POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 135

was to win by an overwhelming majority of 5938. The pas- sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill had opened up the foreign issue of slavery in distant Oregon and had set movements in operation which were to result in complete political realign- ment. Likewise, the aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the strife over Kansas and the National Administration's inter- ference therein was reflected in the revolution of public sentiment in the isolated Territory on the subject of state- hood. It was the general determination that Oregon must be made secure against the possibility of the distress of "Bleeding Kansas" and a state organization seemed to promise the only security.