Oregon Historical Quarterly

3 OREGON VOICES Oregon Democracy Asahel Bush, Slavery, and the Statehood Debate by Barbara Mahoney AS EDITOR OF the Oregon States man, Asahel Bush guided Oregon's political leaders through the greatest challenge of the times ? successfully negotiating statehood within the tense national debates on slavery that led up to theCivil War. Bush's use of his newspaper as an overt political tool was not so uncommon for the times. The Dean of theGraduate School of Journalism at Columbia University recently wrote of the nineteenth century as a time when journalism was a "branch of politics."1 Another journalism scholar states the case evenmore strongly: "The newspaper presswas thepolitical system's central institution, not simply a forum or atmosphere inwhich politics took place. Instead, newspapers and their editors were purposeful actors in the political process linking parties, voters, and the government together, and pursuing specific political goals."2 Through the territorial period and into statehood, Oregon demonstrated precisely that reality.Editors identified the issues, set thepolitical agenda, and dominated the players. Because of its distance from the power center of theUnited States, one might assume that the controversy over slaverywas irrelevant toOregon. It was, however, inextricably bound to Oregon's move toward statehood dur ing the 1850s.The question ofwhether Oregon would be a slave or free state was widely argued and divided the political leadership of the territory. After settlers in theOregon Territory had voted to seek statehood, admis sion to theUnion was delayed because thepro-slavery faction at thenational level feared thatOregon's entering the Union as a free statewould affect the balance of power in Congress. The newspapers and private correspon dence of the era paint a vivid picture of the dispute and its consequences and demonstrate Bush's central role in itsoutcome. The institution of slavery was well established by the timeAmerica achieved independence fromEngland. 202 OHQ vol. 110, no. 2 ? 2009 Oregon Historical Society Asahel Bush (picturedhereas an olderman) came to Oregon in 1850,at age twenty-six, to found the Oregon Statesman. As itseditor,he became a powerful voice in thepolitical lifeof theterritory and thestate. He sold the Oregon Statesman in 1863and went on tobecome a prominent bankerand businessman.He died in 1913. As the country grew, the question of slavery's expansion shaped thedebate over the admission of new states and spurred a series of congressional mandates. The Ordinance of 1787 banned slavery in the newly acquired Northwest Territory,which included the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part ofMinnesota, effectively setting the Ohio River as the northern bound ary for slavery. In 1820, theMissouri Compromise set a boundary between slave and free stateswithin the lands Mahoney, Asahel Bush, Slavery,and the Statehood Debate 203 of the Louisiana Purchase. Similarly, Congress applied the painstakingly constructed Compromise of 1850 to the landswon by theUnited States in theMexican War. Finally, theKansas Nebraska Act of 1854, fashioned by Illinois Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, abolished theMissouri Compromise and established "squatter sovereignty,"whereby the inhabitants of a territory or state could decide whether or not to allow slavery. When American settlerscreated a provisional government in theOregon Territory through theOrganic Act of 1843, they approved an anti-slavery law on the basis of theOrdinance of 1787 and its prohibition of slavery in thenorthern territories.3 Meanwhile, the allure of the north Pacific coast attractedmore and more immigrants. As the population grew, theBritish andAmerican governments reached an agreement, in 1846, ending their joint occupation of the area. In 1848, theCongress established Oregon as a territoryof theUnited States. By 1850, approximately twelve thousand people had immigrated to Oregon from the East, mostly from theOhio and Mississippi valleys.4 They shared common life experiences and aspira tions and differedmarkedly from the California pioneers in that they sought promising farmland rather than gold. Their ambitions were addressed in a provision of the Organic Act, giving anyman in the territory the right to 640 acres without having to pay for them.While successful in attracting new settlers, the provision created numerous uncertainties until itwas confirmed by the Oregon Donation Land Law, passed by Congress in 1850. The key figure in the passage of the 1850 legislation was Samuel R. Thurston...