Union (Republican) Party Selects William Wallace as Candidate for Delegate

On September 16, 1863, Union Party members (Republicans) held a convention in Bannock City to select a nominee for Territorial Delegate. Governor William Wallace out-polled the two other candidates combined. So, The Oregonian later reported, “The nomination of Wallace was then made unanimous, and the convention then adjourned with three cheers for the Union and their candidate. There is little room to doubt the election of the Union nominee.”

The paper attributed this to the fact that, “The respectable merchants and traders, with scarce an exception, are fast friends to the Union, and this remark will apply to the miners, and all class of men who expect to live by honest industry.”

W. H. Wallace. [Hawley]

Their informants assured them that only the riff-raff (“loafers, gamblers and idlers”) favored secession and the Democratic Party, and they mostly wouldn’t bother to vote. That, of course, was a gross misrepresentation. Moreover, a temporary Unionist majority would soon be swamped by emigrants who voted Democratic.

References: [B&W]
“The Idaho Delegateship,” The Oregonian, Portland (September 26, 1863).