THE QUARTERLY
OF THE
OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
POLITICAL HISTORY OF OREGON FROM 1853 to 1865.
(Prepared for the "Semi-Centennial History of Oregon." Read before the Legislative Assembly of Oregon on the occasion of its exercises commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the statehood of Oregon.)
On the fourteenth day of February, 1859, Oregon was admitted as a state into the Federal Union. To aid in the commemoration of that event I have been requested at this time and place to read a paper concerning the political affairs of Oregon from 1853, inclusive, to 1865, "all of which I saw and a part of which I was." Time has effaced from my memory many of the interesting incidents of those early days, and all I can hope to do is to state some facts of our early political history not easily accessible, and make a brief record of the names and some of the doings of the men most prominent in that history, which may revive the recollections of the old and be useful to those who have come upon the active stage of life since the above-named period.
Franklin Pierce was inaugurated President of the United States March 4, 1853, and his cabinet was made up as follows: William L. Marcy, of New York,
Secre-
