616 



OREGON. 



OTIS, ELWELL STEPHEN. 



distribute copies of Indian war history among In- 

 dian war veterans ; and for printing the biennial 

 report of the Secretary of State. 



The session ended Oct. 15. T. C. Taylor was 

 elected to succeed Joseph Simon, United States 

 Senator-elect, as President of the Senate. 



Political. An election of State officers was held 

 June 6. There were four tickets Republican, 

 Fusion, Populist, and Prohibition. 



The paramount issue was the money question, 

 and upon it the Republicans won by a large major- 

 ity. Following is the declaration of their platform 

 on this issue : 



" We are in favor of the maintenance of the 

 present gold standard. We are unqualifiedly opposed 

 to the free coinage of silver and to all other schemes 

 looking to the debasement of the currency and 

 the repudiation of debts. We believe that the best 

 money in the world is none too good to be assured 

 by the Government to the laborer as the fruit of 

 his toil and to the farmer as the price of his crop. 

 We condemn the continued agitation for free silver 

 as calculated to jeopardize the prosperity of the 

 country and to shake the confidence of the people 

 in the maintenance of a wise financial policy. We 

 particularly condemn as unpatriotic the efforts of 

 the free-silver agitators to array class against class 

 and section against section. We declare that the 

 interests of all classes and all sections of our 

 country alike demand a sound and stable financial 

 system." 



Following is the ticket : For Governor, Theodore 

 T. Geer; Secretary of State, Frank I. Dunbar; 

 State Treasurer, Charles S. Moore ; Supreme Judge, 

 Frank A. Moore ; Attorney-General, R. D. N. Black- 

 burn ; State School Superintendent, J. H. Acker- 

 man ; State Printer, W. H. Leeds : Congressmen, 

 First District, Thomas H. Tongue, Second District, 

 Malcolm A. Moody. 



The State conventions of the Democratic, People's, 

 and Silver Republican parties met at Portland, 

 March 25. A fusion committee of nine from each 

 convention held a conference and agreed upon the 

 following distribution of offices : To the Populists, 

 Governor, Attorney-General, State Printer, and 

 Superintendent of Instruction ; to the Democrats, 

 Treasurer, Justice of the Supreme Court, and Con- 

 gressman from the First District ; to the Silver 

 Republicans, Secretary of State and Congressman, 

 Second District. The platform demanded 



" The free and unrestricted coinage of silver and 

 gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without 

 waiting for the consent of foreign nations ; national 

 money, safe and sound, issued by the General 

 Government only, without the intervention of banks 

 of issue, to be legal tender for all debts, public and 

 private ; also a just, equitable, and efficient means 

 of distributing direct to the people through the 

 lawful disbursements of the Government. It de- 

 manded that the volume of circulating medium be 

 speedily increased to an amount sufficient to meet 

 tne demands of the business and population of this 

 country and to restore the just level of prices of 

 labor and production." 



The ticket as completed stood : For Governor, 

 William R. King; Secretary of State, II. R. Kin- 

 caid ; Treasurer, J. 0. Booth ; Justice of the Supreme 

 Court, W. A. Ramsay; Attorney-General, J. L. 

 Storey; Superintendent of Instruction, H. S. Ly- 

 raan ; State Printer, Charles A. Fitch ; Members of 

 Congress, R. M. Veatch and C. M. Donaldson. 



The Populists opposed to fusion bolted and chose 

 the following candidates : For Governor, J. C. Luce ; 

 Secretary of State, Ira Wakefield ; State Treasurer, 

 J. K. Sears ; Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

 J. E. Hosmer; State Printer, D. L. Grace; Con- 

 gressman, First District, J. L. Hill. Nominations 



for Supreme Judge, Attorney-General, and Con- 

 gressman from the Second District were left to be 

 filled by the State Central Committee. 



The returns of the election showed the following 

 vote for Governor : Geer, Republican, 45,104 ; King, 

 Fusion, 34,330; Luce, Populist, 2,866: Clinton, 

 Prohibitionist, 2,213. 



The Republicans elected both their congressional 

 candidates and 66 of the 90 members of the Legisla- 

 ture. 



OTIS, ELWELL STEPHEN, an American sol- 

 dier, born in Frederick City, Md., March 25, 1838. 

 While he was still a boy his parents removed to 

 Rochester, N. Y., and purchased a large farm on the 

 western border of the city. Elwell was graduated 

 at the University of Rochester in 1858, standing 

 high in his class. In his senior year he was presi- 

 dent of one of the two literary societies. Among 

 his classmates were Cephas B. Crane, the eminent 

 Baptist clergyman, William Harkness, director of 

 the Naval Observatory at Washington, Lemuel 



ELWELL STEPHEN OTIS. 



Moss, formerly president of Indiana State Univer- 

 sity, and William O. Stoddard, the author. Otis \\ a> 

 admitted to the bar in Rochester in 1859, and was 

 graduated at Harvard law school in 1861. 



In the summer of 1862 he raised in Rochester a 

 company of the One Hundred and Fortieth NY-\v 

 York Regiment of Infantry. At the meetings which 

 were held for the purpose of kindling enthusiasm 

 and procuring enlistments he was solicited to speak, 

 but declined to make any speech but this : " I do not 

 say to you Go; I say Come." The One HUTU! red 

 and Fortieth proved to be one of the finest organi- 

 zations in the service, and is included in Col. Wil- 

 liam Fox's account of the fighting regiments. It 

 was commanded, at first, by Col. Patrick II. < >'Rorkc. 

 another Rochester boy, who was graduated .-it \V< tA 

 Pointin June, 1861, standing at the heiidol' his class. 

 of which George A. Custer was at the foot, with 

 Alonzo H. dishing, Charles C. Parsons, and Joseph 

 C. Audenried between. O'Rorke had had more than 

 a year of active service in the field, .and his regiment 

 was soon one of the most thoroughly drilled in the 

 Army of the Potomac. 



With this regiment Otis served during his whole 

 career in the civil war. His promotion from the 

 rank of captain to that of lieutenant colonel of the 

 regiment (he was never a major) was received Oct. 

 24, 1863. 



