606 



OREGON. 



OSGOOD, HELEN L. G. 



Resolved, That the Federal Government is one of 

 limited powers, granted by the States in a written 

 Constitution, which is the sole measure of its author- 

 ity in war and in peace, and is alike law for the ruler 

 and the people. 



Resolved, That this Union under the Constitution 

 is the only solid foundation of our strength and pros- 

 perity as a people, equally conducive to the welfare 

 of all the States, both North and South. 



Resolved, That the Constitution of the United 

 States confers 110 power on Congress to legislate up- 

 on the internal affairs of the States composing this 

 Union. 



Resolved, That it is the highest duty of _ every 

 American citizen to maintain against all their ene- 

 mies the obligations of the Constitution, and the 

 integrity of the Union under it. 



Resolved, That we are opposed to sharing with 

 servile races the priceless political heritage achieved 

 alone by white men, and by them transmitted to us, 

 their posterity, as a sacred trust forever. 



Resolved, That good faith and justice to all de- 

 mand that the public debt shall be paid in like cur- 

 rency as contracted, and we favor action by Congress 

 submitting United States securities to be taxed as 

 other property. 



Resolved, That the burdens of taxation ought to be 

 equal among the people, and should be upon prop- 

 erty instead of the industry of the country, as by 

 present laws provided. 



Resolved, That we protest against the reconstruc- 

 tion acts of Congress as unwarranted by the Consti- 

 tution, revolutionary in tendency, and in positive 

 violation of the faith of the General Government 

 pledged to the people of the United States. 



Resolved, That we utterly condemn the attempt of 

 Congress, to usurp the powers of the executive and 

 judicial departments of the Government, as a flagrant 

 outrage upon the Constitution and the liberties of 

 the people. 



Resolved, That we sympathize with the Irish peo- 

 ple in their efforts to secure to themselves civil lib- 

 erty. 



Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment to extend protection alike to all native and 

 naturalized citizens both at home and abroad. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 at the same place on a later date, but their 

 proceedings have failed to reach us. 



The election was held on the first Monday 

 in June, and resulted in the choice of a Demo- 

 cratic member of Congress, by a majority of 

 1,209 in a total vote of 22,369, and a Legisla- 

 ture with four Democratic majority in the 

 Senate and thirteen in the lower House. At 

 the Presidential election in November the 

 total vote was 22,086, and the Democratic 

 majority 164. 



The Legislature assembled in September, 

 and its action was confined to measures of 

 economy and of local interest, except the adop- 

 tion of a resolution, withdrawing the consent 

 of the State to the passage of the Fourteenth 

 Amendment to the Federal Constitution. 



Preparations have been made to construct 

 railroads in the State, as has been stated in 

 previous volumes. To the Oregon Central 

 Railroad Congress has granted 1,280 acres 

 of land for each mile of roadway constructed 

 to the California border, which is a distance 

 of 300 miles. The State has also given a 

 guarantee to pay seven per cent, on $1,000,000 

 of the company's honds. The material for 

 the construction and operation of the first 



fifty miles was sent forward at the begin- 

 ning of the- year. It is anticipated that the 

 Union Pacific road will connect with the 

 Columbia River and Puget's Sound road, by 

 crossing the Blue Mountains and following up 

 the waters of the Malhuer, using a natural 

 division, and proceeding down the John Day 

 River through a rich and extensive region, and 

 reaching the Columbia at Dalles City. 



The commerce of the State is rapidly grow- 

 ing. Grain is shipped to Liverpool; regu- 

 lar lines of transportation are established to 

 New York, and others are proposed to Aus- 

 tralia, China, and Japan. The population of 

 the State is also greatly increasing with its 

 wealth and commerce. 



OSGOOD, Mrs. HELEST LOUISE GILSOX, an 

 eminently practical and active philanthropist, 

 whose services to the sick and wounded sol- 

 diers of the Union army, during the late war, 

 secured her the love and admiration of thou- 

 sands. She was born in Boston about 1835, and 

 died at Newton Centre, Mass., April 20, 1868. 

 She removed with her parents, during her child- 

 hood, to Chelsea, Mass., and after their death 

 was the ward of Frank B. Fay, of Chelsea, 

 in whose family she lived for some years. 

 She had received an excellent education, and 

 was endowed with extraordinary musical and 

 conversational talent, and with an executive 

 ability rare even in the most accomplished busi- 

 ness men. When the war commenced she gave 

 herself at once to the work of caring for the 

 soldiers, first at home, and afterward in the 

 field. She was among the first to organize 

 Soldiers' Aid Societies in her own city, to pre- 

 pare and collect supplies, and to arrange them 

 for transportation. Finding that many of the 

 wives and daughters of soldiers were in strait- 

 ened circumstances, she took a contract for the 

 manufacture of army clothing from the Gov- 

 ernment, and not only gave her own services 

 in the preparation of the work, but, raising, by 

 her own subscription and the contributions of 

 others, a fund for the purpose, she furnished 

 employment to these poor women at wages 

 which were much higher than those paid by 

 the contractors, and which enabled them to live 

 comfortably. In the early spring of 1862, she 

 felt strongly moved to go to the army and ren- 

 der personal service in the care of the sick and 

 wounded soldiers ; and, when the Secretary of 

 the Sanitary Commission called for volunteer 

 nurses for the hospital transport service on the 

 peninsula, she gladly made one of the number 

 who entered upon that heroic work. How a 

 woman so delicately reared, and fragile in form, 

 could endure all the labors and hardships which 

 fell to the lot of those noble women who for 

 nearly three months worked incessantly in that 

 malarious climate, must remain a mystery ; hut, 

 though doubtless wearied and worn with her 

 work, Miss Gibson (she was not married till 

 after the close of the war) did her work well 

 and cheerfully, and her coming among the sol- 

 diers was always like a ray of sunshine. After a 



