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Title: The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society (Vol. 1, No. 1)
Author: Various
Language: English
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THE QUARTERLY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
(Vol. 1, No. 1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE QUARTERLY
OF THE
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VOL. 1 MARCH, 1900 NO. 1
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Illustration: Logo
CONTENTS
THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OF A 1
COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT IN OREGON—James R.
Robertson
THE PROCESS OF SELECTION IN OREGON PIONEER 60
SETTLEMENT—Thomas Condon
NATHANIEL J. WYETH’S OREGON EXPEDITIONS—“In 66
Historic Mansions and Highways Around
Boston”
REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU—H. S. Lyman 73
DOCUMENTS—Correspondence of John McLoughlin, 106
Nathaniel J. Wyeth, S. R. Thurston, and R.
C. Winthrop, pertaining to claim of Dr.
McLoughlin at the Falls of the
Willamette—the site of Oregon City
NOTES AND NEWS 70
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PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER NUMBER, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
--------------
H. W. SCOTT PRESIDENT
C. B. BELLINGER 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, 1900,
H. W. SCOTT, MRS. HARRIET K. McARTHUR.
Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1901,
F. G. YOUNG, L. B. COX.
Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1902,
JAMES R. ROBERTSON, JOSEPH R. WILSON.
Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1903,
C. B. BELLINGER, MRS. MARIA L. MYRICK.
--------------
The Quarterly is sent free to all members of the Society. The annual
dues are two dollars. The fee for life membership is twenty-five
dollars.
Contributions to The Quarterly and correspondence relative to historical
materials, or pertaining to the affairs of this Society, should be
addressed to
F. G. YOUNG,
Secretary.
EUGENE, OREGON.
Subscriptions for The Quarterly, or for the other publications of the
Society should be sent to
GEORGE H. HIMES,
Assistant Secretary.
CITY HALL, PORTLAND, OREGON.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOLUME 1.] MARCH, 1900 [NUMBER 1.
--------------------------------------------------
THE QUARTERLY
OF THE
OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OF A COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT IN
OREGON.
[Printed by the author for private distribution, August, 1899.]
At the present time, when interest is becoming more generally centered
upon the Pacific Coast and the future which seems to be lying before it
during the next century of our national life, any contribution to a
knowledge of its history can hardly be out of place. It is quite clear
that from now on through the future it must more and more pass out from
the sphere of purely local interest and assume a larger place in the
current of our national history. Although the southern half of the coast
may be more familiar to the greater number of people, yet the northern
half has a history which is fully as rich and well repays most careful
study. Of the many interesting phases which have presented themselves,
none has had so great an attraction for the writer as the development of
civil institutions. It is interesting to review the gradual evolution of
a locality from primitive conditions of wildness to that perfect form of
social life where individuals act under the privileges and restrictions
of a civil government, voluntarily imposed and perfectly integrated with
the larger scheme of national government. It is a stimulating process to
try to make any correct estimate of the various agencies which have
taken part in the complex process of growth, and to place an accurate
valuation upon the services of leading personalities, the influence of
aggregates of less prominent individuals, and general determining
influences which may not at first be seen at all. It is a test of
judgment to put oneself at the different points of view, so often
conflicting, to be fair to all and to be firm in drawing conclusions
where the weight of evidence seems to lie; and a knowledge of the
slowness of this process of growth, with the careful thought and heroic
action by which it has come about, creates a respect for government and
prepares for a wiser use of the privileges enjoyed under its beneficent
rule. In following out the theme set before us it is to be remembered
that by Oregon is meant that piece of territory whose boundaries have
been gradually shrinking to their present compass from an area extending
from the Spanish possessions at the forty-second degree of latitude to
the Russian possessions at the fifty-fifth degree, and between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
In many respects this history resembles that of the other states of our
Union. In common with them there has been a gradual growth from those
fragmentary germs of civic life out of which civil government grows,
which fragmentary forms begin to operate as soon as individuals come
together in social relation, often long before localities are entitled
to take their places as parts of a nation. As in the case of other
states, there was the acquisition of territory, in this case preceded by
a partial acquisition. Like the other states, it has passed through the
various steps prescribed by congress for the transition from newly
acquired territory to perfect statehood; but, as other states have
passed through this common process with a great variety of interesting
and unique experiences, so Oregon has had its own history, peculiar to
itself, and in some respects different from that of any other state. It
is the purpose of this paper to set forth briefly the leading facts, so
far as they may be gained from the sources at present available, and to
present them, so far as possible, in historical perspective, and as a
part of the growth of our national life.
In the examination of a subject connected with local history it is easy
to be carried away by local circumstances, and to fail to grasp those
larger features which connect it with the history of the nation and to
some extent with that of the world. Our truest knowledge of the subject,
however, will come from this broader approach and a search first for
those general conditions which underlay the more detailed history and
were instrumental in determining its drift.
In order that we may see the wider scope of our subject we need only to
remember that during the early centuries of exploration the territory
whose civil life we are to study was at stake in the great struggle
between those countries which were striving for the mastery of the
world, and many a stroke of policy that seemed to affect these remote
regions had its only significance as it bore upon the conflict of
England and Spain. And then, when the Russian Empire, through the
impetus received from Peter the Great and Catherine II, continued its
process of expansion eastward, its outer wave reached the western shores
of America and they became an important factor in the larger stream of
world history. And finally when the thirteen colonies separated from
England, this new and vigorous nation found an interest in those
regions, and they became an important factor in the relations of England
and the United States.
In the study of the development of civil government in Oregon, since the
region has had any interest to our nation, we need first to note those
general conditions which have to a large extent been responsible for the
detailed history. The one which is perhaps most apparent and whose
effect has been greatest, is the geographical location of the territory
as compared with the rest of the United States. Separated from the older
sections of the country by long stretches of prairie, and by two large
mountain systems, accessible by water only after a long and tedious
journey around Cape Horn, its position was one of extreme isolation.
This peculiar isolation explains very much that is characteristic of the
early history of our civil government. It explains the ignorance that
prevailed so long in the older sections regarding the value of the
country, and the consequent apathy against which the champions of the
west in congress had so long to contend; it explains, likewise, that
voluntary and heroic action by which the colonists, stung by the delays
and impelled by their needs and desires for a democratic type of
government, took the initiative and brought into being a pioneer
provisional state to bridge over the period of delay, and to hold the
country in trust until the slow movings of the national consciousness
should awaken to its interests.
Another and equally important factor in determining the drift of events
was the joint claim and occupancy of the country with England. The
history of civil government under such circumstances must necessarily be
different from that of territory fully acquired by the national
government. It is clear that it must connect, indissolubly, the question
of a government with that of the boundary, and render any satisfactory
solution of the former impossible until the settlement of the latter.
The framing of any kind of a plan of government that would really be
efficient without giving cause for offense to the partner to the title
of the land must be a problem of the most difficult nature, as it was
found to be. And the problem was still further complicated by reason of
the fact that the question of boundary belonged to the executive part of
the government, while that of the formation of a civil government
belonged to the legislative. And then, too, by virtue of its being
thrown into the realm of international affairs, the formation of a civil
government was delayed because of its connection with that complicated
balancing of interests which always characterizes diplomatic procedure,
where settlement of questions is slow and ofttimes accompanied by
national friction.
To joint occupancy also must be attributed the throwing into close
relationship of two different and antagonistic types of life. There was
in the first place the difference of nationality, which, in view of the
feelings engendered in the struggle for independence and the war of
1812, did not promise cordiality; there was the difference of industrial
systems which brought into sharpest and most bitter conflict the ably
managed monopoly of the English company and the independent American
trader or trapper with his idea of free competition and equal right to
operation in the region jointly held. And lastly, there was the
difference in regard to the treatment of the native races. The English
found it mostly to their interest to leave things as they were, and to
keep the country a wilderness, suitable for a trapping ground for many
years to come, while the Americans aspired to better the life of the
savage, and to build up a condition of civilized life. The difference
was all the more marked because of the entrance of the missionaries and
the important part played by these leaders, who exercised an influence
perhaps second only to that of the early religious leaders of New
England, and whose energies were untiring in the interests of good
government and a moral population. That two such diverse types of life
could exist side by side during the twenty-eight years of joint
occupancy without influencing the course of civil government is not to
be conceived. That the relation was harmonious at first is true, but
that irritations arose as time went on was inevitable.
In any 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 population. It consisted of a people
aggressive and assertive of their own desires, patriotic, and upright in
the main, with a consciousness of their own wants and their ability to
get them, and possessing but little knowledge of, or reverence for, the
intricacies of international usage, or the restrictions of a
conservative legislative body. Being a part of the people, they were the
sovereign power, and if they determined upon having the west, it must
finally be had. This was a 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 the country, and
ere long it was to be the impulse from this movement which aroused the
national consciousness to the importance 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, and forced a settlement of the
boundary, and finally secured a civil government.
After all other difficulties were overcome, after the barrier of
distance was removed, after the stormy season of threatened war over the
boundary line had passed away, civil government in Oregon became
inevitably connected with another question which was to affect its
destiny. The deepening bitterness between the north and the south was
drawing everything into the maelstrom of slavery discussion, and
particularly was this true in the case of every piece of newly acquired
territory whose destiny was inseparably connected with the defeat or
justification of the system of slavery.
With this brief survey of the general conditions which have operated to
determine the course of events, the narrative of the more important
details in the growth of civil government in Oregon may be better
understood. We find that in the days of the discoverer, explorer, and
fur trader there was no civil government at all, except such as was
exercised by the native races for the regulation of their primitive
life. Every one was dependent upon his own resources for the protection
of life and property. From the time that the first Spanish ship, under
the command of Ferrelo, touched the southern shore of Oregon, in the
middle of the sixteenth century, until the beginning of the nineteenth,
there was as much freedom from the restraints of social order as any
anarchist could wish. There was nothing to check the conflicts that
might arise between the crews of vessels, from the same or different
nations, in their eagerness for the glories of discovery or the profits
of trade with the Indians. There was nothing to shield from the danger
of massacres from tribes, hostile by nature, or by contact with the
whites. The explorer or trader who penetrated the interior must trust to
his own ability for safety, and to his judgment in making friends with
the Indians. There was nothing to regulate men in the struggle to reap
the natural advantages of the region. They had little interest in the
Indians, except as they could use them to their profit; they had small
regard for the rights of others, as they were outside the pale of rights
and laws; they cared nothing for the conditions that they made for the
future, as it was not to be their home. It was a period for romantic
adventures, to pass away before the quieter but more beneficent regime
of social order.
When, however, the scattered fur trading interests began to centralize
by the formation of fur trading companies, some of the functions which
belong to a civil government began to arise. The Pacific Fur Company,
established by John Jacob Astor at the mouth of the Columbia River in
1811, with its little fort, exercised a greater authority in the
protection of life and property than had existed before. It aimed to
produce a condition of things more in harmony with a normal and
peaceable trade. Its English successor, the Northwest Fur Company,
established in control of the region after the war of 1812, was still
more powerful. After consolidation with its rival, the Hudson’s Bay
Company, its charter rights were extended, and, although only a trading
company, the necessities of its position led it to the exercise of many
of the functions of a civil government. Its control of its large number
of employees was complete; its power over the native races was absolute;
by judicious methods and quick retribution for offenses, it succeeded in
rendering the wilderness a safe place for traders, explorers, and
missionaries. Moreover, the possibilities for trouble which arose from
the coming of American trappers and traders led to an additional step in
the development of civil government, and one which more properly falls
under that head.
In 1821 the English Parliament passed a bill by the terms of which the
laws of Canada were extended over English subjects operating in the
country to the south. Provision was made for justices of the peace,
before whom cases were brought, and, if sufficiently important, were
sent to the courts of Canada.[1] In this way, then, did the English
government follow its subjects, and become the first real civil
government exercised in the country, although it was exercised in the
interests of only part of the inhabitants. England had found a way to
look after her subjects without violating the strict terms of the treaty
of joint occupancy.
The office of justice was held by officers of the fur trading company,
whose power and prestige was thus increased. The history of government
for about twenty years is summed up in the person of one man, Dr. John
McLoughlin. The exercise of authority by that masterful character of
early times still lives in the minds of the oldest pioneers, and has
found expression in many of the records which constitute the sources of
Oregon’s history. Although the official agent of the English company, a
Scotchman by nationality, a Catholic in religion, and loyal to all the
interests he represented, he was a man of too large a mold to be
anything other than the instrument of justice and good order for all
classes of people who might come within the bounds where his
jurisdiction was exercised. “From 1823 to 1845 he was the controlling
power in the country, and did more than any one else to preserve order,
peace and good will among the conflicting and sometimes lawless elements
of the population.”[2] Autocratic in his methods and strict in the
enforcement of justice, he was yet kindly and merciful. His tours about
the country to settle any difficulties that might have arisen in any of
the trading posts, or agricultural settlements of ex-employees, were
regular features of the early days, and were very effective.[3]
The inability of the independent fur trader to compete with the English
company, and the comparative advantage that the English subject had in
the protection by his country’s laws, naturally led to a feeling of
dissatisfaction on the part of the American trader, and a belief that
under the cover of a business enterprise the English civil government
was gradually settling itself over the country to the exclusion of the
American, whose interests and rights were equal according to the treaty
of joint occupancy. That John Jacob Astor had not renewed his enterprise
after the restoration of the fort at Astoria at the close of the war of
1812, was due to the refusal of the government, during Madison’s
administration, to guarantee his company the protection of the United
States in case of trouble.[4] Had that been done, company would have
been in competition with company, and the conditions would have been
more equal. As it was, however, the United States’ interests were
represented and her hold maintained only by such independent traders and
trappers as ventured into the country, and usually failed of maintaining
themselves for any great length of time.
It was such a condition of affairs that came to the knowledge of the
people, and finally reached those channels where it gained entrance into
our national policy. It was a significant circumstance in the history of
civil government in Oregon, that, in the winter of 1820 and 1821, four
men were thrown together at a hotel in the City of Washington.[5] Two of
them, Ramsey Crooks of New York and Russell Farnham of Massachusetts,
were traders who had been connected with the unsuccessful enterprise of
Mr. Astor. The other two were members of congress, John Floyd of
Virginia and Thomas H. Benton of Missouri. Mr. Benton had for some time
been interested in the question, and had been pondering upon a method of
procedure. During this period of acquaintance they talked much together
and became convinced of the advisability of an aggressive campaign for
the protection of American trappers and traders, and the maintenance of
the full American rights in the joint territory.
There were probably no better men to take the leadership in a movement
of this kind than Floyd and Benton. Both were western in their training
and in their sympathies, and both were enthusiastic in any movement
pertaining to a westward extension of the country. Western men were
already beginning to have weight in the national councils, and were
exerting a distinct influence upon national policy. Although rough and
unskilled in many of the essentials of good government, their influence
tended toward a true American life and a broader idea of American
national destiny.
The course upon which they entered, though carefully considered, was a
bold one. The Oregon country was very far off and few knew very much
about it. It seemed a land so far away that the American people, as a
whole, had nothing to do with it. Perhaps they had heard of the Oregon
river, and it had a place in their imagination along with the ideal
beauty of Bryant’s poetic country; perhaps they had learned of the part
performed by Captain Robert Gray and his ship Columbia in crossing the
bar at the mouth, and revealing to the knowledge of his country and the
world another great river; perhaps they knew of Jefferson’s romantic
interest in the country and the expedition which he sent under Lewis and
Clark; they probably knew that fur traders had gone there, and that an
American fur company, at the time of the war of 1812, had been forced to
sell out and its place taken by an English one; they knew that there was
an American claim, which was felt to be quite strong, and that a treaty
had been made with England providing for a joint occupancy; but there
was no consciousness that the question was one of practical importance
to the existing generation, except on the part of the more far-seeing.
The people’s representatives in congress were more conservative than the
people themselves, and a conception of the larger United States had
taken possession of but a few.
The executive department was in advance of the legislative, for James
Monroe was President and John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State—two men
who were at the front in the breadth of their political ideas, as shown
by the Monroe doctrine, originated by Adams, endorsed and declared by
Monroe. In the clause that refused to European powers the right longer
to colonize on American territory, it was the Oregon country that was
thus protected against the aggressions of Russia at the same time that a
hint was given to England. No executive had been more courageous in
asserting the intention of the United States to maintain her larger
interests, and none had been more disposed to follow with national
protection, so far as conformed with treaty relation, her citizens who
were leading in the westward expansion of the country.
Under such conditions what might the champions of an aggressive campaign
expect to accomplish? Minds were filled with many questions. What was it
right to do, and what was expedient; could a military post be
established in the country as the President and Secretary wanted; could
lands be granted to settlers as prospective emigrants wanted; could
settlements be made and a civil government established as Floyd and
Benton wanted? If it was right to do these things, was it expedient to
do them, with the possibility of jeopardizing other interests less
remote; was the nation ready to commit itself to an expansion of
territory which might bring about many changes, and perhaps many
dangers?
It was the work of these men, by patient, persistent and continued
effort to arouse a sentiment favorable to American interests, to gather
and disseminate such information as would help to make a public opinion,
and to keep the subject before congress and the people all the time.
Confident themselves in the value of the country to the United States,
and of the right of title to the country, they were anxious for a
movement looking toward permanent occupation.
It was a memorable day in the history of civil government in Oregon,
when, in December of 1820, Floyd initiated his policy in the house, by a
motion for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the situation
of the settlements on the Pacific, and the expediency of occupying the
Columbia River.[6] It did not attract much attention at the time, but
was referred to a committee, of which Floyd was chairman. In a carefully
prepared report, containing all the information that could be secured,
the plan was pronounced expedient and a bill proposed to carry it into
effect. This bill provided for the military occupation of the Oregon
Territory, the extinguishment of the Indian title to the land, and the
establishment of a civil government. It was nearly two years, however,
before it could be brought to a discussion, on account of the dilatory
tactics of the opposition, or because of its apparent unimportance.
After it was debated it failed of passage by a vote of one hundred to
sixty-one, which was not a bad defeat considering the character of the
bill.
The same process was gone through again, another committee appointed,
and another bill reported, which was similar to the first one, except in
the greater inducement to settlers in the granting of lands, and in the
greater stress laid upon the necessity for some plan of civil government
in the territory. This bill, after discussion, was passed by a vote of
one hundred and thirteen to fifty-seven, and Floyd had the satisfaction
of seeing such a flattering result from his four years of hard work. He
had done all that he could do and now it must be submitted to the tender
mercies of the senate. Mr. Benton had already introduced a resolution
“instructing the committee on military affairs to inquire into the
expediency of making an appropriation to enable the President of the
United States to take and retain possession of the Territories of the
United States on the Northwest Coast of America;” and he had made a
strong speech in advocacy of the movement. Although the resolution was
adopted, no report ever came from the committee. When the bill came from
the house, after several times being laid on the table and taken up
again for discussion, it received a final defeat by a vote of
twenty-five to fourteen.
For three years nothing was done. Then Floyd, with a tenacity worthy of
the cause, proposed another bill. It resembled the others, but during
the process of discussion was stripped of one feature after another
until the only provisions left for government were the establishment of
military posts, and the right of American citizens to trial in American
courts, and under the laws of the states into which they might be
brought. It will thus be seen that all previous propositions had
gradually been reduced, by a process of elimination, to a provision
exactly similar to the one which the English already had in operation,
except the additional feature of military posts, and although this was
the most moderate bill yet offered it was defeated by a vote of
ninety-nine to seventy-five.
As Floyd’s term of office expired and he was not returned, the first
campaign for the extension of American civil government over Oregon was
ended. Both Floyd and Benton had done nobly. In the face of opposition,
and even ridicule, they had persistently held their course until they
had seen their measure pass one house, and though defeated, get a
respectable vote in the other. In their work they had valuable
assistance. Several strong supporters appeared in the house and in the
senate, particularly among the younger men; President Monroe by his
messages to congress urged the importance of establishing a military
post at the mouth of the Columbia, and along the route across the
country; John Quincy Adams, by his assertions in regard to the validity
of the American title to the country, and later on by his messages,
strengthened their case; the War Department, then under John C. Calhoun,
made a report through one of its most trusted authorities, General
Thomas S. Jesup, who strongly advocated military occupation; while at
least three associations of citizens from Massachusetts, Louisiana, and
Ohio presented memorials to the house, asking for grants of land and the
protection of the American government. The Massachusetts memorial was
the result of the zealous work of Hall J. Kelley, a school teacher of
Massachusetts, who was an enthusiast upon the settlement of Oregon, and
who had been agitating the question both in his own state and in the
City of Washington for several years before it was taken up in congress.
While great credit is to be given the far-sighted and courageous
advocates of the bill, it is not fair in a historical paper to minimize
the efforts of the opposition. To characterize the opponents as
ultra-conservative or self-interested would not be just to the many
weighty arguments which they brought forward, and which, looked at from
the standpoint of their day, were weightier than they seem now, when
conditions have so changed. For a new nation, with a new national
machinery, hardly yet in smoothly running order, to attempt expansion
into regions separated by natural barriers, and inaccessible before the
application of steam to travel, might well require careful thought.
This first attempt, though it had failed of accomplishing its immediate
end, was highly creditable to all who were engaged in it, and its
results were not small. Interest had been awakened, not alone among the
members of congress, but more particularly among the people throughout
the country. Circulars containing all the information available, were
prepared and sent to the constituents of congressmen, and the nation
began to be committed to a policy which it would take time fully to
realize. The people had gained the impression that the United States’
title was perfectly clear to the whole valley of the Columbia; that the
English were there only by sufferance until the formal settlement of a
boundary at a more convenient time; and that the government was willing
that American immigrants should occupy it, and would protect them as
well as it could.
The debates which occurred at various times in connection with these
early bills are interesting, not alone because they mark the beginning
of a large and important national movement, but also because of the
light they throw upon the times, because of the discussion of important
principles which always come to the surface in large national questions,
and the fine examples of courage and far-sighted aggressiveness on one
side, and cautious conservatism on the other. Almost every point of view
which it would seem possible to conceive of found expression in some
form or other in the course of the debate; and almost every motive for
or against the policy was voiced.
In this first debate the question of the claim does not figure largely,
as it was quite generally assumed by all that the American title was
valid, and was so pronounced by those in whom the people had confidence.
There had been, however, no critical examination of the subject as yet
on either side, but the American government felt so confident that it
did not realize any necessity for haste.
In the first place it was incumbent upon the advocates of this measure
to show the expediency of their proposal. They had been called visionary
and fanciful. That it was only the continuation of a growth that had
characterized all our past history, was well expressed by Floyd in the
words: “At most it is only acting upon precisely the same principle
which has directed the progress of population from the moment the
English first landed in Virginia.” In the various reports and debates
much emphasis was placed upon the material benefit which would follow.
By statistics, the value of the fur trade was exhibited as well as that
of the whale fisheries, the returns from which two industries alone
would many times repay all expenses incurred; while the possible
resources in the line of agricultural wealth, though scarcely known,
were boldly prophesied.
While some regarded the measure as visionary, others opposed it because
it seemed too practical, would draw capital and labor from the older
sections, where they were still needed, and would beget a trade with the
Orient which would detract from that of the Atlantic Coast. No friend of
the measure could have painted a bolder and more prophetic picture than
that of the opponent who said: “The trade of the Pacific will naturally
be with China, Japan, and the Philippines. They will not only be invited
to this by their local position, but by the circumstances of their
situation. Commerce is never so profitable as when it is carried on
between a newly settled country, in which land is fresh and easily
obtained, and one in which a dense population has made manufactures
cheap and abundant.” Considerable importance was attached to the
establishment of a waterway connection by the river systems of the
Missouri and Columbia, between the east and the west, “when distance and
time will be conquered, and the ends of the earth be brought together.”
Should this prove feasible, and statistics were not wanting to
demonstrate it, the United States would have the proud distinction of
establishing that waterway for which the nations had been so many
centuries in search.
Attention was called to the value to the nation there would be in the
encouragement of the fisheries, for the training of seamen, and the
advantages of a naval station at the mouth of the Columbia in case of
war with Great Britain. General Jesup suggested that troops stationed
there could be used in removing the British from the territory when the
time came to settle the boundary. Such propositions were not palatable
to the English, nor were they especially calculated to hasten a friendly
settlement of such diplomatic proceedings as were necessary at a later
time. They rather served the purpose of strengthening whatever purpose
the English had of looking out for their own interests. But they were
clearer and more forcible announcements of the view of the American
people than England could get through the diplomatic service.
In the history of civil government in Oregon there are two distinct
movements, that of the regularly organized government, and that of the
people themselves. They serve as the complement of each other, and act
and react upon one another in a multitude of ways. Every time that the
question was before congress it reacted upon the people, and the impetus
thus set in motion again reacted upon a slower moving congress. In the
westward expansion of our territory the movement of people has always
preceded that of the national government. In the case of Oregon, through
remoteness of the territory, and the difficulties arising from the joint
claim and occupancy, the quicker movement of the people was more marked
and the corresponding slowness of the government more irritating. This
feeling of restriction is expressed by Floyd in the words: “All
governments, republican as well as royal, take upon themselves the
exclusive privilege of thinking for the people, of checking the progress
of population in one direction or fixing the boundaries to it in
another, beyond which they are not permitted to pass.”
It had often been stated in the debate that a superior power had set the
Rocky Mountains as the western boundary of the United States, and it is
interesting to know that the following reply came from a representative
of Massachusetts: “As we reach the Rocky Mountains, we would be unwise
did we not pass the narrow space which separates the mountains from the
ocean, to secure advantages far greater than the existing advantages of
all the country between the Mississippi and the mountains. Sir, our
national boundary is the Pacific Ocean. The swelling tide of our
population must and will roll on until that mighty ocean limits our
territorial empire. Then, with two oceans washing our shores, the
commercial wealth of the world is ours, and imagination can hardly
conceive the greatness, the grandeur, and the power that await us.”[7]
There were other objections which seemed far more weighty than those of
material inexpediency. The principle of colonization which would be
forced upon the United States was regarded as a menace. “Should this
principle now be recognized, it may hereafter be quoted as a precedent
for measures which will change the condition and nature of the
government, an event to be intimately associated with its destruction,
or at least with the prostration of that liberty for the protection of
which alone we can wish the government to exist.” Although it was shown
that the probabilities were that the territory would become an integral
part of the United States, yet the champions of the west were undaunted
in defending colonization if it should come to that. Again it was the
representative from Massachusetts who replied: “Was Great Britain more
powerful, wealthy and happy before she began to colonize than now?
Notwithstanding all her exhausting wars, all the drain of her colonial
emigration, she was never more populous, more wealthy or more powerful
than she is at this present day. Colonization does not impair the
strength or diminish the wealth of nations. Some now within these walls
may in after times cherish delightful recollections of this day when
America, almost shrinking from the shadow of coming events, first placed
her feet upon untrodden ground, scarcely daring to anticipate the
grandeur which awaited her.”[8]
Equally great was the fear of entanglements with foreign nations, and
particularly war with England because of a violation of the treaty, an
objection which, perhaps, weighed most heavily in defeating the bill.
Nor was this objection ungrounded considering the newness of the nation
and the necessity of a period of peace for knitting together the
internal fibres of strength. For this there was, of course, no
demonstration, nor could it be opposed by proof, and yet there was
courage in the answer: “Arguments founded on what may happen would go
equally to prove the futility of establishing a navy which may be
captured by an adversary. If a measure is right in itself it is unwise
to reject it because its beneficial effects may be defeated by a war.”
As might be expected in those days, every question must be tested by its
effect upon the Union. The desire to perpetuate the Union, so dearly
purchased, has laid at the foundation of many a policy. For its sake
many things, desirable in themselves, have been given up or long
delayed. That the national government could operate over a territory so
vast, and regions so remote, with barriers separating them
geographically from other sections, was questionable in the day before
railroads and telegraphs. Yet, with a confidence inspired by their
belief in the right of their position and in the final adjustment of
national affairs to this action, the advocates of the measure argued
that it would rather strengthen than weaken the Union: “The danger of
separation would be less in a confederacy of twenty or thirty states
with diverse interests than in one of smaller number,” because the
multiplication of interests would neutralize divisions which grow strong
where the number is small.
Lastly, it was held that there was no need for present action, that no
request had been made by the business public; it was a question to be
settled not by the present generation, but by the one to follow, and
that no harm, either to the American title or interests, could result.
In the senate the discussion was briefer, but covered essentially the
same ground. Benton took the leading part in favor of the bill, but
received help from one of the senators from Virginia. The opposition
cast much ridicule upon the idea of a senator going to and from
Washington in less than a year, either by land or by water, around Cape
Horn.
It is not possible in the compass of this paper to give a full account
of this interesting debate, but only so much as will characterize the
first movement toward governmental control by the United States. As we
retrace the discussions, in the light of subsequent events, we cannot
refrain from admiration of those who optimistically trusted that the
measure, if right in itself, need cause no fear of danger in the future.
After the retirement of Mr. Floyd no leader appeared to continue the
work begun, and consequently the subject dropped out of legislative
discussion for about ten years, with the exception of an occasional
resolution and a brief discussion. The interval of rest, however, was
not such as follows the defeat of a measure, but was, rather, a period
of preparation for another and greater effort. Many influences were set
in motion which showed that the national consciousness was beginning to
work. It was during this interval that Captain Bonneville and Capt.
Nathaniel J. Wyeth made such heroic attempts to establish a trade west
of the Rocky Mountains, with experiences equalling anything in romance.
In a letter to his brother, Captain Wyeth says:[9] “The formation of a
trading company on a similar plan to the Hudson Bay and the Northwest is
the ultimate object of my going to that country.” Before starting he
offered his services to the government for the purpose of gaining
information for them, and without “other compensation than the
respectability attached to all those who serve their country.” Whether
his offer was accepted or not does not appear from the correspondence,
but the entrance into the country of such a man, with his companions,
must mean a great deal in the clearing up of obscure questions. It was
at this time, also, that Hall J. Kelley, who had been such a persistent
and patriotic advocate of settlement, reached the country. Disappointed
in not being able to secure grants of land and the protection of the
government, he reached Oregon, after many hardships, with a few
companions, and began the nucleus of a little settlement. Equally
important was the impulse which missionary activity in the East had
received from a fuller knowledge of this new and attractive field. Thus
the religious motive was added to the patriotic, and both were added to
the zeal for trade and adventure, in drawing attention to the new
country.
Although the United States Government would give no guarantee of
protection, yet the new arrivals met in those regions a condition of
safety rarely found in so wild and remote a locality, and, for the time
being, at least, were glad to avail themselves of the security offered
by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Nor is it to be supposed that the colonists
were entirely neglected by the Government of the United States. Though
unable to grant fully the wishes for a civil government, or even for
military posts, yet every executive took measures to gain such
information as would keep the government well advised, and enable it to
see that the brave forerunners of settlement suffered no personal
injury. The interval of rest fell within the administrations of
President Jackson, and his policy seems to have been one simply of
watchfulness and the gaining of knowledge. To this end William A.
Slacum, of the United States Navy, was appointed as a special agent, to
visit Oregon and examine the conditions. This is important, as marking
the policy the government intended to pursue while things were in
process of transition. If the protection given was not adequate, it at
least dispels the suspicion of utter heartlessness which would attach to
a government which would let its citizens go, in support of its own
interests, into this wilderness, without a single thought for their
safety.
When the question, therefore, next came up for discussion, conditions
had considerably changed. Traders had ventured into the country,
missionary stations had been established, more knowledge of the country
had been gained, a more careful examination of the title had been made
by the conference which met in 1827, and the cause had enlisted the
interest of some of the strongest men in political life.
In the second campaign the initiative was transferred from the house to
the senate, and an able leader was found in the senator from Missouri,
Dr. Lewis F. Linn. He was the colleague of Benton, and a man commanding
the highest esteem of his associates. The attack began by a bill of
February, 1838, for the occupation of the Columbia and the establishment
of a civil government similar to previous bills. Meeting with failure,
it was followed, as in the previous campaign, by several others, and, in
spite of the assembling of the conference for the settlement of the
northeastern boundary, in 1842, the discussions were carried on with a
nearness to that event which seemed dangerous to Mr. Linn’s associates.
Shortly after the adjournment of the conference the discussions were
renewed. As in the case of Floyd’s bills, there was a gradual toning
down of the provisions, in the successive sessions of congress, so that
the movement which started by advocating the establishment of a
territory to be called the Oregon Territory, erection of a fort on the
Columbia, occupation of the country by a military force, the
establishment of a port of entry subject to the revenue laws of the
United States, ended by advocating a line of forts along the route to
Oregon, a post near its mouth, a grant of six hundred and forty acres of
land to every male settler cultivating the land for five years,
appointment of Indian agents to regulate affairs with the native races,
and extension of the jurisdiction of the courts of Iowa over the
territory west of the Rockies. The bill provided an increase of judges,
justices, and constables, to meet the increase of business, and English
subjects charged with criminal offenses were to be given up to the
English courts. This bill passed the senate by a vote of twenty-four to
twenty-two, in February of 1843, but failed of passage in the house.
Thus Linn, like Floyd, was rewarded for his service by seeing his
measure pass the house of which he was a member, but any further hopes
were cut off by his death before the next session of congress.
The discussions bring out little that had not been said before. The
question of the claims, which had figured so little in the previous
debate, was an all important theme of discussion at this time. The
language used shows a growing feeling of bitterness toward the English,
and anxiety to secure such an arrangement as would encourage emigration.
The large grants of land were especially for that purpose. It was in the
course of this debate that Mr. Benton used these words: “I now go for
vindicating our rights on the Columbia, and as the first step toward it,
the passing of this bill, and making these grants of land, which will
soon place thirty or forty thousand rifles beyond the Rocky
Mountains.”[10]
In the course of the discussion, Linn’s policy had received many
reinforcements from without. It was about this time that the naval
officer whom President Jackson had appointed, made a report which showed
the need of action. In the beginning of the new agitation of the
question, the Rev. Jason Lee, head of the Methodist missionary movement
in the Willamette Valley, appeared in Washington. He had performed the
long and dangerous journey across the plains, partly in the interests of
his mission and partly in the interests of settlement and a civil
government. Although a Canadian by birth, he early identified himself
with American interests as best adapted to the successful accomplishment
of his missionary enterprise. Although he had gone into the country in
the interests of the natives, he was soon convinced that their interests
would be served not alone by laboring with them, but by building up a
moral and religious community. He was the bearer of a petition to
congress from the colonists. It was signed not alone by those connected
with the mission, but by some of the French and Canadian ex-employees of
the Hudson’s Bay Company, who had started an agricultural settlement on
a beautiful tract of land called the French Prairie, in the Willamette
Valley. This document set forth the history of the mission settlement,
the prosperity which had attended it, the resources of the country for
agricultural purposes, the advantage of its position for trade with
China, and urged upon the United States the extension over it of a civil
government, both in the interests of the colonists and of the country at
large. It showed how the nucleus of a settlement was started; it dwelt
upon the previous dependence upon the Hudson’s Bay Company, a relation
which could not be expected to continue long in the changing conditions.
While in the east, Mr. Lee delivered lectures at various points, and
exhibited two Indian lads whom he had brought with him. In reply to
inquiries from Hon. Caleb Cushing, who led the debate in the house, and
who had been appointed upon a committee to make inquiries, he wrote a
letter containing these significant phrases. “The country will be
settled, and that speedily from some quarter, and it depends very much
upon the action of congress what that population shall be, and what
shall be the fate of the Indian tribes in that territory. It may be
thought that Oregon is of little importance, but rely upon it, there is
the germ of a great state. We are resolved to do what we can to benefit
the country, but we are constrained to throw ourselves upon you for
protection.”
Other petitions were also received from the colonists which were
stronger in their wording, exaggerating some things, and even making
representations which, because of too hasty conclusions, were
misrepresentations of the facts. They were, however, well adapted to be
of service in the struggle for results. Petitions were likewise received
from bodies of prospective emigrants, who asked for action by the
legislature in granting lands and in furnishing the protection of the
government. Memorials from Nathaniel J. Wyeth and Hall J. Kelley also
were presented to the house by Mr. Cushing, and gave information
concerning the physical and social conditions west of the Rockies. In
this second campaign the executive support was more conservative than
had been given by Monroe and Adams. It was the recommendation of
President Van Buren to congress, that garrisoned forts be established
along the route for the protection of emigrants, for he thought that the
gradual settling of this country would so far prepare the way for an
adjustment favorable to American interests, that the possession of the
country and the establishment of a civil government would be effected
without danger. The failure, likewise, of the conference of 1842 to
conclude the settlement of the northwestern boundary at the same time
that it fixed that in the northeast, was a great disappointment to the
people, who had been expecting some action. President Tyler felt it
necessary to offer an explanation in his message to congress in which he
referred to the fear of a protracted discussion, and the obstructions
that might have been put in the way of settling the northeastern
boundary by connecting it with a discussion of the northwestern.
This debate, like the previous one, was fraught with significant
results, and the gain was substantial. Although it had failed of its
immediate purpose, although it had been defeated in that body of
congress in which it might most naturally look for success, and although
the leader of the cause in the house, Hon. Caleb Cushing, counseled
delay, because of the danger of complications with England, the effects,
nevertheless, became apparent even before the debate was ended. Through
the suggestion of Mr. Lee, an immediate step in advance was taken. It
was decided that the government could, without violating the terms or
the spirit of the existing treaty, send some one who should act as an
agent of the government in dealing with the Indians, whose duty it
should be to make treaties with them and establish such relations as
would insure safety during the period of transition. This officer was to
bear only the title of sub-Indian agent, but it was suggested to the
colonists that his usefulness to them might be increased by entrusting
him with such additional authority as they thought fit to grant
voluntarily; that he might, if they so wished, act as a virtual governor
of the colony. It will readily be seen that this office, by virtue of
its indefiniteness, was one of peculiar difficulty. The effectiveness of
the plan was also considerably diminished by the appointment of a man,
Dr. Elijah White, who had previously been in the country and incurred
some enmities. He was, however, cordially received, and entered upon his
duties with hopefulness. The growing hostility of the Indians made
immediate and almost continuous exercise of his authority necessary, and
many treaties were made pledging the natives to respect the life and
property of Americans. The previous authority of the English company had
now to be shared with the American government, so far at least as Indian
affairs were concerned. Thus a step in advance had been taken toward the
realization of an American civil government, but it is questionable
whether divided authority in dealing with Indians tended to security of
life and property, especially where there was no means of enforcing the
obligations of treaty agreements. In the exercise of authority along
other lines, less success was experienced.
Another result was the sending of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, Commander
of the Pacific squadron, upon a cruise along the coast, with
instructions to make investigations, and General John C. Fremont, to
examine the overland routes. Both of these men were officers in whom
confidence was reposed and whose opinions would have weight. The
government did not recognize the need of such urgency of action as the
people desired. It seems to have felt that its duty was discharged by
commissioning officers to investigate the condition of things, by
ordering an occasional vessel of war into the neighborhood, and by
sending a sub-Indian agent to prevent any depredations that the Indians
might be disposed to commit. It seems to have felt that the few
colonists already there were in no immediate danger of suffering injury,
if they used good judgment, while the natural barriers to emigration
would render additions to the population very slow.
Viewed from the standpoint of the colonists, however, everything was
different. The Indian agent, without military aid, could not render
effective service; Lieutenant Wilkes, because he was on friendly terms
with the officers of the English company, was thought to be too much
under their influence; session after session of congress was passing
away without any action for the establishment of military posts, or the
extension of civil government over the territory. It is but natural,
under the circumstances, that the colonists should take the matter into
their own hands, and do what the exigencies of the situation demanded.
The formation of the pioneer provisional government may be regarded,
therefore, as an example of the true American spirit, exhibiting a
resourcefulness equal to every emergency.
The origin of institutions is complex, and doubtless many motives
combined to bring this one into existence. Its purpose as expressed in
the organic laws, drawn up as the constitution of the state, was
declared to be: “Mutual protection, and to secure peace and prosperity
among ourselves.”[11] This general statement, however, probably sums up
a number of motives not specified. Most prominent among these were the
feeling of nationality, the love of a democratic type of government, the
desire for power to control the character of population that should come
in, anxiety to secure permanent titles to the lands taken up, equal
rights in the pursuit of the fur trade, protection from the Indians,
prevention of lawlessness among a mixed population, facilities for the
conduct of such business as growing numbers made necessary, and,
perhaps, in some cases, personal ambition to exercise authority.
The idea seems to have had its origin among the missionaries and
settlers in and about the Methodist mission station in the Willamette
Valley. Although the subject had been under consideration before, the
first effective step taken was in February, 1841, at the funeral of a
settler, who died without heirs, and for the administering of whose
estate there was no authority then in existence. A resolution was
passed, expressing the need of a civil government, and a call was given
for a general meeting to be held at the mission. At this meeting a
committee was appointed, consisting of the various elements into which
the community, though small, was divided, and was instructed to draw up
a plan of government and report at a specified time. A judicial officer
with probate powers, together with a sheriff and two constables to meet
immediate wants, were also appointed. Although an attempt had been made,
in the choice of the committee, to secure harmony, yet it never met to
fulfill its task. When the general meeting, therefore, assembled at St.
Paul’s church, the Catholic mission station, there was nothing to
report. The committee was reconstructed and a resolution passed to
submit the matter to Dr. McLoughlin and Lieutenant Wilkes before further
action was taken. As both of these men advised delay the matter was
dropped for two years.
The idea, however, was kept alive, and was the subject of discussion at
the meetings of a debating society at Willamette Falls, now Oregon City.
The subject was again formally suggested at a meeting held at the house
of one of the settlers, for the purpose of taking measures to protect
the cattle from wild animals. At the close of a series of resolutions
dealing with wolves, bears and panthers, was one calling attention to
the need of a civil government, and providing for a general meeting for
discussion and decision. The meeting was held as provided May 2, 1843,
at Champooick, between the present sites of Salem and Oregon City, and
was an occasion of great interest and excitement. Opinion had been
shaping itself on both sides, and the opposing views were fully
represented.
The principal cause for anxiety was the body of Hudson Bay ex-employees,
who were located in the valley. Most of them were French or Canadians,
Catholics, and largely under the influence of the English Company.
Although some of them were favorable to a government, the majority were
not, and their views are quaintly summed up in an address prepared for
presentation at a later public meeting. They objected to a provisional
government as too “self-interested and full of degrees, useless to our
power, overloading the colony instead of improving it.” They proposed in
its place a council, composed of men from all parts of the country “to
judge the difficulties, punish the crimes and make regulations suitable
for the people.” They regarded a militia as useless and “a danger of bad
suspicion to the Indians.” The country was considered as “free at
present, to all nations, till government shall have decided; open to
every individual wishing to settle, without distinction of origin, and
without asking him anything, either to become an English, Spanish or
American citizen.” There were also some general reflections to the
effect that, “The more laws there are, the more opportunity for roguery
for those who make a practice of it;” and “in a new country, the more
men employed and paid by the public, the less remains for industry.”
It was known that the vote was to be close. The Canadians had been
drilled to vote “no” on every proposition, and their strength was
determined in an amusing way, by moving a question to which they would
naturally have voted “yes.” When the question of having a government was
put to a vote the result was so close, that the chairman was in doubt. A
division of the house was called for, and at this critical point, Joseph
Meek, a typical frontier character, strode forward with the words:
“Who’s for a divide? all in favor of the report and of an organization,
follow me.” When the vote was counted, it was found to be in favor of a
government.
After this decision had been made there was still a difference of
opinion concerning the kind of government to be established. Some were
in favor of complete independence, while others wanted a provisional
government that should last until that of the United States should be
extended over the country. The English interests, unable longer to
prevent some action, now directed their influence toward securing an
independent government, under the protectorate of England, if possible,
and independent of the United States at any rate. The decision favored a
provisional government, and a committee of nine was appointed to draft a
plan to be submitted to the people at a meeting to be held at Champooick
on the fifth of July, 1843. This committee is of great importance in the
history of civil government in Oregon, because of the responsibility
which rested upon it, and because of the excellence of its work. Its
members were neither learned nor acquainted with the law, but they
possessed good judgment and common sense. Their meeting place was an old
barn belonging to the Methodist mission.
In the drawing up of their organ of government they very wisely adopted
the ordinance of 1787, making such changes as the peculiar local
conditions rendered necessary. There was, first, a bill of rights,
providing for freedom of religious belief and worship, the right of
_habeas corpus_ and trial by a jury of peers, proportionate
representation, judicial procedure according to common law, moderate
fines and reasonable punishment, encouragement of morality and
knowledge, maintenance of schools, good faith toward the Indian, and the
prohibition of slavery. There was, also, provision for the necessary
organs of government, a legislative branch, to consist of nine members,
elected annually; an executive branch, to consist of a committee of
three; and a judicial department, to consist of supreme and associate
judges, a probate judge, and justice of the peace. Provision was made
for subordinate officials, a battalion of soldiers, and grants of land
to settlers. On the appointed day the meeting convened at Champooick to
receive the report. It came, opportunely, on the day following our
national holiday. Although the general sentiment seems to have been
friendly to the movement, yet there was enough variety of opinion to
lend spice to the occasion. When the plan drawn up had been reported to
the people, its provisions were readily passed. The principal discussion
took place in regard to the executive. It had not been the purpose to
have any executive at all, on account of the rivalry for the
governorship, which unfortunately existed at a time when united action
was desirable. The committee, upon their own responsibility, had
recommended as a compromise an executive committee of three. Although it
was characterized by the opposition as a “hydra-headed monster,” and a
“repetition of the Roman Triumvirate,” it was finally accepted.
After the adoption of the organic laws, and the election of the
necessary officers, the government went into operation. It had no
provision for taxation, and its expenses had to be met by voluntary
subscription. It had no public buildings, and for a time had to meet at
private houses. It soon became apparent that there were defects in the
plan of government as at first adopted. It was found to be unfitted for
governing a community of any large number, or for any long period of
time. It had been prepared only for a temporary purpose, and only for a
short time. Its very imperfections, however, were virtues to those who
feared that a more perfect government would lead to independence from
the United States, which was an all-absorbing question among the
colonists and the basis of their party distinctions. As time passed,
however, and the United States took no action toward extending her
government over the colony, it became apparent that something must be
done to make the provisional government stronger and better fit to
endure a longer delay, and to govern more effectively the larger numbers
which were coming into the country. The first message of the executive
committee, therefore, contained the following words: “At the time of our
organization it was expected that the United States would have taken
possession of the 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 yet left to our own resources for
protection. In view of the present state of affairs, we would recommend
to your consideration the adoption of some measures for a more thorough
organization.”[12]
The changes recommended were: Creation of a single executive in place of
a committee of three; increase in the number of representatives in the
legislative department; change in the judicial system, together with
changes in certain specific subjects more of the nature of statute than
fundamental law. The recommendation was followed and the changes were
made. This first session of the governmental body, indeed, was prolific
in legislation. Not only did it make these changes, but an act was
passed more exactly defining the jurisdiction of the government. In the
original plan it had been vague, and was by this act confined to the
region south of the Columbia River. Provision was likewise made for the
raising of revenue sufficient to carry on a more effective government,
and all who refused to pay their taxes were denied the right of suffrage
and the benefits which the government conferred. This was an effective
mode of winning the support of some who had stood aloof. Acts were
passed prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and
negroes and mulattoes were excluded from the territory upon penalty of
whipping. It was the desire of the members of this first legislature to
call a constitutional convention for making the organ of government more
perfect and putting the changes already made into permanent shape. It
met with opposition, however, because of the fear that it might drift
into an independent government, toward which there was in many
directions a strong tendency.
The session of 1845 was made up largely of the American party, and these
men soon began the work of making what they refused to call a
“constitution,” but called a revised “compact,” to be submitted directly
to the people. The compact secured most of the changes already made,
drew a distinction between statute and fundamental law, was well worded,
and removed the vagueness of previous provisions. This was in accordance
with the sentiment which existed in the colony, and was, therefore,
adopted by vote of the people at a special election, July 26, 1845.
These changes were made possible by the greater legal talent which came
with the migrations of 1843 and 1844, and were made necessary by the
increase in population and the delays of the national government. For
three years longer the provisional government was in force, exercising
all the sovereign functions of government; and, before superseded, it
carried on a war with the Indians.
Thus came into existence that government which has been characterized by
one who was in a position to know as, “strong without an army or navy,
and rich without a treasury;” so effective “that property was safe,
schools established and supported, contracts enforced, debts collected,
and the majesty of the law vindicated.”[13] This is a judgment quite
generally endorsed by the oldest of the pioneers who look back to it
with pride and affection.[14]
The formation of the provisional government met with no opposition from
congress or the President. In fact, there is nothing to show that it
received any formal attention at all. It was, however, whether so
recognized or not, a long step in advance. All that the United States
government could wish to accomplish in securing an equal foothold in the
territory, was brought about without action on its part and without
complications that might have accompanied an extension of a United
States territorial government over the country, as provided by the
various bills. Every issue which the government itself could have
forced, was forced by the pioneers themselves. A permanent break was
made in the old order of things; the fur trading regime was forced to
give place to an agricultural civilization. The way was prepared for a
distinctly American government. The final settlement of the Oregon
question was made easier than it otherwise would have been; and a
splendid demonstration was given of the fact so often seen in the
history of nations, that crises are settled most effectually by the
people of the nation themselves. The English made an effort to adjust
themselves to the new conditions and preserve their old authority. But
their autocratic social machinery, which probably had been best fitted
for the period of the fur trade, was unable to cope with the democratic
provisional government in meeting the needs of an agricultural
settlement. It was the passing away of one type of social order as the
conditions themselves changed, a fact well verified by the cordial
support the new order of things received from many who had opposed its
formation.
The effect of the change upon the Indian people was more serious. The
passing away of the old was fraught with great significance to them. The
entrance of the new meant the gradual loss of their lands and the
changing of their habits of wilderness existence. It was not long ere
the new government found itself involved in difficulties growing out of
these conditions, with which it was not able to grapple alone. When the
time of greatest need drew near, however, it was possible to take
another step in the gradual development of civil government, as it was
necessary for the national government to take some steps in the
protection of its citizens against the Indians. The events which led up
to, and which made possible this result, so long struggled for, are as
romantic and stirring as anything that has ever occurred in our history.
In tracing the influences which were at work to bring about the further
steps in the development of civil government, we need, first, to note
the effect produced by the treaty of 1842, which settled the
northeastern boundary. That annoying question, which had been under
dispute so long, had, by virtue of the anxious desire to reach a
conclusion, done much to retard the settlement of other questions of
difference, particularly that of the northwestern boundary. But, now
that the settlement had been reached, the way was clear for attention to
this question by itself, and freed from its bearing upon other issues.
Such a condition of affairs is surely a significant one in the
development of our subject. Its immediate importance was, of course,
connected with the boundary question; but the extension of a civil
government was waiting upon that, and its fate inseparably connected
with it. In his message of December, 1842, while explaining the omission
of a settlement from the treaty just concluded, Tyler manifests
something of the freedom gained, in a bolder statement than had appeared
from the executive department for many years: “The territory of the
United States, commonly called the Oregon Territory, lying on the
Pacific Ocean, north of the forty-second degree of latitude, to a
portion of which Great Britain lays claim, begins to attract the
attention of our fellow citizens, and the tide of population, which has
reclaimed what was so lately an unbroken wilderness, in more contiguous
regions, is preparing to flow over those vast districts which stretch
from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. In advance of the
acquirement of individual rights to those lands, sound policy dictates
that every effort should be resorted to by the two governments to settle
their respective claims.”
While the colonists were urging on the formation of the provisional
government, and the national policy was pervaded by the greater freedom
shown in Tyler’s message, another influence was brought to bear toward
the accomplishment of the result. It was in the spring of 1843 that Dr.
Marcus Whitman, head of the Presbyterian and Congregational mission at
Waiilatpu, near the present site of Walla Walla, appeared in Washington.
He had made the long and dangerous journey in the winter season, when
hardy mountain trappers would scarcely dare to try it. Almost frozen by
the cold, and nearly lost in the blinding snow storms, he finally
reached his destination. This heroic journey was made partly in the
interests of his mission work, and partly to awaken such interest in the
country that immigrants would come, and that the government would
protect them in their coming. Although, before this time, he had been
attentive to his work among the Indians, and, by reason of the location
of his mission, had been compelled to exercise caution and reserve, yet
he was always an ardent admirer of American institutions and looked
forward to their final extension over the country. He was a quiet yet
earnest advocate of the provisional government, and was fully aware of
the means by which further results were to be secured. The gradual
settlement of the country by industrious and moral people, a strict and
friendly observance of the terms of the treaty, a self-imposed system of
government suited to existing needs, a final settlement of the boundary
that would preserve the territory that rightly belonged to the United
States, and a final incorporation into the nation when possible, would
seem to express his position.
Both among the colonists and in the east the feeling was prevalent that
in settlement rather than in congressional action lay the issue of the
Oregon question. Heroic work had been done in congress, and heroic work
was being done by the colonists themselves. There were indications,
also, that the English were awake to the importance of settlement.
Already they had a number of Canadian and French ex-employees of the
company in the valley of the Willamette; a body of emigrants had just
come to the country around Puget Sound, and various rumors were afloat
of settlement on a larger scale. As the success of the Americans’ hopes
rested now on settlement, this was, indeed, a critical moment for the
advocates of provisional government and the final extension of the
institutions of their native land. It was a time for heroic action, and
the journey of Marcus Whitman will always be named as one of the most
significant, as well as romantic events in the history of civil
government in Oregon.
Such an ambassador could not fail of a hearing, and conferences were
held both with the President, John Tyler, and the Secretary of State,
Daniel Webster. Dr. Whitman emphasized the value of the country, and
what was more significant, the possibility of reaching it by wagon. Any
abandonment, however, of the Oregon cause beyond a reasonable
compromise, seems scarcely possible to one who has traced the
government’s relation to the question from the beginning. And even such
a compromise would seem uncalled for, when the northwestern boundary
question stood by itself freed from other objects. Some of the friends
and associates of Dr. Whitman, however, are authority for the statement
that some such sacrifice was in contemplation and had practically been
made before his appearance in Washington. If the evidence that comes to
light confirms the advocacy of such a policy by Mr. Webster, it would
have been a surprise to every one, and would have met a storm of
opposition when made public, and could hardly have been ratified, in
view of the fact that popular interest had never been greater,
presidential support never more hopeful, and the records and traditions
regarding the boundary line had never considered seriously any
settlement below the forty-ninth degree of latitude.
Upon his return west in 1843, Mr. Whitman wrote to the Secretary of War
an account of his journey, and the emigration that had gone west that
year. It was the first large emigration, numbering about one thousand
people, and had been guided through the mountains by Dr. Whitman, making
the entire journey by wagon. Accompanying this letter was the draft of a
bill providing for the establishment of forts at various points along
the route for the protection of further emigration. This seems to have
been done in accordance with an understanding, reached during his stay
at Washington, and marks the policy of the government until the end was
reached.
The succeeding messages of President Tyler are firmer in their tone and
give more space to the subject. In the message of December, 1843, he
said: “After the most rigid, and, as far as practicable, unbiased
examination of the subject, the United States have always contended that
their rights appertain to the entire region between forty-two degrees of
latitude and fifty-four degrees and forty minutes. * * * In the meantime
it is proper to remark that many of our citizens are either already
established in the territory, or are on their way thither for the
purpose of forming permanent settlements, while others are preparing to
follow; and, in view of these facts, I must repeat the recommendations,
contained in previous messages for the establishment of military posts
at such places along the line of travel as will furnish security and
protection to our hardy adventurers, against hostile tribes of Indians,
inhabiting those regions. Our laws should also follow them, so modified
as the circumstances may seem to require. Under the influence of our
free system of government new republics are destined to spring up, at no
distant day, on the shores of the Pacific, similar to those existing on
this side of the Rocky Mountains, and giving a wider and more extensive
spread to the principles of civil and religious liberty.” Still stronger
is the language of the message of December, 1844, when the notification
of another conference is accompanied by the words: “The establishment of
military forts along the route at suitable points upon the extended line
of land travel would enable our citizens to emigrate in comparative
safety to the fertile regions below the Falls of the Columbia, and make
the provision of the existing convention for joint occupation of the
territory more available than hitherto, to the latter. * * * Legislative
enactment should also be made which should spread the ægis over him of
our laws, so as to afford protection to his person and property, when he
shall have reached his distant home. In the latter respect the British
Government has been much more careful of the interests of such of her
people as are to be found in that country, than the United States.
Whatever may be the result of the pending negotiations, such measures
are necessary. It will afford me the greatest pleasure to witness a
happy and favorable termination to the existing negotiations upon terms
compatible with the public honor, and the best efforts of the government
will continue to be directed to this end.”[15]
But other influences were at work to bring about these changes. Then, as
now, the scent of politicians for issues to place in their platforms for
winning votes, were keen. And here was a question well fitted to their
purpose. The southern wing of the democratic party was anxious to annex
Texas in the interests of slavery, and an annexation of Oregon to
satisfy the northern wing was a shrewd move to gain votes and place
James K. Polk in the presidential chair.[16] It was a bold stroke, and
might easily bring on war with England. But now all the fears of
entanglement, which had furnished the theme of many an eloquent
discourse were thrown aside, and the country entered upon an exciting
campaign, in which the rallying cry was “Fifty-four, Forty or Fight.” In
spite of angry threats of war on the part of England, Mr. Polk was
elected, and the administration was committed to a settlement of the
question.
In his inaugural address, Mr. Polk referred to the subject as follows:
“It will become my duty to assert and maintain by all constitutional
means the right of the United States to that portion of our territory
which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains. Our title is ‘clear and
unquestionable,’ and already our people are preparing to perfect that
title by occupying it with their wives and children. But eighty years
ago our population was confined on the west by the ridge of the
Alleghanies. Within that period our people, increasing to many millions,
have filled the eastern valley of the Mississippi, adventurously
ascended the Missouri to its head springs, are already engaged in
establishing the blessing of self-government in the valley of which the
rivers flow to the Pacific. The world beholds the peaceful triumphs of
the industry of our emigrants. To us belongs the duty of protecting them
wherever they may be upon our soil. The jurisdiction of our laws and the
benefits of our republican institutions should be extended over them in
the distant regions which they have selected for their homes. The
increasing facilities of intercourse will easily bring the states, of
which the formation in that part of our territory cannot long be
delayed, within the sphere of our federative Union. In the meantime
every obligation imposed by treaty or conventional stipulation should be
sacredly respected.” In the message of December, 1845, he said: “Beyond
all question the protection of our laws and our jurisdiction, civil and
criminal, ought to be immediately extended over our citizens in Oregon.
They have had just cause to complain of our long neglect in this
particular, and have in consequence been compelled, for their own safety
and protection, to establish a provisional government for themselves.
Strong in their allegiance and ardent in their attachment to the United
States, they have been thus cast upon their own resources. They are
anxious that our laws should be extended over them, and I recommend that
this be done by congress with as little delay as possible to the full
extent to which the British parliament have proceeded in regard to
British subjects in that territory. * * * The British proposition of
compromise, which would make the Columbia River the line, south of the
forty-ninth degree, with a trifling addition of detached territory north
of that river, can never for a moment be entertained by the United
States.” Considerable space in the message was given to this subject,
and recommendations were made for Indian agencies, custom houses,
postoffices, and post roads, a surveyor of lands, liberal grants to
settlers, the jurisdiction of the United States laws, and the required
year’s notice to England of the expiration of the treaty of joint
occupancy.
With considerable of the jingo spirit in the house, and with commendable
moderation in the senate, a notice was finally prepared which would
accomplish the result without giving offense. England, realizing that
longer delay might only injure her cause, finally took the initiative
and proposed the conference which met in 1846, and settled the boundary
by a compromise at the forty-ninth degree of latitude.
The settlement of the boundary line was the result that had been looked
for so many years, and it would seem that nothing longer stood in the
way of a realization of the hopes of all who favored the extension of
the national government as far as the Pacific Ocean. One after another
the obstacles had been falling away. The knowledge and facilities of
travel which enabled yearly trains of emigrants to cross the plains were
eliminating the element of distance. The advance of a sturdy population
carrying westward breadth of views and force of character was deciding
the national policy, and the settlement of the boundary line removed a
multitude of difficulties which filled the whole period of joint
occupancy. Why then should there be longer delay? Action was expected by
the people, the needs were growing greater every day.
It is easily explained. The very cause which had gained for the nation
the territory, now operated to retard the passage of a bill which would
make it a territory in government. The question in the last phase of its
existence had gained entrance into the party politics of the country,
which at that time were identified with the question of slavery and its
extension into new territory. Though every barrier was removed, though
Dr. Whitman with thirteen others had been murdered by Indians, though an
urgent petition was received from the provisional government pleading
for action, though two special messengers were sent to Washington to
hasten legislation, though the democratic party was pledged to complete
the work begun, though the President sent a special and urgent message
to congress, though the territory in question was wholly outside of the
belt where slavery might reasonably be expected to exist, yet an
obstinate desire to maintain the abstract doctrine, and prevent any
reflections upon the unholy institution of slavery, was responsible for
this delay.
The President in his message of December, 1847, said: “Besides the want
of legal authority for continuing their provisional government, it is
wholly inadequate to protect them in their rights of person and
property, or to secure to them the enjoyment of the privileges of other
citizens to which they are entitled under the Constitution of the United
States. They should have the right of suffrage, be represented in a
territorial legislature by a delegate in congress, and possess all the
rights and privileges which citizens of other portions of the United
States have hitherto enjoyed, or may now enjoy.”
While the executive department was strongly urging the question, it was
receiving attention likewise in congress. After the death of Senator
Linn, new advocates of the subject came forward, both in the house and
in the senate. Bills and resolutions were before the legislature
continually. Memorials came in from bodies of prospective settlers, from
city councils, and even from state legislatures. The provisional
government sent petitions in behalf of the colonists, which were well
worded statements of the situation. Atchison and Hughes, both of
Missouri, introduced bills, in which the boundary line at fifty-four
degrees, forty minutes, was asserted. The notice of the termination of
the treaty of joint occupancy was given which led to the conference of
1846, and the settlement of the boundary. After the treaty, various
bills were introduced for the establishment of a territorial government.
For two years obstructions and delays prevented action, and the last
session under Polk’s administration arrived. There were at this time two
bills before congress, both practically framed by Stephen A. Douglas, of
Illinois. The interest manifested by Mr. Douglas in this matter again
illustrates how much the development of civil government in Oregon is
connected with other questions. He seems to have been largely interested
in the creation of new territories out of the possessions west of the
Mississippi. In a conversation before his death he stated to a friend,
who has reported it in a treatise, that this interest was caused by a
conviction that there was a settled policy in the east to prevent the
westward growth of the nation by settling the Indian tribes, as they
were gradually being moved upon the public lands west of the
Mississippi. Not only would this prevent a large part of that valley
from being settled and becoming a part of the nation, but would
completely cut off the line of emigration to Oregon, retarding its
growth, or destroying it altogether.[17]
An unfortunate amendment touching the question of slavery was made to
Mr. Douglas’ bill, and from that time on the main issue was buried out
of sight in the discussion of the slavery question. The representatives
from the south would not sanction a denial of their right to take their
slaves with them into any of the new territories. Various attempts were
made to sidetrack the question by joining its destiny with that of
California and New Mexico, and various efforts at compromise were made.
As the last day of session came, the anxiety was intense. The bill was
before the senate for decision. The subject occupied the greater part of
the day, and was continued into the night. Many of the leading men took
part in the discussion. It was the policy of the opposition to delay
action until the expiration of congress. Mr. Benton called attention to
the urgent need for immediate action in somewhat exaggerated language:
“A few years ago we were ready to fight all the world to get possession;
and now we are just as willing to throw her away as we were then to risk
everything for her possession. She is left without a government, without
laws, while at this moment she is engaged in a war with the Indians.
There are twelve or fifteen thousand persons settled there who have
claims on our protection. She is three thousand miles from the
metropolitan seat of government. And yet, although she has set up a
provisional government for herself, and that provisional government has
taken on itself the enactment of laws, it is left to the will of every
individual to determine for himself whether he will obey those laws or
not. She has now reached a point beyond which she can exist no
longer?”[18] The opposition spirit is illustrated in the equally
exaggerated remarks of John C. Calhoun: “The separation of the north and
south is now completed. The south has now a solemn obligation to perform
to herself, to the Constitution, to the Union. She is bound to come to a
decision not to permit this to go on any further, but to show that,
dearly as she prizes the Union, there are questions which she regards as
of greater importance. She is bound to fulfill her obligations as she
may best understand them. This is not a question of territorial
government, but a question involving the Union.” It is interesting to
hear Mr. Webster’s views as summed up in the Congressional Globe: “His
objection to slavery was irrespective of lines, and points of latitude.
He was opposed to it in every shape, and in every qualification. He was
against any compromise of the question.” At the close of the day a
motion to lay the bill on the table was defeated. The evening was given
to discussion, and a motion to adjourn was lost. As the night passed
away, the friends of the bill reclined in the ante-rooms ready to vote
if an opportunity came, while a few kept guard in the senate chamber. A
motion at midnight to adjourn was lost. A senator from Mississippi arose
for the purpose of killing time. Until 9 o’clock the following morning,
which was Sunday, he gave a rambling history of the world, beginning
with the story of the creation. Exhausted, either in strength, material,
or obstinacy, he finally sat down. Senator Benton, ever on the alert,
immediately moved the passage of the bill. It was carried in a short
time, and taken to the President for his signature so that it might
become a part of his administration. Thus Oregon became a territory
August 14, 1848. It was a very fitting thing that Senator Benton, who
had from the first championed the cause, should have the satisfaction of
seeing it finished.
The provisions of the bill making Oregon a territory resembled those of
other bills of a similar kind in most particulars. The special
messengers, J. Quinn Thornton and Stephen L. Meek, had been able to make
suggestions which fitted the bill to the peculiar needs of the new
territory. It was notable in being the first bill to set aside two
townships of land, instead of one, for the purpose of supporting
schools. It recognized the machinery of government already in existence,
and endorsed the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, which had already
been adopted, in regard to slavery. The transition from the provisional
government to the territorial was easily made, and Oregon started out on
a new era of existence. The first Governor appointed, Gen. Joseph Lane,
referring later in congress to the experience of this time said: “When I
arrived there, in the winter of 1848, I found the provisional government
working beautifully. Peace and plenty blessed the hills and vales, and
harmony and quiet, under the benign influence of that government,
reigned supreme throughout her borders. I thought it was almost a pity
to disturb the existing relations, to put that government down and
another up. Yet they came out to meet me, their first Governor, under
the laws of the United States. They told me how proud they were to be
under the laws of the United States, and how glad they were to welcome
me as holding the commission of the general government.”
The period of territorial government was one of growth along all lines.
Trouble with the Indians, increase of population, development of
industrial life, and the various needs of a growing community, made many
drafts upon the new government. It was not long before the largeness of
the territory made a division desirable. The people north of the
Columbia, separated from those to the south by geographical boundaries,
and possessing interests of their own, voted to request the formation of
the Washington Territory. This was granted by congress in 1853.
It was not long before forces began to bring about the last step in the
development of civil government. There were many things which led to a
desire for statehood. The people, in their provisional government, had
become accustomed to the complete management of their local affairs,
without the supervision of any power above them. While they valued the
strength that was derived from connection with the United States, there
were many restrictions which troubled them. Then, too, there were other
delays incident to ratification of legislation, which was vexatious,
particularly to a people who had hitherto enjoyed the quick application
of their own laws. The difference between the local and national policy
regarding the Indian problem was another influence at work. The people,
annoyed by troubles with the Indians, which were breaking out at
intervals, were inclined to a policy that would remove the Indians
entirely, while the general government sought to pursue a policy that
was more conservative. Nor was the local pride, which the rapid progress
of California into statehood had aroused, entirely without its effect. A
desire was likewise manifested for the advantage that was thought to lie
in the larger representation that a state would have in congress, by the
addition of two senators. Nor were ambitious politicians wanting to keep
alive this belief and to accept the positions created. There were
influences pulling toward the creation of a state government, with its
senatorial representation, outside of the community most directly
interested. There are always interests to be found in the general drift
of political affairs that seek re-enforcement through the admission of
new states.
So great, however, was the opposition among the people of the territory,
that the calling of a constitutional convention was three times
submitted to the people before it was sanctioned. There was opposition
from the southern part of the territory where a plan was in
contemplation for union with Northern California in the formation of a
new state; there was opposition from the Whig party which was growing in
power and had a vigorous organ to represent it in the _Oregonian_, and
there was a feeling of conservatism which felt that things were not yet
ripe for statehood, expressed later so well by Matthew P. Deady, the
President of the Convention, in his closing address to that body: “I
have not regretted the delay that has occurred, by the country refusing
to authorize a convention before this time; but on the contrary, think
it has been for the best. As to mere numbers and wealth, we have
doubtless sufficient of both to maintain a state government; but a
people in my opinion, require age and maturity, as well as wealth and
numbers to make them competent to carry on a government successfully. As
in the growth of the child and the oak so with a people. Thrown together
as we have been, upon this coast, it requires time to knit together in
one harmonious whole our diversified elements of population.”[19]
The Constitutional Convention met in August of 1857, at Salem, and was
in session for four weeks. It consisted of sixty delegates. It was early
agreed to leave the question of slavery to be decided by the people
themselves, at the same time that they acted upon the constitution, and
thus the greatest danger of obstruction and delay was removed. The
discussions, as reported in the newspapers of the time, indicate
considerable party spirit, but, for the most part, they were harmonious
and marked by fairness and deliberation. Little difficulty was
experienced in framing the main features of the constitution, providing
for the organs of government. A general disposition favorable to economy
was manifested throughout. That it sometimes went to extremes would be
indicated by the dry humor of the suggestion that the chief executive of
the state be requested to board around, in the good old schoolmaster
fashion.
Many of the most important subjects passed with little or no discussion,
but enough questions to excite differences of opinion arose to occupy
the time. One of the earliest discussions was upon the boundary of the
state. The sentiment was nearly all in favor of a large state, yet a
proposal was made to bound it on the east by the Cascade Mountains,
which were held to be the natural boundary. This, it was thought, would
leave room for the creation of more states and a larger representation
in the United States Senate from the west. The speeches in opposition
were interesting. One of the delegates in advocating a large state
expressed himself in the following words: “I am in favor of extending
the area of this state as far east as we can go, go to the Missouri, if
possible. I would like to take in Utah, if we could do them any
good.”[20] Another said: “I like a large state; I was born and raised in
one—the Empire state. Although the people of Rhode Island and Delaware
may be very good people, yet I rejoice to know that I was not born in
either. I do not like little states; they may have votes in the senate,
but they have no political influence. Mr. Seward, black republican as he
is, when he speaks in the name of the great state of New York, speaks
with an authority and a weight that a Webster could not command speaking
from Rhode Island.” Another discussion pertained to the introduction of
a clause prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, a
proposal which was finally rejected. Perhaps the longest discussion
arose upon a clause rendering the stockholders of a corporation liable
for its debts and obligations. It drifted into a consideration of the
subject of corporations in general. The opinions expressed ranged all
the way from a desire to protect the farmer against “smart gentlemen
representing to them glittering schemes” to “that broader question,
whether the resources of the country shall be developed or not, whether
we shall have the means and facilities for creating a market here, at
home, for our surplus products, and whether the capital that shall come
into the country shall receive such protection as will cause it to be
productive.”
In most particulars the constitution resembled, both in form and
substance, those of other states of the Union. There were some
distinguishing features, however. The question of slavery had been
decided in the negative by vote of the people, and a clause excluding
slavery introduced. There was a feeling, quite common throughout the
west, against free negroes, and clauses were introduced to keep them
out, by a denial of the right of suffrage, of holding real estate, and
the maintenance of any suit in the courts. A somewhat similar policy was
pursued toward the Chinese. The assembly was given the right to restrain
and regulate immigration, although the conditions of suffrage were made
easy for the foreigner. The state was saved the experience of a wildcat
medium of exchange, by denial of the right to charter any institution to
issue such money. The state was prohibited from being a stockholder in a
corporation, and such enterprises could only be established under
general laws. The danger of extravagance in the development of the state
was prevented by denying the right to incur an indebtedness beyond
$50,000.
This constitution, upon being submitted to the people, was adopted by a
majority, and application was made to congress for admission, under its
provisions. The constitution, though conservative in the main, provided
well for existing needs, and for a safe and steady growth. There was
nothing in it to encourage a hasty development or a speculative and
harmful condition of industrial life. There is every reason to
appreciate the good judgment of those who framed it and did much to mold
the character of the commonwealth, as conservative, as sound in its
social and industrial policy, and to be depended on for sober and
considerate action. Located, as the State of Oregon is, upon the Pacific
Coast, where much of the history of the next century must be made,
itself the product of an enlarged national life, it must, of necessity,
exercise a greater influence in the national policies of the future than
it has in those of the past. Some of the provisions of the constitution
have, of course, been made of no effect by the amendments to the
National Constitution. No sufficient cause has yet arisen to make
imperative its own amendment, but the growth of the state may render
necessary some changes in the near future.
When the question came before congress the bill was passed without great
delay in the senate and submitted to the house. It became the occasion
of discussion, but was finally passed and received the President’s
signature February 14, 1859. The principal objection made to its passage
was the denial of a requisite population. No census had been taken since
1855, and approximations had to be made. The delegate from the
territory, Joseph Lane, gave it as his opinion that there were from
ninety thousand to one hundred thousand people, and his authority was
finally accepted. An effort was made by some to join it with the Kansas
question, and refuse it admission because that state, with a larger
population, had been refused. Some opposed it because it prohibited
slavery, and some because it prohibited free negroes; some opposed one
specific clause of the constitution and some another, while some opposed
it on party grounds and would not vote for a measure introduced by the
democratic party. The final sentiment, and the one most generally
prevailing, was well expressed by the representative from Massachusetts.
“There are provisions in her constitution which, were I to vote upon
them, could never receive my sanction. But I do not consider myself as
responsible, in the vote which I give for her admission, for each and
every item in her constitution. I vote for her admission on general
principles. Her constitution is republican in form, and slavery is
excluded from her territory forever. I regret with sadness that the
people have deemed it expedient to adopt the article they have relative
to free negroes, but I must regard it as but temporary and inoperative.
I find no state west of New York ready to grant full rights and
privileges of citizenship to free blacks; therefore it would be
inconsistent to reject Oregon for this clause in her constitution.
Oregon, at no remote day must be admitted as a state. If we delay her
admission, no man can foresee what intervening circumstances may occur
to embarrass and embitter future proceedings.”
As we have followed, one after another, the steps in the genesis of
political authority and of a commonwealth government in Oregon, we have
seen the heroic efforts made by some who have stood out conspicuous as
leaders; we have seen the no less heroic efforts of many whose names
have received no mention, but whose part in the result has been as
great; we have seen the influence of forces which were powerfully
working with or against the efforts to achieve the result. We have seen
a locality well fitted for the home of man pass out from the condition
of a wilderness, through all the stages of development, to that high
state of civilization where every individual enjoys the privilege of
citizenship in a great nation, as well as all the liberties of local
freedom. And although we have been engaged upon a theme of local
history, in its unfolding we have beheld at the same time a gradual
enlargement of national life, and a steady progress toward greater
things.
JAMES ROOD ROBERTSON.
Chapter Footnotes
-----
Footnote 1:
Act of Parliament in appendix to Greenbow’s History of Oregon.
Footnote 2:
Matthew P. Deady.
Footnote 3:
Conversation with Dr. Wm. Geiger, pioneer of 1842.
Footnote 4:
Benton’s Thirty Years in the Senate.
Footnote 5:
Irving’s Astoria.
Footnote 6:
Annals of Congress and Congressional Debates are authorities used upon
discussions in the legislature.
Footnote 7:
Hon. Francis Baylies.
Footnote 8:
Hon. Francis Baylies.
Footnote 9:
The Correspondence and Journals of Capt. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, edited by
F. G. Young.
Footnote 10:
Thirty Years in the Senate.
Footnote 11:
Oregon Archives, by Grover, are the authority used on the provisional
government.
Footnote 12:
Oregon Archives.
Footnote 13:
J. Quinn Thornton.
Footnote 14:
Conversation with A. Hinman, pioneer of 1844.
Footnote 15:
Messages of the Presidents, by Richardson, is authority for statements
of Presidents.
Footnote 16:
Blaine’s Twenty Years in Congress.
Footnote 17:
Brief Treatise on Constitutional and Party Questions by S. A. Douglas.
Reported by J. M. Cutts.
Footnote 18:
Congressional Globe is authority used for remaining discussions in
congress.
Footnote 19:
Journal of the Constitutional Convention.
Footnote 20:
Reported in the Oregonian, 1857.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PROCESS OF SELECTION IN OREGON PIONEER SETTLEMENT.
In the days of the early Oregon pioneers the narrative of Lewis and
Clark’s explorations to the Pacific Coast had become little more than a
tradition to the frontier people of the West. The wild stories of
mountain trappers, told by camp fires, and colored by vivid
recollections of real privations among mountain defiles—these formed the
picture in the popular mind along the frontier of the difficulties to be
overcome in a journey across the Rockies. As long as these reiterated
stories took their measure of endurance from the wanderings of
missionaries and mountain trappers, the problem of their influence might
be a simple one; but when the question of taking women and children over
the dreary wastes of wide deserts and pathless steeps of mountain cliffs
was raised, other considerations were at once added; for how could these
trusts be transported over bridgeless and fordless streams? How insured
against hunger and thirst, and how kept out of reach of the danger of
attack by hostile tribes of Indians?
The object of this brief paper is to outline a conviction of the writer
that the difficulties in the way of a migration to Oregon—as these
difficulties were seen by the people of the frontier states—formed a
selecting test of the kind of people who alone could go to Oregon across
the mountains in those days—a real and practical natural selection of a
new people for a new community.
Without entering into the hackneyed question of the agency of Doctor
Whitman in securing Oregon for the United States, we may say Doctor
Whitman was no mythical character. He was a real man; a missionary of
the American Board. In 1842 he found the Indians around him so
dissatisfied, that he called a synodical meeting of the neighboring
missions, and submitted to them the question “Shall we give up the
mission of Waiilatpu?” The synod decided in the negative. The doctor
then said to his co-laborers, “Then you must vote me leave of absence,
for I must go home to confer with the board on the situation.” In fact
Doctor Whitman seems to have had a mild kind of monomania on the subject
of ox teams drawing plain Missouri wagons from Fort Independence to the
Columbia at Wallula. Anyway, his brethren of that synod all knew that he
carried that conviction with him to the states. They knew, too, that he
wanted an opportunity to publish it along the frontiers to the restless
multitude who were asking the question, “Was it safe to attempt to take
a family to Oregon in an ox wagon?” Doctor Whitman said he knew this
could be done; said he himself would guide a train of wagons to Wallula,
on the Columbia, and reach there before the fall storms should hinder
their progress.
Let us now turn to the restless people of the frontier who wanted to go
to Oregon, and inquire what their mental picture of the great barriers
of the journey was. At this time, 1842, these restless people might be
found from Eastern Tennessee to Western Missouri. In their view the
Rocky Mountain barrier was not a single line of mountains, but a complex
system of ranges, like the one that separated Eastern Virginia and the
Carolinas from the valley of the Ohio, with whose character they were
familiar. They clearly apprehended the difficulties of such mountain
travel, without roads or bridges, without shops for repairs, or towns
for repurchase of supplies run short. They saw plainly the necessity of
starting with wagons loaded for the whole journey, and of getting
through before winter. They knew, too, that having passed the Rocky
Mountain barrier, a vast desert plain hundreds of miles across extended
from the western slope of the Rockies, only to bring them to another
mountain barrier—the Cascade Range, which, if not higher, was at least
steeper in its approaches. And, inasmuch as this second barrier would be
reached late in the season, oxen and horses would be so weak and worn by
their long journey as to add fearfully to dangers which they of all
people knew how to appreciate. Let it be remembered, too, that all this
fearful risk was to be borne by women and children. We have called the
routes of travel bridgeless (and often fordless), look as to how much
this implies: Suppose our train to have reached what was at their route
a fordless stream. The ferry was soon prepared by selecting one of the
best of their wagon boxes, caulking its chinks and joints as best they
could, and using this as a boat. A rope fastened to it was passed over
the river, and this extemporized ferry was ready for its work.
In naming over the principal forms of danger that went to make up the
outlook of the road to Oregon in the early forties, one must be
named—one more dreaded than all the rest—the continued exposure to
Indian attack. For, if after a long toilsome climbing over rocky
declivities a pleasanter part of the way is reached, and the weary
toilers are led to hope for easier travel, just here, at any turn in the
road, the dreadful savage might suddenly make his appearance. Such was
the dark picture the journey overland to Oregon presented to the men and
women of the frontier, who yet restlessly waited for their own chance to
try it. Now, in spite of all these dangers of the way, the wagon trains
were organized; were loaded with their precious burden of life and hope;
did cross these mountain ranges and the long stretches of desert between
them; did reach and people Oregon. There remains the inquiry: What
manner of people were they who dared to do this? For surely it was the
coming of the women and children of these pioneer wagon trains that won
Oregon for the Stars and Stripes.
First of all, then, these pioneers were all frontier people. In 1842 the
only people who cared about the question of a migration to Oregon were
frontier people of these Western States; people already familiar with
the modes and the dangers of travel beyond the safeguards of
civilization. And this fact gives us our first test in the
classification of our pioneers—they were all frontier people. This
limitation was not intended, was not the result of any choice or purpose
of those concerned. As an applied test it developed itself from the very
nature of the case; for nobody but frontiersmen thought of going, or
cared to go.
Another important limitation developed itself in well-defined outlines
from the beginning of the movement and lasted throughout the real
pioneer period. It was the practical exclusion of capital from the
forces that originated its companies, purchased their supplies, or paid
for the help they needed on the journey. No people knew better than the
border Americans the power of money; but here again its absence was not
planned, was not desired. Its absence resulted from the nature of the
case; and the forces that moved those trains of farm wagons moved
without the stimulus of sustaining capital. The simple fact was that
capital saw in the migration of these pioneers no return of any
appreciable per centum of the funds to be expended. And thus it came to
pass that the wealthy were effectually excluded from the ranks of our
Oregon pioneers.
Frontier life has in it ordinarily less of poverty than any other
condition of society; a fact, doubtless due to the continual effort
necessary there to keep at all abreast of the incessant struggle against
the savagery of its surroundings. The long frontier line west of the
Mississippi in the early forties was aglow with a restless people
pressing westward, and but recently come there. The usual causes of
extreme poverty had not settled there; and so it came that few indeed
along this border line could be classed as dependent poor. And, perhaps,
none too poor to own a team and a good serviceable farm wagon, with
means sufficient to provision it with good wholesome food and clothing
for a journey to Oregon. But, if such there happened to be, we can
easily imagine the dismay it must have caused to have the name of such a
man proposed as a member of one of these companies. The fact, doubtless,
was that the unfitness of such a proposal prevented its occurrence.
The poor—the dependent poor—were not in the movement to Oregon. These
organized wagon companies, however well meaning, however generous they
might be as individuals, had no place in their organizations for the
dependent poor man. Yet one more of these causes of unfitness for such a
journey as the one we have been trying to picture, was that of chronic
feeble health. To start on such a difficult and dangerous expedition as
this unquestionably was during the proper pioneer family movement, from
1842 to 1852, would have seemed to all concerned too much like suicide
of the sick or the chronically feeble.
The expedition to Oregon, as they looked upon it, called for a power of
endurance that might be found only in the soundest. So by common consent
poor health ruled its possessor from the ranks of the pioneers. One can
readily see what must have been the result of this exclusion upon the
health condition of Oregon during the early period of its history, if
not through more remote chapters of its development.
We have thus forced upon us the conviction that the pioneer migration
across the plains to Oregon consisted almost wholly of frontier people.
That from their organized trains the rich excluded themselves; the
dependent poor were kept aloof, and those subject to chronic sickness or
feeble health at once accepted their inevitable exclusion. Now, with
these ineligible groups cancelled, we may well ask: Who were left to go
to Oregon.
Well, the proposed migration thus shorn of elements that did not fit the
heart of the movement, there remained scattered along the frontier
several thousands of the very material for pioneering. Men in the prime
of life with small families who were themselves accustomed to the
management of teams; were familiar with the dangers of desert travel and
mountain climbing; were accustomed to Indian alarms, many of them to
Indian fighting; and all of them accustomed from childhood to the use of
the rifle—these were restlessly waiting the time for movement. Doctor
Whitman was informed of this. And it was to take the message of
readiness to these that he decided on a winter journey. He may have done
other important things. He may have failed to do some things over
zealously ascribed to him. This herald work he did. He announced to his
synod in Oregon that he regarded this service as the work needing to be
done. He did this work, and the Missouri ox-wagons followed. For the
restless waiters on destiny along the frontier saw that their time had
come.
THOMAS CONDON.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NATHANIEL J. WYETH.
His Adventures in the far West recalled in association with the family
home near Boston. “In Historic Mansions and Highways Around Boston,”
by Samuel Adams Drake, published by Little, Brown & Co., there is a
sketch of the family home of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, the early explorer
of Oregon. “Emerging from Mount Auburn,” the author writes, “we take
counsel of the swinging sign pointing to the lane leading to Fresh
Pond, which is found to be the natural source of numerous
underground streams, which are found wherever the earth is
penetrated to any depth between it and Charleston.” The writer
continues:
Time out of mind the shores of the pond belonged to the Wyeths, and one
of this family deserves our notice in passing. Nathaniel J. Wyeth was
bred and born near at hand. Of an enterprising and courageous
disposition, he conceived the idea of organizing a party with which to
cross the continent and engage in trade with the Indian tribes of
Oregon. He enlisted one and twenty adventurous spirits, who made him
their leader, and with whom he set out from Boston on the first of
March, 1832, first encamping his party on one of the harbor islands, in
order to inure them to field life. The organizers provided themselves
with a novel means of transportation—no other than a number of boats,
built at the village smithy, and mounted on wheels. With these boats
they expected to pass the rivers they might encounter, while at other
times they were to serve as wagons. The idea was not without ingenuity,
but was founded on a false estimate of the character of the streams, and
of the mountain roads they were sure to meet with.
Wyeth and his followers pursued their route via Baltimore and the
railway, which then left them at the base of the Alleghanies, onward to
Pittsburg, at which point they took steamboat to Saint Louis, arriving
there on the eighteenth of April. Hitherto they had met with only a few
disagreeable adventures. They were now to face the real difficulties of
their undertaking. They soon discovered that their complicated wagons
were useless, and they were forced to part with them. The warlike
tribes, whose hunting-grounds they were to traverse, began to give them
uneasiness; and, to crown their misfortunes, they now ascertained how
ignorantly they had calculated upon the trade with the savages.
Saint Louis was then the great depot of the Indian traders, who made
their annual expeditions across the plains, prepared to fight or barter,
as the temper of the Indians might dictate. The old trappers who had
made their abode in the mountain regions met the traders at a given
rendezvous, receiving powder, lead, tobacco, and a few accessories in
exchange for their furs. To one of these parties Wyeth attached himself,
and it was well that he did so.
Before reaching the Platte, five of Wyeth’s men deserted their
companions, either from dissatisfaction with their leader, or because
they had just begun to realize the hazard of the enterprise. Nat Wyeth,
however, was of that stuff we so expressly name clear grit. There was no
flinching about him, the Pacific was his objective, and he determined to
arrive at his destination even if he marched alone. William Sublette’s
party, which Wyeth had joined, encountered the vicissitudes common to a
trip across the plains in that day; the only difference being that the
New England men now faced these difficulties for the first time, whereas
Sublette’s party was largely composed of experienced plainsmen. They
followed the course of the Platte, seeing great herds of buffalo roaming
at large, while they experienced the gnawings of hunger for want of fuel
to cook the delicious humps, sirloins and joints, constantly paraded
like the fruit of Tantalus before their greedy eyes. They found the
streams turbulent and swift; the Black Hills, which the iron horse now
so easily ascends, were infested with bears and rattlesnakes. Many of
the party fell ill from the effects of drinking the brackish water of
the Platte, Dr. Jacob Wyeth, brother of the captain and surgeon of the
party, being unluckily of this number.
Sublette, a French creole, and one of the pioneers that have preceded
pony-express, telegraph, stagecoach and locomotive, in their onward
march, had no fears of the rivalry of the New England men, and readily
took them under his protection. Besides, they swelled his numbers by the
addition of a score of good rifles, no inconsiderable acquisition when
his valuable caravan entered the country of the treacherous Blackfeet,
the thieving Crows, or warlike Nez Perces. The united bands arrived at
Pierre’s Hole, the trading rendezvous, in July, where they embraced the
first opportunity for repose since leaving the white settlements.
At this place there was a further secession from Wyeth’s company, by
which he was left with only eleven men, the remainder preferring to
return home with Sublette. Petty grievances, a somewhat too arrogant
demeanor on the part of the leader, and the conviction that the trip
would prove a failure, caused these men to desert their companions when
only a few hundred miles distant from the mouth of the Columbia. Before
a final separation occurred, a severe battle took place between the
whites and their Indian allies and the Blackfeet, by which Sublette lost
seven of his own men killed and thirteen wounded. None of Wyeth’s men
were injured in this fight, but a little later one of those who had
separated from him was ambushed and killed by Blackfeet.
Wyeth now joined Milton Sublette, the brother of William, under whose
guidance he proceeded towards Salmon River. The Bostons, as the
Northwest Coast Indians formerly styled all white men, arrived at
Vancouver on the twenty-ninth of October, having occupied seven months
in a journey which may now be made in as many days. The expedition was a
failure, indeed, so far as gain was concerned, and Wyeth’s men all left
him at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort. The captain, nothing daunted,
and determined to make use of his dearly bought experience, returned to
the States the ensuing season. His adventures may be followed by the
curious in the pleasant pages of Irving’s Captain Bonneville. Arriving
at the headwaters of the Missouri, he built what is known as a
bull-boat, made of buffalo skins stitched together and stretched over a
slight frame, in which, with two or three half-breeds, he consigned
himself to the treacherous currents and quicksands of the Big Horn. Down
this stream he floated to its confluence with the Yellowstone. At Fort
Union he exchanged his leather bark for a dug-out, with which he sailed,
floated, or paddled down the turbid Missouri to Camp (now Fort)
Leavenworth. He returned to Boston, and, having secured the means, again
repaired to St. Louis, where he enlisted a second company of sixty men,
with which he once more sought the old Oregon trail.
This was sixty years ago. Since then the Great American Desert, as it
was called, has undergone a magical transformation. Cities of twenty
thousand inhabitants exist today where Wyeth found only a dreary
wilderness; from the Big Muddy to the Pacific you are scarcely ever out
of sight of the smoke of the settler’s cabin. In looking at the dangers
and trials to which Wyeth found himself opposed, it must be admitted
that he exhibited rare traits of courage and perseverance, allied with
the natural capacity of a leader. His misfortunes arose through
ignorance, and, perhaps to no small extent also, from that vanity which
inclines your full-blooded Yankee to believe himself capable of
everything, because the word “impossible” is expunged from his
vocabulary.
NOTES.
[These notes were intended to be material for the closing pages of the
Quarterly, but were misplaced by the printer in the make-up.]
By the death of Elliott Coues last Christmas the history of exploration
of the region west of the Mississippi lost a most active and wonderfully
proficient worker. After nearly a lifetime spent in prodigious activity
in scientific lines he turned his energies to collecting, annotating and
editing the original records of explorers and traders of the northwest
and southwest. When Doctor Coues first took up the work of editing the
narratives of explorers he had attained great eminence as a writer in
ornithology. His reputation for thorough scholarship in the whole field
of biology was such that he was assigned the subjects of general
zoology, comparative anatomy and biology in the preparation of the
Century Dictionary. “His scientific writings number about one thousand
titles.”
He had spent some sixteen years either as a surgeon at different army
posts in the west, as far apart as Arizona and North Dakota, or as
naturalist connected with different surveys. Thus he brought a unique
preparation to the crowning work of his life in history. His
annotations, elucidating points of geography, zoology, and ethnology,
are copious and minute to a degree that quite bewilders the average
reader. The first fruits of his labors in the field of history were the
four volumes of his edition of Lewis and Clark in 1893, Zebulon Pike’s
Expeditions followed in 1895; Henry and Thompson’s Journals in 1897; and
Fowler’s Journal and Larpenteur’s Narratives—distinct works—have
appeared since. He was engaged on the Diary of Francisco Garces, when he
broke down last September, in Santa Fe, at the age of fifty-seven. The
issue of the New York _Times_ of March 3, speaks of the recent great
increase in value of all these works. The first two are particularly
scarce, and have commanded treble their original value.
Through Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor it is learned that he had expressed a
warm interest in the work of the Oregon Historical Society. He would
have been pleased with an honorary membership in the Society. To
acknowledge in some fitting way the great service he has done the
history of the Northwest would do the Society graceful credit.
A two-volume life of Gen. Isaac Ingalls Stevens by his son, Gen. Hazard
Stevens, is announced to appear in May. The history of the Pacific
Northwest during the eight eventful years from 1853 to 1861, cannot be
understood without a knowledge of the striking personality of General
Stevens. As Governor of Washington Territory, in command of the
exploration and survey of the northern route for the Pacific Railroad,
in authority during the terrible Yakima war, 1855-56, and as author and
executor of the summary proceedings for the settlement of the
difficulties arising out of that war, Governor Stevens had a most
conspicuous part in making that history. Gen. Hazard Stevens has been at
work on this life since 1877, and during the last two years has given
almost his whole time to it. He says that he found his father’s reports
in the Indian Department, and others in Washington very full and
complete, especially those relating to his Indian councils and treaties.
“The proceedings at the Walla Walla council,” he remarks, “are
especially interesting, particularly the speeches of the Indian chiefs.”
He believes that the life will have especial historical value in setting
the origin of the Indian war of 1855-56, the policy pursued towards the
Indians, and the prosecution of the Indian war in a correct light.
General Stevens recognizes that the Oregon Historical Society is the
rightful heir to the rich collection of historical material from which
this part of this work was written.
The Oregon Historical Society, as a perusal of the reports of its
activities during the first year of its existence reveals, has entered
upon its work under most favorable auspices. The legislature appreciated
the importance of the functions undertaken, and the expense attending a
successful fulfillment of them. The membership roll indicates a hearty
and strong response to the idea that Oregon shall be true to her makers.
The Society had at the date of the first annual report of the Secretary
seventy-six life members and two hundred and ninety-four annual members.
The primal mission of the Society is to bring together in the most
complete measure possible the data for the history of the commonwealth,
and to stimulate the widest and highest use of them. Every member should
avail himself of his first opportunity to visit the rooms of the Society
in the City Hall at Portland. The Directors believe that he will be
assured that there has been commendable zeal in the prosecution of the
Society’s work. They are concerned, however, that every member shall
realize that the trust devolving upon the Society is such that it cannot
be adequately or gloriously fulfilled unless each is alert in
discovering material, and concerned that it shall reach the collections
of the Society. In this line of our commonwealth’s interests everything
as to serviceability and value depends upon the concentration of the
material.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU.
By H. S. LYMAN.
Francis Xavier Matthieu, a pioneer of French Prairie, near the old town
of Champoeg, of the year 1842, and a participant in the movement for the
Oregon provisional government of May, 1843, was a French-Canadian by
birth. His native town was Terrebonne, twelve miles from Montreal, and
his father and mother were of pure French descent—the father’s family
being from Normandy, and the mother’s from Brittany; and both branches
were very early immigrants to Canada. They belonged to the working
class, and the parents of F. X. were only in the moderate circumstances
of the independent farmer. Owing to this circumstance, young Matthieu
was obliged at an early age to begin life on his own account. He went to
Montreal when quite young, and engaged as a clerk in a mercantile house.
There was, however, still earlier, while he was yet a schoolboy in his
native town, a very powerful formative influence that moulded all his
ideas, and though somewhat blindly as it first seemed, finally, with
wonderful selective affinity, turned his course westward, and made him
almost the deciding factor of free government in Oregon.
The date of his birth, 1818, brought his early life and schoolboy days
into the very critical time of the patriot movement in Canada. With that
disregard of political obligations for which the British government was
formerly noted, such as had caused the rupture with her greatest
American colonies, the royal authority had failed to keep the promises
made to the Canadian provinces; and, now restive under a rule that
seemed both tyrannous and faithless, the leaders of those Canadians were
demanding their covenanted rights as they understood them. Louis J.
Papineau, an orator of the character of Laurier of the present day, was
leading the movement. He had drawn up the famous memorial, or bill of
grievances, to the British crown. Though not a successful military
leader, and, indeed, discountenancing the use of force, he was a
thrilling orator, and had fired the heart of the French-Canadians with
the hope of equal rights; and created the determination to acquire
these, if not by agitation, then by revolution.
It happened that in the town of Terrebonne, where the little F. X.
Matthieu was living, there was a highly educated civil officer, a notary
public—the office of notary then being a profession that required
special legal, and classical education. The name of this notary was
Velade; and, besides his official duties, he was schoolmaster, receiving
a small stipend from the government, and nominal fees from his pupils.
Velade was a student of government, and a great admirer of the United
States. American liberty and law as developed in this country, he taught
in his school almost to the entire neglect of the Canadian system. This
he not only taught, but actually instituted. Every term his school held
an election after the American plan. Some of the boys also regularly
celebrated the Fourth of July, carrying American flags. This was in
connection with some young men from the United States who had come to
Terrebonne, and started a nail factory. With this extreme Americanism,
however, the townspeople were not altogether pleased, and sometimes
broke up their demonstrations.
While still a mere boy, Matthieu went to Montreal, where he was engaged
in clerking, and there acquired a certain impress and manner that
distinguishes him even yet from the farmer. Being already imbued with
ideas of free government, it was easy for him to find and join the Sons
of Liberty—a secret organization auxiliary to the party called
“Democrats,” who opposed the “Bureaucrats.”
The Sons of Liberty, or patriots, carried their movement to the point of
armed resistance. They drilled regularly in secret, using sticks for
guns; and at night met in secluded places to make cartridges and mould
bullets. Mr. Matthieu has preserved to this day his old bullet mould,
used at that time, which he has now presented to the Oregon Historical
Society. He was himself a very useful member of the Sons of Liberty,
since, being a store clerk, he could procure lead and powder more easily
than some others. One of the services of this company was to guard the
house of Papineau, whose appeals he heard in public, and whose boldness
was bringing on the threatened crisis.
As is well known, however, the movement collapsed. Before a blow was
struck, many of the Sons of Liberty were placed under arrest and
executed. Mr. Matthieu recalls the hanging of sixteen patriots in one
market place, tied in pairs, back to back. Though then a youth of not
twenty years old, he was himself in danger of the same fate and sought
safety at Terrebonne. While here, almost in hiding, he was approached by
a certain Doctor Frasier, a Scotchman, holding some government position,
and who, as it happened, was an uncle of Dr. John McLoughlin, then
Hudson’s Bay chief factor at Fort Vancouver, Oregon Territory. Matthieu
was asked why he did not leave Canada.
“I have no pass,” he replied.
“I will give you one,” said the old doctor; and immediately provided the
necessary paper.
With this passport, Matthieu at once started for the American border. He
would become citizen of the United States. At the line, however, where
it was necessary to present his pass, the officer looked at him sharply;
“You do not correspond with the description;” he said, “this calls for
black eyes, yours are blue”—this inadvertence probably being due to the
fact that his eyes were of that changeable color that turns dark under
excitement.
“Can’t help the description,” replied the young refugee, “that is not my
fault.”
The officer then eyed his red and black diamond squared plaid, which was
the patriot uniform, and which Matthieu had not thought of as unsafe
while he had his passport. But instead of detaining him, the officer
said, “Well, get along with you; the sooner the country is rid of you
fellows, the better”—probably little dreaming that the blue-eyed patriot
was to turn up a few years later in Oregon to confront the British
authority and help that important section of North America over to
liberty as defined in the American Constitution.
Coming to Albany, New York, (1838), he soon found employment as clerk in
a store. To him, his patron was honorable; but not altogether so to his
creditors, as he left the city suddenly and secretly. Matthieu was
entrusted with the care of his family, and was instructed to bring them
to the new scene of operations, being Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This, in
course of time, led the young man to that then far western land (May,
1839). From Milwaukee he went to St. Louis, being attracted toward that
old French city (August, 1839). There he found service very soon with
the American Fur Company—then officered almost exclusively by Frenchmen.
His first outing was to Fort Pierre (October, 1839), on the Missouri
River, among the Sioux and Dakotas—the Sioux Indians being the finest
wild men that he has ever seen, whom he describes as “a great nation,
fine, noble fellows.” During this period he encountered many hardships,
and also much to interest a light-hearted Gallic youth. He remembers one
expedition on which provisions became reduced, the daily allowance being
two biscuits to the man and two ounces of dried Buffalo beef to two
comrades. This lean fare was eked out, as they marched, by eating the
frosted rosebuds of the Missouri meadows. As an incident of a trader’s
life among the Sioux, he recalls with much _gusto_ the solemn feasts of
the chiefs, which it would have been the height of impropriety not to
attend, and which must be observed with all _punctillio_, or spoil all
the bargaining. These were dog feasts, and consisted principally in
eating a plateful of soup of tender dog meat boiled to a paste, into
which red buffalo berries were sprinkled. To leave any of this delicacy
uneaten would be a breach of etiquette too serious to allow; and the
higher the trader was held in estimation, the more liberal the share
placed upon his plate. Not only to a refined palate was the dog paste
rather objectionable, but it often included much of the hair of the dog
as well as other portions. The sharp French trader, however, avoided the
difficulty. He hired an Indian chief of unquestioned appetite to clean
up his plate. Thus the feast had been eaten; and etiquette was fully
satisfied.
A limited amount of alcohol was also used by the traders in connection
with driving bargains, and Mr. Matthieu recalls one instance in which
one gallon of the article judiciously diluted procured ten buffalo
robes, worth $10 each—besides other trumpery. However, the better class
of the traders seldom indulged the Indians beyond moderation, or only at
long intervals. So great was their fondness for the stuff that even the
smell of liquor often seemed to set them wild.
After a year’s service in the country of the Sioux, the return to Saint
Louis was made, and at that point he outfitted as a free trapper, going
out on to the Arkansas to Bent’s Fort (1840). George Bent, the notable
trapper-captain, whom he met there, he describes as “a little bit of a
man, but sharp as lightning.” On this jaunt he also met Kit Carson, who
is almost as well known in the annals of the frontier as Daniel Boone of
Kentucky. Carson he describes as “a terror”—not as a desperado, however,
but as a hunter. He was an unerring shot, and dropped many a buffalo. He
was stocky and nervy in build, and had something of the Southwestern
bluster of manner, yet not so offensively so as many others.
Mr. Matthieu recalls serious hardships on this expedition, passing one
stretch of five days without food. But such experiences were little
thought of, the trapper always relying upon his rifle without fear. In
those days the Indians were very friendly.
Returning eastward the next season, he spent the winter and spring
trapping in the Black Hills (1841). However, it seems that this life of
a trapper, nomadic and free, and dependent only upon the unlimited
bounty of nature, and the friendly offices of the generally tractable
Indians, although amusing in many ways to a light-hearted Frenchman, did
not wholly satisfy young Matthieu. The desire for settled society, and
progressive individual life and home frequently took possession of him;
and the opportunity to gratify this was apparently fortuitously afforded
at Fort Laramie, early in the summer of 1842.
With his party of trappers he found there the Oregon immigrants of that
season. This was the first regular immigration to Oregon across the
plains, and aside from the ladies of the mission parties that had
crossed in 1836-38, it was the first appearance of white women in the
Rocky Mountains.
This was the party of Captain Hastings, in which was Dr. Elijah White,
who had first come to Oregon with the large mission party on the bark
Lausanne, in 1839-40; but had returned east, and was now coming to
Oregon again, crossing the plains, holding the appointment to the
position of sub-Indian agent for Oregon, and was accompanied by a party
of over one hundred immigrants. Doctor White is recalled by Mr. Matthieu
as “a sleek looking gentleman,” and “a quick talker.”
A well-known member of the party was Amos L. Lovejoy, described as very
light sandy-complexioned, and “more quick tempered than any man I ever
knew;” Captain Hastings was of heavy build and swarthy complexion. The
pioneer, Medorem Crawford, then in his young prime, was also in the
company. Sydney Moss, now living as a nonegenarian at Oregon City;
Thomas Sladden and——Robb were also quickly made acquaintances. Among the
women of the party Mr. Matthieu especially recalls an elderly widow,
Mrs. Brown, and her daughter, who were said to have been held, previous
to this time, as captives among the Comanches. There were a number of
families in the train, among them being that of Mr. Smith.
The pilot of the company was Fitzpatrick, the famous guide of Wyeth’s
party, whom Matthieu describes as tall and spare with abundant gray
hair; an Irishman of good common education, and even gentlemanly
bearing; perfectly at home anywhere on the boundless prairies, or within
the mountain ranges. Unlike the most of his race, however, he was very
taciturn.
While this company was waiting at Laramie, provisioning, Matthieu and
his comrades quickly decided to go along with them to Oregon. They had
their rifles and their horses; what more was required? The very first
night, however, they discovered that more was needed. They went
supperless, game having failed during the day; and they could not but
look on with a little envy and self-commiseration at the various
campfires where the immigrants were despatching fried bacon and mountain
biscuit and drinking coffee. Mr. Matthieu says, however, that the
immigrants could not be blamed or called inhospitable for neglecting to
entertain them, as they knew as yet nothing of the trappers who had
joined their caravan, and every head of a family felt obliged to guard
his little store of provisions, scant at the best.
The incidents of the journey are vividly recalled by Mr. Matthieu,
though now after a lapse of fifty-eight years. These should be mentioned
here, some being serious and some being laughable, whether recorded
elsewhere or not, as they afford light upon the individuality of this
important member of the group of Oregon pioneers, of the era of the
provisional government.
One of the first serious affairs after leaving Laramie occurred at
Independence Rock. This was the incident of the capture of Hastings and
Lovejoy by the Sioux Indians. At this point, a noted rock, or high
ledge, with a perpendicular front, about the space of a mile (F. X. M.)
from the Sweetwater River, the immigrant train was delayed in order to
bury a man, one of a company of Germans, who, in drawing his gun from a
wagon accidentally caused the discharge of the piece with the result
that he was fatally shot in the groin.
Taking advantage of this delay, Matthieu and his comrades went buffalo
hunting. From the actions of the buffaloes that were at length
discovered, he was suspicious that there were Indians in the
neighborhood. The buffalo herds were constantly in motion, as was the
case when the Indians were stalking them. This, however, caused him no
uneasiness, and it was not until two o’clock next morning that he
returned to the train.
The journey was resumed about daybreak, but sometime in the forenoon it
began to be passed around that Lovejoy and Captain Hastings were
missing; and this caused anxiety. Matthieu suspected Indians and scanned
the plains, now ablaze to the distant horizon in the summer sunshine. At
length he caught far in the distance, a distinct glance of light. This
was thrown, as he surmised, from one of the little zinc-framed
looking-glasses that the Indian braves frequently wore attached around
their necks. Waiting for no further sign, he hastened to the train,
telling the immigrants to halt and get ready, as the Indians would soon
be upon them. To them this was rather mystifying, as the young Frenchman
took no trouble to explain how he knew this. But upon his advice the
wagons were halted, and everything was placed in readiness to receive
the Indians, who might be hostile. In the course of a few hours a great
band of Sioux appeared in sight, developing out of the prairie, and
galloping in wild fashion upon their ponies—or in large part running on
foot. They numbered about five hundred and were in full war dress and
paint. Lovejoy and Hastings were among them, being held as captives and
looking very much crestfallen. They had delayed, as it seems, in boyish
spirit, to inscribe their names among others on the face of Independence
Rock; and having just completed their task, had turned to go only to
find themselves in the embrace of some very large Indians.
Matthieu, however, who knew personally some of the chiefs, soon saw that
they were good natured, as they now moved around the train, and were
only wishing to drive a good bargain to let their captives go. They were
a war party and wanted ammunition. When this was made known, the men of
the train exclaimed “What! shall we give them ammunition to shoot us
with?” Matthieu, however, advised giving it. “They have enough
ammunition already,” he said, “to shoot us. They do not wish to fight
us, but only desire supplies for fighting other Indians.” Accordingly,
the ammunition was given them, along with other things, and the captives
were released. This, however, was not the last of Indians. The next day
a band, or rather a host, of about five or six thousand (F. X. M.) of
the Blackfoot Sioux, under a great war chief, appeared. By this immense
multitude, the train was compelled to halt, and to be inspected by band
after band of the curious savages. The Indians being in such
overwhelming force, were very free in their ways. They were especially
curious to look at the women of the train. Mr. Matthieu relates the
following amusing incident: “The family of Mr. Smith was especially
annoyed by the curious braves, who came continually to their tent, and
pulling the flaps apart, gazed in silent admiration upon his wife and
daughters, or spoke to one another in their own language.” By this
behavior Mr. Smith, who was of a very irascible temper, was so much
annoyed that he came at length to Matthieu, asking him to send them off,
as he could do nothing with them. When Matthieu arrived and discovered
what it was the Indians wanted, and the thoroughly irate Mr. Smith
desired to know, the Frenchman said: “You must be very quiet; you must
make no commotion.” Mr. Smith agreed. “I am almost afraid to tell you,”
continued Matthieu, “you will not like it.” Mr. Smith insisted. “They
wish to buy one of your daughters to present to their great chief,” said
Mr. Matthieu. At this Mr. Smith sprang to his feet in great excitement,
ready to drive the intruders away by force. “Softly, softly,” said
Matthieu. “You will have the whole band down upon us.” Then to the
Indians he explained how their white brother regretted his inability to
meet their wishes; but according to the customs of his people, it was
impossible to sell her. When satisfied entirely with this information,
the braves retired. However, the fondness of the Indians to see and even
possess the white women, was a real source of danger, with which the
immigrant parties had to reckon. It was not simply an annoyance. It was
apprehended by some that American families could never cross the plains
safely. The Indians, it was said, would seize their women at all
hazards. That they did not do so, but respected the white man’s customs,
even when, as in this case, they were in greatly superior numbers, shows
they had a certain native morality, often not found among the whites.
This great band of Indians also could hardly be made to believe that the
immigrant train had no liquors, and begged insistently for the
firewater. Fitzpatrick, the pilot, both with this band and that at
Independence Rock, refused to be made known, not wishing to implicate
himself as a leader of white people through their country; and remarked
that all the prairie was home to him, and he could drop off anywhere.
Matthieu, therefore, having learned the custom of the Sioux, and knowing
some of them personally, was able to help the immigrants, and to greatly
reduce the liability of trouble. “I actually believe,” he says, “that
they might not have got through without me.” These Sioux, being of the
Blackfoot division of the nation, were at this juncture on a great
expedition to cross the Rocky Mountains and attack the Snake Indians.
At Fort Hall, the exact date of reaching which is not remembered by Mr.
Matthieu, the immigrants delayed, some for a shorter, others a longer
time. The object was to change from their wagons to pack saddles. Mr.
Matthieu does not recollect that the Hudson’s Bay commandant there
offered to purchase any wagons, and thinks this improbable. “The
Hudson’s Bay Company had no use for any wagons,” he observes.
The commandant, Grant, is well remembered as very large and fine looking
“as big a man as Dr. John McLoughlin”—which is as grand a comparison as
could be made by a McLoughlin admirer. Grant assured the immigrants that
it was impossible for wagons to cross the Blue Mountains into Oregon.
This, Mr. Matthieu believes, was said because he thought it true, and he
was simply representing what was generally understood as the fact. Mr.
Matthieu remarks, however, “we all know very well that the Hudson’s Bay
Company was not favorable to immigration to Oregon;” and, though only a
young man at the time, he understood that the British expected to hold
the Columbia River as their boundary line. As to bringing the wagons on
to the Columbia River, he says that this could have been done, as wood
and water and the grass were in most places abundant, and though in some
places the trail was very difficult, it was not impossible to American
teamsters.
He and his comrades remained about eight days at Fort Hall, and then
came on with the Hudson’s Bay express by the horse trail, crossing the
Blue Mountains, and descending upon the valley of the Umatilla, and then
going by Whitman’s farm at Waiilatpu to old Fort Walla Walla. At
Waiilatpu he remained fifteen days waiting for the other immigrants to
come in; as the trip from Fort Hall to Whitman’s was made in small
parties, or even by families, as they were able, the later ones
following the tracks of the earlier. There was here no danger of
Indians, and the semi-military organization with which they started was
entirely abandoned.
With Doctor Whitman and his place, Mr. Matthieu was very favorably
impressed. The farm was neat and well cultivated, having a large garden,
a field of grain and a small grist mill. Doctor Whitman himself he
describes as “a very nice man,” of unbounded hospitality. “His garden
and grist mill he threw open” to their use, and for what they had need
of “he would not take a cent.” In person he recalls Whitman as not very
tall, rather slender in build, and of strongly Yankee style. His hair
was then dark. Though very favorably impressed, however, with Whitman,
the Yankee missionary bore, in Matthieu’s estimation, no comparison with
Doctor McLoughlin, who was his beau ideal of the natural-born leader of
men.
In this connection Mr. Matthieu states that he had the following
incident directly from some employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company at
Vancouver, which illustrates Doctor McLoughlin’s disposition toward
Whitman. In 1841 the Cayuse Indians formed the intention of killing
Doctor Whitman. But they feared the punishment that Doctor McLoughlin
would visit upon them, if he disapproved the act. They devised the plan,
therefore, of discovering his feeling, as if by accident. A number of
the leaders were sent to Fort Vancouver, and there stationing themselves
by the bank of the river, they began to talk to one another of
destroying Whitman. Doctor McLoughlin was passing and they were
purposely overheard by him. Instantly confronting the Cayuses the old
Doctor raised his great cane and cried out in a terrific voice, “Who
says you shall kill Whitman?” and threatened condign punishment if such
a massacre should take place. The Indians scattered and immediately gave
up their evil plan.
Before leaving Mr. Matthieu’s account of his experiences on the plains,
perhaps the following story may be told as throwing a side light upon
the character and ways of some of the people who crossed. It is in
regard to an Irishman called Pat, who was with the party but had no
outfit and no money, and was little better than a camp follower. He
obtained his day’s provisions by going from camp to camp, or mess to
mess, asking for anything that might be put into his pot, which he then
boiled over the fire making a sort of soup. Once while he was thus
cooking he had the misfortune to drop his pipe into the savory mess,
which turned it so much against his stomach that he would not eat it.
“Give it to B.,” suggested a bystander, “he will eat anything.” B. was
another camp-follower, less-liked than Pat. B. enjoyed his meal, but
afterwards regretted his precipitancy. Pat always endeavored to return
the courtesies of his patrons by doing little favors around the camps,
especially in helping the women about their wood and fires, and became
rather a favorite. Reaching Oregon, and finally going to California, he
prospered and became a wealthy man.
The trip over the Cascade Mountains was the most difficult of any part
of the journey, and involved the most suffering. The route was by the
old Indian trail at the base of Mount Hood, on the north side. A
snow-storm was encountered here, and by this fourteen of the horses were
stampeded and took the back trail for The Dalles, where there was an
abundance of grass. Matthieu, however, managed to keep himself
comfortable during the storm by kindling an immense fire in the timber,
and retained his horses by tying them. On this part of the trip he was
accompanied by Hugh Burns, a well-known Irishman, who made himself
useful as cook.
At Oregon City, which he reached about the twenty-fifth of September (F.
X. M.) the first man that he met was Father Waller, the well-known
member of the Methodist Society. By this kindly gentleman, Matthieu was
at once and very pressingly invited home to supper. “He wanted to hear
all about my journey.” Matthieu, however, felt rather delicate about
accepting his hospitality. After his hard journey over the last range of
mountains he felt outrageously hungry; but, for this very reason, was
timid about partaking a “company dinner,” so he began apologizing: “I am
looking rough and very dirty,” he said, “Had you not better excuse me?”
“No, no,” said Father Waller, “you must come.”
The neat house, the supper table with its snowy cloth and shining
dishes, and the care of the lady, Mrs. Waller, to have a nice repast,
greatly impressed the hungry immigrant. But particularly was his
appetite whetted, if that were possible, by the sight and smell of
potatoes—an article of food he had not seen for months. When seated at
the table he was hardly able to restrain himself; he was taken not a
little aback, however, when, instead of proceeding to the meal at once,
the good missionary began by asking a blessing, which he extended into
quite lengthy devotions. “It was the longest prayer I ever heard,” says
Mr. Matthieu.
Learning at Oregon City that there were French Canadians on the prairie
fifteen miles up the Willamette, he proceeded to Champoeg. Arriving
there he found that the settlers in that region numbered nearly three
hundred all told. Stopping off at the old landing, he found near this
point, about a mile and a half up the river, living upon the river bank,
Etienne Lucier, and remained with him during the winter. French Prairie
is the borderland between the originally heavily timbered country of the
lower Willamette and the more open lands of Marion County and the big
prairies of the upper valley. Matthieu found the country of the French
settlers even more beautifully diversified than at the present, the
practice of the Indians, then but recently discontinued, of burning the
prairies over, having brought the whole country for miles together to
the condition of a park. Stately groves of fir and oak, or belts of
deciduous timber along the water courses, broke the monotony of the
grassy levels, while from almost any point of view the panorama of
distant mountain scenery was uninterrupted. The Butte, as it was called,
which escarped upon the Willamette just below the landing, and from
which Butteville takes its name, formed a sightly highland and became a
well-known landmark to the voyager of the early day. The name Champoeg,
says Mr. Matthieu, is simply a corruption of the French term, _Champment
Sable_—the camp of the sands.
With this Willamette country, however, Matthieu was not at first
thoroughly pleased. The deep moss that gathered on the trees and
buildings, and the general mildness and moisture of the winter weather,
suggested disease, such as fever and ague. He anticipated a hot, sickly
summer—which, however, he afterwards found was not the characteristic of
Oregon.
Life in this region was entirely Arcadian. The Hudson’s Bay servants had
been encouraged to settle upon the rich prairie lands and raise wheat.
Doctor McLoughlin, a most shrewd business man, foresaw (F. X. M.) that
the Willamette and Columbia valleys would ultimately cease to be
fur-bearing country, and sought privileges to the north. His agreements
with the Russians of New Archangel, allowing him to trade with the
Indians of Alaska, provided, also, that he should supply that post with
fifteen thousand bushels of wheat per year. To meet this requirement,
the old Hudson’s Bay servants who had served out their time, and by
their articles of agreement were to be returned to their native land,
were retained as employees of the company, and they were provided, also,
with an outfit to begin farming. This consisted of a two-wheeled cart,
oxen, plows, a cow, and necessary household furniture, which was to be
paid for in wheat—the ordinary currency of the country. The cattle were
to be returned; the increase kept. A double outfit was allowed to those
who would settle north of the Columbia River. This, as Mr. Matthieu
understands, was for political reasons; the British wishing to secure
that section by actual settlement and occupation. The convenience, the
beauty, and the fertility of the Willamette Valley, however, outweighed
in the minds of the farmers the greater liberality of the offer on the
north, and most of the Hudson’s Bay people came to French Prairie.
Lucier, Matthieu found, was one of the oldest of the Oregonians, having
preceded him by about thirty years. He was one of the old trappers that
came with Hunt’s party, of the Astor expedition. In person, this now old
man was short and stocky, and of a dark complexion. He was about sixty,
and was living with his second wife. The first family of three children
were then grown. His second family consisted of two boys, both of whom
are now living on French Prairie, one having a family of several
children. Among the subjects of conversation with Lucier were the laws
and customs of the United States. The old Hudson’s Bay trapper was quite
suspicious, and had been told that our government imposed very heavy
duties—such as placing a tax upon windows. Matthieu, however, was able
to tell him that this was entirely a mistake. The laws of the United
States were just and liberal, and under them all men were equal; there
was no tyranny. Lucier, who was a very saving and industrious man, and
at the end of his service with the company had to his credit the
respectable sum of £400, was finally well satisfied with these
representations. All the settlers of the Prairie he found to be
hospitable in the extreme; they were willing to share with the stranger
anything they had. The most of them had native wives, or at least of
mixed blood; a number of whom were from Clatsop or Chinook. They were an
industrious people and entirely honest. The incident is related that by
some mistake as to ownership three sacks of potatoes were once left on
the river bank at the portage at Oregon City. There they remained three
months, no one disturbing them. The following story also is told of
McLoughlin and his wheat buyer: It was the custom of the agent who
bought wheat to strike the measure—the wheat not being very well cleaned
requiring to be settled in order to give full weight. Seeing him give
the measure a number of slow, gentle taps, McLoughlin exclaimed, “Tut,
tut,” and gave it one heavy blow; but to his chagrin, and the vast
enjoyment of the bystanders, the doctor’s heavy stroke instead of
_settling_ the grain only shook it up, and he instantly admitted that
the buyer’s way was the best, and with that the farmers were all well
pleased, because thereby they _sold the best weight_—which illustrates
not only their simplicity, but their desire to act on the square with
the great chief factor.
Names of French-Canadians on French Prairie when Mr. Matthieu first went
there, and who all, as he remembers, took part in the provisional
government meeting—they are collected from his ledger of the business
carried on by him with George Le Roque, at Butteville, beginning in
1850:
XAVIER LADEROUTE
ANTOINE BONANFANT
ANDRE LA CHAPELL
PIERRE PAPIN
LOUIS B. VANDALLE
JEAN B. DU CHARME
FABIEN MALOIN
LUC PAGNON
ETIENNE GREGOIRE
AMABLE ARCOUETTE
PIERRE DE LORD
LOUIS A. VANDALLE
JOHN SANDERS
PIERRE PARISEAU
CHARLES RONDEAU
DAVID DONPIERRE
ANDRE DU BOIS
PIERRE DEPOT
MOYSE LOR
PIERRE LE COURSE
JOSEPH BERNABE
BAPTISTE DEGUIRE
ADOLPHE CHAMBERLAIN
JEAN LINGRAS
ALEXIS AUBICHON
JEAN SERVANS
MICHELLE LAFERTE
JEAN B. DALCOURSE
LOUIS OSANT
JEAN B. AUBICHON
ANTOINE FELICE
MICHAEL LAFROMBOISE
JOSEPH GERVAIS
JEAN B. PANPIN
OLIVIER BRISCBOIS
THOMAS ROA
LOUIS BOIVERS
ANDRE LANGTAIN
ETIENNE LUCIER
ALEXIS LAPRATTE
PIERRE BELAQUE.
The following were Frenchmen who came to Oregon in the spring of 1842,
except Matthieu, who came in the fall. They were at the meeting at
Champoeg. This list has, perhaps, never been published:
GEDEREAU SENCALLE
THOMAS MOISON
PIERRE GANTHIER
AUGUSTIN REMON
JOSEPH MATTE
FRANCIS BERNIER
F. X. MATTHIEU.
During the first months of the year 1843, the question of organizing an
independent or provisional government, until the United States should
extend its authority over Oregon, was much discussed. Debates were held
at Oregon City, and the project was the matter of ordinary conversations
at Salem and Tualatin Plains. The leaders of the movement, as is well
known, saw the necessity of the whole community participating, and
devised a plan that would interest all. The French Canadians could not
be interested in the general question of a new government; being quite
contented as they were, and having unlimited faith in McLoughlin, with
whom they did all their business, and from whom they obtained all the
counsel and protection they felt needed.
“The idea of organizing a provisional government was then,” says Mr.
Matthieu, “to give the United States a reason for taking possession of
Oregon.”
The device of the “Wolf Meetings,” however, for providing protection
against the wild animals, brought them out and the greater question of
forming a government was gradually from this brought to a focus. With
this preliminary work, however, Matthieu had nothing to do, and his
sentiments were not known to the Americans, or even to the Canadians,
except Lucier. He was not at the meetings of February and March. He
attended the meeting at Champoeg. This was held, according to his
recollection, in a Hudson’s Bay building, just over the bluff, at the
landing; the embankment of the river here being high and steep. The
meeting, however, was very informal, being called to order in the house,
but the final vote being taken out of doors.
The details of this important meeting need not be here entered into,
except so far as concerns the recollection of Mr. Matthieu. The ability
of the common people to organize and maintain a sufficient government,
in a remote corner of the world, in the midst of numerous and even in
some cases of powerful and cunning bands of Indians; and in opposition
to the interests and business policy of a great corporation—was to be
tested. The character and calibre of the men who constituted the
“people” is a matter of the highest and most lasting interest. What
items Mr. Matthieu recollects of them are worthy of the most careful
preservation. He remembers W. H. Gray as one of the most active and
strenuous of the Americans at the meeting. “Gray took part,” he says.
“He wanted to organize the worst way—he would not give up to any other
notion.” G. W. Le Breton, whom he describes as very popular, both with
the French and with the Americans, and who acted as secretary, was not
less alert. He remembers Le Breton as a young man, short in person, but
very active. “He never stood still a minute.” He recollects Rev. J. S.
Griffin of Tualatin Plains as present, but not as taking a very active
part. Robert Shortess, with his tall, slim figure and strongly Roman
profile, was also among the number. Sydney Smith, from Chehalem, was
there too. Mr. Matthieu recalls of Smith that he once hired him to
assist in filling out a bill of logs, contracted to be delivered at
Oregon City. To Matthieu’s dismay—he was inexperienced as a
lumberman—the first cut, which was from a white fir, that he had rolled
into the river, sank out of sight in the water. Smith used a strong
expression implying lack of sense on the part of the person to whom it
was applied, and then exclaimed—“I will show you.” Then he bored a hole
in a log to be rafted and inserted a large cedar plug, or chunk, which
just floated the white fir. Thomas Hubbard was also at the meeting.
Others whom he recalls were Amos Cook and Francis Fletcher of the
Yamhill Fords, near La Fayette; and George Gay, who was formerly an
English sailor, but took leave of his ship at Monterey, California, and
came to Oregon in the well known party with Doctor Bailey, and became a
large landholder near Dayton, building the first brick house in the
valley, and becoming famous for his hospitality to travelers. Others
were G. W. Ebbert, Wilkins, Doctor Newell and Joseph L. Meek, of the
Tualatin Plains, and Messrs. Babcock, Hines, Doctor Wilson, Alanson
Beers, and J. L. Parrish of the Methodist Society.
Matthieu understood that there were three parties in reference to
organizing a government. These were the strongly American for it, led by
Gray and others, and the Canadian settlers who opposed, or at least did
not favor it; and Dr. McLoughlin and his near friends, who really
favored an independent government and expected to become citizens of it,
but who thought the movement at that time premature. Mr. Matthieu does
not recall that Bishop Blanchet was present at the meeting. A memorial
had been prepared by the Bishop, on the part of the Canadians, to show
that organization was unnecessary and inadvisable. At the critical
juncture, however, after there had been some discussion and the meeting
was becoming confused, and, indeed, was in danger of breaking up without
action, he remembers well how old Joe Meek strode forth, and by the
simple power of voice and example gained control after parliamentary
tactics had failed. He cried out, as he would to a company of
militiamen: “All in favor of organization, come to the right.” One
hundred and two men were present. Fifty of these quickly went over to
the right, in favor of independence. The other fifty-two, all Canadians,
remained as they were, or withdrew in the other direction.
Now came out Matthieu’s republican training, which he had received in
his schoolboy days, under Velade, at Terrebonne. His “mind was made up,”
he says, “ever since I left Canada. I knew what it was to live and die a
slave under British rule.” And he was still carrying the picture of
Papineau, the liberator.
Now that a time for action had come, he was not wanting. He said,
therefore, to the Canadians that he was going with the Americans. He
knew what he was doing, and was fully decided which was the right side.
Old Lucier, the trapper of 1811, followed him, and now the vote stood
fifty-two for, and fifty against organization. Then went up the shout,
led by Joe Meek and his mountain men.
The Canadians, though defeated, were entirely satisfied with the result,
and had not favored the movement principally because they did not
understand it, and, like Lucier, had obtained incorrect ideas. But when
the vote prevailed, they acquiesced cheerfully, and became among the
best citizens of the little republic—the smallest, probably, since the
days of the Pilgrim fathers, who organized their government in the cabin
of the Mayflower.
After organization was effected, and a body of laws was framed, Matthieu
was called upon to take part in affairs, and was elected justice of the
peace for Champoeg County, an office which he says he filled to “the
satisfaction of every body.” He settled disputes by inviting the
complaining parties to sit down with him to a good dinner, and after an
hour’s cheer and pleasant chat, he sent them away well contented with
his findings.
He had some trouble with distillers, who sometimes set up little stills
in out of the way places, and made liquor to intoxicate the Indians. He
recalls one case in which he and Doctor Wilson, the judge, traced a
distiller out into the woods, back of French Prairie, at DePot’s, and
found him over a teakettle, which he used as his still, manufacturing
what was called “blue ruin”—a liquor made out of Sandwich Island
molasses, and was an article so destructive as to almost relieve the
authorities of the necessity of estopping the manufacture—the juice
being the executioner of its producer.
Of all the characters of the early day, McLoughlin stands out foremost,
and overtops all others, in Mr. Matthieu’s recollection. The old chief
factor had some of the elements of greatness: “He was the finest man I
ever knew,” says Mr. Matthieu, “and there will never be another like
him. He did what no other man would do.” With Doctor McLoughlin, Doctor
Whitman, whom he greatly respected, he says, “bore no comparison.”
McLoughlin had the immense physique, the great voice, and the commanding
manner, and also the positive and decisive mind that carried all before
him.
Many are the incidents that Mr. Matthieu relates illustrating his
qualities. Once, he says, an Indian was brought to him charged with
committing a gross offense. “Is he guilty?” asked the doctor. “Yes,”
they replied, and presented the proof. “Tie him to that cannon,” he
replied, pointing to one of the two pieces of artillery that commanded
the entrance to the fort. When this was done, he said, “Give him fifteen
lashes.” Soon after a white man was brought, charged with the same
offense. Doctor McLoughlin made the same inquiries, and finding him
guilty administered the same punishment. This illustrates why his
authority was so absolute among the Indians. His administration exactly
filled their conception of justice.
The services of McLoughlin to the immigrants of the year ’42, and later,
until he resigned his position as chief factor, are fully vouched for by
Mr. Matthieu. The doctor advanced everything needed, and furnished the
use of bateaux to any in distress. The concluding portion of the
immigrants’ journey, that from The Dalles to Oregon City, was often
virtually provided for by McLoughlin. For all these advances, he was
held to the last penny by his company, and as Mr. Matthieu learned, he
was obliged to render every cent not paid by the immigrants—a sum so
large as to very nearly bankrupt the man.
Upon the return of Mr. Matthieu, in 1858, for a visit to his home in
Canada, he took the pains to visit some of Doctor McLoughlin’s relatives
at their place of business in Quebec, whom he found to be men of much
the same magnificent physical mould as the chief factor. He inquired of
them as particularly as he dared as to Doctor McLoughlin’s fortune,
venturing to remark that he supposed he was very rich. “He was wealthy
at one time,” was the reply, “but his company required the payment of
large sums that he advanced on credit, and that left him with little.”
Mr. Matthieu understands that besides his salary of £2,500 per year, he
held two shares in the stock of the company, the largest allowed to one
individual outside the chartered corporation. His business also
included, besides the fur trade of Oregon, extensive operations in
British Columbia and Alaska, salmon export to the Sandwich Islands, and
milling at Oregon City. At one time he made a proposition to build the
canal and locks at the Willamette Falls, at his own expense; but was
refused the charter. (F. X. M.)
Returning to Mr. Matthieu’s first years in Oregon: He remained with
Lucier until 1844. For two years afterwards he lived on French Prairie
proper, which is some six miles back from the river. He was engaged in
labor during this time, building houses, and making wagons for the
settlers. Life he found carried on here in simple style, log cabins
being the rule, furnished with big fireplaces, made of sticks, plastered
over with the tough black clay found underneath the prairie sod. Few had
stoves, and the cooking was done mainly over the coals, or in kettles
swung on a crane.
In 1846 he was married, and took a square mile of land a mile from the
river, back of the Butte, upon which he has lived now for fifty-four
years. It is a noble old place, having both prairie and woodland, and
abundant water, and commands beautiful prospects in every direction. His
wife was Rose, a daughter of Louis Osant, a Hudson’s Bay employee and
trapper. The earliest recollections of Mrs. Matthieu are of journeyings
on horseback with the parties of her father or of Michel La Framboise,
one of the most trusted leaders of the Hudson’s Bay trappers. She
recalls how, on one of these jaunts when she was a mere tot of three
years, and she had for a comrade a little daughter of La Framboise, they
were delighted as they passed under the expansive oaks of the Sacramento
Valley to hear the dry leaves rustle under their horses’ hoofs. It was a
Gypsy life that the trappers led, and those that made the trip to
California, like La Framboise and Osant, had the pleasantest road to
travel of all the parties.
The mother of Rose having died, the girl was brought up in the family of
Pierre Belaque, who occupied a house near Lucier’s. A patriarchal
family, fourteen in number, were born to these pioneers, ten of whom are
now living:
PHILEMON GEER
CLARA OUIMETTE
*PRISCILLA
*EDWARD
ALFRED
LESTER
MAMIE
RANDALL
CHARLES
ROSE
ARSINOE BURTON
*HENRY
ERNEST
*WILLIAM
*VIOLET
Mr. Matthieu has lived as a farmer of Oregon, having been able to
provide his family with life’s advantages, and himself performing the
duties of the good citizen. Besides filling the office of Justice of the
Peace in the Provisional Government, he was in 1874 and again in 1878,
elected to the Oregon Legislature from Marion County. In 1849 he made
the trip to the California gold mines, but was so virulently attacked by
fever there as to be compelled to return without making a fortune. In
1858 he took a trip to Canada, by way of Panama, and in 1883, went with
the pioneer excursion on the Northern Pacific Railroad. He is now at the
age of eighty-two, in good health, of unimpaired memory, good hearing,
and unchanged voice; though, having suffered in early life from
snow-blindness in the Rocky Mountains, has somewhat lost the use of his
sight. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, of high degree. He was
in the mercantile business for many years, after 1850, at Butteville,
with George Le Roque, and in all business relations and in public
affairs has maintained a reputation for unquestioned honesty.
NOTES.
IN REGARD TO INDIAN TRIBES, THEIR ANTIPATHIES, ETC.
Mr. Matthieu says: “I have forgot a great deal. Of the Sioux, where I
was, there were the Blackfeet—a large nation; then there were the
Ogalallahs. Their chief, when I was there, was called Yellow Hair. His
hair was not yellow, but lighter than some others. He was a big fellow,
and you could hear him grunt like a grizzly. Then there was a little
tribe, the Broken Arrows. They were the meanest set—they would get
liquor, and kill each other. I do not suppose there were twenty of them
when I left. The Crow nation lived west of Fort Pierre, about one
hundred or two hundred miles, and one division of them was the Gros
Ventres. The Pawnees were the terror of the Sioux; there were many
half-breeds among them. The Sioux did not all have horses. The poorer
ones went on foot. But all had buffalo meat. Those that had horses would
surprise a herd, and drive them to the Bad Lands, and force many of them
over a precipice or into a crevice. Buffalo, when they are stampeded, do
not stop at anything, but go over a bluff or into a river. When a
crevice is filled full of their bodies the main herd passes on as over a
bridge; then the poorer Indians came and helped themselves to the meat.
“West of the Rocky Mountains the Indians were entirely different. It was
a new creation. The Snakes, Piutes and Bannocks seemed very much alike—a
poor set. The Cayuses were the most powerful, and the meanest. They were
strapping big fellows, and rich. I was told by Hudson’s Bay men that
they frequently had three or four packs of beaver skins to a tent. That
was money. Each pack weighed ninety or one hundred pounds, and the skins
were worth $4 or $5 a pound. Some of them had five hundred horses
apiece—part work horses; part riding or running horses. When I was among
the Snakes I bought a white horse for a buffalo skin and a shirt. But in
Grande Ronde I was stopped by a Cayuse chief, who said that the horse
was his. I told him I bought it. He said it had been stolen. There was a
man traveling with me; his name was Russell. Russell said I had better
pay the Cayuse something. So I put down a buffalo robe, a shirt and a
handkerchief, and said: ‘You can take whichever you please—these or the
horse.’ He took the things, and I took the horse.
“The Cayuses often came into the Willamette Valley to trade horses for
cattle. They had some race horses that they would not sell for $500.
They were not a large tribe, not able to muster over two hundred or
three hundred fighting men at the farthest. They were well armed with
guns, but even with bows and arrows could shoot a man through the heart
at fifty yards. They were proud and cruel, and showed it in their faces.
The Nez Perces had much better faces than the Cayuses. The Sioux did
business on honor. If any of their tribe was mean or dissipated he was
regarded as a clown; he was not respected.”
AS TO SLAVERY AMONG THE INDIANS.
Among the Sioux, where I was, all captives were regarded as slaves; so I
was told by a chief. I saw but one slave—a woman. Men were not often
taken alive.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN OREGON.
This question did not make much stir on French Prairie. The idea was
this: Indians were much cheaper and better labor than negroes. For a
blanket that cost $3 you could hire an Indian a month—or perhaps two
months; and many of the Indians were good workers. They could handle an
axe like a white man; and on the river they were the best boatmen. They
would paddle all day in a canoe, or on a bateau, and want only a little
meat and a salmon skin.
Some Southern people who brought their negroes with them wanted to keep
them as slaves; but the people of Oregon opposed this and made the law
that no negro should come to Oregon. It was never enforced.
AS TO PROHIBITION.
“All were in favor of this. It was no trouble. The Catholic missionaries
as well as the Methodists favored it. The Hudson’s Bay Company had
liquors stored, but never kept them for public sale. The distiller on
French Prairie did not hold out long. Some of the Canadians went to his
place to drink, or trade for it; but there was no money in the country,
and they could only trade with little articles and there was no profit.
A man at Milwaukee Bluff held out about two years, but gave it up—there
was no money, and trade did not amount to anything in an illegal
business.”
AS TO MONEY, ETC.
“There was no coin. If it was brought to the country it was not received
at Vancouver. Furs, at a fixed valuation, were the first currency. Wheat
was next.
“Wheat had to be delivered at the Hudson’s Bay warehouse at Champoeg.
For this a receipt was given by the H. B. clerk. The receipt passed
current as money, and was worth its face in goods at Vancouver.”
To illustrate the _modus_ of doing business, Mr. Matthieu tells the
following incident: “I was barefoot and nearly naked, and wanted some
clothes. I took an order of Lucier’s, and went down to Fort Vancouver;
but, as I had just come across the country, and was not long from
Canada, I was met by so many Frenchmen at the fort, who wanted to hear
all about my journey, and Canada, which some of them had not seen for
twenty years, that I did not get my order in at once. When at last I
presented it, the clerk said that I would have to see Douglas, as
Lucier’s account was all drawn; so many others had been bringing his
paper.”
“Douglas told me to go to McLoughlin. Each had an office in the
building. When McLoughlin looked at my order he said he was sorry, but
the account was drawn. I said, ‘It will come rather hard on me. I am
barefoot, and almost naked, and I supposed Lucier’s credit was good
anyhow.’ Then the doctor began to ask me where I was from. I told him
‘Terrebonne, in Canada.’
“‘I am from near that part,’ he said. Then he asked me about the place
and people, and of old Doctor Frasier; and kept me about an hour
talking. At last he said, ‘You look honest; go to the office and get
this filled.’ And gave me an order for about $18 worth of goods.
“At the office there was a little entrance, about eight feet square, and
a little window into the store, where the goods were passed out. The
clerk there was Doctor McLoughlin’s son, whom I had seen in Montreal. He
knew me, and at once opened the door inside and asked me in. ‘Take all
you need,’ he said, ‘and never mind the old man.’
“But I took only the amount of the order. But all the clothes were made
for big fellows—a great deal too big for me. So I took cloth, and got it
made up the best I could.”
AS TO EFFECT OF MINES ON BUSINESS, ETC.
“Gold dust was like dirt. Many believed it would never have any value. I
have seen the Hudson’s Bay store at Oregon City take in a four-quart pan
of dust in one day. They allowed $16 an ounce; but much of it was the
fine Yuba and American River dust, worth $22 to $22.50 an ounce in
London.
“But it was not the men who went to the mines, so much as those that
stayed on their farms and raised produce, that got the dust.
“I remember when I was in San Francisco in ’49, I went into a French
restaurant. I was sick, and only called for tea and toast and an egg.
For the tea and toast I paid $1.25, and for the egg $2. The egg had come
around the Horn, packed in salt, and was a chunk of salt. I could not
eat it.
“But prices for Oregon stuff did not hold out many years. Great
shipments were made from the East. Habits of living among the farmers
were not much changed. We always had enough to live on, both before and
after the mines broke out.”
Mr. Matthieu was well acquainted with Governor Abernethy, the first
Governor of the Provisional Government, succeeding the executive
committee. He describes Abernethy as “a fine looking man, of medium
size; easy in manner and ways, and very light complexion.” He built the
first brick store in Oregon City, with mud for mortar. In the great
flood of ’62 it collapsed. He kept a large stock of goods, trading by
three vessels with San Francisco. He was in partnership with Clark, and
for a time with Robb, who invested his gold mine profits in the store.
The mason who built the store was——McAdam, who also built the brick
Catholic church at Saint Paul.
Mr. Matthieu was also acquainted with Joseph Lane, the first Territorial
Governor. He describes the old general as “a very nice man;” quick in
his movements, military in manner and bearing; not tall, and “dry and
thin,” and all nerves.
AS TO TOWNS.
The flat at Oregon City was still, when he first saw it, thickly covered
with tall timber. Waller’s house stood near the present site of the
woolen mills. The Hudson’s Bay store was on the edge of the lowest
bluff, over the water, about where the warehouse now stands.
Portland was nowhere—a dense forest and a tangled shore; but there was a
grassy place among the trees near the mouth of the big gulch at the
south part of town, where the boating parties up the river sometimes
stopped to lunch or camp.
Etienne Lucier’s old place was on the bluff, on the east side, and
Johnson’s place on the hill at the south end, west side.
Salem was just starting, the people at the old mission moving up to
start the institute, etc.
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I have examined the above manuscript of Mr. Lyman’s, and find it
correct. Nobody can contradict that; it could not be written more
correctly.
F. X. MATTHIEU.
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DOCUMENTS.
[In this department of the _Quarterly_ there will appear material of the
nature of primary sources for the history of the Pacific Northwest. The
more extended documents, however, and collections having a unity will be
reserved for the series, “Sources of the History of Oregon.”]
_Correspondence of John McLoughlin, Nathaniel J. Wyeth, S. R. Thurston,
and R. C. Winthrop, pertaining to claim of Doctor McLoughlin at the
Falls of the Willamette—the site of Oregon City._
The following correspondence was published in the Milwaukee Star, April
10, 1850. The files of this paper are exceedingly scarce. The original
copies of the letters were probably destroyed. A knowledge of their
contents is essential to an understanding of very important, though not
creditable, transactions in Oregon’s history. These letters also are an
addition to the Wyeth material that the society has been making
accessible to students of American history.
CHICOPEE, Mass., Nov. 16, 1850.
_Capt. Nath. J. Wyeth_:
MY DEAR SIR—You will excuse me, I am sure, when I assure you I am from
Oregon, and her delegate to the Congress of the United States, for
addressing you for a purpose of interest to the country which I belong.
I desire you to give me as correct a description as you can at this late
period, of the manner in which you and your party, and your enterprise
in Oregon, were treated by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and particularly by
Doc. John McLoughlin, then its Chief Factor. This Dr. McLoughlin has,
since you left the country, rendered his name odious among the people of
Oregon, by his endeavors to prevent the settlement of the country, and
to cripple its growth.
Now that he wants a few favors of our Government, he pretends that he
has been the long-tried friend of Americans and American enterprise west
of the mountains. Your early reply will be highly appreciated, both for
its information, and your relation to my country.
I am, sir, yours very truly,
S. R. THURSTON.
CAMBRIDGE, Nov. 21, 1850.
_Hon. Sam’l R. Thurston_:
DEAR SIR—Your favor of the 16th inst., was received on the 19th. The
first time I visited the Columbia, in the autumn of 1832, I reached
Vancouver with a disorganized party of ten persons, the remnant of
twenty-four who left the States. Wholly worn out and disheartened, we
were received cordially, and liberally supplied, and there the party
broke up. I returned to the States in the Spring of 1833 with one man.
One of the party, Mr. John Ball, remained and planted wheat on the
Willamette a little above Camp du Sable, having been supplied with seed
and implements from Vancouver, then under the charge of John McLoughlin,
Esq., and this gentleman I believe to have been the first American who
planted wheat in Oregon. I returned to the country in the autumn of
1834, with a large party and more means, having on the way built Fort
Hall, and there met a brig which I sent round the Horn. In the winter
and spring of 1835, I planted wheat on the Willamette and on Wappatoo
Island.
The suffering and distressed of the early American visitors and settlers
on the Columbia were always treated by Hudson’s Bay Company’s agents,
and particularly so by John McLoughlin, Esq., with consideration and
kindness, more particularly the Methodist Missionaries, whom I brought
out in the autumn of 1834. He supplied them with the means of
transportation, seeds, implements of agriculture and building, cattle
and food for a long time.
I sincerely regret that the gentleman, _as you state_, has become odious
to his neighbors in his old age.
I am your ob’t serv’t,
NATH. J. WYETH.
CAMBRIDGE, Nov. 28, 1850.
_Hon. Robert C. Winthrop_:
DEAR SIR—I have received a letter from Sam’l R. Thurston, Esq., of which
the following is a portion:
“I desire you to give me as correct a description as you can at this
late period, of the manner in which you and your party, and your
enterprise in Oregon, were treated by the Hudson’s Bay Company west of
the Rocky mountains, and particularly by Dr. John McLoughlin, then its
Chief Factor. This Dr. McLoughlin has since you left the country,
rendered his name odious among the people of Oregon, by his endeavors to
prevent the settlement of the country and cripple its growth. Now that
he wants a few favors of our Government, he pretends that he has been
the long-tried friend of Americans and American enterprise west of the
mountains.”
I have written Mr. Thurston, in reply to the above extract, that myself
and parties were kindly received, and were treated well in all respects
by J. McLoughlin, Esq., and the officers of the Hudson’s Bay Co.; but
from the tenor of his letter, I have no confidence that my testimony
will be presented before any committee to whom may be referred any
subjects touching the interests of said John McLoughlin, Esq.
The very honorable treatment received by me from Mr. McLoughlin during
the years inclusive from 1832 to 1836, during which time there were no
other Americans on the Lower Columbia, except myself and parties, calls
on me to state the facts.
The purpose of this letter is to ask the favor of you to inform me what
matter is pending, in which Mr. McLoughlin’s interests are involved, and
before whom, and if you will present a memorial from me on the matters
stated in Mr. Thurston’s letter as above.
Respectfully and truly your ob’t servant,
NATH. J. WYETH.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 1850.
DEAR SIR—I took the earliest opportunity to enquire of Mr. Thurston what
there was pending before Congress or the Executive, in which Mr.
McLoughlin’s character or interest were concerned. He would tell me
nothing, nor am I aware of anything.
Respectfully your ob’t serv’t,
R. C. WINTHROP.
To N. J. WYETH, Esq.
_John McLoughlin, Esq._:
DEAR SIR—On the 19th of December, 1850, I received a letter from Sam’l
R. Thurston, delegate from Oregon, of which see copy No. 1, and by same
mail an Oregon newspaper containing a communication over your signature,
the letter [latter], I think, addressed in your handwriting.
From the tenor of Mr. Thurston’s letter, I presumed he wanted my
testimony for some purpose not friendly to yourself. I answered his
letter as per copy No. 2, but doubting if my testimony, except it suited
his views, would be presented, and being ignorant of his intentions, I
wrote the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, late Speaker of the House of
Representatives, and at present a member of the Senate of the United
States, as per copy, (No. 3) and received from him a reply as per copy
(No. 4).
Should you wish such services as I can render in this part of the United
States, I shall be pleased to give them in return for the many good
things you did years since, and if my testimony as regards your
efficient and friendly actions towards me and the other earliest
Americans who settled in Oregon, will be of use in placing you before
the Oregon people in the dignified position of a benefactor, it will be
cheerfully rendered.
I am, with much respect, yours truly,
NATH. J. WYETH.
Mr. Thurston writes to Mr. Wyeth. “That Dr. McLoughlin has, since you
left the country, rendered his name odious to the people of Oregon.”
(That I have rendered my name odious to the people of Oregon, is what I
do not know.) And “By his endeavors to prevent the settlement of the
country, and to cripple its growth.” I say I never endeavored to prevent
the settlement of the country, or to cripple its growth, but the
reverse. If the whole country had been my own private property, I could
not have exerted myself more strenuously than I did to introduce
civilization, and promote its settlement. “Now that he wants a few
favors of our Government, he pretends that he has been the long-tried
friend of Americans and American enterprise west of the mountains.” Mr.
Wyeth states how I acted towards him and his companions, the first
Americans that I saw on this side of the mountains. Those that came
since, know if Mr. Thurston represents my conduct correctly or not. As
to my wanting a few favors, I am not aware that I asked for any favors.
I was invited by the promises held out in Linn’s bill, to become an
American citizen of this territory. I accepted the invitation and
fulfilled the obligations in good faith, and after doing more, as I
believe will be admitted, to settle the country and relieve the
immigrants in their distresses, than any other man in it, part of my
claim, which had been jumped, Mr. Thurston, the delegate from this
territory, persuades Congress to donate Judge Bryant, and the remainder
is reserved. I make no comment—the act speaks for itself, but merely
observe, if I had no claim to Abernethy Island, why did Mr. Thurston get
Congress to interfere, and what had Judge Bryant done for the territory
to entitle him to the favor of our delegate. Mr. Thurston is exerting
the influence of his official situation to get Congress to depart from
its usual course, and to interfere on a point in dispute, and donate
that island to Abernethy, his heirs and assigns, alias Judge Bryant, his
heirs and assigns.
Yours respectfully.
JNO. McLOUGHLIN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
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SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF OREGON.
VOLUME I.
NUMBER 1.—JOURNAL OF MEDOREM CRAWFORD—AN ACCOUNT OF HIS TRIP ACROSS THE
PLAINS IN 1842. PRICE, 25 CENTS.
NUMBER 2.—THE INDIAN COUNCIL AT WALLA WALLA, MAY AND JUNE, 1855, BY COL.
LAWRENCE KIP—A JOURNAL. PRICE, 25 CENTS.
NUMBERS 3 TO 6 INCLUSIVE.—THE CORRESPONDENCE AND JOURNALS OF CAPTAIN
NATHANIEL J. WYETH, 1831-6.—A RECORD OF TWO EXPEDITIONS FOR THE
OCCUPATION OF THE OREGON COUNTRY, WITH MAPS, INTRODUCTION AND INDEX.
PRICE, $1.10.
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This is of prime authenticity and authority, being nothing less than two
hundred and forty-five letters written by Wyeth before, during, and
after his expeditions, together with his original journal of them both,
just as it was jotted down day by day. Nearly all of this is brand new
matter, hidden from the public in manuscript all these years, and no
more genuine “sources” of history of trade, settlement and adventure in
the West will ever be forthcoming.—From the Nation (New York) issue of
December 14, 1899.
“Seldom has a young historical society been able to illustrate the early
annals of its locality by the printing of manuscripts so interesting and
so important as The Correspondence and Journal of Captain Nathaniel J.
Wyeth, 1831-6, which the Secretary of the Oregon Historical Society,
Prof. F. G. Young, has just published as a part of his series of
‘Sources of the History of Oregon.’ He has been so fortunate as to find,
in the possession of a lady in Massachusetts, letter books containing
two hundred and forty-five of Wyeth’s letters, and his journals of the
two expeditions—1832-1833 and 1834-1836—which he conducted from the East
to the Oregon country, with a view to the occupation of the latter by
the Americans of the United States. These Mr. Young has printed in a
volume of two hundred and ninety-two pages, with two maps. It makes a
contribution to the early history of the state which would alone justify
the existence of the Oregon Historical Society.”—From the American
Historical Review, October, 1899.
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THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR 1898-9. INCLUDING
PAPER BY SILAS B. SMITH, ON “BEGINNINGS IN OREGON,” 97 PAGES. PRICE, 25
CENTS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON.
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THE GRADUATE SCHOOL confers the degrees of Master of Arts, (and in
prospect, of Doctor of Philosophy,) Civil and Sanitary Engineer (C. E.),
Electrical Engineer (E. E.), Chemical Engineer (Ch. E.), and Mining
Engineer (Min. E.).
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THE COLLEGE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS confers the degree of
Bachelor of Arts on graduates from the following groups: (1) General
Classical; (2) General Literary; (3) General Scientific; (4)
Civic-Historical. It offers Collegiate Courses not leading to a degree
as follows: (1) Preparatory to Law or Journalism; (2) Course for
Teachers.
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THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.—
A.—The School of Applied Science confers the degree of Bachelor of
Science on graduates from the following groups: (1) General Science;
(2) Chemistry; (3) Physics; (4) Biology; (5) Geology and Mineralogy.
It offers a Course Preparatory to Medicine.
B.—The School of Engineering: (1) Civil and Sanitary; (2) Electrical;
(3) Chemical.
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THE SCHOOL OF MINES AND MINING.
THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE at Portland.
THE SCHOOL OF LAW at Portland.
THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC.
THE UNIVERSITY ACADEMY.
Address
THE PRESIDENT,
Eugene, Oregon.
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● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Spelling and hyphenation were made consistent when a predominant
form was found in this book; otherwise it was not changed.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
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