The Salem Clique: Oregon's Founding Brothers by Barbara S. Mahoney

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293 Reviews Reporting the Oregon Story, however, comes up short on stories. The book promises the inside account by a witness to history, but it too often hovers above the action, afloat on clouds of exposition, summary, and conventional wisdom. We rarely see McKay’s on-the-ground reporting about the crucial events the book describes, nor does the book offer many scenes that bring these political leaders too life. The book becomes a catalogue of historical notes and remembrances, yet one that still captures up the tenor and texture of Oregon’s primetime. McKay watched it all and knew the players and helped Oregonians make sense of their state during a remarkable era. His memoir is a worthy and valuable record of those heady times. BRENT WALTH University of Oregon THE SALEM CLIQUE: OREGON’S FOUNDING BROTHERS by Barbara S. Mahoney Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2017. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 224 pages. $22.95 paper. Oddly, given that the Salem Clique has legendary status in Oregon history; was at the center of the Democratic Party, which dominated in the territory and state in the 1850s; played a defining role in the early politics of Oregon and even had an impact on national politics, no book-length study devoted to it has appeared until now. In keeping with this long wait, one must also wait until the epilogue before one arrives at Barbara S. Mahoney’s most important observation. Contrary to the Clique’s most vocal contemporary critic (Thomas Dryer, Whig Party member and editor of the Oregonian), whose bitter depiction of the Clique many historians have since perpetuated, Mahoney argues that the Clique was neither monolithic, nor a boss-run machine, nor composed of singularly vicious men. Rather, the group was a loose organization of “ambitious young men who were at once friends and rivals” (p. 177). While they belonged to the same party (which had its own factions and fissures) and stood together on various common causes, they also did not shy from disagreements and the promotion of self-interest. One is well prepared for Mahoney’s conclusion long before she arrives at its clear enunciation at the book’s end; she clearly chooses to focus on the lives and relationships of the members of the Clique, rather than the Clique itself. This is either intended or shaped by the nature of the sources — much of them being newspaper articles and a rich personal correspondence between Clique members rather than any sort of organizational or party papers. Regardless, the effects are the same: Mahoney paints the legendary Clique as far less than the sum of its parts — they were an informal coalition of like-minded politicians who owned and edited one of the most influential newspapers of the day (Salem’s Oregon Statesman); held many early territorial, state, and national offices; often assisted each other in their aspirations; and had a profound influence on the Oregon constitution. Their names are fabled in the state’s history: Matthew Deady, James Nesmith, Lafayette Grover, Asahel Bush, George Curry, Delazon Smith, and others. The book is a lively narrative history that the author divides into ten chapters. She begins with a background chapter on Oregon history, tracing political developments up to 1850. Because Mahoney follows a chronological structure, the remaining chapters cover a variety of interweaving topics and their relationship to Clique members, although generally one issue or topic stands out per chapter: the background of the protagonists and the formal organization of the Democratic Party in Oregon; the founding of the Oregonian and the Oregon Statesman, which become bitter political rivals; the increasingly fractured nature of the Democratic Party in Oregon and the nation in the 1850s; the issue of slavery and the state’s constitutional convention; the politics of Oregon’s earliest state election; the coming Civil War’s effects on Oregon politics , and vice versa; and the fate of Clique members in the post-Civil War era. While Mahoney does occasionally engage historiographical issues, her considerable strengths as a historian are in story telling 294 OHQ vol. 118, no. 2 and especially bringing characters to life. Of particular interest is her detailing of...