wealth was badly needed to withstand the forces of rebellion. So it may be seen that any diversion from the well understood, popular course, would have been disastrous to the cause of both union and liberty, and under the conditions then existing speeches in the convention relating to slavery would not have been tolerated a moment, and any one attempting such would have been rated as "non compos mentis." Evidently Judge Williams never attempted such a flagrant departure from common sense and the prevailing deference to the wishes of the Oregon electorate.[1]
After the constitution was placed before the people it would not have been out of place or inconsistent with the Douglas doctrine for the Judge to< have gone out canvassing for a free state. But he did not do it. His sole service for free institutions in Oregon was his eloquent and unanswerable free state letter printed in the Oregon Statesman on the 28th of July, a short time before the meeting of the constitutional convention.
Doubtless Judge Williams preferred free institutions among which he was born, reared and schooled; but, like most persons in the Northern states, having a strong desire for political promotion, never permitted his anti-slavery sentiments and preferences to interfere with his political aspirations. He accepted a federal judgeship in Iowa by appointment of President Pierce, a position he could not have reached unless he was known to be a National Democrat,—that is, an apologist for slavery or opposed to agitating the question; for at that time the democratic party was completely dominated by the slave power, and a man could not get the lowest position in the government, not even a chain carrier in a surveyor's gang, unless he was known to be, in the slang of the day, "sound on the goose."
In his speech at the celebration of the 40th year of Oregon statehood, he described his attitude respecting chattel slavery, by saying that having been brought up in the North he had
- ↑ Contemporary reports of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention in the Oregon Statesman and in the Oregonian bear out Mr. Davenport's contention.—Editor Quarterly.
