Formed in 1852
The organization of the Democratic party in Oregon Territory early in 1852 was a matter of considerable moment because it marked the beginning of local political thinking in terms of natural issues. Although, as has been made plain, Americans had forced the issue of Provisional Government and had shaped its course, abating nothing of their nationalism except on the occasion when in 1845 the Applegate expedient was resorted to as a compromise with the Hudson's Bay interests, party lines as they existed elsewhere in the US were not locally defined in the early days of territorial government.
Judge Samuel R. Thurston, the first delegate, was a Democrat, but there was no party organization at the time of his election. When Joseph Lane (March 3, 1849-June 18, 1850), who was a Democrat, in 1851 ran for the place left vacant by Thurston's death, his opponent was W. H. Wilson, a former ship carpenter, who had come out with the first reinforcement of Jason Lee's Walamet Mission in 1837, and who represented the early missionary hospitality to the Hudson's Bay Company, but he was also a Democrat, so that no party issue was joined here. By 1852, the opposition to the Whig, John P. Gaines (August 18, 1850-May 16, 1853), who happened to be also a non-resident appointee, crystallized into the form of an organization of the Democratic party, of which Lane became the logical candidate, since he had avoided making political enemies, had a record in public affairs which most of the people approved, and had a talent for effective campaigning in the frontier settlements.
The Democrats made themselves known as an organization by holding a convention July 4, 1851, and thereafter by holding caucuses of the Democratic members of the legislature of 1851, at which a central committee was chosen and James Willis Nesmith (December 25, 1844-August 9, 1845) was made chairman. The population was preponderantly Democratic since It came principally from Democratic states, and the party organization had no difficulty in electing a large majority of the legislature in June 1852.
James Nesmith
July 23, 1820 - June 17, 1885
Nesmith was elected judge of the Provisional Government of Oregon in 1845. He was captain in 1848 and 1853 of expeditions against hostile Indians, and was United States Marshal for Oregon from 1853 to 1855. He was superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon and Washington Territories from 1857 to 1859.
Nesmith was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate and served from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1867 [succeeding Joseph Lane]; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection, and was appointed Minister to Austria, but his nomination was not confirmed. He served as road supervisor of Polk County in 1868, and was elected to the Forty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his cousin, Joseph G. Wilson, and served from December 1, 1873, to March 3, 1875; he did not seek renomination in 1874 to the Forty-fourth Congress. He died in Rickreall, Oregon in 1885; interment was in Polk County on the south bank of Rickreall Creek.
In addition to his cousin Joseph Wilson, Nesmith's grandson, Clifton Nesmith McArthur, was also a United States Representatives from Oregon. Levi Ankeny, Senator for Washington, was his son-in-law.