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ALLEN  COUNTY  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


3  1833  01745  7521 


GENEALOGY 
979.5 
0R3Q 
1908 


THE  QUARTERLY 


of  the 


Oregon  Hi^orical  Society. 


Volume  IX.] 


MARCH,     1908 


[Number  1 


CONTENTS. 

Willinm  D.  Poiton—EDM'AHn  Dickinson  Baker 1-23 

O.  jp".  Stafford— The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach 24-41 

Marie  Merriman  Bradley  —  Pot.mcAh   Beginnings  in  Oregon.    The 

Period  of  the  Provisional  Government,  1K39-1S49        -       -       -  42-72 

Jo/m  Jtfm^o— From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  I.  -  -  -  -  73-78 
Frederic  G.  FoMn*/— Coi.umbia  River  Improvement  and  the  Pacific 

Northwest          79-94 

Notes  and  News .      .      .  .      .         95-101 


PRICE:    FIFTY  CENTS(  PER  NU3II5EK,  TWO  DOLLARS  PER  YEAR 
Entered  at  the  post  office  at  Portland,  Oregon,  as  second'Class  matter. 


The  Oregon  Historical  Society 


Organized  December  17,  1898 


FREDERICK   V.  HOLMAN Peesident 

JOSEPH  R.  WILSON Vice-President 

F.  G.  YOUNG Secretary 

CHARLES  E.  LADD Treasurer 

George  H.  Himes,  Assistant  Secretarj-. 


DIRECTORS 

THE  GOVERNOR  OF  OREGON,  ex  officio. 

THE  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION,  ex  officio. 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  190S, 
MRS.   HARRIET  K.   McARTHUR,    GEORGE  H.   HIMES.' 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1909, 
FREDERICK  V.  HOLMAN,    WM.  D.  FENTON, 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1910, 
ARTHUR  C.  BOGGESS.    MILTON  W.  SMITH. 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1911, 
MRS.  MARIA   L.   MYRICK,    CHARLES  J.  SCHNABEL. 


TThe  Quarterly  is  sent  free  to  all  members  of  the  Society.    The  annual  dues 
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Contributions  to  The  Quarterltf  and  correspondence  relative  to  historical 
materials,  or  pertaining  to  the  affairs  of  this  Society,  should  be  addressed  to 

F.  Q.  TOUNQ, 

Eugene,  Oregon.  Secretary. 

Subscriptions   for    The    ^unrterly,   or   for   the   other    publications   of  the 
Society,  should  be  sent  to 

GEORGE    H.    HIMES, 
City  Hall,  Portland,  Oregon.  Assistant  Secretary. 


THE  QUARTERLY 

OF  THE 

Oregon  Historical  Society, 


Volume  IX.]  MARCH,  1908,  [Number  1 

[The  QUABTEBLT  disavows  responsibility  for  the  positions  taken  by  contributors  to  its  pages. 

EDWARD  DICKINSON   BAKER. 

By  William  D.  Fenton. 

Edward  Dickinson  Baker  was  born  in  London,  February 
24,  1811,  and  was  the  son  of  a  school  teacher.  His  family 
removed  from  England  and  settled  in  Philadelphia  when 
the  boy  was  about  five  years  old.  While  residing  there  he 
was  apprenticed  to  a  weaver.  In  1825  the  family  removed  to 
Indiana,  and  a  year  later  to  Illinois. 

His  boyhood  was  that  of  the  ordinary  Western  boy.  The 
family  lived  at  New  Harmony,  Indiana,  a  year  or  two,  and 
finally  located  in  Belleville,  St.  Clair  County,  Illinois.  It  is 
said  that  the  young  man,  then  about  sixteen  years  of  age, 
preceded  the  family  on  foot.  About  this  time  he  went  to 
St.  Louis  in  search  of  employment,  and  here  drove  a  dray 
one  season,  later  returning  to  Carrollton,  Greene  County, 
Illinois,  where  he  entered  the  office  of  Judge  Caverly  and 
began  the  study  of  law.  On  the  27th  day  of  April,  1831, 
Mr.  Baker,  at  twenty  years  of  age,  was  married  to  Mrs. 
Mary  A.  Lee,  a  widow  with  two  children,  and  to  them  were 
born  four  children,  Edward  D.,  Jr.,  Alfred  W.,  Caroline  C. 
Stevens  and  Lucy  Hopkins.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was 
Lucy  Dickinson,  sister  of  Thomas  Dickinson,  a  distinguished 
officer  in  the  British  Navy.  He  had  three  brothers,  Alfred 
C,  a  physician  who  lived  in  Barry,  Illinois;  Thomas  B., 
who  lived  in  Carrollton,  Illinois,  and  Samuel  B.,  who  lived 


%':v-»;- '»*'»' 


William  D.  Fenton. 


in  Pekin,  Illinois,  and  one  sister,  Mrs.  Thomas  Jerome,  born 
in  Philadelphia,  and  who  lived  at  Sausalito,  California. 

In  1832,  Baker  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier  in  the  Black 
Hawk  War,  and  before  the  conclusion  of  the  war  attained 
the  rank  of  major.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Greene 
County,  Illinois,  where  he  commenced  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  and  later  removed  to  Springfield,  in  the  year 
1835.  At  that  time  Springfield  had  a  population  of  about 
fifteen  hundred  people,  and  Baker  was  under  twenty-five 
years  of  age.  Mr.  Joseph  Wallace,  in  his  "Sketch  of  the 
Life  and  Public  Services  of  Edward  Dickinson  Baker,"  pub- 
lished at  Springfield,  Illinois,  in  1870,  speaking  of  Mr. 
Baker,  at  this  time,  says : 

"At  this  time  he  was  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his  age, 
and  in  appearance  not  remarkably  prepossessing;  his  dress 
comported  well  with  the  straightened  condition  of  his  fi- 
nances. He  wore  a  dilapidated  hat  of  an  antique  pattern, 
and  a  suit  of  homespun  jeans  loosely  and  carelessly  thrown 
about  him;  the  pants  being  some  inches  too  short,  exposed 
to  view  a  pair  of  coarse,  woolen  socks,  whilst  his  pedal 
appendages  were  encased  in  broad,  heavy  brogans,  such  as 
were  commonly  worn  by  the  stalwart  backwoodsmen  of  the 
day.  Nevertheless,  his  step  was  elastic,  his  figure  neat  and 
trim,  and  the  features  of  his  face  regular  and  pleasing  to 
the  eye." 

His  career  began  under  influences  calculated  to  develop  all 
his  natural  talents.  He  was  the  associate  of  Stephen  T.  Lo- 
gan, Albert  T.  Bledsoe,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Stephen  A.  Doug- 
las, Lyman  Trumbull,  and  other  men,  all  of  whom  in  later 
years  achieved  national  distinction.  His  career  began  and 
ended  in  the  public  service.  He  was  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Illinois  in  1837 ;  of  the 
State  Senate  in  1840-1844;  was  elected  a  Representative  to 
the  twenty-ninth  Congress  from  Illinois  as  a  Whig,  serving 
from  December  1,  1845,  until  December  30,  1846,  when  he 
resigned  to  accept  a  commission  as  Colonel  of  the  Fourth 
Regiment  of  Illinois  Volunteers  in  the  war  with  IVtexico.  He 
participated  in  the  siege  of  Vera  Cruz,  was  the  commander 


XT40612 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  3 

of  a  brigade  at  Cerro  Gordo,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war 
removed  to  Galena,  Illinois,  and  was  elected  to  the  thirty- 
first  Congress,  serving  from  December  3,  1849,  to  March  31, 
1851,  when  he  declined  a  re-election. 

While  he  was  a  Whig,  and  his  party  as  such  opposed  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  Baker  was  in  favor  of  its  vigorous 
prosecution.  As  a  slight  token  of  the  esteem  in  which  he 
was  held  by  the  people  of  his  state,  and  as  showing  approval 
of  his  conduct  and  position  in  favoring  the  war  with  Mexico, 
the  State  of  Illinois  presented  him  with  a  sword. 

As  some  evidence  of  the  natural  bent  of  his  genius,  and 
as  a  forecast  of  the  fervid  patriotism  which  distinguished  his 
life,  it  must  be  noted  that  his  first  public  career  began  in 
the  volunteer  service  in  the  defense  of  the  pioneer-settlers 
of  his  adopted  state,  and  for  the  protection  of  the  homes 
of  its  people  from  savage  warfare ;  and  that  his  next  decisive 
step  indicating  his  willingness  to  serve  his  country  first 
in  the  perils  of  war,  was  his  resignation  as  a  member  of 
Congress  that  he  might  raise  a  regiment  in  his  state  for 
the  Mexican  War. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1837,  Mr.  Baker  delivered  the  oration 
at  the  laying  of  the  cornerstone  of  the  old  State  House  in 
Springfield,  and  on  this  occasion  his  remarkable  powers  as 
an  orator  first  came  to  public  notice. 

In  1843  it  is  recorded  that  Lincoln  and  Baker  were  com- 
petitors for  the  Congressional  nomination  from  the  Spring- 
field district;  both  resided  in  Sangamon  County,  both  were 
self-made,  earnest  and  able  men.  After  a  close  contest  Baker 
finally  secured  an  instructed  delegation  in  his  behalf,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  one  of  the  delegates  to  nominate  his  com- 
petitor. Neither,  however,  was  successful,  for  John  J. 
Hardin  was  nominated  and  elected.  Baker,  however,  was 
elected  to  succeed  Hardin,  and  Lincoln  to  succeed  Baker. 
He  was  the  only  Whig  representative  from  the  State  of 
Illinois  at  the  time,  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  one  of  his 
Democratic  colleagues.  At  that  time  the  question  of  national 
importance  claiming  the  attention  of  Great  Britain  and  the 


4  William  D.  Fenton. 

United  States  was  the  boundary  of  what  was  then  known 
as  the  Oregon  Country.  Baker,  although  a  Whig,  ardently 
supported  the  policy  of  President  Polk,  and  was  willing  to 
justify  our  claims,  if  necessary,  by  an  appeal  to  arms.  On 
January  16,  1846,  he  offered  a  resolution  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  which  it  was  declared  that  in  the  opinion 
of  the  House  the  President  of  the  United  States  could  not 
consistently,  with  a  just  regard  for  the  honor  of  the  nation, 
offer  lo  surrender  to  any  foreign  power  any  territory  to 
which  in  his  opinion  we  had  a  clear  and  unquestioned  title. 
On  the  29th  day  of  January,  1846,  speaking  upon  the  res- 
olution reported  by  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  re- 
questing the  President  to  notify  Great  Britain  of  the  inten- 
tion of  the  United  States  to  terminate  the  joint  occupation 
of  Oregon,  and  to  abrogate  the  convention  of  1827,  Baker 
made  his  first  great  speech,  in  favor  of  its  adoption.  After 
stating  the  cause  with  clearness,  and  realizing  the  weighty 
issues  involved  in  the  contest  between  the  two  countries, 
he  said: 

"I  admit  the  power  of  England;  it  is  a  moral  as  well  as  a 
physical  supremacy.  It  is  not  merely  her  fleets  and  her 
armies;  it  is  not  merely  her  colonies  and  her  fortresses— it 
is  more  than  these.  There  is  a  power  in  her  history  which 
compels  our  admiration  and  excites  our  wonder.  It  presents 
to  us  the  field  of  Agincourt,  the  glory  of  Blenheim,  the  for- 
titude of  'fatal  Fontenoy,'  and  the  fortunes  of  Waterloo.  It 
reminds  us  how  she  ruled  the  empire  of  the  wave,  from  the 
destruction  of  the  Armada  to  the  glories  of  Trafalgar.  Nor 
is  her  glory  confined  to  arms  alone.  In  arts,  in  science,  in 
literature,  in  credit,  and  in  commerce,  she  sits  superior.  Hers 
are  the  princes  of  the  mind.  She  gives  laws  to  learning  and 
limits  to  taste.  The  wa  ch-fires  of  her  battle  fields  yet  fiash 
warning  and  defiance  to  her  enemies,  and  her  dead  heroes 
and  s  atesmen  stand  as  sentinels  upon  immortal  heights,  to 
guard  the  glory  of  the  living.  *  *  *  She  has  considered 
her  honor  and  her  essential  interests  as  identical,  and  she 
has  been  able  to  maintain  ihem.  Sir.  I  would  profit  by  her 
example.  I  would  not  desire  to  rest  upon  light  and  trivial 
grounds.    I  would  be  careful  about  committing  the  national 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  5 

honor  upon  slight  controversies.  But  when  we  have  made 
a  deliberate  claim  in  the  eyes  of  the  world ;  when  we  persist 
that  it  is  clear  and  unquestioned;  when  compromise  has  been 
offered  and  refused;  when  territory  on  the  American  con- 
tinent is  at  stake ;  and  when  our  opponent  does  not  even 
claim  title  in  herself,  I  would  poise  myself  upon  the  mag- 
nanimity of  the  nation,  and  abide  the  issue." 

Aware  of  the  fact  that  he  was  out  of  harmony  with  the 
policy  of  his  party,  as  a  Whig,  in  his  support  of  President 
Polk,  he  said: 

"I  desire  to  treat  this  as  an  American  question,  and  I 
shall  not  be  driven  from  that  course.  I  am  not  one  of 
those  who  supported  Mr.  Polk.  I  used  the  utmost  of  my 
abilily  to  prevent  his  election;  and  when  Mr.  Clay  was 
beaten,  I  confess,  I  felt  as  the  friends  of  Aristides  may  be 
supposed  to  have  felt  when  he  was  driven  from  Athens. 
*  *  *  Sir,  the  West  will  be  true  to  her  convictions.  I 
believe  that  portion  of  the  West  which  sustained  Mr.  Polk 
will  still  be  for  the  whole  of  Oregon." 

In  reply  to  the  charge  that  the  controversy  was  caused 
by  the  restless  spirit  of  Western  men  pressing  into  this  new 
country,  he  replied: 

"Sir,  it  is  to  the  spirit  which  prompts  these  settlers  that 
we  are  indebted  for  the  settlement  of  the  Western  states. 
The  men  who  are  going  to  beat  down  roads  and  level  moun- 
tains— to  brave  and  overcome  the  terrors  of  the  wilderness 
—are  our  brethren  and  our  kinsmen.  It  is  a  bold  and  free 
spirit ;  it  has  in  it  the  elements  of  grandeur.  They  will 
march,  not 

Like  some  poor  exile,  bending  with  his  woe, 

To  stop  too  fearful,  and  too  faint  to  go; 

But  they  will  go  with  free  steps;  they  will  bear  with  them 
all  the  arts  of  civilization,  and  they  will  found  a  Western 
Empire.  Sir,  it  is  possible  they  may  not  receive  protection, 
but,  at  least,  they  should  be  shielded  from  reproach." 

In  June,  1852,  Baker  arrived  in  San  Francisco,  California, 
and  became  a  citizen  of  the  Golden  State.  Here  he  became 
known  as  an  able  criminal  lawyer  and  skillful  debater  in 
public  life.    He  was  the  Republican  candidate  for  Congress 


6  William  D.  Fenton. 

in  1859,  but  suffered  defeat.  It  is  said  that  disappointment 
in  some  of  his  political  ambitions  influenced  him  to  remove 
from  Illinois  to  California.  He  did  not  come  directly  to 
California,  but  in  1851  undertook  some  work  on  the  Panama 
Railway,  contracted  the  fever,  and  was  compelled  to  seek  a 
northern  climate  on  that  account.  After  his  defeat  for  Con- 
gress in  California,  in  1859,  Baker  removed  to  Oregon.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  in  April,  1860,  Geo.  K.  Shiel  was 
nominated  as  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Congress,  from 
Oregon,  and  David  Logan,  the  son  of  Baker's  old  associate, 
Judge  Logan,  of  Springfield,  became  the  Republican  nom- 
inee. Baker  canvassed  the  state  in  support  of  the  Republi- 
can ticket,  but  Shiel  was  elected,  receiving  a  majority  of  104 
votes  over  Logan.  Oregon  at  that  time  was  divided  into 
three  political  factions;  the  friends  and  supporters  of  Sen- 
ator Douglas  were  led  by  James  W.  Nesmith,  and  those  op- 
posed to  Douglas  and  who  favored  John  C.  Breckenridge 
and  Joseph  Lane  were  in  the  ascendency.  Abraham  Lin- 
coln meantime  had  been  nominated  for  President  by  the  Re- 
publican Convention  at  Chicago.  In  this  situation  and  under 
these  influences,  the  Legislative  Assembly,  elected  in  June, 
1860,  in  the  State  of  Oregon,  convened  September  10  at  the 
State  Capital  at  Salem.  After  a  somewhat  prolonged  and 
bitter  contest,  James  W.  Nesmith  and  E.  D.  Baker  were 
chosen,  the  one  a  Douglas  Democrat,  the  other  a  Republi- 
can, and  their  election  was  brought  about  by  a  fusion  of 
these  two  parties.  Delazon  Smith  and  Joseph  Lane  were 
the  Democratic  candidates,  and  Geo.  H.  Williams  and  James 
W.  Nesmith  were  the  independent  candidates,  or,  more  prop- 
erly speaking,  the  candidates  of  the  Douglas  wing  of  the 
party,  and  E.  D.  Baker  was  the  candidate  of  the  Republicans. 
Senator  Baker  was  elected  for  the  term  commencing 
March  4,  1859.  His  credentials  were  presented  by  Senator 
Latham,  of  California,  on  December  5,  1860,  and  immediately 
upon  taking  the  oath  of  office  Senator  Baker  entered  upon 
his  public  duty. 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  7 

On  February  18,  1861,  Senator  Baker  presented  the  cre- 
dentials of  James  W.  Nesmith,  who  was  elected  as  Senator 
at  the  same  time  with  him,  and  for  the  term  of  six  years, 
from  the  4th  of  March,  1861.  From  this  time  forward  Ba- 
ker's record  is  the  record  of  his  country,  until  his  death  at 
Ball's  Bluff,  October  21,  1861.  His  election  to  the  Senate 
from  the  State  of  Oregon  was  criticised  by  his  contempor- 
aries in  this,  that  it  was  claimed  he  was  a  resident  of  the 
State  of  California,  and  was  not  identified  by  residence,  ac- 
quaintance or  property  in  the  State  of  Oregon.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  there  was  some  foundation  for  this  criticism, 
although  it  is  not  questioned  that  he  came  to  the  state  with 
the  intention  of  making  it  his  permanent  home.  His  ambi- 
tion, of  course,  was  to  be  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate 
from  the  State  of  Oregon,  Under  the  Constitution  he  was 
eligible;  he  was  an  American  citizen,  of  national  standing, 
and  of  an  honorable  career,  who  had  seen  honorable  service, 
both  in  office  and  in  war.  He  was  the  life-long  friend  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  who  was  then  a  candidate  for  President 
of  the  United  States.  He  had  served  the  State  of  Illinois 
as  a  member  of  Congress;  he  had  been  a  distinguished  sol- 
dier in  the  Mexican  War;  he  had  defended  the  title  of  the 
Oregon  Country,  and  in  doing  so  had  risen  above  his  party 
leadership  and  platform.  He  was  avowed  and  outspoken  in 
his  defense  of  the  Union,  and  in  support  of  the  policy  for 
,i7hich  Mr.  Lincoln  stood.  He  did  not  deceive  the  people  of 
Oregon  by  any  false  pretensions.  While  his  election  was 
only  possible  as  a  Republican  by  votes  of  Douglas  Demo- 
crats, it  must  be  remembered  that  at  that  time  political  par- 
ties were  in  a  state  of  reorganization  and  re-alignment. 

At  this  point  in  the  career  of  this  distinguished  man  it 
may  be  of  interest  to  make  some  estimate  of  him  as  an 
orator.  It  may  be  admitted  that  the  work  of  the  historian 
is  one  of  difficulty  and  embarrassment.    Macaulay  says: 

"History,  it  has  been  said,  is  philosophy,  teaching  by 
examples.  Unhappily,  what  philosophy  gains  in  soundness 
and  depth,  the  examples  generally  lose  in  vividness.    A  per- 


8  William  D.  Fenton. 

feet  historian  must  possess  an  imagination  sufficiently  pow- 
erful to  make  his  narrative  effective  and  picturesque.  Yet 
he  must  control  it  so  absolutely  as  to  content  himself  with 
the  materials  which  he  finds,  and  to  refrain  from  supplying 
deficiencies  by  additions  of  his  own.  He  must  be  a  pro- 
found and  ingenious  reasoner.  Yet  he  must  possess  suffi- 
cient self-command  to  abstain  from  casting  his  facts  in  the 
mould  of  his  hypothesis.  Those  who  can  justly  estimate 
these  almost  insuperable  difficulties  will  not  think  it  strange 
that  every  writer  should  have  failed  either  in  the  narrative 
or  in  the  speculative  department  of  history." 

The  record  of  the  orator  is  most  difficult  to  review,  and 
an  estimate  of  his  talents  cannot  be  made  without  danger 
from  mere  panegyric. 

Baker  had  the  fervor  and  emotion  necessary  to  every  great 
orator.  He  had  fluency  of  speech,  richness  of  diction,  accu- 
rate memory,  and  impressed  his  audience  with  a  sense  of 
that  reserve  power  which  in  its  last  analysis  is  the  secret  of 
all  great  orators. 

On  September  27,  1858,  in  San  Francisco,  California,  Baker 
delivered  an  address  in  commemoration  of  the  laying  of 
the  Atlantic  cable.  Among  other  expressions  of  beautiful 
sentiments  so  well  expressed,  he  said : 

"We  repeat  here  today  the  names  of  Franklin,  Morse  and 
Field;  we  echo  the  sentiment  of  generous  pride  most  felt 
in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  at  the  associated 
glory  of  her  sons,  but  we  know  that  this  renown  will  spread 
wherever  their  deeds  shall  bless  their  kind;  that,  like  their 
works,  it  will  extend  beyond  ocean  and  deserts,  and  remain 
to  latest  generations." 

His  concluding  sentence  was: 

"Our  pride  is  for  humanity;  our  joy  is  for  the  world;  and 
amid  all  the  wonders  of  past  achievement,  and  all  the  splen- 
dors of  present  success,  Ave  turn  with  swelling  hearts  to  gaze 
into  the  boundless  future,  with  the  earnest  conviction  that  it 
will  develop  a  universal  brotherhood  of  man." 

In  this  address  he  stated  that  the  Atlantic  cable  was  but 
one  link  in  a  line  of  thought  which  was  to  bind  the  world, 
and  that  the  next  link  would  connect  the  Atlantic  and  the 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  9 

Pacific.  It  is  recorded  that  when  this  union  was  effected 
three  years  later,  the  second  message  sent  over  the  wires 
was  the  announcement  of  the  fall  of  Colonel  Baker  at  Ball's 
Bluff. 

On  September  16,  1859,  David  C.  Broderiek,  United  States 
Senator  from  California,  and  the  leader  of  the  Douglas 
forces  in  that  state,  was  mortally  wounded  in  a  duel  with 
Judge  Terry.  Baker  delivered  the  funeral  eulogy,  which  is 
charged  with  feeling  and  eloquence.  This  remarkable  ad- 
dress electrified  the  nation,  and  did  much  to  destroy  a  resort 
to  the  code  of  honor,  and  to  unify  those  who  believed  in 
restriction  and  limitation  of  the  slave  power.  Terry  rep- 
resented in  his  life  and  conduct,  the  thoughts,  habits  and 
wishes  of  the  Southern  wing  of  his  party.  Broderiek  was  a 
strong  and  aggressive  representative  of  those  who  believed 
in  limitation  of  further  political  influence  in  this  direction. 
There  was,  therefore,  more  involved  than  a  mere  personal 
quarrel.  They  represented  the  hot  blood  and  temper  of  con- 
tending and  bitter  factions,  and  in  a  large  sense  they  rep- 
resented the  forces  that  were  soon  to  feel  the  shock  of  battle. 

Speaking  of  this  oration,  Mr.  George  Wilkes,  of  New 
York,  has  said: 

"At  the  foot  of  the  coffin  stood  the  priest;  at  its  head,  and 
so  he  could  gaze  fully  on  the  face  of  his  dead  friend,  stood 
the  fine  figure  of  the  orator.  Both  of  them,  the  living  and 
the  dead,  were  self-made  men;  and  the  son  of  the  stone- 
cutter, lying  in  mute  grandeur,  wi  h  a  record  floatinc;'  rdund 
the  coffin  which  bowed  the  heads  of  the  surrounding  thou- 
sands down  in  silent  respect,  might  have  been  proud  of  the 
tribute  which  the  weaver's  apprentice  was  about  to  lay  upon 
his  breast.  For  minutes  after  the  vast  audience  had  settled 
itself  to  hear  his  words,  the  orator  did  not  speak.  He  did 
not  look  into  the  coffin— nay,  neither  to  the  right  nor  left; 
but  the  gaze  of  his  fixed  eye  was  turned  within  his  mind, 
and  the  tear  was  upon  his  cheek.  Then,  when  the  silence 
was  the  most  intense,  his  tremulous  voice  rose  like  a  wail 
and  with  an  uninterrupted  stream  of  lofty,  burning  and 
pathetic  words,  he  so  penetrated  and  possessed  the  hearts  of 


10  William  D.  Fenton. 

the  sorrowing  multitude  that  there  was  not  one  cheek  less 
moistened  than  his  own. ' ' 

On  October  26,  1860,  at  the  American  Theater,  in  San 
Francisco,  Senator  Baker,  en  route  from  Oregon  to  Wash- 
ington City,  there  to  take  his  seat  as  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States,  delivered  a  remarkable  political  address.  He  began 
by  saying: 

"I  owe  more  thanks  than  my  life  can  repay,  and  I  wish 
all  Oregon  were  here  tonight.  We  are  a  quiet,  earnest,  pas- 
toral people,  but  by  the  banks  of  the  Willamette  there  are 
many  whose  hearts  would  beat  high  as  yours  if  they  were 
here.    I  owe  you  much,  but  I  owe  more  to  Oregon. ' ' 

It  will  be  remembered  that  John  C.  Fremont  with  his 
family  was  present,  and  that  the  address  was  delivered  but 
a  few  days  preceding  the  November  election  which  was  to 
result  in  the  election  of  his  friend  Abraham  Lincoln  as  Pres- 
ident. He  spoke  two  and  a  half  hours,  and  moved  his  aud- 
ience with  the  skill  and  ease  of  a  master.  His  appeal  was 
fervid,  brilliant  and  powerful. 

On  January  2,  1861,  he  made  the  first  of  his  two  remarka- 
ble and  celebrated  replies  to  Senator  Benjamin.  This  is  be- 
lieved by  all  of  his  critics  to  be  his  ablest  effort  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  Senator  Judah  P.  Benjamin, 
of  Louisiana,  was  perhaps  at  that  time  the  greatest  debater 
and  orator  of  the  South.  He  was  a  finished  scholar,  an  able 
advocate,  and  a  man  of  great  personal  magnetism.  Benja- 
min had  undertaken  to  establish  the  proposition  that  the 
states  could  rightfully  secede  from  the  Federal  Union,  and 
in  the  course  of  his  argument  emphasized  the  righteousness 
of  the  Southern  cause.     Replying  to  this,  Baker  said: 

"Right  and  duty  are  always  majestic  ideas.  They  march, 
an  invisible  guard,  in  the  van  of  all  true  progress ;  they  ani- 
mate the  loftiest  spirit  in  the  public  assemblies;  they  nerve 
the  arm  of  the  warrior;  they  kindle  the  soul  of  the  states- 
man, and  the  imagination  of  the  poet;  they  sweeten  every 
reward,  they  console  every  defeat." 

Baker  therefore  accepted  the  challenge  that  in  the  disciTS- 
sion  of  the  question  it  was  right  and  proper  to  argue  the 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  11 

right  and  justice  of  the  cause.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
this  great  reply  to  Benjamin  occupied  two  days  in  its  de- 
livery, and  that  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Senate  only 
twenty-seven  days  at  the  time.  Baker  at  that  time  was  fifty 
years  of  age.  He  had  been  known  on  the  hustings  as  "The 
Old  Gray  Eagle. ' '  He  was  of  striking,  military  appearance ; 
he  was  five  feet  ten  and  a  half  inches  high,  weighed  one 
hundred  and  ninety  pounds. 

On  April  19,  1861,  in  Union  Square,  New  York  City,  Baker 
addressed  a  great  mass  meeting.  His  first  sentence  in  that 
great  speech  is: 

"The  majesty  of  the  people  is  here  today  to  sustain  the 
majesty  of  the  Constitution,  and  I  come,  a  wanderer  from 
the  far  Pacific,  to  record  my  oath  along  with  yours  of  the 
great  Empire  State.  The  hour  for  conciliation  is  past;  the 
gathering  for  battle  is  at  hand,  and  the  country  requires 
that  every  man  shall  do  his  duty." 

He  concluded: 

"The  national  banners  leaning  from  ten  thousand  win- 
dows today  proclaim  your  reverence  and  affection  for  the 
Union.  You  will  gather  in  battalions,  and  as  you  gather 
every  omen  of  ultimate  peace  will  surround  you.  Ministers 
of  religion,  priests  of  literature,  the  historians  of  the  past, 
the  illustrators  of  the  present,  capital,  science,  art,  invention, 
discoveries,  and  works  of  genius;  all  those  will  attend  us, 
and  we  will  conquer;  and  if,  from  the  far  Pacific,  a  voice 
feebler  than  the  feeblest  murmur  upon  its  shore  may  be 
heard  to  give  you  courage  and  hope  in  the  contest,  that  voice 
is  yours  today,  and  if  a  man  whose  hair  is  gray,  who  is  well- 
nigh  worn  out  in  the  battle  and  toil  of  life,  may  pledge  him- 
self on  such  an  occasion  and  in  such  an  audience,  let  me 
say  as  my  last  word,  that  when,  amid  sheeted  fire  and  flame 
I  saw  and  led  the  hosts  of  New  York  as  they  charged  in 
contest  on  a  foreign  soil  for  the  honor  of  the  flag,  so  again, 
if  Providence  shall  will  it,  this  feeble  hand  shall  draw  a 
sword  never  yet  dishonored,  not  to  fight  for  honor  on  a 
foreign  field,  but  for  Country,  for  Home,  for  Law,  for  Grov- 
ernment,  for  Constitution,  for  Right,  for  Freedom,  for  Hu- 
manity, and  in  the  hope  that  the  banner  of  my  country  may 
advance,  and  wheresoever  that  banner  waves,  there  glory 
may  pursue,  and  freedom  be  established." 


12  William  D.  Fenton. 

On  August  2,  1861,  Baker,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  made  his  reply  to  Breckenridge,  then  a  Senator  from 
Kentucky.    Speaking  of  this  discussion,  Mr.  Blaine  says : 

"He  (Baker)  laid  his  sword  upon  his  desk,  and  sat  for 
some  time  listening  to  the  debate.  He  was  undoubtedly  im- 
pressed by  the  scene  of  which  he  himself  was  a  conspicuous 
feature.  Breckenridge  took  the  floor  shortly  afler  Baker 
appeared,  and  made  a  speech  of  which  it  is  a  fair  criticism 
to  say  that  it  reflected  in  all  respects  the  view  held  by  the 
members  of  the  Confederate  Congress  then  in  session  at 
Richmond.  Colonel  Baker  evidently  grew  restive  under  the 
words  of  Mr.  Breckenridge.  His  face  was  aglow  with  ex- 
citement and  he  sprang  to  the  floor  when  the  Senator  from 
Kentucky  took  his  seat.  His  reply,  abounding  in  denuncia- 
tion and  invective,  was  not  lacking  in  the  more  solid  and 
convincing  argument.  *  *  *  It  is  impossible  to  realize 
the  efl:ect  of  the  words  so  eloquently  pronounced  by  the 
Oregon  Senator.  In  the  history  of  the  Senate,  no  more  thrill- 
ing speech  was  ever  delivered.  The  striking  appearance  of 
the  speaker  in  the  uniform  of  a  soldier,  his  superb  voice, 
his  graceful  manner,  all  united  to  give  the  occasion  an  ex- 
traordinary interest  and  attraction." 

Baker's  words  were  fired  with  the  military  spirit.  He 
had  been,  up  to  that  time,  willing  to  make  concessions;  he 
had  gone  beyond  the  majority  of  his  political  associates  in 
his  desire  to  conciliate  the  South.  Breckenridge  had  strongly 
argued  that  Lincoln  was  prosecuting  a  war  of  aggression  in 
violation  of  the  Constitution;  that  it  was  a  war  of  con- 
quest, waged  against  a  peaceful  and  law-abiding  people.  At 
this  late  day,  remote  from  the  immediate  conflict,  it  is  the 
judgment  of  posterity  that  Breckenridge  was  wrong,  and 
that  Baker  was  right. 

This  was  Baker's  last  public  address.  It  was  five  days 
before  the  adjournment  of  the  Senate,  in  the  darkest  period 
of  the  war,  when  the  South  was  apparently  triumphant,  and 
had  just  reason  to  be  hopeful.  Baker  soon  quitted  the  cham- 
ber of  the  Senate  for  the  fortunes  of  war.  Baker  had  the 
confidence  of  President  Lincoln.  Lincoln  knew  him,  be- 
lieved in  him,  and  gave  him  his  commission  as  an  officer  in 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  13 

the  army.  He  was  present  at  his  first  inaugural,  and  intro- 
duced him  upon  that  memorable  occasion.  It  is  said  that 
at  one  time  a  California  delegation  called  upon  the  President 
in  Congress,  to  present  a  nominee  for  a  local  office,  and 
they  disputed  the  right  of  Senator  Baker  of  Oregon  to  be 
consulted  respecting  the  patronage  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 
One  of  thepi,  it  is  said,  made  some  remark  reflecting  upon 
the  private  character  and  morals  of  Senator  Baker;  he  had 
forgotten  that  Baker  was  one  of  Lincoln's  oldest  and  closest 
friends  in  Illinois,  and  Lincoln  was  always  loyal  to  the  men 
with  whom  he  was  associated  in  his  early  days.  He  never 
forgot  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  David  Davis,  Edward  D.  Baker, 
John  M.  Palmer  and  Lyman  Trumbull,  nor  did  they  ever 
fail  in  loyalty  to  him. 

On  March  4,  1861,  when  President  Buchanan  escorted  the 
President-elect  from  the  executive  mansion  to  the  capitol, 
Avhere  he  was  to  take  the  oath  of  office  to  be  administered 
to  him  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  it  was  fitting  that  he  should 
be  introduced  by  Baker,  and  that  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who 
had  been  his  opponent  for  the  Presidency,  should  stand  by 
his  side. 

The  oratory  of  Baker  has  been  the  subject  of  some  crit- 
icism, and  his  contemporaries,  under  the  immediate  influ- 
ence of  his  patriotic  addresses,  were  perhaps  not  altogether 
free  from  bias  in  his  behalf.  His  political  opponents  were 
expected  to  and  did  criticise  him  as  an  orator.  His  friends 
may  have  erred,  on  the  other  side,  but  at  this  distance,  free 
from  the  influence  of  his  time,  it  can  be  safely  affirmed  that 
his  speeches  rank  with  the  greatest  of  their  kind.  It  seems 
to  me  from  a  critical  and  somewhat  careful  examination  of 
the  subject  matter,  the  occasion  and  circumstances  under 
which  each  was  delivered,  that  his  reply  to  Benjamin  is 
worthy  of  a  place  alongside  of  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne. 
It  is  full  of  power,  and  of  the  loftiest  diction ;  its  sentiments 
are  those  of  a  man  whose  whole  life  had  been  devoted  and 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  his  country.  Other  speeches 
were  more  ephemeral  in  their  nature,  and  were  delivered 


14  William  D.  Fenton. 

under  circumstances  calculated  to  have  immediate  influence 
upon  those  who  heard  them.  They  were  the  inspiration  of 
the  times,  and  while  here  and  there  in  each  and  in  all  of 
them  are  burning  passages  of  eloquence  of  transcendent 
power  and  beauty,  they  do  not  survive  as  permanent  con- 
tributions to  the  world's  greatest  and  best  orations.  It  is 
difficult,  of  course,  to  place  a  just  and  proper  estimate  upon 
the  productions  of  men  in  this  great  field  of  human  endeavor. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  in  1814,  said : 

"I  consider  the  speeches  of  Aram  and  Carnot,  and  that 
of  Logan,  as  worthily  standing  in  a  line  with  those  of  Scipio 
and  Hannibal  in  Livy,  and  of  Cato  and  Caesar  in  Sallust." 

It  depends,  however,  upon  the  model  which  the  critic  ad- 
mires. Jefferson,  speaking  of  this  subject  in  his  letter  to 
Mr.  Eppes,  says : 

"The  models  for  that  oratory  which  is  to  produce  the 
greatest  effect  by  securing  the  attention  of  hearers  and  read- 
ers, are  to  be  found  in  Livy,  Tacitus,  Sallust,  and  most  as- 
suredly not  in  Cicero.  I  doubt  if  there  is  a  man  in  the 
world  who  can  now  read  one  of  his  orations  through,  but 
as  a  piece  of  task  work." 

Scholarly  as  the  sage  of  Monticello  was,  he  criticized  the 
great  Cicero,  and  speaking  of  a  man  now  forgotten,  said: 

"The  finest  thing,  in  my  opinion,  which  the  English  lan- 
guage has  produced,  is  the  defense  of  Eugene  Aram,  spoken 
by  himself  at  the  bar  of  the  York  Assizes  in  1759." 

But  who  would  at  this  date  remember  Eugene  Aram  as 
an  orator?  Doubtless  Mr.  Jefferson  was  influenced  by  the 
remarkable  defense  made  by  the  prisoner  to  his  indictment 
for  murder.  It  is  said  that  on  his  trial  for  the  murder  of 
Daniel  Clark  in  1745,  Eugene  Aram  defended  himself  with 
unusual  ability.  But  no  man  now  remembers  what  he  said, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  record  of  the  address  which  Jef- 
ferson so  much  admired. 

Victor  Cousin,  the  great  French  orator,  speaking  upon 
this  subject,  says: 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  15 

"The  two  great  types  of  political  and  religious  eloquence, 
Demosthenes  in  antiquity,  Bossuet  among  the  moderns, 
think  only  of  the  interest  of  the  cause  confided  to  their 
genius,  the  sacred  cause  of  country  and  that  of  religion, 
whilst  at  bottom,  Phidias  and  Raphael  work  to  make  beau- 
tiful things.  Let  us  hasten  to  say  what  the  names  of  De- 
mosthenes and  Bossuet  command  us  to  say,  that  true  elo- 
quence, very  different  from  that  of  rhetoric,  disdains  cer- 
tain means  of  success.  It  asks  no  more  than  to  please,  but 
without  any  sacrifice  unworthy  of  it ;  every  foreign  ornament 
degrades  it.  Its  proper  character  is  simplicity,  earnestness. 
I  do  not  mean  affected  earnestness,  a  designed  and  artful 
gravity,  the  worst  of  all  deceptions;  I  mean  true  earnest- 
ness, that  springs  from  sincere  and  profound  conviction. 
This  is  what  Socrates  understood  by  true  eloquence. ' ' 

It  is  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  divorce  the  orator  from 
the  occasion.  In  fact,  it  is  sometimes  said  that  true  elo- 
quence consists  in  the  occasion  more  than  in  what  is  said. 

Dr.  William  Matthews,  in  his  work  entitled,  ' '  Oratory  and 
Orators,"  has  said  that  "the  greatest  speech  made  in  Amer- 
ica this  century  was  made  by  Daniel  Webster  in  reply  to 
Hayne.  The  greatest  orator  of  this  country— Patrick 
Henry,  perhaps,  excepted— we  think  was  Henry  Clay." 

Emerson  has  said  that  eloquence  is  "the  appropriate  or- 
gan of  the  highest  personal  energy."  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  the  spoken  word  of  the  orator  loses  its  power 
and  influence  when  reduced  to  writing. 

Dr.  Matthews,  illustrating  this,  says: 

"The  picture  from  the  great  master's  hand  may  improve 
with  age ;  every  year  may  add  to  the  mellowness  of  its 
tints,  the  delicacy  of  its  colors.  The  Cupid  of  Praxiteles, 
the  Mercury  of  Thorwaldsen,  are  as  perfect  as  when  they 
came  from  the  sculptor's  chisel.  The  dome  of  Saint  Peter's, 
the  self -poised  roof  of  King's  Chapel,  'scooped  into  ten 
thousand  cells,'  the  facade  and  sky-piercing  spire  of  Stras- 
bourg Cathedral,  are  a  perpetual  memorial  of  the  genius  of 
their  builders.  Even  music,  so  far  as  it  is  a  creation  of  the 
composer,  may  live  forever.  The  aria  or  cavatina  may  have 
successive  resurrections  from  it§  dead  signs.  The  delicious 
melodies  of  Schubert,  and  even  Handel's  'seven-fold  chorus 


16  William  D.  Fenton. 

of  hallelujahs  and  harping  symphonies'  may  be  reproduced 
by  new  artists  from  age  to  age.  But  oratory,  in  its  grand- 
est or  most  bewitching  manifestations — the  'deivotes'  of 
Demosthenes,  contending  for  the  crown — the  white  heat  of 
Cicero  inveighing  against  Antony— the  glaring  eye  and 
thunder  tones  of  Chatham  denouncing  the  employment  of 
Indians  in  war — the  winged  flame  of  Curran  blasting  the 
pimps  and  informers  that  would  rob  Orr  of  his  life — the 
nest  of  singing-birds  in  Prentiss's  throat,  as  he  holds  spell- 
bound the  thousands  in  Fanueil  Hall— the  look,  port  and 
voice  of  Webster,  as  he  hurls  his  thunderbolts  at  Hayne — 
all  these  can  no  more  be  reproduced  than  the  song  of  the 
sirens." 

How  difficult,  then,  it  is  to  estimate  correctly  the  funeral 
oration  over  the  dead  body  of  Broderick.  It  is  true  that 
the  text  has  been  preserved,  but  the  great  audience,  stilled 
and  filled  with  feeling,  the  great  events  which  surrounded 
the  tragedy,  the  magic  presence  of  the  great  orator,  all  these 
are  gone. 

Mr.  Rhodes,  in  his  history  of  the  United  States,  speaking 
of  ihis  great  oration,  says: 

"The  funeral  oration  was  pathetic  and  caused  profound 
emo  ion;  at  its  close  orator  and  people  wept  in  sympathy. 
It  was  calculated  to  stir  up  men's  hearts,  and  it  impressed 
in  glowing  words  the  conviction  that  Broderick  had  been 
hunted  '  o  the  death  by  his  antagonists.  Baker,  in  1861,  met 
an  heroic  €^d  at  the  bat  le  of  Ball's  Bluff,  but  before  he 
fell,  the  martyrdom  of  Broderick  had  borne  fruit.  It  pro- 
duced a  mighty  revolution  in  public  opinion." 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Senator  Baker,  after  he  had 
received  his  commission  from  the  President,  organized  a 
regiment  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  called  at  first  the 
"California  Regiment"  and  later  the  "71st  Pennsylvania," 
and  that  he  was  leading  these  men  when  he  fell  at  Ball's 
Bluff.  How  much  of  glory  and  fame  this  tragic  end  may 
have  added  to  his  name  it  is  impossible  to  judge.  At  the 
time.  General  Charles  P.  Stone,  who  was  in  immediate  com- 
mand, was  severely  criticized,  put  in  prison,  and  although 
asser  ing  his  innocence  and  demanding  a  trial.  Stone  was 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  17 

released  without  explanation  or  vindication.  The  affair  at 
Ball's  Bluff  was  a  disastrous  defeat  of  great  moral  effect  at 
the  time.  The  death  of  Baker,  under  the  circumstances, 
tended  to  magnify  the  national  loss,  and  added  lustre  to 
his  memory.  He  may  have  been  rash  and  impetuous;  his 
personal  bravery  was  not  questioned,  but  universally  con- 
ceded; the  fiery  genius  of  the  orator,  the  enthusiasm  and 
earnestness  with  which  he  pressed  a  solution  of  every  great 
question,  may  have  led  him  into  risks  which  a  more  phleg- 
matic man  would  have  avoided.  As  a  soldier  Baker  was 
brave  beyond  discretion.  That  there  was  mismanagement 
of  the  Union  forces  at  Ball's  Bluff  is  the  sober  judgment  of 
history.  While  the  casualties  were  not  large,  measured  in 
numbers,  the  loss  of  Baker  amounted  to  a  national  calam- 
ity. In  the  light,  therefore,  of  his  tragic  death,  his  work 
as  an  orator  must  be  considered. 

The  fame  of  Robert  Emmett  rests  upon  his  eloquent  de- 
fense before  his  sentence ;  the  occasion,  the  circumstances, 
the  cause  in  which  he  sacrificed  his  life,  all  these  things 
make  his  memorable  words  immortal. 

Lincoln  was  not  an  orator,  and  yet  his  second  inaugural 
address,  delivered  March  4,  1865,  had  a  permanent  influ- 
ence upon  his  countrymen,  and  is  justly  regarded  as  an  ex- 
ample of  the  genius  and  intellectual  greatness  of  its  au- 
thor. From  that  time  forth  the  world  gave,  amoag  its  ora- 
tors and  statesmen,  a  high  place  to  Abraham  Lincoln.  On 
the  19th  of  November,  1863,  at  Gettysburg,  Edward  Everett 
delivered  his  great  oration  to  dedicate  the  battlefield  as  a 
burial  place  for  those  who  had  yielded  up  their  lives  in 
defense  of  their  country.  Mr.  Lincoln  followed  him  in  an 
address  of  twenty-seven  printed  lines,  which,  for  simple 
eloquence,  is  not  surpassed  in  the  English  language.  What 
was  it,  what  is  it,  that  has  made  Lincoln's  address  immortal, 
while  that  of  Everett  is  scarcely  remembered?  One  was  a 
polished  and  gifted  orator,  the  other  was  a  simple,  earnest 
and  impressive  man,  burdened  with  the  responsibilities  of 
power  and  standing  in  the  performance  of  duty.    His  words 


18  William  D.  Fenton. 

filled  the  aching  hearts  of  a  waiting  people;  they  were  ut- 
tered in  a  great  cause,  and  in  memory  of  those  who  had 
sacrificed  their  lives  that  the  "nation  might  live,"  His 
power  of  statement,  the  simplicity  of  his  language,  the  ear- 
nestness with  which  his  words  were  uttered,  all  these  things 
make  the  address  a  classic  and  model. 

The  influence  of  Baker  as  an  orator  rested  largely  upon 
his  simplicity  of  statement,  his  earnestness  of  purpose,  and 
the  apparent  reserve  power  behind  the  man.  There  was, 
also,  in  his  delivery  the  fervor  and  animation  which  riveted 
attention,  in  his  diction,  words,  that  pleased  the  ear,  and 
in  his  rushing  flood  of  passion  a  current  that  hurried  men 
into  flood-tide  of  patriotism.  The  severe  critic  and  writer, 
Dr.  Colton,  said: 

"When  the  Roman  people  had  listened  to  the  difi:use  and 
polished  discourses  of  Cicero,  they  departed,  saying  one  to 
another,  'What  a  splendid  speech  our  orator  has  made.'  But 
when  the  Athenians  heard  Demosthenes,  he  so  filled  them 
with  the  subject  matter  of  his  oration  that  they  quite  forgot 
the  orator  and  left  him  at  the  finish  of  his  harangue,  breath- 
ing revenge  and  exclaiming,  'Let  us  go  and  fight  against 
Philip.'  " 

When  that  great  speech  delivered  by  Baker  at  Union 
Park,  New  York,  April  19,  1861,  had  been  finished,  new  ar- 
mies of  the  republic  leaped  to  the  defense  of  the  nation. 

But  why  longer  speak  of  him  as  an  orator,  or  statesman, 
or  soldier?  Nearly  a  half  century  has  passed  since  Baker 
gave  his  life  to  his  country,  upon  the  battlefield,  and  the 
words  of  his  comrades  then  spoken  most  fitly  record  his 
virtues,  his  glories  and  his  fame.  Of  him  McClellan,  in  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  in  a  general  order  is- 
sued within  twenty-four  hours  after  Baker's  death,  said: 

' '  The  gallant  dead  had  many  titles  to.  honor.  At  the  time 
of  his  death  he  was  a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate 
from  Oregon;  and  it  is  no  injustice  to  any  survivor  to  say 
that  one  of  the  most  eloquent  voices  in  that  illustrious  body 
has  been  silenced  by  his  fall.  As  a  patriot,  zealous  for  the 
honor  and  interests  of  his  adopted  country,  he  has  been  dis- 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  19 

tinguished  in  two  wars,  and  has  now  sealed  with  his  blood 
his  devotedness  to  the  national  flag.  Cut  off  in  the  fullness 
of  his  powers  as  a  statesman,  and  in  the  course  of  a  bril- 
liant career  as  a  soldier,  while  the  country  mourns  his  loss, 
his  brothers  in  arms  will  envy  while  they  lament  his  fate. 
He  died  as  a  soldier  would  wish  to  die,  amid  the  shock  of 
battle,  by  voice  and  example  animating  his  men  to  brave 
deeds." 

Edward  Dickinson  Baker  was  buried  in  Lone  Mountain 
Cemetery,  San  Francisco,  California,  on  December  11,  1861. 
Thomas  Starr  King,  who  preached  the  funeral  oration,  there 
said: 

"We  have  borne  him  now  to  the  home  of  the  dead;  to  the 
cemetery  which,  after  fit  services  of  prayer,  he  devoted  in 
a  tender  and  thrilling  speech  to  its  hallowed  purposes." 

Some  seven  years  before  that  time  Baker  had,  on  May 
30,  1854,  delivered  the  address  at  the  dedication  of  this 
cemetery. 

On  Wednesday,  December  11,  1861,  memorial  services  in 
memory  of  Senator  Baker  were  held  in  the  Senate  Chamber 
at  Washington.  On  that  day  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  Abraham  Lincoln,  entered  the  Senate  Chamber,  sup- 
ported by  Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull  and  Hon.  0.  H.  Browning, 
Senators  from  the  State  of  Illinois.  He  was  introduced  to 
the  Vice-President,  and  took  his  seat  beside  him,  while  his 
private  secretaries,  John  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  were 
seated  near  the  central  entrance.  Senator  Nesmith,  of  Ore- 
gon, speaking  of  the  death  of  his  colleague,  said : 

"As  an  orator  Baker  ranks  high,  and  was  peculiarly  fas- 
cinating in  his  manner  and  diction.  As  a  soldier  he  was 
possessed  of  a  rare  aptitude  for  the  profession  of  arms,  com- 
bined with  that  cool,  unflinching  courage  which  enabled 
him  to  perform  the  most  arduous  duties  under  trying  cir- 
cumstances, and  to  look  upon  the  most  fearful  peril  with 
composure.  It  is  but  a  few  short  months  since,  in  the 
presence  of  this  body,  he  took  upon  himself  a  solemn  oath 
to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  that  cov- 
enant has  been  sealed  with  his  heart's  blood.  Death  has 
silenced  his  eloquence  forever,  and  his  manly  form  has  been 


20  William  D.  Fenton. 

consigned   to   its   last   resting  place   on   the   shores   of  the 
distant  Pacific." 

At  that  time  McDougall  and  Latham  were  the  California 
Senators,  and  Senator  McDougall  delivered  an  extended 
and  finished  address.     He  said: 

"He  was  a  many-sided  man.  Will,  mind,  power,  radiated 
from  one  center  within  him  in  all  directions;  and  while  the 
making  of  that  circle,  which,  according  to  the  dreams  of  old 
philosophy,  would  constitute  a  perfect  being,  is  not  within 
human  hope,  he  may  be  regarded  as  one  who  at  least  il- 
lustrated the  thought.  His  great  powers  cannot  be  attributed 
to  the  work  of  laborious  years.  They  were  not  his  achieve- 
ments. They  were  gifts,  God-given.  His  sensations,  mem- 
ory, thought  and  action  went  hand  in  hand  together  with  a 
velocity  and  power,  which,  if  not  always  exciting  admiration, 
compelled  astonishment.  *  *  *  jje  was  skilled  in  met- 
aphysics, logic  and  law.  He  might  be  called  a  master  of 
history,  and  of  all  the  literature  of  our  own  language. 
*  *  *  He  was  an  orator — not  an  orator  trained  to  the 
model  of  the  Greek  or  Roman  school,  but  one  far  better 
suited  to  our  age  and  people.  He  was  a  master  of  dialectics, 
and  possessed  a  power  and  skill  in  words  which  would  have 
confounded  the  rhetoric  of  Gorgias,  and  demanded  of  the 
great  master  of  dialectics  himself  the  exact  use  of  all  his 
materials  of  wordy  warfare." 

Senator  Browning,  of  Illinois,  said : 

"Baker  fell— as  I  think  he  would  have  preferred  to  fall, 
had  he  had  the  choice  of  the  mode  of  death — in  the  storm 
of  battle,  cheering  his  brave  followers  on  to  duty  in  the 
service  of  his  adopted  country,  to  which  he  felt  that  he 
owed  much;  which  he  loved  well,  and  had  served  long  and 
faithfully.  *  *  *  He  was  a  true,  immovable,  incorrupt- 
ible and  unshrinking  patriot.  *  *  *  To  Senators  who 
were  his  contemporaries  here,  and  who  have  heard  the 
melody  of  his  voice,  who  have  witnessed  his  powerful  and 
impassioned  bursts  of  eloquence,  and  felt  the  witchery  of 
the  spell  that  he  has  thrown  upon  them,  it  were  vain  for  me 
to  speak  of  his  displays  in  this  chamber.  It  is  no  disparage- 
ment to  his  survivors  to  say  that  he  stood  the  peer  of  any 
gentleman  on  this  floor  in  all  that  constitutes  the  able  and 
skillful  debater,  and  the  classical,  persuasive  and  enchanting 
orator. ' ' 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  21 

Senator  Cowan,  of  Pennsylvania,  said: 

"Mr.  President.  Pennsylvania  also  droops  her  head  among 
the  states  that  mourn  on  this  occasion.  She,  too,  sheds  her 
tears  and  utters  her  wail  of  lamentation  over  the  fall  of 
the  senator  and  soldier.  She  was  his  foster  mother.  A  na- 
tional orphan,  in  his  infancy  and  youth,  she  was  his  guardian 
for  nuriure.  Perhaps  he  had  no  recollection  of  any  o.her 
country  he  could  call  his  native  land  but  Pennsylvania,  and 
she  loved  him  as  though  he  had  been  actually  to  her  'manor 
born.'  He  died  under  her  regimental  flag,  bearing  her 
commission  and  leading  her  soldiers  in  the  deadly  strife. 
She  therefore  laments  his  heroic  and  untimely  death  with 
a  grief  that  yields  to  that  of  none  else  in  its  depth  and  in- 
tensity. Let  Oregon,  his  last  and  fondest  love,  steep  herself 
in  sorrow  as  she  may,  Pennsylvania  still  claims  an  equal 
place  at  her  side  in  this  national  manifestation  of  distress 
at  his  loss.  She  can  hardly  now  realize  that  in  his  life  he 
was  not  all  her  own,  since  he  died  so  near  her,  and  was  car- 
ried from  the  battlefield  borne  upon  her  shield.  He  was 
also  a  man  of  intellect,  cool,  clear,  sharp  and  ready ;  his  cul- 
ture was  large  without  being  bookish,  he  was  learned  with- 
out being  a  scholar,  and  studious  without  being  a  student. 
*  *  *  He  was  a  true  orator  because  he  confined  himself 
to  his  subject,  and  expressing  himself  with  such  ease  that 
all  understood  him,  he  was  effective.  *  *  *  He  had  a 
fine  personal  appearance,  and  his  manners  were  self-poised 
and  easy,  as  actual  contact  with  all  ranks  of  men  could 
make  them.  *  *  *  He  is  gone,  and  his  name  and  char- 
acter henceforth  belong  to  history.  His  children  will  glory 
in  both,  and  be  known  to  men  because  of  him,  the  proudest 
legacy  he  could  leave  them.  His  country,  too,  will  honor  his 
memory,  and  when  the  roll  of  her  dead  heroes  is  called,  his 
name  will  resound  through  the  American  Valhalla  among 
the  proudest  and  most  heroic." 

Charles  Sumner,  then  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  said: 

' '  There  are  two  forms  of  eminent  talent  which  are  kindred 
in  their  effect,  each  producing  an  instant  present  impres- 
sion ;  each  holding  crowds  in  suspense,  and  each  kindling 
enthusiastic  admiration;  I  mean  that  of  the  orator  and  that 
of  the  soldier.  Each  of  these  when  successful  wins  imme- 
diate honor  and  reads  his  praise  in  a  nation's  eyes.  Baker 
was  orator  and  soldier.  To  him  belongs  the  rare  renown 
of  this  double  character.    Perhaps  he  carried  into  war  some- 


22  William  D.  Fenton. 

thing  of  the  confidence  inspired  by  the  conscious  sway  of 
great  multitudes,  as  he  surely  brought  into  speech  something 
of  the  ardor  of  war.  Call  him,  if  you  please,  the  Prince 
Rupert  of  battle;  he  was  also  the  Prince  Rupert  of  debate. 
*  *  *  In  the  Senate  he  at  once  took  the  place  of  orator. 
His  voice  M-as  not  full  or  sonorous,  but  it  was  sharp  and 
clear.  It  was  penetrating  rather  than  commanding,  and  yet 
when  touched  by  his  ardent  nature  it  became  sympathetic 
and  even  musical.  His  countenance,  body  and  gesture,  all 
showed  the  unconscious  inspiration  of  his  voice,  and  he  went 
on,  master  of  his  audience,  master  also  of  himself.  All  his 
faculties  were  completely  at  his  command.  Ideas,  illustra- 
tions, words,  seemed  to  come  unbidden  and  to  range  them- 
selves in  harmonious  forms,  as  in  the  walls  of  ancient  Thebes, 
each  stone  took  its  proper  place  of  its  own  accord,  moved 
only  by  the  music  of  a  lyre.  His  fame  as  a  speaker  was  so 
peculiar,  even  before  he  appeared  among  us,  that  it  was 
sometimes  supposed  he  might  lack  those  solid  powers  with- 
out which  the  oratorical  faculty  itself  can  exercise  only  a 
transient  influence.  But  his  speech  on  this  floor  in  reply 
to  a  slave-holding  conspirator,  now  an  open  rebel,  showed 
that  his  matter  was  as  good  as  his  manner,  and  that  while 
he  was  a  master  of  fence,  he  was  also  a  master  of  ordnance. 
His  controversy  was  graceful,  sharp  and  flashing,  like  a 
cimeter;  but  his  argument  was  powerful  and  sweeping  like 
a  battery." 

Thus  California,  Illinois  and  Pennsylvania  mingled  their 
words  of  praise  and  expressed  their  common  grief  in  mem- 
ory of  the  distinguished  dead.  Pennsylvania  was  his  adopted 
state,  and  the  home  of  his  childhood.  Illinois  was  the  scene 
of  his  first  active  endeavor.  California,  his  introduction  to 
the  great  West,  and  Oregon  crowned  him  with  the  toga  of 
a  United  States  Senator.  While  he  held  a  commission  as 
United  States  Senator  from  the  people  of  the  State  of  Ore- 
gon, he  was  essentially  a  Senator  of  the  United  States. 

Edward  Dickinson  Baker  lived  in  a  great  era  of  his  coun- 
try. He  was  by  nature  and  training  a  soldier  and  orator, 
and  a  statesman.  Born  to  poverty  and  almost  dependent 
upon  his  own  exertions  for  advancement,  his  record  is  that 
of  other  great  self-made  men.     His  environment  early  led 


Edward  Dickinson  Baker.  23 

him  into  political  debate  and  conflict,  and  he  will  be  known 
in  history  as  one  of  the  great  figures  of  the  Civil  War.  The 
central  thought  of  his  public  life  seems  to  have  been  a  sin- 
cere devotion  to  his  country.  A  man  of  deep  emotion,  his 
heart  was  touched  and  stirred  by  any  apparent  or  real  as- 
sault upon  the  integrity  of  his  adopted  country.  He  served 
his  country  best  in  his  great  work  as  an  orator.  His  de- 
fense of  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  his  justification  of  the 
course  of  the  government  in  his  replies  to  Benjamin  and 
Breckenridge,  constitute  a  sufficient  passport  to  his  immor- 
tal fame.  His  occasional  addresses  which  so  stirred  the 
hearts  of  the  people  prove  his  genius  as  a  master  and  his 
ability  to  influence  the  emotions  and  minds  of  men.  His 
death  ended  a  brilliant  and  useful  life;  but,  measured  by 
the  work  which  he  has  left  behind,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  of  Edward  Dickinson  Baker  that  he  was  a  great  orator, 
a  noble  patriot  and  a  distinguished  American. 


THE  WAX  OF  NEHALEM  BEACH.* 

By  O.  F.  Stafford. 

Thirty  miles  south  of  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River 
the  Oregon  coast  line,  which  for  a  greater  part  of  the  dis- 
tance has  been  composed  of  picturesquely  rugged  headlands 
and  most  charming  stretches  of  ocean  beach,  swings  around 
the  sacred  mountain  Nekahnie,  of  the  Indians,  and  spreads 
out  within  a  distance  of  two  or  three  miles  into  a  flat,  sandy 
spit  which  serves  to  separate  Nehalem  Bay  from  the  Pacific. 
Here  is  a  spot  not  only  beautiful  in  its  surroundings,  but 
rich  in  mysterious  legends  of  shipwreck  and  buried  treas- 
ure, as  well  as  vague  traditions  regarding  the  first  comings 
of  white  men  to  the  great  Northwest.  There  are  now,  to  be 
sure,  no  certain  relics  of  the  shipwrecks,  and  about  all  that 
remains  to  recall  the  traditions  are  occasional  pieces  of 
wax,  rescued  from  the  sands  of  the  spit,  perchance,  by  a 
passer-by.  It  is  of  this  wax  particularly  that  the  present 
article  will  deal,  for  it  has  long  been  a  subject  of  interest, 
speculation,  and  even  of  warm  controversy.  In  this  sub- 
stance many  have  tried  to  fathom  an  ancient  mystery  of 
the  sea;  others  have  hoped  to  find  it  a  guiding  index  to  a 
vault  in  Nature's  treasure  house.  It  has  been  at  once  an 
enigma  to  the  theorizing  antiquarian,  the  despair  of  the 
sordid  promoter,  and  the  solace  of  the  newspaper  space 
writer.  Yet  when  all  of  the  evidence  bearing  upon  the 
matter  is  summarized  the  enigmatical  aspects  of  the  ques- 
tion are  seen  to  disappear  almost  entirely. 

For  our  first  historical  mention  of  this  wax  deposit  we 
are  indebted  to  that  admirable  representative  of  the  North- 
west Company,  Alexander  Henry,  who,  in  company  with 
David  Thompson,  official  geographer  of  the  same  company, 
made  an  expedition  down  the  Columbia  to  the  present  site 


♦Reprinted  from  tht>  Sunday  Oregonian  of  January  2  6.   1908. 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  25 

of  Astoria  in  the  winter  of  1813-14.  Henry's  journal,  re- 
produced and  annotated  in  Coues'  "New  Light  on  the  His- 
tory of  the  Greater  Northwest"  (Vol.  H.),  contains,  under 
the  date  of  December  8,  1813,  at  which  time  Henry  was  at 
Astoria,  the  following  notation : 

"The  old  Clatsop  chief  arrived  with  some  excellent 
salmon  and  the  meat  of  a  large  biche.  There  came  with 
him  a  man  about  thirty  years  of  age,  who  has  extraordi- 
narily dark  red  hair,  and  is  the  supposed  offspring  of  a  ship 
that  was  wrecked  within  a  few  miles  of  the  entrance  of  this 
river  many  years  ago.  Great  quantities  of  beeswax  con- 
tinue to  be  dug  out  of  the  sand  near  this  spot,  and  the  In- 
dians bring  it  to  trade  with  us." 

Later,  in  the  entry  for  February  28,  1814,  there  appears: 

"*     *     *     They  bring  us  frequently  lumps  of  beeswax 

fresh  out  of  the  sand  which  they  collect  on  the  coast  to  the 

S.,  where  the  Spanish  ship  was  cast  away  some  years  ago 

and  the  crew  all  murdered  by  the  natives. ' ' 

It  is  seen  that  Henry  speaks  very  positively  concerning 
the  origin  of  the  wax  deposit,  and  doubtless  his  utterances 
represent  accurately  the  beliefs  of  the  people  of  the  time 
and  place  regarding  the  matter.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
other  early  explorers  failed  to  take  account  of  the  occur- 
rence of  this  wax.  There  is  no  mention  of  the  matter,  for 
example,  in  the  journals  of  Lewis  and  Clark.  As  Coues  re- 
marks, this,  wax  is  about  the  only  product  peculiar  to  the 
place  that  these  men  seem  to  have  missed. 

Horace  S.  Lyman,  in  his  "History  of  Oregon,"  gives  an 
interesting  discussion  of  the  first  appearances  of  white  men 
upon  the  Oregon  coast  as  preserved  in  Indian  traditions. 
His  main  authority  is  Silas  B.  Smith,  an  intelligent  half- 
breed,  whose  mother  was  a  daughter  of  the  Clatsop-  chieJ', 
Kobaiway.  Mr.  Smith  made  a  special  study  of  the  tradi- 
tions of  his  mother's  people,  as  a  result  of  which  he  assigns 
the  earlier  comings  of  white  men  to  three  separate  occa- 
sions, the  second  of  which  was  the  wrecking  of  a  vessel  near 
Nehalem.    To  quote  from  Lyman: 


26  0.  F.  Stafford. 

"The  Indians  state  that  ship  of  the  white  men  was  driven 
ashore  here  and  wrecked.  The  crew,  however,  survived, 
and  reaching  land  lived  for  some  time  with  the  natives. 
A  large  part  of  the  vessel's  cargo  was  beeswax.  But  in  the 
course  of  several  months  the  white  men  became  obnoxious 
to  the  Indians  because  of  violating  their  marital  relations. 
The  whites  were  consequently  killed,  but  fought  to  defend 
themselves  with  slungshot.  As  Mr.  Smith  notes,  this  would 
indicate  that  they  had  lost  their  arms  and  ammunition." 

This  account,  it  is  to  be  observed,  agrees  essentially  with 
the  details  given  by  Henry. 

References  to  the  wax  other  than  those  just  given  are 
rather  infrequent  until  recent  times.  Belcher,  an  early  nav- 
igator, obtained  some  specimens  in  1837.  It  is  said  that  six 
tons  of  wax  from  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  were  received 
at  a  Hawaiian  port  about  1847.  Professor  George  Davidson, 
of  the  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  while  at 
Cape  Disappointment  in  1851,  obtained  a  specimen  which 
had  been  picked  up  on  Clatsop  beach.  Later,  in  the  Coast 
Pilot  for  California,  Oregon  and  Washington  Territory, 
1869,  Professor  Davidson  describes  the  wax  deposit  and 
evidences  of  the  wreck  from  which  it  supposedly  came. 
Others  to  refer  to  the  subject  are  C.  W.  Brooks,  in  a  paper 
before  the  California  Academy  of  Science,  1875,  and  H.  M. 
Davis,  in  a  communication  to  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, April,  1892. 

During  this  whole  period  of  eighty  years  extending  from 
1813  to  1893  no  one  seems  to  have  questioned  that  the  de- 
posit of  wax  was  due  to  any  other  cause  than  the  thing  tra- 
ditionally accepted  as  its  origin— a  wrecked  vessel.  The  only 
difference  of  opinion  apparent  in  the  matter  was  regarding 
the  nationality  of  the  vessel,  some  investigators  having  it 
of  Spanish  ownership,  others  of  Chinese  or  Japanese.  In 
1893,  however,  a  new  aspect  was  introduced  by  two  circum- 
stances. The  first  was  an  opinion  rendered  regarding  the  na- 
ture of  the  wax  by  the  commissioner  in  charge  of  the  Aus- 
trian exhibit  at  the  Columbian  Exposition.  A  part  of  this  ex- 
hibit consisted  of  ozokerite,  a  wax  of  mineral  origin  which  is 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  27 

of  considerable  economic  importance,  and  the  commissioner 
in  charge  did  not  hesitate  to  pose  as  an  expert  authority 
in  judging  substances  of  this  kind.  A  sample  of  Nehalem 
wax  was  submitted  to  this  official  by  Colonel  A.  W.  Miller, 
of  Portland,  with  the  result  that  it  was  pronounced  ozoker- 
ite. It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  a  chemist  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  exposition  to  whom  the  same  sample  was  submit- 
ted insisted  that  it  was  beeswax,  pure  and  simple. 

The  second  circumstance  tending  to  raise  the  question 
as  to  whether  the  substance  might  be  beeswax  or  ozokerite 
was  the  publication  of  a  series  of  three  articles  in  Science 
(New  York)  during  the  summer  of  1893.  The  first  of  these, 
appearing  in  the  issue  of  June  16,  was  by  Mr.  George  P. 
Merrill,  head  curator  in  the  Department  of  Geology,  United 
States  National  Museum,  Washington,  and  was  descriptive 
of  samples  of  Nehalem  wax  received  from  a  correspondent 
at  Portland,  Oregon.    Quoting  from  this  article: 

"The  samples  are  of  a  material  closely  resembling  if  not 
identical  with  beeswax.  Such  it  would  unhesitatingly  have 
been  pronounced  but  for  certain  stated  conditions  relating 
to  its  occurrence.  *  *  *  The  material  is  a  grayish  color 
on  the  outer  surface,  indicating  oxidation,  but  interiorly 
it  has  all  the  characteristics  of  genuine  beeswax,  as  regards 
physical  conditions,  color,  smell,  fusing  point,  and  conduct 
toward  chemical  reagents.  *  *  *  It  is  said  to  be  found 
in  masses  of  all  sizes  up  to  250  pounds  in  weight;  that  it 
occurs  in  the  sand,  being  found  while  digging  clams  at  low 
tide  and  at  a  depth  of  twenty  feet  below  the  surface  when 
digging  wells.  *  *  *  The  material  has  been  traced  for 
a  distance  of  thirty  miles  up  the  river.  *  *  *  Tradition 
has  it  that  many  hundred  years  ago  a  foreign  vessel  laden 
with  wax  was  wrecked  off  this  coast.  This,  at  first  thought, 
seems  plausible,  but  aside  from  the  difficulty  in  accounting 
for  the  presence  in  these  waters  and  at  that  date  of  a  vessel 
loaded  with  M^ax,  it  seems  scarcely  credible  that  the  material 
could  be  brought  in  a  single  cargo  in  such  quantities  nor 
buried  over  so  large  an  area.  *  *  *  My  correspondent 
states  that  the  material  has  been  mined  by  the  whites  for 
over  twenty  years,  but  not  to  any  great  extent  excepting  the 
last  eight  or  ten  years,  during  which  time  many  hundred 


28  0.  F.  Stafford. 

tons  have  been  shipped  to  San  Francisco  and  Portland. 
*  *  *  Concerning-  the  accurracy  of  the  above  account 
the  present  writer  knows  nothing.  It  is  here  given  in  the 
hope  of  gaining  more  information  on  the  subject." 

The  above  communication  is  obviously  an  admission  of 
complete  mystification  upon  the  part  of  its  writer.  He  has 
little  doubt  about  the  substance  being  beesM'^ax;  in  fact, 
in  a  later  note  to  the  present  writer  he  says  that  he  had  no 
doubt  about  it.  Yet  the  facts  regarding  the  way  the  wax  is 
found,  as  reported  to  him,  are  absolutely  incompatible  with 
any  credible  occurrence  of  beeswax.  It  was  simply  a  matter 
requiring  more  information  and  the  article  is  virtually  an 
appeal  for  such. 

Two  articles  were  almost  immediately  published  in 
Science  in  response  to  this  appeal.  The  first  was  from  Judge 
J.  Wickersham,  of  Tacoma,  Washington,  who  shows  by  ref- 
erence to  the  writings  of  Brooks,  Davidson,  and  Davis  that 
many  shipwrecks  of  Oriental  vessels  actually  have  occurred 
upon  American  shores  and  that  therefore  a  wreck  as  the 
source  of  the  wax  was  at  any  rate  within  the  limits  of  pos- 
sibility. He  also  calls  attention  to  an  error  made  in  the 
information  to  Mr.  Merrill  regarding  the  amount  of  wax 
that  had  been  recovered— no  such  quantities  as  those  men- 
tioned were  ever  found. 

The  second  article  was  from  the  pen  of  C.  D.  Hiscox,  of 
New  York.  It  is  a  little  peculiar  in  that  it  leaves  the  reader 
with  a  strong  doubt  about  its  writer  ever  having  even  seen 
a  sample  of  Nehalem  wax.  There  is  given  a  description,  to 
be  sure,  which  would  apply  equally  well  to  true  beeswax, 
Nehalem  wax,  or  ozokerite,  but  from  the  language  of  the 
article  it  is  impossible  to  say  which  was  meant.  For  the  rest 
the  author  evidently  simply  consulted  a  dictionary  and  re- 
produced a  lot  of  statistics  for  ozokerite.  Although  this 
article  is  often  cited  as  an  authority  in  discussions  of  Ne- 
halem wax  such  citation  is  not  justified  for  the  reason  that 
there  is  not  to  be  found  in  it  a  single  significant  statement 
for  which  there  is  any  proof. 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  29 

The  situation,  after  these  developments  of  1893,  was  not 
altogether  clear  to  the  average  citizen  without  scientific 
training  who  might  be  interested  in  unusual  natural  prod- 
ucts of  his  country.  The  old  belief  that  Nehalem  wax  was 
beeswax.  Mobile  not  entirely  discredited,  was  at  any  rate 
suddenly  in  the  doubtful  list.  The  doctors  were  unable  to 
agree,  apparently,  which  was  further  proof  that  there  were 
at  least  two  sides  to  the  question.  And  if  this  were  so,  why 
not  the  possibility  of  great  ledges  of  this  material— at  eight- 
een cents  per  pound?  Or  better  yet,  widespread  strata  of 
oil-bearing  sands  down  deep  below  which  should  supply  this 
Northwestern  country  with  sadly  needed  heat  uniis?  It  is 
not  difficult  to  arouse  public  interest — sometimes.  The  in- 
terest created  in  this  instance  had  at  least  one  good  result 
in  that  it  brought  about  an  examination  of  the  Nehalem 
field  by  a  competent  geologist. 

Among  other  duties  assigned  during  the  summer  of  1895 
to  Dr.  J.  S.  Diller,  one  of  the  ablest  field  geologists  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey,  was  an  investigation  of 
this  problem.  Dr.  Diller  made  his  findings  public  through 
a  let  er  to  the  Morning  Oregonian  of  March  27,  1896.  This 
letter  is  not  only  the  most  authoritative  discussion  ever  pub- 
lished upon  the  subject  of  Nehalem  wax,  particularly  as 
regards  its  geological  aspects,  but  also  deals  so  tritely  with 
some  of  the  other  points  at  issue  that  a  number  of  para- 
graphs are  bodily  reproduced  here.   Dr.  Diller  says : 

"During  a  trip  from  Astoria  southward  along  the  coast 
the  only  place  where  we  found  fragments  of  the  wax  was 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Nehalem.  At  this  point  it  occurs 
buried  in  the  deep  sand  just  above  the  present  high  tide 
limit.  From  the  accumulated  sediments  of  the  river  the 
beach  is  gradually  growing  seaward,  and  not  many  genera- 
tions ago  the  sea  reached  the  place  now  occupied  by  the 
wax.  ]\Ir.  Edwards,  who  was  my  guide  at  the  place,  showed 
me  the  stakes  marking  the  areas  already  dug  over  by  him- 
self in  obtaining  almost  three  tons  of  wax.  It  was  found  in 
the  deep  sand  within  ten  feet  of  the  surface.  He  expected 
to  continue  working  later  in  the  summer,  but  regarded  the 
locality  as  almost  'mined  out.'   We  picked  up  a  number  of 


30  0.  F.  Stafford. 

smaller  fragments  coated  with  sand,  and  he  showed  me 
others  previously  collected.  Among  the  latter  were  several 
short,  cylindrical,  hollow  pieces  like  candles  from  which 
the  wick  has  disappeared.  A  few  larger  pieces  weighing 
from  fifty  to  seventy-five  pounds  were  found  some  years  ago 
by  Mr.  Edwards,  and  also  by  Mr.  Colwell.  They  bore  marks 
apparently  of  trade.  As  the  large  pieces  had  all  been  dis- 
posed of  I  was  unfortunately  unable  to  study  these  marks. 
The  beeswax  has  been  found  some  miles  up  the  Nehalem 
river,  but  always,  so  far  as  I  could  learn,  close  to  the  high 
tide  limit.  From  the  Nehalem  beach  it  has  been  spread  along 
the  coast  southward  by  the  strong  seabreezes  of  summer, 
and  northward  by  the  storms  of  winter. 

"There  are  two  coal  fields  on  the  Nehalem,  one  in  Colum- 
bia county,  and  the  other  in  Clatsop  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Nehalem,  but  nothing  whatever  occurs  in  either  field 
which  resembles  the  wax,  and  it  is  evident  from  the  loca- 
tion of  the  body  of  the  wax  that  it  was  not  derived  from  the 
adjacent  land,  but  was  transported  in  a  body  by  the  sea 
and  dumped  not  far  from  its  present  position. 

"Its  mode  of  occurrence  and  the  marks  upon  it  clearly 
indicate  that  the  material  is  not  a  natural  product  of  Ore- 
gon, but  they  do  not  prove  that  it  is  wax  and  not  ozokerite 
brought  from  elsewhere.  The  two  substances,  although  very 
similar  in  their  general  composition,  are  readily  distinguish- 
able by  chemical  tests.  Mr.  H.  N.  Stokes,  one  of  the  chemists 
of  the  Geological  Survey,  to  whom  it  was  referred  for  ex- 
amination, says :  '  The  substance  in  question  is  sharply  dis- 
tinguished from  ozokerite  and  other  paraffins  by  its  easy 
decomposition  by  warm,  strong  sulphuric  acid,  and  by  being 
saponified  by  boiling  with  alcoholic  potash,  giving  soaps 
which  dissolve  in  hot  water,  and  from  which  acids  throw 
down  insoluble  fatty  acids.  In  view  of  this  behavior  the 
material  is  evidently  wax  and  not  ozokerite.' 

"Its  melting  point  determined  by  Mr.  Stokes  is  64  de- 
grees, centigrade,  which  coresponds  to  that  of  beeswax  and 
distinguishes  it  from  wax  of  other  kinds  known  to  trade." 

A  summary  of  the  evidence  presented  by  Dr.  Diller  shows 
conclusively  that  the  wax  deposit  is  confined,  so  far  as  is 
known,  to  a  single  locality,  the  Nehalem  spit,  and  that 
fragments  found  up  the  Nehalem,  or  scattered  along  the 
coast,   might  easily  be   accounted  for  as   incidental   drift; 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  31 

that  a  few  generations  ago  the  sea  reached  the  place  now 
occupied  by  the  wax;  that  the  wax  is  not  derived  from  the 
adjacent  land;  and  finally,  that  although  these  considera- 
tions show  only  that  the  wax  must  have  been  deposited 
upon  the  beach  from  the  ocean,  and  therefore  give  no 
light  upon  the  question  as  to  its  nature,  chemical  tests  show 
decisively  that  it  is  not  ozokerite,  but  beeswax. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  anyone  could  deliberately 
summon  the  temerity  requisite  for  calling  into  question  the 
points  established  so  thoroughly  by  Dr.  Diller,  and,  indeed, 
it  must  have  been  because  of  an  entire  ignorance  of  his  work 
that  the  subject  was  opened  up  again  in  1903,  once  more 
by  adherents  of  the  ozokerite  hypothesis.  An  analysis  of 
the  arguments  presented  by  these  people  at  this  time  shows 
that  they  are  founded  upon  two  main  assertions,  viz.,  that 
the  amount  of  wax  taken  out  and  sold  is  by  far  greater 
than  could  have  been  carried  by  a  ship  of  a  hundred  or  two 
hundred  years  ago,  and  that  the  substance  actually  proves  to 
be  ozokerite  by  analysis.  Now,  the  first  of  these  assertions  is 
unsustained  by  any  proof  whatsoever,  while  the  second  is 
fully  met  by  the  evidence  of  Merrill  and  Stokes.  Yet  it 
is  interesting  to  follow  out  the  proofs  offered,  as  they  were 
advanced  honestly  with  the  full  belief  that  they  established 
their  case. 

Naturally  it  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  any  very  accurate 
estimate  upon  the  total  amount  of  wax  contained  in  the 
Nehalem  deposit,  or  obtained  from  it.  The  believers  in  the 
ozokerite  idea  make  estimates  running  as  high  as  hundreds 
of  tons,  it  being  asserted  that  one  man  recovered  17,000 
pounds.  The  present  writer,  however,  after  due  investiga- 
tion, is  unable  to  account  for  so  much.  It  is  hardly  probable 
that  the  early  Indian  traffic,  such  as  Henry  mentions,  could 
have  been  very  extensive.  The  Indians  themselves,  it  is 
likely,  had  but  little  use  for  the  wax,  and  there  is  no  known 
record  of  any  considerable  trade  in  this  substance  by  the 
early  whites.  The  first  hint  of  any  extensive  traffic  is  con- 
tained in  the  unsubstantiated  report  referred  to  above  that 


32  0.  F.  Stafford. 

six  tons  were  shipped  to  Hawaii  about  1847.  From  this  time 
until  about  the  eighties  the  only  record  concerning  the  re- 
covery of  wax  is  a  notation  by  J.  J.  Gilbert,  of  the  United 
States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  who  made  the  survey 
of  this  part  of  the  coast.  He  learned  that  early  settlers 
had  plowed  the  site  of  the  old  wreck  and  obtained  450 
pounds  of  the  wax,  which  was  sold  as  beeswax.  Dr.  Diller's 
guide  and  informant,  Mr.  Edwards,  is  said  to  be  no  longer 
living,  so  that  further  testimony  from  him  is  not  available. 
He  is  accredited,  however,  by  all  old  residents  of  the  Ne- 
halem  country,  from  whom  it  has  been  possible  to  get  an 
opinion,  with  having  taken  out  by  far  a  greater  amount  of 
the  wax  than  any  other  person.  Mr.  Edwards'  own  esti- 
mate of  the  amount  of  wax  obtained  by  him,  as  he  gave  it  to 
Dr.  Diller,  was  "almost  three  tons."  Mr.  D.  S.  Boyakin, 
at  present  and  for  many  years  past  a  resident  of  Nehalem, 
and  who  as  a  merchant  has  kept  in  close  touch  with  traffic 
affairs  of  all  sorts  in  that  locality,  estimates  that  Edwards 
and  other  active  wax  gatherers  known  to  him  have  secured 
in  all  not  much  over  four  tons.  This,  added  to  the  six  tons 
that  may  have  been  shipped  to  Hawaii  in  1847,  gives  ten 
tons.  Another  ton  or  two  for  Indian  traffic,  etc,  probably 
places  a  liberal  estimate  upon  the  whole  amount  recovered. 
It  is  almost  impossible  to  find  a  piece  of  the  wax  upon  the 
beach  at  the  present  time,  and  the  consensus  of  opinion 
among  those  most  expert  in  finding  it  is  that  the  deposit  is 
practically  exhausted.  The  available  facts,  then,  are  not 
incompatible  with  the  wreck  hypothesis  as  far  as  the  amount 
of  wax  to  be  considered  is  concerned. 

Now  as  to  the  analyses  reported  to  prove  the  substance 
ozokeri'e.  A  preliminary  word  of  explanation  should  be 
given  here,  perhaps,  in  order  that  there  may  be  in  the  minds 
of  everyone  a  clear  idea  of  the  difficulties  to  be  met  in  con- 
sidering questions  of  this  kind.  Nature  has  curiously  made 
a  great  many  things  in  such  a  way  that  whereas  they  are 
fundamentally  entirely  different  Ihey  may  possess  certain 
resemblances  which  are  calculated  to  deceive  even  experi- 


TTpptT  end  of  Nt'hiilcni  spit,  where  l)ee.swiix  was  to 


Pieces  of  cjindles  in  possession  of  writer.  Tlie  fijiKnient  at  tlie  left  side  t>f 
the  picture  lias  a  eonifal  liole  in  tlie  hasi'  foi'  the  reception  of  a  pes  or 
candle-stick  to  support  it  while  in  use. 


Kratinienls  of  candles.     I'ortlan.l  (Ml.v   .Mus( 


Large  cake  of  Nehalem  wax,  show 
whole,  measured  about  2()  x  6 


xl6iiu-hfs.     Port  I 


u-t.-r.     This  (• 
iiul  City  Mus 


ikf,  whi 

'UUl. 


rgv  iiiiissof  N. 


I'ortliiiKl  City  Mils. 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  33 

eneed  observers  unless  they  exercise  great  caution.  Rock 
crystal  and  diamond,  for  example,  may  resemble  each  other 
so  as  to  make  it  difficult  for  even  an  expert  to  tell  which  is 
which  from  a  visual  or  tactile  examination.  Chemical  analy- 
sis, or  more  exact  physical  examinations,  however,  at  once 
reveal  the  difference.  In  the  present  case  it  is  a  matter  of 
distinguishing  between  the  well  known  substance,  beeswax, 
and  ozokerite,  the  latter,  in  its  natural  state  being  a  waxy 
material  varying  in  color  from  creamy  white  through  many 
shades  of  yellow,  brown,  green-brown,  to  black.  The  ex- 
ternal resemblances  between  the  two  substances  may  be 
very  close,  although  the  chemical  characteristics  are  dis- 
tinctly different,  as  are  also  those  physical  differences  which 
can  be  numerically  gauged,  such  for  example,  as  the  tem- 
perature of  melting.  This  matter  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
table  given  below,  showing  the  characteristics  of  a  number 
of  different  waxes  used  for  identifying  them.  From  this  it 
may  readily  be  understood,  it  is  hoped,  how  one  who  might 
depend  upon  mere  external  appearances  to  decide  this  mat- 
ter might  be  mistaken.  It  is  a  case  where  the  chemical 
properties  of  the  substance  must  be  depended  upon,  the 
determination  of  which  can  be  made  only  with  expensive 
appliances  and  with  a  considerable  expenditure  of  time.  A 
hasty  examination  not  accompanied  by  chemical  tests  is 
certain  to  be  unreliable,  and  yet  the  reports  of  analyses 
offered  in  support  of  the  ozokerite  idea  have  every  appear- 
ance of  being  that  very  sort.  It  wiU  take  but  a  moment  to 
pass  them  in  review  in  order  that  they  may  be  fairly  com- 
pared with  the  painstaking  work  of  the  government  sci- 
entists already  given,  and  with  the  results  of  some  other 
work  done  right  here  in  Oregon  which  will  follow  immedi- 
ately, 

A  review  of  the  statements  of  authority  under  considera- 
tion should  begin  with  the  opinion  rendered  by  the  Aus- 
trian commissioner  at  Chicago  and  the  paper  by  Hiscox, 
both  of  which  have  been  discussed  above.  The  Dearborn 
Drug  and  Chemical  Company,  of  Chicago,  made  a  report 


34  0.  F.  Stafford. 

to  Dr.  August  C.  Kinney,  of  Astoria,  indicating  that  the 
wax  is  "a  crude  paraffin  mixed  with  organic  and  various 
mineral  substances."  This  report  would  apply  to  beeswax, 
as  that  substance  normally  contains  as  high  as  fifteen  per 
cent  of  paraffin,  the  rest  being  organic  substances  of  other 
kinds.  The  mineral  substances  here  mentioned  are  in  all 
probability  beach  sand  particles  such  as  are  frequently 
found  in  the  outer  crusts  of  Nehalem  wax.  The  Scientific 
American  reported  to  Dr.  Kinney  that  his  sample  was 
ozokerite,  but  the  present  writer  has  been  unable  to  get 
from  that  paper  any  statement  of  the  characters  upon  which 
their  opinion  was  based.  A  sample  of  Nehalem  wax  sub- 
mitted to  Mr.  John  F.  Carll,  one  time  state  geologist  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  passed  on  to  the  chemist  of  a  large  oil 
refinery,  Mr.  E.  B.  Gray,  of  the  Tide  Water  Pipe  Line  Com- 
pany, Bayonne,  New  Jersey,  who  made  a  written  report  to 
Mr.  Carll  stating  that  the  substance  was  ozokerite,  but 
apparently  basing  his  opinion  upon  nothing  more  than  the 
hardness  and  melting  point  of  the  sample.  Mr.  Gray,  how- 
ever, when  written  directly  for  further  information,  re- 
plied that  he  had  no  record  of  any  wax  received  from  Mr. 
Carll.  H.  A.  Mears,  a  mining  operator  in  Southern  Oregon 
and  a  pioneer  in  the  gilsonite  fields  of  Utah,  has  mentioned 
several  competent  authorities  to  whom  he  had  submitted 
samples  of  the  wax  with  the  general  verdict  of  ozokerite. 
In  all  of  these  cases  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  get 
statements  of  the  exact  properties  of  this  wax  which  led  to 
the  decisions,  but  without  success,  changes  of  address  and 
other  causes  preventing  communication.  Mr.  Mears'  own 
convictions  are  based  upon  physical  examinations  of  the 
substance,  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  all  of  his  authori- 
ties made  the  same  mistake.  Attention  is  again  directed 
to  the  uncertain  character  of  all  of  this  evidence  as  com- 
pared with  that  offered  by  Merrill,  Stokes,  and  Diller,  and 
two  independent  analyses  given  below,  which,  by  the  way, 
completely  confirm  the  earlier  work  by  these  men. 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  35 

It  sometimes  happens  to  the  chemist  in  Oregon  that  he 
is  consulted  with  regard  to  a  pitchy  substance  in  which  the 
finder  has  an  interest,  it  may  be,  because  of  the  hope  that 
it  is  an  indication  of  oil  in  the  ground  from  which  it  was 
taken.  The  material  almost  invariably  turns  out  to  be  a 
mass  of  pitch  resulting  from  the  slow  destructive  distilla- 
tion process  which  may  accompany  the  burning  of  an  old 
fir  stump  or  root.  Such  masses  may  be  preserved  in  the 
ground  for  years,  and  have  more  than  once  been  con- 
founded with  Nehalem  wax.  Such  a  specimen  was  taken 
in  1906  to  Professor  C.  E.  Bradley,  then  professor  of  chem- 
istry at  Pacific  University,  Forest  Grove,  Oregon,  after 
having  been  widely  proclaimed  in  the  newspapers  as  Ne- 
halem wax.  Professor  Bradley  analyzed  this  material  in 
parallel  with  true  samples  from  Nehalem,  showed  the  dif- 
ference between  the  two,  and  incidentally  proved  the  iden- 
tity of  the  latter  as  beeswax. 

Finally,  there  are  the  results  of  a  very  thorough  analyt- 
ical investigation  of  the  Nehalem  product  as  carried  out  in 
the  laboratories  of  the  University  of  Oregon  under  the 
direction  of  the  writer  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Carroll,  who  made  this 
work  the  subject  of  his  graduation  thesis  in  1903.  The  re- 
sults are  tabulated  in  parallel  with  the  well  established 
numerical  values  accepted  for  other  commercial  waxes  in 
the  case  of  each  character  determined  so  that  comparisons 
can  easily  be  made.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  values 
given  for  beeswax  are  from  a  study  of  many  samples  of 
German,  English,  and  American  waxes,  all  of  which  are  in 
essential  agreement. 


36 


0.  F.  Stafford. 


TABLE 

Showing  comparative  values  for  certain  ciiaracteristics  of  the  more  impor- 
tant commercial  Waxes  and  the  Wax  from  Nehalem  Beach. 


Specific 
gravity. 

Melting 
point. 

Iodine 
value. 

Acid 
value. 

f^t 

Beeswax  (yellow) 

.958-.  975 
.964 

61.6-64.0 
62.5 

7.9-11 

8.5 

17-22 
20 

72-76 
74 

Beeswax  (bleached) 

Ideal  standard 

.956-. 970 
.964 

63.0-65.0 
64.0 

6.0-7.0 
6.5 

20-28 
24 

76-80 

78 

Nehalem  wax 

Average 

.969-.  972 
.970 

62.0-64.0 
63.2 

4.5-6.4 
5.4 

7.7-12.5 
8.4 

98-100 
98.6 

.964 

61 

6.0 

7.8 

86.6 

S.  E.  Asian  Waxes 

6.9-12.2 

6.3-9.0 

85.5-99.5 

Oarnauba  Wax 

.990-.  999 
.995 

83-86 
84 

13.5 
13.5 

3.4-4.8 
4. 

75-76 

Ideal  standard 

75 

.970-.  980 
.978 

50-66 
54 

^ 

2-6 

4.5 

200 

Ideal  standard 

200 

Chinese  Insect  Wax 

.926-. 970 
.960 

80-81 
81 

1.4 
1.4 

Trace 
Trace 

63 
63 

Taltew  (beef) 

.943-952 
.950 

42-48 
46 

36-44 
40 

4-14 
8 

190 

190 

.905-. 960 
.950 

44-49 
46 

Trace 
Trace 

Trace 
Trace 

180 

Ideal  standard 

130 

Myrtle  Wax 

.995 
.995 

40-44 
43 

10.7 
10.7 

3-4.4 
4 

205 

Ideal  standard 

205 

Ozokerite -.. 

.910-. 970 
.950 

50-100 
70 

Trace 
Trace 

Trace 
Trace 

Trace 
Trace 

Paraffin 

.867-. 908 
.900 

44-54 
50 

None 
None 

None 
None 

None 

Ideal  standard 

None 

NOTF,.— The  pairs  of  figures  separated  liy  hyphens  Indicate  the  usual  limits 
within  which  the  value  of  the  given  characteristic  lies.  Single  numbers  rep- 
resent the  average  value,  and  hence  the  ideal  standard. 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  37 

While  the  identity  of  Nehalem  wax  with  beeswax  is 
established  in  this  way  beyond  question  there  exists  a 
puzzling  discrepancy  in  the  ease  of  two  of  the  characters 
investigated,  the  "acid"  and  "ether"  values.  These  av- 
erage for  true  beeswax  20  and  74,  respectively,  while  for 
Nehalem  wax  they  are  8.4  and  98.6.  It  was  at  first  thought 
that  the  great  age  of  the  Nehalem  material,  together  with 
its  exposure  for  so  long  a  period  to  the  agencies  which  at 
the  sea  coast  are  so  actively  destructive  to  animal  and 
vegetable  matter,  would  account  for  the  anomaly.  There 
was  an  objection  to  such  an  assumption,  however,  in  the 
fact  that  old  or  bleached  waxes  usually  give  higher  acid 
values  than  fresh  waxes.  It  was  a  matter  of  great  satis- 
faction, therefore,  to  learn  that  a  recent  investigation  into 
the  analytical  characters  shown  by  waxes  coming  from  the 
south  and  east  of  Asia  indicates  that  these  are  distinguished 
from  all  others  by  a  low  acid  number,  ranging  from  6.3  to 
9,  and  a  high  ether  number,  85.5  to  99.5  (R.  Berg  in  Chem- 
ische  Zeitung,  Vol.  31,  p.  337).  The  actual  analysis  of  a 
wax  from  Annam  illustrates  the  point  and  is  included  in  the 
table  above. 

The  significance  of  the  above  fact  in  its  bearing  upon 
the  origin  of  the  Nehalem  deposit  is  very  evident.  It  is 
not  only  beeswax  with  which  we  are  concerned,  but  bees- 
wax from  the  Orient.  The  suggestion  that  the  wrecked 
vessel  was  engaged  in  the  carrying  trade  between  the  Phil- 
ippines and  Mexico  is  by  no  means  a  new  one.  Professor 
Davidson,  who  for  half  a  century  has  been  actively  engaged 
in  material  to  prove  or  disprove  the  existence  of  the  Dav- 
idson Inshore  Eddy  Current  along  the  Northwestern  coast, 
is  our  highest  present  authority  upon  the  matter  of  what 
the  sea  casts  up  on  these  shores.  In  a  recent  letter  he  says : 

"My  present  belief  is  that  the  wax  is  from  a  wrecked 
galleon  which,  by  stress  of  weather  on  her  voyage  from  the 
Philippines,  had  been  driven  farther  north  than  the  usual 
route.  They  frequently  got  as  high  as  43  degrees,  and  I 
know  of  one  wreck  as  high  as  the  latitude  of  the  Queniult 
River,  Washington." 


38  0.  F.  Stafford. 

Judge  Wickersham  is  also  at  the  present  time  of  the 
opinion  that  the  wax  came  from  the  wreck  of  a  Spanish 
vessel  bound  from  the  Philippines  to  Vera  Cruz  by  way 
of  the  North  Pacific  Current  (Kuro  Shiwo),  which,  by  the 
way,  seems  to  have  been  the  route  universally  taken  by 
eastwardly  bound  vessels. 

Dr.  Joseph  Schafer,  professor  of  history  at  the  University 
of  Oregon,  calls  attention  to  two  particularly  interesting 
references  in  connection  with  the  trade  relationships  ex- 
isting between  the  Philippines  and  Mexico  during  early 
times.  The  first  is  from  Blair  and  Robertson,  "Philippine 
Islands,"  Vol.  XV,  p.  302: 

"A  Dutch  writer  of  about  1600  in  describing  the  Philip- 
pines says,  'They  yield  considerable  quantities  of  honey 
and  wax.'  " 

The  second  reference  is  to  Morga,  long  a  governor  of  the 
Philippines,  sailing  from  there  to  Mexico  in  1603.  His  writ- 
ings are  considered  the  most  authoritative  extant  as  re- 
gards the  Philippines  of  the  early  period.  In  describing  the 
trade  from  the  Islands  to  Mexico  he  says: 

"*  *  *  In  these  classes  of  merchandise  (brought  from 
Siam  and  other  parts  of  the  Orient)  and  in  the  productions 
of  the  Islands— namely,  gold,  cotton  cloth,  mendrinaque, 
and  cakes  of  white  and  yellow  wax— do  the  Spaniards  ef- 
fect their  purchases,  investments,  and  exports  for  Nueva 
Espana  (Mexico)." 

If  anything  more  were  needed  to  establish  the  hypothesis 
of  a  wrecked  Spanish  vessel  it  would  be  an  authentic  ac- 
count of  the  wreck  itself.  Since  the  only  account  known  is 
the  one  preserved  in  Indian  tradition,  we  are  denied  such 
a  crowning  bit  of  evidence.  We  do  have,  however,  the 
knowledge  that  exactly  such  wrecks  did  occur.  In  a  ref- 
erence kindly  supplied  by  Professor  Davidson,  Venegas' 
History  of  California,  Vol.  II,  p.  388,  there  is  an  account  of 
the  wreck  of  the  San  Augustin  in  Drake's  Bay,  1595,  where 
was  left  "great  quantities  of  wax  and  chests  of  silk." 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  39 

A  most  interesting  feature  of  the  question  is  presented 
by  the  appearance  of  the  wax  as  it  is  taken  from  the  sand 
of  the  beach.  Some  mention  of  this  has  already  been  made 
in  the  articles  my  Merrill  and  Diller  given  above.  The  ir- 
regular pieces  have  occurred  in  a  great  variety  of  sizes 
and  shapes,  while  the  "candles"  vary  from  a  half  inch  to 
three  inches  in  diameter  and  up  to  ten  inches  in  length,  in 
all  cases  being  broken,  apparently,  from  greater  original 
lengths.  The  wicks  are  usually  entirely  missing,  an  axial 
cavity  occupying  the  place.  In  a  specimen  owned  by  the 
writer  there  is  to  be  seen  the  conical  cavity  formerly  com- 
mon in  candles  for  supporting  them  upon  wooden  pegs. 
A  considerable  number  of  the  larger  pieces  of  wax  have 
been  in  the  form  of  well-defined  cakes  bearing  mysterious 
markings.  One  of  these  cakes  is  preserved  in  the  Portland 
City  Museum,  together  with  several  pieces  of  less  regular 
shape  and  some  candles.  Most  of  them  have  been  melted 
and  sold,  however,  and  the  engraved  characters  conse- 
quently destroyed.  Tracings  of  the  characters  have  been 
preserved  in  a  few  cases,  while  enough  others  have  been 
reproduced  from  memory  to  give  a  fair  idea  of  their  nature. 
Their  meaning  is  problematical,  although  it  is  fairly  certain 
that  they  are  the  brands  of  the  makers  or  dealers  originally 
handling  them.  In  the  various  efforts  that  have  been  made 
to  get  light  upon  the  origin  of  the  wax  these  characters 
have  been  submitted  to  high  authorities  among  the  Japanese 
and  Russians,  as  well  as  to  Latin  scholars  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  and  the  libraries  of  Germany,  but  always 
without  obtaining  the  least  clue  regarding  their  signifi- 
cance. Through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  F.  F.  G.  Schmidt,  of 
the  University  of  Oregon,  a  special  effort  was  made  during 
the  summer  of  1907  to  get  an  interpretation  of  the  marks 
from  German  sources.  Even  men  highly  skilled  in  decipher- 
ing old  Latin  manuscripts,  in  which  a  whole  word  or  phrase 
is  sometimes  embodied  in  a  single  monogram-like  character, 
failed  to  recognize  anything  intelligible  in  the  marks.    An 


40  0.  F.  Stafford. 

importer  and  dealer  in  waxes,  however,  pronounced  them 
marks  of  trade,  such  as  he  had  often  seen  upon  waxes  com- 

A     U    "^    L 

I  2  3  4 

0    9x1 

5  6  7  8 

-^   J    ^    MO 

9  10  M  12 

Facsimiles  of  the  characters  observed  upon  pieces  of  Nehalem  wax. 

The  first  is  also  seen  in  the  photograph  of  the  specimen  now  in  Portland 
City  Museum.  Numbers  2  to  8  Inclusive  were  reported  to  Dr.  Dlller.  Num- 
bers 9, 10,  and  11  are  from  tracings  made  by  D.  S.  Boyakin,  of  Nehalem,  9  and  10 
being  upon  the  same  cake.  Number  12  was  upon  a  cake  reported  by  Professor 
Davidson.  The  size  of  the  cake  bearing  number  1  was  about  20x6x16  Inches, 
while  the  cake  bearing  numbers  9  and  10  was  about  20x12x4  Inches. 

ing  in  from  outside  countries.  After  all,  the  trade-mark 
explanation  is  not  unsatisfactory.  The  symbols  can  be  said 
to  have  their  counterparts  in  the  brands  devised  for  brand- 
ing stock  upon  Western  cattle  ranches,  and  may  be  even 
less  obscure  in  meaning  than  the  year-mark  upon  a  piece  of 
Rookwood  pottery  is  to  the  uninitiated. 

Occasionally  a  piece  of  "sandstone"  is  found  upon  the 
beach  impregnated  with  Nehalem  wax.  This  stone  con- 
sists of  beach  sand,  in  the  main,  cemented  together  with  the 


The  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach.  41 

beeswax  softened  enough  at  some  time  by  a  drift  fire,  it 
may  be,  to  percolate  into  the  sand.  Mr.  Boyakin  calls  at- 
tention to  the  resemblance  that  this  "stone"  bears  to  the 
residues  left  in  the  kettles  used  for  melting  down  the  wax 
for  market,  and  it  is  altogether  possible  that  these  rare 
bits  of  material  were  formed  in  that  way.  At  any  rate  it 
is  now  certain  that  the  so-called  sandstone  is  a  consequence 
and  not  the  cause  of  the  wax  deposit. 


POLITICAL  BEGINNINGS  IN  OREGON  J 


The  Period  of  the  Provisional  Government,  1839-1849 


By  Marie  Mebriman  Bradlet. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Sources— 

Annals  of  Congress,  Seventeenth  Congress. 

Benton,  Abridgment  of  Debates  in  Congress,  Vol.  VII. 

Brown,  J.  H.,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol,  I. 

Congressional  Globe,  1847-1848. 

Grover,  L.,  Oregon  Archives,  1843-1849. 

Lang,  H.  0.,  History  of  the  Willamette  Valley. 

Oregon  Pamphlets,  (Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Lib.) 

Oregon  Pioneer  Association  Publications,  1873-1886. 

Oregon  Spectator,  1847. 

Richardson,  Messages  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  II. 

Secondary  — 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  History  of  Oregon,  Vols.  I-Il. 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  History  of  the  Northwest  Coast. 

Barrows,  W.  H.,  Oregon,  The  Struggle  for  Possession. 

Dye,  E.  E.,  McLoughlin  and  Old  Oregon. 

Garrison,  G.  P.,  Westward  Extension. 

Gray,  W.  H.,  History  of  Oregon. 

Holman,  F.  V.,  McLoughlin,  The  Father  of  Oregon— in 
Portland  Oregonian,  October  8,  1905. 

Robertson,  J.  R.,  in  Oregon  Historical  Society  Quarterly, 
Vol.  IV. 

Lyman,  H.  S.,  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  IV. 

Robertson,  J.  R.,  in  Oregon  Historical  Society  Quarterlv, 
Vol.  I. 

Semple,  E.  C,  American  History  and  its  Geographic  Con- 
ditions. 

Schafer,  J.,  History  of  Oregon. 

Scott,  H.  W.,  Provisional  Government  — Oregon  Historical 
Society  Quarterly.  Vol.  II. 


1   Thesis   submitted    for    the   degree    of   Master   of    Arts,    University    ot 
Wisconsin.   1907. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  43 

CHAPTER  I. 

PHYSIOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES. 

The  scope  of  this  paper  might  include  the  I'ise  of  three 
Western  States,  for,  from  Oregon  as  it  was  in  the  beginning, 
Oregon,  Washington  and  Idaho  (the  Pacific  Northwest)  have 
been  formed.  My  discussion,  however,  will  be  confined  more 
particularly  to  that  section  which  comprises  the  Oregon 
of  to-day. 

The  Oregon  of  1817  embraced  all  lands  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  north  of  the  42d  parallel.  The  northern  boundary 
was  still  in  dispute,  the  United  States  claiming  54  deg.  40 
min.,  while  Great  Britain  insisted  upon  the  Columbia  River. 

Oregon,  so  far  as  climatic  conditions  are  concerned,  might 
be  two  different  States,  separated  by  the  Cascade  Mountains. 
In  the  eastern,  which  is  by  far  the  larger  section,  the  land  is 
mostly  semi-arid.  Admirably  adapted  to  wheat  growing  in 
some  sections,  before  the  irrigation  projects  are  completed, 
much  the  larger  portion  will  be  used  for  stock  grazing.  At 
the  time  under  discussion,  it  was  a  trackless  waste,  visited 
only  by  the  Indian  tribes,  and  by  an  occasional  trapper. 

There  it  was  that  the  Nez  Perces,  famous  in  AVestern  liis- 
tory,  led  the  allied  tribes,  the  Grand  Rondes,  Klamaths,  Uma- 
tillas,  Wascos,  etc.  These  mountain  tribes  were  fierce  and 
warlike;  the  whole  environment  tended  to  make  them  so. 
They  led  an  active  out-of-door  life ;  their  diet  was  mountain 
game.  Tlieirs  was  a  finer  physique  and  a  higher  grade  of 
intelligence  than  the  coast  tribes,  a  squalid,  inactive  people, 
subsisting,  for  the  most  part,  on  fish.- 

The  soil  of  Western  Oregon  is  exceedingly  fertile,  the 
climate  warm,  the  atmosphere  humid.  There  was  the  home 
of  the  Willamette  Indians,  whose  chief,  Multnomah,  was  ruler 
over  the  confederated  tribes,  which  included  all  the  tribes  of 
the  Oregon  country,  from  the  Rogue  Rivers  and  Klamaths  on 
the  south  to  the  Colvilles  and  Flatheads  on  the  north ;  from 
the  Blackfeet  and  Shoshones  on  the  east,  to  the  Quinsoults, 
the  Cowletz,  the  Tillamooks  and  the  Siletz  on  the  west. 


44  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

Oregon  Territory  was  disputed  ground.  The  claim  of  the 
British  was  "geographically  based. "^  The  east  and  west  line 
of  the  Saskatchewan  River  had,  at  a  very  early  date,  carried 
English  explorers  in  Canada  to  the  northern  arm  of  the  Col- 
umbia among  the  Selkirk  Rockies.  Discovery  of  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  by  an  international  principle,  established  by  the 
British  themselves,  gave  the  great  stream  to  the  United  States ; 
but  the  northern  source  was  in  the  hands  of  the  British. 

Expansion  moved  naturally  down  stream.  Trading  posts 
were  already  established  on  the  near  Canadian  waters ;  wealth, 
organization  and  strong  political  backing  gave  the  British 
company  an  effectiveness  which  that  of  Astor  lacked.  By 
1834  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  had  fortified  every  strate- 
gic point,  and  when  the  American  emigrants  began  to  come 
in,  it  was  evident  that  possession  would  be  contested. 

Economic  conditions  were  an  important  influence  in  deter- 
mining the  type  of  colonists  to  settle  in  the  territory.  For 
example,  about  the  time  of  the  great  immigi'ations,  the  New 
Orleans  market  was  so  overstocked  that  farm  produce  sold  at 
a  very  low  figure.  The  farmers  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
disposed  of  their  farms  and,  without  a  regret,  joined  the 
westward  movement.  They  wanted  a  seaboard  State  and  a 
market  for  their  goods. 

In  the  maritime  world  Oregon  was  destined  to  become  an 
important  factor.  Fort  Vancouver  was  the  market  and  base 
of  supplies  for  the  fisheries  of  the  North  Pacific  and  for  the 
fur  sealers  of  the  Bering  Sea.  The  Orient  was  a  great  market 
for  American  products  and  also  a  great  source  of  supply  for 
America  to  draw  upon,  and  through  Oregon  was  to  he  opened 
the  path  to  the  Orient. 

In  an  analysis  of  the  influences  affecting  the  course  of 
civil  government  in  Oregon,  a  prominent  place  should  be 
given  to  that  slow,  yet  powerful,  westward  movement  of  pop- 
ulation. "It  consisted  of  a  people  aggressive  and  assertive  of 
their  own  wants,  and  of  their  ability  to  get  them."^     Posses- 


2  Semple,  American  History  and  Its  Geographic  Conditions,  p.   205. 

3  Robertson,    J.    H.,    Oregon    Historical    Society    Quarterly,    inoo,    Vol. 
I.   p.  8. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  45 

sing  but  little  knowledge  or  reverence  for  the  intricacies  of 
international  usage,  or  the  restrictions  of  a  conservative  legis- 
lative body,  they  were  the  sovereign  power,  and  if  they  deter- 
mined upon  having  the  West,  it  must  finally  be  had.  This 
was  the  movement  which  led  thousands  of  intrepid  immigrants 
to  anticipate  the  government  in  going  to  remote  regions. 
Those  who  remained  behind  had  now  a  greater  interest  in  that 
country,  and  before  long,  it  was  to  be  the  impulse  from  this 
movement  which  aroused  the  national  consciousness  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  Oregon  question,  gave  it  a  place  among  the 
problems  of  the  nation,  put  it  upon  the  platform  of  a  political 
party  as  a  prominent  issue,  forced  the  settlement  of  the  bound- 
ary question  and  finally  secured  a  civi^  government. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  BEGINNINGS   OP.  GOVERNMENT. 

To  trace  the  development  of  government  in  any  State  means 
to  begin  with  the  first  settlement  in  that  State,  or  even  farther 
back,  with  the  government  of  the  people  who  made  that  first 
settlement.  In  the  present  paper,  however,  I  shall  begin  with 
the  first  definite  steps  toward  organization,  giving  only  pass- 
ing mention  to  the  earlier  status. 

By  1813  the  Pacific  Fur  Company,  the  only  American 
company  that  ever  made  any  considerable  progress  towards 
gaining  a  foothold  in  the  Oregon  country,  had  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  British.  In  1818  the  treaty  for  the  joint 
American  and  British  occupation  of  the  Northwest  country 
was  signed,  so  technically  the  country  was  open  equally  to 
British  subjects  and  American  citizens.  In  1820,  the  two 
British  companies  that  had  been  operating  in  the  Northwast 
consolidated  under  the  name  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Fur  Com- 
pany. Thence  forward  a  most  conservative  policy  was  fol-. 
lowed.  The  population,  both  native  and  white,  was  kept  de- 
pendent upon  the  company's  headquarters  at  Vancouver. 
Settlement  of  any  kind  was  discouraged.^     Men  wishing  to 


1   Lang,   H.   D.,   History  of  the  Willamette  Valley,  p.    230. 


46  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

quit  the  employ  of  the  company,  were  transported  out  of  the 
country  before  they  were  given  their  discharge.  A  despotic 
regime  was  the  result.  Dr.  John  McLoughlin  played  the  role 
of  despot,  but  the  despot  was  humane.^ 

As  chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  McLough- 
lin's  rule  was  absolute.  He  virtually  held  the  power  of  life 
and  death  over  the  Indians  and  the  British  subjects  could  re- 
main only  on  sufferance  by  him.  Of  course,  theoretically,  he 
had  no  power  over  the  American  settlers,  but  they  were  so 
dependent  upon  the  factor  at  Vancouver  that  his  power  over 
them  was  almost  unlimited.  Frederick  V.  Holman  says  of 
him:  "Nature  seems  to  have  used  an  especial  mould  for  the 
making  of  Dr.  McLoughlin.  Physically  he  was  a  superb  spec- 
imen of  man ;  six  feet  four  inches  in  height,  he  was  beauti- 
fully, almost  perfectly  proportioned.  Mentally  he  was  en- 
dowed to  match  his  magnificent  physical  proportions.  He 
was  brave  and  fearless ;  he  was  true  and  just ;  he  was  truthful 
and  he  scorned  to  lie.  The  Indians,  as  well  as  his  subordi- 
nates, soon  came  to  know  that  if  he  threatened  punishment 
for  an  offense,  it  was  as  certain  as  the  offense  occurred."^ 

McLoughlin  was  absolute  master  of  himself  and  of  those 
under  him.  He  allowed  none  of  his  subordinates  to  question 
or  disobey.  This  was  necessary  in  order  to  conduct  the  busi- 
ness of  the  company,  and  preserve  peace  in  the  vast  Oregon 
country.  He  was  facile  princeps,  there  was  no  second,  yet 
with  all  these  dominant  qualities,  he  had  the  greatest  kindnass, 
sympathy  and  humanity.^ 

By  1820  ,the  problem  of  extending  the  American  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  Northwest  territory  w^as  discussed,  but  few 
thought  seriously  of  it.  Webster  and  many  of  his  contem- 
poraries ridiculed  the  idea.     The  immigrants  of  the  thirties 


2  See  "McLoughlin  Document,"  found  among  Dr.  McLoughlin's  pri- 
vate papers  after  his  death.  Published  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Oregon 
Pioneer  Association,   1880,  pp.  46-55. 

3  F.  V.  Holman,  McLoughlin,  The  Father  of  Oregon.  Address  de- 
livered on  McLoughlin  Day  at  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Exposition.  Published 
in  Oregonian.  October  8,   1905. 

4  Mrs.   E.   E.   Dye,  McLoughlin  and  Old  Oregon,   p.   12. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  47 

petitioned,  but  with  no  result.^  As  early  as  1838  tiie  Metho- 
dist missions  furnished  a  magistrate  and  constable,  who  dis- 
pensed justice  according  to  frontier  ideals.^  Their  authority, 
of  course,  was  only  over  American  citizens;  they  did  not 
understand  dealing  with  Indians,  and  often  conflicted  with 
the  company  officers.  The  great  missionary  reinforcement  of 
1840  made  it  evident  that  some  form  of  government  was 
necessary."^  Matters  were  brought  to  a  crisis  during  the 
winter  of  1840-41. 

Ewing  Young  came  from  California  to  the  Willamette  and 
died  there.  He  left  a  property,  large  for  pioneer  days,  but 
no  will,  and  no  known  heirs.^  The  question  arose,  liow  was 
the  property  to  be  disposed  oft 

A  committee  on  arrangements  was  chosen  at  Young's  fun- 
eral, and  a  mass  meeting  was  held  at  the  Methodist  Mission, 
February  17,  1841.^  The  meeting  was  composed  largely  of 
members  of  the  mission.  Ministers  were  chosen  for  the  offices 
of  president  and  secretary. ^o  A  resolution  was  passed  to  draft 
a  code  of  laws  for  the  government  of  the  settlement  south  of 
the  Columbia  and  to  admit  to  the  protection  of  these  laws,  all 
settlers  north  of  the  Columbia,  not  connected  with  the  fur 
company.  1^ 


5  J.    K.    KeUy    in    Proceedings    of    Oregon    Pioneer   Association,    1882, 
pp.    11-12. 

6  Bancroft,  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.  292. 

7  Lang,   H.    O.,   History  of  Willamette  Valley,  pp.   233  and   237. 

8  Brown,  J.  H.,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.   83. 

9  Bancroft,   History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.   293. 

10  Grover,   Oregon  Archives,  p.   5. 

11  From   the   transfer  of  Astoria  in   1813,    down  to   1840,   the   British 
were  superior. 

There  were  three  classes  of  Americans : 

(1)  The    American    trapper    who    was    hostile    to    the    Hudson's    Bay 
Company. 

(2)  The  American  missionary,  attached  to  the  American  interests. 

(3)  The  American  settler,  who  had  come  to  make  a  home. 

In    1842    the   whole   American    population   numbered    137,    of    which    34 
were  white  women,   32  white  children,  and  71  white  men. 
Lang,  H.  O.,  History  of  the  Willamette  Valley,  p.  232. 
Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.  5. 


48  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

That  first  day  nothing  more  was  done  than  to  nominate 
candidates  for  governor,  supreme  judge,  with  probate  powers, 
three  justices  of  the  peace,  three  constables,  three  road  com- 
missioners, an  attorney-general,  clerk  of  the  court,  public 
recorder,  treasurer,  and  two  overseers  of  the  poor.12 

The  second  day  was  attended  by  both  French  and  Ameri- 
cans, and  there  was  less  sectional  feeling.  The  Americans 
attempted  to  propitiate  and  secure  the  co-operation  of  the 
Canadians,  for  it  would  be  difficidt  to  organize  without  them. 
At  that  meeting,  February  18,  1841,  a  missionary  was  called 
to  the  chair,  and  two  secretaries,  one  from  each  side,  were 
appointed.^^  A  committee  was  named  to  draft  a  provisional 
government.  Of  this  committee,  one  was  a  Catholic  priest, 
three  were  Methodist  preachers,  three  were  French  Cana- 
dians, and  two  were  American  settlers. 

But  one  of  their  number  had  any  knowledge  of  law  or  the 
manner  in  which  legal  meetings  should  be  conducted.  They 
decided  to  defer  the  election  of  a  governor  to  a  later  session, 
owing  to  the  jealousy  of  the  several  missionary  aspirants,  and 
the  opposition  of  the  settlers  to  a  government  by  the  mis- 
sionary party.^^  A  supreme  judge  was  appointed,  with  pro- 
bate powers,  and  instructed  to  act  according  to  the  laws  of 
New  York  State  until  a  provisional  government  should  be 
adopted. ^^  After  appointing  a  clerk  of  the  courts,  a  public 
recorder,  high  sheriff  and  two  constables,  they  adjourned  to 
meet  June  7. 

At  the  adjourned  meeting  it  was  found  that  nothing  had 
been  done,  no  code  had  been  drafted;  jealousy  and  strife  had 
begun  to  show  itself.  British  interest  versus  American; 
Catholic  versus  Protestant.^^ 

The  Catholic  priest  asked  to  be  excused  from  the  commis- 
sion; an  American  settler  was  chosen  in  his  plaee.^'^     The 


12  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.   5. 

13  Ibid.  p.   6. 

14  Brown,  J.  H.,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I.  p.   84. 

15  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.  6. 

16  Brown,  J.   H.,   Political   History  of  Oregon,  Vol.   1,  p.    84. 

17  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.   7. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  49 

committee  was  instructed  to  report  the  first  Thursday  in 
October,  and  in  the  meantime  to  confer  with  the  commander 
of  the  U.  S.  exploring  expedition  and  with  Dr.  John  Mc- 
Loughlin.  Resolutions  were  adopted  to  rescind  the  nomina- 
tions of  previous  meetings  ;^^  to  instruct  the  committee  on 
constitution  to  take  into  consideration  the  number  and  kind 
of  officers  necessary  to  create  in  accordance  with  the  consti- 
tution and  code;  the  report  of  the  nominating  committee  to 
be  referred  to  the  legislative  committee.^^  They  then  ad- 
journed to  the  October  meeting.^o 

The  withdrawal  of  the  Catholic  priest  was  intended  to  in- 
dicate that  the  Canadians  would  have  no  part  in  the  organ- 
ization of  the  government,  hence  the  rescinding  of  the  nomi- 
nations including  their  names.  Many  of  the  citizens  were 
opposed  to  any  nomination  so  long  as  things  were  peaceful. 
Wilkes,  the  commander  of  the  American  squadron  on  the 
Coast,  counselled  a  moral  code  rather  than  a  civil  one. 
Baffled  at  every  turn,  but  believing  that  the  United  States 
would  soon  extend  jurisdiction  over  them,  the  missionary 
party  consented  to  drop  the  political  scheme  for  the  present. 
There  was  no  more  agitation  that  year.^i 

The  arrival  of  White  in  1842,  with  a  commission  as  sub- 
Indian  agent,  started  afresh  the  advocates  of  legislation.  The 
idea  of  White  as  a  civil  head  was  intolerable.  His  recogni- 
tion by  the  United  States  Government  was  a  point  in  his 
favor,  and  the  missionary  party  used  all  their  influence  to 
snub  his  pretentions,  and  confine  his  activities  to  the  man- 
agement of  Indian  affairs. 

A  debating  society  was  organized  at  Oregon  City  to  agitate 
the  question  of  a  civil  organization.  Overtures  were  again 
made  to  the  Canadians.  They  professed  a  cordial  sentiment 
toward  the  Americans,  but  would  not  join  in  the  movement. 
Their  co-operation  was  necessary,  and  some  means  must  bo 


18  Ibid. 

19  Grover,   Oregon  Archives,   p.   7. 

20  Bancroft,  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.   I,  p.  344. 

21  Lang,   History  of  the  Willamette  Valley,   p.   245. 


50  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

devised  to  appeal  to  their  interests.  The  meetings  that  have 
gone  down  in  history  as  the  "Wolf  Meetings, ''22  by  their 
name  suggest  the  interest  that  was  appealed  to.  These  meet- 
ings were  called  to  devise  some  means  of  protection  against 
the  wolves  which  preyed  upon  the  stock  of  all.  Little  was 
done  at  the  first  meeting,  February  2,  1843,  but  to  announce 
a  meeting  for  March  6,  at  the  home  of  Joseph  Gervais,  half 
way  between  Salem  and  Champoeg  (or  Champoick.)  At  that 
meeting  there  was  a  full  attendance ;  bounties  were  f ixed,^^ 
and  means  of  exterminating  the  wolves  discussed,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  meeting,  a  committee  was  appointed  "to  take  into 
consideration  the  propriety  for  taking  measures  for  civil  and 
military  protection  of  this  colony. '  '^^  The  question  was  skill- 
fully agitated  among  the  Americans  and  French  settlers.  The 
hostile  attitude  of  the  natives  in  the  interior;  the  need  of  s 
military  organization,  and  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  a 
land  law,  were  the  ruling  motives  with  the  Americans,  but 
these  did  not  influence  the  Canadians. ^^ 

The  determining  meeting  was  called  at  Champoeg  for  May 
2,  1843,  and  the  committee  reported  in  favor  of  a  provisional 
government.26  Unable  because  of  confusion  in  the  course  of 
proceedings  to  decide  the  question,  the  American  cause  was 
in  danger  of  being  lost,  when  Joe  Meek,  with  the  instinct  of  n 
leader  ,strode  forward,  saying:  "Who's  for  a  divide?  All  in 
favor  of  the  report,  follow  me!"^'^  The  day  was  won;  the 
count  stood  52  for,  50  against  organization. 


22  Lang,   History  of  the  Willamette  Valley,   pp.   251-253. 

23  Grover,   Oregon  Archives,   p.   9. 

24  Ibid,  p.  11. 

25  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.  12.     An  address  of  the  Canadian  citizens 
of  Oregon,   to  the  meeting  at  Champoeg,   March  4,   1843. 

26  Ibid,  p.   14. 

27  H.  W.  Scott,  Oregon  Hist.  Society  Quarterly,   1900,  Vol.  II,  p.   103. 
Joe   Meek   is  one  of  the  picturesque  characters  in   Oregon   history.      A 

cousin  of  President  Polk,  he  came  to  Oregon  as  a  young  man,  married  an 
Indian  bride,  to  whom  (unlike  so  many  of  his  countrymen)  he  was  always 
faithful.  He  represented  the  type  of  sturdy  pioneer  who  won  and  held  the 
great  Pacific  Northwest. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  51 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT. 

After  organization  was  decided  upon,  there  was  still  some 
difference  of  opinion  among  its  champions.  Some  were  for 
complete  independence  of  both  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  and  a  permanent  government,  others  for  a  provisional 
government  until  such  a  time  as  the  United  States  should  ct- 
tend  her  authority  over  the  Oregon  country.  The  final  de- 
cision went  for  provisional  government,  and  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  draw  up  a  constitution  to  be  submitted  to  the 
people  at  Champoeg,  July  5,  1843.^  This  committee  holds  an 
important  place  in  Oregon  history.  Unlearned,  the  most  of 
them,  they  were  honest  and  sincere,  and  struggling  for  the 
best  interest  of  the  commonwealth  with  which  they  had  cast 
their  lot. 

The  legislative  committee  held  sessions  the  16th,  17th,  IStb 
and  19th  of  May ;  the  27th  and  28th  of  June.  They  deliber 
ated  with  "open  doors"  in  an  unoccupied  barn.^  A  commit 
tee  of  three  prepared  rules  for  business.^  Committees  were 
appointed  on  ways  and  means,  judiciary,  military  affairs,  land 
claims,  and  district  divisions.^ 

July  5,  1843,  the  people  again  assembled.  The  civil  officers 
elected  in  May  were  sworn  in  upon  an  oath  drafted  by  a 
special  committee.^ 

The  report  of  the  legislative  committee  was  submitted.  The 
preamble  read:^  "AVe,  the  people  of  Oregon  Territory,  for 
the  purpose  of  mutual  protection  and  to  secure  peace  and 
prosperity  among  ourselves,  agree  to  adopt  the  following  laws 
until  such  time  as  the  Uniled  States  of  America  extend  their 
jurisdiction   over   us."     The   Ordinance   of   1787   had   been 


1  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  pp.   14,   15. 

2  Lang,  History  of  the  Willamette  VaUey,  p.  257    (J.  Q.  Thornton.) 

3  Grover,    Oregon   Archives,   p.    17. 

4  Ibid. 

5  Ibid,   p.    24. 

6  Grover,   Oregon   Archives,  p.   28. 


52  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

adopted,  making  such  changes  as  conditions  required,  and  in 
many  cases  the  laws  of  Iowa  were  embodied  in  the  constitu- 
tion.   A  "Bill  of  Rights"  provided  for: 

1.  Freedom  of  religious  belief  and  worship. 

2.  Right  of  habeas  corpus  and  trial  by  jury. 

3.  Judicial  procedure  according  to  common  law. 

4.  Moderate  fines  and  reasonable  punishment. 

5.  Proportionate  representation. 

6.  Encouragement  of  morality  and  knowledge. 

7.  Maintenance  of  schools. 

8.  Good  faith  towards  the  Indians. 

9.  Prohibition  of  slavery. 

Provisions  for  the  necessary  organs  of  government  were 
made  by  providing  :^°  a  legislative  branch  to  consist  of  nine 
persons  elected  annually;  an  executive,  to  consist  of  a  cotu- 
mittee  of  three;  judicial,  consisting  of  a  supreme  and  associ- 
ate judges,  and  justice  of  the  peace.  Provisions  for  subordi- 
nate officers,  a  battalion  of  soldiers  and  grants  of  land  to 
settlers,  etc.,  were  made. 

The  military  law  provided  that  there  should  be  one  bat- 
talion of  militia  in  the  Territory,  divided  into  three  or  more 
companies  of  mounted  riflemen.  It  provided  for  the  officering 
and  governing  of  the  companies  and  set  forth  at  length  the 
duties  of  the  officers. ^^ 

The  law  of  land  claims  ^^  was  the  most  important.  It  re- 
quired that  a  claimant  should  designate  the  boundaries  of  his 
land,  and  have  the  same  recorded  in  the  office  of  the  terri- 
torial recorder,  in  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose,  within  twenty 
days  of  making  his  claim,  unless  he  should  be  already  in 
possession  of  his  land,  when  he  should  be  allowed  a  year  for 
recording  a  description  of  his  land. 

It  required  also  that  improvements  be  made  by  "building 
or  enclosing"  within  six  months,  and  that  the  claimant  should 


10  Ibid,  pp.  29,  30. 

11  Oregon  Archives,  pp.   33,   34. 

12  Ibid,   p.    35. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  53 

reside  upon  the  land  within  a  year  after  recording.  No  in- 
dividual could  hold  a  claim  for  more  than  one  square  mile  or 
six  hundred  and  forty  acres  in  square  or  oblong  form. 

Article  IV  forbade  holding  claims  on  town  sites,  or  ex- 
tensive water  privileges,  and  other  situations  necessary 
for  the  transaction  of  mercantile  or  manufacturing  opera- 
tions. That  article  was  largely  the  work  of  Shortess,  who 
was  in  sympathy  with  the  Methodist  missions.  It  was  aimed 
also  to  deprive  McLoughlin  of  his  claim  at  Oregon  City.^^ 
The  Mission  also  held  land  at  Oregon  City,  but  it  was  pro- 
tected by  the  last  clause,  which  provided  that,  "Nothing  in 
these  laws  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  affect  any  claim  of  any 
mission  of  a  religious  character,  made  previous  to  this  time, 
of  an  extent  not  more  than  six  miles  square." 

The  report  of  the  committee  having  been  adopted,  the  next 
step  was  the  choice  of  an  executive.  Some  were  in  favor  of  a 
single  executive,  others  of  an  executive  committee  of  three. 
The  committee  faction  won,  and  the  committee  was  immedi- 
ately elected.  ^^ 

Another  problem  was  the  division  of  the  country  into  dis- 
tricts for  executive  purposes.  It  was  finally  divided  into 
four  districts  as  follows : 

1.  Tuality,  including  all  territory  south  of  the  boundary 
line  of  the  United  States,  west  of  the  Willamette,  north  of 
Yamhill  and  east  of  the  Pacific. 

2.  Yamhill,  all  west  of  the  Willamette,  and  line  from  said 
river  south,  lying  south  of  the  Yamhill  river,  to  the  parallel 
of  42  deg.  north  latitude, 

3.  Clackamas  district,  to  include  all  territory  not  included 
in  the  other  districts. 

4.  Champoeg  (or  Champoick),  bounded  on  the  north  by  a 
supposed  line  dra^^oi  from  the  mouth  of  the  Anchiyoke  River, 


13  In  an  address  delivered  at  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Exposition  on 
McLoughlin  Day,  Mr.  Frederick  V.  Holman  deals  at  length  with  the  mean 
intrigues  of  the  Mission  party  to  deprive  McLoughlin  of  his  land.  Pub- 
lished in  the  Portland  Morning  Oregonian,  October  8,   15,   22,  1905. 

14  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.  26. 


54  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

running  due  east  to  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  west  by  the  Wil- 
lamette and  a  supposed  line  running  due  south  from  said 
river,  to  the  parallel  of  42  deg.  north  latitude;  south  by  the 
boundary  line  of  the  United  States  and  California,  and  on 
the  east  by  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

The  chief  object  of  the  Methodist  Missions,  in  their  desire  to 
establish  a  government,  was  to  have  some  legal  method  of 
holding  the  lands  they  had  selected  against  the  incoming  emi- 
grants. There  was  a  political  significance,  too.  By  adopting 
the  Ordinance  of  1787  as  a  basis,  it  was  intended  to  settle  the 
slavery  question  west  of  the  Rockies  as  it  had  been  settled  in 
the  Old  Northwest,  and  by  extending  the  jurisdiction  over  the 
whole  of  Oregon  up  to  "such  time  as  the  United  States  should 
take  possession,"  the  right  of  Great  Britain  to  any  part  of 
the  country  was  ignored,  a  step  in  advance  of  the  position 
publicly  taken  by  the  United  States  Government. 

The  provisional  constitution  made  no  provision  for  taxa- 
tion. Expenses  were  met  by  voluntary  subscriptions.^^  The 
government  had  no  public  buildings;  meetings  were  held  at 
private  houses.  Its  defects  were  soon  apparent.  It  w^as  evi- 
dent that  the  government  was  not  adequate  to  the  needs  of  so 
large  a  community,  or  for  any  length  of  time.  However,  its 
imperfections  were  looked  upon  as  a  safeguard  by  those  Avho 
feared  independence  from  the  United  States. 

The  question  of  separation  became  the  all-absorbing  one, 
and  became  the  basis  of  party  lines  in  the  territory.  The 
immigration  of  1843  had  brought  in  a  people  of  prominent 
character,^^  some  of  them  inclined  to  be  roughly  arrogant. 
They  were  interested  in  the  provisional  government;  if  the 
laws  pleased  them,  well  and  good ;  if  not,  they  would  change 
them.  They  were  irritated  by  Jason  Lee's  assertion  that  the 
Mission  would  govern  the  colony.  In  those  early,  generous- 
hearted  frontiersmen  was  an  inherent  dislike  for  the  close- 
fisted  Yankee.     The  pioneers  were  not  hampered  by  religious 


15  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.  27. 

16  Lang,  History  of  tiie  Willamette  Valley,  p.  261,  also  pp.  275-27'; 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  55 

scruples,  yet  they  were  men  of  stronger  mentality  and  greater 
stability  than  the  missionaries.  Sometimes,  it  is  true,  they 
lacked  the  refinement,  always  lacking  the  polish  and  ease  of 
the  East,  they  were  more  congenial  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  men 
than  were  the  missionaries. 

Of  the  immigration  of  1843,  some  affiliated  with  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  men,  some  with  the  missions.  Of  the  earlier  settlers, 
about  one-half  had  approved  the  formation  of  the  Provisional 
Government  on  the  basis  of  international  law.  These  were 
anxious  to  confer  with  the  newcomers  and  they  were  not 
adverse  to  drawing  party  lines.  The  United  States  took  no 
action;  something  must  be  done  without  delay  to  strengthen 
the  Provisional  Government.  The  Mission  opposed  any  step, 
because  a  union  between  the  two  nationalities  would  take  the 
control  out  of  their  hands.  To  others,  it  was  not  loyal  to  act 
independently  of  the  United  States. 

The  words  of  the  first  message  of  the  executive,  December 
16,  1844,  sum  up  the  situation  thus:^'^  "At  the  time  of  our 
organization  it  was  expected  that  the  United  States  would 
have  taken  possession  of  this  country  before  this  time,  but  a 
year  has  rolled  around  and  there  appears  little  or  no  prospect 
of  aid  from  that  quarter,  consequently  we  are  left  to  our  own 
resources  for  protection.  In  view  of  the  present  state  of 
affairs,  we  would  recommend  to  your  consideration  the  adop- 
tion of  some  measures  for  a  more  thorough  organization." 
The  following  changes  were  recommended :  First,  the  creation 
of  a  single  executive  in  the  place  of  three.  Seco^nd,  an  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  representatives  in  the  legislative  de- 
partment. Third,  a  change  in  the  judicial  system.  Fourth,  a 
change  in  the  statutes. 

The  recommendations  were  followed  and  the  changes 
made.  An  act  was  passed  defining  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
government.  This  act  confined  it  to  the  region  south  of  the 
Columbia. 

Provision  was  made  for  raising  revenue.  All  who  refused 
to  pay  the  taxes  were  denied  the  right  of  suffrage.    The  man- 


17  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  pp.   56-59. 


56  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

ufacture  of  all  intoxicating  liquor  was  prohibited,  and  all 
negroes  and  mulattoes  were  ordered  to  be  expelled. 

The  code  made  no  provision  for  the  method  of  conducting 
elections,  except  by  adopting  the  laws  of  Iowa  for  that  pur- 
pose.^^  These  laws  were  unfamiliar  to  most,  as  there  was  but 
one  copy  in  the  territory.  Two-thirds  of  the  voters  of  1844 
were  of  the  late  immigration  and  had  had  neither  time  nor 
opportunity  to  be  informed  regarding  the  requirements,  or 
their  duties  as  officers  of  the  election. 

The  legislature  of  1844  has  been  censured  for  undoing  so 
much  of  the  work  of  the  previous  year.^^  Yet  while  three- 
fourths  of  the  legislative  body  were  newcomers,  two-thirds  of 
the  executive  committee  who  recommended  the  change  were 
old  colonists.  The  man  most  influential  in  making  the  change 
was  one  Burnett,  an  ex-District  Attorney  of  Missouri.  The 
constitution  was  so  constructed  that  it  was  impossible  to 
separate  the  fundamental  from  the  statutory  part  of  the 
code ;  or  to  understand  where  the  constitution  left  off  and  the 
statutes  began.  It  was  necessary  to  make  some  distinction 
before  further  legislation  could  take  place. 

As  the  organic  law  stood,  it  was  all  constitution  or  all 
statute.  No  mode  of  amendment  was  provided  for.  If  the 
organic  law  was  the  constitution,  it  would  be  revolutionary 
to  amend  it.  Unless  it  could  be  considered  statutory,  and 
amended  or  appealed  from,  there  was  nothing  for  the  legis- 
lative committee  to  do.  Therefore,  it  was  decided  to  con- 
sider it  statutory,  remodel,  where  they  could  improve  upon, 
without  altering  the  spirit  or  intent  of  that  portion  under- 
stood to  be  fundamental. 

In  the  formation  of  the  organic  law,  the  reason  for  vesting 
the  executive  in  a  triumvirate  was  to  prevent  a  division  which 
would  defeat  the  organization.  Now  there  was  no  danger  of 
that.    An  act  was  passed,  vesting  the  gubernatorial  power  in 

^  '  !:■         IS 

18  For  discussion  of  the  adoption  of  the  Iowa  laws  into  the  Oregon 
code,  see  P.  L.  Herriot,  Oregon  Historical  Society  Quarterly,  1904,  Vol.  V, 
p.  140,  etc. 

19  Bancroft,  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  II,  p.  431. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  57 

a  single  person,  to  be  elected  at  the  next  annual  election,  to 
hold  office  for  two  years,  with  a  salary  of  $300  per  annum. 

By  the  organic  law,  the  judicial  power  was  vested  in  a 
supreme  court  consisting  of  a  judge  and  two  justices  of  the 
peace.  The  judiciary  act  of  1844  vested  the  judicial  power  in 
circuit  courts  and  justices  of  the  peace,  provided  for  the 
election  of  one  judge  with  probate  powers,  whose  duty  it 
should  be  to  hold  two  terms  of  court  annually,  in  each  county, 
at  such  times  and  places  as  the  law  should  direct. 

The  land  law  of  1843  was  repealed  and  another  passed  in 
its  place,  by  which  the  conditions  were  narrowed  so  that  only 
free  men  over  eighteen  years  of  age,  who  would  be  entitled  to 
vote,  if  of  lawful  age,  and  widows,  could  lawfully  claim 
640  acres.  The  recording  of  claims  was  dispensed  with  be- 
cause of  the  long  journey  it  involved.  Occupancy  meant 
actual  residence  by  the  owner  or  agent. 

A  second  act  was  passed  which  authorized  the  taking  of 
600  acres  of  prairie  and  40  acres  of  timber  land,  not  contigu- 
ous. Partnership  claims  were  allowed  for  double  the  amount 
to  be  held  for  one  year,  the  improvement  to  be  on  either  half. 
The  object  of  this  legislation  was  to  prevent  the  missions  from 
holding  thirty-six  sections,  and  thus  repeating  the  monopoly 
of  the  California  Catholic  missions.  On  the  whole  the  meas- 
ure was  popular;  the  missions  were  placed  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  other  claimants,  and  the  issue  between  some  of  the  mis- 
sionaries and  McLoughlin  regarding  Oregon  City  property 
was  ignored. 

The  division  of  counties  made  by  the  committee  of  1843  was 
vague  as  to  the  northern  boundary.  In  1844  the  Columbia 
River  was  made  the  definite  northern  boundary  of  Oregon. 
There  was  much  discussion  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  act.  Did 
the  United  States  give  up  the  claim  to  the  territory  north?  or 
were  the  servants  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  prohibited 
from  a  share  in  the  government?  A  definitive  clause  was 
added  which  made  Oregon  Territory  "That  land  between  42 
deg.  and  54  deg.  40  min."  Thus  our  position  was  made  very 
clear. 


58  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

A  disturbance  at  Oregon  City,  for  which  a  free  negro  was 
to  blame,  offered  a  good  chance  of  ridding  Oregon  of  the 
negro  for  all  time.  Many  of  the  settlers  were  from  slave 
States;  too  poor  to  be  plantation  owners,  they  saw  the  evils 
of  poverty  and  of  slavery,  and  could  not  look  with  complais- 
ance upon  free  negroes,  and  they  were  determined  to  leave  a 
free  heritage  for  their  children.  Article  IV  of  the  organic 
law  prohibited  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude,  except  as 
punishment  for  crime  whereof  the  party  should  have  been 
duly  convicted.  The  legislature,  besides  settling  the  matter 
of  slavery  in  Oregon,  wished  to  rid  the  country  for  all  time 
of  every  free  negro  and  mulatto  within  the  territory  and 
prevent  the  coming  of  more. 

Money  was  scarce  in  the  infant  territory,  and  some  medium 
of  exchange  was  needed.  Wheat  was  made  legal  tender  for 
taxes  and  judgments  and  all  debts  when  there  was  no  special 
contract  to  the  contrary.  Stations  were  designated  where 
wheat  might  be  delivered  in  payment  for  public  debts.^i 

April  8,  1845,  the  convention  met  at  Champoeg  for  the 
election  of  Supreme  Judge,  Governor,  etc.  The  code  of  1844 
had  driven  the  Canadians  to  unite  with  the  Americans  in 
government  organization,  because,  otherwise  they  could  not 
protect  their  lands.  The  two  principal  parties  here  became 
evident,  the  American  and  the  Independent,  the  latter  includ- 
ing the  Canadians  who  desired  a  constitution.  The  chief 
issue  of  the  American  party  was  that  the  "Organic  law  of 
1843  was  the  law  of  the  country  untU  the  people  had  voted 
upon  the  amendment  of  1844."  "Because,"  they  contended, 
"the  people  had  not  yet  resigned  the  law-making  power." 
This  opposition  tended  to  strengthen  the  Independents  who 
favored  a  new  code. 


21  Port  George  in  Clatsop  County;  Cowlitz  Farm  or  Fort  Vancouver 
in  Vancouver  County  ;  at  the  company's  warehouses  at  Linnton  ;  store  of 
F.  W.  Petty  grove  in  Portland;  Tualatin  (now  Washington  County)  ;  Mc- 
Loughlin  Mills,  or  Island  Milling  Company  in  Clackamas  County  ;  ware- 
houses of  the  Milling  Company  or  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  in 
Champoeg  County ;  some  place  to  be  designated  by  the  collector  in  Yamhill 
County. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  59 

The  leading  spirit  of  the  legislature  of  1845  was  Jesse 
Applegate,  an  extremely  conservative  man ;  his  object  was  to 
make  as  few  changes  as  possible  in  the  original  organic  laws. 

After  several  meetings,  the  legislature  decided  that  it  was 
without  power  to  act  until  the  people  had  approved  of  their 
proceedings.  Accordingly  they  adjourned  until  an  election 
could  be  held,  and  the  people  informed.  Manuscript  copies^^ 
of  the  original  laws  of  July  5,  1843,  of  the  amended  laws, 
and  a  schedule  declaring  the  Legislature  and  Governor  elected 
in  June  to  be  the  officers  to  carry  the  amended  organic  laws 
into  effect,  were  sent  to  each  polling  place,  to  be  read  three 
times  to  the  voters.  If  the  people  adopted  the  last  two,  the 
Legislature  could  proceed  to  formulate  a  code  suited  to  the 
wants  of  the  colony. 

According  to  Gray,  many  voted  against  the  compact  because 
the  Legislature  was  allowed  to  regulate  the  introduction,  man- 
ufacture and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors.  Others  because  the 
servants  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  were  not  admitted  to 
equal  privileges  with  themselves.  Notwithstanding  the  oppo- 
sition, in  the  special  election  of  July  26,  1845,  a  majority 
voted  in  favor  of  the  organic  law  as  amended.  By  this  action, 
the  Methodist  Mission  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  ceased 
to  be  political  powers,  either  to  be  feared  or  courted. 

The  first  law  passed  by  the  authorized  legislature  was  one 
to  prevent  duelling.^^  Early  in  the  session  a  bill  was  passed 
adopting  the  statutes  of  lowa,^^  so  far  as  they  were  applica- 
ble to  the  circumstances  of  the  country.  The  reasons  for 
adopting  the  Iowa  laws  are  evident.  In  the  first  place,  there 
was  but  one  copy  of  the  Iowa  code  in  Oregon,  and  so  far  as 
we  have  been  able  to  find  out,  there  was  no  other  copy  of  any 
kind  of  a  code  within  reach  of  the  legislators,  and  ignorant 
of  modes  of  legal  procedure  as  they  were,  it  was  necessary 
that  they  have  some  guide.  Moreover,  Iowa  was  a  new  State, 
and  the  one  nearest  to  Oregon.    Like  Oregon,  she  had  passed 


22  Grover,   Oregon  Archives,   p.   88. 

23  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,   p.   90. 

24  Grover,    Oregon  Archives,    pp.    100-102. 


60  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

her  minority  under  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  under  similar 
conditions.  Her  laws  were  less  conservative  and  more  pro- 
gressive than  those  of  the  older  States. 

Having  adopted  a  code  and  set  a  committee  to  work  adapt- 
ing it  to  the  country's  needs,  the  next  step  was  to  restore  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Provisional  Government,  north  of  the 
Columbia.  This  was  done  by  setting  off  the  district  of  Van-. 
couver,  which  embraced  all  that  part  of  Oregon  northwest  of 
the  Columbia  River.  McLoughlin  joined  with  the  Americans 
"for  protection  and  interest."-^  James  Douglas^^  was  elected 
district  judge  for  three  years.  Several  other  Hudson's  Bay 
men  were  elected  to  office. 

Thus  came  into  existence  that  government,  characterized  by 
J.  Quinn  Thornton  as  "Strong  without  an  army  or  navy, 
rich  without  a  treasury,  "^"^  so  effective  that  property  was 
safe. 

The  formation  of  the  Provisional  Government  met  no  op- 
position from  Congress  or  the  President,  and  received  no 
formal  recognition  from  them.  A  long  step  was  taken  and  all 
was  gained  that  could  have  been  gained  by  the  United  States 
and  without  the  complications  that  might  have  arisen,  had 
the  various  necessary  bills  been  proposed  in  the  national 
Congress. 

A  permanent  break  was  made  with  the  old  order  of  things. 
The  fur-trading  regime  was  forced  to  give  place  to  an  agri- 
cultural civilization ;  the  way  was  prepared  for  an  American 
Government,  and  the  final  settlement  of  the  Oregon  question 
was  made  easier.  The  English  company  tried  to  adjust  itself 
to  the  new  conditions  and  preserve  its  old  authority,  but  their 
aristocratic  social  machinery  was  unable  to  cope  with  the 
democratic  Provisional  Government,  in  meeting  the  needs  of 
an  agricultural  settlement.     The  effect  of  the  change  upon 


25  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.  119. 

26  Descendant  of  James  Douglas,  Earl  of  Angus,  the  Black  Douglas  of 
Scottish  history. 

27  Quoted  by  J.   R.   Robertson   in   Oregon   Historical  Society   Quartely, 
Vol.  I,  p.  40. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  61 

the  Indians  was  more  serious.  The  establishment  of  agri- 
cultural settlements  meant  loss  of  lands  and  the  changing  of 
habits  of  a  wilderness  existence.  It  became  necessary  for  the 
National  Government  to  take  some  steps  to  protect  the  set- 
tlers from  the  Indians, 

CHAPTER  IV. 

OREGON,  1845-1849. 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  censured  McLoughlin  severely 
for  his  friendship  to  the  American  mission,  and  his  interest  in 
the  American  movement.  So  in  the  autumn  of  1845,  feeling 
himself  spied  upon  by  the  British  Government,^  and  having 
large  property  interests  south  of  the  Columbia,  and  being 
weary  of  the  responsibility  that  with  increasing  years  became 
unceasingly  burdensome,  he  tendered  his  resignation  as  chief 
factor  of  the  company,  and  took  up  his  residence  at  Oregon 
City  the  following  spring,  with  the  intention  of  becoming  an 
American  citizen,  when  the  boundary  question  should  be  set- 
tled or  his  resignation  accepted. 

The  next  spring  came  the  news  of  Polk's  election  on  the 
"54-40  or  fight"  platform.  The  threatened  war  with  Eng- 
land caused  McLoughlin  much  perplexity.  He  could  not 
change  his  allegiance  in  time  of  war  without  forfeiting  his 
estates  in  Canada,  and,  perhaps,  his  life,  as  a  traitor.  Neither 
could  he,  in  event  of  war,  have  held  his  dearly  bought  claim 
in  Oregon  City.  His  resignation  was  promptly  accepted,  how- 
ever, and  Jesse  Applegate  advised  him  to  take  the  oath  of  al- 
legiance at  once.  He  would  have  done  so,  but  Burnett  claimed 
that  he  had  no  authority  to  administer  the  oath.  To  Burnett's 
timidity,  Applegate  attributes  much  of  McLoughlin 's  subse- 
quent trouble. 

In  1845,2  for  the  first  time  there  was  a  prospect  of  having 
the  laws  printed,  a  company  having  been  formed,  which  owned 
a  printing  press  and  materials,  at  Oregon  City,  to  which  ap- 


1  McLoughlin   Document.      Oregon    Pioneer   Association    Report,    1! 
p.   54. 

2  Grover,   Oregon  Archives,  p.   141. 


62  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

plication  was  made  for  proposals  to  print  the  laws.  The  com- 
pany was  known  as  the  Oregon  Printing  Association.^  One 
article  of  their  constitution  declared  that  the  press  should 
never  be  used  by  any  party  for  the  purpose  of  propagating 
sectarian  doctrine,  or  for  the  discussion  of  exclusive  party 
politics.  The  reason  for  this  was  that  there  were  men  in  the 
association  who  wished  to  control  the  Methodist  influence. 
The  Methodist  Mission  being  largely  represented  in  the  asso- 
ciation.-* 

The  first  editor  of  this  paper  was  William  G.  T 'Vault,  an 
uncompromising  democrat  of  the  Jeffersonian  school.  T  'Vault 
was  a  marked  character  in  early  Oregon  history.  In  1858  he 
was  elected  representative  of  the  first  general  legislature.  In 
1855  he,  in  company  with  Taylor  and  Blakely,  established  the 
Umpqua  Gazette  of  Scottsburg,  the  first  paper  south  of  Salem. 

The  recommendation  of  Governor  Abernethy  that  propasaLs 
be  received  for  the  location  of  the  seat  of  government  created 
but  little  interest.^  Two  proposals  were  received.  Neither 
met  with  entire  approval.  Petitions  signed  by  sixty  settlers 
of  Champoeg  County  to  defer  action  marked  the  beginning 
of  Salem's  long  struggle  for  the  capitol.  The  matter  was 
practically  postponed  by  the  passage  of  an  act  ordering  that 
future  sessions  of  the  Legislature  meet  at  Oregon  City  until 
further  directed  by  law. 

Two  other  topics  of  general  interest  occupied  the  legislature 
of  1846,  namely^  the  liquor  law  and  the  districting  of  the 
Territory.     Burnett's  liquor  law  of  1844  was  found  to  be 


3  For  Printing  Press  Compact  see  G.  H.  Hlmes,  in  Oregon  Historical 
Society  Quarterly,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  337. 

4  Gray  says  the  originators  of  the  printing  association  were  the  same 
that  started  the  Multnomah  Circulating  Library,  the  Wolf  Association,  and 
the  Provisional  Government.  The  pioneers  of  1843  founded  the  Library. 
Gray  claims  to  have  originated  the  Wolf  Association,  while  Jason  Lee  was 
the  first  projector  of  the  Provisional  Government.  The  truth  is.  Governor 
Abernethy  was  largely  interested  in  the  printing  association,  and  in  spite 
of  the  protest  contained  in  the  eighth  article,  the  press  was  controlled  by 
the  missionary  influence.  Shares  of  the  stock  sold  at  $10.00  each.  The 
first  paper  was  the  Oregon  Spectator,  appearing  for  the  first  time  Febru- 
ary 5,  1846.     Its  motto  was  "Westward  the  star  of  Empire  takes  its  way." 

5  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  p.  168. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  63 

inadeqiiate  to  prevent  -the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks.^  It 
became  an  offense  to  give  away  "ardent  spirits"  as  well  as  to 
sell  or  barter,  and  a  fine  of  fifty  dollars  was  imposed  for  each 
violation  of  the  law.  It  was  made  the  duty  of  every  officer  or 
private  citizen  who  knew  of  the  distillation  of  any  kind  of 
spirituous  liquors,  to  seize  the  distilling  apparatus  and  de- 
liver it  to  the  nearest  county  judge  or  justice  of  the  peace. 
Not  more  than  one-half  a  pint  could  be  sold  by  any  practicing 
physician  for  medical  purposes. 

The  following  legislature  (1847)  amended  the  law  whereby 
liquor  could  be  sold  under  certain  restrictions.  This  action 
was  inspired  chiefly  by  opposition  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com; 
pany.  The  settlers  felt  that  so  long  as  the  fur  company  kept 
liquors  at  Vancouver,  the  Americans  should  not  be  deprived 
of  the  benefits  of  the  traffic.  Every  British  subject  in  the 
house  voted  against  the  bill  and  Governor  Abernethy  vetoed  it, 
but  it  passed  over  his  veto  and  Oregon  has  not  had  complete 
prohibition  since  1846. 

By  1847  the  population  had  increased  enough  to  warrant 
the  adding  of  two  new  counties:  Lewis  County,  comprising 
all  Oregon  Territory  north  of  the  Columbia  and  west  of  the 
Cowlitz,  up  to  54  deg.  40  min. ;  and  Polk  County,  south  of 
Yamhill,  including  all  territory  between  the  Willamette  and 
the  Pacific.  Neither  county  was  allowed  a  sheriff  of  its  own ; 
Vancouver  did  duty  for  Lewis,  and  Yamhill  for  Polk. 

Abernethy  was  nominally  the  head  of  the  American  party 
as  it  had  been  when  there  was  a  Hudson's  Bay  party.  No 
such  association  as  the  latter  now  existed,  because  the  British 
inhabitants  were  politically  fused  with  the  American,  and  most 
of  them  were  only  awaiting  an  opportunity  to  become  natur- 
alized citizens  of  the  United  States.  But  the  real  American 
party  was  now  that  party  which  had  been,  in  the  first  days 
of  the  Provisional  Government,  opposed  both  to  foreign  cor- 
porations and  Methodist  missions;  from  this  time  on,  for 
several  years,  the  only  parties  were  the  American  and  the 
Missionary.     The  Governor  belonged  to  the  latter. 


6  Grover,  Oregon  Archives,  pp.  158-2( 


64  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

The  settlers  of  that  struggling  western  territory  longed  to 
see  the  American  flag  floating  over  them,  longed  for  the  time 
when  they  should  feel  secure  in  person  and  in  property,  under 
the  protection  of  that  flag.  After  the  election  of  James  K. 
Polk,  and  after  the  final  settlement  of  the  boundary  question, 
they  hoped  that  they  would  have  to  wait  only  long  enough 
for  the  accomplishment  of  the  legal  forms,  until  they  would 
be  a  part  of  the  Union,  but  they  were  doomed  to  bitter  dis- 
appointment. 

The  summer  rolled  around  and  September  came,  more  than 
a  year  after  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  question,  befoi^e 
any  information  was  received  of  the  doings  of  the  national 
legislature,  in  the  matter  of  establishing  a  Territory  in  Oregon, 
and  then  it  was  only  to  inflict  further  disappointment.  The 
president  had,  indee/i,  strongly  recommended  the  establish- 
ment of  a  territorial  government  in  Oregon,  and  a  bill  had 
been  reported  by  Douglas  of  Illinois,  in  December,  which 
passed  the  House  the  16th  of  January,  "but  there  Southern 
jealousy  of  free  soil  nipped  it.  "'^ 

Frequent  memorials  were  sent  to  Congress  by  the  settlers, 
complaining  of  neglect,  setting  forth  their  inability  to  deal 
with  the  Indians  and  with  criminals.^  Governor  Abernethy, 
upon  his  own  responsibility  sent  J.  Quinn  Thornton  to  Wash- 
ington to  plead  the  cause  of  the  territory,  an  action  which 
aroused  much  opposition  in  the  American  party,  for  it  was 
felt  that  Thornton  represented  the  interests  of  the  missions 
more  than  those  of  the  territory,  and  his  conduct  in  Wash- 
ington shows  that  such  was  the  case.  Not  to  Thornton,  but 
to  Joe  Meek  is  due  the  credit  for  final  recognition. 

"Affairs  in  Oregon  reached  a  crisis  at  precisely  the  same 
time  as  in  the  sister  Territory  of  Texas.  "^     This  in  itself 


7  Oregon  Spectator,  September  8,  1847. 

"The  stubborn  opposition  of  the  South  was  not  due  to  lack  of  sym- 
pathy, but  to  a  sense  of  danger  to  their  sacred  institutions,  from  extending 
the  principle  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  to  territory  acquired  since  its 
adoption." — Mason  of  Virginia  in  the  Congressional  Globe,  1847-48,  p.  913. 

8  Brown,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.   141,  also  p.  250. 

9  Lyman,  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  II,  p.   65. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  65 

would  warrant  the  presumption  that  the  growth  of  each  was 
due  chiefly  to  national  causes.  Each  was  the  child  of  a 
national  movement,  and  a  national  aspiration  rising  from  the 
needs  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  neither  Oregon 
or  Texas  would  have  reached  a  settlement  according  to  na- 
tional requirements  separately. 

In  Congress  they  were  championed  by  Calhoun,  represent- 
ing the  politician  who  is  sometimes  wiser  than  the  statesman. 
He  made  no  pretenses,  but  to  represent  the  will  of  the  people. 
He  therefore  demanded  that  all  of  Oregon  to  54  deg.  40  min. 
be  allowed  to  the  United  States,  and  negotiated  a  treaty  with 
Texas  for  the  admission  of  the  Lone  Star  State  as  a  member 
of  the  Union.  That  his  heart  was  not  with  Oregon  soon  be- 
came apparent  ;^^  but  the  claim  was  made  only  so  he  could 
press  the  annexation  of  Texas.  The  question  of  slavery  was 
now  fast  absorbing  all  interest,  and  obscuring  even  the  greater 
question  of  national  life. 

It  was  apparent  to  Calhoun  that  the  South  and  West 
must  be  united.  It  was  also  apparent  that  Texas  must  be 
admitted  as  a  slave  territory.  It  was  apparent  that  on  this  de- 
mand, northern  territory  as  a  counterpoise  must  be  admitted. 
Oregon  to  its  full  extent  was,  therefore,  freely  demanded. 
Against  such  a  combination  there  could  be  no  effective  oppo- 
sition. 

Such  was  the  situation  at  the  close  of  the  Provisional  Gov- 
ernment in  Oregon.  It  was  ready  for  admission,  but  the 
promises  so  loudly  made,  and  so  faithfully  kept  with  Texas, 
were  not  so  well  remembered  with  Oregon.  The  politicians 
who  had  seen  the  necessity  of  electing  Mr,  Polk  on  the  plat- 
form of  "Oregon  and  Texas,  54  deg.  40  min.  or  fight"  were, 
now  that  Texas  was  secure,  ready  to  forget  Oregon.  The 
boundary  was  settled  but  no  territorial  government  was  pro- 
vided.^^ 


10  Brown,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.  61. 

11  Brown,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.  438. 


66  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  OREGON  QUESTION  IN  CONGRESS. 

At  the  time  the  real  contest  which  was  to  decide  the  final 
ownership  of  the  Northwest  territory  was  being  fought,  our 
national  legislature  knew  little  and  thought  less  about  the 
Oregon  Country/  and  when  they  did  think  of  it,  they  did 
not  consider  the  possibility  of  its  adding  three  stars  to  the  flag. 
There  were  few  Americans  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
the  soil  was  generally  believed  to  be  sterile  and  unfit  for 
agricultural  pursuits. 

In  1820  the  Oregon  question  appeared  in  Congress  through 
a  motion  by  Floyd  of  Virginia,  to  investigate  the  advisability 
of  establishing  a  military  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
River.  The  bill  aroused  little  interest,  and  no  action  was 
taken  in  regard  to  it,  but  such  discussion  as  it  did  call  forth 
shows  no  doubt  as  to  the  validity  of  our  claims.  The  oppo- 
sition was  based  upon  the  ground  of  diversity  of  interest  of 
the  two  sections,  there  was  no  reference  whatever  to  the  con- 
vention of  1818. 

A  second  bill  providing  for  the  occupation  of  the  Columbia 
was  introduced  in  1822.  In  support  of  the  bill  Floyd  made  a 
very  able  speech,  pointing  out  the  benefits  to  be  gained  by 
connecting  the  Columbia  with  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri, 
which  would  open  a  mine  of  wealth  to  the  shipping  interests. 
He  also  developed  the  possibilities  of  opening  the  trade  wdth 
the  Orient,  by  means  of  the  Oregon  Country.  January  23, 
1823,  this  bill  was  defeated  in  the  House  by  a  vote  of  180 
to  68.  The  discussion  caused  by  the  bill,  however,  served  to 
arouse  the  interest  of  the  people  in  the  Oregon  Country,  and 
to  educate  them  to  a  realization  of  at  least  a  part  of  the  value 
of  the  Northwest  Coast. 

Another  bill,  for  establishing  a  military  post  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia,  was  reported  in  January,  1824.  In  the 
report  Floyd  quoted  General  Jesup's  estimate  of  the  cost  of 


1  Brown,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I.  p.  61. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  67 

establishing  the  post.  General  Jesup  favored  the  measure 
from  a  military  point  of  view,  as  enabling  us  to  secure  the 
entire  territory  at  the  end  of  the  period  of  joint  occupation 
and  also  as  a  protection  to  trade  at  the  present  time.  Mr. 
Trimble,  who  supported  Floyd,  concluded  his  argument  by 
saying,  ' '  Our  rights  will  cease  at  the  end  of  ten  years ;  instead 
of  our  people  having  the  exclusive  right,  we  shall  be  excluded 
entirely,  when,  if  we  take  possession,  as  we  ought  to  do,  the 
rights  of  the  British  will  cease  in  1828.  "^ 

This  measure  was  recommended  by  Monroe  in  his  last  mes- 
sage in  1824.^  It  finally  passed  the  House,  but  was  lost  in  the 
Senate,  not,  however,  without  a  tremendous  effort  on  the  part 
of  Benton  of  Missouri  to  secure  its  passage.  In  the  beginning 
of  his  speech  he  made  four  assertions  which  he  attempted  to 
prove,^  to-wit: 

1.  Our  claim  to  sovereignty  is  disputed  by  Great  Britain. 

2.  England  is  now  the  party  in  possession. 

3.  England  resists  possession  by  the  United  States. 

4.  The  party  in  possession  in  1828  will  have  the  possession 
under  the  law  of  nations,  until  the  question  of  sovereignty  be 
settled  by  war  or  by  negotiations. 

He  argued  that  some  action  was  necessary  to  prevent  the 
territory  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  another  nation.^  He 
thought  that  the  tranquillity  of  the  public  mind  was  due,  not 
so  much  to  indifference,  as  to  the  fact  that  they  supposed  their 
title  to  be  undisputed.  By  estimates  based  upon  the  Missis- 
sippi trade,  he  made  clear  the  immense  gains  that  were  possi- 
ble, for  the  natural  advantages  were  all  on  the  American 
side.  While  it  took  three  years  to  make  the  circuit  from  the 
British  headquarters,  it  could  be  done  for  the  United  States 


2  Annals  of  Congress.   17th  Congress,  2nd  Session,  p.  812. 

3  Richardson,   Messages  of  Presidents,  Vol.   II,   p.   250. 

4  Seventeenth  Congress   (1823),   2nd  Session,   Annals,   p.   246. 

5  "The  Republic,  partly  through  its  own  remissness,  partly  from  con- 
cessions of  our  ministers,  but  chiefly  from  the  bold  pretensions  of  England, 
is  in  imminent  danger  of  losing  all  its  territory  beyond  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains." — Benton,  Debates  in  Congress,  Vol.  VII,  p.   363. 


68  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

between  May  and  September.^  Moreover,  he  considered  Ore- 
gon worth  holding  for  the  sake  of  the  Columbia  fisheries  and 
timber."^ 

Traeey  of  New  York  was  one  of  the  bitterest  opponents  of 
the  bill.  He  declared  that,  rather  than  being  a  Garden  of 
Eden,  this  Oregon  country  was  an  inhospitable  wilderness,  or 
an  inaccessible  coast;  the  climate  was  bleak,  and  the  cheering 
sunbeams  were  hardly  ever  seen ;  that  because  of  the  humid- 
ity, it  was  impossible  to  raise  the  valuable  products  of  the 
Atlantic  Coast. ^  He  objected  further  to  the  establishment  of 
military  posts,  "For,"  he  said,  "we  now  enjoy  all  the  ad- 
vantages we  have  the  right  either  to  expect  or  demand. ' '  He 
considered  that  a  small  garrison  would  only  provoke  a  cruel 
and  expensive  Indian  war.  Military  posts,  he  held,  were  for 
the  purpose  of  protecting  the  frontier,  but  not  for  attracting 
of  population  to  an  exposed  situation.  "The  God  of  Nature," 
he  said,  "has  interposed  obstacles  to  this  connection  which 
neither  enterprise  nor  science  of  this  or  any  other  age  can 
overcome.  Nature  has  fixed  a  limit  for  our  nation,  she  has 
kindly  interposed  as  our  western  barrier,  mountains  almost 
inaccessible,  whose  base  she  has  skirted  with  unreclaimable 
deserts  of  sand.  This  barrier  our  people  can  never  pass.  If 
it  ever  does,  it  becomes  the  people  of  a  new  world,  whose 
feelings  and  whose  interests  are  not  with  us,  but  with  our 
antipodes."^  Furthermore,  he  thought  it  impossible  that  the 
two  sections  of  the  country  could  ever  be  brought  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  same  government;  and  it  is  a  significant 
fact  that  very  few  statesmen  of  the  time  considered  it  possible 
to  bring  the  trans-Rocky  territory  to  a  footing  equal  to  the 
Eastern  States.  Most  of  the  men  who  advocated  American 
occupancy,  thought  that  the  country  should  be  held  as  a 
colony,  and  that  in  the  case  of  independence,  it  was  better  to 


6  Seventeenth  Congress,  1st  Session,  Vol  I,  p.  308  (Benton's  Speech.) 

7  At   that   time   Columbia   River   timber  was  being   shipped   to   Chili 
and  Peru. 

8  Seventeenth  Congress,   1st  Session,  Annals,  Vol.  II,  p.   592. 

9  Seventeenth  Congress,  1st  Session,  Annals,  Vol.  I,  p.  598. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  69 

have  an  independent  state  of  American  origin  as  a  neighbor 
than  a  British  colony.^° 

Thus  the  matter  dragged  on.  Each  session  the  question  of 
boundary  settlement  and  occupation  of  the  Columbia,  after 
some  discussion  was  laid  on  the  table,  never  to  be  taken  up. 

By  1826,  as  the  time  of  the  joint  occupation  drew  to  a  close, 
the  authorities  were  awakened  to  the  value  of  the  territory 
they  were  allowing  to  slip  from  their  hands.  They  recognized 
the  truth  of  Rush's  statement  that  the  Oregon  Country  was 
of  more  value  to  the  United  States  than  to  any  other  nation. 
In  1824  a  new  commission  was  appointed  to  settle  the  bound- 
ary dispute.  Rush  represented  the  United  States;  Stratford 
Canning  and  William  Huskeson,  England.  Rush  made  very 
definite  claims  for  his  government,  of  the  ownership  of  the 
Northwest  Coast,  west  of  the  Stony  Mountains,  and  between 
the  42nd  and  51st  parallels.  The  British  rejected  this  settle- 
ment and  proposed  as  a  compromise  the  49th  parallel  to  the 
Columbia,  thence  down  the  Columbia  to  the  Pacific,  which,  of 
course,  was  promptly  rejected  by  the  Americans. 

By  the  end  of  1824,  the  House  of  Representatives  had 
passed  a  bill  for  the  occupation  of  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia, 
by  a  military  force.  A  speedy  settlement  of  the  question  was 
desirable  to  both  parties.  England  was  becoming  alarmed  at 
the  action  of  Congress,  for  settlements  were  detrimental  to 
fur  trade ;  moreover,  if  America  attempted  to  take  possession 
before  the  expiration  of  the  treaty,  England  must  withdraw 
in  a  manner  repugnant  to  English  pride,  or  use  force  in  de- 
fending a  "country  not  worth  fighting  for."  The  only  alter- 
native of  a  costly  quarrel  was  a  settlement  by  acknowledgment 
of  boundary  or  a  continuation  of  the  Joint  Occupation  Treaty 
of  1818. 

In  1826  Canning  was  ready  to  reopen  negotiations.  Galla- 
tin, now  associated  with  Rush,  was  sent  his  instructions,  to 
offer  an  extension  of  the  49th  parallel  to  the  Pacific,  and  if 
the  line  was  crossed  by  any  navigable  stream,  the  English 


10  Wm.    Barrows,    Oregon;   The   Struggle   for   Possession,    pp.    192-195, 
also  199. 

Bancroft  History  of  the  Northwest  Coast,  p.   351. 


70  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

should  have  the  right  to  navigate  them  to  the  ocean.  The  old 
grounds  of  our  claims  were  gone  over,  the  chief  points  being, 
(1)  our  claims  by  right  of  discovery,  (2)  the  settlement  of 
Astoria,  (3)  the  Louisiana  Purchase  (contiguous  territory), 
(4)  the  Spanish  treaty  of  1819.  The  British  claimed  that  the 
whole  question  had  been  settled  by  the  Nootka  Sound  Conven- 
vention,  no  agreement  could  be  reached,  so  a  compromise  was 
arranged  by  continuing  indefinitely  the  treaty  of  1818,  sub- 
ject at  any  time  to  abrogation  by  either  party  on  twelve 
months'  notice. 

Then  for  some  fourteen  years  the  Oregon  question  was  but 
slightly  agitated.  England,  beginning  to  realize  that  delay 
hurt  her  cause,  proposed  a  conference  which  was  held  in  1846. 
This  conference  settled  the  northern  boundary  on  the  49th 
parallel  to  the  ocean. 

The  President's  message  of  1847  recommended  that  the 
Oregon  territory  should  have  the  privilege  granted  under  the 
constitution,  that  it  should  be  given  a  legal  government  and 
a  territorial  representation. 

There  was  a  fierce  struggle  over  the  bill,  the  opposition 
tried  to  kill  it  by  postponing  it  until  the  end  of  the  session, 
but  Benton,  always  Oregon's  best  friend^^  in  the  Senate, 
finally  brought  it  to  a  vote. 

The  people  of  Oregon  had  twice  before  that  time  voted 
down  the  slavery  question.  They  declared  that  slavery  should 
not  exist  in  Oregon,  so  in  drawing  up  the  bill  the  anti-slavery 
clause  had  been  taken  from  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  to  fully 
represent  the  wishes  of  the  people.  The  slavery  interests  made 
overtures  to  the  Oregon  supporters  to  consent  that  the  bill 
should  remain  silent  on  the  subject,  and  promised  unanimous 
support  in  case  that  was  done,  but  the  supporters  of  the  bill, 
knowing  the  wishes  of  the  people  of  Oregon  and  determined 
to  win  the  fight  on  the  line  they  had  started,  refused  and 
the  anti-slavery  clause  remained  a  part  of  the  Oregon  bill.^^ 


11  Letter  from  Benton  to  People  of  Oregon,  copied  in  Brown's  Political 
History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.   811.  , 

12  Brown,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.  355. 


Political  Beginnings  in  Oregon.  71 

The  only  amendments  agreed  to  were,  a  proviso  in  the  first 
section  confirming  to  each  Mission  in  Oregon  640  acres  of 
land ;  second,  amendments  on  commerce  concerning  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  collection  district,  ports  of  entry  and  delivery, 
and  extending  the  revenue  laws  of  the  United  States  over 
Oregon,  also  allowing  appropriations  for  the  erection  of  light- 
houses at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River  and  at  Admiralty 
Inlet;  the  third,  a  section  preventing  the  obstruction  of  the 
rivers  by  dams,  which  would  prevent  the  free  passage  of 
salmon. 

The  bill  was  attacked  in  the  Senate  by  Davis  and  Foote  of 
Mississippi,  Butler  and  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina,  Mason  of 
Virginia  and  others  of  equal  note,  and  was  warmly  supported 
by  Houston  of  Texas,  Benton  of  Missouri,  as  well  as  Douglas, 
Webster,  Corwin,  Dix,  and  Collmer.  It  was  a  bone  of  conten- 
tion for  several  weeks.  Calhoun  employed  a  morning  session 
until  adjournment  with  one  of  his  most  commanding  efforts. 
The  Senate  and  the  large  audience  were  held  by  the  force  of 
his  reasoning,  and  when  he  closed,  silence  reigned  for  some 
time  and  was  broken  only  by  a  motion  to  adjourn. 

The  bill  passed  the  Senate  by  a  close  vote,  and  went  to  the 
House,  where  the  storm  of  opposition  broke  out  afresh.  But 
it  passed  there  also,  in  course  of  time,  and  came  back  to  the 
Senate  with  some  unimportant  amendments,  towards  the  close 
of  the  session.  Then  its  opponents  rallied  again,  and  under- 
took to  kill  it  by  delay,  using  every  possible  expedient  known 
to  parliamentary  warfare  to  insure  its  defeat,  and  on  this 
ground  the  battle  was  fought  over  again.  "Tom  Corwin  sup-j 
ported  the  bill  in  one  of  his  most  telling  efforts,  and  Tom  was 
not  particularly  tender  towards  the  slavery  interests  even  in 
his  best  moods.  "^^  It  was  after  hearing  this  speech  that 
Father  Ritchie,  as  they  passed  out  of  the  Senate  chamber,  said 
to  Thornton,  "A  few  more  speeches  like  that  would  dissolve 
the  Union. '  '^^ 


13  From  an  account  of  the  session  by  J.  Q.  Thornton,  printed  in 
Brown's  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.   306. 

14  Brown,  Political  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  I,  p.  306. 

J.  Q.  Thornton  was  the  representative  appointed  by  Governor  Abernethy 
to  represent  the  Territory  in  "Washington.  Meek  was  elected  by  a  vote  of 
the  legislature. 


72  Marie  Merriman  Bradley. 

Congress  was  to  adjourn  Monday,  August  14,  1848.  It  was 
Saturday,  the  12th,  and  the  Oregon  bill  was  under  discussion 
when  Butler  of  South  Carolina  moved  to  go  into  executive 
session.  The  friends  of  the  bill  had  resolved  to  vote  down 
every  motion  to  adjourn  until  the  bill  should  pass.  Saturday 
night  at  ten  o'clock  Foote  arose  and  announced  his  intention 
to  keep  the  floor  until  Monday  noon,  the  final  hour  of  ad- 
journment. He  commenced  with  a  scriptural  history  and  con- 
tinued until  two  hours  after  sunrise  Sunday  morning,  only 
giving  way  to  motions  for  adjournment.  The  friends  of  the 
bill  were  in  the  adjoining  room,  with  a  page  on  guard  who 
gave  notice  of  each  motion  to  adjourn,  when  they  filed  in  and 
voted  it  down.  Sunday  morning  the  opposition  had  tired 
themselves  out  and  gave  up  the  game.  Foote  was  silenced  by 
his  friends.  The  bill  passed,  though  by  only  a  small  vote, 
August  14,  1848,  in  precisely  the  same  form  that  it  passed 
the  House.^^  The  long  and  trying  ordeal  was  over  and  Oregon 
was  a  territory  of  the  United  States  on  her  own  terms. 

The  rule  disallowing  bills  to  be  presented  for  signature  on 
the  last  day  of  the  ssession  was  suspended,  and  this  bill  was 
signed  August  14.  The  President  returned  it  to  the  House 
with  a  message  in  which  he  reviewed  the  question  of  free  and 
slave  territory  at  some  length,  deploring  the  agitation  arising 
from  it,  and  predicting  that  it  would,  if  not  checked,  dis- 
member the  Union. 

Polk,  of  course,  was  anxious  to  have  the  question,  which  had 
been  so  vital  an  issue  in  his  campaign,  settled  before  his  term 
of  office  expired,  so  lost  no  time  in  organizing  the  new  territory 
and  appointing  the  officials. 

The  newly  appointed  Grovernor,  Lane,  accompanied  by  Meek 
— now  holding  a  commission  as  marshal — set  out  at  once  for 
the  scene  of  their  labors,  and  arrived  in  Oregon  City  March  2, 
1849,  just  two  days  before  the  expiration  of  Polk's  term.  The 
next  day  Lane  issued  his  proclamation  and  the  transition  from 
a  provisional  to  a  territorial  government  was  made. 


15  The  bill  was  similar  to  other  territorial  bills,  one  noticeable  feature 
in  that  it  was  the  first  bill  to  set  aside  two  sections  of  land  in  each  town- 
ship in  place  of  one  for  school  purposes. 


FROM  YOUTH  TO  AGE  AS  AN  AMERICAN. 

By  John  Minto. 

CHAPTER  I. 

REMINISCENCES  OF  FORESTS  AND  MINES. 

The  writer  was  born  to  the  avocation  of  a  coal  miner  in 
1822;  and  it  seems  to  me  at  85  years  of  age  I  must  have  an 
hereditary  love  of  forests.  My  observation  of  forest  growth 
began  when  I  was  too  small  to  be  trusted  alone  in  a  piece  of 
natural  forest  yet  remaining  near  my  birthplace  on  the  banks 
of  the  Tyne  River,  nine  miles  west  of  Newcastle. 

In  those  woods  there  were  shallow  pits  and  caves  in  the 
sides  of  hills — evidences  that  surface  coal  seams  had  been 
opened  and  worked  out  and  probably  the  best  trees  had  been 
cut  for  props,  just  as  they  were  being  cut  in  the  coal  regions 
of  which  Pottsville  and  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  were  the 
centers  when  I  reached  the  United  States  in  1840,  in  my 
eighteenth  year.  Trees  were  cut  up  rather  than  down  in 
England  at  that  date ;  ropes,  blocks  and  pulleys  were  used  to 
throw  the  tree  to  the  best  advantage.  It  was  cut  below  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  and,  if  a  tan  bark  tree,  cut  when  the 
sap  was  up,  and  peeled.  No  part  was  wasted,  as  even  the 
small  twigs  were  added  to  a  small  charcoal  pit,  provided  to 
save  the  last  chip. 

Coal  was  mined  and  sold  at  Pittsburg  in  1840  cheaper  than 
wood  could  be  cut.  Small  bodies  of  natural  forest  yet  stood 
near  the  city.  In  these  the  newly  arrived  English  youth 
<;ould  wander  at  will  and  see  the  varied  autumn  leaves  fall, 
and  hear  and  feel  the  spat  of  hickory  nuts,  walnuts  and 
acorns  falling  in  ripeness  to  the  ground. 

In  Washington  County  the  change  from  wood  to  coal  fuel 
was  beginning  from  the  same  reasons  of  economy.  In  early 
spring  of  1842,  hearing  that  the  Great  Western  Iron  Works  of 
Brady's  Bend  of  the  Alleghany  were  starting  up,   I  went 


74  John  Minto. 

there,  but  was  too  early.  Clearing  ground,  opening  the  coal 
seams  and  ore  beds,  squaring  timbers  and  erecting  buildings, 
were  the  kinds  of  work  required.  Tlie  Americans  of  the  dis- 
trict could  beat  the  English,  Scots,  or  Welsh  at  such  jobs. 

I  saw  the  wonderful  flight  of  the  passenger  pigeons  here. 
The  five  days  I  was  there  I  saw  the  passage  of  flocks  in 
hurried  flight,  each  day  and  all  day,  in  countless  numbers. 
They  must  have  come  from  immense  bodies  of  mast-bearing 
forest  which  had  been  destroyed  and  the  pigeons  had  to  dis- 
appear with  its  destruction.  As  grasshopper  plagues  cease 
with  the  cultivation  of  the  land— being  compelled  to  migrate 
—so  was  it  with  the  pigeons.  There  were  still  some  wild  deer 
and  turkeys  in  this  valley  of  the  Alleghany  within  fifty  miles 
of  Pittsburg.  But  farms  were  small,  as  there  were  stone, 
timber  and  brushwood  in  the  way  of  the  plow.  The  largCvSt 
trees  were  often  killed  where  they  stood  by  "girdling"— cut- 
ting through  the  sapwood  all  around  the  tree.  There  was  no 
thought  of  timber  famine  and  little  attention  to  trees  as  ob- 
jects of  beauty. 

To  remove  the  obstacles  in  the  shape  of  brush  and  young 
trees  up  to  six  inches  in  diameter,  and  to  girdle  the  remaining 
trees,  was  worth  acre  for  acre  of  the  land  so  cleared.  The 
writer  refused  a  contract  for  clearing  fifty  acres  on  those 
terms,  with  five  years'  time  allowed  for  performing  the  con- 
tract. The  offer  was  made  by  an  honorable  man  entirely  re- 
sponsible. 

I  made  a  journey  into  Canada  West  (now  Ontario)  to  search 
for  kindred  arriving  in  1818.  The  clearing  of  land  was  going 
on  on  the  American  side  seemingly  as  fast  as  men  could  find 
means  for  it;  but  it  was  hard  times  and  wages  for  such  work 
very  low.  In  Canada  I  found  wages  low  also  and  the  em- 
ployers more  exacting.  The  slaughtering  of  timber  by  throw- 
ing trees  into  windrows  was  done  with  great  skill.  To  get  a 
successful  fire  to  consume  as  much  as  possible  of  the  fallow— 
as  it  was  called — was  also  a  matter  of  skill.  Clearing  land 
seemed  more  active  than  farming  it,  although  I  noted  some 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  75 

well-conducted  wheat  farms,  managed  (to  my  surprise)  by 
stewards  of  English  farmers  sent  over  for  that  purpose. 

Offers  of  "land  for  sale"  were  frequent — posted  at  road 

crossings,  and  telling  that  "His  Grace  the  Duke  of had 

by  letters  patent  from  Her  Gracious  Majesty,"  etc.,  become 
owner  of  a  district  named.  Terms  of  sale  and  price  were 
given,  and  almost  uniformly  the  statement  was  added  that 
the  value  of  the  black  salts  and  pearl  ash  yielded  by  burning 
the  timber  would  go  far  towards  paying  for  the  land. 

I  found  among  my  relations,  who  had  come  to  Canada  be- 
fore I  was  born,  some  who  might  pass  easily  for  Americans, 
but  also  some  who  carried  an  undying  hatred  and  prejudice 
against  the  people  and  government  of  the  United  States.  As 
to  property  rights,  the  owners  seemed  to  me  more  English 
than  the  English  at  home.  A  girl  begging  for  a  penny  stood 
by  the  gangplank  of  the  steamer  at  Toronto  landing— a  sight 
I  had  not  seen  since  leaving  England.  It  was  not  till  I  read 
in  Oregon,  Henry  Thoreau's  remark  made  in  1832,  "that 
humanity  was  the  cheapest  thing  in  Canada,"  that  I  found 
others  had  felt  something  of  wTiat  made  me  glad  to  get  back  to 
the  American  side  and  to  mining  coal  at  the  salt  works  near 
the  Great  Western  Iron  Works. 

By  this  time  I  had  opportunity  to  observe  more  closely  the 
timber  stand  of  these  broken  lands  bordering  the  Alleghany 
and  Red  Bank  rivers.  There  were  yet  rafts  run  out  of  the 
latter  stream  upon  high  spring  freshets.  My  father  had 
bargained  for  the  purchase  of  twenty  acres  of  land  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Red  Bank  and  on  it  I  took  my  first  lessons 
in  clearing  land — burning  brush  sometimes  till  midnight  on 
Saturdays  after  walking  home  across  Brady's  Bend  from  the 
salt  works  seven  miles  to  spend  Sundays.  It  was  a  rough, 
broken,  hilly  country  as  Jacob  Riis  describes  it  in  the  "Making 
of  an  American,"  though  I  can  hardly  imagine  it  to  have  re- 
mained so  twenty-eight  years  later  when  he  got  there,  sup- 
posing he  had  reached  the  "West."  Mining  to  him  also 
proved  fearfully  dangerous  from  his  own  ignorance  and  that 


76  John  Minto. 

of  his  associates.  He  wisely  found  his  road  to  fortune,  honor 
and  fame  in  the  slums  of  New  York. 

Though  four  miles  of  the  six  between  Robinson's  salt  works 
south  to  Red  Bank  were  wild  woods,  in  my  trips  between  ;f 
passed  through  orchards  where  apples  and  peaches  strewed 
the  ground.  I  witnessed  with  my  own  eyes  also  the  wonderful 
phenomenon  of  the  migration  of  squirrels  from  the  west  to  the 
east  side  of  the  Alleghany  River,  I  saw  the  little  creatures 
dash  into  the  river  as  I  took  my  seat  in  a  skiff— beat  them 
across  and  saw  them  make  shore  without  swerving  either  from 
man's  club  or  dog's  teeth.  There  was  no  great  sign  made, 
they  did  not  move  in  numbers  nor  was  there  any  noise.  Where 
the  surface  of  the  river  was  smooth  a  good  eye  might  see  four 
to  six  little  heads— but  each  for  itself— unknown  to  others 
apparently.  Their  eyes  expressed  helpless  fear.  To  see  it 
was  unforgetable. 

When  I  first  got  employment  at  the  Great  Western,  the 
honest  Welshmen,  as  Mr.  Riis  called  them,  outnumbered  all 
other  classes  of  miners,  and  naturally  clannish  as  the  Celts  of 
the  Scotch  Highlands  are,  it  tended  to  keep  others  out. 

Being  restless  to  earn  and  save,  I  went  to  Pittsburg  in  the 
winter  of  1842-3,  it  being  generally  the  busiest  season  there. 
I  had  a  bitterly  disappointing  winter,  getting  back  to  Red 
Bank  penniless  just  as  father  and  two  friends  had  signed  a 
contract  to  drive  a  tunnel  through  a  hill  in  order  that  the 
Great  Western  Company  might  reach  a  body  of  especially 
good  ore.  They  needed  another  man  to  work  in  eight-hour 
shifts  and  invited  me  to  join,  which  I  did.  We  had  nearly 
four  months  of  hard  but  pleasant  work  at  good  earnings  on 
the  company's  books.  When  suspension  came  all  we  could  do 
was  to  put  our  claims  into  an  attorney's  hands  and,  at  some 
sacrifice  of  plans  and  property,  get  to  some  other  mining 
district. 

We  had  cleared  a  few  acres,  raised  a  little  corn  and  more 
potatoes— and  had  tasted  corn  of  our  own  culture  in  the 
roasting  ear  and  the  more  delicious  flavor  of  the  grated  corn 
cakes.    But  we  resolved  to  sacrifice  clearing,  cabin  and  every- 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  77 

thing  we  must  to  collect  at  least  four  months'  provisions  that 
we  might  place  them  in  a  flat  boat  and  float  west  and  south- 
to  "settle  on  the  banks  of  the  pleasant  Ohio,"  perhaps.  In  a 
few  weeks  we  had  done  this  and  tied  up  at  Pittsburg  to  bid 
farewell  to  friends,  daughters  and  sisters,  I  went  to  Wash- 
ington County  to  summons  the  last  married  of  those.  Found 
she  could  not  come,  and  found  a  chance  for  work.  Returned  to 
Pittsburg  and  reported— to  find  father  had  been  dissuaded 
from  risking  floating  down  the  river  so  late  in  the  season.  I 
hurried  back  to  Washington  County  and  took  the  waiting  job 
—mining  coal  at  one  cent  per  bushel  of  eighty-four  pounds. 
It  was  sold  on  a  platform  arranged  so  that  farmers  could  do 
their  own  loading.  They  paid  in  cash,  or  produce  at  cash 
prices:  instance— fresh  beef  at  two  and  one-half  cents  a 
pound;  a  barrel  of  good  cider  at  one  dollar,  barrel  returned 
when  empty. 

I  teased  my  sister,  with  whom  I  boarded,  by  eating  that 
delicious  beef  without  salt  or  other  addition — telling  her  I 
was  training  for  life  in  the  buffalo  country.  I  hunted  rabbits 
and  shot  muskrats,  to  "get  my  hand  in,"  I  said. 

I  crossed  and  recrossed  the  Merino  sheep  pastures  of  Hon. 
John  H.  Ewing,  ex-M.  C,  to  learn  in  Oregon  later  his  relation 
to  fine  wool  sheep  husbandry,  and  that  at  this  very  date 
James  G.  Blaine,  his  kinsman,  made  his  home  with  Ewing 
while  a  student  at  Washington  College. 

The  first  money  I  had  to  spare  was  invested  in  a  book  of 
adventures  of  frontier  life— some  touching  Pittsburg  and 
Brady's  Bend.    The  title  page  had  the  following  lines: 

"Who  be  you  that  rashly  dare, 

To  trace  in  woods  the  forest  child;  — 
To  hunt  the  panther  to  his  lair, 
The  Indian  in  his  native  wild?" 

They  thrilled  me,  and  I  read  of  Braddock,  Washington, 
Wayne,  Boone,  Brady,  Kenton,  Wetzi  !,  Bede,  Crockett  and 
Putnam;  little  dreaming  I  would  chase  thp  wild  wolf  to  his 
den— dig  to  him  and  shoot  him  in  it;  climb  a  fir  tree  and  find 
a  lynx  in  it,  and  shoot  him ;  trace  a  panther  to  his  lair  on  a 


78  John  Minto. 

few  inches  of  fresh-fallen  snow  as  he  had  passed  around  a 
doorless  cabin  without  waking  me.  I  left  him,  but  a  few 
months  later  the  dog  of  a  friend  hunting  there  rushed  into 
the  cave  after  the  panther  and  passed  him — then  stopped 
howling  in  fear.  Others  closed  in,  when  the  owner  of  the 
dog  went  in  with  lighted  torch  in  one  hand  and  a  Colt's  in 
the  other  and  shot  him  between  the  eyes.  Acquaintance  with 
animal  life  greatly  lessens  the  danger  of  their  killing. 

In  addition  to  this  book  on  frontier  life  I  bought  and  read 
a  small  volume  of  selections  from  Plutarch's  Lives— grand 
reading  for  a  youth. 

Having  met  the  season's  supply  of  coal,  I  went  to  Pitts- 
burg and  found  my  father  and  others  idle  by  reason  of  the 
failure  of  a  freshet  to  float  the  coal  to  market  in  the  No- 
vember previous ;  so  there  was  a  glut  of  coal  on  hand,  and  of 
course  hard  times  for  both  masters  and  men.  Pittsburg  had 
become  an  objective  point  for  English  miners  immigrating, 
which  tended  to  a  glut  of  men. 

I  had  $33  to  travel  on,  with  a  supply  of  clothing.  At  a 
public  meeting  to  consider  the  situation  I  advised  those  who 
could,  to  seek  other  districts,  or  other  occupation,  and  did  so 
myself,  as  told  years  ago. 

The  foregoing  is  an  outline  of  labor  life  in  Pennsylvania 
mines.  The  story  of  the  journey  from  Pittsburg  to  Astoria 
I  need  not  repeat  and  will  even  be  brief  in  my  story  of  life 
on  the  land,  as  much  of  that  is  known  in  pioneer  publications 
and  the  history  of  the  agricultural  development  of  Oregon. 

(To  be  continued.) 


COLUMBIA  RIVER  IMPROVEMENT  AND  THE 
PACIFIC  NORTHWEST.* 

By  Frederic  G.  Young. 

A  system  of  transportation,  adjusted  to  the  needs  of  the 
Pacific  Northwest,  can  hardly  be  a  counterpart  of  those  de- 
veloped for  the  older  sections  of  the  country  on  the  op- 
posite and  less-folded  side  of  the  continent.  The  specific 
conclusions  with  regard  to  the  supplementary  functions 
and  to  other  relations  of  the  rail  and  the  water  routes 
found  true  throughout  the  East  will  probably  need  modi- 
fication before  being  applied  here.  At  any  rate,  the  condi- 
tions in  the  Pacific  Northwest  that  have  to  be  taken  into 
account  for  determining  the  features  of  the  most  economical 
and  efficient  system  of  transportation  for  this  region  are 
so  striking  and  unique  as  to  warrant  a  brief  reference  to 
them. 

The  highways  over  which  the  productions  of  the  Pacific 
Northwest  must  be  carried  to  reach  the  consumer  lie  on 
the  Pacific  in  one  direction,  and  stretch  across  the  backbone 
of  the  continent  in  another.  These  opposite  destinations 
for  fairly  equal  proportions  of  its  grain,  lumber,  fish,  live- 
stock, wool  and  fruit  affect  the  features  of  the  transporta- 
tion system  adapted  to  its  needs  and  differentiate  this 
system  from  that  of  the  Middle  West,  whose  products  al- 
most exclusively  find  their  market  in  the  direction  of  the 
Atlantic  seaboard. 

Again,  the  striking  contrasts  between  the  lay  of  the  land 
in  the  Columbia  basin  and  that  of  the  basin  of  the  Missis- 
sippi must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  exhibit  themselves  in 
contrasting  systems  of  transportation  when  these  have  be- 
come fully  adapted  to  their  respective  conditions.    On  the 


♦Reprinted  from  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science  for  January,  li>08. 


80  Frederic  G.  Young. 

imperceptibly  sloping,  almost  unbroken  and  but  gently 
undulating  plains  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  the 
problem  of  providing  economic  means  for  carrying  the 
commodities  of  commerce  is  quite  different  from  that  pre- 
sented by  a  region  largely  composed  of  table  lands,  here 
and  there  furrowed  by  deep  valleys  with  precipitous  slopes, 
and  bordered  by  high  ranges  of  mountains  stretched  di- 
rectly across  the  path  of  the  routes  leading  out  to  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world. 

The  lines  of  least  desistance  for  traffic  are  more  pro- 
nounced in  the  Columbia  basin  than  in  any  portion  of  the 
East,  The  uniform  meshes  of  the  railway  network  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  will  hardly  be  realized  here  and  for 
other  reasons  than  a  lack  of  uniform  productivity  through- 
out all  portions  of  this  basin.  The  longer  way  around  will, 
in  this  region,  more  frequently  be  found  the  more  economic 
route  to  the  market.  Until  release  is  found  from  the  pull  of 
gravity  so  that  the  lifts  and  drops  in  passing  over  inter- 
vening ridges  do  not  involve  heavy  costs,  the  main  lines 
of  railway  here  will  thread  the  main  valleys.  This  means 
that  even  in  the  matter  of  distance  the  water  routes  for 
heavy  traffic  will  be  at  but  slight  disadvantage  here  as  com- 
pared with  the  rail;  add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  Columbia 
"seeks  the  ocean  on  a  line  parallel  with  the  trade  channels 
and  not  at  right  angles  to  them,"  as  is  the  case  with  the 
Mississippi  in  relation  to  the  major  portion  of  the  volume  of 
trade  of  its  valley ;  and  the  further  facts  that  have  repeated 
endorsement  of  the  engineers  of  the  national  government, 
that  the  banks  of  the  Columbia  "are  more  stable,  its  waters 
more  clear,  its  ice  blockades  are  much  less  in  duration  than 
on  the  great  waterway  in  the  East,"  and  we  have  some- 
thing of  a  basis  for  the  presumption  that  transportation 
on  inland  waterways  in  the  Pacific  Northwest  is  destined 
permanently  to  assume  a  comparatively  larger  importance 
than  in  any  other  section  of  the  country,  and  that  the  im- 
provement of  these  waterways  so  as  to  realize  their  largest 
utility  is  a  matter  of  more  vital  interest  to  its  people  than 


Columbia  River  Improvement.  81 

to  those  of  any  other  section.  In  aU  this  we  have  grounds 
for  a  tentative  hypothesis  at  least  that  the  ensemble  of 
conditions  in  the  Pacific  Northwest  is  unusually  favorable 
for  reliance  upon  waterways  as  routes  for  heavier  trafi&c 
and  unusually  obstructive  to  the  development  of  a  network 
of  air  line  rail  routes  with  easy  gradients. 

Before  developing  this  hypothesis,  through  reference  to 
the  experience  of  the  Pacific  Northwest,  while  securing  so 
much  of  a  System  as  it  has,  attention  should  be  called  to 
one  other  aspect  of  the  situation  here.  The  Pacific  North- 
west is  conspicuously  a  gateway  for  the  commerce  between 
the  main  body  of  the  American  people  in  the  eastern  por- 
tions of  the  country  and  the  Orient.  Three  factors  conspire 
to  bring  this  about.  It  is  on  the  line  of  the  great-circle 
route  to  the  East,  it  has  the  only  sea-level  passageway 
through  the  Cascade-Sierra  barrier  on  the  western  edge 
of  the  continent,  and  it  possesses  the  matchless  harbors 
of  Puget  Sound.  The  transcontinental  lines  penetrating 
to  this  region  were  located,  built,  and  have  ever  since  been 
operated  with  their  gateway  interests  dominant.  Even  to- 
day the  greater  construction  activities  and  expenditures 
for  the  Hill  and  the  Harriman  roads— a  Hill  road  paralleling 
the  Harriman  line  down  the  Columbia  to  Portland,  and  a 
Harriman  road  paralleling  the  Hill  line  from  Portland  to 
Seattle— show  that  the  interests  of  the  producer  of  this 
region  are  neglected  and  even  sacrificed  in  the  rivalry  for 
the  gateway  traffic.  The  local  producer  has  received  some 
consideration  at  times  from  these  transcontinental  railway 
magnates.  A  meager  provision  of  "feeders"  exists.  Some 
have  built  more  than  others,  but  with  all  and  always  com- 
petition in  the  transcontinental  service  has  been  the  main 
concern. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  no  independent  lines  for  the  service 
of  the  producer  of  the  Pacific  Northwest  exist.  While  the 
Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation  lines,  and,  in  a  less  degree, 
the  Oregon  and  California  line,  were  originally  planned  for 
local  service  they  soon,  through  lease  and  purchase,  became 


82  Frederic  G.  Young. 

mere  links  in  transcontinental  systems.  There  is  thus  in  a 
large  sense  no  system  of  rail  transportation  for  the  Pacific 
Northwest.  As  it  is,  the  people  of  this  section  get  the  crumbs 
of  service  and  have  laid  on  their  shoulders  through  high 
charges  the  great  burden  of  the  support  of  the  systems 
as  carriers  of  transcontinental  traffic. 

This  situation  would  make  the  plight  of  the  producer  of 
the  Pacific  Northwest  extreme  were  it  not  for  his  advan- 
tages in  the  wonderful  natural  resources  at  his  command. 
Suppose  the  haul  across  the  Rockies  is  a  natural  one  for 
part  of  even  his  bulky  grain  and  lumber.  Yet  the  carrying 
capacity  of  these  roads  is  so  helplessly  overtaxed  that  they 
are  under  the  necessity  of  rejecting  consignments,  indi- 
rectly by  exorbitant  charges  and  directly  by  refusing  to 
furnish  cars,  as  is  witnessed  at  the  present  time  in  the  em- 
bargo on  the  lumber  export  business  to  the  Middle  West. 
Increased  equipment  and  double-tracking  are  out  of  the 
question  under  existing  financial  conditions.  Should  the 
managing  agencies  of  these  railway  systems  redeem  them- 
selves in  the  eyes  of  the  people  and  win  confidence  so  that 
with  funds  at  their  command  they  could  bring  the  carrying 
powers  of  their  roads  up  to  the  demands  made  upon  them, 
yet  the  producer  of  this  region  would  still  be  at  the  mercy 
of  those  who  have  pretty  consistently  ignored  him  except 
as  he  might  obtain  relief  through  the  mediation  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  or,  more  effectively, 
through  independent  means  for  getting  his  productions 
down  to  the  sea. 

The  release  of  the  producing  energies  of  this  region  from 
the  vise-like  grip  in  which  they  are  held  by  the  systems  of 
rail  transportation  as  at  present  developed  would  be  fully 
achieved  if  a  system  of  inland  waterways  for  traffic  needs 
could  be  made  available.  On  these  the  annual  output  of 
products  could,  free  from  the  taxing  power  of  monopolies, 
be  floated  down  to  the  ocean  shipping  ports.  The  rates  of 
carriage  on  such  waterways  would  regulate  not  only  the 
charges  on  the  rail  routes  parallel  to  them,  but  also  the 


Columbia  River  Improvement.  83 

rates  on  the  transcontinental  carriage  to  the  East.  There 
is  no  question  as  to  the  need  of  them  here.  In  no  other 
section  are  present  transportation  facilities  so  inadequate  to 
existing  demands.  Car  famines  recur  regularly  and  in  most 
aggravated  forms.  No  other  section  is  taxed  so  heavily  for 
what  service  it  gets.  Nowhere  else  is  potential  development 
being  retarded  to  the  same  degree. 

The  problem  of  progress  for  this  section  narrows  down  to 
about  this:  Is  it  feasible  to  utilize  fuUy  through  improve- 
ment the  Columbia  and  its  tributary  waterways  to  relieve 
this  congestion  of  traffic  and  so  cheapen  transportation 
costs  as  to  stimulate  vastly  the  development  of  this  sec- 
tion? Before  turning  to  an  examination  of  the  availability 
of  the  Columbian  Avaterways,  just  one  observation  on  the 
results  of  further  delay  in  undertaking  a  scientific  adjust- 
ment of  these  transportation  facilities  seems  advisable.  The 
present  condition  of  perplexingly  inadequate  facilities,  and 
monopoly  charges  prohibitive  of  further  levelopment,  nat- 
urally raises  an  unreasoning  clamor  for  duplications  in 
hopes  of  lower  rates  through  competition.  This  betrays  a 
state  of  intelligence  that  is  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the 
cost  and  maintenance  of  great  railway  structures,  that  serve 
only  to  divide  traffic  with  a  road  already  existing,  mean 
fastening  upon  its  supporters  a  load  almost  the  double  of 
what  would  have  been  necessary  had  the  service  of  the  ex- 
isting line  been  co-ordinated  with  that  of  an  available 
waterway.  Fortunately,  however,  the  measure  of  undevel- 
oped resources  here  protects  this  region,  too,  from  such  per- 
manent incubuses  much  as  eastern  sections  through  their 
development  escaped  evils  of  excessive  duplications.  Surely 
a  clearer  conception  on  the  part  of  the  people  at  large  of 
what  is  involved  in  a  scientifically  adjusted  transportation 
system  would  have  forestalled  the  possibility  of  such  a 
transaction  as  Mr.  Harriman's  in  diverting  thirteen  millions 
from  the  surplus  accumulated  through  extortionate  charges 
upon  the  producers  in  the  Oregon  Railway  and  Navigation 
territory,  towards  the  securing  of  terminals  in  Tacoma  and 


84  Frederic  G.  Young. 

Seattle  for  his  line  paralleling  the  road  from  Portland  to 
Seattle.  And  certain  it  is  that  the  people  of  the  Pacific 
Northwest  if  they  fail  to  make  a  careful  inquiry  into  the 
problem  of  supplying  themselves  with  an  adequate  and  an 
economic  system  of  transportation  will  burden  themselves 
and  their  posterity  with  ill-adapted  railway  duplications 
and  will  continue  to  serve  as  pawns  for  the  railway  mag- 
nates in  their  game  for  the  prizes  of  transcontinental  traffic. 

In  the  general  survey  of  the  situation  in  the  Pacific 
Northwest  it  was  noticed  that  the  laj^  of  the  land  and  the 
characteristics  of  the  waterways  of  this  region  indicated 
large  utilization  of  them  for  purposes  of  commerce. 
The  safest  and  probably  the  quickest  way  to  determine 
what  part  and  how  large  a  part  these  waterways  are 
adapted  to  have  in  a  fully  adjusted  system  of  transporta- 
tion for  this  region  is  to  trace  the  development  of  man's  ex- 
perience in  using  them  and  the  growth  of  his  plans  and 
achievements  in  improving  them.  Barring  a  few  formidable 
obstructions,  the  major  portion  of  which  have  already  been 
obviated  and  all  of  which  are  at  a  reasonable  expense  sus- 
ceptible of  being  permanently  obviated,  the  Columbia  River 
throughout  its  course  approximates  more  nearly  the  char- 
acter of  a  ship  canal  than  probably  any  other  river  in  the 
world.  The  Canadian  Pacific  has  run  boats  on  regular 
schedules  on  its  uppermost  stretch,  penetrating  even  to  its 
source,  some  sixteen  hundred  miles  from  its  mouth.  Much 
as  Hendry  Hudson  on  his  voyage  of  discovery  sailed  np 
the  river  that  took  his  name  to  where  Albany  now  stands, 
so  Lieutenant  Broughton,  of  Vancouver's  expedition,  profit- 
ing through  introduction  of  Captain  Gray,  pushed  the  lim- 
its of  discovery  with  his  vessel  to  a  point  near  the  Cascade 
Mountains,  one  hundred  miles  up  stream. 

Though  the  initial  cost  of  obtaining  an  "open  river" 
throughout  the  main  stream  and  the  important  tributaries 
will  be  considerable,  the  permanency  of  such  improvements 
and  the  smallness  of  the  sums  necessary  for  maintenance 
more  than  compensate.    Such  is  the  general  firmness  of  its 


Columbia  River  Improvement.  85 

banks  (not  a  little  of  its  course  is  run  between  walls  of 
basalt),  such  is  the  comparative  freedom  from  the  silt  that 
causes  erosion  and  shifting  bars,  and  so  short  are  the  pe- 
riods when  it  is  locked  by  ice,  that  its  adaptability  as  a 
waterway  for  purposes  of  commerce  may  be  rated  very 
high. 

It  was  the  judgment  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  or  his  repre- 
sentative, in  establishing  Fort  Astor,  in  1811,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia,  that  the  emporium  should  be  there 
for  commerce  with  the  Orient.  A  little  more  than  a  decade 
later  that  judgment  was  dissented  from  by  the  sagacious 
McLoughlin  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  He  moved  the 
entrepot  of  trade  a  hundred  miles  up  the  river.  His  idea,  in 
so  far  as  it  affects  the  use  of  this  lower  stretch  as  an  arm  of 
the  sea,  seems  destined  to  stand.  It  has  not  merely  the  sanc- 
tion implied  in  the  building  up  of  a  city  of  200,000  people  at 
the  head  of  navigation  on  the  lower  Willamette,  twelve 
miles  up  from  its  junction  with  the  Columbia,  but  also  a 
hearty  seconding  in  the  plans  and  projects  of  the  engineer- 
ing service  directing  river  and  harbor  improvements.  The 
consideration  that  weighed  with  Dr.  McLoughlin  in  estab- 
lishing Fort  Vancouver  near  the  region  whence  was  ob- 
tained his  company's  wealth  of  commerce  holds  good  today. 
The  ocean  liner  is  brought  for  its  cargo  as  near  as  possible 
to  the  heart  of  a  large  and  rich  producing  country.  The 
improvement,  therefore,  of  the  Willamette  and  Columbia 
below  Portland  is  virtually  of  the  nature  of  harbor  improve- 
ment while  that  contemplated  for  the  river  above  and  its 
tributaries  is  that  of  inland  waterway  improvement. 

That  the  waterways  of  the  Columbia  basin  had  eminent 
natural  fitness  as  avenues  of  commerce  and  travel  is  con- 
clusively proven  in  the  flourishing  economic  development 
of  this  region  in  the  pre-railway  era.  Up  to  about  1880,  the 
Columbia  River  with  its  tributaries,  constituted  the  only 
trunk  lines  of  inland  commerce  and  travel  in  the  Pacific 
Northwest.  The  facilities  of  transportation  afforded  by 
these  waterways  had  sufficed  for  the  upbuilding  of  a  very 


86  Frederic  G.  Young. 

prosperous  community.  Some  three  hundred  thousand  peo- 
ple lived  in  the  valley  of  the  Willamette  and  along  tlic  lower 
and  upper  Columbia.  Evidences  of  a  high  degree  of  com- 
fort, of  large  accumulations  and  of  the  great  volume  of 
commercial  activity  elicited  remarks  of  astonishment  from 
visitors  to  this  isolated  region  that  was  then  still  practic- 
ally without  railroads.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  other  river 
system  since  the  era  of  general  railway  development  served 
so  fully  the  needs  of  transportation  facilities  as  did  this 
one  of  the  Pacific  Northwest. 

But  the  inland  waterways  of  the  Pacific  Northwest  were 
like  those  of  the  other  sections  of  the  country  destined  to 
be  relegated  to  a  position  secondary  to  that  of  the  railways. 
Only  the  one-hundred-and-ten-mile  stretch  from  Portland  to 
the  sea  suffered  no  eclipse  through  being  paralleled  by  a 
railroad.  This  section  of  river  channel  is,  however,  in  its 
relation  to  navigation,  to  be  regarded  as  an  arm  of  the  sea, 
or  harbor  passageway,  rather  than  as  an  inland  waterway. 
The  general  supersession  of  the  waterway  for  the  railway 
might  seem  to  be  significant  of  the  greater  all-around  utility 
of  the  railway  in  this  section,  for  it  appeared  to  displace 
the  well-established  steamboat  completely  on  certain  routes 
and,  for  aught  that  appears  on  the  surface,  finally.  But  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  the  introduction  of  the  railway  into  this 
section  was  not  primarily  to  furnish  facilities  of  a  higher 
order  than  those  of  the  existing  waterways.  They  were  built 
here  not  so  much  to  supersede  the  unsatisfactory  steamboat 
as  they  were  to  earn  munificent  grants  of  public  domain 
and  to  supply  the  final  links  in  the  transcontinental  lines 
giving  connection  with  the  East.  For  passenger  and  higher 
class  freight  service  the  railroad,  here  as  elsewhere,  had, 
of  course,  the  advantage  from  the  start.  The  railways  along 
the  Willamette  and  the  Columbia  won  out  so  decisively, 
however,  from  quite  extraneous  reasons.  The  falls  and 
formidable  rapids  in  these  rivers  that  made  necessary  short 
side  canals  or  portage  railways  furnish  the  secret  of  this 
easy  conquest  on  the  part  of  the  railways.    These  portage 


Columbia  River  Improvement.  87 

improvements  were  owned  either  by  private  corporations 
or  by  the  railroads  themselves.  At  the  falls  of  the  Willam- 
ette, fifteen  miles  above  Portland,  a  private  canal  company 
with  its  tolls  taxed  the  river  traffic  nearly  out  of  existence. 
On  the  Columbia  the  owners  of  the  portage  railways  were 
also  the  owners  of  the  railroad  paralleling  the  river.  Nat- 
urally it  was  their  interest  and,  from  their  position  of 
vantage,  within  their  power  to  block  completely  the  move- 
ment of  traffic  on  the  river. 

Water  transportation  was  not,  however,  to  lapse  into  a 
mere  tradition  in  the  Columbia  basin  because  of  the  un- 
toward influence  of  private  monopoly  at  these  portage  gate- 
ways. Considerable  areas  of  rich  and  rapidly  developing 
country  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Columbia  had  as  yet  no 
railway  and  kept  several  lines  of  boats  busy.  Another  sec- 
tion of  country  far  up  the  Snake,  but  magnificently  en- 
dowed with  resources,  was  not  for  a  long  time  reached  by  a 
railway.  It,  too,  had  to  rely  on  a  navigable  section  of  that 
largest  tributary  of  the  Columbia  for  connection  with  the 
outside  world.  The  mere  idea,  too,  of  a  great  Columbian 
waterway  had  been  ardently  cherished  for  more  than  a 
century  and  had  too  firm  a  hold  in  the  national  conscious- 
ness to  be  completely  stifled  by  the  repression  of  private 
monopoly.  As  the  dream  of  Thomas  Jefferson  it  had  been 
back  of  the  leading  motive  impelling  him  to  urge  time  and 
again  transcontinental  exploration.  In  his  instructions  to 
Meriwether  Lewis,  when  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition 
was  about  to  set  out,  he  says:  "The  object  of  your  mission 
is  to  explore  the  Missouri  River,  and  such  principal  streams 
of  it,  as  by  its  course  and  communication  with  the  waters 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  may  offer  the  most  direct  and  prac- 
ticable water  communication  across  this  continent,  for  pur- 
poses of  commerce."  The  same  idea  of  the  larger  use  of 
the  Columbia  as  one  of  the  two  connecting  channels  of  a 
transcontinental  waterway  had  been  an  important  feature 
of  the  imperial  project  of  John  Jacob  Astor.  And  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  had  actually  used  it  for  a  generation  as 


88  Frederic  G.  Young. 

its  main  highway  in  conducting  its  widely  extended  opera- 
tions in  this  section.  It  had,  as  we  have  seen,  been  the  sole 
reliance  in  their  need  of  transportation  facilities  of  the 
widely  scattered  but  exceedingly  thriving  Oregon  com- 
munities down  to  about  1880.  And  though  the  railways, 
fortified  as  they  were  with  monopoly  privileges  at  the  port- 
ages along  the  Columbia,  and  reinforced  through  the  policy 
of  the  private  canal  company  at  Oregon  City,  won  out 
against  the  upper  river  traffic ;  on  the  lower  Columbia 
the  ocean  export  trade  was  steadily  growing  with  the  gen- 
eral community  growth  induced  by  the  recently  completed 
railway  connections  with  the  East. 

But  whether  the  commerce  on  the  different  sections  of 
the  river  waxed  or  waned,  certain  influences  were  promot- 
ing the  inception  of  projects  of  improvement.  The  pressure 
of  the  people  in  this  direction  and  the  activities  of  their 
representatives  in  Congress  may  always  be  taken  for 
granted.  It  is  rather  the  progress  of  their  interests  with 
the  engineers  of  the  United  States  army  and  the  standing 
the  movement  was  thus  getting  in  administrative  circles 
to  which  I  refer.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  the  charts 
of  Admiral  Vancouver,  of  1792,  that  of  Sir  Edward  Belcher, 
of  1839,  that  of  Captain  Wilkes,  of  1841,  the  United  Coast 
Survey  chart  of  1851,  and  those  from  periodical  surveys 
thereafter  accumulated  data  from  which  the  problem  of 
widening  and  deepening  the  channel  across  the  bar  could- 
be  solved.  The  tonnage  crossing  the  bar  was  increasing 
year  by  year.  In  1882  the  engineers  were  ready  with  the 
details  of  a  project  for  permanently  improving  this  feature 
of  the  river.  The  value  and  availability  of  the  waterway 
from  Portland  down  could  never  be  questioned.  Its  im- 
provement to  navigation  by  deep-water  craft  was  of  utmost 
importance  to  the  entire  Northwest.  Not  until  1884  was  any 
considerable  portion  of  the  produce  of  this  section  diverted 
by  the  railroads  to  Puget  Sound.  The  original  project  for 
improvement  was  adopted  in  1877. 


Columbia  River  Improvement.  89 

On  the  upper  river  the  engineers  were  making  extensive 
preliminary  examinations  and  reconnaissance  surveys  while 
it  was  still  the  sole  channel  of  transportation  for  that  rap- 
idly developing  ''Inland  Empire."  The  exceedingly  favor- 
able reports  of  Major  Michler,  of  1874,  of  Major  Powell,  in 
1879,  and  of  Lieutenant  Symons,  in  1881,  gave  the  demand 
for  an  "open  river"  standing  in  the  inner  administration 
circles.  This  part  of  the  river  was  already  receiving  small 
appropriations  for  the  removal  of  minor  obstructions  in 
the  early  '70s.  On  October  12,  1877,  the  Secretary  of  War 
approved  the  original  plan  for  canal  and  locks  around  the 
rapids  in  the  Columbia,  where  it  passes  through  the  Cascade 
Mountain  range.  In  thus  tackling  one  of  the  two  formidable 
obstructions  to  navigation  the  national  government  may  be 
said  to  have  committed  itself  to  the  securing  of  a  channel 
available  to  navigation  throughout  this  system  of  inland 
waterways. 

The  task  with  which  the  national  government  was  con- 
fronted in  having  undertaken  to  secure  to  the  people  of 
the  Pacific  Northwest  the  advantage  of  inland  waterways 
is  probably  best  indicated  by  pointing  out  the  obstructions 
that  are,  or  were,  encountered  in  passing  from  its  mouth  to 
its  source.  From  the  ocean  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Willam- 
ette, about  ninety-eight  miles,  where  the  original  depth 
was  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet,  ocean  vessels  now  pass  drawing 
twenty-five  feet  of  water.  The  improvement  was  effected 
mainly  through  dredging.  From  the  mouth  of  the  Willam- 
ette to  the  "Cascades,"  about  forty-three  miles  farther  up 
the  river,  it  is  open,  and  in  its  natural  state  has  an  available 
depth  of  eight  feet.  At  the  "Cascades"  for  four  and  one- 
half  miles  it  is  so  contracted  in  width  in  passing  through 
mountains  that  it  partakes  of  the  nature  of  a  gorge.  In 
the  upper  first  half  mile  of  this  there  is  a  fall  of  twenty-four 
feet.  Throughout  the  lower  four  miles  of  the  gorge  the  slope 
is  not  so  steep,  but  the  channel  is  much  obstructed  with 
boulders  and  reefs.  This  first  great  obstruction  could  be 
obviated  only  by  a  canal  and  locks.  Such  works  were  so  far 


90  Frederic  G.  Young. 

completed  as  to  be  opened  to  navigation  in  1896.  Proceed- 
ing up  the  river,  for  forty-five  miles,  it  was  again  open 
with  a  depth  of  some  eight  feet.  But  here  most  formidable 
obstructions  are  encountered— The  Dalles  and  Celilo  Falls. 
In  the  course  of  nine  miles  the  river  passes  over  falls  and 
rapids  and  through  contracted  channels  that  completely 
block  navigation.  The  fall  in  this  distance  is  eighty-one 
feet.  For  some  years  these  obstructions  seemed  to  puzzle 
the  engineers  with  their  magnitude  and  to  appal  Congress 
through  the  size  of  the  estimated  cost  of  improvement  to 
open  navigation  around  them.  Work  has  barely  begun  on  an 
approved  project  for  a  canal  and  locks.  Proceeding  on 
beyond  Celilo  Falls  we  have  again  a  stretch  of  open  river 
of  some  198  miles,  with  an  available  depth  of  four  or  five 
feet.  The  Snake,  the  largest  tributary,  which  enters  the 
Columbia  110  miles  above  Celilo  Falls,  has  146  miles  of 
navigable  channel  similar  in  character  to  that  of  the  main 
stream.  Were  we  to  proceed  along  that  tremendous  stretch 
of  river  until  we  came  to  the  international  boundary  only 
two  more  considerable  obstructions  would  be  encountered — 
Priest  Rapids  and  Kettle  Falls.  These  will  require  canals 
and  locks.  Not  only  are  improvements  in  progress  on  the 
two  main  tributaries  above  the  mouth  of  the  Snake,  the 
Spokane  and  the  Pend  d 'Oreille,  but  the  engineers  have  re- 
ported favorably  for  the  removal  of  the  obstructions  in 
about  all,  if  not  quite  all,  of  the  stretches  intervening  be- 
tween those  more  formidable  rapids  that  will  require  canals 
and  locks. 

Turning  back  now  to  the  Willamette  to  note  its  problems, 
a  complete  break  in  navigation — when  the  river  was  in  its 
natural  state — was  encountered  at  the  falls  fifteen  miles 
above  Portland.  A  private  corporation,  subsidized  by  the 
State  of  Oregon,  constructed  a  canal  around  these. 

Confronted  by  problems  of  the  character  indicated  above 
the  national  government  has  made  and,  on  the  recommenda- 
tions of  its  engineers,  proposes  to  make  improvements  at 
different  points  of  the  following,  nature :    With  the  object 


Columbia  River  Improvement.  91 

of  concentrating  the  river  to  a  moderate  width  at  its  mouth 
and  to  discharge  it  as  a  unit  to  the  sea,  thus  securing  a 
strong  scouring  effect  with  the  tidal  outflow,  the  original 
project,  adopted  in  1884,  provided  for  a  single  jetty  on  the 
south  side  of  the  entrance  about  four  and  one-half  miles 
long.  This  work  caused  an  increase  in  depth  over  the  bar 
from  twenty  to  thirty-one  feet  from  1885  to  1895.  But  as 
this  desired  increase  was  not  permanent,  in  1903  a  project 
contemplating  an  extension  of  three  miles,  to  the  jetty 
previously  constructed,  was  adopted.  A  continuing  appro- 
priation for  the  completion  of  this  work  has  been  made. 
The  depth  desired  is  forty  feet.  The  work  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  original  project  to  the  completion  of  the  present 
extension  will  cost  about  $4,500,000.  The  two  projects  were 
based  on  the  same  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  problem 
and  the  earlier  work  is  fully  utilized  in  the  more  extended 
later  project. 

The  project  under  which  the  improvement  of  the  Colum- 
bia and  lower  Willamette  is  proceeding  was  adopted  in 
1902.  It  proposes  a  twenty-five  foot  channel  to  the  sea  by 
the  construction  of  controlling  works  and  dredging.  The 
estimated  cost  was  about  $2,800,000.  The  port  of  Portland, 
using  funds  obtained  from  taxation  in  Portland,  has  co- 
operated to  the  extent  of  providing  about  $1,700,000.  Up 
to  June  30,  1904,  the  national  government  had  applied  about 
$1,500,000  on  this  portion  of  the  river.  Turning  to  the 
main  lower  branch  of  the  Columbia,  the  Willamette,  the 
situation  calls  either  for  the  purchase  of  the  existing  canal 
and  locks  at  the  falls  from  a  private  corporation  or  the  con- 
struction of  a  new  sj^stem  of  locks  and  canal.  The  board  of 
engineers  that  investigated  this  matter  in  1899  recom- 
mended an  expenditure  of  $456,000  either  for  the  acquiring 
of  the  present  canal  and  locks,  or  the  building  of  new  ones. 
The  corporation  owning  the  existing  improvements  declines 
to  sell  at  the  valuation  placed  upon  them  by  the  board  of 
engineers,  though  the  board  arrived  at  its  figures  through 
capitalization  of  the  net  earnings  from  the  canal  at  fair 


92  Frederic  G.  Young. 

rate  of  interest  as  well  as  by  estimates  based  on  cost  of  re- 
construction. Though  these  locks  were  built  thirty-five 
years  ago  (the  state  furnishing  $200,000,  about  two-thirds 
of  the  cost  of  construction),  the  legislature  of  Oregon,  in 
1907,  appropriated  $300,000  "contingent  upon  the  United 
States  appropriating  the  sum  of  $300,000,  or  a  sum  suf- 
ficient to  acquire  by  purchase,  condemnation,  or  construc- 
tion," a  canal  around  the  falls  at  this  place.  In  the  Willam- 
ette, above  these  falls,  the  problem  of  improvement  is  quite 
similar  to  that,  say,  of  the  Illinois  River.  The  Willamette 
drains  the  bed  of  a  former  arm  of  the  ocean  and  has  not 
the  firm  banks  of  the  upper  Columbia  and  its  tributaries. 
These  represent  channels  worn  in  a  sheet  of  lava  that  was 
universally  spread  over  that  region.  Something  like  half  a 
million  has  been  used  on  the  upper  Willamette  and  its  trib- 
utaries, mainly  in  dredging  and  snagging,  in  other  words, 
in  maintenance. 

At  the  cascades  the  project  that  was  adopted  in  1877  was 
not  completed  in  modified  form,  so  as  to  be  open  to  naviga- 
tion, until  1896.  It  has  cost  some  $4,000,000,  and  provides 
for  the  passage  of  boats  of  a  maximum  draft  of  seven  feet. 
But  to  open  the  river  at  the  cascades  without  opening  it 
at  The  Dalles-Celilo  obstructions,  forty-five  miles  above, 
answers  comparatively  little  purpose.  The  "Inland  Em- 
pire" lies  on  beyond  Celilo  Falls.  The  problem  presented 
by  these  latter  obstructions  seems  to  have  quite  appalled 
the  earlier  engineers.  Several  projects  in  turn  have  been 
recommended  for  overcoming  these  obstructions.  The  first 
contemplated  a  canal  and  locks  and  some  straightening 
of  the  river  at  an  estimated  cost  of  over  $10,000,000.  A 
plan  for  a  boat  railway  was  next  adopted  and  appropria- 
tions were  even  made  for  entering  upon  the  construction  of 
it.  It  was  expected  to  cost  $3,000,000.  The  river  men  ob- 
jected and  the  engineers  do  not  seem  to  have  been  quite 
sure  of  its  practicability.  The  project  that  now  stands  con- 
templates a  continuous  canal  sixty-five  feet  wide  at  the  bot- 
tom and  eight  feet  deep.    The  canal  is  to  have  four  locks 


Columbia  River  iMPROVEMEiVT.  93 

and  is  estimated  to  cost  something  over  $4,000,000.  As  the 
Secretary  of  War  conditioned  the  beginning  of  work  upon 
it  upon  the  United  States  securing  the  right-of-way  free  of 
cost,  the  State  of  Oregon  purchased  the  right-of-way  at  a 
cost  of  $70,000  and  conveyed  it  to  the  United  States.  In 
order  to  obtain  some  relief  for  the  producers  in  the  region 
above  this  point  from  the  exorbitant  freight  charges  of  the 
railways,  the  State  of  Oregon  had  also,  in  1906,  at  a  cost  of 
$165,000,  built  a  portage  railroad  around  the  obstructions. 

The  improvements  in  the  main  river  and  its  tributaries 
above  Celilo  Falls  consist  mainly  in  blasting  obstructing 
rock  and  boulders,  raking  gravel  bars  and  building  concen- 
trating dikes.  These  had,  up  to  June,  1904,  cost  some  $300,- 
000.  There  are  more  recent  recommendations  for  additional 
improvements  to  the  amount  of  $400,000  more.  The  wisdom 
of  having  as  much  as  possible  of  the  upper  river  and  its 
tributaries  in  good  navigable  condition  at  the  time  of  the 
completion  of  The  Dalles-Celilo  project  is  evident. 

The  effect  to  be  anticipated  from  an  "open  river"  on 
freight  charges  may  be  illustrated  in  several  ways.  The 
present  rate  on  wheat  from  Lewiston-Clarkson,  Idaho  (a 
little  below  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Snake),  to  Port- 
land is  $5.20  per  ton.  A  most  reliable  river  captain  holds 
that  this  rate  would  be  reduced  to  a  figure  between  $1.60 
and  $2.10  per  ton.  As  the  rates  on  heavier  commodities 
along  the  Mississippi,  per  ton  mile,  are  about  one-tenth  of 
the  present  rail  rates  along  the  Snake  and  Columbia  water- 
ways, such  an  estimate  seems  reasonable.  For  a  distance 
of  eighty-eight  miles,  from  Portland  to  The  Dalles,  the  rate 
on  salt  is  $1.50  per  ton  on  car-load  lots,  and  $3.00  on  less 
than  car-load  lots.  The  corresponding  figures  for  a  distance 
100  miles  farther,  to  Umatilla,  where  no  river  competition 
exists,  are,  respectively,  $7.50  and  $12.00  per  ton,  or  four 
times  the  water  rates. 

The  area  drained  by  the  Columbia  and  its  tributaries  com- 
prises some  250,000  square  miles.  While  there  is  more  waste 
area  in  this  than  in  an  equal  area  of  the  Mississippi  basin,  it 


94  Frederic  G.  Young. 

must  be  taken  into  consideration  that  some  of  this  and  iu 
widely  separated  sections  is  selling  at  $1,200  an  acre.  The 
additional  value  that  will  be  given  to  this  vast  area  by  an 
"open  river"  will  make  the  cost  of  the  improvements  of 
the  Columbia  seem  very  small.  That  improvement  will  call 
into  active  operation  many  industries  that  wait  only  for 
the  presence  of  reasonable  transportation  facilities  to  spring 
into  life.  The  extension  of  irrigation  enterprises  will  only 
equalize  the  flow  of  the  streams  in  a  salutary  way  for  the 
interests  of  navigation.  With  the  waterways  of  the  Co- 
lumbia basin  open,  as  the  expenditure  of  a  reasonable  sum 
will  suffice  to  improve  them,  the  Pacific  Northwest  will 
probably  equal  in  wealth  any  other  most  favored  section  of 
like  area  in  the  country. 

With  the  projected  improvements  completed,  and  a  few 
more  minor  ones  on  the  upper  Columbia,  the  Pacific  North- 
west would  have  transportation  facilities  comparable  with 
those  that  will  be  possessed  by  the  Trunk  line  territory 
when  New  York's  project  for  making  a  ship-channel  of  the 
Erie  Canal  is  completed.  What  the  Pacific  Northwest  sys- 
tem would  lack  in  the  size  of  cargo  it  could  float  it  would 
make  up  in  being  a  more  direct  route  and  in  being  available 
during  more  months  of  the  year. 


NOTES  AND  NEWS. 

The  address  before  the  ninth  annual  meeting  of  the  members 
of  the  Society,  held  on  December  21,  1907,  was  given  by  Pro- 
fessor H.  Morse  Stephens  of  the  University  of  California. 
Professor  Stephens  has  charge  of  the  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft 
collection  of  Pacific  Coast  history  material.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  the  Bancroft  Library  was  acquired  by  pur- 
chase by  the  University  of  California.  The  address  was 
devoted  to  giving  an  account  of  the  wide  range  and  the  rich- 
ness of  the  collection  and  of  the  methods  being  used  in  the 
organization  and  calendaring  of  the  manuscripts  it  contains. 

An  Academy  of  Pacific  Coast  History  has  been  organized 
to  secure  support  for  the  publication  of  the  most  valuable  of 
its  documents  and  to  supervise  the  editing  of  them.  Professor 
Stephens'  statement  of  his  aims  to  make  available  to  historical 
students  the  rare  sources  of  history  contained  in  the  collection 
elicited  great  interest  among  the  members  of  the  Society,  as 
much  prime  Oregon  material  was  taken  out  of  the  State  by 
Mr.  Bancroft.  The  Society  responded  heartily  to  Professor 
Stephens'  request  for  co-operation.  Professor  Joseph  Schafer 
of  the  University  of  Oregon  was  named  by  the  Society  as  the 
Oregon  representative  on  the  board  of  editors  to  direct  the 
publication  of  the  documents. 

The  archives  both  of  the  State  and  of  the  National  govern- 
ments are  beginning  to  receive  the  attention  that  their  value 
as  historical  sources  warrants.  The  whole  of  volume  two  of 
the  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Historical  Association  for 
1906  is  devoted  to  the  report  of  the  Public  Archives  Commis- 
sion. It  presents  a  summary  of  the  present  state  of  legisla- 
tion of  States  and  Territories  relative  to  the  custody  and  su- 
pervision of  public  records ;  inventories  and  bibliographies  of 
the  public  archives  of  many  of  the  States  are  also  given. 
The  main  activities  of  the  Department  of  Historical  Research 


96  Notes  and  News. 

of  the  Carnegie  Institution  at  Washington  are  directed  to  the 
preparation  of  guides  to  the  materials  for  American  history 
in  European  archives  and  in  those  of  Cuba  and  Mexico.  Dr. 
Jameson,  the  director  of  this  work,  suggests  that  now,  with 
an  inventory  completed  of  the  archives  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  a  scientific  plan  should  be  formed  for  the 
publication  by  the  National  Government  of  its  volumes  of 
documentary  historical  material  . 

Professor  Schafer  has  been  at  work  all  "wdnter  in  the  dif- 
ferent depositaries  in  London  containing  documents  throwing 
light  on  the  Oregon  Question.  He  has  been  accorded  the 
largest  courtesies  and  will  no  doubt  be  able  to  clear  up  much 
of  the  mystery  that  has  enveloped  many  of  the  stages  of  the 
progress  of  negotiations  pertaining  to  the  disposition  of  Ore- 
gon Country. 

Professor  Benjamin  F.  Shambaugh's  "Second  Report  on 
the  Public  Archives  of  Iowa"  furnishes  a  fine  model  for  other 
States  as  to  the  care,  classification  and  calendaring  of  the 
archives.  Iowa  is  supporting  a  wise  and  intelligent  work  on 
her  public  documents  which  ^dll  conserve  them  for  the  largest 
future  use  as  the  materials  of  history.  In  them  she  will  have 
a  basis  for  an  enlightened  development  of  her  institutions. 

The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Oregon  Historical  Society  at 
its  March  meeting  resolved  upon  the  commemoration  of  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  admission  of  Oregon  as  a  State. 
The  program  for  the  occasion  will  be  planned  so  as  to  be  of 
especial  service  to  the  people  of  Oregon  in  their  wrestling 
with  constitutional  problems. 

At  the  same  meeting  the  first  number  of  the  series  of  history 
leaflets  for  the  public  schools  was  adopted  and  succeeding 
numbers  projected.  The  first  leaflet  will  give  "a  glimpse 
into  prehistoric  Oregon"  and  is  prepared  by  Mrs.  Ellen 
Condon  McCornack,  the  oldest  child  of  Oregon's  geologist. 
Professor  Thomas  Condon. 


Notes  and  News.  97 

In  the  death  of  Edward  Gaylord  Bourne  at  New  Haven  on 
February  24,  America  lost  one  of  her  mo.st  brilliant  and 
scholarly  historians.  Born  in  1860,  he  was  graduated  from 
Yale  in  1883,  and  received  its  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy 
in  1892.  He  was  an  instructor  in  that  institution  from  1886 
to  1888.  Going  to  Adelbert  College,  Western  Reserve  Univer- 
sity, he  was  promoted  to  a  professorship  in  1890  and  in  1895 
was  called  to  Yale  as  professor  of  history.  He  had  most 
liberal  and  accurate  scholarship  but  his  genius  expressed  itself 
in  his  rare  power  and  keenness  in  historical  criticism.  The 
editor  of  the  American  Historical  Review  says  of  him  that  "it 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he  was  the  chief  master  in  America 
of  that  specific  portion  of  the  historian's  art  and  in  this 
specialty  the  profession  has  suffered  in  his  death  an  irrepara- 
ble lass. ' ' 

We  have  from  his  pen  many  most  valuable  contributions  to 
the  pages  of  the  Americari  Historical  Review..  In  1885  he 
published  a  History  of  the  Surplus  Revenue  of  1837,  in  IPOl 
a  volume  of  Essays  in  Historical  Criticism,  in  1904  a  valuable 
volume  on  Spain  in  America,  and  more  recently  edited  largely 
or  wholly  The  Philippine  Islands,  Voyages  of  Champlain  and 
the  volume  on  Columbus  of  the  Original  Narratives  of  Early 
American  History. 

It  was  in  his  teaching  of  historical  criticism  that  he  had  oc- 
casion to  look  into  the  account,  then  credited,  of  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Oregon.  His  historical  acumen  soon  detected  fictitious 
elements  and  he  pursued  his  investigations,  the  results  of 
which  were  embodied  in  "The  Whitman  Legend,"  the  leading 
paper  of  his  volume  on  historical  criticism. 

Many  will  remember  his  delightful  paper  read  at  the  Con- 
gress of  History  held  in  connection  with  the  Lewis  and  Clark 
Exposition.  All  who  met  him  felt  the  charm  of  a  most  genial 
and  kindly  personality. 

It  is  always  most  gratifying  to  all  Oregonians  to  have  an 
Oregon  achievement  celebrated  through  the  nation  at  large. 
Frederick  V.  Holman's  monograph  on  Dr.  John  MeLoughlin 


98  Notes  and  News. 

has  received  many  very  favorable  reviews  from  papers,  maga- 
zines, and  periodicals  in  different  parts  of  the  United  States. 
Many  of  these  reviews  are  quite  long.  It  would  take  up  too 
much  space  to  go  into  details  of  the  different  favorable  re- 
views.   Excerpts  follow  from  some  of  these  reviews : 

The  review  in  the  Washington  Historical  Quarterly  was  by 
William  A.  Morris.     He  said: 

' '  In  writing  this  work  the  author  has  produced  what  has  long 
been  needed,  namely,  a  narrative  of  the  life  of  the  benefactor 
and  great  overtowering  figure  of  the  Pacific  Northwest. 
*  *  *  The  despotic  power  which  he  [McLoughlin]  exer- 
cised within  this  whole  region  forms  an  interesting  part  of 
the  work  which  the  author  has  ably  treated.  *  *  *  As 
proofs  of  Mr.  Holman's  thesis  that  the  rule  of  McLoughlin 
was  'beneficent'  despotism,  his  suppression  of  the  liquor 
traffic  among  whites  as  well  as  Indians,  and  his  stern  reproof 
of  the  redmen  when  they  uttered  threats  against  those  whose 
prosperity  meant  his  ruin,  are  convincing.  *  *  *  Jt  con- 
stitutes a  valuable  historical  biography." 

The  Catholic  University  Bulletin  is  published  at  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  It  is  the  official  magazine  of  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity. A  very  long  review  of  this  book  Is  given  by  Rev. 
Edwin  V.  O'Hara.    He  said: 

' '  This  excellent  monograph  is  the  only  complete  and  critical 
study  of  the  life  of  McLoughlin  which  has  appeared.  It  is 
supplemented  by  a  number  of  documents  of  great  historical 
interest,  some  of  which  have  not  been  published  before.  Those 
interested  in  knowing  more  of  McLoughlin,  of  the  details  of 
his  career  in  Oregon,  and  of  the  unfair  treatment  of  him. 
should  read  this  monograph." 

The  San  Francisco  Argonaut: 

"The  personal  as  well  as  the  severely  historic  elements  of 
Doctor  McLoughlin 's  story  are  completely  developed  in  a  nar- 
rative of  absorbing  interest  to  all  who  have  given  any  attention 
to  the  beginnings  of  organized  life  in  our  Pacific  Northwest, 
and  the  book  is  well  worth  reading  by  all  to  whom  picturesque 
and  heroic  periods  of  history  make  appeal.  It  should  have  a 
place  in  every  collection  which  assumes  to  gather  together  the 
essential  historical  records  of  the  Pacific  Coast  States." 


Notes  and  News.  99 

Boston  Transcript: 

"The  whole  [monograph]  forms  an  admirable  interpreta- 
tion of  the  life  and  character  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  of 
the  worthy  men  who  have  been  connected  with  the  settlement 
of  the  far  Western  States.  *  *  *  This  book  is  a  monu- 
ment to  a  man  worthy  of  all  the  praise  he  here  received." 

Chicago  Tribune: 

"Frederick  V.  Holman,  a  grandson  of  one  of  the  pioneers, 
has  told  the  story  of  Dr.  McLoughlin's  life  remarkably  well. 
The  book  will  remain  as  one  of  the  authentic  historical  docu- 
ments in  the  history  of  the  Pacific  Coast." 

Seattle  Post  Intelligencer: 

"Anything  that  sheds  light  on  the  life  of  Dr.  John  Mc- 
Loughlin,  the  great  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
whom  Frederick  V.  Holman  justly  calls  'the  Father  of  Ore- 
gon,' is  welcome  to  the  people  of  the  Pacific  Northwest. 
*  *  *  The  author  of  this  latest  work  on  Dr.  McLoughlin, 
has  presented  in  very  readable  form  the  salient  points  in  the 
life  of  this  grand  old  man,  and  has  gathered  together  much 
new  material,  which  appears  for  the  first  time  in  the  present 
volume. ' ' 

New  York  Sun : 

"His  [Holman 's]  subdivisions  show  admirable  method  in 
his  research  and  under  each  he  finds  some  answer  for  each 
inquiry. ' ' 

Walla  Walla  Evening  Bulletin : 

' '  One  of  the  latest  as  well  as  most  valuable  additions  to  the 
shelves  of  the  Walla  Walla  Public  Library  is  the  recently 
published  book  entitled  *Dr.  John  McLoughlin,'  by  Frederick 
V.  Holman  of  Portland,  Oregon.  *  *  *  He  has  not  per- 
mitted himself  to  be  unduly  biased  by  personal  adulation  or 
to  enter  the  field  of  mere  romance.  *  *  *  The  book  is 
more  than  a  biography  of  one  man ;  it  is  a  most  carefully 
prepared  and  verified  contribution  to  the  history  of  Oregon 
(then  the  whole  Oregon  Country)  during  the  years  of  joint 
convention  or  occupancy.  As  such  it  is  of  permanent  value 
to  the  student  as  well  as  of  genuine  interest  to  the  more 
casual  reader.  *  *  *  The  younger  generation  will  now 
have  better  opportunity  to  know  why  this  memory  [McLough- 
lin's] is  held  so  generously." 


100  Notes  and  News. 

The  Literary  Digest  gives  a  long  review  mostly  made  up  of 
a  biography  of  Dr.  McLoughlin.  Mr.  Ilolman's  portrait  is 
printed  with  those  of  other  authors  on  the  same  page.  The 
Literary  Digest  speaks  of  Mr.  Holman's  monograph  as  "This 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  of  the  chief  upbuilders  of  the 
Northwest. ' ' 

The  Portland  papers  are  especially  complimentary  of  Mr. 
Holman's  monograph.    The  Oregonian  said: 

"Almost  reverently  we  ought  to  take  up  this  modest,  ac- 
curate and  well-written  biography  of  '  The  Father  of  Oregon. ' 
*  *  *  On  the  whole,  a  kindly  and  appreciative  estimate  of 
Dr.  McLoughlin  is  given  and  much  tact  is  used  in  treating  of 
certain  matters  in  the  chieftain's  life  over  which  dispute  still 
lingers.  *  *  *  Mj.  Holman  has  not  wasted  his  time  specu- 
lating on  what  Dr.  McLoughlin  should  have  done  when  facing 
specified  problems  in  his  career,  but  has  written  facts  as  he 
found  them.  *  *  *  Mr.  Holman's  biography— to  sum  up 
—is  an  important  and  scholarly  contribution  to  American 
literature.  It  will  enable  young  Americans— the  fathers  and 
mothers  of  the  great  tomorrow— to  form  a  safe  and  agreeable 
opinion  of  a  great  Oregon  patriot  and  statesman.  The  book 
should  especially  be  in  every  Oregon  household." 

Portland  Sunday  Journal: 

"In  his  biography  of  Dr.  John  McLoughlin,  Frederick  V. 
Holman  has  given  to  letters  a  distinct  contribution— a  tribute 
long  delayed  and  now  adequately  presented  of  this  great,  good 
man.  *  *  *  j^^^^^  i\^q  bitter  story  of  how  this  land  claim 
at  Oregon  City  was  taken  from  him,  how  the  savings  of  an 
honorable  lifetime  were  depreciated,  how  in  darkness,  sus- 
picion and  defeat  his  unselfish  life  closed  and  the  white  spirit 
of  the  Great  White  Chief  went  out  to  find  vindication— this 
also  is  told,  graphically,  unhesitatingly  and  with  keen  sym- 
pathy." 

And  referring  to  the  illustrative  documents  in  the  mono- 
graph, the  Journal  said: 

"A  large  part  of  Mr.  Holman's  valuable  work  consists  of 
these  documents  touching  every  phase  of  the  question  and 
carrying  their  own  conviction.  These  have  never  been  set 
before  the  public  in  their  entirety  and  in  this  accomplishment 
Mr.  Holman  has  performed  a  valuable  and  memorable  work. 


Notes  and  News.  101 

*  *  *  It  was  fitting  that  an  Oregon  man  should  write  the 
history  of _fchis  great  unselfish  life,  spent  in  whole-hearted  de- 
votion to  Oregon's  good;  and  we  who  read  the  result  of  the 
labor,  may  congratulate  posterity  that  the  task  was  under- 
taken by  such  an  able  hand  and  that  it  has  been  brought 
forth  in  so  dignified  and  beautiful  a  setting. ' ' 

Portland  Evening  Telegram: 

' '  In  writing  this  book  he  [Holman]  has  rendered  a  service 
to  loyal  Americans  everywhere,  and  they  will  be  interested  to 
know  something  of  him  and  the  motives  that  inspired  this 
work.  *  *  *  The  new,  the  true  patriotism  teaches  us  that 
to  conceal  wrongdoings  because  the  evil  doers  are  citizens  of 
our  own  country,  is  more  treason  than  patriotism.  *  *  * 
Mr.  Holman  has  written  his  work  with  this  purer  and  higher 
patriotism  in  view.  *  *  *  Mr.  Holman  has  written  this 
life  of  Dr.  McLoughlin  in  a  way  to  hold  the  interest  of  the 
reader  as  many  a  work  of  fiction  never  can.  Although  he  has 
carefully  refrained  from  resorting  to  tricks  of  clever  writing 
to  win  sympathy  for  his  cause,  the  very  simplicity  of  the  story, 
his  close  adherence  to  well-substantiated  facts,  and  his  purely 
non-partisan  and  non-sectarian  attitude  give  the  work  a  very 
decided  historical  and  literary  value.  *  *  *  Mr.  Hol- 
man's  charming  history  gives  one  a  fine  idea  of  the  surround- 
ings Dr.  McLoughlin,  as  chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company,  made  for  himself,  his  family  and  dependents." 

Chamber  of  Commerce  Bulletin: 

"The  author  is  well  known  to  our  readers.  He  has  in  this 
exquisite  volume  narrated  the  simple  story  of  the  'Father  of 
Oregon's'  life,  and  his  career  in  the  early  history  of  Oregon. 
Mr,  Holman  asserts,  and  rightly,  so  that  Dr,  McLoughlin  is 
known  in  Oregon  by  tradition  as  well  as  by  history;  that  his 
deeds  are  a  part  of  Oregon's  folk-lore,  and  that  his  life  is  an 
essential  part  of  the  heroic  days  of  Oregon's  history.  Every 
Oregonian  should  have  this  volume  in  his  library,  as  it  is  in- 
complete without  it.  In  fact,  every  one  in  the  Pacific  North- 
west should  read  this  book,  which  is  of  especial  interest  to 
all  the  inhabitants  of  this  section." 


QUARTERLY 


OREGON  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


No.  1,  Vol..  S,  iMakch,  1907. 
r.  H': /)«i;e«iio»7—RECOi.LECTiONS  OF  AN  Indian  Agent       ....     j_4i 
Will  J.  Trimble— A.  Soldier  of  the  Oregon  Frontier    -      -      -      .      42-50 

DOCtJMENT.S— 

Occupation  of  the  Columbia  River  — Floyd'.s  Report  ok  Jan- 
uary 25,  1821 :..-.    .-,1-75 

Letters  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  SImeon  Francis,  Isdo,  and  ov 

Geo.  E.  Pickett  to  Reuben  F.  Maury,  IS61     .       .       .       .       .       yti-Vs 

JNOTES  AND   NEWS 79-S;-! 

The  Prefatory  Note  to  the  Nesmith  Dcarv S4 

ACCESSIONS - S5-94 


No.  2,  Vol.  8,  June,  1907. 
1\  W'.  Z>rtw»iJo»-<— Recollections  of  an  Indian  Agent.     II.     - 
F.  G.  Fowngr— Financial   History   of   Oregon  —  Finances   of   thi 

Territorial  Period,  1849-1859 

Thomas  W.  Prosc/i— Notes  from  a  Government  Document  on  Ore- 
gon Conditions  in  the  Fifties       -------- 

Two  of  Oregon's  Foremost  Commonwealth   Builders:     .li  ixiK 
Reuben  Patrick  Boise  and  Professor  Thomas  Cumhix     - 


95-128 
129-190 
191-200 
201-218 


No.  3,  Vol.  8,  September,  1907. 
r^omo-s  iVf.  ^/idcr.«on— The  Vancoltver  Reservation  Case         -       -       219-2:^0 
T.  W.  Z>ayenpo?-<— Recollections  of  an  Indian  Agent.    Ill        -       -    231-2(j4 
Jennie  B.  Harris— Trk  Historic  Sites  in  Eugene  and  Their  Monu- 
ments             265-272 

F.  G.  Youriff—TiiK  Marking  of  Historic  Sites         -       -       -       -       -       273-275 
Clyde  B.  Aitchison—TnK  Mormon  Settlements  in  the  Missouri 

Valley  : 27(5-289 

d0cument.s— 

Occupation  of  the  Columbia  River.    II.    Report  of  April 

15,  1824 - 290-294 

Letter    of    Dr.  John    McLoi'gjilin   to  Oregon   .St.^^tesman, 

June  8, 1852 294-299 

Reviews— 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  iord— Reminiscences  of   Eastern   Oregon. 

J.  R.  Wilson - ;^00 

Edmond  S.  J/ea«j/— Vancouver's  Discovery  of  Pcget  Sound       -        oOO 


No.  4,  Vol.  8,  December,  1907. 
Frederick  V.  //o^nan— Address   at  the   Dedication   of  the   Mc- 

LouGHLiN  Institute  at  Oregon  City,  October  6,  1907        -      -      303-316 
George  H.  Himes— History   of   Organization  of   Oregon   State 

Agricultural  Society  317-352 

T.  W.  i>ai;en/)o»<— Recollections  of  an  Indian  Agent.    IV.     -       -       353-374 

P.  W.  PoM;e«— Bibliography  of  Hall  J.  Kelley    , 375-386 

Documents— 

DIART  of  ASAHEL  MtTNGER  AND  WiFF. ;W-40o 

Notes  and  Reviews 406-409 

Accessions 410-424 

Index  425-429 


PRUIE:   FIFTY  CENTS  PER  NUMBER,  TWO  DOLLARS  PER  YEAR. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  OREGON. 


THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  confers  the  degrees  of 
Master  of  Arts,  (and  in  prospect,  of  Doctor  of  Phi- 
losophjy,)  Civil  and  Sanitarj^  Engineer  (C.  E.J,  Elec- 
trical Engineer  (E.  E.),  Chemical  Engineer  (Ch.  E.,) 
and  Mining  Engineer  (Min.  E.) 


THE  COLLEGE  Oh  LITERATURE,  SCIENCE,  AND  THE 
ARTS  confers  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  on 
graduates  from  the  following  groups:  (I)  General 
Classical;  (2)  General  Literary;  (3)  General  Scien- 
tific; (4)  Civic- Historical ;  (5)  Philosophical,  Edu- 
cational. It  offers  Collegiate  Courses  not  leading 
to  a  degi'ee  as  follows:  (1)  Preparatory^  to  Law  or 
Journalism. 


THE  COLLEGE  OF  SCIENCE  AND  ENGINEERING.— 
A. —  The  School  of  Applied  Science  confers  the  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Science  on  graduates  from 
the  following  groups;  (1)  General  Science;  (2) 
Chemistry;  (3)  Phj^sics;  (4)  Biologj^;  (5)  Geol- 
og^v  and  Mineralogy.  It  offers  a  Course  Pre- 
])aratory'  to  Medicine. 
B. —  The  School  of  Engineering:  ( 1 )  Civil  and  San- 
itarv;  (2)  Electrical;  (3)  Chemical. 


THE  SCHOOL   OF  MIMES   AND  MINING. 
THE   SCHOOL    OF  MEDICINE   at  Portland. 
THE  SCHOOL    OF  LAW  at   Portland. 
THE  SCHOOL  OF  MUSIC. 
Address 

TiiK  President, 

p:ugene,  Oregon. 


THE  QUARTERLY 


of  the 


Oregon  Hi^orical  Society. 


Volume  IX.] 


JUNE,     1908 


[Number  2 


CONTENTS. 

T.  C.  Elliott—"  Doctor  "  Robert  Newell  :  Pioneer 
John  Minto—Ynoji.  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  II.   - 
Walter  C.  Winslotv—Co'STKSTS  Over  the  Capital  of  Oregon 

Mrs.  8.  A.  Lonff— Mrs.  Jesse  Applegate 

Notes  and  News .- 


103-126 
127-172 
173-178 
179-183 
184-188 


PRICE:    FIFTY  CENTS  PER  NUMBER,  TWO  DOLLARS  PER  YEAR 

Entered  at  the  post  office  at  Portland,  Oregon,  as  secondrclass  matter. 


The  Oregon  Historical  Society 

Organized  December  17,  1898 


FREDERICK  V.  HOLMAN President 

JOSEPH  R.  WILSON . Vice-President 

F.  G.  YOUNG Secretary 

CHARLES  E.  LADD Treasurer 

George  H.  Himes,  Assistant  Secretary. 


DIRECTORS 

THE  GOVERNOR  OF  OREGON,  ex  officio. 

THE  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION,  ex  officio. 


Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  In  December,  1908, 
MRS.  HARRIET  K.  McARTHUR,    GEORGE  H.   HIMES. 


Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1909 
FREDERICK  V.  HOLMAN,    WM.  D.  FENTON. 


Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1910, 
ARTHUR  C.  BOGGESS.    MILTON  W.  SMITH. 


Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1911, 
MRS.  MARIA  L.  MYRICK,    CHARLES  J.  SCHNABEL. 


The  Quarterly  is  sent  free  to  all  members  of  the  Society.    The  annual  dues 
are  two  dollars.    The  fee  for  life  membership  is  tweuty-flve  dollars. 

Contributions  to  The  Quarterly  and  correspondence  relative  to  historical 
materials,  or  pertaining  to  the  affairs  of  this  Society,  should  be  addressed  to 

F.  Q.  YOUNQ, 

Eugene,  Oregon.  Secretarjr. 

Subscriptions   for    The    Quarterly,   or   for   the   other   publications   of  the 
Society,  should  be  sent  to 

GEORGE    H.    HIMES, 
City  Hall,  Portland,  Oregon.  Assistant  Secretary. 


THE  QUARTERLY 

OF  THE 

Oregon  Historical  Society. 

Volume  IX.]  JUNE,  1908.  [Number  2 

(The  QUARTEBLT  disavows  responsibility  for  the  positions  taken  by  contributors  to  its  pages.] 

"DOCTOR"  ROBERT  NEWELL:  PIONEER.* 

By  T.  O.  Elliott. 

In  the  month  of  November,  1869,  at  Lewiston,  Idaho,  oc- 
curred the  death  and  burial  of  Robert  Newell,  familiarly- 
known  as  Doc.  or  Doctor  Newell,  a  very  early  pioneer  in  the 
Oregon  Country  and  a  man  of  more  than  usual  force,  char- 
acter and  influence,  and  whose  name  is  associated  with  some 
of  the  events  that  took  place  in  the  Walla  AValla  Valley  dur- 
ing its  early  history.  His  warm  friend  and  brother  ^lason, 
Alvin  B.  Roberts,  then  living  in  Walla,  thought  to  perma- 
nently connect  that  name  with  our  local  history  by  attaching 
it  to  one  of  the  principal  residence  streets,  when  laying  out 
and  platting  Robert's  Addition  to  the  City  of  Walla  Walla, 
January  20,  1871.  But  by  ordinance  dated  March  21,  1899, 
signed  by  Jacob  Betz,  mayor,  the  City  Fathers  ordained  that 
"that  certain  street  in  the  City  of  Walla  Walla  named  and 
called  'Dr.  Newell  Street,'  shall  hereafter  be  named  and 
called  'Newell  Street,'  and  be  so  designated  on  all  official 
majis,  plats  and  other  documents  and  instruments  of  said 
City."  As  there  were  other  men  by  the  name  of  Newell  re- 
siding in  Walla  Walla  during  the  sixties,  it  has  to  the  writer 
seemed  well  to  gather  together  and  record  some  of  the  facts 
and  incidents  of  the  life  and  career  of  "Doctor  NcAvell." 
And  we  may  find  in  the  recital  much  genuine  proof  of  that 

*Read  before  the  Walla  Walla  Men's  Club  on  April  20,   1908. 


104  T.  C.  Elliott. 

unusual  vigor  of  mind  and  body  possessed  by  so  many  of  the 
Oregon  pioneers. 

First  it  is  well  to  explain  why  he  was  called  Doctor  Newell. 
In  the  year  1868,  he  visited  the  city  of  Washington  in  com- 
pany with  Utsemilicum,  Lawyer,  Timothy  and  Jason,  chiefs 
of  the  Nez  Perces,  who  had  business  there  relating  to  treaties 
for  their  lands.  It  is  related  [by  Mr.  Roberts]  that  while 
there  he  was  introduced  publicly  as  a  leading  physician  from 
this  section  of  the  country,  but  that  he  at  once,  in  a  genial 
manner  common  to  himself,  explained  that  medicine  was  not 
his  profession,  but  that  during  some  early  experiences  as  a 
mountain  trapper  he  had  been  called  upon  by  necessity  to 
undertake  a  simple  surgical  operation  (Bancroft  gives  a 
similar  explanation),  and  also  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
some  simple  remedies  through  the  brewing  of  roots  and  herbs 
and  had  used  them  with  like  effect  upon  dogs,  horses,  Indians 
and  his  fellow  trappers,  and  consequently  had  been  nick- 
named Doctor.  In  those  days  the  degree  of  doctor  was  very 
easily  conferred  and  without  the  ceremony  now  common  in 
our  institutions  of  learning.  Even  the  apothecaries  were  often 
dubbed  doctors ;  and  who  would  now  deny  them  the  honor ! 

Of  the  early  years  of  Doctor  Newell  but  little  information 
has  been  available.  Mr.  Elwood  Evans  was  a  careful  gatherer 
of  facts  and  in  his  manuscript  History  of  Oregon  (Bancroft 
Collection)  states  that  Newell  was  born  on  March  30,  1807,  at 
Putnam,  Ohio,  and  that  on  the  17th  of  March,  1829,  he  left 
St.  Louis  for  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  company  with  the  Smith- 
Jackson-Sublette  party  of  trappers,  successors  of  Gen.  Wm. 
Ashley.  In  Bancroft's  History  the  statement  appears  that  he 
came  to  St.  Louis  from  Cincinnati  as  an  apprentice  learning 
the  trade  of  a  saddler  and  that  his  father  had  died  when  he 
was  young.  We  have  a  right  to  assume  that  he  came  of  good 
stock  or  was  blessed  with  good  home  training  and  had  some 
advantage  of  the  schools  then  available;  else  we  cannot  ac- 
count for  the  qualities  of  restraint  and  control  and  the  natural 
leadership  which  made  him  so  useful  in  the  formation  of  the 
Provisional   Government  of  Oregon   and   in   other   executive 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  105 

affairs.     He  must  have  been  "by  instinct,  inheritance,  blood 
and  tradition,  a  pioneer." 

At  the  age  of  twenty-two,  therefore,  we  find  Newell  be- 
ginning the  career  of  an  American  trapper  and  mountain 
man.  In  the  same  company  was  the  brave  and  impulsive  and 
often  bumptious  Jos.  L.  Meek,  then  aged  nineteen.  Between 
the  two  was  established  a  lifelong  friendship :  but  Newell  was 
the  finer  as  well  as  the  stronger  character  and  always  leader 
of  the  two.  The  influence  of  the  trappers  and  mountain  men 
has  not  yet  been  given  full  recognition  in  the  history  of  the 
acquisition  of  Oregon,  and  the  record  of  that  period  has 
perhaps  been  lost  beyond  recovery  to  a  great  degree.  There 
are  rare  government  documents  obtainable,  and  unprinted 
reports  are  said  to  exist  among  the  archives  at  Washington 
from  which  many  interesting  items  are  yet  to  be  drawn;  for 
the  Government  obtained  much  information  about  the  Oregon 
Country  from  the  early  trappers.  The  life  of  the  mountain 
man  was  one  of  frequent  peril  and  hardship,  and  called  for 
continual  vigilance,  bravery  and  endurance.  He  journeyed 
when  and  where  he  pleased,  and  often  when  he  did  not  please, 
and  winter  journeys  across  plains  and  mountains  were  too  fre- 
quent to  be  then  thought  worthy  of  mention.  Of  Dr.  Newell's 
individual  life  during  those  eleven  and  one-half  years,  we 
know  little.  His  name  appears  not  infrequently  in  the  mem- 
oranda obtained  by  Mrs.  Victor  and  embodied  in  her  writ- 
ings, also  in  letters  of  Ebbert  and  Burnett.  He  had  a  good 
voice  and  his  songs  and  stories  around  the  campfires  are  a 
common  recollection  among  those  who  knew  him  then  and 
afterward ;  he  was  a  great  lover  of  books  in  later  life  and 
read  the  Bible  and  Shakespeare  and  other  standard  works 
during  those  year,  for  the  trappers  are  known  to  have  had 
these  books  in  their  camps.  He  did  not  rise  to  the  position  of 
partner  but  was  a  sub-trader  or  "bushaway"  and  was  often 
in  authority  during  the  absence  of  the  owners.  He  was  an- 
nually at  Rendezvous;  in  her  diary,  Mrs.  Eells  speaks  of  him 
as  a  guest  at  dinner  at  Green  River  in  1838,  and  Asahel  Mun- 
ger  in  1839.    He  was  also  a  free  trapper  for  a  time.    In  1833 


106  T.  C.  Elliott. 

he  married  his  first  wife,  the  daughter  of  a  sub-chief  of  the 
Nez  Perce  tribe.  Joseph  Meek  is  said  to  have  married  another 
daughter  in  the  same  family  but  to  have  had  trouble  in  get- 
ting her;  we  are  told  this  in  "The  River  of  the  West."  There 
is  no  record  of  similar  troubles  by  Dr.  Newell.  But  the  com- 
petition of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  too  much  for  the 
American  trappers  and  there  was  no  future  to  such  a  life,  and 
in  1840  Newell  determined  to  take  his  chances  on  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Oregon  by  the  Americans  and  to  move  down  to  the 
AVillamette  Valley  (whither  his  fellow  trapper  Ebbert  had 
already  gone)  and  persuaded  some  of  his  comrades  to  go  with 
him.  In  making  this  journey,  he  pioneered  the  way  for 
wagons  (horse  canoes,  the  Indians  called  them)  from  Fort 
Hall  across  the  Snake  River  Plains  and  through  the  Blue 
Mountains  to  the  Columbia  River.  The  story  of  that  really 
important  occurrence  is  best  told  in  his  own  modest  language. 
The  following  is  taken  from  the  annual  address  delivered  at 
the  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  Oregon  Pioneer  Association 
at  Salem,  Oregon,  on  June  16,  1876,  by  the  Hon.  Elwood 
Evans  of  Olympia,  Washington,  and  printed  in  the  "Trans- 
actions" for  that  year: 

"Let  me  now  refer  to  the  statement  of  the  late  Dr.  Robert 
Newell,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Oregon 
in  1846,  a  name  familiar  and  held  in  high  remembrance  by 
acient  Oregonians.  It  is  interesting  for  its  history,  and  in  the 
present  occasion  illustrates  the  difficulty,  at  that  time,  of 
getting  into  Oregon.  It  details  the  bringing  of  the  first  wagon 
to  Fort  Walla  Walla,  Oregon,  in  1840,  the  AVallula  of  Wash- 
ington Territory.  The  party  consisted  of  Dr.  Newell  and 
family,  Col.  Jos.  L.  INIeek  and  family,  Caleb  Wilkins  of 
Tualatin  Plains,  and  Frederick  (should  be  Francis)  Ermat- 
inger,  a  chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  It  had 
been  regarded  as  the  height  of  folly  to  attempt  to  bring 
wagons  west  of  Fort  Hall.  The  Doctor  suggested  the  experi- 
ment. Wilkins  approved  it  and  Ermatinger  yielded.  The 
Revs.  Harvey  Clark,  A.  B.  Smith,  and  P.  B.  Littlejohn,  mis- 
sionaries, had  accompanied  the  American  Fur  Company's  ex- 
pedition as  far  as  Green  River,  where  they  employed  Dr. 
Newell  to  pilot  them  to  Fort  Hall.     On  arriving  there  they 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  107 

found  their  animals  so  reduced,  that  they  concluded  to 
abandon  their  two  wagons,  and  Dr.  Newell  accepted  them  for 
his  services  as  guide.  In  a  letter  from  the  Doctor,  he  says: 
'At  the  time  I  took  the  wagons,  I  had  no  idea  of  undertaking 
to  bring  them  into  this  country.  I  exchanged  fat  horses  to 
these  missionaries  for  their  animals,  and  after  they  had  gone 
a  month  or  more  for  Willamette  and  the  American  Fur 
Company  had  abandoned  the  country  for  good,  I  concluded 
to  hitch  up  and  try  the  much-dreaded  job  of  bringing  a  wagon 
to  Oregon.  I  sold  one  of  those  wagons  to  Mr.  Ermatinger  at 
Fort  Hall.  Mr.  Caleb  Wilkins  had  a  small  wagon  which  Joel 
Walker  had  left  at  Fort  Hall.  On  the  5th  of  August,  1840, 
we  put  out  with  three  wagons.  Joseph  L.  Meek  drove  my 
wagon.  In  a  few  days  we  began  to  realize  the  difficulty  of 
the  task  before  us,  and  found  that  the  continual  crashing  of 
the  sage  under  our  wagons,  which  was  in  many  places  higher 
than  the  mules'  backs,  was  no  joke.  Seeing  our  animals  begin 
to  fail,  we  began  to  light  up,  finally  threw  away  our  wagon 
beds,  and  were  quite  sorry  we  had  undertaken  the  job.  All 
the  consolation  we  had  was  that  we  broke  the  first  sage  on 
that  road,  and  were  too  proud  to  eat  anything  but  dried 
salmon  skins  after  our  provisions  had  become  exhausted.  In 
a  rather  rough  and  reduced  state,  we  arrived  at  Dr.  Whitman's 
mission  station  in  the  Walla  Walla  Valley,  where  we  were 
met  by  that  hospitable  man,  and  kindly  made  welcome  and 
feasted  accordingly.  On  hearing  me  regret  that  I  had  under- 
taken to  bring  wagons,  the  Doctor  said,  "0,  you  will  never 
regret  it.  You  have  broken  the  ice,  and  when  others  see  that 
wagons  have  passed  they  too  will  pass,  and  in  a  few  years  the 
valley  will  be  full  of  our  people."  The  Doctor  shook  me 
heartily  by  the  hand ;  Mrs.  Whitman  too  welcomed  us,  and  the 
Indians  walked  around  the  wagons,  or  what  they  called  "horse 
canoes,"  and  seemed  to  give  it  up.  We  spent  a  day  or  so  with 
the  Doctor  and  then  went  to  Fort  Walla  Walla,  where  we 
were  kindly  received  by  Mr.  P.  C.  Pambrum,  chief  trader  of 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  superintendent  of  that  post.  On 
the  first  of  October  we  took  leave  of  those  kind  people,  leaving 
our  wagons  and  taking  the  river  trail— but  we  proceeded 
slowly.     *     *     *'  " 

We  are  further  told  by  Bancroft,  that  in  1841,  Dr.  Newell 
returned  and  took  his  wagon  down  the  Columbia,  so  that  it 
was  absolutely  the  first  American  wagon  to  reach  the  Willam- 
ette Valley  from  across  the  plains  and  mountains. 


108  T.  C.  Elliott. 

And  now,  before  narrating  any  of  the  events  of  his  life  in 
the  Willamette  Valley,  let  us  note  the  estimate  put  upon  this 
man  by  some  of  his  co-temporaries,  including  that  statesman 
of  the  pioneers,  Hon.  Jesse  Applegate,  who  after  the  fall  of 
1843  became  one  of  his  intimate  acquaintances.  In  a  manu- 
script in  the  Bancroft  Collection,  Mr.  Applegate  says: 

"Though  Newell  came  to  the  mountains  from  the  State  of 
Ohio  in  his  youth,  he  brought  with  him  to  his  wild  life  some 
of  the  fruits  of  early  culture,  which  he  always  retained. 
Though  brave  among  the  bravest  he  never  made  a  reckless 
display  of  that  quality,  and  in  battlefields  as  in  councils,  his 
conduct  was  always  marked  by  prudence  and  good  sense. 
Though  fond  of  mirth  and  .jollity  and  the  life  of  social  re- 
unions, he  never  degenerated  from  the  behavior  and  instincts 
of  a  gentleman.  Though  his  love  of  country  amounted  to  a 
passion  and  his  mountain  life  was  spent  in  opposition  and 
rivalry  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  he  never  permitted 
his  prejudices  to  blind  his  judgment,  or  by  word  or  act  to  do 
injustice  to  an  adversary.  Of  undoubted  truth  and  honor,  he 
was  the  unquestioned  leader  and  adviser  of  men  of  his  class, 
both  British  and  American,  and  enjoyed  to  a  great  extent  the 
confidence  of  all  parties  in  the  country.  His  influence  in 
the  early  days  was  therefore  great,  and  both  in  public  and 
private  affairs,  he  was  frequently  called  upon  to  exert  it.  It 
is  enough  to  say  in  his  praise  that  it  was  always  exerted  for 
good." 

Mr.  F.  X.  Matthieu  says  of  him : 

"Newell  was  head  and  shoulders  above  all  the  other  moun- 
tain men  in  his  knowledge  of  government,  and  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  methods  necessary  to  be  employed  in  organizing  a 
government;    in    fact    he   was   something   of   a   statesman." 

And  Dr.  W.  F.  Tolmie,  that  scholar  and  gentleman  of  the 
legislature  of  the  Provisional  Government,  in  a  letter  in  1883 
to  Senator  Nesraith,  speaks  of  having  been  "intimate  with  that 
shrewd,  amusing  Robert  Newell  of  Champoeg, "  and  inquires 
affectionately  about  him. 

John  Minto  says,  "Bob  Newell  was  a  man  of  honor  and  as 
a  citizen  deserved  the  trust  he  received  and  carried  with  self 
respect, ' ' 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  109 

Arriving  then  in  the  Willamette  Valley  in  December,  1840, 
and  accustomed  to  the  nomadic  life  of  the  mountains,  it  did 
not  take  long  to  establish  a  residence  (with  Joseph  Meek  as 
his  neighbor)  on  the  Tualatin  Plains  near  where  the  town  of 
Hillsboro  now  stands,  and  at  first  farming  seemed  the  only 
career  open  to  him.  In  the  testimony  before  the  British  and 
American  Commission,  Meek  states  that  Dr.  McLoughlin  re- 
fused to  loan  seed  grain  to  him  (Meek)  but  that  he  did  give 
.some  to  Doc.  Newell ;  and  at  another  time  said  that  under  com- 
pulsion of  Newell  he  (Meek)  put  in  his  first  crop.  But  Dr 
Newell  appreciated  the  better  value  of  a  location  upon  a 
navigable  stream  and  in  1844  (See  records  U.  S.  Land  Office) 
removed  to  the  vicinity  of  Champoeg  upon  the  Willamette 
River,  where  he  selected  a  Donation  Land  Claim  and  resided 
for  nearly  twenty  years.  In  the  winter  of  1842-3  he  was  one 
of  the  active  organizers  of  the  Falls  Association  or  the  Oregon 
Lyceum  (at  Oregon  City)  which  was  the  earliest  literary 
and  debating  society  in  Oregon,  formed  "to  discuss  the  whole 
round  of  literature  and  scientific  pursuits."  In  1845  he  was 
one  of  the  three  directors  in  the  organization  of  the  Oregon 
Printing  Association,  which  brought  out  the  first  newspaper 
in  Oregon,  The  Spectator.  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  these 
directors  adopted  the  rule  "that  the  press  should  never  be 
used  by  any  party  for  the  purpose  of  propagating  sectarian 
principles  or  doctrines,  nor  for  the  discussion  of  exclusive 
party  politics."  This  sounds  very  much  like  Newell  and  was 
intended  to  hold  in  check  the  conflicting  interests  in  the 
paper.  His  name,  however,  does  not  appear  on  the  roll  of  the 
total  abstinence  society  (Washington  Temperance  Society) 
formed  in  Oregon  in  1847,  although  he  was  not  at  any  time 
in  his  life  considered  an  intemperate  man;  but  the  name  of 
Joseph  Meek,  who  nearly  always  drank,  heads  that  list.  Dur- 
ing those  years  he  was  a  pioneer  in  the  transportation  business 
on  the  AVillamette  above  the  falls,  in  proof,  witness  this  ad- 
vertisement in  The  Spectator  of  April  30,  1846 : 


110  T.  C.  Elliott. 

"passengers  own  line. 

' '  The  subscriber  begs  leave  to  inform  the  public  that  he  has 
well  caulk 'd,  gumm'd,  and  greas'd  the  light  draft  and  fast 
running  boats,  Mogul  and  Ben  Franklin,  now  in  port  for 
freight  or  charter,  which  will  ply  regularly  between  Oregon 
City  and  Champoeg  during  the  present  season. 

Passage  gratis,  by  paying  50  cents  specie  or  $1.00  on  the 
stores.  Former  rules  will  be  observed — passengers  can  board 
with  the  Captain,  by  finding  their  own  provisions. 

N.  B.— Punctuality  to  the  hour  of  departure  is  earnestly 
requested.  As  time  waits  for  no  man,  the  boats  will  do  the 
same.  Robert  Newell." 

These  boats  were  among  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  keel 
boats  placed  in  commission  on  the  upper  Willamette,  and  the 
business  is  said  to  have  paid  a  profit  of  $300  during  the  four 
or  five  years  they  were  operated.  Why  should  not  the  owner 
have  been  a  joHy  man! 

In  the  organization  of  the  Provisional  Government,  Dr. 
Newell  was  a  member  of  the  Legislative  Committee,  and  al- 
though evidently  not  sympathizing  with  all  the  measur^^rs 
agreed  to,  did  a  large  part  in  framing  the  organic  law  that 
was  adopted  by  the  people  in  mass  meeting  on  July  5,  18 13, 
and  he  continued  to  serve  upon  the  most  influential  commit- 
tees of  the  House  or  of  the  people  up  to  the  time  of  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Territory  by  Governor  Lane  in  1849.  He  was 
elected  to  represent  the  District  or  County  of  Champoeg  (now 
Marion)  in  every  legislative  body  up  to  that  of  1849,  and 
during  two  sessions  he  filled  the  office  of  Speaker.  Any  con- 
sideration of  his  position  upon  the  measures  adopted  dunn^,' 
those  years  is  not  possible  in  this  paper,  but  it  is  to  be  ()l- 
served  that  he  did  not  sympathize  with  the  opposition  tt:cn 
existing  toward  the  property  and  business  interests  of  that 
grand  old  man,  Doctor  John  McLoughlin.  He  was  a  firm 
friend  of  and  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Doctor  McLoughlin. 
It  is  evident  that  he  had  ability  to  harmonize  differences  and 
to  hold  in  check  extreme  measures,  and  that  he  accomplished 
this  through  his  recognized  sense  of  fairness  and  his  jovial 
good  will  rather  than  by  the  vote-swapping  methods  of  the 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  Ill 

present  day.  Every  reference  to  him  in  the  writings  of  those 
co-temporary  with  him  and  from  the  memory  of  those  who  still 
live  to  tell  the  tale  of  those  early  years,  is  to  the  effect  that  he 
was  easily  the  leader  of  a  very  influential  class  of  the  people 
then.  And  in  1849  he  was  one  of  three  residents  of  Oregon 
who  received  appointments  direct  from  President  Polk  to 
serve  as  agents  over  the  Indians  of  Oregon;  and  he  was  as- 
signed by  Governor  Lane  to  have  charge  of  all  those  then 
living  south  of  the  Columbia  River. 

To  relieve  any  tedium  of  this  recital  of  biographical  facts  we 
will  now  mention  a  reminiscence  of  Senator  J.  W.  Nesmith, 
given  in  one  of  his  addresses  before  the  Pioneer  Association. 
Though  slightly  historically  inaccurate,  it  is  of  interest. 
Senator  Nesmith  said: 

"As  an  illustration  of  the  honest  and  simple  directness 
which  pervaded  our  legislative  proceedings  of  that  day  I  will 
mention  that  in  1847  I  had  the  honor  of  a  seat  in  the  legisla- 
ture of  the  Provisional  Government ;  it  was  my  first  step  upon 
the  slippery  rungs  of  the  political  ladder.  The  legislature 
then  consisted  of  but  one  house  and  we  sat  in  the  old  Methodist 
church  at  the  Falls.  Close  by  the  church  Barton  Lee  had  con- 
structed a  'ten-pin  alley,'  where  some  of  my  fellow  members 
were  in  the  habit  of  resorting  to  seek  relaxation  and  refresh- 
ment from  their  legislative  toils.  I  had  aspired  to  the  speak- 
ership and  supposed  myself  sure  of  the  position,  but  the  same 
uncertainty  in  political  matters  existed  then  that  I  have  seen 
so  much  of  since.  Some  of  my  friends  threw  off  on  me  and 
elected  a  better  man  in  the  person  of  Doctor  Robert  Newell; 
God  bless  his  old  soul !  In  the  small  collection  of  books  at  the 
Falls  known  as  the  Multnomah  Library  I  found  what  I  had 
never  heard  of  before,  a  copy  of  'Jefferson's  Manual,'  and 
after  giving  it  an  evening's  perusal  by  the  light  of  an  armful 
of  pitch  knots  I  found  that  there  was  such  a  thing  in  parli- 
amentary usage  as  'the  previous  question.'  I  had  a  bill  then 
pending  to  cut  off  the  southern  end  of  Yamhill,  and  to  es- 
tablish the  County  of  Polk,  which  measure  had  violent  opposi- 
tion in  the  body.  One  morning  while  most  of  the  opponents  of 
my  bill  were  amusing  themselves  at  'horse  billiards'  in  Lee's 
ten-pin  alley,  I  called  up  my  bill,  and  after  making  the  best 
argument  I  could  in  its  favor,  I  concluded  with  this:  'And 
now,  Mr.  Speaker,  upon  this  bill  I  move  the  previous  ques- 


112  T.  C.  Elliott. 

tion.'  Newell  looked  confused,  and  I  was  satisfied  that  he 
had  no  conception  of  what  I  meant ;  but  he  rallied,  and,  look- 
ing wise  and  severe  (I  have  since  seen  presiding  officers  in 
Washington  do  the  same  thing)  said:  'Sit  down  sir!  Resume 
your  seat !  Do  you  intend  to  trifle  with  the  chair— when  you 
know  that  we  passed  the  previous  question  two  weeks  ago !  It 
was  the  first  thing  we  done ! '  I  got  a  vote,  however,  before 
the  return  of  the  horse  billiards  players,  and  Polk  County 
has  a  legal  existence  today,  notwithstanding  the  adverse  ruling 
upon  a  question  of  parliamentary  usage." 

Another  incident,  showing  Dr.  Newell 's  natural  leadership, 
is  told  by  Mr.  John  Minto  and  runs  about  as  follows :  In  the 
fall  of  1845  the  grist  mill  of  Dr.  John  McLouglin  at 
Oregon  City  was  completed  and  the  people  obtained  permis- 
sion to  hold  a  ball  or  house-warming  upon  its  floor.  That  fall 
the  valley  had  been  visited  by  Lieut.  Wm.  Peel  (son  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel)  and  Captain  Park  of  the  Royal  Marines.  These 
men  were  really  agents  of  the  British  Government  sent  to  as- 
certain the  sentiment  of  the  people  as  to  British  sovereignty 
and  to  report  upon  the  actions  of  Dr.  John  McLoughlin ;  and 
the  British  sloop-of-war  Modeste  was  then  anchored  in  the 
river  off  Vancouver.  The  ball  was  attended  by  Lieutenant 
Peel  and  some  of  the  naval  officers,  and  they  became  rather 
free  in  their  actions  in  dancing  with  some  of  the  half-breed 
girls  who  were  present ;  and  Dr.  Newell  called  the  Lieutenant 
to  one  side  and  expostulated  with  him.  The  Lieutenant  said, 
"I  really  did  no  harm.  Doctor."  Newell  replied,  "No,  Lieu- 
tenant, but  you  know  you  would  not  have  acted  in  that  man- 
ner with  a  young  lady  of  your  own  class  in  London."  "Well, 
Doctor,"  said  Peel,  "let  us  try  another  kind  of  amusement. 
I  will  bet  you  a  bottle  of  wine  that  more  of  the  men  on  this 
floor  will  in  the  case  of  a  contest  support  the  British  side  than 
the  American."  Newell  promptly  accepted  the  wager,  and 
Mr.  Robert  Pentland,  of  late  from  Newcastle  on  the  Tyne.  and 
then  a  miller  in  Abernethy's  mill,  was  asked  to  take  a  vote, 
and  the  result  showed  that  the  American  sentiment  was  con- 
siderably in  the  majority.  At  this  Lieutenant  Peel  said, 
"Well,  Doctor,  I'll  bet  you  another  bottle  of  wine  that  the 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  113 

man  who  has  just  come  in  and  is  standing  across  the  floor 
there  will  fight  on  our  side  anyhow. ' '  The  man  was  "VVillard 
H.  Eees,  who  was  really  very  English  looking  in  his  personal 
appearance.  Newell  again  accepted  the  wager  and  Mr.  Pent- 
land  was  asked  to  go  over  and  find  out,  and  in  answer  to  the 
inquiry  Mr.  Rees  at  once  replied,  "I  fight  under  the  stars 
and  stripes." 

We  get  another  glimpse  of  Dr.  Newell  when  a  member  of 
the  Legislative  Committee  in  1843  from  Robert  Shortess: 
The  discussion  was  on  the  question  of  who  should  be  deemed 
voters.  Most  of  the  committee  were  in  favor  of  universal  suf- 
frage, and,  as  Dr.  Newell  had  a  native  wife,  naturally  sup- 
posed he  would  be  quite  as  liberal  as  those  who  had  full  white 
families;  but  the  doctor  gave  us  one  of  his  "stumpers,"  or  as 
he  calls  it,  "big  fir-tree  speeches,"  by  saying-.  "Well,  now, 
Mr.  Speaker,  I  think  we  have  got  quite  high  enough  among 
the  dark  clouds;  I  do  not  believe  we  ought  to  go  any  higher. 
It  is  well  enough  to  admit  the  English,  the  French,  the  Span- 
ish, and  the  half-breeds,  but  the  Indian  and  the  negro  is  a 
little  too  dark  for  me.  I  think  we  had  better  stop  at  the  half- 
breeds.  I  am  in  favor  of  limiting  the  right  to  vote  to  them, 
and  going  no  farther  into  the  dark  clouds  to  admit  the  negro." 
(See  p.  343  of  History  of  Oregon  by  Gray.) 

It  may  be  remarked  here  that  W.  H.  Gray  did  not  like  Dr. 
Newell  and  always  speaks  with  disparagement  of  him,  but 
that  no  person  intelligent  upon  the  subject  of  Oregon  history 
will  place  much  reliance  upon  any  statement  or  opinion  of  Mr. 
Gray  as  agaim^t  that  of  Mr.  Applegate  or  Mr.  Nesmith  or 
other  pioneers  of  the  less  cantankerous  type. 

We  are  now  the  better  able  to  refer  to  the  spring  of  the 
year  1843,  and  particularly  to  May  2d  of  that  year,  when  the 
people  met  on  French  Prairie  and  American  sentiment  first 
asserted  itself  in  public  action  under  the  ringing  call  of  Col. 
Joseph  L.  Meek:  "Who's  for  a  divide?"  etc.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  Dr.  Elijah  White  had  arrived  the  preceding 
autumn  with  over  one  hundred  immigrants  and  as  an  official 
agent  of  the  United  States  Government  had  announced  that 


114  T.  C.  Elliott. 

that  Government  was  planning  to  extend  its  jurisdiction  and 
protection  over  Oregon.  The  national  question  was  warmlj^ 
debated,  in  family  and  neighborhood  and  at  the  Oregon 
Lyceum  during  the  winter.  Whatever  other  reasons  may  or 
may  not  have  been  then  advanced  among  the  settlers  in  favor 
of  an  immediate  organization  it  is  now  reasonably  clear  that 
the  spirit  of  Americanism  that  was  abroad  really  led  up  to  the 
final  action.  Who  were  influential  in  arousing  that  spirit? 
Not  the  Applegates,  Nesmith,  Burnett  and  many  other  strong 
men  afterward  prominent;  for  these  had  not  yet  arrived.  Not 
the  leaders  of  the  missionary  party,  Jason  Lee  and  George 
Abernethy,  for  these  men  had  publicly  advocated  postpone- 
ment until  four  years  later.  And  not  the  officers  of  the  Hud- 
son's  Bay  Company,  who  favored  a  neutral  organization,  if 
any.  The  young  men  were  in  the  saddle,  in  fact  there  were 
few  old  men  of  experience  even  for  counsel,  and  it  cannot  be 
a  wide  guess  that  Doctor  Robert  Newell,  whose  "love  of  coun- 
try amounted  to  a  passion,"  who  was  the  leader  of  the  moun- 
tain men  and  the  neighbor  and  special  adviser  of  Joseph  L. 
Meek,  who  commanded  the  respect  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  people 
and  hence  had  much  influence  among  the  wavering  French- 
Canadians,  figured  largely  in  the  result.  But  we  would  not 
hear  about  it  from  Newell  himself. 

In  the  late  fall  of  1847  the  Whitman  massacre  occurred  and 
Dr.  Newell  was  the  Speaker  at  that  session  of  the  legislature ; 
the  terrible  news  was  received  at  Oregon  City  on  the  8th  of 
December.  The  first  impulse  was  that  of  self  protection,  the 
next  that  of  punishment  (the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  party 
under  Peter  Skeen  Ogden  having  already  become  responsible 
for  the  rescue  of  the  survivors)  ;  and  immediate  steps  were 
taken  to  first  dispatch  a  small  armed  force  to  The  Dalles  and 
to  next  organize  a  larger  one  to  invade  the  Indian  country. 
But  some  of  the  members  who  were  best  informed  as  to  dealing 
with  the  Indians  were  not  so  sure  of  the  wisdom  of  sending  an 
organized  fighting  force  at  once  into  the  interior;  and  on  the 
14th  of  December  while  military  preparations  were  being 
made  the  legislature  adopted  the  following  resolution:   "That 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  115 

a  delegation  of  three  persons  be  appointed  by  this  House  to 
proceed  immediately  to  Walla  Walla  and  hold  a  council  with 
the  chiefs  and  principal  men  of  the  various  tribes  on  the  Col- 
umbia to  prevent,  if  possible,  their  coalition  with  the  Cayuse 
tribe  in  the  present  difficulties."  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Craig  and  Spalding,  then  near  Lapwai  together,  sent  word 
urging  that  soldiers  be  not  sent,  and  that  Father  Blanchet  who 
was  then  on  the  Umatilla  with  the  Cayuses  themselves  sent 
similar  word,  and  that  Peter  Skeen  Ogden  and  others  of  the 
sagacious  Hudson's  Bay  Company  officers  did  not  favor  in- 
vasion ;  though  all  this  was  unknown  at  Oregon  City  when  the 
resolution  was  passed. 

But  the  appointing  power  was  finally  left  with  Governor 
Abernethy  and  he  either  did  not  sympathize  with  the  idea  or 
was  otherwise  advised,  for  the  three  commissioners  were  not 
appointed  for  some  weeks;  they  were  Joel  Palmer,  Robert 
Newell  and  H.  A.  G.  Lee.  The  first  named  then  already  had 
more  than  his  hands  full  Avith  his  duties  as  Commissary- 
General  and  the  last  named  was  in  active  service  at  The 
Dalles  in  command  of  those  volunteers  who  had  already  gone 
there ;  and  it  ended  with  the  peace  commissioner's — so  called — 
going  forward  in  company  with  the  Rifler— so  called— when 
they  marched  from  The  Dalles  in  force  in  February.  Looking 
back  at  the  situation  from  the  present  time,  a  careful  student 
of  the  history  of  our  early  Indian  wars  can,  with  reasonable 
certainty,  say  that  had  the  advice  and  suggestions  of  Dr. 
Robert  Newell  and  a  few  others  then  been  followed  and  the 
Indians  treated  with  pacific  firmness  instead  of  war  methods, 
there  would  have  been  no  Cayuse  war  with  its  attendant  ex- 
penses, exposure  and  loss  of  life,  that  the  murderers  of  Dr. 
Whitman  would  have  been  surrendered  by  their  own  people, 
and  that  the  settlement  of  the  interior  would  have  been  ad- 
vanced ten  years  in  point  of  time.  Dr.  Newell,  however,  did 
not  sulk ;  and  in  Januarj'  he  assisted  in  the  organization  in 
his  own  county  of  Company  "D"  of  the  Rifles  under  Cap- 
tain McKay,  and  accompanied  them  as  one  of  the  peace  com- 
missioners.   For  this  position  he  was  peculiarly  well  fitted  be- 


116  T.  C.  Elliott. 

cause  of  his  knowledge  of  the  Nez  Perces  dialect  and  his  per- 
sonal relations  with  that  tribe.  As  such  commissioner,  he  was 
present  at  Waiilatpu  on  March  7,  1848,  and  delivered  one  of 
the  principal  speeches  at  the  council  held  on  that  day  with 
the  Nez  Perces ;  and  that  speech  so  well  reveals  the  finer  senti- 
ments of  the  man  that  we  may  well  insert  it  here.  He  spoke 
as  follows  (See  Brown's  Polit.  History  of  Oregon,  pp.  394-6)  : 

"Brothers:  I  have  a  few  words  to  say,  call  together  all 
your  men,  old  and  young,  women  and  children.  This  day  I 
am  glad  to  see  you  here,  we  have  come  to  talk  with  you  and  to 
tell  you  the  duty  we  owe  to  our  God  and  all  good  people.  I 
have  not  come  here  to  make  peace  with  you;  we  never  have 
been  at  war,  but  always  friendly.  This  I  know;  this  all  our 
people  know.  I  have  fought  with  the  Nez  Perces,  some  of 
them  I  see  here,  but  we  were  on  the  same  side;  we  have  lost 
friends  on  the  same  day  and  at  the  same  battle  together.  But 
we  did  not  lose  those  friends  in  trying  to  kill  innocent  people, 
but  by  trying  to  save  our  own  lives.  This  I  have  told  our 
people,  our  people  believe  it.  I  have  told  them  you  are  honest 
and  good  people,  they  believed  it.  Your  hands  are  not  red 
with  blood.  I  am  glad,  my  children  are  glad.  And  now 
brothers  hear  me ;  never  go  to  war  with  the  Americans ;  if  you 
do,  it  will  be  your  own  fault  and  you  are  done.  I  have  come 
here  to  see  you.  the  Nez  Perces  and  other  good  people,  no  one 
else.  I  am  not  here  to  fight,  but  to  separate  the  good  from 
the  bad,  and  to  tell  you  that  it  is  your  duty  to  help  make  this 
ground  clean.  Thank  God  you  have  not  helped  to  make  it 
bloody.  I  was  glad  to  hear  the  Nez  Perces  had  no  hand  in 
killing  Dr.  Whitman,  his  wife  and  others.  What  have  the 
Cayuses  made,  what  have  they  lost !  Everything,  nothing  left 
but  a  name.  All  the  property  they  have  taken  in  a  short  time 
will  be  gone,  only  one  thing  left,  that  is  a  name,  'the  bloody 
Cayuses.'  They  never  will  lose  that,  only  in  this  way,  obey  the 
great  God  and  keep  his  laws.  And,  my  friends,  this  must  be 
done,  if  you  will  obey  God  and  do  what  is  right,  we  must. 
This  is  what  our  war  chief  has  come  for.  What  is  our  duty 
to  the  great  God  ?  This  is  his  law.  He  who  kills  man,  by  man 
shall  his  blood  be  spilt.  This  is  his  law.  This  is  what  God 
says,  and  he  must  be  obeyed,  or  we  have  no  peace  in  the  land. 
There  are  good  people  enough  here  among  the  murderers  to 
have  peace  again  in  the  land  should  they  try.  In  a  few  days 
we  could  go  about  here  as  we  have  done,  all  friendly,  all 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  117 

happy.  Will  you  hear,  or  will  you  not.  You  have  heard  that 
we  have  come  here  to  fight  all  the  Indians,  it  is  not  so.  The 
evil  spirit  has  put  bad  words  in  the  mouths  of  those  mur- 
derers and  they  have  told  you  lies. 

"My  friends,  one  thing  more  let  me  tell  you;  Ave  have  come 
here  because  it  was  our  duty.  We  are  sorry  to  have  to  come, 
but  the  laws  of  God  have  been  broken  on  this  ground ;  look  at 
these  walls,  see  how  black  they  are;  look  at  that  large  grave. 
He  is  angry  with  those  people  who  broke  his  laws,  and  spilt 
innocent  blood.  How  can  we  have  peace?  This  way,  my 
friends,  and  no  other.  All  join  together,  and  with  good  hearts 
try  to  get  those  murderers  and  do  by  them  as  the  great  God 
commands,  and  by  so  doing,  this  land  will  be  purified,  and  in 
no  other  way  will  we  have  peace.  I  am  sorry  to  see  people 
fight  like  dogs.  People  who  love  to  kill  and  murder— they  are 
bad  people.  We  have  come  here  to  get  those  murderers.  If 
good  men  put  themselves  before  those  bad  people,  they  are 
just  as  if  they  had  helped  to  murder,  and  we  will  hold  them 
as  such.  The  most  of  the  Cayuses  have  gone  off,  but  a  few 
are  here.  They  have  left  their  farms.  Why  is  this,  what  have 
they  done?  Because  some  of  their  people  have  been  foolish, 
all  should  not  turn  fools  and  be  wicked.  I  am  sorry,  very 
sorry  to  see  it  so.  What  will  they  do  if  they  fight  us,  and 
fight  against  our  God,  and  break  our  laws?  I  will  tell  you, 
they  will  become  poor,  no  place  will  they  find  to  hide  their 
heads,  no  place  on  this  earth  nor  a  place  in  heaven,  but  down 
to  hell  should  they  go  if  God's  words  are  true.  I  hope  you  will 
be  advised  and  take  good  council  before  it  is  too  late. 

"Our  war  chief  has  waited  a  long  time  for  the  Cayuses  to 
do  what  is  right,  he  will  wait  no  longer,  and  when  he  begins  to 
fight,  I  do  not  know  when  he  will  stop.  His  heart  is  sore  for 
Dr.  Whitman  and  his  wife,  that  have  been  slaves  to  these  peo- 
ple, who  done  all  they  could  to  teach  them  how  to  work,  and 
how  to  do  all  good  things,  that  they  might  live  like  the  whites 
and  be  Christians,  but  they  have  joined  the  evil  one  and  be- 
come bad;  they  haye  murdered,  they  must  not  escape.  My 
friends,  I  am  not  angry,  I  am  sorry.  The  other  day  over  yon- 
der where  we  fought  the  Cayuses,  we  saw  people  coming,  I 
went  with  a  flag,  I  had  no  gun,  made  signs  of  peace,  waved 
the  flag  for  them  not  to  shoot,  but  stop  and  talk,  but  they 
would  not.  I  went  back  sorry,  I  knew  there  were  some  people 
there  who  had  done  us  no  harm;  but  those  bad  people  told 
them  lies,  and  gave  them  horses  to  fight  us.  Bought  them  like 
slaves  to  fight.     I  knew  they  came  blind,  but  they  knew  not 


118  T.  C.  Elliott. 

what  they  were  doing;  I  wanted  to  tell  them  what  we  had 
come  for  but  could  not.  I  have  done  my  duty.  God  knows 
my  heart.  If  I  do  wrong,  then  the  great  God  will  punish  me, 
and  now  I  tell  you  the  same  as  if  you  were  my  own  children. 
Do  not  join  with  those  murderers,  nor  let  them  come  in  your 
country,  or  in  your  lodges,  or  eat  with  them;  but  try  and 
bring  them  to  justice. 

"My  friends,  I  have  no  more  to  say  to  you  now.  I  have  come 
a  long  way  to  see  you  and  talk  with  you ;  will  you  throw  my 
words  away  1  I  hope  not ;  I  beg  you  to  hear  my  words  and  be 
wise.  I  have  brought  this  flag  for  the  Nez  Perces ;  take  it,  I 
hope  you  will  keep  clear  of  blood.  Let  the  Nez  Perces  as- 
semble and  settle  among  yourselves  who  will  keep  the  flag. 
EllLs  is  not  here,  and  many  other  chiefs  are  gone  to  the  buffalo 
country  that  I  am  acquainted  with.  Mr.  Craig  will  tell  you 
that  we  are  your  friends ;  he  loves  you ;  so  do  we  all  like  him ; 
he  has  told  us  many  good  things  of  you." 

Largely  as  a  result  of  that  council,  the  Nez  Perces  did  not 
take  part  in  the  Cayuse  war,  and  the  large  American  flag 
then  presented  to  them  was  proudly  preserved  and  assisted 
in  influencing  them  in  later  wars  (Kip's  Journal,  descriptive 
of  the  Indian  council  held  at  Walla  Walla  in  1855,  tells  of  the 
arrival  of  the  Nez  Perces  warriors  2500  strong  with  that  flag 
waving  proudly  before  them.)  Two  days  later  another  council 
was  held  with  some  of  the  Cayuses  who  consented  to  be  talked 
to,  but  with  little  effect;  and  immediately  after  Dr.  Newell 
left  the  volunteers  and  returned  to  the  Willamette  in  com- 
pany with  Captain  McKay,  who  had  been  wounded.  But  he 
really  wished  to  be  clear  of  the  whole  business  from  then  on, 
for  fear  that  his  personal  assurances  to  the  Indians  would  not 
be  kept.  And  looking  at  the  problem  as  he  did,  from  the 
Indian 's  point  of  view,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  feel  other- 
wise. While  serving  on  this  expedition,  he  kept  a  journal  or 
memoranda  which  is  now  preserved  among  the  Archives  of 
Oregon,  and  contains  much  interesting  and  valuable  informa- 
tion. 

Although,  in  1849,  appointed  to  the  position  of  Indian 
Agent  as  already  mentioned,  Dr.  Newell  did  not  qualify  but 
joined  the  large  majority  of  the  male  population  of  Oregon 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  119 

in  the  rush  to  the  California  gold  fields,  drawn  particularly 
by  his  personal  acquaintance  with  James  W.  Marshall,  the 
first  discoverer  of  gold  there.  But  we  do  not  read  of  his 
making  any  large  stake  and  in  the  fall  of  1850,  he  seems  to 
have  been  back  again  at  his  home,  for  he  was  a  candidate  for 
the  legislature  at  a  special  election  in  December  of  that  year, 
and  was  defeated.  The  Democrats  were  in  control  in  Marion 
County  and  although  Dr.  Newell  affiliated  with  that  party, 
it  was  ten  years  later,  in  1860,  before  he  was  again  chosen  to 
the  legislature  and  took  part  in  the  strenuous  contest  result- 
ing in  the  compromise  by  which  Col.  E.  D.  Baker  and  J.  W. 
Nesmith  were  chosen  to  the  United  States  Senate.  During  the 
intervening  years  he  was  by  no  means  out  of  politics,  but  held 
a  place  in  the  third  house. 

After  returning  from  California  he  engaged  in  warehousing 
and  did  a  commission  business  in  wheat;  and  in  partnership 
with  J.  D.  Crawford  owned  a  store  at  Champoeg  which  dealt 
in  flour,  feed,  ham,  "pickled  pork"  (bacon)  and  such  staples. 
He  had  caused  the  town  of  Champoeg  to  be  platted.  In  1854 
he  was  one  of  the  charter  members  of  a  railroad  company  that 
proposed  to  build  a  road  from  Eugene  to  the  Columbia  River ; 
but  nothing  came  of  it.  In  the  Indian  war  of  1855-6,  called 
the  Yakima  War,  he  organized  a  select  company  of  thirty-five 
men,  calling  themselves  The  Scouts,  and  served  as  their  cap- 
tain; and  did  valuable  service  under  Major  Rains  in  the 
Klickitat  and  Yakima  country.  But  seemingly  he  did  not 
permit  himself  to  go  into  the  Walla  Walla  region  where  he 
might  meet  some  of  his  personal  friends,  the  Nez  Perces.  In 
the  year  1859  his  name  appears  in  the  statute  as  one  of  the 
lessees  of  the  State  Penitentiary  of  Oregon. 

When  serving  as  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  on  December  11, 
1845,  the  record  shows  this  written  request  to  have  been  made : 

"To  Honorable  House  of  Representatives: 

Gentlemen:— Having  received  information  of  my  wife  being 
very  ill,  I  am  compelled  to  request  of  your  honorable  body  im- 
mediate leave  of  absence ;  and  by  granting  this  you  will  con- 
fer a  favor  upon.  Your  very  humble  and  obedient  servant, 

"Robert  New^ell." 


120  T.  C.  Elliott. 

This  is  our  public  record  of  his  marital  faithfulness  up  to 
the  date  of  the  death  of  his  native  wife,  the  Nez  Perce  woman  -. 
the  records  of  Marion  County  show  that  during  the  following 
year  he  was  married  to  Miss  Rebecca  Newman  of  that  county, 
to  whom  one-half  of  his  Donation  Claim  was  afterward  con- 
veyed by  U.  S.  Patent.  It  would  not  be  wise  to  mention  this 
had  the  land  been  located  in  and  subject  to  the  community 
property  law  of  the  Territory  of  Washington,  for  fear  some 
ambitious  lawyer  might  even  at  this  late  day  try  to  upset  the 
title  under  some  claim  through  the  children  of  the  first  wife. 
The  dower  laws  of  the  State  of  Oregon  would  render  such  an 
effort  unprofitable.  With  this  second  marriage,  his  family 
responsibilities  were  notably  increased,  for  eleven  children 
were  born  to  them,  eight  being  boys  and  three  girls;  by  his 
first  wife  he  already  had  five  boys.  It  is  evident  that  Dr. 
Newell  was  a  very  early  admirer  of  President  Roosevelt's 
doctrines.  In  the  year  1861  occured  the  turning  point  in  his 
career  as  far  as  worldly  possessions  are  concerned,  for  on 
December  4th  to  10th,  of  that  year,  came  the  great  flood  in 
the  Willamette  River,  which  washed  away  his  store  and  ware- 
house and  covered  the  whole  country  around.  His  house  was 
then  the  best  in  the  community  and  stood  upon  high  ground 
and  above  the  high  water.  Mr.  Himes  is  authority  for  this 
statement,  which  he  has  heard  from  many  of  the  old  residents 
about  Champoeg:  "I  do  not  know  what  I  would  have  done 
had  it  not  been  for  Doc.  Newell.  He  broke  himself  up  help- 
ing his  neighbors."  His  property  and  business  were  gone  but 
his  hospitality  reached  out  over  weeks  and  months. 

In  1862  the  mining  excitement  was  drawing  people  into  the 
country  around  the  Clearwater  and  Salmon  rivers  of  Wash- 
ington, afterward  Idaho  Territory.  This  country  belonged  to 
the  Nez  Perces  and  white  men  had  no  right  to  be  there  until 
treaties  with  these  Indians  had  been  made  and  ratified;  the 
treaties  of  1855-6  had  never  been  fulfilled  by  the  Government 
and  the  Indians  were  feeling  very  angry  about  it.  There  was 
trouble  imminent  and  we  read  of  special  councils  being  held 
at  Lapwai  at  which  Dr.  Newell  and  Col.  Wm.  Craig  (another 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  121 

warm  friend  of  the  Nez  Perces  after  whom  Craig  Street. 
Walla  Walla,  is  named)  were  with  difficulty  able  to  hold 
them  in  check. 

With  the  thought  to  retrieve  his  fortunes  in  the  Govern- 
ment service  in  the  country  of  his  Indian  friends  after  the 
year  1861,  Dr.  Newell  made  his  abode  at  Lapwai  more  than 
at  Champoeg,  although  his  family  were  not  permanently  re- 
moved to  Idaho  until  the  spring  of  1867.  In  1863  Idaho  was 
admitted  as  a  Territory  and  the  two  political  parties  held  their 
conventions  to  name  candidates  for  Delegate  to  Congress. 
The  Democrats  held  their 's  at  a  cabin  on  the  Packer  John 
Trail  near  what  is  now  known  as  the  Meadows,  as  a  half-way 
point  between  the  Boise  Basin  and  the  Lewiston  country,  and 
Dr.  Newell  was  the  candidate  put  up  by  those  from  the  Lewis- 
ton  district.  He  was  defeated,  however,  by  J.  M.  Cannady 
from  the  Boise  Basin;  and  Cannady  was  in  turn,  in  the  elec- 
tion that  followed,  defeated  by  W^.  H.  Wallace,  Republican. 
There  were  in  the  country  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  dur- 
ing the  early  sixties,  more  people  than  resided  west  of  that 
range,  at  least  in  the  political  divisions  of  Washington  and 
Idaho,  and  the  town  of  Lewiston  was  rapidly  coming  into 
prominence,  although  located  upon  land  to  which  no  title 
could  be  given.  In  fact,  all  the  early  acts  of  the  Idaho  legis- 
lature, while  Lewiston  was  the  capital,  were  technically  in- 
valid because  enacted  upon  land  that  did  not  belong  to  the 
Territory  or  to  the  United  States.  In  May,  1863,  the  Nez 
Perces  chief  agreed  to  a  new  division  of  their  lands,  but  the 
treaty  was  not  confirmed  at  Washington  and  proclaimed  until 
April,  1867.  It  was  very  necessary  to  secure  a  title  and, 
according  to  the  official  Government  reports,  one  of  the  mo.st 
influential  men  in  that  negotiation  was  Dr.  Robert  Newell. 
He  was  criticized  by  some  because  a  larger  tract  was  not  ceded 
then,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  his  position  was  a  delicate  one,  for 
the  Nez  Perces  refused  to  cede  anything  unless  a  clause  be  in- 
serted in  the  <^veaty  as  follows :  ' '  Inasmuch  as  the  Indians  in 
council  have  expressed  the  desire  that  Robert  Newell  should 
have  confirmed  to  him  a  piece  of  land  lying  between  Snake 


122  T.  C.  Elliott. 

and  Clearwater  rivers,  the  same  having  been  given  to  him  on 
the  9th  day  of  June,  1861,  and  described  in  an  instrument  of 
writing  bearing  that  date  and  signed  by  several  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  tribe,  it  is  hereby  agreed  that  the  said  Robert  Newell 
shall  receive  from  the  United  States  a  patent  for  the  said 
tract  of  land. "  (See  Treaty  of  May  7,  1863. )  This  tract  of  a 
little  more  than  five  acres— which  included  an  old  Indian 
burial  place— lies  in  the  oldest  part  of  the  City  of  Lewiston 
and  upon  it  still  stands  the  house  in  which  he  died.  The 
patent  followed,  though  some  time  after  his  death,  and  the 
unsettled  condition  of  all  titles  at  Lewiston  up  to  about  1872 
gave  occasion  to  some  minor  disputes  with  squatters  and  ad- 
joining owners  during  his  last  years.  It  was  to  assist  in  se- 
curing for  the  Indians  some  amendments  to  this  treaty  that 
Dr.  Newell  visited  Washington  in  1868  with  the  chiefs,  as 
previously  stated;  as  well  as  to  secure  his  own  appointment 
as  Indian  Agent. 

Between  1862  and  1868,  Dr.  Newell  held  different  positions 
at  Lapwai,  as  special  commissioner  and  as  interpreter  both  at 
the  army  post  and  the  agency;  the  Indians  trusted  both 
Newell  and  Perrin  B.  "Whitman  with  their  business  affairs. 
Upon  returning  from  Washington  he,  on  October  1,  1868. 
succeeded  James  O'Neill  as  regular  Agent,  under  David 
Ballard,  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  and  Governor  of 
Idaho.  But  he  held  the  position  only  until  the  14th  of  July, 
1869,  when  the  agency  was  turned  over  to  Lieut.  J.  W.  AVham 
of  the  U.  S.  Army.  Under  a  change  of  policy  just  then  the 
War  Department  was  placed  in  charge  of  Indian  affairs,  and 
Col.  De  L.  Floyd  Jones  relieved  Governor  Ballard.  This 
change  of  policy  was  a  matter  of  regret  to  many  people  who 
were  well  informed  as  to  Indian  affairs.  Dr.  Newell 's  con- 
duct of  the  office  of  Agent  was  after  his  usual  happy  style; 
an  incident  illustrates  this.  A  party  of  the  employees  were 
preparing  to  go  up  the  Clearwater  after  a  raft  of  logs,  for 
building  purposes,  and  were  getting  their  outfit  and  pro- 
visions together  and  sent  a  Mr.  Holbrook  to  the  Agent  to  ask 
for  some  candles.     "Candles,   candles'?"   demanded  Newell, 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  123 

' '  First  time  I  ever  heard  of  running  a  raft  by  candle  light ! ' ' 
But  he  gave  them  the  candles  just  the  same.  His  rigid  manner 
of  doing  business,  old  fashioned  perhaps  we  might  call  it,  and 
his  evident  irritation  under  the  system  of  Government  vouch- 
ee acquired  for  him,  with  some,  a  reputation  for  eccentricity 
during  those  years.  But  with  scarcely  an  exception,  every  one 
at  Lewiston  who  remembers  him  testifies  to  his  integrity  and 
honesty.  The  Auditor  of  the  Interior  Department,  in  a  final 
checking  up  of  his  accounts  at  the  agency  (not,  however,  until 
1880)  found  an  apparent  discrepancy  against  him  for  which 
suit  of  equity  was  brought  in  October,  1881,  against  the  heirs 
of  the  estate,  but  the  judgment  rendered  in  January,  1884, 
was  in  favor  of  the  defendants.  In  reply  to  an  inquiry  sent 
to  the  Department,  Mr.  Larrabee,  acting  Commissioner,  states 
(on  April  22,  1908)  that  "an  examination  of  the  Auditor's 
settlement  shows  conclusively  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
whole  transaction  which  can  be  construed  as  being  prejudicial 
to  Newell's  reputation.  *  *  *  Jq  view  of  Mr.  Newell 's  in- 
experience, he  having  served  as  Agent  for  only  nine  months, 
the  above  discrepancies  are  not  to  be  wondered  at.  It  does 
not  appear  that  ]\Ir.  Newell  ever  profited  to  the  extent  of  a 
single  penny  by  reason  of  dishonest  dealing,  and  from  other 
records  on  file  in  this  office  it  appears  that  his  honesty  and 
uprightness  were  unquestionable." 

When  it  was  learned  that  he  was  to  be  superseded,  the  Nez 
Perces  themselves,  in  June,  1869,  caused  a  petition  to  be 
drawn  up  stating  among  other  things  that  he  had  been  their 
friend  for  forty  years  and  was  the  Agent  of  their  own  choice, 
and  to  which  eleven  chiefs  and  one  hundred  and  thirty -three 
prominent  men  of  the  tribe  affixed  their  names  requesting  of 
President  Grant  his  retention  in  the  office.  This  petition  is 
on  file  at  Washington. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  visit  to  Washington.  That 
journey  was  undertaken  at  the  instance  and  expense  of  his 
friends,  both  Indian  and  white,  and  he  jokingly  remarked 
when  starting  that  although  going  as  cook,  he  expected  to 
return  as  Captain.    He  traveled  with  the  regular  Agent,  Mr. 


124  T.  C.  Elliott. 

O'Neill,  and  interpreter,  Mr.  Whitman  (neither  of  whom  was 
averse  to  a  continuance  of  their  official  duties),  and  the  four 
Indian  chiefs  whose  presence  had  been  invited  at  Washington 
From  Portland  they  went  by  steamer  to  San  Francisco  and 
Panama,  and  thence  via  Aspinwall  and  New  York  to  Wash- 
ington, and  while  there  Dr.  Newell  was  nominated  by  Presi- 
dent Johnson  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate  as  Agent  at  Lap- 
wai,  and  secured  his  official  bond  in  New  York  City.  The 
writer  has  been  privileged  to  read  the  personal  diary  kept  by 
Dr.  Newell  during  that  journey,  and  hopes  to  be  allowed  at 
some  future  time  to  edit  it  for  publication.  It  contains  many 
references  to  public  men  well  known  in  Oregon  history.  Al- 
though for  three  months  in  company  with  rivals  for  the  same 
official  position,  there  is  in  it  all  just  one  short  sentence  of 
very  mild  personal  reflection,  which  indicates  very  well  a 
generous  disposition.  From  this  diary  also  we  learn  Dr. 
Newell's  religious  preferences;  he  attended  the  Episcopal 
Church  with  regularity  whenever  it  was  possible. 

His  second  wife,  Rebecca,  died  at  Lewiston  in  May.  1867 
In  June,  1869,  when  sixty-three  years  of  age,  he,  after  a 
habit  of  his,  was  again  married,  and  his  friend  Mr.  Roberts 
thus  describes  his  courtship:  "During  his  services  as  Indian 
Agent  he  was  in  the  habit  of  sending  to  me  at  Walla  Walla 
for  employees.  Among  the  last  sent  for  was  a  matron  teacher, 
a  lady  of  middle  age,  capable  of  teaching  Indian  girls  i^; 
sew,  etc.  In  this  letter  he  said  he  would  come  with  his  carri- 
age to  Walla  Walla  and  take  the  lady  back  to  Lapwai.  I  had 
a  friend  and  acquaintance  by  the  name  of  Mrs.  Ward,  a 
widow  of  a  M.  E.  minister  who  had  recently  died  in  Califor- 
nia, and  who  was  living  with  her  son-in-law,  Lon  Bean.  She 
engaged  for  the  position  and  the  Doctor  came  down  as  pro- 
posed and  stayed  two  nights  at  my  house  and  took  the  lady 
home  with  him.  She  put  in  just  one  month  under  Government 
service  and  then  she  and  the  doctor  were  married.  How  well 
I  remember  that  while  he  was  still  Indian  Agent,  he  and  his 
wife  were  down  at  Walla  Walla  and  made  me  a  visit  of  two 
daj's,  and  joshed  me  about  being  a  match-maker." 


"Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer.  125 

It  was  during  these  years  when  engaged  at  Lapwai,  but 
returning  every  now  and  then  to  Champoeg,  that  he  read  in 
the  Marine  Ga/.ette  of  Astoria  the  series  of  articles  written  by 
W.  H.  Gray  and  afterward  compiled  into  what  is  erroneously 
entitled  a  History  of  Oregon,  in  which  Mr.  Gray  gave  his 
account  of  the  formation  of  the  Provisional  Government  and 
of  the  political  events  of  those  years.  In  reply  to  those  letters 
Dr.  Newell  wrote  several  communications  that  were  printed  in 
the  Democratic  Herald  of  Portland  in  1866  and  afterward 
compiled  by  Elwood  Evans  under  the  title  "NeweU's  Stric- 
tures on  Gray."  These  letters  of  Dr.  Newell  contain  very 
interesting  data  as  to  the  time  of  which  he  wrote  and  are  con- 
sidered a  valuable  source  of  early  Oregon  history.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  that  he  returned  to  Mr.  Gray  good  measure  for  all 
personal  allusions. 

Dr.  Newell  died  possessed  of  only  a  limited  amount  of 
property;  his  large  family  had  kept  him  "rustling."  The 
farm  at  Champoeg  had  been  sold  in  1866  and  just  before  hi« 
death  he  had  bargained  with  William  Rexford  for  another 
farm  in  what  was  then  Walla  Walla  County,  on  the  old  Walla 
Walla-Lewiston  stage  road  at  the  first  crossing  of  the  Patit, 
two  or  three  miles  above  Dayton,  Washington  (afterward 
known  as  the  Graham  farm.)  This  land  and  the  five  acres  in 
Lewiston  (title  not  then  confirmed)  comprised  practically  tli»^ 
whole  of  his  estate.  Death  came  upon  him  suddenly,  of  hear< 
disease. 

Dr.  Newell 's  politics  and  friendships  are  reflected  in  the 
names  of  his  sons;  one  was  named  Thomas  Jefferson,  anotbR.'* 
Stephen  Douglass,  another  Francis  Ermatinger,  and  another 
Marcus  Whitman.  The  remainder  of  his  children  bore  family 
names;  five  of  them  are  still  living.  He  had  a  sister  named 
Martha  who  crossed  the  plains  as  the  wife  of  William 
("Billy")  Moore,  who  settled  on  the  Tum-a-lum  near  Walla 
Walla  and  whose  farm  was  one  of  the  early  land-marks  of  the 
Walla  Walla  Valley. 

Dr.  Robert  Newell  was  only  one  of  the  virile  pioneers  oi 
Oregon  entitled  to  recognition;  not  a  great  man  above  ali  his 


126  T.  C.  Elliott. 

fellows,  but  to  be  awarded  a  place  in  the  first  rank;  and  not 
without  his  human  limitations,  of  course.  If  any  great  fan  J  is 
were  common  to  him  they  have  not  been  discovered  by  the 
writer;  and  any  small  ones  have  been  merely  mentioned.  It 
is  related  of  Peter  the  Great  that  when  any  one  began  un- 
folding the  faults  of  another  in  his  presence,  he  would  inter- 
rupt to  ask:  "But  has  he  not  a  bright  side?  Come,  what  have 
you  noticed  as  excellent  in  him?"  And  we  cannot  but  feel 
well  toward  the  memory  of  a  man  who  is  universally  conceded 
to  have  been  brave,  modest  and  generous  to  a  fault,  who 
passed  through  the  days  of  a  mountain  career  without  giving 
away  to  its  debauchery,  who  was  faithful  and  attentive  to  his 
native  wife  during  the  twelve  years  of  their  married  life,  who 
respected  religious  things  and  was  ever  ready  to  aid  the 
destitute  and  distressed,  whose  qualities  of  leadership  were 
always  recognized,  whose  regard  for  the  truth  was  so  excep- 
tionally high,  and  whose  jovial  disposition  is  a  common  recol- 
lection of  all  who  knew  him.  Said  Senator  Nesmith  in  the 
address  already  mentioned: 

' '  Genial,  kindhearted  Newell !  How  many  of  you  recollect 
his  good  qualities  and  how  heartily  have  you  laughed  around 
the  campfire  at  his  favorite  song,  'Love  and  Sassingers'!  I 
can  yet  hear  the  lugubrious  refrain  describing  how  his 
dulcema  was  captured  by  the  butcher 's  boy : 

'And  there  sat  faithless  she,  A-frying  sassingers  for  he.' 

"He  has  folded  his  robes  about  him  and  lain  himself  down 
to  rest  among  the  mountains  he  loved  so  well,  and  which  so 
often  have  echoed  the  merrv  tones  of  his  voice." 


FROM  YOUTH  TO  AGE  AS  AN  AMERICAN. 

By  John  Minto. 

CHAPTER  II. 

LEARNING  TO  LIVE  ON  THE  LAND. 

I  cannot  say  but  that  I  had  a  bearable  existence  while  min- 
ing coal  in  Pennsylvania.  The  comparative  freedom  of  life 
and  the  hope  of  wider  opportunities  began  in  me  with  my  first 
glimpses  into  frontier  literature  and  observing  how  easy  it 
seemed  to  live  well  from  the  land.  It  was  called  hard  times, 
and  doubtless  was,*  to  those  who  had  to  get  money  from  their 
crops ;  but  beyond  this  general  condition  I  learned  to  look  to 
the  frontier  and  beyond,  and  resolved  that  I  would  reach  it 
by  the  first  opportunity,  and  that  came  to  me  in  the  city  of 
St.  Louis,  when  I  was  informed  that  family  men  of  means 
were  preparing  to  emigrate  to  Oregon.  I  lost  no  time  in  get- 
ting among  them  and  engaging  my  labor  for  the  opportunity 
of  coming  with  one  of  the  very  best  among  them.  I  kept  my 
engagement  in  such  a  way  as  secured  me  more  than  I  had  any 
right  to  expect,  and  the  good  will  of  the  family  in  addition, 
marrying  the  oldest  daughter  the  third  year  after  our  arrival 
in  Oregon. 

The  first  labor  I  did  in  Oregon  was  in  the  superb  timber  on 
the  foothills  of  the  Coast  Range.  I  made  fence-rails  and  cut 
and  helped  to  roll  and  notch  logs  into  the  walls  of  claim- 
holding  cabins.  D.  Clark,  S.  B.  Crokett  and  myself,  after  we 
had  squared  accounts  with  Gen.  M.  M.  MeCarver  for  pro- 
visions furnished  us  on  the  Umatilla,  were  engaged  by  a  con- 
tractor for  such  work  called  "Little  Osborn,"  and  the  four  of 


♦There  were  stay  laws  that  Intervened,  creditors  being  given  three 
months  time  to  make  payment  of  five  dollars,  with  longer  time  as  the  debt 
increased.  A  good  meal  of  cold  food  was  set  out  in  a  wayside  tavern  for 
6%  cents,  and  a  clean  and  warm  feather  bed  at  the  same  price.  An 
advertised  force  sale  sometimes  failed  for  lack  of  bidders. 


128  John  Minto. 

us  put  up  and  covered  with  "shakes"  five  cabins,  sixteen  feet 
square  with  eaves  six  feet  above  the  ground,  in  a  week.  This 
was  while  we  waited  for  our  friends  with  the  wagons  to  reach 
The  Dalles  so  that  we  might  go  to  help  them  down  the  Colum- 
bia ;  to  do  which  we  had,  through  General  McCarver,  received 
promise  of  a  loan  of  a  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  boat  by  the 
good  Chief  Factor  McLoughlin.  This  occupied  us  a  month 
and  I  spent  nearly  as  much  more  helping  Captain  Morrison 
domicile  his  family  at  Clatsop. 

Hunt 's  mill  was  built  on  the  brink  of  a  seventy-foot  fall  of 
a  small  stream  entering  the  Columbia  about  two  and  one-half 
miles  east  of  Clifton  railroad  station.  The  mill-irons  were 
brought  across  the  plains  by  ox  team  in  1843,  with  the  pur- 
pose of  cutting  lumber  for  export.  Mr.  H.  H.  Hunt  was  from 
Indiana;  B.  T.  Wood,  associated  with  him,  was  from  New 
York.  They  looked  out  the  stream  for  their  purpose  with  the 
least  possible  delay,  and  found  one  where  water  power  could 
be  applied  to  cutting  timber  with  the  least  possible  labor, 
about  thirty  miles  east  of  Astoria  in  the  bottom  of  a  deep 
ravine  clothed  with  as  fine  timber  for  their  purpose  as  could 
be  found  in  Oregon.  There  were  sixteen  men  when  I  joined 
them,  about  January  25,  1845.  They  had  been  nearly  a  year 
erecting  the  mill,  and  had  begun  to  cut  without  the  aid  of  any 
team.  (I  assisted  in  taking  the  first  yoke  of  oxen  from 
Oregon  City  to  the  mill  in  July,  1846,  in  a  small  scow.)  My 
mining  stroke  came  in  good  play  for  cutting  trees  level  with 
the  surface  of  the  ground  to  facilitate  rolling  the  logs  by  hand 
to  the  saw.  It  was  very  slow  work  with  the  means  at  com- 
mand; it  was  a  good  day's  run  when  3,000  feet,  board  meas- 
ure, were  cut.  A  five-foot  log  was  a  heavy  one  to  handle  by 
human  strength.  In  1846,  Mr.  A.  E.  Wilson,  the  first  Ameri- 
can merchant  to  settle  at  Astoria,  bought  B.  T.  Wood's  inter- 
est in  the  mill,  and  he  brought  into  the  work  the  yoke  of  cattle 
mentioned,  and  a  force  of  five  Kanakas,  under  contract  with 
King  Kamahamaha  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  at  five  dollars 
per  month,  and  salmon  and  potatoes  furnished  them  for  food. 
They  were  willing,  cheerful  workers. 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  129 

Late  in  the  same  year,  James  Birnie,  retiring  from  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company's  employ,  a  factor  at  Fort  George 
(Astoria),  bought  an  interest  in  the  mill  and  located  a  claim 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Columbia  nearly  opposite,  naming  it 
' '  Cathlamet. ' '  The  native  Cathlamet  was  on  an  island  on  the 
south  side,  about  a  mile  from  the  present  site  of  Clifton.  Mr. 
Birnie  had  claims  against  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and 
could  get  goods  of  a  better  kind  and  quality  than  could  be 
secured  at  Oregon  City  or  of  Mr.  Pettygrove  at  infant  Port- 
land. The  woolens  were  made  for  the  Indian  trade,  coarse 
but  honest,  as  was  the  clothing  of  United  States  soldiers  at 
that  time.  This  was  because  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  had 
to  meet  the  wants  of  their  officers  and  families  and  occasional 
calls  from  the  British  Navy.  It  was  through  Mr.  Birnie  that 
the  writer  was  enabled  to  get  a  decent  suit  to  be  married  in, 
in  1847.  I  earned  the  price  by  squaring  the  first  wooden 
tram-way  rails  used  on  the  Columbia,  and  this  date  was  near 
the  close  of  the  "wooden  age"  of  Oregon's  industries;  when 
wood  was  used  wherever  it  was  possible. 

During  my  first  harvest  in  the  Willamette  Valley,  I  began 
to  take  practical  lessons  in  the  severest  kind  of  field  labor — 
that  of  binding  wheat  in  its  own  straw.  My  teacher  cut,  and 
I  bound  after  him,  one  hundred  and  eleven  acres  during  the 
harvest,  and  under  his  advice  I  purchased  from  Mr.  David 
Carter  the  claim  to  the  original  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission 
site,  taking  him  in  as  my  silent  partner.  It  would  have  been 
a  good  business  move  if  my  knowledge  of  farming  had  been 
equal  to  Henry  Williamson's,  who  himself  was  under  promise 
to  return  to  Indiana  to  meet  in  marriage  a  worthy  helpmate, 
who,  as  the  issue  indicated,  was  wearing  her  life  away  in 
anxiety  for  his  safety.  I  could  not  reconcile  myself  to  assum- 
ing the  responsibility  of  the  care  of  his  property,  and  making 
from  the  land  the  wheat  I  had  promised  to  pay  for  it,  and  as 
an  offer  for  50  per  cent  advance  and  my  obligation  assumed 
was  made  before  he  began  his  preparations  to  return  East,  we 
sold  and  parted  with  mutual  good  will. 

Having  fortunately  gained  the  good  will  of  Mr.  Carter,  I 


130  John  Minto. 

had  no  trouble  agreeing  with  him  for  my  board  at  the  rate  of 
two  days'  labor  per  week,  and  thus  I  secured  a  home  until 
my  own  marriage.  I  was  also  lucky  in  finding  a  beautiful 
body  of  land  to  take  for  myself,  only  two  miles  distant  from 
the  claim  Mr.  Carter  had  promised  and  paid  $1,100.00  for, 
and  to  which  I  helped  him  to  move. 

Before  surrendering  the  Mission  farm,  I  took  up  carefully 
and  planted  at  the  Carter  place,  some  goooseberry  and  currant 
bushes,  a  bed  of  rhubarb  plants,  and  a  rase  bush  to  which  I 
gave  the  name  of  "Mission  Rose,"  and  scattered  by  slips  far 
and  wide  over  Oregon.  I  divided  these  plants  with  the  Carter 
family.  In  the  spring  of  1846  I,  by  permission,  spaded  up 
some  fence  corners  and  sowed  carrot  and  parsnip  seed,  and 
also  planted  a  half -acre  of  potatoes  in  Mr.  Carter's  field. 

My  labor  paid  to  Mr.  Carter  was  mostly  splitting  rails, 
which  I  learned  to  do  fairly  weU,  and  I  dug  his  wells  for  him 
and  others,  which  was  more  like  mining;  also,  I  made  some 
rails  for  myself,  walking  or  riding  over  the  two  miles  morning 
and  evening.  It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  describe  the  ecstacies 
of  joy  and  hope  I  often  felt  as  I  passed  to  and  fro  over  my 
chosen  home-site.  It  was  a  very  garden  spot  of  edible  roots 
and  wild  fruits  and  growing  plants,  though  the  surface  was 
hills  and  narrow  vales. 

I  was  assisting  Joseph  Holman  in  his  wheat  harvest  in 
1846  when  we  noticed  a  grass-fire  start,  apparently  on  the 
foothills  about  a  mile  south  of  the  Institute— now  the  Uni- 
versity—at Salem.  It  crept  slowly  south  and  east  from  day 
to  day,  a  distance  of  four  or  five  miles  over  slopes  facing  north 
and  east,  without  injury  to  the  evenly  distributed  oak  timber, 
well  described  as  "Orchard  Oak."  Most  of  this  was  not  fullj^ 
grown,  and  I  may  say,  never  did  nor  will  attain  full  growth. 
No  one  thought  at  the  time  that  that  slow  grass-fire  was 
Nature's  process  of  preparing  a  seed-bed  for  the  red  and 
yellow  fir  that  would  grow  up  so  thick  as  to  arrest  and  in 
many  cases  utterly  kill  the  deep-rooting  oak;  but  it  did,  and 
I  can  take  any  Doubting  Thomas  to  half  a  dozen  places  I 
have  recently  visited,  where  dead  oaks  stand  as  witnesses. 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  131 

It  may  be  worth  while  here  to  ask  the  causes  of  this  phe- 
nomenon. In  the  writer's  view,  at  the  beginning  of  the  con- 
test between  the  species  of  trees,  the  hundreds  of  young  firs 
begin  the  contest  by  drinking  the  waters  of  tree-life  as  they 
fall— the  myriads  of  sponge-like  rootlets  of  the  young  firs 
absorbing  the  rainfall  before  it  reaches  the  oak  roots  in  suffi- 
cient quantity  to  promote  growth;  the  weaker  firs  perish  as 
growth  progresses,  and  by  the  time  the  fir  reaches  the  height 
of  the  oak,  the  many  are  robbing  the  one,  or  few,  oaks  of  the 
air  and  light  as  well  as  the  rain  from  heaven.  The  end  of 
growth  of  the  oak  has  come,  and  in  some  cases  complete  death, 
to  which  end  the  appropriation  of  air  and  light  at  the  last  by 
the  conifers  seems  most  effective. 

In  my  view,  the  general  level  of  life-sustaining  moisture  in 
the  cultivated  portions  of  Western  Oregon  has  lowered,  in  the 
sixty  years  of  my  observations,  in  many  places  not  less  than 
two  feet;  in  some  places,  ten.  The  ditching  to  drain  road- 
beds, both  common  and  rail,  and  drains  for  field  crops  and 
cultivated  fruits  and  hops,  and  even  ornamental  trees  and 
plants,  have  all  tended  to  absorb  the  life-giving  surface  mois- 
ture. Added  to  the  loss  by  natural  laws,  is  the  artificial  loss 
of  moisture  by  the  curing  of  hay,  drying  of  grain  crops, 
prunes  and  other  fruits,  and  hops.*  Long-keeping  apples 
shipped  to  New  York,  London  and  other  markets  carry  80  per 
cent  of  their  weight  in  water.  Is  it  worth  while  to  inquire  the 
effect  of  increasing  or  diminishing  the  flow  of  streams  from 
a  well-cultivated  country,  when  we  know  in  reason  that  every 
process  of  removal  or  even  breakage  of  the  tissues  of  plant 
life  means  the  severance  of  minute  channels  for  the  passage 
of  water  we  call  sap  from  the  ground,  as  a  sponge,  into  the 
plants  growing  upon  its  surface  as  pumps,  and  the  general 
effect  is  that  the  Willamette  Valley  has  largely  ceased  to  be 
the  home  of  the  crane,  curlew,  gray  plover,  and  even  the 
snipe,  as  well  as  the  beaver,  muskrat  and  wild  duck.  These 
damp-land  and  water  fowls  and  animals,  which  once  found 

— — '  '     f  "'■   '  -n 

*Many  observers  believe  the  evaporation  of  hay  and  grain  crops  has 
modified  the  summer  climate,  giving  more  cloudy  days. 


132  John  Minto. 

here  their  breeding  places,  have  gone  forever,  unless  farmers 
in  the  near  future  construct  artificial  fish-ponds,  and  reser- 
voirs for  irrigation  when  needed.  That  can  and  will  be  done, 
doubtless,  but  the  beaver's  method  of  impeding  the  run-off 
and  keeping  the  silt  from  going  to  sea,  should  not  be  ignored, 
but  fully  credited,  for  I  think  it  checked  the  run-off  more 
than  any  other  cause.  Indeed,  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
within  a  very  few  years,  experiment  will  be  made  with  surface 
irrigation  in  the  Willamette  Valley,  both  by  the  United  States 
Government  and  private  enterprise,  in  raising  particular 
crops.  It  may  even  be  conceded  that  the  use  of  water  by  hose 
on  city  garden  lots  and  grounds  has  already  settled  the  ques- 
tion of  economy  on  that  point.  For  scenic  embellishment 
alone  every  farm  of  160  acres  should,  where  possible,  have  a 
pond  of  living  water  deep  and  cool  enough  to  breed  and 
keep  trout  or  bass. 

While  I  was  making  preparations,  I  located  my  cabin  on  the 
spot  commanding  most  completely  the  entire  valley,  and  150 
yards  or  more  from  living  surface  water.  But  when  she  came 
for  whom  I  was  making  ready,  I  slowly  realized  my  mistake 
and  subsequently  put  the  correct  location  into  measure  in  the 
following  lines : 

"We  will  build  our  home  by  the  hill,  Love, 
Wlience  the  spring  to  the  brooklet  flows. 
On  the  gentle  slope  where  the  lambkins  play 
In  the  scent  of  the  sweet  wild  rose." 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  reader  may  take  note  of  these  facts :  from  January  25, 
1845,  until  about  seven  weeks  before  my  marriage  on  July  8, 
1847,  I  labored  at  any  kind  of  unskilled  work  that  offered, 
and  at  such  wages  as  were  offered,  without  a  suspicion  that 
at  the  first  intimation  that  Martha  Ann  Morrison  had  con- 
sented to  marry  me  I  was  to  be  estimated  at  what  I  was  worth 
as  a  husband,  as  unfeelingly,  it  seemed,  as  though  I  were  one 
of  the  wooden  plows  or  harrows  Captain  Morrison  was  so  good 
at  making.    His  desire  to  engage  me  to  build  him  a  log  barn 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  133 

gave  me  the  opportunity  to  inform  him  that  his  daughter  and 
I  had  agreed  to  marry  and  make  our  home  on  a  spot  where  I 
had  already  made  a  beginning.  He  may  have  expected  that;  he 
only  made  the  objection  that  his  daughter  was  yet  very  young 
and  needed  to  be  in  school,  which  was  true,  but  we  were 
neither  of  us  at  a  reasonable  age,  I  near  twenty-five,  she  six- 
teen. It  was  Mrs.  B.  C.  Kindred,  a  grand-daughter  of  Daniel 
Boone,  who  denounced  my  proposal  as  an  outrage,  "When  the 
girl  had  a  choice  from  all  kinds  of  men  near  home."  It  was 
a  year  after  the  event  that  I  learned  that  the  noble  mother 
settled  the  confab  by  quietly  remarking,  "Well,  if  day's 
wages  will  support  a  home,  John  Minto's  wife  will  have  one, 
for  I  know  there  is  not  a  lazy  bone  in  him."  The  fact  was,  I 
never  worked  a  day  on  wages  from  the  time  the  girl  consented, 
except  for  Oregon  and  the  United  States.  We  had,  indeed, 
wdthin  the  first  fifteen  months  of  our  life  together,  to  be 
happy  on  what  would  now  seem  impossible  conditions,  but  we 
were  happy,  because  hope  was  always  with  us. 

The  Cayuse  war  called  to  soldier's  duty  and  sacrifice;  fol- 
lowed shortly  by  the  gold  rush  to  California,  which,  though 
delaying  our  plans  nearly  a  year,  gave  means  to  carry  them 
out  more  swiftly  and  completely  than  would  have  been  the 
case  had  not  the  "yellow  dirt"  made  possible  the  finest  of 
rare  fruits  and  flowers,  of  which  I  availed  myself  with  a  zest 
and  enjoyment  which  was  only  half  expressed  by  my  reply 
to  an  able  Methodist  minister,  when,  three  years  later,  he 
came  upon  me  unaware  while  I  was  loosening  the  graft-bands 
of  a  crab-apple  tree  onto  which  I  had  worked  six  varieties  of 
popular  apples  and  was  singing  at  my  work,  and  remarked, 
"You  seem  happy.  Brother  John."  "Yes,  Brother  Roberts," 
I  answered,  "Just  now  I  would  not  swap  with  Adam  before 
his  fall,"  and  the  preacher  made  no  reply.  Perhaps  he 
thought  me  irreverent,  but  I  had  no  such  thought,  and  that 
has  been  the  experience  of  my  life  when  working  to  enrich 
and  beautify  the  earth. 

Of  course  our  natural  enemies  were  plentiful;  the  large 
wolves  prowling  in  bands;  the  black  bear,  the  panther,  the 


134  John  Minto. 

lynx,  and  the  small  wolf  or  coyote,  as  cunning  as  the  fox  (also 
abounding)  and  bolder.  Then  birds  of  prey  from  the  sparrow- 
hawk  to  the  eagle.  Enemies  to  the  successful  keeping  of  do- 
mestic fowls,  sheep,  pigs,  calves  or  colts  were  so  numerous 
that  when  we  got  a  start  of  sheep  in  1849,  my  wife,  spinning 
wool  on  our  cabin  porch,  kept  the  loaded  rifle  within  her 
reach — in  the  use  of  which  I  had  given  her  lessons  on  the  day 
succeeding  our  marriage. 

Thinking  back  to  those  early  days,  it  seems  as  though  there 
must  have  been  a  reciprocal  spirit  of  fruitfulness  and  peace 
between  the  soil  and  its  cultivators.  Especially  did  this  seem 
so  with  fruits;  I  had  planted  a  small  apple  orchard  of  two- 
year-old  seedlings  in  1850.  In  returning  from  the  United 
States  Land  Office  in  1851,  where  I  had  proved  my  right  to 
a  donation  of  640  acres  for  myself  and  wife,  in  proof  of  which 
Surveyor-Generpl  Preston  thought  it  his  duty  to  send  the  cer- 
tificate of  declaration  of  intention  of  citizenship  made  in 
Washington  County,  Pennsylvania,  to  Washington,  I  was  so 
delayed  on  my  way  home  that  I  appealed  to  Alfred  A.  Stan- 
ton, whose  acquaintance  I  had  already  made,  for  a  night's 
entertainment— a  boon  freely  granted— by  which,  in  addition 
to  forming  a  life-long  friendship  with  the  united  heads  of  my 
ideal  American  farm  home,  I  learned  from  Mr.  Stanton,  who 
had  charge  of  a  branch  of  the  fruit  nursery  of  Luelling  and 
Meek,  how  to  set  a  side  graft.  I  purchased  trees  of  different 
varieties  of  fruits,  after  a  close  study  of  "Johnson's  Diction- 
ary of  Gardening,"  Americanized  by  J).  Landreth,  of  Phila- 
delphia, grafting  with  all  available  young  wood  from  trees 
so  purchased.  In  some  cases  I  had  specimens  the  first  year 
from  the  graft. 

I  cannot  express  the  measure  of  delight  my  beginnings  in 
pomology  gave  me.  I  learned  of  the  kinship  of  certain  trees ; 
for  instance,  the  hawthorn,  service,  quince  and  mountain  ash 
to  the  pear,  and  on  my  own  low  ground  transplanted  strong, 
thrifty  black  haw,  and  head-grafted  Avith  pound  pear,  Fall 
Butter,  and  other  pears,  and  was  using  the  first  mentioned 
baked  as  a  table  dish  before  some  of  my  neighbors  had  ob- 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  135 

served  a  native  thorn  in  Oregon.  With  a  Fall  Butter  from 
thorn  stock  I  received  first  prize  at  the  first  exhibit  of  the 
Oregon  Pomological  Society  held  at  Salem.  I  head-grafted 
the  small,  bitter  wild  cherry  with  Kentish  and  May  Duke,  and 
got  fruit  the  second  year,  and  heavy  crops  the  third.  Just  to 
show  it  could  be  done,  I  set  grafts  of  the  Gloria  Mundi  apple 
into  the  native  crab,  the  apples  of  which  are  not  larger  than 
a  raisin,  though  the  Glory  of  the  Earth  sometimes  reached 
thirty  ounces  in  weight. 

But  while  exploring  this  field  and  its  almost  boundless  pos- 
sibilities, I  went  down  as  well  as  up  in  my  observations,  and 
learned  the  secret  of  fern  seed — how  it  starts  from  a  small 
speck  of  reddish  dust  and  covers  a  recent  forest-fire  area  with 
fern  three  feet  high  after  the  first  year,*  and  learned  the  pro- 
creative  processes  of  the  misletoe— the  sacred  plant  of  the 
Druids.  I  also  learned  to  tell  my  discoveries  to  others  with 
the  pen. 

I  sold  my  first  crop  of  apples  and  pears  on  the  trees  at  14 
cents  per  pound— the  buyer  picking,  weighing  and  packing  in 
boxes  with  dry  moss  to  prevent  movement,  as  they  were  hauled 
by  six-mule  teams  to  Yreka  mining  camps,  in  California— the 
Seckel  pears  bringing  $4.00  per  pound.  My  second  and  third 
apple  crops  were  sold  to  the  late  J.  M.  Strowbridge  at  10  and 
12  cents  per  pound,  packed  in  seasoned  balm-wood  boxes,  and 
hauled  to  West  Portland  by  way  of  Boone's  Ferry. 

I  had  the  care  of  this  640-acre  farm,  stocked  with  horses, 
cattle,  swine  and  sheep  and  seventeen  acres  planted  to  orchard, 
comprising  the  choicest  varieties  of  apples,  pears,  peaches, 
cherries,  plums  and  small  fruits.  These  and  the  sheep  gave 
me  occupation  and  means  of  advancing  in  knowledge  far  more 
appreciated  than  the  money  they  sold  for,  M^hieh  was  ample 
for  our  needs. 

From  the  end  of  my  first  year  of  ownership  I  found  that 


*In  1849  I  was  at  what  is  now  Olney  with  its  first  settler,  Hiram 
Carnahan.  A  sliort  distance  up  the  Klaskanie  a  burn  had  Itilled  a  body 
of  timber  in  1848.  His  mention  of  seedling  fern  made  me  desire  to  see  it. 
On  the  shaded  sides  of  burnt  logs  were  strips  of  light  green.  It  was  fern 
with  its  first  fronds  four  to  six  inches  high  and  a  root  on  each  side.  In 
1854  fern  was  four  to  six  feet  high  and  hid  cattle. 


136  John  Minto. 

sheep-breeding  was  my  special  vocation  if  I  had  one.  I  was 
surrounded  by  scenes  of  delight  and  varied  interests,  all 
pleasant,  but  the  sheep  were  a  delightful  care.  I  learned  to 
be  veiy  expert  in  killing  their  worst  enemy,  the  coyote,  and 
my  success  with  their  breeding  gave  me  character;  as,  before 
means  of  improvement  by  breeds  of  prominent  excellence  were 
imported  into  Oregon,  I  had  by  selection  kept  my  little  flock 
up  in  quality  so  that  buyers  sought  them  at  twice  the  common 
price.  I  can  give  no  other  reason  for  this,  than  that  their 
care  was  a  pleasure,  and  I  have  often  taken  my  blanket  and 
slept  in  the  fence  corner  of  the  pasture  to  guard  them. 

By  this  time  the  remarkable  energies  of  the  people  were 
supplying  themselves  with  fruit  and  grain  and  beginning  to 
export  wheat  and  wool.  Californians  had  done  both  the  latter 
since  about  1858,  and  their  most  intelligent  land-owners  had 
begun  to  import  the  world-famed  Merino  sheep  from  Vermont 
and  Australia.  The  same  H.  Luelling  who  blessed  Oregon  by 
hauling  to  the  State  a  very  full  collection  of  grafted  fruit 
trees,  in  1847,  was  selling  trees  as  well  as  fruit  in  California 
in  1856,  and  had  a  ten-acre  nursery  lot  at  Oakland.  We  in 
Oregon  were  beginning  to  import  cattle  and  sheep  of  English 
breeds.  Some  fine-wooled  sheep  had  been  brought  across  the 
plains  in  1847  and  1848.  Martin  Jesse,  of  Yamhill  County, 
returning  from  the  California  mines,  heard  a  call  of  sale  of 
Merino  sheep  on  the  wharf  at  San  Francisco.  He  bought 
twenty  head  from  Macather  Brothers,  of  Camden  Park,  New 
South  AVales,  certified  to  be  of  pure  blood,  drawn  by  the 
father  of  the  sellers  from  the  Kew  flock  of  George  III,  King 
of  England,  who  owed  to  the  courtesy  of  ^he  Marchioness  del 
Campo  de  Alange  the  privilege  of  drawing  his  first  pure 
Merinos  from  her  flock,  for  which  he  thanked  her  with  a 
present  of  eight  English  Coach  horses ;  making  these  the  best 
pedigreed  sheep  in  the  United  States  when  they  arrived  in 
Oregon. 

I  did  not  know  of  the  presence  in  Oregon  of  those  Australian 
Merinos  until  two  years  later,  but  was  using  half-blood  INIer- 
inos  from  Ohio  and  a  like  grade  of  Southdown  imported  by  the 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  137 

Puget  Sound  Agricultural  Company,  a  pro-British  addition 
to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  formed  so  as  to  have  a  claim 
of  occupancy  to  the  north  bank  of  the  Columbia  River  in  the 
settlement  of  the  Oregon  boundary;  which,  being  settled  in 
favor  of  American  occupation,  caused  the  sheep  of  the  Puget 
Sound  Agricultural  Company  to  be  sent  for  sale  to  the  Wil- 
lamette Valley  settlements  (1854.)  By  my  experiments  with 
these  grades  I  was  deemed  by  friends  qualified  to  judge  of 
the  value— to  the  sheep  industry  of  Oregon — of  the  first  im- 
portation of  pure  Merinos  into  Oregon  by  the  breeding  firm 
of  Rockwell  and  Jones,  of  Addison  County,  Vermont,  in  1860. 
Being  invited  to  see  the  first  six  sheep  brought  to  Salem  by 
this  firm,  I  was  unable  to  credit  the  statement  of  their  annual 
Aveight  of  fleece  made  to  me  by  Mr.  Rockwell,  and  turned 
away  from  attempting  to  purchase.  I  went  home,  however,  to 
read  up  in  such  history  of  breeds  of  sheep  as  was  then  written. 
There  I  learned  that  from  the  time  of  Roman  rule,  the  nation 
that  possessed  the  most  of  this  fine-wooled  breed  of  sheep 
always  had  the  world's  market  for  the  finest  woolen  goods. 
Hence  I  learned  that  kings  and  noblemen  of  Europe  had  for 
a  century  been  striving  to  secure  the  Merino  breed  of  sheep 
from  Spain.  That  in  the  strife  for  the  power  this  gave. 
Saxony  was  the  seat  of  manufacture  of  the  finest  broad- 
cloths; France,  of  the  lightest,  finest  ladies'  w^ear;  England, 
of  the  heavy  broadcloths  and  Merino  goods,  best  for  woman's 
wear  in  such  a  climate.  That  the  race  of  sheep  furnishing  the 
material  for  these  manufactures  were  best  suited  to  dry 
upland  pastures,  and,  more  than  any  other  breed  approaching 
the  same  value,  capable  of  finding  self-support  on  wild  pas- 
turage. I  was  thas  ready  to  take  the  offer  of  my  neighbor, 
Joseph  Holman,  who  had  joined  Rev.  J.  L.  Parrish  in  the 
purchase  of  Australian  Merino  from  the  Martin  Jesse  import, 
and  that  of  Jones  and  Rockwell  of  Vermont.  Mr.  Holman  of- 
fered me  the  undivided  half  of  ten  head  of  pure-bred  Merinos 
which  cost  him  $1,012.00,  and  compensation  for  the  keep  and 
management  of  his  share.  I  thus  got  among  the  pioneer 
breeders  of  this  valuable  race  of  sheep  for  $506.00,  and  it  was 


138  John  Minto. 

well  worth  it,  from  a  breeder's  standpoint.  Of  course  I  was 
laughed  at,  but  the  time  soon  came  for  me  to  smile.  I  re- 
ceived most  of  the  awards  for  excellence  at  the  last  County 
Fair  held  in  Marion  County,  and  at  the  first  State  Fair,  held 
on  the  banks  of  the  Clackamas  in  1861,  selling  the  first  lamb 
there  for  $100.00,  and  in  succeeding  years  I  received,  I  think, 
more  than  400  awards  at  the  State  Fairs  on  sheep  and  wool. 
But  always,  the  gain  to  me  personally  was  beyond  the  money 
value  of  my  flock  or  m.y  care  of  it.  My  study  of  the  value 
of  the  sheep  and  wool  interests  to  the  nation  being  of  such 
service  to  a  great  public  interest  that  when  the  Secretary  of 
Agriculture  wanted  a  man  to  report  to  his  office  the  condi- 
tion of  sheep  husbandry,  the  Oregon  delegation  went  in  a 
body  to  him  and  asked  for  my  appointment;  and  I  thus  be- 
came the  representative  of  that  interest  from  the  Pacific  Coast 
States  and  Territories  in  the  National  Report  on  the  Sheep  of 
the  United  States,  in  1892,  a  book  of  1,000  pages  from  the 
Department  of  Agriculture. 

I  still  maintained  my  interest  in  fruit  growing  when  em- 
barking in  sheep  breeding  as  a  special  line ;  I  farmed,  however, 
mainly  for  my  stock,  though  paying  close  attention  to  the 
best  grains  and  grasses  for  my  locality.  In  1853  the  first 
Farmers'  Club  in  Oregon  was  organized  at  my  residence. 
Four  years  later  I  was  a  member  of  the  first  County  Agricul- 
tural Society  formed  in  Marion  County  and  the  State.  In 
1860,  the  attempt  to  form  a  State  Agricultural  Society  began 
at  Portland;  but  it  being  desirable  to  unite  all  interests  of  the 
soil,  and  most  members  of  the  Oregon  Pomological  Society 
being  in  Marion  County,  the  friends  of  the  larger  plan  met 
at  Salem.  I  had  a  somewhat  boyish  bashfulness  at  such  con- 
sultations. While  the  others  (and  they  were  not  many,  there 
rarely  are  when  public-spirited  work  is  to  be  done)  were  earn- 
estly discussing  plans  for  the  holding  of  the  first  State  Fair, 
and  where  it  should  be  held,  I  wrote  off  an  imitation  of  Robert 
Burns'  inviting  farmers  to  their  duty  as  citizens,  which  I  had 
composed  while  at  work  in  the  harvest  field  of  my  friend  and 
neighbor,  Daniel  Clark,  whom  I  had  joined  in  the  purchase  of 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  139 

oue  of  the  first  harvesting  machines  imported  into  Marion 
County.  It  was  intended  to  aid  suggestions  of  the  Oregonian, 
that  the  farmers,  as  yet  all  in  Western  Oregon,  increase 
their  production  of  wheat  and  attract  the  world's  markets  to 
Oregon  as  a  source  of  supply.  The  reader  will  note  that  my 
own  chosen  lines  of  labor  come  first  to  mind.  It  was  headed 
"The  Oregon  Farmers'  Song,"  and  was  given  to  Alfred 
Walling,  then  trying  to  establish  a  farmers'  paper,  and  was 
published  in  his  "Oregon  Farmer,"  I  think  as  follows: 

"Ye  farmers,  friends  of  Oregon,  respected  brethren  of  the  plow, 

Waver  not,  but  labor  on.     Your  country's  hopes  are  all  on  you. 

You  have  your  homes  upon  her  breast,  you  have  your  liberty  and  laws. 

Your  own  right  hands  must  do  the  rest.     Then  forward, In  your  country's 


"To  shear  the  fleece,  the  steer  to  feed,  and  for  your  pleasure  or  your  gain 
To  rear  and  tame  the  high-bred  steed  and  bring  him  subject  to  your  rein ; 
To  prune  the  tree,  to  plow  the  land,  and  duly,  as  the  seasons  come, 
Scatter  the  seed  with  liberal  hand  and  bring  the  bounteous  harvest  home. 

"To  stand  for  justice,  truth  and  right,  against  oppression,  fraud  and  wrong. 
And  by  your  power,  your  legal  might,  succor  the  weak  against  the  strong ; 
The  seeds  of  knowledge  deeply  plant,  restrain  ambition,  pride  and  greed  ; 
See  that  all  labor,  and  none  want  of  labor's  fruits,  to  help  their  need. 

"These  are  your  duties ;  and  the  gain  which  you'll  receive  as  your  reward 
Will  be  your  own  and  your  country's  fame,  in  every  honest  man's  regard. 
Then,  friends  and  neighbors,  labor  on  to  bring  our  State  up  with  the  best 
And  make  our  much-loved  Oregon   the  brightest  star  in  all  the  West." 

Later,  the  following  was  added  at  a  recitation  at  a  Grange 
picnic  held  at  the  State  Fair  Grounds  at  Salem : 

"And  you,  my  sister  helpmates  true,  who  share  our  labors — bless  our  lives, 
In  honor  still  we'll  share  with  you  whatever  joys  these  labors  give  ; 
And  may  the  great  all-seeing  One,  our  Guardian  and  Protector  be ; 
Unite  us  all ;  make  us  as  one,  for  Union,  Progress,  Liberty !" 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  wording  and  measure  are  closely 
related  to  Burns'  "Farewell  to  the  Masonic  Lodge  at  Tarbol- 
ton,"  and  that  the  third  line  is  from  Scott's  "Lady  of  the 
Lake."  The  reach  of  sentiment  is  more  than  covered  by  the 
writing  of  both  the  patriotic  Scots,  but  I  had  made  them  my 
own  in  their  application  to  my  exceedingly  free  and  happy 
life  as  a  learning  farmer  of  Oregon  soil,  so  that  when  called 


140  John  Minto. 

on  to  recite  I  told  the  assembled  people  that  I  could  sing  the 
lines  better  than  read  them,  and  did,  much  to  their  apparent 
pleasure.  Is  it  all  vanity  makes  me  believe  that  giving  pleas- 
ure in  that  way  to  two  thousand  people,  was  work  well  done  ? 
From  this  time  on  I  began  to  communicate  such  experiences 
and  results  in  the  care  of  livestock  as  I  thought  would  benefit 
others  to  know,  through  the  press,  and  found  myself  already 
somewhat  of  an  authority  on  breeds  of  sheep  as  well  as  fruit 
culture. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  QUESTION  OF  SUFFICIENT  TIMBER. 

This  question  not  only  came  to  us,  starting  on  640  acres  of 
beautiful-lying  land,  well  watered  by  more  than  a  dozen 
living  springs,  and  two  miles  of  running  water  running  from 
west  to  east  across  it,  but  with  only  about  five  acres  of  timber 
of  convenient  size  for  building  and  fencing.  At  that  time, 
standing  at  the  Oregon  Institute  at  Salem  and  looking  west 
at  the  Polk  County  hills,  the  remark  was  very  commonly  made 
that  there  was  too  little  timber  in  the  Willamette  Valley.  On 
the  day  of  a  called  meeting  at  the  store  of  the  venerable 
Thomas  Cox  (who  had  hauled  his  goods  across  the  plains 
from  Illinois)  to  receive  subscriptions  or  contributions  in 
support  of  the  war  against  the  Cayuses,  November,  1847,  V. 
K.  Pringle  and  Father  Cox  got  into  a  warm  discussion  on  the 
prospective  timber  supply,  the  former  claiming  a  certain 
scarcity  in  the  near  future.  Mr.  Cox  said,  "No."  There 
was  plenty  to  start  with,  and  with  the  pasturing  of  the  grass 
while  green,  grass  fires  would  cease  and  timber  would  come 
up  in  plenty ;  and  that  was  precisely  what  was  taking  place  at 
that  very  time,  though  unnoted  yet,  on  more  than  a  to\iTiship 
of  land  in  which  Mr.  Pringle  settled. 

It  was  March,  1850,  before  I  found  there  was  no  need  for 
me  to  gather  fir  cones  to  scatter  for  timber.  On  a  real  spring 
Sunday  I  went  Math  my  wife  and  child  up  on  the  beaver- 
shaped  hill  Avhich  divides  the  two  streams  I  have  mentioned. 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  141 

and  wliich  gave  almost  a  complete  bird's-eye  view  of  the  half 
section  allotted  to  my  wife.  Facing  east,  we  had  on  my  side 
a  beautiful  aspen  grove  in  the  northeast  corner,  inclosing  a 
beaver  pond,  varying  in  size  from  a  half  acre  in  summer  to 
two  acres  in  winter.  On  the  southeast  corner,  Battle  Creek 
ran  into  a  beaver  swamp  of  fifty  acres  or  more  in  winter,  but 
shrinking  to  a  pond  of  about  three  acres  in  summer.  Both 
of  these  were  natural  duck  ponds,  and  until  late  summer  the 
fringes  of  willoM',  ash,  alder,  aspen  and  green  grass  made 
breeding  grounds  for  ducks,  snipe,  curlew,  woodcock,  plover 
and  crane,  and  the  deer  hid  their  fawns  in  the  tall,  ferny 
outer  margin. 

From  Beaver  Hill,  so  called  by  the  Indians  because  of  its 
form,  we  could  see  almost  her  entire  south  line,  the  southwest 
corner  containing  the  five  acres  of  good  building  timber, 
mostly  not  half  grown.  We  were  talking  of  the  necessity  of 
providing  for  more  timber,  and  looking  at  the  steep  hillside 
across  the  valley  of  Battle  Creek  from  us,  when  I  noticed 
numerous  dark  spots  in  the  whitish,  bleached  seed-grass  of  the 
hillside.  We  were  speculating  about  that  when  two  or  three 
sows  came  in  sight,  running  from  one  oak  tree  to  another, 
feeding.  Judging  that  they  were  some  of  the  more  than  half- 
wiid  swine  which  Mr.  Carter  had  given  me  as  an  inducement 
to  take  care  of  his  family  and  farm  during  his  absence  in 
California,  I  asked  my  wife  to  remain  there  while  I  ran 
across  the  valley,  about  half  a  mile,  to  see  if  the  sows  w^ere  in 
my  mark.  Before  getting  to  them  I  found  that  the  dark  spots 
we  had  noted  were  young  firs  showing  out  of  the  past  year's 
seed-gra.ss.  The  pigs  were  mine  also,  and  I  joined  my  wife 
feeling  richer,  with  reference  to  our  future  timber  supply. 

For  years  after  our  settlement  I  got  most  of  our  fuel  from 
fallen  limbs  of  very  large  and  old  oaks  dead  or  dying  from 
age.  In  many  cases  the  bark  and  sap  wood  was  burned  off, 
and  the  remainder  made  splendid  house  fires.  It  was  about 
1857  when  a  stranger,  who  had  asked  for  a  night's  enter- 
tainment for  himself  and  his  horse,  sat  before  such  a  fire 
and  gave  me  the  first  hint  of  the  error  into  which  mv  love 


142  John  Minto. 

of  fruit  growing  might  lead  me.  I  was  trying  wdth  poor 
success  to  get  some  instructive  talk  from  him,  and  mentioned 
fruit  culture  as  one  of  Oregon's  reliable  resources.  He  w?s 
slow  to  answer ;  looking  into  the  oak-wood  fire  and  moving  hi.^ 
head  in  emphasis  of  his  conclusions,  he  spoke  more  to  the  firo 
than  to  me:  "Not  a  necessity  of  life— soon  be  cheap  enough." 
Nine  words,  that  saved  me  the  folly  of  wasting  investment  and 
labor  in  planting  twenty  acres  of  additional  apple  orchard 
where  wise  foresight  called  for  twenty  acres  of  good  hay.  I 
had  got  it,  in  part,  by  ditching  through  my  aspen  grove  and 
killing  the  beaver  with  gun  and  dog,  thus  destroying  their 
pond  as  a  trout  pool.  I  could  not  now  restore  it  with  a 
thousand  dollars  outlay.  Of  course  it  required  ten  years  of 
time  to  indicate  to  me  the  probable  folly  of  what  I  had  done, 
and  those  years  required  much  labor  to  check  the  forest  growth 
from  spreading  too  fast  and  far  over  my  natural  sheep  pastur- 
age by  means  of  the  winged  seed  of  the  yellow  fir — a  few  old 
trees  of  which  stood  on  my  highest  land,  immune  from  the 
grass  fires  of  former  times  by  the  fact  that  they  had  rooted 
upon  the  top  out-cropping  of  a  wide  vein  of  rose  quartz,  pre- 
cisely like  that  of  the  Quartzville  mining  camp  on  the  Santiam, 
as  I  discovered  by  riding  in  there  when  the  indications  were 
first  found,  when  I  picked  out  of  the  vein  myself  about  $1.50 
in  gold  from  fifty  pounds  of  quartz  chippings. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   SPIRIT   OP   FREEDOM   IN   OREGON. 

I  have  now  in  my  narrative  come  to  the  edge  of  my  life 
where  I  think  it  should  be  instructive  to  future  workers  as 
well  as  of  interest  as  past  local  history.  ^ly  chief  reason  for 
writing  it  now  is  past  promises  to  friends  that  I  would  do  so, 
to  show  the  conditions  first  met,  and  a  belief  that  the  last 
forty -seven  years  of  it  may  interest  my  co-laborers  in  the 
future  development  of  our  State,  by  reviving  memories  of 
what  they  themselves  have  contributed  to  Oregon's  advance- 
ment, and  also,  perhaps,  encourage  the  young  by  suggesting 
honorable  lines  of  endeavor  yet  to  be  occupied. 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  143 

In  my  judgment,  the  men  who  won  Oregon,  by  occupation, 
from  the  power  of  Great  Britain,  as  represented  by  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company,  had  no  equals  as  independent  colonizers. 
It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  to  dwell  on  the  prominent  indi- 
vidual traits  and  acts  of  the  very  many  of  them  whom  it  was 
my  good  fortune  to  know,  and  in  some  cases  to  act  with.  But 
so  many  have  left  their  own  mark  on  the  history  of  their 
time,  and  men  like  M.  P.  Deady  and  J.  W.  Nesmith,  George 
H.  Williams  and  R.  P.  Boise,  H.  W.  Scott  and  W.  D.  Fenton 
have  so  illustrated  the  value  of  preparation,  that  I  have  little 
hope  of  adding  anything  worth  reading.  I  can  only  agree 
with  the  estimate  of  my  friend,  ex-Governor  W.  P.  Lord,  that 
there  never  was  a  body  of  men  better  fitted  for  the  work  they 
did  in  winning  Oregon  than  those  who  were  in  advance  of  the 
United  States'  power  and  laid  the  foundations  of  government 
in  Oregon  which  remain  yet,  with  additions  more  questionable. 

Nesmith  and  Deady  did  not  owe  so  much  to  early  training 
as  boys  as  they  did  to  self -culture  in  early  manhood.  The 
former,  a  rough  carpenter  at  best,  was  a  natural  boss  of  a 
logging  camp,  and  that  is  what  he  was  during  most  of  his 
first  year  in  Oregon,  studying  at  the  same  time  how  to  fill  the 
position  of  probate  judge  of  Clackamas  County,  then  bounded 
by  the  Willamette  River  on  the  west  and  the  Rocky  Mountains 
on  the  east.  Mr.  Deady  settled  in  the  Umpqua  and  labored 
as  a  blacksmith  for  self  support  at  first.  R,  P.  Boise  came 
as  a  well-read  lawyer,  but  loved  the  free  life  of  the  land.  In 
regard  to  it  as  a  means  of  living,  he  had  what  I  heard  Judge 
Williams  say  when  instructing  a  jury,  "That  common  sense  is 
the  best  law."  Judges  Williams,  Pratt  and  Strong  came 
under  appointments.  H.  W.  Scott  learned  the  use  of  the  ox- 
whip,  ax,  and  gun,  before  he  began  the  studies  from  which  he 
graduated  to  the  ambition  of  founding  a  great  paper,  of 
which  the  Oregonian  is  the  result.  Of  Mr.  Fenton 's  youth  I 
am  not  informed,  and  that  might  be  said  of  the  majority  of 
the  men  who  came  or  were  drawn  toward  the  front  of  public 
affairs  during  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  Oregon's  gov- 
ernmental history. 


144  John  Minto. 

It  was  the  love  of  freedom,  more  than  any  other  motive, 
that  settled  Oregon.  The  man  to  whom  I  gladly  became  an 
assistant  on  the  way  to  Oregon  told  his  kinsmen  and  neighbors 
in  my  hearing  that  he  was  going  to  Oregon,  ' '  AVhere  there  are 
no  slaves  and  men  will  all  start  even."  He  and  a  large  ma- 
jority of  those  who  were  here  when  the  Oregon  Boundary 
Treaty  was  settled  in  1846,  were  what  were  called  "Free  Soil 
Democrats"  and  believed  that  a  settler  on  the  public  domain 
bad  all  the  right  to  make  his  local  law  that  a  citizen  of  the 
oldest  State  had ;  and  that  the  man  who  took  another  man 
from  a  slave  State  as  a  slave,  into  unorganized  public  domain, 
made  that  slave  his  own  equal  in  natural  rights.  Being  a 
citizen  by  adoption,  I  was  free  from  the  influence  which  being 
born  in  a  slave  State  had  over  good  men  who  had  left  such 
States  to  get  away  from  the  institution.  Always  deeming 
myself  a  soldier  of  and  for  the  United  States  if  the  need 
arose,  I  never  disguised  my  sentiments  but  beyond  that,  took 
little  note  of  politics.  Like  a  large  proportion  of  foreign-born 
citizens,  I  classed  myself  a  Democrat,  but  never  could  under- 
stand how  a  real  Democrat  could  believe  in  holding  another 
man  in  slavery. 

I  watched  intently  the  growth  of  the  seccession  sentiment, 
and  at  a  primary  Democratic  meeting  held  in  Saiem,  first 
felt  constrained  to  publicly  declare  my  views.  The  Democrats 
most  active  as  leaders  had  a  resolution  generally  submitted 
soon  after  a  meeting  was  organized,  which  bound  participants 
in  advance  to  support  the  nominees  who  should  be  named  by 
the  majority  present,  and  this  proposition  was  about  to  be 
voted  on,  as  was  usual.  I  got  to  my  feet  just  in  time  and 
said:  "Mr.  Chairman,  I  beg  to  say  that  I  will  not  support 
that  resolution,  and  will  not  be  bound  by  it  if  it  passes."  A 
man  called  out,  "Why?"  "Mr.  Chairman,  I'll  tell  the  gentle- 
man why.  Before  we  can  know  the  names  of  those  whom  this 
meeting  is  preliminary  to  nominating,  the  Charleston  Conven- 
tion will  have  met  to  nominate  the  national  officers,  and  :i,ll 
signs  point  to  a  division  between  those  who  desire  to  extend 
slavery  and  those  who  are  opposed  to  its  extension ;  and  I  wish 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  145 

to  say  here  and  now,  that  no  resolution  you  can  pass  shall 
bind  me  to  vote  for  slavery. ' '  The  vote  was  not  put,  and  the 
meeting  dissolved  in  excitement.  I  had  spoken  in  time.  Two 
years  later  I  was  named  to  serve  in  the  lower  house  of  the 
legislature  as  a  representative  adopted  citizen. 

I  was  disappointed  in  finding  a  proportion  of  English-born 
men  indifferent  to  the  success  of  the  national  cause  in  the 
impending  struggle  and  a  few  actively  in  sympathy  with  seces- 
sion. This  last  was  true  in  a  greater  degree  among  Irish-born 
citizens,  but  I  ascribed  their  feeling  to  a  natural  sympathy 
with  the  weaker  side  in  the  contest ;  their  born  relations  to  the 
stronger  and  harsher  rule  of  England  over  Ireland  being  the 
fundamental  cause.  Col.  E.  D.  Baker,  in  his  speeches  in  Ore- 
gon, but  still  more  in  his  address  in  Union  Square,  New  York, 
represented  me  better  than  I  could  have  done  myself. 

As  was  customary,  however,  I  was  expected  to  state  my 
views  to  the  voters  in  my  own  county.  Making  a  "canvass" 
where  there  are  opposing  candidates  for  every  office  to  be 
filled,  does  not  admit  of  many  opportunities  for  making  an 
unimpassioned  statement  of  views  on  all  the  important  ques- 
tions usually  pending  in  the  public  mind,  but  in  Oregon  in 
1862  the  question  that  overshadowed  all  others  was  fealty  to 
the  United  States  Government. 

The  one  opportunity  for  me  to  state  my  position  was  made 
for  me  by  unfair  treatment.  There  were  so  many  of  us,  that 
in  order  to  give  all  a  chance,  fifteen  minutes  were  allotted  to 
each.  At  Silverton  the  sympathy  with  secession  was  strong 
and  somewhat  unruly.  It  happened  my  turn  came  last,  and 
the  man  immediately  preceding  me  unjustly  used  an  hour  and 
twenty-five  minutes,  during  which  time  I  was  wedged  in  the 
middle  of  the  crowd  between  two  young  advocates  of  seces- 
sion, who  vaunted  their  readiness  to  fight  for  their  principles 
back  and  forth  across  me.  To  say  that  I  was  hot  when  I  got 
a  chance  to  mount  the  goods-box  used  as  a  rostrum,  is  to  put 
it  mildly.  I  told  my  audience  that  I  had  been  constrained  to 
listen  to  much  talk  in  justification  of  secession  and  boasting 
of  readiness  to  fight  for  it  because  the  boasters  had  been  born 


146  John  Minto. 

in  a  slave  State.  As  for  me,  I  had  no  birthright  in  any.  I 
had  assisted  to  give  the  title  to  Oregon  to  the  United  States,  to 
which  Government  my  fealty  was  pledged  in  almost  the  same 
terms  as  my  marriage  vows,  "And  when  I  lack  courage  to  de- 
fend my  wife,  I  may  fail  to  support  my  pledge  of  citizenship ; 
but  till  then,  I  am  the  enemy  of  every  enemy  of  the  United 
States,  ready  to  act  in  her  defense  'By  word  or  pen  or  pointed 
steel.'  Do  I  lack  other  reasons  in  addition  to  good  faith?  Go 
with  me  up  on  the  ridge  there  (north  of  Silverton)  and  cast 
your  eye  north,  west,  or  south,  as  far  as  you  can  see  and  much 
more,  the  United  States  has  secured  by  gift  the  soil  in  liberal 
portions  for  citizens'  homes.  Then  tell  me,  ' where 's  the  cow- 
ard that  would  not  dare  to  fight  for  such  a  land  ? '  What  se- 
curity of  tenure  have  you  for  your  homes  but  the  integrity  of 
the  United  States?" 

I  dropped  off  the  box  between  the  men  who  had  been  more 
than  an  hour  trying  to  get  me  to  notice  their  talk,  and  the 
larger  said  to  the  smaller  one:  "Well  by  G  — — ,  would  you 
have  expected  that  from  that  little  fellow?"  More  worthy 
men  shook  my  hand  and  gave  many  signs  of  satisfaction.  There 
was  only  one  young  man — James  D.  Fay,  a  native  of  South 
Carolina— sent  to  a  seat  in  the  Oregon  legislature  by  that 
election;  a  bright,  reckless  man  elected  by  the  mining  camps 
of  Josephine  County. 

At  this  time  I  was  busy  with  my  farming  and  stock  grow- 
ing, and  gave  considerable  time  to  the  State  agricultural  so- 
cieties and  fairs.  The  Civil  War,  in  progress,  kept  us  under 
a  strain  of  excitement ;  some  of  the  most  spirited  of  our  youth 
went  East  and  entered  the  national  army  or  navy.  A  call 
was  made  and  responded  to  for  volunteers  to  guard  the  Indians 
so  as  to  relieve  the  regular  troops,  who  were  needed  on  the 
Atlantic  side.  There  were  known  to  be  emissaries  of  secession 
here,  and  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  under  other  names, 
and  considerable  attention  was  given  to  drill,  so  as  to  be  ready 
for  any  emergency.  We  were  kept  on  the  alert.  The  struggle 
was  so  desperate  that  most  people  could  perceive,  by  the  sec- 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  147 

ond  year  of  thp  war,  that  it  would  end,  apparently,  only  by 
the  exhaustion  of  resources  of  the  weaker  side. 

Neither  influence  of  family  ties  or  of  friendship  caused  men 
to  swerve,  nor  did  past  service  hold  the  regard  of  the  people, 
after  a  defection  from  the  principal  point  in  dispute— the 
right  to  destroy  the  Union  of  States  which  constituted  the 
nation.  The  fate  of  General  Joseph  Lane  illustrates  what  I 
mean.  His  character  and  conduct  made  him  the  idol  of  the 
people  of  Oregon  until,  from  his  seat  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  he  said,  "If  the  North  invades  the  South  it  Avill  be 
over  my  dead  body. ' '  Men  noted  with  pride  every  young  man 
who  went  East  and  joined  the  army,  and  men  who  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  national  financial  straits  to  pay  their  just 
obligations  in  anything  less  valuable  than  gold  and  silver 
coin  were  held  in  contempt. 

In  my  view,  the  influence  of  the  Civil  War  on  the  people 
of  Oregon  was  an  elevation  of  character  and  an  increase  of 
patriotism,  and  had  the  effect,  on  myself,  of  stimulating  my 
attention  to  sheep  husbandry  as  one  means  of  furnishing  the 
raw  material  for  clothing,  and  thereby  proving  that  cotton 
was  not  "king." 

The  tenor  of  a  short  essay  on  sheep  husbandry,  read  before 
the  State  Agricultural  Society,  procured  me  a  letter  of  thanks 
from  Governor  Gibbs,  and  I  think  had  later  some  influence  in 
my  being  elected  to  its  secretaryship,  putting  me  into  the  posi- 
tion of  editor  of  the  "Willamette  Farmer,"  as  one  of  the 
conditions  of  the  society's  giving  a  bonus  of  $1,800.00  to  its 
publisher.  I  think  it  may  have  also  had  some  influence  in 
returning  me  to  the  legislature  in  1868. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

TEN  YEARS  OF  MY  MIDDLE  LIFE  IN  OREGON. 

In  1862,  when  I  was  chosen  as  a  representative  of  loyal 
adopted  citizenship,  the  following  may  be  given  as  to  my 
status  as  a  unit  of  society :  a  cultivator  of  forty  to  sixty  acres 
annually,  of  which  seventeen  acres  might  be  called  the  home 


148  John  Minto. 

lot— virtually  an  orchard,  though  inclosing  a  roomy  cottage 
house  over  a  framed  oak  cellar  and  milk  house,  in  the  former 
of  which  was  shelving  to  store  600  bushels  of  winter  apples 
and  pears,  a  sidehill  barn  with  cellar,  stable,  and  shelter  for 
150  sheep  on  needed  occasions,  and  smaller  buildings  for  poul- 
try and  pigs.  There  was— is  yet — about  an  acre  of  immature 
oak  trees  in  a  line  from  the  top  of  the  hill  against  which  the 
south  base  of  the  cottage  yet  stands.  A  trellised  Isabella  grape 
vine  had  been  allowed  to  run  over  the  southeast  fourth  of  it 
and  embrace  the  chimney  and  a  Bartlett  pear  tree  stoood  at  the 
left  of  the  main  entrance,  which  was  at  the  northeast  corner, 
reached  then  by  passing  under  two  noble  oaks,  on  a  strong 
southern  limb  of  one  of  which  a  rope  swing  and  seat  alwaysi 
hung  between  1856  and  1874.  From  it  the  entrance  was 
reached  by  passing  eighty  feet  of  Mission  rose  hedge — the 
south  border  of  the  cherry  orchard.  The  spring  from  the  hill 
was  intended  to  be  taken  into  the  kitchen  at  the  southwest 
corner  of  the  building,  but  is  not  yet  done.  There  were  small 
fruits  and  orchard  trees  west  of  the  house,  including  most  of 
my  experiments  with  pears  grafted  on  thorn.  A  White  Doy- 
enne or  Fall  Butter  on  thorn  gave  me  first  prize  on  that  fruit 
at  the  first  and  only  exhibition  of  the  Oregon  Pomological 
Society  held  in  Salem. 

The  orchard  extended  from  hill  to  hill,  including  several 
springs,  very  deep,  clear,  and  cool,  margined  and  raised  by 
peat  formation.  They  never  overflow,  but  must  reach  the 
stream-bed  by  under-flow  of  pure,  healthy,  living  waters,  over 
which  crab  apples,  thorn,  wild  cherry,  barberry,  aspen  and 
balm  (water  poplar)  were  natural  growth;  and  believing  that 
it  was  natural  apple  and  plum  land.  I  did  not  heed  the  advice 
of  Mr.  Meek,  of  Luelling  &  Meek,  in  1850,  and  avoid  this  sub- 
irrigated  land,  but  planted  all  I  could  work  a  team  on,  with 
apples  one  rod  apart— early  bearers  like  the  American  Golden 
Russet  as  temporary  trees,  Baldwins  and  Newtown  Pippins, 
permanent.  The  result  was  living  water  within  reach  of  the 
roots — the  most  economical  of  irrigation.  I  exhibited  apples 
a   few  years  ago,   on  tables  with   Hood  River  productions. 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  149 

which  newspaper  reporters  made  equal  to  them,  but  an  apple 
grower  knows  better.  Big  red  apples  on  trees  fifty  years  old, 
utterly  neglected  for  the  thirty  latest  years,  bear  no  compari- 
son in  quality  to  the  same  kind  from  ten-year-old  trees  on 
new  ground.  Trees  live  by  water,  but  the  soil  does  its  part, 
and  the  grower  who  utterly  neglects  that  will  in  the  end  take 
a  back  seat  as  an  orchardist.  On  the  other  hand,  as  to  the 
influence  of  trees  on  water  flow,  my  experience  and  observa- 
tion leads  to  the  conviction  that  trees  are  the  result  of  moisture 
in,  under,  or  on  the  soil  they  grow  in ;  that  the  longer  the 
growing  season,  the  larger  the  crop  of  fruit  and  leafage  will 
be,  and  the  more  water  will  be  withheld  from  reaching  the 
summer  channels.  The  water  is  taken  up  by  the  wood,  leaves 
and  fruit,  or  drawn  into  the  clouds  by  evaporation,  possibly 
to  float  off  in  some  cases  to  modify  and  make  better  the 
climate  of  other  districts. 

These  opinions  were  formed  in  my  mind  while  I  was  ac- 
tively engaged  in  draining  my  beaver  dams,  greatly  reducing 
my  beautiful  aspen  grove,  which  was  the  chief  food  supply 
of  the  beavers,  and  the  most  beautiful  scenic  feature  of  a 
beautiful  home,  conspicuous  as  such  between  Ashland  and 
Portland,  and  where  I  have  known  twenty  teams,  several  of 
four  horses  each,  to  stop  for  the  night,  the  owners  depending 
on  my  field  or  barn  for  their  hay. 

The  chief  enemies  of  early  home  building  were  the  carni- 
vori,  of  which  the  large  wolf  was  the  most  destructive,  at- 
tacking all  kinds  of  stock,  colts  being  their  most  easy  prey, 
next  calves  and  young  cattle.  They  kept  range  cattle  wild  and 
made  swine  band  together  in  self  defense.  They  ate  up  the 
first  two  swine  I  owned,  and  all  their  young  but  one.  They 
ran  in  families  most  of  the  year,  I  think.  I  never  saw  more 
than  seven  or  eight  together,  and  were  so  voracious  that  they 
were  easily  poisoned,  leaving  the  small  wolf,  or  coyote,  the 
most  cunning  and  active  pest.  The  largest  panthers  I  ever 
saw  were  killed  on  the  same  day,  near  the  same  spot,  by  a  half- 
sick  boy  of  sixteen— with  a  little  Indian  camp  dog  and  charges 


150  JONN  MiNTO. 

of  bird-shot  at  close  range.  Panthers  were  easily  killed  with 
the  aid  of  a  dog  that  barked  at  them. 

It  was  another  matter  with  the  coyote;  a  breeding  pair 
would  fight  a  single  dog.  We  started  in  1849  with  eighteen 
sheep  which  gave  fleeces  of  nine  pounds  average  in  1850 ;  the 
wool  being  washed  on  the  sheep  in  Mill  Creek  from  about  the 
25th  to  the  last  of  May— luscious  wild  strawberries  generally 
forming  part  of  our  noon  lunch.  The  coyotes  would  follow 
from  the  hills,  two  and  a  half  miles  to  the  creek  and  back, 
watching.  I  became  quite  expert  at  anticipating  their  move- 
ments and  killing  them  with  a  gun.  One  of  my  first  feats  was 
performed  under  the  eye  of  a  stranger  giving  his  name  as  E. 
B.  Ball  (1850.)  He  was  looking  for  bacon  to  purchase  for 
the  miners,  having  a  pack-train  of  mules  then  at  the  Waldo 
farm.  He  had  staid  all  night  with  us  and  I  judged  from  his 
conversation  that  he  had  led  a  company  to  California  in  '49 
and  had  had  trouble  to  maintain  discipline  on  the  way.  He 
was  saddling  his  mule  when  sight  of  a  coyote  made  me  silent. 
Judging  the  point  the  prowler  was  aiming  for,  I  took  brush 
cover  to  get  a  shot  and  had  not  stopped  running  when  he  came 
out  of  the  brush  where  I  expected.  He  started  running,  ami 
I  dropped  on  my  knee  to  try  a  shot;  this  caused  him  to  stop. 
It  was  fatal.    The  stranger  had  seen  the  game  and  came  with 

spurs  jingling,  crying," ,  stranger,  that  was  the  best  shot 

I  ever  saw  in  my  life."  We  parted  good  friends,  and  I  saw 
the  man  next  by  portrait  in  the  American  Illustrated  Maga- 
zine in  1897  or  8,  as  Ehenezar  B.  Ball,  of  the  family 
whose  name  attaches  to  Ball's  Bluff,  and  kin  of  General 
Washington,  who  in  dress  and  figure  resembled  the  E.  B. 
Ball  who  saw  my  coyote  shot.  The  Mr.  Ball  of  the  magazine 
was  one  of  the  living  pictures  then  (1897-8)  seen  about  the 
Capitol  at  Washington.  But  long  after  this  killing  the  coyote 
took  .such  heavy  toll  out  of  our  flocks  thiit  we  collected  a  team 
of  eleven  hound.s  and  in  seven  hunts  killed  eight  small  wolves 
and  a  lynx— a  tassel-eared  fellow.  It  was  well-spent  time.  In 
thirty-five  years  of  time  this  lynx  had  grown  to  be  a  panther 
and  the  killer  of  it  the  hero  of  campfire  stories  amid  the 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  151 

Cascade  Mountains.  I  heard  a  few  months  ago  that  it  was 
told  by  a  man  who  published  one  of  the  best  histories  of  early 
Oregon,  and  who  undoubtedly  believed  it.  Yet  the  hero  was 
no  bigger  than  me  and  there  were  six  good  neighbors  and 
eleven  hounds  present,  and  the  greatest  risk  was  run  by  the 
man  who  prevented  the  dogs  from  tearing  the  skin  to  pieces. 

I  had  at  this  time  no  personal  knowledge  of  the  climatic 
and  timber  conditions  of  Eastern  Oregon,  but  events  were 
hastening  which  were  to  change  the  pleasant  routine  of  my 
life  and  make  me  more  intimately  acquainted  with  the  Cas- 
cade Mountains  than  any  other  Willamette  Valley  farmer 
I  have  known. 

On  the  last  of  May,  1867,  my  twenty  years  of  home-building 
seemed  a  success  beyond  anything  I  had  conceived  of  before 
my  marriage.  Seven  healthy  children  had  been  born  to  us 
without  serious  trouble :  the  eighth  birth  was  impending  and 
occurred  on  June  4th,  without  cause  for  apprehension.  But 
the  infant  was  not  right  and  became  cause  of  distress  to  the 
mother,  and  of  agony  to  me,  because  of  my  utter  helplessness. 
We  were  four  and  a  half  miles  from  Salem  and  no  house  be- 
tween from  which  we  could  get  help.  Indeed,  there  were  yet 
few  physicians,  and  no  nurses.  Women  assisted  each  other, 
and  ray  wife  had  inherited  from  her  mother  traits  which  made 
her  conspicuous  in  such  service  during  those  years.  On  the 
eighth  distressful  day  the  baby  died  in  my  arms  and  for  two 
months  it  was  a  question  of  life  or  death  to  my  wife.  She  got 
up  slowly,  but  an  ailment  or  seat  of  weakness  in  her  breathing 
made  living  in  a  house  a  burden  to  her.  We  lived  one  summer 
in  the  partial  shade  of  our  home  lot,  but  she  gained  very 
slowly.  One  of  the  best  physicians  we  had,  in  evident  per- 
plexity, said:  "Mr.  Minto,  take  her  out  of  the  heat  of  this 
valley,  but  not  to  the  dusty  atmosphere  of  Eastern  Oregon." 
I  suggested  the  foothills  of  the  Cascades.  "The  very  place; 
shade  and  pure  water  and  rest, ' '  said  he ;  and  we  went  to  the 
Cascades  as  a  health  resort.  The  result  proved  the  wisdom  of 
the  advice ;  nothing  but  the  necessity  of  school  for  our  children 
prevented  me  from  making  a  complete  change,  though  I  loved 


152  John  Minto. 

the  home  we  had  made.  The  out-door  life  was  so  necessary  to 
my  wife  that  we  lived  within  rifle-shot  of  our  house  the  sum- 
mer and  fall  succeeding  our  first  experience  in  the  mountains. 

For  six  years  we  summered  in  among  the  mountains,  and 
bought  the  lands  we  camped  on  to  have  the  equity  of  settlers' 
rights.  I  had  little  to  do,  even  when  I  took  my  sheep  there  to 
get  the  recreative  benefit  of  mere  change  of  range,  and  that  is 
great,  even  if  the  sheep  lose  flesh  rather  than  gain  it.  They 
soon  settled  into  regular  hours  of  feeding,  as  did  the  cattle. 
The  gad-fly  was  the  pest  of  cattle  and  horses;  the  stock  fed 
from  day-break  until  about  9  a.  m.,  when  they  would  start 
in  a  hurry  for  the  home  corral,  where,  if  smudge  fires  were 
kindled,  they  would  show  their  appreciation  by  getting  into 
the  smoke.  Here,  next  to  good  milk,  the  settler  caring  for 
bees  could  have  good  honey;  in  fact,  could  produce  nearly 
every  necessity  except  flour. 

Sheep  fed  from  sunrise  till  9  a.  m.,  and  from  4  p.  m.  till 
sunset,  leaving  me  much  time  to  examine  the  rocks  and 
streams.  The  bed  of  the  Little  North  Santiam  was  once  a 
flowing  river  of  mud,  carrying  rocks  and  trees  of  different 
kinds;  trees  becoming  locked  up  in  it  and  petrified.  In  one 
place  where  I  often  crossed,  a  whole  tree,  from  roots  to 
branches,  was  exposed  by  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  river.  At 
another,  what  seemed  to  have  been  a  young  maple  had  petri- 
fied into  a  bluish  stone  and  had  broken  by  the  undermining 
of  the  banks.     It  is  today  a  fine  field  for  a  young  geologist. 

The  timber,  however,  was  my  attraction;  there  were  but 
few  places  near  our  camps  which  did  not  show  the  action  of 
fire.  Fire  was  the  agency  used  by  the  Calapooia  tribes  to 
hold  their  camas  grounds  and  renew  their  berry  patches  and 
grass-lands  for  game  and  the  millions  of  geese,  brants,  cranes 
and  swans  which  wintered  in  Western  Oregon.  To  me  it 
seems  easily  unbelievable  by  a  person  coming  here  now,  to  state 
the  quantity  of  waterfowl,  cranes,  curlew  and  snipe  which 
wintered  on  the  grasses  and  roots  of  the  damp  lands  of  the 
valleys  and  the  sloughs,  ponds  and  streams  sixty-four  years 
ago.    Large  ground  game,  deer  and  occasionally  elk,  were  not 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  153 

plentiful  on  the  plains.  In  and  around  the  French  settlement 
wolves,  panthers,  bears  and  coyotes  were  more  plentiful  than 
deer  and  the  "multitude  of  hogs,"  which  Sir  George  Simpson 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  reported  to  Captain  Wilkes 
in  1842,  as  products  of  the  Canadian  engagees  of  his  company 
farming  for  wheat— 15,000  bushels  of  which  was  used  by  his 
company  as  rental  to  the  Russians  for  the  Alaskan  coast  as 
fur-bearing  country.  Swine,  which  at  first  lived  on  the 
grasses,  camas  and  oak  mast,  were  the  chief  destroyers  of  the 
roots  which  were  the  chief  foods  of  the  natives,  and  small 
game  decreased  by  the  expanding  and  increasing  of  the 
American  settlements. 

On  the  west  face  of  the  Cascades  the  Molallas  claimed 
dominion,  and  fire  was  their  agency  in  improving  the  game 
range  and  berry  crops.  The  Molalla,  the  Pudding  River, 
Butte  Creek,  the  Abiqua,  Silver  Creek  and  the  Little  North 
Santiam  do  not  reach  the  true  summit  of  the  Cascade  Range. 
The  Clackamas,  the  main  North  Santiam,  the  McKenzie  and 
the  middle  fork  of  the  Willamette  draw  their  sources  from  the 
west  slopes  of  the  true  summits  of  the  range,  and  are,  there- 
fore, the  chief  power  and  salmon  streams,  although  all  the 
streams  are  valuable.  All  along  the  west  side  of  the  Cascades 
to  within  four  to  six  miles  of  the  summit  there  are  openings 
of  coarse  grass  land  on  filled-up  lake  beds,  commonly  desig- 
nated as  "beaver  dams."  They  are  the  result  of  checks  to 
outflow  by  the  dams  which  the  beaver  makes  to  hold  the 
water  around  his  house  as  a  protection  against  carnivori. 
The  muskrat  is  the  most  troublesome  neighbor  the  beaver  has, 
in  that  he  digs  his  hole  of  refuge  under  the  dam  and  fre- 
quently drains  the  lake  or  pond,  partly  at  least,  thus  making 
the  upper  part  of  it  ready  for  grass  seed.  Hence,  the  VVasco- 
pam  Indians,  before  the  missionary  came,  counted  the  muskrat 
the  ' '  maker  of  land. ' '  The  tribe  now  called  the  Warm  Springs 
Indians  used  the  lake  beds  for  hunting  grounds  and  summer 
pastures  for  their  ponies,  and  have,  I  understand,  rights  there 
by  treaty.  It  is  a  land  of  lakes  and  mighty  springs  all  along 
to  within  about  ten  miles  of  the  sununit  on  either  side,  with 


154  John  Minto. 

this  strong  difference— the  snows  of  winter  flow  off  in  sur- 
face streams  westward,  with  a  rush,  under  the  influence  of 
the  southwest  (Chinook)  wind  and  warm  rain,  while  on  the 
east  side  it  seems  largely  to  sink  out  of  sight  near  the  summit, 
and  comes  to  the  surface  1,500  to  2,000  feet  below,  in  springs 
clear  as  crystal  and  cold  as  ice  water.  There  is  no  other 
river  in  Oregon  as  even  in  its  flow  between  the  seasons  as  the 
Des  Chutes.  It  did  not  vary  sixteen  inches  within  a  period 
of  sixteen  years,  according  to  A.  J.  Tetherow,  who  kept  a 
ferry  and  whose  residence  stood  so  near  its  general  level  that 
he  must  have  noted  its  rise  by  inches.  It  is  a  great  power 
stream.  This  mountain  range  is  an  immense  health  resort,  and 
homes  can,  and  T  hope  will,  be  built  close  up  to  the  sunnnit  on 
each  side— in  some  places  at  the  summit. 

On  some  of  the  largest  lake  beds  the  cover  of  peat  settles 
as  the  dry  season  advances,  forcing  a  continued  outflow. 
Timber  growing  in  peat  formation  does  not  reach  marketable 
size;  it  grows  slowly,  as  spruce  does  within  two  to  four  feet 
of  tide  level,  but  makes  no  sawlogs.  I  have  seen  healthy 
spruce  trees  with  fifteen  feet  of  clay  soil  under  them,  twelve 
feet  in  diameter,  within  pistol-shot  of  spruce  on  tide  flats  not 
fifteen  inches  in  size,  and  dying. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

SOIL-WASTAGE. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  Cascades,  fruit  culture,  bee  keeping 
and  dairying  will  go  throughout  the  region  in  connection 
with  forest  farming— in  my  opinion  a  "forest  homestead"  of 
320  acres,  deeded  on  condition  of  keeping  nine-tenths  of  it  in 
growing  timber  and  one-tenth  of  the  area  in  orchard  or  other 
crops.  All  and  always  under  national  and  State  supervision. 
The  beaver  ought  to  be  classed  as  a  domestic  animal,  kept 
under  or  within  a  strong  wire  fence.  Rights  in  private  fish 
ponds  ought  to  be  provided  for  and  their  construction  encour- 
aged. Such  ponds  would  be  chocks  against  the  rapid  run-off 
of  strea]ns,  and  ouuht  to  he  .-is  much  the  care  of  the  State  as 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  155 

proper  fish  ladders  over  dams ;  and  this  point  should  extend 
to  cultivated  land,  whether  the  surface  is  drained,  under- 
drained  or  irrigated.  This,  from  my  experience  as  well  as 
observation,  is  in  the  near  future  an  absolute  necessity  for 
the  private  as  well  as  for  the  public  good;  as  the  waste  of 
wealth  going  on  by  washing  out  into  rivers  and  down  them  to 
the  main  outlet  of  the  Columbia  is  beyond  computation,  and 
even  now  demands  the  constant  employment  of  constantly 
additional  dredges. 

What  then  may  be  expected  when  all  possible  irrigation 
systems  are  perfected  between  the  mountains  and  the  naviga- 
ble rivers'?  My  chance  to  personally  observe  this  has  been 
closer  and  more  intimate  than  that  of  observing  the  snowfall 
and  its  melting  on  the  higher  mountains;  though  the  latter 
has  been  extraordinary  for  a  man  supporting  a  family  from 
a  farm  in  almost  the  center  of  the  great  Willamette  Vallpy. 
While  I  was  taking  my  wife,  and  young  children,  to  the 
mountains  for  her  health,  my  connection  with  the  Oregon 
Agricultural  Society  led  to  its  electing  me  to  the  position  of 
nominal  editor  of  the  "Willamette  Farmer."  D.  W.  Craig, 
foreman,  was  then  owner  of  what  is  known  in  Salem  as  the 
"Island,"  a  body  of  low  alluvial  land  overlapping  the  cilv 
by  six  blocks  then— as  many  more  now.  Mr.  Craig  had  lost 
the  supposed  value  of  the  property  in  a  newspaper  enterprise 
for  which  a  mortgage  was  overdue ;  I  purchased  it  from  him, 
subject  to  the  mortgage.  The  south  arm  of  Mill  Creek  flows 
into  the  river  near  the  north  end  of  the  Island,  and  across  this 
outflow  my  sons  ferried  their  teams,  hauling  sand  and  gravel 
as  building  material.  When  they  began,  in  1870,  they  could 
not  touch  bottom  with  push-poles  much  of  the  way  across 
three  hundred  yards.  On  the  south  of  their  line  is  an  area  of 
about  five  acres,  where  the  mill  company  then  kept  logs 
afloat  all  summer.  Now  that  area  and  their  line  of  ferriage 
one-third  of  the  way  is  from  twelve  to  eighteen  inches  above 
low  water,  and  is  grazed  by  cattle  for  three  or  four  months  of 
late  summer  and  fall— the  lodgment  is  fine  silt.  This  repre- 
sents not  more  than   one-third,   perhaps   much  less,  of  the 


156  John  Minto. 

finest  soil  of  Mill  Creek  bottoms  which  is  carried  into  the 
main  river  and  by  that  toward  tide  flow,  to  be  contended  with 
by  costly  dredp;ing. 

We  must  recognize  that  in  the  entire  drainage  of  the  great 
rivers  of  the  West,  thousands  of  such  streams  are  not  only 
bordered  by  plowed  fields,  but  that  irrigation  water  is  forced 
through  an  annually  increasing  area  of  it.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  prevention  of  waste  by  M^ashing  out  the  finer  portion 
of  the  soil  demands  plans  for  the  prevention  of  bleaching  out, 
as  well  as  means  of  flooding ;  and  further  reflection  will  per- 
haps lead  to  a  truer  cause  of  the  great  extents  of  Asia  being 
now  barren  wastes  than  the  cutting  off  of  the  timber,  if  there 
ever  was  any :  viz.,  the  continuous  taking  of  crops  without 
rest  or  return  to  the  soil,  and  continuous  bleaching  out.  One, 
if  not  more,  of  Israel's  Phrophets  told  them  the  time  would 
come  "When  the  land  would  enjoy  her  Sabbath,"  and  it  did. 
Just  so  has  every  irrigated  country  slowly  become  a  waste; 
but  it  is  not  the  lack  of  trees,  as  the  valley  of  the  lower  Nile 
is  an  everlasting  witness ;  for  it  gets  the  silt,  the  richness  of 
the  wash,  from  Abbyssinian  highlands. 

While  the  writer  is  well  aware  that  with  sufficient  water 
at  command,  labor  can  insure  crops  without  failure  by  irriga- 
tion, I  think  it  will  be  found  that  not  less  than  three  times 
the  labor  will  be  required  on  a  given  area  as  compared  with 
dry  farming,  and  with  some  crops,  as  sugar  beets,  much  more 
than  that.  Then  under  irrigation  loss  of  fertility  is  going  on 
by  leaching  the  land  as  well  as  by  feeding  the  growing  crops. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

OUR  MOUNTAINS  VIEWED  AS  RESOURCES  OF  LIFE  AS  W^ELL  AS 
OF   HEALTH   AND  RECREATION. 

In  previoiLs  chapters  I  have  tried  to  intimate  how  an 
average  pair  of  Oregon  home-builders,  beginning  with  hands 
and  hope  only,  progressed  from  extremest  poverty  to  a  condi- 
tion of  reasonable  comfort  and  independence,  when  some 
ailment,  never  understood,  nearly  took  the  most  valued  life 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  157 

of  the  family  and  compelled  a  resort  to  a  higher  altitude  as  a 
means  of  safety,  which  proved  effective.  We  had  passed  the 
fourth  summer  in  this  way,  and  increasing  numbers  of  ailing 
people  were  adopting  the  same  means  of  cure  or  recreation, 
when  two  hunters  of  the  region  penetrated  up  the  main  north 
Saiitiam  about  to  where  the  postoffice  of  Berry  now  is,  in 
search  of  game  range.  They  had  passed  the  narrowest  gorge 
through  which  the  river  cuts  its  way;  the  mountains  seemed 
to  lower  and  recede  from  the  river  somewhat,  and  the  men 
began  to  think  they  had  found  the  traditional  pass  to  Eastern 
Oregon.  One  of  the  men  had  traced  this  tradition  up  to  the 
writer,  who  had  received  it  from  J.  M.  Parrish,  the  missionary- 
blacksmith  who  had  received  it  from  the  Molalla  Indians  while 
learning  their  language  in  order  to  be  useful  to  them  as  a 
teacher.  Information  in  regard  to  the  pass  used  by  the  trap- 
pers and  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  traders  I  had  heard 
Joseph  Gervais  himself  tell  to  Henry  Williamson  while  we 
were  driven  from  his  harvest  field  by  a  summer  shower.  The 
fine  old  hunter,  trapper,  trader,  farmer,  miller,  sat  by  his 
roomy  hearthstone  and  detailed  to  the  young  American  home- 
seeker,  Williamson,  who  )iad  defied  the  rule  or  will  of  Chief 
Factor  McLoughlin,  how  he  had  left  his  home  in  Quebec  in 
his  twentieth  year  and  was  on  the  Arkansas  killing  buffalo 
for  the  New  Orleans  market  when  he  learned  that  Wilson  G. 
Hunt  was  at  St.  Louis  engaging  men  to  go  to  Oregon;  how  he 
joined  Hunt  in  1811  and  came  to  Oregon  with  him ;  how 
twenty  years  later  he  settled  where  he  sat,  as  a  farmer,  and 
when  his  family  was  young,  would  after  harvest  take  his  fam- 
ily and  cross  the  Cascades  by  way  of  the  Santiam  Valley, 
making  one  night's  camp  in  the  mountains,  would  trap  and 
hunt  till  the  rainy  season  was  near ;  turn  his  skins  and  peltries 
over  to  a  Hudson's  Bay  Company  trader  to  be  taken  to  Van- 
couver via  the  Dalles,  and  recross  the  mountains  home  again, 
only  camping  one  night,  and  wait  two  weeks  before  going  to 
Vancouver  for  his  pay.  I  sat  as  a  listener,  just  as  I  had  the 
week  previous  sat  on  the  porch  of  the  Beers'  house  and  heard 
Dr.  White,  sub-agent  to  the  Oregon  Indians  for  the  United 


158  John  Minto. 

States,  detail  to  Mr.  Beers  his  exploration  trip  which  had 
taken  him  to  the  base  of  Mount  Jefferson  in  search  of  that 
pass.  Of  course  I  talked  of  these  hearings  now,  and  Henry 
States,  one  of  the  hunters  who  thought  they  had  discovered 
the  old  passway,  sent  for  me,  having  a  sprained  ankle,  I 
carried  his  statement  to  the  board  of  county  commissioners, 
simply  saying  that  it  seemed  a  matter  of  public  interest  to 
know  if  there  was  such  a  natural  pass. 

The  result  was  an  order  of  the  county  court  to  John  M'nto 
to  take  two  men  and  make  examinations  and  report  findings. 
Mr.  States,  one  of  the  hunters,  was  written  to  and  responded 
promptly.  He  was  commissioned  to  find  the  third  man,  and 
unfortunately  found  not  so  much  a  pass  or  gold  hunter,  as  a 
camp  hunter,  for  which  other  parties  were  to  furnish  the 
"grub."  He  w^as  a  man  of  great  natural  intelligence,  who 
would  rather  tell  a  smart  lie  than  the  simple  truth.  We 
penetrated  up  the  valley  through  about  seventeen  miles  of 
narrow  gorge,  past  where  the  two  hunters  had  reached,  to 
where  Breightenbush  makes  in  from  the  north;  found  John 
Breightenbush— a  one-armed  hunter  and  nothing  else— there 
ahead  of  us,  and  named  the  beautiful  affluent  for  him.  We 
pushed  on,  following  a  large  elk  being  chased  by  wolves.  A 
wide  space  of  sand  and  gravel  in  the  river  bed  showed  us 
where  the  chase  began  and  guided  us  over  what  is  now  the 
site  and  station  of  Detroit,  and  on  east,  keeping  the  bank  to 
about  a  mile  beyond  Idana.  There  we  took  the  point  of  a 
ridge  leading  straight  toward  ]\Iount  Jefferson,  as  I  after- 
ward learned,  and  followed  it  an  estimated  five  miles  with 
steady,  moderate  rise ;  noting  an  occasional  blazed  tree.  We 
seemed  shut  in  by  half-grown  pine  and  fir  timber,  to  which 
the  clouds  came  very  near.  The  big  man  began  to  talk  camp. 
I  noted  a  spot  of  light,  and  asking  the  others  to  w^ait,  went 
to  it  and  found  myself  on  the  brink  of  the  ridge  with  a  noisy 
stream  at  its  base.  There  were  patches  of  fern  and  bushes  of 
upland  willow  and  hazel  around  a  half-grown  fir  tree,  limbed 
down  close  to  the  ground.  Halloing  for  my  company  to 
wait,  I  pulled  myself  up  that  tree.     The  valley  below  was 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  159 

clear  and  the  clouds  were  lifting  from  the  ridge  across  it.  I 
called  to  the  men  to  come.  Turning  to  the  right  from  looking 
across  the  valley  my  eye  was  arrested  by  the  rough  counti^y 
out  of  which  Cave  Creek  flows  from  the  south,  as  yet  little 
known ;  turning  to  the  left  a  large  peak  showed  its  base,  then 
a  sharp,  rocky  peak,  and  still  turning  eastward,  as  it  soon 
proved,  the  ridge  broke  down  and  nothing  could  be  seen 
through  the  gap ;  but  still  more  directly  east  my  eyes  rested 
on  a  body  of  grass-land— the  apparently  level  top  of  what 
some  one  unknown  to  me  named  Minto  Mountain.  It  is  sick- 
ening yet  for  me  to  remember  standing  in  the  top  of  that  tree 
and  taking  the  statements  of  the  cowardly  hulk  who  refused 
to  trust  himself  up  the  tree,  but  would  name  every  point  I 
would  describe  with  names  unrepeatable,  and  claim  he  had 
passed  over  the  grass  country  I  was  defining  in  going  to  visit 
the  chief  of  the  Warm  Springs  Indians  from  the  Quartzville 
mining  camp,  where  I  had  seen  him  as  care-taker— the  Thers- 
ites  of  any  camp  he  was  in.  We  returned,  and  I  reported  on 
the  strength  of  Colonel  Cooper's  statements,  an  apparently 
low  and  easy  pass.  Citizens  next  spring  petitioned  for  a  road- 
view  and  Porter  Jack,  George  S.  Downing  and  John  Minto 
were  appointed  to  view  and  T.  W.  Davenport  to  survey  a  lo- 
cation for  a  wagon  road  up  the  North  Santiam  River  to  the 
summit  of  the  Cascades.  The  survey  was  made  and  measured 
and  properly  recorded,  eight-seven  and  one-half  miles  from 
the  court  house  at  Salem  to  the  .summit  of  Minto  Pass— found 
by  accident.  Our  philosophical  surveyor  said,  the  night  after 
the  work  was  finished:  "Yes,  in  a  small  way  such  an  accident 
as  that  by  which  Lewis  and  Clark  found  the  Columbia  River 
and  the  Davenports  and  many  others  found  homes  in  the 
valley  of  the  beautiful  Willamette. ' ' 

There  was  little  reason,  locally,  for  the  early  Oregon  home- 
builder  to  explore  the  mountains.  The  discovery  of  gold  in 
California  gave  many  of  the  Columbia  River  men  early 
graves— some  wealth  they  prudently  used— more  added  only 
working  capital  to  aid  their  labor  and  add  to  their  enjoyment. 
It  was  not  until  1854  that  a  small  party  of  men,  Preston 


160  John  Minto. 

Looney,  M.  J.  Alphin,  William  Fulbright,  John  Walker  and 
E.  L.  Massey  penetrated  into  the  range  as  far  as  Mount  Jef- 
ferson without  regard  to  traditional  passes.  They  went  in 
search  of  gold  and  the  line  of  travel  seems  to  have  been  east- 
ward near  the  north  border  of  subsequent  discoveries  to  and 
onto  Mount  Jefferson;  thence  south,  just  west  of  the  true 
summit,  over  a  country  of  filled  up  lake  beds,  coarse,  weedy 
grass-lands,  and  dry  ridges,  between  which  good  timber  is 
found,  as  a  rule,  only  in  the  narrow,  deep  valleys. 

Mr.  Massey 's  descriptive  powers  do  him  credit.  "Standing 
at  the  base  of  the  rock  that  crowns  Mount  Jefferson,"  he 
says,  "we  had  with  us  an  excellent  mariner's  glass  by  which 
we  had  an  excellent  view  of  the  Willamette  Valley  as  well  as 
that  still  more  beautiful  valley  of  the  Des  Chutes  River,  and 
a  very  extensive,  great  plain  stretching  at  great  length  south 
of  the  head  of  the  Des  Chutes.  South  and  west  of  Jefferson 
is  seen  at  a  glance  a  large  body  of  flat  country  with  many 
small  lakes  and  prairies ;  and  here,  it  is  obvious,  is  the  natural 
route,  for  the  emigrant  trail  is  plainly  marked  out. ' '  The 
outline  doubtless  is.  Mr.  Massey  is  here  not  to  blame  for  the 
imperfection  of  his  near  view,  in  that  looking  from  above  he 
sees  only  dry  tops  of  ridges  and  the  lake  beds;  he  does  not 
see  even  the  outline  of  the  pass  across  the  summit  as  well  as 
I  did  from  the  tree-top  eighteen  years  later,  nor  the  number 
of  lakes,  in  September,  1864,  Hon.  John  Bryant  counted  from 
Red  Butte,  which  stands  on  the  summit  three  miles  south  of 
Mount  Jefferson.  Standing  on  this  butte  with  seven  other 
men,  Mr.  Bryant  wrote  in  his  journal:  "From  this  butte  we 
count  sixteen  lakes ;  twelve  on  the  west  side  of  the  summit  and 
four  on  the  east. ' '  Yet  Mr.  Bryant  did  not  see  Marion  Lake, 
within  four  miles  of  where  he  stood.  The  truth  is,  the  surface 
on  the  east  side  of  the  summit  is  very  dry ;  the  water  seems  to 
sink  away  out  of  sight,  leaving  the  surface  dry  and  loose  ex- 
cept two  small  lakes  near  together  about  500  feet  below  the 
summit  tree  of  the  pass.  The  water  sinks  down  to  the  level  of 
the  Des  Chutes  plain,  1,500  to  2,000  feet.  The  slope  from  the 
summit  to  the  crystal  Malolla  being  such  light  and  fluffy  soil 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  161 

that  a  horse  sinks  hoof-deep  in  it.  There  are  spots,  however, 
on  the  east  slopes  where  beautiful  summer  homes  can  and  will 
be  made,  but  not  one-fourth  of  what  can  and  will  be  made  on 
and  in  the  west  side  ridges  and  valleys.  Over  this  country 
Massey's  party  went  south  on  the  level  of  the  summit— he  says 
fifty  miles ;  I  would  say  forty  milas— and  turning  west,  crossed 
the  extreme  northern  drainage  into  the  McKenzie  via  Fish 
and  Clear  lakes,  and  through  a  low  gap  without  having  seen 
or  noted  either  Fish,  Marion  or  Clear  lakes,  reaching  the  head 
springs  of  the  north  or  canal  branch  of  the  South  Santiam, 
after  having  very  nearly  half-circled  the  head  drainage  into 
the  North  Santiam,  within  which,  before  the  Oregon  &  East- 
ern Kailroad  Company  sent  its  surveyors  in  to  the  valley,  the 
writer  and  others  estimated  there  was  room  for  1,500  home- 
builders  to  find  homes. 

The  Corvallis  &  Eastern  Railroad  was  not  the  first  named 
railroad  in  connection  with  the  commercial  use  of  the  easy 
grade  found.  The  man  I  have  mentioned  in  connection  with 
the  grass  country  seen  from  the  hill-top,  with  the  aid  of  a 
ready  tongue,  secured  the  signature  of  influential  citizens  and 
covered  the  line  of  survey  by  incorporating  the  Astoria,  Salem 
&  Winnemucca  Railroad  Line.  Thus,  by  filing  papers  at  a 
cost  of  $2.00,  the  outlay  of  the  county  was  held  in  abeyance 
four  years,  M^aiting  for  some  party  to  buy  the  corporation 
papers. 

In  1878,  residents  near  the  mountains  began  a  co-operative 
effort  to  open  a  wagon  road  or  stock  trail  through  the  valley 
and  pass.  They  appealed  for  help  at  the  county  seats  of  Linn 
and  Marion— Albany  and  Salem.  Only  the  latter  responded. 
The  capital  named  was  $5,000.00;  over  $2,800  was  taken  in 
shares  of  $10.00  each,  in  cash  or  labor  at  $1.25  per  day.  The 
cash  was  largely  paid  for  tools  and  food,  and  the  mountain 
men  did  the  work  as  no  other  men  could.  iThey  cut  out  logs 
and  brush  twelve  feet  wide,  over  half  way  to  the  connection 
with  the  Willamette  Valley  and  Cascade  Mountains  military 
road  at  Black  Butte  on  the  plain  of  the  Des  Chutes,  eight  miles 
west  of   Sisters   Postoffice,   and  six   feet    (legal  stock   trail 


162  John  Minto. 

width)  the  shorter  and  easier  portion  of  the  way.  The  expense 
account  for  labor  and  board  of  labor  was  $1,865.00. 

The  law  of  Congress  could  not  then  be  complied  with  as  to 
points  of  entry  into  and  departure  from  townships  on  this 
road,  as  the  surveys  were  not  then,  and  are  not  yet,  closed 
across  the  range.  The  railroad  and  the  Forest  Service  have 
received  and  are  receiving  the  benefit  of  the  surveys  and 
labor  expended,  and  it  seems  to  me  there  is  an  equity  neglected 
in  this  matter  which  I  shall  refer  to  later. 

It  was  really  an  effort  of  altruism  to  open  a  free  business 
road  between  the  naturally  diverse  divisions  of  the  State 
which  the  writer  helped  to  make,  as  viewer  and  time-keeper, 
but  which  he  very  deliberately  now  advises  for  political  rea- 
sons—the States  of  Oregon  and  Washington  ought  each  to  be 
divided  by  the  summit  of  the  Cascade  Range.  They  are  both 
being  held  up  now  and  robbed  under  the  ill-considered  action 
of  Congress  and  the  ill-advised  form  of  the  most  needful 
national  reforestration  of  lands  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the 
nation  which  have  been  overcut  and  should  be  replanted  on 
carefully  considered  plans  before  the  needs  of  the  people  for 
land  and  for  fuel  set  at  defiance  a  policy  begun  by  breaking 
the  compacts  between  the  States  of  the  Pacific  Slope  and  the 
Nation.  The  Marion  and  Wasco  stock  and  wagon  trail  was 
put  through,  as  before  said,  by  a  largely  altruistic  effort, 
and  as  it  got  through,  summer  recreationists  got  to  the  summit 
with  ease,  and  the  foremost  of  these,  the  Hon.  John  B.  Waldo, 
began  to  observe  and  note  lower  depressions  and  easier  grades 
to  the  summit  via  the  south  or  main  branch  of  the  Santiani. 
This  was  viewed,  surveyed  and  marked  at  the  summit,  but 
measured  two  miles  further  to  a  connection  with  the  Willam- 
ette Valley  and  Cascade  Mountains  military  road  near  the 
summit.  Here  was  found  to  be  500  feet  lower  than  Minto 
Pass,  but  thirteen  miles  further  in  distance.  The  writer, 
believing  this  to  be  a  practical  railroad  pass,  and  learning  that 
the  Corvallis  &  Eastern  Railroad  Company  were  seeking  a 
crossing  of  the  range,  wrote  to  their  office  and  indicated  a 
guide.     They  found  it  as  stated  and  began  construction  on 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  163 

the  summit — hauling  out  rails  from  Albany  and  putting  them 
in  place  across  the  summit,  so  as  to  claim  their  pass.  The  line 
M^as  constructed  to  a  point  five  miles  east  of  Detroit  and  a 
summer  resort  hotel  erected  and  named  Idana,  and  the  right 
of  way  cut  out  and  graded  twelve  miles  further,  with  bridge 
timbers  and  ties  in  great  numbers  ready  for  distribution. 
From  the  summit  westward  nearly  twenty  miles  of  right  of 
way  was  lined  with  workmen,  many  of  whom  had  located 
claims  expecting  to  make  their  homes  there  when  the  line  was 
completed.  The  writer  believes  that  $1,000.00  more  would 
have  taken  a  wagon  road  from  plain  to  plain,  and  $1,000,000.00 
more,  the  railroad.  The  working  party  who  constructed  the 
Marion  and  Wasco  stock  and  wagon  road,  now  spoken  of  as 
the  Minto  Trail,  were  as  a  party  just  such  men  as  I  had  seen 
as  pioneer  settlers  on  and  around  Brady's  Bend  of  the  Alle- 
gany River  in  Armstrong  County,  Pennsylvania,  in  1841— 
just  such  as  were  leaving  the  Platte  Purchase  in  Missouri  in 
1844  for  Oregon  and  Texas.  We  started  in  early  June,  a  com- 
pany of  eighteen  workers,  and  our  purveyor  by  contract  hired 
a  strong  young  woman,  whose  husband  was  one  of  the  work- 
ers, to  cook  for  us.  She  had  a  baby  to  care  for,  and  wisely  re- 
signed at  the  end  of  the  first  mouth,  and  was  succeeded  by 
two  sisters,  fifteen  and  seventeen  years  of  age,  whose  father 
was  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  my  party,  and  whose  mother 
was  the  only  frontiersman's  wife  who  could  take  up  any  line 
of  "the  Hoosieroon."  From  her  teaching,  I  presume,  our 
cooks  could  on  the  slightest  hint  break  out  in  lively  song,  and 
often  dissipated  gathering  clouds  of  depression  by  making 
our  campfire  a  social  center  and  keeping  our  party  as  a  whole 
much  like  a  large  family  party.  Indeed,  they  made  myself 
the  only  exception,  as  representing  the  moneyed  portion  of 
the  corporation  at  Salem,  and  before  we  reached  the  summit 
had  composed  a  song  in  compliment  to  me  when  we  should 
reach  the  summit.  It  so  happened  their  poet  got  an  oppor- 
tunity to  betray  the  plan,  and  having  a  poet's  weakness  he 
recited  his  composition,  and  I  told  him  I  should  try  hard  to 
have  one  in  reply.    The  "Road-Makers,"  or  "Boys  of  Santi- 


.A 


164  John  Minto. 

am, ' '  was  outlined  next  day  while  I  blazed  the  way.  The  last 
stanza  gives  my  view  of  the  party— reduced  to  twelve  at  the 
summit,  and  one  resident  of  Eastern  Oregon,  who  visited  them 
the  day  they  crossed  the  summit: 

"When,   in  camp,   for  food  or   rest,   this  party  did  convene. 
The  song,  the  story,  or  the  jest,  were  not  their  only  theme; 

From  game  and  range  and  public  lands 

To  the  world's  wants  their  talk  expands. 

How  Europe  on  our  plows  depends 

And  to  what  shores  our  trade  extends. 

Fair  woman's  beauty,  man's  good  name, 

The  statesman's  wisdom,  soldier's  fame. 

The  school,  the  pulpit,  and  the  pen 

Passed  in  review  before  them  then. 
Such  were  the  boys  of  Santiam,  on  mountain  top  or  shady  glen ; 
Include  our  cooks,  our  party,  then,  were  pretty  girls  and  honest  men." 

It  was  a  pleasant  party,  and  no  suffering  was  made  mani- 
fest till  the  work  was  done.  One  man  was  suffering  for  to- 
bacco, and  started  after  breakfast,  reaching  home  at  Gates  at 
6  p.  M.,  thus  passing  the  range  on  foot  in  about  eleven  hours. 

The  men  who  did  this  labor  and  those  who  put  up  the 
money  of  course  gave  way  to  the  railroad,  and  that  got  easily 
$20,000.00  worth  of  work  on  the  line  covered  by  the  rails 
between  Mill  City  and  Detroit,  and  the  result  is  that  both  the 
railroad  and  the  forest  reserve  are  impediments  in  the  way  of 
opening  the  shortest  and  easiest  passway  yet  known  from 
Salem  to  Central  Oregon. 

CHAPTER  X. 

REFORESTATION  V.    FOREST  RESERVATION. 

I  have  thought  since  I  first  saw  a  forest  policy  alluded  to 
that  it  was  time  many  others  beside  myself  were  looking  in 
the  same  direction,  but  naturally  I  took  the  British  view  of 
individual  pride  in  woodland  which  leads  land  owners  to 
plant  every  piece  of  waste  or  rough  land  to  timber;  and  this 
adds  greatly  to  the  beauty  of  an  English  landscape.  Even 
the  sour  and  boggy  lands  of  Scotland  have  been  both  beauti- 
fied and  enhanced  in  value.  Pride  in  sylviculture  was  stimu- 
lated there,  too,  by  the  biting  writings  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  165 

in  regard  to  the  prominence  of  unsightly  crags  in  view  wher- 
ever the  traveler  went.  Dr.  Johnson  used  a  sharp  pen  in 
noting  the  neglect  of  tree-planting.  This  doubtless  induced 
Sir  Walter  Scott  to  introduce  tree-planting  between  the  laird 
and  his  son  in  his  "Heart  of  Midlothian"— "When  ye  hae 
naething  else  to  do,  Jock,  ye  can  aye  be  steekin '  in  a  tree,  Jock ; 
it'll  be  growin',  Jock,  while  ye 're  sleepin'."  It  is  common 
belief  that  Burns'  poem,  "Bruar  Water,"  turned  the  Duke 
of  Argyle  to  a  timber-planting  fad,  which  increased  the  re- 
turns from  his  lands.  It  is  my  settled  belief  that  a  spirit  of 
civic  pride  can  be  raised  in  the  United  States  that  will  induce 
every  owner  of  100  acres  of  land  to  maintain  at  least  ten 
acres  producing  timber.  There  ought  not  to  be  a  single  quar- 
ter-section of  forest  land  sold  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment henceforth,  except  under  a  guarantee  that  20  per  cent 
of  it  shall  be  maintained  for  producing  timber.  Where  a 
homestead  is  on  land  already  best  fitted  for  agriculture,  the 
patent  might  leave  it  optionary  about  planting  timber  on 
that  portion  already  clear  of  timber,  but  if  we  are  half  as 
near  a  timber  famine  as  some  are  saying  who  ought  to  know,  it 
is  time  to  hold  timber  out  of  market  until  it  will  sell  at  prices 
commensurate  with  other  crops;  and  this  involves  a  relation 
of  proportion  between  wheat  land  and  wood  land  that  has  not 
yet  been  considered  in  the  United  States.  If  it  is  desired  to 
prevent  a  wood  famine,  make  the  care  of  forest  land  credita- 
ble as  a  pursuit ;  let  the  forest  farmer  have  at  least  his  home 
market;  stop  Government  agents  from  selling  either  trees  or 
ties  in  competition  with  private  citizens.  That  is  the  sure 
way  of  hastening  a  timber  famine,  because  the  man  or  men 
whose  investments  are  in  timbered  land  or  whose  income  is 
from  harvesting  timber  or  from  the  manufacture  of  lumber, 
cannot  long  compete  with  Mr.  Pinchot,  with  one  hundred  and 
fifty-five  millions  of  acres  of  forest  reserves  to  sell  from. 
And  to  sell  timber  is  not  to  reserve  it. 

I  allude  to  this,  first,  because  I  have  been  for  ten  years  in 
seeming  accord  with  Mr.  Pinchot  as  to  the  necessity  of  care 
of  forest  growth  and  of  harvesting  it  without  waste  and  to 


166  John  Minto. 

guard  it  against  fires.  As  I  have  told  at  the  beginning  of 
these  papers,  I  almost  began  life  observing  the  care  with  which 
British  woodmen  saved  every  part  of  a  tree.  When  I  arrived 
in  America  I  could  not  help  noticing  the  waste  of  timber  to 
economize  labor,  even  in  cutting  the  stumps  of  an  oak,  left  to 
be  an  obstruction  to  tillage  many  years,  that  in  Britain  would 
have  paid  for  cutting  and  carting  away  the  tree.  With  some 
kinds  of  wood  destruction  has  been  so  unreflecting  that  black 
walnut  stumps  left  in  cultivated  fields  for  many  years  sold 
for  more  than  the  land  they  stood  in  would  sell  for. 

I  lived  a  while  in  a  neighborhood  in  Pennsylvania  where  the 
men  associated  themselves  together  to  log  off  a  body  of  land 
and  float  the  timber  down  the  Alleghany  River  for  sale  at 
Pittsburg.  After  getting  their  logs  rafted  they  loaded  the 
raft  with  hoop-poles— cooper  stock— and  sold  them  at  Pitts- 
burg. They  averaged  seven  cents  per  day  per  man.  On 
every  little  farm  the  timber  and  brushwood  had  been  cut  and 
largely  burned,  to  get  land  to  raise  food  on.  The  most  sterile 
of  New  England  lands,  so  won,  had  by  1776  produced  the 
best  crop  of  men  known  to  modern  history ;  but  the  war  of  the 
Revolution  showed  them  two  outlets  for  their  energies  better 
than  to  waste  their  labor  to  make  bread  from  corn  and  rye: 
viz.,  emigration  westward,  and  fisheries  and  trade  by  sea. 
The  breaking  with  England's  trade  gave  them  a  third,  which 
serves  well  yet:  manufacturing  for  the  South  and  West,  in 
which  they  have  used  no  small  amount  of  the  best  hardwood 
timber  in  the  world,  and  have  for  fifty  years  been  drawing  on 
the  Southern  and  Western  States,  and  for  the  past  fifteen, 
have  been  claiming  an  interest  in  the  forested  lands  of  the 
Pacific  States. 

Now  the  necessity  for  timber  for  manufacturing  is  such  as 
to  induce  the  investment  of  New  England  capital  in  Pacific 
Coast  timber  lands,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  complain  of  that 
if  they  would  transfer  themselves  or  their  descendants  with 
their  capital,  and  act  in  the  honesty  of  good  citizenship  to  at- 
tain the  lands  legally,  Avithout  degrading  poor  and  needy 
people  here  through  hired  cruisers  and  purchasing  agents  to 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  167 

secure  large  bodies  of  timber  lands  and  then  evade  paying 
taxes  on  it.  I  don't  mean  to  say  that  New  England  men  alone, 
or  even  in  majority,  are  responsible  for  the  timber-land 
frauds  that  have  been  made  to  carry  the  name  of  Oregon, 
through  the  columns  of  ten-cent  monthlies,  into  obscure  corn- 
ers. But  the  fact  of  the  rush  to  get  timber  land  on  the 
Pacific  side  was  certainly  largely  brought  about  by  men  and 
magazines  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  States. 

The  American  Forestry  Association  was  the  active  agency 
in  initiating  the  forest  reserve  policy.  B.  E.  Fernow,  Chief 
of  the  Bureau  of  Forestry  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
was  the  most  active  agent  in  creating  the  forest  reservation 
that  has  reached  an  aggregation  of  155,000,000  of  acres; 
ample  to  furnish  forest  homes  for  one  million  families.  In 
January,  1897,  the  membership  roll  of  the  American  Forestry 
Association  was  690 ;  78  of  these  were  females ;  371  were  resi- 
dents of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey 
and  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  is  not  as  against  the  pur- 
poses of  the  association,  for  I  believed  in  it  long  before  that 
date ;  nor  is  the  number  of  woman  members  noted  out  of  dis- 
respect ;  it  was  to  show  where  and  by  what  class  the  overcut  of 
timber  was  most  noticed.  But  examination  of  the  actors  in 
bringing  about  the  reservation  policy  proves  that  there  was 
more  care  to  have  control  of  the  natural  forests  of  the  newest 
States  than  to  replant  where  there  had  been  an  overcut.  And 
where  most  certainly  the  land  can  be  reforested,  a  true  ec- 
onomy would  say  loudly  that  it  ought  to  be. 

It  is  ten  years  now  since  a  committee  from  the  National 
Academy  of  Science  was  asked  for  by  Hon.  Hoke  Smith,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior,  at  the  suggestion  of  B.  E.  Fernovv, 
Chief  Forester.  The  report  of  this  committee  was  simply  a 
few  unproven  assertions  on  the  causes  and  effect  of  foresi.s 
and  the  destructive  effects  of  sheep-ranging  in  forests.  The 
German  system  of  forest  management  was  recommended,  even 
to  the  use  of  mounted  soldiery.  This  was  not  consistent  v.'itli 
the  national  laud  policy,  and  effort  has  been  made  ever  sirx^p 


168  John  Minto. 

to  make  the  land  policy  and  the  forest  policy  to  agree  and  bo^  h 
subserve  the  wants  of  coming  generations. 

President  Roosevelt  seems  to  perceive  that  what  has  yet 
been  done  is  not  sufficient  to  conserve  the  natural  resources 
this  already  great  country  will  soon  have  need  of.  He  thinks, 
and  says  very  forcibly,  that  continued  production  of  forests 
is  an  essential  condition  of  a  continuance  of  the  prosperity 
and  progress  of  this  nation.  He  says,  truly  I  think:  ''The 
forest  policy  of  any  country  must  be  an  essential  part  of  Us 
land  policy."  He  says  again :"  The  *  *  *  primary  ob 
ject  of  the  forest  policy,  as  well  as  the  land  policy  of  the 
United  States,  is  the  making  of  prosperous  homes."  Again  ho 
says:  "You  can  start  a  prosperous  home  by  destroying  the 
forests,  but  you  cannot  keep  it  prosperous  that  way."  The 
President  is  talking  to  a  society  of  American  foresters  as 
though  he  expects  them  to  impress  the  wisdom  of  the  present 
policy  upon  the  people  of  the  mountain  States. 

In  the  hope  and  the  belief  that  it  can  be  done,  the  writer 
is  going  to  submit  a  plan  by  which  it  can  be  done,  and  be 
made  by  the  people  who  have  homes  in  the  forest  and  mak.^ 
fore.stry  the  chief  source  of  their  prosperity:  viz.,  give  or  sell 
the  land  for  forest  production.  Say  160  or  320  acres  is 
patented  under  the  condition  that  one-tenth,  sixteen  or  thirty 
two  acres  of  land,  may  be  cleared  for  other  crops  than  timber. 
The  timber  farmer  guards  and  harvests  and  improves  the 
product.  As  very  much  of  the  forests  contain  open  land,  that 
may  be  passed  for  family  use,  for  which  it  is  most  suitabb. 
Or,  if  it  is  deemed  no  longer  good  public  policy  to  give  a 
homestead  of  timbered  land,  sell  the  land  to  he  kept  in  forest, 
and  then  invest  the  purchase  price,  less  the  five  per  cent 
protnised  the  State  upon  its  admission  to  the  Union,  in  refor- 
esting overcut  and  abandoned  lands  on  the  Atlantic  or  Ap- 
palachian States. 

Judging  by  the  way  men  have  risked  reputation  and  mon-^y 
to  attain  timbered  land  unlawfully  in  the  recent  past,  and  to 
hold  lands  given  as  aid  to  railroad  building,  in  contravention 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  169 

of  the  conditions  of  the  gift,  there  will  be  no  lack  of  bidders 
for  timber  lands,  and  no  lack  of  care  in  their  management. 

The  ten  years'  experience  in  the  introduction  of  a  body  of 
specialists  as  trained  foresters  to  utilize  and  care  for  the 
public  forested  lands  has  not  as  yet  borne  fruits  of  demon- 
stration that  the  people  want  a  class  of  teachers  in  the 
management  of  forest  property.  What  has  been  done  by 
Congress  to  meet  the  change  of  conditions  demanding  the  care 
of  instead  of  the  destruction  of  timber  has  been  done  with 
disregard  to  the  relations  of  the  nation  to  the  mountain 
States ;  a  ruthlessness  toward  the  poor  and  the  ignorant  of 
the  frontier  people  which  has  resulted  in  some  plainly  written 
signs  that  might  cause  a  judicious  statesman  to  hesitate  be- 
fore filling  the  forested  public  lands  that  have  been  utterly 
uneared  for  for  a  hundred  years  with  human  hounds,  and 
treating  men  whose  fathers  were  paid  by  liberal  gifts  of  land 
for  coming  and  ordaining  law  and  maintaining  order  in  Ore- 
gon, as  though  they  were  the  lowest  of  the  hiiman  race.  Mr. 
Pinchot,  whose  zeal  and  skill  in  organization  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned, has  acknowledged  that  mistakes  have  been  made.  That 
is  true;  and  the  gain  of  Canada  of  more  than  250,000 
of  the  home-building  class  of  American  citizens  outside  of 
cities  and  suburban  additions,  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that 
what  I  claim  is  true :  that  the  effort  to  found  a  forest  policy, 
which  was  much  needed  ten  years  ago,  was  started  where  it 
was,  and  is,  yet  least  needed.  Canada  has  gained  one  million 
population  from  the  United  States,  her  publicists  think,  since 
Great  Britain  gave  her  more  liberty  over  her  own  develop- 
ment. It  is  not  asserted  here  that  her  imitation  of  the  home- 
stead policy  of  the  United  States  in  Manitoba  and  Alberta  has 
been  the  sole  cause  of  the  partial  arrest  of  development  on 
our  side  of  the  line  since  the  proclamation  of  forest  reserves 
began,  and  the  wheat  lands  of  Canada  are  very  far  from  re- 
ceiving all  we  have  lost  since  we  gave  the  forester  power  to 
annoy  and  contradict  United  States  Senators,  and  sell  forest 
products  in  competition  with  private  citizens.  British  Col- 
umbia forests  have   been   receiving  both  capital  and  labor 


170  John  Minto. 

from  our  side  of  the  line,  and  men  who  had  lived  long  enough 
near  the  center  of  the  Cascade  forest  reserve,  are  now  perma- 
nent residents  of  the  Yukon  Valley. 

In  the  spring  of  1907  the  United  States  Forester  sold  stump- 
age  off  land  in  California  near  the  Oregon  line  at  $2.00  per  M. 
The  mills  in  Marion  County  had  to  get  stump  age  much 
cheaper  to  compete  in  the  San  Francisco  market  with  those  on 
the  McLeod  River,  350  miles  nearer.  It  is  understood  that 
this  year  the  Forester  is  selling  lodge-pole  pine  railroad  ties. 
The  reports,  however,  have  not  yet  come  to  hand.  The  report 
of  the  cut  in  Wyoming  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1907,  was 
233,000,000  feet,  board  measure,  valued  at  $644,202.26. 

Oregon's  account  of  the  same  date  is  28,643,589  feet,  board 
measure,  sold  at  $48,526.50;  but  the  Forester's  accounts  are 
of  range  rentals  as  well  as  lumber  sold,  for  the  latest  of 
which  I  am  under  obligation  to  Hon.  F,  W.  Benson,  Secretary 
of  State  for  Oregon,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  f olloAving  letter : 

State  of  Oregon, 
Hon.  John  Minto,  Salem,  May  29,  1908. 

Salem,  Oregon. 
Dear  Sir:— Responding  to  your  request  of  the  26th,  to  be 
advised  of  the  amounts  received  from  the  National  Govern- 
ment from  five  per  centum  of  the  sales  of  public  lands  and 
also  ten  per  centum  of  the  amounts  received  from  sales  of 
forest  reserve  timber,  and  rentals,  etc.,  have  to  advise  you  as 
follows : 

On  account  of  five  per  centum  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales 
of  public  lands : 

1899 $     1,475.84 

1900 4,404.06 

1901 11,763.45 

1902 15,113.55 

1903 23,365.90 

1904 90,135.24 

1905 64,562.24 

1906 28,212.37 

1907 22,489.56 

1908 74,011.17 

$335,533.38 


From  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  171 

On  account  of  ten  per  centum  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales 
of  timber,  forest  reserve  rentals,  etc. : 

1906 $     7,585.96 

1907 13,980.89 

$  21,566.85 

I  trust  you  may  find  the  information  has  been  furnished  in 
the  form  desired  and  that  it  may  suffice  for  your  purposes. 

Very  respectfully, 

F.  W.  Benson, 
Secretary  of  State. 

These  figures  show  for  land  sold  a  remarkable  increase  from 
1899  to  1908  inclusive.  The  ten  years  aggregate  $335,533.38, 
an  annual  average  of  $33,553.34  coming  onto  the  permanent 
tax-paying  list  of  the  State  greatly  adds  to  their  value. 

The  Forester  returns  as  the  income  of  the  ten  per  centum 
of  forest  resources  sold,  timber  sold,  and  range  rentals,  an 
average  of  $10,733.19  per  annum,  and  little  if  any  tax  list; 
the  Nation  receiving  90  per  cent  of  the  income  from  this  vast 
store  of  timber  which,  when  sold,  comes  in  competition  with 
the  business  interests  of  the  country. 

In  regard  to  these  sales,  I  note  the  Forester's  statement  of 
increased  sales  of  timber  between  June  30,  1906,  from  Oregon, 
to  the  value  of  $710.85  and  to  June  30,  1907,  increase  to 
$48,526.00,  together  with  the  statement:  "The  use  of  timber 
resources  of  the  National  Forests  was  encouraged  throughout 
the  year.  Three  times  as  much  timber  was  sold  as  in  1906, 
the  aggregate  being  $2,532,275.60." 

I  understand  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  while  the 
forests  were  in  his  control,  held  that  he  had  no  right  to  sell 
timber  from  the  public  domain,  and  Mr.  Pinchot  asked  the 
Attorney-General's  opinion  on  his  right  to  sell  forest  re- 
sources, which  was  favorable,  and  he  is  acting  on  that.  This 
raisas  the  question  in  the  mind  of  every  private  owner  of 
timber  land  of,  "How  do  I  stand  under  this  party  of  protec- 
tion?"   With  a  domain  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  million 


172  John  Minto. 

acres  not  his  own,  at  market  prices  he  can  make,  and  eighty 
mil lions  of  consumers,  he  can  quadruple  his  output  every 
year.  In  competition  with  this  power,  where  is  the  induce- 
ment toward  a  civic  pride  in  this  noble  field  of  production? 

No,   this   is  not   the  form   an  American  Forestry   System 
should  take. 


CONTESTS  OVER  THE  CAPITAL  OF  OREGON. 

By  Walter  O.  Winslow. 

On  May  2,  1843,  at  the  call  of  the  conmiittee  appointed  at 
the  "Wolf  Meeting,"  the  inhabitants  of  Willamette  Settle- 
ment met  at  Champoeg  for  the  purpose  of  taking  steps  to 
organize  themselves  into  a  civic  community,  and  to  provide 
themselves  with  the  protection  secured  by  the  enforcement  of 
law  and  order.  At  this  meeting  the  decision  was  for  organ- 
ization and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up  laws 
suitable  for  a  provisional  government  and  report  at  a  meeting 
of  the  people  to  be  held  at  Champoeg  July  5,  1843. 

Pursuant  to  order,  the  people  assembled  July  5th  to  hear  the 
report  of  the  committee.  The  report,  which  became  the  first 
organic  law  of  Oregon,  was  adopted,  and  a  provisional  govern- 
ment was  formed. 

The  first  legislative  assembly  of  the  Provisional  Government 
met  at  Oregon  City  (then  called  Willamette  Falls)  in  1844. 
The  first  clause  of  the  journal  of  their  meeting  states  that  they 
met  pursuant  to  the  organic  law,  but  there  is  no  provision  in 
this  law  regarding  their  place  of  meeting;  further,  no  part  of 
the  journal  of  the  meeting,  when  the  organic  law  was  adopted, 
makes  provision  for  a  meeting  place.  All  that  is  left  is  the 
fact  taken  from,  the  journals  of  the  legislative  assembly,  that 
the  seat  of  the  Provisional  Government  was  established  at 
Oregon  City.  On  December  19,  1845,  a  bill  was  passed,  speci- 
fying that  the  assembly  should  meet  at  Oregon  City  until 
otherwise  directed.  The  journals  show  that  the  capital  re- 
mained there  until  1849. 

The  Territory  of  Oregon  was  established  by  act  of  Congress, 
passed  August  14,  1848.  This  act  provided  that  the  legislative 
assembly  of  the  Territory  of  Oregon  should  hold  its  first  ses- 
sion at  such  time  and  place  in  said  Territory  as  the  Governor 
thereof  shall  appoint  and  direct ;  and  at  said  first  session,  or 


174  Walter  C.  Winslow. 

as  soon  thereafter  as  they  shall  deem  expedient,  the  legislative 
assembly  shall  proceed  to  locate  and  establish  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment for  said  Territory  at  such  place  as  they  may  deem 
eligible,  which  place,  however,  shall  thereafter  be  subject  to 
be  changed  by  said  legislative  assembly.  (Sec.  15  of  act  of 
Congress  establishing  Territorial  Government.) 

According  to  the  act.  Governor  Lane  named  Oregon  City 
as  the  first  meeting  place  of  the  territorial  legislature,  and  in 
pursuance  of  his  proclamation,  the  first  legislature  of  the 
Territory  of  Oregon  met  at  the  above  named  place  July  16. 
1849.  At  this  session  a  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Buck, 
Senator  from  Clackamas  County,  to  locate  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment. The  bill  did  not  carry  and  the  journal  does  not  show 
what  place  it  intended  for  the  territorial  capital.  No  final 
action  being  taken  at  this  session  regarding  the  location  of  the 
seat  of  government,  the  second  session  met  at  Oregon  City, 
pursuant  to  act  of  Congress  and  proclamation  of  the  Governor. 
During  this  session,  however,  a  bill  was  passed  locating  the 
seat  of  the  Territorial  Government  at  Salem,  where  it  re- 
mained until  1855. 

This  act  not  only  located  the  capital  at  Salem,  but  also 
located  the  penitentiary  at  Portland  and  the  university  at 
Corvallis.  The  Governor,  who  believed  that  he  should  have 
been  consulted  regarding  the  location  of  these  territorial  insti- 
tutions, claimed  that  the  act  was  unconstitutional.  He  based 
his  contention  on  the  ground  that  the  act  dealt  with  more  than 
one  specific  object,  which,  according  to  the  act  of  Congress 
establishing  a  territorial  government  (this  provided  that  no 
law  should  embrace  more  than  one  object  and  that  should  be 
expressed  in  the  title)  was  unlawful.  The  case  was  taken 
before  the  Territorial  Supreme  Court,  which  sustained  the 
Governor's  contention,  claiming  that  the  law  did  contain  a 
multiplicity  of  objects,  and  was,  therefore,  unconstitutional. 
This  opinion  was  concurred  in  by  Messrs.  Justice  Nelson  and 
Strong,  while  Mr.  Justice  Pratt  dissented,  claiming  that  the 
act  did  not  contain  more  than  one  subject.  The  people  gen- 
erally believed  that  Pratt  was  right,  and  when  the  time  ar- 


Contests  Over  State  Capital  of  Oregon.       175 

rived  for  the  uext  session  of  the  legislature  it  found  a  large 
majority  of  both  houses  and  one  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
sitting  at  Salem,  with  the  rest  of  the  supreme  bench,  the  Gov- 
ernor and  his  appointees  sitting  at  Oregon  City. 

The  situation  was  a  difficult  one,  and  it  was  not  relieved 
until  on  May  4,  1852,  Congress  settled  the  matter  by  confirm- 
ing the  "location"  act  and  went  on  to  declare  that  all  pro- 
ceedings had  under  it  were  done  in  conformity  to  law. 

Thus  the  matter  was  settled  and  the  third  session  of  the 
territorial  legislature,  which  had  met  at  Salem  pursuant  to 
their  own  action,  was  relieved  of  the  matter  for  the  time  being. 

The  territorial  capital  once  being  located,  the  next  question 
was  that  of  a  building.  Some  money  having  already  been  ap- 
propriated by  Congress  for  that  purpose,  a  building  commit- 
tee was  provided  for,  and  the  building  began  in  1854.  Ac- 
cording to  the  first  plans,  the  building  was  to  be  a  stone 
structure  of  Ionic  style.  After  the  foundation  had  been  laid, 
the  legislature  became  concerned  that  there  would  not  be 
enough  money  to  finish  the  building  according  to  the  original 
plans,  so  they  changed  the  specifications  from  stone  to  wood, 
and  from  Ionic  to  Grecian-Doric  style. 

In  1855,  at  the  sixth  session  of  the  territorial  legislature,  an 
act  was  passed  relocating  the  seat  of  government  at  Corvallis, 
and  also  providing  for  a  new  building  commission  to  erect 
suitable  buildings  at  the  newly  chosen  place.  This  was  done, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  new  State  House  building  at 
Salem  was  almost  completed.  The  only  argument  advanced 
for  the  change  was  that  Corvallis  was  at  the  head  of  naviga- 
tion on  the  Willamette  and  was  probably  nearest  the  center  of 
population  of  the  territory. 

The  seventh  session  met  at  Corvallis,  pursuant  to  law. 
About  this  time  the  officers  of  the  United  States  Treasury  De- 
partment ruled  that  no  money  appropriated  by  Congress  for 
building  at  Salem  could  be  expended  elsewhere,  nor  could 
money  appropriated  for  the  mileage  and  pay  of  members, 
officers  and  clerks  be  paid  them  if  a  session  should  be  held 
elsewhere  than  at  Salem.     This  caused  consternation  among 


176  Walter  C.  Winslow. 

the  members  of  the  legislature,  and  on  the  12th  of  December, 
1855,  an  act  was  passed  relocating  the  seat  of  government  at 
Salem.  On  the  same  day  a  resolution  was  passed  calling  for  a 
recess  of  four  days,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  the  legis- 
lature should  convene  at  Salem.  In  the  discussion  on  the  re- 
location act,  Mr.  Tichenor  said:  "Let  us  go  where  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Territory  is.  Let  us  clew-up,  tack-ship,  and  steer 
for  Salem.  The  facts  are  to  my  mind  most  conclusive,  that  it 
was  nothing  but  corruption  that  caused  it  to  be  removed  here 
in  the  first  place.  It  has  been  removed  by  the  tickle-me-and- 
I '11-tickle-you  game."  This  is  simply  quoted  to  give  a  possible, 
at  least  one  man's,  reason  for  the  removal  from  Salem  to 
Corvallis. 

In  accordance  with  the  act  and  resolution,  the  legislative 
assembly  met  at  Salem  on  December  17th  to  resume  the  work 
of  the  seventh  annual  session.  Two  rooms  having  been  especi- 
ally fitted  up  for  the  purpose,  they  met  in  the  new  State 
House.  After  a  few  days'  session,  they  adjourned  for  the 
holidays,  and  during  the  recess,  on  the  night  of  the  29th  of 
December,  1855,  the  new  State  House  building,  which  was 
nearly  completed,  with  the  library  and  most  of  the  public 
records,  was  burned  to  the  ground. 

As  soon  as  the  legislature  assembled,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  investigate  the  matter.  This  committee  entirely 
exonerated  the  watchman  and  gave  as  their  opinion  that  the 
fire  had  been  set  by  some  mischievous  hand. 

The  people  throughout  the  Territory  seemed  to  accredit  the 
disaster  to  a  strong  feeling  in  Corvallis,  that  with  this  build- 
ing at  Salem,  which  was  largely  the  cause  of  the  ruling  of  the 
Treasury  Department,  and  the  people  eager  to  be  economical, 
Corvallis  M'ould  stand  little  chance  in  the  race  for  the  perma- 
nent location  of  the  seat  of  government.  However,  this  is 
merely  an  opinion,  influenced  by  the  newspaper  reports  of 
the  fire. 

Before  the  end  of  the  seventh  session,  a  bill  was  passed  sub- 
mitting the  question  of  the  permanent  location  of  the  capital  to 
the  people.  The  act  provided  that  the  vote  should  be  taken  at 
the  next  regular  election,  and  that  no  place  should  be  chosen 


Contests  Over  State  Capital  of  Oregon.      177 

unless  it  should  receive  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast.  In 
accordance  with  this  act,  the  question  was  submitted  to  the 
people  at  the  June  election,  and  the  vote  was  as  follows: 
Salem,  2,049 ;  Portland,  1,154;  Corvallis,  1,998;  Eugene,  2,316. 
Thus  there  was  no  election.  The  law  which  provided  for  this 
election  further  provided  that  if  no  place  should  receive  a 
majority  of  all  votes  cast,  those  receiving  the  two  highest  num- 
ber of  votes  should  be  voted  upon  at  a  special  election.  At 
this  special  election,  the  people  refused  to  vote  on  the  ques- 
tion, being  tired  of  the  matter,  according  to  the  Salem  States- 
man. No  records  of  the  returns  of  the  election  can  be  found 
either  in  newspaper  reports  or  on  public  record.  It  is  believed 
that,  and  some  authority  can  be  found  for  the  statement,  from 
the  memory  of  the  early  pioneers  who  are  still  living,  this  is 
the  time  that  Eola,  then  Cincinnati,  came  nearly  being  chosen 
for  the  seat  of  government. 

Thus,  after  so  much  trouble  and  expense,  the  question  as  to 
where  the  seat  of  government  should  be  permanently  located 
was  still  an  open  question.    Temporarily  Salem  had  won. 

During  the  eighth  session  of  the  legislature,  a  bill  was  in- 
troduced in  the  house  by  Mr.  Allen,  to  remove  the  seat  of 
government  from  Salem  to  Portland,  but  this  bill  was  lost. 
In  the  council,  Mr.  Bagley  introduced  a  bill  to  resubmit  the 
question  to  the  people;  this  met  the  fate  of  the  house  bill. 
During  the  ninth  session  nothing  was  done  regarding  the 
matter,  but  the  tenth  session  was  almost  taken  up  by  discus- 
sion on  relocation  bills.  The  house  passed  a  bill  to  relocate 
from  Salem  to  Portland,  and  to  submit  the  relocation  to  the 
people.  While  the  bill  was  pending  before  the  house,  an 
amendment  was  offered,  proposing  to  strike  out  Portland  and 
insert  in  lieu  thereof  Eugene.  The  amendment  was  lost. 
When  the  measure  came  before  the  council,  an  amendment  was 
proposed  to  change  the  time  of  the  election  from  the  regular 
election  to  the  first  Monday  in  October,  following.  This 
amendment,  along  with  some  others,  was  passed,  and  the  bill, 
as  amended,  was  passed  in  the  council.  When  these  amend- 
ments came  up  before  the  house  for  consideration  a  fight 
ensued,  and  a  joint  committee  was  appointed  to  bring  the  two 


178  Walter  C.  Winslow. 

houses  together  upon  the  amendments.  The  report  of  the  com- 
mittee was  that  the  council  should  recede,  but  this  report  was 
not  adopted  in  the  council.  As  a  result  thereof,  the  bill  did 
not  become  a  law,  and  the  question  still  remained  unsettled. 

According  to  the  State  Constitution,  which  went  into  effect 
upon  Oregon's  admission  into  the  Union,  the  legislature  did 
not  have  power  to  locate  the  seat  of  government,  but  at  its  first 
regular  session  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  it  was 
to  provide  by  law  for  the  submission  to  electors  of  the  State  at 
the  next  regular  election  thereafter  the  matter  of  the  selection 
of  a  place  for  a  permanent  seat  of  government ;  and  no  place 
should  ever  be  the  seat  of  government  under  such  law  which 
should  not  receive  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast  on  the 
matter  of  such  election.  The  Constitution  further  provided 
that  when  once  located,  the  seat  of  government  should  not  be 
changed  for  a  period  of  twenty  years.  (Art.  14,  Sec.  1,  Ore- 
gon Constitution.) 

At  the  first  extra  session  of  the  State  legislature,  held  in 
May,  1859,  a  bill  was  proposed  to  put  the  matter  before  the 
people,  but  this  bill  was  lost. 

Pursuant  to  the  Constitution,  the  fii-st  regular  session, 
which  met  September  18,  1860,  acted  upon  the  matter  Novem- 
ber 19th.  By  this  act,  the  location  of  the  seat  of  government 
was  to  be  submitted  to  the  public  vote  at  the  next  general 
election  in  June  1862,  "and  every  general  election  there- 
after," until  some  one  point  should  receive  a  majority  of  all 
votes  cast  upon  the  question. 

At  the  election  in  June,  1862,  owing  to  the  fact  that  nearly 
every  town  in  the  State  received  a  few  votes,  there  was  no 
election.  But  at  the  election  in  1864,  Salem  received  6,108 
votes;  Portland,  3,864;  Eugene,  1,588;  and  all  other  places 
577  votes.  Salem  received  57  majority  of  the  whole  vote  cast, 
whereupon  Salem  was  duly  declared  "the  permanent  seat  of 
government. ' ' 

Thus,  after  a  struggle  which  lasted  for  nearly  fifteen  years, 
the  question  was  settled.  The  account  of  the  erection  of  the 
Capitol  is  a  story  complete  in  itself,  and  will  not  be  touched 
upon  here. 


MRS.  JESSE  APPLEGATE. 

By  Mks.  S.  a.  Long. 

Cynthia  Ann  Parker  was  born  on  the  Cumberland  River 
in  Northeastern  Tennessee  on  the  15th  day  of  August,  1813. 
Her  father,  Jeremiah  Parker,  was  a  native  of  a  Northern 
State  and  was  a  flatboatman  on  the  Mississippi  River.  This 
was  before  the  days  steam.  And  what  were  called  flatboats 
were  built  something  like  a  scow,  loaded  vidth  produce  and 
floated  down  the  river  to  a  market,  usually  New  Orleans, 
where  the  freight  was  sold  and  the  boat  also ;  which  last  was 
usually  broken  up  for  the  lumber  used  in  its  construction. 
This  was  Jeremiah  Parker's  business.  His  wife  was  Dutch; 
her  name  Sallie  Ann  Yauhnt.  Her  parents  had  emigrated 
from  Holland  in  her  youth.  She  was  the  mother  of  five 
children.  Cynthia  Ann  was  the  only  girl  and  was  the  fourth 
child.  The  mother  died  when  Cynthia  was  seven  and  her 
younger  brother  was  five  years  old.  The  father  took  the 
three  older  boys  onto  the  boat  with  him  and  gave  the  two 
younger  children  to  their  mother's  brother,  John  Yauhnt,  in 
Missouri.  There  were  few  chances  for  education  in  those 
days,  and  the  children  received  very  little.  Cynthia  learned 
to  spin  and  weave  as  well  as  other  house  work.  And  as  she 
grew  older  found  employment  in  the  families  of  neighbors 
where  she  earned  her  food  and  clothes. 

She  did  much  work  for  a  Mrs.  English,  who  befriended 
her  and  to  whom  she  became  much  attached.  At  this  friend's 
house  she  met  one  evening  at  a  log-rolling  bee  a  young  sur- 
veyor, Jesse  Applegate,  and  three  months  later  became  his 
wife.  They  were  married  on  the  13th  of  March,  1831.  She  was 
not  yet  eighteen  nor  he  twenty  years  of  age.  The  first  year  of 
their  married  life  was  passed  in  St.  Louis,  where  he  clerked 
in  the  Surveyor-General's  office  and  where  their  first  child 
was  born.  Later  he  took  up  land  in  St.  Clair  County,  Mis- 
souri, on  the  banks  of  the  Osage  River,  and  she  camped  there 


180  Mrs.  S.  A.  Long. 

with  him  and  helped  him  to  build  the  log  house  where  the  first 
happy  twelve  years  of  their  married  life  were  spent.  Those 
were  prosperous  and  happy  years.  Her  younger  brother 
shared  her  home  much  of  the  time.  She  received  occasional 
visits  from  her  older  ones.  In  after  years  she  often  spoke 
regretfully  of  the  Osage  home,  of  their  kind  neighbors,  of  the 
beautiful  forest  full  of  wild  fruits  and  berries,  of  wild  game, 
and  of  the  great  river  with  its  plenty  of  fish.  Here  were  born 
five  of  their  children;  here  was  their  first  sorrow,  the  death 
of  one  little  child,  who  was  remembered  and  mourned  till  life's 
latest  day— "Poor  little  Milburn,"  she  often  said. 

In  1843  came  the  journey  to  Oregon.  Her  younger  brother, 
William  G.  Parker,  accompanied  them.  She  never  saw  any 
of  her  other  relatives  afterwards.  The  journey  across  the 
plains  was  full  of  novelty  and  incident,  the  event  of  a  lifetime. 
There  was  enough  of  change  and  adventure  to  make  each  day 
interesting  and  pleasant.  But  with  the  arrival  in  Oregon  came 
sorrow  and  privation.  The  great  River  of  the  West  became 
the  grave  of  another  child,  her  oldest  son,  Edward— a  fine, 
manly  boy  of  ten  years  of  age.  They  found  themselves  sur- 
rounded by  a  strange  and  not  always  friendly  people,  by  a 
new  and  different  country,  whose  forasts,  fruits  and  game 
were  unlike  anything  they  had  known.  What  had  been 
common  comforts  in  the  Osage  home  became  luxuries  in 
this ;  the  roasted  possum,  fat  catfish,  and  sweet  potatoes,  were 
things  of  the  past,  as  well  as  the  wild  grapes,  plums,  paw- 
paws, persimmons,  and  nuts,  of  the  Osage  forest.  Wheaten 
flour,  and  sometimes  only  boiled  wheat,  wild  black  berries, 
strawberries  and  bitter  crab-apple  were  their  substitute;  but 
the  unerring  rifle  brought  much  wild  game  to  the  frontier 
home.  The  fl^sh  of  elk  and  deer,  grouse,  pheasant,  wild  ducks 
and  geese,  the  royal  salmon  and  the  speckled  trout,  bear 
steak,  roasted  squirrels,  pot  pies  of  wild  pigeons.  She  was  a 
great  cook  of  meats,  loved  to  try  experiments  in  that  line. 
Also  she  made  great  crocks  of  preserves  of  the  wild  fruits  that 
were  obtainable,  black  berries,  crab-apples,  strawberries  and 
even  the  little  gooseberries.     And  the  product  of  her  dairy 


Mrs.  Jesse  Applegate.  181 

added  to  the  bill  of  fare,  for  she  was  au  expert  butter  and 
cheese  maker. 

For  a  number  of  years  after  gold  was  discovered  in  South- 
ern Oregon  and  California,  Mrs.  Applegate  sold  butter  and 
cheese  to  the  miners  and  received  many  dollars  in  return. 
The  amount  of  labor  accomplished  by  the  pioneer  mothers  is 
a  lasting  reproach  to  their  idle  and  incompetent  descendants. 
Mrs.  Applegate  made  all  the  every-day  clothing  for  her  hus- 
band and  sons:  coats,  shirts,  pants,  underclothing,  socks- 
spinning  the  yarn  for  these  last.  Made  all  the  clothing  of 
herself  and  daughters.  And  for  many  years  did  the  work  by 
hand.  Sometim.e  in  the  fifties  a  cook-stove  and  a  sewing 
machine  were  brought  into  the  house,  greatly  lightening  her 
labor.  Besides  the  sewing  and  cooking,  milking  and  tending 
the  milk,  she  found  time  for  some  work  in  the  garden  tending- 
some  special  plants.  She  had  besides  a  little  flower  garden 
where  were  planted  some  old  time  f avorities :  Hollyhocks, 
Sweet  William,  and  Sweet  Peas,  Wall  Flowers,  Pinks  and 
Bean  Catchers.  How  carefully  she  guarded  the  first  rose 
bush— a  slip  of  the  pungent  old  Mission  rose,  always  a  favor- 
ite with  her.  She  brought  with  her  from  Missouri  a  little 
pinch  of  seeds  ^"hat  were  raised  first  "in  old  Kentuck  where 
the  meadow  grass  is  blue."  This  little  pinch  of  seed  was 
carefully  planted  and  watched  and  the  first  little  yellow  heads 
of  seed  gathered  as  if  they  were  gold.  Now  there  are  patches 
of  Kentucky  blue  grass  scattered  all  over  Yoncalla  Valley, 
the  offspring,  I  candidly  believe,  of  that  little  pinch  of  seeds. 

The  Applegates  moved  to  Umpqua  in  1849.  Yoncalla  Val- 
ley was  a  wilderness,  only  the  Cowan's  lived  in  it.  And  the 
Scott's  in  the  valley  adjoining.  There  was  an  old  Hiidson's 
Bay  Company  station  at  the  mouth  of  Elk  Creek  called  Ft. 
Umpqua.  Some  apple  trees  had  been  planted  there  and  the 
first  apples  the  writer  of  this  ever  tasted  were  plucked  from 
these  trees  and  sent  as  a  present  to  Mrs.  Applegate  by  the 
agent  at  the  fort,  an  old  Canadian,  Old  Garnier.  Never  in 
the  forty  years  since  then  have  apples  tasted  so  good.     The 


182  Mrs.  S.  A.  Long. 

forbidden  fruit  plucked  by  our  mother  Eve  in  Paradise  must 
have  been  of  that  variety. 

In  the  early  fifties  there  was  a  Hudson 's  Bay  Company  ship- 
ping point  at  the  mouth  of  the  Umpqua  accessible  from  the  in- 
terior by  mule  trails  through  the  Coast  Mountains.  And  soon 
a  little  town  was  started,  called  Scottsburg,  in  honor  of  its 
founder,  Captain  Levi  Scott,  a  brave  and  honorable  Ohioan 
who,  with  his  sons  John  and  William,  settled  first  in  Scott's 
Valley,  which  still  bears  their  name.  Scottsburg  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Umpqua,  or  rather  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the 
Umpqua,  was  the  point  where  settlers  of  the  southern  part 
of  the  State  and  miners  of  Southern  Oregon  obtained  their 
supplies  to  a  great  extent;  these  were  carried  on  pack-trains 
for  some  years,  but  a  wagon  road  was  finally  built  down  the 
Umpqua  and  later  down  the  Elk  River  also.  During  the  days 
of  the  pack-trains  Mrs.  Applegate  made  and  sold  much  butter 
and  cheese,  securing  high  prices  for  her  handiwork,  for  this 
was  in 

"The  days  of  old,  the  days  of  gold, 
The  days  of  forty-nine." 

Mr.  Applegate  clerked  for  Allen  &  McKinley  at  Scottsburg 
for  some  years.  He  was  also  frequently  away  from  home  for 
months  at  a  time  following  his  vocation  of  surveying.  His 
was  the  honor  of  establishing  what  is  known  as  the  Military 
Road  across  the  Cascade  Range  by  way  of  Diamond  Peak.  On 
this  surveying  expedition  he  accompaned,  as  surveyor  and 
guide.  Major  Benjamin  Alvord,  who  with  a  company  of 
soldiers  established  that  route.  During  all  these  absences 
Mrs.  Applegate  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  farm,  her  admin- 
istration of  them  was  never  questioned  or  objected  to.  During 
the  fifties  a  sewing  machine,  melodeon,  and  large  library 
were  brought  into  the  house.  Music,  books,  newspapers,  were 
the  amusements  of  the  family — sometimes  a  little  social  gath- 
ering of  the  neighbor  children. 

Mrs.  Applegate  had  received  no  education  and  never  at- 
tempted to  read  anything  other  than  the  large  print  of  her 


Mrs.  Jesse  Applegate.  183 

Testament,  with  which  she  was  familiar  from  Matthew  to 
Revelation.  But  she  was  not  by  any  means  an  ignorant 
woman.  Her  husband  had  adopted  the  habit  of  reading  aloud 
to  her  in  their  early  married  life.  This  habit  he  kept  up  as 
long  as  she  lived.  Of  evenings,  when  the  day's  work  was 
done  and  the  fires  were  lighted  on  the  hearth  in  the  winter, 
or  of  Sundays  and  leisure  hours  of  summei-,  he  would  read 
the  current  news  of  the  day— politics,  congressional  proceed- 
ings, and  general  news,  as  well  as  books  of  travel,  historical 
works,  novels  and  poetry.  She  listened  with  appreciation 
and  interest  and  forgot  nothing  of  what  she  heard.  She  liked 
best  historical  subjects  and  books  of  travel  and  historical 
novels.  Her  husband  shared  with  her  also  his  letter  corre- 
spondence, which  was  extensive,  reading  to  her  the  letters 
sent  as  well  as  those  received. 

She  taught  her  children,  first,  virtue,  next  honesty.  No 
lessons  in  acquisitiveness  were  ever  taught  by  either  parent. 
She  was  a  member  of  the  Christian  Church,  which  she  con- 
sidered nearest  the  Savior's  lessons  of  any,  but  she  was  not  a 
bigot  and  attended  the  services  of  other  churches  and  made 
their  ministers  welcome  at  her  house,  from  the  Archbishop  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  to  the  humble  followers  of  John  Wesley. 
Archbishop  Blanchet  once  celebrated  high  mass  in  her  house, 
surrounded  by  all  our  Catholic  neighbors,  and  I  think  she  felt 
it  a  great  honor. 

Mrs.  Applegate  was  the  mother  of  thirteen  children,  nine 
of  whom  have  descendants.  At  the  present  time,  March,  1902, 
five  of  her  children  are  yet  living,  forty-four  grand-children, 
forty-five  great-grand-children,  and  two  great-great-grand- 
children, making  a  total  of  ninety-one  descendants.  She  died 
on  the  first  day  of  June,  1881,  in  the  little  home  on  the  side 
of  Mount  Yoncalla  where  her  last  years  were  spent. 


NOTES  AND  NEWS. 

THE  PATRIOTIC  ACHIEVEMENT  OF  EZRA  MEEKER.* 

Mr.  Meeker  is  fully  entitled  to  the  recognition  of  being  the 
Ulysses  among  the  Oregon  pioneers.  Admirably  and  heroic- 
ally did  he  execute  his  trip  back  along  the  Oregon  Trail  and 
to  New  York  City  and  Washington  in  the  interest  of  the 
national  recognition  of  the  historic  importance  of  the  migra- 
tion of  the  Oregon  pioneers.  To  have  simply  retraced  the 
two-thousand-mile  stretch  of  those  westward  marches  across 
the  plains  with  his  ox-team  and  old-time  "prairie  schooner," 
or  Conestoga  Wagon,  would  alone  have  sufficed  to  arouse  the 
deep  interest  of  those  susceptible  to  historical  suggestion.  But 
Mr.  Meeker's  purpose  and  plans  contemplated  a  far  more 
strenuous  undertaking.  Nor  did  he  desist  until  at  every  pop- 
ulation center  on  the  route  a  durable  monument  was  set  up 
or  a  movement  for  one  fully  organized.  Memorial  exercises 
were  held  at  the  unveilings.  The  curiosity  of  thousands  of 
school  children  was  aroused  in  this  as  yet  not  fairly  appreci- 
ated epoch  of  our  national  history  and  their  active  participa- 
tion in  commemorating  its  importance  was  elicited.  The 
sublime  and  patriotic  audacity  with  which  Mr.  Meeker's 
achievement  was  conceived  was  only  equalled  by  the  grim  and 
heroic  determination  with  which  it  was  carried  out  to  com- 
plete consummation. 

Think  of  the  quaint  but  most  impressive  procession  made 
by  this  patriarchal  figure  and  equipage  down  Broadway,  of 
his  review  of  the  tens  of  thousands  before  the  Sub-Treasury 
building  in  the  heart  of  America's  metropolis,  and  of  his 
reception  by  the  President  in  Washington  at  the  steps  of  the 
White  House— all  for  the  noblest  purpose  of  securing  a  due 
recognition  of  the  services  of  those  who  won  for  this  nation 


'Ezra  Meeker.     The  Ox  Team  or  the  Old  Oregon  Trail,  18iS'1906.     (Fourth 
Edition.)     New  York:  Published  by  the  Author. 


Notes  and  News.  185 

dimensions  four-square  to  the  world.  He  was  but  exhibiting — 
uncouth  as  the  outfit  might  have  seemed  to  the  over-fastidious 
—the  ark  in  which  was  borne  the  scions  for  a  nation  of  largest 
destiny. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  fitting  and  fortunate  than 
this  transcontinental  memorial  trip  by  a  veteran  of  the  cul- 
minating migration,  still  possessed  of  the  vigor  of  his  prime 
and  an  adept  in  handling  the  truly  symbolic  ox-team  and 
prairie  schooner.  So,  single-handed  and  alone,  Ezra  Meeker 
appealed  to  the  historic  sense  of  the  American  people,  to  their 
sense  of  obligation  to  the  memory  of  the  intrepid  Oregon 
pioneers,  as  could  have  been  done  in  no  other  way. 

It  is  but  fair  that  Mr.  Meeker  should  express  in  his  own 
words  his  conception  of  the  mission  he  undertook  and  tri- 
umphantly carried  out.    I  quote  chapter  six  of  his  account : 

''the  ox  passing. 

"The  ox  is  passing;  in  fact  we  may  almost  say  has  passed. 
Like  the  old-time  spinning-wheel  and  the  hand  loom,  that  are 
only  to  be  seen  as  mementos  of  the  past;  or  the  quaint  old 
cobbler's  bench  with  its  hand-made  lasts  and  shoe  pegs;  or 
the  heavy  iron  bubbling  mush  pot  on  the  crane  in  the  chimney 
corner ;  like  the  fast  vanishing  of  the  old-time  men  and  women 
of  fifty  years  or  more  ago — all  are  passing  to  be  laid  aside 
for  the  new  ways  and  the  new  actors  on  the  scenes  of  life. 
While  these  ways  and  these  scenes  and  these  actors  have  had 
their  day,  yet  their  experiences  and  lessons  taught  are  not 
lost  to  the  world  although  at  times  almost  forgotten. 

"The  differences  between  a  civilized  and  an  uncivilized 
people  lies  in  the  application  of  these  experiences;  while  the 
one  builds  upon  the  foundations  of  the  past,  which  engenders 
hope  and  ambition  for  the  future,  the  other  has  no  past  nor 
aspirations  for  the  future.  As  reverence  for  the  past  dies 
out  in  the  breasts  of  a  generation,  so  likewise  patriotism  wanes. 
In  the  measure  that  the  love  of  the  history  of  the  past  dies,  so 
likewise  do  the  higher  aspirations  for  the  future.  To  keep 
the  flame  of  patriotism  alive  we  have  only  to  keep  the  mem- 
ory of  the  past  vividly  in  mind. 


186  Notes  and  News. 

"the  battle  of  peace. 

"Bearing  these  thoughts  in  mind,  this  expedition  to  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  the  old  Oregon  Trail  was  undertaken. 
And  there  was  this  further  thought,  that  here  was  this  class 
of  heroic  men  and  women  who  fought  a  veritable  battle— a 
battle  of  peace  to  be  sure,  yet  as  brave  a  battle  as  any  by  those 
that  faced  the  cannon's  mouth;  a  battle  that  was  fraught  with 
as  momentous  results  as  any  of  the  great  battles  of  grim  war ; 
a  battle  that  wrested  half  a  continent  from  the  native  race 
and  from  a  mighty  nation  contending  for  mastery  in  the 
unknown  regions  of  the  West,  whose  fame  [that  of  the  Oregon 
Trail]  was  scantily  acknowledged  and  whose  name  was  already 
almost  forgotten,  and  whose  track,  the  battle  ground  of  peace, 
was  on  the  verge  of  impending  oblivion.  Shall  this  become 
an  accomplished  fact?  The  answer  to  this  is  this  expedition, 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  old  Oregon  Trail,  and  to 
honor  the  intrepid  pioneers  who  made  it  and  saved  this  great 
region,  the  old  Oregon  Country,  for  American  rule. 

"The  ox  team  did  it.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  patient  ox 
with  the  wagon  train,  the  preponderance  of  an  American  set- 
tlement in  the  old  Oregon  Country  over  that  of  the  British 
could  not  have  so  certainly  prevailed ;  and  in  fact  uncertainty 
hovered  over  the  land  with  the  results  hanging  in  the  balance 
until  the  first  w^agon  train  reached  the  region  of  contending 
forces. ' ' 

Mr.  Meeker  in  this  achievement  w^as  doing  a  service  not 
merely  to  the  memory  of  the  Oregon  pioneer  but  also  to  the 
American  people  at  large.  For  this  historic  highway  is  an 
exponent  of  the  pre-emption  of  a  continent  by  Anglo-Saxon 
energy.  The  migrations  over  it  represent  the  highest  daring 
of  Anglo-Saxon  restlessness.  It  was  the  scene  of  the  greatest 
single  achievement  to  which  the  race  was  impelled  through 
its  superlative  measure  of  self-reliance  and  faith  in  the  un- 
known. It  was  the  great  arch  that  had  to  be  projected  to  the 
Pacific  Coast  that  the  territory  of  this  people  might  lie  four- 
square to  the  rest  of  the  world  and  that  it  might  have  the 
choicest  arena  for  the  exhibition  of  its  race  genius.  When 
finally  the  East  and  the  West  have  assumed  their  normal 
relative  proportions  and  the  factors  determining  our  na- 
tional destiny  have  been  clearly  recognized,  the  meed  of  honor 


Notes  and  News.  187 

due  to  those  who  set  forth  on  the  Oregon  migrations  will  be 
fully  awarded.  Mr.  Meeker  through  his  great  patriotic 
achievement  and  his  worthy  record  of  incidents  connected  with 
it  is  grandly  hastening  the  day  of  full  appreciation. 


Kate  C.  McBeth.  The  Nez  Perces  Indians  Since  Lewis  and 
Clark.  Pp.  272.  Price,  $1.50.  Fleming  H.  Revell  Com- 
pany, 1908. 

Six  churches  among  the  Nez  Perces,  two  among  the  Spo- 
kanes,  one  among  the  UmatlUas,  one  among  the  Shoshones  of 
Southern  Idaho,  and  one  among  the  Shivits  of  Utah  represent 
the  direct  present  outcome  of  the  missionary  labors  among  the 
Indians  led  by  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  and  Rev.  H.  H.  Spald- 
ing. However,  Mrs.  Eliza  Spalding  and  the  two  McBeth 
sisters.  Miss  Sue  L.  and  Miss  Kate  C,  are  to  be  credited  with 
a  large  share  of  the  permanent  results.  It  is  exceedingly 
fortunate  that  we  have  this  familiar  and  first-hand  record  of 
this  most  notable  Protestant  missionary  work  among  Western 
Indians.  Miss  McBeth 's  account  furnishes  a  faithful  picture 
of  the  difficulties,  trials  and  victories  experienced  by  the 
devoted  missionaries  in  their  efforts  to  christianize  the  Nez 
Perces.  As  the  record  is  compiled  by  a  more  recent  mission- 
ary the  later  phases  are  depicted  with  more  detail  and  reli- 
ability than  those  the  reports  of  which  were  handed  down 
largely  in  the  form  of  tradition.  Miss  McBeth 's  sketch,  how- 
ever, is  throughout  absolutely  candid.  It  portrays  in  detail 
the  real  life  conditions  of  this  noble  representative  of  the 
native  races.  Their  struggle  to  adapt  themselves  in  the  trying 
transition  from  barbarism  to  civilization  appeals  to  our  sym- 
pathies. The  abiding  faith  of  the  missionaries  in  the  all- 
sufficing  efficacy  of  the  gospel  coupled  with  a  broad-minded 
wisdom  elicits  our  admiration.  The  book  is  a  genuine  record 
of  devoted  missionary  effort  that  rang  true  at  every  stage  and 
which   was   crowned   with   a   large   measure  of  the   rewards 


188  Notes  and  News. 

sought.     An  appendix  gives  the  most  important  Nez  Perces 
myths. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  elder  Miss  McBeth  compiled  a  dic- 
tionary of  the  Nez  Perces  language  during  the  years  of  her 
life  among  them.  This  was  turned  over  to  the  Smithsonian 
Institution. 


QUARTERLY 


OREGON  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


No.  2,  Vol.  8,  June,  1907. 

T.  W.  i?ai;enporf— Recollections  of  an  Indian  Agknt.    II.     - 

F.  O.  ybMngr— Financial  History  of  Oregon  —  Finances  of  the 
Territorial  Period,  1849-1859 

Thomas  W.  ProscA— Notes  from  a  Government  Document  on  Ore- 
gon Conditions  in  the  Fifties 

Two  OF  Oregon's  Foremost  Commonwealth  Builders:  Judge 
Reuben  Patrick  Boise  and  Professor  Thomas  Condon 


No.  3,  Vol.  8,  September,  1907. 

Thomas  M.  Anderson— T^^  Vancouver  Reservation  Case         -       -       219-2:^0 
T.  W.  Davenport— Recollections  of  an  Indian  Agent.    Ill        -       -    231-20'} 
Jennie  B.  Harris— Tb.e  Historic  Sites  in  Eugene  and  Their  Monu- 
ments          20.5-272 

F.  G.  Younff—TuK  Marking  of  Historic  Sites 273-27.5 

Clyde  B.  Aitc?iison—TJiK  Mormon  Settlements  in  the  Missouri 

Valley  276-2.S9 

Documents- 
Occupation  of  the  Columbia  River.    II.    Report  of  April 

15,  1824 290-294 

Letter   of    Dr.  John   McLouqhlin  to  Oregon  Statesman, 

June  8, 1852 294-299 

Reviews— 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  iord— REMINISCENCES  of  Eastern  Oregon. 

J.  R.  Wilson .300 

Edmond  iS.  it/eanj/— Vancouver's  Discovery  of  Puget  Sound       -        300 


No.  4,  Vol.  8,  December,  1907. 

Frederick  V.  ^oiman- Address  at  the   Dedication   of  the   Mc- 
Louqhlin Institute  at  Oregon  City,  October  6,  1907        -       -  303-316 
Oeorge  H.  iJimes- History   of   Organization  of   Oregon  State 

Agricultural  Society  317-352 

T.  W.  iJavenpori— Recollections  of  an  Indian  Agent.    IV.     -       -  353-,374 

F.  W.  PoweiJ— Bibliography  of  Hall  J.  Kelley 375-386 

Documents- 
Diary  of  Asahel  Munger  and  Wife 387-405 

Notes  and  Reviews 400-4^9 

Accessions 410-424 

Index  425-429 


No.  1,  Vol.  9,  March,  1908. 

William  D.  Pennon— Edward  Dickinson  Baker 1-23 

O.  F.  Stafford— TWK  Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach 24-41 

Marie  Merriman  JBrad^fiv— Political   Beginnings  in  Oregon.    The 

Period  of  the  Provisional  Govkknmknt,  1h,s9-1849        -      -       -  42-72 

»7(9/in  iV/mto— From  Youth  TO  Age  as  A>-  Amkkican.  I.  -  -  -  -  73-78 
Frederic  O.  Young— Voi.XJM.Bi A  River  Imi'koa  kmknt  and  the  Pacific 

Northwest           79-94 

Notes  and  News  -      -         95-101 


PRICE:  FIFTY  CENTS  PER  NUMBER,  TWO  DOLIARS  PEE  YEAR. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  OREGON. 


THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  confers  the  degrees  of 
Master  of  Arts,  (and  in  prospect,  of  Doctor  of  Phi- 
losophj^,)  Civil  and  Sanitarjr  Engineer  (C  E.),  Elec- 
trical Engineer  (E.  E.),  Chemical  Engineer  (Ch.  E.,) 
and  Mining  Engineer  (Min.  E.J 


THE  COLLEGE  Oh  LITERATURE,  SCIENCE,  AND  THE 
ARTS  confers  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  on 
graduates  from  the  follovring  groups:  (1)  General 
Classical;  (2)  General  Literarjy;  (3)  General  Scien- 
tific; (4)  Civic-Historical ;  (5)  Philosophical,  Edu- 
cational. It  offers  Collegiate  Courses  not  leading 
to  a  degree  as  follows:  (1)  Preparatory-  to  Law  or 
Journalism. 


THE  COLLEGE  OF  SCIENCE  AND  ENGINEERING- 
A. —  The  School  of  Applied  Science  confers  the  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Science  on  graduates  from 
the  following  groups ;  (1)  General  Science;  (2) 
Chemistrjr;  '(3)  Phj^sics;  (4)  Biology;  (5)  Geol- 
ogj^  and  Mineralogy.  It  offers  a  Course  Pre- 
paratory to  Medicine. 
B. —  The  School  of  Engineering :  (1)  Civil  and  San- 
itarj^;  (2)  Electrical;  (3)  Chemical. 


THE  SCHOOL   OF  MINES  AND  MINING. 
THE  SCHOOL   OF  MEDICINE  at  Portland. 
THE  SCHOOL   OF  LAW  at  Portland. 
THE  SCHOOL  OF  MUSIC. 
Address 

The  President, 

Eugene,  Oregon. 


THE  QUARTERLY 

of  the 

Oregon  Hi^orical  Society. 

Volume  IX.]  SEPTEMBER,    1908  [Number  3 


CONTENTS. 

T.  W.  Z)at)enpo»-«- Slavery  Question  in  Oregon 189-253 

George  H.  TFii^iam*— Slavery  in  Oregon 254-273 

Irene  Lincoln  PoppJeion— Oregon's  First  Monopoly— The  O.  S.  N.  Co.  274-304 

Document— StTBSCRiPTioN  List  for  Railroab  Survey  -      -       -  305-307 

Notes 308 


PRICE :    FIFTY  CENTS  PER  NUMBER,  TWO  DOLLARS  PER  YEAR 
Entered  at  the  post  office  at  Portland,  Oregon,  as  second-class  matter. 


THE  OREaoN  Historical  Society 

Organized  December  17,  1898 


FREDERICK  V.  HOLMAN Pkesident 

JOSEPH  R.  WILSON Vice-President 

F.  G.  YOUNG Secretary 

CHARLES  E.  LADD TREASURER 

George  H.  Himes,  Assistant  Secretary. 


DIRECTORS 

THE  GOVERNOR  OF  OREGON,  ex  officio. 

THE  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION,  ex  officio. 

Teriii  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1908, 
MRS.  HARRIET  K.  McARTHUR,    GEORGE  H.   HIMES. 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1909, 
FREDERICK  V.  HOLMAN,    WM.   D.  FENTON. 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1910, 
ARTHUR   C.  BOGGESS.    MILTON   W.  SMITH, 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1911, 
MRS.   MARIA  L.  MYRICK,    CHARLES  J.  SCHNABEL. 


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THE  QUARTERLY 

of  the 

Oregon  Historical  Society. 

Volume  VIII]  SEPTEMBER,  1908.  [Numbers 

(The  QuABTEKiiY  disavows  responsibility  for  the  positions  taken  by  contributors  to  its  pages.] 

SLAVERY  QUESTION   IN  OREGON. 


Recollections  and  Eeflections  op  a  Historical  Nature, 
Having  Special  Relation  to  the  Slavery  Agitation  est 
THE  Oregon  Territory  and  Including  the  Political 
Status  up  to  the  Beginning  of  Secession  in  1861. 

By  T.  W.  Davenport. 

prefatory  remarks. 

In  response  to  a  suggestion  by  Professor  H.  S.  Lyman, 
made  several  years  ago,  that  I  would  write  an  account  of  the 
slavery  agitation,  preceding  the  vote  upon  the  Constitution, 
I  began  this  article  without  any  design  of  writing  what  might 
properly  be  called  history,  for,  not  possessing  a  library  suf- 
ficiently supplied  with  data,  and  not  living  near  the  sources 
of  such  information,  I  saw  the  impracticability  of  giving  more 
than  a  rather  disjointed  and  rambling  sketch  of  the  leading 
persons  and  incidents  of  that  decisive,  but,  to  most  people, 
unimportant  period.  Mr.  Lyman  judged,  from  the  fact  that 
I  was  one  of  the  participants  in  the  so-called  agitation  and 
very  interested  in  it,  that  my  knowledge  would  enable  me  to 
write  instructively  upon  the  subject,  and  thus  preserve  some 
facts  fast  passing  into  oblivion.  But  facts  are  not  of  full 
value  without  correlation  and  an  exhibit  of  the  motive  which 
produced  them.  A  homicide  may  be  startling,  but  the  chief 
interest  and  instruction  relating  thereto  lies  in  the  answer  to 


190  T.  W.  Davenport. 

the  question,  why  and  how  it  came  to  be?  In  this  respect  the 
Bancroft  History  of  Oregon  seems  to  be  quite  deficient.  The 
facts  are  there  in  abundance,  but  the  philosophical  concatena- 
tion, without  which  history  is  comparatively  barren,  is  still  to 
be  supplied.  I  am  aware  of  the  contention,  by  some,  that  it 
is  no  part  of  the  historian's  duty  to  indulge  in  philosophical 
disquisition,  but  to  give  the  plain  unvarnished  facts,  leaving 
the  reader  to  construct  the  theory  for  himself— a  task  the  av- 
erage reader  seldom  attempts  to  perform.  Even  a  false  theory 
is  better  than  none  at  all,  for  it  stimulates  to  inquiry  and 
involves  the  reader  in  meshes  perhaps  disquieting  to  his  state 
of  mind,  and  from  which,  if  wrong,  he  needs  must  extricate 
himself. 

The  writer  freely  admits  that  there  is  more  about  slavery 
in  the  following  pages  than  is  at  present  fashionable,  but  if 
there  is  to  be  a  lesson  in  them,  the  side-lights  of  the  situation 
at  that  time  must  also  be  given.  And  he  feels  sure  that,  prop- 
erly understood,  the  short,  peaceable,  and  comparatively  un- 
eventful period  in  which  the  Oregon  pioneers  Avere  deliberat- 
ing under  aegis  of  squatter  sovereignty  furnishes  a  first-class 
balance  in  which  to  weigh  them,  and  also  to  estimate  the 
character  and  influence  of  their  social  and  political  environ- 
ment. One  friend,  permitted  to  scan  some  of  these  pages,  was 
inclined  to  doubt  the  propriety  of  "threshing  over  the  old 
straw''  and  reviving  a  subject  that  is  really  obsolete;  that 
slavery  is  dead  past  resurrection,  the  rebellion  an  old  "chest- 
nut," the  aforetime  rebels  in  their  graves,  their  children 
happy  in  the  general  and  equal  fraternity,  and  the  race 
question  left  for  solution  by  the  Southern  people,  who  are 
most  competent  to  deal  with  it.  He  might  have  added 
another  fact,  viz.,  that  Northern  magnanimity  is  so  abun- 
dant that  the  whole  vocabulary,  once  applicable,  is  undei*- 
going  amelioration,  whereby  the  contestants  in  the  fierce  and 
bloody  conflict  are  put  upon  equal  terms,  ethically,  and  that, 
at  the  rate  the  forgiving  and  forgetting  spirit  is  now  growing, 
the  time  is  not  far  ahead  when  there  will  be  no  admissible 
causative  reason  for  the  great  combat  but  the  expediency  of  a 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  191 

dissolution  of  the  Federal  Union.  The  battles  will  be  studied, 
as  Bonaparte's  are,  merely  in  the  light  of  military  science. 
They  Avill  have  no  vivifying  soul,  and  even  Lincoln's  immortal 
apostrophe  at  Gettysburg  may  not  save  them. 

Of  course,  there  is  no  propriety  in  using  harsh  epithets  con- 
cerning the  causes  or  combatants,  for  such  are  prejudicial  to 
philosophic  inquiry,  indeed,  foreign  to  the  judicial  mind 
fitted  for  fair  investigation,  but  the  late  endeavors  to  white- 
wash the  offensive  institution  of  slavery,  or  to  slur  over  its 
poisonous  influence  upon  the  Southern  people  and  its  cor- 
rupting power  over  American  government  and  politics,  is  an 
aberration  of  intellect  which  even  philanthropj^  ought  not  to 
sanction.  As  in  slavery  days,  the  forgetters  are  directing 
their  extra-fraternal  services  against  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  In 
the  language  of  Woodrow  Wilson,  it  "is  not  a  truthful  picture 
of  slavery."  Such  good  people  seem  not  to  have  entered  into 
the  serene  spirit  which  views  the  barbarisms  practiced  down 
South,  not  as  an  indictment  of  the  Southern  people,  but  as  a 
sample  of  the  degradation  to  which  such  a  denial  of  human 
rights  could  bring  a  people  as  good  by  nature  as  ourselves. 

Can  it  be  possible  that  any  considerable  number  of  the 
American  people  are  so  short-sighted  as  not  to  see  that  chattel 
slavery  was  only  one  phase  or  outcropping  of  unrestrained 
human  selfishness  and  rapacity,  and  that  though  the  chattels 
are  liberated,  the  spirit  remains?  The  sphere  of  its  opportun- 
ities is  restricted,  but  it  is  still  rampant  and  fierce,  almost 
untamable,  North,  South,  East  and  West,  in  fact  everywhere ; 
and  the  same  demand  for  restraint  is  upon  us,  or  failing  in 
this,  a  descent  into  barbarism,  deep  and  deeper,  until  aroused 
to  pai'tial  emancipation  again?  The  problem  was  not  closed, 
the  tendency  or  gravitating  force  was  not  removed  when 
chattel  slavery  died.  It  is  a  perpetual  task  and  no  part  of  its 
features  should  be  masked. 

It  is  vain  and  foolish  to  mis-estimate  either  the  character  of 
the  Southern  people,  the  temptations  in  which  they  were 
placed,  or  the  resulting  social  and  political  conditions,  for 
such  will  have  no  other  effect  than  to  obscure  the  future  and 


192  T.  W.  Davenport. 

lead   us   into   devious   and  perplexing   ways   which   must   b-? 
retraced. 

Even  now,  notwithstanding  our  costly  experience,  it  is  quite 
common  to  see  admissions  from  high  sources  in  the  North, 
that  the  constitutional  amendment  placing  the  negro  upon  a 
legal  equality  with  his  white  brother,  w^as  a  mistake,  and  that 
be  should  have  been  left  to  the  tender  mercies  and  sense  of 
justice  of  his  former  master.  And  this,  too,  though  Southern 
public  opinion,  if  left  to  itself,  would  not  permit  him  to  hold 
up  his  head  and  stand  erect  in  the  image  of  his  maker,  but 
condemn  him  to  a  life  but  little  above  mere  beasts  of  burden. 
Those  who  would  crush  out  every  aspiration  of  the  Afro- 
American  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  being,  the  Smiths  and  Varde- 
mans,  are  elected  to  places  of  trust  and  power,  while  the 
great  man,  Booker  T.  Washington,  is  spit  upon  by  the  superior 
race  holding  sway  in  the  city  which  is  an  eye  witness  of  hif; 
success  in  raising  the  negro  from  his  low  estate.  From  all 
this,  is  it  not  evident  that  the  race  question,  like  the  slavery 
question,  is  not  a  local  one,  and  that  the  negro,  free  or  slave, 
cannot  be  left  to  the  disposition  of  those  who  would  "make 
him  keep  his  place"  and  cherish  no  ambition  above  the  rude-n 
toil?  Are  we  so  dull  of  comprehension  that  we  cannot  see 
that  the  solution  of  the  race  question,  and  all  other  disturbing 
questions,  lies  in  the  establishment  of  justice  among  men; 
that  there  is  no  other  solution,  that  injustice  to  a  part  means 
degradation  to  the  whole,  and  that  nothing  less  than  the  com- 
bined moral  strength  and  intelligence  of  the  whole  people 
constantly  exerted,  can  establish  a  just  and  progressive  social 
stated  Hence  the  necessity  of  seeing  the  facts  of  history  in 
their  true  light,  unswayed  by  weak  sentimentality  or  the  arts 
of  sophistry,  ever  remembering  that, 

"In  the  corrupted  currents  of  this  world. 
Offence's  gilded  hand  may  shove  by  justice. 
And  oft  'tis  seen,  the  wicked  prize  itself 
Buys  out  the  law." 

Another  class  of  critics  is  voiced  by  a  learned  legal  friend, 
Avho  asked.  "Do  vou  think  there  is  a  kernel  in  that  chaff?" 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  193 

And  continuing,  he  said :  "  I  once  examined  the  returns  of  the 
vote  upon  the  Constitution  and  saw  that  only  about  one-third 
of  the  voters  favored  slavery  and  that  nine  out  of  ten  voted 
to  exclude  free  negroes.  Now,  is  it  possible  that  the  Oregon 
pioneers,  in  any  such  proportion,  were  fearful  of  being  over- 
run by  them?  Why,  I  would  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  were  either  opium  fiends  frightened  at  their  own 
shadows  or  had  softening  of  the  brain.  And  as  for  the  rest — 
will  it  be  any  more  or  different  from  what  has  occurred  mil- 
lions of  times,  and  is  common  to  every  country — every  fellow 
seeking  his  own  petty  end  in  his  own  petty  way,  and  with  little 
regard  to  his  competitors?  Suppose  that  half  of  such  inci- 
dents were  obliterated,  would  the  remainder  contain  any  dif- 
ferent lesson?  Isn't  there  a  great  surplus  of  incidents  that 
may  be  cut  out  by  the  historian  without  changing  the  color 
of  his  discourse?  Indeed,  what  is  a  battle  more  or  a  battle 
less  in  the  world's  history?  Are  not  the  human  ingredients 
just  ("he  same,  whatever  the  outcome  ?  And  even  as  to  the  so- 
called  decisive  battles  of  the  world,  though  they  may  have 
changed  the  boundaries  of  a  state  and  modified  the  laws, 
can  any  philosopher  take  up  a  single  thread  of  life's  tangled 
skein  and  show  that  it  is  different  from  any  other?  Let  us 
admit  that  war  is  not  so  cruel  as  it  once  was ;  that  there  are 
some  amends  for  the  wholesale  slaughter  practiced  in  ancient 
times,  and  that  captured  cities  are  not  given  over  to  rape  and 
pillage  by  maddened  soldiers,  but  who  can  show  that  such 
amelioration  is  not  the  result  of  improved  weapons  of  warfare, 
the  discovery  of  natural  forces  and  laws,  instead  of  any 
softening  of  human  nature?  Still,  I  am  not  averse  to  his- 
torical lessons  often  repeated,  though  I  am  as  often  re- 
minded of  the  fact  that  history  has  but  little  to  do  in  shaping 
the  lives  and  determining  the  conduct  of  men.  Now  and  then 
an  individual  of  favorable  endowment  imbibes  the  sprit  of 
Washington,  Socrates,  or  Christ,  and  with  such  help  wrestles 
successfully  with  his  selfishness,  but  such  cases  are  very  rare 
and  their  example  finds  few  imitators.  The  American  people 
ai'e  continually  involved  in  the  performance  of  duties  of  a 


194  T.  W.  Davenport. 

public  or  quasi-public  nature,  with  no  thought  of  or  reference 
to  historical  lessons.  The  present  conditions  and  proximate 
precedents  are  alone  in  evidence.  Our  voters  go  to  the  polls 
and  decide  questions  of  the  here  and  now,  casting  a  retrospec- 
tive glance,  rarely  reaching  beyond  a  life-time;  and  I  have 
observed  that  the  so-called  illiterates  have  as  good  reason  for 
their  choice  as  the  college  graduates.  It  seems  to  be,  not  so 
much  a  question  of  what  is  right  and  proper,  as  it  is  one  of 
courage  and  freedom  to  perform  it.  But  go  ahead,  and  if  you 
can  do  more  than  exhibit  the  virus  which  paralyzed  the  Oregon 
Democracy  in  their  partisan  servitude  to  the  slave  power,  you 
will  not  have  labored  in  vain." 

To  a  philosopher  there  is  no  more  interesting  and  instruc- 
tive chapter  of  history  than  the  one  giving  an  account  of  the 
renaissance  of  African  slavery  in  the  United  States,  for  prob- 
abl.y  there  is  no  other  instance  of  such  a  complete  and  over- 
whelming reversal  of  opinion  and  consequent  government  as 
that  exhibited  by  the  American  people  during  the  first  sixty 
years  of  the  National  Union.  In  the  sluggish  industrial  pro- 
gress of  ancient  times  such  a  rate  of  change  would  have  been 
impossible,  and,  to  us  moderns,  accustomed  as  we  are  to 
wonders,  the  transition  seems  astounding.  Just  to  think  of  a 
people,  organizing  a  government  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  dedicated  to  the  establish- 
ment -^f  justice  as  derived  from  that  broad  and  all-including 
principle,  passing  in  less  than  two  generations  to  the  condi- 
tions just  preceding  the  Civil  War !  It  is  one  of  the  marvels 
in  human  affairs.  It  is  not  the  intention  here,  however,  to  give 
anything  more  than  a  sufficient  synopsis  to  understand  the 
Oregon  phase  of  the  question,  and  why  we  on  the  Pacific 
Coast,  nearly  two  thousand  miles  from  the  scene  of  actual 
conflict,  should  have  felt  enough  interest  to  take  a  vote  show- 
ing to  what  extent  we  had  become  involved  in  the  general 
demoralization. 

In  the  way  of  denial  or  amelioration  of  this  great  retrogres- 
sion, some  writers  lay  much  stress  upon  the  so-called  compro- 
mises of  the  Constitution,  as  though  there  were  anything  in 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  195 

that  irstrnment  upon  which  to  base  the  notion  that  its  framers 
intended  the  folly  of  combining-  two  antagonistic  systems  in 
the  general  government,  or  that  when  they  declared  its  pur- 
pose '  to  establish  justice,  provide  for  the  common  defense, 
promote  the  general  w^elfare  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty 
to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,"  they  meant  only  people  of 
white  skins,  any  more  than  they  meant  to  confine  those  great 
benefits  to  the  descendants  of  the  people  then  inhabiting  the 
United  States. 

ANTI-SLAVERY    AGITATION    IN    THE    OREGON    TERRITORY. 

During  the  years  1855,  1856,  1857,  the  people  of  the  Oregon 
Territory  were  somewhat  stirred  by  the  pendency  of  the 
slavery  question,  which  was  supposed  to  have  been  settled 
for  all  time,  so  far  as  its  existence  here  was  concerned.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Oregon  people  were  taken  by 
surprise ;  that  nothing  of  the  kind  ever  entered  the  mind  of 
one  of  them  that  even  a  suggestion  of  slavery  would  be  heard 
as  applicable  to  this  Northwest  Coast.  Then,  why  any  agita- 
tion; why  any  vote?  If  humanity  is  on  the  up-grade,  as 
optimists  delight  to  believe,  why  should  a  professedly  civilized 
people  take  a  vote  as  to  whether  they  will  adopt  in  their  Con- 
stitution the  privilege  of  perpetual  robbery?  That  the  Oregon 
people  voted  down  such  a  proposition  is  no  doubt  to  their 
credit,  but  casting  an  eye  over  the  country  as  it  was  in  the  fall 
of  the  year  1857,  and  noting  the  schools,  churches,  and  other 
evidences  of  peace  and  fraternity,  is  it  not  a  most  astounding 
fact  +hat  thej'  were  seriously  considering  such  a  question? 
But  alas !  such  are  the  contradictions  in  human  nature  that  it 
must  alM^ays  be  judged,  not  by  comparison  of  it  with  what  an 
enlightened  human  being  knows  and  feels  to  be  right,  but  in 
accordance  with  the  controlling  habit  of  the  times.  Though 
endowed  with  reason  and  conscience  and  affections  that  com- 
pel them  to  live  in  a  social  state,  human  beings  are  in  the  main 
selfish  creatures  of  habit,  and  improve,  if  at  all,  step  by  step, 
and  not  by  a  far-reaching  inquiry  as  to  what  is  best  for  the 
whole.     Neither  are  they,  or  their  habits  or  doings,  things  of 


196  T.  W.  Davenport. 

chance,  but  consecutive  products,  interrelated  links  of  causa- 
tion which  may  be  traced  by  careful  examination. 

Hence  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  inquire  into  the 
matte"  and  determine  how  and  why  the  Oregon  people  became 
involved  and  how  they  settled  the  question  for  themselves. 
The  kind  of  involvement  we  shall  speak  of  was  not  that  arising 
from  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  Territory,  for  there  was 
not  one  negro  slave  within  its  far-reaching  boundaries  or 
within  a  thousand  miles  thereof.*  The  enslavement  of  Indian 
captives,  taken  in  war  by  Indians,  was  practiced  to  a  very 
limited  extent,  but  the  white  people  of  Oregon  never  partici- 
pated in  any  such  traffic.  In  truth,  that  kind  of  slavery  was 
more  nominal  than  real,  consisting  as  it  did  of  women  and 
children  who  were  adopted  by  the  victors  and  were  subjected 
to  little  more  restraint  than  their  own  people. 

As  a  practical  matter,  there  was  no  question  of  slavery  of 
any  kind  to  annoy  the  home-builders  of  Oregon.  And,  as  has 
been  said,  the  pioneers  came  with  no  prospect  or  desire  of 
establishing  slavery  upon  the  Pacific  Coast.  True,  the  slave 
State  of  Missouri  contributed  more  of  them  than  any  other 
State,  and  probably  it,  with  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  Arkan- 
sas, gave  a  majority  of  the  whole.  But  the  emigrants  from 
those  slave-holding  States  belonged  to  the  non-slaveholding 
class  and  were  not  pecuniarily  interested  in  slaves;  besides, 
many  of  them  came  to  the  Territory  to  rid  themselves  of  the 
blight  that  broods  over  the  land  where  involuntary  servitude 

*The  following  letter  bearing  on  this  fact  was  received  by  the  writer : 

Salem,  Oregon,  June  4th,  1906. 
Hon.  T.  W.  Davenport. 

Silverton,  Oregon. 
My  Dear  Sir : — Yours  of  the  2d  inst.  is  just  received.  Colonel  Nat.  Ford 
came  to  Oregon  from  Missouri  in  1845  and  brought  with  him  three  slaves — 
two  men  and  one  woman.  The  woman  was  married  to  one  of  the  men  and 
had  some  small  children.  Ford  claimed  these  children  as  slaves  and 
continued  to  claim  them  until  1853.  One  of  these  children — a  girl — had, 
prior  to  that  time,  been  given  by  Ford  to  Mrs.  (Dr.)  Boyle,  a  daughter  of 
Ford.  Prior  to  1853  the  parents  of  these  children  (Robbin  and  Polly) 
had  claimed  their  freedom,  and  left  Ford,  and  in  1852  were  living  at 
Nesmith's  Mills,  but  Ford  had  kept  the  children.  In  1853  Robbin,  the 
father  of  the  children,  brought  a  suit  by  habeas  corpus  to  get  possession 
of  the  children.  This  case  was  heard  by  Judge  Williams  in  the  summer  of 
1853,  and  he  held  that  these  children,  being  then  (by  the  voluntary  act  of 
Ford)  in  Oregon,  where  slavery  could  not  legally  exist,  were  free  from 
the  bonds  of  slavery,  and  awarded  their  custody  to  their  father. 
Yours  truly, 

R.   P.   Boise. 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  197 

prevails.  For,  let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  that  there  was  no  time 
in  the  legal  existence  of  the  Territory  when  slavery  was  not 
under  prohibition  of  law,  first  by  the  Provisional  Government 
(See.  4,  Art.  I)  and  later  by  act  of  Congress  organizing  the 
territorial  government,  and  continuing  in  force  until  the 
admission  of  Oregon  as  a  State  in  the  year  1859.  Conse- 
quently, any  one  may  see  that  our  agitation  did  not  grow  out 
of  objective  conditions  existing  here,  but  was  imposed  upon 
the  Oregonians  from  the  outside.  Or  possibly  it  may  be 
nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  it  was  a  case  of  political  seduc- 
tion, in  which  the  seduced  did  not  possess  the  virtue  of  re- 
sistance. In  either  case,  it  did  not  come  from  any  statute  or 
regulation  by  the  general  government,  specially  applicable  to 
our  people,  but  by  extra-legal,  political  influence  which  came 
as  an  incident  in  the  aggrandizement  of  slavery  in  the  nation. 

All  students  of  American  history  are  acquainted  with  the 
estimation  in  which  slavery  was  held  in  revolutionary  times; 
that  it  was  a  deplorable  fact,  to  be  tolerated  by  the  govern- 
ment, but  to  be  restricted  within  its  occupied  boundaries,  with 
the  hope  and  expectation  that  under  our  form  of  government 
it  would  quietly  disappear.  Vain  hope !  tolerating  an  evil  and 
letting  it  alone  is  no  way  to  end  it.  It  soon  grew  out  of  the 
stage  of  toleration,  repudiated  the  terms  of  reproach  cast 
upon  it,  and  contested  with  free  institutions  for  supremacy 
in  the  government.  There  was  continual  conflict,  for  the 
antagonism  between  free  and  slave  institutions  is  irrepressible. 
This  natural  antagonism  many  people  did  not  see,  or  affected 
not  to  see,  and  blamed  the  abolitionists  with  making  all  the 
disturbance.  But  the  true  state  of  the  case  is  well  set  forth 
by  Horace  Greeley  in  his  "American  Conflict,"  on  page  354, 
volume  I. 

"Why  can't  you  let  slavery  alone?"  was  imperiously  or 
querulously  demanded  at  the  North  throughout  the  long  strug- 
gle preceding  that  bombardment  (Fort  Sumter),  by  men  who 
should  have  seen,  but  would  not,  that  slavery  never  let  the 
North  alone,  nor  thought  of  so  doing. 

"Buy  Louisiana  for  us!"  said  the  slaveholders.     "With 


198  T.  W.  Davenport. 

pleasiire."  "Now  Florida !"  ''Certainly."  Next,  "Violate 
your  treaties  with  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees ;  expel  those  tribes 
from  the  lands  they  have  held  from  time  immemorial,  so  as 
to  let  us  expand  our  plantations ! "  "So  said,  so  done. ' ' 
"Now  for  Texas!"  "You  have  it."  "Next,  a  third  more  of 
Mexico  ! "  "  Yours  it  is. "  "  Now,  break  the  Missouri  compact, 
and  let  slavery  wrestle  with  free  labor  for  the  vast  region 
consecrated  by  that  Compact  to  Freedom!"  "Very  good. 
What  next  V  " Buy  us  Cuba,  for  one  hundred  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  millions!"  "We  have  tried;  but  Spain  refuses  to 
sell."  "Then  wrest  it  from  her  at  all  hazards!"  And  all 
this  t'Tiie,  while  slavery  was  using  the  Union  as  her  catspaw — 
dragging  the  Republic  into  iniquitous  wars  and  enormous  ex- 
penditures, and  grasping  empire  after  empire  thereby— 
Northern  men  (or,  more  accurately,  men  of  the  North)  were 
constantly  asking  why  people  living  in  the  Free  States  could 
not  let  slavery  alone,  mind  their  own  business,  and  expend 
their  surplus  philanthropy  on  the  poor  at  their  own  doors, 
rathe**  than  on  the  happy  and  contented  slaves ! 

But  we  must  not  laj^  all  these  aggressions  to  the  Southern 
people  alone,  although  especially  acceptable  to  their  predomi- 
nant interest,  for  on  all  such  propositions  they  had  help  from 
the  North.  Upon  all  questions  affecting  the  peculiar  insti- 
tution the  South  was  solid  while  the  North  was  divided. 
Slavery  had  no  diverse  politics.  Mr.  Dixon,  in  a  speech  made 
before  the  United  States  Senate,  said:  "I  have  been  charged, 
through  one  of  the  leading  journals  of  this  city,  with  having 
proposed  the  amendment,  which  T  notified  the  Senate  I  in- 
tended to  offer,  with  a  view  to  embarrass  the  Democratic 
party.  It  was  said  that  I  was  a  Whig  from  Kentucky,  and 
that  the  amendment  proposed  by  me  should  be  looked  upon 
with  suspicion  by  the  opposite  party.  Sir,  I  wish  to  remark 
that,  upon  the  question  of  slavery,  I  know  no  whiggery,  and 
I  know  no  democracy.  I  am  a  pro-slavery  man.  I  am  from 
a  slave-holding  State;  I  represent  a  slave-holding  constitu- 
ency, and  I  am  here  to  maintain  the  rights  of  that  people 
whenever  they  are  presented  before  the  Senate." 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  199 

If  Northern  representatives  had  been  equally  faithful  to  the 
interests  of  their  constituents,  there  would  have  been  little  or 
no  aggression  of  slavery.  This  may  not  mean  that  the  North- 
ern people  were  especially  lacking  in  the  virtue  of  fidelity,  but 
that  no  great  wrong  solidified  them.  As  Governor  Seward 
said,  in  a  speech  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  October  26th,  1848 : 
"Thei^e  are  two  antagonistic  elements  of  society  in  America, 
freedom  and  slavery.  Freedom  is  in  harmony  with  our  system 
of  government,  and  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  is  therefore 
passive  and  quiescent.  Slavery  is  in  conflict  with  that  system, 
with  justice,  and  with  humanity,  and  is  therefore  organized, 
defensive,  active  and  perpetually  aggressive."  This  aggres- 
sive and  solid  front  of  slavery,  claiming  and  receiving  ex- 
emption from  interference  by  the  passive  and  quiescent  free 
portion  of  the  Union,  gave  to  the  slave-holding  interest  a  vast 
political  advantage,  with  the  result  that  the  national  adminis- 
tration was  either  neutral  or  apologetic  as  to  slavery  from  the 
organization  of  the  Federal  Government  until  the  election  v.^ 
Lincoln  in  1860.  a  period  of  seventy -two  years.  During  nil 
this  time  it  was  increasing  in  power  and  arrogance  until  the 
climax  was  reached  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  which  declared 
that  the  negro  had  no  rights  which  a  white  man  was  bound  to 
respect,  and  that  property  in  slaves  was  on  a  par  with  oth'>r- 
classes  of  property  and  entitled  to  the  protection  of  law  m 
all  the  national  territories.  But  such  an  accumulation  of 
political  power,  such  a  tremendous  departure  from  the  Declac- 
ation  of  Independence,  could  not  have  been  accomplished 
without  the  aid  of  Northern  politicians  and  the  acquiescence 
of  their  constituents,  for  the  political  potentiality  of  the  free 
to  the  slave  States  was  as  two  to  one. 

Th*^  cause  of  such  subserviency  on  the  part  of  the  powerful 
North,  was  no  secret;  everybody  knew  it;  everybody  said  it; 
many  there  were  to  apologize  for  or  defend  it,  a  few  to  deplor-^ 
and  denounce  it.  Mr.  Seward,  in  the  speech  before  quot'"*! 
from,  said:  "One  of  these  parties,  the  party  of  slavery,  re- 
gards disunion  as  among  the  means  of  defense,  and  not  always 
the  last  to  be  (Employed.     The  other  maintains  the  union  of 


200  T.  W.  Davenport. 

the  Slates,  one  and  inseparable,  now  and  forever,  as  the  high 
est  duty  of  the  American  people  to  themselves,  to  posterity, 
to  mankind,"  etc.  In  the  free  States,  the  Union  sentiment 
expressed  by  Mr.  Seward  amounted  to  a  passion.  None  but  a 
few  of  the  despised  abolitionists  were  free  from  it.  To  pre- 
serve the  Union,  the  people  would  make  great  sacrifices— 
their  peace,  their  property — and  would  even  go  so  far  as  to 
trench  upon  their  personal  liberties  by  limiting  the  freedom 
of  speech  and  the  press  and  becoming  slave-catchers  upon  free 
soil.  In  the  South,  slavery  was  their  bond  and  their  passion, 
for  which  the  people  would  sacrifice  the  Union.  Indeed,  to 
the  thorough-going  slavocracy,  the  Union  was  valueless  except 
as  the  highest  trump  card  in  the  game  of  government  whose 
high  honors  it  had  so  far  won.  It  was  this  condition  that 
made  possible  the  dominance  of  slavery  in  the  government  for 
so  many  years.  Not  because  disunion  was  continually  threat- 
ened by  the  Southern  people,  but  because  it  was  known  to  be 
their  remedy  against  any  form  of  anti-slavery  agitation. 

Tlipre  was,  however,  a  limit  to  Northern  subserviency.  The 
people  of  the  free  States  could  not  wholly  satisfy  their 
Southern  brethren  without  abandoning  their  system  of  gov- 
ernment. It  was  not  enough  that  they  must  be  slave-catchers 
by  constitutional  duress ;  they  must  do  the  work  with  alacrity, 
as  Mr.  Webster  expressed  it.  Not  only  so,  they  must  cease 
talking  against  chattel  slavery.  The  pride  of  Southern  gentle- 
men revolted  at  the  idea  of  being  looked  upon  as  engaged  in 
a  nefarious  business,  and  therefore  under  the  moral  ban.  So 
anti-slavery  agitation  must  cease  at  the  North  as  it  had  at 
the  South. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  who  has  never  been  accused  of  being  untruth- 
ful or  extravagant,  in  answer  to  the  query,  what  must  we  do 
to  convmce  our  Southern  brethren  that  we  intend  no  interfer- 
ence with  slavery  where  it  exists,  said  in  his  Cooper  Institute 
speech,  in  New  York  City,  February  27th,  1860:  "This  and 
this  only :  cease  to  call  slavery  wrong  and  join  them  in  calling 
it  right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly— done  in  acts  as 
well  IS  in  words.    Silence  will  not  be  tolerated— we  must  place 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  201 

ourselves  avowedly  with  them.  Senator  Douglas's  new  sedi- 
tion law  must  be  enacted  and  enforced,  suppressing  all  dec- 
larations that  slavery  is  wrong,  whether  made  in  politics,  in 
presses,  in  pulpits  or  in  private."  This  may  appear  excessive, 
but  it  is  not,  for  the  reason  that  suppression  is  the  very  essence 
of  slavery;  without  suppression  there  is  no  slavery.  There 
must  be  suppression  of  the  freedom  of  the  slave  and  there  must 
be  suppression  of  any  right  in  others  to  object.  Of  course  this 
is  an  impossible  task,  but  the  demagogues  and  doughfaces  of 
the  North  essayed  it  by  displaying,  in  season  and  out  of  season, 
the  spectre  of  disunion.  Such  conjuring  became  so  common 
that  persons  known  to  have  anti-slavery  sympathies,  though 
silent  upon  the  subject,  lost  caste  in  their  party  and  were  set 
aside  to  make  sure  of  giving  no  offense  to  the  Southern 
brethren. 

By  such  means  the  two  old  parties  were  driven  more  and 
more  into  the  embrace  and  service  of  the  consolidated  slave- 
holding  interests,  and  through  them  the  federal  patronage 
was  distributed  to  apologists  and  devotees  of  the  institution. 
At  the  beginning  chattel  slavery  was  not  a  national  idea  or 
purpose.  The  authors  of  the  Declaration  and  the  Constitution 
were  not  solicitous  to  preserve  it,  but  to  prevent  its  extension 
and  cut  off  its  supplies  from  abroad,  and  would  have  gone 
further,  but  were  compelled  by  the  price  of  the  Union  to 
leave  it  as  a  local  institution  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  States 
wherein  it  existed. 

In  such  a  disposition  of  the  perplexing  subject,  slaveholders 
and  non-slaveholders,  the  North  and  the  South  co-operated, 
for  such  was  the  national  purpose  and  such  were  national 
men,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  abundantly  proved  in  his  Cooper  Insti- 
tute speech  from  which  we  have  quoted.  But  under  the  pro- 
slavery  regime,  to  be  national,  a  man  or  party  must  not 
antagonize  the  growing  demands  of  that  interest.  No  others 
might  be  given  control  of  the  national  administration.  The 
Whig  party  leaders,  Clay,  Webster,  Seward,  Greeley  and 
others  of  like  sympathy,  yielded  very  grudgingly  to  the 
trend  of  events,  but  being  devoted  in  every  fibre  to  the  Union, 


202  T.  W.  Davenport. 

were  continually  trying  to  harmonize  freedom  and  slavery  in 
the  government  and  its  own  diverse  partisan  elements,  Avith 
the  result  of  inclining  one  way  and  the  other  and  thus  giving 
offense  to  both  interests.  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  in  his  "Con- 
flict," volume  I,  page  246:  "The  dissolution  of  the  Whig 
party,  commenced  by  the  imposition  of  the  Southern  platform 
on  its  national  convention  of  1852,  was  consummated  by  the 
eager  participation  of  most  of  its  Southern  members  of  Con- 
gress in  the  repudiation  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  by  the 
passage  of  the  Nebraska  Bill."  In  fact,  the  dissolution  com- 
menced before,  for  the  party  had  been  weighed  in  the  Southern 
balance  and  been  found  wanting.  Though  its  Northern  leaders 
might  acquiesce  in  slavery  extension  wars,  the  incipience  of 
which  they  had  opposed,  and  compromises  of  territorial  parti- 
tion for  the  sake  of  the  Union,  they  were  at  heart  disgusted 
with  such  necessities.  Mr.  Lincoln  might  say,  ' '  We  will  return 
to  our  Southern  brethren  their  fugitive  slaves  and  let  them 
manage  their  peculiar  institution  in  their  own  way  at  home, 
for  so  it  is  written  in  the  bond."  but  the  bitterness  of  soul 
produced  by  such  an  admission  he  must  ease  by  the  assurance 
that  "we  will  go  no  further;  we  will  oppose  its  extension,  and 
declare  our  opinion  that  if  slavery  is  not  wrong,  nothing  is 
wrong."  Mr.  Webster  might  oppose  the  application  of  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  to  New  Mexico  as  M'holly  unnecessary  and 
tending  to  give  needless  offense  to  the  Southern  people,  but 
he  did  not  neglect  to  say,  ' '  Sir,  wherever  there  is  a  substantial 
good  to  be  done,  M^herever  there  is  a  foot  of  land  to  be  pre- 
vented from  becoming  slave  territory,  I  am  ready  to  assert 
the  principle  of  the  exclusion  of  slavery." 

A  party  with  such  elements  could  not  long  continue  to  serve 
the  Southern  ultras,  and  yet  they  were  not  strong  enough  to 
fix  it  as  an  anti-extension  party.  The  house  was  divided 
against  itself  and  could  not  stand.  The  Democratic  party,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  more  to  their  liking  and  continued  longer 
in  the  service.  Its  great  leaders  were  Southern  men  and 
slave-holders  and,  though  at  the  beginning  bore  witness  to  the 
sin  and  shame  of  slavery,  they  were  so  devoted  to  the  doctrine 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  203 

of  "States'  rights"  and  "strict  construction"  as  a  barrier  to 
anticipated  encroachments  of  the  general  government  that 
they  opposed  any  legislation  by  it  to  prevent  the  spreading  of 
slavery.  Jefferson,  in  his  own  opinion,  was  outside  of  the 
Constitution  when  he  purchased  the  Louisiana  Territory  in 
1803,  yet  seventeen  years  afterward  when  slavery  had  emerged 
from  its  let-alone  self -condemnatory  status  and  become  the 
chief,  if  not  the  only,  menace  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of 
the  American  people  and  truly  democratic  government,  both 
he  and  Madison  were  opposed  to  the  Missouri  restriction  then 
pending  in  Congress.  We  can  hardly  suppose  that  these  two 
great  men  were  insincere  in  the  part  they  had  taken  in  the 
formation  of  the  American  Republic— one  noted  as  the  writer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  ordinance  pro- 
hibiting slavery  in  the  Northwest  Territory  by  act  of  Congress, 
and  the  other  as  one  of  the  chief  makers  of  the  Constitution, 
but  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  their  action  in  the  Missouri 
struggle  without  supposing  that  they,  too,  were  carried  away 
by  their  Southern  sympathy  or  constrained  by  the  fear  of 
disunion.  In  any  aspect  of  the  case  it  was  a  most  pernicious 
example  for  the  great  apostle  of  genuine  democracy  to  set  for 
his  party,  which  thenceforth  became  the  preferred  instrument 
of  those  whose  interests  were  inimical  to  any  form  of  dem- 
ocracy. It  is  unnecessary  to  more  than  mention  the  successive 
steps  of  debasement,  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  war  with 
Mexico,  the  resistance  to  the  admission  of  California  as  a  free 
State,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  support  of 
the  border  ruffian  government  in  Kansas— and  all  made  possi- 
ble by  three  principal  causes :  the  threat  of  disunion,  the  cor- 
rupting influence  of  the  spoils  system  of  politics,  and  the  se- 
ductions which  great  power  offers  to  those  ambitious  for  offi- 
cial preferment— the  last  two  the  mast  potent  and  liable  to  be 
turned  against  them  at  any  election.  We  should  do  scant  jus- 
tice to  the  intellectual  ability  of  our  Southern  fellow  citizens, 
in  supposing  them  ignorant  of  the  spontaneous  forces  of  ad- 
vancing civilization  working  to  undermine  the  system  of 
chattel  slavery,  and  that  its  security  lay  not  in  the  let-alone 


204  T.  W.  Davenport. 

asseveration  of  Northern  men,  however  earnest,  but  in  keep- 
ing the  balance  of  power  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Indeed, 
this  Avas  an  accompanying  idea  of  the  renaissance  and  the 
chief  inspiriting  motive  of  extension. 

Failing  in  their  efforts  to  make  a  slave  State,  their  seduc- 
tions were  exerted  to  make  it  a  Democratic  State,  as  the  case 
of  California,  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1850,  it  being  one 
item  of  a  series  constituting  the  compromise  of  that  year,  and 
of  which  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  as  follows:  "The  net  product 
was  a  corrupt  monstrosity  in  legislation  and  morals  which 
even  the  great  name  of  Henry  Clay  should  not  shield  from 
lasting  opprobrium."  He  admitted,  however,  that  it  was 
accepted  and  ratified  by  a  great  majority  of  the  people 
whether  in  the  North  or  in  the  South.  They  were  intent  on 
business— then  remarkably  prosperous— on  planting,  building, 
trading,  and  getting  gain— and  they  hailed  with  general  joy 
the  announcement  that  all  the  differences  between  the  diverse 
sections  had  been  adjusted  and  settled.  The  general  joy  was 
not  contagious  among  the  anti-slavery  people,  and  at  no  time 
were  their  hopes  so  low  as  upon  the  passage  of  the  compromise 
of  1850,  for  it  seemed  to  them  as  though  there  could  be  no 
limit  to  Northern  subserviency  to  save  the  Union. 

Those  of  a  more  optimistic  turn  of  mind  could  find  some 
consolation  in  the  fact  that,  though  slave-catching  had  been 
taken  under  the  strong  arm  of  the  Federal  Government  and 
all  legal  barriers  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  newly  ac- 
quired territories  had  been  removed,  yet  one  more  free  State 
had  b^en  added  to  the  Union.  This  was  evidently  a  gain,  count- 
ing by  States,  but  when  critically  examined  it  afforded  no 
sign  of  an  increase  in  the  altruistic  fund  or  of  a  moral  awaken- 
ing anywhere,  or  even  of  a  falling  away  from  the  political 
forces  of  slavery,  for  while  the  inhabitants  of  the  Golden 
State  came  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  Union  for  admission 
with  a  free-state  Constitution,  their  senators-elect  were  na- 
tional men,  already  interpreted  to  mean  that  upon  any  ques- 
tion concerning  slavery  they  were  as  loyal  to  the  institution 
as  any  son  of  the  South.     The  free  State  of  California,  no 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  205 

other  being  possible  by  a  vote  of  its  inhabitants,  and  repre- 
sented at  the  same  time  by  Gwin  and  Weller,  the  former  a 
propagandist  and  the  latter  a  sympathizing  confederate !  who 
shall  explain  siTch  an  apparent  paradox?  But  it  is  easily 
explained  in  one  sentence;  as  for  themselves  they  demanded 
freedom,  as  for  others  they  did  not  care.  As  to  any  harm 
that  might  come  to  slavery  or  any  curtailment  of  its  power  at 
that  time,  California  might  as  well  have  been  a  slave  State. 
Of  this  they  did  not  care.  The  prospect  of  being  supplanted 
in  the  gold  diggings  by  the  owners  of  slaves  they  could  not 
for  a  moment  endure.  That  such  a  relation  as  master  and 
slave  should  have  a  legal  existence  upon  American  soil,  did 
not  influence  the  decision  of  many  who  voted  to  make  Cali- 
fornia free. 

Although  a  great  part  of  human  actions  is  of  the  thought- 
less or  impulsive  kind,  yet  in  matters  that  are  premeditated, 
there  is  always  a  good  and  sufficient  reason  back  of  them 
and  consistent  with  the  mental  and  moral  make-up  of  the 
actors  and  their  environment,  and  that  is  all  that  is  practical 
in  human  affairs,  whether  it  be  progress  or  otherwise.  The 
Californians  in  1849-50  did  not  perpetrate  that  inconsistency 
of  a  free-state  Constitution  carried  to  Congress  by  pro-slavery 
representatives,  "just  from  pure  cussedness,"  but  from  that 
preponderance  of  selfishness  which  everywhere  characterizes 
the  great  majority  of  human  beings  who,  from  habit  arising 
out  of  their  own  wants  and  necessities,  must  think  first  for 
themselves  and  after  that  for  others.  From  mere  selfishness, 
they  could  not  brook  slavery  within  their  own  borders,  but 
they  wanted  to  be  citizens  of  a  State  and  sovereign  over  their 
own  local  affairs,  and  knowing  that  slavery  was  dominant  in 
the  general  government,  they  must  present  as  few  points  of 
antagonism  as  possible  to  the  powers  that  be,  so  that  their 
prayer  for  admission  might  be  speedily  realized.  Besides, 
they  wanted  appropriations  for  their  harbors  and  rivers  and 
coast  defenses,  and  none  of  these  were  likely  to  be  answered 
when  presented  by  men  opposed  to  their  system.  Of  course 
this  was  pure  selfishness,  but  it  was  a  reasonable  and  defensi- 


206  T.  W.  Davenport. 

ble  selfishness  to  all  but  a  few.  Still,  with  ail  such  sugar- 
coating  and  the  patriotic  zeal  of  the  compromisers,  the  admis- 
sion was  harrowing  and  long  delayed,  and,  very  likely,  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  financial  inducements  contained  in  the 
gift  to  Texas  of  ten  millions  of  dollars  for  the  little  piece  of 
territory  incorporated  in  New  Mexico,  whereby  Texas  scrip, 
mainly  held  in  the  South  and  much  of  it  by  Southern  Con- 
gressmen, was  raised  from  a  nominal  price  to  par,  the  Cali- 
fornia Constitution  would  have  been  sent  back  to  the  people. 

Southern  men  did  not  like  to  abandon  their  dream  of  work- 
ing the  "placers"  with  their  slaves.  And  California  as  a 
free  State  was  almost  unbearable — the  very  filching  away 
from  them  of  the  coveted  fruits  of  the  Mexican  war.  They 
were  more  rational  than  the  despondent  Freesoilers,  for  they 
saw  that  with  California  free  and  covering  with  Oregon  the 
entire  Pacific  Coast,  all  north  of  36  deg.  30  min.  protected  by 
the  compromise  of  1820,  and  New  Mexico,  in  the  language  of 
Webster,  "free  by  God's  ordination,"  the  prospect  of  main- 
taining the  balance  of  power  and  the  control  of  the  national 
•government  while  the  Union  lasted  and  their  ambition  of 
empire  after  its  dissolution,  was  reduced  to  very  narrow 
limits.  In  truth,  the  question  of  the  extension  of  slavery  was 
settled,  for  there  was  no  more  territory  to  fight  over,  if  con- 
ditions then  existing  were  to  continue.  That  this  was  a  true 
vicM-  of  the  situation  has  been  proved  by  much  that  has  oc- 
curred since,  and  that  the  Northern  electorate  saw  it,  is  shown 
by  the  presidential  election  of  1852,  in  which  there  was  an 
almost  complete  collapse  of  the  Freesoil  party  as  compared 
with  the  vote  of  four  years  before,  notwithstanding  that  co- 
lossal blunder  of  Southern  statesmen,  the  Fugitive  Slave  law. 
If  it  had  been  entitled  "an  act  to  fire  the  Northern  heart" 
it  would  have  fitly  expressed  its  operation. 

The  territorial  aspects  of  the  extension  question,  the  only 
one  <:hat  ever  involved  the  feelings  and  interests  of  any  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  Northern  people  prior  to  1850,  could 
be  easily  calculated  by  reference  to  a  sectional  map  after  the 
settlement  of  that  year.    No  amount  of  prejudice  or  partiality 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  207 

for  North  or  South  could  blind  the  eyes  to  the  facts  in  the 
ease,  which  were  as  easily  comprehended  as  that  2  plus  2  make 
4,  for  it  was  simply  an  arithmetical  computation.  Even  sup- 
posing that  Daniel  Webster  was  wrong  and  that  God's  natural 
ordinances  did  not  work  against  slavery  and  that  all  South 
of  the  line  of  36  deg.  30  min.  north  latitude  were  given  to  it, 
yet  that  portion  of  territory  already  dedicated  to  freedom 
would  overbalance  it  more  than  five  to  one,  and  no  prospect 
of  adding  another  foot  of  soil  to  serve  as  a  bone  of  contention 
for  th*^  rival  hosts  of  freedom  and  slavery.  Both  of  them  saw 
it.  and  but  for  that  kidnapping  statute  and  the  subsequent 
infidelity  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  agitation 
of  th*^  slavery  question  would  have  been  confined  to  the  non- 
political  moral  suasion  of  the  Garrisonians.  Mr.  Lincoln's 
soothing  vision  of  the  time  ' '  when  the  public  mind  could  rest 
in  the  belief  that  slavery  in  the  United  States  was  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction"  would  have  been  realized.  For 
there  is  not  a  doubt  that  slavery,  surrounded,  overmatched, 
reduced  to  a  minority  in  the  government  and  incapable  of 
rcAvarding  its  supporters,  thus  alienating  from  it  that  all-too- 
numerous  class  of  politicians  who  would  serve  either  God  or 
]\Iammon  for  the  sake  of  place  and  power,  there  is  not  a  doubt 
that  under  such  conditions  chattel  slavery  would  succumb  to 
the  stern  competitive  grind  of  civilization.  This  view  of  the 
case  was  generally  held  by  the  more  sagacious  class  of  the 
Southern  ultras  and  urged  by  them  as  a  reason  for  secession. 
Toombs,  Wigfall,  Jefferson  Davis,  Breckinridge  saw  it,  and 
saw  also  that  their  Northern  allies  were  agitators  for  self  and 
when  trouble  came  would  shirk  consequences. 

At  the  presidential  election  in  1852,  the  Whig  party  ex- 
perienced the  worst  defeat  ever  known  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  of  which  Mr.  Greeley  wrote,  "Never  before  was  there 
such  an  overwhelming  defeat  of  a  party  that  had  hoped  for 
success."  The  Whig  candidate.  General  Scott,  received  only 
42  of  the  296  electoral  votes.  Mr.  Greeley  attributes  much  of 
this  disparity  to  the  votes  given  to  the  Freesoil  candidates. 
Hale  and  Julien,  but  their  vote  was  135,517  less  than  the  vote 


208  T.  W.  Davenport. 

of  that  party  four  years  before,  while  the  increase  of  the 
Democratic  vote  rose  to  381,312  and  that  of  the  Whigs  to 
25,838,  or  about  one-fifteenth  as  much. 

There  were  good  reasons  for  the  change,  however,  and  Mr. 
Greeley,  while  not  giving  them  in  causative  terms,  sums  up 
the  matter  by  saying,  "whatever  else  the  election  might  have 
meant,  there  was  no  doubt  that  the  popular  verdict  was 
against  slavery  agitation  and  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  com- 
promise of  1850."  On  the  face  of  things,  there  was  no  slavery 
question  between  the  two  great  parties  that  year.  The  terri- 
torial question  had  been  settled  if  law  or  compromise  could 
settle  anything.  Both  parties  had  solemnly  resolved  in  favor 
of  maintaining  the  compromise  of  1850,  and  had  as  em- 
phatically pledged  themselves  against  any  form  of  agitation, 
in  or  out  of  Congress.  And  the  candidates  had  also  given 
personal  pledges  to  the  same  effect.  But  it  was  well  known 
that  the  great  Northern  Whig  leaders,  while  uniting  in  the 
compromise  for  the  sake  of  peace  with  the  Southern  brethren, 
had  not  abated  a  jot  or  tittle  of  their  anti-slavery  sentiments ; 
besides,  Mr.  Seward,  then  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
Northern  wing  of  the  Whig  party,  was  the  promulgator  of  the 
irrepressible  conflict  doctrine  and  its  remedy  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  neither  of  which  many  thousands  of  Whigs  took 
.stock  m.  And  for  confirmation  of  their  opinion,  they  pointed 
back  to  the  time  when  the  two  sections  of  the  Union  dwelt 
together  in  harmony  by  attending  each  to  its  own  local  affairs, 
and  now  that  the  territorial  question  was  out  of  the  way, 
they  could  see  no  reason  why  there  might  not  be  a  repetition 
of  the  good  old  times  and  a  long  era  of  good  feeling.  Such 
people  could  not  understand  why  a  freesoiler  or  abolitionist 
could  not  "stop  his  yawp"  and  quit  helping  runaway  "nig- 
gers" as  easily  as  a  man  could  put  on  or  off  his  coat.  To 
say  that  such  people  are  dullards  and  that  the  class  is  nu- 
merous, might  be  pungent,  but  it  does  not  bring  out  the  fact 
that  human  beings  do  not  see  the  truth  until  their  eyes  are 
opened  and  turned  towards  the  light,  and  that  the  predomi- 
nance of  generous  impulses  is  effected  only  after  many  trials 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  209 

and  continuous  discipline.  At  the  election  in  1852  the  "don't- 
cares"  were  quite  numerous,  and  for  all  such,  and  that  other 
class  of  Northern  people  who  were  willing  to  accommodate 
the  Southern  aggressors  in  all  their  demands,  no  doubt  their 
proper  place  on  election  day  was  with  the  Democratic  party, 
which  was  untinctured  by  any  such  heresies  as  conscientious 
scruples  upon  the  question  of  slavery. 

The  newly  elected  President,  Franklin  Pierce,  in  his  in- 
augural address,  and  later  in  his  first  message,  reiterated  his 
pledge  against  slavery  agitation  in  the  following  words,  to- 
wit:  "that  this  repose  is  to  suffer  no  shock  during  my  official 
term,  if  I  have  power  to  prevent  it,  those  who  placed  me  here 
may  be  assured."  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  slave- 
holding  interest,  by  its  agent,  the  Democratic  party,  and  all 
pledged  against  a  renewal  of  agitation,  were  in  undisputed 
control  of  the  Federal  Government  in  all  its  departments. 
And  yet,  notwithstanding  all  pledges  by  party  or  person,  or  of 
compromises,  at  the  first  session  of  Congress  in  the  Pierce  ad- 
ministration, began  the  work  of  repealing  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, and  by  the  very  men  and  the  party  who  had  lulled 
the  country  to  sleep  by  false  promises.  It  was  in  truth  a 
bold  stroke,  but  from  the  previous  success  of  the  aggressors 
in  quieting  Northern  repugnance,  they  were  sure  of  ultimate 
acquiescence  in  any  scheme  they  might  undertake.  Upon  the 
plea  of  a  repartition  of  territory  between  slavery  and  free- 
dom, or  that  the  Constitution  carried  the  institution  there  be- 
cause of  its  being  joint  property,  the  repeal  could  not  have 
made  any  headway  even  in  that  Democratic  Congress,  but 
the  plea  of  leaving  the  question  to  the  people  of  each  ter- 
ritory, to  be  settled  by  themselves,  was  not  only  plausible 
but  flattering  to  the  self-sufficient  pride  of  men  who  had  set 
at  defiance  mountains  and  deserts  and  won  the  West. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  wise  in  this,  but  probably  blind  to 
the  result  of  arraying  the  same  selfish  motives  against  an  in- 
stitution which  every  common-sense  man  knows  is  against  the 
general  interest,  and  that  only  a  few  can  be  privileged.  He 
and    rhe    Southern    representatives,    without    doubt,    believed 


210  T.  W.  Davenport. 

that  Kansas,  with  the  aid  of  Missourians  and  the  official 
power  and  patronage  of  the  general  government,  would  be- 
come a  slave  State  and  a  barrier  to  the  extension  of  freedom 
southward.  But  both  parties  to  that  opinion  were  in  error, 
and  while  the  Supreme  Court  might  come  to  the  rescue  of  the 
South  and  legalize  slavery  in  all  the  territories  against  the 
will  of  their  inhabitants,  Mr.  Douglas  could  not  abandon  his 
squatter  sovereignty  doctrine  without  being  abandoned  by 
his  Northern  constituents  and  losing  his  seat  in  the  United 
State  Senate— in  a  word,  becoming  a  political  bankrupt. 
That  was  a  dramatic  moment  when  Mr.  Seward,  standing  in 
his  place  in  the  Senate,  after  the  repeal,  uttered  his  accept- 
ance and  prophecy,  in  these  words:  "Come  on,  gentlemen 
from  the  South ;  we  accept  your  challenge  to  contest  with  you 
for  freedom  on  the  soil  of  Kansas,  and  may  God  give  the 
victory  to  those  Avho  are  stronger  in  numbers  as  they  are  in 
right. ' ' 

If  the  upholders  of  the  peculiar  institution  had  not  been 
blind  they  would  have  recognized  in  this  declaration  the  hand- 
writing on  the  wall,  and  the  doom  of  slavery,  for  they  had 
taken  the  question  out  of  the  domain  of  compromise  and 
diplomacy  and  referred  it  to  a  trial  between  nineteenth  cen- 
tury civilization  and  the  ancient  barbarism,  between  the 
unprivileged  many  and  the  privileged  few.  They  had  made 
an  analogous  mistake  to  that  of  the  abolitionists,  who  put  all 
their  faith  on  moral  suasion.  They,  on  the  contrary,  had 
been  living  so  long  without  reference  to  the  ten  command- 
ments and  the  Golden  Rule  that  they  had  ceased  to  regard  men 
as  actuated  by  any  other  than  selfish  motives;  and,  indeed, 
from  their  long  continued  success  in  ruling  the  North  through 
its  appetite  for  the  loaves  and  fishes,  their  blimder  may  not 
be  wondered  at.  And  they  expected  to  have  like  success  in 
Kansas  by  means  of  the  Federal  patronage  and  other  con- 
nivance of  the  general  government.  But  they  miscounted; 
they  left  out  the  Puritan,  John  Brown,  who  would  make 
slavery  hazardous,  yea,  impossible,  and  that  he  was  the 
natural   and   normal   counterpart  of  the  Yankee  who  would 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  211 

make  freedom  profitable.  Altruism  and  egoism  were  co- 
partners against  slavery,  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
American  commonwealth.  And  the  issue  was  at  no  time 
doubtful. 

In  view  of  all  the  foregoing  facts  showing  the  progressive 
nature  of  the  Southern  demands  and  the  success  attending 
them,  and  also  of  the  after  occurrences  in  the  Kansas  conflict, 
involving  the  Federal  administration,  the  philosophical  stu- 
dent may  find  difficulty  in  accounting  for  the  events  without 
reducing  the  better  qualities  of  human  nature  to  a  very  low 
estimate,  so  low  indeed  as  to  be  in  conflict  with  the  private 
characters  of  the  principal  factors  in  them.  There  is  scarcely 
a  doubt  that  Franklin  Pierce  was  sincere  in  his  declared  in- 
tention of  opposing  a  renewal  of  slavery  agitation  which  he 
pledged  himself  to  resist  with  all  his  power,  and  yet  he  signed 
the  congressional  enactment  repealing  the  compromise  of 
1820  without  a  word  of  protest  so  far  as  is  lyiown,  and  when 
his  veto  would  have  effectually  blocked  the  measure  without 
a  hope  of  its  renewal.  Pierce  was  a  native  of  New  Hampshire, 
college-bred,  experienced  in  public  affairs,  honorable  in  all 
his  dealings,  and  stood  high  among  his  fellow  citizens.  So 
there  is  no  plea  of  ignorance  for  him.  He  knew  that  the 
repeal  of  the  compromise  would  be  regarded  all  over  the 
North  as  a  most  flagrant  breach  of  good  faith  and  raise 
popular  excitement  to  an  unprecedented  degree,  if  not  to 
produce  civil  war.  Moreover,  the  officers  he  appointed  to 
administer  the  affairs  of  the  territory  were  in  sympathy  with 
the  Southern  purpose  of  making  Kansas  a  slave  State,  though 
some  of  them  became  disgusted  at  the  pro-slavery  lawlessness 
and  joined  the  free-state  cause.  And  later,  when  James 
Buchanan  became  President,  the  same  lawless  spirit  ruled 
during  his  administration,  to  which  he  contributed  his  en- 
dorsement by  recommending  to  Congress  the  forcing  of  the 
fraudulent  Lecompton  Constitution  upon  the  people  of  Kan- 
sas. And  yet  Mr.  Buchanan  was  more  learned,  more  experi- 
enced, stood  higher  as  a  private  citizen  and  in  public  confi- 
dence than  Franklin  Pierce. 


212  T.  W.  Davenport. 

And  the  same  fate  which  befell  them  involved  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  the  North.  Sooner  or  later  the  organization 
went  down  before  the  slave-holding  wing  and  adhered  to  it 
by  the  cohesive  power  of  public  plunder.  We  cannot  recon- 
cile the  private  characters  and  political  actions  of  the  great 
body  of  citizens  involved  in  the  monstrous  recrudescence  of 
chattel  slavery  in  the  United  States  without  treating  it  as  a 
barbarism  too  ponderous  and  overwhelming  for  average  hu- 
manity to  resist.  And  further,  we  must  consider  that  for 
over  half  a  century  it  had  been  gradually  intruding  itself  into 
the  framework  of  our  government,  and  through  its  control 
had  been  the  dispenser  of  the  immense  patronage  as  rewards 
for  subservience.  Also  must  be  included  that  blind,  impul- 
sive, incalculable  force,  called  party  spirit,  which  AVashington 
considered  the  chief  menace  to  the  perpetuity  of  republican 
institutions,  and  that  other  motive,  the  fear  of  disunion, 
and  pi]  become  habits  of  thought  and  feeling. 

This  disparity  between  private  and  public  conduct  of  the 
same  individual  has  been  remarked  a  great  many  times  and 
it  is  not  peculiar  to  the  American  people.  Bismarck  ob- 
served it  in  Germany,  and  though  he  was  considerably  an- 
noyed by  the  fact  that  a  good  private  character  was  not  a 
sure  guide  to  political  conduct,  he  offered  no  explanation  of 
the  variance.  Nearly  every  one  who  speaks  of  it  seems  to  be 
puzzled,  as  though  we  should  expect  man  to  be  consivstent 
under  all  circumstances.  That,  however,  is  placing  too  high 
an  estimate  on  human  nature.  Only  a  few  are  amenable  to 
self-imposed  bonds  and  a  law  unto  themselves,  and  only  trial 
will  reveal  them. 

Looking  upon  human  conduct  as  a  resultant  depending 
upon  circumstances,  the  cynic  says,  "every  man  has  his 
price,"  meaning  thereby  that  every  one  can  be  turned  out 
of  the  path  of  rectitude  by  the  enticements  of  power  and 
gain,  which  is  so  often  true  that  the  tribe  of  cynics  will  not 
perish.  But  there  are  many,  let  us  hope,  whom  money  or 
power  cannot  buy.  Not  all  who  are  taken  up  into  the  moun- 
tain and  tempted  by  the  Devil  fall  down  and  worship  him. 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  213 

To  the  countryman  who  asked  Thorean  wh}^  he  did  not  fall 
in  with  the  procession  following  the  band  of  music,  he  replied, 
"that  is  not  the  music  I  hear."  And  there  are  others  who 
hear  the  higher  class  music,  though  the  majority  hear  the 
music  of  the  street  and  join  the  noisy,  thoughtless  proc&ssion. 

It  should  be  remembered,  while  viewing  this  question,  that 
in  the  private  walks  of  life  the  energies  of  men  are  devoted  to 
the  production  of  wealth,  which  is  distributed  among  the 
factors  producing  it,  and  while  the  distribution  may  not  be 
according  to  the  rule  of  absolute  justice,  owing  to  our  de- 
fectivp  social  state,  still  there  is  the  maxim  that  every  one  is 
entitled  to  what  he  produces,  and,  in  practice,  an  approxima- 
tion to  rewarding  every  one  according  to  his  works.  So,  there 
may  be  prizes  but  no  blanks.  For  inequalities  in  wages, 
there  should  be  no  complaint,  when  opportunities  are  equal, 
for  such  is  the  order  of  nature;  that  those  who  sow  should 
reap,  and  those  "who  would  not  plow  in  spring  by  reason  of 
the  cold  should  beg  in  harvest  and  have  nothing. ' ' 

In  this  primal  law  of  nature  which  entitles  man  to  the 
fruits  of  his  industry,  and  the  other,  no  less  primal,  which 
impels  him  to  satisfy  his  wants  with  the  least  exertion,  we 
have  the  duplex  key  to  progress  and  prosperity  in  every  de- 
partment of  human  endeavor  and  in  society  as  a  whole.  It 
is  also  in  the  line  of  least  resistance  as  respects  conformity  to 
ethical  principles.  There  may  be  competition  for  preference 
in  thf  market  to  be  obtained  only  by  superiority  in  the  qual- 
ity of  goods,  industrial  products,  but  such  is  unavoidable, 
indeed,  desirable,  for  it  is  the  working  out  in  practice  of  the 
laws  heretofore  expressed,  the  negation  of  which  would  de- 
stroy the  incentive  to  individual  exertion  and  therefore  of  im- 
provement. Does  not  any  defensible  idea  of  justice  consist  in 
equal  freedom  and  equal  access  to  the  bounties  of  nature,  and 
of  course  a  free  market  in  which  chicanery  has  no  permanent 
standing  ? 

And  such  relations  are  automatic  in  their  nature.  The 
fittest  survive :  the  fraudulent  is  expelled ;  and  hence  the  con- 
stant converging  tendency  to  square  dealing  and  open,  abovt  - 


214  T.  W.  Davenport. 

board  methods.  It  is  in  this  school,  where  the  kindly  and 
fraternal  virtues  are  at  premium  and  rascality  at  discount, 
that  men  get  their  reputation  or  private  character  as  mo  rid 
beings.  Politics,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  reverse  of  indus- 
trialism in  all  essential  particulars.  In  the  first  place, 
politics,  though  productive  of  great  strenuosity,  is  nor  a 
wealth-producing  but  a  wealth-consuming  employment.  There 
is  no  distribution,  for  there  is  nothing  to  divide.  There  are 
prizes  to  be  won,  the  emoluments  of  office,  and  while  there  are 
many  contestants,  only  a  few  can  be  chosen.  And  the  nature 
of  the  contests  admits  of  much  diplomacy— in  plain  terms, 
secrecy,  cunning,  tergiversation.  And  as  there  is  mutual 
suspicion  of  the  employment  of  such  methods,  the  tende.icv 
is  from  bad  to  worse.  And  when  the  contest  is  betw^eii 
political  parties,  the  whole  population  is  segregated  into 
antagonistic  groups  animated  by  a  partisan  spirit  wliich 
gives  but  little  heed  to  the  general  welfare. 

Political  parties  are  a  natural  evolution  from  the  differ- 
ences of  opinion  among  the  people,  as  to  the  principles  and 
policies  which  should  govern  in  the  conduct  of  the  govn-n- 
ment,  and  as  such  issues  must  be  determined  by  majorities  in 
a  popular  count,  it  has  been  the  practice  in  the  United  States 
to  put  the  government  into  the  possession  of  the  candidates  of 
the  party  winning  at  the  polls— a  custom  as  vicious  as  un- 
necessary, except  as  to  those  few  offices  involved  by  the 
policies  upon  which  the  contesting  parties  differ.  Tlip  gio.ir 
number  of  merely  executive  offices,  more  than  nine-tenths 
of  all  the  offices  in  the  general  government,  and  a  grfalc-r 
proportion  of  those  in  the  State  governments,  are  whal^y  un- 
affected by  the  incumbents'  political  opinions.  A  coliector 
of  customs  must  obey  the  law,  whatever  the  duty,  or  whether 
he  leans  to  protection  or  free  trade.  And  the  post  mast'3j- 
performs  his  legal  duty  M^hatever  may  be  the  shndt  of  his 
politics. 

Considering  the  vast  patronage  and  power  at  issue  in  a 
political  contest,  there  is  nothing  strange  that  the  parties  to 
it,  animated  by  the  Avar  cry,  "to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils." 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  215 

soon  become  to  a  great  extent  a  compact  and  mercenary  or- 
ganization. And  this  result  comes,  not  because  all  or  a  ma- 
jority of  partisans  are  demented  or  corrupt,  but  from  various 
other  causes.  Some  have  over-confidence  in  those  filUn.v? 
places  of  control;  some  adhere  from  mere  partisan  spirit  or 
prejudice,  like  the  great  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  who  was  si 
much  of  a  Tory  that  he  would  not  admit  that  a  Whig  couli 
be  honest.  Some  follow  the  partisan  standard  because  their 
fathers  did;  some  from  inability  to  part  with  their  political 
associates;  others  from  memory  of  the  party's  past  good 
record  and  the  hope  that,  though  it  may  sometimes  go  wrong, 
it  will  be  nearer  right  on  the  average  than  its  opponent.  Some 
fall  in  from  sheer  habit  or  the  pride  of  being  rated  as  reliable 
and  not  subject  to  the  stigma  of  being  a  "vacillator"— "a 
({uitter."  But  among  all  these,  and  holding  them  in  line,  are 
the  shrewd,  ambitious,  unscrupulous  self-seekers,  encouraging 
the  weak,  chiding  the  skeptical,  holding  out  prospects  to  the 
aspiring,  succoring  the  needy  and  infusing  a  blind  party 
spirit  into  the  whole  mass.  And  this  conglomeration  of 
patriots  and  purveyors  was  the  only  avenue  to  government 
employment,  and  subservience  to  it  the  prime  qualification 
for  promotion. 

At  first,  a  voluntary  organization  intended  to  be  a  service- 
able adjunct  to  government,  by  the  performance  of  necessary 
functions,  such  as  the  public  discussion  of  mooted  questions, 
the  dissemination  of  knowledge  pertaining  to  public  affairs, 
the  ascertainment  and  carrying  into  execution  the  will  of  its 
members,  all  this  and  much  more  that  a  political  party  could 
and  should  do  in  the  promotion  of  the  general  interests;  but 
through  the  corrupting  influence  of  the  bribery  system  which 
is  the  natural  ally  of  privilege,  degenerated  into  a  mere  tool 
of  class  interests. 

In  a  party  so  constituted  and  governed  there  was  no  en- 
couragement to  independent  thought  and  action  with  an  eye 
single  to  the  public  welfare.  Continuous  and  unbroken 
servility  was  sufficient.  The  individual,  unless  powerful 
enough  to  control,  was  suppressed,  and  strange  to  say  that 


216  T.  W.  Davenport. 

this  was  the  kind  of  party  supposed  to  be  normal  to  our  form 
of  government.  There  is  no  better  evidence  of  the  predomi- 
nant selfishness  of  those  in  control  of  the  great  political 
parties  than  the  admission  by  them  that  political  parties  are 
impracticable  without  official  rewards  for  partisan  service. 
Certainly  such  parties  could  not  survive  a  change  of  that 
character,  and  well  they  could  not,  for  the  government  dis- 
sociated from  the  spoils  system  would  become  responsive  to 
the  general  interests  and  the  people  being  emancipated  from 
partisan  control  and  freed  from  partisan  employment  would 
exercise  their  faculties  in  the  solution  of  social  problems  and 
striving  for  improvement. 

I  have  deemed  it  proper  to  dwell  at  some  length  on  the 
nature  and  tendency  of  political  parties  as  they  have  existed 
in  the  United  States,  in  order  to  account  for  the  astounding 
discrepancy  between  the  conduct  and  character  of  men  as 
private  citizens  engaged  in  productive  industry,  and  their 
doings  as  partisans.  That  while  in  matters  and  things  non- 
partisan, as  neighbors  and  fellow  citizens,  they  are  com- 
municative, candid,  kindly,  reciprocal  and  regardful  of  the 
general  interests,  yet  they  seem  to  think  it  proper,  when  en- 
gaged in  worl«  called  political,  to  do  whatever  is  necessary  to 
maintain  or  promote  party  supremacy,  which  in  practice 
means  to  yield  obedience  to  the  controlling  powers  of  the 
party.  And  though  they  may  admit  that  some  things  done 
by  the  party  or  individuals  of  the  party  may  be  wrong,  yet 
their  party  is  better  than  its  opponent,  and  in  general  main- 
tain the  maxim  "our  party  right  or  wrong."  And  especially 
is  it  -lesirable  to  think  of  this  aspect  of  life  when  viewing  the 
attitude  of  the  largest  portion  of  the  Oregon  people,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  slavery  question  after  its  reopening  by  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  in  1854,  and  the  injection 
of  the  squatter  sovereignty  doctrine  into  American  politics  by 
the  over-ambitious  "Little  Giant,"  Stephen  A.  Douglas  of 
Illinois. 

After  a  long  and  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  Oregon 
pioneers,  I  am  constrained  to  declare  them  an  exceptionally 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  217 

good  people,  hospitable,  social  and  fraternal  to  a  marked 
degree,  as  well  as  being  resolute  and  public-spirited.  That 
the  known  perils  of  the  overland  journey  had  a  selective  ef- 
fect in  bringing  to  this  coast  a  strong  and  virile  population, 
I  think  is  evident,  and  the  four  to  six  months'  journey  amidst 
extraordinary  trials,  and  the  communal  life  incident  thereto, 
disrobed  them  of  social  shams  to  a  great  extent  and  made 
them  all  kin.  There  is  another  consideration,  until  now 
unmentioned,  that  as  a  general  rule  the  pioneers  were  people 
of  moderate  means  and  therefore  unaffected  by  much  dis- 
parity in  wealth. 

During  the  Provisional  Government,  which  ended  in  1849, 
after  the  organization  of  the  Territory  by  Congress,  partisan 
politics  were  unknown  in  Oregon.  There  were  some  factional 
jealousies  (hardly  worth  mentioning)  on  account  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  the  missionaries  and  the  worldlings, 
but  the  people  got  along  and  seemed  to  be  intent  upon  doing 
the  best  they  could  with  their  own  local  affairs.  Upon  the 
arrival  of  General  Lane,  the  first  territorial  Governor,  who 
assumed  control  March  3d  of  that  year,  the  segregation  into 
Whigs  and  Democrats  began  to  show  itself. 

At  the  first  election  of  Delegate  to  Congress,  in  the  fall  of 
1849,  national  politics  did  not  figure  to  any  observable  extent. 
There  were  five  candidates,  a  sort  of  free-for-all  race  in  which 
no  one  had  a  majority  over  all.  Samuel  R.  Thurston,  who 
was  elected,  ran  on  the  issue  of  the  missionary  settlers  against 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  In  the  absence  of  the  larger 
portion  of  the  population  in  the  gold  mines,  the  vote  was  very 
light.  Mr.  Thurston  received,  470 ;  Columbia  Lancaster,  321 ; 
Meek  and  Griffin,  46;  J.  W.  Nesmith,  106.  By  the  Tribune 
Almanac  of  1850,  Nesmith  was  rated  as  a  Whig,  but  this  was 
an  error,  as  he  and  Thurston  both  were  Democrats.  Mr. 
Lancaster  was  a  Whig  and  his  vote,  the  next  highest,  might 
be  considered  a  sample  of  the  Whig  strength  at  that  date. 
There  was  no  mention  of  negroes,  bond  or  free,  at  this  election. 
Although  the  slave  power  was  dominant  at  Washington,  the 
question  of  slavery  as  to  Oregon,  defended  by  a  double  pro- 


218  T.  W.  Davenport. 

hibition,  one  by  the  people  and  another  by  Congress,  was 
such  an  apparent  impossibility  that  they  did  not  give  it  a 
thought.  It  was  enough  that  a  Democratic  Delegate  was 
elected  to  Congress  and  that  Oregon  bid  fair  to  be  a  Demo- 
cratic State.  Besides,  California  at  that  time  was  adopting 
a  free-state  Constitution  and  hence  the  focal  point  of  atten- 
tion for  Southern  statesmen. 

After  the  news  of  Thurston's  death,  which  occurred  on  his 
way  home  from  Washington,  on  the  14th  of  April)  1851, 
General  Lane,  who  had  resigned  the  office  of  territorial  Gov- 
ernor, became  a  candidate  by  nomination  for  Delegate  to 
Congress,  and  was  elected  in  June  by  a  large  majority  over 
his  competitor,  Dr.  W.  H.  WiUson,  the  nominee  of  the  Mission 
party.  Lane's  majority,  as  given  by  Bancroft,  was  1832  in 
a  total  vote  of  2917.  There  is  no  record  of  any  canvass  by 
the  rival  candidates  and  no  mention  of  political  matters. 

General  Lane  was  a  great  favorite  with  the  Oregon  people, 
besides  being  known  as  an  unwavering  Democrat.  In  ex- 
amining the  course  of  the  slavery  issue  in  Oregon,  I  cannot 
properly  omit  to  give  an  important  place  to  General  Lane. 
Not  because  he  was  active  as  an  agitator,  for  I  have  no  recol- 
lection or  record  of  his  writing  a  letter  or  making  a  speech 
pro  and  con  during  the  pendency  of  the  question.  But  it  was 
well  known  that  he  was  of  Southern  birth  and  lineage  and  in 
sympathy  with  and  a  promoter  of  the  slave-holding  interest. 
And  in  many  important  respects.  General  Lane  was  no  ordi- 
nary man.  Nature  had  been  lavish  in  her  gifts  to  him.  He 
had  an  attractive  and  commanding  personality,  distinguished 
alike  for  an  unoffending  dignity  and  a  kind  and  courageous 
spirit.  Judge  George  H.  Williams  said  he  was  a  born  poli- 
tician:  true,  for  he  was  a  born  leader  of  men.  Not,  however, 
as  a  doctrinaire  and  a  promulgator  of  principles,  but  as  a 
man  of  action,  full  to  overflowing  of  bonhomie  and  a 
stalwart  neighborship,  as  well  as  a  ready  and  decisive  judg- 
ment which,  if  not  always  sound,  had  the  effect  to  inspire 
confidence  and  give  him  numerous  and  enthusiastic  followers. 
His  place  by  nature  was  at  the  front  and  he  was  adroit 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  219 

enough  to  take  it,  whether  leading  a  column  in  defense  of  the 
weak  when  the  war-whoop  shook  the  nerves  of  the  strong,  or 
as  the  cynosure  of  a  political  campaign.  What  he  did  was 
assumed  to  be  right,  at  least  respectable,  and  his  position  with 
the  slave-holding  party,  though  he  might  not  say  a  word  or 
write  a  line,  exerted  a  most  pernicious  influence  upon  that 
class  of  people  who  are  not  self-directed.  In  April,  1855, 
General  Lane  was  nominated  again  by  his  party  for  Delegate 
to  Congress.  On  the  18th  of  the  same  month  ex-Governor 
John  P.  Gaines  was  nominated  in  opposition  by  a  convention 
of  Know-nothings  and  Whigs  held  at  Corvallis.  The  Demo- 
crats pdopted  a  platform  of  principles,  but  the  members  of 
the  Corvallis  convention  did  not  deem  it  wise  to  make  any 
declaration  further  than  ' '  John  P.  Gaines  against  the  world. ' ' 
There  were  good  reasons  for  such  reticence,  however,  for 
Knownothingism  was  on  the  wane  and  the  Whig  party  had 
passe i  into  the  shadow  of  slavery  in  the  nation,  and  was 
losing  its  hold  upon  all  those  who  had  resolved  to  resist  the 
further  encroachments  of  the  slave  power.  There  were,  too, 
many  members  of  the  Freesoil,  abolition  and  temperance 
parties,  who  could  not  be  rallied  under  any  declaration  in 
oppos'tion  to  their  principles,  but  might  vote  in  opposition 
to  the  Democracy. 

Both  candidates  were  good  speakers  and  there  was  a  spirited 
canvass,  personal  and  partisan  in  the  main,  but  no  discussion 
of  the  paramount  issues  then  before  the  country  and  in 
which  the  people  of  Oregon  were  vitally  interested.  The 
Kansas  struggle  had  begun ;  the  border  ruffians  had  invaded 
the  territory  and  carried  the  first  election ;  the  squatter 
sovereignty  principle  had  swept  away  all  barriers  to  slavery 
in  the  territories,  thus  reviving  the  question  in  Oregon,  but 
upon  all  this  or  any  part  of  it  neither  Lane  nor  Gaines 
ventured  an  argument  or  an  opinion.  Gaines  was  more 
fluent  and  graceful  on  the  stump,  in  fact,  was  almost  an 
orator,  and  quite  gifted  in  the  highly  popular  art  of  story- 
telling, in  which  his  rival  was  deficient  and  seldom  indulged, 
a  disparity  which  gave  the  Whigs  a  lively  hope  of  victory. 


220  T.  W.  Davenport. 

But  the  result  at  the  polls  was  a  sore  disappointment.  Lane 
received  almost  twice  as  many  votes,  3986  to  2149,  a  result, 
at  thi«:  distance  of  time,  which  I  must  think  quite  fortunate, 
as  a  different  outcome  would  have  been  a  temporary  revival 
of  the  Whig  party  spirit  and  a  postponement  here  of  the 
real  issue  on  which  the  Whigs  refused  to  take  sides  as  a 
party.  Gaines  was  a  Kentucky  Whig  whose  opinions  con- 
cerning slavery  I  never  knew.  As  he  was  popular  in  his 
native  State,  likely  he  was  of  that  indeterminate  quality 
called  conservative  and  discreetly  silent  upon  the  subject.  As 
late  as  the  spring  of  1857  he  was  present  at  a  meeting  in 
Salem,  publicly  advertised  to  organize  under  the  name  Re- 
publican by  the  adoption  of  the  Philadelphia  platform,  but 
at  that  time  he  was  still  desirous  of  pouring  oil  upon  the 
troubled  waters  and  had  some  resolutions  prepared  for  that 
purpose.  Being  informed  that  the  time  for  compromises  had 
passed,  the  resolutions  were  not  presented,  and  rather  than 
precipitate  a  squabble  which  would  have  no  better  effect  than 
to  divide  those  who  in  the  end  would  act  together,  the  meeting 
was  adjourned,  without  action,  until  the  next  Saturday,  when 
the  organization  was  effected,  the  ex-Governor  being  dis- 
creetly absent.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  slavery 
was  prohibited  in  Oregon  Avithout  his  help  or  hindrance, 
other  lhan  his  vote. 

The  year  1856  is  an  epochal  date  in  American  political 
history.  Several  things  happened  to  make  it  memorable,  and 
chief  among  them,  perhaps,  was  the  uprising  of  a  majority 
of  the  Northern  people  against  the  further  extension  of 
slavery  and  a  deliberate  determination  to  resist  it  at  all 
hazards.  It  was  a  righteous  resolution  long  delayed  and 
long  after  forbearance  had  ceased  to  be  a  virtue.  The  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  restriction  in  the  spring  of  1854  stung  then, 
into  resistance,  and  as  anti-Nebraska  Whigs,  Democrats  and 
Know-nothings,  they  elected  enough  members  to  control  the 
next  Lower  House  of  Congress.  Likely  at  that  time  they  had 
no  well-defined  and  continuous  plan  of  action,  save  an  im- 
pulsive purpose  to  resist  a  great  wrong  and  if  possible  undo 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  '  221 

it.  But  when  the  time  arrived  for  the  meeting  of  the  Thirty- 
fourth  Congress,  the  current  of  events  had  carried  the  country 
beyond  any  thought  of  repeal.  Squatter  sovereignty  was  in 
the  air  and  had  come  to  stay.  Many  who  had  risen  in  wrath 
against  the  "Nebraska  Iniquity"  had  become  reconciled  to 
Senator  Douglas's  great  principle  of  non-intervention  by 
Congress  with  the  slavery  question  and  permitting  the  people 
of  the  territories  to  settle  it  as  applied  to  themselves.  It  was 
plausible;  it  sounded  fair,  and  if  only  the  white  people  of 
the  territory  were  to  be  affected  by  their  decision,  it  was 
undoubtedly  democratic.  It  was  heralded  by  the  Senator  as 
a  measure  of  peace,  but  the  experiment  in  Kansas  was  not 
reassuring  to  the  admirers  of  orderly  government.  It  was 
not  a  peaceful  experiment  governed  by  democratic  methods, 
but  an  armed  invasion  from  the  beginning  and  aided  and 
abetted  by  the  pro-slavery  administration  at  Washington. 
Senator  Douglas,  though  declaring  that  he  did  not  care 
whether  slavery  was  voted  up  or  voted  down,  was  in  favor  of 
fair  play  for  the  "bona  fide"  residents  of  the  territory— 
"The  Little  Giant"  protested  in  vain;  the  giant  of  slavery, 
like  Bunyan's,  covered  the  whole  way.  Evidently,  if  the 
people  of  Kansas  were  to  have  fair  play,  or  indeed  the  people 
of  any  other  territory,  the  pro-slavery  Democratic  party  must 
be  driven  from  its  place  of  power  and  the  general  government 
put  into  the  hands  of  those  who  would  administer  it  to  estab- 
lish justice  and  promote  the  general  welfare. 

As  the  Whig  party  was,  at  best,  never  more  than  non- 
committal upon  the  slavery  question,  and  now,  by  the  with- 
drawal of  its  anti-slavery  elements  and  its  dissensions  con- 
cerning the  Know-nothing  delusion,  was  in  the  throes  of  dis- 
solution, there  was  no  alternative  left  for  anti-slavery  men 
but  to  organize  such  a  party  with  this  single  purpose  in  view. 
Accordingly  a  call  was  issued  for  a  convention  to  be  held  at 
Pittsburg  on  Washington's  Birthday,  at  which  time  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  draft  an  address  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  and  another  meeting  appointed  for  the  17th 
of  June,  to  be  held  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia.     At 


222  T.  W.  Davenport. 

this  adjourned  convention  a  platform  was  adopted  and  candi- 
dates nominated  for  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
nation. 

The  Democratic  national  convention  met  in  Cincinnati  on 
the  2rl  of  June,  when  Senator  Douglas's  great  principle  of 
"squatter  sovereignty"  was  for  the  first  time  formally 
adopted  by  the  party,  and  James  Buchanan,  a  pliant  tool  of 
the  slave  power,  was  nominated  for  Prasident  and  John  C. 
Breckinridge,  a  slave-holding  propagandist,  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent. Evidently,  they  were  not  despairing  of  success  in  sub- 
jugating Kansas  to  slavery  with  such  a  ticket  as  that  aiding 
the  "border  outlaws,"  and  there  were  some  grounds  for  such 
hopes.  Colonel  Buford,  with  his  regiment  of  South  Carolinians 
and  Georgians,  had  arrived  upon  the  border,  armed  and 
equipped  for  invasion;  Kansas  was  again  overrun,  Lawrence 
was  sacked,  some  smaller  places  pillaged,  a  few  murders  com- 
mitted, when  Governor  Geary  called  a  halt  upon  such  pro- 
ceedings for  fear  of  jeopardizing  the  election  of  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket,  which  then  seemed  imminent.  He  publicly 
declared  that  he  was  carrying  James  Buchanan  upon  his 
shoulders  and  that  the  peace  must  be  preserved  (until  after 
election.) 

The  Know-nothings  met  in  convention  at  Philadelphia  on 
the  22d  of  February,  at  which  Millard  Fillmore  was  nomi- 
nated for  President,  and  September  the  17th,  what  was  left 
of  the  Whig  party  ratified  the  nomination  at  Baltimore. 
The  issue  of  extension  vs.  non-extension  was  thus  practically 
joined  by  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties,  with  the 
opportunity  afforded  those  who  cling  to  reminiscences,  of 
voting  the  trimmers'  ticket,  headed  by  Fillmore,  who  carried 
only  one  small  State,  Maryland.  The  canvass  of  that  year 
was  wore  earnest,  searching,  and  provoking  than  any  pre- 
ceding one,  and  on  the  part  of  the  Republicans,  brim  full  of 
enthusiasm.  Genuine  enthusiasm  is  whole-souled  and  there- 
fore involves  the  moral  feelings.  And  the  question  before 
the  people  was  one  that  took  in  all  of  man's  attributes  and 
aspirations,  industrial,  social,  political  and  religious;  and  as 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  223 

slavery  is  a  menace  to  all  of  them  and  a  bar  to  human 
progre^ss,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  void  of  material  for  evoking 
enthusiasm  the  covert  advocates  and  apologists  of  slavery 
were  in  that  notable  and  inspiring  revival  of  1856.  They 
were,  from  the  first,  completely  on  the  defensive.  Indeed, 
slavery  never  had  any  defense  except  the  fact  of  its  existence 
and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its  abolition,  and  when  its 
supporters  left  this  ground  and  desired  its  extension,  they 
placed  themselves  in  destructive  antagonism  to  our  form  of 
government. 

To  the  allegation  of  the  Republicans  that  slavery  is  a  relic 
of  barbarism  and  an  outlaw  in  the  domain  of  morals,  no  reply 
could  be  given  by  the  supporters  of  Buchanan  and  Fillmore. 
Senator  Douglas  did  not  defend  the  institution ;  the  most  he 
could  say  was  that  he  did  not  care  whether  it  was  voted  up 
or  voted  down  by  the  people  of  the  territories.  What  he  and 
the  Democrats  were  contending  for  was  the  squatter  sover- 
eignty method  of  settling  the  vexing  question,  and  thus  avoid- 
ing a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  The  arguments  of  both 
Whigs  and  Democrats  were  addressed  to  the  fears  and  prej- 
udices of  the  Northern  people,  and  they  laid  great  stress  upon 
the  fact  that  the  Republican  party  was  a  sectional  party,  as 
though  it  were  a  condition  the  Republicans  desired  and  for 
which  they  should  be  held  accountable,  instead  of  its  being 
the  direct  and  inevitable  result  of,  and  the  severest  indictment 
of  the  diabolical  institution  they  were  coddling.  At  this  time, 
and  looking  backward,  does  it  not  seem  incredible  that  a  man 
of  education  and  admitted  refinement,  a  former  President  of 
the  United  States,  could  make  such  a  denunciation  and  keep 
his  face?  Heated  partisans  might  do  it,  or  people  not  given 
to  thinking,  but  that  it  should  be  adopted  as  a  war  cry,  among 
an  intelligent  people,  is  almost  past  belief.  Certainly  it  was 
a  sectional  party  and  wherefore? 

Even  accepting  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  that  the  negro  is 
not  a  citizen,  not  a  man,  and  the  Constitution  did  not  rec- 
ognize him  as  anything  more  than  a  chattel,  yet  it  cannot  be 
even  supposed  that  white  men  must  suri'ender  their  rights 


224  T.  W.  Davenport. 

and  liberty  in  order  to  protect  and  extend  such  an  exceptional 
institution.  But  this  the  white  man  of  the  South  did  con- 
tinually and  in  increasing  degree.  To  keep  the  negro  safely 
ignorant,  he  must  be  ignorant  himself.  He  must  not  talk  of 
freedom,  though  living  in  a  professedly  free  country.  The 
hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  human  soul  for  deliverance  from 
degrading  conditions  here  must  be  eliminated  from  his  pray- 
ers. At  a  period  of  the  world's  history  when  the  human  mind 
everywhere  was  engaged  in  the  investigation  of  the  practical 
problems  of  society,  he  isolated  himself  from  the  civilization 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  And  if  he  chafed  under  such 
degrading  restrictions  and  availed  himself  of  the  United 
States  mails  to  become  acquainted  with  the  problems  which 
most  concerned  him,  he  was  reminded  by  the  blazing  contents 
of  rifled  mail  bags,  or  the  more  grating  tone  of  brute  force, 
that  ^.he  interests  of  slave-holders  were  paramount  to  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  Federal  government.  The  incidental 
necessities  arising  out  of  the  relation  of  master  and  slave 
were  above  and  beyond  all  statutes  and  constituted  the  higher 
law  of  the  slave  code. 

Wendell  Phillips  once  exclaimed,  "Commonwealth  of  Vir- 
ginia! what  a  misnomer;  it  is  a  chronic  insurrection."  And 
such  was  the  fact  all  over  the  South.  The  courts  and  legis- 
latures of  those  States  preserved  some  outward  show  of  respect 
to  thp  conscientious  opinions  of  mankind,  for  they  did  not  by 
statute  and  decision  formally  extinguish  the  white  man's 
liberty,  but  they  did  not  constitute  the  repressive  agencies  by 
which  society  was  dominated.  The  mob  was  everywhere 
present  and  ever  supreme.  For  the  trial  of  those  accused  of 
being  abolitionists,  the  higher  law  applied,  and  the  mob  was 
the  court  of  first  and  last  resort,  whose  acts,  however  atroci- 
ous, the  lawful  agencies  of  government  never  attempted  to 
contravene,  much  less  to  punish. 

At  the  time  of  the  John  Brown  raid  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
there  was  no  ray  of  hope  for  any  amelioration  of  social  con- 
ditions in  that  benighted  region.  The  moral  lights  of  which 
Henry  Clay  and  Abraham  Lincoln  delighted  to  speak,  had 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  225 

been  blown  out.  The  church,  though  at  times  admitting  the 
relative  duties  of  master  and  slave  (servant),  had  no  words 
of  condemnation  for  that  system  of  bondage  practiced  by  its 
members,  which  destroyed  the  holy  relations  of  husband  and 
wife,  parent  and  child,  and  reduced  the  bondman  to  the 
status  of  a  brute.  The  colleges  and  schools  were  upon  the 
same  level.  The  doctrines  of  the  revolutionary  fathers  had 
been  a  long  time  recanted  and  in  their  place  was  essayed  the 
monstrous  proposition,  freshly  canonized  by  the  highest 
tribunal  in  the  nation,  that  the  negro  had  no  rights  which  the 
whit*^  man  was  bound  to  respect.  Our  Southern  brethren  had 
molded  the  church,  the  school,  and  their  State  governments 
to  conform  to  and  uphold  their  pet  institution,  and  signified 
their  willingness  to  destroy  the  Union  when  it  could  be  no 
longer  used  to  promote  their  peculiar  interests.  In  this 
i-espect  the  South,  as  a  political,  economic  and  social  force, 
was  solid.  Vice-President  Breckinridge  could  go  into  the 
free  States  and  plead  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution 
and  Southern  rights  under  them,  but  the  Republican  who 
went  South  to  organize  a  Fremont  Club  would  be  considered 
reckless  as  to  his  personal  safety.  This  was  well  known  and 
consequently  no  attempt  was  made  to  contest  the  election  in 
the  slave  States.  But  one  man  in  the  State  of  Kentucky. 
Cassius  M.  Clay,  had  the  audacity  to  speak  against  slavery, 
and  he  bore  the  scars  of  many  a  bloody  conflict.  If  slavery 
were  to  continue,  our  Southern  brethren  were  not  wrong  in 
their  means  of  continuance,  for  the  system  was  founded  in 
fraud  and  force  and  inseparable  from  them.  The  symbols  of 
such  a  civilization  were  properly  the  bludgeon,  scourgie, 
gibbet,  bowie  knife  and  revolver.  All  this  was  as  well  under- 
stood ]n  1856  as  now,  but  there  were  enough  citizens  of  the 
North,  actuated  by  fear  or  partisan  spirit,  to  continue  the 
Democratic  party  in  power.  Anti-slavery  men  were  much 
painfd  by  the  defeat  of  Fremont,  but  after-occurrences  rec- 
onciled them  to  that  dispensation  of  Providence  as  being  for 
the  best.     Neither  the  man  nor  the  time  had  arrived  for  the 


226  T.  W.  Davenport. 

dreaded  arbitrament  of  war,  the  only  possible  solution  of 
the  question  at  issue. 

This  retros}3ect  is  not  indulged  as  being  new  to  history, 
but  as  a  side-light  to  the  situation  in  Oregon  at  that  time, 
whose  people  were  in  far  more  danger  of  the  introduction  of 
slavery  among  them  than  the  people  of  Kansas  were  at  any 
time.  True,  they  were  not  harassed  b}^  any  border  ruffian 
invasion  or  any  flagrant  interference  of  the  Washington  ad- 
ministration, but  their  apathy  or  rather  their  slavish  subservi- 
ence to  party  discipline  was  truly  appalling. 

There  was  no  election  for  President  in  the  Territory  in 
1856;  no  lining  up  for  the  war  of  ballots,  and  therefore  a 
good  time  for  the  people  to  consult  together  dispassionately 
regarding  their  mutual  interests.  But  upon  the  great  ques- 
tion which  was  profoundly  agitating  the  nation,  and  especi- 
ally as  applicable  to  themselves,  they  were  (with  such  excep- 
tions as  will  be  hereafter  mentioned)  as  silent  and  uncom- 
municative as  though  such  matters  were  light  and  trifling, 
or  did  not  at  all  concern  them.  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that 
more  than  three-fifths  of  the  Oregon  people  were  partisan 
Democrats,  and  as  it  was  known  that  they  were  divided  in 
opinion  upon  the  question  of  slavery  in  Oregon,  although  they 
were  united  in  support  of  the  pro-slavery  propaganda  at 
Washington,  it  was  the  policy  of  the  party  managers  not  to 
permit  any  discussion  of  the  question  here,  and  take  no  part}' 
action  whatever.  Of  course  this  appeared  to  be  the  only 
rational  way  to  keep  the  party  together.  An  outside  ob- 
server, given  to  thinking,  and  assuming  that  Democratic  peo- 
ple were  sane,  would  infer  at  once  that  the  party  was  held 
together  to  subserve  some  more  important  purpose  than 
deciding  whether  Oregon  should  be  a  free  or  slave  State,  and 
he  would  inquire,  "What?"  No  doubt  he  would  be  some- 
what puzzled  in  his  quest  for  the  "what."  Tariff,  internal 
improvement  by  the  general  government,  strict  construction 
of  the  Constitution,  national  bank,  compromises  concerning 
slavery— or  anything  the  party  had  ever  professed — all  had 
disappeared,  swallowed  up  by  the  one  over-shadowing  ques- 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  227 

tiou,  shall  slavery  be  extended  or  restricted  1  And  to  this  the 
party  in  Oregon  and  nearly  all  of  its  individual  members, 
in  its  application  to  themselves,  and  over  the  great,  grand 
region  they  inhabited,  were  non-committal,  mum— yea,  as 
silent  as  the  grave.  And  this  partisan  program  of  silence  was 
generally  accepted  by  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party.  No 
conventions  were  called  to  consult,  as  is  deemed  necessary  to 
promote  whatever  else  is  desirable;  no  public  or  private  dis- 
cussion of  the  question  so  far  as  is  known.  They  would  not 
take  opposition  newspapers,  attend  free-state  meetings,  or 
tolerate  questioning  upon  the  subject  by  their  free-state 
neighbors,  at  least  if  they  were  of  different  political  ante- 
cedents. Those  who  had  the  temerity  to  inquire  were,  as  a 
rule,  answered  uncivilly.  One  prominent  and  influential 
Democrat,  upon  being  asked  if  he  intended  to  vote  for  a 
slave  State,  asked  in  return,  "Do  you  think  I  am  a  damned 
fool  ? '  '*  This  was  reassuring  and  if  all  would  have  answered 
in  the  same  way,  a  census  would  have  been  practicable.  But 
another  one  replied,  "Why  don't  you  Black  Republicans 
stay  at  home  and  attend  to  your  own  business?"  And  this 
question  about  voting  for  a  slave  State  was  not  put  to  these 
silent  partisans  to  hector  or  tease  them,  but  from  a  deep 
anxiety  of  the  questioners  as  to  the  future  condition  of  the 
State  in  which  they  had  chosen  to  reside,  had  encountered 
great  perils  to  reach,  and  from  which  they  must  emigrate 
provided  slavery  should  be  adopted.  And,  indeed,  there  were 
good  'grounds  for  their  fears,  other  than  the  studied  reticence 
of  a  majority  of  the  people,  before  spoken  of.  Some  pro- 
slavery  Democrats,  confident  of  the  approval  and  patronage 
of  the  Washington  administration,  would  not  be  silenced  and 
were  s^ctive  advocates,  by  speech  and  press,  of  their  opinions. 
And  they  were  far  more  numerous  than  those  Democrats  of 
free-state  proclivities  who  dared  speak  out.  And  of  these 
latter  some  would  say,  "I  shall  vote  against  slavery,  but  if  it 
carries  I  shall  get  me  a  'nigger.'  "    Add  to  all  these  the  fact 


"Wesley  Shannon. 


228  T.  W.  Davenport. 

of  th'^  o-roit  donations  of  land  by  the  general  government, 
section  and  half-section  claims  occupying  the  valleys  of  the 
richest  portion  of  the  Territory,  and  the  scarcity  and  high 
price  of  labor,  and  we  may  not  wonder  at  their  anxiety. 
They  had  undoubtedly  read  in  their  histories  of  the  frequent 
attempts  of  the  settlers  in  Indiana  Territory  to  obtain  from 
Congress  a  temporary  suspension  of  the  anti-slavery  ordinance 
of  1887,  so  they  could  obtain  laborers  to  open  their  timbered 
farms,  but  the  pioneers  of  Indiana  were  restricted  in  their 
land  holdings  as  compared  with  the  Oregonians.  And  it  is  a 
highly  suggestive  circumstance,  contrasting  strangely  with 
the  attitude  of  the  powers  at  Washington  in  the  year  1856, 
that  John  Randolph,  a  slave-holder  of  Virginia,  wrote  the 
answer  denying  their  request,  in  part  as  follows:  "In  the 
salutary  operation  of  this  sagacious  and  benevolent  restraint, 
it  is  believed  that  the  inhabitants  of  Indiana  will,  at  no  very 
distant  day,  find  ample  remuneration  for  a  temporary  priva- 
tion of  labor  and  of  emigration." 

And  one  feature  of  our  situation,  more  disquieting  than  all 
other's,  was  the  extreme  partisanism  evinced  by  the  chief 
organ  of  the  Oregon  Democracy,  The  Oregon  Statesman, 
which,  though  non-committal  in  its  editorial  columns  and 
sparingly  permitting  communications,  pro  and  con  by  promi- 
nent Democrats,  yet  was  engaged  so  incessantly  in  a  personal, 
partisan  warfare  with  opposition  papers  devoted  to  the  free- 
state  cause,  thereby  subordinating  all  other  questions  of  a 
political  nature,  that  its  influence  must  have  been  to  obscure 
the  only  issue  and  befog  the  voters  in  its  own  party.  Its 
editor  and  owner,  Mr.  Asahel  Bush,  an  able  and  educated 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  probably  did  not  as  a  first 
choice  select  that  style  of  journalism,  but  when  it  is  deter- 
mined by  the  party  managers  to  ignore  great  public  questions 
that  are  pressing  for  solution,  the  so-called  "Oregon  style" 
seems  to  be  a  necessary  diversion.  At  such  times,  slang  and 
innuendo,  invective  and  scurrility,  are  much  in  demand,  and 
the  Oi-egon  editors  on  both  sides  were  deep  in  the  game.  The 
question,   "who  began  it?"  was  never  asked  and   probably 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  229 

never  will  be,  as  it  is  unanswerable.  Though  Mr.  Bush,  by 
reputation,  was  a  free-state  man,  and  his  paper  neutral 
editorially,  yet  on  account  of  its  great  circulation  and  auto- 
cratic influence,  its  course  during  those  critical  times  gave 
great  anxiety  to  the  radical  opponents  of  slavery.  In  truth 
The  Statesman  was  intensely  feared  and  hated  by  them.  Pre- 
sumably, many  harsh  judgments  were  formed  concerning  the 
editor  of  The  Statesman— one.  of  them,  that  he  was  following 
the  lead  of  Senator  Douglas  and  like  him  did  not  care  whether 
slavery  was  voted  up  or  voted  down,  so  that  his  party  sur- 
vived the  agitation.  Of  this,  however,  his  opponents  did  not 
know.  Others,  more  favorably  disposed,  conjectured  that  he 
had  secretly  polled  his  party  and  knew  there  was  no  danger 
from  slavery.  Of  this  they  were  equally  ignorant.  But 
certain  it  was,  that  he  followed  the  trend  and  custom  of  the 
times,  that  of  putting  party  before  country,  and  thus  revers- 
ing the  rational  order  and  purpose  for  which  parties  are 
formed,  viz. :  as  means  to  an  end,  and  that  end  the  establish- 
ment of  justice  and  securing  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  all  the 
people.  Mr.  Bush  was  a  young  man  during  those  times. 
Indeed,  it  was  a  young  generation  and  did  not  thoroughly 
comprehend  that  mere  party  spirit  is  the  principal  menace 
to  popular  institutions,  or,  as  Abraham  Lincoln  expressed  it, 
a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people. 
They  had  not  heeded  the  warnings  in  Washington's  farewell 
address  to  his  countrymen,  and  were  given  over,  intoxicated 
by  the  esprit  du  corps,  to  a  control  which  was  antagonistic  to 
every  principle  of  genuine  democracy.  As  an  illustration  let 
me  cite  the  case  of  a  Connecticut-born  Yankee,  a  local  politi- 
cian of  considerable  repute  and  withal  a  hater  of  slavery,  who, 
in  a  speech  made  at  Salem  to  a  Democratic  assembly,  used  the 
following  language :  ' '  The  paramount  duty  of  Democrats  now 
is  to  stick  together,  for  I  never  expect  to  see  anything  good 
come  outside  of  the  Democratic  party."*  This  declaration 
was  loudly  cheered  and  met  with  no  dissenting  voice.     And 


'Ralph  C.   Geer. 


230  T.  W.  Davenport. 

this  Tnan  was  neither  a  fool  nor  a  moral  derelict,  but  an  intel- 
ligent and,  in  all  matters  non-political,  a  fraternal  and  highly 
sympathetic  neighbor,  whose  ancestors  were  of  New  England 
and  i-endered  efficient  service  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  Ameri- 
can commonwealth.  He  was  as  good  as  his  forbears,  and  his 
only  misfortune,  that  he  was  saturated  to  blindness  by  the 
spirit  of  party  which  The  Oregon  Statesman  was  then  aggra- 
vating. 

Less  than  four  years  later,  his  party  went  to  pieces  on  the 
question  of  slavery  extension,  for  squatter  sovereignty  had 
proved  to  be  a  delusion  and  a  snare  to  the  propagandists,  and 
they  would  have  no  more  of  it.  Somewhat  silenced  by  this 
event,  he,  with  about  two-fifths  of  his  fellow  partisans,  stuck 
to  the  squatter  sovereignty  wing  and  met  defeat  along  with 
their  T-^ader,  Senator  Douglas.  Then  came  secession  and  the 
question  of  Union  or  disunion,  when  he  had  no  alternative 
but  to  merge  himself  with  the  Republicans  or  go  out  with  the 
South.  Certainly,  this  was  no  dilemma,  for  every  impulse 
and  instinct  of  his  nature  had  ever  been  for  the  whole  country, 
one  and  indivisible.  Thousands  of  Oregon  Democrats  were 
likewise  impelled,  but  while  they  were  ardent  to  support  the 
administration  of  Lincoln,  they  could  not  bear  the  humiliation 
of  accepting  the  name  "Republican,"  to  which  they  had  so 
unfailingly  attached  the  stigma  "black."  that  they  were  under 
an  automatic  necessity  of  continuing  them  as  one  word.  In 
this  crisis,  the  Republicans  of  Oregon  vindicated  their  title  to 
patriotism  by  dropping  the  party  name  under  which  they  had 
triumphed  at  the  polls,  and  inviting  their  fellow  citizens  of 
whate"«^er  politics  to  unite  with  them  under  the  simple  and 
fitly  describing  appellation,  the  Union  party.  A  few  Re- 
publicans resented  such  surrender  as  a  humiliation,  and  said, 
"the  Democrats  have  been  wrong  and  we  have  been  right;  let 
them  come  under  our  banner  or  remain  out. ' '  But  there  Avas 
one  conclusive,  because  rational,  answer:  "The  Union  is 
imperiled;  all  other  questions  are  obsolete,  and  this  is  r\o 
time  to  be  higgling  about  party  names." 

The  Republican  State  Central  Committee,  consisting  of  H. 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  231 

W.  Corbett,  E.  D.  Shattuck  and  W.  C.  Johnson,  issued  a  call 
for  a  Union  State  Convention,  to  be  held  at  Eugene  City  on 
the  9th  of  April,  1862.  A  majority  of  the  Democratic  com- 
mittee refu.sing  the  invitation,  the  chairman,  Samuel  Hanna, 
joined  in  the  call,  likewise  a  majority  of  the  influential  Demo- 
crats of  the  State.  Considering  the  depths  to  which  partisan- 
ism  had  reduced  them,  this  resurrection  entitles  them  to 
membership  in  the  class  that  cannot  be  fooled  all  the  time. 

Returning  from  this  digression  to  the  year  1856,  I  wish  to 
remark  concerning  the  frequent  attempts  made  therein  to  stir 
up  the  people  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the  importance  of  the 
impending  question.  But  the  Whigs,  though  always  more 
independent  than  the  Democrats,  with  few  exceptions,  were 
loath  to  make  any  move  having  the  appearance  of  a  with- 
drawal from  the  party  of  Webster  and  Clay.  These  two 
greatest  leaders  had  passed  from  earth;  Seward,  Greeley, 
Sumner  and  Lincoln  had  joined  the  new  Republican  party, 
but  the  Whigs  of  Oregon,  Micawber  like,  Avere  waiting  for 
something  to  turn  up,  which  would  put  new  life  into  their 
glorious  old  party.  They  could  be  depended  upon  to  vote 
again-^t  the  Democrats  and  most  of  them  would  speak  out  in 
favor  of  a  free  State,  but  beyond  this  the  majority  would  not 
move.  They  were  under  no  such  restraint  as  the  Democrats, 
from  -^.ny  liability  of  forfeiting  their  place  in  the  Whig  ranks. 
There  was  no  proslavery  Whig  administration  at  Washington 
to  punish  them  for  utterances  against  slavery.  If  there  had 
been,  their  party  relations  to  the  slavery  question  would  have 
been  very  much  altered.  According  to  the  theory  of  squatter 
sovereignty,  a  Democrat  might  vote  for  or  against  slavery, 
when  a  Territory  is  emerging  to  statehood;  he  could  express 
his  individual  opinion  by  ballot  at  this  time,  but  he  could  not 
promulgate  it  and  give  the  reason  for  it  or  try  to  inf  uonce 
others  and  maintain  his  standing  as  a  Democrat.  If  he  did, 
he  was  thereafter  considered  a  heretic,  out  of  line  of  pro- 
motion or  patronage,  a  punishment  the  dullest  Democrat 
could  feel  and  understand. 

Ouv  Southern  brethren  were  very  sensitive  as  to  the  moral 


232  T.  W.  Davenport. 

reputation  of  their  beloved  institution,  and  could  bear  any- 
thing better  than  to  hear  it  called  sinful  and  morally  wrong, 
and  if  any  Oregon  Democrat  in  good  standing  Avas  ever 
guilty  of  such  an  offense,  during  the  years  when  the  agitation 
was  rife  here,  without  losing  caste,  the  incident  has  passed 
into  oblivion  and  his  name  is  unknown. 

The  foregoing  estimate  of  the  temper  and  attitude  of  the 
Oregon  Democracy  at  that  time  I  have  sometimes  heretofore 
expressed,  and  by  some  of  them  it  was  thought  to  be  an  ex- 
treme view  of  the  situation,  but  such  was  my  impression  at 
the  time,  and  after  a  lapse  of  fifty  years,  and  the  heat,  and 
perhaps  prejudice,  engendered  by  the  contest  have  passed 
with  them,  I  am  confident  that  my  statement  is  rather  under 
than  in  excess  of  the  truth.  The  Hon.  George  H.  Williams,  at 
that  +ime  one  of  the  Supreme  Court  judges,  by  appointment 
of  President  Pierce,  and  of  course  inclined  to  be  lenient  in 
his  ji^dgment  as  to  his  party  and  political  brethren,  in  an 
address  read  before  the  Legislative  Assembly.  February  14th, 
1899,  on  the  occasion  of  its  exercises  commemorating  the 
fortieth  anniversary  of  the  statehood  of  Oregon,  spoke  from 
manuscript,  in  part  as  follows: 

"Whether  Oregon  should  be  a  free  or  slave  State,  had  now 
become  (1857)  the  paramount  issue  in  our  local  politics.  A 
paper  had  been  started  at  Corvallis,  called  The  Messenger,  to 
advocate  the  establishment  of  slavery  in  Oregon.  I  was  a 
Democrat,  but  in  early  life  imbibed  prejudices  against  slavery 
that  to  some  extent  diluted  my  Democracy.  Many  of  the  most 
influential  Democrats,  with  General  Lane  at  their  head,  were 
active  for  slavery,  and  there  was  little  or  nothing  said  or  done 
among  the  Democrats  on  the  other  side  of  the  question.  I 
prepared  and  published  in  The  Oregon  Statesman  an  address 
to  the  people,  filling  one  page  of  that  paper,  in  which  I  en- 
forced, with  all  the  arguments  at  my  command,  the  inexpedi- 
ency of  establishing  slavery  in  Oregon.  I  am  not  aware  that 
any  public  speech  or  address  was  made  on  that  side  of  the 
question  by  any  other  Democrat  in  the  Territory.  ^lany 
Democrats  in  private  conversation  expressed  their  opposition 
to  slavery,  but  they  spoke  'with  bated  breath  and  whispering 
humbleness.'    for   the   dominating   spirit   in   the   Democratic 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  233 

party  was  favorable  to  slavery.  I  flattered  myself,  vainly 
perhaps,  that  I  had  a  fair  chance  to  be  one  of  the  first  United 
States  Senators  from  Oregon,  but  with  this  address  that 
chance  vanished  like  the  pictures  of  a  morning  dream.  I  was 
unsound  on  the  slavery  question." 

The  address  Judge  Williams  refers  to  was  called  by  Whigs 
and  Republicans,  his  "Free  State  Letter,"  and  by  ardent  pro- 
slavery  Democrats,  his  "Infamous  Letter."  Concerning  it 
the  silent  Democrats  were  still  silent.  If  the  Judge  ever  re- 
ceiver] any  congratulations  from  them,  he  has  never  said,  but 
he  got  many  curses  from  the  enemy.  The  "Free  State  Letter" 
was  an  able  and  timely  document,  and  there  is  no  better 
evidence  of  its  worth  as  a  convincing  argument,  at  that  time 
and  under  the  circumstances,  than  the  malignity  with  which 
its  author  was  assailed  by  the  partisans  of  slavery.*  The 
moral  tone  of  the  letter  was  not  up  to  the  standard  of  anti- 
slavery  men  from  ethical  principles,  and  such  were  disap- 
pointed. Some  of  them,  however,  were  sagacious  enough  to 
see  that  such  a  letter  would  have  been  inopportune.  Th  -re 
was  no  word  in  that  letter  belittling  the  altruistic  and  moral 
qualities  of  human  nature,  and,  forsooth,  those  in  the  minority 
who  were  governed  by  them,  stood  in  no  need  of  the  Judge's 
demonstrations.  And,  as  evidently,  the  rabid  advocates  of 
slavery  were  incorrigible.  The  Judge  had  lived  long  enough 
to  know  that  the  question  would  be  decided  by  the  unsenti- 
mental, common-sense  people  who  would  look  at  it  from  a 
practical  standpoint  and  with  special  reference  to  their  owe 
personal  interests.  And  this  class,  in  varying  proportion, 
constitute  the  great  majority  of  human  beings  in  every  coun- 
try and  at  all  times.  It  was  this  preponderating  element  which 
the  Jpdge  expected  to  reach  and  prompt  to  a  thoughtful  f  >; 
amination  of  the  practical  phases  of  slavery  in  this  country  of 
mountains  and  valleys,  sequestered  and  uninhabited  nooks 
and  canyons,  affording  hiding  places  at  all  seasons  for  fugi- 
tives from  service  and  thus  reducing  the  profits  of  cheap 
slave  labor  to  a  negative  quantity.     The  Oregon  country  is 


See  the  reprint  of  it  in  the  paper  next  following  this  article. 


234  T.  W.  Davenport. 

far  less  adapted  to  slave  labor  than  New  Mexico,  which 
Webster  said  Avas  protected  from  slavery  by  the  laws- of  God. 
for  the  climate  here  is  unsiiited  to  the  negro  and  to  the  pro- 
ducts '^f  his  profitable  toil,  all  of  which  was  made  so  plain  iu 
the  Judge's  letter  that  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool, 
could  understand. 

After  the  circulation  of  this  address,  any  observing  person 
could  notice  that  a  change  was  taking  place;  any  sensitive 
person  could  feel  it.  The  people  for  w^hom  the  address  was 
intended  were  beginning  to  discover  themselves  and  think 
aloud.  And  I  assert  that  what  is  here  written  is  no  after- 
thought, but  the  rasult  of  inquiry  and  observation  made  at 
the  time.  The  ''Free  State  Letter"  was  published  in  the 
year  1857,  July  28th;  the  question  of  State  organization  was 
carried  at  the  June  election;  at  the  same  time,  delegates  to  a 
Constitutional  Convention  were  elected  and  the  convention 
submitted  its  work,  to  be  voted  on  on  the  9th  of  November 
following. 

Passing  up  the  valley  through  Lane  County  in  October, 
I  fell  in  company  with  Campbell  Chrisman,  whom  I  had 
not  met  since  we  started  across  the  plains  in  the  spring 
of  1851.  He  gave  me  a  pressing  invitation  to  go  home  with 
him  for  a  night's  visit,  but  I  parried  the  invitation  by  plead- 
ing haste  to  reach  Roseburg,  where  I  expected  to  overtake  an 
absconding  debtor  for  whom  I  had  signed  to  the  amount  of 
several  hundred  dollars.  Mr.  Chrisman  said  that  his  house 
on  the  Coast  Fork  road  was  not  out  of  my  way  and  a  better 
one  to  travel.  Finding  myself  out  of  excuses,  I  candidly 
told  him  my  real  objections  to  a  night's  talk,  for  knowing 
him  to  have  been  a  slave-holder  in  Missouri  and  a,  very  firm, 
tenacious  and  unchangeable  sort  of  character,  I  said,  "Mr. 
Chrisman,  there  is  no  use  asking  me  to  go  with  you,  for  I  am 
a  free-state  man  and  not  convertible."  He  instantly  replied. 
"So  .''m  L"  I  was  rather  taken  aback  by  this  disclosure  and 
queried  how  this  eame  about.  He  replied,  "Easy  enough. 
Judg*^  Williams  is  right;  slavery  in  this  country  would  cost 
more  than  it  would  come  to."     After  this  we  talked  freely 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  235 

and  he  informed  me  that  several  of  his  old  neighbors  from 
the  Platte  Purchase  (Missouri)  had  changed  their  minds  and 
would  vote  for  a  free  State.  He  furthermore  said  that  in  his 
opinion  Lane  County  would  have  gone  for  slavery  six  months 
earlier,  but  would  not  in  November.  At  Roseburg,  the  home 
of  General  Lane  and  Judge  M.  P.  Deady,  whose  influence, 
whether  authorized  or  not,  was  in  favor  of  the  institution,  I 
learned  from  a  Reverend  Anderson  that  the  tide  had  turner!, 
and  that  he  met  with  surprises  every  day.  In  Rogue  River 
Valley  I  was  assured  by  my  cousins  that  the  tide  was  running 
out  quite  rapidly.  The  noisy  slavocrats  of  Jackson  County 
had  been  claiming  that  county  for  slavery,  but  many  people 
were  exercising  their  fancy  in  supposing  the  consequences 
that  might  ensue  when  runaway  niggers  should  get  with  the 
Modoc  and  Klamath  Indians.  The  picture  was  not  agreeable. 
The  people  of  Southern  Oregon  had  had  enough  of  Indian 
warfare.  The  aforementioned  impediments  to  slavery  exten- 
sion, as  well  as  others,  were  brought  to  the  front  by  the  Judge, 
in  plain  straightforward  and  forcible  language,  which  no 
doubt  set  the  people  to  thinking  more  connectedly  and  com- 
prehensively than  they  otherwise  would ;  and  while  the  effects 
of  such  a  lesson  in  ratiocination  may  not  be  estimated  with 
any  approach  to  accuracy,  I  am  confident  that  it  was  the  most 
timely  and  the  most  effective  appeal  published  during  the 
whole  of  the  controversy. 

When  arriving  at  this  point  in  my  dissertation,  I  sought 
in  the  several  histories  of  Oregon  for  what  had  been  written 
relative  to  the  Judge's  ''Free  State  Letter,"  but  could  find 
nothing.  Neither  the  letter  nor  any  descriptive  mention  of  it 
is  to  be  found  in  Bancroft's,  though  it  is  prolix,  even  redun- 
dant in  things  trivial  by  comparison.  He  records  that  a 
Republican  convention  was  held  at  Albany  on  the  14th  of 
February,  just  a  short  time  before  the  said  address  came  out, 
and  really  the  most  important  meeting  of  Republicans,  up  to 
that  time,  as  well  as  a  cheering  evidence  that  the  anti-slavery 
cause  was  growing,  but  the  influence  of  that  gathering  was 
not  sufficient  to  put  a  candidate  in  the  field  in  opposition  to 


236  T.  W.  Davenport. 

the  Democracy.  Republican  conventions  were  in  the  right 
direction  and  therefore  rational,  but  about  all  they  could 
expect  to  accomplish  was  to  enlist  the  waiting,  backward 
Whig?  in  the  movement.  As  vote-getters  by  proclamations 
and  a*^ dresses,  in  time  to  be  of  service  at  the  election  on  the 
Constitution,  supposed  to  be  near  at  hand,  they  were  con- 
fessedly impotent.  The  Democracy  were  still  impervious 
and  would  continue  to  be  so  against  any  of  the  devices  of 
the  Black  Republicans.  What  was  needed  at  this  juncture 
was  jiist  what  happened— an  earnest,  thoughtful  communica- 
tion From  one  who  could  not  be  accused  of  having  any  designs 
on  the  unity  and  harmony  of  the  Democratic  party.  And 
Judge  Williams,  being  free  from  entangling  complicity  with 
cliques  and  rings,  as  well  as  being  the  recipient  of  more 
general  public  confidence  than  any  other  Democrat,  was 
certainly  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  But  if  the  supreme 
problf^m  at  that  time  was  to  make  Oregon  a  free  State,  and 
surely  it  was  the  most  momentous  crisis  in  its  history,  why 
has  the  letter  been  omitted  by  the  historians?  One  man,  in 
answer  to  this  query,  said:  "The  Judge's  letter  was  pitched 
on  too  low  a  key  to  suit  the  sensitive  nerves  of  Mrs.  Victor,  who 
was  Bancroft's  Oregon  historian." 

Thpre  are  a  good  many  incidents  and  conditions  that  grate 
upon  the  nerves  of  a  sensitive  historian,  but  historians  must 
not  forget  that  average  human  nature,  though  progressive,  is 
at  present  pitched  on  a  low  key.  The  great  bulk  of  human 
motives  and  human  actions  are  based  on  that  key,  and  cannot 
be  understood  in  their  causal  relations  while  the  key-note  is 
protested.  Call  altruism  the  high  key  and  egoism  the  low 
key,  but  either  alone  is  not  the  key  of  human  nature  and 
never  will  be.  Either  alone  is  abnormal ;  both  combined  are 
essen+ial  and  interdependent.  Our  moralists  would  have  had 
Judgp  Williams  say  to  his  Democratic  brethren,  "The  negro 
is  a  brother  man  and  therefore  entitled  to  equal  rights  with 
yourselves,  and  to  make  a  slave  of  him  is  a  sin  and  shame. ' ' 
How  would  that  kind  of  preaching  have  told  at  the  polls  in 
November?  The  people  of  Oregon  did  not  believe  in  such 
broad  fraternity.     A  few  of  them  did.     Nothwithstanding 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  237 

emancipation  and  the  great  advance  of  altruism  since,  the 
people  of  the  United  States  do  not  believe  it  now.  Some  do. 
That  ■"  the  best  we  can  say.  The  moral  protest  against  wrong 
is  ever  with  us  and  ever  in  the  minority,  until  the  reflex  con- 
sequences become  damaging  to  self,  then  reformation  begins. 
The  slaughter  of  the  negroes  in  Georgia  seemed  to  be  a  tide 
without  an  ebb,  until  the  bank  clearances  of  Atlanta  showed 
a  decline  of  millions  and  other  business  was  prostrated,  then 
began  a  protest  against  injustice  to  the  negro.  So  it  ever  is; 
we  learn  by  experience  that  honesty  is  the  best  policy,  and 
that  the  practice  of  injustice  reacts  upon  ourselves.  And 
that  T(ras  all  that  Judge  Williams  tried  to  teach  the  Oregonians 
of  1857,  and  thus  save  them  the  expense  and  turmoil  of 
experience. 

One  of  the  Salem  "clique,"  speaking  recently  of  the  reason 
for  the  omission  of  the  Judge's  "Free  State  Letter,"  or  any 
descriptive  mention  of  it  by  the  writers  of  Oregon  history, 
said  it  was  because  of  its  being  only  a  campaign  document  in 
the  interest  of  his  candidacy  for  the  United  States  Senate. 
Such  an  allegation,  by  an  opponent  of  the  Judge,  might  have 
answered  a  temporary  purpose  at  that  time,  but  at  this  late 
date  H  must  be  considered  a  humorous  sally  at  the  Oregon 
historians  or  a  thoughtless  remark  scarcely  deserving  serious 
refutation.  For  it  is  not  supposable  that  a  person  having  the 
requisite  accomplishments  for  writing  history  would  leave 
out  an  important  fact  in  the  trend  of  events  because  the 
motive  of  it  did  not  come  up  to  his  altruistic  standard.  If 
all  human  actions  containing  an  ingredient  of  selfishness  were 
to  be  excluded  from  history,  its  pages  would  consist  mostly 
of  blanks.  True,  there  are  actions  free  from  selfish  purpose — 
oh,  how  few!  But  there  is  no  such  history,  and  that  society 
may  consider  itself  far  in  advance  where  human  actions  are 
mixed  half  and  half. 

Let  us  admit,  as  the  Judge  has,  that  he  aspired  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  and  then  inquire  why  his  ambition 
should  affect  the  value  of  such  a  document  at  such  a  time 
and  in  such  a  crisis.    There  is  no  question  as  to  its  pertinence, 


238  T.  W.  Davenport. 

uone  as  to  its  promoting  the  moral  well-being  of  society,  and 
none  as  to  the  right  or  propriety  of  an  American  citizen 
cherishing  an  ambition  for  political  preferment  and  promot- 
ing it  by  laudable  means.  Indeed,  can  any  one  conceive  of 
any  better  or  higher  bid  for  official  honors  than  that  a 
citizen  has  shown  his  loyalty  to  popular  institutions  by  his 
conduct,  by  his  acts,  whether  letters,  speeches  or  public- 
spiritpd  affiliations?  If  the  Judge  expected  to  advance  his 
candidacy  by  becoming  an  open  and  avowed  opponent  of 
slavery  extension,  he  was  in  a  most  profound  state  of  ignor- 
ant as  to  the  means  of  advancement  in  his  party.  He  cer- 
tainly knew  that  party  harmony  was  essential  to  official  pro- 
moti<m,  and  he  also  knew  that  silence  on  the  slavery  question 
and  acquiescence  in  the  doings  of  the  pro-slavery  admipistra- 
tion  at  Washington  were  absolutely  essential  to  any  sort  of 
promotion  in  the  Democratic  party.  He  knew  all  this  and 
was  not  such  a  child  as  envious  aspirants  in  his  own  party 
affected  to  believe,  viz.,  that  he  expected  his  "Free  State 
Letter"  to  raise  a  tidal  wave  that  would  carry  him  triumph- 
antly to  the  Senate.  Everybody  who  has  seen  Judge  Williams, 
or  has  had  anj-  conversation  with  him,  or  has  heard  liim 
speak,  is  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  he  is  far  removed 
from  a  fanatic  or  visionary,  and  when  he  Avrote  that  "Free 
State  Letter"  in  the  summer  of  1857,  he  was  cognizant  of  the 
stupid  silence  of  his  brother  Democrats  and  knew  the  reason 
for  it.  that  it  was  to  avoid  dissension  fatal  to  individual 
aspiration  for  advancement.  The  Judge  was  warned  in 
advance  by  Mr.  Bush,  who  was  favorable  to  its  publication, 
that  it  would  "fix  him,"  but  despite  the  warning  he  per- 
formed a  much-needed  public  service  for  which  posterity  will 
gratefully  remember  him,  when  the  names  of  the  obsequi- 
ously silent  partisans  shall  have  sunk  into  oblivion.  Evidently 
the  Judge  was  in  error  as  to  one  purpose  then,  and  w^hich  he 
essayf'd  a^ain  in  1860,  that  was  his  hope  or  belief  that  his 
party  could  be  weaned  from  slavery  by  working  on  the  inside. 
Reforming  political  parties  organized  on  the  spoils  system,  by 
working  on  the  inside,  has  been  attempted  several  times  since, 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  239 

but  ndth  no  avail.  In  the  number  of  The  Oregon  Statesman 
containing  the  Judge's  letter  (July  28th,  1857),  Mr.  Bush  re- 
marked editorially  as  follows,  to-wit:  "We  publish  a  long 
letter  from  Judge  Williams,  on  the  slavery  question,  this 
week,  but  have  room  only  to  call  attention  to  it.  It  is  written 
in  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  moderation,  and  if  his  facts  and 
arguments  do  not  convince  the  reader's  judgment,  the  spirit 
and  manner  of  this  letter  must  command  his  approval." 

And  still  the  inquiry.  Why  was  this  able  and  adroit  letter 
omitted  by  the  historians?  Simply  because— in  the  slang  of 
the  day— they  did  not  "catch  on."  They  did  not  maturely 
consider  the  causal  relation  of  things. 

One  of  the  very  few  exceptions  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Democratic  party  I  may  mention  was  a  lowland  Scotchman 
from  Newcastle  upon  Tyne,  settled  upon  a  section  claim,  some 
two  or  three  miles  south  of  Salem.  Born  to  toil,  he  early 
began  lucrative  employment  as  a  breaker-boy  in  the  mines, 
later  -^  mule  driver  underground,  and,  keeping  pace  with  his 
physical  powers,  he  rose  to  the  work  of  a  full-pay  miner.  To 
avoid  strikes  and  lockouts  he,  in  company  with  his  father's 
family,  emigrated  to  America  in  the  year  1840,  and  finding 
the  s+rike  prevalent  in  Pennsylvania,  worked  his  way  west- 
ward and  across  the  plains  to  the  Oregon  Territory  in  the 
year  1844.  Like  nearly  all  foreigners  coming  to  this  country, 
he  joined  the  Democracy,  under  the  mistaken  notion  that  the 
party  stood  for  real  democracy.  Up  to  the  time  when  slavery 
became  a  question  here  and  the  party  discipline  of  suppres- 
sion began,  this  adopted  citizen  experienced  no  interference 
with  his  opinions  as  to  the  duties  of  citizenship,  of  which  by 
this  time,  as  Mark  Twain  said  of  his  own  morals,  he  had 
accumulated  a  full  stock.  As  a  result  of  the  closed  season 
the  ps^rty  harness  did  not  fit  him  even  a  little  bit.  Although 
his  book  education  had  not  exceeded  the  three  R's,  he  was  an 
onniivorous  I'eader  and  an  incessant  self-disciplinarian,  and 
taking  this  along  with  his  inheritance  of  the  three  B's— brain 
and  brawn  and  Burns— he  made  an  unreliable  party  slave. 
Indeed,  what  can  l)e  hoped  for  in  such  obedience  from  a  man 


240  T.  W.  Davenport. 

who  enlivens  his  daily  toil  by  "crooning  o'er  some  old  Scotch 
sonnet,"  believes  that  "a  man  is  a  man  for  a'  that  and  a' 
that, ' '  whose  chief  delight  is  in  working  on  the  social  environ- 
ment and  who  is  satisfied  with  an  equitable  share  of  the 
usufruct?  Well,  John  Minto,  though  at  that  time  not  a 
public  character,  as  he  afterwards  became,  did  not  speak  his 
mind  with  "bated  breath  and  whispering  humbleness." 

Returning  to  the  year  1856,  I  notice  that  a  "Free  State" 
meeting  was  held  at  Lebanon,  Linn  County,  which  I  attended, 
and  though  the  numbers  were  few,  the  exercises  were  high- 
class  9nd  encouraging  to  those  who  have  faith  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  truth.  John  Connor,  J.  B.  Condon  and  Hugh  N. 
George  were  the  principal  speakers,  and  Mr.  George  delivered 
a  prepared  speech  of  an  hour's  length,  which  showed  him  to 
be  capable  of  much  excellence  as  a  public  speaker.  This  was 
the  begmning  of  my  acquaintance  with  those  good  men,  and 
of  more  intimate  and  confidential  relations  with  Mr.  Connor 
(usually  called  Squire  Connor),  which  continued  until  his 
demise  half  a  century  later.  He  was  a  man  of  positive  and 
reliable  character,  of  strong  convictions,  great  firmness  of 
purpose,  sagacious  and  so  much  above  wavering  in  moral  and 
social  conduct  that  he  had  a  sort  of  unobtrusive  contempt  fo- 
the  policy  men  who  are  ever  trying  to  follow  the  line  of  least 
resistance.  He  was  bold  to  declare  and  defend  his  opinions, 
and  even  this  early  was  impatient  to  nail  the  Republican  flag 
to  the  mast  and  sail  under  no  false  colors.  To  a  later  meeting, 
held  at  Albany  in  the  fall,  he  gave  the  cue  in  a  trenchant 
fifteen-minute  speech  in  which  he  said:  "We  unfurl  our 
banner  to  the  breeze  inscribed,  free  speech,  free  labor,  a  free 
press,  p.  free  state,  and  Fremont."  Of  course  such  a  magnetic 
declaration  could  not  be  other  than  the  voice  of  the  conven- 
tion. Tf  all  the  Whigs  who  later  joined  the  Republican  ranks 
had  been  of  Mr.  Connor's  ardent  spirit,  the  party  would  have 
had  ar  earlier  and  more  strenuous  nativity.  Mr.  Condon  and 
Hugh  N.  George  I  seldom  met,  but  I  knew  of  them  as  unswerv- 
ing in  their  support  of  correct  principles,  and  the  latter  I 
considered  the  ablest  man  in  the  countv.  and  second  to  but 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  241 

few  in  the  State.  He  was  not,  as  a  speaker,  as  forcible  as 
Delazon  Smith,  but  in  breadth  of  intellectual  grasp  and  as  an 
acute  thinker  he  was  much  superior.  One  humorously 
cynical  citizen  who  was  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Smith's 
oratorical  efforts,  remarked  that  "Delusion"  was  a  big  gun 
on  the  stump  but  that,  like  big  metal  guns,  he  required  to  be 
loaded  to  do  effective  work.  He  had  observed  that  when 
Smith  got  from  under  the  control  of  the  "Salem  clique"  his 
speeches  lacked  pith  and  marrow.  This  was  a  rather  severe 
animadversion,  but  others  had  observed  a  change  without 
attributing  a  cause.  There  was,  however,  a  probable  reason, 
and  it  might  have  been  this  which  I  shall  put  in  words. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  break  between  Senator  Douglas 
and  the  Buchanan  administration,  about  the  Lecompton  Con- 
stitution, a  silent  cleavage  was  soon  perceptible  in  the  Oregon 
Democracy,  General  Lane  and  his  friends  (among  them 
Delazon)  taking  the  side  of  the  administration,  and  the 
"Salem  clique"  et  al.  ranging  with  Douglas.  It  was  in  the 
main  a  rearrangement  of  the  partisan  units  with  reference  to 
the  new  assumption  of  the  extensionists,  that  slave  property 
is  protected  in  the  territories  by  the  Constitution,  without 
consulting  the  squatter  sovereigns.  The  two  wings  here  con- 
tinued to  act  together  for  a  short  time,  but  in  their  private 
conferences  were  quite  distinct.  Delazon 's  associates  in  the 
pro-slavery  wing  were  a  non-progressive  sort  of  folk  whose 
intellectual  atmosphere  was  unfavorable  to  thought-laden 
oratory.    Hence  his  decline. 

I  here  notice  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  organize  the  Re- 
publican party  in  Marion  County,  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year. 
The  v.'riter  spent  several  days  in  a  house-to-house  visitation 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  county,  inviting  those  supposed  to 
be  favorable  to  the  movement  to  attend  at  the  Hunt  school 
house  on  the  11th  of  October,  which  about  thirty  promised  to 
do.  On  the  day  appointed  six  persons  appeared— Paul  Cran- 
dall.  Orange  Jacobs,  Rice  Dunbar,  E.  N.  Cooke,  Dr.  Benjamin 
Davenport  and  T.  W.  Davenport,  all  of  them  whilom  Whigs, 
but  wise  enough  to  see  that  a  non-committal  party  has  no 


242  T.  W.  Davenport. 

excuse  for  existence.  A  very  interesting  conference  ensued ; 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  stir  up  the  apathetic  Whigs 
and  invite  them  to  attend  the  next  meeting,  but  nothing  fur- 
ther came  of  it.  The  secretary  left  out  of  his  report,  printed 
in  Thr  Oregon  Argus,  the  name  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Davenport 
and  omitted  to  state  the  place  of  meeting,  which  was  credited 
to  Silverton,  seven  miles  distant,  and  it  was  so  included  by  the 
Banci'oft  historian. 

The  time  was  not  ripe ;  but  there  was  one  consolation,  the 
people  sooner  or  later  comprehend  and  move.  There  were 
three  more  at  our  meeting  than  attended  Abraham  Lincoln's 
first  meeting.  He  made  the  only  speech  on  that  occasion,  and 
it  was  short  and  to  the  point.  He  said :  "I  knew  that  Hern- 
don  would  be  here  and  I  knew  that  I  would  be  here,  but  the 
third  person  present  is  more  than  I  expected.  Now  let  us  go 
out  and  talk  to  the  people."  It  was  sometime,  however,  and 
after  much  talking,  that  the  people  heeded  the  call  and  were 
able  to,  leave  the  old  pro-slavery  and  non-committal  parties. 
So  it  always  is.  Nothing  shoi't  of  an  earthquake  or  some- 
thing similar  can  sunder  the  ties  of  an  average  partisan. 

The  proposition  to  form  a  State  government,  submitted  to 
the  people  by  the  Legislature  of  1853,  was  defeated  at  the 
next  June  election  by  a  vote  of  869 ;  submitted  again  in  1854, 
it  was  defeated  in  1855  by  a  vote  of  413 ;  submitted  again  in 
1855,  it  was  defeated  in  1856  by  a  vote  of  249.  It  was  sub- 
mitted again  in  1856  and  judging  from  the  decline  in  the 
opposition  to  it,  that  it  would  carry  at  the  next  election,  the 
Legislature  provided  that  at  the  June  election  of  1857  dele- 
gates should  be  elected  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  which 
should  assemble  at  Salem  on  the  second  Monday  of  August 
next  thereafter,  in  case  the  Constitution  carried.  The  Terri- 
tory at  that  time  had  a  population  of  about  45,000,  not  nearly 
enough  to  entitle  it  to  one  member  of  Congress,  according  to 
the  ruling  ratio,  but  the  number  of  Democratic  aspirants  to 
office  and  the  need  of  three  more  Democrats  in  Congress  who 
would  side  with  the  South  on  all  questions  affecting  the  in- 
stitution, were  of  the  necessities  which  knew  no  law. 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  243 

Really  the  people  were  worn  out  by  the  incessant  impor- 
tunities of  the  self-seeking  politicians,  and  obtained  an  ease- 
ment by  giving  5593  majority  in  favor  of  a  State  government. 
In  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
there  was  successful  opposition  to  the  Democrats  in  four 
counties,  but  not  enough  to  speak  of.  The  ratio  stood  about 
five  to  one.  General  Lane  was  again  successful  over  his  op- 
ponent, George  W.  Lawson,  an  independent  Democrat  of 
free-state  proclivities,  who  was  defeated  by  the  usual  majority. 
Mr.  Lawson  was  a  fluent  and  entertaining  speaker  and  prob- 
ably polled  the  full  strength  of  the  opposition.  He  discussed 
a  great  number  of  topics,  while  the  real  issue  was  not  brought 
to  the  front.  In  after  years  he  affiliated  with  the  Republi- 
cans, but  in  the  main  disappeared  from  politics  in  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  the  law. 

There  was  one  remarkable  feature  of  the  slavery  agitation 
in  Oregon  preceding  the  vote  upon  the  Constitution,  and  that 
was  the  lack  of  agitation.  As  one  of  the  surviving  Democrats 
remarked  recently,  "There  was  not  much  agitation."  Cer- 
tainly there  was  not,  such  as  Wendell  Phillips  and  Sam  Lewis 
produced  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  All  parties  assembled 
at  their  meetings;  opposing  ingredients  are  necessary  to  con- 
stitute an  agitation.  No  such  opportunity  occurred  here  for 
reasons  already  stated.  The  number  of  Whigs  who  were 
willing  to  be  known  as  Republicans  was  very  small,  and  the 
papers  in  opposition  to  the  Democracy,  The  Oregonian  and 
The  Argus,  had  a  very  limited  circulation,  twelve  or  t'if^e-n 
hundred  each,  taken  mostly  by  the  same  persons,  and  therefore 
did  not  reach  one-eighth  of  the  people.  And  furthermore,  of 
necessity  their  function  was  not  so  much  agitation  as  segrega- 
tion. With  them,  as  with  The  Statesman,  the  warfare  in  great 
part,  was  personal  and  partisan,  a  condition  which  may  seem 
deplorable,  but  such  was  human  nature  in  the  nineteenth 
century  and  may  be  as  much  so  in  the  twentieth. 

The  Chinese  are  not  entirely  wrong  when  they  thunder 
with  gongs  to  inspirit  and  increase  their  own  numbers  and 
distract  their  foes,  and  Americans  acknowledge  it  when  they 


244  T.  W.  Davenport. 

try  to  drown  the  still,  small  voice  of  reason  and  conscience 
with  the  blare  of  brass  bands  and  the  hubbub  of  political 
parade.  Noise  and  numbers  everywhere  have  their  uses  in 
attracting  the  rabble,  and  the  rabble  vote  in  the  United 
States.  At  the  ballot  box  they  count  for  as  much  as  self- 
governing  people,  and,  indeed,  there  is  no  visible  line  of 
demarcation  between  them.  More  than  the  rabble  get  into 
the  bandwagon.  They  are  of  the  people,  and  even  in  this 
country  we  are  still  quoting  with  more  or  less  approval,  "vox 
populi  vox  Dei,"  which,  properly  translated,  means  that  in 
republic  the  majority  must  rule.  Human  beings  claim  to  be 
rational — many  of  them  are,  and  their  numbers  are  increas- 
ing, but  too  many  from  sheer  indolence  are  carried  along  by 
the  crowd,  too  many  follow  the  successful  bully  and  black- 
guard, too  many  are  herded,  like  cattle,  by  a  master,  though 
his  impaling  horns  are  no  more  formidable  than  irony,  sarcasm 
and  invective.  It  was  so  in  Oregon  at  the  time  of  which  we 
write,  though  it  is  less  true  now,  and  very  likely  if  the  Demo- 
cratic organ  had  been  in  the  hands  of  a  weak  man  the  party 
would  have  suffered  disintegration.  But  its  editor  was  far 
from  being  a  weak  person.  His  talent  for  control  was  of  a 
high  order,  as  suited  to  his  party  and  the  time.  A  ready  and 
trenchant  writer,  with  an  active  and  vigorous  temperament, 
a  taste  and  capacity  for  minute  inquiry,  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  inclinations  and  idiosyncrasies  of  his  political  brethrea, 
possessed  of  a  vinegary  sort  of  wit,  and  a  humor  bitter  or 
sweet  according  to  destination,  he  was  the  most  influential 
and  feared  of  any  man  in  the  Territory.  He  was  a  past- 
master  in  the  art  of  politics  then,  which  compared  with  the 
boss  politics  of  the  last  ten  years  was  mild  and  beneficent. 
He  was  also  credited  (whether  truly  or  not  no  one  may  say) 
with  being  the  head  of  the  "Salem  clique,"  which  though 
much  reviled  in  those  days  has  passed  unscathed  by  time,  and 
no  allegation  was  ever  made  that  the  "clique"  was  composed 
of  any  other  than  honest  and  honorable  men,  either  as  private 
citizens  or  partisans.  Only  the  name  "Salem  clique"  was 
against  them.     But  this  must  be  remembered,  they  all  went 


J 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  245 

into  the  Union  party  and  gave  Lincoln's  administration 
cordial  support.  When  the  call  for  the  Union  convention 
was  being  made,  some  Republicans  objected  to  going  in  with 
the  "Salem  clique,"  and  one  of  the  clique,  B.  F.  Harding, 
proposed  that  the  "call"  should  be  to  all  citizens  regardless  of 
previous  political  affiliations,  excepting  the  "Salem  clique," 
an  idea  so  preposterous  that  the  objectors  did  the  principal 
laughing. 

Such  qualities  as  the  Statesman  editor  possessed,  made  his 
office  at  once  a  harbor  of  refuge,  the  headquarters  of  of- 
fense, an  arsenal  of  assault  against  the  quips  and  anathemas 
of  its  foes,  and  by  such  employment  rendered  its  party 
unconscious  of  the  actinic  rays  of  civilization  which  every- 
where else  were  dispelling  the  gloom  of  the  still  surviving 
barbarism.  In  this  aspect  was  it  not  a  criminal  conspiracy 
against  light  and  knowledge,  as  truly  so  as  any  partisan  pur- 
pose for  merely  personal  ends?  Of  course  I  recognize  this 
to  be  an  after-view,  from  a  standpoint  elevated  by  years  of 
costly  experiences  and  social  accumulations  of  an  ethical  and 
economic  character,  and  therefore  not  a  proper  estimate  of 
individual  character  at  that  time,  but  partisanism,  though 
declining,  is  still  in  the  ascendant  and  is  as  great  a  menace 
to  progress  in  truly  democratic  government  as  ever.  In  the 
editor  of  The  Oregon  Argus,  William  L.  Adams,  the  States- 
inan  editor  found  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel.  He  is  de- 
scribed by  George  H.  Himes  in  his  history  of  the  press  of 
Oregon  as  a  "forcible  political  writer  and  speaker,"  also  as 
' '  a  master  of  cutting  invective ;  fearless  and  audacious  to  the 
fullest  degree;  had  the  pugnacity  of  a  bulldog,  never  happier 
than  when  lampooning  his  opponents,  and  his  efforts  were  un- 
tiring." No  doubt  these  were  the  qualities  called  into  active 
exercise  by  the  kind  of  politics  which  ruled  in  Oregon  during 
Mr.  Adams'  career  as  editor  of  The  Argus,  but  a  larger  view 
should  be  taken  of  him.  Before  coming  to  Oregon  he  had 
been  a  teacher  and  preacher  in  the  Campbellite  denomination 
and  held  his  principal  function  and  duty  in  life  to  be  that  of 
a  reformer,  a  worker  for  the  dissemination  of  truth,  and  was 


246  T.  W.  Davenport. 

therefore  a  legitimate  agitator  for  the  promotion  of  temper- 
ance, anti-slavery,  and  whatever  else  would  advance  the  fra- 
ternal spirit  among  men.  And  although  this  was  his  predomi- 
nating characteristic,  he  was  not  fitted  to  carry  forward  the 
work  against  unscrupulous  opposition,  by  mild  and  seductive 
appeals,  under  a  non-resistfiut  flag,  and  the  arrogant,  rollick- 
some,  uninquiring,  pro-slavery  Democracy,  then  dominant 
here,  brought  all  of  Adams'  faculties  into  full  play.  And 
however  much  the  so-called  "Oregon  style"  may  be  de- 
nounced as  a  passing  phase  of  rude  pioneer  journalism,  there 
is  no  question  in  my  mind  as  to  Mr.  Adams'  place,  and  that 
he  was  the  chief  informer,  energizer,  and  rally  center  of  the 
distinctively  anti-slavery  forces  of  that  day  and  generation. 
Before  the  days  of  impersonal  journalism,  the  name  of  a 
newspaper  and  its  editors  were  convertible  terms.  The  New 
York  Tribune  meant  Greeley ;  the  New  York  Herald,  Bennett ; 
The  Times,  Raymond ;  The  Oregon  Statesman,  Bush ;  and 
while  W.  L.  Adams  stood  for  as  much  in  his  limited  sphere 
as  either  of  the  foregoing,  it  would  be  hardly  fair  to  credit 
him  with  all  The  Argus  accomplished  in  Oregon.  He  had  ii^'r 
his  foreman  in  the  printing  office  an  anti-slavery  Kentuckian 
who,  in  point  of  acquirements  adapted  to  the  newspaper  busi- 
ness, very  luckily,  was  his  superior.  So,  in  fact  the  Argus  wa,s 
double-headed.  Having  noticed  in  several  numbers  of  the 
paper  very  able  articles  outside  of  the  editorial  columns  and 
Mdthout  signature,  I  inquired  of  Mr.  Adams  as  to  their  author. 
In  response,  he  asked:  "Have  you  never  met  the  foreman  of 
the  office,  Mr.  D.  W.  Craig?  If  you  haven't,  better  lose  no 
more  time  but  get  acquainted,  for  he  is  a  walking  encyclope- 
dia." He  further  stated  that  the  articles  I  admired  were 
composed  by  Dr.  Craig  as  they  were  set  up  at  the  case,  a  feat 
which  he  did  not  believe  could  be  equaled  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  And  thus  my  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Craig  began, 
and  has  continued  with  increasing  confidence  ever  since. 
One  incident  occurred  at  this  first  meeting  which  is  worthy  of 
notice.  In  speaking  of  the  prospect  of  emancipation  in  his 
native   State,   which   he  thought   probable,   I   expressed   the 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  247 

opinion  that  the  Southern  people  were  not  virtuous  enough 
to  emancipate  their  slaves,  voluntarily,  and  that  nothing  short 
of  adversity  would  compel  them.  This  was  an  estimate  of 
his  people  which  he  resented  with  observable  warmth  of 
manner,  but  in  temperate  language,  showing  a  provincial 
spirit  quite  new  to  me.  Still,  I  was  at  fault,  in  not  then  com- 
prehending that  the  beneficiaries  of  privilege,  whether  North 
or  South,  East  or  West,  never  let  go  except  upon  compulsion. 
After  fifty-two  years  of  experience,  Ave  smile  when  recollect- 
ing our  youthful  ignorance,  but  v^e  have  advanced  and  are 
still  advancing,  in  the  only  possible  way  for  human  beings, 
by  groping.  For  further  information  concerning  the  educa- 
tional antecedents  of  Mr.  Craig's  Oregon  career,  see  Mr. 
Himes'  Press  History,  before  mentioned. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  Oregon  during  the 
time  between  1850  and  1860,  was  T.  J.  Dryer,  editor  of  The 
Oregonian  newspaper.  He  was  a  fluent,  effervescent  and 
popular  speaker  and  writer;  in  politics  a  Whig  with  a  lineage 
reaching  back  to  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  with  never  a 
doubt  that  anything  the  Whig  party  proposed  was  right  and 
needed  no  vindication,  and  that  everything  the  Democrats 
favored  was  wrong  and  deserved  nothing  but  denunciation. 
Hence,  as  the  Democratic  party  was  the  preferred  instrument 
for  advancing  the  slave-holding  interest,  Mr.  Dryer,  from  the 
habit  of  opposition  as  well  as  from  principle,  naturally  fell 
into  the  ranks  of  the  free-state  men  of  Oregon,  who  pro- 
claimed themselves  as  such.  One  writer  whose  article  upon 
that  subject  was  published  in  the  Oregon  Historical  Quar- 
terly, makes  Mr.  Dryer  the  chief  influence  and  factor  of  re- 
sistance to  the  adoption  of  the  institution  in  this  State,  but 
from  what  I  saw  of  The  Oregoyiian  in  those  days,  and  a  recol- 
lection of  my  impressions  formed  at  the  time,  I  am  quite  sure 
that  Mr.  Dryer's  services  in  that  connection  are  much  over- 
rated by  his  biographical  friend.  The  Oregonian  was  a  dis- 
tinctively Whig  journal  with  incidental  anti-slavery  proclivi- 
ties, and  remained  so  for  two  years  after  the  birth  of  the 
Republican  party,  its  editor,  Mr.  Dryer,  appearing  for  the 


248  T.  W.  Davenport. 

first  time  in  a  Republican  convention  in  the  year  1858. 
Certainly,  I  have  not  the  least  shadow  of  prejudice  towards 
him,  but  I  know  how  distinctively  anti-slavery  men  felt  and 
thought  at  the  time,  and  that  he  was  not  regarded  by  them 
as  the  consistent,  unwavering  champion  of  their  cause.  To 
reassure  myself  as  to  the  correctness  of  my  opinion  I  took  a 
retrospective  glance  to  the  Republican  State  convention  of 
1858,  when  it  was  required  that  all  persons  who  had  received 
votes  on  the  informal  ballot  for  Representative  in  Congress 
should  state  whether  they  could  stand  upon  the  platform 
previously  adopted.  Mr.  Dryer  remarked  that  the  gentlemen 
who  required  such  a  test  of  him  had  not  been  readers  of  The 
Oregonian.  Surely  they  had,  but  unconsciously  their  opinions 
derived  therefrom  were  not  of  the  stamp  which  come  from 
paramount  devotion  to  a  great  and  pressing  principle.  No 
such  test  was  supposed  to  be  intended  for  W.  L.  Adams, 
John  R.  McBride,  W.  Carey  Johnson,  W.  D.  Hare  and  some 
others  in  attendance,  for  the  paramount  issue  as  to  them  was 
in  the  front  and  undoubted. 

Likely  Mr.  Dryer's  convivial  habits  had  much  to  do  in  pro- 
ducing certain  moods  unfavorable  to  consistency  of  purpose 
or  principle,  and  the  editor  of  The  Statesman  never  wasted 
ink  in  refuting  The  Oregonian's  editorials;  there  was  suffi- 
cient satisfaction  in  referring  to  them  as  cogitations  of  Toddy 
Jep,  a  name  the  initials  of  which  he  could  not  disown  and  the 
meaning  of  which  he  would  not  discuss.  I  think,  however, 
that  he  was  not  habitually  of  that  disposition,  but  once  or 
twice  is  enough  to  establish  a  reputation  in  hot  partisan 
times.  And  while  upon  this  topic,  it  may  be  serviceable  to 
notice  how  an  epithet  or  name  which  by  apt  and  descriptive 
allusion  causes  a  laugh  or  sneer,  may  divert  men  from  the 
contemplation  of  a  problem  and  thereby  hinder  or  produce 
profound  political  results.  Human  beings  seem  to  have  an 
instinctive  knowledge  of  such  craft,  and  resort  to  it  oftener 
than  is  profitable.  This  was  especially  noticeable  in  the 
"Oregon  style"  of  journalism.  The  Statesman  editor  uni- 
formly referred  to  the  editor  of  The  Oregon  Argus  as  "Parson 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  249 

Billy  of  the  Airgoose,"  which  contained  a  hint  of  Mr.  Adams' 
peculiar  religious  notions  and  reform  ideas  concerning  tem- 
perance, etc.  While  this  caused  a  chuckle  among  stationary 
moss-backs,  it  meant  no  serious  obstacle  to  the  propagation 
of  Mr.  Adams'  views  as  to  what  society  ought  to  be.  He,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  too  earnest  to  be  humorous  and  when  he 
attempted  the  role  it  was  little  short  of  abuse.  The  States- 
man gave  much  space  to  advertising  the  medicine  of  a  certain 
Dr.  Czapky  of  California,  who  recommended  it  as  a  restorer 
of  lost  manhood,  and  Adams  dubbed  The  Statesman  "  Czapky 's 
organ,"  and  went  so  far  as  to  intimate  that  its  editor  took 
pay  in  medicine.  Such  a  kind  of  humor  would  be  called  sav- 
agery in  a  staid  Christian  community.  It  might  cause  a  grin 
on  the  face  of  a  ghoul.  Mr.  Bush  could  counter  any  sort  of  a 
blow,  and  The  Statesman  contained  a  paragraph  in  one 
number  announcing  a  law  suit  in  Oregon  City,  concerning 
the  owership  of  a  horse,  in  which  Editor  Adams  w^s  inter- 
ested, and  that  he  and  a  co-conspirator  were  seen  pulling  white 
hairs  from  the  horse's  forehead,  to  deface  the  mark  of  identi- 
fication. No  published  denial  or  reply  was  ever  seen  in  The 
Argus,  though  watched  for  by  those  persons  who  took  an 
interest  in  the  newspaper  warfare,  and  in  a  week  or  so  The 
Statesman  contained  a  correction  which  released  Mr.  Adams, 
and  as  no  names  were  ever  given  as  to  the  two  hair  extractors, 
it  was  plain  that  the  incident  had  been  manufactured  from 
the  raw  material.  Knowing  Adams  to  be  a  man  of  un- 
doubted pluck  as  well  as  a  high  sense  of  honor  and  personal 
consequence,  I  knew  that  he  would  not  let  a  charge  like  that 
pass  unnoticed,  so,  happening  to  The  Argus  office  soon  after- 
wards, I  pumped  him  as  to  the  horse  incident.  Without  a 
smile  or  reply,  he  took  from  his  private  drawer  a  copy  of  a 
letter  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Bush,  threatening  him  with 
condign  punishment  if  he  did  not  retract  that  libel,  which 
in  fact  it  was. 

No  doubt  Mr.  Bush  had  many  a  hearty,  side-aching  laugh 
when  he  fancied  Adams  squirming  under  the  law  of  an  eye 
for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.     The  so-called  "Oregon 


250  T.  W.  Davenport. 

style"  is  sometimes  referred  to  a.s  though  it  was  a  phase  of 
personal  controversy  indicative  of  border  ruffianism,  and 
that  could  never  occur  again  for  want  of  a  fretful  border  of 
civilization  to  produce  it.  But  this  shows  how  apt  we  are  to 
accept  a  false  judgment  put  up  in  portable  shape,  like  cart- 
ridges that  can  be  used  at  a  moment's  notice  and  saves  the 
trouble  of  re-examination.  But  I  am  bold  to  declare  that  the 
"Oregon  style"  was  as  much  superior  to  the  personal  gratings 
which  may  be  seen  in  almost  any  number  of  the  present  day 
New  York  Tribune,  as  the  wit  of  an  Irishman  is  to  the  raw- 
slang  of  an  English  butcher.  What  samples  I  have  given  of 
the  "Oregon  style"  contain  prima  facie  evidence  that  the 
pioneer  editors  of  Oregon  were  men  of  imagination  and  could 
put  wings  to  their  scorpions. 

There  was  one  item  in  The  Statesman,  penned  no  doubt  by 
the  editor,  for  which  he  will  never  be  forgiven,  neither  in  this 
world  nor  the  world  to  come.  Dr.  James  McBride,  an  early 
pioneer  and  a  most  estimable  citizen,  as  well  as  a  very  useful 
member  of  society,  being  both  a  preacher  and  a  practicing 
physician,  was  appointed  by  President  Lincoln  to  some  diplo- 
matic post  in  the  Sandwich  Islands.  Soon  after  the  appoint- 
ment, there  was  a  published  inquiry  as  to  the  whereabouts  of 
the  Doctor,  to  which  The  Statesman  responded  that  the  last 
seen  of  him,  he  was  straddle  of  his  cayuse,  riding  down  along 
the  coast  and  looking  for  "the  ford."  That  the  editor  who 
perpetrated  this  heartless  assault  upon  even  a  Black  Repub- 
lican, is  still  living  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  half  a  century,  goe,s 
to  prove  that  he  carries  the  mark  of  Cain. 

Human  society  anywhere  is  not  on  a  dead  level.  Like  the 
surface  of  the  earth  upon  which  it  dwells,  there  are  heights 
and  depths,  gentle  savannahs  and  repulsive  jungles;  and  as 
in  the  landscape  the  heights  soonest  catch  and  rivet  our  at- 
tention, and  serve  as  monuments  from  which  to  fix  its 
boundaries,  so,  in  recording  an  epoch  or  phase  of  human  de- 
velopment, we  get  our  attention  fixed  upon  prominent  char- 
acters or  those  in  the  van  of  the  movement,  and  thereby  come 
to  consider  them  its  motive  or  propelling  force,  when  in  fact 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  251 

and  generally,  they  are  only  the  indices  of  a  selective  and 
energizing  spirit  pervading  the  whole.  The  anti-slavery  cru- 
sade east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  was  quite  analogous  to  the 
foregoing,  and  the  prominences  were  more  noticeable  than 
any  within  the  purview  of  our  history.  We  had  no  Wendell 
Phillips  to  enchain  the  ear  with  his  inspiring  music  of  freedom 
and  justice ;  no  Sam.  Lewis  to  dispel  with  his  calm  presence 
the  fogs  of  prejudice,  revive  the  dormant  conscience,  bring 
the  altruistic  faculties  to  the  front  and  expand  the  sphere  of 
fraternity  to  include  the  slave ;  no  Lincoln  or  Seward  to  point 
the  practical  truth  that  slavery  of  a  part  degrades  the  whole ; 
no  Henry  Ward  Beecher  to  electrify  Christians  with  a  pas- 
sion for  practical  Christianity.  Still,  there  were  men  here 
who,  if  not  so  highly  endowed,  were  as  courageous  and  de- 
voted and  acted  as  wisely  according  to  their  peculiar  condi- 
tions as  their  brethren  of  the  East.  It  is  probable,  or  at  least 
possible,  that  a  great  orator  could  have  attracted  an  audi- 
ence of  silent  Democrats  and  Micawber  Whigs,  and  thus  have 
broken  the  spell  of  suppression  that  ruled  here  for  three 
years,  but  certain  it  is  that  our  anti-slavery  men  were  not  so 
competent.  And  so  the  agitation  was  limited  almost  entirely 
to  private  proselyting  and  personal  influence,  which,  though 
often  spoken  of  as  inconsiderable,  are  more  effective  and 
permanent  than  a  majority  of  orations. 

Jesse  Applegate,  a  man  of  scholarly  tastes  and  habits,  and 
by  common  consent  called  "the  Sage  of  Yoncalla,"  was  not 
gifted  for  public  speech  and  left  such  exhibition  to  others 
less  diffident  or  more  fluent  of  tongue,  but  his  influence  was 
more  potent  than  that  of  the  orators.  Daniel  Waldo  was 
another  fire-side  orator,  full  to  overflowing  of  trenchant 
wisdom,  and  who,  by  the  strength  of  ideas  and  the  spell  of 
conviction,  swayed  a  large  circle  of  acquaintances.  Every 
locality  had  such  men;  quiet,  foresighted,  persistent  char- 
acters whose  "daily  walk  and  conversation"  was  an  educa- 
tion and  an  inspiration  to  those  who  lingered  behind  in  the 
path  of  progress.  The  influence  of  such  people  does  not  depend 
principally  upon  the  public  advocacy  of  their  opinions ;  they 


252  T.  W.  Davenport. 

are  not  intentional  demagogues  of  any  degree,  but  along  with 
and  enlivening  their  avocations  is  an  emanation  of  mind  and 
feeling  which  molds  and  modifies  public  opinion  and  con- 
tinually makes  for  righteousness.  When  viewed  with  ref- 
erence to  the  influence  they  exert  upon  society,  such  persons 
are  prominences  in  the  social  landscape,  but  we  Americans 
have  become  so  accustomed  to  rating  men  hy  their  success  in 
partisan  politics,  speech-making  and  egotism,  that  we  overlook 
this  important  part  of  the  commonwealth.  If  the  question 
were  put  to  the  school  children,  as  to  the  principal  men  of  a 
county  or  State,  they  would  look  in  the  official  directory  to 
see  who  had  been  elected  to  fill  the  public  offices,  when 
everybody  knows  that,  in  the  main,  the  offices  have  been 
filled  by  machine  methods  and  from  among  those  who,  from 
one  selfish  reason  or  another,  aspire  to  office.  If  this  state- 
ment is  doubted  by  the  reader  let  him  ponder  the  assertion, 
often  heard,  that  the  reason  why  politics  and  government 
have  become  so  corrupt  is  because  the  best  men  will  not  take 
office;  which  is  the  same  as  saying  that  they  will  not  contest 
with  the  self-seekers  in  the  political  arena.  There  are  times, 
however,  when  public  affairs  get  so  insufferably  corrupt  that 
the  people  take  a  spasm  of  virtue  or  common  sense,  jump  the 
partisan  game  and  elect  men  who  are  faithful  public  servants. 
But  so  far  in  our  political  history  such  spasms  have  not  been 
durable.  So,  the  reader  may  be  informed  that  men  who  are 
mentioned  herein  as  influential  factors  of  civilization,  are 
rated  independently  of  the  official  standard. 

William  Greenwood,  of  Hbwell  Prairie,  was  a  man  about 
whom  people  delighted  to  gather,  not  because  he  was  an  edu- 
cator of  the  class  of  Waldo  and  Applegate,  but  from  a  peculiar 
and  pleasing  dignity  of  manner  and  a  large  hospitality  that 
made  his  household  an  agreeable  place  of  sojourn.  Abler 
men  than  he  met  at  his  board  to  discuss  public  questions, 
while  he,  an  illiterate  Virginia  gentleman,  answered  vagarie-s 
with  smiles,  and  whose  corn-field  sagacity  generally  pointed 
the  right  way.  I  recollect  of  meeting  a  goodly  number  of 
Republicans   at   his   house    for   the   purpose   of   considering 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  253 

whether  the  party  had  not  fulfilled  its  mission  and  should 
be  terminated,  before  it  had  reached  the  extreme  danger 
point  and  become  like  the  Democratic  party  before  the  war, 
a  constant  and  increasing  menace  to  the  liberties  of  the  people. 
I  do  not  recollect  all  who  were  in  attendance,  but  they  were 
members  of  the  old  guard;  men  who  cared  nothing  for  party 
except  as  ancillary  to  the  public  interests,  and  who  dreaded 
the  miasma  of  mere  party  spirit.  Major  Magone  was  there, 
as  he  always  was  when  discussion  was  the  order  of  the  day. 
and  the  opinion  was  prevalent  that  the  party  was  getting  off 
the  Lincoln  track,  and  that  something  must  be  done  to 
arrest  it.  We  could  see  very  plainly  what  was  producing  the 
political  degeneration— the  spoils  of  office  beckoning  greedy 
human  nature  on  to  places  of  profit  and  power— but  how  to 
eliminate  or  mollify  the  spoils  system  of  polities  we  had  no 
comprehension,  and  as  to  the  possibility  of  elevating  the 
standard  of  civic  righteousness,  we  had  no  faith.  Stop  the 
victorious  Republican  party ! !  What  an  idea ! !  We  might 
as  well  have  talked  of  arresting  Niagara  in  its  plunge.  And 
the  evils  of  partisanism  were  then  only  incipient,  and  the 
people  were  not  cognizant  of  them.  They  had  not  been 
punished  enough  to  awaken  them.  The  meeting  so  far  as 
related  to  practical  matters,  was  ridiculous  enough,  and  our 
host  likened  the  proposal  to  stop  the  office-seekers,  to  driving 
hogs  away  from  the  trough  while  it  contained  swill. 


THE  "FREE-STATE  LETTER"  OF  JUDGE 
GEORGE  H.  WILLIAMS.* 

SLAVERY  IN  OREGON. 

Editor  statesman— i^iv:  Though  I  have  resided  in  Oregon 
more  than  four  years,  I  have  never  appeared  in  the  news- 
papers to  discuss  any  question,  public  or  private,  and  would 
prefer  not  to  do  so  now;  but  deferring  to  the  judgment  of 
personal  and  party  friends,  and  under  the  rule  prescribed  by 
you  for  correspondence  of  this  kind,  I  have  concluded  to 
trouble  your  readers  with  an  article  upon  slavery  in  Oregon. 

I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  question— nothing  directly  to 
gain— perchance  something  to  lose  by  its  discussion.  Expect- 
ing,  however,  to  have  my  home  in  this  country,  I  confess  to 
some  solicitude  that  a  question  so  deeply  affecting  all  its 
interests  should  be  fully  discussed  and  wisely  decided.  Views 
like  those  here  presented  are  not  premature  at  this  time. 
Much  has  been  said  for  slavery.  Candidates  for  office  have 
become  its  champions  on  the  stump — documents  have  been 
circulated— a  paper  has  been  set  up  for  its  advocacy.  These 
things  invite,  in  fact,  force  discussion.  Men  are  rapidly, 
perhaps  inconsiderately,  taking  sides,  and  determining  as  to 
their  votes  upon  this  question.  Differing  reluctantly  from 
many  friends  for  whose  opinions  I  have  respect,  I  am  con- 
strained to  think  that  Oregon  had  better  become  a  non-slave- 
holding  State.  I  shall  argue  with  facts  and  figures  in  favor 
of  this  position.  I  ask  those  concerned  carefully  and  dispas- 
sionately to  consider  the  subject  in  all  its  bearing-s,  then  do 
in  reference  thereto  what  judgment  dictates  to  be  done.  I 
appreciate  the  magnitude  of  the  theme.  To  discuss  all  its 
features  and  effects,  one  must  know,  like  a  spirit  of  the  past, 
and  speak  life  a  sibyl  of  the  future.  Conscious  that  this 
slavery  discussion  has  shaken  the  pillars  of  the  republic  — 


Roprinted  from  The  Oregon  {Statesman  of  July  2S,   18f 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  255 

has  rent  the  most  powerful  church  of  the  nation  in  twain — 
has  appeared  upon  the  plains  of  Kansas  with  fierce  strife 
and  bloodshed ;  I  address  myself  to  it.  feeling  somewhat  as 
I  would  to  approach  a  cloud  charged  with  lightning  and  a 
whirlwind.  I  hope,  however,  that  the  controversy  will  not 
grow  up  in  bitterness,  and  bear  its  fruit  in  convulsions  here, 
as  it  has  elsewhere,  but  that  good  feeling  and  moderation 
may  prevail  in  all  that  is  said  or  done  about  the  matter. 

AVhatever  else  may  be  alleged  against  those  who  oppose 
slaverj'  in  Oregon,  they  cannot,  as  it  seems  to  me,  be  charged 
with  commencing  the  contest  about  it.  Daniel  Webster  said 
in  his  celebrated  speech  of  March  7th,  1850,  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  that  God  had  fixed  the  natural  limits  of 
slavery  southward  of  this,  and  though  dead,  his  words  yet 
live  and  are  true.  On  the  26th  day  of  July,  a.  d.  1845,  the 
real  pathfinders  and  pioneers  to  the  Pacific  Coast  resolved 
that  ".slavery  or  involuntary  servitude  should  not  exist  in 
this  Territory."  On  the  14th  day  of  August,  1848,  the  Con- 
gre.ss  of  the  United  States,  by  a  law  voted  for  by  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  and  approved  by  Jas.  K.  Polk,  declared  that  "slav- 
ery should  not  exist  in  Oregon."  People  came  here— laws 
have  been  enacted — social  habits  formed — an  entire  system 
of  polity  set  up,  and  I,  and  those  who  think  with  me  now, 
seek  nothing  but  a  continuation  of  this  state  of  things,  which 
these  laws  of  God  and  man  have  established. 

I  quarrel  with  no  one  whose  honest  feelings  or  prejudices 
incline  him  to  favor  the  institution  of  slavery,  but  when  any 
man  says  that  slavery  would  be  an  advantage  to  Oregon  if 
adopted  here,  I  must  be  permitted  respectfully  to  dispute  the 
correctness  of  his  judgment.  So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge  of 
my.self,  I  have  no  objections  to  local  slavery.  I  do  not  re- 
proach the  slaveholders  of  the  South  for  holding  slaves.  I 
consider  them  as  high-)iiinded,  honorable,  and  humane  a 
class  of  men  as  can  be  found  in  the  world,  and  throughout  the 
slavery  agitation  have  contciuhMl  that  they  were  "more 
sinned  against  than  sinning." 

Wise,  patriotic  atid  just  were  the  fathers  of  the  Republic, 


256  George  H.  Williams. 

and  their  opinions  and  acts  come  down  to  us  like  the  voice  of 
departed  experience  to  those  just  entering  upon  the  stage  of 
life.  Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  great  man— towering,  like 
Saul,  above  his  fellows  for  sagacity  and  judgment— born  and 
bred  in  Virginia,  and  a  slaveholder  all  his  life.  On  the  19th 
of  April,  1784,  he  moved  in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation 
that  slavery  be  prohibited  in  all  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  north  of  the  31st  parallel  of  north  latitude.  Now 
slavery  would  have  been  either  a  benefit  or  an  injury  to 
that  country.  Jefferson  must  have  determined  that  it  w^ould 
be  an  injury,  and  no  man  was  ever  more  competent  to  decide 
such  a  question.  On  the  13th  of  July,  1787,  the  Congress  of 
the  Confederation  voted  unanimously  to  exclude  slavery 
from  the  Northwest  Territory.  Massachusetts  and  South 
Carolina  stood  together  in  favor  of  that  measure.  South 
Carolina,  exasperated  by  sectional  strife,  would  no  doubt  at 
this  time  condemn  that  vote,  but  I  appeal  from  Philip  drunk 
to  Philip  sober.  I  appeal  from  South  Carolina  of  nullifica- 
tion to  the  South  Carolina  of  the  Revolution.  I  argue  from 
this  vote  in  1787,  that  it  was  then  the  deliberate  judgment  of 
the  whole  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  that  slavery 
would  be  an  injury  to  the  Northwest  Territory,  and  therefore 
it  was  excluded.  North  Carolina  in  1786  declared  the  intro- 
duction of  slaves  into  that  State  "of  evil  consequences  and 
highly  impolitic,"  and  imposed  a  duty  of  five  pounds  per 
head  thereon.  Virginia,  in  1778,  pa.ssed  an  act  prohibiting 
the  further  introduction  of  slaves,  and  in  1782,  removed  all 
restrictions  to  emancipation.  Maryland  followed  her  exam- 
ple. Gradually  these  States  were  preparing  to  get  rid  of 
slaves,  when  abolitionism  from  the  North,  with  a  foolish  zeal 
which  has  characterized  it  from  that  time  to  this,  wounded 
their  pride  and  aw^akened  their  jealousy,  and  then  the  move- 
ment went  backrvvards,  and  slavery  was  forever  enthroned  in 
the  heart  and  interests  of  Southern  society,  I  cite  these  facts 
simply  to  show,  that  before  the  slave  question  was  dragged 
into  the  political  arena,  the  judgment  of  all  parts  of  the 
country  was  against  the  advantages  of  slavery. 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  257 

I  will  now  produce  a  case  quite  analogous  if  not  exactly 
parallel  to  ours,  to  prove  the  impolicy  of  slavery  in  Oregon. 
Indiana  and  Oregon  are  both  north  of  the  forty-second  degree 
of  north  latitude.  They  resemble  each  other  in  the  produc- 
tions of  the  soil.  In  1803,  Indiana  was  a  new  country,  and 
almost  as  inaccessible  as  Oregon  now  is.  Railroads,  canals 
and  steamboats  were  then  unknown.  Emigration  was  there- 
fore slow  and  labor  scarce.  Prairies  were  "few  and  far  be- 
tween." Farms  were  generally  made  by  cutting  down  the 
trees  and  digging  up  the  stumps.  With  his  axe  in  one  hand 
and  his  rifle  in  the  other,  the  hardy  pioneer  went  forth  to  his 
work,  felling  the  forests  with  the  one,  and  fighting  the  savage 
with  the  other.  Trouble  was  of  course  incident  to  this  state 
of  things.  The  settlers  looked  round  for  relief.  Some  thought 
it  would  be  found  in  slavery,  and  therefore  petitioned  Con- 
gress to  suspend  the  ordinance  of  1787,  so  that  slaves  might 
be  introduced.  That  petition  was  referred  to  a  committee  of 
which  the  celebrated  John  Randolph  was  chairman.  I  quote 
from  his  report  thereon :  "In  the  opinion  of  your  committee 
the  labor  of  slaves  is  not  necessary  to  promote  the  growth  or 
settlement  of  colonies  in  that  region— that  this  labor,  demon- 
strably the  dearest  of  any,  can  only  be  employed  in  the  culti- 
vation of  products  more  valuable  than  any  known  to  that 
quarter  of  the  United  States;  that  the  committee  deem  it 
highly  dangerous  and  inexpedient  to  impair  a  provision 
wisely  calculated  to  promote  the  happiness  and  prosperity 
of  the  northwestern  country,  and  to  give  strength  and  security 
to  that  extensive  frontier;  in  the  salutary  operation  of  this 
sagacious  and  benevolent  restraint,  it  is  believed  that  the  in- 
habitants of  Indiana  will  at  no  very  distant  day  find  ample 
remuneration  for  a  temporary  privation  of  labor  and  emigra- 
tion."   There  spoke  the  statesman. 

Elevating  his  view  above  the  exigencies  of  a  day,  he  looked 
into  the  future  with  prophetic  vision.  Slaveholder  as  he  was, 
he  knew  that  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  Indiana  did  not 
depend  upon  the  labor  of  slaves,  but  the  intelligence  and  in- 
dustry of  a  free  people.     Oregon  is  now  suffering  from  a 


258  George  H.  Williams. 

"temporary  want  of  labor  and  emigration,"  and  that  is  tlie 
greatest  argument  for  slavery,  but  I  meet  it  with  the  reasoning 
of  John  Eandolph,  and  the  confirmatory  facts  of  history. 
Seven  States  of  this  Union,  similar  to  Oregon  in  soil  and 
productions,  and  to  some  extent  in  climate,  have  tried  the 
institution  of  slavery  and  found  it  undesirable.  Shall  we  now 
commit  the  folly  of  repeating  the  experiment?  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  New 
Jersey  and  New  Hampshire  ascertained  by  actual  trial  that 
slavery  was  detrimental  to  their  interests,  and  therefore 
abolished  it.  Can  we  for  any  reason  expect  to  find  it  other- 
wise ?  To  argue  that  slavery  is  a  good  thing  in  Alabama,  and 
must  therefore  be  a  good  thing  in  Oregon,  is  illogical,  for 
Alabama  has  a  hot  climate  and  cotton  bearing  soil,  which 
Oregon  has  not,  but  to  argue  that  because  slavery  was  ob- 
jectionable in  Pennsylvania  it  would  be  so  in  Oregon,  is 
logical,  for  with  a  cool  climate,  cereals  and  similar  fruits  are 
the  chief  productions  of  both. 

I  believe  it  is  customary  and  proper  to  use  the  opinions  of 
distinguished  men  in  discussions  of  this  kind.  National  Whigs, 
I  presume,  have  not  forgotten  Henry  Clay.  When  three 
score  years  and  more  had  silvered  o'er  his  brow,  he  stood  up 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  and  uttered  these  words: 
''Coming  from  a  slave  State  as  I  do,  I  owe  it  to  myself,  I 
owe  it  to  truth,  I  owe  it  to  the  subject  to  say,  that  no  earthly 
power  could  induce  me  to  vote  for  a  specific  measure  for  the 
introduction  of  slavery  where  it  had  not  before  existed, 
either  south  or  north  of  that  line.  Coming  as  I  do  from  a 
slave  State,  it  is  my  solemn,  deliberate,  and  well-matured 
determination,  that  no  power,  no  earthly  power,  shall  compel 
me  to  vote  for  the  positive  introduction  of  slavery  either 
south  or  north  of  that  line.  Sir,  while  you  reproach,  justlj^ 
too,  our  British  ancestors  for  the  introduction  of  this  in- 
stitution upon  the  continent  of  America,  I  am  for  one  un- 
willing that  the  posterity  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  Cali- 
fornia and  New  Mexico  shall  reproach  us  for  doing  just  what 
we  reproach  Great  Britain  for  doing  to  us.     If  the  citizens  of 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  259 

those  territories  choose  to  establish  slavery,  and  if  they  come 
here  with  constitutions  establishing  slavery,  I  am  for  admit- 
ting them  with  such  provisions  in  their  constitutions,  but 
then  it  will  be  their  own  work,  and  not  ours,  and  their  pos- 
terity will  have  to  reproach  them,  and  not  us,  for  forming 
constitutions  allowing  the  institution  of  slavery  to  exist 
among  them." 

Lewis  Cass,  in  his  Nicholson  letter,  which  gave  the  Wilmot 
proviso  its  deathblow,  says:  "We  may  well  regret  the  ex- 
istence of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States  and  wish  that  they 
had  been  saved  from  its  introduction."  Again,  he  says,  which 
is  particularly  worthy  of  our  notice :  ' '  Involuntary  labor  re- 
quiring the  investment  of  large  capital,  can  only  be  profita- 
ble when  employed  in  the  production  of  a  few  favored  articles 
confined  by  nature  to  special  districts,  and  paying  larger 
returns  than  the  usual  agricultural  products  spread  over 
more  considerable  portions  of  the  earth." 

James  Buchanan,  speaking  of  the  compromise  of  1850, 
says:  "Neither  the  soil,  the  climate,  nor  the  productions  of 
California  south  of  36  degrees  30  minutes,  nor  indeed  any 
portion  of  it,  north  or  south,  is  adapted  to  slave  labor,  and 
besides,  every  facility  would  be  there  afforded  for  the  slaves 
to  escape  from  his  master,  and  such  property  would  be 
entirely  insecure  in  any  part  of  California.  It  is  morally  im- 
possible, therefore,  that  a  majority  of  the  emigrants  to  that 
territory  south  of  36  degrees  30  minutes,  which  will  be  chiefly 
composed  of  our  citizens,  will  ever  re-establish  slavery  in  its 
limJts."  Would  Mr.  Buchanan  vote  for  slavery  in  Oregon? 
AVould  he  vote  for  a  "  moral  impossibility  ? ' ' 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  Senate 
on  the  14th  day  of  February,  1857,  says:  "I  am  aware,  sir. 
that  the  act  of  Congress  was  passed  prohibiting  slavery  in 
Oregon,  but  it  was  never  passed  here  until  six  years  after  the 
people  of  that  territory  had  excluded  it  by  their  own  law, 
unanimously  adopted.  So  Oregon  was  consecrated  to  freedom 
by  act  of  their  local  legislature  six  years  before  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  by  the  Wilmot  proviso  undertook  to  do 


260  George  H.  Williams. 

what  had  been  done  and  well  done."  Standing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  listening  Senate  and  pointing  away  to  the  Pacific, 
the  "little  giant"  refers  to  the  squatter  sovereigns  of  Oregon 
and  their  slavery  prohibition  of  1845,  and  pronounces  upon 
them  the  plaudit  of  "well  done."  May  not  a  man  safely  fol- 
low in  the  footsteps  of  Jefferson,  Randolph  and  Clay,  or 
stand  with  Buchanan,  Cass  and  Douglas  upon  this  question  1 

T  will  now  proceed  to  show  from  the  nature  of  the  case  that 
slavery  would  be  a  burden  and  not  a  blessing  to  Oregon. 
Slavery  is  involuntary  servitude— labor  forced  by  power  from 
unwilling  laborers.  There  is  no  ambition,  no  enterprise,  no 
energy  in  such  labor.  Like  the  horse  to  the  tread-mill,  or  the 
ox  to  the  furrow,  goes  the  slave  to  his  task.  Compare  this 
with  the  labor  of  free  white  men.  Take  the  young  man 
without  family  or  property— no  bondage  fills  the  little  horizon 
of  his  life  with  its  unchangeable  destiny.  Conscious  of  his 
equality,  of  his  right  to  aspire  to,  and  attain  any  position  in 
society,  he  will  desire  the  respect  and  confidence  of  his 
fellowmen.  All  the  world  is  his  for  action,  and  all  the  future 
is  his  for  hope.  Employ  the  head  of  a  family  to  your  work. 
Anxious  to  make  his  home  comfortable,  to  educate  his  children, 
to  provide  a  competency  for  old  age,  he  will  have  strong  in- 
ducements to  be  diligent  and  faithful  in  business.  These 
motives  energize  free  labor,  but  have  little  or  no  influence 
upon  the  slave.  One  free  white  man  is  worth  more  than  two 
negro  slaves  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  or  any  other  busi- 
ness which  can  be  influenced  by  zeal  or  the  exercise  of  discre- 
tion. I  do  not  claim  that  this  is  so  where  slaves  are  worked  in 
gangs  by  a  task-master,  but  it  would  be  so  in  Oregon ;  for  no 
man  here  can  have  slaves  enough  to  justify  the  employment 
of  an  overseer  and  therefore  every  owner  must  manage  his 
own  slaves,  or  leave  them  to  self-management.  Situated  as 
the  farmer  is  in  Oregon,  he  wants  a  laborer  to  be  something 
more  than  a  mere  slave.  He  wants  a  man  who  can  act  some- 
times in  the  capacity  of  agent — to  whom  he  can  entrust  his 
business  when  absent  from  home,  and  who  will  go  to  the 
field  and  work  without  watching  or  driving.     Negroes  are 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  261 

naturally  lazy,  and  as  slaves  actuated  by  fear  of  the  whip— 
are  only  interested  in  doing  enough  to  avoid  punishment. 
Now,  if  what  I  have  said  be  true,  it  is  perfectly  manifest  that 
a  farmer  in  Oregon  cannot  afford  to  pay  as  much  for  the 
labor  of  a  negro  slave,  as  for  the  labor  of  a  free  white  man. 
I  say  in  the  language  of  John  Randolph,  that  slave  labor  is 
"demonstrably  the  dearest  of  any."  And  I  affirm  that  it 
will  cost  the  farmer  in  this  country,  more  to  obtain  the  ser- 
vices of  one  slave,  than  one  free  man.  To  show  the  high 
price  of  slaves  in  the  States,  I  might  refer  to  different  public 
journals,  but  I  will  quote  from  but  one.  The  Central  Organ, 
published  in  the  parish  of  Avoyelles,  Louisiana,  says  that 
'']8  field  hands  were  recently  sold  in  that  place,  at  prices 
ranging  from  $1,365  to  $2,360.  The  lowest  sum  was  paid  for 
a  lad  ten  years— the  highest  was  paid  for  a  man  31  years  of 
age.  Four  of  the  negroes  were  women,  and  nine  of  them 
under  twenty  years  of  age.  Their  aggregate  value  was 
$24,260."  Now  from  this  statement,  it  is  entirely  safe  to 
assume  that  a  good,  healthy  negro  man  in  Missouri,  would  be 
w^orth  $1,000,  and  the  prospect  in  Kansas  will  not  reduce  the 
price.  Horses  and  cattle  more  than  double  in  value  by  im- 
portation from  the  States  to  this  country,  and  without  doubt 
the  rule  would  hold  good  in  reference  to  slaves,  so  that  a  good 
man  in  Oregon  would  be  worth  $2,000.  Now  the  interest  on 
this  sum  at  20  per  cent  would  be  $400  per  annum,  which  would 
hire  a  white  man  for  ten  months,  at  $40  per  month.  State 
the  facts  in  any  way,  and  it  will  appear  that  the  interest  on 
the  value  of  a  good  slave  will  hire  a  white  laborer  from  April 
to  November,  and  there  is  little  help  needed  by  the  farmer 
during  the  other  portion  of  the  year.  But  there  are  many 
other  things  to  be  considered.  You  employ  a  free  man  and 
you  have  nothing  to  do  with  him,  but  to  provide  him  with 
employment  and  food  and  pay  his  wages.  But  with  a  slave 
it  is  different.  Your  house  must  be  his  home.  You  must 
provide  everything  for  him  and  pay  all  his  expenses,  side 
or  well.  You  must  watch  him  when  he  works  and  when  he 
plays.     You  must  toll  him  what  to  do,  and  whip  him  if  he 


262  George  H.  Williams. 

fails  to  do  it.  Drunken,  depraved  and  vicious  as  lie  may  br, 
you  must  control  his  passions  and  be  responsible  for  his  acts. 
I  remember  that  a  .slaveholder  in  St.  Louis  told  me  that  the 
vicious  behavior  of  a  female  slave,  which  for  some  reason  he 
could  not  or  would  not  sell,  caused  him  more  trouble  than  all 
the  other  cares  of  his  life. 

Suppose  a  farmer  to  own  two  or  three  negroes.  They  may 
be  of  profit  to  him  in  the  summer,  but  what  can  they  do  in 
the  winter  ■?  They  cannot  plow,  or  sow  or  reap  or  thresh. 
What  could  a  negro  fitted  by  nature  for  the  blazing  sun  of 
Africa,  do  at  chopping  wood,  splitting  rails,  or  making  fence 
in  the  cool  drenching  rains  of  an  Oregon  winter  ?  One  season 
of  such  exposure  would  endanger  his  life.  The  fact  is  that 
negro  slaves  other  than  house  servants  would  be  perfect 
leeches  upon  the  farmer  during  our  long  rainy  winters.  They 
would  be  more  useless  here  than  in  New  England,  for  there 
the  winter  is  cold  and  dry,  and  a  man  can  work  in  the  barn 
or  in  the  woods,  but  the  reverse  is  true  in  this  country. 

There  is  another  thing  in  this  connection  to  be  noticed. 
When  a  man  proposes  to  make  an  investment,  the  risk  of  its 
loss  is  always  taken  into  account.  If  you  loan  money  on 
doubtful  security,  you  ask  more  for  its  use  than  when  the 
security  is  perfectly  good.  Mr.  Buchanan  said  tl^at  "it  was 
morally  impossible  for  slavery  to  exist  in  California,  be- 
cause every  facility  was  there  afforded  for  the  slave  to  escape 
from  his  master,  and  such  property  would  be  entirely  inse- 
cure." What  is  true  of  California  in  this  respect  is  cer- 
tainly true  of  Oregon.  Slaves  might  accompany  their  mas- 
ters to  Oregon  from  attachment,  but  suppose  a  slave  dealer 
to  start  for  the  Oregon  market,  across  the  plains  with  a  band 
of  slaves  bought  here  and  there ;  what  regard  would  they  have 
for  a  man  who  had  bought  them  to  sell  again  upon  specula- 
tion, and  who  was  taking  them  a  returnlass  distance  from  the 
"old  folks  at  home?"  With  all  the  safeguards  of  law  and 
public  sentiment,  slaves  are  manacled  to  be  taken  by  the 
trader  from  one  slave  State  to  another;  hoM^  then  could  they 
be  safely  transported  thousands  of  miles  across  a  wilderne.ss 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  263 

country  with  feelings  of  hatred  and  revenge  rankling  in  their 
dark  bosoms;  to  bring  them  by  water,  to  say  nothing  about 
the  expense,  is  a  hazardous  and  almost  impracticable  thing. 
Suppose,  however,  all  these  difficulties  overcome,  and  your 
slaves  safe  upon  the  soil  of  Oregon,  then  they  would  stay 
with  you,  or  not,  just  as  they  pleased. 

North  is  the  Territory  of  Washington  with  its  sparse  settle- 
ments—its vast  forests  and  mountain  ranges,  in  which  a 
fugitive  slave  might  hide  from  an  army  of  pursuers.  East- 
ward dwell  numerous"  Indian  tribes,  to  whose  welcome  embrace 
a  slave  might  fly  and  be  safe.  No  fugitive  slave  law  would 
avail  there,  or  friends  of  the  master  be  found  to  assist  in  his 
recapture.  South  is  the  free  State  of  California,  where 
doubtless  the  fugitive  slave  could  find  friends  to  speed  him 
on  to  a  more  perfect  freedom  in  Mexico. 

Isolated  as  Oregon  is  by  thousands  of  miles  from  other 
slave  States,  and  all  the  supports  of  slavery,  an  effort  to 
maintain  the  institution  here  would  be  almost  as  impotent  as 
the  command  of  the  vain  Canute  to  the  waves  of  the  ocean. 
Some  say  that  slave  property  will  not  be  so  unsafe  here  as  I 
pretend,  for  negroes  will  not  go  to  and  consort  M'ith  Indians, 
but  otherwise  is  the  evidence.  General  Jackson  found  fugi- 
tive slaves  fighting  with  the  Creeks  in  the  war  of  1812. 
Major  Dade's  command  of  112  (except  four)  was  slaughtered 
in  the  Florida  war  by  a  party  of  Seminoles  and  forty  fugitive 
slaves,  the  negroes  outstripping  the  Indians  in  ferocity  and 
brutal  treatment  of  the  dead.  There  is  another  reason  out- 
weighing all  others  for  the  unsafeness  of  slaves  in  this  coun- 
try. T  refer  to  public  sentiment,  and  I  say  that  slavery  can 
no  more  stand  as  a  useful  institution  with  one-half  of  public 
opinion  arrayed  against  it  than  a  house  can  stand  with  one 
corner  stone. 

Look  at  the  Southern  States.  What  a  unanimity  of  senti- 
ment exists  there  in  favor  of  slavery.  Look  at  the  laws  en- 
acted and  the  pains  taken  to  preserve  this  unanimity.  This 
is  a  necessity  of  the  system.  Every  man  of  common  sense 
must  see  that  slaves  would  not  only  be  unsafe  as  property,  but 


264  George  H.  Williams. 

dangerous  if  their  ears  were  filled  with  discussions  as  to  the 
legality  or  justice  of  their  bondage. 

Much  is  said  about  the  necessity  of  slaves  in  Oregon  for 
domestic  servants.  I  admit  that  there  is  a  great  want  of 
household  help  in  this  country  at  the  present  time,  but  I  deny 
that  slavery  would  remove  the  evil.  Various  are  the  priva- 
tions attending  the  settlement  of  a  new  countr3^  People  in 
Oregon  cannot  reasonably  expect  to  have  at  this  early  day  all 
the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  an  old  community.  Indiana, 
Towa  and  the  new  States  have  suffered  in  this  respect  as  we 
do  now,  but  time  brought  to  them  as  it  will  bring  relief  to  us. 
Immigration  is  the  natural,  and  as  the  experience  of  other 
States  attest,  the  most  efficient  remedy  for  this  complaint. 
Slavery,  as  it  seems  to  me,  would  aggravate  the  trouble.  Now 
there  is  not  one  family  in  ten  in  Oregon  able  to  own  a  slave 
woman  (worth  from  $1,000  to  $1,500),  so  that  if  one  family 
would  be  benefitted,  nine  would  probably  be  worse  off  than 
they  are  at  this  time.  Introduce  slavery,  and  the  chance  of 
hiring  a  white  girl  to  do  housework  is  gone.  White  girls  will 
hardly  consent  for  wages  to  occupy  in  one  family  a  position 
like  that  which  a  negro  slave-woman  occupies  in  another. 
Slavery  might  provide  the  favored  few  with  domestic  help, 
but  a  large  majority  of  the  people  would  be  left  to  help 
themselves.  What  is  it  that  we  most  need  in  Oregon?  W^e 
have  a  beautiful  country— a  healthful  climate  —a  rich  soil— 
mountains  big  with  minerals— rivers  for  highways,  and  an 
ocean  stretching  away  to  India  for  our  commerce.  We  want 
more  people,  intelligent,  enterprising  and  industrious  people. 
Some  profess  to  think  that  the  establishment  of  slavery  here 
would  be  the  most  speedy  and  effective  way  of  supplying 
this  want,  but  exactly  the  reverse  is  demonstrably  true.  I 
refer  to  the  census  of  1850  for  evidence.  Ohio  and  Kentucky 
are  contiguous  States,  and  nearly  equal  in  size.  Ohio  has  no 
advantages  of  climate  or  soil.  In  1800  the  population  of 
Ohio  was  45,028,  and  the  population  of  Kentucky  was  179,871. 
but  in  1850  the  population  of  Ohio  was  1,955,050,  and  the  pop- 
ulation of  Kentucky  971,594.  including  210,981  slaves.     Can 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  265 

any  reason  be  given  for  this  immense  difference  in  the  growth 
of  the  two  States,  only  that  the  one  was  a  free  and  the  other 
a  slave  State.  Take  Indiana  and  Kentucky.  They  are  adjoin- 
ing States,  and  Kentucky  has  the  larger  territory.  In  1810, 
Indiana  had  23,890  people,  and  Kentucky  324,237,  but  in  1850, 
Indiana  was  ahead,  and  had  977,154.  Illinois  had  in  1810, 
11,501,  but  in  1850  she  had  846,034.  I  compare  these  adjacent 
States,  and  contend  that  the  figures  show  beyond  controversy 
that  slavery  has  been  an  obstacle  to  the  growth,  and  an  in- 
cubus upon  the  energies  of  Kentucky. 

Everywhere  the  rule  holds  good.  Missouri  is  a  larger  State, 
has  ajnilder  climate,  a  more  prolific  soil,  and  greater  facili- 
ties for  commerce  than  the  adjoining  State  of  Iowa.  She 
had,  too,  more  than  twenty-five  years  the  start  as  a  State,  yet 
Iowa  has  nearly  overtaken,  and  before  the  end  of  the  present 
decade  will  surpass  her  in  popular  numbers.  Who  can  doubt 
that  Missouri  would  now  have  double  her  present  population 
if  the  foot  of  a  slave  had  never  touched  her  soil?  Compa.vt 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  with  Arkansas  and  Florida.  Have 
not  the  former  sprung  forward  to  giant  greatness,  while  the 
latter  have  slowly  dragged  the  overburdening  power  of 
slavery. 

Men  who  emigrate  are  not  usually  men  of  large  fortunes, 
who  own  slaves,  and  live  at  their  ease,  but  they  are  generally 
men  whose  limbs  are  made  sinewy  by  hard  work;  who  go  to 
new  countries  to  get  land  and  homes,  and  who  expect  t<» 
depend  chiefly  upon  their  own  labor.  Slave  States  are  ob- 
jectionable to  such  men,  for  they  are  too  poor  to  be  slave- 
holders, and  too  proud-spirited  to  wear  the  badge  of  slavery. 
Slavery  has  a  terror  in  its  very  name  to  foreign  immigration. 
Oppressed  at  home,  they  look  to  America  as  the  "land  of  lli" 
free."  When  they  come  to  us  they  are  generally  ready  te 
work  on  our  farms,  canals  and  railroads  with  white  laborer -j, 
but  they  are  not  willing  to  take  their  places  under  the  samo 
task-master  with  negro  slaves.  Establish  slavery  here,  an<"l 
the  effect  will  be  as  it  has  elsewhere.  You  will  turn  asid<> 
that  tide  of  free  white  labor  which  has  poured  itself  like  a 


266  George  H.  Williams. 

fertilizing  flood  across  the  great  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana  and 
Illinois,  and  is  now  murmuring  up  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  Will  slaveholders,  in  view  of  the  great 
hazard  of  bringing  and  keeping  slaves  here,  immigrate  to  any 
considerable  extent?  Will  men  run  a  great  risk  with  their 
property  when  there  is  nothing  to  be  made  by  it?  Slave 
property  is  more  secure  and  more  profitable  in  Missouri  than 
it  would  be  in  Oregon,  then  why  bring  it  here?  Millions  of 
untouched  acres  in  the  new  States  of  the  South  invite  the 
culture  of  cotton,  sugar  and  kindred  productions.  Will  the 
slaveholder  wishing  to  emigrate  go  where  his  slaves  will  be 
secure  and  valuable,  or  will  he  make  a  wild  goose  chase 
across  the  continent  to  engage  in  raising  wheat.  cT^ts  and 
potatoes? 

Some  people  talk  as  though  voting  for  slavery  would 
supply  the  country  with  labor,  but  it  will  be  found  that  money 
is  more  necessary  for  that  purpose  than  votes.  Five  hundred 
slaves  here  would  cost  between  five  hundred  thousand  and  a 
millioti  of  dollars,  and  yet  only  one  farmer  in  ten  would  be 
provided  with  a  hand,  if  there  be  (of  which  there  is  little 
doubt)  5,000  farmers  in  Oregon.  Let  it  be  remembered  that 
out  of  6,222.418  whites  in  the  slave-holding  States,  only  347,^ 
525  own  slaves.  How  can  slave  labor  be  made  to  pay  in  this 
country?  Can  any  farmer  afford  to  buy  and  keep  slaves, 
and  raise  wheat  at  75  cents  or  $1.00  per  bushel?  If  there 
were  thousands  of  slaves  now  cultivating  the  soil  here,  where 
would  be  the  market,  and  what  the  demand  for  the  grain  they 
would  produce?  Slaves  are  certainly  not  necessary  or  desira- 
ble for  fruit  or  stock  raising. 

Much  is  claimed  for  slaveiy  because  the  slave-holding 
States  export  more  and  have  a  larger  amount  of  personal 
property  than  the  non-slave-holding  States.  I  will  compare 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  in  1850.  They  are  adjoining 
States,  and  that  is  a  fair  way  to  try  the  question : 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  267 

Pennsylvania.  Virginia. 

Area     46,000  miles  61,000  miles 

Population     2,311,786  1,421,661 

Total   property    $729,144,998  $391,646,430 

Personal  property   72,410,191  130,198,429 

Manufactures     155,044,910  29,704,387 

Exports    6,255,229  3,302,560 

Imports    12,066,154  426,599 

Now  I  submit  upon  these  figures  which  is  the  more  power- 
ful, wealthy  and  prosperous  of  the  two  States.  True,  the 
personal  property  of  Virginia  exceeds  that  of  Pennsylvania, 
but  this  is  because  422,528  blacks,  estimated  at  so  much  popu- 
lation, are  at  the  same  time  considered  as  personal  property, 
worth  from  $500  to  $2,000  per  head.  I  will  ask  if  1,000 
Pennsylvania  families  would  not  be  worth  more  to  Oregon— 
would  not  make  more  blades  of  grass— bring  more  wheat  to 
market  and  dig  more  gold  out  of  the  mountain  than  so  many 
Virginia  negroes,  and  yet  the  census  taker  would  say  nothing 
about  the  value  of  the  farmers,  but  call  the  negroes  worth  one 
or  two  millions  of  dollars.  The  exports  of  the  South  exceed 
those  of  the  North,  but  that  proves  nothing  for  slavery  here, 
for  84  per  cent  of  exports  of  the  salve-holding  States  are  cot- 
ton, rice  and  sugar,  which  cannot  be  cultivated  in  Oregon. 

T  have  heard  it  said  that  slavery  would  increase  the  price 
of  lands  in  this  country,  but  this  is  a  very  great  mistake.  I 
find  by  the  census  of  1850  that  the  average  value  of  land  per 
acre  in  New  England  is  $20.27.  In  Middle  States  it  is  $28.07 
per  acre,  while  the  average  value  of  land  per  acre  in  the 
Southern  States  is  $5.34.  None  who  are  familiar  with  current 
events,  can  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  large  quantities  of 
land  in  the  South  has  been  worn  out  and  reduced  to  a  value 
merely  nominal  by  slave  labor.  One  very  common  argument 
for  slavery  is,  that  laborers,  if  free,  will  engage  in  mining 
when  they  are  wanted  by  the  farmers.  Admit  such  to  be 
the  fact,  is  the  labor  of  a  man  lost  to  the  country  who  makes 
$25  or  $50  per  month  more  in  the  mines  than  he  would  on  a 
farm  ?  Now  the  question  is,  what  is  good  for  the  country,  not 
what  is  of  bon(>fit  to  A  or  B.  or  any  class  of  individuals,  and 


268  George  H.  Williams. 

I  say  that  is  best  for  the  country  which  gives  to  labor  its 
greatest  reward,  whether  it  be  mining,  farming,  or  any  other 
business.  Labor  ought  to  be  free  so  that  it  can  go  into  that 
pursuit  which  pays  the  best,  or  produce  that  for  which  there 
is  the  greatest  demand,  and  thus  enrich  and  improve  tho 
country.  Scarce  as  labor  has  been,  and  loud  as  are  the  com- 
plaints about  the  state  of  things  here,  nowhere  is  the  diligent 
farmer  more  prosperous  than  in  this  much-abused  Territory 
of  Oregon.  California  has  mines,  and  her  farmers  obtain 
help,  and  so  it  will  be  here  if  the  laws  of  free  labor  and  free 
trade  are  left  to  work  out  their  natural  results.  I  am  opposed 
to  slavery  in  Oregon  because  it  will  degrade  labor.  Cavilled 
with  as  this  objection  may  be,  it  is  vain  to  deny  it.  Suppose 
A  and  B  have  adjoining  farms.  A  is  rich  and  can  buy  slaves 
to  do  his  work.  B  is  less  wealthy  and  must  hire  white  men. 
Now  does  not  the  hired  white  men  of  B  seem  to  take  the  same 
position  with  the  negro  slaves  of  A's?  Does  not  this  system 
inevitably  beget  a  sentiment  that  the  man  or  woman  Avho 
hires  out  to  do  farm  or  house  work  is  put  upon  a  level  with 
negroes  ? 

Society  if  true  to  itself  will  seek  to  elevate  and  not  to  de- 
grade labor.  Labor  changes  wa.ste  places  and  the  wilderness 
into  the  fruitful  field  and  the  beautiful  city.  Laboring  men 
deserve  to  be  the  honorable  of  earth.  They  make  the  country 
and  fight  the  battles  for  its  defense.  They  fill  up  with  vigor 
of  mind  and  body  where  riches  and  luxury  produce  decay. 
They  give  to  humanity  and  fame  the  Franklins,  the  Fultons 
and  the  Websters  of  history.  Every  community  ought  to 
have  a  system  of  free  or  slave  labor.  To  mix  them  aggra- 
vates the  evils  of  both,  and  subtract  from  the  benefits  of  each. 
Negro  slaves  it  must  be  admitted,  are  an  ignorant  and  de- 
graded class  of  beings,  and  therefore  they  will  vitiate  to  some 
extent  those  white  men  who  are  compelled  to  work  or  associate 
with  them.  Moral  differences  when  they  meet,  like  water,  seek 
a  common  level,  and  therefore  if  white  men  and  negroes  are 
brought  in  contact  without  that  perfect  subjection  and  rigid 
discipline  which  prevail  among  the  slaves  of  the  South,  the 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  269 

white  men  will  go  down  and  the  negroes  go  up,  till  they  come 
to  resemble  each  other  in  the  habits,  tastes  and  actions  of 
thfiir  lives. 

Slaves  in  Oregon,  if  they  do  anything  at  all,  must  neces- 
sarily be  "jacks  of  all  work."  They  will  go  everywhere  and 
do  everything.  They  will  be  free  enough  to  see  and  learn 
all  the  vices  of  society,  and  slaves  enough  to  practice  them 
without  pride  or  self  respect.  I  do  not  see  how  white  men 
who  expect  to  labor  in  Oregon,  can  consent  to  have  negro 
slaves  brought  here  to  labor  with  them.  Slaveholders,  as  a 
general  thing,  are  not  willing  to  sell  their  good  men  and 
women  to  be  taken  thousands  of  miles  from  relatives  and 
home,  but  will  sell  the  worthless  and  vicious,  so  that  the 
Oregon  market  would  probably  be  supplied  with  cheap 
negroes,  which  are  a  curse  to  any  country.  Slavery  is  intended 
to  supersede  the  necessity  of  white  labor ;  but  I  deny  that  any 
system  is  an  evil  which  compels  white  people  to  work.  In- 
dustry invigorates  mind  and  body.  It  makes  the  appetite 
good  and  the  sleep  sweet.  It  leads  to  contentment,  virtue 
and  happiness.  Suppose  a  farmer  has  slaves  to  do  his  work, 
anfl  sons  to  rear.  Will  these  sons  be  as  industrious  as  they 
otherwise  would  be,  and  is  any  father  willing  to  have  his 
children  grow  up  without  habits  of  industry?  Indolence  is 
a  dangerous  luxury  for  young  people,  and  there  is  good  sense 
in  the  Spanish  proverb,  that  "an  idle  brain  is  the  devil's 
workshop."  What  will  be  the  political  effect  of  making 
Oregon  a  slave  State?  This  is  a  grave  question  and  ought  to 
be  carefully  considered.  Surrounded  by  non-slave-holding 
territory — her  geographical  position— her  climate— the  pro- 
ductions of  her  soil,  and  the  nature  of  her  commerce,  all  unite 
and  identify  her  with  the  Northern  States.  Suppose  we  go 
into  the  Union  as  a  free  State,  the  North  will  be  pleased  and 
the  South  satisfied.  No  statesman  ever  dreamed  that  slavery 
would  ever  exist  in  Oregon,  and  for  that  reason  Douglas 
voted  for,  and  Polk  approved  its  prohibition  in  our  organic 
act.  And  last  winter,  Mr.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  said  in  Con- 
gress, that  he  would  be  glad  to  have  the  Northwest  territories 


270  George  H.  Williams. 

come  ill  as  slave  States,  but  did  not  expect  it  for  the  laws  of 
climate,  production,  and  population  would  prevent.  I  believe 
that  we  could  go  into  the  Union  as  a  free  State,  without  ob- 
jection or  excitement  upon  that  ground,  for  this  is  what  all 
parts  of  the  country  expect;  but  as  a  slave  State,  we  should 
arouse  the  prejudices  of  the  whole  North;  for,  as  there  is 
nothing  in  our  circum.stanees  or  interests  to  justify  such  a 
thing,  it  would  be  regarded  as  a  mere  political  movement  to 
extend  the  institution  of  slavery.  I  contend  that  we  have  a 
perfect  right*  to  have  slavery  or  not.  as  we  please,  but  we 
know  what  the  sentiment  of  the  North  is  upon  this  question, 
and  we  must  take  things  as  they  are,  and  not  as  they  should 
be.  Can  Oregon  with  her  great  claims,  present  and  prospec- 
tive, upon  the  government,  afford  to  throw  away  the  friend- 
ship of  the  North — the  overruling  power  of  the  nation — for 
the  sake  of  slavery?  Would  it  be  advisable,  when  we  can  avoid 
it,  to  go  into  the  Union  in  a  tempest  of  excitement  upon  the 
negro  question?  Oregon  would  have  more  influence  in  the 
councils  of  the  country,  as  a  free,  than  as  a  slave  State.  Free, 
conservative,  and  impartial,  she  would  be  like  California,  of 
the  family  of  the  North,  and  of  the  friends  of  the  South ;  but 
as  a  slave  State,  she  could  only  depend  upon  the  sympathies 
of  the  slave-holding  power.  Slavery,  it  is  said,  will  save  us 
from  fanaticism,  but  this  is  not  true.  Fanaticism  is  not  alto- 
gether confined  to  the  free  States.  South  Carolina  is  not 
behind  Massachusetts  in  this  respect.  Garrison,  Phillips  & 
Co.,  occupy  one  extreme,  and  Adams,  Rhett  &  Co.,  the  other. 
The  Tribunes  and  Couriers  of  the  North  are  seconded  in  their 
sectional  warfare  by  the  Mercurys  and  Deltas  of  the  South. 
Political  fanaticism  within  the  last  year,  has  desecrated  elec- 
tions in  four  of  the  chief  cities  of  the  South  with  violence 
and  bloodshed.  I  admit  that  there  is  more  intensity  of  though^ 
and  energy  of  action  in  the  North  than  in  the  South,  and  that 
these  produce  many  excesses  which  I  condemn  as  much  as  an\- 
man,  but  at  the  same  time  they  work  miracles  in  science  and 


*   Evidently  the  Judge  meant  political   rig-lit,  as  he  was  not  disriissins 
the  ethical  aspect  of  the  question. — T.  W.   n. 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  271 

art,  and  all  the  improvements  of  the  age.  Fanaticism,  even  if 
we  have  it  as  a  free  State,  will  waste  itself  upon  abstractions 
and  idealities  about  something  thousands  of  miles  away; 
while  with  slavery  there  will  come  a  fanaticism  like  the 
Promethean  vulture,  to  prey  upon  our  very  vitals.  Slavery 
here,  in  the  nature  of  things,  must  be  a  weak  institution. 
Fanaticism  from  the  North  would  therefore  assail  it,  and 
from  the  South  rush  into  its  defense.  Torn  and  distracted  in 
this  way,  our  happiness  and  prosperity  would  be  sacrificed  to 
a  miserable  strife  about  negroes. 

Some  argue  that  Oregon  should  become  a  slave  State  so  as 
to  make  the  slave-holding  and  non-slave-holding  States  equal 
in  the  Senate.  Admitted  now  as  a  slave  State,  we  might  make 
the  States  nominally  equal  in  that  body,  but  how  soon  would 
Minnesota,  Kansas,  Nebraska  or  some  other  Territory  come  in 
and  destroy  it?  We  might  set  to  work  to  balance  the  Union, 
but  have  we  any  assurance  that  other  territories  will  concur 
in  the  movement?  Territories  ought  and  will  consult  their 
own  best  interests  upon  this  subject,  and  Congress  has  no 
right  to  regulate  the  admission  of  States  so  as  to  preserve  -f-h" 
balance  of  power  between  different  sections  of  the  Confeder- 
acy. I  will  quote  upon  this  point  from  a  speech  made  last 
winter  by  Mr.  Douglas,  in  the  Senate:  "Is  it  (says  he)  to  be 
a  struggle,  to  keep  up  an  equilibrium  between  non-slave- 
holding  and  slave-holding  States?  Sir,  I  deny  the  power  of 
this  government,  to  maintain  any  equilibrium  upon  the  sub- 
ject; it  is  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  Nebraska  bill;  it 
is  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  Democratic  party;  it  is 
contrary  to  the  principles  of  State  equality  and  self-govern- 
ment to  keep  an  equilibrium  between  slave-holding  and  non- 
slave-holding  States  in  order  that  they  may  balance  each 
other."  I  add  to  this,  that  it  would  tend  to  create  a  geog- 
raphical division  which  all  true  friends  of  the  Union  should 
try  to  break  down  and  prevent.  This  theory  looks  very  much 
like  Calhoun's  stillborn  project  of  a  dual  executive  in  the 
government. 

I  might  go  further  in  this  discussion,  but  perhaps  T  have 


272  George  H.  Williams. 

already  written  more  than  will  be  read.  Whatever  may  be 
inferred  from  my  arguments  against  slavery  in  Oregon,  I 
disclaim  all  sympathy  with  the  abolition  agitators  of  the 
North  and  deprecate  and  denounce  all  sectional  organizations 
upon  that  subject.  I  take  the  ground  that  the  general  gov- 
ernment has  no  right  in  any  way  to  interfere  with  slavery, 
except  to  carry  out  the  fugitive  slave  clause  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  have  maintained  the  opinion  that  each  State  and 
Territory  has  the  absolute  right  to  establish,  modify,  or  pro- 
hibit slavery  within  its  borders,  subject  only  to  the  Constitu- 
tional restriction  to  "persons  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one 
State  escaping  into  another." 

T  hold,  too,  that  a  man's  views  as  to  slavery  in  Oregon  are 
no  test  of  his  Democracy.  To  be  national,  the  Democratic 
party  must  necessarily  embrace  those  who  prefer  a  free  and 
those  who  prefer  a  slave  State.  Cobb  no  doubt  upholds 
slavery  in  Georgia,  where  he  lives,  and  Dickinson  would  oppose 
it  in  New  York,  where  he  lives,  and  both  are  good  Democrats. 
Buchanan,  Cass  and  Douglas  would  vote  against  slavery  in 
the  States  where  they  respectively  reside,  and  if  they  mean 
what  they  say,  would  vote  against  it  here  if  they  lived  in 
Oregon. 

Taking  everything  into  consideration,  I  ask  if  it  is  not  the 
true  policy  of  Oregon  to  keep  as  clear  as  possible  of  negroes, 
and  all  the  exciting  questions  of  negro  servitude?  Situated 
away  here  on  the  Pacific,  as  a  free  State,  we  are  not  likely 
to  be  troubled  much  with  free  negroes  or  fugitive  slaves,  but 
as  a  slave  State  there  would  be  a  constant  struggle  about  laws 
to  protect  such  property— fierce  excitements  about  running 
off  or  stealing  negroes,  for  which  this  country  is  so  favorable, 
and  there  would  be  no  peace. 

I  have  faith  in  the  future  of  this  country,  but  I  do  not 
conceive  that  its  prosperity  depends  upon  the  spiritless  ef- 
forts of  enslaved  labor,  but  upon  the  energies  of  a  free  and 
intelligent  people.  New  routes  of  travel  are  being  opened 
across  the  continent.  New  lines  of  steamships  and  clippers 
are  being  put  upon  the  ocean.     Facilities  for  traveling  are 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  273 

increasing  and  expenses  are  being  reduced.  The  Pacific 
railroad  is  a  proximate  reality.  Men  who  can  lift  their  eyes 
above  the  little  precincts  of  a  day,  will  see  in  these  things  the 
promise  of  our  growth  and  greatness  as  a  people.  I  know 
what  syren  song  self-love  sings  for  slavery;  how  pleasant  it 
seems  in  prospect  to  have  a  slave  to  till  our  ground,  to  wait 
upon  us  while  we  wake,  and  fan  us  when  we  sleep.  But  are 
these  the  ideas  to  possess  men  whose  business  it  is  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  a  State?  History,  philosophy,  and  posterity 
plead  with  us  not  to  be  wholly  absorbed  in  the  present,  but  to 
learn  from  the  past  and  look  to  the  future,  and  if  we  hear  and 
obey  this  appeal,  the  lapse  of  twenty-five  or  fifty  years, 
which  is  as  nothing  in  the  life  of  a  State,  will  find  Oregon 
teeming  with  a  people,  intelligent,  prosperous  and  happy,  and 
every  man  a  freeman. 

Geo.  H.  Williams. 


OREGON'S  FIRST  MONOPOLY-The  O.  S.  N.  CO.* 

By    iKKNE   LiNCOI.N    POPPLETON. 

In  developing  any  new  country,  transportation  facilities  are 
a  necessity.  On  the  Ohio  frontier  one  of  the  first  questions 
that  confronted  the  pioneer  was,  how  to  get  his  produce  to 
market  by  a  cheap  and  efficient  means  of  transportation. 
Until  government  roads  and  canals  were  opened  it  was  not 
practical  nor  profitable  to  carry  products  to  any  distant 
market.  They  found  it  necessary  to  convert  their  bulky 
products  into  a  condensed  form,  for  instance  wheat  and  corn 
to  whisky,  or  they  raised  livestock,  which  could  walk  to 
market.  In  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  it  was  the  same  way. 
And  in  later  years  in  the  development  of  South  Africa  by  the 
British  government  the  first  step  was  the  construction  of 
railroads.     Russia  used  the  same  method  in  Siberia. 

In  every  case  we  find  that  consolidated  capital  was  the 
means  of  opening  up  the  country,  and  developing  facilities 
otherwise  impossible.  No  individual  would  risk  his  entire 
fortune  in  such  an  uncertain  venture.  The  Erie  canal  was 
scoffed  at  by  the  general  public  until  it  was  proved  a  suc- 
cess. The  Pacific  railroad  was  pushed  to  completion  in 
the  face  of  strong  opposition.  All  through  history  are  in- 
stances of  consolidation  of  capital,  government  or  otherwise, 
for  promoting  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  It  has  seldom 
resulted  in  monopoly,  but  monopoly  is  the  natural  tendency. 
In  the  development  of  a  project  all  the  parties  interested  con- 
centrate their  forces  upon  a  certain  plan  of  action.  As  the 
plans  develop  the  organization  becomes  stronger  and  is  more 
able  to  resist  opposition  and  if  they  are  in  a  position  to 
control  any  essential  feature  of  the  project  the  outcome  is  the 
seizure  of  it  as  a  sure  means  of  success.  When  this  is  accom- 
plished monopoly  is  assured. 


♦   Prepared   as  a    thesis   for  the   degree   of   Bachelor   of  Arts   from   the 
Uniyerslty  of  Oregon. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  275 

In  order  to  fully  understand  the  monopoly  of  the  Columbia 
River  by  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  it  will  be 
necessary  to  study  in  detail  the  geographical  formation  of 
the  gorge  of  the  Columbia.  The  obstructions  to  navigation 
here  are : 

First,  The  Cascades,  and 

Second,  What  is  known  as  The  Dalles  rapids  and  the  Ten 
Mile    rapids,    which    are    regarded   as    one. 

The  Cascades  are  160  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river. 
There  is  an  Indian  legend  in  connection  with  the  forming  of 
the  Cascades  that  is  interesting.  Many,  many  years  ago  a 
huge  mountain  fell  and  dammed  up  the  river.  Soon  it  forced 
through,  forming  a  bridge.  This  was  called  the  Bridge  of 
the  Gods.  A  long  time  afterwards  an  earthquake  caused  it 
to  fall,  forming  the  obstruction  which  we  know  as  the  Cas- 
cades.^ The  Cascades  have  always  been  of  importance  on 
account  of  the  break  in  navigation,  making  a  portage  abso- 
lutely necessary.  The  rocks  and  falls  in  the  river  extend  for 
a  distance  of  five  miles. 

The  obstruction  at  The  Dalles,  220  miles  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia,  generally  called  The  Dalles  rapids,  and  con- 
sisting of  The  Dalles  rapids.  Three  Mile  rapids.  Ten  Mile 
rapids  and  Celilo  Falls,  twelve  miles  in  all,  extending  from 
the  foot  of  Three  Mile  rapid,  which  is  located  about  two  miles 
below  the  foot  of  The  Dalles  rapids,  to  what  is  known  as  the 
head  of  Celilo  Falls.2 

These  obstructions  cut  off  absolutely  from  communication 
with  the  lower  Columbia  and  sea  navigation  by  steam  or  other 
boats,  1,294  miles  of  the  1,664  miles  of  navigable  waters  of 
the  Columbia  and  its  tributaries.^ 

The  220  miles  below  these  obstructions  and  150  miles  of 
navigable  waters  of  the  Willamette,  making  370  miles,  con- 
stitute the  whole  of  the  navigable  waters  of  the  Columbia  and 
its  tributaries  that  are  not  affected  by  these  obstructions. 


1  A  Brief  Hist,  of  the  O.  S.  N.  Co.,  by  P.  W.  Gillette. 

2  Senate  Doc.  No.  344,  February,  1890. 
.■5   Senate  Doc.   No.   344.   February,   18!)0. 


276       Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

Above  these  obstructions  the  Columbia  with  its  tributaries  is 
navigable  to  the  extent  of  1,294  miles.  Thus  the  Columbia 
would  be  navigable  for  1,664  miles  were  it  not  for  these  ob- 
structions.^ 

The  Cascade  range  of  mountains  extends  entirely  across  the 
States  of  Oregon  and  Washington,  and  the  only  natural  open- 
ing in  the  range  is  the  Columbia  River.  Through  this  opening 
is  the  natural  transportation  route  for  the  products  of  the 
great  valley  of  the  Columbia  to  the  seaboard  and  of  the  sup- 
plies for  the  inhabitants  of  that  region.  The  Columbia  River 
is  in  size  and  importance  the  second  in  the  United  States.-  The 
total  area  drained  by  it  is  244,959  square  miles.  It  is  divided 
as  follows : 

Oregon:  Square  Miles. 

Willamette  and  Columbia  below  the  mouth  of  Columbia.  .      12,000 

Deschutes     10,000 

John  Day,  Willow  Creek  and  Walla  Walla 12,600 

Snake  Kiver   17,200 

Washington  Territory: 

North  side  Columbia  below  the  Snake 8,000 

Columbia   above   the   Snake 5,200 

Idaho: 

Columbia  River    7,600 

Snake  River   70,040 

Nevada: 

Snake  River    6,280 

Wyoming: 

Snake  River   5,184 

Utah: 

Snake  River    700 

Montana: 

Columbia  River    20,800 

British  Columbia: 

Columbia  River    38,395 

Or  it  may  be  divided  in  another  way  as  follows: 

Snake  River    104,604 

Upper  Columbia  above  the  junction  with  the  Snake 97,15.5 

Main  Columbia  below  the  junction    43,200 

Total     .^244,950 

4  Senate  Doc.  No.   344,  February,   1890. 

5  Lieutenant  Symon's  Report,  Senate  Doc.  No.  232,  February.   1892. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  277 

This  is  an  area  larger  than  all  New  England,  the  Middle 
States,  Maryland,  Virginia  and  West  Virginia,  and  richer  in 
natural  resources.^  An  area  which  produced  in  1907  approxi- 
mately 58,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  which  was  shipped  from 
Portland,  was  one-fourth  of  the  amount  produced  in  the 
entire  United  States. ^  Such  possibilities  in  wheat  production, 
together  with  the  mines  in  Eastern  Washington,  Montana  and 
Idaho,  show  in  some  degree  the  wealth  and  importance  of  the 
Columbia  River  Basin. 

Steamboating  on  the  Columbia  seems  to  have  started  in 
1850  or  earlier.  As  early  as  the  summer  of  1850  the  little 
steamer  "Columbia"  was  running  between  Astoria  and  Port- 
land.^ The  steamer  "Lot  Whitcomb"  was  then  in  the  course 
of  construction.^  Captain  Lot  Whitcomb  was  the  partner  of 
Colonel  Jennings  in  this  steamboat  enterprize,  and  J.  C. 
Ainsworth  was  her  first  captain,  with  Jacob  Kamm  the 
engineer.  It  was  the  intention  to  run  the  boat  between  Mil- 
waukie  and  Portland,  though  at  that  time  the  business  was  so 
limited  that  had  it  not  been  for  towing  lumber  vessels,  the  boat 
could  not  have  possibly  paid  expenses.  In  1852  a  small  iron 
propeller  called  the  "Jason  P.  Flint,"  was  brought  from  the 
East.  The  Bradfords  ran  this  above  the  Cascades.^  J.  C. 
Ainsworth,  Jacob  Kamm  and  Thomas  Pope  of  the  firm  of 
Abernethy,  Clark  &  Company,  built  the  "Jennie  Clark"  in 
1854  for  the  Oregon  City  and  Portland  trade.^  In  1858  the 
"Carrie  Ladd"  was  launched  in  Oregon  City."^  She  was  con- 
structed by  J.  P.  Thomas  for  the  same  people.  She  was  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  modern  river  steamer  that  had  as  yet 
appeared.  While  the  "Carrie  Ladd"  was  in  the  course  of 
construction,  R.  R.  Thompson,  who  had  been  engaged  upon 


1   Senate  Doc.   No.   7  82,  Vol.   2.    Febniaiy,    lS7!i. 
■2   Making  Oregon.  April  25,  1908. 
:i  Ms. 

4  M.S. 

5  Story  of  Oreg.   R.   R.,   by  W.   T.   Bailey,   Pacific   Monthly,  Jan. -June, 
1907,  Vol.  17,  page  549. 

6  Ms. 

7  Ms. 


278  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton, 

the  upper  Columbia  River  in  transporting  government  freight 
in  sail  boats,  built,  at  the  upper  Cascades,  a  fine  little  steamer 
called  the  "Venture,"*^  with  the  intention  of  in  some  way 
making  the  portage  at  The  Dalles,  and  using  her  on  the 
upper  Columbia.  His  partner,  L.  W.  Coe,  was  made  captain. 
In  attempting  to  make  the  first  trip  to  The  Dalles,  the  boat 
was  carried  over  the  falls  at  the  upper  Cascades.  She  was 
afterwards  hauled  out  and  repaired  and  her  name  changed 
to  the  "Umatilla."  By  1859  the  steamers  "Senorita,'" 
"Belle"  and  "Multnomah,"  owned  by  Stark,  Reed,  Dick 
Williams,  Hoyt  and  Wells,  all  under  the  management  of  Ben 
Stark,  were  running  between  Portland  and  The  Cascades.^ 
The  "Belle"  was  the  first  boat  to  make  regular  trips.  Op- 
posed to  this  interest  was  the  "Mountain  Buck,"  owned  by 
J.  S.  Ruckle  and  H.  Olmstead,  who  also  owned  the  portage 
at  The  Cascades  on  the  Oregon  side  of  the  river.^  Bradford 
&  Company  owned  the  portage  on  the  Washington  side  of  the 
river,  together  with  the  steamers  "Hassalo"  and  "Mary" 
plying  between  The  Cascades  and  The  Dalles."  Ruckles  and 
Olmstead  owning  the  little  steamer  "Wasco"  plying  on  the 
same  route,  and  thus  making  them  a  through  line  between 
Portland  and  The  Dalles.  There  were  no  steamers  up  to  this 
time  on  the  upper  Columbia,  but  R.  R.  Thompson  was  the 
owner  of  all  the  sail  boats  on  the  upper  Columbia,  and  was 
then  building  the  steamer  "Colonel  Wright."  At  this  time 
the  portage  at  The  Dalles  was  made  by  teams  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Deschutes  River  and  0.  Humason  had  charge  of  this 
portage.  The  freight  over  this  portage  was  $20.00  per  ton 
measurement. 

The  Stark  party  and  Bradford  formed  one  line  by  a  division 
of  receipts  as  follows:  The  freight,  which  was  at  that  time 
$30.00  per  ton  between  Portland  and  The  Dalles,  was  divided 
in  four  parts— Stark  and  his  party  receiving  one-fourth,  or 


8 

Ms. 

i 

Ms. 

2 

Ms. 

.3 

Ms. 

Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  279 

$7.50  per  ton,  for  delivering  their  freight  at  the  foot  of  the 
rapids  at  the  foot  of  The  Cascades,  at  what  was  known  as  the 
Garrison  or  Johnston's  Landing.  Here  Geo.  W.  Johnston 
took  charge  of  it— Bradford  was  his  partner,  though  under 
cover— and  took  it  over  the  first  rapid  in  sail  boats  to  what 
was  known  as  the  first  landing,  for  which  he  received  $7.50 
per  ton.  From  this  place  it  was  taken  on  a  wooden  tram  to 
the  upper  Cascades  by  Bradford  &  Company  and  placed  on 
their  steamer  above,  they  receiving  one-fourth  for  the  tram- 
way service  and  one-fourth  for  their  steamer  from  The  Cas- 
cades to  The  Dalles.^  At  this  time  Stark  ran  his  boat  from 
Portland  to  The  Dalles,  tri-weekly.  Passengers  were  com- 
pelled to  remain  over  night  at  The  Cascades,  taking  two  days 
from  Portland  to  The  Dalles.  Ruckle  and  Olmstead  were 
running  on  the  same  time  but  they  owned  their  whole  line 
through  and  though  it  was  of  a  very  inferior  character  they 
did  not  have  to  divide  with  others  and  were  rapidly  en- 
croaching on  the  business  of  the  old  or  Bradford  line.  About 
this  time  the  Stark  party  was  reinforced  by  the  advent  of 
the  "Carrie  Ladd,"  with  J.  C.  Ainsworth  in  command,  which 
ran  between  Portland  and  the  middle  landing  of  The  Cas- 
cades, thus  earning  one-half  the  receipts.  This  gave  such  an 
advantage  in  time  and  facilities  to  the  old  company  that 
Ruckle  and  Olmstead,  who  had  been  making  such  inroads  on 
the  business,  proposed  a  combination.  The  result  was  that  in 
April,  1859,  a  general  combination  was  made  of  all  the  inter- 
ests as  far  as  the  middle  landing  of  The  Cascades  under  the 
name  of  The  Union  Transportation  Company,  with  J.  C. 
Ainsworth  and  J.  S.  Ruckle  as  agents.  By  this  arrangement 
Bradford  &  Company  were  to  have  all  of  the  business  from 
the  middle  landing  to  The  Dalles,  Ruckle  and  Olmstead  with- 
drawing their  steamer  "Wasco"  from  this  route." 

At  the  time  these  negotiations  were  entered  into  the  Stark 
party  were  known  as  the  Columbia  River  Steam  Navigation 
Company,  and  Ruckle's  and  Olmstead 's  line  as  the  Oregon 


4  Ms. 

5  Ms. 


280        Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

Transportation  Company.  The  rates  of  passage  were  at  this 
time  from  Portland  to  the  lower  Cascades,  $6.00;  passage 
over  the  portage,  from  $1.00  to  $3.00.  This  Union  Transpor- 
tation Company  continued  to  work  pretty  well  for  about  one 
year,  but  there  was  great  difficulty  in  conflicting  ownership 
and  interests  of  steamers  and  portages.  A  closer  consolida- 
tion of  interests  seemed  to  be  necessary,  and  Mr.  Ainsworth 
set  about  to  accomplish  this,  trying  if  possible  to  combine  at 
least  the  steamboat  intere.sts  together  as  one  company.  In 
fact,  this  was  an  old  scheme  of  his,  often  talked  over  with  his 
friend  R.  R.  Thompson,  but  whose  interests  were  at  this  time 
all  on  the  upper  Columbia,  making  it  therefore  necessary  for 
him  to  proceed  alone,  even  with  an  element  whose  interests 
were  somewhat  antagonistic  to  those  of  Thompson's.  But 
after  much  discussion  it  was  agreed  between  the  San  Fran- 
cisco parties  owning  the  control  of  the  steamer  "Julia,"  the 
parties  owning  the  old  boats  of  the  Columbia  River  Steam 
Navigation  Company,  composed  of  Stark,  Reed.  Williams, 
Wells,  and  Hoyt;  the  owners  of  The  Oregon  Transportation 
Company,  composed  of  J.  S.  Ruckle  and  H.  Olmstead  and 
Bradford  &  Company,  owning  boats  between  The  Cascades 
and  The  Dalles,  and  J.  C.  Ainsworth  and  associates  owning 
the  steamer  "Carrie  Ladd,"  that  it  would  be  desirable  to 
consolidate  the  different  steamboat  interests  into  one  com- 
pany and  that  it  should  be  done  if  terms  could  be  agreed 
upon.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  discussion  as  to  the 
valuation  of  the  different  boats  that  should  constitute  the 
basis  of  the  new  company.  This  was  finally  adjusted  and  an 
agreement  was  reached  to  combine  all  the  steamboat  interests 
between  Astoria  and  The  Dalles.  The  next  step  was  to  bring 
in  R.  R.  Thompson,  who  owned  the  steamer  "Colonel  Wright" 
and  a  lot  of  small  sail  boats  on  the  upper  Columbia  River.  At 
length  an  agreement  was  reached  and  the  Oregon  Steam  Navi- 
gation Company  was  formed,  with  a  capital  in  steamboats  and 
other  property  at  the  highest  possible  figure  of  $172,500.00.^ 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  281 

J.  C.  Ainsworth  was  made  agent  and  so  remained  until  the 
company  was  legally  organized  on  December  20,  1860,  w^hen 
they  procured  a  charter  from  the  Washington  territorial 
legislature  with  nominal  headquarters  at  Vancouver.  The 
shares  were  valued  at  $500.00  each,  with  fifteen  shareholders 
whose  holdings  were  as  follows: 

R.  R.  Thompson 120  shares      Benjamin  Stark 19  shares 

Ladd  &  Tilton 80  shares      Josiah  Myrick 12  shares 

T.  W.  Lyles 76  shares      Richard  Williams   7  shares 

L,  W.  Coe 60  shares      J.  W.   Ladd 4  shares 

Jacob  Kamm   57  shares       G.   W.  Pope 4  shares 

J.  C.  Ainsworth 40  shares      J.  M.  Gilman 4  shares 

A.  H.  Barker 30  shares      Geo.  W.  Hoyt 3  shares 

S.  G.  Reed 26  shares  * 

J.  C.  Ainsworth  was  elected  president,  which  position  he 
occupied,  with  the  exception  of  one  year,  during  the  entire 
life  of  the  corporation.  The  superior  value  of  that  portion 
of  the  new  line  owned  by  Thompson  and  Coe  was  recognized 
by  giving  them  a  much  larger  block  of  the  stock  than  any 
other  faction.  Ladd  &  Tilton,  the  bankers,  had  rendered 
some  financial  aid  to  the  owners  of  the  steamers  "Mountain 
Buck"  and  "Senorita,"  and  in  this  way  secured  an  interest 
in  the  corporation  in  which  the  senior  of  the  banking  firm  af- 
terwards became  quite  a  power.  The  difficulty  in  effecting 
an  organization  of  this  company  was  very  great  but  its  subse- 
quent history  was  great  in  results  and  usefulness.  No  other 
steamboat  company  in  the  United  States  can  show  such  a 
record.  They  commenced  as  before  stated  with  a  capital  in 
property  at  the  highest  possible  valuation  of  $172,500.00 ;  no 
assessment  was  ever  levied  on  this  stock.  The  company  ex- 
pended in  gold  nearly  three  million  dollars  in  creating  their 
subsequent  magnificent  property,  besides  paying  to  their 
stockholders  in  dividends  over  two  million  five  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  in  gold.- 

The  first  board  of  directors,  elected  December  29,   1860, 


Lewis  and  Dryden. 
Ms. 


282        Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

were  as  follows :  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  J.  S.  Ruckle,  D.  F.  Brad- 
ford, S.  G.  Reed  and  L.  W.  Coe.  These  were  supposed  to 
represent  the  different  interests  that  composed  the  new  com- 
pany. On  June  8th,  L.  W.  Coe  resigned  as  director  and  R.  R. 
Thompson  was  elected  in  his  place. ^  Very  soon  after  the 
legal  organization  of  the  company  the  rich  placer  gold  mines 
of  Idaho  Territory,  Eastern  Washington  Territory  and  West- 
ern Montana  Avere  discovered  and  a  rush  of  miners  and  freight 
up  the  Columbia  River  was  the  consequence.*  The  new  com- 
pany was  greatly  overtaxed  to  do  the  business  that  was  forced 
upon  them.  They  had  but  few  boats,  most  of  them  very  indif- 
ferent, the  "Carrie  Ladd"  being  the  best  in  the  new  line. 
The  portages  at  The  Cascades  were  owned  by  rival  and  hostile 
parties,  yet  both  were  interested  in  the  Oregon  Steam  Naviga- 
tion Company,  and  occupied  seats  on  the  board.  These  parties 
regarded  their  portage  interests  as  of  paramount  importance. 
They  looked  upon  the  company  as  simply  auxiliary  to  their 
other  and  larger  interests.  The  portage  at  The  Dalles  was  at 
the  formation  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  made 
by  teams  to  the  mouth  of  the  Deschutes  River  a  distance  of 
about  twenty  miles,  and  was  at  that  time  principally  controlled 
by  0.  Humason  and  his  associates.  The  freight  for  the  new 
mining  country  was  so  extensive  that  at  times  the  whole  port- 
age at  the  Cascades  was  lined  with  freight  from  one  end  to 
the  other;  the  result  was,  of  course,  heavy  losses  caused  by 
damage  and  a  system  of  robbery  impossible  to  prevent.  They 
paid  damages  to  freight  in  a  single  month  amounting  to  over 
$10,000.00.  The  most  of  this  occurred  on  the  portage,  yet  it 
was  invariably  charged  to  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany. The  steamboat  men  realized  the  disadvantage  under 
Avhich  they  labored,  as  they  were  simply  interested  in  a  line  of 
steamers  that  were  wholly  dependent  on  the  portages,  which 
were  in  the  hands  of  rivals.  They  could  see  that  the  Oregon 
Steam  Navigation  Company  must  control  the  portages,  or 
the  portagas  must  control  and  .sAvallow  up  the  company,  or 


3  Ms. 

4  Lewis  and  Dryden 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  283 

in  other  words,  the  whole  interest  must  be  as  one.  The  ques- 
tion then  was  simply  as  to  the  mastery,  and  here  commenced 
the  struggle.  At  this  time  the  Bradford's  means  of  trans- 
portation over  their  portage  was  a  very  indifferent  wooden 
tramway  from  what  was  known  as  the  Middle  Landing  to  the 
upper  Cascades  on  the  Washington  side.^ 

Ruckle's  means  of  transportation  on  the  Oregon  side  was  a 
wooden  tramway  the  whole  length  of  the  portage,  the  lower 
half,  or  from  the  Middle  Landing  down,  was  of  iron  strap  and 
over  this  portion  of  the  road  he  ran  a  small  engine.  The  ears 
on  the  upper  part  of  the  road  were  hauled  by  mules,  as  they 
were  on  the  Bradford  road.  During  the  high  stage  of  water, 
say  from  May  to  August,  the  steamers  could  not  run  to  the 
Middle  Landing,  consequently  Ruckle  transported  the  freight 
at  such  times  over  the  entire  portage,  for  which  he  received 
one-half  the  through  freight  from  Portland  to  The  Dallas, 
and  as  Bradford  had  no  tramway  below  the  Middle  Landing, 
he  could  not  claim  from  Ruckle  a  division  of  portage  earnings 
on  the  lower  half  of  his  road.  This  annoyed  Bradford  ex- 
ceedingly, as  Ruckle's  income  from  this  source,  with  the  im- 
mense freight  that  was  then  moving,  was  very  great.^ 

J.  C.  Ainsworth  and  those  who  were  looking  to  the  interest 
of  the  steamboat  men,  now  absorbed  The  Dalles  portage.  They 
.stocked  the  road  with  teams  and  wagons  at  a  cost  of  about 
$100,000.00.  This  immense  caravan  was  taxed  to  its  utmost 
capacity,  as  was  everything  else  that  they  owned.  The  next 
step  was  to  bring  the  board  of  directors  to  see  the  necessity  of 
building  a  railroad  from  The  Dalles  to  Celilo  and  to  convince 
them  that  the  company  could  safely  undertake  it.  J.  C. 
Ainsworth  was  dispatched  to  San  Francisco.  He  found  that 
the  house  of  Colman  &  Company  had  about  twenty  miles  of 
railroad  iron,  which  could  be  procured  by  paying  freight  and 
charges.  He  made  arrangements  to  take  all  of  the  iron,  as 
they  would  not  divide  the  lot.  The  Dalles  railroad  would  only 
require  fourteen  miles,  so  this  would  be  enough  for  The  Cas- 

1  Ms. 
■1   Ms. 


284  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

cades  portage  as  well.  Arrangements  were  made  for  the 
shipment  of  this  iron  at  once,  and  the  work  of  constructing 
The  Dalles  and  Celilo  road  was  commenced.  They  had  com- 
pleted about  three  miles  of  this  road  at  The  Dalles,  when  Mr. 
Bradford  became  more  and  more  frightened  at  the  success  of 
Mr.  Ruckle  on  the  Oregon  side  of  The  Cascades.  This  led 
Mr.  Bradford  to  agree  to  the  construction  of  a  road  by  the 
Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  the  full  length  of  the 
portage  of  the  Washington  side  of  the  river.  As  soon  as  the 
negotiations  for  the  sale  were  completed  the  construction  force 
at  The  Dalles  was  taken  to  The  Cascades  and  placed  at  work. 
Ruckle  became  convinced  that  his  true  policy  was  to  sell  to 
the  company.  The  purchase  was  made  that  gave  everything 
into  the  hands  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company, 
November  4th,  1862,  and  the  price  paid  was  $155,000.00.^ 

The  company  that  was  first  organized  by  special  act  of  the 
Legislature  of  Washington  Territory,  with  nominal  head- 
quarters at  Vancouver,  was  dissolved  December  5th,  1862,  and 
re-organized  under  the  general  corporation  law  of  the  State 
of  Oregon.  This  settled  the  question  of  supremacy.  The 
Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  was  now  master  of  the 
river,  and  all  rival  interests  were  now  centered  in  the  com- 
pany.2  The  capital  stock  was  $2,000,000.00,  represented  by 
twenty-five  shareholders,  at  $500.00  per  share,  as  follows: 

Bradford  &  Co 758  shares      J.  W.  Ladd 48  shares 

E.  R.  Thompson 672  shares      J.  M.  Gilman 44  shares 

Harrison    Olmstead.  .  .  .558  shares      P.  F.  Doland 42  shares 

Jacob  Kamm    354  shares      E.  J.  Weekes 42  shares 

L.  W.  Coe 336  shares      S.  G.  Reed,  Agt 40  shares 

T.  W.  Lyles 210  shares      J.  W.  Ladd,  Agt 40  shares 

J.   C.  Ainsworth 188  ehares      Jos.  Bailey   36  shares 

A.  H.  Barker 160  shares      O.  .Humason   34  shares 

S.  G.  Reed 128  shares      ,J.  S.  Ruckle 24  shares 

Ladd   &   Tilton 78  shares      Geo.  W.  Hoyt 18  shares 

Josiah  Myrick 66  shares      Ladd  &  Tilton 16  shares 

Richard  Williams 48  shares      J.  H.  Whittlesey 8  shares 

A.  H.  Grenzebach 52  shares  * 


1  Ms. 

2  Ms. 

•  Lewis  and  Dryden. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  285 

The  Articles  of  Incorporation  were  as  follows: 

Article  1. 
J.  C.  Ainsworth,  D.  F.  Bradford,  R.  R.  Thompson  and  S.  G.  Reed: 
Their   associates,   successors   and   assigns,   do   hereby   associate   them- 
selves under  and  by  virtue  of  the  provisions  of  an  act  of  the  Legisla- 
tive Assembly  of  the  State  of  Oregon,  entitled,  "An  Act  Providing  for 
the  Private  Incorporations,"  approved  October,  A.  D.  1862. 
Article  2. 
The  name  of  this  incorporation  and  by  which  it  shall  be  known,  is 
the  "Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company." 
Article  3. 
The  object  of  this  incorporation  and  the  business  in  which  it  pro- 
poses  to   engage,   is   the   navigation   by   steam   and   otherwise   of   the 
Columbia  River  from  its  mouth  to  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north 
latitude,  and  the  S'nake  River  from  its  mouth  to  Fort  Boise,  and  the 
Willamette  River  from  its  mouth  to  Eugene  City,  and  the  Pacific  and 
other  oceans,  together  with  the  construction  and  use  of  all  necessary 
rail  or  plank  or  clay  roads  and  bridges  at  any  of  the  portages  of  the 
said  Columbia,  Snake  and  "Willamette  rivers,  or  to  purchase,  own  and 
use  any  such  roads  that  may  be  constructed,  or  are  now  constructed, 
or  may  be  in  the  course  of  construction,  and  to  collect  such  tolls,  far* 
or  freight  on  all  roads,  boats  or  vessels  that  may  be  owned,  chartered 
or  controlled  by  said  incorporation,  as  shall  be  deemed  expedient  by 
the  officers  of  said  incorporation;    and  to  purchase,  and  own  all  lands, 
lots,  wharves,  boats  and  vessels,  and  all  real  and  personal  property  of 
every  name  and  nature,  that  may  be  deemed  necessary  to  the  interests 
of  said  incorporation  in  the  prosecution  of  the  business  above  referred 
to,  and  to  sell  and  transfer  the  same. 
Article  4. 
The  principal   office  of  this  incorporation  shall  be  at  the  City  of 
Portland  in  the  State  of  Oregon. 

Article  5. 
The   amount    of   the   capital    stock   of   this   incorporation   shall   be 
two  millions  of  dollars. 

Article  6. 
The  amount  of  each  share  of  such  capital  stock  shall  be  $500.00. 
In  Witness  Whereof,  we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands  this  eighteenth 
day  of  October,  A.  D.  1862.  (Signed) 

J.  C.  AINSWORTH, 
D.  F.  BRADFORD, 
R.   R.   THOMPSON, 
S.  G.  REED. 


286  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

AMENDATORY  AND  SUPPLEMENTARY  ARTICLES  OP  INCORPORATION. 

Whereas,  at  a  regular  annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the 
Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company,  held  at  the  office  of  the  said 
incorporation  in  the  City  of  Portland,  County  of  Multnomah,  in  the 
State  of  Oregon,  all  the  stockholders  being  present  or  represented,  on 
the  second  day  of  November,  A.  D.  1868,  the  following  resolution,  by 
the  assent  of  all  the  said  stockholders,  was  adopted,  namely: 

Amend  Article  number  three  (3)  so  as  to  include  the  navigation  by 
steam  or  otherwise  of  all  navigable  waters,  sea  and  inland,  wherever 
it  may  be  deemed  expedient.  Also  the  constructing,  purchasing  and 
operating  the  telegraph  lines,  and  so  far  as  may  be  found  lawful,  the 
constructing,  purchasing  and  operating  of  railroads  and  other  roads. 

Amend  Article  number  five  (5)  so  as  to  increase  the  capital  stock 
to  five  millions  of  dollars. 

Amend  Article  number  six  (6)  to  make  the  shares  of  the  value  of 
$100.00  instead  of  $500.00. 

Now,  Therefore,  We,  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  R.  R.  Thompson,  S.  G.  Reed 
and  W.  S.  Ladd,  directors  of  the  said  incorporation,  by  virtue  of  the 
resolution  of  the  said  stockholders,  in  pursuance  of  the  authority 
therein  and  under  the  laws  of  this  State  conferred,  do  hereby  make 
and  establish  the  following  Supplementary  Articles  of  the  said  in- 
corporation: 

Article  numbered  3  shall  read  as  follows: 

The  object  of  this  incorporation  and  the  business  in  which  it  pro- 
poses to  engage  is  the  navigation  by  steam  or  otherwise  of  the  Colum- 
bia River  and  its  tributaries,  and  all  other  navigable  waters,  sea  and 
inland,  wherever  it  may  be  deemed  expedient  to  construct,  purchase, 
maintain  and  operate  any  railroads  or  roads,  macadamized  road  or 
roads,  plank  roads,  canals  or  bridges  for  the  purpose  of  transporting 
freight  or  passengers  across  any  portages  on  the  line  of  navigation 
upon  any  stream  or  other  water  which  the  said  corporation  may  be 
navigating;  also,  such  other  railroads  and  other  roads  as  under  the 
laws  of  this  State,  said  incorporation  may  lawfully  engage  or  be 
interested  in;  also,  to  construct,  purchase,  maintain  or  operate  tele- 
graph lines  wherever  it  may  be  deemed  expedient  and  to  charge  and 
collect  such  tolls,  fare  or  freight  on  all  roads,  boats  or  vessels  or 
means  of  conveyance  or  transportation  as  may  be  owned,  chartered  or 
controlled  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the  said  corporation,  and  such  rates 
for  the  use  of  the  telegraph  lines  of  said  corporation  or  for  the  trans- 
mission thereon  of  telegraphic  messages  as  shall  be  deemed  expedient — 
and  to  purchase  and  own  all  lands,  lots,  wharves,  boats  and  vessels  and 
all  veal  and  personal  property  of  every  name  and  nature  that  may  be 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  287 

deemed  necessary  to  the  interests  of  the  said  incorporation  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  business  above  referred  to,  and  to  sell  and  transfer 
the  same. 

Articles  numbered  5  and  6,  the  same  as  before.* 

The  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  immediately  en- 
tered upon  a  career  of  marvelous  prosperity,  which  never 
flagged,  and  the  company  continued  to  grow  in  influence  and 
wealth,  until,  from  the  humble  beginning  made  by  the  insig- 
nificant stern-wheelers  like  the  "Carrie  Ladd,"  the  Oregon 
Steam  Navigation  Company  and  its  successors  had  become  a 
power  in  the  money  centers  of  two  continents.  Throughout 
its  entire  period  of  activity  this  company  succeeded  in  keep- 
ing the  good  will  of  the  people.  No  worthy  traveller  was  ever 
refused  passage  on  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company 
steamers,  and  many  a  man  was  not  only  carried  free,  but  was 
given  his  meals  as  well.  No  iron-clad  rules  prevented  the 
pursers  from  using  their  discretion  and  no  injustice  was  tol- 
erated.^ The  pursers  were  paid  $150.00  per  month  and  that 
was  extremely  good  pay  for  those  times.  The  company  de- 
manded no  bond  of  them  and  trusted  to  their  integrity.  They 
considered  that  the  high  wages  paid  was  sufficient  to  keep 
the  men,  and  if  one  was  caught  stealing  from  the  company,  he 
was  discharged  without  ceremony. ^ 

It  was  a  close  corporation.  Soon  after  the  organization  the 
Bradfords  offered  to  sell  their  stock  at  seventy-five  cents,  or 
at  the  rate  of  $1,500,000  for  the  whole  property,  including 
.steamships.  This  Bradford  stock  was  purchased  by  A.  Hay- 
ward  for  a  pool  of  those  who  agreed  to  take  a  chance  on  the 
future  of  the  company,  and  purchase  its  stock  whenever  it 
could  be  had  at  seventy-five  cents.  This  pool  consisted  of 
W.  S.  Ladd,  J.  W.  Ladd,  R.  R.  Thompson,  S.  G.  Reed,  A. 
Hayward  and  J.  C.  Ainsworth.  Arrangements  were  made 
with  Ladd  &  Tilton  to  advance  money  on  such  purchased 
stock  and  charge  the  pool  interest.    As  soon  as  Bradford  sold 


*   Article  of  Inc.  published  by  Geo.  H.  Himes  for  the  O.  R.  &  N.  Co. 

1  Lewis  and  Drydcn. 

2  Pape. 


288  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

his  stock,  a  general  stampede  occurred  with  most  of  the  large 
stockholders  outside  of  the  pool  named ;  many  were  frightened 
because  the  control  seemed  to  be  going  into  Hay  ward's  hands, 
of  California,  and  the  offer  of  stock  was  more  than  the  pool 
could  well  provide,  but  all  was  purchased  that  was  offered. 
At  first  the  object  of  the  pool  was  to  own  a  decided  control  of 
the  company  and  work  together  in  the  management,  but  so 
much  stock  was  offered  and  sold  that  very  little  was  left 
outside,  and  then  it  was  thought  desirable  to  purchase  all  the 
stock,  if  possible  increase  the  capital  to  five  millions  of  dol- 
lars and  put  the  stock  on  the  New  York  market.  The  result 
was,  that  the  whole  stock  was  purchased  by  the  pool  and  the 
contemplated  increase  of  stock  was  put  through.^ 

The  new  company  began  its  business  under  very  favorable 
auspices.  Early  in  its  existence  the  Salmon  River  gold  ex- 
citement brought  a  horde  of  miners  into  the  country  and  the 
Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  reaped  more  of  the  golden 
harvest  in  transporting  them  than  any  of  the  treasure-seekers 
found  in  the  mines.  The  Florence  City  gold  excitement  of 
1862  also  brought  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  a 
flood  of  prosperity.  The  wonderful  resources  of  the  new 
Northwest  were  now  becoming  known  as  they  had  never  been 
before.  This  was  the  banner  year  of  Columbia  River  steam- 
boating.  They  could  not  possibly  take  care  of  all  of  the  busi- 
ness offered.  The  fleet  running  to  The  Cascades  was  fre- 
quently unable  to  handle  the  people  who  arrived  on  the  steam- 
ships, and  the  portage  was  blocked  with  freight  for  days  at  a 
time,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  double  crews  were  ope- 
rated. A  trip  with  less  than  two  hundred  people  was  light. 
At  Portland  the  rush  of  freight  to  the  docks  was  so  great  that 
drays  and  trucks  had  to  form  and  stand  in  line  to  get  their 
turn  in  delivering  goods.  Their  lines  were  kept  unbroken 
day  and  night  for  weeks  and  months.  So,  notwithstanding 
the  enormous  price  of  freight  and  passage,  it  was  impossible 
to  meet  the  demand.     A  few  private  boats  found  plenty  of 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  289 

business;  also  the  steamer  "Maria"  of  the  Independent  Line, 
but  she  was  seized  by  the  government  on  a  technical  charge, 
and  in  March,  1865,  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company 
got  control  of  her.  Another  contestant  was  Captain  Van 
Bergen,  who  secured  the  mail  contracts  between  Portland  and 
The  Dalles.    He  controlled  the  People's  Line  of  Steamers.^ 

As  an  illustration  of  the  large  volume  of  business  done  at 
this  time,  the  following  figures  were  taken  from  the  books 
at  The  Dalles  for  1862 : 

Colonel  Wright   March    27 $  2,625.00 

Colonel  Wright   March   28 2,446.00 

Colonel  Wright   March    31 1,570.00 

Tenino   April       9 1,405.00 

Okanogan    April      11 3,540.00 

Okanogan    April      15 1,622.30 

Okanogan    April      18 1,020.00 

Tenino   April      22 3,232.00 

Okanogan    April      25 3,630.00 

Tenino   April      27 3,289.00 

Tenino    April      29 2,595.00 

Tenino    May         5 6,780.00 

Okanogan    May       11 2,145.00 

Tenino    May       13 10,945.00 

Okanogan    May       17 2,265.00 

Okanogan    May       26 6,615.00 

These  are  for  tickets  sold  at  The  Dalles  for  up-trips  only. 
Down  stream  the  traffic  was  not  so  great,  but  from  $1,000.00 
to  $4,000.00  each  trip,  and  the  freight  was  enormous.  One 
up-trip  on  the  Tenino  in  May  produced  over  $18,000.00  for 
freight,  fares,  meals  and  berths.  The  extras  and  the  bar 
privilege  produced  a  monthly  income  of  $1,200.00. 

The  treasure  shipments  that  passed  through  Portland  were 
in  part  as  follows:  June  25,  1861,  the  steamer  "Sierra  Ne- 
vada" left  for  San  Francisco  with  a  treasure  shipment  of 
$228,000.00.  July  3rd,  the  steamer  "Brother  Jonathan"  left 
with  $50,000.00  in  treasure.  July  14th,  the  steamer  "Sierra 
Nevada,"  with  $110,000.00  in  treasure.  August  12th,  $20.- 
000.00;   August   24th,   $195,558.00;    September   12th,   $130,- 


4  Lewis  and  Dryden. 


290  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

000.00;  September  30th,  $315,780.00;  October  13th,  $203,- 
835.00;  November  14th,  $260,483.00;  November  29th,  $240,- 
000.00;  December  5th,  $750,000.00.  On  October  12,  1865, 
Wells  Fargo  &  Company  shipped  $150,000.00  in  crude  bullion. 
Another  trip  brought  1,125  pounds  of  crude  bullion,  twenty- 
eight  sacks  averaging  forty  pounds  each.^ 

Wells  Fargo  exports  of  treasure  were  as  follows : 

1864  $6,200,000.00 

1865  5,800,000.00 

1866  5,400,000.00 

1867  4,001,000.00 

The  merchandise  exports,  wholesale  prices,  for  1866 : 

Apples— 68,860  boxes  at  $1.00  per  box $  68,860.00 

Dried  Apples— 2,603  pkgs.  at  $10.00  per  pkg 26,030.00 

Bacon— 4,376  gunnies  at  $16.00  each 70,016.00 

Eggs— 1,760  packages  at  $10.00  per  package 17,600.00 

Flour— 29,813  barrels  at  $5.00  per  barrel 149,065.00 

Hides— 4,674  at  $1.50  each 7,011.00 

Onions — 1,325  sacks  at  $4.00  each 5,300.00 

Pork— 72  barrels  at  $20.00  per  barrel 1,440.00 

Pitch— 292  barrels  at  $50.00  per  barrel 1,752.00 

Staves  and  Headings— 59,203,  gross  value 15,000.00 

Shooks— 14,972  at  $0.40  per  shook 5,989.00 

Varnish — 124  packages  at  $10.00  per  package 1,240.00 

Wool— 1,671  bales  at  $40.00  per  bale 66,840.00 


Total    $457,967.00 

The  total  value  of  the  merchandise  exports  in  1867  was 
$2,462,793.00.2 

The  freight  and  passenger  traffic  handled  between  1861 
and  1865  was  as  follows: 

Year.  Passengers.  Tons  of  Freight. 

1861   10,500   6,290 

1862    24,500    14,550 

1863   22,000   17,646 

1864   36,000    21,834* 


1  Weekly  Oregonian  of  dates  noted. 

2  Overland  Monthly,  July,   1868. 

*  Pacific  Monthly,  Jan.-June,    IflOT. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  291 

The  marked  increase  of  1862  was  occasioned  by  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  Willamette  River  boats. 

The  advertisements  of  the  company  for  1866  show  the 
facilities  offered  by  them.  Thus:  the  steamboat  "Wilson  Ti. 
Hxint"  left  Portland  at  5:00  a.  m.  daily,  reached  The  Cas- 
cades at  11:00  A.  M.  Left  at  4:00  p.  m.,  arrived  in  Portland 
at  10:00  p.  M.  The  steamer  "Cascade"  left  The  Cascades  at 
5  :00  A.  M.,  reached  Portland  at  11 :00  a.  m.,  started  back  at 
4 :00  p.  M.,  reached  The  Cascades  at  10 :00  p.  m.  A  train  on  the 
"Cascade  Railroad"  was  "dispatched"  on  the  arrival  of  the 
Portland  boat  connecting  with  the  steamboats  ' '  Oneonta ' '  and 
"Idaho"  for  The  Dalles.  From  there  trains  on  The  Dalles 
and  Celilo  railroad  connected  with  steamboats  leaving  daily 
for  all  points  on  the  upper  Columbia  and  Snake  rivers.  The 
boats  above  The  Dalles  were  the  "Webfoot,"  "Spray,"  "Te- 
nino,"  "Yakima,"  "Nez  Perce's  Chief,"  and  " Owyhee. "^ 

The  policy  of  the  company  was  to  charge  high  rates,  all  in 
fact  that  the  traffic  would  bear.  Its  earnings  were  conse- 
quently good,  the  company  paying  as  high  as  12  per  cent  on 
its  $5,000,000.00  capital  as  annual  dividends.2  All  freight 
except  solids  such  as  lead,  nails,  etc.,  were  estimated  by  mea^s- 
urement,  forty  cubic  feet  making  a  ton.^  The  passage  from 
Portland  to  The  Dalles  was  $8.00  and  $0.75  extra  for  meals. 
Portland  to  Lewiston,  $60.00  and  meals  and  beds  $1.00  each. 
Today  the  price  of  freight  from  Portland  to  The  Dalles  is 
$1.50  per  ton  and  passage  $1.50  and  $0.25  extra  for  meals.* 
H.  D.  Sanborn,  a  merchant  of  Lewiston,  in  1862  received  a 
case  of  miner's  shovels.  The  case  measured  one  ton  and  con- 
tained 120  .shovels.  The  freight,  $120.00  per  ton,  made  the 
freight  on  each  shovel  $1.00.  A  merchant  at  Hood  River, 
eighty-five  miles,  said  that  before  the  railroad  the  freight  on 
one  dozen  brooms  was  one  dollar.  When  0.  B.  Gibson  was  in 
the  employ  of  the  company  at  The  Dalles,  he  went  down  to 


1  Pacific  Monthly,  Jan.-June,     1907. 

2  Pacific  Monthly,  Jan.-June,   1907. 

3  Oreg.  Hist.  Soc.  Quar.,  June,  1906,  No.  2,  p.  123. 

4  Oreg.   Hist.  Soc.  Quart.,  June,   1906,  No.  2,  p.   ]23. 


292        Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

get  the  measurement  of  a  small  mounted  cannon  that  had  to  be 
shipped  for  the  government.  After  measuring  several  ways 
and  figuring  up  the  amount,  he  seemed  so  perplexed  that  he 
attracted  the  attention  of  two  soldiers  who  were  lying  in  the 
shade  of  a  pine  tree  near  by.  One  of  them  finally  called  out, 
"What  is  the  trouble,  Captain?"  "I  am  trying  to  take  the 
measurement  of  this  blamed  gun,  but  some  way  I  cannot  get 
it  right,"  said  Gibson.  "Oh,  I  will  show  you,"  said  the 
soldier,  leading  up  a  pair  of  harnessed  mules  that  stood  near 
and  hitching  them  to  the  gun,  "Try  it  now,  Captain." 
"Thanks,  that  makes  it  all  right;  I  see  now  w^hy  I  could  not 
get  the  correct  measurement. ' '  In  measuring  a  wagon  or  any 
piece  of  freight  the  full  length,  heighth  and  thickness  were 
taken  and  carried  out  full  size,  the  largest  way  of  the  piece. 
For  instance,  a  wagon  was  measured  from  the  back  wheels  to 
the  end  of  the  tongue,  then  the  tongue  was  turned  up  and  it 
was  measured  from  the  ground  to  the  tip  of  the  tongue  again. 
This  constituted  the  cubic  contents,  nothing  deducted  for 
vacuum,  but  when  the  wagon  was  shipped  the  tongue  was 
placed  under  the  wagon  box  out  of  the  road.* 

Following  is  a  statement  of  freight  charges  by  the  Oregon 
Steam  Navigation  Company,  taken  from  their  schedule  of 
rates  that  went  into  effect  April  1,  1877: 

RATES    OF    FREIGHT    PER    TON    MEASUREMENT. 

Portland  to  The  Dalles,  121  miles $10.00 

Portland  to  Umatilla,  217  miles 20.00 

Portland  to  Wallula,  240  miles 25.00 

Portland  to  Palouse,  317  miles 32.00 

Portland  to  Penewawa  and  Almota,  348  miles 37.50 

Portland  to  Lewiston,   401   miles 40.00 

Fast  freight,  $2.50  per  ton  extra  to  The  Dalles. 

Fast  freight,  $5.00  per  ton  extra  to  all  points  above  The  Dalles. 

PASSENGER  CHARGES. 

Portland  to  The  Dalles   $  5.00 

Portland  to  Umatilla    10.00 

Portland  to  Penewawa  and  Almota 18.00 

Portland  to  Lewiston  20.00 

•  Oreg.  Hist.  See.  Quart.,  June,  1906,  No.   2. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  293 

All  bills  payable  in  United  States  gold  coin.  That  is  to 
say,  it  cost  to  ship  a  ton  of  freight  from  Portland,  Oregon,  to 
Umatilla,  217  miles,  via  Columbia  River,  $20.00  in  gold  coin 
or  nine  and  one-fourth  cents  per  ton  per  mile.  From  Portland 
to  Lewiston,  Idaho,  401  miles,  $40.00  per  ton  or  ten  cents  per 
ton  per  mile.  Compare  this  with  the  cost  of  transporting  a 
ton  of  freight  by  water  from  Chicago  to  New  York,  less  than 
one  cent  or  nine  and  three-fifths  mills  per  ton  per  mile.  The 
Missouri  River  from  St.  Louis  to  Fort  Benton,  3,200  miles, 
$32.00  per  ton,  or  $1.00  per  100  miles,  or  one  cent  per  ton  per 
mile.  Also  the  Missouri  Rivel"  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous 
and  difficult  streams  to  navigate  on  the  continent;  filled  with 
eddies,  quicksands  and  constantly  changing  channels — yet 
freight  on  this  dangerous  river  was  carried  for  about  one- 
tenth  the  price  that  ruled  the  upper  Columbia.  Thus,  the 
cost  of  moving  a  ton  of  freight  up  the  Columbia  was  ten  times 
greater  than  moving  a  ton  along  any  principal  water  course 
on  the  continent.  Also  that  which  constituted  a  ton  by  weight 
on  routes  between  Chicago  and  New  York  and  from  St.  Louis 
to  Fort  Benton  on  the  Missouri  River,  and  on  most  other  of 
the  water  transportation  routes  in  this  country,  constituted  on 
the  Columbia,  under  their  system  of  measurement  of  freight, 
an  average  of  more  than  one-third  more,  in  many  instances, 
depending  on  the  character  of  the  freight,  one-half,  three- 
quarters,  twice  as  much  and  sometimes  three  times  as  much. 
For  instance,  an  article  measuring  a  ton,  but  not  actually 
weighing  over  two  hundred  pounds,  would  cost  on  the  Colum- 
bia and  Snake  rivers  from  Portland  to  Lewiston,  400  miles, 
$40.00,  or  at  the  enormous  rate  of  $400.00  per  ton,  according 
to  weight,  or  $1.00  per  ton  per  mile.  From  statistics  com- 
piled by  W.  J.  McAlphin,  State  Engineer  of  New  York,  about 
1868,  the  average  cost  of  transportation  by  railroad  was 
thirteen  mills  per  ton  per  mile.  From  a  table  of  freight 
charges  on  the  Willamette  River,  published  November  1,  1866, 
we  learn  that  the  average  charge  on  this  river  was  175  mills 
per  ton  per  mile.^ 


1   Senate  Doc.  No.   344,  February,   1890. 


294  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  a  circular  issued  showing  the 
rules  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company,  adopted 
April  22,  1878,  and  published  by  them,  illustrative  of  the 
absolute  and  exclusive  power  which  they  exercised  over  the 
commerce  of  the  Columbia  River: 

(1)  This  Company  will  uot  take  the  freight  to  carry  to  any  point 
upon  the  Columbia  or  Snake  rivers  above  Celilo,  except  upon  an  agree- 
ment that  it  shall  have  the  entire  water  carriage  of  the  same  to  its 
place  of  final  destination  so  far  as  the  Company's  lines  extend.  The 
Company  before  receiving  such  freight  may  require  of  the  owner  or 
shipper,  such  agreement  in  writing  with  surety  or  otherwise  which 
shall  provide  that  if  the  terminus  of  the  water  carriage  of  the  ship- 
ment or  of  any  portion  of  the  same  shall  be  falsely  represented  in  the 
shipping  receipt  or  otherwise,  and  the  freight  shall,  by  direction  of  the 
owner  in  said  shipping  receipt  or  otherwise,  be  landed  before  arriving 
at  such  terminus  and  shall  be  further  carried  upon  steamboat  or  boats 
or  vessels  not  belonging  to  this  Company,  then  the  party  to  such  an 
agreement  shall  be  held  for  and  bound  to  pay  to  this  Company,  full 
freight  for  such  further  water  carriage  at  local  rates,  and  in  the  same 
manner  as  if  this  Company  had  carried  the  same  to  the  terminus  of  its 
water  carriage,  and  that  such  re-shipment  on  another  than  a  Company 
boat  or  vessel,  within  thirty  days  after  a  landing  of  the  same  as  herein 
above  stated,  from  the  Company's  boat  or  boats,  shall  be  taken  and 
held  to  be  conclusive  evidence  that  the  terminus  of  water  transporta- 
tion of  said  freight  was  falsely  represented  and  that  the  true  terminus 
was  the  point  to  which  it  was  finally  carried.  And  said  agreement 
shall  contain  a  further  stipulation  in  ease  action  is  brought  thereon 
and  a  recovery  by  the  Company  had,  the  judge,  justice  of  the  peace  or 
court  before  whom  or  which  the  action  is  tried,  shall  include  in  the 
amount  of  the  judgment  as  disbursements,  such  sum  over  and  above 
the  taxable  cost  as  he  or  they  shall  determine  to  be  reasonable  attor- 
ney's fees  for  the  prosecuting  said  action. 

(2)  All  down  freight  from  points  on  the  Columbia  or  Snake  rivers 
which  is  brought  to  Wallula,  Umatilla  or  Celilo,  on  any  steamboat  or 
other  water  craft  not  belonging  to  this  Company  and  is  re-shipped  for 
further  carriage  by  this  Company,  will  be  charged  the  usual  rates  of 
the  Company,  from  the  point  of  shipment  upon  such  other  steamboat 
or  water  craft,  which  freight  shall  be  paid  in  advance  at  the  time  of 
shipment.  This  rule  shall  not  apply  to  produce  brought  by  the  farmer 
or  producer  in  his  own  boat  to  the  said  shipping  points  of  Wallula, 
Umatilla  or  Celilo. 

(Signed)     S.  G.  REED,  Vice-President, 

Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Co.* 

*   Senate   Doc.   No.    75,    1877. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  295 

Owing  to  their  obtaining  high  rates,  opposition  boats  were 
started  more  or  less  spasmodically  on  the  Columbia  and  Wil- 
lamette rivers.  A  line  known  as  the  AA^illamette  Steam  Navi- 
gation Company  operated  between  Portland  and  Oregon  City, 
and  from  that  point  to  Corvallis  and  Eugene  City  for  several 
years.  In  1862  the  People's  Transportation  Company  was 
organized  with  a  capital  stock  of  $2,000,000.00.  This  com- 
pany had  steamers  on  the  upper  and  lower  Willamette  for 
over  eleven  years,  and  then  sold  out  to  Ben  Holliday.  The 
directors  were:  C.  S.  Kingsley,  David  McCuUy,  Leonard 
White,  S.  Coffin  and  S.  D.  Church.  The  officers  were :  Presi- 
dent, S.  Coffin ;  vice-president,  C.  S.  Kingsley ;  treasurer, 
A.  C.  R.  Shaw.i 

When  the  locks  at  Oregon  City  were  completed,  the  parties 
controlling  them,  Goldsmith  and  Teal,  constructed  several 
steamboats  and  began  the  navigation  of  the  Willamette  River 
between  Portland  and  Eugene  City;  later  they  put  boats  on 
between  Portland  and  Astoria  in  opposition  to  the  Oregon 
Steam  Navigation  Company's  boats.  This  opposition  con- 
tinued for  two  years.  The  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany put  a  couple  of  boats  on  the  Oregon  City  run  and  the 
outcome  of  it  was  that  they  purchased  a  controlling  interest 
in  the  locks  and  the  Goldsmith  steamers,  and  organized  a  new 
Company  under  the  name  of  the  Willamette  Transportation 
and  Locks  Company,  and  J.  C.  Ainsworth  was  elected  presi- 
dent. The  new  company  purchased  the  Basin  and  ware- 
house at  Oregon  City,  together  with  the  six  steamers  that  had 
been  rivals  of  the  Goldsmith  party.^ 

About  this  time  the  Grangers  were  in  the  zenith  of  their 
glory  and  power.  They  resolved  to  ignore  all  other  interests 
but  their  own  and  were  particularly  hostile  to  all  other  trans- 
portation companies.  They  were  led  to  believe  that  nearly  all 
receipts  of  steamboats  were  profit,  and  notwithstanding  the 
Willamette  Transportation  and  Locks  Company  was  trans- 
porting freight   at   a  loss,    they   organized   a   company   and 


1  Lewis  and  Dryden. 

2  Ms. 


296        Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

secured  a  large  farming  element  as  stockholders,  and  put  on 
the  river  two  new  steamers  in  opposition  to  the  Willamette 
Transportation  and  Locks  Company,  which  already  had 
twelve  steamers  with  only  business  for  half  that  number. 
These  Granger  boats  were  run  for  nearly  two  years,  having 
the  whole  community  to  back  them  up  with  credit,  sympathy 
and  business.  They  were  managed  by  men  wholly  unac- 
quainted with  the  business,  but  who  did  not  learn  that  it  costs 
money  to  build  and  run  steamboats.  The  managers  finally 
determined  to  sell  their  boats,  as  no  one  cared  to  invest  good 
money  to  continue  the  fight  with  all  the  odds  against  them. 
The  result  was  that  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company 
bought  the  two  boats  at  their  own  price.^  Soon  after  the 
capital  stock  was  changed  to  $5,000,000.00,  business  fell  off 
decidedly,  owing  to  the  decline  of  the  mines,  but  they  looked 
forward  to  the  building  up  of  an  agricultural  business  in  the 
near  future.'* 

By  1871  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  was  in  the  zenith  of 
its  prosperity  and  desired  to  use  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation 
facilities  in  connection  with  their  enterprise.  They  proposed 
to  purchase  a  control  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  stock 
and  invited  an  interview  with  an  authorized  committee  from 
the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  to  meet  them  in  New 
York  City.  Mr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ainsworth  were  appointed 
with  authority  to  sell.  They  met  the  company  in  New  York 
and  after  much  talk  and  frequent  disagreements,  they  ef- 
fected the  sale  of  three-fourths  of  the  capital  stock  of  the 
Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company,  at  the  rate  of  $2,000,- 
000.00  for  the  whole,  taking  one-half  of  the  amount  in  N.  P. 


3  Ms. 

4  In  1860  a  "genius"  at  Corvallis  decided  that  steamers  were  too  ex- 
pensive, so  he  constructed  a  tread  mill  and  cattle  and  hay  for  motive 
power.  Coming  down  on  the  first  trip,  the  vessel  ran,  or  rather  walked 
ashore  at  McGooglin's  slough,  where  she  remained  until  the  cattle  had 
devoured  nearly  all  of  the  feed.  She  was  finally  pulled  off  by  the  steamer 
"Onward"  and  paddled  on  down  to  Canemah,  but  did  not  have  sufficient 
power  to  return  and  the  skipper  was  obliged  to  sell  his  oxen  and  the  scow 
went  over  the  falls.  This  method  of  competing  with  steamboats  has  not 
been  tried  since. — Lewis  and  Dryden. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  297 

R.  R.  Company  bonds  at  par  and  giving  easy  time  for  the 
money  payments.  The  old  owners  of  the  company  retained 
one-fourth  of  the  stock  and  continued  in  the  management,  so 
they  considered  that  they  had  made  a  good  sale,  but  subsequent 
events  proved  it  to  be  a  mistake.  Through  the  failure  of  Jay 
Cooke  &  Company,  in  1873,  the  Northern  Pacific  was  forced 
into  liquidation,  and  the  bonds  that  the  Oregon  Steam  Navi- 
gation directors  still  held  and  could  have  sold  for  cash  at 
about  ninety  cents,  dropped  to  ten  cents.  The  three-fourths  of 
the  capital  sold  to  the  Northern  Pacific  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  bankrupt  estate  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Company,  and  here  it 
remained  locked  up  for  a  long  time.  This  failure  served  to 
shrink  values  all  over  the  United  States.  The  result  was  that 
Oregon  Steam  Navigation  stock  went  down  in  the  crash  with 
other  stocks.  A  plan  was  adopted  by  the  trustees  of  the 
estate  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Company  to  pay  its  creditors  in  kind. 
Each  creditor  accepting  the  proposition  received  fourteen  per 
cent  of  his  claim  in  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  stock  at  forty 
per  cent  of  its  par  value.  This,  as  the  creditors  slowly  and 
reluctantly  came  forward  to  accept,  began  to  throw  Oregon 
Steam  Navigation  stock  on  the  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
market.  Parties  taking  it  knew  nothing  about  it  and  offered 
it  at  once  for  sale,  and  as  they  were  ignorant  of  its  value,  the 
Portland  directors  were  not  slow  in  improving  this  oppor- 
tunity to  buy  back  a  sufficient  amount  as  would  again  give 
them  control.  Some  of  it  was  purchased  as  low  as  thirteen 
cents  and  the  average  cost  of  enough  to  give  control  was  about 
twenty  cents,  so  in  the  end,  covering  a  period  of  about  five 
years,  they  found  themselves  the  owners  of  the  large  majority 
of  the  stock  at  about  half  the  amount  that  they  had  sold  for.^ 
In  1879  Mr.  Villard  came  to  Oregon  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  purchasing  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  property  or 
commencing  opposition.  He  asked  J.  C.  Ainsworth  whether 
he  and  his  associates  were  willing  to  sell.  Mr.  Ainsworth  re- 
fused to  take  less  than  $5,000,000.00.  An  inventory  of  the 
company's  property  was  made,  together  with  a  statement  of 


1   Oberholtzer. 


298        Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

the  earnings  for  several  years,  with  an  offer  to  sell  40,320 
shares  at  par.  The  directors  thought  that  it  was  too  big  a  deal 
for  Mr.  Villard,  but  he  considered  it  a  bargain.  His  plan 
was  to  form  a  new  company,  the  Oregon  E-ailroad  and  Naviga- 
tion Company,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $6,000,000.00  and  an 
issue  of  $6,000,000.00  of  six  per  cent  bonds.  He  got  an  option 
till  October  1st,  by  depositing  $1,000.00  in  cash,  which  called 
for  40,320  shares  of  stock  at  par,  to  pay  fifty  per  cent  cash, 
twenty  per  cent  bonds,  and  thirty  per  cent  stock.  He  allowed 
$1,000,000.00  stock  and  $1,200,000.00  in  bonds  for  the  Oregon 
Steamship  Company,  and  $2,000,000.00  stock  and  $2,500,000.00 
bonds  to  raise  the  cash  required  for  Ainsworth.  Leaving 
$1,800,000.00  stock  and  $1,500,000.00  bonds  for  the  purchase 
of  thirty-five  miles  of  Walla  Walla  railroad  and  Willamette 
Valley  Transportation  and  Lock  Company.  $1,200,000.00 
stock  and  $800,000.00  bonds  were  reserved  for  new  steamers. 
He  submitted  his  plans  to  Gould,  but  got  a  cool  reception.  He 
therefore  laid  the  proposition  before  his  friends  in  the  East. 
His  plan  was  to  unite  all  the  transportation  facilities  in 
Oregon.  He  asked  his  friends  to  join  in  exchanging  Oregon 
Steamship  for  Oregon  Railroad  and  Navigation  securities,  and 
to  subscribe  for  the  required  cash  payments  for  bonds  at 
ninety  with  a  bonus  of  seventy  per  cent  in  stock.  He  received 
a  prompt  response.-  Thus,  the  Oregon  Railroad  &  Navigation 
Company  grew  out  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company, 
and  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company,  after  a  score  of 
years  of  prosperity  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  steam  navi- 
gation, passed  out  of  existence  in  1879.  The  Oregon  Railroad 
&  Navigation  Comi)any  was  incorporated  July  13,  1879,  with 
a  capitalization  of  $6,000,000.00.  divided  into  $100.00  shares. 
Henry  Villard  was  president. 

The  list  of  steamers  that  came  into  possession  of  the  Oregon 
Railroad  &  Navigation  Company  were  as  follows: 

When  Built. 

"Idaho"    Side  wheeler   1860 

"Colonel  Wright"    Stern  wheeler   1861 


2  Pacific  Monthly,  Jan. -June,    1907. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  299 

When  Built. 

"Tenino"    Stern  wheeler    1861 

"Nez  Perce's  Chief" Stern  wheeler    1863 

"  Enterprise"    Stern  wheeler   1863 

"Senator"    Stern  wheeler   1863 

"Oneonta"   Side  wheeler   1863 

"John  H.  Couch"   Side  wheeler   1863 

"Iris"    Stern  wheeler    1864 

"Active"    Stern  wheeler   1865 

"Webf oot"    Stern  wheeler   1865 

'  'Alert"    Stern  wheeler   1865 

"Okanogan"    Stern  wheeler   1866 

"Shoshone"   Stern  wheeler   1866 

"Rescue"    Stern  wheeler   1868 

"Spray"   Stern  wheeler   1868 

"Lucius"    Stern  wheeler   1868 

''Yakima"    Stern  wheeler   1869 

''Emma  Hayward"   Stern  wheeler   1870 

'  'McMinnville"    Stern  wheeler   1870 

"Dixie^  Thompson"    Stern  wheeler   1871 

"E.  K  Cook"  Stern  wheeler   1871 

"Daisy  Ainsworth"    Stern  wheeler   1872 

"New  Tenino" Stern  wheeler   1872 

"Alice"     Stern  wheeler    1873 

"Welcome"    Stern  wheeler   1874 

"Bonita"    Stern  wheeler    1875 

"Orient"     Stern  wheeler    1875 

"  Occident"    Stern  wheeler    1875 

"Champion"    Stern  wheeler    1875 

"Almota"     Stern  wheeler   1876 

"S.  T.  Church" Stern  wheeler   1876 

"Oklahoma"    Stern  wheeler   1876 

"Annie  Faxon"   Stern  wheeler    1877 

"Wide  West"   Stern  wheeler   1877 

'  'Mountain  Queen" Stern  wheeler   1877 

"Spokane"     Stern  wheeler   1877 

"Bonanza"     Stern   wheeler   1877 

"Northwest"   Stern  wheeler   1877 

"R.  R.  Thompson"    Stern  wheeler    1878 

"S.  G.  Reed"    Stern  wheeler    1878 

"Harvest  Queen"    Stern  wheeler   1878 

'  'John   Gates"    Stern  wheeler   1878 

"Willamette  Chief"    Stern  wheeler    1878* 


*  History  of  Portland,  by  Harvey  Scott. 


300        Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

The  achievements  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany from  the  time  it  was  organized  until  it  was  finally 
merged  into  the  Oregon  Railroad  &  Navigation  Company, 
form  an  important  portion  of  the  marine  history  of  the  North- 
west. They  took  a  few  small  and  practically  insignificant 
steamboats  and  other  accommodations  equally  deficient 
and  with  such  beginnings  they  formed  a  large  and  well- 
equipped  system  of  transportation  all  along  the  line  of  the 
great  water  route  of  the  Northwest.  They  built  great  ware- 
houses at  Portland,  The  Dalles  and  Umatilla  and  other  stop- 
ping points ;  they  improved  the  portages ;  they  extended  their 
lines  into  undeveloped  country.  They  built  the  best  equipped 
steamers  possible  and  in  every  way  provided  for  good,  reliable 
service.  They  started  with  an  original  investment  of  $172,- 
500.00  and  put  $3,000,000.00  more  into  improvements  alone, 
which  shows  their  willingness  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
country  as  placed  upon  them.  No  private  individual  could 
have  stood  the  expense  of  opening  up  new  branches  and 
taken  the  lead  in  developing  new  parts  of  the  country.  This 
company  filled  in  a  natural  gap  between  the  coming  of  the 
pioneers  and  the  railroads.  In  the  shipment  of  wheat  it  aided 
in  the  development  of  that  country  beyond  the  Cascade 
Range,  known  as  the  Inland  Empire.  This  company  at  an 
early  date  got  control  of  the  portages  on  the  Columbia  River 
and  thus  effectually  blocked  all  chances  of  competition.  This 
control  of  the  portages  was  the  chief  cause  of  bringing  the 
company  to  the  notice  of  Congress.  Here  discussions  arose 
concerning  the  locks  at  the  Cascades  and  a  canal  or  a  portage 
railway  at  The  Dalles  rapids,  which  led  to  the  improvement 
of  the  Columbia  at  these  points. 

Thus  the  growth  and  mission  of  this  company  were  prac- 
tically the  growth  of  the  Inland  Empire  up  to  1880.  It  car- 
ried thither  the  miner  and  farmer  to  prospect  and  develop 
it  and  in  turn,  as  its  legitimate  reward,  returned  to  its  head- 
quarters in  Portland  the  wealth  it  had  absorbed,  and  it  made 
upon  the  Northwest  Coast  in  the  State  of  Oregon,  a  metropolis 
second  only  to  San  Francisco.     Through  its  agency,  Portland 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  301 

became  the  great  center  of  travel  and  the  point  of  distribution 
for  the  North  Pacific. 

For  a  score  of  years  it  continued  to  be  the  great  missionary 
to  dedicate  new  regions  to  settlement  and  to  transform  the 
wilderness.  It  reached  out  year  after  year,  making  new  paths 
and  bringing  new  and  remote  sections  within  the  sphere  of 
civilization.  While  .legitimately  pursuing  its  business  of 
making  money,  claiming  no  credit  whatever  for  philanthropy, 
it  widely  contributed  to  the  comforts  of  self-denying  pioneers 
and  to  them  it  early  assured  those  advantages  which  are  only 
attained  by  comfortable  means  of  communication  with  the 
rest  of  the  world. 

All  the  steamboat  men  of  the  Northwest  were  in  some  way 
connected  with  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company,  but 
more  credit  is  due  to  Captain  J.  C.  Ainsworth  than  to  any  of 
the  others  for  the  efficient,  business-like  yet  generous  methods 
of  the  company.  Mr.  Ainsworth  and  Mr.  Thompson  worked 
together  as  one  man  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  com- 
pany, planning,  advising  and  acting;  and  to  them  alone  was 
known  the  real  inside  history  of  the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation 
Company.  But  it  sometimes  happened  that  Mr.  Thompson 
could  not  be  present  during  the  consideration  of  an  important 
problem,  then  Mr.  Ainsworth  had  to  take  things  into  his  own 
hands,  and  in  such  difficult  situations  he  proved  himself  to 
be  the  very  spirit  of  the  company.  He  dealt  with  the  schem- 
ing, under-handed  element  with  all  the  justice  and  broadraind- 
edness  of  the  leader  that  he  was.  Hie  never  acted  with  selfish 
motives.  He  looked  out  for  the  interests  of  the  company  of 
which  he  was  president  with  such  diligence  and  zeal  that  we 
can  safely  say  that  it  was  chiefly  due  to  his  wonderful  fore- 
sight and  perseverance  that  the  company  was  such  a  great 
success.  He  was  indeed  a  leader  in  the  early  development  of 
this  new  Northwest  and  no  history  of  this  country  is  complete 
without  a  special  mention  of  him.  His  life  is  a  good  example 
of  a  successful  business  career,  and  the  marvelous  success  of 
the  Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company  is  part  of  that  life. 
Oregon  may  well  be  proud  of  her  "First  Monopoly,"  and  all 


302  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

honor  is  due  to  the  man  who  engineered  such  a  straightforward 
business  enterprise. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Magazine  Articles— 

Pacific  Monthly,  Jan. -June,  1907 :  The  Story  of  the  Oregon 

Railroad.    By  W.  F.  Bailey. 
Oregon  Historical  Quarterly.  June,  1906,  No.  2 :  The  Genesis 

of  the  Oregon  Railroad.    By  Joseph  Gaston. 
Oregon  Historical  Quarterly,  Vol  5,  1904:  A  Brief  History 

of  the  0.  S.  N.  Co.    By  P.  W.  Gillette. 
Histories- 
Lewis  &  Dryden :  Marine  History  of  the  Pacific  Northwest. 
H.  H.  Bancroft :  History  of  Oregon,  Vol.  3,  pages  255-256. 
H.  H.  Bancroft :  Biography  of  Wm.  S.  Ladd. 
Frances   Fuller  Victor:     The   River   of  the   West,    Chap. 

XLVII,  page  564.    Published  1870. 
Villard's  Memoirs :  Vol.  2,  1853  to  1900,  page  286. 
Oberholtzer:  Jay  Cooke,  the  Financier  of  the  Civil  War. 

Vol.  2. 
Harvey  W.  Scott:  H^istory  of  Portland. 
Summers :  History  of  the  N.  P.  R.  R. 

North  Pacific  History  Co. :  History  of  the  Pacific  North- 
west. Vol.  2,  1889. 
Senate  Documents- 
Boat  Railway  on  the  Columbia.     Feb.  21,  1890.     Doc.  344. 
Progress  of  Canal  and  Locks.    1879.    Docs.  67  and  72. 
Feasibility  of  the  Boat  Railway  at  The  Dalles  and  Celilo 

Falls.    1889.    Documents  73.  "^107  and  1773. 
Improvement  of  the  Columbia.    1891.    Docs.  13  and  232. 
Ob.structions  in  the  Columbia.    Doc.  23. 
Transportation  on  the  Columbia.     1878.     Doc.  18. 
Navigable  Waters  of  the  Columbia.    1881-82.    Doc.  186. 
Annual  Report  on  Internal  Commerce.    1876.    Doc.  32. 
Unlawful  Monopolies.    1893-94.    Doc.  101,  Vol.  4. 
Internal  Commerce  Commission.  1883-84.  Doc.  1037,  Vol.  4. 
Committee  on  Commerce.    Feb.  15,  1892.    Doc.  232. 
Letter  of  Secretary  of  War.     1878-79.    Vol.  1,  No.  18. 
Report  of  Committee  on  Railroads.     1878-79.     Vol.  2,  No. 

782. 
Progress  of  Work  at  Cascades  of  Columbia.    1878.    Doc.  67. 
Rates.  0.  S.  N.  Co.     1878-79.     Doc.  18.  Vol.  1:  Doc.  782, 

Vol.  2. 


Oregon's  First  Monopoly.  303 

Act  to  Regulate  Commerce.    1893.    Doc.  2253. 
Regulation  of  Commerce.    1887.    Doc,  75. 
Report  of  the  Portage  Commissioners.    1905. 
Protection  of  and  Obstruction  of  Navigable  Waters.     1887. 
Documents  56,  2760,  160,  477  and  666. 

Pamphlets. 

To  the  Stockholders  of  the  0.  R.  &  N.  Co.  Report  of  Com- 
mittee.   New  York.    Aug.  1,  1880. 

Miscellaneous  Laws  of  Oregon.    Chap.  7,  Sec.  19. 

Record  of  Deeds  for  Multnomah  County.  Book  41,  pages 
1  to  20. 

Citv  Directories ;  For  Portland.  1861,  63,  64,  65,  67,  68,  69, 
71  and  72. 

Newspapers— 

Oregon  Statesman,  April  7,  1867. 

Daily  Oregonian,  Sept.  27,  1865;  Oct.  12,  1865;  Nov.  7, 
1865 ;  Aug.  31,  1865 ;  Sept.  16,  1865 ;  Jan.  11,  1866 ;  June 
5,  1868;  July  7,  1868:  July  10,  1868;  July  27,  1868; 
Aug.  19,  1876. 

Weekly  Oregonian,  Jan.  28,  1861;  Dec.  15,  I860;  Mar.  9 
1861 ;  April  5,  1861 ;  April  27,  1861 ;  Aug.  10.  1861 ;  Dec 
21,  1861 ;  June  14,  1862 ;  June  21,  1862 ;  July  26,  1862 
Aug.  16,  1862 ;  Aug.  30,  1862 ;  Dec.  5,  1863 ;  Feb.  20,  1864 
Mar.  12,  1864;  May  28,  1864;  June  27,  1864;  Oct.  15 
1864;  Dec.  24,  1864;  May  20,  1865;  May  27,  1865;  Aug 
19,  1865 ;  Sept.  23,  1865 ;  Oct.  14,  1865 ;  Nov.  10,  1865 
Dec.  30,  1865;  Nov.  18,  1865;  Nov.  25,  1865;  Nov.  27, 
1865 ;  Dec.  2,  1865 ;  Dec.  16,  1865 ;  Dec.  20,  1865 ;  Dec.  30 
1865 ;  Jan.  13,  1866 ;  Jan.  20,  1866 ;  Feb.  10,  1866 ;  Feb, 
27,  1866 ;  Mar.  31,  1866 ;  April  14,  1866 ;  June  30,  1866 
Julv  7,  1866;  Aug.  18,  1866;  Aug.  25,  1866;  Mar.  9 
1867 ;  April  27,  1867,  and  May  11,  1867. 

Evening  Telegram,  Mar.  14,  1908,  and  Mar.  11,  1908. 

Articles  of  Incorporation  of  the  0.  S.  N.  Co.     Published  h\ 

Geo.  H.  Himes  in  1880  for  the  0.  R.  &  N.  Co. 
Personal  Conferences — 

Henry  Pape. 

Geo.  H,  Himes. 

J.  C.  Ainsworth,  Jr. 

Manuscript — 

History  of  the  Life  of  Captain  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  written  bv 
himself  for  his  children. 


304  Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton. 

N.  B. — This  thesis  is  written  with  special  reference  to  the 
manuscript  of  Captain  J.  C.  Ainsworth.  He  was  president 
of  the  0.  S.  N.  Co.  at  the  time  that  he  wrote  it,  and  by  com- 
parison with  the  other  authorities  quoted  it  is  foimd  to  be 
good  authority. 

I  wish  to  express  my  thanks  to  Mr.  J.  C.  Ainsworth,  Jr., 
for  his  kindness  in  permitting  me  to  use  this  manuscript. 
Without  it  I  could  not  have  given  a  clear  account,  because 
most  of  the  writers  only  refer  to  the  0.  S.  N.  Co.  in  connec- 
tion with  some  general  subject  at  hand.  The  newspapers  are 
not  very  generous  with  information  on  this  subject,  and  the 
Senate  Documents  are  extremely  partisan. 

I  also  appreciate  the  help  of  Mr.  Geo.  H.  Himes  of  the 
Oregon  Historical  Society,  and  Miss  McBride  at  the  Portland 
Public  Library. 


DOCUMENTS. 

SUBSCRIPTION  LIST  FOR  RAILROAD  SURVEY  FUND. 

The  following  subscriptions  are  received  for  the  purpose  of 
defraying  in  part  the  cost  of  making  a  preliminary  survey  for 
a  railroad  route,  connecting  the  Pacific  Railroad  in  California 
with  the  City  of  Portland,  Oregon,  we,  the  undersigned,  sub- 
scribers, agree  to  pay  the  amount  hereunto  subscribed  by  us, 
for  the  above  purpose,  to  S.  G.  Elliott,  on  demand  made  by 
him.  On  the  final  organization  of  the  railroad  company,  it 
shall  be  optional  with  the  undersigned  subscribers,  to  become 
stockholders  in  said  company  to  the  amount  subscribed  by 
each,  at  the  rate  of  $10.00  per  share,  with  the  privilege  of  one 
vote  to  each  share,  or  not.  If  they  choose  to  become  stock- 
holders as  above,  they  each  shall  be  credited  on  the  books  of 
the  company,  for  the  full  amount  subscribed  by  each.  If  they 
do  not  become  stockholders,  said  company,  as  soon  as  able,  shall 
pay  them  back  the  amount  subscribed  by  each  without  interest. 
It  is  further  agreed  that  the  subscribers  to  this  list  shall  not  be 
required  to  pay,  or  made  liable  for  any  amount  beyond  that 
by  them  subscribed. 

October,  1863. 

Names.  Amount  subscribed. 

C.  Boylery  $10.00  (Paid.) 

John  Robison  40  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Pheonix. 

D.  E.  Steaves  $5.00  (Paid.) 
G.  Nanylor  $2.50  (Paid.) 
.John  Holton  $2.50  (Paid.) 
M.  Mickelson  $2.50  (Paid.) 
R.  B.  Hargadine  $5.00  (Paid.) 

E.  Emery  $5.00  (Paid.) 
Lindsay  Applegate  $10.00  (Paid.) 
O.  C.  Applegate  $2.50  (Paid.) 

John  Murphy  5  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Wagner  &  McCall's  mill 

(Settled  by  note.) 
J.  C.  Tolman  $16.00    (Paid    in    supplies    and    30    bushels    of 

wheat  to  be  delivered  at  Wagner  &  McCall's 

mill.     Settled  by  note.) 


306 


Documents. 


Names. 
P.  Dunn 

H.  F.  Baren 
Wagner  &  McCall 

Enoch  Walker 

B.  F.  Myer 
W.  C.  Myer 
W.   Beeson 

J.  G.  Van  Dyke 
John  S.  Herrin 

Amos  E.  Eogers 

C.  S.  Seargent 
John  Watson 
Emesson  E.  Gore 

M.  Riggs 

William  Wright 

Frederick  Heber 

S.  D.  Van  Dike 

John  Coleman 

Joseph  A.  Grain 

J.  T.  Glenn 

Wm.  Hesye 

W.  K.  Ish 

H.  A.  Breitbarth 

J.  Gaston 

McLaughlin  &  Klippel 

W.  H.  Hyde 
J.  E.  Eoss 
Aaron  Chambers 
M.  Hanly 
Granville  Sears 
R.  S.  Belknap 

U.   S.   Hayden 
John  Neuber 
H.  Amerman 
Beall  &  Bro. 


Atnount  subscribed. 
5  bushels  of  wheat,  to  be  delivered  at  Wagner 

&  McCall's  mill,  Ashland  (Settled  by  note.) 
$18.00  (Paid  in  supplies  to  S.  G.  Elliott.) 
50   bushels   of   wheat,    delivered   at   Wagner   & 

McCall's  mill  (Settled  by  note.) 
$4.00  in  supplies  (Paid  to  S.  G.  Elliott.) 
10  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Ashland  Mills. 
10  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Ashland  Mills. 
25   bushels  of   wheat  at   Ashland   Mills.      (All 

three  settled  by  note.) 
$3.50  (Paid  in  supplies  to  S.  G.  Elliott.) 
10   bushels    of    wheat,   delivered   at   Foudray's 

mill  (Settled  by  note.) 
$10.00  (To  be  paid  in  board.) 
$2.00  (Paid.) 

40  bushels  of  wheat,  delivered  at  Allen's  mill. 
$10.00  in  legal  tenders   (Paid  in  wheat  at  Al- 
len's mill.) 
20    (twenty)    bushels    of    wheat,    delivered    at 

Phoenix  Mill. 
22  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Foudray's  Phoenix  Mill. 
40  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Allen's  mill. 
25  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Phoenix  Mill. 
$10.00  (Paid.) 

20  bushels  of  wheat  at  Phoenix  Mill. 
$25.00   (Paid  by  note.) 
$12.00  (Paid  by  note.) 
25  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Foudray's  mill. 
$2.50  (Paid.) 
$10.00   (Paid.) 
40  bushels  of  wheat,  to  be  delivered  at  Poole 

ranch  (Paid  by  note.) 
$5.00  (Paid.) 

40  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Allen's  mill. 
25  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Allen's  mill. 
$10.00  (To  be  paid  in  wheat  at  Allen's  mill.) 
15  bushels  of  wheat,  at  E.  D.  Foudray's  mill- 
20  bushels  of  oats,  to  be  delivered  at  Huntor's 

ferry. 
$10.00. 

$5.00   (Paid.) 

$5.00  (To  be  paid  at  Gasburg.) 
100  bushels  of  wheat  at  Allen's  mill. 


Documents. 


307 


Names. 
Wm.  H.   Merriman 
Haskell  Amy 
Alexander  French 
Merit  Bellinger 

James  Thornton 

Woodford  Eeames 

E.  K.  Anderson 
D.  P.  Anderson 
Joshua  Patterson 
D.  P.  Brittain 

I.  V.  Amerman 


Amount  subscribed. 
20  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Allen's  mill. 
20  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Allen's  mill. 
20  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Foudray's  mill. 
10  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Foudray's  mill. 

(The  five  last  subscriptions  settled  by  notj.) 
40  bushels  of  wheat,  delivered  at  Phoenix  Mill. 

(Paid  by  note.) 
20  bushels  of  wheat,  delivered  at  the  Phoenix 

Mill   (Paid  by  note.) 
30  bushels  of  wheat  at  Phoenix. 
10  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Phoenix. 
5  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Phoenix. 
5  bushels  of  wheat,  at  Phoenix  Mill. 

(The  last  four  subscriptions  paid  by  note.) 
$15.00     (Paid— $10.00    in    coin    and    $5.00    in 

greenbacks.) 


NOTES. 

The  Iowa  Journal  of  History  and  Politics  for  July  reports 
that  "the  marking  of  the  famous  Oregon  Trail  through  Ne- 
braska is  planned  as  a  work  of  co-operation  between  the 
Daughter's  of  the  American  Revolution  and  the  Nebraska 
State  Historical  Society.  It  is  hoped  that  this  excellent  idea 
may  be  carried  to  a  successful  conclusion." 


The  project  of  a  Lincoln  Memorial  Highway  extending 
from  the  national  capital  to  Gettysburg  is  being  strongly  advo- 
cated. Congressman  Theodore  E.  Burton  ardently  champions 
the  idea  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Review  of  Reviews.  It 
would  be  most  fortunate  to  have  the  American  people  turn  to 
the  building  of  great  highways  as  memorials.  A  transconti- 
nental highway  on  the  line  of  the  Oregon  Trail  as  a  memorial 
for  the  Oregon  pioneers  would  be  then  inevitable. 


The  State  convention  of  teachers  held  in  June  at  Eugene 
was  greatly  pleased  with  the  announcement  that  the  State 
Historical  Society  had  in  preparation  a  series  of  history 
leaflets  for  the  schools.  They  appreciate  the  aid  these  will 
be  in  making  more  real  the  words  of  their  regular  texts. 


QUARTERLY 


OREGON  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


No.  3,  Vol.  8,  September,  1907. 

TTiowas  3/.  ^nderson-THE  Vancouver  Reservation  Case         -       -  '^^'^^ 

r  ir  Z)avem5or«-RECOLLECTiONS  of  an  Indian  Agent.    Ill        -       -  231-264 

Jennie  BHSrrL-ln^  Historic  Sites  in  Eugeneand  Their  Mo_nu-_  ^^^^^^ 

F  e^FOTmff— The  Marking  OF  Historic  Sites         -       -  ,,-  ^.  -  ^  '       273-275 
Clyde  JB  Ait  Jison-TnK  Mormon  Settlements  in  the  Missouri    _    _^^^^^^ 
Valley  

^""oCCUpItToN  of   the  COLUMBIA    BlVER.  _  II._  REPORT    OF    APRIL         ^_^^ 

LETTkB^*oF  "dr."  John   McLoughlin  to  Oregon   Statesman, 
June  8, 1852 

^''''M^TElizabeCh  iord- Reminiscences   of   Eastern   Oregon._      _        ^^^^ 

iJdmoSi  TiVW-VANCouvER's  Disco^'er'y  of  Puget  sound        -        300 


No.  4,  Vol.  8,  December,  1907. 


Frederick  V.  iTotoKm-ADDRESS   at   the    Dedication    of   the    Mc- 

T.OT  GHLIN   INSTITUTE  AT  OREGON  CiTY,  OCTOBER  6,   UW/_      j^  _  ^-^       o03-3l6 

317-352 


T  m-GHLiN  Institute  at  uregon  uity,  <_»(_  ruci-^iv  u,  i.-y,         - 

Geowe  H   Hrme.^UiSTORY   OF   Organization  of   Oregon   State 


Agricultural  society           ''/"".      "„„     tat  "i^a  qti 

T.  i^.  I>«renpor/-RECOLLECTiONS  OF  an  Indian  Agent.    I\  .     -       -  o53^4 

F    W   P0H.e?/-BlBLIOGRAPHY  OF  HALL  J.  KELLER ^'o-^t^ 

^^^Tl^^oT  ASAHEL  MUNGER  AND  WiFE _   -  387^ 

Notes  and  Reviews "                ...  4i(m^4 

accessions .".-.  425-429 

Index  


No.  1,  Vol.  9,  March,  1908. 

W't7HfflmD.J?'en<on-EDM^ARD  DICKINSON  Baker J^f 

Period  of  the  PRoyisioNAL  Go\  ER^M^,^  r,  lS)y-iK49  ^-  '- 

Tnhn   Minfn—FKOyi  YoUTH  TO   AG  K  AS  AN    AMERICAN.     I.        -         -         "  "       ' '^    '» 

F.^n^lcG.   ro"m^-C°oLUMBIA    RIVER  IMPROVEMENT  AND  THE   PACIFIC  .^^_^^ 

NflKTHM-EST                 _  "      _                     _          .  95-101 

Notes  and  News  ------ 


No.  2,  Vol.  9,  .Tune,  1908. 


103-126 


r.C.^Z?to«-"  DOCTOR"  ROBERT  Newell:  PIONEER       -  .   v>-.in 

John  Minto-YnovL  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.  II.   -  i-  "^ 


JoA„  ;tfinto-FROMY..UTHjmAGE^s^^^^^  -   -   l73-i78 

-  179-183 

184-188 


TTaF^/^O:  m«;iot;:-CONTESTS  OVER  THE  CAPITAL  OF  OREGON 

Mrs.  S.  A .  Z,')/i,(7— Mrs.  Jesse  ApplegAte 

Notes  and  News •       " 


PRICE:    FIKT 


TY  CENTS  PEli  NllMBER,  TWO  DOLLARS  PER,  YEAR. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  OREGON. 


THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  confers  the  degrees  of 
Master  of  Arts,  (and  in  prospect,  of  Doctor  of  Phi- 
losoph}'-,)  CiHl  and  Sanitarj-  Engineer  (C.  E.),  Elec- 
trical Engineer  (E.  E.),  Chemical  Engineer  (Ch.  E.,) 
and  Mining  Engineer  (Min.  E.J 


THE  COLLEGE  Oh  LITERATURE,  SCIENCE,  AND  THE 
ARTS  confers  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  on 
graduates  from  the  following  groups :  (1)  General 
Classical;  (2)  General  Literarj-;  (3)  General  Scien- 
tific; (4)  Civic-Historical ;  (5)  Philosophical,  Edu- 
cational. It  offers  Collegiate  Courses  not  leading 
to  a  degree  as  follows:  (1)  Preparatory^  to  Law  or 
Journalism. 


THE  COLLEGE  OF  SCIENCE  AND  ENGINEERING  — 
A. —  The  School  of  Applied  Science  confers  the  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Science  on  graduates  from 
the  following  groups ;  (1)  General  Science;  (2) 
Chemistry;  (3)  Physics;  (4)  Biology;  (5)  Geol- 
ogy and  Mineralogy.  It  offers  a  Course  Pre- 
paratory to  Medicine. 
B. — The  School  of  Engineering :  (1 )  Civil  and  San- 
itary; (2)  Electrical;  (3)  Chemical 


THE  SCHOOL   OF  MINES  AND  MINING. 
THE   SCHOOL    OF  MEDICINE  at  Portland. 
THE   SCHOOL    OF  LAW  at  Portland. 
THE  SCHOOL  OF  MUSIC. 

Address 

The  President, 

Eugene,  Oregon. 


THE  QUARTERLY 


Oregon  Hi^orical  Society 


Volume  IX.] 


DECEMBER,     1908  [NUMBER  4 


CONTENTS. 

T.  W.  iJuvenport—HijAVKRY  Question  in  Oregon,  II 
John  Minto—FROM  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American,  III 
Documents- 
Speech  OF  Senator  J,  SEMi-i.r:— on  Akhouation  ok  Tkkatv  ok 

Joint  Occupation        .      .      -      _ .   388-411 


309-rS 
374-3S7 


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Entered  at  the  post  office  at  Portland,  Oregon,  oj)  ■<iecondrclass  matter. 


The  Oregon  Historical  Society 


Organized  December  17,  1698 


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Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1908, 
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FREDERICK   V.  HOLMAN,    WM.   D.  FENTON. 

Term  expires  at  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1910, 
ARTHUR  C.  BOGGESS.    MILTON   W.   SMITH. 

Term  exjiirts  iit  Annual  Meeting  in  December,  1911, 
xMRS.   MARIA   L.   MYRICK,    CHARLES  J.  SCHNABEL. 


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THE  QUARTERLY 


of  the 

Oregon  Historical  Society. 

Volume  IX]  DECEMBER,  1908.  [Number  4 

(The  QUAKTKBLT  disavows  responsibility  for  the  positions  taken  by  contributors  to  its  pages.) 

SLAVERY  QUESTION   IN  OREGON— II. 

By  T.  W.  Davenport. 

Any  account  of  the  anti-slavery  men  of  Oregon,  which 
omits  the  name  and  services  of  Joseph  Magone,  is  inexcus- 
ably deficient;  for  he  was  considerably  above  the  average, 
physically  and  mentally,  and  though  somewhat  erratic  at 
times,  he  performed  valuable  service  for  the  Oregon  people. 
In  1847  he  received  the  appointment  of  Major  of  the  volunteer 
force  raised  to  punish  the  Cayuse  Indians  for  the  murder  of 
Dr.  Whitman  and  family,  and  thereafter  was  generally  known 
as  Major  Magone. 

The  Major  was  of  distinguished  personal  appearance,  of 
unusual  activity,  energy  and  endurance,  of  chivalric  instincts, 
acute  perception,  had  a  prodigious  memory,  was  adroit  in 
argument,  forceful  in  speech,  dearly  loved  controversy,  and 
was  generally  present  to  take  part  on  all  occasions  of  a  public 
nature  permitting  contests.  Thus  endowed,  it  would  be  strange 
if  he  had  not  loved  argument  for  argument's  sake,  but  there 
was  considerable  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  his  faculties 
in  advocating  his  opinions,  which  were,  in  great  part,  at  vari- 
jmce  with  the  habits  of  the  times.  His  equal  rights  tenets 
were  very  broad,  taking  in  all  the  tribes  of  men,  women  and 
children.  Temperance,  woman  suffrage,  education,  never 
failed  of  his  support,  and  his  fealty  to  the  principles  in  his 
category  never  wavered  for  the  sake  of  political  preferment, 
which,  no  doubt,  would  have  pleased  him,  but  which  passed 


310  T.  W.  Davenport. 

him  by  on  the  other  side.  He  was  a  radical ;  and  radicals,  as 
every  one  knows,  are  never  wholly  trusted:  an  intellectual 
gladiator  whose  help  was  always  welcome  to  somebody  at  some 
time.  Now  here,  to  administer  discomfiture  to  a  slavery 
propagandist  who  lacked  the  virtue  of  discretion;  now  there 
to  cheer  the  condemned  pioneers  of  the  woman  suffrage  move- 
ment; anon  as  earnest  and  trenchant  champion  to  demolish 
the  defenses  of  King  Alcohol ;  or  in  default  of  foes,  taking  part 
in  the  exercises  of  educational  associations,  where  his  peculiar 
talents  again  found  scope  and  appreciation,  for  they  were 
tempered  by  remarkably  genial  expression.  Still,  he  was 
more  feared  than  loved;  his  temperament  was  too  igneous, 
his  intellect  too  exacting,  his  ego  too  prominent,  for  continu- 
ously pleasant  companionship.  During  the  regime  of  sup- 
pression, the  arena  for  debate  was  comparatively  deserted, 
and  so  the  Major  lacked  the  fullness  of  opportunity,  but  he 
deserves  recognition  by  those  he  has  served.  His  home  was 
nearly  on  the  boundary  between  the  counties  of  Marion  and 
Clackamas,  where  he  had  selected  a  section  of  the  most  valu- 
able land  to  be  found  in  the  State. 

On  the  Waldo  Hills,  in  the  east  part  of  Marion  County, 
lived  the  Rev.  Thomas  H.  Small,  an  emigrant  of  1853,  coming 
from  east  Tennessee.  He  was  born  in  Kentucky  and  had 
lived  from  birth  there  and  in  Tennessee ;  was  a  true  southerner 
in  his  love  of  the  South  and  its  people,  but  he  had  grown  out 
of  harmony  with  their  peculiar  institution.  One  of  his 
brothers,  living  in  Alabama,  and  others  of  his  near  relatives 
were  slaveholders,  and  while,  for  their  sake  and  that  of  the 
social  peace,  he  could  refrain  from  preaching  and  talking 
against  slavery,  his  moral  and  religious  convictions  were  too 
deep  and  his  pride  of  personal  character  too  strong  to  get 
along  agreeably  in  a  community  which  construed  silence  into 
an  offense.  He  was  too  earnest  to  smile  and  shilly-shally  in 
presence  of  conduct  that  was  contrary  to  Christian  duty,  even 
for  the  sake  of  peace.  While  a  delegate  to  the  Presbyterian 
Synod  which  met  at  Pittsburg,  he  spoke  of  the  difficulty  of 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      311 

being  a  Christian  and  holding  slaves,  a  confession  which 
made  him  an  undesirable  citizen  of  his  much  loved  South. 

The  disagreement  had  become  critical,  and  as  he  saw  no 
prospect  of  any  amelioration  in  the  social  environment  in  the 
slave  States,  and  his  large  family  of  sons  and  daughters  would 
probably  become  involved  and  interested  in  perpetuating 
human  chattelhood,  he  resolved  to  emigrate  to  Oregon,  where 
the  state  of  society  was  in  harmony  with  moral  precepts  and 
left  men  conscience  free.  His  coming  to  Oregon  was,  as  he 
said,  a  great  deliverance  for  himself  and  family,  and  also  a 
wholesome  addition  to  our  pioneer  society,  which  soon  after 
needed  men  of  high  moral  principle  and  unshakable  firmness 
of  purpose  to  resist  the  machinations  of  the  malign  power 
from  which  he  fled.  And  Mr.  Small's  presence  here  was 
alone  of  great  assistance,  as  it  afforded  an  object  lesson  of 
the  mutual  and  irreconcilable  antagonism  which  slavery  en- 
gendered among  even  members  of  the  same  family.  During 
his  southern  experience  he  became  acquainted  with  all  phases 
of  the  slave  system,  and  while  he  seldom  spoke  of  the  atroci- 
ties inseparable  from  it — for  he  considered  the  southern 
people  as  good  as  those  of  the  North— he  laid  all  the  blame 
upon  the  system,  which  he  denounced  as  a  school  of  barbarism. 

Mr.  Small  was  a  very  strong  character;  on  first  acquaint- 
.  ance  seemingly  stern  and  imperious  in  bearing,  but  really  a 
genial  and  companionable  person,  independent  himself  and 
desiring  others  to  be  the  same.  He  was  a  steadfast  and  loyal 
friend,  and  exercised  a  strong  influence  in  favor  of  righteous 
living. 

A  familiar  presence  among  the  opponents  of  the  Oregon 
democracy,  prior  to  the  year  1859,  was  "Old  John  Denny," 
of  Marion  County.  The  word  "old"  was  not  hitched  on  to 
his  name,  from  any  levity  or  disrespect,  but  from  his  venerable 
appearance  and  admiration  for  his  excellent  qualities  of  head 
and  heart.  He  was  not  an  orator,  as  the  word  is  generally 
understood,  and  though  old  fashioned  as  to  pronunciation,  and 
home-educated,  it  was  reported  that  Abraham  Lincoln  said  of 
him,  he  could  make  a  better  off-hand  speech  than  any  other 


312  T.  W.  Davenport. 

man  in  his  county.  He  was  an  industrious  reader  and  thinker, 
full  to  overflowing  of  wit  and  wisdom,  which  made  him  one 
of  the  most  instructive  and  charming  of  fire-side  companions. 
As  one  educated  man  said  of  him,  "He  was  chock-full  of 
home-brewed  philosophy  which  went  down  about  the  roots  of 
things."  He  was  nominated  for  Governor,  much  against  his 
wishes,  by  the  Republican  State  convention  which  met  at 
Salem  in  the  spring  of  1858,  the  year  that  the  Democratic 
party  in  Oregon  split  in  twain  and  most  of  the  nominees  of 
the  Republican  convention  resigned  from  the  ticket  to  en- 
courage the  fight.  It  is  recorded  somewhere  that  Mr,  Denny 
also  withdrew,  but  against  the  record,  I  assert  that  the  resig- 
nation was  without  his  authority.  Shortly  after  the  publi- 
cation of  his  withdrawal,  he  made  a  speech  in  Silverton, 
during  which  one  of  his  old  Illinois  friends  called  aloud, 
"Uncle  John!  it  is  reported  that  you  have  resigned  in  favor 
of  the  softs,  is  that  so?"  The  questioner  was  rather  abrupt 
but  Mr.  Denny  replied  without  hesitation  and  with  a  humor- 
ous conversational  drawl,  "Eli,  you  have  known  me  a  long 
time  and  should  have  a  better  opinion  of  me  than  that.  Why 
should  you  expect  that  after  a  long  life  spent  in  fighting  the 
Goths  I  would  at  last  surrender  to  the  Vandals'?"  He  was 
fertile  and  ever  brain-ready  for  casting  such  thunder  bolts, 
and  was  never  known  to  be  caught  out.  In  the  winter  of 
that  year  he  stayed  all  night  at  my  home  on  the  Waldo  Hills, 
at  which  time  he  desired  me  to  go  with  him  to  Seattle,  which 
he  predicted  would  become  a  great  city.  He  was  quite  old; 
as  he  said,  "with  one  foot  in  the  grave  and  the  other  ought 
not  to  be  out ; ' '  but  his  mind  was  vigorous  and  youthful  and 
this,  with  his  large  experience,  made  him  a  most  valuable 
citizen,  in  fact,  a  teacher  everywhere. 

In  the  spring  of  1854,  people  in  the  Waldo  Hills,  busily 
engaged  in  farming,  heard  of  an  exciting  political  canvass 
going  on  in  the  towns  and  at  the  polling  places  in  Marion 
County,  in  which  the  Democratic  candidates  were  said  to  be 
getting  the  worst  of  the  fight.  It  was  quite  odd  and  wholly 
unexpected,  as  the  Whigs  had  made  no  nominations,  in  fact 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      313 

had  never  made  any  in  the  county,  and  to  ascertain  what  it 
all  meant,  the  farmers  took  a  day  off  to  see  the  show  as  it 
revolved  near  them.  Several  of  us  attended  the  meeting  at 
the  school  house,  within  the  site  of  the  prasent  town  of  Sil- 
verton,  and  after  hearing  the  debate,  we  did  not  wonder  at 
the  general  stir  among  the  people  and  the  consequent  solicitude 
of  the  Democratic  candidates,  who  though  above  the  average 
of  representatives  from  the  "cow  counties,"  were  not  habitual 
and  trained  public  speakers.  Their  lone  opponent,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  extraordinarily  gifted  for  such  contests. 
He  was  a  forcible  and  attractive  public  speaker,  a  capital 
story-teller,  skilled  in  logic,  an  accomplished  rhetorician  whose 
diction  and  copious  vocabulary  needed  no  amendment  to  fit  it 
for  the  press.  He  was  new  to  the  territory,  having  arrived 
overland  in  the  fall  of  1852,  and  engaging  in  the  confinement 
of  school  teaching,  but  few  persons  had  heard  of  him.  But 
from  the  time  of  this  notable  canvass  everybody  heard  of 
Orange  Jacobs  and  learned  something  of  his  history— that  he 
was  a  native  of  Michigan,  a  graduate  of  the  Ann  Arbor  Law 
School,  and  had  a  State  reputation  as  a  temperance  lecturer. 
In  1854  Democratic  politics  was  overshadowing  in  Marion 
County  and  permitted  little  else  to  grow.  Indeed,  if  I  were 
to  personify  it,  I  should  liken  it  to  a  great,  rollicsome,  thought- 
less fellow,  over-bearing  through  ignorance,  but  of  naturally 
good  heart,  and  had  had  his  own  way  so  long  that  he  con- 
sidered himself  a  normal  outgrowth  of  human  nature. 

Something  more  than  ordinary  was  needed  to  awaken  the 
sleeping  faculties  of  the  Marion  County  people,  and  so  some 
Methodist  ministers,  having  heard  Mr.  Jacobs  speak,  solicited 
liim  to  run  for  the  Legislature  on  the  Maine-law  platform. 
That  he  came  within  twelve  votes  of  being  elected  in  the 
banner  county  of  democracy,  is  sufficient  proof  of  the  thor- 
oughness of  its  presentation.  The  monstrosities  and  absurdi- 
ties of  the  license  system  in  a  country  governed  by  law  and 
among  a  people  striving  for  the  improvement  of  society,  were 
as  exhaustively  shown  as  they  ever  have  been  since,  aftef 
fifty  years'  experience  with   alcoholic  demoralization.     Mr. 


314  T.  W.  Davenport. 

Jacobs  ran  again  the  next  year,  1855,  but  a  Democratic  Legis- 
lature had  in  the  interim  enacted  into  law  the  viva  voce  or 
open  ticket  system  of  voting,  the  more  effectually  to  prevent 
Democrats  straying  away  from  the  party  and  its  principal 
rendezvous,  the  saloon,  whereby  the  Maine-law  candidate  was 
left  far  in  the  rear  on  election  day.  The  law  was  aimed 
mainly  at  those  Democrats  who  had  gone  into  the  Knownoth- 
ing  lodges,  but  it  told  as  well  against  any  sort  of  departure 
from  the  Democratic  fold.  The  editor  of  The  Statesman  said 
it  was  to  make  people  honest  (of  course,  he  meant  Democrats)  ; 
certainly  it  made  them  party  slaves. 

Not  all  of  the  Democrats  were  tipplers,  but  so  large  a  part 
of  them  were  that  the  saloon  habit  was  prima  facie  evidence 
of  Democracy.  And  on  the  other  hand,  the  habit  in  an  anti- 
slavery  Whig  raised  a  doubt  as  to  the  genuineness  of  his 
politics.  Indeed,  liberty  for  the  white  man  was  so  all-embrac- 
ing—liberty to  make  slaves  of  others,  to  indulge  depraved 
appetites  to  the  detriment  of  individuals  and  society,  that 
Democratic  editors  declared  all  so-called  sumptuary  laws  an 
infringement  of  personal  liberty,  and  therefore  opposed  to 
Democratic  principles.  The  editor  of  The  Argus,  Parson  Billy 
Adams,  published  frequently  that  the  Democratic  idea  of 
liberty  was  merely  libertinism.  And  if  we  appeal  to  reason  as 
a  guide  for  human  conduct  and  admit  the  right  of  any  human 
being  to  make  a  slave  of  another,  have  we  not  removed  all 
limits  to  the  gratification  of  his  personal  desires?  can  any- 
thing less  be  denied  him?  Moral  principles  are  cast  aside  and 
the  individual  wavers  and  wanders  the  victim  of  blind  impulse. 

Finding  the  law  in  Marion  exclusively  Democratic,  Mr, 
Jacobs  emigrated  to  Southern  Oregon  in  August,  1857,  and 
there  easily  took  first  place  as  a  public  speaker.  His  arrival 
was  quite  opportune,  for  with  this  gift  and  an  attractive  com- 
panionship, he  gave  much  strength  and  adhesiveness  to  the 
free-state  proclivities  in  Jackson  County.  He  went  into  the 
school  house  again,  but  his  sphere  of  lucrative  employment 
was  much  broadened.  The  Democrats  of  Jackson  County, 
though  largely  in  the  majority,  were  not  of  the  shut-mouth, 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      315 

boss-dominated  and  exclusive  variety,  like  those  in  the  Wil- 
lamette. They  had  minds  of  their  own  and  spoke  their  opin- 
ions freely,  even  respecting  slavery,  which  was  then  a  mooted 
question  among  them,  and  as  many  of  them  were  from  the 
Southern  States,  the  pro-slavery  sentiment  was  very  strong  in 
the  county.  They  did  not  fear  that  discussion  of  the  question 
would  compromise  their  standing  as  citizens  or  Democrats, 
and  so  the  social  cleavage  did  not  follow  party  lines.  Litigants 
cared  nothing  about  the  politics  of  an  attorney-at-law;  so  that 
he  could  succeed  before  a  court  and  jury.  Every  question 
stood  upon  its  own  merits  in  Rogue  River  Valley.  Likely  this 
dissimilarity  resulted  from  isolation,  for  the  people  of  that 
mountain-framed  valley  were  far  removed  from  the  settle^ 
ments  north  and  south  of  it.  Three  days'  travel  over  a  diffi- 
cult mountain  road  and  through  a  twelve-mile  canyon,  almost 
impassable  in  the  wet  season,  separated  them  from  the 
Umpqua,  and  nearly  as  far  over  a  higher  range  of  mountains 
they  were  compelled  to  travel  to  reach  the  settlements  in 
California.  No  doubt  the  Rogue  River  people  felt  the  inde- 
pendent spirit  which  characterizes  sequestered  peoples  the 
world  over.  As  they  depended  upon  getting  their  merchan- 
dise from  San  Francisco  by  another  mountain  road  from 
Cresent  City,  a  port  on  the  Pacific,  there  was  talk  at  one 
time  among  them  of  asking  to  be  annexed  to  California,  but 
this  was  before  General  Hooker  was  detailed  by  the  Govern- 
ment to  improve  the  road  through  the  twelve-mile  canyon, 
leading  northward  to  the  Umpqua  and  Willamette.  It  has 
been  observed  that  mountains,  rivers,  and  seas  make  enemies 
of  nations  that  would  otherwise  be  friends,  and  this  fact 
depends,  no  doubt  upon  the  estranging  effect  of  non-inter- 
course. I  was  amused  at  one  time  in  the  '50s  upon  hearing 
Ben  Harding  remark  that  the  Democratic  members  of  the 
Legislature  from  Jackson  County  had  no  politics  but  Jackson 
County.  Likely  he  experienced  some  difficulty  in  managing 
them  with  reference  to  party  interests.  And  likely,  too,  theii| 
independence  of  spirit  was  the  result,  in  some  degree,  of  the 
large  per  cent  of  the  gold-mining  population,  whose  minda 


316  T.  W.  Davenport. 

were  constantly  employed  about  other  matters  than  polities. 
Par  more  exciting  to  them,  were  placers,  nuggets  and  rich 
strikes,  than  the  hugger-mugger  of  political  caucuses  and 
conventions.  Neither  did  their  interests  lie  in  the  direction 
of  slave  labor  or  the  slave  code,  and  they  said  so  with  em- 
phasis, and  with  no  care  for  its  effects  on  their  parties. 

Jackson  County  was  reported  to  be  in  favor  of  slavery,  and 
early  in  the  summer  of  1857,  I  presume  that  the  claim  of  the 
pro-slavery  men  was  well  founded.  But  the  free  expression 
of  opinion  permitted  there  showed  that  Judge  "Williams'  free- 
state  letter  was  stirring  the  minds  of  the  people  and  leading 
them  into  sane  ways  of  thinking,  and  to  the  loss  of  the  pro- 
slavery  element.  The  anti-slavery  agitators  there  were  very 
few  in  number,  though  fair  in  ability  and  strong  in  character, 
and  they  argued  the  question  from  the  ethical  standpoint, 
which  however  is  not  very  effective  in  immediate  results 
among  average  human  beings.  When  ethical  truth  takes  hold 
ot  a  human,  it  is  lasting,  for  prejudice  and  all  minor  questions 
become  obsolete.  "Free  niggers,"  the  scarecrow  of  the  prO' 
slavery  men,  ceases  to  be  an  alarm,  but  there  are  few  persons 
who  have  the  power  to  awaken  men  to  the  generous  sympa- 
thies of  equal  fraternity,  and  Rogue  River  Valley  had  none 
competent  to  the  task.  Knowing  this,  and  that  so-called  radi- 
cal talk  included  the  defense  of  ' '  free  niggers, ' '  which  all  but 
the  radicals  opposed,  the  pro-slavery  leaders  proposed  a  public 
debate  of  the  slavery  question,  E.  D.  Foudray  and  S.  M.  Wait 
being  the  proponents.  Mr.  Foudray  was  a  Kentuckian  of  edu- 
cation and  ability,  one  of  the  best  known  business  men  in  the 
county,  a  man  of  large  influence,  of  good  presence,  and 
possessing  that  peculiar  dignity  claimed  for  high-toned  South- 
ern gentlemen.  Mr.  Wait  was  the  owner  of  the  flouring  mill 
at  Phoenix,  a  very  earnest  talker,  and  quite  a  proselyter  for 
his  opinions. 

Their  statement  of  the  question  was  very  adroit.  The  Con- 
stitution presented  the  question  to  the  voters:  Slavery— Yes 
or  No ;  Free  negroes— Yes  or  No.  Mr.  Foudray  said  he  would 
stand  for  slavery  and  against  free  negroes,   while  his  op- 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      317 

ponents  should  stand  against  slavery  and  for  free  negroes. 
The  supposition  with  him  was,  that  no  free-state  man  would 
or  could  be  found  to  accept  the  proposition,  or  in  case  of 
acceptance,  the  result  would  be  a  wrangle  among  the  free- 
state  men  over  the  admission  of  "free  niggers"  to  the  new 
State;  in  either  case  a  discomfiture  to  the  opponents  of 
slavery.  He  miscalculated  as  to  both  suppositions,  for  Mr. 
Jacobs  and  Samuel  Colver  promptly  accepted  the  challenge, 
and  the  result  of  the  contest  showed  he  had  never  heard  the 
question  debated  upon  its  merits  and  by  an  advocate  thor- 
oughly skilled  in  polemics.  The  meeting  was  held  at  Phoenix 
the  first  week  in  November,  two  or  three  days  before  the  elec- 
tion on  the  Constitution,  and  was  largely  attended  by  citizens 
from  all  over  the  county.  The  building  was  packed  to  over- 
flowing— many  standing  within  hearing  distance  around  it. 

Mr.  Foudray's  introductory  address  showed  him,  at  least, 
to  be  a  master  of  fence.  He  desired  it  to  be  distinctly  under- 
stood that  they  did  not  propose  to  make  slaves  of  anybody 
who  is  now  free;  we  shall  not  ask  for  the  revival  of  the 
African  slave  trade.  On  the  other  hand,  if  slavery  in  the 
United  States  did  not  exist,  and  not  an  African  within  its 
borders,  we  should  object  to  the  introduction  of  slavery  any- 
where. But  slavery  is  a  fact  in  this  nation  of  ours ;  it  is  here 
under  the  protection  of  law  and  the  compromises  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  which  ever  way  we  decide  the  question  for  our- 
selves will  make  no  more  or  less  slaves,  no  more  or  less  freemen. 
So  you  see  that  if  we  decide  to  bring  some  of  those  already  in 
slavery  to  help  cultivate  our  large  farms,  we  will  not  be  ag- 
gravating matters  so  far  as  the  slaves  are  concerned,  rather 
bettering  them  if  anything,  and  we  shall  be  improving  our 
own  condition  in  supplying  cheap  labor,  which  we  can  never 
have  so  long  as  gold  mining  pays  a  free  laborer  better  wages 
than  the  farming  interests  can  afford.  After  amplifying 
these  views  to  a  considerable  extent,  Mr.  Foudray  launched 
out  into  a  rambling  dissertation  concerning  the  evils  of  "free 
niggers,"  negro  equality,  miscegenation,  etc.  Mr.  Colver  fol- 
lowed him,  and  presented  to  the  audience  his  observations 


318  T.  W.  Davenport. 

concerning  miscegenation  in  the  South  where  he  had  lived. 
Mr,  Wait  took  his  turn,  and  Mr,  Jacobs  closed  the  debate  for 
that  evening. 

Mr.  Jacobs  was  willing  to  accept  the  restrictions  placed 
upon  the  question  by  Mr.  Foudray  and  say  that  it  was  not  as 
to  whether  there  should  be  more  or  less  slaves  in  the  United 
States,  but  as  to  whether  the  Oregonians  should  introduce 
slavery  as  a  feature  or  ingredient  of  their  political  and  social 
institutions.  He  had  no  doubt  that  the  Oregon  people  were 
pretty  well  informed  by  printed  publications  that  had  been 
circulated,  as  to  the  expediency  of  adopting  slavery  here,  but 
he  was  willing  to  look  at  it  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  which 
so  far  had  not  been  attempted,  and  he  expected  to  show  that 
what  is  moral  is  expedient  and  that  what  is  immoral  is  inex- 
pedient; in  fact,  to  make  it  appear  to  rational  men  that  if 
morality  and  expediency  are  not  synonymous  terms,  they  are 
as  closely  related  as  lightning  and  thunder.  He  remarked  the 
fact  that  the  audience  was  made  up  of  believers  and  unbe- 
lievers, as  respects  religious  matters,  and  therefore  would  not 
refer  to  scripture  for  authority  as  to  what  is  moral  or  the 
reverse,  but  seek  the  definition  in  the  nature  of  things.  In- 
deed, there  is  no  need  of  going  to  the  Pentateuch  to  find  out 
what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  and  there  is  no  pertinence  in 
telling  you  the  distinction  between  the  two  kinds  of  actions, 
for  you  all  know  it,  even  though  you  may  never  have  read  a 
line  in  the  Bible  or  never  been  drilled  in  such  catechism. 
How  old  does  a  child  have  to  be  before  he  knows  it  is  wrong 
to  steal  from  his  playmate,  though  he  may  never  have  been 
told  so  1  He  knows  that  he  will  be  liable  to  the  same  treatment 
and  he  feels  that  he  will  be  separated  from  him  socially.  And 
this  is  the  genesis  of  moral  evolution.  Morals  grow  unavoida- 
bly out  of  the  social  state,  and  without  such  a  state  morals 
are  the  merest  fancy.  Robinson  Crusoe  alone  on  his  island 
could  commit  no  immorality.  Think  of  it!  In  his  isolation 
he  could  do  nothing  wrong,  as  respects  morals.  But  when  he 
had  secured  the  release  of  his  man  Friday,  then  he  was  under 
some  moral  obligations,  and  when  he  returned  to  England,  his 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      319 

moral  obligations  increased  to  suit  the  social  complexities 
there.  And  why  is  this  true?  except  that  the  social  state  is 
the  "sine  qua  non"  of  human  existence.  Without  it  man  is 
nothing— the  same  as  one  bee  without  a  hive.  Everything 
pertaining  to  individual  freedom,  inconsistent  with  the  social 
state,  is  surrendered  to  it  or  for  it.  Nearly  everybody  has  read 
that  melancholy  plaint  which  the  poet  attributed  to  Alexander 
Selkirk  on  the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez : 

Oh,  Solitude !  where  are  thy  charms. 
That  sages  have  seen  in  thy  face? 

Better  dwell  in  the  midst  of  alarms, 
Than  reign  in  this  horrible  place. 

But  there  is  one  thing  we  should  bear  in  mind,  viz. :  that  the 
surrender  or  rather  the  restriction  the  individual  undergoes 
for  the  sake  of  society  is  less  in  that  society  where  the  social 
units  are  equal  in  rights,  than  in  one  where  some  are  endowed 
with  special  privileges.  For  an  illustration,  turn  to  the  slave- 
holding  States  of  this  Union,  where  the  privilege  of  holding 
men  in  bondage  is  a  feature  of  society,  and  all  know  that  the 
non-slaveholding  portion  of  the  community  are  restricted  in 
their  liberty  to  an  extent  that  the  people  of  Oregon  would  not 
tolerate  for  a  moment.  How  would  a  citizen  of  this  county 
take  it,  if  when  he  called  for  his  mail,  he  were  told  that  it  had 
been  adjudged  incendiary  and  burnt?  How  would  an  Ore- 
gonian  like  to  be  subjected  to  surveillance  concerning  the 
books  in  his  library  or  the  newspapers  he  might  subscribe 
for?  And  yet  that  is  what  will  happen  here  sooner  or  later, 
when  slavery  shall  have  been  established.  The  Southern 
people  are  not  at  fault  in  censoring  the  press  and  prohibiting 
free  speech,  or  in  other  means  they  have  taken,  from  time  to 
time,  for  the  security  of  their  system,  for  so  long  as  it  con- 
tinues such  means  are  appropriate  and  necessary.  The 
system  itself  is  at  fault ;  it  is  wrong  morally  because  it  intro- 
duces a  false  principle  into  the  social  organism,  one  that 
produces  disorder,  interferes  with  the  progressive  tendency 
of  mankind,  requires  the  social  units  to  part  with  rights  for 
which  there  is  no  compensation  to  be  found  in  such  society, 


320  T.  W.  Davenport. 

and  in  various  ways  tends  to  diminish  tlie  fraternal  sympatlij^ 
which  is  the  key  note  or  cohesive  principle  that  makes  man- 
kind communal  beings.  Hence  we  may  assume  that  moral 
actions  and  principles  are  those  which  are  promotive  of  a 
harmonious  and  progressive  social  state  and  that  immoral 
actions  and  principles  are  those  which  produce  an  opposite 
result.  In  other  words,  that  morality  means  progression  and 
immorality  means  retrogression ;  that  what  is  moral  is  expedi- 
ent and  what  is  immoral  is  inexpedient.  Depend  upon  it, 
slavery  in  Oregon  will  be  no  different  from  slavery  in  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee.  The  same  means  will  have  to  be  ad  op  ted 
here  as  there.  Let  no  one  deceive  himself  as  to  that  matter. 
The  bloodhounds  will  be  here  to  track  the  fugitive  from  ser- 
vice, and  their  discordant  music  will  be  heard  in  the  mountain 
nooks  and  canyons  surrounding  our  serenely  beautiful  valleys. 
So  will  the  auction  block,  the  cat-o-nine-tails,  the  branding 
iron,  the  manacles,  the  slavedriver  and  his  traffic,  which  heeds 
no  human  tie,  fraternal,  paternal,  filial  or  marital,  as  applica- 
ble to  the  slave.  And  as  respects  the  part  the  non-slaveholder 
must  bear  in  this  scheme,  there  will  be  the  night  patrol  for 
every  night  in  the  year,  and  the  taxation  to  support  it. 
There  will  be  the  absence  of  free  schools,  the  suppression  of 
knowledge  and  of  free  speech,  a  censored  press,  annoying 
surveillance,  and  a  subservience  to  autocratic  control,  all  of 
which  will  be  progressively  bad  as  time  rolls  on.  Nothing  is 
more  true  and  evident  than  that  a  false  principle  in  society 
is  an  evolver  of  evils  which  continually  multiply  and  im- 
poverish the  social  state.  Slavery  in  every  Southern  State  is 
more  cruel  and  exacting  to  the  slave,  more  onerous  and  re- 
pressive to  the  "poor  white  trash,"  than  in  colonial  times. 
Then,  with  some  show  of  truth,  it  might  have  been  called  a 
kindly  and  patriarchal  institution  and  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin 
would  have  been  sadly  out  of  place.  Even  now  it  may  be 
somewhat  of  an  exaggeration,  but  the  growth  of  greed  and 
the  progressive  propaganda  of  slavery  will  soon  leave  it  in 
the  rear.  Our  pro-slavery  friends  are  so  accustomed  to  asso- 
ciating the  terms  "free  niggers"  and  "nigger  equality"  with 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      321 

social  equality  that  their  ideas  are  quite  vague  and  incoherent. 
A  very  little  thought  upon  the  subject  will  serve  to  show  that 
they  are  unduly  frightened,  in  fact,  that  they  are  suffering 
from  a  sort  of  nightmare.  We  have  only  to  look  among  oui-- 
selves  to  see  that  though  we  are  all  equal  before  the  law  and 
each  is  free  to  pursue  his  own  course  and  make  his  living  in 
his  own  way,  yet  that  our  social  aggregations  depend,  not  upon 
that,  but  are  determined  by  the  mutual  affinities  of  the  aasoci- 
ates.  That  is  the  law  which  holds  them  together  and  with 
which  statute  law  has  nothing  to  do.  If  attempted  it  would 
be  wholly  irrelevant  and  powerless.  And  further,  no  white 
man,  however  well  educated  and  endowed,  would  seek  or 
endure  uncongenial  companions,  though  said  to  be  socially 
equal.  Freeing  a  man,  of  whatever  color  from  slavery  is  no 
a.ssault  upon  the  social  freedom  of  others,  or  any  hindrance 
to  the  formation  of  social  groups,  which  depend,  as  we  have 
seen,  upon  affinity  of  sentiment  and  feeling.  Our  op- 
posing friends  should  think  of  these  natural  and  therefore 
irreversible  laws  and  dispel  their  fears.  It  may  not  be  out 
of  place  to  say,  that  there  is  no  aspect  of  the  question  to  be 
decided  next  Monday  which  should  give  our  pro-slavery 
neighbors  any  encouragement,  for  there  is  no  valid  basis  for 
their  contention.  Our  Constitution  makers  have  fixed  it  so 
that  slavery,  once  adopted  here,  is  irreversible  except  by 
consent  of  the  owners  of  slaves,  who  though  they  may  not 
number  a  dozen,  can  hold  the  State  to  slavery  against  the 
wishes  of  the  million  others.  So  there  is  no  room  for  experi- 
ment; the  decision  Monday  must  be  final  and  for  all  time. 
Jackson  County  is  so  nearly  balanced  between  the  opposing 
forces  that  some  persons  have  felt  considerable  anxiety  as  to 
the  general  result  but  there  is  no  danger  pending.  These 
lovely  Western  valleys  will  never  be  cursed  by  that  institu- 
tion which  even  now  threatens  the  perpetuity  of  the  great 
American  Nation.  The  people  of  Oregon  will  vindicate  their 
attachment  to  free  institutions  and  after  their  decision  there 
will  be  no  murmurings  of  discontent  from  the  minority  who 


322  T.  W.  Davenport. 

will  feel  in  their  inmost  souls  that  the  popular  verdict  is  true 
and  righteous  altogether. 

This  must  have  been  a  notable  debate,  as  it  made  so  pro- 
found an  impression  upon  the  audience  that  several  of  them 
remembered  the  heads  of  discourse  and  were  able  to  reproduce 
them  after  the  lapse  of  forty  years.  Especially  could  the 
disputants  recall  the  statement  of  the  question  and  the  trend 
of  the  argument,  which  has  been  given  in  the  language  of  the 
writer,  as  there  was  no  verbatim  report  and  nothing  more 
accurate  than  human  memory,  but  as  those  with  whom  I 
talked,  at  various  times  since,  were  in  substantial  agreement, 
I  have  thought  the  episode  sufficiently  attested  to  be  worthy 
of  a  place  in  this  history.  One  man  said  it  was  a  vote-maker 
for  the  anti-slavery  cause,  and  if  so  must  have  turned  the 
scale  in  Jackson  County,  as  the  returns  showed  only  twenty- 
one  majority  for  freedom,  while  the  free  negro  was  excluded 
by  a  vote  of  sixteen  to  one.  Will  it,  or  will  it  not,  be  a 
stunning  fact  to  our  posterity,  that  in  a  poll  of  837  voters  only 
forty-six  of  them  were  willing  that  the  negro  should  be  free 
to  make  his  domicile  in  this  great  State  and  pursue  such  avoca- 
tions as  his  God-given  faculties  inspired  him  to?  And  with- 
out asking  whether  the  time  will  ever  come  when  the  negro 
shall  be  treated  as  a  man  and  a  brother  entitled  to  equal  rights, 
let  it  be  set  down  as  a  fact  that,  in  the  year  1857,  only  forty-six 
white  men  in  Jackson  County,  Oregon,  had  the  humanity  and 
courage  to  declare  such  a  conviction. 

One  disappointed  Democrat  said,  "Jacobs  could  outtalk  our 
fellows."  Another  survivor  remarked  that  Mr.  Fondray  and 
Mr.  Wait  made  a  poor  showing.  In  truth,  what  other  showing 
could  be  made?  In  ancient  times,  when  slavery  was  the  alt- 
ernative of  death,  to  prisoners  of  war,  there  was  a  rational 
basis  for  that  condition,  but  as  a  substitute  for  industrial 
freedom  in  the  light  of  the  nineteenth  century,  it  was  an 
absurdity  without  a  parallel.  Very  likely  the  proponents  of 
slavery  were  outclassed,  but  in  the  nature  of  things  they  were 
at  great  disadvantage.  In  all  the  controversy  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end  of  the  agitation  in  the  United  States,  no 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      323 

Southern  statesman  ever  proposed  a  discussion  with  the 
abolitionists  as  to  the  ethical  basis  of  chattel  slavery.  Most 
students  of  history  are  familiar  with  the  scathing  rebuke  ad- 
ministered by  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke  to  a  Northern  rep- 
resentative in  Congress  who  had  shown  his  recreancy  to  free- 
dom. "I  envy  not  the  head  or  the  heart  of  that  man  from 
the  North,  who  rises  here  to  defend  slavery  upon  principle. ' ' 
Possibly  this  Phoenix  debate  may  be  considered  a  small  affair 
as  affecting  the  general  result,  but  I  have  given  it  a  promi- 
nent place  for  the  reason  that,  so  far  as  any  one  knows,  it 
was  the  only  public  debate  involving  the  basic  principles  of 
human  society,  ever  held  in  the  Territory,  and  for  the  further 
reason  that  it  has  escaped  the  notice  of  our  Oregon  historians. 
The  disseminators  of  free-soil  sentiment  in  Jackson  County 
had  been  doing  effective  work  among  a  population  so  thor- 
oughly engrossed  by  the  excitement  of  gold  mining  that  it  was 
a  difficult  ta^k  to  attract  their  attention  to  even  as  important 
a  matter  as  the  character  of  their  own  institutions,  and  hence 
those  advocates  are  worthy  of  remembrance  by  future  genera- 
tions. Samuel  Colver,  senior,  was  one  of  the  Ohio  pioneers 
before  1800,  assisted  General  Lewis  Cass  in  the  survey  of  the 
public  lands,  an  uncompromising  foe  of  slavery  and  a  man  of 
rare  force  and  influence  in  that  State,  where  he  resided  for 
more  than  fifty  years.  He  and  his  wife  (octogenarians) 
emigrated  to  Oregon  in  the  spring  of  1857  to  reach  their  two 
sons,  Samuel  and  Hiram,  both  talented  and  educated  and 
equally  earnest  with  their  sire  in  propagating  anti-slavery 
doctrines  and  proclaiming  the  horologue  of  freedom.  There 
too  was  Uncle  David  Stearns,  a  radical  of  the  radicals,  an 
Esop  in  form  and  manner,  adroit,  pungent  and  thought-pro- 
voking; one  of  a  class  of  men  who  are  generally  considered 
handicaps  by  the  moderates  in  the  same  service,  but  who  are  as 
necessary  to  progress  as  pioneers  to  state-building.  One  con- 
trast may  be  observed  between  them  and  the  so-called  safe  and 
sane  persons  who  constitute  the  bulk  of  reform  movements; 
they  are  the  undismayed  propagators  of  the  faith  which  the 
followers   dilute   and   ameliorate— as   it  were,   sugar   coat   to 


324  T.  W.  Davenport. 

suit  the  palates  of  the  multitude.  These  dreaded  radicals  (to 
the  conservatives)  have  their  uses;  indeed,  without  them  the 
pole-star  of  truth  would  suffer  entire  obscuration,  and  the 
timid  conservatives  become  "abject  and  lost,  covering  the 
flood."  There  also  was  John  Beeson,  another  radical,  who 
added  to  that  offense  by  being  a  friend  and  protector  of  the 
aborigines  whose  cause  he  pleaded  so  earnestly  as  to  give  him 
a  national  reputation  and  a  vote  of  local  ostracism.  Un- 
doubtedly he  committed  a  tactical  blunder  in  trying  to  stop 
the  Indian  war  in  1855  and  '56  by  ad-hominem  arguments 
leveled  against  the  white  depredators ;  not  that  his  allegations 
were  not  more  than  justified  and  admittedly  so  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  Rogue  River  people,  but  that  when  our  red 
brothers  go  upon  the  warpath,  driven  to  it  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  by  the  predatory  few  hanging  about  the  margin  of 
civilization  and  claiming  to  be  white,  there  is  no  avoidance 
of  the  conflict  which  in  the  nature  of  things  is  racial,  and  no 
permanent  peace  practicable  until  the  United  States  has  taken 
the  red  men  under  its  protection  and  out  of  the  way  of  the 
greedy  pale  faces.  General  Wool,  in  his  report  to  the  War 
Department,  corroborated  John  Beeson  as  to  the  exciting 
causes  of  the  war,  but  he  too  was  in  error  in  supposing  peace 
possible,  except  in  the  way  above  indicated.  All  our  experi- 
ence is  to  the  effect  that  the  two  races  cannot  live  peaceably 
as  joint  occupants,  but  those  two  good  men  had  not  rightly 
weighed  that  experience.  That  was  their  error,  and  almost 
a  virtue. 

An  anecdote  of  that  time  may  not  be  out  of  place  here. 
The  Indians,  under  the  command  of  their  two  chiefs,  Sam 
and  John,  were  posted  in  a  very  strong  position  on  Table 
Rock  at  the  lower  end  of  Bear  Creek  Valley,  and  their  scouting 
parties  were  out  committing  depredations  and  making  travel 
unsafe,  when  John  Beeson  visited  Hiram  Colver  at  his  home 
half  a  mile  from  Phoenix.  Mr.  Colver  was  well  known  to  all 
the  Indians  thereabout  and  enjoyed  their  confidence  to  a 
high  degree.  So  Mr.  Beeson  had  come  to  him  to  get  his 
assistance  in  suspending  hostilities.     He  wanted  Mr.  Colver 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      325 

to  go  with  him  to  the  Indian  camp  and  persuade  them  to 
cease  their  warlike  operations  and  thus  prepare  the  way  for 
an  amicable  conference  by  both  parties  for  the  adjustment  of 
mutual  wrongs.  He  laid  the  war  to  bad  white  men,  which 
was  admitted,  and  also  that  the  settlers  to  a  man  were  indis- 
posed to  a  conflict;  indeed,  had  done  nothing  to  provoke  it — 
also  admitted.  Then  said  Mr.  Beeson,  ' '  Come  with  me  and  we 
will  tell  the  Indians  the  truth  about  this  matter;  lay  the 
blame  where  it  belongs,  and  have  this  war  stopped  before  it 
goes  any  further."  Mr.  Colver,  who,  though  as  much  of  a 
humanitarian  as  his  visitor,  was  more  discreet  and  answered 
as  follows:  "Well,  Friend  Beeson  (in  a  drawling  nasal  tone 
peculiar  to  him),  you  may  go  to  Old  John  and  exercise  your 
powers  of  persuasion  upon  him,  and  if  you  come  back  with 
your  scalp  fast  on  your  head,  I  will  go  with  you  tomorrow." 
Mr.  Beeson  didn't  go.  The  Indians  knew  aa  well  as  those 
gentlemen  that  the  white  miscreants  who  were  continually 
upon  them,  were  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  population,  but 
they  also  knew  that  the  white  population  did  not  exert  them- 
selves to  discover  and  punish  the  guilty  persons  who  seemed 
to  enjoy  complete  immunity  among  their  brethren.  They 
knew  that  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  held  both  races  equally 
responsible  for  wrong  doing,  but  they  could  not  understand 
why  we  did  not  do  likewise.  They  were  short  as  jurists,  and 
concluding  that  the  whole  race  was  their  enemy,  made  indis- 
criminate war. 

Among  the  less  active,  but  still  worthy  of  honorable  men- 
tion, was  George  Woolen,  a  man  of  herculean  frame,  mild 
mannered,  temperate  of  speech,  wise  in  counsel,  seldom  moved 
from  the  even  tenor  of  his  way;  his  great  force  and  firmness 
seeming  to  be  automatically  adapted  to  every  occasion.  Under 
a  given  set  of  conditions  everybody  could  foretell  what  George 
Woolen  would  do;  he  would  do  what  he  thought  to  be  right 
with  reference  to  the  general  interests.  In  a  word,  he  was  a 
plain,  straightforward  anti-slavery  man  who  exercised  his 
influence  without  fret  or  friction.  Though  so  mild  and  re- 
ticent, he  sometimes  astonished  his  neighbors  by  putting  in  a 


326  T.  W.  Davenport. 

weighty  speech  at  a  time  when  it  proved  to  be  the  climax  of 
argument.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  him  again  after 
the  secession  movement  began  in  the  spring  of  1861. 

There  were  the  three  Anderson  brothers,  Joseph,  Firm,  and 
the  preacher ;  John  McCall,  John  Wagner,  Lindsay  Applegate 
and  his  numerous  sons,  and  John  C.  Davenport,  who  was 
nominated  for  the  Legislature  by  the  first  distinctively  free- 
state  convention  held  in  the  Territory.  Of  course,  he  was 
not  elected  and  no  one  was  disappointed. 

My  visit  to  Rogue  River  Valley  in  October,  1857,  termi- 
nated the  first  week  in  November,  a  day  or  two  before  the 
Phoenix  debate;  and  the  election  upon  the  Constitution  oc- 
curred while  I  was  detained  by  sickness  at  Cartwright's,  at 
the  north  base  of  the  Calapooia  Mountains,  as  before  men- 
tioned. On  my  way  home  the  day  after  election,  I  made 
numerous  inquiries  as  to  the  spirit  manifested  on  that  day, 
and  all  along  the  road  the  same  answer  was  given — no  excite- 
ment, no  argument  concerning  slavery  or  free  negroes ;  every 
voter  silently  gave  to  the  judges  his  open  ballot  and  talked, 
if  at  all,  upon  other  subjects.  Even  the  returns  scarcely  at- 
tracted attention,  and  judging  from  the  universal  silence 
which  prevailed,  all  were  desirous  of  blotting  out  the  record, 
so  far  as  concerned  the  individuals  who  voted  to  implant  the 
ancient  barbarism.  Of  the  2,645  who  were  thus  recorded,  only 
a  few,  maybe  a  dozen,  were  sufficiently  prominent  to  pass  into 
history,  the  identity  of  all  the  others  being  lost  in  the  general 
verdict,  and  not  one  has  been  known  to  claim  a  share  in  it. 
Looking  only  at  the  slave  system  and  its  dead-sea  fruits,  one 
can  scarcely  restrain  his  disgust  for  such  people,  and  exclaim 
with  sorrow  for  their  depravity,  ' ' merciful  is  oblivion. ' '  But 
such  a  state  of  mind  is  neither  philosophical  nor  just.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem  to  those  born  and  reared  in  a  free  State  and 
nurtured  in  a  social  atmosphere  vibratory  with  the  ethical 
maxims  of  equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  of  God's  creatures, 
those  same  2,645  voters  (in  the  usual  proportion  as  to  num- 
bers) were  good  people  and  wholesome  citizens.  There  were 
no  better  neighbors,  no  more  loyal  and  steadfast  friends ;  non^ 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      327 

who  in  all  the  relations  of  life— joyous  in  our  joys,  sorrowing 
in  our  sorrows,  partaking  with  us  uncomplainingly  of  what- 
ever vicissitudes — none  were  nearer  or  dearer  to  us,  who,  true 
to  our  antecedents  as  they  were  to  theirs,  looked  upon  them 
as  specimens  of  the  moral  paradox.  But  in  all  this,  there  Ji' 
is  nothing  enigmatical,  for  it  is  in  entire  accordance  with 
natural  law,  that  human  beings  take  the  color  of  their  environ- 
ment, subject  to  the  modifications  which  varying  hereditary 
qualities  bring  to  bear,  producing  all  shades  and  hues  of 
conduct  from  dark  to  light— exhibiting  under  the  social  en- 
vironment of  slavery,  the  Shelbys,  St.  Clairs  and  LeGrees; 
under  the  social  environment  of  free  institutions,  the  broader 
fraternal  spirit  approximating  the  thesis  "the  fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man."  So,  there  is  no  wisdom  or 
justice  in  estimating  the  character  of  human  beings  without 
taking  into  account  the  social  soil  which  produced  them. 
Neither  is  there  wisdom  in  railing  at  and  inflicting  pain  upon 
them  with  the  expectation  that  thereby  their  nature  will  be 
modified  to  any  considerable  extent,  for,  as  we  have  scon, 
opinion  and  conduct  are  the  results  of  conditions  into  which 
they  were  born  and  over  much  of  which  they  have  but  little 
control.  As  one  philosopher  says,  "morals  are  habits,"  and 
everybody  knows  that  society  is  the  mother  of  habits.  Wilber- 
force  says  that  the  way  to  virtue  is  by  withdrawing  from 
temptation. 

There  is  another  consideration  to  be  noted  before  leaving 
this  topic,  viz. :  that  very  few,  if  any,  who  favored  the  intro- 
duction of  slavery,  had  ever  held  slaves,  and  therefore,  had 
not  been  perverted  by  the  practices  accompanying  such  a 
relation.  They  had  never  experienced  the  intoxicating  con- 
scieusness  of  unlimited  power  over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of 
their  fellow  creatures— a  consciousness  that  the  restraints  of 
law  and  society  were  removed,  and  the  human  chattels  leCt  to 
the  doubtful  contest  between  the  passions  and  the  conscience 
of  the  master;  in  truth  an  unequal  contest,  as  experience 
proves,  of  the  still  small  voice  against  the  two  monster  pas- 
sions of  human   nature,   avarice   and  sensuality.     So,  those 


328  T.  W.  Davenport. 

good  people  were  not  impelled  by  slaveholding  habits  to  the 
decision  they  registered,  which  was  more  of  an  error  of  the 
head  than  the  heart,  a  sort  of  outside  view  of  a  situation  they 
had  never  felt,  and  which  they  had  very  imperfectly 
considered. 

There  is  another  aspect  which  should  lead  us  to  a  charitable 
judgment  of  those  pioneers,  who,  probably,  were  not  ac- 
customed to  critical  inquiry.  The  dominant  political  forces 
of  that  time  were  all  on  the  side  of  slavery  and  exerted  to 
propagate  the  assumption,  very  soothing  to  the  pride  of  the 
lordly  Anglo-Saxon,  that  the  negro  was  an  inferior  animal,  so 
inferior  that  he  could  not  be  entrusted  with  freedom,  and  it 
was  so  by  the  ordination  of  the  Almighty;  that  he  was  not  a 
citizen  and  had  no  rights  which  a  white  man  was  bound  to 
respect.  Add  to  these  the  studied  silence  of  a  majority  of 
the  people  upon  the  subject,  and  the  example  of  some  of  the 
ablest  men  in  the  Territory  who  were  inculcating  such  senti- 
ments, and  no  one  should  wonder  that  uninquiring  but  well- 
meaning  citizens  fell  in  with  the  political  current.  Now,  it  is 
a  fact  that  the  persons  who  were  foremost  in  the  anti-slavery 
work  were  also  foremost  in  other  reforms,  and  classed  by  the 
Democratic  editors  as  temperance  fanatics,  ghost-seers,  free- 
lovers,  meddlers  with  everybody's  business,  etc.,  all  of  which 
tended  to  discredit  them  in  the  minds  of  uninformed  people  — 
and  is  it  not  a  wonder,  in  view  of  all  this,  that  many  more 
people  did  not  vote  for  slavery  and  expel  the  fanatics? 

After  close  inspection  I  have  observed  that  when  good  men 
go  wrong  they  are  carried  along  in  the  corrupted  currents  of 
this  world,  set  in  motion  by  forces  over  which  they  have  little 
or  no  control.  And  by  good  men  I  mean  those  who,  under 
ordinary  temptations  would  not  depart  from  the  path  of 
rectitude;  or  adhering  to  the  previous  metaphor,  those  who 
are  capable  of  resisting  the  ordinf.ry  currents  of  corruption. 
Or  it  may  mean  those  who  would  do  right,  but  whose  minds 
have  been  employed  so  unremittingly  with  business  affairs 
that  they  have  never  been  awakened  to  the  ethical  relations 
arising  from  social  life ;  or  those  who  have  been  perverted  l)y 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      329 

i'alse  education.  For  an  illustration  I  will  mention  the  case 
of  a  free-state  man,  an  immigrant  to  the  Oregon  Ten-itory 
from  Kentucky,  who  said  that  while  in  his  native  State  he 
had  no  doubt  as  to  the  rightfulness  of  slavery  and  that  he 
considered  abolitionists  (of  whom  he  had  heard)  the  same  as 
horse  thieves.  Though  ignorant  and  unacquainted  with  every- 
thing not  found  in  his  own  narrow  path,  he  was  not  a  dull 
man  or  deficient  in  judgment,  for  the  change  from  a  slave  to 
a  free  country  was  sufficient  to  enlighten  him.  He  was  a 
man  of  stern  purpose  and  would  do  the  right  as  he  saw  the 
right,  against  all  odds.  He  was  by  nature  a  virtuous  man, 
but  accepting  slavery,  into  which  he  was  born,  as  being  in 
accordance  with  God's  will,  he  would  have  assisted  in  punish- 
ing an  abolitionist  as  he  would  any  other  malefactor.  Soino 
persons  may  exclaim,  ' '  How  dull  he  was ! ' '  Not  so,  I  am 
sure,  for  people  found  him  to  be  remarkably  sagacious  in  dis- 
cerning the  right  side  of  disputed  questions  and  he  was  often 
chosen  as  referee. 

No  just  estimate  can  be  formed  of  the  native  character  '^f 
human  beings  without  taking  into  account  the  state  of  their 
environment,  the  social,  industrial,  and  political  conditions  in 
which  they  are  placed,  and  which  are  potent  factors  in  deter- 
mining conduct.  This  is  undeniable;  indeed,  it  is  platitudi- 
nous, but  Government  in  its  practice,  exerts  its  remedial 
efforts  against  the  inherited,  material  endowments  of  the 
transgressor,  when  it  is  well  known  that  such  inheritance  is 
susceptible  of  slight  modification,  even  by  the  severest  penal 
statutes.  Excluding  from  consideration  the  wolves  in  humau 
shape  who  are  outlaws  to  any  form  of  human  society — it  is 
irrational  to  expect  that  average  human  nature  or  individuals 
will  be  superior  to  the  vibratory  social  influences  which  affect 
them,  and  more  irrational  to  expect  that  the  moral  status  of 
society  can  be  raised  by  picking  out  a  human  being  here  and 
there  from  the  concatenation,  and  punishing  them.  But  such 
has  been  the  function  of  government,  even  when  it  has  not 
been,  by  its  maladjustment,  an  instigator  of  the  prevailing 
aberration.     This  fundamental  error  is  due  in  great  part  to 


330  T.  W.  Davenport. 

the  doctrine  of  free  will  which  inculcates  the  notion  that  man 
is  a  free  moral-agent;  that  human  beings  have  the  power  of 
free  choice,  either  of  good  or  evil,  and  therefore  should  be 
held  responsible  for  their  actions,  under  all  conditions  not 
involving  their  sanity.  In  support  of  such  a  contention,  the 
believer  says,  "I  can  certainly  do  as  I  please,  as  I  choose." 
Certainly.  The  words  "please"  and  "choose"  stand  there  in 
the  place  of  the  word  will.  But  can  you  please,  choose,  or 
will  to  do  a  certain  thing  or  not  to  do  it,  where  there  is  no 
change  of  circumstances?  "Certainly  I  can."  "Well,  then, 
spit  in  my  face."  "Oh!  (laughing  in  derision)  that  would 
be  foolish— but  my  will  is  free."  "If  so,  spit  in  my  face." 
' '  Why,  that  would  be  absurd. "  "  Certainly,  the  act  would  be 
foolish  and  absurd,  and  more,  it  would  be  an  offense  against 
your  sense  of  propriety,  your  kindly  feelings  for  me,  your 
friend  and  lover,  and  you  could  not  be  hired  or  persuaded  to 
commit  yourself  to  such  an  outrageous  action. ' ' 

It  is  barely  possible  that  you  might  be  insulted,  provoked, 
maddened  to  a  state  of  mind  suited  to  such  an  act,  but  then 
you  would  know  that  a  change  of  circumstances  had  preceded 
the  will.  There  is  no  case  possible,  none  imaginable,  in  which 
a  compelling  impulse,  either  of  affection,  sentiment  or  pas- 
sion, or  a  combination  of  them,  does  not  precede  the  volitional 
forces  which  bring  on  action.  To  call  this  fatality  is  a  clear 
misconception  of  the  nature  of  things.  It  is  the  furthest 
removed  from  the  old  notion  of  fatality;  that  whatever  else 
may  occur  before  it,  that  specific  event  at  the  time  and  place 
and  manner  will  surely  arrive.  On  the  contrary,  the  doctrine 
of  causation  teaches  that  if  we  would  avoid  disagreeable 
events,  we  must  avoid  or  modify  the  conditions  which  produce 
them.  And  as  the  conditions  we  have  in  view  are  social,  in- 
dustrial and  political,  and  all  of  them  within  the  power  of 
human  beings  collectively,  the  sphere  and  function  of  g-^v- 
ernment  takes  on  a  rational  aspect.  We  have  been  accustomed 
to  take  a  partial  and  outside  view  of  things,  and  looked  upon 
man  as  the  originator  of  his  conduct,  the  chief  actor  who 
should  be  held  solely  accountable  for  what  is  done,  when  a 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      331 

deeper  insight  reveals  that  the  fact  that  he  is  not  an  origi- 
nator but  a  product  of  pre-existing  forces,  a  matrix  containing 
impressions  of  all  before ;  that  if  we  regard  him  as  an  agent, 
we  must  think  of  him  as  being  under  duress  of  antecedent 
qualities  gifted  with  predilections  that,  to  a  great  exen+, 
shape  his  course  through  life,  and  that  his  conduct  is  as  much 
in  accordance  with  natural  law  as  the  flow  of  a  river  which, 
though  it  may  not  be  arrested,  may  be  diverted  in  its  course, 
by  dikes  and  headlands.  Nothing  is  free  in  this  world.  There 
is  no  .such  possibility  in  nature  as  irrelevance  in  its  incidents. 
Every  occurrence  is  both  cause  and  effect ;  a  vibrating  link  in 
the  chain  of  causation.  So,  will,  instead  of  being  free  and 
disconnected,  is  an  effect,  a  resultant  of  certain  mental  states 
and  varies  with  them;  and  the  mental  states  depend  upon 
inherited  endowments  and  the  environing  conditions.  Every 
person  capable  of  thinking  recognizes  such  a  causative  series 
as  being  true  and  to  talk  otherwise  is  the  direct  nonsense. 

The  propensities,  passions,  affections,  moral  sentiments,  all 
of  them  blind,  acting  hastily  and  impulsively,  without  the 
well  prepared  guidance  of  the  intellectual  faculties,  terminate 
in  thoughtless  conduct;  and  very  much  of  human  conduct  is 
hasty  and  ill-considered  or  the  consequence  of  false  notions 
accepted  as  truth.  But  whatever  may  be  the  character  of  the 
action,  the  will  is  only  a  blind  medium  of  transmuting  or 
transmitting  the  mental  impulse  or  conclusion  into  conduct. 
Under  this  aspect  of  man  and  his  attributes,  what  becomes  of 
the  old  ideas  of  individual  responsibility  and  penal  infliction.^ 
as  an  offset  for  transgression  ?  It  must  pass  away  and  cease 
to  perplex  the  cogitations  of  lawmakers.  The  rational  func- 
tion of  legislators  is  to  remove  the  causes  of  transgressions 
and,  if  punishment  is  not  applicable  as  a  deterrent,  it  is 
executed  through  ignorance  or  prompted  by  malevolence.  For 
why  inflict  pain  upon  any  human  being  for  an  action  which, 
under  the  existing  conditions,  was  inevitable? 

The  foregoing  dissertation  is  not  indulged  for  the  reason 
that  its  principles  are  new  to  philosophy  or  foreign  to  legisla- 
tion, but  because  their  practical  application  is  very  limited 


332  T.  W.  Davenport. 

and  the  doctrine  of  free  will  is  still  preached.  And  althoii^i 
the  Oregon  Constitution,  in  its  bill  of  rights,  demands  that 
"laws  for  the  punishment  of  crime  shall  be  founded  upon  thrt 
principle  of  reformation  and  not  of  vindictive  justice,"  yet 
with  laws  so  administered,  but  little  progress  has  been  ma<lo 
in  deterring  those  criminally  inclined,  and  likely  for  the 
reason  that  the  most  numerous  and  influential  conditions  of 
crime,  though  removable,  are  not  reached  by  the  one  fear  of 
punishment.  Notwithstanding  these  patent  facts,  book  educa- 
tion and  penal  laws  seem  to  be  the  trusted  remedies  for  th-^ 
cure  of  misconduct,  instead  of  removing  the  temptations 
arising  from  unjust  laws  and  other  maladjustments  in  society, 
which  are  especially  fruitful  of  criminality.  It  is  entirely 
within  the  truth  to  assert  that  society  is  not  now  and  never 
has  been  governed  in  conformity  with  the  basic  principles  i^f 
man's  nature  so  as  to  produce  or  even  approximate  a  normal 
state.  And,  indeed,  such  a  state  has  never  been  the  purpose 
of  the  governing  classes,  though  always  declaring  in  favor  of 
justice.  From  sheer  selfishness,  rulers  have  been  unwilling  to 
practice  justice.  They  dare  not  deny  the  Golden  Rule,  but  not 
one  in  ten  thousand  has  the  fraternal  courage  to  adopt  it  as  a 
rule  of  action.  It  is  said  the  Golden  Rule  is  impractical  in  gov- 
ernmental affairs,  and  from  an  inspection  of  them,  who  can 
divine  the  purpose  ?  for  the  course  holds  good  to  neither  pole— 
at  best  a  compromise  of  good  and  ill,  a  paltry  average  of 
human  selfishness.  But  let  that  pass  and  inquire  how  can  we 
judge  of  the  moral  turpitude  of  offenders  or  the  moral  worth 
of  the  law-abiding,  without  an  examination  of  natural  laws, 
and  the  statute  laws  they  are  required  to  obey?  How  shall 
we  know  of  the  degree  of  human  worth,  without  such  exami- 
nation, the  temptation  to  which  men  are  exposed,  and  from 
them  obtain  a  proximate  standard  of  practical  morality?  The 
fact  that  a  person  is  a  law-breaker  may  not  be  to  his  dis- 
credit; rather  to  his  credit.  That  depends  (;n  the  law  and 
the  attendant  circumstances.  Disobedience  to  laws  that  are 
an  offense  to  human  rights,  is  a  proof  of  virtue.  The  penal 
colonies  of  Great  Britain  were  peopled  in  great  part  by  law- 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      333 

made  criminals  whose  offenses  consisted  in  asserting  in 
practice  their  natural  right  to  a  share  in  the  bounties  of 
nature,  and  as  might  be  expected,  the  descendants  of  the  so- 
called  criminals  are  the  reformers  of  the  twentieth  century. 
Probably  the  time  will  never  come  when  unrestrained  self- 
ishness will  cease  to  complicate  and  vex  the  task  of  human 
government;  if  indeed  it  does  not  constitute  the  principal 
need  for  government  as  an  institution ;  but  all  the  more  does 
the  necessity  exist  for  a  scientific  basis  of  the  governmental 
function,  which  so  far  in  the  world's  history  has  been  a 
matter  of  experiment,  apparently  following  the  line  of  least 
resistance.  It  is  the  lack  of  a  philosophical  basis  that  renders 
government  such  a  hotch-potch  in  every  form  it  has  assumed, 
and  at  times  presents  phenomena  compelling  the  conviction 
that  human  nature  has  a  very  unstable  and  fluctuating 
quality,  sometimes  seeming  to  descend  to  the  depths  of  total 
depravity  and  at  others  rising  to  admirable  moral  heights, 
when  in  reality  there  has  been  no  change  in  its  nature,  only 
the  removal  of  a  governmental  or  social  restraint,  or  by  some 
inducement,  reward  or  bribe  by  the  same  powers,  or  perhaps 
the  opening  of  new  avenues  for  the  employment  of  his  fac- 
ulties, one  or  all  tempting  him  from  the  normal  or  accustomed 
way.  Saying  nothing  further  of  the  governments  in  aristo- 
eratical  and  monarchical  countries  than  that  they  are  the 
residuum  of  ages  of  conflict  between  the  people  and  those 
who  aspired  to  rule  them ;  in  other  words,  that  it  is  the  art  of 
tempering  robbery  to  the  robbed,  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid  a 
conflict  threatening  the  stability  of  the  system,  we  should 
consider  government  under  our  equal  rights  system,  as  tho 
art  of  social  correlation  with  the  intent  of  astablishing  justic3 
as  promised  by  our  Constitution.  And  though,  so  far,  we 
have  signally  failed,  and  fallen  below  the  results  in  countries 
where  no  promise  of  equality  was  ever  made,  we  should  know- 
that  republicanism  is  not  to  blame,  that  human  nature  has  not 
changed,  but  that  our  spoils  system  of  politics  with  its  bribes 
and  rewards  for  partisan  service,  were  too  much  for  the 
average  politician  to  bear. 


334  T.  W.  Davenport. 

When  the  writer  began  this  article  his  intention  was  that 
it  should  end  with  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  tbe 
decision  as  to  slavery  in  Oregon,  but  as  he  proceeded  with  the 
work,  it  became  more  and  more  apparent  that  the  lesson 
derivable  from  the  conflict  would  be  incomplete  at  that  period, 
for  there  was  a  marked  distinction  between  the  interest  mani- 
fested before  and  after  that  decisive  event.  From  a  high- 
class,  rational  standpoint,  one  would  be  inclined  to  say  that 
the  major  interest  or  involvement  would  have  occurred  beioi  t^ 
the  vote,  but  so  far  as  can  be  judged  by  the  actions  of  men,  it 
seemed  otherwise.  The  persons  who  took  an  active  interest  in 
defeating  slavery  in  Oregon  were  not  numerous,  but  as  soon 
as  statehood  was  assured  and  partisan  relations  establishe'd 
with  the  Republican  organization  reaching  to  Washington, 
there  was  a  great  accession  to  the  Republican  party  in  Oregon. 
Many  men  who  till  then  had  taken  no  part  in  any  movement 
or  demonstration  in  opposition  to  slavery  here,  and  some  who 
were  of  indeterminate  affiliation  as  respects  the  question, 
rallied  to  the  party  conventions  and  were  active  participants 
therein,  as  though  they  were  native  to  the  manor  born.  Very 
likely  this  manifestation  of  preference,  or  invigoration  ol" 
spirit,  depended  upon  several  causes  set  in  motion  by  the 
change  from  a  Territory  to  a  State,  but  whatever  they  were, 
creditable,  discreditable,  or  indifferent,  there  is  a  lesson  in  it 
just  the  same. 

That  a  large  part  of  the  Oregon  people  should  have  be^n 
uncommunicative  and  inert  when  the  great  question  was  pend- 
ing, and  after  its  decision  become  active  partisans  in  a  work 
which  they  had  refused,  needs  inquiring  into.  Silence  upon 
the  slavery  quastion  was  not  a  rational  strategy  for  anti- 
slavery  men,  though  it  was  mentioned  as  an  excuse  for  the 
silent  Democrats.  It  was  a  very  silly  excuse  and  it  did  not 
cover  their  nakedness.  Their  silence  has  been  accounted  h-r 
on  rational  grounds.  When  politicians  seek  to  carry  an  elec- 
tion they  are  far  from  silent;  they  want  every  man  to  use 
his  voice  as  well  as  his  vote.  In  such  a  contest  the  expressic)n 
of  an  earnest  opinion  founded  upon  reason  and  the  innare 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      335 

aspirations  of  the  human  soul,  never  acts  as  a  boomerang,  and 
if  the  anti-slavery  men  of  Oregon  had  thrown  their  weight  into 
the  balance  in  the  year  1856,  there  would  have  been  no 
anxiety  upon  the  subject  in  1857  and  there  would  have  been 
no  need  of  a  plebiscite  upon  it  at  any  time.  That  they  did 
not  do  so  was  not  from  fear  that  the  expression  of  an  opinion 
against  slavery  would  promote  it,  but  from  other  reasons 
which  have  been  set  forth  in  previous  pages,  reasons  too  whioli 
serve  to  emphasize  the  tendency  of  partisan  habits  to  divert 
people's  minds  away  from  a  proper  and  critical  examination 
of  the  real  issues  at  hand. 

The  manner  in  which  the  question  was  met  here,  tended  to 
cultivate  and  foster  the  notion  or  claim  of  the  extremists  of 
the  South,  that  slavery,  as  an  institution  in  the  United  States, 
was  entitled  to  equal  rights  with  free  institutions;  that  the 
equities  were  the  same,  and  that  the  only  question  up  for 
decision  was  one  of  financial  expediency  which  every  man 
could  or  should  decide  for  himself.  All  that  he  needed  to 
determine  it  was  a  slate  and  pencil— no  need  of  books  relating 
to  morals  or  history;  no  call  for  agitation,  conventions  or 
other  modes  of  forming  and  expressing  public  opinion;  just 
simply  market  reports  of  the  price  of  slaves  and  the  products 
of  their  toil,  with  perhaps  some  allusion  to  the  superiority 
and  dignity  of  the  master  class.  This  was  the  aspect  in 
which  our  Southern  brethren  desired  the  Oregon  people  to 
view  the  question,  and  the  Oregon  politicians  so  ruled.  And 
why  this  billing  and  cooing  with  the  sable  wench,  when  the 
question  was  whether  her  baleful  progeny  should  inherit  the 
earth?  Was  it  genuine  love  or  even  decent  respect?  Neither 
—it  was  the  merest  coquetry  made  necessary  in  the  game  of 
politics  which  had  been  debauching  the  American  people  for 
lialf  a  century.  It  was  only  by  such  adulation  of  the  harlot 
that  the  avenues  leading  to  public  employment  were  open  to 
the  office-seekers  of  the  North ;  and  that  such  an  inducement 
could  sink  a  whole  party  into  vassalage  is  a  humiliating  com- 
mentary upon  human  nature.  But  just  this  kind  of  denou- 
ment  must  be  expected  when  a  party  has  abandoned  its  prin- 


336  T.  W.  Davenport. 

eiples  and  ceases  to  live  for  any  worthier  purpose  than  preying 
upon  the  commonwealth  for  individual  benefit.  And  indeed 
it  is  a  herculean  if  not  impossible  task  and  one  which  permits 
of  no  intermission,  to  hold  a  political  party  up  to  the  high 
ground  of  equal  and  exact  justice,  while  at  the  same  time,  it 
is  the  source  and  dispenser  of  emoluments  and  powers  coming 
from  partisan  success,  and  which  may  be  increased  by  the 
victors.  I  am  confident  that  it  is  not  in  human  nature  to  estab- 
lish or  maintain  popular  government  upon  any  such  basis.  It 
was  easier  to  do  so  fifty  years  ago  than  now,  but  the  experi- 
ment has  signally  failed. 

We  are  further  away  from  a  reign  of  justice  now  than  in 
the  early  days  of  the  republic,  despite  the  fact  that  chattel 
slavery  is  gone.  For  in  its  place  we  have  compulsory  wage 
slavery  and  the  grind  of  relentless  corporate  power,  which  is 
more  exacting  than  the  oligarchs  of  the  South  ever  were. 
There  is  no  color  line  to  limit  the  extent  of  corporate  greed 
or  mitigate  the  penalties  of  poverty.  And  the  powers  which 
so  dominate  the  commonwealth  have  been  enthroned  by  the 
government  acting  in  the  name  of  and  by  the  authority  of 
the  people,  through  their  representatives. 

And  how  could  such  misgovernment  arise?  There  is  one 
sufficient  answer  to  this  question,  viz:  By  and  through  the 
extra-legal,  voluntary,  political  machinery,  intended  as  an 
auxiliar  to  government,  but  really  its  corrupter.  The  spirit 
and  principles  of  the  Jeffersonian  Democratic  party  were 
good— indeed,  formed  the  basis  of  any  and  every  government 
by  the  people,  but  the  spoils  system  of  politics  corrupted  it 
and  extinguished  every  spark  of  its  original  aspiration.  With- 
out the  public  patronage  the  slave  power  could  not  have  sub- 
jugated the  party  of  Jefferson;  without  it,  that  power  could 
not  have  dominated  the  party  of  Lincoln ;  and  without  it,  the 
silent  Democrats  and  INIieawber  Whigs  of  Oregon,  would  have 
joined  in  one  prolonged  and  joyous  shout  proclaiming  to  all 
the  valleys  the  genius  of  universal  freedom.  And  it  may  be 
as.sumed  for  a  certainty  that  without  it,  squatter  sovereignty 
would   never   have   been   promulgated    and    accepted   as    an 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      337 

article  of  political  faith  and  practice  by  the  people  of  the 
territories. 

A  political  party  which  governs  by  rewards  of  the  spoils 
of  victory  and  subsists  upon  contributions  from  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  privileges  which  it  grants,  is  a  monstrosity  which 
no  form  of  popular  government  can  tolerate  and  live;  it  is 
a  combination  impossible  of  co-existence  with  freedom  and 
justice,  and  the  American  people  must  abolish  it  or  see  their 
grand  experiment  perish  from  the  earth. 

In  the  spring  of  1858,  at  the  close  of  the  state  Kepublican 
convention  of  that  year,  a  secret  session  was  held  to  discuss 
some  private  matters  relating  to  the  inner  work  of  the  party. 
At  this  meeting  a  delegate  from  Yamhill  County  proposed  that 
Colonel  Baker,  of  California,  be  invited  to  stump  the  State  for 
the  Republicans.  Undoubtedly,  the  proposer  expected  that 
it  would  meet  with  general  approval,  but  instead  it  met  with 
almost  furious  opposition  from  several  of  the  young,  inex- 
perienced and  ambitious  members  who  really  could  give  no 
good  reason  for  objecting.  They  were  aspiring  and  did  not 
like  to  be  overshadowed.  Of  course  it  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  Baker  would  bear  his  own  expensas,  and  to  the  proposi- 
tion of  the  writer  to  raise  a  fund  to  defray  them,  there  were 
some  sarcastic  remarks,  about  turning  the  party  of  great 
principles  into  a  mercenary  organization.  E.  L.  Applegate 
(whom  everybody  knew  as  Lish — with  a  long  "I")  who  had 
ridden  on  horseback  300  miles  to  attend  the  convention,  in 
which  I  met  him  for  the  first  time,  tried  to  make  us  merry 
with  our  deficiencies,  by  saying  in  his  comical  drawl,  "I  can 
say  squat-ter-sov-ran-ty  as  well  as  Colonel  Baker."  As  I  was 
young  in  the  business  and  had  no  other  purpose  than  the  pro- 
motion of  our  principles,  the  manifestation  of  ambitious 
selfishness  in  these  aspiring  politicians  was  more  amazing 
than  amusing  to  me.  Several  of  them  were  of  fair  ability, 
but  there  was  no  one  sufficiently  prominent  to  be  above  envy. 
David  Logan  was  much  the  ablest  and  most  experienced,  but 
his  political  convictions  were  somewhat  hazy  and  so  he  did  not 
stand  well  with  the  stalwarts. 


338  T.  W.  Davenport. 

The  Democrats  were  divided  into  two  hostile  camps  that 
year  and  were  fighting  each  other  with  a  ferocity  peculiar  to 
factional  quarrels  arising  from  self  interest,  and  so,  there 
was  a  fine  opportunity  for  the  Republicans  to  make  an  inning. 
But  lacking  a  spirited  and  prominent  leader,  the  work  of  the 
state  convention  was  dropped,  its  nominees  resigned,  and  the 
party  units  contented  themselves  by  looking  on  or  voting  with 
the  warring  Democrats.  The  nominal  division  was  the  reg- 
ulars (Salem  Clique)  against  the  irregulars,  and  the  former 
won. 

The  leaders  of  the  regulars  were  in  large  part  Douglas  men, 
and  the  othei-s  got  their  animus  from  the  Buchanan  admin- 
istration. 

Likely  the  offensive  proposition  turned  down  in  the  Repub- 
lican convention  bore  fruit,  for  Colonel  Baker,  hearing  from 
his  Oregon  friends  directly,  or  seeing  the  proceedings  of  the 
secret  meeting,  which  were  fully  reported  to  the  Oregon  States- 
man by  an  eaves-dropping  Democrat,  saw  his  opportunity  and 
emigrated  with  his  family  to  Oregon  in  the  winter  of  1859-60. 
taking  up  his  residence  in  Salem,  sometime  in  January. 

Many  of  the  Oregonians  had  heard  the  Colonel  on  his 
stumping  tours  in  the  Western  States,  some  were  old  acquaint- 
ances from  Illinois,  and  all  lost  no  time  in  greeting  him  with 
a  hearty  welcome  and  renewing  old  acquaintance.  It  was  a 
red-letter  time  for  the  inn-keepers  of  Salem,  tor  there  was  a 
general  pouring  in  from  all  quarters  to  see  ai\d  shake  hands 
with  the  most  eloquent  American  living.  And  his  tact  as  an 
entertainer  was  fully  equal  to  his  skill  as  an  orator.  There 
was  nothing  fussy  or  fuLsome  in  his  manner;  he  was  neither 
reserved  nor  effusive ;  his  hand-shake  was  not  that  of  a  poli- 
tician or  a  dilettante.  And  though  he  had  come  among 
enemies  as  well  as  friends,  both  of  whom  from  different 
motives  were  desirous  of  seeing  something  to  find  fault  with, 
they  looked  in  vain  and  went  their  way  all  thinking  better  of 
themselves,  his  political  enemies  shorn  of  their  animosity  and 
his  political  friends  jubilant  in  the  thought  that  the  stock  of 
the  Black  Republicans  stood  at  par  in  the  market. 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      339 

It  would  be  a  superficial  judgment  to  say  that  the  Colonel 
was  not  a  good  actor  and  that  there  was  not  good  judgment 
used  in  his  social  intercourse,  but  the  real  secret,  if  one,  was 
in  the  fact  that  Ned  Baker  was  just  what  he  appeared  to  be, 
in  English  a  fine  fellow  and  full  of  fraternity.  And  when 
we  come  to  reflect  further,  how  can  there  be  an  orator  in  the 
full  sense,  without  the  coalescing  sympathies  which  put  him 
at  one  with  the  whole  human  heart  ?  The  Colonel  was  a  ' '  rara 
avis"  in  other  respects;  his  memory  of  faces  and  names  was 
a  wonder.  Men  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  twenty  years  and 
whom  he  had  not  known  intimately,  were  recognized  instantly 
and  their  names  were  at  tongue's  end. 

And  the  most  difficult  acquirement  of  all — one  the  lack  of 
which  gives  our  public  men  the  most  trouble,  is  the  knack  of 
proportioning  one's  attention  to  the  various  grades  of  men 
without  offence.  Evidently  all  cannot  be  treated  alike ;  there 
must  be  suitable  adaptation,  and  the  ability  to  do  this  consti- 
tutes what,  in  our  present  vogue,  is  called  a  good  mixer.  But 
the  Colonel  could  go  through  with  a  free-for-all  interview 
and  leave  no  stings  in  the  expectations  of  men.  His  must 
have  been  a  bountiful  soul,  or  else  he  became  passive  to  the 
social  fluctuations  and  let  nature  take  its  course.  In  any  event 
everybody  was  pleased.  A  great  change  came  over  the  coun- 
try after  the  advent  of  the  Colonel.  For  the  accommodation 
of  the  people  who  came  to  see  him,  he  had  to  keep  open  hou.se, 
and  this  being  insufficient,  a  part  of  the  day,  he  held  court 
at  the  largest  hotel  in  town,  and  in  a  few  weeks  had  seen  and 
captured  all  who  met  him,  and  knew  more  oi  the  social  and 
political  condition  of  the  state  than  any  man  in  it.  Every 
person  knew  what  brought  the  Colonel  to  Oregon,  that  it 
was  in  the  main  a  selfish  purpose— political  ambition.  But 
there  was  no  offence.  I  heard  one  man  sarcastically  lament 
that  the  Blacks  had  no  man  fit  to  be  United  States  Senator  and 
had  to  import  one.  This,  however,  was  a  compliment  to  the  im- 
port. The  voice  of  the  Syren  was  heard  in  the  land  and  the 
rough  yawp  of  partisan  Democracy  became  dulcet  from  sheer 
imitation.     The  epithet  ''dam-Black-Republican"  was  short- 


340  T.  W.  Davenport. 

ened  by  leaving  off  the  first  adjective,  and  later,  among  all 
but  the  hopelessly  rude,  the  black  disappeared. 

An  immense  crowd  gathered  at  the  capital  city  on  the  4th 
of  July,  1860,  to  partake  with  Baker  of  its  glorious  memories, 
and  it  seemed  mutual— a  spontaneous  evolution  of  spirit,  fus- 
ing them  into  one.  The  past  of  the  nation  was  there;  the 
dramatis  personae  of  the  Revolution  was  before  them  on  the 
stage,  and  the  Grand  Old  Man,  beautiful,  graceful,  sublime, 
was  introducing  them  to  his  auditors.  Until  then  they  had 
only  heard  of  the  Revolution  and  the  great  actors  in  it — now 
they  had  seen  them  and  partaken  of  their  spirit. 

When  Colonel  Baker  arrived  in  Oregon,  the  Democrats 
were  well  supplied  with  public  speakers  of  ability,  chief 
among  them  by  popular  judgment  being  Delazon  Smith,  of 
Linn  County,  and  his  admirers  were  inclined  to  compare  him 
with  Baker.  Such  comparisons,  however,  are  generally  futile, 
for  how  can  things  essentially  different  in  quality  be  com- 
pared ?  Mountains  can  be  compared  as  to  height  and  breadth 
and  figure,  but  when  the  words  greater  and  greatest  are 
applied  to  men  gifted  in  speech  which  may  have  more  hues 
than  a  rainbow,  there  is  little  meaning  to  them.  Delazon  was, 
without  doubt,  an  able  stump  speaker  and  an  effective  politi- 
cal campaigner.  H\e  had  a  clear,  sonorous  voice  and  dis- 
tinct enunciation ;  had  a  good,  firm  face  and  sturdy  form,  was 
not  lacking  in  language,  warmed  up  to  climactic  utterance  and 
energy,  but  with  all  these  fine  qualities,  the  spirit  and  mes- 
sage of  his  speeches  touched  only  a  part  of  his  audience,  for 
they  did  not  involve  the  higher,  nobler  parts  of  man's  nature. 
He  had  a  more  sonorous  and  far-reaching  voice  than  Baker, 
but  the  "vox  humana"  is  something  more  than  sound  and' 
conveys  more  than  words  with  a  dictionary  meaning.  It  can 
convey  feeling;  may  be  a  vehicle  for  soul  transmission,  and 
tias  a  timbre  characteristic  of  the  speaker  which  words  cannot 
describe,  but  which  makes  an  echo  or  response  in  brain  regions 
inaccessible  to  the  mere  declaimer.  These  soul  overtones 
which  accompany  the  voice,  psychologize  the  audience  beyond 
the  power  of  words.    Little  can  be  known,  by  reading  a  speech, 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      341 

of  its  effect  upon  the  audience  who  heard  it  delivered.  That 
greatest  of  English  orators,  Charles  James  Fox,  said  that  a 
great  speech  did  not  read  well. 

There  is  much  in  a  great  presence,  even  in  repose,  and  an 
English  statesman  said  that  Daniel  Webster  was  a  walking 
false  pretense,  for  no  man  could  be  as  great  as  Webster 
looked.  Emerson  (I  think  it  was)  describing  the  scene  at  the 
dedication  of  the  Bunker  Hill  monumeat,  said  that  there  were 
two  things  which  did  not  disappoint  the  eye,  Webster  and 
the  monument. 

Senator  Lodge,  in  his  biography  of  Webster,  says:  "no 
one  ever  came  into  the  world  so  physically  equipped  for 
speech. ' '  And  McCall  in  his  Centennial  oration  in  1901,  said 
"He  possessed  as  noble  a  voice  as  ever  broke  upon  the  human 
ear."  He  was  barely  six  feet  high,  but  looked  taller,  and  his 
presence  was  so  imposing  that  McCall  said:  "This  enormous 
personality  was  not  sluggish,  but  in  time  of  excitement  it  was 
full  of  animation  and  dramatic  fire."  He  was  generally  in 
a  state  of  repose,  and  Sydney  Smith  compared  him  to  an 
anthracite  furnace  that  only  needed  blowing.  He  was  seldom 
fully  aroused  and  was  at  his  best  only  on  great  occasions.  At 
the  time  of  the  Bunker  Hill  oration  before  alluded  to,  the 
crowd  was  so  great  and  pressing  to  get  nearer  the  speakers' 
stand  that  those  in  front,  in  danger  of  being  crushed,  called 
to  Mr.  Webster  to  have  the  people  stand  back.  Webster,  who 
had  not  begun  his  oration,  came  to  the  front  of  the  platform 
and  called  out,  ' '  Fellow  citizens,  those  in  front  are  being  borne 
down  and  you  must  fall  back  and  give  them  room." 

Those  near  the  middle  cried  out,  "We  cannot  stand  back; 
it  is  impossible." 

Webster  stretched  out  his  arm  and  in  a  voice  that  reached 
to  the  furthest  limits  of  that  vast  multitude,  exclaimed, 
"Stand  back,  stand  back,  fellow  citizens,  nothing  is  impos- 
sible on  Bunker  Hill."  That  command,  so  uttered  by  the 
God-like  Daniel,  would  have  moved  a  mountain,  and  the  dense 
pack  of  humanity,  swayed  as  by  a  single  impulse,  gave  room. 


342  T.  W.  Davenport. 

Webster's  greatness  is  expressed  by  the  words  power  and 
weight,  physical  and  intellectual,  and  in  these  he  surpassed 
all  other  Americans,  if  not  all  human  kind.  But  there  are 
other  ingredients  of  human  nature  to  be  reached,  besides  rea- 
son and  judgment  and  the  sensitiveness  to  the  impact  of  great 
force— other  heart  strings  to  be  played  upon  by  the  orator, 
Mr.  Webster  was  not  endowed  to  touch  them.  This  is  illus- 
trated by  the  difference  in  judgment  among  men  as  to  the 
merits  of  great  orators. 

Gen,  W.  T.  Sherman  heard  Webster's  Seventh-of-March 
speech  upon  the  compromise  measures  in  1850,  and  also  Clay's 
upon  the  same,  and  he  gave  his  opinion  concerning  them  in  his 
Memoirs.  He  thought  Webster's  tame  and  ineffective  in 
comparison,  as  undoubtedly  it  was  upon  the  Senate,  but 
superior  in  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  who  read 
them  both.  Clay's  speeches  did  not  read  as  well  as  Webster's ; 
Clay  had  a  noble  and  impressive  presence,  too,  but  not  indic- 
ative of  so  much  power.  One  poet  described  him  as  "  he  of  the 
fearless  soul  and  brow, ' '  but  no  such  tremendous  effect  was 
ever  produced  by  him  upon  an  audience  or  the  mind  of  the 
nation  as  was  that  of  Webster  in  reply  to  Hayne.  Clay,  hav- 
ing a  more  sensitive  temperament,  was  more  easily  brought 
into  the  oratorical  mood,  and  so  never  disappointed  public 
expectation.  We  have  Webster's  word  that  eloquence  is  not 
to  be  compassed  by  the  tricks  of  rhetoric,  that  it  does  not 
come  from  afar;  it  must  be  in  the  man  and  in  the  occasion. 
As  Horace  Greeley  once  said,  "a  great  speech  has  a  great  man 
behind  it."  And  he  might  have  gone  further  and  required 
that  the  great  man  should  be  in  a  state  of  prime  efficiency, 
that  his  whole  soul  should  be  intensely  emotional  and  irradi- 
ant.  But  at  last  the  greatness  of  oratory  must  be  judged 
by  its  effect  upon  the  audience,  taking  into  account  the 
antagonisms  of  bigotry,  superstition,  prejudice,  selfishness, 
ignorance,  required  to  be  removed  or  neutralized,  to  bring  an 
audience  into  harmony  with  the  speaker.  And  though  a 
great  presence  is  perhaps  a  great  help,  there  are  effects,  pro- 
found and  permanent,  involving  the  affeetional  and  altruis- 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      343 

tic  faculties,  which  do  not  require  the  imposing  physical 
presence  to  reach  them. 

Of  this  there  have  been  some  notable  instances,  of  which 
only  one  may  be  cited.  Very  likely  none  of  the  millions  of 
school  children  in  the  United  States  ever  heard  or  read  of  the 
name  of  Samuel  Lewis,  of  Ohio,  who  was  nominated  for  Gov- 
ernor of  that  State,  by  the  free-soil  party  in  the  year  1846, 
His  name  does  not  appear  on  the  list  of  orators,  and  yet, 
notwithstanding  this  and  his  mild  and  undistinguished  pres- 
ence, he  could  quell  the  turbulence  of  a  mob  that  would  hang 
Wendell  Phillips;  would  divest  it  of  prejudice  and  melt  it  to 
sympathy  with  the  lowest  of  God's  creatures,  if  they  would 
consent  to  hear  him  at  all. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  famous  orators  of  Amer- 
ica, Phillips  and  Beecher  excepted,  never  placed  themselves 
in  entire  antagonism  to  the  prejudices  of  the  people— the  mob 
spirit.  All  were  more  or  less  conservative,  going  with  the 
current.  They  did  not  essay  for  themselves  any  such  task  as 
was  undertaken  by  the  abolitionists.  It  was  not  in  accord 
with  their  judgment,  perhaps,  but  they  did  not  champion  the 
cause  of  free  speech  for  the  abolitionists,  as  they  should  have 
clone.  Webster  was  an  anti-slavery  man  in  opinion ;  he  could 
declare  slavery  to  be  a  great  moral  and  political  evil,  for 
that  was  agreeble  to  his  manhood,  but  he  did  not  plead  the 
cause  of  the  slave. 

It  is  easy  to  float  with  the  current,  easy  for  an  orator  to 
raise  a  shout  by  voicing  the  sentiments,  passions  and  preju- 
dices of  an  audience,  but  that  is  not  a  good  test  of  oratory. 
The  real  test  is  in  evoking  from  human  beings  a  response  in 
opposition  to  their  governing  tendencies.  In  view  of  this  and 
accepting  the  truth  that  great  excellence  is  acquired  by 
great  trials,  an  American  orator  said  that  eloquence  was  dog- 
cheap  to  the  abolitionists.  And  Wendell  Phillips,  in  answer 
to  a  young  friend  who  asked  him  how  to  become  an  orator, 
said  "Take  a  course  of  mobs."  Webster  never  took  a  course 
of  mobs,  so  really  was  not  fully  developed. 


344  T.  W.  Davenport. 

Sam  Lewis,  after  graduating  as  a  Presbyterian  minister, 
took  a  course  of  mobs.  He  began  by  allaying  the  mob  spirit 
in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  won  freedom  of  speech  for  every 
one.  It  would,  however,  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  he  was 
not,  in  many  respects,  a  great  man.  True,  he  was  not  a  great, 
strong,  energetic  animal.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  physically 
weak  and  did  not  impress  people  by  an  exuberance  of  spirit. 
He  was  tall,  dark,  lathy,  and  his  reserve  force  was  no  menace 
or  challenge  to  the  mob.  Though  a  faultless  rhetorician,  there 
was  no  display,  no  playing  with  the  voice,  no  stress  or  empha- 
sis to  attract  attention.  There  was  freedom  of  movement 
but  no  gestures  that  one  would  remember.  His  eyes  were  dark 
but  not  large,  and  did  not,  like  Webster's  glow  and  rivet  the 
attention  with  awesome  power.  His  voice  had  no  dramatic 
quavers  of  pathos,  and  ordinary  people  would  be  incompetent 
to  explain  how  with  his  calm  flow  of  speech  they  were  held 
enthralled  and  in  tears,  unconscious  of  time,  divested  of  the 
paltry  incidents  of  life,  prejudice,  greed,  self  love,  pride  of 
station,  and  possessed  by  a  spirit  of  chaste  and  elevating  fra- 
ternity. To  infer  that  such  effects  were  wrought  only  on 
super-sensitive  souls  would  not  be  an  approximation  to  the 
truth.  Hjis  audiences  were  not  thus  selected;  they  were,  as 
American  audiences  generally  are,  of  all  kinds  and  classes. 
Of  the  thousands  that  he  addressed  at  every  meeting  only  a 
few  were  free  from  the  conviction  that  the  discussion  of  the 
slavery  question,  was  futile  as  to  the  slave,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  menace  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  Northern 
people.  A  great  majority  of  his  hearers  were  intensely  hostile 
to  the  free-soil  movement,  for  there  was  no  denying  that  the 
denunciation  of  slavery  as  an  unholy  and  immoral  institu- 
tion, tended  to  inflame  the  people  of  the  South  and  provoke 
them  to  disunion.  The  Whigs  of  Ohio  at  this  time  professed 
to  be  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  but  they  were  equally 
opposed  to  any  sort  of  discourse  calculated  to  offend  our 
Southern  brethren.  It  is  well  to  remember,  too,  that  Aboli- 
tionists were  still  subject  to  assault  and  liable  to  be  treated  to 
rotten  eggs,  free  transportation  on  fence  rails,  or  a  coat  of 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      345 

tar  and  feathers,  any  where  outside  of  the  Western  Reserve. 
As  a  rule  the  people  of  Ohio  knew  little  of  slavery  and 
cared  less.  In  theory  they  were  opposed  to  the  institution, 
but  it  was  a  theory  which  did  not  reach  to  their  hearts  or 
purses.  About  their  only  source  of  discomfort  was  the  agi- 
tator and  the  ominous  cloud  of  disunion  which  hovered  around 
him.  From  personal  knowledge  I  can  affirm  that  it  was 
curiosity  to  hear  Sam  Lewis  explain  how  the  free-soil  move- 
ment could  be  made  to  harmonize  with  the  general  interests, 
that  brought  people  to  his  meetings.  But  he  did  not  explain 
and  he  indulged  in  no  constitutional  argument  to  prove  the 
right  of  free  speech,  nothing  to  show  the  futility  of  depending 
upon  the  two  great  parties  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the 
slave  or  to  prevent  extension.  All  sorts  of  current  politics 
were  unmentioned  and  unmentionable.  He  expatiated  in  a 
different  country  and  after  a  few  minutes  all  were  dispos- 
sessed of  antagonisms,  saw  with  him,  felt  with  him  and  ex- 
perienced an  invigoration,  or  rather,  a  newness  of  spirit  which 
was  to  them  both  a  surprise  and  an  enigma.  Old  silver-gray 
AVhigs  and  dyed-in-the-wool  Democrats  would  rise  up  during 
the  pauses  of  the  discourse,  and  with  tears  streaming  down 
their  faces,  embrace  as  long  separated  brothers,  pledging 
themselves  to  resist  by  every  available  means  the  extension  of 
slavery  over  the  territories  of  the  Union.  In  the  words  of 
Goldsmith,  those  who  came  to  scoff  remained  to  pray.  And 
how  was  such  a  mental  metamorphosis  brought  about  1  By  the 
strength  and  skill  of  the  orator?  It  was  all  so  strange,  so  ex- 
cessive, so  seemingly  unnatural,  that  I  am  loth  to  give  it  the 
name  of  oratory.  People  often  shed  tears  at  the  recital  of 
wrongs  endured,  of  cruelty  suffered,  but  did  all  of  thousands 
ever  before  melt  in  teare  until  the  fountains  were  exhausted 
and  the  features  distorted  in  sympathy  until  they  were  sore 
and  required  the  hands  to  smoothe  them  and  soothe  them? 
Was  the  cause  of  such  effects,  oratory?  or  was  it  magic— the 
art  of  the  conjuror?  Truly,  Sam  Lewis  set  up  the  auction 
block  and  sold  human  chattels,  separated  husbands  and  wives, 
parents  and  children,  tore  asunder  every  human  tie,  but  there 


346  T.  W.  Davenport. 

was  none  of  the  art  of  the  actor.  Through  the  transparent 
medium  of  inimitable  speech,  Lewis  exhibited  the  victims  of 
oppression,  excruciating  under  the  lash  and  the  branding 
iron;  their  bleeding  hearts  were  laid  open  to  sight;  the  slave 
was  seen  to  be  a  human  being  in  agony,  body  and  soul.  And 
the  cause  was  as  visible  as  the  effects.  It  was  slavery— 
normal  slavery,  and  not  it's  so-called  abuses.  Some  will  say 
that  such  spasms  of  sympathy  are  short-lived,  which  is  cer- 
tainly true,  for  human  nature  cannot  continue  excessive  action 
in  any  of  its  departments.  But  the  relapse  is  not  to  the 
former  stupid  standard  of  self-service.  There  has  been  a 
diversion;  the  crust  of  indolent  habit  has  been  broken  never 
to  reform  with  its  original  strength  ;  access  to  the  sympathetic 
nature  is  less  difficult  than  before. 

After  this  wonderful  campaign,  the  Whig  orator,  Billy 
Bebb,  the  most  famous  of  Tom  Corwin's  students,  found  the 
Buckeyes  a  changed  people.  His  oratorical  climaxes  raised 
no  shouts;  the  expounder  of  whiggery  elicited  no  enthusiasm, 
and  in  a  sort  of  despair  he  shouted  the  question,  "Is  Sam 
Lewis  God  Almighty?"  To  which  an  irreverant  listener  re- 
sponded in  the  affirmative,  eliciting  the  first  round  of  ap- 
plause. The  people  of  Ohio  were  on  higher  grounds,  and  the 
slave-catcher  was  unwelcome  thereafter. 

I  doubt  if  any  other  man  in  America  could  have  accom- 
plished such  results.  And  it  is  idle  to  suppose  that  an  orator 
can  produce  effects  from  aroused  sympathies  in  which  he  is 
not  affluent.  There  is  no  such  thing  in  human  nature  as 
universal  versatility.  No  man  can  be  great  in  all  departments 
of  human  endeavor,  and  hence  the  difficulty  of  comparing 
orators  of  different  casts  of  mind.  Colonel  Baker,  though 
possessed  of  much,  indeed,  of  unusual  versatility,  would  have 
been  wholly  incompetent  to  the  task.  The  effects  he  wrought 
were  of  a  totally  different  nature,  those  of  heroic  enthusiasm 
in  which  the  sterner  virtues  impelled  men  to  do  and  dare  in 
a  glorious  cause,  and  every  cause  he  espoused  was  glorious— 
he  made  it  glorious.  In  the  language  of  Macaulay,  "His 
chivalrous  soul  would  not  suffer  him  to  decline  a  risk,"  and 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      347 

so  with  him  it  was  "our  country  right  or  wrong,"  patriotism 
run  wild,  and  while  Abraham  Lincoln  opposed  the  Mexican 
War,  Baker  resigned  his  seat  in  Congress  to  raise  a  regiment 
and  take  an  active  part  in  promoting  the  schemes  of  the  slave- 
holding  oligarchy.  Notwithstanding  this  inconsistent  escapade 
in  the  Mexican  War,  he  was  anti-slavery  in  sentiment  or 
rather  in  feeling,  for  no  such  knight  errant  thirsting  for  ad- 
venture, eould  endure,  even  in  imagination,  the  fetters  and 
cramp  of  slavery.  His  innate  feeling  was  not  so  much  moral 
as  an  aspiration  for  brilliant  achievement,  which  he  was  noble 
enough  to  share  with  all  the  world. 

The  division  of  the  Democratic  party  which  occurred  in  1858 
had  not  been  healed,  and  while  there  were  several  alleged 
grounds  of  dissension,  such  as  the  tyranny  of  the  Salem 
Clique,  opposition  to  General  Lane,  the  slavery  question, 
party  regularity,  etc.,  the  cleavage  at  the  time  of  Colonel 
Baker's  arrival  was  that  of  Douglas  vs.  the  administration, 
and  the  animosity  between  the  factions  was  quite  bitter,  even 
more  than  between  them  and  the  Republicans.  In  most  of 
the  counties  they  met  together  in  convention  and  the  stronger 
faction  excluded  the  other  from  representation.  In  Marion 
County  the  Douglas  men  were  in  the  majority,  and  having 
control  of  the  party  machinery,  nominated  the  following 
persons  for  the  Legislature:  B.  F.  Harding,  Robert  Newell, 
Samuel  Parker,  and  C.  P.  Crandall.  Later  the  friends  of 
General  Lane  and  the  administration  met  in  convention  and 
nominated  a  ticket  composed  of  good  and  substantial  citizens, 
mostly  of  the  pro-slavery  type,  unlettered,  inexperienced  in 
legislative  affairs,  but  very  much  in  earnest  in  promoting 
their  opinions,  and  not  at  all  lacking  in  mother  wit.  Taking 
advantage  of  the  growing  discontent  with  the  Salem  Clique 
and  Mr.  Bush  as  the  accredited  head  of  it,  they  stigmatized 
their  Democratic  opponents  as  the  "Bushites. "  In  this  they 
no  doubt  erred,  for  Mr.  Bush  promptly  responded  with  the 
very  descriptive  and  truthful  title,  "The  Beetle  Heads."  The 
nominees  on  the  Lane  ticket  were  good  neighbors  but  withal 
aged  and  dull,  and  the  epithet  was  so  pat  there  was  no  dodging 


348  T.  W.  Davenport. 

it.  Still,  with  this  handicap  they  had  some  claims  to  Demo- 
cratic support.  They  were  honest  and  frank  to  assert  their 
fealty  to  the  administration  of  James  Buchanan,  which  would 
go  far  with  strong  partisans,  and  they  were  not  backward  in 
charging  the  Bushites  with  treachery  to  the  party  and  of 
being  tinctured  with  Black  Republicanism. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  of  affairs  that  the  Republicans  of 
Marion  met  in  delegate  convention  at  Salem  to  nominate 
candidates  for  the  Legislature,  and  there  was  much  probabil- 
ity of  electing  them.  The  Colonel  treated  us  to  a  thrilling 
fifteen-minute  speech,  and  after  the  noon  adjournment  met 
with  us  in  a  private  conference,  at  which  he  counseled  against 
making  nominations  and  in  favor  of  voting  the  Bush  ticket. 
Of  course  it  was  well  known  that  in  any  probable  event  the 
Republicans  would  constitute  but  a  small  minority  of  the 
Legislative  Assembly,  and  alone  could  elect  no  one,  but  that 
in  combination  with  the  Salem-Clique  members  could  elect  the 
Colonel  along  with  one  of  their  number.  Said  iie:  "We  will 
assume  that  the  members  from  Marion  will  be  Republicans, 
but  the  canvas  will  drive  into  opposition  those  Democrats 
M^ho  are  really  with  us  in  principle,  whereas,  if  we  fall  in  with 
them  at  the  election,  they  will  be  almost  compelled  to  unite 
with  us  to  save  themselves  from  defeat  by  the  friends  of  the 
administration,  who  are  in  the  majority  in  other  parts  of  the 
State.  I  am  sure  that  great  events  are  barely  in  the  future, 
in  which  the  friends  of  popular  government  will  have  to 
bear  a  prominent  part.  The  Douglas  men  are  at  heart  with 
us  and  we  shall  need  their  help."  Then,  in  one  of  his  intro- 
spective moods,  when  his  eyes  seemed  to  retire  and  return 
with  added  lustre,  he  said,  "The  old  Democratic  barrel  is 
falling  to  pieces,  and  why  should  we,  who  need  some  of  the 
staves,  hoop  them  together?" 

Is  it  strange  that  this  prophetic  metaphor  was  the  climax 
of  argument?  The  Republicans  of  Marion  had  borne  the 
stigma  of  "Black"  so  long  that  they  were  disinclined  to  sur- 
render their  first  favorable  opportunity  to  reap  a  victory  at 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      349 

the  polls,  but  this  was  a  feeling,  whereas  their  judgment 
inclined  them  to  Baker's  broader  view. 

The  delegates  had  been  instructed  by  their  constituents  to 
nominate  a  full  ticket,  and  they  must  have  some  good  ground 
for  disobedience.  Knowing  how  easy  it  is  for  mere  politicians 
1o  patch  up  their  personal  differences  with  political  equiva- 
lents, we  desired  some  sort  of  personal  guarantee  that  the 
Bush  nominees  would  be  duly  mindful  of  their  obligations, 
but  of  course  this  could  not  be  given  in  words.  We  must  at 
least  feel  of  them.  So,  for  that  purpose,  I  called  on  Mr.  B. 
F.  Harding,  their  shrewdest  manager.     I  said: 

"Mr.  Harding,  I  have  called  to  see  if  it  is  safe  for  the 
Republicans  to  vote  your  ticket  this  year." 

He  laughed  and  asked  me  what  conclusion  I  had  come  to. 

"Why,  I  think  it  a  pretty  good  scheme." 

' '  How  many  votes  can  you  poll  ? "  he  queried  ? 

Answer,  "Five  hundred." 

"Why  don't  you  claim  more? — a  politician  would." 

We  discussed  the  situation  for  a  short  time,  after  which  he 
said,  "Some  of  your  Republican  brethren  have  asked  us  to 
pledge  our  votes  to  Colonel  Baker  in  return  for  your  help  at 
the  polls,  but  you  know  better  than  to  ask  it ;  you  would  not 
do  it  if  you  were  in  our  place. ' ' 

"Surely  you  are  right,"  I  said. 

He  then  remarked,  "Crandall  is  the  only  one  you  need  to 
talk  to." 

I  saw  Mr.  Crandall,  who  asked  me  directly,  ' '  Are  you  going 
to  make  nominations?" 

"Yes,  unless  you  give  me  your  word  that  you  will  vote  for 
Colonel  Baker  for  United  States  Senator." 

He  asked,  "Is  my  word  good  to  you  alone?" 

"Yes,"  I  answered. 

"Then  you  have  it,"  he  replied. 

I  notified  the  Colonel,  and  we  adjourned  without  nomi- 
nating. 

Soon  after  our  adjournment,  the  head  of  the  Lane  ticket, 
Richard  Miller   (Uncle  Dickey),  with  whom  I  had  been  ac- 


350  T.  W.  Davenport. 

quainted  since  arriving  in  Oregon,  came  and  asked  me  why 
we  did  not  nominate  a  ticket  at  the  convention.  Well  knowing 
that  he  would  use  my  answer  on  the  canvass  he  was  just 
starting  upon,  I  said,  "We  did  intend  to  nominate  a  ticket, 
but  when  we  came  to  consider  the  matter  all  round,  we  thought 
our  cause  would  be  advanced  further  by  voting  the  Douglas 
ticket."  "Yes,  yes,  I  see,"  said  Uncle  Dickey,  and  off  he 
went  to  join  his  companions.  And  here  let  me  say  a  word  or 
two  relating  to  him,  that,  although  he  was  unschooled,  he  had 
had  a  varied  and  valuable  experience  in  practical  matters  per- 
taining to  frontier  life  in  Missouri,  where  he  had  been  a 
foremost  man,  a  justice  of  the  peace,  a  pillar  of  the  Baptist 
church,  and  being  of  large  and  strong  mould  and  courageous 
disposition,  and  from  habit  an  advocate  of  whatever  cause  he 
favored,  he  was  influential  among  his  fellow  citizens  and  an 
opponent  that  it  was  not  safe  to  ignore.  He  had,  too,  been  a 
member  of  our  constitutional  convention.  So,  Mr.  C.  P. 
Crandall  of  the  Douglas  ticket  was  deputed  to  canvass  with 
Uncle  Dickey.  At  their  first  debate,  I  think  it  was  at  Sub- 
limity, Uncle  Dickey  "took  the  bull  by  the  horns,"  as  he 
said,  and  charged  the  Bushites  with  having  sold  out  to  the 
Black  Republicans,  Crandall,  in  his  reply,  remarked  that  his 
old  friend  Miller  was  not  a  man  to  make  damaging  charges 
recklessly  and  asked  for  his  authority.  Uncle  Dickey  did  not 
shy  the  demand  and  said  that  he  got  it  from  headquarters, 
and  being  pressed  for  the  name  of  the  person  said,  "T.  W. 
Davenport."  Mr.  Crandall  insisted  that  his  opponent  must 
have  misunderstood  his  informant  and  wished  him  to  state  the 
exact  language  used  by  Davenport.  As  Uncle  Dickey  could 
not  recollect  the  exact  words,  the  allegation  was  suspended 
for  the  time. 

Crandall  called  on  me  the  next  day  and  wanted  to  know  if 
I  had  told  Uncle  Dickey  that  the  Bushites  had  sold  out  to  the 
Republicans.  Certainly  I  had  not,  and  the  language  used  by 
me  was  reported  to  Mr.  Crandall,  who  at  the  next  meeting 
entered  a  specific  denial  on  the  authority  of  Davenport.  That 
evening  Uncle  Dickey  came  to  see  me,  sorely  perplexed,  and 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      351 

related  the  controversy  in  full.  I  remonstrated  against  the 
liberty  he  took  in  changing  the  form  of  my  communication, 
at  which  he  said,  "I  am  not  a  high  learned  man  and  I  want 
you  to  answer  in  my  language,  and  I  know  you  will  tell  the 
truth.    Did  you  sell  out  to  the  Bushitest" 

"Surely  we  did  not." 

"Well,  what  did  you  doT' 

"We  bought  in."' 

Uncle  Dickey  turned  away  in  utter  disgust,  and  I  never 
heard  any  more  of  the  buying  or  selling.  It  is  almost  needless 
to  say  that  the  Beetle-head  ticket  did  not  appear  with  many 
figures  on  election  day. 

This  combination,  begun  in  the  spring,  was  no  doubt  car- 
ried forward  during  the  summer,  though  I  was  not  a  factor 
in  it.  Presumably,  Colonel  Baker  was,  and  not  strange  either, 
for  there  was  little  difference  between  him  and  the  Douglas 
men,  in  principle.  Baker  Avas  not  a  stickler  for  theoretical 
consistency;  not  a  faultless  doctrinaire.  What  he  admired 
most  was  the  result,  and  believing  that  the  Little  Giant's 
Squatter  Sovereignty  in  practice  would  prove  to  be  a  boom- 
erang to  its  original  promoters,  he  adopted  it  from  the  be- 
ginning. Some  people,  not  understanding  this  phase  of 
Baker's  intellectual  character,  have  accused  him  of  being  a 
vacillator  for  the  sake  of  political  advancement.  The  differ- 
ence between  him  and  Douglas  was  in  this:  Douglas  said  he 
did  not  care  whether  slavery  was  voted  up  or  voted  down  in 
the  territories,  but  Baker  did  care  and  gave  his  voice  and 
influence  in  favor  of  freedom  everywhere.  So,  anti-slavery, 
squatter-sovereignty  Democrats  in  the  Oregon  Legislature 
could  very  consistently  vote  for  the  Colonel.*  At  that  Septera- 

*The  following  letter  by  Colonel  Baker  to  William  Taylor,  State  Senator 
from  Polk  County  at  the  time,  and  Ira  F.  Butler  and  C.  C  Cram,  Repre- 
sentatives from  the  same  county,  all  Democrats,  gives  Baker's  views  on 
the  main  political  issue : 

"Salem,  September  21st,   1860. 
"To  Messrs.  Taylor.  Butler  and  Cram. 

"Gentlemen  :  As  you  desire  to  know  my  opinions  as  to  the  doctrine  of 
intervention,  I  give  them  with  pleasure.  During  the  congressional  canvass 
in  California  in  1859,  T  said  in  substance  in  a  speech  made  at   Porest  Hill, 


352  T.  W.  Davenport. 

ber  session  in  1860,  the  Legislature  was  composed  of  three 
parties,  the  two  wings  of  the  Democratic  party  and  the  Re- 
publicans, neither  of  which  could  elect  a  Senator,  but  a  fusion 
of  any  two  could.  A  union  of  the  Republicans  with  the  ad- 
ministration Democrats  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  and  a  union 
of  the  two  wings  was  scarcely  less  unnatural,  if  real  Demo- 
cratic principles  should  weigh  with  the  anti-siavery  Douglas 
men.  In  his  address  before  the  Legislature  of  1899  (see  Ore- 
gon Hist.  Quarterly  of  1907,  March  number,  page  22)  Judge 
Williams  said:  "The  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  had 
now  reached  a  crisis.  The  good-Lord,  good-devil  style  of 
politics  had  become  disgusting.  I  made  up  my  mind  that,  as 
far  as  my  opportunities  allowed,  I  would  resist  the  further 
aggression  of  the  slave  power,  and  oppose  the  election  to  office 
of  those  who  favored  it.  Accordingly,  in  the  month  of  March, 
1860,  I  went  into  Linn  County  to  the  residence  of  Delazon 
Smith  and  said  to  him:  'Delazon,  I  have  come  here  to  beard 
the  lion  in  his  den  (Smith's  friends  called  him  the  Lion  of 
Linn).  I  am  going  to  canvass  Linn  County,  and  my  object  is 
to  beat  you  and  General  Lane  for  the  Senate.  Come  on  and 
make  your  fight. '  ' '  They  traveled  and  stumped  together,  and 
whether  as  the  result  of  this  canvass  or  of  the  scurrilous  stories 
told  about  Delazon  as  to  his  habits  during  the  brief  period  he 
was  in  Washington  as  Senator  from  Oregon,  has  never  been 
determined,  but  in  the  session  of  1860  he  was  not  a  formidable 
candidate.  Judge  Williams  was  a  candidate,  however, 
throughout  the  session,  but  finally  failed  and  attributed  his 
defeat  to  the  Salem  Clique,  with  whom  the  Judge  was  never  a 
favorite.  It  was  a  memorable  contest,  which  made  and  un- 
made the  political  fortunes  of  several  persons,  and  Avas  from 


reported  in  the  Union  and  a  copy  of  which  I  will  furnish  you,  'That  I  was 
in  favor  of  the  doctrine  of  non-intervention  by  Congress,  or  anybody  else, 
with  the  people  of  the  territories  as  to  their  domestic  institutions  ;  that  I 
thought  it  wise  and  moderate  and  just  to  permit  them  to  govern  them- 
selves as  to  slavery  as  well  as  other  domestic  affairs,  as  they  thought  fit.' 
As  I  thought  then,  so  I  think  now  ;  and  whether  in  the  Senate  or  out  of 
it,  I  shall  carry  out  these  opinions. 

"Very  respectfully  your  friend, 

"E.  D.  Baker." 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      353 

the  first  an  apparent  game  of  chance  which  no  one  could 
quite  understand. 

The  combination  begun  in  Marion  County  was  the  chief 
feature  of  the  session,  and  of  course  was  stoutly  i^esisted  by 
the  administration  Democrats,  Six  of  their  Senators  aban- 
doned their  seats  and  in  the  parlance  of  the  time  "took  to  the 
woods,"  at  the  beginning  of  the  session,  but  returned  and 
resumed  their  places,  in  answer  to  an  appeal  from  the  Gov- 
ernor. Though  a  strong  partisan,  he  was  patriot  enough  to 
place  country  above  party,  and  for  his  firm  stand  at  this 
session  and  sundry  other  services,  John  Whiteaker  deserves 
to  be  kindly  remembered  by  the  people  of  Oregon. 

Near  the  close  of  the  session.  Colonel  Baker,  despairing  of 
success,  posted  notices  announcing  that  he  would  deliver  an 
address  to  the  citizens  of  Salem  and  vicinity,  the  first  of  a 
series  favoring  the  election  of  Lincoln.  I  had  remained  at 
home  so  far,  but  upon  hearing  of  this,  started  at  once  and 
afoot  to  dissuade  the  Colonel  from  such  hasty  action.  When 
I  had  reached  the  point  where  the  State  Housp.  now  stands,  I 
saw  him  rapidly  approaching  on  his  way  home,  and  perceiv- 
ing me  he  came  up  and  in  a  hurried  manner  said,  "We  have 
failed  and  tonight  I  shall  begin  the  campaign  for  Lincoln." 

"Oh,  no,"  I  replied,  "don't  let  us  give  up  the  ship  yet." 

He  repeated  some  military  maxim  as  to  what  a  General 
would  do  when  hLs  men  were  becoming  disheartened  after 
long  maneuvering  in  front  of  the  enemy  without  success,  and 
seemed  fixed  in  his  opinion  that  the  case  was  hopeless.  Con- 
tinuing, he  reminded  me  of  what  I  had  told  him  at  the  time  of 
our  spring  convention,  that  Crandall  Avould  support  him,  but 
he  has  not  and  he  makes  speeches  from  day  to  day  and  no 
one  knows  what  he  is  driving  at. 

"Crandall  gave  me  his  word  as  I  told  you  at  the  time,  and 
1  think  he  will  do  as  he  agreed." 

"Well,  what  does  he  mean;  what  does  he  want?" 

"Want?  Why  he  is  as  poor  as  a  church  mouse  and,  though 
a  lawyer,  is  without  clients.  Presumably  he  sees  that  your 
election  will  open  for  you  a  broad  and  brilliant  avenue,  and 


354  T.  W.  Davenport. 

he  would  be  above  the  average  of  human  beings  if  he  did  not 
peer  around  for  something  that  would  be  to  his  own  advan- 
tage. He  must  be  given  employment.  I  hear  that  one  of 
your  California  friends  is  intending  to  buy  Oregon  war  scrip 
in  case  you  are  elected,— why  not  give  Crandall  the  job  and 
thu>s  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone?" 

Without  another  word  the  Colonel  turned  about  and  walked 
lapidly  towards  Republican  headquarters,  leaving  me  to  pur- 
sue my  weary  way  alone.  My  personal  knowledge  extends  no 
farther,  but  the  Colonel  was  elected  a  short  time  afterwards; 
Crandall  was  for  him  and,  according  to  newspaper  account, 
bought  scrip.  The  campaign  for  Lincoln  did  not  begin  that 
evening  as  published,  but  the  two  co-operating  candidates. 
Baker  and  Nesmith,  made  non-political  speeches  to  a  large 
and  much  delighted  audience.  Nesmith  was  a  fluent,  effec- 
tive and  forcible  speaker,  but  the  disparity  between  the  two 
was  too  apparent  to  be  a  matter  of  doubt.  Baker  at  that  time 
was  49  years  of  age  and,  according  to  the  dictum  of  an  Osier, 
should  have  been  past  his  prime  and  on  the  down-hill  side  of 
life,  but  though  his  top-head  was  bald  and  the  surrounding 
locks  were  beginning  to  show  some  signs,  of  frost,  his  face 
was  plump  and  ruddy,  his  voice  firm  and  clear,  and  in  action 
was  as  agile  as  in  youth.  Evidently  he  was  in  the  full  flush 
of  vigorous  manhood  and  opulent  with  reserve  force.  Like 
Henry  Clay,  the  moment  Baker  faced  an  expecting  audience, 
the  tide  of  life  began  to  swell  and  the  brain  to  glow.  He  was 
always  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  this,  if  not  a  great,  was  to 
him  a  critical  occasion.  He  was  not  yet  elected  to  the  Senate, 
and  though  Crandall  had  been  won  over,  there  were  still  some 
obstacles  in  the  way  which  an  admiring  and  enthusiastic  public 
sentiment  would  go  far  to  remove.  So,  on  that  delicious  even- 
ing the  citizens  of  Salem,  the  strangers  and  sojourners  at  the 
Capital  City,  were  treated  to  oratory. 

Baker,  when  he  rose  to  speak,  first  stood  for  a  moment  or 
two  face  to  face  with  his  audience,  getting  in  rapport  with  its 
moods,  and  he  never  misread  them.  There  were  many  in  that 
assemblv  who  did  not  favor  the  Colonel's  ambition,  and  the 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      355 

heat  of  the  senatorial  conflict  had  developed  the  feeling 
against  the  California  interloper  who  had  come  to  Oregon 
with  no  other  purpose  in  view  than  a  selfish  ambition  to  reach 
a  high  position  to  which  the  people  of  his  adopted  State  would 
not  elevate  him,  and  this  feeling  was  to  be  neutralized.  Aye, 
more;  for  it  there  must  be  substituted  a  broader,  higher, 
nobler  and  more  generous  spirit  that  would  have  a  sovereign 
contempt  for  narrow  geographical  divisions.  But  to  discuss 
the  question  was  to  revive  it.  So,  to  the  auditors  the  speech 
was  purposeless,  indeed,  they  were  beguiled  into  forgetfulness 
of  purpose,  and  were  wafted  along  on  a  stream  of  poetical 
allusion,  fervid  and  inspiring  eloquence,  charming  rhetoric, 
chaste  and  temperate  compliment,  which  it  wa.s  not  in  human 
nature  to  withstand.  Next  day  the  atmosphere  of  Salem  was 
national  and  gave  back  no  echo  to  the  croakers.  Baker  had 
won  by  enchantment.  The  motives  and  inducements  which 
govern  in  the  election  of  a  United  States  Senator,  as  the 
American  people  have  often  observed,  are  not  all  political  or 
even  defensible,  and  the  election  in  1860  was  no  exception  to 
the  general  rule.  Verily,  wouldn't  an  election  wherein  the 
electors  were  actuated  by  motives  pertaining  to  the  general 
welfare,  be  worth  going  far  to  see?  So,  in  that  pivotal  year, 
political  principl&s  of  various  denomination,  partisan  prej- 
udice, personal  favoritism  and  animosity,  selfish  interests  of 
inscrutable  feature;  the  high  and  the  low,  the  patriotic  and 
the  base,  conspired  together  and  from  the  medley  emerged  a 
verdict  which  was  very  fortunate  for  the  continuity  of  the 
Republic. 

Fortunately,  the  clear-sighted  historian  must  regard  the 
denouement,  for  it  gave  two  votes  in  the  American  Senate  to 
the  support  of  the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
whereas  the  election  of  their  opponents,  Deady  and  Williams, 
would  have  resulted  in  leaving  the  loyal  State  of  Oregon  at 
zero  in  the  national  councils,  in  many  mattens  pertaining  to 
the  rebellion.  There  is  no  doubt  but  Judge  Williams  would 
have  proved  equally  with  Nesmith,  a  friend  to  the  adminis- 
tration's  policies   of   conducting   the   war,   but   that   M.    P. 


356  T.  W.  Davenport. 

Deady,  a  pro-slavery  Democrat  of  pronounced  aristocratic 
type  and  a  candidate  of  the  Breckenridge  wing  of  the  party, 
would  have  been  other  than  a  critic  and  objector  to  all  radical 
measures  for  crippling  the  resources  of  the  rebels,  cannot  be 
doubted.  As  a  Senator  from  a  loyal  State,  it  would  have  been 
against  both  his  interest  and  his  principles  to  secede,  and  con- 
ceding what  has  been  claimed  for  him,  that  he  was  opposed 
to  disunion,  still  favoring  as  he  did  a  rastored  union  with 
slavery,  his  course  in  the  Senate  would  not  have  been  in 
harmony  with  Lincoln,  who  would  restore  the  union  at  all 
hazards.  Deady  was  a  large  figure  in  Oregon,  and  though 
not  an  orator,  yet  with  his  grand  physical  proportions,  his 
legal  acquirements,  his  rigid  respect  for  law  and  order  and 
constitutional  limitations,  and  his  social  accomplishments,  he 
would  have  been  a  large  figure  even  at  the  national  capital, 
and  perhaps  a  boulder  in  the  way  of  the  providential  tide 
which  was  uprooting  the  deadly  Upas  that  had  borne  the 
fruit  of  disunion.  He  was,  however,  a  sagacious  person  and 
practical  withal,  and  his  admirer,  John  R.  McBride  said  of 
him,  in  his  address  to  the  Oregon  pioneers  in  1902,  before 
quoted  from:  "He  believed  in  a  government  that  had  force 
behind  it,  and  when  the  rebellion  began  in  1861  he  became  as 
ardent  a  champion  of  the  Government  as  any  Unionist  in  the 
land."  As  Federal  Judge  in  Oregon  he  accepted  the  new 
regime  and  occupied  thenceforth  a  commensurate  place  in  the 
affairs  and  affections  of  the  people. 

But  few  men  ever  inherited  such  an  admirable  physical  and 
mental  constitution  as  Colonel  Baker ;  at  once  sensitive,  elastic, 
strong  and  enduring.  He  seemed  to  be  immune  to  the  weak- 
nessas  and  ills  which  affect  ordinary  human  beings,  and  so  he 
was  always  ready  for  action.  He  was  supremely  ambitious, 
not,  as  is  so  common,  for  the  acquirement  of  power  and  wealth, 
but  for  grand  and  brilliant  achievement  in  the  great  contests 
of  life.  And  in  his  exuberant  imagination,  opportunity  be- 
came to  him,  who  never  felt  humiliation,  fruition  and  a  crown 
of  laurel.  Hence  his  election  to  the  Senate  raised  him  to  the 
summit  in  a  career  for  which  he  had  long  striven  and  at  a 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      357 

time  when  fate  stood  pointing  the  way  to  immortality  as  the 
reward  of  supreme  endeavor.  The  immediate  future  seemed 
big  with  events,  and  his  okl  friend  and  compeer,  Lincoln  as 
President,  would  bring  to  view  still  higher  summits  and 
broader  vistas  to  stimulate  his  ambition,  wherefore  Baker 
began  a  triumphal  march  from  the  Oregon  metropolis  to  the 
Golden  Gate,  addressing  the  people  by  the  way.  His  speeches 
were  amazing  in  their  patriotic  fervor  and  altitude,  lifting  the 
electorate  from  the  sordid  plane  of  mere  self-service  and  parti- 
san jealousy,  into  the  generous  and  starlit  atmosphere  of  heroic 
social  service.  The  climax  was  reached  in  San  Francisco  in  his 
immortal  speech  at  the  theatre,  during  which  one  of  the  re- 
porters, Frank  Pixley,  threw  away  his  pencil,  rushed  bare- 
headed into  the  streets  and  gesticulating  wildly,  cried  at  the 
top  of  his  voice,  ' '  Come  in !  Come  in !  The  Old  Man  is  talking 
like  a  God."  He  was  near  to  the  condition  of  the  Hebrew 
prophet  who  was  translated  and  the  whole  audience  was 
swayed  into  ecstasy.  Baker's  whole  course  from  this  time 
until  the  fatal  blunder  at  Ball's  Bluff  was  the  most  brilliant 
and  surprising  in  our  history.  His  speeches  in  the  Senate 
and  the  one  at  Union  Square,  New  York,  were  such  as  only 
Baker  could  make,  and  no  one  can  have  any  just  compre- 
hension of  their  effects  upon  an  audience  by  reading  them. 
One  must  have  seen  that  perfect  form  in  action,  must  have 
heard  that  soul-laden  voice,  must  have  witnessed  the  inde- 
scribable effects  of  those  wonder-working  eyes,  to  have  any 
proper  measure  of  the  power  and  influence  of  E,  D.  Baker. 

Shortly  after  the  senatorial  election,  I  went  again  to  Rogue 
River  Valley,  accompanied  by  my  family,  to  remain  over 
winter.  Democratic  politics  was  as  dominating  there  as  in 
1857,  but  not  so  one-sided,  as  it  was  split  in  twain,  the  Breck- 
enridgers  claiming  the  greater  part.  Though  sadly  in  the 
minority,  the  followers  of  the  Little  Giant  were  quite  resolute 
to  maintain  his  principles,  and  refused  any  coalition  with  the 
ether  wing  which  treated  them  to  the  name,  "Mulattos,"  a 
bad  stroke  of  policy,  for  vinegar  never  catches  flies.  When 
we  arrived  in  Phoenix,   Colonel  Baker  had  been  there  and 


358  T.  W.  Davenport. 

made  a  speech  which  stirred  the  political  elements  profoundly. 

The  Republicans  were  in  fine  spirits  and  a  Lincoln  Club 
was  organized  with  Mr.  Jacobs  as  president,  and  at  the  first 
meeting  a  resolution  was  passed  inviting  the  opposition  of  all 
shades  to  come  and  take  part  in  the  discussions.  And  espe- 
cially was  this  invitation  to  the  Mulattos,  who  alone  responded 
to  the  call.  And  as  the  Baker  policy  of  squatter  sovereignty 
had  become  the  policy  of  the  Oregon  Republicans,  at  least  it 
had  not  been  protested,  the  Mulattos  found  themselves  in 
congenial  company.  The  Bell-Everett  cause  had  some  sup- 
porters, chief  among  them  being  James  C.  Tolman,  and  it  is  a 
curious  fact  that  Jackson  County  contained  more  than  two- 
fifths  of  all  the  trimmers  in  the  State;  88  to  211  was  the  exact 
j'atio.  On  the  day  of  election  Mr.  Tolman  asked  my  brother 
John,  which  ticket  he  intended  to  support.  "The  Lincoln 
ticket,"  was  the  prompt  answer.  "Better  vote  with  me,  John, 
for  Bell  and  Everett,  and  no  matter  which  of  the  others  win, 
you  can  get  off  on  the  winning  side."  Probably,  not  all  of 
the  211  who  voted  the  Bell-Everett  ticket  were  trimmers,  but 
if  so  the  proportion  was  not  startling,  in  comparison  with  the 
total  vote  of  the  State— 211  to  14,853.  When  great  and  critical 
(juestions  are  imminent,  it  is  cheering  to  note  that  only  a  litle 
over  one  per  cent  of  the  American  electorate  are  too  ignorant, 
too  cowardly  or  too  meanly  selfish  to  assist  in  deciding  them. 

In  the  latter  part  of  October,  Delazon  Smith,  a  Brecken- 
ridge  elector,  and  T.  J.  Dryer,  an  elector  on  the  Lincoln  ticket, 
came  to  Phoenix  and  made  speeches,  the  last  of  their  joint 
canvass  of  the  State.  So,  I  had  a  good  opportunity  to  hear 
those  two  noted  speakers  and  compare  them.  I  had  heard 
Smith  on  several  important  occasions  when  there  was  much 
[a  bring  out  his  talents,  but  on  that  quiet  October  day,  before 
:i  hundred  or  so  of  citizens,  he  delivered  the  ablest  speech  I 
ever  heard  from  him.  There  was  no  call  for  oratorical  splurge 
or  political  clap-trap ;  no  endeavor  to  stir  up  personal  or  race 
prejudice,  but  a  clean  and  thoughtful  presentation  of  the 
questions  at  issue  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Union,  and 
in  a  manner  at  once  earnest,  solemn  and  reflective.    Still,  there 


I 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.     359 

was  nothing  heroic  about  it,  no  glorious  and  invigorating  ap- 
peal to  moral  and  intellectual  manhood,  no  uplift  from  the 
habitual  subservience  of  Northern  Democrats,  and  in  these  re- 
spects was  chilling  and  darkening  to  those  who  were  hopeful  of 
amelioration  of  the  perpetual  assault  upon  the  original  prin- 
ciples and  purposes  of  the  fathers. 

I  had  never  heard  Dryer,  and  as  his  reputation  for  public 
speech  was  barely  second  to  Delazon's,  and  there  was  such  a 
fine  opportunity  offered  him  for  triumphant  reply,  my  ex- 
pectations rose  with  the  occasion.  Besides,  nature  had  given 
him  a  good,  solid,  earnest  face,  with  a  flash  of  brilliance  in  it, 
and  from  his  appearance  as  he  sat  upon  the  platform  listening 
intently  to  his  opponent's  arguments,  the  audience  were  an- 
ticipating a  real  duel.  The  introduction  to  his  address  was 
unlike  anything  his  auditors  ever  witnessed.  He  began  gestic- 
ulating furiously,  accompanying  it  with  as  furious  an  out- 
pouring of  voice  but  without  articulate  utterance,  and  this 
performance  was  continued  until  people  were  beginning  to 
doubt  his  sanity,  when  he  very  coolly  informed  them  that 
that  was  his  summary  of  Delazon's  speech.  Notwithstanding 
his  explanation,  the  audience  saw  nothing  rational  in  such  an 
antic,  and  nothing  he  said  afterwards,  which  in  fact  was  very 
trite  and  tame,  could  efface  the  rude  shock  he  had  given  them. 
If  it  had  been  a  clever  imitation  of  the  tone  and  gesture  of 
his  predecessor,  it  might  have  served  as  allowable  political 
spice,  but  it  was  wholly  foreign  to  everything  that  had  oc- 
curred. Smith,  who  had  tarried  after  the  close  of  his  own 
speech,  evidently  to  hear  what  course  his  opponent  would 
take,  turned  and  walked  away  without  giving  it  even  the 
merit  of  disgust. 

In  the  larger  and  original  view  of  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution, the  after-claim  of  slavery  to  perpetuity,  was  a 
revolutionary  divergence  pure  and  simple,  and  the  continual 
harping  by  Democratic  orators,  of  the  rights  of  slavery  and 
the  threat  of  disunion,  was  enough  to  disgust  any  one  who 
failed  to  recollect  that  the  bulk  of  the  American  people  had 
been  educated  in  this  school  for  almost  two  generations  and 


360  T.  W.  Davenport. 

were  therefore  entitled  to  serious  argument  instead  of  ]\Ir. 
Dryer's  sovereign  contempt. 

Nothing  of  a  political  nature,  worthy  of  note,  occurred  in 
Southern  Oregon  until  the  spring  of  1861,  when,  after  tKe 
bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter,  the  pro-slavery  sympathizers 
began  to  be  heard  from  again.  Of  the  nineteen  counties  in 
the  State  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
Jackson  was  the  fourth  in  population,  gave  more  pro-slavery 
votes  and  a  greater  percentage  of  them  than  any  other  county, 
and  three  years  afterwards  gave  a  greater  vote  for  Brecken- 
ridge  and  Lane  than  any  other,  wherefore  it  was  assumed  by 
those  of  Southern  sentiment,  that  Jackson  County  would  be  at 
least  neutral  in  the  contest.  As  a  bit  of  humor  it  was  re- 
ported that  the  Butte  Creekers,  living  in  the  north  end  of 
the  county,  had  in  fact  seceded.  Indeed,  if  the  prevailing 
talk  were  to  be  taken  as  proof,  the  whole  of  Jackson  had 
gone  out. 

Earnest  Unionists  were  reminded  every  day  that  the  public 
peace  depended  upon  positive  knowledge  as  to  the  position  the 
whole  of  Oregon  would  take  in  the  approaching  struggle. 
There  was  no  election  near  at  hand  by  which  to  ascertain 
public  sentiment,  and  the  State  and  county  officers  were 
elected  before  the  issue  arose,  and  most  of  them  were  Demo- 
crats. Calling  public  meetings  and  passing  resolutions  was  in 
effect  to  precipitate  wrangling  with  no  decisive  response. 
Really  the  time  for  talk  had  past  and  the  time  for  action  had 
come.  A  conference  with  the  leading  Republicans  of  Phoenix 
developed  only  divided  counsels,  and  deeming  delay  dangerous. 
I  drew  up  a  subscription  paper  to  obtain  money  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  a  liberty  pole  and  a  United  States  flag.  The 
real  purpose  was  to  segregate  the  political  elements  of  Jackson 
County,  and  it  was  a  method  which  dispensed  with  argument 
and  would  rally  round  the  flag  many  whom  argument  would 
only  confuse  and  who  from  habit  and  the  delicious  memory  of 
other  days  Avould  exult  at  sight  of  the  starry  banner  of  the 
Republic.  Subscribers  were  limited  to  50  cents  and,  after 
signing,  I  presented  it  to  Harrison  B.  Oatman,  a  Republican, 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      361 

who,  after  inspecting  it,  asked  with  fearful  emphasis,  "Why, 
man,  do  you  want  to  see  blood  run  here  in  Phoenix  ? ' ' 

' '  Oh,  no,  my  friend,  this  is  to  dispense  with  blood  letting. ' ' 

But  he  did  not  sign,  then. 

The  next  man  I  presented  it  to  was  a  Breckenridge  Demo- 
crat, who  was  called  One- Armed  Tabor.  I  told  him  of  Oat- 
man's  fears,  to  which  he  replied,  "When  it  gets  so  that  an 
American  citizen  is  afraid  to  raise  his  country's  flag,  it  is 
time  for  him  to  go  down  into  his  boots,  and  1  am  not  there 
yet."  My  brother,  John,  Orange  Jacobs,  S.  Redlieh,  a  Jew 
(the  Jews  were  all  loyal),  signed,  and  later  Mr.  Oatman— 
who  was  no  part  of  a  coward— reconsidered  his  hasty  speech, 
assisted  in  raising  the  pole  and  flag,  and  later  in  recruiting  a 
military  company  of  which  he  became  First  Lieutenant. 

The  news  went  abroad,  subscriptions  came  without  asking, 
and  as  a  surplus  was  undesirable,  many  had  to  be  refused,  but 
were  permitted  to  sign  as  honorary  members.  A  Dutchman 
by  the  name  of  Barnyburg  procured  a  100-fooi  pole  from  the 
mountains,  and  Mr.  Redlich  and  I  stood  guard  over  it  of 
nights  until  patriotic  women  had  made  the  flag.  In  the 
meantime,  the  enemy  came  with  a  protest.  A  Mr.  Wells,  well 
known  in  the  county,  a  very  strong  Southerner,  came  to  the 
store  of  Redlich  and  Goldsmith,  where  I  was  employed,  to 
inform  us  that  the  flag-raising  would  not  be  permitted.  He 
introduced  the  subject  in  this  stjde,  "I  hear  that  you  are 
intending  to  raise  a  Yankee  flag  here  in  Phoenix  next  Satur- 
day, and  I  came  to  tell  you  that  it  will  cause  blood  to  flow." 

I  said,  "Mr.  Wells,  you  have  been  misinformed,  the  flag 
we  shall  raise  is  not  a  sectional  flag,  but  the  flag  of  the 
Union  you  have  marched  under  many  a  time  and  shouted 
for  much  oftener." 

"Oh,  that's  a  Yankee  rag  now,  and  it  is  not  mine." 

At  this  juncture  George  Woolen,  who  sat  near,  put  his  big 
hand  upon  Mr.  Wells'  knee  and,  looking  him  squarely  and 
almost  fiercely  in  the  face,  said,  "Mr.  Wells,  that  flag  will  go 
up   Saturday  and  woe  be  to  the  man  who  raises  his  hand 


362  T.  W.  Davenport. 

against  it."  In  the  language  of  the  poker  table,  the  Yankee 
had  called  the  Southerner's  bluff  and  took  the  pot. 

Late  the  next  Friday,  E.  L,  Applegate  dismounted  from  his 
mule  at  the  store  and  his  first  words  were  these:  "I  heard 
several  days  ago  that  there  is  to  be  a  flag-raising  in  Phoenix 
tomorrow  and  I  thought  I'd  come  down  out  of  the  Siskoas 
and  see  about  it,  for  from  what  I've  heard  some  of  our 
Southern  brethren  say,  you  may  need  help."  (The  last  word 
he  gasped  out  convulsively.) 

Whether  from  fear  or  detaining  employment,  not  as  many 
attended  the  pole-raising  as  were  expected,  but  with  the  help 
of  wives,  daughters,  sisters,  the  tall  flag  staff  was  firmly 
planted  upright  without  a  halt  or  accident  while  some  half 
dozen  or  more  Southern  sympathizers  witnessed  the  event  from 
the  veranda  of  Pat  McMannus'  store,  a  few  rods  distant.  One 
guy  rope  was  managed  by  the  women  with  the  assistance  of 
Samuel  Colver  Sr.,  an  octogenarian  immigrant  from  Ohio  in 
1857,  and  a  pioneer  to  that  State  before  1800,  as  mentioned  in 
previous  pages.  He  was  awarded  the  honor  of  raising  the 
flag  and  he  suggested  that  the  girls  should  share  it  with  him. 

And  in  that  crisis,  it  was  verily  a  thrilling  sight,  the 
National  banner  aspiring  to  the  top-mast  like  a  living  sentient 
thing,  and  unfurling  grandly  to  the  breeze,  in  response  to  the 
patriotic  impulse  of  blushing,  blooming  maidens  and  tottering 
age.  But  exultant  as  were  the  feelings  of  that  little  assembly, 
at  this  ascension  of  the  sacred  symbol  of  national  unity, 
liberty,  order  and  law,  there  was  no  shouting;  it  was  a  solemn 
service,  a  conscientious  performance  of  duty,  for  the  future 
seemed  to  every  one  dark  and  portentous.  Later,  the  expected 
ones  arrived,  and  to  this  earnest,  prayerful  congregation, 
speeches  were  addressed  by  0.  Jacobs  and  E.  L.  Applegate. 

The  flag  at  Phoenix  went  up  every  morning  at  the  rising  of 
the  sun,  and  strange  what  courage  the  sight  of  it  gave  to 
timid  souls.  They  soon  waved  in  Jacksonville  and  all  along 
the  road  north  and  south.  Our  Southern  sympathizers  were 
not  wrong  in  their  dread  of  the  flag,  for  it  was  an  assertion 
of  sovereignty,  a  challenge  to  submission  or  combat,  and  they 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      363 

were  wise  enough  to  engage  in  no  useless  struggle,  and  no 
further  protest  was  made. 

I  left  Jttogue  Kiver  on  the  first  of  June,  and  everywhere  on 
my  way  north  the  signs  of  loyalty  were  visible.  Disloyalty, 
whether  much  or  little,  was  in  hiding,  and  likely  those  affected 
with  it  were  never  so  numerous  as  noisy,  and  then  gave  no 
intimation  of  discontent. 

There  was  a  Fourth  of  July  celebration  at  Salem  in  1861, 
and  such  a  one  as  no  American  ever  witnessed  until  then.  The 
national  anniversary,  as  we  had  known  it,  had  but  little  ra- 
tional connection  to  the  great  events  which  it  was  intended  to 
commemorate,  but  had  grown  to  be  a  day  for  recreation  and 
amusement;  a  time  for  thoughtless  revelry  and  buffoonery. 
True,  the  reading  of  the  Declaration  was  never  omitted  and 
there  was  an  oration  having  some  reference  to  our  revolu- 
tionary history,  but  these  performances  had  become  per- 
functory, stale  and  unprofitable;  a  mere  ceremony  that  the 
sooner  past  over,  the  less  interference  with  the  thoughtless 
wassail  which  reigned  supreme.  It  was  a  rare  occasion,  indeed, 
when  an  orator  of  sufficient  force  and  earnestness  appeared  to 
turn  the  attention  of  the  people  into  serious  and  profitable 
channels.  But  in  1861  the  crisis  which  had  been  long  fore- 
boding and  often  postponed  by  compromise,  had  at  last  ar- 
rived, and  the  old  time  revelry  was  as  inopportune  as  mirth  at 
a  funeral.  The  gloom  was  thick  upon  us  and  there  was  no 
thought  of  trifling.  The  people  had  gathered  in  from  far 
and  near,  came  in  wagons  and  carriages  with  their  families, 
on  horseback,  afoot,  every  one  holding  a  flag  as  though  it 
were  the  ark  of  his  refuge,  all  moving  in  procession  this  time 
from  a  sense  of  duty,  and  as  silent  as  Spartan  soldiers  going 
into  battle.  I  viewed  the  procession  from  a  balcony  and  as  it 
passed,  voiceless,  solemn  and  stern,  I  could  not  repress  the 
visions,  which  rose  on  my  sight,  of  carnage,  of  victories  and 
defeats,  but  whether  of  ultimate  triumph  I  could  only  hope 
and  the  uncertainty  brought  from  my  eyes  unaccustomed 
torrents  of  tears. 


364  T.  W.  Davenport. 

1862  Celebration. 

The  loyal  citizens  of  Oregon  met  and  greeted  each  other  at 
the  celebration  of  1862  with  a  more  energetic  hand  clasp  and 
brighter  faces  than  in  1861,  for  many  things  had  happened 
to  lighten  the  burden  they  then  carried.  The  gloom  of  the 
first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  which  obscured  their  horizon,  had 
been  dissipated  by  the  sunburst  of  Donaldson  and  Shiloh. 
The  men  of  the  West,  with  admirable  foresight  and  resolu- 
tion, had  risen  in  their  might,  devoted  to  the  arduous  task  of 
freeing  the  Father  of  Waters  from  the  grip  of  rebellion,  that 
the  argosies  of  wealth  borne  upon  his  magnificent  tide  should 
go  unvexed  to  the  sea,  and  that  no  alien  power  should  sit 
portress  at  his  "watery  gates." 

There  might  be  reverses,  but  the  path  of  duty  and  destiny 
was  plain,  and  that  of  itself  was  a  great  exhilaration.  And. 
besides,  the  general  election  in  June  had  been  an  overw^helni- 
ing  victory  for  the  Union  party,  thus  proclaiming  that  Oregon 
was  a  loyal  unit  of  an  indivisible  republic.  Not  the  least 
cheering  fact  in  the  series  was,  that  a  large  majority  of  citizens 
can  lay  aside  party  names  and  subordinate  partisan  issues  in 
the  interest  of  the  commonwealth.    May  it  ever  remain  so. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  it  was  well  known  that  there  were 
several  thousand  persons  of  Southern  birth  and  lineage  who 
deeply  sympathized  with  their  brethren  of  the  sunny  land 
whence  they  came,  and  were  barely  held  in  leash  by  the 
superior  powers  which  environed  them.  Indeed,  some  of  their 
young  and  more  ardent  sons  had  gone  South  and  enlisted  in 
the  service  of  the  confederacy.  Those  remaining  were  not 
contented  with  silent  and  inactive  sympathy,  but  secretly 
organized  themselves  into  companies,  or  squads,  under  the 
name  of  Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  to  be  prepared  for  any 
emergency.     Union  men  also  organized  Union  League  Clubs. 

And  thus  this  combustible  material  continued  in  juxtaposi- 
tion, ready  to  be  set  in  conflagration  by  a  spark,  until  the 
military  events  of  the  years  1863  and  4  had  rendered  the  Con- 
federate cause  entirely  hopeless.  How  near  we  came  to  such 
an  insane  outbreak  as  was  contemplated  by  the  madcaps  in 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      365 

certain  favorable  contingencies,  will  never  be  known,  but 
that  such  was  imminent  was  the  prevalent  opinion  among 
those  cognizant  of  the  secret  work  of  the  Knights.  Of  course 
they  were  not  drilling  and  preparing  their  guns  (muzzle- 
loading  rifles  brought  across  the  plains)  and  amunition  for 
protection  against  the  assaults  of  Unionists,  for  they  knew 
there  was  no  particle  of  danger  from  such  a  source,  so  long 
as  they  did  not  raise  the  flag  of  rebellion  against  the  legally 
constituted  authorities.  No!  such  was  not  the  animus;  they 
were  miseducated,  misguided  enthusiasts,  attached  by  kindred 
ties  of  blood  and  fond  recollection  to  a  brave  and  generous 
people,  struggling  against  fearful  odds  for  their  independence. 
It  was  not,  with  many  of  them,  the  cement  of  slavery  which 
attached  them,  as  I  knew  very  many  had  voted  against  the 
adoption  of  the  institution  in  1857.  One  communication  I  had 
from  the  lips  of  HDon.  B.  F.  Harding  may  throw  some  light 
upon  the  occult  conditions  of  that  period,  and  I  will  give  it 
from  memory  as  I  heard  it  from  him  a  quarter  of  a  century 
later. 

It  was,  I  think,  in  February  of  1863,  when  a  man  by  the 
name  of  McDonald,  living  in  the  forks  of  the  Santiam  River, 
in  Linn  County,  a  very  influential  person  and  well  known  in 
the  adjoining  counties,  came  to  see  Mr.  Harding  and  notify 
him  of  what  was  about  to  happen,  so  that  he  might  keep  out 
of  harm 's  way.  ]\Ir.  Harding  had  been  his  confidential  friend 
and  legal  adviser  for  many  years,  and  he  was  impelled  to  give 
his  old  friend  a  word  of  warning.  There  was  an  interesting 
colloquy  which  I  will  give  from  memory.    McDonald  began; 

"Ben,  we  rebels  in  the  forks  of  the  Santiam  are  going  to 
begin  work  next  week.  We  have  got  our  guns  and  amuni- 
tion ready,  and  have  endured  Yankee  domination  as  long  as 
we  can." 

"AVhat,"  asked  Harding,  "you  are  not  going  on  the  war- 
path, are  you?" 

"Yes,  Ave  are." 

"Who  is  it  you  are  going  to  fight?    I  thought  everything 


366  T.  W.  Davenport. 

was  peaceable  on  the  Santiam.  The  few  Yankees  up  there 
have  not  broken  the  peace,  have  they?" 

"No.  But  this  abolition  war  has  been  going  on  for  over 
two  years,  and  it  is  time  that  every  Southern  man  should 
show  his  colors.  There  are  a  good  many  more  rebels  in 
Oregon  than  you  think.  We  have  a  company  in  the  Forks, 
one  in  Albany  Prairie,  one  in  Benton  County,  one  on  the 
Long  Tom,  one  in  Douglas  County,  and  two  in  Jackson 
County,  and  there  are  lots  of  our  friends  east  of  the  Cascades, 
and  we  are  going  to  get  together  in  the  Forks  and  make  it 
warm  for  the  nigger  worshippers." 

"Well,  suppose  you  call  together  one  thousand  men  in  the 
Forks,  how  will  they  be  fed?  You  don't  expect  every  soldier 
to  feed  himself— that  would  be  a  queer  sort  of  an  army. 
There  would  have  to  be  a  commissary  department,  and  that 
means  a  treasury  with  sufficient  funds  to  purchase  supplies 
and  pay  cost  of  transportation.  Of  course  you  have  thought 
of  all  this,  and  that  at  least  ten  persons  must  contribute  or  be 
taxed  to  keep  one  soldier  even  in  idleness.  For  a  moment, 
fancy  one  thousand  men  camped  over  at  Scio.  and  living  on 
their  own  resources,  for  you  know  there  was  never  an  Ameri- 
can community  willing  to  donate  to  support  an  army  even  for 
defense,  and  you  could  not  levy  a  tax.  For  my  part,  I  would 
be  willing  to  let  you  try  that  experiment,  for  in  less  than  two 
weeks  every  man  would  go  home  cursing  himself,  and  trying 
to  forget  that  he  was  ever  such  a  damn  fool.  I  can  assure 
you,  however,  that  no  such  military  gathering  in  opposition 
to  the  United  States  authorities  would  be  permitted,  and  if 
your  sympathizing  brethren  were  so  reckless  as  to  resist  the 
order  to  disperse,  they  would  be  arrested  at  all  hazards  and 
sent  to  jail.  The  proper  place,  in  my  judgment,  would  be  the 
asylum  for  idiots  and  the  insane.  The  Confederate  flag 
would  not  cover  them  as  prisoners  of  war." 

"Ben,  do  you  suppose  we  are  such  cowards  as  to  surrender, 
and  while  they  are  arresting  us,  some  of  them  would  be 
snuffed  out." 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      367 

"Very  likely;  and  suppose  you  killed  a  hundred  or  five 
hundred,  which  is  improbable,  your  fate  would  be  just  the 
same.  There  would  be  no  let-up  until  your  entire  force  were 
killed  or  captured.  Your  old  muzzle-loading  rifles,  that  you 
brought  across  the  plains,  and  which  served  effectively  for 
killing  game  and  Indians,  are  antiquated  weapons  as  against 
the  breechloaders,  which  can  be  fired  five  times  to  your  once. 
Besides,  the  United  States  soldiers  stationed  at  Vancouver 
would  be  sent  against  you,  supplied  with  cannon,  shot  and 
shell,  with  which  they  could  destroy  you  and  keep  out  of 
range  of  your  squirrel  guns.  Mac!  you  and  I  have  been 
friends  a  good  while;  you  have  come  to  me  for  advice  fre- 
quently, for  which  you  paid  me,  but  now  I  am  going  to  offer 
you  advice  gratis,  and  I  insist  that  you  shall  follow  it  to  the 
letter.  You  go  home  and  advise  your  Confederate  friends  to 
keep  the  peace.  Remain  perfectly  quiet ;  do  nothing  and  say 
nothing  to  stir  up  strife  or  ill  feeling  between  Union  men 
and  rebel  sympathizers.  You  should  not  feel  humiliated  at 
such  a  course,  for  it  is  wisdom  to  do  so.  If  all  your  friends 
in  the  State  should  begin  hostilities,  and  succeed  in  holding 
all  of  the  country  south  of  the  Calapooia  Mountains,  it  would 
not  affect  the  result  of  this  national  contest  a  feather's 
weight.  You  and  your  friends  in  Oregon  cannot  hasten  or 
retard  the  end  a  moment  of  time.  You  have  it  in  your  power 
to  bring  destruction  to  yourselves  and  families,  but  I  insist 
that  you  shall  not  do  it.  You  are  good  people,  and  I  want 
to  be  near  you  and  have  the  pleasure  of  your  society  as  long 
as  I  live. ' ' 

"Mac"  did  as  he  was  advised,  and  lived  respected  and 
trusted  by  all  good  citizens,  and  his  descendants  occupy 
prominent  positions  in  society. 

There  was  enough  division  in  Oregon  to  have  brought  on  a 
destructive  frenzy  similar  to  that  in  Missouri,  and  would  have 
done  so  but  for  the  long  distance  separating  it  from  the 
insurgent  States,  and  the  policy  of  the  government  in  not 
diminishing  our  home  guard  by  recruiting  here. 


368  T.  W.  Davenport. 

On  the  3rd  of  June,  1861,  died  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the 
precipitator  of  the  conflict  which  disrupted  the  Union  for 
four  awful  years.  The  Little  Giant,  presumably,  had  not  the 
slightest  anticipation  of  what  happened,  for  lik<^  many  another 
ambitious  son  of  man,  self  aggrandized,  was  projected  upon 
the  future,  which  ever  way  he  looked.  His  success  as  a 
governor  of  men,  while  being  borne  by  the  current,  was  so 
great  that  he  was  mis  led  to  believing  himself  the  master  of 
the  current,  but  the  Divinity  which  shapes  our  ends,  he,  in 
common  with  all  mankind,  had  not  comprehended,  and  to  his 
perplexity  and  dire  disgrace,  he  found  himself  a  wreck  upon 
the  off  shore.  He  committed  many  blunders,  even  when 
viewed  with  reference  to  his  own  selfish  interests,  as  all  men 
do  who  leave  out  of  their  calculations  the  moral  laws  inherent 
in  human  affairs;  but  he  proffered  all  the  atonement  in  his 
power,  by  exhorting  his  followers  to  attach  themselves  to  the 
defenders  of  the  Union,  which  he  professed  to  love  as  well  as 
Webster  or  Clay.  His  influence  in  turning  them  to  the  sup- 
port of  Lincoln's  administration  was,  no  doubt,  valuable;  at 
least,  we  felt  it  to  be  so  in  Oregon ;  and  in  the  spring  of  1862, 
the  union  of  forces  thus  formed,  placed  the  State  Government, 
in  all  its  branches,  in  the  care  and  control  of  those  who  had 
no  mental  reservations  to  weaken  their  loyalty.  Considered 
as  to  age  and  physical  ability,  the  demise  of  Douglas  was 
entirely  unaccoimtable.  He  was  but  a  little  over  fifty,  of 
great  vital  powers,  admirably  formed,  not  a  weak  spot  in  his 
make-up,  big-chested,  big-brained,  had  a  deep  and  powerful 
voice  ample  for  all  occasions,  and  we  must  infer  that  he  is 
another  instance  among  the  many  who,  from  disappointed 
ambition,  have  dropped,  from  sheer  dejection  of  spirit,  into 
untimely  graves. 

But  those  who  fight  in  "some  great  cause,  God's  new 
Messiah,"  are  not  dismayed  and  dejected  by  personal  defeat; 
they  are  sustained  and  soothed  by  an  undying  hope  and  self- 
consecration,  even  when  the  material  form  is  incompetent  to 
sustain  its  vitality.  Douglas,  however,  was  not  so  actuated, 
was  not  so  sustained.     His  better  impulses  were  over-borne, 


Slavery  in  Oregon.  369 

and  he  served  ignobly  the  malign  power  which  east  him  off 
contemptously  "to  lie  in  cold  obstruction  and  to  rot." 

It  is  seldom  that  human  beings  desist  from  a  wrong  course 
when  once  fairly  started  upon  it.  As  Byron  said  of  Napoleon : 
"A  single  step  in  the  right  had  made  him  the  Washington  of 
worlds  betrayed;  a  single  step  in  the  wrong  has  given  his 
name  to  all  the  adverse  winds  of  heaven. ' ' 

The  reason  for  continuance  is  patent;  they  have  changed 
environment,  taken  down  one  standard  and  set  up  a  different 
one  and  before  they  have  committed  one  overt  act,  they  are 
the  bond  servants  of  another  master. 

It  required  an  overpowering  light  from  heaven  to  turn  St. 
Paul.  There  were  plenty  of  moral  lights  about  Douglas,  but 
he  heeded  them  not,  or  was  oblivious  to  them.  The  taunts  of 
his  political  opponents  should  have  stirred  him.  to  self-exami- 
nation. With  veiled  and  courtly  sarcasm,  Seward  remarked, 
when  some  one  prophesied  Douglas'  election  to  the  presidency, 
"No  man  can  be  elected  President  of  the  United  States  who 
spells  negro  with  two  g's."  At  another  time  he  said,  "Doug- 
las'  coat  tails  hang  too  near  the  ground."  In  his  debate  with 
Lincoln,  how  could  he  help  seeing  and  feeling  the  dwarfed 
moral  position  he  occupied?  He  must  have  seen  it,  but  his 
associations,  the  cheering  thousands  actuated  by  no  higher 
spirit  and  purpose  than  himself,  would  have  enthralled  a  far 
better  man  than  he,  and  he  continued  the  contest,  despite 
everything,  to  the  bitter  end. 

It  is  related  that  Douglas  stood  beside  Lincoln  and  held  the 
hat  and  cane  of  his  successful  rival  during  the  delivery  of 
his  inaugural  address,  and  is  it  possible  that  while  thus  con- 
trasted, the  baffled  conspirator  against  light  and  civilization, 
did  not  feel  most  oppressively  the  vast  disparity  between 
their  destinies,  and  what  else  was  there  left  for  him  but  to 
counsel  his  followers  to  assist  the  real  giant, — giant  in  physical 
stature,  giant  in  intellect,  giant  in  moral  elevation,  who  never 
more  than  compassionately  rebuked  him— then  go  home  and 
give  up  the  ghost? 


370  T.  W.  Davenport. 

Seldom  in  the  history  of  mankind  has  there  been  an  instance 
of  such  summary  and  deserved  retribution  as  was  experi- 
enced by  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Born  and  nurtured  amid  free 
institutions,  and  raised  almost  to  the  summit  of  power,  then, 
when  the  preponderance  over  barbarism  was  assured,  turning 
his  talents  to  overthrow  Avhat  had  been  gained  and  arrest 
progress,  was  not  his  fate  well  deserved? 

My  task  is  finished,  and  people  who  estimate  the  value  of 
history  by  the  fearful  and  astounding  incidents  which  make 
lurid  the  annals  of  nations,  will  decide  that  the  episode  I  have 
attempted  to  describe  is  of  little  value,  that  it  is  too  tame  and 
not  worth  while,  in  fact,  that  there  is  no  lesson  in  it.  True, 
there  was  no  invasion,  no  insurrection,  no  unlawful  con- 
spiracy, no  governmental  interference,  not  even  a  street  brawl 
or  fisticuff,  no  bloodshed,  and,  so  far  as  known,  no  intemper- 
ate or  insulting  language  between  those  differing  in  opinion. 
But  it  must  be  a  morbid  taste  which  relishes  only  that  in 
history  which  is  illuminated  by  the  outbursts  of  the  militant 
spirit  in  human  beings,  and  the  proper  office  of  the  phil- 
osopher is  in  tracing  back  the  casual  chain  of  events  to  its 
point  of  departure  from  the  path  of  rectitude,  and  determin- 
ing the  conditions  which  produced  it,  thus  fortifying  against 
future  aberrations.  And,  indeed,  history  is  valueless  without 
such  investigation,  and  philosophy  has  not  come  to  its  own 
until  the  means  of  immunity  can  be  shown.  The  crucial  point 
for  philosophical  investigation  is  the  point  of  divergence,  and 
the  American  people,  as  well  as  all  others,  are  too  heedless  of 
the  divergences,  and  so,  sooner  or  later,  find  themselves 
struggling  against  powers  which  have  grown  from  apparently 
trifling  concessions  they  unwittingly  granted,  or  evolved  from 
devices  they  adopted  with  no  other  intention  but  to  conserve 
the  public  interests. 

And  it  is  well  to  remember,  that  though  a  condition  may 
be  intruded  into  the  social  order  by  the  volition  of  man, 
whether  it  be  well  or  ill  as  respects  the  normal  status  of  the 
social  organism  will  be  irrevocably  determined  by  the  evolu- 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.      371 

tionary  process  of  natural  law.  Our  lawgivers,  however,  act 
as  though  nature's  edicts  are  not  mandatory  or  are  placable. 
Or  possibly  they  think  that  man's  actions  are  not  governed 
bj  such  laws;  that  whether  he  will  or  will  not  do  a  certain 
thing  or  follow  a  certain  course  is  within  his  own  keeping. 

So,  they  expect  to  prohibit  big  gambling  and  permit  little 
gambling;  grant  little  privileges  and  be  exempt  from  the 
encroachments  of  multiplied  privileges;  give  a  premium  on 
selfishness  in  one  place,  and  remain  free  from  its  spreading 
and  growing  exactions  everywhere;  found  political  parties 
empowered  to  reward  its  managers  and  promoters  with  the 
spoils  of  office,  and  yet  not  witness  the  evolution  of  political 
machines  and  bosses  at  variance  with  the  public  interests  and 
coalescent  with  all  forms  and  phases  of  human  greed. 

Notwithstanding  the  advance  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  in 
biology  and  sociology,  the  great  mass  of  people  have  no  expert 
knowledge  as  to  what  human  beings  will  do  in  a  given  set  of 
circumstances,  and  so,  government,  in  its  best  estate,  is  an 
experimental  affair.  But  it  is  a  cheering  sign  that  there  is  a 
growing  interest  in  and  a  more  critical  examination  of  social 
problems  and  resulting  discoveries  of  social  wrongs,  and  to 
those  thus  engaged,  several  lessons  worth  while  will  appear 
in  the  preceding  pages.  And  in  any  event,  what  a  grand 
employment,  tracing  cause  and  effect,  essaying  the  concatena- 
tion of  the  universe  and  aspiring  to  become  the  high  priests 
of  nature.  And  there  is  no  exclusion— all  may  enter  the 
temple,  the  prince  and  the  beggar— all  may  come  enrapport 
with  the  oracle— all  may  propound  questions,  and  the  answers 
will  be  true  and  righteous  altogether. 

It  has  been  my  desire  ever  since  beginning  this  article  to 
give  the  names  of  all  those  citizens  who  contributed  by  their 
voice  and  influence,  as  well  as  their  votes,  to  the  founding  of 
the  free  State  of  Oregon,  but  after  listing  all  that  I  knew 
personally  and  obtaining  the  assistance  of  D.  "W .  Craig,  editor 
and  publisher  during  those  years,  I  feel  sure  that  the  list  will 
fall  short  of  my  purpose,  and  that  perhaps  some  of  the  most 


372  T.  W.  Davenport. 

deserving  have  been  omitted.  But  however  faulty  in  this 
respect,  the  reader  may  rest  assured  that  it  is  not  from  want 
of  a  desire  to  recognize  merit  where  merit  is  due.  Many 
persons  of  distinction  do  not  appear  in  the  list,  for  the  reason 
that  their  sphere  of  activity  did  not  begin  until  after  the 
decision  of  the  question  in  1857.  Some  others  who  were 
prominent  as  opponents  of  the  ruling  Democracy,  prior  to 
that  event,  are  not  included,  for  the  reason  that  they  were 
neutral  upon  the  slavery  question.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  North  was  credited  with  being  anti-slavery,  but  few 
of  its  members  engaged  individually  in  promoting  free-state 
sentiment.  And  so  far  as  I  know,  even  among  those  w^ho 
actively  engaged  in  extending  the  free-state  cause,  the  in- 
alienable rights  of  the  negro  were  seldom  mentioned.  The 
colored  brother  had  few  defenders,  and  to  the  others,  the  low- 
moral  tone,  or  rather  the  lack  of  moral  tone,  observable  in 
Judge  Williams'  free-state  letter,  should  not  have  been 
offensive. 

MARION  COUNTY, 

D.  M.  Keene  Dr.  P.  A.  Davis 

Wm.  Porter  Dr.  Chitwood 

*E.  N.  Cooke  Leander  Davis 

J.  H.  Bridges  James  Campbell 

*Rice  Dunbar  Wm.  Engle 

*Benj.  Davenport  Jos.  W.  Davenport 

Fones  Wilbur  John  Batchelor 

I.  H.  Small  *John  Denny 

N.  D.  Simons  Fletcher  Denny 

Ai  Coolidge  *Jos.  Magone 

*Thos.  H.  Small  *Wm.  Greenwood 
*Dan'l  Waldo 

YAMHILL  COUNTY. 

W.  H.  Odell  T.  R.  Harrison 

S.  M.  Gilmour  Neill  Johnson 

*Dr.  James  McBride  H.  V.  V.  Johnson 

Sebastian  C.  Adams  W.  B.  Daniels 

Geo.  L.  Woods  Aaron  Payne 

*W.  L.  Adams  *John  R.  McBride 


Slavery  Question  in  Oregon.  373 


LINN  COUNTY. 

Ovigen  Thompson  Hiram  Smith 

Dr.  Tate  *John  Connor 

Wilson  Blaine  ''Hugh  N.  George 

Thos.  S.  Kendall  *J.  B.  Condon 

CLACKAMAS  COUNTY. 

W.  T.  Matlock  Leander  Holmes 

W.  C.  Johnson  Hezekiah  Johnson 

Thos.  Pope  G.  H.  Atkinson 

J.  S.  Rynearson  W.  A.  Starkw^eather 

LANE  COUNTY. 

B.  J.  Pengra  J.  H.  D.  Hendei-son 

Joel  Ware  Thomas  Condon 

DOUGLAS   COUNTY. 

J.  W.  P.  Huntington  Dr.  Watkins 

Thos.  Scott  *Jesse  Applegate. 

POLK   COUNTY. 

J.  E.  Lyle  Mr.  Olds  Dr.  Davis 

WASHINGTON    COUNTY. 

E.  D.  Shattuck  S.  H.  Marsh 

Levi  Anderson  Mr.  Walker 

H.  Hicklin  A.  Hill 

W.  D.  HJare 

MULTNOMAH   COUNTY. 

Thos.  H.  Pearne  C.  M.  Carter 

S.  Coffin  J.  Terwilliger 

*T.  J.  Dryer 

JACKSON   COUNTY. 

*John  C.  Davenport  *E.  L.  Applegate 

*Sam'l  Colver,  Sr.  Lindsay  Applegate 

*Sam'l  Colver,  Jr.  *John  McCall 

*Hiram  Colver  John  Anderson 

*John  Beeson  Firm  Anderson 

*David  Stearns  *Orange  Jacobs 


♦Those    marked    with    an    asterisk    have    been    mentioned    in    preceding 
pages. 


FROM  YOUTH  TO  AGE  AS  AN  AMERICAN-III. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

By  John  Minto. 

THE  CLIMATIC  CONDITIONS  OF  THE  NORTH  PACIFIC  IN   THEIR  IN- 
FLUENCE  ON    FORESTS,    STREAMS    AND    AGRICULTURAL 
PRODUCTIONS, 

The  preceding  papers  have  been  written  with  the  double 
purpose  of  showing  conditions  of  life  in  Oregon  as  the  writer 
has  experienced  them,  and  in  order  to  indicate  wherein  they 
differed  from  the  conditions  of  the  Atlantic  Coast,  even  as 
to  the  pioneer  settlements,  but  especially  as  to  flow  of  rivers 
and  action  of  rain  and  wind  on  the  soil;  and  the  personal 
narrative  has  been  used  at  the  cost  of  diffuseness,  in  order  to 
indicate  the  reasons  for  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
best  form  of  a  conservative  forest  policy  as  a  national  policy, 
from  those  who  have  so  far  controlled  it.  Believing  in  a 
general  national  conservative  forest  policy  as  firmly  as  the 
present  able  Chief  Forester,  and  having  practiced  it  in  Oregon 
longer  than  he  has  lived,  I  feel  constrained  by  my  duties  as  a 
citizen  to  give  the  reasons  for  my  position  in  the  best  form 
I  may ;  and  what  I  shall  have  further  to  say  will  be  in  con- 
nection with  differences  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  North 
Pacific  Mountain  States,  as  alluded  to  in  the  President's 
message  to  Congress  in  1902,  recommending  the  reforestration 
of  the  South  Appalachian  Mountains.  While  endorsing  all 
that  is  humanly  possible  for  the  nation  to  legally  do  toward 
reclothing  the  South  Appalachian  Mountains  with  the  best 
hardwood  forests  the  climate  and  soils  will  carry,  that  arft 
most  suitable  for  the  demands  of  future  manufacturers,  the 
object,  I  believe,  will  be  best  attained  by  instructing  and 
encouraging  private  initiative  and  ownership.    Tt  will  beyond 


From  Youth  to  Age  As  An  American.        375 

question  be  a  difficult  undertaking  to  change  the  civic  spirit 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  Appalachian  Mountains,  and 
lead  them  to  seek  peace  and  honor  in  the  culture,  care  and 
liarvesting  of  forest  resources,  in  any  other  way  than  by 
appeal  to  civic  pride,  where  so  many  of  them  have  either 
depended  on  occasional  wage  labor  and  the  small  game  yet 
remaining  in  their  bush-covered  surroundings,  or  the  cultiva- 
tion of  their  rough  little  fields  of  corn,  as  breadstuff  or  as 
the  basis  of  illicit  distillation.  It  cannot  and  should  not  be 
attempted  at  public  cost,  without  the  good  will  of  the  people 
who  have  their  homes  in  that  region. 

In  advocating  an  American  system  of  forestry,  in  distinc- 
tion from  the  German  system  which  the  present  Chief  Forester 
began  with  and  has  clung  to  as  much  as  the  American  spirit 
of  men  and  institutions  will  permit,  I  am  aware  that  the 
present  population  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains  may,  per- 
haps will  be,  the  greatest  obstacle  in  the  way  of  success,  unless 
the  improvement  of  their  condition  is  made  a  first  object  in 
the  plan.  In  some  of  his  best  papers  in  advocacy  of  a 
national  forest  policy.  President  Roosevelt  has  stated  his 
conviction  that  "No  policy  will  succeed  unless  it  has  the  en- 
dorsement of  the  people;"  in  the  judgment  of  the  writer, 
that  is  most  true  in  regard  to  the  people  who  inhabit  the 
South  Appalachian  Mountains.  They  are,  or  were,  a  "mighty 
poor,"  but  also  a  "mighty  proud"  people;  but,  treated  right, 
they  are  a  mighty  potent  people;  as  the  winning  of  Oregon 
proved;  in  which  national  drama  they  furnished  by  far  the 
greatest  contingent,  by  about  three  to  one,  when  the  Oregon 
boundary  was  agreed  on.  Their  camp-fire  war  stories  were 
idl  located  in  the  Southern  States— Florida,  Louisiana,  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee.  As  reasons  for  reforesting  the  Ap- 
palachian Mduntains,  the  President  accompanied  his  message 
to  Congress  with  a  finely  bound  volume  of  maps,  plates,  and 
letter-press  descriptions  of  the  erosions  made  by  copious  rain- 
fall in  different  localities  on  this  chain  of  mountains,  as  the 
result  of  destruction  of  forest  cover  by  over-cutting  for  homes 
or  by  forest  fires.    In  support  of  the  President's  recommenda- 


376  John  Minto. 

tion  there  has  grown  up  quite  a  body  of  magazine  literature 
in  regard  to  the  loss  of  natural  resources  by  fire,  floods, 
erosions,  etc.,  ascribed  generally  to  the  destruction  of  the 
forest  cover.  These  sources  of  waste  are  summarized  by  the 
President  as  follows: 

"The  Southern  Appalachian  region  embraces  the  highest 
peaks  and  largest  mountain  masses  east  of  the  Rockies.  It  is 
the  greatest  physiographic  feature  of  the  eastern  half  of  the 
continent  and  no  such  lofty  mountains  are  covered  with  hard- 
wood forests  in  all  North  America. 

"Upon  these  mountains  descends  the  heaviest  rainfall  in 
the  United  States,  except  that  of  the  North  Pacific  Coast;  it 
is  often  of  extreme  violence,  as  much  as  eight  inches  having 
fallen  in  eleven  hours,  thirty-one  inches  in  a  month,  and  one 
hundred  and  five  inches  in  a  year. 

"The  soil,  once  denuded  of  its  forests  and  swept  by  tor- 
rential rains,  rapidly  loses  first  its  humus,  then  its  rich  upper 
strata,  and  finally  is  washed  in  enormous  volume  into  the 
streams,  to  bury  such  of  the  fertile  lowland  as  is  not  eroded 
by  the  floods ;  to  obstruct  the  rivers  and  to  fill  the  harbors  of 
the  coast.  More  good  soil  is  now  washed  from  these  cleared 
mountain-side  fields  during  a  single  heavy  rain  than  during 
centuries  under  forest  cover." 

This  description  of  results  by  the  President  is  unquestioned 
as  to  some  of  the  mountains  and  farms  of  that  region,  and  the 
manner  of  rainfall  described  is  not  uncommon  as  far  north  as 
Pennsylvania.  On  the  Pacific  Coast,  however,  the  105-inch 
record  is  limited  to  a  low  gap  in  the  Coast  Range  in  Tillamook 
County,  Oregon,  extending  less  than  twenty  miles  from  south 
to  north.  But  the  President's  mention  of  the  North  Pacific 
as  a  region  having  as  much  rainfall  annually  as  he  mentions— 
105  inches— carries  an  inference,  to  the  uninformed,  that  the 
North  Pacific  Coast  receives  its  rains  in  the  same  way  and 
with  like  results.  Such  an  assumption  would  be  a  very  serious 
mistake. 

Judging  by  the  number  of  writers  seeking  attention  through 
the  cheap  magazines,  it  is  time  that  some  one  who  has  lived 
on  this  coast  and  had  some  opportunities  to  have  an  intelli- 
gent view  of  nature's  operations  in  the  three  separate  ranges 


From  Youth  to  Age  As  An  American.        377 

of  the  Coast,  Cascades,  and  Blue  Mountains  of  Oregon  should 
call  attention  to  conditions  peculiar  to  this  region.  From  the 
experience  of  sixty-four  years  of  labor-life,  beginning  with 
logging  for  a  sawmill  in  the  Coast  Mountains,  planting  and 
cultivating  trees,  both  fruit  and  forest,  as  a  means  of  living, 
and  clearing  land  for  cultivation  and  cutting  and  burning 
young  trees  in  defense  of  the  rich  natural  pasturage  which 
we  as  pioneers  found  on  much  of  Western  Oregon,  I  can  say 
that  I  have  no  doubt  that  land-slides  do  occur  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Coast  Range,  as  it  receives  the  heaviest  impact  of  both 
wind  and  rain  from  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  in  places  the  hill- 
sides are  steep  from  weather-wear;  but  the  only  slide  I  re- 
member to  have  noted  came  down  heavily  clothed  with  tim- 
ber—about one  and  one-half  miles  east  of  Clifton,  before  the 
Cloble  &  xVstoria  Railroad  was  thought  of.  With  a  large  ex- 
perience in  the  Cascade  Range  since,  I  would  ascribe  that 
slide  to  the  tide  wash  in  the  Columbia  River.  It  was  due  in 
part  to  the  under  softening  by  the  tide-water  and  in  part  to 
the  leverage  of  its  timber  rocked  by  the  wind.  Within  the 
Cascade  Mountains,  following  up  the  north  bank  of  the  North 
Santiam  to  the  summit  tree  of  the  Davenport  survey  of  1874, 
eighty-seven  and  one-half  miles  from  Salem,  all  the  signs  of 
surface  disturbance  off  the  right  of  way  of  the  Corvallis  & 
Eastern  Railroad  line— and  there  are  many— are  slides  which 
brought  down  the  trees  with  them,  either  broken  up  or  parti- 
ally covered  with  stone  and  soil.  Almost  uniformly  there 
would  be  the  evidence  of  slush  and  mud  to  indicate  that  the 
rocking  of  the  trees  by  the  wind  had  let  in  the  rain,  loading 
and  loosening  the  mass.  There  are  other  kinds  of  surface 
movement  in  the  Cascades,  in  places  where  there  is  little  soil, 
but  acres  of  broken  rock  of  no  value,  which,  however,  tends 
toward  soil-making  by  sliding  down  into  the  river.  In  the 
sixty  miles  of  this  valley  of  the  North  Santiam,  with  its  south 
bank  in  sight  most  of  the  way,  there  is  but  one  slide  in  sight 
from  the  north  bank,  and  the  mass  is  not  more  than  five  acres 
in  area,  but  it  represents  a  great  aggregate  of  surface  of  steep 
mountain  sides  of  broken  up,  hard,  trap  rock   at  so  steep  an 


378  John  Minto. 

angle  that  the  weight  of  a  man  or  even  a  sheep  will  start  tons 
ol'  it  with  a  jingling,  metallic  grind,  toward  the  brawling 
stream,  busy  with  grinding  rocks  into  gravel  and  sand  and 
soil.  In  the  case  of  this  slide,  it  appears  that  the  torrent,  by 
undermining  some  softer  rock — lime,  marl,  or  volcanic  ash — 
produced  the  slide  which  must  have  put  thousands  of  tons 
under  the  grinding  force  of  the  stream.  What  has  broken  up 
these  vast  masses  of  hard,  jingling  stone  1  Are  they  the  result 
of  thousands  or  millions  of  years  and  countless  earthquakes  or 
volcanic  upheavals  ?  There  is  the  presence  of  volcanic  craters, 
now  lake  beds— like  Marion  Lake,  sixteen  miles  east  of  this 
slide— the  gem  of  this  valley,  at  least  as  a  natural  fish-pond; 
then  there  are  Clear  Lake  and  Fish  Lake,  thirty  miles  south, 
draining  into  the  McKenzie.  All  three  of  the  lakes  were 
formed  by  a  mighty  power  throwing  millions  of  tons  of  rock, 
scoria  and  ashes  northeast  from  the  cavities  left,  and  the 
bottom  of  Clear  Lake  is  formed  by  a  grove  of  fir  timber  which 
must  have  slid  gently  to  the  place  where  they  now  are  stand- 
ing upright,  with  their  tops  thirty  to  forty  feet  below  the 
surface  of  the  water.  Ten  miles  east  from  this  slide  is  a  bed 
of  ashes  as  fine  as  bolted  flour,  above  the  timber-line  of  Mount 
Jefferson,  on  the  southwest  slope.  Every  summer  the  snow- 
melt  above  the  ash-belt  makes  new  channels  over  them,  and 
turns  the  crystal  streams  of  the  main  river  at  first  dun  color 
and  then  whiter  as  it  flows  west  to  the  great  Willamette  Val- 
ley. Mounts  Jefferson,  Hood  and  Raineer  each  mother  white 
rivers.  In  the  hot  days  of  August  the  White  and  Pamelia 
l>ranches  of  the  North  Santiam  vary  their  flow  from  eight  to 
sixteen  inches  daily.  Mount  Hood  and  the  "Sisters"  are  the 
nursing  mothers  of  streams  in  August  and  September,  each 
sending  down  the  life-giving  fluid  to  bless  human,  vegetable, 
tree  or  animal  life.  The  same  general  character  of  soil  and 
soil  formation  reaches  from  the  Willamette  Valley  eastward 
to  and  including  the  Rocky  Mountains.  From  a  point  Avithin 
forty  miles  southeast  of  the  land  or  rock  slide  which  started 
me  on  this  descriptive  tour,  north  to  Puget  Sound  and  south 
to  New  Mexico,  soil  on  the  highlands  is  colored  reddish  witli 


From  Youth  to  Age  As  An  American.        379 

oxide  of  magnetic  iron,  showing  gold-bearing  quartz  on  thou- 
sands of  hill-tops;  the  water  clear  and  apparently  pure,  yet 
carrying  in  solution  a  mineral  which  loads  pine-twigs  so  that 
they  sink  in  the  immense  crystal  springs  that  rise  within  five 
to  eight  miles  east  of  the  summit  of  the  Cascades— full-grown 
mill-streams,  clear  as  crystal  and  as  cold  as  ice 

In  addition  to  the  peculiarity  of  leaves,  twigs  and  branches 
sinking  in  the  waters  of  these  large  springs,  so  numeroas  at 
the  east  base  of  the  Cascades,  and  which  form  the  Matoles, 
which  enters  the  Deschutes  at  the  Agency,  forty-five  miles 
north,  is  the  clearness  and  coldness  of  the  water  and  its  un- 
satisfactory character  as  drink— you  wish  to  drink  again  at 
such  short  intervals.  I  have  met  more  than  one  educated 
man  who  held  that  it  is  due  to  over-filtration  —seeping  so  far 
through  basaltic  rock  that  the  life  principle  is  filtered  out 
of  it.  The  question  arises :  may  it  not  be  filtering  through  the 
stratum  of  volcanic  ash  which  Professor  Condon  so  finely  de- 
scribes in  his  geological  history,  "The  Two  Islands,"  the 
evidences  of  which  remain  throughout  the  mountain,  valleys 
and  stream-beds  of  the  plains? 

From  where  I  stand  in  fancy  at  this  writing,  sixteen  miles 
northwest  reaches  the  hot-and-cold  springs  of  the  Santiam; 
twenty-six  miles  south  reaches  Crater  Springs,  on  the  head 
of  the  Matoles  branch  of  the  Deschutes.  This  crater  is  a 
fine,  hollow  cone,  thirty  feet  high,  at  the  bottom  of  which  a 
current  of  ice-cold  water  is  gurgling  its  way  toward  the  Des- 
chutes, the  Columbia,  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  I  was  the  old 
man  of  the  party,  and  not  sure  the  boys  were  not  joking  about 
the  good  water  and  ice  they  had  found  at  the  bottom  of  the 
gigantic  bowl.  One  gave  me  his  cup  and  an  ax  to  reach  in 
and  chip  off  the  ice.  I  could  get  a  good  drink  by  lying  down, 
but  the  ice  was  further  in,  and  over  the  water.  I  secured 
both,  but  saw  also,  when  I  rose  to  my  feet,  that  I  was  sur- 
rounded by  formation  very  similar  to  that  around  Soda  and 
Steamboat  Springs  on  Bear  River,  Utah,  700  miles  eastward, 
and  in  woodland  scenery  not  unlike  that  in  sight  from  Pacific 
Springs,  where  we  camped  in  sight  of  snow  on  the  Wind  River 


380  John  Minto. 

Mountains  in  August,  1844.  The  same  color  and  texture  of 
soil,  seemingly  without  humus,  but  which  nevertheless  will 
bear  two  months  without  rain  better  than  the  corn-lands  of 
Iowa  will  two  weeks. 

OREGON    WINDS    SOIL-MOVERS. 

The  mention  of  the  Wind  River  Mountains  reminds  me  that 
we  in  Oregon  are  as  different  in  the  winds  that  blow  as  in  the 
rains  and  snow  that  maintain  the  flow  of  our  rivers,  for  we 
are  free  from  their  cyclones  and  downpours  of  eight  inches  of 
rain  in  eleven  hours,  as  in  the  Appalachian  Mountains,  which 
I  will  notice  after  stating  that  warm  or  hot  springs  and  vol- 
canic ashbeds  are,  together  with  mineral  springs,  common 
occurrences  all  over  the  Columbia  Valley  from  the  west 
slopes  of  the  Cascade  Range  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

The  return  trade-wind  from  the  South  Pacific  is  now  called 
the  "Chinook."  It  is  the  wind  of  blessing  in  more  ways  than 
those  connected  with  or  concerned  with  the  Appalachian  chain 
can  well  conceive  of.  "The  early  and  the  latter  rains"  it 
brings  from  the  South  Pacific  Ocean ;  it  is  the  prevailing 
winter  wind  over  Oregon  and  AA^ashington,  and  is  the  natural 
enemy  of  frost  and  snow  in  all  the  country  west  of  the  Cas- 
cade Range,  so  that  snow  to  load  the  trees  and  whiten  the 
ground  on  the  plains  is  exceptional  weather  west  of  these 
mountains.  The  longest  time  that  sleigh-riding  could  be 
indulged  in,  within  the  last  sixty-four  years,  was  in  the 
winter  of  1861-2,  after  the  waters  of  the  Willamette  had 
receded  from  the  highest  flood  known  to  the  conquering  race. 
We  had  seven  weeks  of  sleighing  at  Salem;  the  livery  stable 
men,  in  order  to  give  the  stock  healthy  exercise,  hitched  up 
all  for  which  they  had  harness,  and  with  a  string  of  sleighs 
gave  free  rides  to  young  and  old.  My  wife  and  children  were 
at  Salem,  my  farm  stock  and  feed  four  miles  south.  I  already 
knew  the  sound  of  the  moisture-laden  wind  coming  over  the 
cold  strata  next  the  earth,  and  I  remember  Avell  with  what 
pleasure  I  sought  my  bed  when  I  distinctly  heard  the  heavenly 
sound.     It  is  to  everv  Pacific  Coast  stockman  a  sound  of  de- 


From  Youth  to  Age  As  An  American.        381 

light;  Aeolian  harps  are  nothing  in  comparison  to  a  feeling 
stock  owner.  My  daseription  may  be  indefinite,  but  it  is 
known  up  to  and  over  the  passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  800 
miles,  I  understand,  reaching  the  head  of  the  cold,  rich,  Sas- 
katchewan Valley.  This  wind,  robbed  of  most  of  its  rain  by 
the  Coast  and  Cascades,  takes  the  snow  off  the  country  like  a 
charm. 

But  this  is  not  all :  the  ' '  Oregon, ' '  the  ' '  Columbia, ' '  the 
'■River  of  the  West,"  second  in  size  only  to  the  Mississippi, 
is  sand  and  gravel-making  until  it  passes  The  Dalles,  200  miles 
from  the  ocean.  From  Cape  Horn  Rock,  about  125  miles  from 
the  Columbia  bar,  the  Chinook  is  an  up-stream  wind;  some- 
times so  strong  that  it  compels  the  largest  river  steamers  to 
tie  up.  The  writer  has  seen  it  take  the  water  from  the  river 
in  sheets,  and  throw  it  up  as  spray,  fog,  and  cloud.  From 
<  'ape  Horn  to  Wind  Mountain  must  be  twenty-five  or  thirty 
miles  of  the  grandest  river  and  mountain  scenery  in  the  world. 
When  not  charged  with  rain,  this  Chinook  charges  itself  with 
dry  dust,  sand,  silt,  and  volcanic  ash,  and  from  weatherings 
of  the  broken  basaltic  rocks  that  largely  line  the  grand  gorge 
which  this  grand  river  makes  through  the  Cascades;  and  de- 
posits it  in  recesses  like  the  Hood  River  and  White  Salmon  val- 
leys, but  often  at  bends  of  its  canyon,  taking  it  up  as  an 
imperceptible  dust,  and  laying  it  on  the  Klickitat,  Wasco,  and 
Sherman  County  Plains.  In  some  places  this  action  is  so 
strong  as  to  form  sand  dunes,  as  at  Celilo,  the  mouth  of  the 
Deschutes,  or  extensive  plains,  as  at  Umatilla ;  but  this  will  be 
found  true :  that  slopes  declining  from  the  forces  of  the  Chi- 
nook wind  are  the  best  grain  lands.  The  wind  movement  is 
generally  opposite  to  the  stream. 

The  effect  of  this  wind  has  been  going  on  in  the  water 
courses  as  they  have  been  formed  in  the  uncounted  years  since 
the  last  volcanic  era,  widening  the  valleys  as  the  wear  of  the 


382  John  Minto. 

stream  deepened  them,*  and  yet  goes  on,  but  with  the  effect 
of  counteracting  the  tendency  of  the  water  to  carry  soil  in  the 
stream-beds,  which,  in  regard  to  those  extending  to  the  Cohim- 
bia,  is  slight,  except  in  the  case  of  cloud-bursts,  which  are 
happily  of  limited  area  and  infrequent.  The  movement  of 
soil-making  by  the  wind  may  be  fairly  estimated  at  nine 
months  of  every  year,  in  action,  and  the  play  of  freshets  by 
snow-melt  lasts  only  about  one  month. 

In  order  to  show  the  more  general  effect  of  these  soil- 
forming  winds  in  shallowing  the  lakes  of  Southeastern  Ore- 
gon, I  insert  the  following  extracts  from  Professor  Condon's 
book,  "The  Two  Islands,"  which  I  think  should  be  used  in 
the  high  schools  of  Oregon : 

"In  1876,  Governor  Whiteaker,  while  camping  in  Eastern 
Oregon  in  the  neighborhood  of  Silver  Lake,  noticed  some 
fossil  bones  on  the  surface  of  the  prairie  and  shortly  after 
brought  some  fragments  to  the  writer  for  examination.  The 
Governor  was  soon  convinced  that  he  had  discovered  an  im- 
portant fossil  bed,  and  the  next  summer  by  kindly  furnishing 
a  team  and  sending  his  son  as  guide,  he  gave  the  writer  the 
pleasure  of  visiting  this  Silver  Lake  country.  *  *  *  The 
last  part  of  the  journey  took  us  through  a  monotonous  dead 
level  covered  with  sage-brush,  until  finally  we  reached  the 
home  of  a  ranchman  on  the  shore  of  one  of  those  strange 
alkali  lakes  whose  flats  are  at  this  season  covered  with  a  thick 
inflorescence  of  alkali.  Here  we  left  our  wagon  and  the 
next  morning  started  on  horseback  for  the  fossil  beds.  After 
traveling  about  eight  miles  we  saw,  from  the  eminence  of  a 
sand  dune,  an  apparently  circular  depression  four  or  five 
miles  across,  in  the  lowest  portion  of  which  was  a  small  pond 
or  lake,  surrounded  by  grass  and  tule  rushes.     Perhaps  two 


♦The  following  extract  from  a  letter  from  a  business  man's  observation 
(T.  C.  Elliot's,  of  Walla  Walla,  Washington,)   will  explain  the  effect: 

"*  *  *  I  am  afraid  that  my  own  observations  in  tlie  matter  of  allu- 
vial deposits  is  not  intelligent  enough  to  be  of  value  in  the  stating.  In 
this  particular  section  (W^alla  Walla)  there  is  certainly  considerable  soil 
moved  every  year  by  the  wind,  but  at  first  glance  it  is  the  lighter  upon  the 
heavier  soils.  The  silt  that  is  carried  out  upon  tlie  bottom  land  adjoining 
the  rivers  is  kept  tiiere  by  being  sown  to  alfalfa,  etc.  But  there  are  blow- 
holes in  our  fields  from  which  the  ashy  soils  cover  adjoining  acres,  often  to 
their  detriment ;  and  there  is  a  stretch  of  country  in  this  country  that  is 
affected  by  the  winds  blowing  up  through  the  Columbia  River  gorge  at 
W^allula  and  is  blowing  off  as  it  is  put  under  plow.  This  last  spring  the 
wheat  was  simply  uncovered  and  blown  away,  both  before  and  after 
germination.  As  to  the  better  fertility  of  the  'slopes  inclining  from  the 
sun,"   that  is  very  certainly  true." 


From  Youth  to  Age  As  An  American.         383 

miles  to  the  leeward  this  depression  was  bordered  by  a  line  of 
sand  dunes,  imquestionably  formed  from  sands  Mown  from  the 
bed  of  the  lake  that  once  occupied  the  whole  of  this  depres- 
sio7i.  It  is  the  blowing  out  of  this  sediment  which  exposes  the 
fossils  buried  in  the  depths  of  the  old  lake.     *     «=     * 

"Judging  from  the  uniformity  of  its  surroundings  one  is 
found  unavoidably  thinking  of  an  extensive  lake  sediment,  of 
which  this  fossil  lake  is  only  a  very  small  portion.  The  orig- 
inal Pliocene  lake  probably  included  Silver  Lake  and  Klamath 
Marsh  with  its  surroundings,  and  perhaps  Summer  Lake  and 
an  extension  eastward  over  the  present  Harney  and  Malheur 
lake  regions.  These  waters  were  lowered  to  their  present  level 
by  evaporation  in  excess  of  inflow.  The  mineral  left  behind 
accumulated  until  it  covered  the  face  of  the  pond  like  snow.  *  * 

"Besides  this  extensive  Pliocene  lake  already  mentioned, 
there  are,  fronting  on  Snake  River,  a  series  of  terraces,  frag- 
ments of  a  continuous  lake-bed  from  which  the  writer  has 
received  fresh-water  fossils.  Among  these  a  small  pastern 
bone  of  a  horse  was  found,  establishing  the  claim  of  the  beds 
as  Pliocene. 

"The  fossils  of  these  Silver  Lake  beds  were  found  often 
lying  on  the  surface,  bare  of  any  covering.  The  sands  and 
dust  that  had  covered  them  were  blown  to  the  leeward  where 
they  lay  in  extended  dunes,  and  this  uncovering  and  drifting 
process  was  still  visibly  going  on.  Among  these  fossils  we 
found  many  arrowheads  of  obsidian,  such  as  were  used  by 
recent  Indians." 

This  is  the  only  allusion  to  native  life  Professor  Condon 
makes  while  reading  the  geological  history  of  Oregon  from 
most  original  records  and  its  use  commended  to  our  fellow 
citizens  east  of  the  Rockies.  They  may  go  far  wrong  if  they 
assume  that  because  105  inches  of  rain  may  have  fallen  within 
one  year  in  the  Tillamook  gap  of  the  Coast  Range,  that  it  has 
any  effect  on  the  river  system  of  Oregon ;  only  one  small  river 
being  affected ;  and  there  is  yet  no  reason  to  fear  the  effect 
of  our  rains  anywhere.  As  an  old  citizen  of  Oregon,  from 
the  office  of  the  State  Board  of  Horticulture,  I  gave  my 
reasons  ten  years  ago  for  opposing  the  initiation  of  the  forest 
raserve  system  for  the  reasons  assigned  by  the  evidence  drawn 
from  the  National  Academy  of  Science,  because  it  recom- 
mended  imperial    methods   on   unsustained   assumptions   and 


384  John  Minto. 

assertions  which  I  knew  to  be  untrue,  so  far  as  they  related 
to  Oregon. 

There  are  now  being  laid  before  the  reading  public  in  the 
various  cheap  magazines,  papers  on  this  subject  of  conserva- 
tion of  natural  resources ;  one  of  the  best  of  these  is  the 
Teoknical  World,  in  which  a  Mr.  Roy  Crandall  claims  that 
the  Missouri  River  washes  away  yearly,  in  its  course  through 
the  State,  8,000  acres  of  farm  lands  worth  $100  per  acre,  or 
$800,000,  supported,  he  says,  by  the  estimates  of  Prof.  \V.  J. 
McGee,  of  the  Inland  Waterway  Commission,  from  whom  he 
quotes. 

The  writer  is  glad  to  be  able  to  quote  from  advance  sheets 
of  a  very  able  paper  on  forests  and  reservoirs  with  particular 
reference  to  navigable  rivers,  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  Vol.  XXXIV,  No.  7,  by  H.  M. 
Chittenden,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  Corps  of  Engineers,  U.  S. 
Army,  to  be  presented  November  4,  1909.  I  quote  only  the 
summary  of  the  points  made  by  this  able  and  trained  sci- 
entific vrriter,  and  would  be  glad  to  see  his  entire  paper  as 
part  of  the  next  report  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  of  the  United  States. 

He  reasons  calmly  against  the  assumption  that  forests 
have  a  beneficial  influence  in  preserving  stream  flow.  He 
notes  that  the  experiments  of  Gustav  Wex,  chief  engineer  in 
the  improvements  on  the  river  Danube,  adopted  in  1897  by 
the  committee  of  the  American  Academy  cl-  Science,  but 
proved  inconclusive,  as  did  those  made  in  France  by  ]\I.  F. 
Bailee,  reaching  an  opposite  conclusion,  as  noted  by  Mr.  Chit- 
tenden in  the  paper  here  alluded  to.  The  writer  took  issue 
with  the  committee  mentioned,  in  1897,  and  is  therefore  glad 
to  endorse  Mr.  Chittenden 's  summary,  which  follows : 

"(1)  The  bed  of  humus  and  debris  that  develops  under 
forest  cover  retains  precipitation  during  the  summer  season, 
or  a  moderately  dry  season  at  any  time  of  the  year  more 
•effectively  than  do  the  soil  and  crops  of  deforested  areai 
similarly  situated.  It  acts  as  a  reservoir  moderating  the  run- 
off from  showers  and  mitigating  the  severity  of  freshets,  and 
promotes   uniformity   of   flow   at   such   periods.      The   above 


From  Youth  to  Age  As  An  American.         385 

action  fails  altogether  in  periods  of  prolonged  and  heavy 
precipitation,  which  alone  produce  great  general  floods. 

"  (2)  At  such  times  the  forest  bed  becomes  thoroughly  sat- 
urated, and  water  falling  upon  it  flows  off  as  readily  as  from 
the  bare  soil.  Moreover,  the  forest  storage,  not  being  under 
control,  flows  out  in  swollen  streams,  and  may  and  often  does 
bring  the  accumulated  waters  of  a  series  of  storms  in  one  part 
of  a  watershed  upon  those  of  another,  which  may  occur  several 
days  later ;  so  that,  not  only  does  the  forest  at  such  times  exert 
no  restraining  effect  upon  floods,  but  by  virture  of  its  uncon- 
trolled reservoir  action,  may  actually  intensify  them. 

"  (3)  In  periods  of  extreme  summer  heat  forests  operate  to 
diminish  the  run  off,  because  they  absorb  almost  completely 
and  give  off  in  evaporation,  ordinary  showers  which  in  the 
open  country  produce  a  considerable  increase  in  the  streams; 
while  small  springs  and  rivulets  may  dry  up  more  than  form- 
erly, this  is  not  true  of  the  larger  rivers. 

"  (4)  The  effect  of  forests  upon  the  run-off  resulting  from 
snow  melting  is  to  concentrate  it  into  a  brief  period  and 
thereby  increase  the  severity  of  freshets.  This  results  {a) 
from  the  prevention  of  the  formation  of  drifts,  and  (6)  from 
the  prevention  of  snow  melting  by  sun  action  in  spring  and 
the  retention  of  the  snow  blanket  until  the  arrival  of  hot 
weather. 

"(5)  Soil  erosion  does  not  result  from  forest  cutting  in 
itself,  but  in  cultivation,  using  that  term  in  its  broadest  sense. 
The  question  of  preventing  such  erosion  of  soil-wash  is  alto- 
gether one  of  dispensing  with  cultivation  or  properly  con- 
trolling. The  natural  growth  which  always  follows  the  de- 
struction of  a  forest  is  fully  as  effective  in  preventing  erosion, 
and  even  retaining  run-off,  as  the  natural  forest. 

"(6)  As  a  general  proposition,  climate,  and  particularly 
precipitation,  have  not  been  appreciably  modified  by  the 
progress  of  settlement  and  the  consequent  clearing  of  land, 
and  there  is  no  sufficient  reason,  theoretically,  why  such  a 
result  should  ensue. 

"  (7)  The  percentage  of  run-off  to  rainfall  has  been  slightly 
increased  by  deforestation  and  cultivation."* 


♦The  reason  Colonel  Chittenden's  last  proposition  is  true  Is  that  a  live 
forest  carries  a  vastly  heavier  crop  of  vegetable  life  and  roots  much  deeper 
than  ordinary  field  crops.  The  leafage  of  the  trees  hold  a  proportion  of 
the  rainfall,  but  in  the  late  summer  when  the  land  is  thirsty  a  ripening 
cherry  or  prune  crop  is  often  injured  by  the  bursting  of  the  fruit — a  result 


386  John  Minto. 

The  careful  and  able  writer  of  the  valuable  paper  of  which 
the  foregoing  seven  propositions  are  a  part,  says  truly,  "If 
they  are  correct  they  enforce  two  very  important  conclusions; 
one  relating  to  the  regulation  of  our  rivers  and  the  other  to 
forestry. ' ' 

The  last  proposition  Colonel  Chittenden  states  is  connected 
with  the  first  statement  I  made  in  connection  with  the  run- 
off from  the  Willamette  as  close  as  manifest  effect  to  cause; 
when  I  said  in  my  view  that  the  general  level  of  life-sustaining 
moisture  has  lowered  in  many  places  two  feet —in  some  places 
ten — by  the  process  of  ditching  to  drain  roadbeds,  common  and 
rail,  and  for  field  crops,  so  that  it  is  no  longer  the  home  of 
damp  land  birds,  like  the  curlew,  crane,  gray  plover  and 
snipe,  or  the  ducks,  geese  and  swans,  that  it  used  to  be  sixty 
years  ago.  But  I  have  given  the  observations  of  my  labor-life 
on  both  plains  and  mountains  in  the  June  Historical  Magazine 
of  this  year  (1908)  and  did,  indeed,  in  a  more  general  way, 
in  1898  in  oppasition  to  the  German  system  of  forestry,  the 
legality  of  which  I  doubted  when  it  was  first  initiated  and  felt 
that  it  was  not  in  accord  with  the  genius  of  our  form  of 
government. 

Seemingly  to  reconcile  those  like  the  writei,  who  believes 
that  timber  production  is  the  very  highest  class  of  productive 
industry,  we  are  beginning  to  see  in  the  magazines  that  give 
the  value  of  forestry  as  preservative  of  water  flow,  pictures 
of  community  life  in  Germany  where  communitias  have  in- 


of  the  sudden  intake  by  the  feeding  roots.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
varieties  of  prunes  shed  tlieir  fruit  when  suffering  from  drouth.  I  have 
also  noted  the  soft  maple — a  fine  street  shade  tree  in  Western  Oregon — 
take  on  autumn  colors  and  shed  its  leaves  fifteen  to  twenty  days  in  ad\'ance 
of  its  neighbors  of  the  same  species,  solely  on  account  of  a  difference  in 
the  depth  of  soil  under  them.  I  have  seen,  within  this  month  of  October. 
French  walnuts  shed  their  leaves  while  their  nuts  were  immature,  clinging 
to  the  tree  with  hull  unopen,  the  result  of  being  on  shallow  soil  with  rock 
under  and  compact  blue  grass  sod  over  their  roots  ;  while  other  trees  of 
the  same  sort,  within  fifty  feet  of  them,  but  on  deep  unsodded  soil,  were 
dropping  the  nuts  of  normal  size  clean  from  the  hull,  and  holding  their 
leaves,  which  slowly  changed  color.  Where  irrigation  can  be  secured,  on 
the  property  of  an  orchardist,  its  use  is  the  surest  means  of  producing 
perfect  fruit.  Thus  water  becomes  more  important  as  a  resource,  increasing 
the  production  of  crops,  of  heat  and  of  power. 


From  Youth  to  Age  As  An  American.         387 

vestments  in  bodies  of  forest  land  which  are  managed  for 
them  by  officers  called  "Oberforesters"  furnished  by  the 
Government  presumably.  A  corner  of  the  Black  Forest  is 
show^n,  where  live  a  remnant  of  an  Alamani  ti-ibe,  which  the 
Roman  General,  Caius  Marius  turned  back  from  Rome  over 
two  thousand  years  ago.  They  live  at  and  around  Sulzburg, 
Baden,  and  use  such  teams  in  their  forest  as  their  forefathers 
used  when  marching  toward  Rome.  They  still  keep  oxen  for 
teams,  as  then,  but  are  settled  where  the  doctor,  teacher  and 
minister  are  the  aristocracy — take  their  glass  of  beer  on  a 
Saturday  night — enjoy  a  jollificaticn  when  the  grapes  are 
gathered,  and  are  fortunate  if  they  have  a  portion  in  the 
production  of  10,000  acres  of  forest.  This,  according  to  the 
writer,  contains  thirteen  communal  forests,  and  one  or  two 
private  forests,  the  owners  of  which  have  the  right  to  manage 
their  forests  as  they  like.  That  is  the  form  that  I  hope  and 
trust  practical  forestry  will  take  in  the  United  States,  the 
ownership  to  be  an  appurtenance  to  the  land,  the  minimum 
proportion  the  land  is  to  carry  to  be  made  a  matter  of  record 
and  its  maintenance  as  obligatory  as  taxes,  but  free  in  all  other 
respects. 


DOCUMENTS. 

1.  Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple  of  Illinois  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  January  25,  1844,  on  the  resolution  intro- 
duced by  him  to  give  notice  to  Great  Britain  of  the  desire  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  abrogate  the  treaty  of 
Joint  Occupation  of  the  Oregon  Country. 

2.  Report  of  an  "Oregon"  public  meeting  held  at  Alton, 
Illinois,  November  8,  1842,  and  Mr.  Semple 's  remarks  at  that 
meeting. 

3.  Report  of  an  "Oregon"  meeting  held  at  Springfield, 
Illinois,  February  5,  1843,  with  Mr.  Scrapie's  remarks  on  that 
occasion. 

4.  Extract  from  a  letter  from  Messrs.  Smith,  Jackson  and 
Sublette. 

5.  Declaration  of  the  Oregon  Convention,  held  at  Cincin- 
nati, July  5,  1843. 

Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  1844,  Mr.  Semple  introduced  the  following 
Resolution : 

"Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested  to  give 
notice  to  tlie  British  Government  that  it  is  the  desire  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  to  annul  and  abrogate  the  provisions  of  the  Third 
Article  of  the  Convention  concluded  between  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  of  America  and  His  Britanic  Majesty  the  King  of  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  on  the  20th  of  October,  1818,  and 
indefinitely  continued  by  the  Convention  between  the  same  parties,  signed 
at  London,  the  6th  day  of  August,   1827." 

On  the  25th  of  January,  the  resolution  was  called  up  for  consider- 
ation, when  Mr.  Archer,  of  Virginia,  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Foreign  Relations,  moved  to  have  it  referred  to  the  Committee 
on   Foreign   Relations. 
Mr.  SEMPLE  said— 

Mr.  PREsmENT:  I  did  not  suppose,  after  the  delay  which  has 
already  attended  the  consideration  of  the  resolution  which  I  had 
the  honor  to  introduce,  that  there  would  be  any  desire  for  a  further 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.      389 

postponement.  I  had,  at  first,  no  disposition  to  urge  a  hasty 
decision  of  the  question,  and  therefore,  with  great  pleasure,  yielded 
to  the  suggestion  of  my  friends  to  give  time  for  reflection.  I  was 
fully  aware  that  it  was  a  question  of  great  importance,  and  I 
myself  wished  that  every  Senator  should  have  ample  time  to  ex- 
amine the  subject  in  all  its  bearings.  I  think  sufficient  time  has 
been  given,  and  I  cannot  consent  to  a  longer  delay. 

The  object  of  a  reference  to  a  committee  is  generally  for  the 
purpose  of  inquiry  and  examination,  with  a  view  to  prepare  and 
digest  a  complicated  subject  for  the  action  of  the  Senate.  If  such 
inquiry  and  examination  were  necessary  in  this  case,  I  should  have 
no  objection  to  a  reference;  but  so  far  from  this,  it  has  been 
avowed  by  the  honorable  Senator  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Archer]  that 
the  object  of  the  reference  is  delay.  He  does  not  wish  to  take  any 
step  whatever  in  relation  to  this  subject,  until  after  we  have  seen 
the  result  of  negotiations  which,  he  informs  us,  are  in  prospect.  He 
is  not  willing  to  interfere  with  the  President  in  these  negotiations. 

Now,  sir,  in  the  first  place,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  passage  of 
this  resolution  will  have  any  injurious  effect  upon  any  negotiation 
which  may  take  place  between  the  two  countries.  The  very  fact  of 
commencing  a  negotiation  presupposes  that  the  parties  are  not 
satisfied  with  existing  treaties.  Can  there  be  anythmg  disrespect- 
ful to  inform  a  friendly  nation  that  we  are  not  satisfied  with  an 
existing  treaty,  and  propose  to  make  a  new  one?  Certainly  not. 
This  is  the  first  step  in  making  all  treaties  whatever.  The  resolu- 
tion under  consideration  is  nothing  more  than  this.  When  we  shall 
have  given  notice  that  we  desire  to  terminate  the  present  treaty, 
we  ai-e  then  better  prepared  to  make  or  to  receive  propositions  for 
a  new  one. 

In  the  present  state  of  the  case,  the  British  Government  is  well 
enough  satisfied  with  the  present  treaty:  we  are  not.  Can  any 
one  suppose  that,  while  the  treaty  with  which  the  British  Govern- 
ment is  satisfied  exists,  there  is  the  least  prospect  that  a  new  one 
will  be  made?  He  who  supposes  so  cannot  be  well  acquainted  with 
the  character  of  the  British  Government.  But  if  we  abrogate  this 
treaty,  and  take  exclusive  possession  of  the  territory,  then  there 
will  be  some  inducement  for  both  parties  to  come  to  some  under- 
standing. But  how  is  it  possible  that  there  can  be  any  disrespect 
shown  by  giving  the  notice,  and  abrogating  this  treaty?  The  treaty 
itself  provides  for  its  own  dissolution ;  the  British  Government  has 
already  agreed  that  we  may  abrogate  it  whenever  we  please.  How 
then,  can  the  Senator  from  Virginia  suppose  for  a  moment  that  we 
can  give  offense,  or  be  looked  on  as  standing  in  a  hostile  attitude, 
by  doing  that  which  we  have  a  right  to  do  by  solemn  compact — by 


390  Documents. 

the  treaty  itself?  But,  sir,  the  Senator  from  Virginia  is  opposed  to 
interfering  with  the  President  in  any  new  negotiations  which  may 
be  in  prospect.  My  opinion  is  just  the  reverse:  1  am  in  favor  of 
expressing  an  opinion  in  advance.  I  wish  to  indicate  now  to  the 
President  that  we  cannot  agree  to  any  treaty  which  shall  provide 
for  a  joint  occupation,  or  which  shall  allow  any  other  nation  to  have 
any  jurisdiction  or  control  whatever  over  the  soil  of  the  Oregon. 
Are  we  to  sit  here  with  our  arms  folded,  and  wait  until  a  treaty  is 
made,  and  then  reject  it?  Have  we  no  power,  or  no  right,  to  advise 
the  President  what  course,  in  our  opinion,  should  be  pursued?  I 
think  this  is  the  best  mode  of  treating  on  any  subject.  The  Presi- 
dent himself  should  ask  the  advice  of  the  Senate  before  a  treaty  is 
concluded.  The  Senate  should  advise  first,  and  after  it  is  signed 
then  consent  to  the  treaty.  Advice  and  consent  are  both  necessary 
on  the  part  of  the  Senate.  In  this  case,  I  am  not  sure  that  our 
advice  is,  or  will  be,  obligatory  on  the  President.  He  may  or  may 
not  give  the  notice,  even  should  this  resolution  pass:  but  it  will  be 
a  strong  indication,  and  will  scarcely  be  entirely  neglected  by  the 
President.  We  have  the  right,  however,  to  act  on  the  subject, 
whether  our  action  is  regarded  or  disregarded.  We  have  recently, 
I  think,  entertained  a  similar  resolution — I  mean  that  introduced 
by  the  honorable  Senator  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Allen] — and  I  am  per- 
suaded that  if  that  resolution  had  been  in  Executive  session,  it 
would  have  passed  the  Senate.  I  have  another  reason  for  passing 
this  resolution.  I  have  not  the  most  unlimited  confidence  in  negoti- 
ations, as  the  best  mode  of  securing  our  rights;  we  have  frequently 
been  outrageously  cheated  in  negotiations.  We  have  surrendered 
our  territory  by  negotiations  in  the  Southwest  and  in  the  West, 
with  regard  to  our  line  with  Mexico.  All  the  country  watered  by 
the  Rio  del  Norte  was  ours  before  we  surrendered  it;  and  the 
thirty-fourth  degree  of  North  latitude  to  the  Pacific  ocean  should 
have  been  our  boundary  with  Mexico.  We  have  surrendered  terri- 
tory in  the  Northeast,  and  in  the  North,  to  Great  Britain;  and,  sir, 
I  want  to  see  no  more  surrendered.  For  this  reason  I  am  a  little 
afraid  of  negotiations,  and  I  am  not  willing  to  let  any  other  go  on 
to  a  final  termination  without  first  giving  some  opinion  as  to  what 
should  be  done,  or,  in  other  words,  advising  the  President  what 
to  do. 

Had  the  honorable  Senator  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Archer]  not 
made  this  motion  to  refer  the  resolution,  with  the  avowed  object  of 
delay,  I  should  not  have  said  anything  on  the  subject;  and  it  is  not 
my  intention  at  present  to  occupy  the  time  of  the  Senate  longer 
than  will  be  necessary  merely  to  explain  the  reasons  which  induced 
me  to  introduce  the  resolution  now  under  consideration. 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  391 

It  is  well  known  to  every  Senator  present,  that  the  occupation 
of  the  Oregon  Territory  has,  for  some  time  past,  engaged  the  at- 
tention of  the  people  of  the  United  States  generally,  but  more 
particularly  the  people  of  the  Western  States.  The  people  of  the 
State  which  I  have  the  honor,  in  part,  to  represent  on  this  floor, 
has  taken  a  very  decided  stand  in  favor  of  the  immediate  occupa- 
tion of  the  Oregon.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  first  public  meeting 
of  the  people  held  to  express  a  formal  opinion  on  this  subject,  was 
held  in  the  city  of  Alton,  in  that  State.*  This  was  followed  by 
several  others,  in  Illinois  and  the  adjoining  States.  During  the 
last  winter,  a  meeting  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  persons  was 
held  in  the  State-House  at  Springfield,  composed  of  members  of 
the  Legislature,  and  others,  from  every  part  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  when  this  question  was  most  fully  discussed,  and  strong 
resolutions,  expressive  of  the  wish  of  the  people  of  that  State, 
were  passed."  At  several  of  these  meetings  I  had  the  honor  of 
addressing  my  fellow-citizens,  and  giving  my  views  of  the  propriety 
of  the  organization  of  a  Territorial  Government  west  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  of  taking  such  steps  as  would  effectually  exclude  all 
other  Governments  from  exercising  any  jurisdiction  over  the  soil 
admitted  by  all  to  be  the  undoubted  property  of  the  United  States, 
During  the  past  summer,  the  people  of  the  Western  States  were 
invited  to  meet  in  convention  at  Cincinnati,  in  the  State  of  Ohio, 
for  the  purpose  of  taking  this  subject  into  consideration,  and  to 
adopt  such  measures  as  would  appear  best  calculated  to  secure  the 
rights  of  this  country,  and  expedite  the  settlement  of  the  Oregon. 
A  very  large  portion  of  the  whole  Western  countiy  was  represented 
in  this  convention;  a  much  larger  portion  than  could  have  been 
induced  to  send  delegates  to  a  convention  on  any  common  or  ordi- 
nary occasion. 

The  convention  was  composed  of  men  of  the  very  first  political 
standing  in  the  West,  without  regard  to  party  divisions  of  any 
kind;  all  of  both  political  parties  joining  most  zealously  in  their 
endeavors  to  promote  the  object  for  which  the  convention  was  called 
— the  immediate  occupation  of  the  Oregon.  The  convention  de- 
clared, in  the  most  unequivocal  terms,  that  they  would  "protest  and 
continue  to  protest  against  any  act  or  negotiations,  past,  in  progress, 
or  hereafter  to  be  perfected,  which  shall  yield  possession  of  any 
portion  of  the  said  Territory  to  any  foreign  power,"  but  more 
particularly  against  the  possession  by  Great  Britain. 

♦See  Note  A. 
°See  Note  B. 


392  Documents. 

The  language  of  that  convention  was  firm  and  determined,  and 
J  believe  it  is  the  opinion  of  nearly  every  man  west  of  the 
AIleghanies.il 

The  people  of  the  West  have  not  contented  themselves  with 
expressing  opinions — they  have  acted.  For  many  years  our  citizens 
have  gone  into  the  country  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  for  the 
purpose  of  hunting,  trapping,  and  trading  with  the  Indians.  They 
have  also  more  recently  gone  for  the  purpose  of  making  permanent 
settlements.  During  the  last  year  more  than  a  thousand  brave  and 
hardy  pioneers  set  out  from  Independence,  in  Missouri,  and,  over- 
coming all  obstacles,  have  arrived  in  the  Oregon.  Thus  the  first 
attempt  to  cross  the  extensive  prairies  and  high  mountains  which 
intervene  between  the  settlements  in  the  States  and  the  Pacific 
ocean  has  been  completely  successful.  The  prairie  wilderness  and 
the  snowy  mountains  which  have  heretofore  been  deemed  impassa- 
ble, which  were  to  constitute,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  an  impenetra- 
ble barrier  to  the  further  progress  of  emigration  to  the  West,  is 
already  overcome.  The  same  bold  and  daring  spirits,  whose 
intrepidity  has  heretofore  overcome  the  Western  wilderness  in  the 
midst  of  dangers,  can  never  be  checked  in  their  march  to  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific.  During  the  next  summer  I  believe  thousands  will 
follow.  Extensive  preparations  are  now  making  for  a  general  move 
toward  that  Country.  The  complete  success  of  those  who  have  first 
gone  will  encourage  others;  and  as  the  road  is  now  marked  out,  I 
do  not  think  I  am  at  all  extravagant  when  I  suppose  that  ten  thou- 
sand emigrants  will  go  to  Oregon  next  summer.  In  the  meantime, 
what  course  shall  the  Government  pursue? 

The  indication  of  public  opinion  thus  everywhere  expressed,  and 
the  apparent  determination  to  emigrate,  I  am  sure  cannot  be  dis- 
regarded by  this  Senate.  For  one,  I  am  sure  that  I  cannot  dis- 
charge the  duty  I  owe  to  my  constituents  without  using  every  ex- 
ertion in  my  power  to  effect  the  object  they  have  so  much  at  heart. 
I  cannot  compromise,  I  cannot  yield  any  part  of  the  Oregon  Terri- 
toiy.  I  cannot  agree  to  wait  for  negotiations.  I  cannot  agree  that 
there  is  sufficient  doubt  as  to  our  title  to  admit  that  it  is  a  subject 
proper  for  serious  dispute. 

The  joint  occupation  of  the  country  never  ought  to  have  been  a 
subject  of  negotiation.  Our  Government  committed  a  great  error, 
in  my  opinion,  when  the  treaty  of  1818  was  made;  and  a  still  greater 
error  when  that  treaty  was  indefinitely  prolonged.  It  is,  however, 
not  beyond  a  remedy.  The  treaty  was  made  on  the  supposition  that 
it  might  become  necessary  to  abrogate  that  part  providing  for  a 


1 1  See  Note  C. 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  393 

joint  occupation,  and  a  plain  and  easy  mode  was  pointed  out  in  the 
treaty  itself.  This  was  for  either  party  to  give  notice  of  a  desire 
to  abrogate  that  part  of  the  treaty.  This,  sir,  is  the  object  of  the 
resolution  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to  introduce. 

This  thing  of  a  joint  occupation  of  a  country;  and  of  a  joint 
jurisdiction  by  two  independent  Governments,  is  an  anomaly  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  I  do  not  now  remember  anything  like  it, 
either  among  ancient  or  modern  Governments.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  it  has  often  happened  that  two  nations  may  have  been  at  the 
same  time  in  possession  of  the  same  country;  but  I  think  that  in 
all  such  cases  they  have  both  contended  for  exclusive  jurisdiction, 
and  the  joint  possession  has  generally  been  hostile,  and  one  or  the 
other  has  been  compelled  by  force  to  yield.  I  remember  that  there 
was  once  a  joint  and  concurrent  jurisdiction  over  a  strip  of  country 
between  Kentucky  and  Tennessee;  I  am  not  sure  that  there  ever 
was  in  that  case  an  agreement  for  the  joint  occupation;  I  am 
inclined  to  think  there  never  was  an  agreement,  but  that  both 
States  claimed  and  exercised  jurisdiction  over  the  country  until 
the  question  was  settled  about  the  year  1819.  The  Senator  from 
Kentucky  [Mr.  Crittenden]  will  no  doubt  remember  this  dispute. 
I  think  he  was  probably  one  of  the  negotiators  of  the  ultimate  set- 
tlement of  the  line  between  the  two  States. 

The  joint  occupation  which  I  have  just  mentioned  was  on  several 
occasions  near  producing  great  difficulties,  even  when  both  States 
belonged  to  one  General  Government,  and  when  the  people  of  both 
States  were  friends  and  neighbors,  and  possessed  of  the  highest 
degree  of  prudence  and  forbearance.  The  difficulties  between  the 
States  of  Ohio  and  Michigan,  and  that  still  more  recent  between 
the  State  of  Missouri  and  Territory  of  Iowa,  will  show  how  tenaci- 
ous Governments  always  are  in  relation  to  boundaries.  These  diffi- 
culties happened  between  States,  when  it  would  seem  really  to  be  a 
matter  of  no  great  consequence  whether  the  disputed  territory  be- 
longed to  the  one  or  the  other,  as  both  belonged  to  one  common 
country.  It  is  a  matter  of  more  serious  consequence  when  the 
disputed  territory  lies  between  two  rival  powers,  having  no  common 
umpire  to  determine  the  dispute.  Nations  generally  adhere  with 
greater  pertinacity  to  a  claim  of  territory  than  to  any  other 
species  of  right,  and  yield  it  with  greater  reluctance;  scarcely 
ever  without  appealing  to  the  only  umpire  between  nations — the 
trial  by  battle. 

I  believe  sir,  that  the  recent  surrender  of  a  part  of  the  State 
of  Maine  to  the  British  Government  is  probably  the  only  instance 
recorded  in  history  where  a  great  and  powerful  nation,  with  a 
full   and  complete  conviction  of  its  right  to  the  soil,  has  tamely 


394  Documents. 

surrendered  a  part  of  its  domain  from  fear  of  war.  That  was  a 
question  of  limits;  this  also  is  a  question  of  limits.  We  have  sur- 
rendered a  part  of  the  State  of  Maine;  shall  we  also  surrender  a 
part  of  the  Oregon? 

It  was  after  the  treaty  of  1842  that  we  of  the  West  began  to 
have  doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  ti'eating  on  his  subject.  It  was 
after  this  that  we  began  to  doubt  the  efficacy  of  negotiations  to 
maintain  our  rights;  and  for  this  reason  we  have  passed  the  strong 
resolutions  which  have  been  passed  in  the  West,  expressing  a  deter- 
mination not  to  abide  by  any  treaty  that  shall  surrender  any  part 
of  the  Oregon.  Our  people  will  go  there,  and  they  will  not  submit 
to  British  domination.  If  the  Government  here  will  not  protect 
them,  they  will  protect  themselves;  and  all  the  power  of  England 
will  never  be  able  to  dislodge  from  the  mountain  fastness  of  the 
Columbia  river,  the  hardy  Western  riflemen,  who  will  in  a  few 
years  occupy  that  delightful  country. 

I  will  not,  Mr.  President,  add  anything  more  to  what  I  have 
said;  I  am  not  certain  that  there  will  be  any  serious  opposition  to 
the  adoption  of  the  resolution.  I  hope  most  sincerely  that  there 
may  be  none.  I  believe  that  a  similar  resolution  will  be  adopted 
in  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  President  cannot  disregard 
these  expressions  of  the  will  of  the  Nation.  The  notice  will  be 
given;  in  twelve  months  we  will  be  free  from  any  treaty  stipula- 
tions ;  we  can  then  extend  our  laws  and  Government  over  our  people 
who  have  gone  and  will  go  there;  and,  in  a  few  years,  you  will  see 
what  is  now  a  wilderness,  the  most  delightful  residence  of  man. 


[NOTE  A.] 
OREGON— PUBLIC  MEETING. 

In  pursuance  of  a  public  notice  previously  given,  a  meeting  of  the 
citizens  of  Alton  was  held  at  the  Court  Room,  on  Tuesday  evening,  Novem- 
ber 8,  1842,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  occupation  of  the  Oregon  Terri- 
tory into  consideration.  Colonel  N.  Buckmaster  was  called  to  the  chair, 
and  J.  E.   Starr  was  chosen  Secretary. 

General  J.  Semple  made  a  motion  to  appoint  a  committee  to  draft  res- 
olutions expressive  of  the  sense  of  this  meeting,  which  motion  was  ap- 
proved ;  and  said  committee  was  ordered  to  consist  of  General  J.  Semple, 
Mr.  Jesse  Reeder,  Mr.  S.  W.  R.obbins,  and  Mr.  S.  S.  Brooks.  The  committee 
having  retired,  returned  and  presented  the  following: 

Resolved,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  the  occupation  of  the 
Oregon  Territory  is  of  vast  importance  to  the  whole  Union,  but  more  espe- 
cially to  the  Western   States. 

Resolved,  That  we  will,  by  every  means  in  our  power,  encourage  emi- 
gration to  that  country,  and  use  our  influence  with  our  Delegation  in 
Congress  to  have  it  occupied  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  395 

Resolved,  That  we  will  never  give  our  consent  to  surrender  any  part 
of  that  Territory  lying  between  the  Russian  and  Mexican  boundaries,  to 
any  Nation,   for  any  consideration  whatever. 

Resolved,  That  this  sentiment  should  be  expressed  before  any  further 
negotiation  taltes  place,  so  as  to  prevent  any  steps  being  taken  that  will 
for  a  moment  weaken  the  claim  which  we  have  to  that  whole  country. 
With  this  view,  we  invite  the  attention  of  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States,  and  especially  those  of  the  States 
of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  the  Territory  of  Iowa,  whose  boundaries 
approach  more  near  than  any  others  to  the  Oregon  Territory,  and  whose 
frontiers  are  more  immediately  exposed  to  any  depredations  which  the 
Indians  may  be  induced  to  commit. 

Resolved,  That  we  view  the  conclusion  of  a  Treaty  with  England,  with- 
out settling  our  Western  boundary,  as  wholly  overlooking  our  Western 
interests,  while  a  finer  opportunity  than  will,  in  all  probability,  ever  again 
be  offered,  presented  itself,  to  require  and  obtain  a  complete  relinquishment 
of  all  the  British  claim  to  the  Territory  in  dispute. 

The  object  of  the  resolutions  having  been  commented  upon  and  ex- 
plained, they  were  unanimously  adopted. 

A  motion  that  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting  be  signed  by  the  Chair- 
man and  Secretary,  and  published  in  the  city  papers,  was  approved. 

Motion  to  adjourn  prevailed.  N.  BUCKMASTER,  Chairman. 

J.  E.  Starr,  Secretary. 


Upon  presenting  the  Resolutions,  Mr.  Semple  offered  the  following 
remarks : 

He  was  in  favor  of  the  resolutions.  He  was  glad  to  see  a  movement 
made  among  the  people  on  the  subject  of  the  occupation  of  the  Oregon. 
We  were  much  indebted  to  the  patriotic  exertions  of  several  members  of 
Congress  in  relation  to  this  matter  ;  and  probably  to  none  more  than  to 
his  much  esteemed  friend,  Dr.  Linn,  of  Missouri.  He  said  that  he  had 
been  for  the  last  four  or  five  years  placed  in  a  situation  where  it  became 
his  duty  as  well  as  inclination  to  study  the  commercial  interest  of  the 
United  States.  He  had  during  that  time  made  himself  acquainted  with  the 
importance  to  us  of  the  vast  trade  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  of  the  immense 
wealth  that  would  flow  into  our  country  by  means  of  the  occupation  of  the 
Oregon  Territory.  The  rich  furs  of  the  Northwest  were  alone  a  source  of 
great  wealth.  Add  to  this  the  tropical  productions  of  the  western  coast  of 
Mexico  and  Central  America,  the  pearls  and  gold  of  Panama  and  Choco, 
the  inexhaustible  mineral  and  other  productions  of  Peru  and  Chili,  on  the 
western  coast  of  South  America,  which  would  be  brought  within  our  limits 
through  the  Oregon.  All  these  would  only  be  a  part  of  the  wealth  to  be 
gained  by  having  a  population  and  sea-ports  on  the  Pacific.  The  great 
trade  of  the  East  Indies,  which  has  been  for  so  many  yt-ars  of  such  great 
importance  to  every  commercial  nation,  would  be  brought  within  a  short 
distance  of  our  borders.  It  is  not  very  probable  that  East  India  goods  will 
ever  be  carried  by  land  from  the  Oregon  to  New  York  or  Boston.  It  will 
probably  be  always  cheaper  for  those  cities  to  import  them  by  sea  around 
the  capes.  But  we,  in  the  center  of  the  continent  are  very  differently 
situated.  The  difference  in  the  di.stancc  to  tlie  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic  Is 
but    trifling.      With   the    same   facilities   for    transportation,    we    can   bring 


396  Documents. 

goods  from  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  as  cheap  as  from  Boston  or  New 
York.  We  have,  then,  in  our  favor  a  distance  of  nearly  fifteen  thousand 
miles  of  sea  navigation.  The  beneficial  effects  of  this  advantage  would 
soon  be  felt  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio.  But  suppose 
we  do  not,  the  future  inhabitants  of  Oregon  will  reap  these  advantages. 
And  who  will  they  be?  Our  friends,  relations,  and  countrymen,  who  may 
emigrate  to  those  delightful  regions.  Every  State  that  is  occupied  by  our 
people  will  add  to  the  general  prosperity.  They  will  be  neighbors  and 
friends  and  countrymen.  Those  who  emigrate  will  be  as  much  at  home  on 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific  as  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  Who  is  there 
here  that  has  not  come  from  some  other  State?  He  who  has  left  Massa- 
chusetts, Virginia,  or  Georgia,  to  settle  in  Illinois,  feels  himself  as  much  in 
his  own  native  country  as  if  he  had  never  removed.  The  same  national 
feeling  still  exists.  He  has  not  expatriated  ;  he  has  not  sworn  allegiance  to 
any  other  Government ;  he  is  still  in  the  United  States,  under  the  same 
laws,  entitled  to  the  same  protection,  and  proud  of  the  same  stars  and 
stripes  that  waved  over  the  place  of  his  birth.  It  would  be  the  same  with 
him  on  the  shores  of  tlie  Pacific.  The  advantages  which  have  been  enu- 
merated would  be  enjoyed  by  us  if  we  chose  to  go  there,  and  would  still  be 
enjoyed  by  us  here  in  the  persons  of  those  who  do  go.  Their  happiness 
would  be  our  happiness  ;  their  prosperity  would  be  our  prosperity  ;  and  their 
wealth  would  add  to  the  general  wealth  and  power  of  the  nation. 

Mr.  Semple  said  that  he  regretted  exceedingly  that  tlie  western  bound- 
ary had  not  been  settled  in  the  late  treaty  of  limits  with  England.  He 
considered  the  riglit  of  the  United  States  to  the  whole  of  Oregon,  as  far 
north  as  the  Russian  boundary,  as  clear  as  the  noon-day  sun.  He  thought 
that  tlie  right  of  tlie  State  of  Maine  to  all  that  she  claimed  equally  as  clear. 
But  a  foreign  nation  laid  claim  to  a  part  of  that  territory  without  any 
shadow  of  right  whatever.  Yet,  we  have  seen  the  special  agent  of  that 
nation  refusing  even  to  discuss  the  question  of  right ;  and  yet  proposing, 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  divide  the  country  in  dispute,  and  we  have  seen 
that  proposition  agreed  to  by  the  Executive  and  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  Mr.  S.  said  he  was  as  much  in  favor  of  peace  as  he  thought  any 
citizen  of  the  United  States  ought  to  be.  But,  for  himself,  he  would  have 
preferred  war  before  he  would  have  yielded  one  inch  of  the  territory 
claimed  by  the  State  of  Maine.  It  is  possible,  before  a  long  time,  there 
will  be  a  proposition,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  divide  the  Oregon  with  the 
British.  Will  the  West  ever  allow  it?  God  forbid!  Mr.  S.  said  that  if 
ever  we  were  obliged  to  have  war,  he  wanted  to  have  as  many  good  causes 
of  war,  and  as  many  parts  of  the  country  interested  in  it  as  possible.  If 
we  had  gone  to  war  about  the  limits  of  Maine,  we  of  the  West  would  have 
been  equally  interested,  and  would  have  been  found  fighting  together.  But 
we  have  divided  the  question  ;  we  have  settled  the  Maine  controversy,  and 
left  ours  unsettled.  Will  Maine  and  Massachusetts  now  have  the  same 
interest  in  a  war  for  the  Oregon,  as  if  their  own  boundary  were  at  stake? 
Mr.  Semple  here  went  into  an  explanation  of  what  he  considered  to  be  the 
foundation  of  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  the  whole  of  the  Oregon, 
as  far  as  the  Russian  boundary,  and  the  frivolous  pretences  of  the  British 
in  laying  claim  to  any  part  of  it.  He  concluded  by  hoping  that  the  West 
would  never  give  up  one  acre  of  that  countrj',  though  ■war.  and  repeated 
wars,  might  be  the  consequence  of  such  refusal. 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  397 

[NOTE  B.] 
OREGON   MEETING. 

At  a  public  meeting  held  on  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  Februarj',  1843, 
in  pursuance  of  public  notice,  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
to  take  into  consideration  the  subject  of  the  settlement  and  occupation  of 
the  Territory  of  Oregon,  the  Honorable  Jesse  B.  Thomas  was  called  to  the 
Chair  and  Newton  Cloud  was  appointed  Secretary. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Trumhull,  a  committee  of  nine  was  appointed  to  pre- 
pare and  report  resolutions  expressive  of  the  sense  of  the  meeting. 

The  Chair  appointed  the  following  gentlemen  said  committee,  viz : 
Lyman  Trumhull,  Governor  Moore,  Major  Hackleton,  D.  L.  Gregg,  John 
Dougherty,  William  H.  Davidson,  Thompson  Campbell,  Edward  Connor, 
and  Mr.   Long. 

After  some  remarks  by  Judge  Semple,  Mr.  Trumhull,  and  Mr.  Peck,  the 
meeting  adjourned  until  Wednesday  evening. 

Wednesday  evening  the  meeting  was  numerously  attended. 

Mr.  TRUMBULL,  from  the  committee  appointed  on  the  former  evening, 
reported  the  following  resolutions : 

Resolved,  That  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  the  whole  Oregon  Terri- 
tory is  not  to  be  questioned  ;  and  under  whatever  pretence  any  other  nation 
may  lay  claim  to  that  country,  both  the  dignity  and  honor  of  the  United 
States  require  that  they  should  at  once  assert  their  right,  and  resist  such 
claim. 

Resolved,  That  the  interest  and  safety  of  the  United  States  demand  that 
the  Federal  Government  should  take  immediate  and  efficient  measures  for 
the  occupation  of  the  Oregon  Territory,  and  the  establishment  there  of  a 
Territorial  Government. 

Resolved,  That  we  view  with  distrust  the  occupation  of  any  portion  of 
the  Oregon  Territory  by  the  subjects  of  the  British  Crown,  and  cannot  but 
believe  that  the  object  of  Great  Britain  in  establishing  military  posts  in 
that  country,  and  encouraging  her  subjects  to  settle  there,  is  to  cause  Its 
settlement  by  a  people  devoted  to  her  interests,  and  to  afford  her  a  pretense 
hereafter  to  claim  the  country  as  her  own. 

Resolved,  That  the  policy  of  Great  Britain  in  establishing  colonies  in 
remote  parts  of  the  globe,  contiguous  to  other  nations,  with  a  view  af 
extending  her  own  power,  and  encroaching  upon  the  territory  of  other 
Governments,  should  not  be  permitted  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
United  States  ;  and  that  we  will  never  give  our  consent  to  a  surrender  of 
any  part  of  the  Oregon  Territory  to  that  or  any  other  power. 

Resolved,  That  the  settlement  of  the  Oregon  Territory  by  the  citizers 
of  the  United  States  will  prove  of  immense  advantage  to  the  commercial 
interest  of  the  country,  by  affording  harbors  for  our  vessels  in  the  Pacific 
ocean,  and  facilitating  trade  with  the  East  Indies ;  and  will  greatly  add  to 
the  safety,  as  well  as  the  honor  of  the  Republic. 

Resolved,  That  if  the  General  Government  will  but  assert  its  rights,  and 
extend  its  fostering  care  and  protection  alike  to  all  citizens  wheresoever 
settled  within  her  limits,  the  day  is  not  distant  when  our  enterprising  and 
adventurous  countrymen,  invited  by  the  salubrious  climate  and  fertile  soil 
of  the  country  bordering  the  Pacific,  will  extend  thither  their  settlements, 
and  dispense  from  the  western  shore  of  this  vast  Continent,  wealth,  com- 
merce and  freedom,  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  earth. 


398  Documents. 

After  the  reading  of  the  resolutions,  tlie  meeting  was  addressed  by 
Judge  Semple,  Judge  Douglass,  and  U.  F.  Under,  in  favor  of  their  adop- 
tion, and  by  Mr.  Baker  in  opposition. 

The  meeting  adjourned  to  meet  again  on  Thursday  evening.  On  that 
evening  the  Hall  was  crowded. 

The  meeting  was  addressed  at  great  length  by  General  Hardin,  in  favor 
of  the  resolutions. 

Mr.  Matlieny  of  Springfield  offered  a  substitute  for  the  resolutions 
reported  by  the  committee,  which  was  read,  and  supported  by  Mr. 
Matheny,  and  Mr.   Baker. 

Mr.  Under  also  addressed  the  meeting  again,  in  favor  of  the  resolutions 
of  the  committee. 

The  substitute  was  laid  upon  the  table,  and  the  resolutions  of  the 
committee  adopted. 

The  meeting  then  requested  the  two  papers  printed  in  Springfield  to 
publish  the  resolutions. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned.  JESSE  B.  THOMAS,  Chairman. 

Newton  Cloud,  Secretary. 


SPEECH  OF  JUDGE  SEMPLE. 

In  this  country,  where  public  opinion  not  only  governs  the  conduct  of 
men  in  society,  but  the  Government  itself ;  where  the  President  and 
Congress  of  the  United  States  look  to  public  sentiment  as  a  proper  rule  of 
action,  it  is  a  matter  of  importance  to  adopt  some  mode  of  ascertaining 
that  sentiment,  and  giving  it  its  due  weight  in  the  councils  of  the  nation. 
I  know  of  no  means  more  effectual  than  those  of  public  meetings,  where 
the  whole  body  of  the  people  can  meet  together,  and,  after  full  discussion, 
express  in  the  form  of  resolutions,  the  opinions  which  they  entertain. 

Entertaining  this  opinion,  I  invited  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the 
immediate  occupation  of  the  Oregon,  at  a  public  meeting  of  the  people  at 
Alton,  in  the  month  of  November  last.  I  found  my  expectations  fully 
realized  in  the  unanimous  expression  of  opinion  among  citizens  of  all 
political  parties  on  that  subject.  That,  I  believe,  was  the  first  public 
meeting  ever  called  in  the  United  States  on  the  subject  of  the  occupation 
of  the  Oregon.  The  proceedings  of  that  meeting  have  been  noticed  and 
commented  on  in  every  part  of  the  United  States.  This  shows  the  interest 
that  is  beginning  to  be  taken  by  the  whole  people  of  the  United  States 
on   that  subject. 

This  question  presents  itself  to  us  in  many  important  points  of  view. 
One  of  the  objections  to  the  extension  of  our  territory  is,  that  the  Govern- 
ment will  become  unwieldly,  and  that  States  situated  on  the  Pacific  can 
never  be  kept  under  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  but  must  become 
independent.  I  think  this  opinion  is  entirely  unfounded.  The  nature  of 
our  Federal  and  State  Government  is  calculated  to  extend  itself.  I  am 
quite  willing  to  admit  that  one  central  Government  would  never  be  able  to 
make  laws  to  satisfy  any  great  extent  of  territory ;  indeed,  that  now 
contained  in  the  limits  of  the  United  States  could  never  be  governed  by 
one  and  the  same  Legislature.  But  while  the  State  Governments  are 
maintained  in  the  proper  and  constitutional  exercise  of  individual  sov- 
ereignty, they  severally  have  all  flie  powers  necessary  to  an  independent 
State,   in   the   same   manner,    to   all    intents  and   purposes,   as   if   the    State 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  399 

owed  no  allegiance  or  obligation  to  any  other  on  earth.  They  can  make 
all  laws  among  themselves,  that  the  wishes  of  the  people  might  dictate, 
without  interfering  with  any  other.  This  interference  .a  State  would  have 
no  right  to  exercise  if  it  did  not  belong  to  the  Union,  and  was  wholly 
independent.  All  such  interference  among  independent  nations  is  pro- 
hibited by  the  general  laws  of  nations.  The  powers  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment are,  and  ought  to  be,  limited  to  those  matters  which  concern  the 
whole — powers  which  no  one  State  would  ever  desire  to  possess.  If,  while 
the  several  States  were  thus  exercising  the  powers  of  sovereignty,  we 
Lould  suppose,  or  be  assured,  that  there  never  would  be  any  difference 
among  them,  or  that  none  of  them  would  ever  be  attacked  by  foreign 
powers,  there  would  be  no  use  for  a  Federal  Government.  But  the  sad 
experience  of  all  nations  proves  that  this  it  is  idle  to  expect.  The  trans- 
actions now  going  on  before  our  eyes,  where  a  powerful  maritime  nation  is 
actually  robbing,  in  the  most  unjust  and  cruel  manner,  n  people  who  never 
molested  or  injured  them,  admonishes  us  that  we  must  be  on  our  guard 
against  like  aggressions.  This  can  only  be  done  by  presenting  a  powerful 
force,  capable  of  preventing  any  attack,  or  of  punishing  any  insult.  This 
can  only  be  done  by  the  united  force  of  all.  The  greater  this  power,  the 
more  certain  will  be  the  security.  The  more  extensive  our  Union,  the 
more  powerful  we  will  be  ;  while  one  of  a  thousand  States  would  manage 
its  own  affairs  as  well  as  if  that  was  the  only  State  on  the  continent. 

I  have  long  been  convinced,  that,  under  our  peculiar  and  happy  form  of 
Government,  so  well  adapted  to  the  genius  of  our  people,  no  extension  of 
territory  will  ever  endanger  the  Union  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  tendency 
of  extension  will  be  to  strengthen  the  Union.  But  suppose  the  contrary--- 
suppose  that  extension  be,  in  truth,  dangerous ;  the  question  arises,  how 
will  we  avoid  the  danger?  Is  extension  more  dangerous  than  division? 
Is  it  necessary  for  me  at  this  day  to  portray  the  dangers  of  disunion? 
Have  the  glowing  pictures  drawn  by  the  ablest  statesmen  and  purest 
patriots  been  forgotten?  Is  the  question  of  union  or  disunion  again  to  be 
debated?  God  forbid!  What,  then,  are  we  to  do  with  those  extensive 
regions  west  of  us?  The  time  has  arrived  when  we  must  act.  If  we  do 
not  occupy  them,  others  will.  Our  people  will  emigrate  to  those  regions. 
Are  we  to  extend  over  them  our  protecting  arm,  or  will  we  either  allow 
them  to  add  to  the  power  of  some  ambitious  foreign  nation,  or  let  them 
form  an  independent  Government?  While  none  will  admit  the  former,  the 
latter  would  at  once  be  disunion.  It  is  a  people  that  constitutes  a  nation, 
not  a  territory.  Those  who  will  emigrate  to  Oregon  will  be  our  people, 
possessed  of  the  same  ideas  of  Government ;  the  same  industry  and  enter- 
prise, the  same  ambition,  and  the  same  powers  of  injuring  us,  if  ever 
foreign  intrigues  should  (which  God  forbid)  make  us  enemies.  I  consider 
this  Union  as  already  dissolved  and  separated  into  two  parts,  by  the 
separation  of  Texas  ;  and  the  sooner  we  go  to  work  to  unite  that,  as  one  of 
our  States,  the  sooner  will  we  be  able  to  cure  the  evils  arising  from 
disunion.  I  am  convinced,  that,  at  this  moment  of  time,  all  the  arts  and 
intrigues  of  which  European  powers  are  capable,  are  at  work  to  make  the 
Texans  our  enemies.  Those  powers  of  intrigues  have  already  triumphed 
as  to  all  the  rest  of  the  States  of  Spanish  America,  and  we  are  now 
suffering  under  its  evil  effect.  Our  interests,  as  well  as  our  safety,  require 
that  we  should  look  well  to  the  effects  of  an  extension  of  that  hostility. 

It  is  true,  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  weak  and  puerile  States  of 
Spanish  America.  Have  we  as  little  to  fear  from  a  State  composed  of  the 
Saxon  race?     Can  we  have  any  assurance  that  we  will  always  be  able  to 


400  Documents. 

maintain  peace  with  the  Texans  without  a  common  Government?  Could 
we  not,  with  the  same  reason,  hope  to  prevent  war  between  a  nortliern  and 
southern  Government  divided  by  the  Potomac?  Those  who  suppose  so, 
must  suppose  against  the  opinions  of  the  wisest  and  best  of  men  as  well  as 
against  actual  experience.  I  assert,  therefore  the  seeds  of  discord  are  now 
being  sown  by  our  enemies  and  rivals ;  and  that,  if  wo  do  not  apply  a 
timely  remedy,  we  must  come  to  suffer  all  that  we  have  ever  feared  from 
disunion. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  the  Oregon  is  in  dispute,  and  that  we  must 
take  care  how  we  tread,  or  we  will  have  war  with  Englana.  War  has  no 
terrors  for  the  people  of  this  country.  The  time  has  gone  by  when  this 
nation  shall  agree  to  surrender  a  solitary  just  right  to  avoid  war.  If  we 
are  to  surrender  a  solitary  undoubted  right  through  fear  of  war,  the 
principle  is  the  same  as  if,  through  fear  of  war,  we  were  to  surrender  our 
independence.  It  is  an  old  saying  and  a  true  one,  that  if  we  have  our 
hands  in  the  lion's  mouth,  we  should  get  it  out  the  best  way  we  can.  If 
a  nation  is  weak  and  defenseless,  and  unjust  and  unreasonable  demands 
are  made  upon  it  by  a  powerful  nation,  I  admit  that  good  policy  and  sound 
wisdom  would  justify  the  weaker  nation  in  making  the  best  terms  possible, 
and  even  surrendering  some  of  its  undoubted  rights,  to  preserve  the  rest. 
But  is  it  not  shameful,  yes,  disgraceful,  for  an  American  to  hold  such 
language?  Are  we  that  weak  and  defenseless  people  that  would  hesitate, 
and  offer  to  give  up  one  right  to  preserve  another?  Are  we  not  strong 
enough  to  preserve  all  our  rights?  I  must  confess,  that  when  I  hear  an 
American  talking  of  surrendering  our  just  rights  "for  the  sake  of  peace," 
or,  in  other  words,  surrendering  them  through  fear.  I  feel  somewhat 
indignant.  1  have  never,  in  the  whole  course  of  my  life,  felt  so  sensibly 
any  act  of  our  Federal  Government  as  that  which  surrendered  to  the 
British  a  part  of  the  undoubted  territory  of  the  State  of  Maine.  The 
agreeing  to  one  unjust  demand  always  invites  another.  There  is  no 
stopping  place.  The  encroaching  power  is  encouraged  by  one  concession 
to  demand  another,  until  all  is  gone.  If  we  are  ignorant  of  the  character 
of  that  power  to  which  we  have  lately  ceded  a  part  of  the  State  of  Maine, 
it  is  our  own  fault ;  we  have  sufficient  evidence  of  that  grasping  people, 
who  will  not  stop  short  of  surrounding  us  with  enemies.  Mexico  is  now 
our  enemy,  not  by  nature,  but  made  so  by  the  intrigues  of  that  very  people 
who  now  border  us  on  the  north,  and  wish  to  join  Mexico  on  our  western 
frontier. 

The  same  mail  which  brought  to  us  the  treaty  ceding  part  of  Maine, 
brought  news,  also,  of  ships  sailing  to  the  Pacific  with  the  obvious  intention 
of  occupying  the  Oregon,  or,  at  least,  of  preventing  us  from  doing  so. 
There  never  was,  in  my  opinion,  a  greater  mistake  than  to  suppose  that 
concession  procures  peace  ;  the  reverse  is  the  truth.  If,  when  the  Barbary 
powers  undertook  to  commit  depredations  on  our  commerce  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean sea,  we  had  bought  peace  by  tribute,  we  would  not  only  have  been 
compelled  to  pay  immense  sums  from  time  to  time,  but  even  that  would 
not  have  protected  us.  We  then  took  a  different  course.  We  asserted  our 
rights  at  the  mouth  of  the  cannon,  and  no  nation  in  the  world  has  ever 
since  carried  on  commerce  in  that  country  with  so  little  interruption. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  state  what  I  consider,  not  to  be  the  foundation 
of  our  claim,  but  the  proof  of  our  undoubted  right  to  the  territory  said  to 
be  disputed  by  the  British. 

Tlie  Frencli,  Spaniards,  Russians,  and  British,  have  all  laid  claim,  from 
time    to    time,    either    to    the    whole    or   part    of   the    northwest   coast   of 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  401 

America.  Civilized  nations  have  generally  admitted  the  right  of  dis- 
covery, and  agreed  that  any  civilized  people  might  justly  occupy  a  country 
inhabited  by  savages.  Discovery  was  the  foundation  ot  right  or  claim  of 
the  Spaniards ;  several  of  their  navigators  having  sailed  along  the  coast  of 
America,  in  the  Pacific  ocean,  as  far  as  Cape  Mendicino,  and  on  some 
occasions,  as  far  as  the  forty-ninth  degree  of  north  latitude.  The  Spaniards 
were  undoubtedly  the  first  who  ever  sailed  on  that  coast.  There  never 
has  been  any  definite  limits  set  as  to  how  much  of  any  country  was 
acquired  by  discovery.  If  the  Spaniards  sailed  along  the  coast  as  far  as 
California,  which  they  most  unquestionably  did,  before  any  other  nation  or 
people,  they  might  lay  claim  to  the  whole  coast. 

California  was  discovered  as  early  as  1534,  and  Cabrillo  sailed  as  far 
along  the  coast  as  the  forty- third  degree,  as  early  as  1540  ;  while  the  first 
English  ship,  under  the  command  of  Sir  Francis  Drake,  did  not  visit  the 
northwest  coast  until  1578 — nearly  forty  years  after. 

Whatever  right  the  Spaniards  may  have  had  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States  by  the  treaty  of  1819.  We  have,  then,  by  purchase,  all  the  right 
which  the  Spaniards  ever  could  have  had. 

The  French  claim  was  also  founded  on  discovery.  La  Salle  first 
discovered  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  laid  claims  to  all  the  waters 
of  that  river.  After  the  French  colonies  in  Canada  had  increased,  and 
their  trading  posts  had  extended  from  Quebec  to  New  Orleans,  they 
claimed  not  only  all  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  but  extended  it  indef- 
initely west,  to  all  places  not  actually  occupied  by  any  other  civilized 
nation.  This  was  generally  understood  to  include  the  Oregon.  In  support 
of  this  idea,  the  Louisiana  extended  to  the  Pacific,  I  will  only  at  present 
mention,  that  this  was  admitted  by  England,  at  least ;  for  by  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht,  in  1713,  the  boundary  between  Canada  and  Louisiana  on  one  side, 
and  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  on  the  other,  was  fixed  to  commence  on 
the  coast  in  latitude  fifty-eight  degrees  thirty-one  minutes  north,  thence 
to  run  in  a  southwest  direction  to  latitude  forty-nine  degrees  north,  and 
along  that  line  indefinitely  westward.  So  far,  then,  as  England  is  con- 
cerned, she  is  prevented  from  saying  that  Louisiana  was  bounded  by  the 
waters  of  the  Mississippi.  After  Canada  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English, 
Louisiana  still  remained  in  possession  of  the  French  until  it  was  ceded  to 
Spain  in  1762,  in  whose  hands  it  remained  until  1800,  when  Spain  receded 
ii  to  France;  and  in  1803,  France  ceded  it  to  the  United  States.  The 
words  of  this  cession  are :  "In  extent  the  same  as  it  now  is  in  the  hands 
of  France,  as  it  was  in  the  hands  of  Spain,  and  as  it  formerly  was  in  the 
hands  of  France." 

All  these  transfers  of  Louisiana  were  without  any  specific  limits.  The 
ultimate  purchaser,  therefore,  had  a  right  to  what  ever  could  be  shown  to 
be,  properly  speaking  Louisiana.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  enter  into  a 
minute  statement  of  these  several  claims  on  the  part  of  Spain  and 
France,  nor  do  I  consider  It  at  all  important,  as  both  these  nations  have 
relinquished  all  their  claims  to  the  United  States.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
mention  them  as  showing  the  extent  of  the  claim  purchased.  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son, that  truly  sagacious  politician,  vmderstood  the  purchase  of  Louisiana 
as  giving  the  right  as  far  as  the  Pacific ;  for  immediately  after  the 
negotiation  was  closed  he  sent  Messrs.  Lewis  and  Clark  to  explore  those 
regions,  whose  visit  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  may  not  only  be  con- 
sidered in  the  light  of  a  discovery  of  that  river,  (which  had,  in  part,  been 
discovered  by  Captain  Gray  so  early  as  1787,)  [sic]  but  may  also  be  con- 
sidered as  an  expedition,  in  the  name  of  the  Government,  to  take  possession 
of  Louisiana  as  purchased  from  the  French. 


402  Documents. 

The  Russians  had  made  many  discoveries,  and  some  settlements,  in 
different  places  on  the  coast,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  notice,  because,  by 
the  treaty  of  St.  Petersburgh,  that  power  relinquished  to  the  United  States 
all  right  whatever  to  all  that  part  of  the  coast  south  of  fifty-four  degrees 
forty  minutes  north  latitude.  So  that  the  only  nation  now  claiming,  against 
the  United  States,  and  any  part  of  that  coast  between  fcrty-two  and  fifty- 
four  degrees  forty  minutes  north  is  Great  Britain. 

Independent  of  the  fact  that  both  Spain  and  France  had  better  claims 
than  England,  both  of  which  claims  have  been  transferred  to  the  United 
States,  and  independent  of  the  fact  that  the  coast,  as  well  as  the  interior 
of  the  country,  were  discovered  by  Captain  Gray,  and  Dy  Lewis  and  Clark, 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  that  England  has  recognized  our  right 
by  the  surrender  of  Astoria,  after  the  last  war  ;  there  is  one  point  of  view 
in  which,  so  far  as  regards  England,  we  have  an  undoubted  right:  By  the 
grant  to  Virginia,  by  Charles  I,  1609,  the  King  of  England  made  the  limits 
of  Virginia  to  extend  from  Old  Point  Comfort  two  hundred  miles  north- 
ward, and  two  hundred  miles  southward,  along  the  sea-coast,  and  all  the 
land  up  into  the  interior,  west  and  northwest,  from  sea  to  sea. 

By  the  foregoing  grant,  the  southern  line  of  Virginia  would  extend  on 
or  near  the  thirty-fourth  degree  of  latitude  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  and  the  northern  line  would  run  across  the  States  of  Maryland, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  include  a  great  part  of  Upper  Canada.  This 
extensive  grant  to  Virginia  was  afterwards  curtailed  by  several  other 
grants  to  different  persons,  and  the  limits  of  Virginia  were  cut  down  to 
its  present  form,  as  far  as  related  to  the  lines  east  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains ;  but  no  subsequent  grant  or  claim  of  any  other  colony  ever 
interfered  with  the  claims  of  Virginia  to  her  possessions  west  of  those 
mountains.  The  treaty  of  peace  with  England,  in  1783,  further  curtailed 
her  limits,  so  as  to  cut  off  all  that  part  which  laid  west  and  north  of  the 
lakes,  and  the  forty-ninth  degree  of  latitude,  west  of  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods,  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  treaty  of  1783  was  not 
intended,  and  could  not  be  construed,  to  deprive  any  of  the  then  colonies 
of  the  limits  to  which  they  were  entitled  by  any  previous  grant,  farther 
than  its  terms  import. 

That  part  of  said  treaty  of  1783,  which  undertook  to  fix  boundaries 
between  the  United  States  and  the  French  and  Spanish  possessions,  was 
wholly  void ;  neither  of  the  contracting  parties  having  any  right  to  fix 
their  lines  unless  they  were  parties  to  the  treaty. 

Thus,  we  see  Virginia,  after  the  peace  of  1783,  claiming  all  the  western 
country  included  in  her  grant,  as  far  as  the  Mississippi ;  and  this  was 
undisputed  by  any  other  of  the  United  Colonies,  until  she  ceded  all  her 
western  lands  to  the  United  States.  I  have  said  that  Virginia  did  not 
claim  west  of  the  Mississippi ;  but  why  did  she  not?  It  was  not  because 
England  had  any  right  whatever  to  prevent  it.  but  because,  until  the 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  in  1803,  the  claims  of  Spain  and  France  were  con- 
sidered paramount,  as  well  to  Virginia  as  to  England,  who  granted  it  to 
Virginia  ;  and  we  were  not  so  hardy  as  to  set  up  the  grant  of  England, 
who  had  no  title,  against  Spain  and  France,  who,  we  had  the  justice  to 
admit,  had  a  better  right.  But  what  do  we  now  see?  England  has  the 
audacity,  at  this  day,  to  set  up  a  claim  not  only  against  the  title  of 
France,  whose  title  was  admitted  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  in  1713,  but 
against  Virginia,  to  whom  it  was  granted  in  1609. 

By  a  subsequent  treaty  with  England,  our  northern  line  was  fixed  on 
the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  latitude,  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  west,  as 
far  as  the  Rocky  Mountains. 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  403 

This  line,  it  will  be  seen,  stopped  short  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It 
does  not  pretend  to  designate  the  line  beyond,  either  to  give  it  to  the 
British  or  acknowledge  it  to  the  United  States.  Being  entirely  silent,  the 
grant  to  Virginia  remained  as  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  grant  from 
England,  which  was  from  sea  to  sea.  The  acknowledgment  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  Virginia  gave  to  her  all  the  territory  she  then  claimed,  except 
so  far  as  Virginia  herself  agreed  to  have  those  limits  curtailed.  When 
any  nation  becomes  independent,  it  becomes  so  with  the  right  to  exercise 
sovereignty  in  all  the  territory  claimed,  and  which  it  can  maintain  with 
arms ;  and  when  independence  is  acknowledged,  the  same  act  gives  the 
sovereignty  over  that  territory.  Saving  the  claims  of  France  and  Spain, 
then,  Virginia  claimed,  as  against  England,  all  the  land  from  sea  to  sea ; 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  therefore,  with  the  cession  from  Virginia,  which 
was  good  as  against  England,  the  United  States  became  lawfully  and  of 
right  possessors  of  all  the  land  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  These 
limits  went  south  of  the  present  Mexican  line,  and  north  of  the  present 
Russian  line.  But  as  we  have  already  ceded  to  those  countries  all  north 
and  south  of  the  lines  we  now  claim,  we  can  have  no  other  claim  than  to 
that  country  between  the  Mexican  and  Russian  boundaries;  but  to  that  I 
think   our   right   is  beyond  a  doubt. 

But  there  is  another  ground  on  which  I  place  our  right  to  the  Oregon. 
And  if,  in  taking  this  ground,  I  may  depart  from  the  idea  some  may 
entertain  of  right,  I  hope  I  may  not  be  charged  with  injustice  or  even 
singularity,  when  they  reflect  that  upon  this  ground  the  question  will,  in 
all  probability,  have  to  be  ultimately  determined.  I  allude  to  the  right 
derived  from  power.  We  have  the  power  to  take  it,  and  we  will  have  it. 
It  is  contiguous  to  our  territory.  It  suits  us.  There  is  a  propriety  and 
fitness  in  the  country  belonging  to  the  United  States,  and  there  is  no 
propriety  or  fitness  in  its  belonging  to  the  British.  There  is  a  great  deal 
of  justice  und  equity  in  our  settlers'  laws  in  this  country.  When  a  settler 
sets  himself  down  on  a  tract  of  public  land  in  Illinois,  he  lays  claim  to  such 
portions  of  the  adjoining  land,  as,  in  the  nature,  of  the  circumstances 
which  surround  him,  is  better  suited  for  him  than  any  other  person  ;  and 
he  maintains  this  right  even  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 
If  this  can  be  done  amongst  individual  citizens,  how  much  more  among 
nations,  who  never  feel  themselves  bound  by  the  same  strict  rules  of  the 
law,  when  convenience  and  power  both  unite  to  require  the  doing  of 
the  act. 

We  are  not  without  British  authority  for  this ;  for  when  that  Govern- 
ment took  possession  of  the  Dutch  Colony  of  New  Amsterdam  (now  New 
Tork),  the  best  reason  that  was  given  to  the  world  was,  that  it  lay 
between  the  English  Colonies  of  New  England  and  those  of  Virginia.  Nor 
is  this  right  of  power  to  be  in  all  respects  scouted.  Every  nation  has  a 
right  to  seek  its  own  happiness  and  safety.  If  we  seek  for  a  lawful  cause 
for  resisting  the  laws  of  England  at  the  time  of  our  Revolution,  we  shall 
find  that  as,  strictly  speaking,  no  resisting  of  law  can  be  lawful,  so  the 
propriety  of  things  (the  fact  that  we  could  manage  our  own  affairs,  in 
our  opinion,  better  than  the  Parliament  and  King  of  England,  and  that  we 
could  promote  our  own  happiness  and  safety  to  a  greater  degree)  gave  us 
an  undoubted  right  to  declare  independence,  and  take  our  station  among 
the  Independent  nations  of  the  earth. 

Having  shown,  as  I  consider,  the  right  which  we  have  to  the  country,  I 
will  proceed  to  show  the  advantages  which  would  result  to  us  from  its 
occupancy.  Not  only  at  the  present  day,  but  from  the  earliest  ages  of  the 
world,  the  trade  of  the  East  Indies  has  been  of  great  importance  to  every 


404  Documents. 

commercial  nation.  This  trade  we  could  control,  to  a  great  extent,  by  the 
occupation  of  the  Oregon.  From  the  time  that  the  Portuguese  discovered 
the  passage  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  European  nations  saw 
the  great  wealth  flowing  into  Lisbon,  from  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  of  the 
East,  every  one  sought  to  find  some  mode  of  rivaling  that  enterprising 
people.  The  voyage  of  Columbus  to  the  New  World  was  never,  at  first, 
intended  to  discover  a  new  and  wild  country,  but  to  discover  a  passage 
to  the  East  Indies.  When  he  first  landed  in  America,  he  supposed  he  was 
on  the  territory  of  the  rich  eastern  empire,  and  hence  he  called  the  country 
by  the  name  of  India,  which  subsequently  took  the  name  of  West  Indies, 
in  contradistinction  to  East  Indies.  This  opinion  prevailed  for  a  long  time 
among  those  who  discovered  this  continent.  Finding,  ultimately,  that  the 
lands  which  had  been  discovered  formed  no  part  of  the  East  Indies,  the 
next  step  was  to  find  a  passage  through  the  land  into  the  great  South 
seas,  or  Pacific  ocean.  It  was  not  until  thirty  years  after  the  discovery 
of  America  that  Magellan  sailed  into  the  Pacific,  through  the  straits  that 
still  bear  his  name,  and  went  to  the  East  Indies  across  that  new  and 
unknown  ocean.  He  returned  to  Europe  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ;  thus 
circumnavigating  the  globe  in  his  voyage.  Balboa  had  previously  dis- 
covered the  great  Pacific  at  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  From  that  time 
forward  the  Spaniards,  as  well  as  all  the  commercial  nations  of  Europe, 
were  constantly  engaged  in  endeavoring  to  find  a  passage  to  the  East 
Indies.  Even  up  to  this  day,  after  all  the  habitable  parfs  of  this  continent 
have  been  explored,  we  find  many  attempts  making  to  discover  a  northwest 
passage,  through  which  ships  may  sail  to  the  coast  of  China,  and  by  this 
means  save  the  great  distance  around  Cape  Horn  or  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

Not  only  has  a  passage  been  for  three  hundred  years  diligently  sought, 
but  from  the  time  that  Balboa  first  crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  in 
1513,  to  the  present  time,  has  the  attention  of  the  whole  commercial  world 
been  turned  towards  the  project  of  cutting  a  ship-canal  across  the  Isthmus, 
for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  trade  with  the  East  Indies.  The  Spaniards 
long  contemplated  this  great  work,  but  they  never  commenced  it.  They, 
however,  for  many  years,  carried  on  an  extensive  trade  with  the  East 
Indies,  landing  the  goods  at  Panama  and  Acapulco,  transporting  them  on 
mules  across  the  countrJ^  and  thence  shipping  them  to  Europe.  This  trade 
was  found  to  be  very  profitable,  and  continued  to  increase  for  many  years, 
until  the  English,  becoming  powerful,  at  sea,  sent  a  fleet  into  the  Pacific; 
and  destroyed  both  the  commerce  and  the  ships  in  which  it  was  carried  on. 

Since  the  independence  of  Mexico,  Guatamala,  and  Colombia,  many 
projects  have  been  set  on  foot,  and  numerous  attempts  made  to  complete 
what  has  been  so  long  considered  of  so  great  importance — a  canal  across 
the  Isthmus.  Several  routes  have  been  proposed,  and  partial  surveys  made, 
in  order  to  ascertain  the  practicability  of  such  a  communication,  and  to 
select  the  best  route.  Three  principal  ones,  and  those  most  generally 
spoken  of  are:  1st,  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  in  Colombia;  2d, 
through  the  Lake  of  Nicaraugua,  in  Guatamala  ;  and  3d.  from  the  Bay  of 
Tehuantepec  through  the  Rio  Huasicualco  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Hum- 
boldt adds  two  others  in  his  speculations  on  this  subject :  the  one  is  through 
the  river  Atrato,  in  the  Gulf  of  Darien,  and  the  other  is  by  a  canal  con- 
necting the  waters  of  the  Missouri  with  the  Columbia  river.  This  last,  the 
most  costly,  the  most  circuitous,  and  passing  the  widest  part  of  the  conti- 
nent, I  verily  believe,  will  be  the  first  completed,  and  that  goods  will  be 
brought  from  China,  through  the  Columbia  river,  before  sixteen  miles  of 
canal  will  be  cut  through  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  405 

Since  the  United  States  have  grown  to  such  vast  commercial  importance, 
tlie  views  of  European  nations  have  changed,  in  some  degree,  as  to  the 
benefits  which  might  result  to  them  from  a  ship-canal  across  the  Isthmus. 
Before  there  was  any  commercial  power  in  America,  and  the  fairest  por- 
tion of  it  were  divided  into  European  colonies,  the  shortening  of  the 
distance  to  China  and  Japan  was  of  great  importance,  because  that  nation 
which  could  secure  the  passage,  would  of  course  monopolize  the  commerce. 
Now  there  is  a  rival  in  America  to  all  these  powers  of  Europe.  That  rival 
is  now  carrying  on  the  trade  to  advantage,  though  situated  at  a  greater 
distance.  The  communication  by  the  Isthmus  would  throw  the  American 
traders  nearer  than  Europe.  This  will  require  some  explanation.  As  the 
tiade  is  now  carried  on,  the  average  distance  from  all  the  ports  of  the 
United  States  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  river,  by  sea,  is  two  thousand 
miles  farther  than  the  average  distance  from  all  tlie  ports  in  Europe  to 
tlie  same  point.  If  the  canal  could  be  opened,  then  tlie  average  distance 
from  the  ports  in  the  United  States  would  be  two  thousand  miles  less, 
malving  a  difference,  in  favor  of  the  United  States,  of  four  thousand  miles 
of  sea  navigation. 

To  prove  this,  you  have  only  to  cast  your  eyes  on  a  map  of  the  world, 
r_nd  learn  the  nature  of  the  winds  and  currents  which  set  constantly  west- 
ward from  the  coast  of  Africa  towards  the  West  Indies.  In  order  to  avoid 
these  currents  and  the  trade  winds,  and  pass  around  Cape  St.  Rogue,  on 
the  eastern  promontory  of  South  America,  every  vessel  going  from  the 
United  States  must  go  as  far  as  the  Cape  Verd  Isles,  near  the  coast  of 
Africa,  and  thence  bear  south  and  southwest  to  Cape  Horn.  Vessels  from 
Europe  make  the  same  islands,  and  from  thence  the  route  is  the  same. 

From  the  United  States  to  the  Cape  Verd  Isles  is  about  four  thousand 
miles.  From  Europe  to  the  same  point  is  about  two  thousand  miles.  (I 
speak  in  round  numbers.)  The  distance  from  the  United  States  to  the  Rio 
Huasicualco,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  (say)  two  thousand  miles;  while 
from  Europe  it  is  four  thousand.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  difference 
in  favor  of  the  United  States  is  four  thousand  miles.  By  the  present  route, 
:i  ship  from  the  United  States,  going  to  China  or  the  northwest  coast  of 
America,  would  have  to  sail  two  thousand  miles  farther  than  would  a  ship 
from  Europe.  By  the  Isthmus,  one  from  the  United  States  would  have  to 
.sail  two  tliousand  miles  less  than  one  from  Europe,  going  to  the  same 
point  anywhere  in  the  Pacific.  This  makes  it  quite  plain,  that  if  we  can 
get  a  communication  through  the  Isthmus,  the  whole  trade  of  the  Pacific 
would  be  thrown  into  the  hands  of  our  enterprising  merchants.  A  com- 
munication through  the  interior  of  this  continent,  by  way  of  the  Columbia 
and  Missouri  rivers,  would,  for  some  purposes,  have  the  same  effect,  with 
only  the  additional  costs  of  transportation ;  while  for  other  purposes  it 
possesses  an  immense  advantage  over  the  route  by  the  Isthmus ;  for,  by 
this  way,  the  vast  extent  of  country  all  along  the  route  would  be  thus 
supplied  with  tlie  articles  of  Indian  manufacture,  &c. 

I  have  said  thus  much  to  show  the  vast  importance  which  has  always 
been  attached  to  the  trade  of  the  East  Indies.  While  the  whole  world  has 
been,  for  more  than  three  hundred  years,  laying  plans  to  secure  the  ad- 
vantages of  that  trade,  we  are  now  debating  whether  we  will  extend  our 
government  and  laws,  our  population,  our  industry,  and  our  enterprise,  to 
a  coast  within  twenty  days'  sail,  by  steamboat,  to  that  very  land  the  trade 
of  which  has  been  the  theme  of  all  tongues  for  so  many  generations ! 

Is  it  possible  that  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  Western 
country  in  particular,  can  be  contented  with  a  longer  delay  in  the  occupa- 


406  Documents. 

tion  of  a  country  possessing  so  many  advantages?  No,  sir.  This  question 
has  only  to  be  agitated  among  the  people,  as  we  are  now  doing  it,  and  a 
voice,  that  must  be  obeyed  in  this  country,  will  be  sounded  through  the 
land,  until  Congress  will  be  compelled  to  act.  There  will  be  no  escape 
from  an  immediate  occupation  of  the  Oregon  Territory. 

Some  travelers  have  represented  the  country  as  barren  and  sterile, 
with  a  climate  damp  and  sickly,  incapable  of  sustaining  a  dense  popula- 
tion ;  while  others  represent  it  as  rich  and  fertile,  with  a  fine  healthy 
climate,  where  the  winters  are  so  mild  as  that  cattle  can  keep  fat  during 
the  winter,  on  the  common  grass  of  the  prairies.  Now,  according  to  the 
best  Information  I  have  been  able  to  obtain,  as  well  from  books  as  from 
travelers  with  whom  I  have  conversed,  I  am  satisfied  neither  statement  is 
correct.  You  cannot  find  in  Oregon  such  large  districts  of  uninterrupted 
rich  lands  as  are  found  in  Illinois.  The  very  nature  of  a  mountainous 
region  forbids  such  an  idea.  But  there  you  find  rich  valleys  and  plains  in 
some  places,  surrounded  in  others  by  extensive  districts  of  barren  and 
sterile  lands,  interspersed  with  rocks  and  mountains.  We  find  the  same 
thing  occurring  in  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  with  probably  this  difference, 
that  among  the  Rocky  Mountains  there  are  plains  and  valleys,  as  well  as 
high  ridges,  that  are  sandy  and  entirely  barren,  while  these  occur  to  a 
comparatively  limited  extent  among  the  AUeghanies.  The  result  of  this  is 
only,  that  just  so  far  as  the  barren  and  sandy  lands  extend,  that  number 
of  acres,  and  no  more,  must  be  deducted  from  the  whole  amount  of  good 
and  arable  land  in  the  country.  That  part  of  the  country  which  is  good, 
is  said  by  all  to  be  of  the  finest  description.  The  timber  is  large,  of  good 
quality  for  every  purpose,  of  improving  faims,  building  houses,  or  for  ship- 
building. The  prairies  constitute  the  finest  grazing  lands,  which  continues 
during  the  winter,  even  as  far  as  the  latitude  we  are  now  in,  while  the 
productions  of  agriculture  are,  in  nearly  every  respect,  the  same  as  in 
Illinois.  The  climate  is  mild,  and,  what  is  still  more  desirable,  it  is  steady. 
The  experience  of  the  present  winter  here,  it  appears  to  me,  would  make 
any  one  desire  to  change  it  either  for  a  colder  or  a  warmer  climate. 
Steady  cold  would  be  much  preferable  to  constant  changes,  such  as  we 
have  experienced  here  for  the  last  three  months.  Strange  as  it  may  appear 
to  many,  it  is  notwithstanding  true,  that  on  the  coast  of  the  Pacific  there 
is  a  difference  of  about  ten  degrees  of  latitude  in  the  climate,  comparing  it 
with  this ;  so  that  in  forty  degrees,  north  latitude,  you  have  the  same 
climate  as  in  thirty  degrees  on  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  You 
will  have,  therefore,  in  the  Oregon,  about  such  a  climate,  in  point  of  temper- 
ture,  as  at  New  Orleans  and  Natchez  ;  while  the  high  mountains  and  ele- 
vated valleys,  together  with  an  entire  absence  of  lakes  and  swamps,  make 
the  country  perfectly  healthy.  Here  the  sandy  deserts  come  in  for  their 
.share  of  advantages.  The  atmosphere  about  those  sandy  plains  must  be 
pure  and  dry  ;  no  unhealthy  vapor  can  be  sent  from  them  over  the  adjacent 
rich  lands ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  this  circumstance  adds  to  the  health  and 
comfort  of  the  inhabitants. 

The  range  of  mountains  which  extend  in  width  from  the  head  waters 
of  the  Missouri,  Yellow  Stone,  Platte,  and  Arkansas  rivers,  almost  to  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  is  but  a  continuation  of  the  Andes,  which  run 
parallel  with  the  Pacific  ocean,  entirely  from  Terra  del  Fuego,  through 
Chili.  Peru,  Quito.  Guatamala,  and  Mexico,  to  the  Oregon,  and  become 
finally  lost  in  the  frozen  regions  of  the  north.  These  mountains  are.  in 
roans'^  respects,  the  same  in  character  with  those  of  the  south ;  they  rise 
in   many   places   above   the   line   of  perpetual   snow.      The   climate   varies 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  407 

greatly  on  the  different  sides  of  the  same  ridge,  as  well  in  temperature  as 
in  humidity.  On  one  side  you  will  see  a  fine  green  and  fertile  valley ;  and 
on  the  other  side  of  the  same  ridge  you  find  a  dry  and  barren  soil.  In  the 
whole  extent  of  the  Andes,  they  rise  in  ridges,  one  above  another,  in 
rapid  succession,  from  the  ocean  to  the  higliest  part,  there  forming  table- 
lands and  valleys,  which  are  mori^  or  less  extensive  ;  they  all  along  gradu- 
ally slope  towards  the  east. 

From  this  conformation,  it  follows  that  the  rivers  which  empty  into  the 
Pacific  are  all  small,  compared  with  those  that  head  in  the  same  mountains, 
and  empty  into  the  Atlantic  or  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be 
expected  that  river  navigation  can  ever  be  very  extensive  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  The  Columbia  river  is  navigable  without  interruption, 
only  about  one  hundred  miles  from  its  mouth.  The  continued  falls  and 
rapids  would  render  it  very  difficult  and  expensive  to  make  a  good  river- 
navigation  for  any  great  distance  towards  its  source.  These  falls,  however, 
affording  abundance  of  water  above,  would  render  it  altogether  easy  to 
make  a  canal  along  its  banks,  rising  towards  the  mountains  by  means  of 
locks.  But  while  this  rapid  fall  of  the  waters,  from  the  mountains  to  the 
ocean,  is  opposed  to  good  river-navigation,  there  is  one  advantage  to  be 
derived  from  it  which  will  always  counterbalance  this  disadvantage : 
Canals,  for  the  purposes  of  irrigation,  can  always  be  made  to  flow  over  the 
adjacent  valleys  and  mountain  sides.  In  this  manner  the  Peruvian  Indians, 
prior  to  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  converted  large  districts 
of  barren  land  (in  a  country  where  rain  never  was  known  to  fall)  into 
fertile  fields. 

I  have  no  doubt  but  that  many  of  those  dry  districts  of  the  Oregon, 
represented  as  barren  for  want  of  rain,  could  be  turned  into  the  most 
fertile  lands  by  means  of  irrigation ;  and  this  with  no  great  expense. 
Those  dry  parts  of  the  country  will  ultimately  be  the  most  agreeable 
places  of  residence,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  productive.  Being 
dry,  the  air  will  be  purer  and  more  healthy,  while  the  rains  neither  prevent 
labor  in  the  fields,  nor  interrupt  traveling.  They  will  be  the  most  pro- 
ductive because,  as  there  is  no  rain,  the  crops  will  have  uninterrupted  sun 
and  heat  (as  necessary  to  vegetation  as  rain),  while  from  the  irrigation 
there  will,  at  the  same  time,  be  afforded  abundant  moisture  at  the  roots. 

The  mineral  productions  of  the  Oregon  are,  of  course,  but  little  known. 
Its  riches,  in  this  respect,  must  hereafter  be  developed.  An  abundance  of 
rock-salt  is  found  in  the  mountains,  similar,  in  all  respects,  to  that  found 
in  the  same  ridge  of  the  Andes,  in  South  America.  The  mineral  produc- 
tions. I  have  reason  to  believe,  are  the  same  as  found  in  the  whole  of  that 
ridge   of  mountains   from   north   to   south. 

The  Province  of  Sonora,  in  Mexico,  was  many  years  ago  the  richest 
gold  region  in  America.  The  Spaniards  found  in  that  Province,  as  far  as 
thirty-six  of  north  latitude,  gold  washings,  where  one  man  would  obtain 
several  thousand  dollars  by  a  day's  labor.  The  Baron  de  Humboldt,  in  his 
work  on  New  Spain,  affirms  the  truth  of  this,  and  says  that  the  farther 
north  they  went,  the  richer  were  the  gold  mines.  I'he  wars  with  the 
Apache  Indians  finally  drove  the  Spaniards  from  those  rich  mines.  I 
have  conversed  with  several  persons  who  have  been  among  the  Apache 
Indians,  and  have  heard  indirectly  from  others,  and  all  agree  in  the  state- 
ment, that  both  north  and  south  of  the  Rio  Colorado  of  the  west,  there  are 
rich  gold  mines.  This  rich,  auriferous  ridge  extends  to  the  Lake  of 
Timpanagos,  within  the  limits  of  the  Oregon  Territory. 

The  rivers  are  full  of  fish,  of  the  finest  quality.  The  salmon  are  caught 
in  large  quantities,  and  constitute  an  extensive  article  of  commerce. 


408  Documents. 

The  trade  in  furs  Ims  always  been  very  extensive.  I  cannot  pretend, 
at  this  time,  to  give  any  very  minute  account  of  the  amount  of  this  trade, 
for  many  years  in  succession  ;  but  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  amount 
by  a  table  which  I  will  read. 

Table  shovihiti  the  amount  of  Furs  and  Peltries  exported  from  the  parts  of 
America  owned  or  occupied  by  the  British. 

SKINS.  AMOUNT    IN    DOLLARS. 

Beaver    $793,400 

Muskrat    46,965 

Lynx     11,020 

Wolf      11,890 

Bear    19,250 

Pox     31,910 

Mink    5,645 

All   other   kinds    2,475 

.?1, 017, 555 

But  some  have  said  that  the  distance  to  the  Oregon  is  so  great  that 
emigration  to  tliat  country  will  be  impracticable.  This  it  a  great  mistake. 
The  western  part  of  the  State  of  Missouri  is  in  about  sixteen  degrees  of 
west  longitude  from  Washington.  The  mouth  of  the  UmpQua  is  in  about 
forty-five  degrees  west.  A  degree  of  longitude  in  forty  degrees  north  will 
not  vary  much  from  fifty  English  miles.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  from 
the  settlements  in  Missouri  to  the  Pacific  ocean  is  less  than  fifteen  hundred 
miles  on  a  straight  line  going  west.  The  Southern  pass  as  it  is  called, 
near  the  head  of  the  Platte  river,  will  afford  a  good  wagon  road  to  the 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  I  will  read  from  a  letter,  which  I  believe 
is  authentic,  and  will  show  the  facilities  with  which  wagons  may  be 
driven  into  the  Oregon  : 

Extract   of  a    letter  fro)n    Messrs.   S'»iith,  Jackson,  and  Sublette,  dated  in 
October,   1829,    to   the   Secretary  of   War. 

"On  the  10th  of  April  last  (1829)  we  set  out  from  St.  Louis  with 
eighty-one  men.  all  mounted  on  mules,  ten  wagons,  each  drawn  by  five 
mules,  and  two  dearborns,  each  drawn  by  one  mule.  Our  route  was  nearly 
due  west,  to  the  western  limits  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  and  thence  along 
the  Santa  Fe  tiail  about  foi  ty  miles,  from  which  the  course  was  some 
degrees  north  of  west,  across  the  waters  of  the  Kanzas,  and  up  the  Great 
Platte  river  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  head  of  Wind  river,  where  it 
issues  from  the  mountains.  This  took  us  until  the  16th  of  July,  and  was 
as  far  as  we  wanted  the  wagons  to  go.  Here  the  wagons  could  easily  have 
crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains,  it  being  what  is  called  the  Southern  pass, 
had  it  been  desirable  for  them  to  do  so.  For  our  support  on  leaving  the 
Missouri  settlements,  until  we  should  get  into  the  buffalo  country,  we 
drove  twelve  head  of  cattle,  besides  a  milch  cow,  eight  of  these  only  being 
required  for  use  before  we  got  to  the  buffaloes.  The  others  went  on  to 
the  head  of  Wind  river.  We  began  to  fall  in  with  the  buffalos  on  the 
Platte,  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  white  settlements, 
and  from  that  time  lived  on  buffaloes,  the  quantities  being  infinitely 
beyond  what  we  needed.  On  the  4th  of  August,  we  set  out  on  the  return 
to  St.  Louis ;  all  the  high  points  of  the  mountains  then  in  view,  being 
covered  with  snow  ;  but  the  passes  and  valleys  and  all  the  level  coimtry, 
was  gieen  with  grass.  Our  route  back  was  over  the  same  ground,  nearly, 
ns  in  going  out.  and  we  arrived  in  St.  Louis  on  the  10th  of  October, 
bringing  back  the  two  wagons,  (the  two  dearborns  being  left  behind;) 
four  of  the  o.xen  and  the  milch  cow  were  also  brought  to  the  settlements  in 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  409 

Missouri.  Our  men  were  all  healthy  during  the  whole  time  ;  we  suffered 
nothing  by  the  weather,  and  had  no  accident  but  the  death  of  one  man, 
who  was  killed  by  the  falling  in  of  a  bank  of  earth.  Of  the  mules,  we 
lost  but  one ;  and  two  horses  stolen  by  the  Kanzas  Indians.  The  grass 
being  along  the  whole  route,  going  and  coming,  sufficient  for  the  support 
of  the  horses  and  mules.  The  usual  weight  in  the  wagons  was  about  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  pounds. 

"The  usual  progress  of  the  wagons  was  about  fifty  to  twenty  miles 
per  day  ;  the  country  being  almost  all  open,  level,  and  prairie.  The  chief 
obstructions  wei-e  ravines  and  creeks,  the  banks  of  which  required  cutting 
down,  and  for  this  purpose  a  few  pioneers  were  sent  ahead  of  the  caravan. 

"This  is  the  first  time  that  wagons  ever  went  into  the  Rocky  Mountains ; 
and  the  ease  and  safety  with  which  it  was  done,  prove  the  facility  of  com- 
munications overland  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  The  route  from  the  Southern 
pass,  where  the  wagons  stopped,  to  the  great  falls  of  the  Columbia,  being 
easier  and  better  than  on  this  side  of  the  mountains,  with  grass  enough 
for  horses  and  mules,  but  a  scarcity  of  game  for  the  support  of  men." 

I  have  now  detained  the  meeting  longer  than  I  first  intended,  and  will 
conclude  my  remarks,  in  hopes  that  I  may  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
the  views  of  others  on  this  subject,  as  well  for  as  against  the  occupation 
of  the  Oregon,  if  any  shall  be  found  who  are  opposed  to  it. 


[NOTE  C] 

Resolutions,  and  a  Declaration,  adopted  unanimously  by  a  Convention  of 
Delegates  from  the  States  and  Territories  of  the  West  and  Southwest, 
held  in  the  City  of  Cincinnati,  on  the  3d,  4th  and  5th  days  of  July,  1S43. 
Resolved,  That  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  the  Oregon  Territory, 

from  forty-two  to  fifty-four  degrees  forty  minutes  north  latitude,  is 
unquestioned,  and  that  it  is  the  imperative  duty  of  the  General  Government 
forthwith  to  extend  the  laws  of  the  United  States  over  said  Territory. 

Resolved  further.  That  to  encourage  emigration  to,  and  the  permanent 
and  secure  settlement  of  said  Territory,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
ought  to  establish  a  line  of  forts  from  the  Missouri  river  to  the  Pacific 
ocean  ;  and  provide  also  a  sufficient  naval  force  for  the  protection  of  the 
Territory  and  its  citizens. 

Resolved,  That  for  the  purpose  of  making  known  the  causes  and  princi- 
ples of  our  action,  the  following  declaration  is  unanimously  adopted,  and 
now  signed  by  the  members  of  this  Convention,  with  insti-uctions  to  the 
officers  thereof  to  transmit  a  copy  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  each  member  of  Congress,  and  also  to  the  Executive  of  the  several 
States,  with  a  request  to  present  them  to  their  respective  Legislatures. 


DECLARATION  OF  THE  OREGON  CONVENTION. 

Declaration  of  the  Citizens  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  in  Convention  as- 
sembled, at  Cincinnati,  July  5,  1843,  for  the  imrpose  of  adopting  such 
measures  as  may  induce  the  immediate  occupation  of  the  Oregon 
Territory,  by  the  arms  and  laws  of  the  United  States  of  North  A7nerica. 

We,  the  undersigned  citizens  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  do  hereby  declare 
to  our  fellow-citizens  of  the  whole  Republic,  that  in  urging  forward  meas- 
ures for  the  immediate  occupation  of  the  Oregon  Territory,  and  the  north- 


410  Documents. 

west  coast  of  the  Pacific,  from  forty-two  to  fifty-four  degrees  forty  minutes 
nortli  latitude,  we  are  but  performing  a  duty  to  ourselves,  to  the  Republic, 
to  tlie  commercial  nations  of  the  world,  to  posterity,  and  to  the  people  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  not,  as  we  believe,  to  be  benefitted  by  the 
further  extension  of  her  empire. 

Duty  to  ourselves  requires  that  we  should  urge  the  immediate  occupa- 
tion of  Oregon,  not  only  for  the  increase  and  extension  of  the  West,  but 
for  the  security  of  our  peace  and  safety,  perpetually  threatened  by  the 
savage  tribes  of  the  Northwest.  That  this  duty  is  required  of  us  as  due 
to  the  whole  Republic,  all  parts  of  which  may  not  appreciate,  as  they 
seem  not  to  have  appreciated,  the  value  of  the  Territory  in  question,  and 
its  political  importance  to  the  honor,  prosperity,  and  power  of  the  Union, 
to  say  nothing  of  our  commercial  interests  and  naval  predominance, 
threatened  as  they  are  with  injury  or  diminution,  should  the  northeast 
coast  of  that  ocean  pass  into  the  possession  of  a  great  neval  power.  That, 
as  an  independent  member  of  the  great  family  of  Nations,  it  is  due  from 
us  to  the  whole  commercial  world,  that  the  ports  of  both  coasts  of  this 
continent  should  be  held  by  a  liberal  Government,  able  and  willing  to 
extend  and  facilitate  that  social  and  commercial  intercourse  which  an  all- 
wise  Providence  has  made  necessary  for  the  intellectual  improvement,  the 
social  happiness,   and  the  moral  culture  of  the  human  race. 

That  we  owe  the  entire  and  absolute  occupation  of  the  Oregon  to  that 
posterity  which,  without  such  occupation  by  the  citizens  and  free  institu- 
tions of  our  great  Republic,  could  not  perfect  or  make  available  to  them- 
selves or  to  the  world  the  important  consideration  above  set  forth. 

That,  however  indignant  at  the  avarice,  pride,  and  ambition  of  Great 
Britain,  so  frequently,  lawlessly,  and  so  lately  evinced,  we  yet  believe  that 
is  for  the  benefit  of  all  civilized  nations  that  she  should  fulfil  a  legitimate 
destiny,  but  that  she  should  be  checked  in  her  career  of  aggression  with 
impunity,  and  dominion  without  right. 

That  for  the  independence  and  neutrality  of  the  western  coasts  of  the 
American  continents,  and  the  island  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  it  is  important 
that  she  should  be  restrained  in  the  further  extension  of  her  power  on 
these  coasts,  and  in  the  middle  and  eastern  portions  of  that  ocean. 

That,  so  far  as  regards  our  rights  to  the  Territory  in  question,  we  are 
assured  of  their  perfect  integrity,  based  as  they  are  on  discovery  and  ex- 
ploration by  our  own  citizens  and  Government,  and  on  purchase  and 
cession  from  those  powers  having  the  pretence  of  right  to  the  same. 

That  beyond  these  rights  so  perfectly  established,  we  would  feel  com- 
pelled to  retain  the  whole  Territory,  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Monroe's 
universally  approved  declaration  of  1823,  that  the  American  continents 
were  not  thenceforth  to  be  considered  subjects  for  future  colonization  by 
any  foreign   powers. 

Influenced  by  these  reasons  and  considerations,  so  Important  to  us  and 
the  whole  Republic,  to  liberty  and  justice,  and  to  free  Governments,  we  do 
subscribe  our  names  to  this  declaration,  with  the  firm,  just,  and  matured 
determination  never  to  cease  our  exertions  till  its  intentions  and  principles 
are  perfected,  and  tlie  North  American  Republic,  whose  citizens  we  are, 
shall  have  established  its  laws,  its  arms,  and  its  free  institutions,  from 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  throughout  the  limits 
above  specified. 

And  we  do  hereby  protest,  as  we  shall  continue  to  protest,  against  any 
act  or  negotiation,  past,  in  process,  or  hereafter  to  be  perfected,  which 
shall   yield   possession  of  any  portion   of  the  same  to  any  foreign   power  ; 


Speech  of  Senator  J.  Semple.  411 

and  above  all  do  we  remonstrate  against  the  possession  of  any  part  of  the 
northeast  coast  of  the  Pacific  ocean  by  the  power  of  Great  Britain. 
The   following  resolution   was  offered  and  passed : 

Resolved,  That  six  Commissioners  be  appointed  by  this  Convention, 
whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  urge  upon  Congress,  personally  or  otherwise,  the 
resolutions  and  declaration  of  this  Convention  ;  to  open  a  correspondence 
with  the  citizens  of  other  States,  and  endeavor  by  all  means  in  their 
power  to  obtain  the  favorable  action  of  the  National  Legislature  on  a  bill 
for  the  immediate  occupation  of  our  territory  on  the  Pacific,  between 
forty-two  and  fifty-four  degrees  forty  minutes,  north  latitude. 

Commissioners  appointed :  Thomas  Worthington,  W.  W.  Southgate, 
William  Parry,  E.  D.  Mansfield,   S.  Medary,  and  T.  McGuire. 

RICHARD  M.  JOHNSON,  President. 
W.  W.  Southgate,  Kentxicky, 
Samuel  Medary,  Ohio, 
W.   B.   EwiNG,  Iowa  Territory, 
John  Kane,  Indiana,  Vice  Presidents. 

William  Parry,  Secretary. 


INDEX 


INDEX  TO  VOL.  IX. 


Academy  of  Pacific  History,  95. 

Adams,  William  L.,  editor  of  The 
Oregon  Ari/us,  245-250. 

African  Slavery,  significance  of  the 
renaissance  of,  In  the  United  States, 
192-195. 

Alnsworth,  .1.  O.,  achievement  of,  as 
president  of  the  Oregon  Steam 
Navigation  Company,  280-804. 

American  party,  63. 

Anniversary,  fiftieth,  of  admission  of 
Oregon  as  a  State  to  be  commem- 
orated, 96. 

Applegate,  Jesse,  estimate  of  influ- 
ence of,  251. 

Applegate,  Mrs.  Jesse,  179-183. 

Archives,  State  and  National,  95. 

Argus,  The  Oregon,  243,  244-245. 


Baker,  E.  D.,  1-28;  lineage  and  youth, 
1;  early  public  service,  2-8;  position 
on  the  Oregon  question,  4-5;  defeat 
of  in  Oalifornia,  5-6;  election  as 
United  States  Senator  from  Ore- 
gon, 6-7;  as  an  orator,  7-18;  memo- 
rial services  in  memery  of,  19-22; 
estimate  of  his  public  services,  23; 
it  Is  proposed  to  invite  iiim  to 
Oregon,  &i7;  sees  his  opportunity 
and  emigrates  to  Oregon,  338;  im- 
pression made  by  him,  338-314;  his 
power  as  an  orator  compared  with 
that  of  Webster's  and  that  of  Sam 
Lewis,  341-346;  his  anti-slavery  sen- 
timent, 346-347:  political  situation 
in  Oregon  at  the  time  of  his  election 
as  United  States  Senator,  347-355; 
speech  at  San  Francisco  and  at 
Union  Square,  New  Yorlt,  357. 

Bancroft's  History  of  Oregon,  criti- 
cism of,  190. 

Beeson,  John,  a  radical,  324-325. 

Bourne,  Kdward  Gaylord,  death  of, 
noticed,  97. 

Bush,  Asahel,  attitude  of,  as  editor  of 
The  Oregon  Statesman,  on  the  slav- 
ery question,  228-230;  as  party 
leader,  544-253. 

O 

Capital  of  Oregon,  location  of,  62;  con- 
tests over  the  location  of,  173-178. 

Oolumbia  River,  obstructions  to  navi- 
gation In.  27.5-276;  area  drained  by, 
276-277;  early  history  of  steamboat- 
ing  on,  277-280. 

Columbia  River  Improvement,  and 
the  Pacific  Northwest,  79-94. 


Colver,  Samuel,  discusses  institution 

of  slavery,  316-324. 
Connor,    John,    participates    In    free 

state  campaign,  240. 
Counties  organized,  63. 
Craig,  D.  W.,  editorial  writer  on  The 

Argus.  246-247. 
Orandall,  C.  P.,  part  of,  in  the  election 

of  Colonel  B.  D.  Baker  as  United 

States  Senator,  347-354. 


Davenport,    T.    W.,  Inaugurates    flag 

raisings,  360-363. 
Democratic  party  policy,  debasement 

of,  steps  and  causes,  203. 
Democracy,  Oregon,  temper  and  atti- 
tude of,  indicated,  236-232;  factions, 

in,  338. 
Denny,    .John,    opponent    of    Oregon 

democracy,  311-312. 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  as  a   figure   in 

American  history,  368-370. 
Dryer,  T.  J.,  editor  of  The  Oregonian, 

247-248;  as  an  orator,  .369-360. 


Economic  conditions  Influence  type 

of  Oregon  settlers,  44. 
Epochal  date,  1856,  220. 


Forests  and  stream  flow,  384-385. 
Forestry  policy  outlined,  387. 
Foudray,  B.  D.,  discusses  slavery,  316- 

317. 
Freedom  In  Oregon,  the  spirit  of,  142- 

147. 
Freedom,    element   of,    in    American 

society  quiescent  and  subservient. 


Free  State  of  Oregon,  list  of  founders 
of,  372-373. 

Q 

Gaines,  John  P.,  Influence  of,  upon  the 
slavery  issue  in  Oregon,  219-220, 

George,  Hugh  N.,  participates  in  free 
state  meeting,  240-241. 

Golden  Circle,  Knights  of.  364-367. 

Greenwood,  William,  a  center  of  influ- 
ence, 252-253. 

H 

Harding,  B.  F.,  dissuades  "Knights  of 
the  Golden  Circle"  from  an  upris- 
ing, 465-.370. 

History,  necessity  of  seeing  facts  of,  in 
true  light,  liK)-192;  function  of .  370- 
371. 


416 


Index 


History  leaflets  for  schools,  ;i()8. 

Holman,  F.  V.,  monograph  of,  on  Dr. 
.Tohn  McLoughlin,  receives  favor- 
able notices,  97-101. 


Indians  of  Oregon,  43. 
Industrialism  and  politics  contrasted, 
213-214. 

.1 

Jacobs,  Orange,  campaign  of,  for  elec- 
tion to  Oregon  legislature,  312;  dis- 
cusses institution  of  slavery,  318-328. 

Jackson  County,  slavery  question  In, 


L 


Lane,  General  Joseph,  influence  of,  on 
slavery  issue  in  Oregon,  218-220. 

Lawson,  George  W.,  opponent  of  Gen- 
eral Lane  in  1857,  243. 

"Legislative  committee," its  composi- 
tion and  work,  51-54. 

Legislature  of  1844,  55-58. 


McLoughlin,  Dr.  John,  regime  of,  In 
Oregon,  46;  resignation  of  as  chief 
factor  and  his  change  of  allegiance, 
61. 

Magone,  Major  Joseph,  253;  his  per- 
sonality, soo-.m). 

Maritime  world,  Oregon  in,  44. 

Meeker,  Ezra,  the  patriotic  achieve- 
ment of,  184-187. 

Methodist  missions,  their  object  in 
establishing  a  government,  54. 

Mlnto,  John,  reminiscences  of  forests 
and  mines,  73-78;  works  at  Hunt's 
mill,  128;  observation  on  the  sup- 
planting of  the  oak  by  flr,  130-131; 
on  lowering  of  surface  of  water  in 
Willamette  Valley,  131-132;  experi- 
ence in  early  fruit-raising,  134-i;^6; 
experience  in  sheep-breeding,  135- 
140;  seeding  and  growth  of  timber 
in  Willamette  Valley,  140-142;  expe- 
rience in  Oregon  politics,  142-147; 
experience  with  enemies  of  early 
home  building,  147-151;  observa- 
tions on  passes  in  Cascade  Moun- 
tains, 154-164;  suggests  an  "Ameri- 
can forestry  system,"  164-172;  not  a 
party  slave,  239-240;  missionary 
party,  63. 

Monopoly,  Oregon's  first,  271-304. 


N 


Newell,  "Doctor"  Robert,  name  of 
associated  with  events  in  Walla 
Walla  Valley,  103;  why  he  was 
called  "Doctor" Newell,  104;  parent- 
age and  early  training  of,  104-105; 
brings  the  first  wagon  to  Fort 
Walla  Walla,  1840,  and  to  the  Wil- 
lamette Valley,  1841,106-107;  private 
life  and  public  services  while  a  resi- 
dent of  the  Willamette  Valley,  lOiH 
114;  as  commissioner  to  Indian 
tribes  on  the  upper  Cohimbia,  1817, 


114-118;  captain  of  The  Scouts  in 
the  Yakima  war,  119;  sutlers  losses 
in  the  Willamette  flood  of  1861,  120; 
later  life  and  services  at  Lewiston. 
120-126. 
Nez  Perces  Indians,  record  of  mission- 
ary activity  among,  reviewed,  187- 


O 


Ordinance  of  1787,  political  signifi- 
cance of  adoption  of,  in  Oregon,  ,54. 

Organic  Law  amended,  1845,  58-59. 

Oregon  conditions  of  climate  con- 
trasted to  those  of  Appalachian 
region,  ;374. 

"Oregon  convention,"  Cincinnati, 
July  5,  1843,  declaration  of,  409-411. 

Oregon  in  Congress,  64-72. 

"Oregon  meetings"  at  Alton  and 
Springfield,  Illinois,  In  1842  and 
1843,  396-:^95:  3W-398. 

Oregon  people,  how  and  why  became 
involved  with  a  slavery  question, 
196-253;  situation  with,  on  slavery 
question,  1856,  226-228. 

Oregon  Statesman,  The,  228-230. 

"Oregon  style,"  the,  in  pioneer  jour- 
nalism, 228,  244-250. 

Oregon  Steam  Navigation  Company, 
organization  and  history  of,  280-304. 

Oregon  trail,  retraced  by  Ezra 
Meeker,  184-187;  marking  of  in  Ne- 
braska, ;^!is;  route  for  memorial 
highway,  308. 

Oreii07iian,  The,  -.'47-248. 


Parties  in  early  Oi-egon,  63. 
Physiographic  influences  in  Oregon, 

43. 
Political  conditions  in  Oregon  down 

to  1840,  45-46. 
Political  organization  in  Oregon,  first 

attempted,  44-49;  effected  at  "Wolf 

meetings,"  49-.5<1. 
Press  in  Oregon,  61-62. 
Provisional   government    in   Oregon, 

51-72. 

R 

Railroad  survey  fund,  subscription 
list  for,  305-3(V7. 

Repul>lican  party,  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt to  organize  in  Marlon 
County,  211-242;  getting  off  the 
"Lincoln  track,"  253. 

River  improvement,  the  Columbia, 
and  the  Pacific  Northwest,  7i>-94. 


S 


Salem  clique,  the,  241-244. 

Schafer,  Joseph,  9.5-5H). 

School  leaflets  of  Oregon  history,  96. 

Semple,  Senator  J.,  speeches  of,  on 
Oregon  question,  388-409. 

Shambaugh,  B.  F.,  report  of,  on  pub- 
lic archives  of  Iowa,  96. 

Slavery,  practically  no,  in  Oregon, 
106-197;  supporters  of  aggressive, 
197-212;  why  issue  was  at  no  time 
doubtful,  210;  ethics  of. 


Index 


417 


Small,  Reverend  Thomas  H.,  char- 
acter of,  and  relation  to  slavery 
question,  310-311. 

Smith,  Delazon,  affected  by  breach  in 
democracy,  '241;  compared  with 
Baker,  340;  speech  of  at  Phoenix, 
358-359. 

Spoils  system  in  partisan  politics, 
viciousness  of,  214-216. 

Stearns,  David,  a  radical,  823-324. 

Stephens,  H.  Morse,  addresses  annual 
meeting  of  historical  society.  95. 


Taxation,  no  provision  for,  in  first 
organic  law  of  Provisional  govern- 
ment, 54. 

Thornton,  .1.  Quinn,  sent  to  Washing- 
ton, 64. 

Transportation  problem  in  Pacific 
Northwest,  79-84;  development  of 
system  of,  in  Pacific  Northwest, 
84-88. 

U 

Union  sentiment  inspired  and  or- 
ganized through  flag-raisings,  360- 
363. 

Union  league  clubs,  360-367. 
V 

Villard,  Henry,  organizes  and  devel- 
ops transportation  agencies  of  the 
Pacific  Northwest,  297-301. 


W 


Waldo,  Daniel,  estimate  of  influence 
of.  251. 

Wait,  S.  M.  discusses  slavery,  316-818. 

Wax  of  Nehalem  Beach,  surround- 
ings of  beach,  where  found,  24;  ref- 
erences to,  in  historical  writings, 
25-26;  beeswax  or  ozokerite,  26- 
28;  Dr.  Diller's  discussion  of  ques- 
tion, 29-32 ;  determination  of 
amount  of  wax  and  characteristics 
by  analysis,  32-37;  evidence  tending 
to  prove  it  of  oriental  origin,  37-38; 
probable  meaning  of  characters 
borne  by  pieces  of  it,  39-41. 

Westward  movement  affecting  char- 
acter of  civil  government  in  Ore- 
gon, 44-45. 

Williams,  Hon.  George  H.,  "Free 
State  Letter"  of,  its  Influence 
toward  making  Oregon  a  free  state, 
232-239;  text  of  letter,  254-273. 

"Wolf  meetings,"  49-50. 

Woolen,  George,  an  anti-slavery  man, 
325-326. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  OREGON. 


THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  confers  the  degrees^  o/ 
Muster  of  Arts,  (and  in  prospect,  of  Doctor  of  I^hi- 
losophy,)  Civil  and  Sanitarj^  Engineer  ( C.  E.),  Ejcc- 
trical  Engineer  (E.  E.),  Chemical  Engineer  (Ch.  E.,) 
and  Mining  Engineer  (Min.  E.) 


THE  COLLEGE  Oh  LITERATURE,  SCIENCE,  AND  THE 
ARTS  confers  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  on 
graduates  from  the  following  groups:  (1)  General 
Classical;  (2)  General  Literarj^;  (3)  General  Scien- 
tific;  (4)  Civic- Historical ;  (5)  Philosophical,  Edu- 
cational. It  offers  Collegiate  Courses  not  leading 
to  a  degree  as  folloivs :  ( 1 )  Preparatory  to  Lair-  or 
Tournalisni. 


THE  COLLEGE  OF  SCIENCE  AND  ENGINEERING,— 
A. —  The  School  of  Applied  Science  confers  the  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Science  on  graduates  from 
the  following  groups ;  (1)  General  Science;  (2) 
Cheinistrr;  (3)  Phjrsics;  (4)  Biologv;  (5)  Geol- 
ogv  and  Mineralogy.  It  offers  a  Course  Pre- 
paratory to  Medicine. 
B. —  The  School  of  Engineering:  ( I )  Civil  and  San- 
itarr;  (2)  Electrical;  (3)  Chemical. 


THE   SCHOOL    OE  MINES  AMD   MIXIXU. 
THE   SCHOOL    OF  MEDICINE   at   Portland. 
THE   SCHOOL    OF  LAW   at   Portland. 
THE  SCHOOL  OF  MUSIC. 

Address 

The  President, 

Eugene,  Ouegon. 


QUARTERLY 


OREGON  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


XO.  J,  ^"(>l.  S.  DK<  KMJSEK,  liK37. 

Frederick   V-  /fotoaw— Addhess    at   thk    Dedkatiok    of   the   Mc- 

LoiTGHMN  Institute  at  Oregon  City,  October  6,  1907        -      -  303-3lft 
George  IJ.  Himes— History   of   Organization  of   Oregon   State 

Agricultural,  Society  317-352 

y.  fr.  X»avenpo»-<— Recollections  OF  an  Indian  AGENT.    IV.     -       -  :«i-374 

F.  W.  PowpZi— Bibliography  of  Hall  .1.  Kelley 375-386 

Documents- 
Diary  of  Asahel  Munger  ani>  Wife 387-405 

Notes  and  Reviews 40«-40» 

Accessions 4KM24 

Index  425-428 


No.  1,  Vol.  y,  March,  190s. 
HW«"««i />.  i'V/i/(;?i—K]i\VA  nil  Djckinson  Baker  -       .       .       . 

O.  F.  Staff (nd—niK  Wax  ok  Xehalem  Beach  .... 

Marie  Merrinian  ^rai/fe.i/— Political   Beginnings  in  Oregon. 

Period  of  the  Provisional  Government,  1H3!)-1849 
John  MiiUo—h" ROM  Youth  to  Age  as  an  American.    I.     - 
Frederic  G.  I'ounfir— Cui.umhia  River  1m  i'ii(>\E!\:ENT  and  the  Pac 

northm'est  

Notes  and  Neavs  


l-2:i 

24-41 


4^72 
73-7ti. 


7!t-94 

:>.')-101 


No.  2,  Vol.  9,  June,  1(K)S. 
r.  C  Je«ttf«—"  Doctor"  Robert  Newell:  Pioneer 
John  Minto— From  Youth  to  Age  as  .\n  American.  II. 
Walter  C.  WtnsZosc— Contests  Over  the  Capital  of  Ore 
Jfz-i.iS.  ^.  X«o?isr— Mrs.  Jesse  APPLEGATE  -      .      .      .      . 
Notes  and  News 


ia"5-126 
127-172 
173-178 
179-183 
184-188 


No.  3,  Vol.  9,  Sei'te.mbeu,  11)08. 

T.  W.  Davenport— m.wKRY  Question  in  Oregon 1S9-253 

George  H.  ITfiMawi*— Slavery  in  (Oregon 254-273 

Irene  Lincoln  Poppleton—ORKGoix's  First  Monopoly— The  O.  S.  N.  Co.  274-304 

DOCUMENT'— Subscription  List  for  Railroad  Survey  -      -      -  305-307 

Notes 308 


PRICK:    FH'TY  CENTS  PER  N(  MBEK,   I  WO  DOLLARS  PJIR  YEAR. 


HECKMAN 

BINDERY   INC. 


OCT  88 

N.  MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA  46962      J