Good for you Hugh for making this point.  Looking back at 150 years ago, it's hard for us moderns to comprehend that slavery was the biggest issue of the day by far, and Americans were split on it...that it divided Americans from the beginning..... that it  often crushed the bodies and minds of its victims...... that young women were raped to produce more slaves....and it took a war  with over 600,000 deaths to finally end it.
AND what it meant that Mathew  P.  Deady was considered  Oregon's strongest slavery advocate......and that had he prevailed, Oregon could have ended up on the side of the South with destructive internal Civil War, much like Missouri.   Thank God Deady's position  was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters.

AND yet-- in  his later judicial decisions he was often protective of minority rights, especially Chinese, and in his personal life he showed no racism, with both of his bailiffs being blacks, and of course he did so much for Oregon and the UO....
Doug