When the Civil War commenced, the editor of the principal paper in the southern part of the state--The Sentinel--was a Secession sympathizer, and he and the proprietor and publisher had a fight in which the editor was seriously wounded. I was solicited by the publisher and a committee of leading Union men to assume charge of the editorial department of the paper. I did so, and wrote all the editorials in the paper for over three years. The paper was a weekly, but at times, when the news was stirring, it was published semi-weekly. The paper under my control rapidly increased in circulation. The editorial work that I did while on the paper secured me an offer, when I announced my intention to resume the practice of law, from the Sacramento Union, then the leading paper on the Pacific Coast, to become one of its editorial staff at a good salary. I considered the proposition for quite a time; then concluded to decline it. Had I accepted this offer, it would have changed the whole course and direction of my life, and I probably would have continued in that line of work to this day. It was while I was editor of The Sentinel that a rumor was telegraphed to me that President Lincoln had been assassinated. It came first merely as a rumor and I communicated it only to a few persons, anxiously waiting to hear whether it was true or not. Many of the good and patriotic citizens of all parties feared a riot. I issued an extra, on the confirmation of the news, briefly stating the facts of the assassination: and every store, business house and saloon was immediately closed, and their doors draped in mourning. A meeting was shortly called, and I was invited to deliver an oration on the character and service of the lamented President. I was given three days to prepare that address. The Methodist minister was also invited to deliver an address on that occasion. The crowd was immense; no church in town being large enough to hold it. My oration was published in The Sentinel and other papers in the State and in some of the California papers. I have a copy of that oration; but, as I give in full the oration delivered by me in the City of Seattle on the death of President Garfield a more recent occurrence, I have concluded to give only the later address.