition press. The Statesman was looked upon as a neutral in the con- test. Bush declared that the sole question at issue was "Will it pay?"the moral question scarcely entering into the problem at all. 2 But in warning the "Northern Kansas fa- natics and maniacs" of the results of their agitation, he pre- sented a succinct view of the situation, which, to say the least, strongly corroborates those views given by Dryer and Adams. "Although it cannot now be safely said whether Oregon will be a free or slave state," he wrote in March, he declared that should some New England Emigrant Aid Society attempt to abolitionize Oregon, the latter would certainly enter the Union as a slave state. "Such is the temper of the Oregonians ; they want no outside interference." The sweeping and startling i Infra, page 149. 2"Did our climate, productions and market unquestionably favor slave labor, Oregon would knock for admission into the Union as a slave state." Statesman, March 31, 1857.