# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 19/Number 4

​THE QUARTERLY of the Oregon Historical Society VOLUME XIX DECEMBER, 1918 NUMBER 4 Copyright, 1918, by the Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages. THE SURRENDER AT ASTORIA IN 1818. BY T. C. ELLIOTT. With what thrills of patriotic feeling have the people of this republic watched the forward progress of the American flag on the battle fields of France during this year 1918 ! ! So intense has been the interest in the outcome of our national participation in the greatest war of all history that we have all but overlooked the historic event on the Pacific Coast one hundred years ago, when the American flag was first raised by national authority over the country drained by the waters of the great Columbia river. In the next previous number of this Quarterly the writer contributed a brief narrative of the visit of Captain James Biddle to the Columbia river in August, 1818, to, in the capacity of special commissioner of the United States, publicly proclaim sovereignty over the Columbia River Country. It is proposed now to relate the circumstances leading to and connected with the visit during the first week of October, 1818, of Mr. J. B. Prevost, the other commissioner appointed upon this mission. It is a fortunate coincidence, however it may have come about, that at Astoria, Oregon, the new city hall, a permanent public structure, directly adjoins and faces the site of the orig- inal stockade built by the Pacific Fur Company in 1811 and afterward enlarged by the North- West Company, where stood the pole from which the stars and stripes were unfurled to ​272 T. C. ELLIOTT the breeze on October 6th, 1818; an event of more than local interest. The ceremonies of that day in 1818 were of a friendly, even cordial nature, and are related in so many his- tories of easy reference that repetition is not necessary here. Mr. Prevost was, as far as the record discloses, the only American present. He arrived in a British naval vessel as the guest of the British officer appointed to represent that government, and during their stay of a week was given every facility and assistance in gathering information. When he sailed away no American was left to see that our flag con- tinued to wave over the establishment then known as Fort George, and tradition tells us that it did not continue to wave long; hardly until the llth of November following when Mr. Prevost was writing his report at Monterey. A few years later the only flag to be seen on that pole was that of the Hudson's Bay Company, a blue field with the motto Pro Pelle Cutem. The selection of John Bartow Prevost as one of the com- missioners on this mission was by President Monroe person- ally and his appointment was primarily for government service on the South American coast. There is a suggestion that he was a political or social favorite of President Monroe; John Quincy Adams in his diary entries intimates as much. Mr. Prevost's first set of instructions covered only his duties as "Agent for Commerce and Seamen" in Chile or Peru, with which this discussion is not concerned. His later instructions were the following : "MEMORANDUM OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR MR. PREVOST. 1 "The following were the views communicated to me by the President on the evening before his departure, in relation to Mr. Prevost; in conformity with which he requested me to make known to Mr. Adams his wish that he would be so good as to prepare instructions forthwith, or as soon as may be. "Mr. P. to embark as soon as practicable, in the Ontario, i State Department, Washington, Bureau of Rolls and Library, Mss. Vol. not numbered and lettered on the back "Letters of J. B. Prevost, 1817-1825." ​SURRENDER AT ASTORIA IN 1818 273 Captain Biddle, now in New York (the sloop lately destined to take commissioners to South America). "To touch at Rio Janeiro (sic) and deliver such dispatches to Mr. Sumpter as he shall be charged with. To proceed round Cape Horn and afterward touch at the principal port in Chili (name not recollected), and also at Lima in Peru. * * He will thence proceed to the River Columbia, with a view to assert there the claim of sovereignty in the name and on behalf of the U. States, by some symbolical, or other appro- priate, mode of setting up a claim to national authority and domination but no force is to be employed by Captain Biddle if, in the attempt to accomplish this object any unex- pected obstructions should occur. The ship will then return to the United States, stopping at Lima to leave Mr. Prevost, where, and in the adjoining province, he will remain and act under the instructions already made out for him and now in his possession. "It is the desire of the President that Mr. Astor, of New York, be informed of the measure contemplated in relation to Columbia River. ****** "A copy of the instructions, or as much of them as will be necessary, to be furnished the navy department, in order that the proper naval orders may be given to Captain Biddle for the voyage. "September 25, 1817. R. R." President Monroe spent the summer of 1817 on an extended tour of the New England states and Mr. Richard Rush was Secretary of State pro tern during March-September, 1817, waiting the return of Mr. John Q. Adams from England to enter upon the duties of that office. Mr. Adams reached Washington on September 20th and a note of Mr. Adams to President Monroe dated September 29th, says: "After I had prepared from the minutes furnished me by Mr. Rush the new instructions for Mr. Prevost a question was started by Mr. Brent whether it had not been your intention to associate Captain Biddle with that gentleman, in the authority to assert the claim of territorial possession at the mouth of the Columbia ​274 T. C. ELLIOTT river." 2 Under date October 4th, Mr. Prevost wrote from New York that Captain Biddle had received his orders and the Ontario left New York October 5th, 1817. Omitting Mr. Prevost's correspondence as to conditions in Peru and Chile during five months following arrival at Val- paraiso (on January 25th, 1818,) his next letter which con- cerns us is dated June 20th at Santiago de Chile and begins as follows : "The Ontario sailed from Valparaiso on the 14th inst. to proceed to Lima and from thence to the Northwest Coast, where Captain Biddle will have to perform the office contemplated by the President to have been joint. Prior to his departure I enclosed a copy of the instructions on this head and enjoined it upon him to adhere strictly to the pacific course indicated in your note. I am persuaded that no diffi- culty will occur as I have taken pains to discover whether any force has been sent hither (thither?) either Russian or English and am satisfied that none has been. Some subjects of collision having lately occurred I could not consent to place myself at the discretion of Captain Biddle on the return of the ship to Lima ; the instructions from the navy department direct him to leave me at that place, while those from your depart- ment give me a discretion as to residence which it may be all important to exercise at that moment." This then was Mr. Prevost's excuse for not accompanying Captain Biddle to the Columbia and it is confirmed by John Quincy Adams in his diary entry of November 3rd, 1818, where he stated that Bland, just returned from Valparaiso, "gave me some account of the misunderstanding between Mr. Prevost and Captain Biddle, of the Ontario, which occasioned Prevost to leave the ship, and which is barely hinted at in Prevost's letters. All these things tend to confirm what the experience of this country has invariably proved the extreme difficulty of maintaining harmony in joint commissions." Neither Mr. Adams or Mr. Prevost indicate the entire differ- ences of opinion between the commissioners, but the stronger presumption is that these concerned activities in South America a Writings of John Quincy Adams, VI, 205. ​SURRENDER AT ASTORIA IN 1818 275 and not at the Columbia; and the commonly stated version 3 that Mr. Prevost insisted upon waiting for word from England before proceeding northward may be put down as incorrect. He had no reason to expect any such word. But the fates proved propitious for Mr. Prevost after all. Writing again to Secretary Adams from Santiago de Chile on July 8th he said: "Captain Hickey of the British navy com- manding the Blossom yesterday submitted to my inspection certain orders from his government addressed to the officer commanding on this station, instructing him to proceed forth- with to the Columbia River for the purpose of surrendering that place in conformity to the first article of the Treaty of Ghent to anyone authorized on the part of the U. States to receive such possession. This intelligence was so grateful to me as furthering the views of the President that in order to give immediate effect to the act I proposed to Captain Hickey to accompany him thither for the purpose. This Gentleman met the offer with a cordiality that does him honor and I shall accordingly proceed tomorrow to the port, there to embark for the contemplated voyage." And his next, from Lima, Peru, on July 27th, says : "In my last of the 8th of July by Captain Rea of the American I acquainted you of my intention to proceed to the Northwest Coast on board of his Britannic Majesty's sloop of war Blossom, in order to receive the surrender of the establishment on the Columbia River and there to hoist the American flag. I have now the honor to transmit a copy of the order to Captain Shireff on that subject and to announce to you my arrival at this place on my way thither." Before following Judge Prevost (as he was known at Wash- ington and New York) to the Columbia it is in order to men- tion such brief biographical information 4 as is available about him. It will be new to most readers to connect even in the spirit of romance or gossip the distasteful name of Aaron Burr with Oregon history, but the record discloses that when 3 See Oregon Hist. Quar., Vol. 19, No. 3, p. 184. 4 See "The Prevost Family in America" in N. Y. Genealogical & Biographical Record, Jan., 1883, Vol. 13; 27-28. ​276 T. C. ELLIOTT sixteen years of age Mr. Prevost became the stepson of Aaron Burr and was reared to manhood in the Burr family, attended and in due time married a daughter of the president of Prince- ton College of which Aaron Burr had been a brilliant gradu- ate. And in the year 1804 he was appointed District Judge of the United States for Louisiana, and in all probability was in New Orleans during the period of Aaron Burr's question- able activities thereabouts. He also for a term of years held the position of Recorder of the City of New York His own father, James Marcus Prevost, was a native of Geneva, Switz- erland, but with a brother, General Augustine Prevost, became an officer in the British army and served as such during the war of the revolution and died in 1779 in the West Indies. His mother, Theodosia Bartow Prevost 5 , was one of the most talented women of the Revolutionary period, and her home, near Paramus, New Jersey, was widely known as the Hermit- age. There John Bartow Prevost was born in March, 1766, and he died in March, 1825, in Upper Peru after seven years of government service. The arrival of the "Blossom" at the Columbia River and the proceedings at Fort George are narrated in the official report of Judge Prevost to Secretary Adams, now repro- duced. (The exhibits mentioned in it are not reprinted be- cause already easy of access). 6 . The spirit of friendliness and conciliation on the part of the two commissioners was in accord with the instructions of the respective governments ; and it may be remarked that the same spirit continued through al* the years of negotiation which resulted in placing the boundary line at the forty-ninth parallel of North Latitude. There is reason to believe that the manner of participation in the act of surrender, if not the act itself, was in private deprecated by the British diplomats of later years, although argued as inconsequential. 7 As early as 1823 His Honour George Canning, British Foreign Secretary, requested the 5 See "Theodosia," the first gentlewoman of her time, etc., by Chas. F. Pidgin, Boston, 1907. 6 See Bancroft, Greenhow. Lyman and other histories. 7 See Greenhow, 1845, Edit. pp. 39-3i3; also Oregon Hist. Quar., Vol. 19, p. 206-7. ​SURRENDER AT ASTORIA IN 1818 277 governor of the Hudson's Bay Company to remove their Columbia River headquarters from Fort George on the south side to some point on the north side of the river, which was done; 8 and even in 1821 Lord Castlereagh intimated the will- ingness of Great Britain to accept the Columbia River as her southern boundary. This much the surrender at Astoria may be said to have positively accomplished; and this concession disturbed the argument for the whole of the Columbia River or Northwest Coast country. Mr. J. B. Prevost to the Secretary of State. Monterey, New California, 9 November 11, 1818. Sir: In conformity with mine of the 27th July, which I had the honor to address to your Department from Lima, I proceeded to His Britannic Majesty's sloop of war Blossom to the mouth of the Columbia, and entered the river on the 1st of October following. A few days thereafter, to wit, on the 6th, as you will perceive by referring to a copy of the act of surrender, (marked A), I received in the name, and on the part of the United States, the possession of the establishment at Fort George, made under the first article of the Treaty of Ghent, by Captain Hickey, of the royal navy, in compliance with the orders of the Prince Regent for that purpose, signi- fied to him through the medium of Earl Bathurst. The British flag was, thereupon lowered, and that of the United States hoisted in its stead; where it now waves, in token both of possession and of sovereignty. The establishment, of which the annexed sketch (marked B) will give you a correct idea, has been considerably extended and improved by the agents of the Northwest Company of Canada, who will continue to occupy and protect it, under our flag, until it shall please the President to give orders for their removal. I will, however, suggest that, when such disposition shall take place, time ought to be granted, in a ratio with the distance, to enable them to obtain the means of transporting __ _____ ' ' -i r .T .'-rT.]"prj I ll^BBLHI 8 See letter of J. H. Pelly, Gov. of H. B. Co., to George Canning dated Dec. 9, 1825, in H. B. Co. Journal No. 721, p. 255. 9 Annals of Congress. i7th Cong., 2d Sess., 1822-1823, col. 1206-1210. Copied through the courtesy of J. Franklin Jameson. ​278 T. C. ELLIOTT the private property deposited there, consisting of dry goods furs, and implements of war, to a large amount. Shortly after the ceremony of surrender, I received a note on this subject from Mr. Keith, the gentleman whose signature accompanies that of Captain J. Hickey, which, together with a copy of my answer (also marked B), is submitted for your inspection. A sense of justice would have dictated the assur- ances I have given him in reply; but I had a further motive, which was that of subsiding the apprehensions excited by the abrupt visit of the Ontario. It appeared to me prudent, in this view, to take no notice of the suggestion relative to the discussion of boundary, and, in answering, to avoid any inti- mation of immediate or of future removal; as either might have induced him to form a settlement elsewhere on the river, and thus have given rise to collisions between the two Govern- ments, which may now be wholly avoided. The bay is spacious ; contains several anchoring places, in a sufficient depth of water; and is, by no means, so difficult of ingress as has been represented. Those enjoying the exclusive commerce have probably cherished an impression unfavorable to its continuance, growing out of the incomplete survey of Lieutenant Broughton, made under the orders of Vancouver in 1792. It is true that there is a bar extending across the mouth of the river, at either extremity of which are, at times, appalling breakers ; but it is equally true that it offers, at the lowest tides, a depth of twenty-one feet of water through a passage, exempt from them, of nearly a league in width. The Blossom, carrying more guns than the Ontario, encountered a change of wind while in the channel; was compelled to let go her anchor ; and, when again weighed, to tack and beat, in order to reach the harbor ; yet found a greater depth, and met with no difficulty either then or on leaving the bay. The sur- vey (marked C) 10 may be relied upon for its accuracy. The bearings, distances, and soundings, were taken by Captain Hickey, who was kind enough to lend himself to the examina- tion, and to furnish me with this result. It is the more inter- 10 This exhibit is not yet to be found among the State Papers. ​SURRENDER AT ASTORIA IN 1818 279 esting, as it shows that, with the aid of buoys, the access of vessels of almost any tonnage may be rendered secure. In addition to this, it is susceptible of entire defence; because a ship, after passing the bar, in order to avoid the breaking of the sea on one of the banks, is obliged to bear up directly for the knoll forming the cape ; at all times to approach within a short distance of its base ; and most frequently there to anchor. Thus, a small battery erected on this point, in conjunction with the surges on the opposite side, would so endanger the ap- proach as to deter an enemy, however hardy, from the attempt. This outlet, the only one between the thirty-eighth and fifty- third degrees of latitude, embraces the entire range of country from the ocean to the mountains; and its interior unites the advantage of a water communication throughout, by means of the many streams tributary to the Columbia, two of which disembogue opposite to each other within twenty-five leagues of the port, are navigable, and nearly of equal magnitude with this beautiful river. The ocean teems with otter, (mustela lutica), the seal, and the whale; while the main land affords, in innumerable quantities, the common otter, (mustela lutica), the bear, the buffalo, and the whole variety of deer. It has been observed, by exploring this coast, that the climate, to the southward of fifty-three degrees, assumes a mildness unknown in the same latitude on the eastern side of the conti- nent. Without digressing to speculate upon the cause, I will merely state, that such is particularly the fact in forty-six degrees sixteen minutes, the site of Fort George. The mer- cury, during the Winter, seldom descends below the freezing point; when it does so, it is rarely stationary for any number of days ; and the severity of the season is more determined by the quantity of water than by its congelation. The rains usually commence with November, and continue to fall partially until the latter end of March, or beginning of April. A benign Spring succeeds ; and when the Summer heats obtain, they are so tempered by showers as seldom to suspend vegetation. I found it luxuriant on my arrival, and during a fortnight's stay, experienced no change of weather to retard its course. The ​280 T. C. ELLIOTT soil is good; all the cereal gramma and tuberous plants may be cultivated with advantage; and the waters abound in salmon, sturgeon, and other varieties of fish. The natives, in appearance as well as in character, differ essentially from those with us. They are less in stature, more delicately formed, and singular in the shape of the head, which, in infancy, is compressed between two small plates of wood or metal, so as in its growth to obtain the semblance of a wedge. They are inquisitive, cheerful, sagacious, possess fewer of the vices attributed to the savage, and are less addicted to cruelties in war. Scalping is unknown to them ; and a pris- oner suffers the infliction of no other punishment than that of becoming slave to the captor ; but as they neither sow nor reap, an observer cannot easily discern in what the servitude consists. The wants of the one are supplied by his own address in the use of the bow and spear; while those of the other require the same efforts, and equal skill, for their gratification. The language on this side of the falls bears a strong analogy with that of Nootka ; so much so, that, with the aid of a Span- ish vocabulary of the latter, accompanying the voyage of Valdez, I could, notwithstanding the imperfection in this mode of conveying and of obtaining sounds, express my wants and be perfectly understood. I met with several of the natives who had heretofore volunteered on board of some one of our vessels in their fur excursions ; two of whom had acquired a sufficient knowledge of our language to speak it with some ease, and were extremely solicitous to embark with us. I regret that I could not collect sufficient data upon which to ground an estimate of the furs gathered on the Columbia ; it was impossible, for reasons that are obvious. Humboldt has undertaken to number those of the otter taken on the coast and shipped to China, of which he assigns five-sixths to the Ameri- cans. He may be correct as to the quantity, but I doubt whether the proportion be quite so great; as it frequently happens that the English adventurer confides his stock to our countrymen, in order to participate in the benefit of a market, from a direct intercourse with which he is excluded by the laws of his country. ​SURRENDER AT ASTORIA IN 1818 281 Perhaps I have gone too much into detail; but it appeared to me that, by exhibiting the importance of the position only, I should not have fulfilled the object of the President; that it was equally incumbent on me to present a view of the country, of its inhabitants, of its resources, of its approach, and of its means of defence. I shall now conclude with the relation of an occurence which may and ought to influence the course to be adopted and pursued as to this station. The speculations of Humboldt, and his glowing description of the soil and climate of this province, have probably given new direction to the ambition of Russia, and determined its Emperor to the acquisition of empire in America. Until 1816, the settlements of this Power did not reach to the southward of 58 n , and were of no consideration, although dignified by them with the title of Russian America. In the commencement of that year two distinct establish- ments were made, of a different and of a more imposing char- acter. The first at Atooi, one of the Sandwich islands; the other in this vicinity, within a few leagues of St. Francisco, the most northerly possession of Spain, in 57 56'. The sketch I subjoin (marked D) was procured from a member of the Government at this place, from whom I also learned that its augmentation has since become so considerable as to excite serious alarm. Two Russian ships left this on their way thither a few days anterior to our arrival one having on board mechanics of every description, together with imple- ments of husbandry. We passed sufficiently near the spot assigned to it to distinguish the coast with some precision, and ascertained that it was an open road a circumstance that renders the position liable to many objections, if intended to permanent; in other respects, the choice is judicious for an infant colony. It enjoys a climate still milder than that of Columbia; is environed by a beautiful country; and its prox- imity to an old settlement enables the Russians to partake of the numerous herds of black cattle and horses that have been there multiplying for the last fifty years. The port of St. ii Chart of the discoveries of Russian Navigators, published by order of the Emperor in 1802, referred to by Humboldt in his View of of New Spain (transla- tion), page 270, ad vol. (note). ​282 T. C. ELLIOTT Francis is one of the most convenient, extensive, and safe in the world, wholly without defence, and in the neighborhood of a feeble, diffused, and disaffected population. Under all these circumstances, may we not infer views to the early pos- session of this harbor, and ultimately to the sovereignty of entire California? Surely the growth of a race on these shores, scarcely emerged from the savage state, guided by a chief who seeks not to emancipate, but to inthral, is an event to be deprecated an event, the mere apprehension of which ought to excite the jealousies of the United States, so far at least as to induce the cautionary measure of preserving a station which may serve as a barrier to northern aggrandize- ment. I have not been able to gather other information respecting the settlement at Atooi than that of an assurance of its exist- ence a fact corroborated by the visit of the two ships to those islands in their route hither. The Russians are not yet such enterprising navigators as to augment sea risks by extending a voyage several thousand miles without an object. Such was the case in this instance, unless connected with the settlement, as they had sailed from Lima abundantly supplied, a few weeks prior to my first visit to that city, in April last. These islands yield the sandal wood, so much esteemed in China, and have been resorted to by our vessels, for years past, not only in search of this valuable article, but of the neces- sary stock of fresh provisions to supply the crew during their cruise on the Northwest coast. How far this intercourse may be affected, hereafter, by this encroachment, is also a subject for the consideration of the President. I have taken the liberty to enclose a note (marked E) of the authorities, Spanish as well as English, that have fallen under my view, illustrating the discovery of the Columbia by Mr. Gray, in 1791. Its subsequent occupation in 1811, by which the sovereignty of the United States was completed, to the exclusion of any European claimant, is a fact of which the surrender of the sole establishment on the river is conclusive evidence. I have the honor to be, &c., J. B. PREVOST. ​THE FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON III. BY LISTER BUERELL SHIPPEE CHAPTER V. LINN AND THE OREGON TERRITORY. In any study of Oregon in its relation to the government of the United States two names stand out most prominently among the members of Congress, those of Floyd and Linn. John Floyd was foremost in the agitation from 1821 to 1829, when he retired from active participation in national politics and confined his attention largely to Virginia. Senator Lewis Field Linn of Missouri was the leader of the Oregon forces from 1837 until his death in 1843. It is not difficult to understand the causes of Dr. Linn's interest. He was of pioneer stock, born in Louisville, Ky., and taken to Missouri Territory in 1809. Here he was in close touch with all that life so imbued with the spirit of west- ern expansion: General Ashley's expeditions into the Rocky Mountain country started from St. Louis; St. Louis was the rendezvous of all those who believed fortune for them existed somewhere across the frontier. Through Missouri went persons bound for the West. 1 Those going to the Northwest Coast perforce took the Oregon Trail which started from Fort Independence on the western edge of the State ; whether they were missionaries, fur traders, trappers, or emigrants, they all passed through Missouri and drew in their train, as Oregon began to loom larger, many inhabitants of that State. Merely to state that Dr. Linn was a Missourian would be enough to explain his activity, and when one considers that most members of Congress are not altogether unmindful of the desires of their constituents one needs to go no further, for Dr. Linn became the personification of Missouri's "occu- pation of Oregon spirit. 1 '* i The statement by Prof. Shippee, line 16, that "all persons bound for the West" went through Missouri is erroneous. See Or. Hist. Quar. Vol. 15, pp. 285-299. I crossed the plains from Illinois in 1853, and saw wagons west bound by the hundred enroute to Oregon through Iowa, none of which ever entered Missouri. George H. Himes, Curator Oregon Historical Society. i-a Linn & Sargent, Life and Public Services of Dr. Lewis F. Linn (1857) * s the cust9mary eulogistic "life" of the times. In the personal portion of the narra- tive, written by E. A. Linn, there is no reference to Dr. Linn's interest in Oregon, although the preface contains a statement calling attention to his "perse​284 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE The time was more nearly ripe for agitation when Linn renewed the battle than it had been when Floyd left the cause, for the period between 1829 and 1840 was one in which a knowledge of the Pacific Coast was growing. To a great degree the work of Linn served to crystallize this knowledge and pseudo-knowledge into the popular demand which became one side of the most spectacular issue of the presidential cam- paign of 1844. Dr. Linn entered the Senate in December, 1833, as junior to Thomas H. Benton. The Oregon Question had been dormant since 1829 and it was not until the special session in the summer of 1837 that he made his first move in the matter, when he secured a resolution calling upon the President to furnish at an early period of the next session "any correspondence that may have taken place between this Government and for- eign powers, in relation to our territory west of the Rocky Mountains, and what, if any, portion thereof was in possession of a foreign power." 2 This call afforded one of the grounds for considerable activity in the Senate in the session of 1837-8. Missouri's interest was also manifest in the House for Harri- son, one of the Members from that State, had introduced a resolution which was even more pointed than Linn's : he wished the President to inform the House at the next session "whether any foreign power, or the subjects of any foreign power, have possession of any portion of the territory of the United States upon the Columbia River, or are in any occu- pancy of the same, and if so, in what way, by what authority, and how long such occupancy has been kept by such persons." 3 Another line leading the Twenty-fifth Congress to Oregon reached back to 1834. This was the petition of Mr. Reynolds rering efforts." The second part of the work traces his connection with the various measures in which he was interested as a Senator, and gives long quota- tions from his speeches. Nothing more than Linn himself stated before the Senate, then, can be gleaned, for Mr. Sargent explains his interest in this way (p. 195): "One of the subjects which Dr. Linn took an early, deep and lively interest in, was the exclusion of the British from Oregon, and its exclusive occu- pation by the United States. He had a high appreciation of that country, in an agricultural and commercial point of view, and being well satisfied of the sound- ness of the title of the United States, was unwilling she should be even partially dispossessed of it, or share her possession with a country having no title there whatever." a 1 6 October, Globe, V, 144- 3 Globe, V. H2. ​presented by Pearce of Rhode Island, which was the immediate instigation of the act authorizing the exploring expedition in the South Sea. The delay in starting this expedition called forth a sharp resolution from the House which resulted in the placing before Congress a voluminous reply, setting forth all the reasons smallness of the appropriation, need of building new equipment, departmental bickerings, trouble over the enlistment of men, and the like which had prevented the departure of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition. Still another fact calling the attention of Congress westward was the statement of the Secretary of the Navy, in his report to the President, that the fleet in the Pacific had had a considerable increase but not greater than "due regard to commerce in the Pacific" called for. Still another finger pointing to Oregon was found in the memorial from Mr. Slacum for further compensation for expenses incurred while investigating the Oregon country; his report accompanying the memorial told what he had seen in Oregon.
In reply to Linn's resolution the Senate received from President Van Buren in December, 1837, a message transmitting a letter from the Secretary of State containing the information that there had been no correspondence with any foreign power since that which resulted in the convention with Great Britain in 1827, renewing the third article of the Convention of 1818. In referring to the second portion of the inquiry Forsyth mentioned the sale of Astoria to the North- West Company, since absorbed in the Hudson's Bay Company, and the fact that the latter had several posts in the region. He added,
   "It appears that these posts have not been considered as being in contravention of the third article of the convention of 1818, before referred to; and if not, there is no portion of the territory claimed by the United States west of the Stony Mountains known to be in the exclusive possession of a foreign power. It is known . . . that the English company have a steamboat on the Columbia, and have erected a sawmill and are cutting timber on territory ​claimed by the United States and shipping it in consider- able quantities to the Sandwich Islands."
A few days later the House received an answer to its resolu- tion in almost the same terms as that sent to the Senate, but not having the words of the first sentence quoted above. Fur- thermore this letter called attention to the fact that the Con- vention of 1827, by its own terms, could be annulled by either part on due notice of twelve months.
In both houses steps preliminary to action were taken at this session. In the Senate, in February, 1838, Linn intro- duced a bill to establish a Territory north of latitude 42 and west of the Rocky Mountains, to be called the Oregon Terri- tory; 8 it would authorize the establishment of a fort on the river and occupation of the country by military force ; a port of entry at which the customs laws of the United States should be enforced was also provided. An appropriation of $50,000 was included. After the second reading and when Linn moved its reference to the Committee on Military Affairs, Henry Clay raised the question whether the bill as it stood did not contravene the existing treaty stipulations with Great Britain. James Buchanan stated that he was glad Linn had acted for it was time that the United States asserted its claim or abandoned it forever. Upon Benton's suggestion Linn withdrew his motion of reference to allow one for the appoint- ment of a special committee with himself as chairman. This committee busied itself with the matter until June when it presented to the Senate an elaborate report accompanied by an amended bill. 9
The Report briefly reviewed previous action which had been taken, both diplomatic and Congressional, and then proceeded to point out the value of the territory to the United States, using Slacum's report as a text for this theme. It rejected the assertion that the Indians were especially hostile, as it did the argument that the mountains put an almost insuperable obsta- cle in the way of communication by land. A brief summary of the principal explorations led to the conclusion that the
8 Globe, VI, 168,9. 9 Sen. Doc. No. 470, 2$th Cong., ad. Ses. ​title of the United States was good at least to 49. The committee closed the report with an expression of their hope that the Executive would take immediate steps to bring the controversy to a speedy termination. "In the meantime they have reported a bill authorizing the President to employ in that quarter such portions of the army and navy of the United States as he may deem necessary for the protection of the persons and property of those who may reside in the country." The bill which accompanied the report went over until the following session owing to the late date at which it was brought in.
In the House Caleb Cushing was the author of a resolution calling for information as to interference on the part of any foreign power, its agents or subjects, with the Indian tribes in Michigan, Wisconsin, or "the territory beyond the Rocky Mountains or elsewhere within the limits of the United States," and desired all correspondence relating to the title to the Oregon Territory. Although Forsyth's response stated that he could add nothing to what had already been communicated to Congress at various times, the "Message on the Title" was sufficient incentive to start the ball rolling in the House. The topic was opened by Cushing with a motion to refer the message to the Committee on Foreign Affairs with instructions to inquire into the expediency of establishing a port on the Columbia and making provision by law to prevent further intermeddling with the Indians. He supported his motion by a defense of the title to Oregon and by an assertion, which had no basis in fact, that Great Britain was then breaking the terms of the treaty of 1783 by which the British were precluded from making settlements south of 49°, and that the Convention of 1827 was being broken. With modifications Cushing's resolution was adopted and the House thus completed its formal preparations for the expected Oregon activities of the next session. ​288 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE At the third session of the 25th Congress, however, little was done beyond receiving the report of Cushing's committee. It was the short session and the press of other business crowded out the Oregon Question which had not yet come to be regarded to be of such a nature that it demanded action forthwith. Furthermore the delicate situation of the relations between Great Britain and the United States over the Maine boundary made it seem advisable, to those in positions of authority, not to add more fuel to the flames. In the Senate Linn brought up and supported his bill in a short statement of the value of the country under considera- tion, a value which was being wholly absorbed by the British since they had driven out the American fur traders. 12 He com- plained that Great Britain had extended the operation of her laws even to the boundaries of Arkansas and Missouri. The Yankees were showing the proper spirit in opposing British encroachments in Maine and he hoped, if war ever should come, that Great Britain would be driven from the continent. He would, however, make no motion regarding the bill since "many esteemed friends around and near me seem to think that, at this critical moment, the passage of the bill might be misconstrued. But I pledge myself not to permit our claims to this Territory to slumber." Twice before he dropped the cause for the session did Linn strive to keep these claims awake. He presented in January the Memorial from the Citizens of the Oregon Territory, 13 and, in February, another from citizens of his own State re- questing Congress to establish a customs house and port of entry on the Missouri River ; the memorial pictured the former flourishing trade with the Indians of the Oregon country in contrast with its then languishing condition. The House during this session received a report from Cush- ing's Committee on January 4th, and a supplemental one one February 16th, 1839. 14 The first or main report is of interest, not because of its elaborate review of title and its presentation 12 The matter was formally before the Senate on six different days in De- cember, January and February. Globe, VII, 19, 22, 149, 210, 218; Appen. 221-2. 13 Whitcomb's of March, 1838, see Chapter IV. 14 H. Rep. No. 101, 2$th Cong., 3d Ses. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 289 of the advantages of the region, for in this there was little new, but from its view of the action which was deemed neces- sary and of the claims it put forth on behalf of the United States. It stated that "it is due alike to the interests and the honor of the United States to take immediate steps to assert and secure the national rights in this matter." The "national rights" are indicated in this way : "The United States, then, claim title to the exclusive dominion, as against any foreign power, of the country extending east and west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and north and south from the limits of the Mexican republic in latitude 42, north of those of Russia in latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes north, with an offer to relinquish to Great Britain all north of latitude 49. They claim this on three grounds : 1. In their own right; 2. as successor to France; and 3. of Spain." The report flatly announced that American traders had been driven out by the Hudson's Bay Company; "the plan of the British to put an end to American enterprise in the valley of the Columbia has succeeded." This statement, which was not founded on any good grounds, was no doubt caused by the ad- vice McLoughlin gave all settlers to go into the Willamette val- ley. The bill accompanying the report was less pointed for it merely would direct the President to afford military protection to American citizens residing in or having business in Oregon. Nothing was done with this measure before the supplementary report appeared. This document was accompanied by a letter from Jason Lee, written from Connecticut, the Memorial from residents in Oregon, already presented by Linn in the Senate, a Memoir of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, Slacum's report to Forsyth, Hall J. Kelley's Memorial, and letters from the Secretaries of War and the Navy, giving estimates of the cost of military and naval establishments in the Oregon Territory. There was also a letter from F. P. Tracy, for the Oregon Pro- visional Emigrant Society, together with a copy of the consti- tution of that association. Deference to the same motives which caused the Senate to suspend action prompted the rec- ommendation of the committee : ​290 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE "The Committee do not consider it expedient to estab- lish a Territorial Government in Oregon at the present time; nor do they propose, specifically, the formation of a military post there, in aid or token of exclusive posses- sion of the country, because they are anxious to observe, in the letter as well as the spirit, the text of the treaties between the United States and Great Britain." While their views regarding a military establishment do not seem in accord with the inclusion of estimates of the expense of the same, the general tone of the supplementary report was significant when compared with that of the first report. While the preliminary finding was not untouched with a bellicose spirit the second could give no offense to the most sensitive government. In spite of the fact that neither house of Congress carried action very far, the attitude of the public was much different than had been the case in the early 'Twenties, when the previ- ous agitation started. An editorial article in the National Intelligencer reflects this changed feeling as well as giving a hint that the Administration was not averse to having light thrown on the question. 15 "We have embraced the earliest opportunity . . . to publish the able and instructive report ... on the project of the Oregon territory. It is no more than four- teen years ago that a bill for the occupation of that ter- ritory was introduced by Mr. FLOYD then a representa- tive from Virginia. . . . who supported it with great earnestness and zeal. The bill passed the house of repre- sentatives by a vote of more than two to one, but, in the senate, was, after debate, ordered to lie on the table, on the motion of Mr. LOWRIE, then a senator from Penn- sylvania. "Mr. LINN, of Missouri, has, with equal earnestness, recently pressed the subject on the attention of the sen- ate; and now we have the elaborate report published today, understood to be the production of Mr. CUSH- ING, of Massachusetts. So that movements towards the occupation of the territory, and the organization of gov- ernment therein, have been made successively, from the 15 25 May, 1839. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 291 south, west, and the east; which, though so far without success, can hardly fail to end in some decisive legisla- tion on the subject by the next congress." The prophesy of Messrs. Gales and Seaton was not fulfilled. Not only did the Maine boundary controversy caution reserve, but other matters of great weight demanded time and atten- tion. The preliminaries leading to the presidential campaign of 1840 took first place in the minds of all politicians, and political agitation was at white heat all through the first ses- sion of the next congress, causing an early adjournment on that account. 16 Nevertheless Dr. Linn, so far as his more cautious colleagues would allow, kept the issue alive not only by the introduction of petitions but by resolutions and at least one bill. 17 The first move showed that Linn had decided to change his plan of campaign; instead of a bill for organizing a territorial government he introduced a set of resolutions consisting of five propositions : ( 1 ) that the title of the United States to Oregon was indisputable and would never be aban- doned; (2) that the President should give notice to the British government that the provisions of the conventions of 1818 and 1827 should cease to obtain after twelve months; (3) that it was expedient to extend such portions of the laws of the United States over Oregon as should be necessary to secure the lives and property of citizens there ; (4) that it was expedi- ent to raise a new regiment of riflemen for use in the territory and on the route to it; and (5) that 640 acres of land should be granted any male white inhabitant of the Territory who would cultivate the same for five consecutive years. This last proposition was the origin of what later became the Donation Land Act. The resolutions were referred to a. select committee with Linn as chairman, and from this time until 1846 there was a special Oregon Committee in the Senate. Although they were made the special order of the day for late in the session they i6Benton protested against an early adjournment on account of the importance of the issues with Great Britain, including the Oregon Question. i7There were resolutions from Oregon itself, from Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois legislatures; there were petitions by individuals and groups urg- ing Congress to take action in settling the boundary, and many of them also re- quested grants of land. ​292 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPER were passed over and Congress adjourned without action on them. Linn's bill to extend a portion of the laws of the United States over Oregon met with a similar fate. His reso- lution calling upon the Secretary of War to furnish an esti- mate of the expense and his opinion of the utility of establish- ing a series of forts from the Missouri River to the Columbia valley produced from Poinsett an opinion favorable to Linn's notions. 18 The second session of the Twenty-sixth Congress did not find Senator Linn more successful. The campaign was over and not only had the Whigs secured the presidency, but they would control both houses of Congress from March, 1841 ; this meant that the great topics to come up in the next Con- gress would be internal improvements, the tariff, the bank and other fiscal matters, and everything else not absolutely essential to the running of the government would be postponed. Moreover there were indications that the Maine boundary question might be settled and it was possible that Oregon might come in for consideration at the same time. Conse- quently when Linn again introduced resolutions to authorize the adoption of measures for the occupation and settlement of the Oregon Territory the utmost he could accomplish was securing their reference to the select committee. Apparently he felt that he was not being treated with exact fairness for he mentioned the fact that he had desisted at the last session on account of the negotiation with Great Britain. Such tenderness, however, would not avail ; ever since the Treaty of Ghent Great Britain had step by step made her advance into the territory, which he understood she was ready to pur- chase in 1814; she was sending immigrants, building forts, extending her laws not only north but south of the Columbia. It was his opinion that the issue would never be settled in a peaceful manner and it was better for the United States to act then, combining all its claims: against England, than to allow the insidious process to continue. 19 But a bill, framed in accord with the recommendations of Secretary Poinsett, advanced no further than an introduction and reference. 18 Sen. Doc. No. 231, 26th Cong. ist. Ses., 26 Feb., 1840. 19 Globe, IX, 71, 89, 90. Appen. 105. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 293 When the Twenty-seventh Congress was convened in special session in the summer of 1841 by President Tyler, he referred to the millions of acres of public lands still waiting to be brought into market, including "the immense region from the base of those (Rocky) mountains to the mouth of the Colum- bia River. Petitions for congressional action on Oregon ap- peared in both houses, and in the Senate some indications of a desire for definitive steps were in evidence. Fulton of Arkan- sas, in speaking to an amendment of the military appropria- tion bill, 20 urged that a special appropriation be devoted to Fort Leavenworth in order to guard against an outbreak of the Indians; the tension between the United States and Great Britain might result in war, and in that case it was his belief that the British would incite the Indians to attack the frontier. "And what, sir," he asked, "is our present condition with refer- ence to that nation (Great Britain) ? Are they not in posses- sion of our territory on the Pacific ? They have such an inter- course with all the wild tribes, and throughout the whole country, from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains, that the most ample measures of communication with all the Indian tribes of the West is now offered them." It is to be noted that during the period beginning with the critical stage of the Maine boundary controversy and down to the ratification of the Webster-Ashburton treaty it was the firm conviction of many people of the United States, and of most of them in the frontier regions, that war was unavoid- able ; that it was the set purpose of the British government to make use of the Indians to harass the United States from the rear. The more one looks into this period the stronger becomes the feeling that this was a genuine fear on the part of the westerners, and was not brought forward merely to aid their plans for expansion to the Pacific. To those having such a notion the most innocent activities of the Hudson's Bay Company appeared fraught with the most sinister meaning. Only the day before Fulton expressed his views on the danger, Linn, in the Senate, introduced another resolution to 20 Globe, X, 287. ​294 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE authorize the President to give notice to Great Britain that the convention should terminate at the end of the stipulated period, and tried to add force to the formal portion of the resolution by stating that the "territory is now in possession and used by the Hudson's Bay Company, to the ruin of the American Indian and Fur trade in that quarter, and conflicting with our inland commerce with the internal provinces of Mex- ico/' 21 Most Senators considered that this resolution, if adopted, would be a match to set off the powder keg upon which they were sitting, and while Linn insisted that war was inevitable and every day of delay put the British in a better position, he could not convert his colleagues to his views. As a result he was forced to modify his resolution into a request for the Committee on Foreign Relations "to inquire into the expediency of requesting the President" to give the notice. If the Oregon proponents had difficulties with the Senate in the summer of 1841, even more of an obstacle was the inertia of that body when it met in the regular session of 1841-2. The nation was awaiting the outcome of the efforts of Secretary Webster and Lord Ashburton to tide over the Maine question, and had little patience with anything which tended to make the situation more critical. Even had no nego- tiation been in progress it is doubtful if either house would have taken time to discuss Oregon at this session. The Whigs controlled both branches of Congress and the President had been elected on a Whig ticket, therefore the most important matters were those relating to the economic planks of the Whig platform of 1840. Tyler, however, in his Annual Mes^ sage called attention to the report of the Secretary of War where a chain of forts from Council Bluffs to some part of the Pacific Coast was recommended. A report from the House Committee on Military Affairs emphasized the same subject, at the same time going again into the question of the title to the Oregon country, and describing the climatic conditions, soil, resources and commercial opportunities of that region." 22 In the Senate Linn, for the special committee on the Oregon 21 Globe, X, 278, 292, 306, 326, 335-7, 341, 364. 22 H. Rep. No. 380, 27th Cong. 2d. Ses. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 295 Territory, asked to be relieved from further consideration of memorials on Oregon; he had received hundreds and hun- dreds of letters from all parts of the Union inquiring what had been done and what was going to be done in the matter. His committee directed him to report a bill on the subject with the recommendation that it pass; the bill, he said, had not reached a place on the calendar before Lord Ashburton reached America, and he had felt it unwise and indelicate to urge the subject while negotiations were going on. Now, however, no such reasons prevented action and he should take up and press next session the bill which he was sure both houses favored. 23 He was as good as his word, and his efforts were rewarded by seeing the Senate pass his bill in the last session he was to be in Congress. President Tyler in his Annual Message of 1842 expressed his regret that the British treaty just con- cluded had not obtained a settlement of the question of title to the Northwest Coast, and explained that the matter had not been pressed for fear of too much protracting the discus- sion and so jeopardizing the main issue. He noted that citi- zens of the United States were beginning to seek and reclaim what was so recently "an unbroken wilderness," and that "in advance of the acquirement of individual rights to these lands, sound policy dictates that every effort should be resorted to by the two Governments to settle their respective claims. . . . Although the difficulty referred to (the Oregon title) may not for several years to come involve the peace of the two countries, yet I shall not delay to urge on Great Britain the importance of its early settlement." 24 Linn was not satisfied with this explanation and desired more information which he sought to obtain by a call upon the President as to the nature and extent of the "informal communications" which took place between the American Sec- retary of State and the British commissioner on the subject; he also wished to know what were the reasons which pre- vented "any agreement on the subject at present." Although 23 Globe, XII. Appen. 736-7- 3i Aug. 1843. 24 Richardson, Messages, IV, 196. ​296 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE Senator Archer, for the Committee on Foreign Relations, ques- tioned the utility of the resolution, since it was not to be sup- posed that the negotiations had been laid aside, he would not oppose it if the customary words "if not inconsistent with the public interest" were included. Benton sustained Linn and said no word appeared in the correspondence submitted to the Senate and there was no place in this country for state secrets ; if Great Britain had a claim let her show what it was. All the satisfaction obtained from the resolution was the assur- ance that the President was already adopting measures in pursuance of his views as stated in the Annual Message and that it did not appear consistent with the public interest to make further communication at the time. A call for a report of Lieutenant Fremont's exploring expedition was intended to place still more information before the Senate to guide its action. A clear field was allowed Dr. Linn when he was ready to carry out his plans as announced at the previous session. His bill was referred to a special committee which, two days later, returned it with minor amendments, so that about a week later the measure was before the Senate for discussion (December 30, 1842). 25 The first attack upon it was in the form of an amendment to strike out the preamble which read, "Whereas, the title of the United States to the Territory of Oregon is certain, and will not be abandoned, therefore, etc." Tappan of Ohio in moving the amendment said that such a statement was neither in good taste nor necessary, although he favored the bill in itself. Tappan was supported by Archer of Virginia and Crittenden of Kentucky as well as others, but Linn was unyielding; the preamble must stand. It was not until a vote of 17 to 17 on striking out the amendment, with the chair about to cast the deciding vote, was taken, that Linn saw the disadvantage of allowing a decisive division on this point; according he agreed to the amendment and the pre- amble was struck out by general consent. The next point of attack was the land grant provision. West- 25 The bill was before the Senate from December 30 to February 7, when it was discussed for parts of nineteen days. Globe, XII, 99 to 224 passim, and Appen. 74 to 134 passim. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 297 ern expansiveness was manifest in Fulton's amendment to the original proposition that every white male inhabitant of the age of eighteen or over should have 640 acres of land ; Fulton (Arkansas) succeeded in increasing this so that every married man should have 160 acres additional for himself, 160 acres for his wife, and 160 acres for each child under the age of eighteen which he might have or "which (might) be born within five years afterward." No other change was made and the essential provisions, when the bill was ordered en- grossed for the third reading were these : The President was authorized and required to provide for the erection of five forts from the Missouri and Arkan- sas Rivers to the mouth of the Columbia. A land grant to inhabitants as indicated above was included. The President was authorized to appoint two additional Indian agents to superintend the interests of the United States in Indian affairs "west of any agency now estab- lished by law." An appropriation of $100,000 was made to carry the act into effect. The second section provided that the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the Supreme and District Courts of the Territory of Iowa should be extended over "that part of the Indian Territory 1ving west of the present limits of the said Territory of Iowa, and south to the 49th degree of north latitude, and east of the Rockv mountains, and north of the boundary line between the United States and the Republic of Texas, not included within the limits of any state: and also, over the Territories comprising the Rocky Mountains and the country between them and the Pacific Ocean, south of 54 degrees 40 minutes of north latitude, and north of the 42d degree of north latitude;" provided this jurisdiction should not extend to British subjects arrested on a criminal charge within the limits as outlined west of the Rockies, so long as the same should remain free and open to the citizens and subjects of the United States and Great Britain. Section three provided the details relative to carrying into effect the extension of the laws in the territory. When the bill, as reported with amendments from the Senate as in Committee of the Whole, was before the Senate for third ​298 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE reading and passage the real discussion took place. 26 While the debate naturally brought up the question of title this feature was not particularly emphasized. Those who were for the bill as it stood relied upon the assertion that the territory belonged to the United States at least as far as 49 and to them that point was not a subject for discussion. They supported this stand by the further assertion that it was the policy of Great Britain to let time work in her favor and strengthen her pretensions. To this end they made land grants, in fact if not in form, to the Hudson's Bay Company, an organization which was gradually bringing under its influence the whole region, even south of the Columbia. The western note was heard when Benton charged that the Ashburton treaty in effect paci- fied the North while it left the South and West in the lurch; that the American Secretary of State had been willing to sac- rifice other parts of the nation provided he could secure com- mercial and other advantages desired especially by New Eng- land and then by the northern States generally. Scarcely consistent with this view was a point brought up both by Tap- pan and Benton : Great Britain had won what she wanted in the treaty, at least so far as territory was concerned ; now it behooved the United States to see that she did not play the same game and oust her opponent from Oresron. Benton's criticism of the failure to have the Oregon Question settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was severe ; he characterized it as the third blunder the United States in dealine with the Northwest Coast after the War of 1812. 27 No better time, he thought, would come to settle the matter because Great Britain was likely to have been in a compliant mood owing to her success in gaining a part of Maine for Canada. The matter of the land grants provoked the most heated discussion. Those who were opposed to any action at all called this provision a palpable infraction of the convention, and even those who were not opposed to occupying the region 26 Those active in opposition to all or part included Calhotm (S. C.), Choate (Mass.), Huntington (Conn.), McPuffie (S. C). Ben-Jen (Gi.), and Archer (Va.). Linn and Benton (Mo.), Tappan (O.). Sevier (Ark.), Young (111.), Phelps (Vt.), and Walker (Miss.), argued for the bill. 27 The other two were the two conventions for joint occupancy. See his Thirty Years' Vitw, II, 469​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 299 were unable always to agree to the principle of the land grants. Choate and Benton argued this point at length and nearly all who took part in the debate ventured an opinion on one side or the other. The proponents of the feature urged that Great Britain had granted land through the agency of the Hudson's Bay Company. 28 . Most of the opponents of the measure were of the opinion that time would do more for the United States than legislation could; no emergency existed and it was better to be on the safe side of the treaty than to embark into expensive coloniza- tion schemes, a field to that time unentered by this country. Moreover it appeared that Great Britain as yet placed little value (McDuffie) on the disputed region, but if she thought the United States had violated the provisions of the conven- tion she would be inclined to stand on the point and raise her estimate of the value involved. The first actual trial of strength came when it was moved to refer the bill to the Committee on Foreign Relations, lost 24 to 22. By the same majority an amendment to strike out the land grant clause was lost, and the third reading and passage showed the same alignment. On the Monday after its passage Linn asked if the bill was still in the possession of the Senate, and if so by what rule. Archer, who had given notice that he would call for a reconsideration, said that the bill had not yet passed out of the possession of the Senate, and proceeded to move its reconsideration. On the next day, when there was a larger attendance of members, the vote was taken and reconsideration was refused by a vote of 24 to 24. This vote involved a roll call hence it is possible to deter- mine the party and sectional alignment of Senators on the measure. Of the twenty-four who voted for reconsideration all but three were Whigs; Mangum of North Carolina and Calhoun and McDuffie of South Carolina were the three Democrats who opposed the measure. Eighteen Democrats 28 In answer to a resolution introduced by Morehead (Ky.) the Secretary of State stated that the United States minister to England had been assured by the British government that no land had been granted to the Company the only grant had been the exclusive right to trade with the Indians. Globe, XII, 175; Appen. 229. ​300 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE and six Whigs voted against reconsideration, that is in support of the bill. Thus it was very nearly a party division. The Whigs who voted against reconsideration were Clayton (Del.), Henderson (Miss.), Merrick (Md.), Morehead (Ky.), Phelps (Vt), and Smith (Ind.) Of the three eastern Whigs Phelps was a member of the special Committee on the Oregon Territory. Taking Benton's charge that the North was will- ing to sacrifice the interests of the South and the West, that is by opposing any definite action for Oregon, it is interesting to analyze the vote from that point of view, taking as South the States below Mason and Dixon's line and as West the three north of the Ohio River, and Missouri, Arkansas, Ten- nessee and Kentucky. The result is this : For the bill Against the bill North 9 11 South 5 10 West 10 3 The only outstanding fact apparent is that the West sup- ported the bill ; the only westerners opposed were Crittenden (Ky.), and Porter and Woodbridge of Michigan, all Whigs. Crittenden's statement that he believed the bill contrary to the spirit of the treaty is a sufficient explanation of his stand. Neither Porter nor Woodbridge took part in the debate, and in the absence of direct evidence there can be only the surmise that party allegiance explains their vote. The charge that the North was against the proposition because it was willing to let the West pay for what it had gained by the Webster-Ash- burton Treaty is not shown by the vote, and the South clearly did not look upon the Oregon Question as particularly its own. It was not until the Oregon bill had made considerable progress in the Senate that the House took any formal notice of the Oregon issue. In the middle of January, 1843, Rey- nolds of Illinois moved an amendment, rejected without a division, to the appropriation bill whereby a sum of $20,000, instead of being for "surveys west of the Mississippi" would be for a military survey from Council Bluffs to the mouth of the Columbia. Nearly all agreed that this method of ap​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 301 proach to the matter was not proper, especially since every- one knew of the bill at the moment before the Senate. When the Senate bill was before the House Reynolds, chairman of the select Committee on Oregon, moved its refer- ence to the Committee of the Whole House ; Pendleton moved that it be referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, and Everett preferred the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The Committee on Foreign Affairs got the bill. John Quincy Adams was chairman of this committee and it is to his Memoirs that we turn to ascertain the fate of the measure, for there was the knowledge in the House that if Adams received the bill there was little hope for it. "There is the end of that," said Andrew Kennedy, of Indiana, when the reference was announced. The Oregonians made one more attempt, however, to prevent the death of their measure; Adams de- scribes it. 29 "10th. (Feb.) Several members moved resolutions of reconsideration of votes taken yesterday. Among them was one referring to the committee of the whole on the state of the Union a bill surreptitiously smuggled into the House by Reynolds, of Illinois, being the same bill which Dr. Linn, of Missouri, has been worming through the senate for the benefit of Tom Benton. The Senate bill had, after a double tug, been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Everett now moved to reconsider the reference of Reynolds' bill to the committee of the whole on the state of the Union, and that it be referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs ; which was carried without a division." Both bills, that which had come from the Senate and Rey- nolds' which was identical, were taken up by the committee, with all members but Everett present. Without any discus- sion an informal vote showed that five members were against both bills, one for the Senate bill and one for the same bill with amendments. Adams moved to be instructed, in the event of the House's refusing to accept the recommendation of the committee, to move an amendment that there should be neither involuntary servitude nor slavery, in the Territory. ag Memoirs, XI, 314, 318, 321. ​302 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE There the matter rested for three days until the committee again took it up. Everett, then present, agreed with the majority about rejecting both bills, but there was a unanimous rejection of Adams' motion for instruction on the slavery issue "as it was from the Northwestern Territory," although two of the committee, Granger and Everett, said they would sup- port Adams if he moved the amendment as an individual. The recommendation of the committee was favored by the majority of the House, and the bill was not referred to again during the session. Nor did the Oregon Question appear again in any guise during the remainder of the Congress. Very little newspaper comment was roused by the failure of Linn's measure to become law, although there were numer- ous references to other Oregon matters. The American press, however, was interested to print English comments upon the proposed law. Some of these indicate the feeling aroused on the other side of the Atlantic as reports of the progress of the measure were received. The London Times said: 30 "It is not easy to believe people in earnest in such a grotesque proposal. We should as readily expect Lord Ellenborough to establish a line of sentry boxes from Calcutta to Candahar, or Sir Charles Metcalfe from Mon- treal to the North Pole. But the truth probably is that it was never really intended. The whole affair was and almost professed to be, a discharge of blank cartridges to intimidate Lord Aberdeen. The speakers 'wanted to see the bill passed by a unanimous vote. * * * If this were done, we should never hear another word of the right of Great Britain to the Territory of Oregon/ This is the whole truth. They wanted it passed, though they knew its execution to be impracticable. They thought they could bully, and tried to do so to the best of their power; and Mr. McDuffie honest man has in the sim- plicity of his heart taken some pains to expose their simplicity . . ." The Scotsman was less inclined to think that the whole thing had been a bit of empty thunder, but it considered that 30 Quoted in Niles Register, 22 April, 1843. See also the violent article, "The North-West (American) Boundary," in Frazer's Magazine (Apr., 1843), 27:484-502; also one in the Dublin University Magazine (Mar., 1843), 21:377-94. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 303 from the nature of things the whole question would be solved within fifty years and any treaty would be a dead letter. "From the rapid strides with which the American population are advancing along the Missouri, there is no risk in saying that masses of that population will have passed the Rocky Mountains before there is a single Canadian settlement within five hundred miles of them." But if the British people wanted a quarrel here was a pretty good pretext. "That a proposition should be seriously entertained in America, and by her legislators, for sending an armed force to occupy the Oregon Territory, while her right to do it is under discussion^ is such an act of insolence as one state can scarcely be supposed to offer to another, unless with the design of provoking war." The "strong red line" incident, with the feeling in England that Lord Ashburton had been overreached by Mr. Webster in the Maine boundary settlement, served as a warning to some Britons. "Let us not negotiate with a people devoid of the commonest principles of honor;" said the Times. "We must act; and before we have any tricks played upon us in Oregon, let us send a fleet of heavy armed and well manned steam- boats to protect our rights in the fertile and valuable valley of the Columbia." 31 It was not alone in the public prints that the action of the Senate aroused comment in England. Lord Palmerston, then leader of the Opposition, in a long speech in Parliament at- tacking the Washington (Webster- Ashburton) Treaty, re- ferred to the Oregon bill. He saw in it and still more clearly in the speeches accompanying its passage an indication of an overweening arrogance which had been fostered by the weak yielding of the British government. "It is impossible," he said, "I confess, that this bill should pass the other branches of the legislature ; but, if it were to pass, and to be acted upon, it would be a declaration of war. It would be the invasion and seizure of a terri- tory in dispute, by virtue of a decree made by one of the parties in its own favor. Thus, even before this vaunted 31 In Register, n Mar., 1843, from Times of 4 Feb. ​304 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPER treaty . . . has come into operation new differences have arisen, and old ones have been revived. A fresh proof how true it is that undue concessions, instead of securing peace, only increase the appetite for aggres- sion." 32 Sir Robert Peel, replying to this charge by Palmerston, told the House that allowance must be made for the "position of a government so open to popular influence." He had received assurances that the executive government of the United States desired to come to an adjustment and he was convinced that, unless there was a revival of bitter feelings between the two countries, the attempt to settle the question by negotiation would be successful. Even if the bill should pass the other house, which he did not think possible, the president would not give his approval after expressing his desire to negotiate. Macaulay thought that the Senate was sufficiently removed from popular influences to make their action ominous; when such a body of men of greatest weight and distinguished for their ability could take such action it showed the state of public feeling in America resulting from the treaty. 33 There is absolutely no evidence to support the belief that the Senators responsible for the passage of the Oregon bill were, as the Times thought, doing it for effect and not in earnest. If they could have had their way all the terms of the measure would have been enforced at the earliest possible moment. On the other hand there is no support for the charge that those close to the Administration and those who were responsible in more than ordinary measure for the action of each house were deterred by fear of British displeasure. A variety of motives are to be found. Most of them believed that, when the moment for action had arrived, the proper step was to annul the treaties in accordance with their provisions, but they believed that the question could be settled by negotiation before that act should be necessary. Furthermore the whole matter was not an issue to be considered by itself alone ; it was bound 32 3 Hans. 67:1216-7. 33 Ibid., 1225, 6; 1264, 5. At a later date similar statements were made by Peel when Mr. Blewitt called attention to the insulting language of Mr. Linn in the Senate. Peel's jocose response seemed to meet with the approval of the House and showed no tension in Parliament. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 305 up with the growing importance of the Texas question, and that in turn brought up the matter of the extension of slavery into the territories existing and prospective. A hint of this phase has been brought out in the account of Adams' report of the action of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The Oregon Question was rapidly coming close to the point when it would depart from the role of a diplomatic and legislative issue as such and become a pawn in the great politi- cal game which was already developing for the crisis of 1845-8. A corroboration of this point is shown by the action of the House in the matter of the report of Wilkes. In the early part of January, 1843, a resolution, from the Committee on Military Affairs, called for a report from Wilkes on the Oregon Ques- tion. A week later extracts from his report were produced, but on February first Pendleton introduced another resolution to rescind that one calling for the report. He explained, in answer to the expostulations from all over the House, that it would take a month to copy the report so that it could not possibly be produced before adjournment. The House was content with this explanation. That report, however, did not cover more than forty written sheets. It appears that the Whigs and Tyler were anxious to suppress the report which contained a strong plea for pressing the American claim clear to 54 40', and this they did most effectively. It was not until 1911 that it was printed as an official document. 34 34 See Globe, XII, 159, 231. Cong. Record XLVII, 3119 seq. Congressman Humphrey, who obtained the publication in 1911, said, 'These public men (the Congressmen of 1842-3) could not have been ignorant of the report made by Lieut. Wilkes, and as we now read that report we are forced to the conclusion that some of the statesmen of that day were not more frank than are some at present and that they did not always give the true reasons for their action." ​CHAPTER VI. OREGON AND THE POLITICAL GAME: 1843-4. The fairly strict party lines drawn in the poll of the Senate on the Linn bill early in 1843 cast a bit of illumination upon the situation which was already developing for the presidential campaign of 1844. Many factors entered into this situation and it will be necessary to point out the relative importance of the Oregon Question among them all, for it did not stand alone, nor yet was it the paramount issue before the people. Upon it could be founded a slogan which would draw votes in certain quarters and repel them in others; hence it was a problem for political managers to weigh the merits of Oregon as a political plank in the platforms of a national campaign. It is not denied that there were men in public life who acted solely from motives influenced by the merits of the question itself; some either viewed as unquestionable the rights of the United States to all or part of the region, and believed sin- cerely that further delay in settlement would be inimical if not disastrous. Others held that a very grave doubt existed as to the secure foundation of the most extensive claim, and many of these continued to think that there was no need for imme- diate action in any case. So, too, were men who voted for presidential electors and for members of Congress divided in their opinions, in so far as they bestowed thought upon the issue. Throughout the West there was the feeling, pretty widely entertained, that the settlement of the Oregon Ques- tion on terms favorable to the United States involved the most vital factors of the nation's welfare. In the South Oregon paled into insignificance before Texas, and in the manufactur- ing and commercial centers of the North and East, Texas was a synonym for the extension of slavery, and Oregon but an- other of those wild as well as dangerous imaginings of a rude frontier people. These elements, indifferent or keenly interested as the case might be, were ready for the hand of the political leaders who ​308 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE sought and used them for advancing the fortunes of their own party while attempting to check the career of their opponents. For them Oregon was an instrument for attaining other ends, as well as, for a few of them, an end in itself. In other words, the whole situation was not unlike that which is to be found in every presidential campaign, although the properties of the action had been somewhat shifted. During the preliminaries leading to the conventions of 1844 there were three clearly defined political groups to be reckoned with; the Whigs, the Democrats, and the Tyler men. The Whigs were smarting under the check administered to their plans by the death of President Harrison and the defection of Tyler. Tyler's vetoes had largely frustrated their high hopes for economic and fiscal change; the protective tariff, which took a foremost place in their campaign in 1840, had failed to materialize ; the Bank had not been restored, and internal improvements were not being made at Federal ex- pense. The Democrats were bent on recapturing the place of power which they had held uninterruptedly for many years before the inauguration of President Harrison. They were bound to prevent a radical change in the tariff policy of the United States, and the Southern Democrats were anxious for the immediate annexation of Texas, primarily for its supposed future importance in maintaining the balance of slave and free States. John Tyler had shown himself no Whig and had incurred the detestation of the party which elected him to the vice-presidency; on the other hand he was distrusted by the Democrats. Nevertheless he had a considerable personal fol- lowing, which, as his enemies alleged, he was building up by patronage. He thought that on the strength of his record as chief executive for nearly four years he should be considered among the strong candidates in 1844. Within both the Whig and Democratic parties there divi- sions, different leaders having their adherents. The Whigs, however, were not so badly off for unity as were the Demo- crats since at an early date Henry Clay was considered the most eligible standard bearer for 1844, as he had been by a large group four years before. He was a westerner and a ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 309 southerner, for Kentucky reflected the ideas of both sections; he stood well with the North and East on account of his pro- tective tariff views. He could be counted on to draw votes from all parts of the Union. The Democrats, on the other hand, had two prominent leaders, Martin Van Buren, who was the favorite in the North, and John C. Calhoun, who could count on almost undivided Democratic support in the South. So closely were they matched that it was not until the national convention at Baltimore was actually in session that the real situation could be grasped. Only in the light of this political situation can the Oregon activities of the first session of the Twenty-eighth Congress be interpreted. Most of the speeches which were delivered and many of the bills framed at this session were primarily aimed at influencing the coming election. Each faction tried to put itself on record in such a way as to commend itself to the country, and, at the same time, discredit its opponents, and all seized upon the references in the Annual Message to the Oregon Problem as points of departure. The Message 1 announced in general terms that the "United States would be at all times indisposed to aggrandize them- selves at the expense of any other nation, but while they would be restrained by principles of honor . . . from setting up a demand for territory, which does not belong to them, they would as unwillingly consent to a surrender of their rights." It noted that the United States had always con- tended that these claims appertained "to the entire region of country lying on the Pacific, and embraced within 42 degrees and 54, 40 of north latitude." The American minister at London had, under instructions, again brought the matter to the attention of the government of Great Britain, and "while nothing will be done to compromit the rights or honor of the United States, every proper expedient will be resorted to, in order to bring the negotiation now in progress of resumption to a speedy and happy termination." The President added his recommendation of the previous Message for an act pro- viding a line of military posts and extending* the laws of the i Richardson Messages, IV, 257, 8. ​310 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE United States over Oregon. He further stated that "under our free system of government" new republics were destined to arise on the shores of the Pacific at no distant day, thus linking in the thoughts of men Oregon and California. Numerous petitions and memorials, among them one from Wilkes and members of his expedition for remuneration for losses, gave further occasion to make the Oregon Question prominent. In the Senate Dr. Linn was no longer in his place to lead the Oregon forces; he had died the previous summer after the adjournment of Congress, and after he had been re-elected to the Senate. 2 Another Missourian, David R. Atchison, took his place as a leader among those urging the occupation of Oregon. Senator Atchison opened his campaign by introduc- ing a bill which was practically the same as that which had passed the Senate at the last session, although the land grant clause was not included. Neither was there a clause extend- ing the laws of the United States over its citizens in the Ore- gon Territory which was defined to "comprise all the country lying west of the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean and between the parallels of 42 degrees and 54 degrees and 40 minutes of north latitude." Soon after the remainder of the proposed Oregon measures were introduced in the form of a bill for territorial organization. It was neither of these messages, however, which became the immediate occasion of the Oregon discussions which took place in the Senate early in January. Senator William Allen, of Ohio, from, this time one of the most ardent Oregon sup- porters, introduced a resolution calling upon the President for copies of any instructions given to the American minister in London on the subject of the title to and the occupation of Oregon since March 4th, 1841. Replying to an objection to the resolution Allen inquired what was the use of waiting for the information until the whole matter was settled ; the Senate would recall the treaty of 1842 which had been accepted since 2 See Benton's eulogy, Globe, XIII, 28-9; and j'Bowlin's; Ibid., 31-2. In N iles' Register, 28 Oct., 1843, there is a sketch taken from the Missouri Repub- lican. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 311 the United States was already compromitted. He called atten- tion to the speeches which had taken place in Parliament the previous spring, when the Senate had passed the Oregon bill, which were in his opinion virtually a threat to force the United States into negotiations. But the Senate, since Mr. Pakenham had just arrived as minister from England, did not accept the views of Mr. Allen, although they were sup- ported by Benton that it was the President's duty to consult the Senators before he acted, and defeated the resolution, 34 to 14, with only Democrats voting for it. On the same day Allen renewed his efforts in another manner by bringing in a resolution calling on the President to inform the Senate, giving details, whether any tribes of Indians within the territorial limits of the United States were in the pay of Great Britain, and to place before Congress copies of any correspondence relating to the subject. There was no action on the resolution. Senator Semple of Illinois brought the real issue before his colleagues by a resolution calling upon the President to annul the convention, and this was the basis of most of the Senate's discussion during the session. 3 The question of "giving notice" as it was thereafter called led to a skirmish between Semple and Archer, as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations ; Archer questioned the propriety of discussing such a topic when the British minister might draw the conclusion that the Senate did not intend to abide by the result of the negotiations, and he stated his intention of obstructing any such move until the negotiation should be completed or aban- doned. The discussion of the resolution on its merits was postponed until late in February, in part to allow Greenhow's Memorial to be printed and placed in the hands of the Senators for their instruction about Oregon. 4 Benton said, "We on this side want no books in this case," and, when Archer told him that the book would support his opinion, "I have seen and read and know more than can be written on this subject 3 Globe, XIII, 119-20; 151, 195-6. 4 On Jan. 16, Archer presented a memorial from Greenhow asking Congress to subscribe to a number of copies of his work on Oregon. Benton objected to spend- ing public money for the work, but in April a bill appropriating the sum required was passed. Globe, XIII, 151; 299; 304; 553-60. ​312 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE by Mr. Greenhow, or more than that gentleman ever heard of it." From February 22d to March 21st parts of eleven days were devoted to discussing this resolution, many of the most able men of the Senate participating. Although the title was threshed out until the topic was threadbare, there was no new information, although considerable misinformation, ad- duced; the proponents of the resolution pictured in glowing colors the advantages certain to be derived from taking posses- sion of the territory, while the opponents found little or nothing to praise there. The issue was essentially what it had been in the previous spring; the Oregon men would press the title immediately as far as 54 40', the other side inclined to the belief that as the matter had waited many years it would not be harmed by a little longer waiting. War talk was frequently heard. The supporters of the reso- lution were nearly unanimous that Great Britain was getting ready to attack the United States; Buchanan pointed out the hostile tone of the British press during the past year, and scorned Clayton's (Delaware) insinuation that this was due rather to Pennsylvania's repudiation of her public debt than to Oregon. Some took the other tack by declaring that the oppo- nents of Oregon were raising a war cry in order to prevent anything being done. Again and again was sounded the cry that some Senators would supinely allow the United States to be despoiled of more of its territory rather than lift a hand to prevent the robbery ; Hannegan of Indiana went so far in the heat of debate as to say that he would see the dissolution of the Union rather than yield territory without war, although the next day he explained that his remarks had been misun- derstood. The suggestion that, while the title of the United States to territory south of 49 was undoubtedly clear and indisputable, there was at least a question as to whether Great Britain might not have rights between 49 and 54 40' was repudiated by every western Senator as ignoble truckling to the British. " ^ T ^^ The political character of the whole discussion is revealed ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 313 by the roll taken when the resolution was defeated by a vote of 28 to 18. 5 The eighteen who voted for the notice were Democrats all ; twenty- four of those voting against it were Whigs; four Democrats, Crittenden, Huger and McDuffie (S. C.), and Haywood (N. C), made up the number of opponents. Merrick of Maryland and Phelps of Vermont were both members of the special Committee on the Oregon Territory, but, as Whigs, they voted against the resolution. Of the eighteen affirmative votes five were from the North, four from the South, and the rest from the West. Six west- erners voted against the measure, both Senators from Ten- nessee and Kentucky, and one each from Indiana and Michigan. A further political aspect is seen in connection with the activity of Mr. Buchanan of Pennsylvania in supporting the resolution. Not only did he give his hearty approval to it, but he took particular pains to demonstrate the validity of the title to 54 40'. He was the only Northern Senator who took the floor in support of the resolution. One must recall, however, that the Baltimore Convention was only a few weeks off, and however slight others might think his chances, Buch- anan himself believed he was entitled to consideration as a candidate for president. Such was the result of the trial of strength on the resolu- tion for notice that the Oregon men were not anxious to press Atchison's bill, even had the Whigs been willing to allow it. The western Democrats were content to rest their cause on the stand of the Baltimore Convention and toward influencing that body they now bent all their efforts. Even Atchison stated that it was better to wait until the results of the negotia- tion were known before the matter was pressed. But the Senate desired to learn how this affair was progressing, for, in June, after the Convention had taken its stand for 54-40, a resolution requested the President to lay before the Senate confidentially "a copy of any instructions which may have been given by the Executive to the American minister in England ~, XIII, 427. ​314 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE on the subject of the title to, and the occupation of the Terri- tory of Oregon," also copies of the correspondence "which may have passed between the Government and that of Great Britain in relation to this subject." The President replied that he did not consider it expedient to communicate the desired information. The activities of the House followed much the same lines as those of the Senate with perhaps a little more of outspoken- ness. Several measures relating to Oregon were introduced, but none passed or even reached the point where there was a division. As in the Senate the chief discussion took place respecting a resolution calling upon the President to give notice to Great Britain for the termination of the convention, but the debate was neither so long nor so able as that which took place in the upper house. 6 This resolution, introduced by Robert Dale Owen of Indiana, received most support from Ingersoll of Pennsylvania and Wentworth of Illinois, but the discussion was desultory and not especially interesting to the House. 7 Politics interfered more obtrusively in the House debate than had been the case with that in the Senate ; more- over the House took more definitely the stand that it was the duty of Congress to strengthen the hands of the President as well as limit his discretion by some positive action. The "shame" of the treaty of 1842 was dragged forth and elicited from Winthrop of Massachusetts a denial of the allegation that Great Britain had gained a large amount of territory in Maine; Winthrop regretted the temper manifested on both sides, especially deprecating the disposition to sow seeds of perpetual war with England, as the Democratic party did with its habit of bringing out the "red lion" on all occasions. Hughes of Missouri, with the aid of Duncan of Ohio, tried in vain to secure a hearing for a bill to create a territorial government, a bill which was essentially the Linn bill of the previous Congress. Twice the question was ordered on going 6 A modified resolution by Hughes of Missouri introduced before Owen's came up for discussion but was dropped. Owen's resolution in Globe, XIII, 106, 182-91, 409-12, 418. It occasioned the discussion in January and again in March. 7 Adams records, Memoirs, XI, 494, "I found Wentworth roaring like a bull buffalo, about the Oregon Territory; but nobody fallowed him." ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 315 into committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and each time the motion was lost. Commenting on the first of these motions J. Q. Adams says, "that Duncan moved to take up the bill in committee and called for tellers who re- turned a vote of 30 to 95. "As I passed through the -tellers in the negative/' relates the veteran statesman, "I said to Duncan, 'Not quite yet, Doctor/ and I might have said, 'Not at all/ " 8 The truth of Adams' prediction was manifest when Duncan, just as the House was about to adjourn for the session in the latter part of May, announced that he would call up the Ore- gon bill and was greeted with a laugh. When it was seen that it would be impossible to get any affirmative action for Oregon in the House, either in the form of a resolution for notice, the passage of a bill for a territorial organization, or any other positive act, an attempt was made to secure an expression of opinion on a House resolution which read: 9 Resolved, "1. That it is the opinion of this House, the United States has a clear and indisputable title to all the country on the northwest coast of America, commonly called the Oregon Territory, from the forty-second paral- lel of north latitude, to fifty-four degrees forty minutes of north latitude. "2. That it is the imperious duty of the Government of the United States to take possession of all the country owned by it on the northwest coast and to organize such territorial government as will give ample and complete protection to our citizens in that quarter." A third article was proposed as an amendment and accepted by the mover, "3. That it is expedient and conducive to the best interests of the country, that Texas should be annexed to the United States as soon as annexation can be ac- complished on fair and legitimate principles." An attempt to separate the two propositions arose when it was moved to table the whole, but the Speaker ruled that a 8 Ibid., XII, 30-1. , i .: i"._i.:U!.-J fcil .ijjdiclldldjJ 9 Globe, XIII, 443. 25 March. ​316 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE motion to table was not divisible, so the resolutions were tabled by a vote of 106 to 66. The House evidently did not intend to frame a plank for the coming national conventions. Throughout all the discussion in both houses of Congress in this session the animus of the discussions and attempted action was plain ; it was intended to define an issue for political pur- poses. Those who desired immediate action in Oregon would have been glad to see their measure become law, but none of them had the slightest expectation of accomplishing anything at that session. Members of both houses not only shaped their action and pronounced their speeches with a view to its effect upon the choice of delegates for the national conven- tions and upon the subsequent election, but actively took part in the campaign wherever it was possible. The Whigs avoided taking a well-defined stand upon the issue and blocked all immediate action in Congress, while outside the legislative halls they emphasized other issues and ignored Oregon. Clay would make no positive statement as to his stand before the Whig national convention took place, and the platform of that convention was equally reticent. This seems to add weight to the belief that the Oregon Question was not, in the opinion of a majority of the people, a paramount political issue in 1844. The strength of the Whigs did not lie in the West; their stronghold was on the eastern seaboard where questions of tariff and fiscal organization overtopped all other issues. Not only did they insist that these economic issues must not be buried under an Oregon plank, but they felt that to press the question was likely to strain relations between Great Britain and the United States, possibly resulting in war which would be more disastrous to manufacturing and commercial interests than the maintenance of the tariff in its unsatisfactory shape. Whig sentiment on Oregon was expressed by Daniel Webster, in writing to Everett in January, 1844. After speaking of the abusive tone of the British press on the topic and the desire shown by many Americans of making trouble between the countries, he said : 10 10 29 Jan., 1844; Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, II, 179-80. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 317 "From present appearances it is not probable that either House will, at present, recommend to the President to give the necessary notice for the termination of the Conven- tion of 1818. I believe Oregon to be a poor country, in no way important to England, except that she happens to have settlements in the region, and of very little conse- quence to the United States. The ownership of the whole country is very likely to follow the greater settlement, and larger amount of population, proceeding, hereafter, from whichsoever of the two countries." Nor were the Whigs willing to allow their pet economic hobbies to be overridden by Texas, that firebrand which stirred the country and whipped Congress into fury during the pre- ceding sessions. Here the Whigs were between the devil and the deep sea : if annexation sentiments were avowed it would cost votes in the anti-slavery North and East ; if annex- ation was opposed it would mean the probable loss of support in the border States and the certain loss of the South and Southwest. Hence Clay, while he did not oppose the annexa- tion of Texas since, on his record as to the treaty of 1819, he could consistently take the ground that it would be "re-annexa- tion," would not go so far as to state that he favored action under any circumstances. Shortly before the adjournment of Congress and after his nomination at Baltimore Clay's stand on expansion in general was attacked by W, W. Payne of Ala- bama in the House. 11 Payne said that Mr. Clay's opinions were "in opposition to the annexation of Texas, and to an increase of territory from any quarter, whether Texas or Oregon," and he called on the friends of Mr. Clay to produce evidence that he was in favor of annexation, charging him with playing a "double game to mislead different sections of the Union." Further evidence on Whig sentiment regarding Oregon is found in J. Q. Adams' note 12 relating to the reception of a proposition, in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, to recommend an appropriation for a special and extraordinary mission to England, a project of Webster's. "Holmes," rec- Ti Globe, XII, 680-1. 12 Memoirs, XI, 327-30. ​318 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE ords Adams, "was very warmly for it , with Gushing and myself. But Everett and Granger, peremptorily, Merri- weather, bitterly, and Caruthers, with his bland and courteous smile, all opposed it." When the committee voted on the rec- ommtendation the next day six of the nine members opposed it, and all six were Whigs, while Adams was the only Whig in the three who approved it. Adams' position was difficult in 1843 and 1844. He was convinced of the good title of the United States even to 54 40', and considered the surrender of anything south of 49 as little less than treasonable. Yet he was a Whig and his party not only would not press the issue but used its power in Con- gress to prevent positive action. Furthermore Adams sus- pected some Whigs as well as the pseudo-Whig, President Tyler, of being willing to surrender a great deal to Great Britain in order to lessen tension in other directions, notably with Texas and the Mexican territory west of that republic. In March, 1843, he had been told by David Lee Child that Webster had proposed to Almonte, the Mexican minister, "a cession of a portion of territory on the Pacific ocean, includ- ing the port of San Francisco, so to allow the British Gov- ernment to stretch their territory down to the mouth of the Columbia River." 13 A few days later Adams told Webster that "all the questions about the right of search, the bill for the occupation of the Oregon Territory, Captain Jones's movement on California, and all the movements for the annex- ation of Texas, were parts of one great system!, looking to a war for conquest and plunder from Mexico, and a war with England and alliance with France." He said that Henry A. Wise, a Tyler Democrat, of Virginia, in his speech in Con- gress about a year before (14 April, 1842,) "had blabbed the whole project;" while the taking of Monterey had corroborated his suspicions. Webster assured Adams that the action of Ap Catesby Jones in seizing Monterey had been a freak o>f his own brain, and that Wise's speech had been vain and senseless bravado. 13 Ibid., 340. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 319 He did, however, confide to his aged friend that the matter had been talked over with Lord Ashburton, who thought that if England were allowed to come down to the Columbia she would not oppose a cession to the United States by Mexico of territory south of 42 to include San Francisco, if that could be obtained. "What an abime of duplicity !" was Adams' comment in his diary, and a few days later noted that all these factors, includ- ing the Texan expedition to Santa Fe of the previous year, were all suckers of the same root. The original project of enlarging the territory of the United States by annexing Texas had grown so that it embraced a scheme to secure all New Mexico. "Ap Catesby Jones's occupation of Monterey, Dr. Linn's bill for the organization of the Oregon Territory, and, above all, the tampering of Webster with the Mexican minister here, Almonte, by a proposition that Mexico should cede to the United States the port of San Francisco and the parallel of thirty-six of north latitude across the continent, to buy the consent of Great Britain, with a cession to her from forty-nine to the Columbia River, represent altogether a spectacle and prospect truly appalling." Webster had in fact discussed the situation with President Tyler who saw the political value of the suggestion. Tyler believed that if a treaty with Mexico could secure at the same time a recognition of the independence of Texas and a cession of California to the United States all sections of the country would be satisfied. "Texas might not stand alone, nor would the line proposed for Oregon. Texas would reconcile all to the line, while California would reconcile or pacify all to Oregon." 14 Tyler recurred to this triangular arrangement when, after the publication of Folk's first Annual Message, he explained to his son his own attitude in the negotiations with Great Britain, referring especially to Folk's statement that he had offered 49 as a compromise. "I never dreamed," said he, "of ceding this country, unless for the greater equiva- lent of California, which I fancied Great Britain might be 14 Tyler to Webster, 23 Jan., 1843; Tyler, Letters and Times of the Tylers, II, 261, ​320 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE able to obtain for us through her influence in Mexico; and this was but a dream of policy which was never embodied." 15 It is not necessary to go with Adams all the way in viewing Webster's "gigantic political profligacy," but certainly we are afforded light on the course which some leading Whigs would have adopted had they had the power. Compromise to pre- vent the outburst of any one faction, conciliation to tide over issues, such as marked the course of the Whig party from the beginning, appear here in the tangled web of the politics of the 'Forties. The South wished more territory to afford slave expansion; the North opposed such a plan. Annexation of Texas would not only arouse the antagonism of the more radical elements of the North but it threatened to jeopardize the profits of the conservative commercial and manufacturing classes by possible international complications. But both the North and the South might conceivably be won if a cession from Mexico could be obtained and at the same time produce no stringency in the relations with Great Britain. The Whig, however, was willing to let the West pay the bill, if we can take Webster's testimony, for Great Britain was to be con- soled by being allowed to reach south to the Columbia and so would probably interpose no objections to American expansion at the expense of Mexico. While western men could not lay a finger upon the specific fact which would prove their sus- picion, they felt that there was the intention to sacrifice what they had come to look upon as peculiarly their interest, and consequently they were bitter in their denunciation of the eastern treachery to their cause. 16 The Democratic party took the same elements and turned them about. Although this party appeared more rent by internal dissension than its opponent, its leaders had the political penetration to enable them to gauge more accurately the political tension and to snatch a victory through a daring 15 Tyler to R. Tyler, n Dec., 1845, Ibid., 447-8. 1 6 Benton (Thirty Years' View, II, 624-5) says in speaking of the defeat of the Senate resolution in 1844: "Upon all this talk of war the commercial interest became seriously alarmed, and looked upon the delivery of the notice as a signal for disastrous depression in our foreign trade. In a word the general uneasiness became so great that there was no chance for doing what we had a right to do, etc." The relation of Great Britain to the United States-Mexican affairs is treated by E. D. Adams, British interests and activities in Mexico, 1838-1846. ​policy from the apparently more careful and calculating Whigs. It would be easy here, as has been the case in so many general histories, to overestimate the value of the Demo-cratic slogan "Fifty- four-Forty or Fight!" in the campaign of 1844. But the intensity of feeling after the election of Polk and especially after his Inaugural Address and first Annual Message seems to have been reflected back upon the situation before November of 1844. Certainly there was no intention on the part of those who framed the Baltimore platform to make Oregon anything more than the tail of the Texas kite. "Re-occupation of Oregon" would balance "Reannexation of Texas," and so remove the appearance of too-great sectionalism. This had been noticed somie months earlier by the Texan minister to the United States who wrote his government:
"The West are intent on the occupation of Oregon, in order to wrest it from the grasping power of Great Britain—it is believed that the interest of the two questions of the annexation of Texas and the occupation of Oregon can be combined, securing for the latter the south and southeastern votes and for the former some of the northern and entire western vote. Those presses which have discussed the matter have placed it above party grounds and unshackled with party tramels. This I think is highly advantageous for if it were made a strictly party vote, neither of the two great parties have sufficient members to carry it."
The Democratic leaders had gauged the power of the western demand for Oregon and the political possibilities therein with greater insight than the Whigs. The "Oregon fever" which raged in almost every part of the Union, as Niles thought, and which had started the real migrations of 1842 and 1843, had been the incentive of that intense fervor which manifested itself all up and down the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Public meetings were held and resolutions were framed, some for the benefit of Congress and some for public consumption alone. ​322 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE One of the most important of these gatherings, at the same time typical of that force which the Democrats saw and used, was held in Cincinnati in July, 1843. The resolutions framed by this convention and signed by "Col. R. M. Johnson, 18 Presi- dent, and 90 citizens of six states in the Mississippi valley," gave voice to the usual sentiments that "the right of the United States to the Oregon Territory, from 42 to 54 40 north latitude is unquestionable, and that it is the imperative duty of the general government, forthwith, to extend the laws of the United States over said territory," establish forts and provide a naval force for the protection of the territory and the citizens of the United States living there. To make this declar- ation more impressive there was drawn up to be presented to the legislatures of the states from which delegates to the con- vention came and to Congress a formal statement headed as follows : "A declaration of citizens of the Mississippi valley, as- sembled at Cincinnati, July $th, 1843, f or the purpose of adopting such measures as may induce the immediate oc- cupation of the Oregon Territory, by the arms and laws of the United States of America!' Following this came the customary credo as to title and the necessity of checking the Indians, and the need of stopping Great Britain "in her career of aggression with impunity, dominion without right!' General Cass, in a speech at the opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal, July 4, 1843, gave a good illustration of western sentiments tinged with that bellicose tone which east- erners so deplored. 19 "Perhaps, while I address you, measures are in prog- ress to wrest from us our territory west of the Rocky Mountains. Island after island, country after country is falling before the ambition of England. . . . Our claim to the country west of the Rocky Mountains is as undeniable as our right to Bunker Hill or New Orleans ; and who will call in question our right to those blood- 18 Richard M. Johnson; U. S. Senator, 1819-29; Vice President of the United States, 1837 to 1841. Niles' Register, 64:327. 19 Ibid., 29 July, 1843. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 323 stained fields? . . . And I trust it will be main- tained with a vigor and prompitude equal to its justice. War is a great evil, but not so great as national dishonor. Little is gained by yielding to insolent and unjust pre- tensions. . . . Far better in dealing with England, to resist aggression, whether of territory, of impressment, or of search, when first attempted than to yield in the hope that forbearance will be met with a just spirit, and lead to an amicable compromise. Let us have no red lines on the map of Oregon. Let us hold on to the integrity of our just claims. If war comes let it be so. I do not myself believe it will be long avoided, unless prevented by intestine difficulties in the British empire. And woe to us if we flatter ourselves that it can be arrested by any sys- tem of concession ; of all delusions this would be the most fatal ; and we should awaken from it a dishonored, if not a ruined people." Within the Democratic party prior to the eve of the Balti- more convention two leaders were contending for the first place, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, and Martin Van Buren of New York. Both were aspirants for presidential honors and each viewed the other as tainted with sectionalism. Calhoun's prospects of conducting a successful campaign against Clay, who had overtopped all other Whig possibilities long before the convention which nominated him, were looked upon as so slight that his friends recommended his withdraw- ing from the race at an early date. Van Buren, who was strong in the North, was against the annexation of Texas, and this damned him with the bulk of the southern Democracy. His followers believed, however, that this might possibly be offset in part by an Oregon issue. Accordingly about a month before the convention an open letter was addressed him to obtain a statement which might be used in the campaign. 20 It noted the disappointment which was widespread because Con- gress had failed to enact the Oregon measures, and then pro- pounded to Van Buren three questions in substance as follows : 1. Have the United States a clear title to Oregon and would you be in favor of giving notice? Buren 20 A. C. Dodge to Van Buren, 30 Apr., 1844, House of Representatives, Van Papers, Vol. 50, Mss. Div., Library of Congress. ​324 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE 2. Are you in favor of extending immediately to our citizens in Oregon the protection of the United States through extension of laws, sending of troops, erection of forts, etc. ? 3. Would you, as President, approve and authorize the adoption of measures for settlement and occupation of Oregon such as those introduced by Senator Linn? This open letter was accompanied by a private communica- tion 21 from A. C. Dodge, who was delegate in the House of Representatives from Iowa Territory, in which was stated the fact that the public letter was to elicit a reply intended to affect both the nomination and the election. "Give me as strong a Western Oregon letter," wrote Dodge, "as you can venture to write," and include something to counteract the machinations of the enemy. "Say as much in favor of the grants of land, &c., provided for in Dr. Linn's bill as you may deem expedient." When he received these letters Van Buren wrote his political friends in the Senate to ask what he should do. Silas Wright, who had seen Dodge and Allen, told him it would be better not to reply then, for the letter was not only untimely but badly framed. If Van Buren should receive the nomination, thought Wright, then it might be well to call upon him, "not referring to any particular measure to be taken by our gov- ernment." 22 This letter from Wright was dated 20 May, 1844, just a week before the Democratic national convention assembled, and it was on the same day that Van Buren wrote his letter in which he took a decided stand against immediate annexation of Texas, the only courageous political act, one of his commentators says, that marked his career. Calhoun, who had negotiated the treaty for annexation which the Senate refused to ratify, believed that Texas was by far the most important issue before the country. When he had been approached early in 1844 on the subject of taking the State Departmtent, after the death of Upshur, he wrote, 23 21 Ibid., same date. 22 Wright to Van Buren, Ibid. 23 To * * * (from a draft with corrections in Calhoun's handwriting) Correspondence of Calhoun, 573-4. See also Calhoun to his daughter, 9 Mar. Ibid., 576. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 325 "The only possible reason I can see for accepting 1 the Depart- ment, should it be be offered, as far as duty is concerned, is limited to the pending negotiations relating to Texas and Oregon. They are both, I admit, of vast importance ; especially to the West and South." Two months earlier he had written Thomas W. Gilmer that Texas must be annexed to the United States, otherwise it would become a bone of contention be- tween the United States and Great Britain. His stand as taken in the Senate and in public addresses left no question as to his views. Since Calhoun entertained these views it is not surprising that he was unwilling that a Northerner opposed to Texas should head the ticket of the Democratic party. Since it was obvious that he would be defeated by the Whig candi- date if the convention should select him, the problem was to eliminate Van Buren and secure the nomination of a "safe" man. One of "two seceders from the Polk ranks" explained in a letter published in the New York Tribune in August how the plot to get rid of Van Buren was arranged. 24 . . . "Mr. Van Buren foresaw his inevitable defeat in the Convention as early as February last; and he accord- ingly prepared himself and his immiedate friends for the event. . . . (He had been informed that delegates from twenty-two of the twenty-six States had been in- structed for him.) Mr. Calhoun, sustained by President Tyler, determined that Mr. Van Buren should not receive the support of the southern and southwestern states, and therefore introduced that firebrand, the Texas question, with a knowledge of Mr. Van Buren's decided hostility to the measure of immediate annexation. . . . Mr. Van Buren determined that the trapsetters should fall into their own trap. He accordingly dispatched a confi- dential and faithful friend to the west, and the latter met at Cincinnati a distinguished member of the press, who immediately convened a meeting of the friends of Mr. Van Buren, on the 29th of March, and a letter was ad- dressed to Mr. Polk requesting his views regarding the annexation of Texas and Oregon. This friend took with him a copy of that letter . . . went to Mr. Polk, and 24 Quoted in Miles' Register, 26 Oct., 1844. ​326 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE both gentlemen then consulted General Jackson at the Hermitage, where Mr. Folk's reply was arranged, but not furnished for two or three weeks thereafter. I have reason to believe that General Jackson did not approve the game about to be played, and wrote to his New York friend subsequently upon the subject. But it was settled by Mr. Van Buren that he or Mr. Polk should be the nominee. With Mr. Polk, he knew the party must be defeated ; and this, then, was the alternative nominate me, or down you go for your treachery." In view of the letter of Silas Wright on 20th May as well as from other facts it is obvious that Van Buren had not given up all hopes of nomination by February. Moreover, Wright, who was looked upon as the probable candidate for vice-president, noted that the situation was better than it had been earlier in the session, although great activity prevailed in Washington. Members of Congress were seizing upon all delegates who appeared in the city; they took them to their homes, and worked upon them to make their action in the con- vention not "disagree with their (the Congressmen's) course. This was especially true of the Indiana and Illinois Congress- men, and "our friend Breese is one of these." A letter written by H. M. Judge on March 1st, 1844, states that Calhoun and Polk had come to an understanding, 25 and this is much nearer the real situation than the account given in the "seceder's" retrospect. James K. Polk had been a rep- resentative in Congress for several terms and had been Speaker for one term ; he was not widely known and was certainly not considered by the country at large as a possible candidate for the presidency. Four days before the Baltimore Convention there appeared in the Nashville (Tenn.) Union this para- graph : 26 "We guess the claims of Mr. POLK and others will be urged privately or publicly, and after two or three ballotings, there will be a cordial, harmonious and strong union upon one of them, who will be hailed as the candi- date of the great democratic party with enthusiasm and unanimity." 25 In Crittenden Papers, Vol. 9. Mss. Div., Library of Congress. 26 Quoted in Nat. Intelligencer, 4 June. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 327 From Nashville such an item was significant especially when it is recalled that just a month before there had appeared in some papers an open letter from Mr. Polk to S. P. Chase, Thomas Heaton and others wherein he said, 27 . . . "Let Texas be reannexed, and the authority and laws of the United States be established and main- tained within her limits, as also in the Oregon territory, and let the fixed policy of our government be, not to per- mit Great Britain or any other foreign power to plant a colony or hold dominion over any portion of the people or territory of either. These are my opinions. . . ." Making due allowance in the matter of cordiality and har- mony the prophesy of the Union was carried out to the letter. Van Buren's name was withdrawn from before the convention after several ballots and there was a rush to the standard of Polk whereon was inscribed the sentiment of his April letter: "Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power; and that the re-occupation of Oregon and the re- annexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period are great American measures, which this convention recom- mends to the cordial support of the democracy of the union." Astonishment is too feeble a term to indicate the feeling with which the news of Folk's nomination was received in the country. The National Intelligencer's comment, given with the quotation from the Nashville Union, shows the general atti- tude: 28 "This is the first, last, and only information which we remember to have seen from any quarter, prior to the Baltimore convention, of the probability, or possibility, of Mr. FOLK'S being a candidate for the presidency. The inference is irresistible that the arrangement for with- drawing Mr. VAN BUREN and bringing forward Mr. POLK, was made at Nashville, or in the neighborhood of that city." 27 See Niles' Register, 8 June. Stan wood, History of the Presidency, ch. XVII. See also the story of how Folk's name was brought before the Baltimore conven- tion by Bancroft, Bancroft to Polk, July 6, 1844, in Howe, Life and Letters of George Bancroft, I, 252-5. 28 4 June, 1844. ​328 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE The Democratic platform, however, would have carried almost any candidate in both the South and the West. Mr. Folk's views on the tariff were in accord with the free trade sentiment of the South, and yet, in a non-committal letter, he seemed to indicate that a degree of protection might not be out of place, hence those Northerners who were attracted by the lure of expansion could also find a ground for hoping their economic beliefs might find a sympathizer. With both Texas and free trade the Democratic party had a clear path in the South while the West did not care what the position of Oregon was in relation to Texas so long as it had been the subject of a definite pronunciamento in accord with its views. In the North Texas was not emphasized by the Democrats although that plank was rrnade much of by the Whigs in their opposition, but the Oregon Question touched a chord which was always ready to vibrate in harmony, that of repelling British aggression. It could, therefore, be counted to bring votes from many who forgot the possibility of economic dis- tress in their momentary enthusiasm. 29 The Oregon plank, then, was looked upon in the West as the most important single issue in the campaign; in the South it was the counterbalance of Texas and as such, irrespective of its own merits, important since it would bring votes for Texas ; in the North it was languidly viewed except when some orator twisted the lion's tail to make him roar. It was, as John Quincy Adams said, "a mock enthusiasm' for the ter- ritory of Oregon and a hurricane of passion for Texas, blown to fury by congressional and Texan bond and land holders." 30 The relative importance of Texas and Oregon is well indicated by the newspaper accounts of the progress of the campaign. 31 Column after column of argument pro and con Texas appeared, but only here and there was there a reference to Oregon. As Niles' Register said, in November after the election was over, "Other topics have so monopolized the attention of both gov- 29 See account of reception of Bancroft's speech when at a New York conven- tion he eulogized the work of Silas Wright in connection with the Oregon report; "Terrific cheering and shouts of 'Oregon is ours and must be ours' 'Ys, and Texas, too'." Niles' Register, 12 Oct., 1844. 30 Letter in Register in answer to one from Jackson; 23 Nov. 31 See, e. g. Richmond Enquirer, 28 May, 4 Je., 5 Aug., 5 Oct., etc. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 329 ernment and people for some time past that we have almost forgotten that a minister reached this country some months since, specially charged with the duty of negotiating in rela- tion to the differences between that country and the United States in relation to the boundaries of the northwestern line separating the territories of the two countries." Folk's victory was won by a narrow margin and did not depend upon the Oregon plank, although that undoubtedly drew votes especially in the West. Polk lost his own State, as well as Kentucky and Ohio, all closely contested ; in several States the vote for Birney, on the abolitionists' ticket, was large enough to have turned the victory to Clay had there been no third candidate. 32 Nevertheless the importance of this cam- paign and Folk's election to the Oregon Question must not be overlooked. It was all a part of the educative process which had begun in earnest with the later efforts of Linn; now, when Folk's Inaugural and later his first Annual brought up the question in a positive manner, the country was in a fashion prepared to form some opinion. Even if the merits of the question had been discussed in a biased way in the heat of the campaign people knew something of what was meant; some of them had seen and heard the slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight" although it had not played an important or even con- spicuous part in the contest. 33 Furthermore it had prepared the public for the renewal of the Oregon discussion when the national legislators assembled for the second and last session of the Twenty-eighth Congress. Throughout the Union people had come to believe that some sort of settlement ought to come soon even though they might not agree with the recom- mendations of President Polk a little later. 34 On the other side of the Atlantic, too, the educative influence was working. Without in any way believing that the political activities either in Congress or during the presidential cam- paign had the effect of making Great Britain modify her stand 32 Stanwood, History of the Presidency, ch. XVII. 33 Except as a banner on some of the prairie schooners in the migrations of 1844 and 1845. Very few references to this phrase are found in the newspapers of the East. 34 See, e. g. Niles' Register, 20 July, 1844. "Manifest destiny. ​330 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPER one comes to the conclusion that the agitation served to inform the British public that a settlement could not be long post- poned. Add to this fact the further fact that the existing min- istry (Sir Robert Peel's) was not pursuing a policy of imperi- alism, such as characterized the Tory ministries of Lord Pal- merston, and the willingness of the Foreign Office to resume negotiations can be understood. In December, 1844, after the election had shown in some degree the trend of public opinion, the attention of Congress was again called to Oregon by Tyler's last Annual Message; he expressed his conviction that the influence of "our political system" was destined to be as "actively and beneficially felt on the distant shores of the Pacific as it is now on those of the Atlantic ocean;" he said that negotiations were at the moment being carried on with the representative of the British government and that he would transmit the results promptly when they were brought to a definite conclusion. He renewed his recommendation for extending the laws of the United States over the territory and for erecting a line of military posts which would "enable our citizens to migrate in compara- tive safety to the fertile region below the falls of the Colum- bia, and make the provision of the existing convention for the joint occupation of the Territory . . . more available than hitherto" for the citizens of the United States. 35 In both houses of Congress bills for providing a territorial government for Oregon were introduced, on much the same lines as at previous sessions, but it was not until the Texas annexation was completed, so far as the Resolution of Con- gress could bring it about, that either branch was able to con- sider them. In the House the bill came up toward the end of January 36 and Democratic Representatives urged its passage on the same grounds which had forwarded the Texas Resolu- tions ; namely, that the country had pronounced on the matter and it was the duty of Congress to respond to the mandate. The Whigs opposed immediate action on the ground that it 35 Richardson, Messages, IV, 336, 337-8. 36 Globe, XIV, 197. Debated from Jan. 27 to Feb. i. Passed Feb. 3. Ibid., 236​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 331 would interfere with the negotiation then taking place; more- over some parts of the bill would seem to assert a greater degree of authority than the convention allowed. Some men raised the point of title as far as 54 40' although no strenuous objections were made. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, touch- ing upon the title, said that the United States had twice offered 49 hence the British government would not dare to take less and the American minister, in view of the late elec- tion, would not dare to accept that line if the British govern- ment would. He could, then, do no more than say that in the time of peace the nation should prepare for war, although, of course, he was opposed to war in itself. The war note, however, was not heard often in the House debates. Instead there was a disposition to eliminate those sections of the bill which would be in flagrant violation of the spirit of the treaty. This was most clearly manifest in the adoption of an amendment whereby the President was author- ized to give notice for terminating joint occupancy, although there were some who believed that the bill should be passed as it was and this be made the subject of a separate action. A motion by Winthrop to amend the bill, by prohibiting slavery within the territory was passed by a vote of 85 to 56 in the committee of the Whole House. When the bill was reported to the House by the Committee of the Whole there was a demand for a separate vote on the slavery amendment which was supported, 131 to 69, and then, with no division on the other amendments, the whole measure was passed, 140 to 59. No roll was called at any stage in the proceedings, so it is impossible accurately to locate the opposi- tion to the measure. From the discussion, however, it is obvious that the opponents were northern Whigs who based their action on the international situation. In the Senate the House bill met with obstacles; it was referred to the special committee of the last session (that on the Oregon Territory) and by this committee was reported back with amendments. There the matter rested for nearly a month. On the closing day of the session Atchison moved to postpone all previous orders and take up the Oregon bill, ​332 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE whereupon Archer, still chairman of the Committee on For- eign Relations, said that he was amazed at such a motion ; had not the gentleman read the message of the President in rela- tion to the negotiations, which were in favorable progress? By this time they would have been completed in all probability had not the American plenipotentiary fallen sick, for there was no disposition on the part of the British minister to retard them. Others expressed their surprise that such a motion could be made, and only Allen, of Ohio, who had been one of the most ardent Oregon men of the last session, could be found coming to the support of Senator Atchison. Allen said that friends of the measure had long been anxious to act but they had been held back against their wills; day after day they had implored that something be done to have time enough to give proper consideration to the measure. The tone of Allen's remarks was such as to call from; Crittenden an inquiry whether he "was charging gentlemen on this side of the house" with obstructive tactics to avoid the subject. But the Senate refused to act, and the Oregon bill died with the Congress. There is no doubt that Calhoun's presence in the Cabinet had a restraining influence upon members of his own party in the Senate, especially on those from the South. Daniel E. Huger, who took Calhoun's place in the Senate in 1843-5, indi- cates this in a letter to Calhoim in March, 1845. 37 "The course pursued by General McDuf fie and myself on the Oregon ques- tion excited at first, unpleasant feelings, but before we parted, I think, even the gentlemen of oar party had ceased to indulge even disapprobation of our course." The restraining influence of Calhoun appears from another angle. Early in the session Allen had introduced a resolution calling upon the President for information about the negotia- tion, whereupon Archer informed the Senate that he had con- versed with the Secretary of State who told him that prejudice to the public service would follow such a call. Mr. Allen said he did not care for informal information from the Secretary of State; he wanted official word from the President so that it might form a part of the archives of the country; further- 37 Correspondence of Calhoun (24 March)), 1028. ​FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 333 more, the previous day they had voted for far more important resolutions on the subject of the correspondence with Mexico. No mystery, as far as he knew, attached to the matter and so he insisted upon his resolution. In spite of Archer's opposition the Senate supported Allen, but the information obtained con- sisted simply in the statement that the negotiation had made considerable progress. In addition to the ways enumerated Oregon came up in both houses in various guises. The Senate had its own bill for territorial organization which was referred back from commit- tee and placed on the calendar but progressed no further toward enactment. Greenhow's Memorial had been ordered purchased ; Douglas brought in a bill for erecting military posts in Nebraska and Oregon; Pratt of New York presented a memorial from; Eli Whitney asking a grant of lands to enable him to construct a railroad from Lower Michigan to Oregon, 38 with a view of creating a great thoroughfare to China. From the legislatures of Missouri, Indiana and New Hampshire came resolutions urging Congress to act on Oregon. Outside of Congress, apart from those who felt themselves personally affected by the situation, there was a disposition to view the passing over of the question as the most satisfac- tory thing which could be done at the moment ; it was felt that the negotiation should terminate before legislative action oc- curred. If the diplomatic efforts were successful Congress could proceed legally to the organization of a territorial gov- ernment; if they failed then Congress could call upon the President to annul the convention of joint occupation. After all, there would soon be in office the party which had pledged itself to the reoccupation of Oregon, a party headed by a Presi- dent who had taken a positive stand on the issue, and a few months of waiting would not seriously injure the cause. 39 38 This is the first appearance of Whitney's scheme in Congress. It was almost universally considered wholly impracticable. 39 National Intelligencer, 3 Mar. : "One bill is too important to be overlooked. (The editors were summarizing the session's work.) The Oregon bill lies over until next session. We hope the question will be settled by negotiation before that time. Ibid., 4 Mar.: "The Oregon bill came up. Fortunately the Senate voted not to take up the matter." Hence the Senate was again the "orotector of the national faith, honor, and peace, all of which were compromitted" if the House
NEWS AND COMMENT
By Leslie M. Scott.
FIRST ROADS ACROSS CASCADE MOUNTAINS
Ox-team pioneers found the Cascade Mountains the worst obstacle in their journey to Oregon. The Columbia River gorge through the mountains was too difficult, dangerous and costly a route for transport of families, wagons and cattle. The opening of the Barlow Road south of Mount Hood, in 1845-46, afforded an avenue of transit, although full of hardship. Next came the Scott–Applegate road between Rogue River and Klamath Lake, in 1846, and then the Naches Road to Puget Sound and the Middle Fork Road of Willamette River, both in 1853.
An article by Professor W. D. Lyman, of Whitman College, entitled "The First Roads Across the Cascade Mountains," appearing in The Walla Walla Union of December 15, 1918, suggests this brief review of mountain highway beginnings in the Pacific Northwest. Professor Lyman does not mention the Southern Oregon road of 1846 or the Middle Fork road of 1853, although their hardships and achievements fully equalled those of the Barlow Road and the Naches trail. It is pleasing to note that Professor Lyman gives a full measure of praise to Joel Palmer for leadership in the Barlow Road enterprise of 1845. Palmer went ahead of the Barlow party to lay out the route and did this work with perseverance and precision. His energy took him high up the steeps of Mount Hood to view the mountain contours, in this venture being probably the first precursor of the present-day Mazama mountain climbers. Viewing with alarm the rapid approach of Winter (October, 1845), he pressed the party forward without the wagons and brought to it relief supplies which Willamette Valley settlers had provided. This recognition of Palmer does not disparage the work of Samuel K. Barlow, the organizer of the main party and the chief builder of the road. And it may be important here to record the name of the man who ​drove the first ox-team and wagon over the route in the Summer of 1846, Reuben Gant, later of Yamhill County, who died December 6, 1916, at Philomath, Benton County, where he had lived for many years.
Professor Lyman's narrative is largely that of Palmer's Journal of Travel Over the Rocky Mountains. His narrative of the Naches trail party of 1853 is chiefly that of George H. Himes, a member of the party.
We assume that, had Professor Lyman's space permitted, he would have included in his review the Southern Oregon and the Middle Fork roads.
NARRATIVES OF THE "SOUTHERN" ROUTE
The "southern" route to Rogue River Valley, first opened in 1846, is well described in the narrative of Tolbert Carter, a member of that year's migration, and in the extant journal of the Stearns party of 1853. The Carter narrative appears in the published Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association for 1906; the Stearns journal has recently come in possession of the Oregon Historical Society, amplified by Orson A. Stearns of Corvallis, Oregon, who was ten years old at the time of the journey. These narratives are probably the best extant records of the "southern" route. The Carter narrative shows much severer hardships than the Stearns diary of seven years later.
A BARLOW ROAD MONUMENT
Dedication of a Barlow Road monument at Rhododendron, made July 4, 1918, by Multnomah Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, should have been mentioned in the preceding issue of The Quarterly. This monument consists of a stone, inscribed with a bronze tablet, "The Oregon Trail, 1845." The site is near the confluence of Zig Zag and Sandy Rivers, thirteen miles below the summit of the Cascade Mountains. Participants in the ceremonies were: Mrs. John A. Keating, regent of Multnomah Chapter; Rev. E. E. Gilbert, of Oregon City; W. H. H. Dufur, formerly president of the Oregon Pioneer Association; George H. Himes, secretary of ​that association and curator of the Oregon Historical Society; Mrs. James N. Davis, past regent of Multnomah Chapter, who read a congratulatory letter of Leslie M. Scott; Mrs. A. H. Breyman, vice-regent, who read a brief statement of her daughter, Mrs. O. M. Ash, regarding selection of the site; Mrs. Mary Barlow Wilkins, past regent, who made the principal address of the occasion; Mrs. Nieta Barlow Lawrence, granddaughter of Mr. Barlow. Imogene Harding Brodie, great-granddaughter, both of Oregon City, who led the singing; little Miss Madeline Brodie, great-great granddaughter of Mr. Barlow, who unveiled the monument; Mrs. Emily Lindsley Ross, of Portland, state historian of the D. A. R., who represented the state organization in the exercises.
One other monument of stone and a bronze tablet marks the Barlow Road, at Abernethy Creek near Oregon City, dedicated October 13, 1917, by Willamette Chapter, D. A. R., of Oregon City. For further details of these markers and of others erected by the D. A. R., in memory of pioneers in Oregon and Washington, see The Quarterly, September, 1917, Vol. XVIII., pp. 225-26.
"FIRST" ASCENT OF MOUNT RAINIER
This honor has been commonly accredited to Hazard Stevens and Philemon B. Van Trump, who scaled the peak August 17, 1870 (narrative in The Oregonian, July 16, 1905, p. 39), but several recorded ascents were made prior to the Stevens–Van Trump expedition in 1870. Dr. William Fraser Tolmie, together with four Indians and horses and pack animals, climbed up the north side in September, 1833. Again in 1852 Colonel Shaw and others ascended the mountain. Colonel Shaw related the episode to Mr. Himes some fifteen years ago. Mr. Himes says that Colonel Shaw related that no other point seemed higher than the one on the mountain where the party stood. An account of this expedition of 1852 is contained in the Columbian, Olympia, Puget's Sound, O. T., September 18, 1852, as follows:
"About four weeks ago, a party of young men, consisting of Messrs. R. S. Bailey, Sidney S. Ford, Jr., and John Edgar undertook an expedition to Mt. Rainier, for the purpose of ascending that mountain as far as circumstances might warrant. Rainier, as all are aware, is situated in the main Cascade range, distant from its base to Olympia about 55 miles. On arriving at the foot of the mountain the party secured their animals, and pursued their way upward by the backbone ridge to the main body of the mountain, and to the height of as near as they could judge, of nine or ten miles the last half mile over snow of a depth probably of fifty feet, but perfectly crusted and solid. The party were two days in reaching their highest altitude, and they described the mountain as extremely rugged, and difficult of ascent; on the slopes and table land they found a luxuriant growth of grass, far exceeding in freshness and vigor any afforded by the prairies below. On some of these table lands they found beautiful lakes—from a half to a mile in circumference formed from mountain streams, and the melting of snow. The party remained at their last camp, upward, two days and two nights, where they fared sumptuously on the game afforded by the mountains, which they found very numerous, in the shape of brown bear, mountain goat, deer, etc., with an endless variety of the feathered genus; the side of the mountain was literally covered with every description of berries, of the most delicious flavor.
"The party had a perfect view of the Sound and surrounding country—recognizing the numerous prairies with which they were familiar, to which were added in their observations, several stranger prairies, of which they had no knowledge, and which, probably, have never been explored. The evenings and mornings were extremely cold, with wind strong and piercing the noonday sun oppressively warm.
"They describe their view of the surrounding country and scenery as most enchanting, and consider themselves richly rewarded for their toil in procuring it. This is the first party of whites, we believe, that has ever attempted to ascend Rainier.
"Not being provided with instruments for taking minute observations, and there being a constant fog and mist along the range of mountains, the party were unable to make any very satisfactory discoveries in relation to a practicable route across them; yet Mr. Ford informs us, that he noticed several passes at intervals through the mountains, which, as far as he could see, gave satisfactory evidence that a good route could be surveyed, and a road cut through with all ease."
This was before a road had been opened across Cascade Mountains north of Columbia River. The Naches Pass route was opened next year in 1853. While doubt has been raised as to whether these climbers of 1852 reached the summit, it is fair to interpret the testimony in a literal sense and assume that they climbed to the topmost elevation. Mount Rainier is difficult and laborious to climb, but the feat was within the prowess of the early pioneers, and they were not the kind of men to attempt the feat without making it successful and complete.
BROSNAN'S HISTORY OF IDAHO
A brief and rapid narrative, entitled History of the State of Idaho, and written for school reading by C. J. Brosnan, superintendent of schools of Nampa, is one of the year's notable publications of the Pacific Northwest. This book of some 230 pages is not only a history of the growth of the commonwealth but also a description of topography, resources and industries. Topical arrangement is unusually good, condensation is skilfully accomplished and dry-as-dust recital is properly avoided. The author has steered clear of pioneer prejudices such as those involved in controversies about the Hudson's Bay Company, Whitman, the missionaries, treatment of Indians, etc. As a good chronicler he has carefully withheld his own personality from the pages. His chapters on geological history and physical contours are especially interesting; also those on the Indians and their wars, the fur traders and the western trails. He recognizes the work of Roman Catholics, Protestants and Mormons without prejudice. As life in the mining camps started the real progress of the inland country that subject is appropriately treated in a special chapter. The cattle days and the sheep era, as distinctive periods of progress, are faithfully portrayed.
DEATH OF HAZARD STEVENS
Hazard Stevens, who died at Goldendale, Washington, October 11, 1918, was a distinguished son of a distinguished father. He rose to the rank of brigadier-general in the Civil War at the age of twenty-three years. His two volumes, Life of General Isaac I. Stevens, besides being a laudable tribute to his father, the first governor of Washington Territory, are a highly valuable contribution to the history of the Pacific Northwest. Hazard Stevens was not only a soldier and author, but also a lawyer, a business man and a farmer, possessing recognized merits, in all these activities. His Cloverfields Farm, near Olympia, contains a model dairy. He was president of the Olympia Light & Power Company. He had served in the house of representatives of Massachusetts. A poem written in his honor by Professor Edmond S. Meany, of the University of Washington, entitled "General Hazard Stevens," was dedicated to the class of 1917 on Junior day, May 6, 1916. The funeral took place at Cloverfields Farm, Ocotber 16, 1918. It was attended by the Thurston County Pioneer and Historical Society, of which the deceased was an active member, and by officers of the Washington State Historical Society, of which he was vice-president. Professor Meany delivered the eulogy.
General Stevens' death followed five days after the dedication of the monument to Andrew J. Bolon, near Goldendale, October 6, 1918. As vice-president of the Washington Historical Society, General Stevens delivered an address in honor of Bolon, but spoke with difficulty, and alarmed his friends with signs of approaching sickness. Next day he suffered a stroke of paralysis. The body was buried at Newport, Rhode Island, beside those of his father and mother.
MONUMENTS TO ANDREW J. BOLON
Two monuments in honor of Andrew Jackson Bolon, Indian agent among the Yakimas under Governor Stevens in 1855, were unveiled Sunday, October 6—one at the scene of Bolon's murder by Indians September 22, 1855, 24 miles from Goldendale, the other at a conspicuous crossroads near the place of ​the tragedy, some 19 miles from Goldendale. Bolon had investigated Indian depredations in the Yakima country and was returning to The Dalles when he was killed probably for the purpose of destroying evidences that would have led to punishment of friends or kin of the Indians who were accompanying him. Bolon's body, his horse and personal effects were burned. Aged Indians have pointed out the scene of the tragedy. Bolon was well liked by the Yakimas, and General Hazard Stevens, in his dedication address, said Bolon was their best friend among the whites. The Washington State Historical Society conducted the exercises.
DIARIES OF MATTHEW P. DEADY
DEATH OF REV. C. A. WOODDY
In the death of the Rev. Claiborne Alphonso Wooddy, No- vember 9, 1918, the Pacific Coast lost an active religious worker, and Oregon lost one of its conspicuous native sons. Mr. Wooddy served as general superintendent of the Ameri- can Baptist Home Mission Society from 1899 until his death. A special number of the Pacific Baptist, of which he was editor in 1890-1902, contains numerous tributes to his mem- ory. He was born near Brownsville, Oregon, February 8, 1856, attended the Baptist college at McMinnville, and grad- uated from University of Oregon at Eugene in 1881, and from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1884. He was pastor at Weston, Oregon, in 1886-87, and at Amity in 1888-90. In 1887-88 he served as principal of the Indian school at Che- mawa. He attained a ripe theological scholarship and was a foremost leader of the Baptist denomination on the Pacific Coast.
DEATH OF MIANDA BAILEY SMITH
Reminder of many episodes of early Oregon occurred Oc- tober 4, 1918, at the death of Mianda Bailey Smith, widow of Sidney Smith, a member of the Peoria party of young men who started for Oregon in 1839. Mrs. Smith died in Chehalem Valley at the age of nearly 90 years. Her mar- riage took place in 1846. Sidney Smith was a friend and employe of Ewing Young, who headed the enterprise that brought Mexican cattle to Oregon from California in 1837. Young's death in February, 1841, started the movement for the provisional government, consummated in 1843, for pro- bating of his estate. The great oak tree on his grave was planted in an acorn by Mr. and Mrs. Smith before their mar- riage. The husband was a member of the American party at Champoeg. He died September 18, 1880. He spent most of his life on his farm in West Chehalem, purchased by him from the estate of Ewing Young. His wife was a daughter of Daniel Dodge Bailey, who brought his family to Oregon in 1845 by way of Meek's cut-off. The family arrived in Che​NEWS AND COMMENT 343 halem Valley badly worn and bedraggled and were befriended by Sidney Smith, who gave them the use of his cabin. A KLICKITAT WAR MEMORIAL A memorial to Klickitat soldiers and sailors of the World War was dedicated at Maryhill on the Columbia River, July 4, 1918. Participants in the exercises were Samuel Hill, who presided ; R. H. Thomson, of Seattle, who gave the invocation and the opening address ; Edmond S. Meany, of Seattle, who received the memorial in behalf of the Washington University State Historical Society ; Frank Terrace, of Orillia, who spoke for the sailors ; David M. Dunne, of Portland, who spoke for the soldiers, and Frederick V. Holman, of Portland, president of the Oregon Historical Society. The memorial is to be pat- terned after the Stonehenge, of England, and later to be completed. OREGON'S WAR WORK. Oregon's participation in the nation's war work was dis- tinguished by promptness and thoroughness. In the raising of the several funds, this state each time was foremost with its quota. The contributions to the various funds and Liberty Bonds amounted to $126,000,000, which, for 800,000 people, means $157 for each inhabitant. According to The Oregonian of January 1, 1919, the contributions amounted to the following totals: Liberty Bonds, four issues $103,546,600 War SaTings Stamps 18,000,000 Red Cross (not including $400, oo Christmas memberships) 2,232,253 United Var Work 1,168,135 Y. M. C. A 435,758 Y. W. C. A. and Fosdick Commission 110,000 Armenian Relief , 160,000 Knights of Columbus 97,000 Salyation Army 57,500 Boy Scouts 30,000 War Camp Community Serrice 34,93 War Library 19,965 Smileage Book* > 18,000 Total $125,981,091 The number of men who entered the army and navy from Oregon aggregated some 32,000. The number enrolled in the ​344 LESLIE M. SCOTT three drafts were: June 5, 1917, 68,000; June 5, 1918, 5,672; September 12, 1918, 108,373 ; total, 182,045. The history of the war work in Oregon is in compilation under the direction of Miss Cornelia Marvin, of Salem, State Librarian, who has been named by the State Council of De- fense as State Historian. As this work has proceeded its scope has enlarged and its importance has grown in the esti- mation of all who have given it attention. ​DOCUMENTARY PUGET'S SOUND AGRICULTURAL COMPANY. PROSPECTUS. The soil and climate of the country on the Columbia river, particularly the district situated between the headwaters of the Cowlitz river, which falls into the Columbia river, about fifty miles from the Pacific and Puget's Sound, being considered highly favorable for the raising of flocks and herds, with a view to the production of wool, hides and tallow, and also for the cultivation of other agricultural produce, it is proposed 1st. That an association be formed, under the protection and auspices of the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, for the purpose of rearing flocks and herds, with a view to the production of wool, hides and tallow, and for the cultivation of other agriculture produce on the west side of the Rocky mountains. 2nd. That the said association be styled "The Puget's Sound Agricultural Company," and shall consist of persons who shall become shareholders as hereinafter mentioned. 3rd. That the capital stock of the said Association shall be 200,000 which shall be divided in 2000 shares of 100 each. 4th. That a deposit of 10 per share be paid on subscrip- tion, and that the calls for the residue to be hereafter made shall not exceed the sum of 5 per share at any one time, and that at intervals of not less than three months. 5th. That the non-payment of any call shall incur a for- feiture of the shares and all previous deposits, to be declared at a general meeting of share holders. 6th. That until the sovereignty of the tract of the country, which in the first instance is proposed to be the seat of the Company's operations, be determined, and in order to guard against any legal difficulties in England, the management of the business, including all purchases and sales on account of the Company and the contracting on behalf of the Company, with clerks and servants, and all correspondence, may be ex- clusively conducted by, and shall be confided to, agents in Eng​346 DOCUMENTARY land to carry on the same in their names, and generally in all matters, to act as agents of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, and for such services be allowed the usual mer- cantile commission. 7th. That no person shall be qualified to be such agent unless he shall at the time of his appointment, bona fide hold, and continue to hold, and be possessed of at least 20 shares. 8th. That John Henry Pelly, Andrew Colvile and George Simpson, Esqrs., be the agents, and that in all questions relating to the conducting of the business of the said Association, the majority of the said agents shall be conclusive. 9th. That in case of the death, resignation, or disqualifica- tion of any one or more of the said Agents, a meeting of the proprietors shall be called in London in the manner hereinafter mentioned, for the purpose of appointing one or more agent or agents, qualified as aforesaid, to fill such vacancy or vacancies, and with the like powers and authorities as the person or per- sons so dying, having resigned or become disqualified as here- inbefore mentioned. 10th. That a general meeting of the proprietors of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company be held in London, in the month of December, in the year 1840, and also within the said months of December in every succeeding year, of which meetings 14 days' notice at least shall be given by advertisement in two or more of the public daily newspapers published in the city of London or county of Middlesex, at which said meeting the said agents shall produce their accounts and report their transactions on behalf of the Company for the past year, and the state of affairs of the Company generally; and at such meetings the agents shall be annually elected, (the existing agents being eligible for re-election), the proprietors to vote at such meetings in person, or by proxy to another proprietor, in the proportion of one vote for every share, respectively. llth. That no proprietor shall be allowed to vote, or to receive any dividend, profit, or bonus, or exercise any other right in respect of any share he may hold, until he shall have paid the amount of any call made on him in respect of his said share, and shall have executed the deed of settlement, or other ​DOCUMENTARY 347 instrument which shall be executed by the proprietors in respect of these presents. 12th. That in the event of any proprietor being at any time desirous of selling or disposing of his or her share or shares, the same shall, in such case, be offered to the agents of the said Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, for the said Company, and in case the said agents shall decline to purchase the same, then such proprietor shall be at liberty to sell or transfer such share to such other person or persons as shall be approved by the said agents or any two of them. 13th. That no sale, transfer or disposal of any share shall be made, so long as any sum of shall be due or unpaid to the said Company for, or on account of any call or otherwise, in respect of such share. 14th. That the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company shall purchase from the said Governor and Company, at a fair valua- tion, to be made in the usual way, or on such other terms as may be agreed upon, such portions of their stock of sheep, cat- tle, horses and such implements of husbandry and other articles as the said Governor and Company can dispense with. 15th. That the said agents be empowered to appoint man- agers, agents or attorneys, for the purpose of transacting the business of the said Company in the district in North America aforesaid, or wherever else may be necessary, and to enter into engagements with such managers, agents or attorneys as may be necessary for carrying on the business, and to allow them such salaries or other consideration for their services as may be necessary or proper, and to revoke such appointments or engagements, and likewise to make agreements with, and ad- vances to persons desirous of becoming agriculturists; Pro- vided, always, that the principal direction or management of the affairs of said Company in the said district, be under superin- tendence of an officer attached to and interested in the Fur Trade of such Governor and Company. 16th. The Chief Factor, or other officer who may be ap- pointed to the direction or chief management of their affairs in the district aforesaid, shall in all things relating to the man- agement of their affairs, be subject to instructions from time to time, to be issued by the said agents in London. ​348 DOCUMENTARY 17th. That the agents shall on behalf of the Company give a bond of to the said Governor and Company of Hud- son's Bay, that neither the Puget's Sound Agricultural Com- pany, nor any person in their employ, nor by them taken into the district aforesaid, shall in any way, either directly or indi- rectly, trade in furs or peltries while in the employ or under agreement with the said Puget's Sound Agricultural Company ; and also that they (the said agents) shall make it a condition in every agreement to be entered into by them, with any person or persons to be employed by them in the district aforesaid, that the said agents shall be at liberty at any time to dismiss them from the service of the said Company, and to remove them from the said district to wherever such persons may have been originally engaged; and that such persons shall, in every re- spect, be subject to the like conditions, restrictions and regu- lations as the servants of the Governor and Company now are under, and particularly to the condition contained in the grant from the Crown under which the said Governor and Company are entitled to the exclusive trade within the said dis- trict. 18th. That whenever the Crown of Great Britain may become possessed of the sovereignty of any part of the district in which the operations of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company may be carried on, application shall be made to the Crown for a grant of land, and to incorporate the said Puget's Sound Agricultural Company. 19th. That a proper deed of settlement shall be prepared under the superintendence of the said agents, in such a form, and containing all such clauses, covenants, powers and stipula- tions as counsel shall advise for properly and effectually carry- ing on the business of the said Company, and for indemnifying and saving harmless the said agents in respect of their acting in the management and conducting of the said trade as afore- said, and relating thereto ; and that the same or a counterpart thereof shall be executed by the several proprietors for the time being. 20th. That an absolute and entire dissolution of the said Company may lawfully take place, and be made with the con​DOCUMENTARY 349 sent and approbation of three-fourths at least of the proprie- tors to be testified by some writing signed by them or their attorneys or proxies, and thereupon the affairs of said Com- pany shall with all convenient speed be wound up, and after payment of all claims on the said Company, the balance shall be divided amongst the persons who shall be then proprietors, in proportion to the amount of their respective shares. We approve the above proposals and regulations, and mutually agree upon any request to execute such deed or deeds for carrying the same into effect as therein mentioned, and in the meantime to perform and abide by the same as our re- spective parts. WM. FRASER TOLMIE, FORBES BARCLAY,
CORRESPONDENCE OF REVEREND EZRA FISHER
Edited by SARAH FISHER HENDERSON, NELLIE EDITH LATOURETTE, KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE (Continued from Page 261 in Quarterly for September, 1918)
Oregon City, O. Ten, Feb. 24th, 1854.
Rev. Benjamin M. Hill,
Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York.
Dear Br.:
Yours under date Dec. 5th, 1853, giving notice of the appointment of Rev. A. B. Cramb for this place, was received last mail. Should he prove adapted to this place, he must be a valuable acquisition to Oregon.
In this I have to announce both afflictive and merciful dispensations of an infinitely wise providence. God has seen fit to remove my beloved wife from a state of probation to one of ineffable bliss. At the time I last wrote you I was sorely afflicted with boils and detained, much against my inclinations, from a tour into the upper part of the Willamette Valley. On Thursday I told my wife I thought I could possibly ride, but the roads were bad, the waters high, and she persuaded me to stay till the first of the week. On Sabbath morning before we rose she told me that her stomach did not feel right. Before meeting time we consulted whether all should go to meeting, as the roads were bad and we had a mile to walk. I advised her to stay with our little son, not yet six years old. When we returned from meeting about 5 P. M., I found the table spread and, as the family came around the table, she took her seat by the fire. I asked her if she was not intending to come to tea. She replied she was quite unwell and could eat nothing. As I turned my attention particularly to her, I discovered that she was very pale. I was instantly impressed that her sickness would be attended with serious results. (I have never known her to complain of being sick until she was no longer able to sit up.) She went immediately to her bed. . . . Inflammation of the stomach and bowels progressed with a slow but deter​352 REVEREND EZRA FISHER mined pace till the terrible King- removed her from all her earthly relations on Friday, the 20th of January, at five min- utes past eleven A. M. I do not design to write her obituary now, if ever. She has made her own impression in the silent sphere where the retiring pioneer missionary's wife is always mostly needed. The most important sphere of her Christian usefulness was at home, aiding and ever encouraging her hus- band in his labors, when his field lay far from home, which occasioned weeks and sometimes months of separation, cheer- fully assuming the family responsibilities, with no complaints and few intimations that ours was a mission of privations and trials unknown to pastors' families in the older churches. Here she always saw that the incense was daily burning on the family altar, so that for almost twenty-four years there has not to my recollection been a day in which the morning and evening prayer had not been offered in my family, our pro- tracted journeys not excepted. As an illustration of her influ- ence in this respect in the family, the night after we deposited her remains in the grave, my little son, to whom I have alluded, after we retired to our lonely lodging, asked me, "Who will pray in the family now when you are gone?" Next to her family, she was ever found taking along with her the entire family to the house of God as often as the Sabbath returned. Thither she repaired as much to honour God in His institutions as to be delighted with an eloquent discourse. The Sabbath school has ever been a sphere of Christian action in which she seemed at home and she has never, except at short intervals, from ill health or causes beyond her control, left her seat as a teacher vacant. I need not state to you, dear brother, that she ever took a deep interest in all the meetings of the church, especially the covenant meetings. The women's prayer-meeting found in her a warm advocate and personal supporter. Although she ever delighted to learn of the progress of missions, both at home and abroad, yet her mind seemed peculiarly formed to exert a maternal influence. The proper education of her own family, in the most general sense of the term, as well as that of the rising generation around her, occupied a large place in her thoughts ​CORRESPONDENCE 353 and labors. Hence she has for years manifested a growing interest in religious education and, with other periodicals which advocate this cause, she manifested a great fondness for the Mothers' Journal. But she is done with her earthly labors and I doubt not but she is now reaping the rewards of those who come up out of great tribulation, although hers was not a martyr's death. But in her last illness her Christian character shone resplendent. From the first day of her illness she expressed doubts of her recovery and frequently conversed freely respecting the interests of religion in Oregon City, and especially in her own family. On Wednesday she called her three children who had arrived at years of understanding, one by one, into her room and urged upon them the necessity of immediately attending to their souls' salvation and obtained a solemn promise from each one of them that they would imme- diately seek for pardon through a crucified Redeemer. On Friday morning, about four, she discovered that she was fail- ing and asked me if I thought she was dying. I told her she was evidently failing and unless some favorable change soon took place she could not live long. She imtmediately called her family, said she must once more recommend the religion of Jesus and give them all the parting kiss. They were called up and came in. She counseled us all, gave us the parting kiss and again obtained the promise from our son, 19, and our daughters, 14 and 11 years of age, that they would imme- diately seek the salvation of their souls. About this time she said, "Oh, how unfaithful I have lived ! Would to God that I could be instrumental of doing more in my death than I have in my life!" She continued in the agonies of death from about half-past four till five minutes past eleven, yet in the exercise of her reason and able to converse at intervals till within a few mioments of her last. If she lived a Christian, she emphatically died a Christian and a soldier of the Cross. Death seemed to be disarmed of his terrors. She seemed to have her feet planted firmly on the Rock of Ages and there she rested and waited patiently for her change, with a calm, firm reliance on the righteousness of Christ for her shelter from the storm that must overtake the impenitent and the ​354 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Grace of God in Christ for her acceptance with Him. While I found myself bereft of my dearest, best earthly friend, with two daughters and a son, all under the age of fifteen, on my hands, my field of labor seemed closed. All my prospects for the future seemed for the present closed. My path was dark- ened. It seemed to me that I could do nothing but wait on God. I could not think of breaking up my family. To leave the agency at this period, it seemed to me, would be attended with consequences far from being desirable. On the evening of the burial of Mrs. Fisher I called my family around me and inquired after the state of their minds and found three of them convicted of sin; also a lad of fourteen then boarding with us. 340 The following Sabbath Br. Chandler preached the funeral sermon on the occasion of Mrs. F.'s death. The congregation was large and solemn. Br. C. preached on Monday and Tuesday evenings at 7 and then left for his appointment on the Santiam. By this time the interest was so apparent that it was judged expedient that we keep up nightly meetings. I then entered the work and, with the assistance of Br. Post, who preached frequently evenings, and Br. Johnson, who preached once each Sabbath, the church continued her meetings nightly for something more than two weeks, and, during the present week, we have meetings every night except two. I have already baptized nine, three more are received as candidates for baptism and two more will relate their experience to the Church tomorrow; two of the converts have joined the Congregational Church, being for- bidden by their guardians to join the Baptist. Their guard- ians are a Congregational deacon and wife. 340a Among those who were baptized, three were my own children, one the lad who boarded at my house at the time of Mrs. F/s death, and one the son of Elder Johnson. 341 Mrs. F.'s physician 342 and wife are received for baptism. We still have a number of inquirers who are regular members of our congregation. The 340 This was Charles W. Shively, son of the first postmaster at Astoria. 340-3 Peter H. Hatch. 341 This was Hon. William Carey Johnson (1833-1912). He was for many years a prominent attorney and member of the Baptist Church at Oregon City. 342 This was Dr. W. B. Magers. ​CORRESPONDENCE 355 work has extended into the Methodist and Congregational churches and they are holding interesting meetings at this time. This is the first revival of religion that Oregon City has witnessed. Our prayer is that it may pervade the whole town and vicinity. With this state of things and the church having no minister to perform pastoral labors and knowing of no prospect of obtaining a pastor, it resolved to invite me to take the pastoral charge and to ask the Home Missionary Society to appoint me to this place with a salary of $600, the church to raise $100 of it. I never have got my consent to accept of the call on account of the importance of the general work which must be performed for Oregon. Yet, from the importance of sustaining this point, my own sympathies for my little, motherless family, of girls in part, who need and must have counsel at this period of life, together with the dying request of my wife that I keep the family together and, added to all the rest, these young disciples who are promising and very much need proper religious training, I have thought your Board would allow me to watch over the interests of this church for a few months and perform such agency labors as I can, and is much needed, in the vicinity till the time of the meeting of our association which occurs in June, after which I hope to be able to leave my family and explore Washington Ter. in the latter part of the summer and fall. By the time our association closes, I hope the work necessary to give our school a vigorous growth will be accomplished, at least so far that Br. Post can manage the financial affairs, in addition to the labor of teaching, for a few months. I trust also that Br. Cramb will be on the ground and meet with a favorable recep- tion with the church and people. In this whole matter I desire to submit myself with prayerful resignation into the hands of Infinite Wisdomi. From all I can gather by the opening 1 provi- dences of God, I now think I shall pursue the course above suggested and make a formal application for a reappointment as exploring agent by the next mail. I think this is the judgment of all the brethren, except so far as relates to the members of this church ; and even here, their desires for pas​356 REVEREND EZRA FISHER toral labor and personal sympathy for me and my family may perhaps sway their judgment. If there is any reasonable pros- pect of a pastor for this place soon, I am quite sure I shall be the last man to preoccupy the place. The mail must leave before I shall have time to write more. The good work of Grace has been progressing through the winter in the Shilo church under the labors mostly of Br. Davis 343 from Indiana. Clackamas 344 church had an addition of five last Sabbath by baptism. Elder Hubbard will probably settle with that church. Affectionately your afflicted brother, Received April 10, 1854. EZRA FISHER. Oregon City, O. Ter., Mar. 9th, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother: Yours of Jan. 18, '54, was received by last mail. I regret to learn that the principal bill ordering goods was lost, as it will occasion some ten months' delay from this time before my family supplies will reach us, some of which are now needed. But God's ways are all right and we shall soon enough find it true. I will now proceed to order another bill as near like the other as I can by my old memorandum.
Respectfully yours, EZRA FISHER. Oregon City, O. Ter., Mar. 10, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother: Herein I send you an application for reappointment as Exploring Agent and General Itinerant for Oregon Ter., with 343 This was Rev. William M. Davis, who came to Oregon in 1853 from Indiana, and settled near Turner. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., I:io. (See note 352.) 344 The Clackamas Church, about six miles north of Oregon City, was or- ganized Nov., 1853, by the author and Rev. David Hubbard. The latter was born in Kentucky in 1795, moved to Oregon in 1853, and died in 1866. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., 1:14, 104. ​CORRESPONDENCE 357 a consent to make the necessary explorations in Washington Ter. during the summer and early part of the fall. To the Executive Board of the Am. Bap. Home Mission Society: The subscriber desires reappointment as Exploring Agent and General Itinerant for Oregon Ter. for the term of one year from the first day of April next, with permission to spend three or four months mostly in Oregon City and vicinity, in view of the present peculiar condition of the church and the afflicted and unsettled state of my family in the removal of Mrs. Fisher by death, with the same salary as the present year. EZRA FISHER, Exploring Agent. N. B. The undersigned concurs in all the terms and state- ments of the foregoing application. Yours, JOHN D. POST. Rev. B. M. Hill, Oregon City, Mar. 10, 1854. Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother : The last week has been one of interest to the little church in this place. Our meetings were continued during four inter- vening evenings of the week. On Saturday at our covenant meeting, four interesting young persons came before the church, related their Christian experience and were received for baptism, and on Sabbath, after the morning services, we repaired to the banks of the Willamette where I was per- mitted to baptize seven converts. These make sixteen that I have baptized into this church within the past four weeks ; one more is received for baptism and we have an interesting state of things in our community at present. The converts are mostly from the youth and are very promising. We have established a weekly church prayer meeting, a young men's weekly prayer meeting, a female prayer meeting, the young ladies' weekly prayer meeting and the monthly concert of prayer, in which a collection for the cause of missions is to be taken up at each meeting. All the converts take part in these religious exercises, and it seems to me that I cannot consistently leave the lambs of the fold long at a time till ​358 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Br. Cramb arrives, or the church is otherwise supplied with pastoral labors. Other ministers are active in the place and I think your Board would heartily approve of the course I have been led to pursue, if they were here. Indeed I have not directed my steps for the last eight weeks, neither have I tried. Providence in a peculiar manner has marked my way and, although in some respects deeply afflictive, I have not ventured to say more than this, Lord direct, I will try and follow, although bowed down with grief. Yours truly, EZRA FISHER.
Received April 26, 1854. Oregon City, Apr. 1st, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Herein I send you my report of labor under the appointment of the Home Mission Society as General Itinerant for Oregon for the fourth quarter ending March 30th, 1854. I have labored 13 weeks; preached 35 sermons; delivered two temperance lectures, and 23 addresses at the special meet- ings of Oregon City church and Clackamas church; attended 34 prayer meetings and six other religious meetings ; visited religiously 124 families and other persons; visited two public schools in Oregon City ; baptized 16 persons in the Oregon City church; traveled to and from my appointments 48 miles; received one person by letter ; 22 persons have been hopefully converted in Oregon City in connection with my labors ; monthly concert is established at Oregon City church ; took up a collection at the monthly concert for March of $3.75 for missionary purposes, object not yet specified; connected with the church is a Sabbath school, and Bible class of about 25 scholars ; more than half of the school are in the Bible class. Three teachers ; about 75 volumes in the library. Our meetings continue interesting. We have a few enquir- ers and shall probably soon baptize others. I remain most of ​CORRESPONDENCE 359 my time in this place and vicinity, it seeming my duty to look after the interests connected with this church and school, while I can render some service in the important towns on the river and attend two yearly meetings, namely, at Marysville and West Tualatin churches, before the meeting of the association, which will occur the last of June. I trust by that time Br. Cramb will reach this place, so that I can feel it my duty to proceed to Washington Territory without delay. I have no doubt of the importance of an early exploration of that Ten, yet so providential have been the demands for my services in this valley that I have acted up to a conviction of duty and I believe with the cordial approbation of every brother convers- ant with our wants in Oregon and Washington territories who is on the ground. I am quite sure that your Board would approve the course, if they were on the ground and explored the field for themselves. I feel no disposition to undervalue the judgment of your Board or to disobey their instructions, but have endeavored to do as nearly as I believed they would, if they were individually in my place acting for Christ's interests on the Pacific Coast for all coming time. Respectfully submitted, EZRA FISHER. Oregon City, O. Ten, Apr. 1st, 1854. To Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Herein I send you my report of labor under the appointment of the Home Mission Society as Exploring Agent for Oregon and Washington territories for the fourth quarter ending March 31st, 1854. I have visited Portland once, Clackamas church twice and spent a large portion of my time in Oregon City with the church and co-operating with the college, when I could do it without materially interfering with my specific duties. I have traveled 48 miles to and from my appointments, exclusive of my labors with the O. City church ; have labored 13 weeks during the quarter; have preached 35 sermons and ​360 REVEREND EZRA FISHER addressed the people 23 times, in connection with the special meetings in the O. City and Clackamas churches, having the conducting of all the meetings at O. City church; delivered 2 temperance addresses ; have baptized 16 persons in the Oregon City church. Respectfully submitted, EZRA FISHER, Exploring Agent. N. B. Our young members are of more than usual promise and, although mostly youth, seem to be enquiring for the line of duty and willing to do it. I have never enjoyed so m(uch con- solation with the same number of young disciples as I have with these. Yours, EZRA FISHER. Oregon City, O. Ten, Apr. 2d, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Br. Hill: In reviewing my labors for the past year in connection with the Zion of God in Oregon, while I have to deplore my great unfaithfulness as a minister of the blessed gospel, I have been led to rejoice that the spirit of the Lord has not been entirely taken from me. God has been graciously pleased to grant me the privilege of laboring- with five churches in the time of more than usual manifestations of Divine favor, where the enquiry has been made, "What must I do?" and the sinner has been pointed to the Lamb of God as the only cure for the sin-sick soul. Another church within our association, with which I have spent numbers of Sabbaths, has also been highly blessed with a work of grace. In these churches, as near as I can estimate, one hundred and two hopeful converts have been added by baptism. Of this numiber I baptized twenty-six, three of whom were my own dear chldren, rendered doubly dear by the recent death of their mother, and have witnessed the bap- tism of thirty-seven more. When we take into account the ​CORRESPONDENCE 361 scarce population of the country and the small numbers in each church, so that most of these churches have been more than doubled in numbers and the cultivation of the means of grace quadrupled, we feel that this year has been emphatic- ally the time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Most of the accessions have been children and youths from eight to twenty-four years of age and a large proportion are lads and young men of more than usual promise, some of whom I trust will be found among the future ministers of Oregon, perhaps of Asia. To be sure we are subject as churches to all the changes and many of the discouragements of a frontier country, yet our prospects are surely becoming more and more bright. While our churches have been blessed with a harvest of souls, God has not been unmindful of our school, the Oregon City College. Br. Post's arrival was hailed with gratitude to Almighty God by some of the friends at least. I shall not soon forget the feelings that came over my mind when I learned in Portland that he and his family were at my house. Our school was at a low ebb. He has entered upon his labors with the energy of a man in earnest. His labors have been appreciated by the public and the school for the last four months has been as prosperous as could have been reasonably anticipated under the circumstances. Thus you see that God is graciously pleased to prosper thus far, but with our prosperity, new responsibilities and new wants are multiplying. We now more than before need pastors for these churches and mis- sionaries to enter upon other important fields opening in every direction. Our school building must be put in a condition to meet the pressing wants of Br. Post's family and the school, which we hope to do, God favoring, but we feel that we must have immediately a chemical and philosophical apparatus to meet the public wants and we feel that we must look to the friends at honte to furnish it. I trust you will second Br. Post's efforts to accomplish this so desirable enterprise. On the whole, although the hand of the Lord has been laid heavily upon me in the removal of my beloved wife, I think I can see the Lord is on our side and will assuredly bless us although He prepares the way by severe trials of our faith. We will take ​362 REVEREND EZRA FISHER courage and submit our whole cause to the Lord and trust in Him for His future blessings by waiting in the spirit of humble confidence for the openings of His providences. Yours affectionately, EZRA FISHER. Received May 25, 1854. Oregon City, Ore. Ter., April 7th, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Brother Hill : Last week, at the request of Br. Newell, 845 our teacher of music, formerly from New York, I visited Portland, with a view of stirring up their minds to immediate action on the subject of raising the standard in that place, preached on Wednesday evening to a large congregation in the Congrega- tional house, and visited Wednesday in the afternoon and Thursday morning with the members. I found the following members, some of whom you know personally: Br. Josiah Failing, formerly deacon in the 10th St. Church, New York, his wife, two sons and a daughter; Br. Coe, 346 formerly postal agent for Oregon, and wife ; Br. Leland, 346a Postmaster at Port- land, and wife ; Br. Simmonds, merchant, and wife, from Bos- ton, . . . Sister Burnell, from Ninth Street Church, Cin- cinnati, Ohio, an enterprising, intelligent sister (her husband is in the steam saw mill business), and Sister Hosier, a widow, in the millinery and fancy clothing business. Since I left, I learn that Br. Pine and wife from San Francisco have located there. Br. Pine is in merchandising and he and wife have come highly recommended as active young Baptist mem- bers. I have little doubt there are other Baptist members in 345 George P. Newell. 346 This was Nathaniel Coe (1788-1868). He was appointed postal agent for Oregon in 1851. He later settled near the present Hood River. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore., II:i8g. 346-a Pioneer of 1845; was born in Rhode Island in 1845; surveyor; post- master, Oct. 12, i853-Nov. 3, i8s4; editor Democratic Standard, July 13, 1854, and year following. Editor Portland Daily News first daily in Portland April 20, 1859 for a few months. After that he was editor of the Daily Times in 1863, for awhile, and during that year went to Idaho Territory and spent the remainder of his life in newspaper work, mining and surveying. He died Oct. 25, 1891. ​CORRESPONDENCE 363 the city who would co-operate with the church if one should be constituted. Really they have double the numbers and quadruple the ability the church at Oregon City had before our late revival. I urged upon the leading members to establish weekly religious meetings for prayer and conference, look directly to God for His blessing and then make their wants known to the Home Missionary Society's Board. I am satis- fied that, with a comfortable place of worship and a good, faithful, acceptable minister, the Baptists might expect, under God, to exert as much influence in the place and prosper as much as any religious "denomination now in Portland. I felt peculiarly impressed that now is the time to strike in Port- land. There seemed to be a good religious atmosphere with the brethren and especially with the sisters. They want to see the standard raised there, but they say they must have a house and a minister at once and build their own houses, and they say they do not see how this all is to be done unless they can get more foreign aid than they can reasonably expect. I urged them to make their wants known to you as soon as they could get to understand what they wanted and what they can do. They said they would call a meeting soon and deliberate on the subject. I assured Br. Failing that I should be down and stir them up in five or six weeks, if they did not act promptly in the mean time. This is the most important place in the territory to be occu- pied by the Baptists, after Oregon City, and, but for our edu- cational interests, it would be miuch the most important place of the two, at least at present. A minister ought to be appointed forthwith to that place with a salary of $700 to $800. A man worth that money to that place would build a house in one year there, hard as the times are, with three or four hundred dollars from the building funds of the Home Mission Society, if he went to his work trusting alone in the Owner of the Uni- verse and the Disposer of men's hearts, and money too. God grant that you may find the man and put him into that field. Portland is the New York for Oregon at present, at least for the trade of the Willamette and Columbia River valleys. My soul is pained when I think of the delays of the Home Mission ​364 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Society to occupy this town, or I might say city, and Oregon City. I trust we shall soon see Br. Cramb, and that man of God will soon be on his way for Portland. Yours in the bonds of the gospel, EZRA FISHER. N. B. I shall order you to pay three or four dollars to the editor of the Mothers' Journal soon, also to pay my subscrip- tion for the Christian Chronicle to the end of the present year. Received May 25, 1854. Oregon City, Ore. Ter., June 17th. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Br. Hill : Yours of Apr. 3d, announcing my reappointment, and one a few days later, condoling me on account of my late bereave- ment and answering my request to remain at Oregon City a few months, came duly to hand. I now take my pen to present before your Board the importance of immediately occupying Portland, but before stating my views I would refer you to Br. Taggert, Br. Failing's old pastor, for information on that subject, as I understand that he has written a long letter to said Taggert, giving a general view of things in Portland. Br. Failing was deacon in 10th St. Church, N. Y. There some- times are times in the history of a town in the new portions of our great missionary field where it really seems that things form a crisis, and one opportune movement of a religious de- nomination may give them all the advantage of years of hard labor in establishing a permanent interest. Such appears to be the door now opened in Portland. I have it from the Methodist minister in charge at Portland that he wonders why the Baptists do not occupy Portland. Why, he says that the Baptists have more wealth and influence in Portland today than any other denomination of Christians. Yet the Methodists have expended within the last four years more than $8,000 on that place and the Congregational Church ​CORRESPONDENCE 365 have had a stated ministry in the place almost five years. 347 Yet all the Baptist preaching they have had has not exceeded thirty-five or forty sermons, and that mostly by myself. I can now sit and enumerate 17 Baptist members in Portland, five of whom are in Br. Failing's family, two in Br. Coe's, our former postal agent, two in Br. Leland's family, the post master of the place and a graduate of Brown's University, and others of respectable standing in Baptist churches in Boston, Cincinnati and San Francisco. But they feel now that they must have a minister on the ground adapted to secure an influence and then they can commence and build a house by the aid of the amount they might receive from the building fund connected with the Home Mission cause. They say it is no use to do anything by way of monthly preaching in other denominations' houses. It is labor bestowed to build up other churches and hold back the very cause most dear to us as Bap- tists. Br. Failing says (and what he says they all say, and I suppose he says what Br. Thomas in your city thinks), that, if the Home Mission Society will send them a suitable man and pay him $600 salary, the people of Portland will do the rest. I say there is no doubt they will pay from $100 to $200. The man should be adapted to carry along at once the work of building a good house of worship. Br. Failing will be active in the work. It would be very desirable that such a man should be appointed as would meet the approbation of Br. Thomas, and especially the approbation of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not believe such a man can be sustained in that place for less than $800 per annum. Yours, E. FISHER. Respecting Br. Post, I think all things are about right and trust his school will give him a support. This school has aver- aged 40 scholars since the first two weeks. We are finishing the building as fast as we can in these hard times for money, while I am! detained at Oregon City. I shall write you imme- 347 Rev. Horace Lyman, who came to Portland in 1849, was settled there until the spring of 1854. The church building was dedicated on June 15, 1851. George EL Himes. ​366 REVEREND EZRA FISHER diately on the close of the meeting of the association, which takes place next week. As ever yours in Christ Jesus, EZRA FISHER. N. B. I sent you a bill for goods to be filled by you* I think in the month of February. I have heard nothing from you on that subject yet and am becoming somewhat anxious, as the first bill forwarded in October was lost and my family sup- plies are becoming pretty well exhausted. I think I shall hear from you however by the next mail on that subject. If my second bill has not been received please inform me imme- diately. Yours, EZRA FISHER. Received July 24. Oregon City, Ore. Ter., July 8th, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother: The Willamette Baptist Association closed its session last week on Monday. The sessions were harmonious in the main and exhibited strong evidence that the churches are becoming more impressed with the importance of a devoted ministry and of united Christian effort for the suppression of vice and the diffusion of the gospel of Christ. During the last associa- tional year most of our older churches have enjoyed pleasing revivals and the account of the Christian character of the young members is truly pleasing. The churches have received by baptism since the last anniversary 106. 347 Four small churches were received into the association this year. Our net increase is 197, and our total number 442. The association raised a subscription of $165 to employ a man to travel and preach in Lane County, which lies at the head of the Willamette Valley and north of the Calapooia Mountains. $60.50 was paid on the spot. On Sabbath a collection of $13.10 was taken up 347 At least one of these men, Rev. A. J. Hunsaker, became a. minister. Another, C. C. Sperry, who had been previously baptized, but who was aroused in i853> was la-ter ordained. Mattoon, Bapt. An. of Ore., I:io6, 108. ​CORRESPONDENCE 367 for the same object. Elder Robert D. Gray 348 was employed to enter that field immediately. In this field is one small, languishing church, and there are now materials for one or two churches which we trust our missionary will organize the present season. 349 Br. Gray will be kept in the field till winter, perhaps the entire year. In addition to the above named funds, we have $7.00 in the treasury designated to the preaching of the Word in this valley. The churches in Yam- hill and Polk counties have agreed to sustain Br. Riley 350 the coming year to travel in those counties, supply monthly the three churches in that field and spend the remainder of the time in supplying destitute settlements a part of the time. Dur- ing the sessions of the association reports were made on the subjects of establishing a religious press in Oregon and on ways and means for supplying our churches and destitute towns and settlements with preaching. Resolutions were passed favoring the general objects of the denomination, such as the Home Mission cause, Publication Society, the Sunday school effort and the circulation of religious periodicals. Dur- ing the time, the friends of education held a meeting in which an informal report of the trustees of the Oregon City College was made. The school was found to be in a prosperous con- dition under the tuition of Rev. J. D. Post. Since Professor Post entered upon his labors, it was found that the average number of scholars in attendance was 40. By the treasurer's report it was found that $4611.13 had been collected and expended on the building for the school since the commence- ment of the work, and that the building was about $150 in debt. A resolution was passed recommending the trustees to com- plete the building as soon as practicable. On Thursday, before the meeting of the association, an interesting ministers' meeting was held, a constitution and rules of decorum for a perma- nent organization adopted and the ministers' meeting regularly 348 Rev. R. D. Gray (1850-1871) was born in Tennessee and came to Oregon from Arkansas in 1853. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., 1: 105. 349 The existing church was the Willamette Forks Church, which had been organized in 1852. Two others, the Palestine and the Mount Zion churches were organized later in 1854. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., I:i6. 350 This was Rev. Cleveland C. Riley. He was born in Tennessee and cam* to Oregon from Missouri in 1853, settling near the LaCreole Church. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., I:ioo. ​368 REVEREND EZRA FISHER organized to meet annually, the day preceding the meeting of the said association. You will be furnished with the minutes of the association as soon as printed. On the whole, while we deplore the miserable inadequacy of ministerial talent appropriated and the almost entire destitution of Baptist preaching in most of our important towns, we are led to rejoice with exceeding great joy that the progress of the cause of our blessed Redeemer is onward and we trust the time is not far removed when all churches will be supplied with an efficient, devoted ministry, and flourishing churches will be raised up in all our growing towns. For this we will labor and and sacrifice and pray till the good Lord shall make our Zion a name and a praise in the land. Affectionately yours, EZRA FISHER. Received Aug. 12, 1854. Oregon City, O. Ter., July 19th, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother: Yours of May 30th was received by the last mail. No doubt God's providences are all right. Yet we are so short- sighted creatures that we often wish for the time they might be otherwise. I seriously regret that Br. Cramb is delayed till fall. It appears to mle that it is a final failure, yet we may be as happily disappointed in his case as we were in Br. Post's. I will not despair of his coming till I am obliged to give up all hope. But how shall I dispose of my time in the mean time? It seems exceedingly desirable that I be among the churches and new settlements through the fall months during the time of their yearly meetings, most of which come off in Sept. and Oct. The rising towns on the Columbia River, from its mouth to The Dalles, just at the east base of the Cascade Mountains, should be visited; and then there is Pugets Sound in Washington Ter., which I have promised you that I would visit this season, and then the church in this place, and the outdoor work for the school should be attended to immediately. ​CORRESPONDENCE 369 It seems to me that I cannot stay at home any longer. If there is any prospect that your Society can occupy the Sound by two practical, common sense, pious ministers, I would not fail to explore that region this fall. But if I must spend six or eight weeks of the best of the season in exploring the coun- try, perhaps preach twelve or fifteen sermons and leave the territory two years more before a man is sent to break up the ground and preach the gospel of the Kingdom, it would seem that we had better attempt to cultivate the already too wide and neglected field in the Willamette Valley. In the absence of any positive instruction from you on the subject, I shall try and look to the Great Head of the church for direction, and you will not be surprised to hear from! me in Washington Ter. in six or eight weeks after the receipt of this. I may be able to receive all the reliable intelligence necessary to enable me to give you a general view of the demands of that very impor- tant portion of the country, but as yet I have nothing reliable since I last wrote you on that subject. The Dalles is fast coming into importance and, although at this time there is not more than one hundred or one hundred and fifty white people in its vicinity, it is an important trading point and must ever be the key to the whole country of the Columbia River above the Cascade Mountains, and at no distant day must become a populous city. At this time there are five dry goods stores at that place. I think I shall try and visit that place this fall, while the immigrants are there, and spend one or two Sab- baths. This place has such a commjanding position that I know of no place where an effort will be so sure to be attended with permanent results. Another important town will rise up at the Cascade Falls of the Columbia, 40 miles below The Dalles, and at the head of ship navigation on the Columbia, Respectfully yours, EZRA FISHER. July 19th, 1854. Dear Brother Hill : I am in need of some funds to defray my traveling and family expenses and have an opportunity of exchanging $150 ​370 REVEREND EZRA FISHER or $200 with Brother Post by drawing an order on you. I have therefore agreed to make the exchange with Br. J. D. Post. The order will probably be drawn in favor of Br. Pike, the manufacturer of mathematical instruments in N. Y. I shall send the order in two or three weeks. When you send me the bill of the goods, please let me know how my account stands on your books. Yours respectfully, EZRA FISHER. Received Aug. 24. Oregon City, O. Ten, Sept. 26th, 1854. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. Am. Bap. Home Mission Society. Dear Brother: As yet I have heard nothing from the goods I ordered you to put up for me, except a line from you stating that you would fill the bill and ship the goods the first opportunity. It is now almost a year since I made the first order. My family had depended upon them for their summer clothing and now we are looking with anxiety for them for our winter supply. We fear the bill of lading has been miscarried. I have heard nothing from you, except by the Record, for two months. Please inform me at your earliest convenience whether you have shipped the goods; also when we may expect them, if they are not already shipped. I presume you have done as well as you could in this matter, but, if I could have anticipated the results, I think I should not have ordered the goods, but made my drafts and clothed my family here. But no doubt God designs all for the best. . . . Your unworthy brother in Christ, EZRA FISHER. N. B. The yearly meetings will soon be over for this season. You will then hear from me respecting our towns ; also respecting Washington Territory, or I shall visit and report my actual explorations. Yet our brethren here are very un- willing to have me leave the Willamette Valley, in view of ​CORRESPONDENCE 371 the great scarcity of laborers and the pressing calls from the churches and destitute places where important Baptist interests might be built up if we had the laborers. Yours, EZRA FISHER. Received Nov. 10. Oregon City, O. Ter., Oct. 1st, 1854. To Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. of Am. Bap. Homje Mission Soc. Dear Brother : Herein I send you my report of labor under the appointment of the Home Mission Society as Exploring Agent for the 2d quarter ending September 30th, 1854. I have visited the La Creole Church in Polk County, ten miles west of Salem, Santiam Church, Lynn Co., 35 miles south of Salem, and Yamhill Church, 7 miles west of La- fayette, seat of justice for Yam Hill County and 40 miles southwest from Oregon City. Traveled 205 miles to and from my appointmlents. Have labored 13 weeks during the quarter. Have collected $5.50, it being a collection taken up in the Oregon City Church on the first Sabbath in July. Paid for traveling expenses $1.50; for postage $.25. Preached 30 ser- mons. Have attended three yearly meetings in the above- named churches, all of which were blessed with more than usual manifestations of Divine favor. Respectfully submitted, EZRA FISHER, Exploring Agent.
P. S. I have made out this report on the 26th of Sept. on account of my leaving tomorrow for a yearly meeting on the Calapooia River with the Pleasant Butte Church, 351 Lynn County, 42 miles south of Salem. Yours, EZRA FISHER. 351 The Pleasant Butte Church, Linn County, was organized NOT. 16, 1853, by Rev. G. C. Chandler and others. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Or*., I:io. ​372 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Oregon City, O. Ter., Oct. 1st, 1854. To Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. of Am. Bap. Home Mission Soc. Dear Br. : Herein I send you my report of labor under the appointment of the Homie Mission Society as General Itinerant for the second quarter ending the 20th day of Sept., 1854. I have labored thirteen weeks in the quarter; preached 30 sermons; attended 10 prayer meetings, three church covenant meetings ; spent three weeks wholly in three yearly meetings, preaching, praying and exhorting as the cause of Christ seemed to demand; visited religiously 51 families and other persons ; traveled 205 miles to and from my appointments. In connection with the labors of my associates in the ministry, 1 has been baptized into the Santiam Church, 22 into the La Creole Church and 4 received by letter, and 4 were baptized into the Yam Hill Church, all of whom were baptized by the respective pastors of said churches. There have been 30 cases of hopeful conversions in these churches. I have visited the LaCreole Church in Polk Co., ten miles west of Salem, Santiam Church, 35 miles south of Salem, Lynn Co., and Yam Hill Church, 7 miles west of Lafayette, the seat of justice for Yam Hill Co. The Church at Oregon City sustained the monthly concert of prayer and have taken monthly collections at the same, amounting to about $9.00. The church at Oregon City took up a collection on the first Sabbath in July of $5.50 for the Home Mission Society. Sabbath schools, one with the Oregon City Church, the same as last quarter reported, one with the LaCreole Church. Respectfully submitted, EZRA FISHER, General Itinerant. Received Nov. 10. ​DEATH LIST OF OREGON PIONEERS OCTOBER 1 DECEMBER 31, 1918 Compiled by GEORGE H. HIMES. Alphin, Mrs. Sarah J., b Ind., 1827; Or. 1848; d. Independence, Nov. , 1018. Applegate, Ivan D., b. Mo. 1840; Or. 1843; d. Ashland; Dec. 28, 1918. (Ac- cidentally burned.) Bpnnett, A. T., b. Mo. 1842; Or. 1854; d. Eugene, Dec. 25, 1918. Bilyeu, Jackson A., b. Mo. Feb. 12, 1851; Or. 1852; d. Sept. 14, 1918.
1918. Blakeney, J. W., b. 111. 1850; Or. 1858; d. Dec. 20, 1918. Canada, Dr. M., b. 1831; Or. 1852; d. Dec. 14, 1918. Cannon, Mrs. Virginia F., b. Ky. 1838; Or. 1854; <* June 7> 1 98. Chute, Mrs. Clara, b. Nov. n, 1840; Or. 1844; d. Dec. 18, 1918. Cooper, Joel, b. Linn co. 1852; d. Sept. 21, 1918. 'Cornwall, Rev. Joseph Harding, b. Ark. Oct. 8, 1832; Or. 1846; d, Dallas, Nov. 9, 1918. Crowley, Mrs. Jane Weddle, b. 1846; Or. 1853; d. Sept 1918. Croxton, James Henry, b. Jackson co. 1855; d. Oct. 2, 1918. Cruzan, Mrs. Caroline, b. 1847; Or. 1852; d. June 13, 1918. Cuttler, Benjamin, b. 1824; Or. 1852; d. Oct. 22, 1918. Darneille, Jasper, b. Or. Sept. i, 1853; d. Aug. 12, 1918. Davis, Lycurgus, b. Ind. April 6, 1839; Or. 1846; d. Dec. 27, 1918. Dougherty, John Cecil, b. Tillamook co. Feb. 12, 1858; d. June 4, 1918. Douglas, Levi, b. Ohio, July 28, 1832; Or. 1852; d. July 16, 1918. Ennes, Mrs. Riley K., b. Ark. Sept. 10, 1840; Or. 1852; d. October 23, 1918. Epperly, Albert b. Va. 1833; Or. 1852; d. Dec. 13, 1918. Epperly, Albert, b. Va. 1833; Or. 1852 d;. Dec. 13, 1918. Fryer, Alexander Lafayette, b. Ky. 1820; Or. 1852; d. Oct. 19, 1918. Graves, James Alfres, b. Ohio, 1830; Or. 1852; d. Vancouver, Wash., Oct. 12, 1918. Hamblin, Dunton E., b. N. Y. 1832; Or. 1859; d. Portland, Oct. 30, 1918. Hamilton, Clarence Marsfield, b. 1847; Or. 1851; d. Dec. 22, 1918. Harris, Mrs. Eliza, b. Mo. June 7, 1850; Or. 1852; d. Sept. n, 1918.
* Hayter, Thomas Jefferson, b. Mo. 1830; d. Dallas, Oct. 30, 1918.
* Johnson, Mrs. Martha Barnes, b. Mo. April 6, 1846; Or. 1847; d. Portland,
Nov. 9, 1918. Karr, Mrs. Abigail Walker, b. Or. 1840; d. N. Yakima, Wash., Nov. 9, 1918. Landess, George, b. Or. Feb. 1854; d. Carlton. Oct. 2, 1918. Larkin, Able, b. 111. 1839; Or. 1852; d. Bellefountaine, Oct. 12. 1918. Lewis, Mrs. Martha Ann, b. Ind. ; Cal. 1850; d. Sand Point, Idaho, Aug. al> Mack, Mrs. Alice Matilda White, b. Or. April 23, 1857; d. Nov. 20, 1918. McCormick, John, b. Marion co., 1854; d. Aug. 8, 1918. Miller, Mrs. Harriet, b. 111., 1840; Or. 1850; d. Scio Nov. 1918. McGeary, Thomas W., b. Mex. 1846; Or. 1852; d. Tacoma, Wash., Dec. 1918. McKay, Capt. Charles, b. Nova Scotia, 1828; Cal. 1849; Or. 1859; d. San Juan Island, Wash., Dec. i, 1918. Murphy, Henderson W., b. 111. 1835; Or. 1852; d. Dec. 31, 1918. Nicholson, Wm. T. Bryhan, b. N? Y. 1836; Or. 1859; d. Portland, Sept. 18, 1918. Olds, Jay C, b. Yamhill co. 1854; d. Portland, Dec. 29, 1918. (Member of the Oregon Historical Society.) Owen, Mrs. Millie A., b. 1851; Or. 1852; d. Nov. 6, 1918. Palmer, Mary Ann Boyd, b. 111. Nov. 28, 1838; Or. 1844; d. Sept. 14, 1918. Parker, Daniel George, b. Mich. Aug. 21, 1842; Or. 1852; d. July 7, 1918. Pochert, Mrs. Rachel R. Deakins, b. ; Or. 1852; d. Tacoma, Wash., Dec. Porter, Mrs. Emily Agar, b. Ireland 1836; U. S. 1842; Or. 1852; d. Nov. 9, 1918. Reynolds, Alva I., b. N. Y. 1832; Or. 1852; d. Sept. 5, 1918. Richey, Edgar, b. 111. 1840; Or. 1852; d. Portland, Nov. 9, 1918.
Wash., Oct 16, 1918. Ruch, George, b. Mo. March 29, 1839; Or. 1856; <* Nov. 16, 1918. ​374 DEATH LIST OF PIONEERS "Smith, Mrs. Mianda Bailey, b. Ohio, 1829; Or. 1845; d. Chehalis, Wash., Oct. 4, 1918. Smith, Mrs. Nalncy Maxwell, b. 1838; Or. 1847; d. Condon, Nov. 19, 1918. Stevens, Gen. Hazard, b. R. I. 1842; Wash. 1854; d. Goldendale, Oct. n, 1918. (Honorary member of the Oregon Historical Society.) Veatch, Sylvester E., b. 111. March 27, 1831; Or. 1853; d. Oct. 19, 1918. Ward, Moses, b. Ind. 1829; Or. 1852; d. Lakeview, Wash., Dec. 23, 1918. Whitney, George, b. Oregon Dec. 28, 1852; d. near Woodburn Dec. 3, 1918.
Oregon Historical Society.)
Dec. 12, 1918. Only those marked with a * were ever members of the Oregon Pioneer Asso- ciation which was organized in 1873. OMITTED IN PREVIOUS REPORTS FOR 1918 Bewley, Mrs. Margaret Elvina Dawson, b. Yamhill county, May 16, 1851; m. John M. Bewley, pioneer 1847, May 26, 1870; d. Spokane, Wash., Jan. 7, 1918. Osborn, Alexander R., b. on summit of the Rocky mountains, August 5, 1845; d. Bandon, Or., Dec. 9, 1918.
INDEX
Adams, John Quincy, policy of, on Ore- gon Question as Secretary of State, 113-125; recommendations in his first annual message in regard to the Northwest, 125-7; guides negotiations leading to Convention of 1818 and to the renewal of that agreement, 189; two motives which animated him in his actions in the Oregon controversy, 189; as Secretary of State and Presi- dent guides negotiations with Russia, and with Great Britain, 191-214. Allen, Senator William, fails to get in- formation on instructions given Amer- ican minister to England on Oregon Question, 310-11. Astoria (Fort George) described, 183. ASTORIA, THE SURRENDER AT, IN 1818, 271-282; sites of the new city hall and of the stockade of the Pacific Fur Company are adjoining, 271; cordial nature of relations in ceremonies rec- ognizing claim of sovereignty on be- half of United States, 272-3; instruc- tions for Mr. Prevost, 272-3; joint commission with Captain Biddle not carried through; Captain Biddle pro- ceeds in advance, 274-5; Prevost ac- companies Captain Hickey in com- mand of his Britannic Majesty's sloop of war Blossom, 275; the Prevost fam- ily, 275-6; spirit of friendliness char- acterizes relations of commissioners, but later the manner of the participa- tion on the part of the British repre- sentative deprecated by British diplo- mats, 276-7; Prevost' s report of pro- ceedings and on situation and coun- try, 277-82; the Russian establish- ments in California, 281-2. Atchison, Senator David R., succeeds Linn as leader of those urging occu- pation of Oregon, 310. B Bancroft, Hubert Howe, as historian of the Pacific Coast, 74-5. Baptist cause in Oregon in 1853, 253-6. Barlow Road monument, 336. Baylies, author of resolution and re- port on expediency of sending vessel to Pacific Coast, 126-7; cause of fail- ure of Gallatin to settle boundary question in 1826-7, 127. Benton, Thomas H., on factors actuating Floyd, 113; view as to future of Ore- gon Territory, 125. Biddle, Captain James, at Astoria (Fort George) in 1818, 181-4; his career and the presumption of his knowledge of the Oregon country, 185-6. Bolon, Andrew J., monument to, 340-1. British claims to Oregon country, prog- ress of negotiations over conflicting American claims and renewal of Con- vention of 1818, 1 9 7-2 1 4. British fur companies, rivalry of, for country west of Rockies, 215-6. Brosnan's History of Idaho, 339. c Calhoun, John C, reports on trade with the Indians in region extending west to Pacific Ocean, 114-5; counsels de- lay of legislation for organization of Oregon territory, 332-3. California, the name of, 215. Canning on transfer of Astoria, 197; 206-8. Canyon Road of Portland, 169-70. Cascade Mountains, why so named, 168; first roads across, 335-6. Centenaries marked by 1918, 181. Champoeg, seventy-fifth anniversary of, 172. Chittenden, Hiram M., life, writings and services of, 77-8. Coos Bay, exploration and beginning of settlement of country of, 61-2. Coquille Valley settlement, 62. Coquille, the name, 73-4. Craig, William, frontier trapper, 84. Davidson, George, ship's painter on the Columbia of Captain Robert Gray, 85. Deady, Matthew P., diaries of, 341. Death lists of members of the Oregon Historical Society, 80-1. Death lists of Oregon pioneers, 81-2; 176; 269-70; 373-4- EBBERT, GEORGE WOOD, sketch of, 263-7; trip with Jos. L. Meek back across plains in January, 1848, 263-8. FISHER, REVEREND EZRA, CORRESPOND- ENCE OF, 134-163; 235-261; 351-372; death of Mrs. Fisher, 351-4. Floyd, Dr. John, as leader in advocacy of legislation for the occupation of Oregon country, 112-4; his activities in securing reports on Oregon and in pressing for projects of legislation, 115-25; 128-31. [377] ​INDEX GALLATIN, ALBERT, mission of, in nego- tiating Oregon Question, 108-14. Gardiner, founding of, 24. Geisel family, perils and sacrifices of, 67-8. Georgiana party of Americans, 84-5. H HENDERSON, ENOCH PINKNEY, SKETCH OF, 164-6. Hudson's Bay Company's occupation of Pacific Northwest, 216-7. HUNDRED YEARS AGO, AN EVENT OF ONE, 181-7. Illinois centennial celebration, 84. Oregon, 63-8. Indian hostilities in Southern INDIAN WAR VETERANS, REUNION OF, 173-4- J Jacksonville, gold discovered on site of present, 59. John, Chief, ability and exploits of, 66-8. K Kelley, Hall Jackson, narrative by F. W. Powell, 82-3. Klickitat War memorial, 343. Latourell Falls as memorial to Joseph and Grace Latourell, 78. Lee, Jason, arrival in Oregon, 220; re- turns to states in 1838, 224-5. Linn, Senator Lewis Field, leader of Oregon forces in Congress, 1837, 43> 283; source of his Oregon spirit, 283- 4; sources of new interest in Oregon in the thirties, 284-5 > resolution of inquiry and reply elicited, 284-6; in- troduces bill to establish^ Oregon Ter- ritory, referred to special committee of which he is chairman, which makes report, 286-8; presents memorial from settlers of Oregon Territory, 288; continues to present petitions and resolutions, 291; origin of Donation Land Act, 291; becomes more in- sistent as to gravity of Oregon situa- tion, 293-4; bill before Senate, 296- 300; his bill having passed the Senate fails in the House, 301-2. M McDonald, Angus, publication of rem- iniscences of, 79-80. Mail carrying in early days, 39. Methodism, a history of, in Pacific Northwest proposed, 170. Monroe doctrine, Oregon as source of, 172-3. Mullan Road, marking the, 76-7; monu- ments to, under contract, 171. Ohio river country, a review of revolu- tionary period of, 85. Ontario, the, under commission to pro- ceed to the Columbia river, 1817, 181. Oregon City in 1853, 245-7. OREGON, EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN, 53-68; drama of empire building in the new west, 53-4; conservators of its records, 54; Southern Oregon as a distinct region, 54-5 ; difficult of access, 55-6; traversed by Jedediah S. Smith, 56; Fort Umpqua established as trad- ing post by Hudson's Bay Company, 1830- 56; immigrants of 1846 and 1847 traverse it, 57; first occupation by set- tlers, 57-8; gold discoveries bring many frequenters, 58; early settle- ment on the lower Umpqua by ex- ploring party in ship Samuel Roberts, 58. Oregon Emigration Society and its prop- aganda, 225. OREGON FEDERAL RELATIONS OF, 89-133; 189-233; 283-331; the setting of the stage for in 1819, 89-90; major events which brought about the situation of 1819 Spanish explorations, British explorations, French explorations, Nootka affair and convention, ex- plorations of Gray, Vancouver and Lewis and Clark and Astor's occupa- tion, 91-101; the treaty of Ghent and the formal restitution of the post, 101-3; provision for joint occupation in convention signed at London, 1818, 101-6; definite settlement with Spain, 1 06-8; Humboldt's description of the west coast of America arouses Russia to activity, 109-110; claims of United States kept alive by continuous agita- tion, 1819-1829, in; aim was de- cisive legislation, 111-2; conditions that thwarted endeavor, 112; Dr. John Floyd as leader in the advocacy of the settling of the Oregon Question, 112- 4; projects of legislation for explora- tion and occupation, 125-31; interest in Oregon country regarded as yet pre- mature, 132-3; Oregon and the diplo- macy of 1821-1827, 1829, 214; under the guidance of John Quincy Adams, 189; Senator Linn renews agitation in Congress of Oregon Question, 284; Linn as chairman of special commit- tee with petitions, memorials, resolu- tions and bills gets Oregon Question into public consciousness, 283-305; Caleb Gushing in the House keeps up like attention to Oregon Question, 287-305; Maine boundary question, 292-5 ; provisions of Oregon bill that passes Senate, 296-8; sectional atti- tudes toward bill, 300; English feel- ing, 302-4; Oregon and the political game, 1843-4, 3.7-3i interpretation of Oregon activities possible only in the light of political situation, 1843-4, 307-9; Annual Message, 309; resolu- [378] ​INDEX tions calling for instructions given to American Minister in England on sub- ject of title to and the occupation of the Oregon country fails; so also the "giving notice" resolution, 310-4; ouse refuses to take any affirmative "gi Ho action on Oregon Question, 314-6; at- titudes of Whig leaders, Clay, Web- ster and Adams, 316-8; a suggested arrangement with Great Britain in- volving Oregon, California and Texas, 317-20; the value of the Democratic slogan "fifty-four-forty or fight," 320- 2; the Cincinnati Oregon meeting, 322; attitudes of Democratic leaders Calhpun, Van Buren and Polk, 322-8; relative importance as political issues of Texas and Oregon, 328-9; educa- tive value of the "fifty-four-forty or fight" campaign, 329-30; House provid- ing Territorial government for Ore- ?on before Congress but Senate re- uses to act, 330-2. Oregon, history of development of, 1827-42, 215-30; Astor's and North- West Company's rivalry for Oregon control, 215-6; Hudson's Bay Com- pany controls trade, 216-7; American private enterprise contests for share of fur trade, 217-8; Kelley's futile efforts, 218-9; Wyeth's enterprise frustrated, 220-1; Missionaries get foothold, 220-2; William A. Slacum explores and aids in securing organ- ization of cattle company, 222-3; me- morial of settlers of 1837, 223-4; ** 1T George Simpson looks into affairs of Company in Oregon, 225-6; migration of 1842, 226-7; movement for civil organization, 227-8, titles to claims most important subject dealt in by body of laws, 229-30. Oregon, geographical facts relative to, 145; view of country north of the Columbia, 147-9; view of country east of Cascades, 149-51; population, 157. Oregon Historical Society, recent docu- mentary and other accessions, 232-3. OREGON, THE SPIRIT AND OBJECTIVES IN THE ANNALS OF, 177-9. P Pioneer monument at Vancouver, 83. Pioneers' Annual Reunion, 173. Port Orford, 59-60. Prevost, J. B., as appointee of State Department to receive restitution of Oregon, 184; memorandum of instruc- tions, lingers in South America while Captain Biddle proceeds on mission and follows later with Captain Hickey of Sloop of War Blossom, his report of ceremonies, spirit of occasion and on country, 272-82. Prices, some Oregon, in 1853, 250. PUGET'S SOUND AGRICULTURAL COM- PANY, PROSPECTUS, 344-9. Puget's Sound Country, Population of, in 1853, 140. Rainier-Tacoma dispute again, 166-7. Rainier, first ascent of, 337-8. Rogue river valley in 1853, 243. Roseburg, founding of, by Aaron Rose, 59- Royal, Reverend Thomas Fletcher, 4, 38-9- s Salem in 1853, 134-6. .Schools, early, in Douglas County, 4. Scott, pioneer family journal of John Tucker, 78-9. Scottsburg, town and road, 23-5; 589; 63. Smith, Mrs. Mianda Bailey, 342-3. Sons and Daughters of Oregon Pio- neers, Annual Reunion of, 179; offi- cers of, 174. Southern Route, Narrative of, 336. Stevens, Hazard, death of, 340. Semple, Senator, introduces resolution calling upon President to give notice that Convention of 1818 was to be annulled, 311-3. Tichenor, Captain William, attempts to establish base at Port Orford, 59-60. T'Vault, Colonel W. G., attempts con- struction of road to interior, 60- 1. Tyrrell, Joseph Burr, receives Murchi- son medal, 85. UMPQUA ACADEMY, HISTORY OF, 1-26; Charter, 1-8; 10-11; some early stu- dents named, 5-6; first building and site, 7-8; first trustees, 8-10; its rules and regulations" and what they reveal as to the life in the school, 11-16; the academy's community and territory, 16-18; its teachers and finances, 18-22. UMPQUA ACADEMY, REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DAYS AT OLD, 27-36; memory pictures of life at, 27-8; characteristics of early students at, 28-32; pranks at, 32-3; incidents at during Civil War, 35-6. UMPQUA ACADEMY, SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD, 37-48; pioneers as founders of, 37-8; pioneer preachers and "meet- ings, 38-9; conditions noted on early visits to, 39-41; members of student body and their democratic spirit, 41-2; the young people and the rules, 42-5; characteristic happenings among stu- dents, 46-8. UMPQUA ACADEMY, THE STUDENTS AS- SOCIATION OF, 49-5i; history of pro- ject to secure evidence of part played by Umpqua Academy in the educa- tional foundation of the state, 49; first reunion of 9ld students, 49-501; objects of association formed, 50; esti- mate of influence of institutions, 50-1. Umpqua river, legend of visit to, by Spanish vessel, 25-6. Umpqua valley in 1853, 244-5. [87* ​INDEX Vista House dedication, 171-2. w Waldo, gold discovery at, 63. Ware, Joel, sketch of life of, 69-71. Washington geographic names, origin of, 85-6. Wilbur, James H., sketch of, 1-4; his idea for early education in Oregon, 3; as founder and builder of Umpqua Academy, 6-8; estimate of his work, 26, 57. Wilkes exploring expedition instigated by petition from Winchester, R. I., 58-9. Wilbur, town of, 23. Wooddy, C. A., death of, 342. Yakima C9unty Pioneer meeting, 231-2. Yamhill pioneer matters, 174. Y. M. C. A. jubilee at Portland, 83. Young, Ewing, arrives in Oregon in disfavor with Dr. McLoughlin, but later is able to become head of cattle company, 222-4. Zig Zag river, 75-6. 380]
* ↑ H. E. Doc. No. 147, 25th Cong. 2d. Ses.
* ↑ Globe Appen., VI, 8.
* ↑ See Chapter IV.
* ↑ Richardson, Messages, III, 397-8.
* ↑ March 19, Globe, VI, 242.
* ↑ Reported Ibid., 380, Appen., 565-81. Cushing, called upon Adams "as a living record of the diplomatic history of the country" to support his contentions. "Thus suddenly called out," says Adams in his Memoirs (IX, 535), "I took the floor, and rambled over the topics upon which he had touched for an hour or more, without order or method, as kind and courteous to him as I could be, and dissatisfied with no one but myself." The discussion took place on May 17 and 22.
* ↑ Van Zandt to Anson Jones (Secretary of State for Texas), 16 Oct., 1843; Garrison, Texan Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 222. It is hardly necessary to state that Mr. Van Zandt's views of the partisan aspect were not upheld by the facts.