Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/270

262 V. C. WOODWARD mocracy of the several counties represented, to a cordial sup- port of the National Democratic nominee. After the withdrawal of the eight counties from the con- vention, a committee of one member from each remaining county, reported the names of Lane, M. P. Deady, and Stout as delegates to the national convention. The committee on resolutions, on which was L. F. Mosher, son-in-law of Lane, reported the following: "Resolved That we recommend to the consideration of the Charleston Convention as a candidate for the office of chief magistrate, our distinguished fellow citi- zen, the Hon. Gen. Joseph Lane, and our delegates are in- structed to use their best efforts to secure his nomination for the office of President or Vice President, and that we pledge the Democracy of the state to support cordially the nominee of the Charleston Convention, whoever he may be." In this man- ner, through resolutions, did Mosher very cleverly get a "unan- imous" declaration for Lane, in the face of the fact that even of the eleven counties which remained after the bolt, Josephine and Clackamas had instructed for Douglas for President; Yamhill for Dickinson and Benton had voted down a Lane resolution. As far as the published proceedings of the various county conventions show, only Lane, Douglas and Jackson had instructed for Lane. The Statesman declared that these "cut- and-dried" instructions for Lane were merely to resuscitate his political popularity and give him some prestige as a candidate for re-election to the Senate. "The Presidential humbug is merely to catch gulls with." 1 The Oregon Weekly Union, anti-Clique organ, thus com- mented on the schism in the Eugene Convention : "A factious minority, heretofore controlling the action of the party, having lost the confidence long reposed in them, failing to coerce the Convention * * * have deliberately withdrawn and propose to form a new organization * * * There can be but one ob- ject in view and that is an Open or Secret Alliance with the Republicans! The whole influence of the Statesman for the i Proceedings, Statesman, Nov. 22.