So great, however, was the opposition among the people of the territory, that the calling of a constitutional convention was three times submitted to the people before it was sanctioned. There was opposition from the southern part of the territory where a plan was in contemplation for union with Northern California in the formation of a new state; there was opposition from the Whig party which was growing in power and had a vigorous organ to represent it in the _Oregonian_, and there was a feeling of conservatism which felt that things were not yet ripe for statehood, expressed later so well by Matthew P. Deady, the President of the Convention, in his closing address to that body: “I have not regretted the delay that has occurred, by the country refusing to authorize a convention before this time; but on the contrary, think it has been for the best. As to mere numbers and wealth, we have doubtless sufficient of both to maintain a state government; but a people in my opinion, require age and maturity, as well as wealth and numbers to make them competent to carry on a government successfully. As in the growth of the child and the oak so with a people. Thrown together as we have been, upon this coast, it requires time to knit together in one harmonious whole our diversified elements of population.”[19] The Constitutional Convention met in August of 1857, at Salem, and was in session for four weeks. It consisted of sixty delegates. It was early agreed to leave the question of slavery to be decided by the people themselves, at the same time that they acted upon the constitution, and thus the greatest danger of obstruction and delay was removed. The discussions, as reported in the newspapers of the time, indicate considerable party spirit, but, for the most part, they were harmonious and marked by fairness and deliberation. Little difficulty was experienced in framing the main features of the constitution, providing for the organs of government. A general disposition favorable to economy was manifested throughout. That it sometimes went to extremes would be indicated by the dry humor of the suggestion that the chief executive of the state be requested to board around, in the good old schoolmaster fashion.