Labor was to be performed by a class of persons from any of the dark races, invited to California, and subsequently reduced to slavery. Such was the bold and unscrupulous scheme to which Lane had lent himself, the discovery of which caused mingled indignation and alarm. The alarm was not lest the plan should succeed, but lest an internecine war should be forced upon them to prevent its success. But this was not all. The war debt still remained unpaid. The next congress would be largely republican. Oregon was democratic, and with such a record—of having voted in the Charleston convention for secession—how was the payment of that debt to be secured? It was thus the people reasoned, while those whose places depended upon the will of the administration, now openly in sympathy with the seceders, were deeply troubled what course to pursue in the approaching crisis. In the mean time, the republican national convention at Chicago had nominated to the presidency Abraham Lincoln, and the keenest interest was felt throughout the union in an election which was to decide the fate of the nation. For it was well understood that if the republicans carried the country against Douglas, as the Breckenridge and Lane nomination seemed to promise, and as it was believed to be intended, the south would make that a pretext for disunion.
As soon as the full results of the Charleston, Baltimore, and Washington conventions became known, a meeting of the state democratic central committee was held at Eugene City, which, having a majority of Lane democrats, proceeded to indorse the Breckenridge and Lane nominations. This action alarmed
this scheme. Should the southern states succeed in withdrawing from the union and setting up a southern confederacy, and could a line of slave territory be kept open from Texas to the Pacific, the Pacific coast would combine with the south. But in view of the probable wars in which the aggressive policy of the southern states was likely to involve their allies, Gwin was in favor of a separate empire or republic. The plan pointed out the means of procuring slaves, which was to invite the immigration of coolies, South Sea Islanders, and negroes, who were to be reduced to slavery on their arrival. It was the discovery of this conspiracy which gave the California senator the title of Duke Gwin. S. F. Times, in Or. Statesman, Dec. 10, 1860.
