With the Cayuse War, the federal government finally acted in Washington, D.C., 18 August 1848, to develop an official form of government over the region of the Oregon Country transferred to American control by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 officially ending the awkward condominium shared with Great Britain since 1818. The new territorial government ushered in new power brokers – aka the Salem Clique – to administer the political machine during the next decade. This setting the stage for a Statehood granted 14 February 1859 with war clouds gathering furiously back in the East.
OREGON COUNTRY
In 1840, the total population of the Willamette Valley – the main non-Native American population to be found in the vast Oregon Country – was 200, not including Native Americans. That included 63 men who were French Canadian. A hundred people had just been brought in by the Methodist missionary movement in the “Great Migration”. By 1850, Oregon was home to 13,294 people, a expansion of well over 6,600 %! New faces brought a lot of changes into the landscape with government reflecting the newcomers.
Settlers in the Willamette Valley tried to come together to form some rules as far as how the vast Country should be run. The treaty of 1818 only said the US and Great Britain were to share political suzerainty over the land. Nothing was said about internal workings of the condominium formed by the two countries. Hudson’s Bay Company, by nature of having the most people in the region with a structure formed by a network of fort-trading posts and a lively trade system with the local Native Americans, was as close to an internal government as there was.
That changed in the 1840’s. The Company tried to make the region their own by denuding much of the Columbia Basin of animal furs. And while that may have worked to squelch American fur trappers from moving in on their monopoly, their tactics had little effect on American emigrants slowly began making the arduous journey west to “new” lands.
PROVISIONAL OREGON
Fur traders began to retire from the Company with many heading to the area in the Willamette Valley known as the French Prairie southwest of Oregon City. The fur trade of Hudson’s Bay began to dry up, as well. The first meetings between local settlers at Champoeg in 1841 to decide how to decide the estate of relatively well-to-do settler Ewing Young split between Americans wanting to form a government and the French Canadians who pushed for settling with a probate court to dispose of the estate in question. The former fur company employees won the first battle.
Two years later, the situation changed. More American emigrants arrived and by a narrow margin, the idea of a government won the day. The Provisional Government of Oregon was founded, though without the formal blessing of either of the two nations claiming sovereignty over the region.
The era of the Provisional Government lasted until the Cayuse War of 1847-1850. With the onset of hostilities, the government found itself sorely pressed to find resources – a problem even in peacetime – to conduct the war with. The condominium had ended with the treaty in 1846 giving the US control south of the 49th parallel. Congress had been slow to act in forming the region into a territory because of the usual question of slavery. There were only a couple of slaves in the region at the time with most of the emigrant population in favor of not only keeping slavery out of the area, but all African Americans, free or not, as well. The need for settler protection finally broke the logjam and Oregon was formed into a slave-free territory 14 August 1848.
NEW TERRITORY
Unlike the Provisional Government which allowed all tax-paying residents the right to vote for political office holders, the territorial government – a governor, marshal, secretary, territorial attorney and a three-judge supreme court – consisted of offices held by appointees filled by the President. Local residents were given a say in a two chambered Oregon Territorial Legislature filled by elections each year.
The first governor of the new territory was Joseph Lane. Lane, a Democrat, had held office in Indiana prior to going off to Mexico as a brigadier general at the head of Indianan militia to fight in the Mexican War in 1846. He and his men represented themselves during the war. As a reward, Democratic President James Polk made him the first governor.
Lane came west over the Oregon Trail that winter accompanied by the territory’s first marshal, Joseph Meek – he played a role earlier in the year getting Congress to finally act in light of the Whitman killings in late 1847. They reached Oregon City 3 March 1849. The Provisional Government ceded power to the new Territory.
An initial census showed 8,785 Americans and 298 foreign citizens lived in the new territory – another 68% increase in population would record over the next year. With new settlers flooding into the country, this meant that politics were both lively and changeable.
NEW GOVERNOR
Because territorial officers were appointed by the President, that meant a change in political power in Washington was reflected in Oregon. Sure enough, Polk earlier ran as a one-term President. In 1850, he gave way to Zachary Taylor who ran on the Whig ticket. Only after a little more than a year as governor, Lane resigned in favor of the new appointed governor John Gaines. Gaines, a Kentuckian who also served in the Mexican War as a major, was not the first choice of Taylor – Abraham Lincoln was but turned down the post. Gaines, a Whig, never had much of a chance running Oregon because of the vast numbers of Oregonians supporting the Democratic party. Two of his daughters died on the ship voyage to Oregon in Brazil from yellow fever. His wife died shortly after their arrival falling off a horse and getting run over by a wagon.
A NEW NEWSPAPER
Early on in his tenure as governor, Gaines ran afoul of Asahel Bush, a young man brought west by Samuel Thurston, the first elected territorial delegate to Congress. The position of territorial delegate was more of a lobbyist and observer with no actual vote. Thurston was able to defeat James Nesmith in a rambunctious election. He wholeheartedly set in to promote Oregon back east, as well as his own career back in Oregon. What better way to do that then to establish a newspaper to promote his views. But since he was back in Washington most of the time, he needed to bring in a young 26 year-old Asahel Bush to launch and edit his new paper, the Oregon Statesman.
A YOUNG EDITOR
While Thurston kept himself busy trying to get Congress to pass a new version of the former Provisional Government’s Donation Land Act – 320 acres to single men and 640 for a couple, Bush launched the Statesman 28 March 1851. Oregon City already had one newspaper, the Oregon Spectator, which had a five-year start. But whereas, the Spectator was relatively non-political in its orientation, the Statesman was unabashedly Democratic in its outlook. Bush would spend the next decade at war in print with the Portland-based Oregonian of Thomas Dryer, whose views were just as unreservedly Whig as Bush was Democratic. It was Dryer who coined the term Salem Clique referring to a number of local Oregon men who identified with Bush’s views and aims.
Bush and his quickly growing Salem Clique became less enthralled with Thurston’s bid to be re-elected as the Congressional delegate. The major problem was Joseph Lane had returned to Oregon after a year failing to hit it big in the goldfields of California with his sons. Lane was going to also throw his name into the ring for delegate. Bush was helped out of the quandary of probably having to support Thurston by the death of his owner. Thurston died at sea 9 April 1851 returning from the East to Oregon to campaign. A month later, Bush – and the Salem Clique in extension – endorsed Lane in the Statesman for delegate starting a relationship which lasted most of the territorial era.
A NEW CAPITAL
One of the first agendas for Bush and others of the Clique was to move the territorial capital from Oregon City further south to Salem. Matthew Deady was one of the Clique’s prime movers. Deady arrived in Oregon in November 1849. He had been a lawyer in Ohio for a year before that. Elected to the legislature, in 1850, where he introduced a bill in the legislature to move the capital to the little town south citing the town was more centrally located near where settlers were moving to in the heart of the Willamette Valley. In truth, the move was political. He was more worried about the number of Whigs living in and around Oregon City while further down the valley, the folk were solidly in the Democratic column.
Despite Governor Gaines’ attempt to squelch the move, as well as some Democrats living further north around Portland who definitely did not consider themselves part of the Salem Clique, the move was made at the end of 1851. Joseph Lane convinced Congress to make the move official in 1852. That same year, Bush moved the Statesman to Salem in order to be close to the action and preclude a Whig-oriented newspaper could beat him to the new capital.
THE SALEM CLIQUE
Beyond Bush and Deady, James Nesmith should be considered one of the prime members of the group of young like-minded men hoping to have some say in the politics of their new home. Nesmith came to Oregon in 1843 learning law on the long wagon journey west. A judge in the Provisional Government and with success in the gold fields of California, Nesmith would have a long journey through the territorial and early statehood years of Oregon.
La Fayette Grover was also a major player in the Salem Clique. He came to Oregon, like Bush, at the behest of Samuel Thurston. Moving to Oregon in 1851, he became a clerk for a federal district court and began a law practice in Salem. From 1853 to 1855, Grover served as a member of the Territorial Legislature. Like Nesmith, Grover would figure in Oregon politics for some time.
Rueben Boise came to Oregon in 1850. Formerly, practicing law in Massachusetts, he initially set up a law practice in Portland. Appointed as a district attorney by Oregon Supreme Court justice Orville Pratt – another early member of the Salem Clique – Boise also served in the legislature. He would go on to a long career as a state supreme court judge serving from 1859 until 1870. Later, he would serve as a state circuit judge from 1880 to 1892 and 1898 until 1904.
ORVILLE PRATT
Orville Pratt moved to Oregon in 1849. A New Yorker who spent two years at West Point – some say he was dismissed for theft – before taking up the law. He was appointed by President Polk to both the Oregon Territorial Supreme and Circuit courts as a judge. Pratt served as the judge in the case of the Cayuse Five. His term ended with President Franklin Pierce removing him. An attempt to nominate him as chief justice for the Oregon court was blocked by Stephen Douglas.
The inability of Joseph Lane to push through Pratt’s candidature soured him on his support for Lane as Congressional delegate. In 1853, he decided to run against Lane which in effect was to run against the Salem Clique. After losing to Lane, Pratt decamped off to California in 1856 where he built a law practice in San Francisco as well as built a financial empire worth over $1 million dollars including an 18 square mile ranch. That fortune was pruned in 1877 when after his wife discovered her husband indulging in an affair. He lost $750,000 to avoid prosecution for adultery.
Other members of the informal Clique included Stephen Chadwick, Fred Waymire, Benjamin Harding, Delazon Smith and George Curry, all Democrats who helped Bush with information in return for support from the Statesman for their politics.
JOSEPH LANE AND THE CLIQUE
Joseph Lane was a recipient of many of the Clique’s good tidings and support. His relationship to the Salem Clique was indirect, however. Being the Congressional delegate, the other members of the Clique looked to him to provide spoils of the political system. In many cases, he did just that. In others, he did not. The Clique members foiled took the failures personally. Besides Pratt, James Nesmith had a position as superintendent of Territorial Indian Affairs blocked temporarily in Congress. Nesmith eventually got the position, but he blamed Lane.
But through Lane, many good things came. Spoils given out by the victor. The problem with the Clique was it was not a monolithic beast. The different members promoted their own policies and futures. Usually, these corresponded with the Clique’s general thoughts, but difference of opinion was always a constant.
Slavery was a good example. La Fayette Grover, from Maine originally, was against slavery. He was also against African Americans coming into the territory, free or otherwise. Bush supported Grover’s position while Delazon Smith had other ideas. He supported the institution of slavery in the South – State’s Rights – but dismissed, as did others, the economic feasibility of slavery in Oregon. At the same time, he opposed a ban on allowing African Americans into Oregon, “We want laborers here. Every town in Oregon needs them. … There are not more than fifty negroes in Oregon. They behave well. They are law abiding people as far as I know.” Other advocates for slavery were Matthew Deady and Lane, himself.
STATEHOOD GAINED
As the territory continued to gain emigrants, the politicians in Salem pushed for a change from territory to state. Voters were not so convinced early on. It was not until 17 August 1857 a constitutional convention convened after four votes. Democratic members of the sixty delegates to the convention included Deady, Chadwick, Grover, Smith. Boise and Waymire. They dominated the standing committees with Deady elected as president. The constitution coming forth was approved by the Clique and the voters.
The petition for statehood went to Washington where the rejection of slavery in the constitutional language ran quickly afoul. Southern senators and congressmen were not keen to see more votes for Northern states to come to Congress. It was not until May 1858 before Oregon gained approval from the Senate and February of the next year for the House to follow. Bush and others of the Clique blamed the delay on Lane.
THE CLIQUE TAKES A RECESS
Oregon gained statehood just as the run up to the 1860 Presidential elections began. Lane, himself, initially had aspirations for the top office. Like James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce before him, Lane was an acceptable Democratic doughface to many in the South. An advocate for States’ Rights and slavery made him popular in many circles. However, the Democratic party had undergone a drastic split during the Buchanan administration with those who supported the President and those who followed Illinois senator Stephen Douglas.
The Democrats ended up with two candidates in 1860, Douglas and John Breckinridge – a Kentuckian serving as Buchanan’ vice president. Lane wound up on the ticket behind Breckinridge – campaign manager was one Isaac Stephens, the former Washington Territory governor and Congressional delegate. With the rupture in the Democratic ticket, Abraham Lincoln became President running on the upstart Republican ticket.
Lane went on to call for Oregon to join the South in leaving the Union. This and the fact of his son leaving West Point to take a position in the Confederate army ruined Lane’s political career in Oregon. A few of the Clique members supported Lane, but most remained loyal to the Union. A few even became Republicans.
Bush, himself, stayed loyal to the Union and while he retained influence in Oregon politics, he sold his paper in 1863 to become a successful banker. Other member of the Clique went on to long careers with the new State though others were coming onto the scene for their own turn at the wheel.
Want to learn more about the Clique? No better place to start than Barbara Mahoney’s The Salem Clique: Oregon’s Founding Brothers.
The Salem Clique was a major political group within the Territorial government of Oregon. Leading the way to statehood before dissolving over civil war issues