Democracy and Its Discontents in Oregon Political History

Abstract

ROBERT D. JOHNSTON Democracy and Its Discontents in Oregon Political History We are the political and social descendants and heirs of pioneers who had a passionate belief in the common man and inhis ability to organize a society inwhich he could livea lifefreefromrestraintand intolerance,and enrichedby all thathis predecessors had found good. ?Cornelia Marvin Pierce, 1927 ONE OF THE MOST distinctive ? and tomy mind, attractive ? quali ties of Oregon politics historically has been the robust belief in the virtues of the common citizenry. Alas, the history of Oregon's unique strain of hyper-democracy inmany ways remains to be written. Fortunately, the contributors to the sesquicentennial series in this Fall issue of theQuarterly present a vivid and complex set of explorations of the fate of democracy (roughly defined as rule of the government by thewhole people) in twentieth-century Oregon. Cheryl Gunselman takes on the life and politics of Cornelia Marvin Pierce, helping to show how the author of the forceful quotation above often, but by no means always, lived up to the best tendencies in her democratic ideology. The not-uncritical story that Gunselman tells is of a remarkable woman who, despite her frequently imperious character, played a significant role in defining and extending Oregon's democratic culture. Yet, ifGunselman's articles makes us feel at all self-congratulatory about such democratic vistas, Kimberly Jensen, in the first general scholarly exploration ofwomen and citizenship inOregon history, asks us to think about themany limits to democratic participation the state'swomen have experienced, and the halting nature of democratic advance along the gender line. In turn,Robert R.McCoy comes down in the OHQ vol. no, no. 3 ? 2009 Oregon Historical Society middle. In his analysis of the politics ofWalter Pierce ? one of the state's most important political figures ? McCoy argues that individuals who are impressively democratic at one moment can, without real contradiction in their own philosophies, be exclusionary and anti-democratic the next. All three authors demonstrate that the democratic impulse, and pro gressive democratic rhetoric, can sometimes serve as a false ? and even dangerous ? mask behind which lies the face of racism, xenophobia, and even tyranny.Arguably, this continuous tension between democracy and equality, between inclusion and exclusion, while hardly unique to the state, is the special Burden of Oregon History.1 SERENDIPITY PLACES CORNELIA Marvin Pierce'sbirthplace in Monti cello, Iowa. She was, in tellingways, quite like the famous eighteenth-century Virginian Thomas Jefferson, who named his home Monticello. Both were very sure of themselves and of thewisdom of the people. Both believed pas sionately in expanding public education for the common people in order to produce amore enlightened citizenry; Jeffersonfounded theUniversity ofVirginia, and Marvin Pierce was the architect ofOregon's public library system and aswell as an important crusader forhigher education. They both considered themselves modern, scientific, and enlightened ? and believed that enlightened, scientific,modern life could best be served by democracy. At the same time, both had fundamental flaws in their democratic visions ? Jefferson's,of course, was slavery, and Marvin Pierce's the eugenic idea of better breeding of humans in order to eliminate weak creatures from the populace. There was also at least one major difference between Jeffersonand Pierce: gender. The egalitarian political culture that Jeffersonplayed such a crucial role inunleashing during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries offered almost no formal political roles forwomen. Yet, throughout thenineteenth century, various radical women seized on the rhetoric in theDeclaration of Independence to expand political oppor tunities for them and their sisters.Despite Marvin Pierce's own difficult-to explain ambivalence about woman suffrage, shewas asmuch a beneficiary of this other revolutionary tradition as shewas of the Jeffersonian legacy.A proud Midwesterner who forged her professional and political philosophies in the crucible of progressive Wisconsin's "laboratory of democracy," Corne liaMarvin came toOregon as a self-conscious pioneer and missionary. She signed on to build Oregon's public library system and then spent the next two decades literally creating the state'smodern constellation of libraries. Following custom ? and constraint ? she resigned her high-profile posi tion on hermarriage to Walter Pierce. She then accepted an appointment to Johnston, Democracy and ItsDiscontents inOregon Political...