The Articles of the Compact dealt with the method of doing business but Article VIII related to the editorial policy.
"The press owned by or in connection with association shall never be used by any party for the purpose of propagating sectarian principles or doctrine, nor for the discussion of exclusive party politics."
Provision was made for altering any article of the compact except this one. Shares of stock were $10 each.
The editor of the Spectator was Col. W. G. T'Vault, then the postmaster general of the Provisional Government. The association had wanted H. A. G. Lee as editor but he demanded a $600 salary, while T'Vault consented to serve for $300 a year. He set forth the attitude in a significant salutatory.
TO THE PUBLIC
"The printing press, type and materials are owned by the Oregon Printing Association and that association has adopted a Constitution to govern the concerns of the Association as well as the publishing of the newspaper; consequently the Spectator will have to keep within the pale of that Constitution, otherwise it violates the commands of its owners. A large majority of the citizens of Oregon are emigrants from the United States and for the last twenty years politics have there been the order of the day Hence it is to be presumed that a portion of the citizens of Oregon have brought with them their views of policy, entertained while residing in the United States. It might also be expected that the Oregon Spectator would be a political paper; but reason and good sense agree differently. Situated as we are—remote from the civilized settlements of the United States, and at this time having a protection by the Provisional Government of Oregon and having but one interest, the welfare of Oregon and the citizens unanimously .... it would be bad policy to break open old wounds in so doing to create new ones, to discuss politics in the columns of the Spectator— not-
