# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 12/Number 2

It's unclear whether this was actually a separate volume, or whether perhaps Numbers 1 & 2 for the 1913 Volume of the OHQ were combined.
The Rise and Early History
of
Political Parties
in
Oregon~III
By Walter Carleton Woodward
CHAPTER VI
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL IN OREGON POLITICS
CHAPTER VI
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL IN OREGON POLITICS
The anti-Negro sentiment in Oregon was emphatic. The anti-slavery provision of the Ordinance of 1787 had been incorporated in the articles of compact of the Provisional Government. It had been inserted in the organic act by which Oregon became a Territory of the United States. In 1853 Judge Williams awarded freedom to certain Negroes held as slaves on the ground that slavery did not and could not exist in Oregon. The decision seemed obvious and was accepted as final. Likewise, the first session of the legislature of the Provisional Government had passed an act prohibiting the presence of free Negroes within the field of its jurisdiction. The measure was re-enacted by the first Territorial legislature. It was only by a special act of the legislature of '52-'53 that George Washington, a colored man of high standing, was allowed to reside in the Territory. Clearly, as a matter of policy, the people of Oregon repudiated most emphatically all relations with the Negro, bond or free. Far separated from the arena of sectional strife, they had no thought of interfering with the Negro question or of allowing it to interfere with them. They were very willing, indeed, to "let slavery alone."
This was the situation in distant Oregon up to the year 1854. Then, as by the hand of a magician, the scene was suddenly changed. The sense of security against the black evil was succeeded by uncertainty, if not positive alarm. Agitation succeeded equanimity. Political reorganization began at once to meet new and threatening conditions. Within a few short years, the slavery question was the paramount issue in the Territory and Oregon was shaken with the violence of conflict. Such was the result, directly and indirectly, of the passage by Congress, May 22, 1854, of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which ​violated the spirit of the Ordinance of 1787, repealed the Missouri Compromise and, through the fiction of popular sovereignty, threw open the territories to slavery. No better example can be had of the far-reaching consequence of the recognition of the Kansas-Nebraska principle and of the promulgation of doctrines which grew out of it. Oregon, far out on the North Pacific, with conditions and interests wholly foreign to those within the arena of conflict, is forced, against her will, to become embroiled in the bitter contest. This, in the face of the imperious demand of the South addressed to the North—"Why can't you let slavery alone?" The far-reaching effects of the injection of this foreign issue into Oregon politics, it will be the purpose of this and succeeding chapters to show.
The same day on which the Washington County Whig convention passed a resolution condemning the policy of the proposed Kansas-Nebraska measure, the regular Democratic view was voiced by the Yamhill County Democratic convention. The delegates to the latter announced that they had not read with indifference the debates in the United States Senate on the subject of popular sovereignty in the territories, and expressed the hope that the time had fully arrived when the citizens of a territory were no longer to be considered the property of the United States. How apt an expression of the old desire for local independence—of hostility to all superimposed authority! In the same spirit, the Democratic Territorial convention of the following year hailed the enactment "which restored to the people of the territories, their rights as American citizens." The principle of popular sovereignty had a different and far greater significance to most Oregon Democrats, than its mere relation to the slavery question. They pushed the doctrine to its logical conclusion at once. To them it meant the fulfillment of their hopes and demands for complete self-government; for election of all Territorial officers. It meant the end of imported officials. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 127 The Democratic papers were prompt to defend the new doctrine. 1 "The clamor of repeal may be raised," said Bush, "but the step is taken and Democracy never recedes." 2 Yet he found it advisable to conciliate and reassure the skeptical. In an editorial, "The Nebraska Bill a Measure for African Free- dom," he argued ingeniously that the measure would have no tendency to implant slavery in the new territories, from which it was excluded by nature; that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise would mollify the South, which, being no longer on the defensive, would inaugurate a policy of gradual eman- cipation. 3 Such was the vividness of Democratic imagination in attempting to justify the party policy in a way to satisfy free state Democrats. The reflection of the great contest at Washington in the spring of 1854 is clearly found in the Oregon legislature of '54-'55. The Democratic leader, Delazon Smith, introduced a long series of resolutions endorsing Pierce and the acts of the National Administration and especially the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He boldly affirmed that its passage was a virtual repeal of that part of Oregon's organic law which declared that slavery should never exist in Oregon. The house discussed these resolutions day after day with warmth and vigor, finally passing them, but the council offered amendments which it refused to accept. Prominent in opposing the Democratic position was Dr. A. G. Henry, of Yamhill County, the leading Whig member of the legislature. He introduced counter reso- lutions attacking the Kansas-Nebraska bill and his speech sup- porting them was remarkable, both for its accurate and vivid historical presentation of slavery legislation in the United States and for clear and cogent reasoning therefrom. 4 The marked ability of even the average member of legislative assemblies in those days to discuss the great political problems before the i "The Statesman and Standard are feeling their way into a support of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The editors and assistants expect, no doubt, to get situa- tions as Negro drivers. New England apostates and former free soilers, make first-rate overseers, so far as whipping Negroes is concerned." Oregonian, July 22, 1854. ^Statesman, August 15, 1854. 3lbid., August 22. 4Reproduced in the Oregonian, February 17, 1855. ​128 'W. C. WOODWARD country, is indeed striking and a continual source of surprise and admiration. Every man was a politician. The issues were vital and were studied until all were posted on them. 1 The attempt of the leaders of the Democratic party in Ore- gon to create sentiment in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska doc- trine was met with sturdy opposition. For example, the Yamhill County Whig convention held in April, 1855, did "utterly and unequivocally repudiate and condemn the Ne- braska-Kansas bill as a wanton and unnecessary renewal of the slavery agitation." It denounced the principle of popular sovereignty and declared the right and duty of Congress to exercise the power of sovereignty in the Territories. 2 The Oregon Whigs belonged to the northern wing of the party and could be counted upon to resist pro-slavery aggression. Many, however, who felt most deeply upon the subject, did not consider the old and rapidly disintegrating party as the proper and adequate avenue of attack against slaveocracy. Ac- cordingly, on June 27, 1855, an anti-slavery convention was held at Albany, the first to take place in Oregon Territory. Thirty-nine men were present and signed their names to the records of the historic meeting, thus becoming in a way the charter members of the organized movement against slavery aggression in the Far Northwest. 3 The intense feeling which had been aroused in the distant northern territory within one year after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, is well sug- gested by the resolutions passed by these thirty-nine pioneers in the cause of freedom. They resolved that the whole sys- tem of legislation by Congress since and including 1850 was a flagrant outrage on the civilization of the age and disgraceful to the patriotism and religion of the whole country; that the artfulness and treachery displayed in the aggressiveness of the slave power "should awaken a most jealous watchfulness in regard to its movements in this direction, as we know not at i Conversation with Judge Williams. zOregonian, April 21, 1855. 3 See Oregonian, July 7, for names of those attending. So far as is known, but one of the 39, W. C. Johnson, of Portland, is still living in 1910. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 129 what moment, by some artful ruse, it may be precipitated upon our Territory." The holding of county meetings throughout the Territory was encouraged for the purpose of arousing pub- lic sentiment against the growing evil of slavery and for se- curing the election of men to office who could be relied upon to oppose its encroachments. The support of the anti-slavery newspapers in Oregon was urged. Likewise, the intense feeling on the other side of the ques- tion is evidenced in the comment made on this convention. Delazon Smith, the "Lion of Linn," was an eye witness of the proceedings and reported with satisfaction to the Statesman that only one of the participators was ever suspected of being a Democrat. 1 He said the issue in 1854 was the Maine Law, in 1855 Know Nothingism, and now it was to be Free Soilism and that the champions were the same in each case. He became sarcastic on the "artful ruse" expression, declaring that not one man in twenty, permanently residing in Oregon, wished to see it a slave state. The attitude of Bush was picturesquely characteristic. He refused to publish the proceedings of the meeting which he referred to as "a collection of old grannies." "It is decidedly icy in these nigger-struck dames to ask the Statesman to publish their stale fanaticism. . . If anything could make the people of Oregon desire slavery, it would be the agitation of the subject by such fanatics as these." 2 The first Oregon counterpart of the action of Eastern anti- Nebraska men in assuming the name of "Republican party/' early in 1856, is found in Jackson County in May of the same year. It was a nominating convention of "the Republicans of Jackson county" and was held at Lindley's school house, in Eden precinct. H. Colver addressed the meeting, "showing the aims, object and principles of the Republican movement." 3 After an expression that old dividing issues had passed away or had now faded into insignificance before the one great question, the meeting adopted a ringing platform. It declared i Statesman, July 14, 1855. albid. 3 See Oregon Argus, June 7, for report of proceedings. ​130 W. C. WOODWARD freedom to be national, slavery sectional ; that the power of the Federal Government should be exerted to prohibit slavery in every territory of the United States. However, in the next sentence, it was affirmed that the people are the rightful source of all political power and that officers, as far as prac- ticable, should be chosen by a direct vote of the people. This is suggestive of what a strong appeal one phase of the doctrine of popular sovereignty made to Oregonians generally. It is rather suggestive that the first Republican meeting in Oregon was held in the southern part of the Territory where Southern sentiment was most pronounced. On the 20th of August, following, "a number of the friends of the Republican cause" met at Albany to inaugurate Re- publican organization in the Territory. 1 Practically all those whose names figure in the report of this meeting were among the thirty-nine members of the Free Soil convention of the previous year. The expediency of immediate organization was affirmed. The resolutions heartily approved of the principles set forth by the Philadelphia National convention, which had taken place in June, a month after the date of the Jackson County meeting. The nomination of Fremont and Dayton was hailed with enthusiasm. Steps toward immediate organiza- tion were taken. The holding of primary and county meetings was urged. A committee was appointed to correspond with the friends of the Republican cause throughout the Territory to consider the propriety of calling a Territorial convention. Before adjourning, the manifesto was made that "We fling our banner to the breeze, inscribed 'Free Speech, Free Labor, a Free Press, a Free State and Fremont.' ' Precinct and county Republican conventions followed in the fall of 1856. The Oregonian of December 6th announced that almost every county in Oregon had held a Republican con- vention and adopted a platform. These platforms, agreeing on the great question at issue, still differ sufficiently to render them interesting subjects for study. The Yamhill County con- lArgus, September 6, 1856; Oregonian, September 13. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 131 vention of November 15th, gave the Democrats a significant reminder, in endorsing the wisdom of the act of Congress organizing the Territory, which, "by applying the principle incorporated by Thos. Jefferson in the Ordinance of 1787, prohibits slavery in our Territory." The Yamhill Republicans declared with more grandiloquence than precision that they were for free Territories and free States, for free farms and free labor, free society and free school, free thought and free discussion, free speech and free press, free religion and free votes for freemen, Fremont and freedom. However, the politic Dr. McBride introduced a special resolution, which was adopted, expressing opposition to interference in any way with slavery in those states where it already existed. The Clack- amas convention of November 29th prefaced its resolutions with the "whereas," that the old Whig party was dead, the Know Nothing party was dying and the falsely called Democratic party ought to be dead and buried. It disavowed any intention of the Republicans to interfere with slavery in the states, but declared the General Government bound from principle and policy to guarantee freedom to all the Territories. Figuring prominently in this incipient Republican organization in the Territory were not a few whose names were to be writ large in the future annals of the state. The attitude of the three leading papers of the Territory toward the new Republican party is interesting and significant. That of the Statesman was exactly what might be expected. In an editorial, "A Black Republican Party in Oregon the Face for Next Year," 1 Bush shows the past opposition to Oregon Democracy to have been one and the same, whether fighting under the banner of Law and Order, No Party, People's Party, Whig, Temperance or Know Nothing; that the next front to be presented by this mongrel opposition was to be "Black Republican Disunion, . . . the true face of these fa- natics." A life-long and violent Whig, Editor Dryer of the Ore- gonian, found himself in a rather embarrassing position during i Statesman, September 19, 1856. ​132 W. C. WOODWARD the presidential campaign of 1856. For while Oregon had no voice in presidential elections the attitude of the Territorial editors during the campaigns was hardly less aggressive on that account. The wreck of the Whig party, which met at Baltimore, September 17, 1856, ratified the Know Nothing nominations of Fillmore and Donelson, made at Philadelphia, February 22, but did not adopt the American party platform. 1 Early in the campaign Dryer entered the nominations of all the parties at the head of his editorial page, headed by the names of Fillmore and Donelson in big, black display type. Before the end of the campaign he changed the latter to the modest type in which the others appeared. Though opposing Buchanan in a general way he did not come out for either Fillmore or Fremont, though he published re-print articles favorable to both and occasionally unfavorable. His attitude was that of satisfaction with either, if only the defeat of Bu- chanan could be secured, who stood on the Cincinnati plat- form which endorsed the substitution of squatter sovereignty for the Missouri Compromise. But Dryer endorsed Buchanan's inaugural address as good old Whig doctrine and good enough for him if carried out. 2 Thus is seen the uncertain, purpose- less attitude of Dryer who found himself a man without a party. So steadfast was Dryer to his old Whig allegiance, that he viewed askance the organization of the new party in Oregon. In his view its principles were so sufficiently maintained by the Whigs as to preclude the necessity of a new organization. He resented freely the idea that Republicanism was a new doc- trine and likewise resented the apparent efforts of the sup- porters of the new movement to declare and maintain a mo- nopoly in Republican principles. 3 His attitude was frankly critical and semi-hostile. i Johnston's "American Politics," p. 176. zOregonian, April u, 1857. 3"We have always supposed we were a Republican, we think so still. . . . If our republicanism don't suit you gentlemen, your republicanism won't suit us, and we shall not endorse it." Oregonian, November 8, 1856. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 133 On the other hand the Argus strongly supported the Re- publican organization. Its declaration was made November 1, 1856. In September a movement had been launched in Linn County for the raising of capital in the Territory for establishing a Republican paper. 1 But when Adams committed the Argus to the cause, the effort to start a new paper was given up and the Argus was recognized as the official Repub- lican organ. Adams declared the cardinal doctrines of the Oregon Republican party to be those demanding a free Terri- tory and a Pacific railroad. 2 While the Oregonian did not ally itself with the Republican movement, by 1856 it took up the issue definitely against slavery. It had had as little sympathy with abolitionism as had the Statesman. In 1853 it contained frequent insinuations against Mrs. Stowe and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and abolitionists in general. But it became aroused by the passage of the Kansas- Nebraska bill and by the series of events which followed in its train. When Delazon Smith's resolutions endorsing the bill were before the legislature of '54- J 55, R. J. Ladd of Umpqua county moved to strike out the 5th resolution which stated that the physical conditions in Oregon were unpropitious for the introduction of slavery and would operate to keep it out of the Territory. He declared that he did not want to discourage slave holders coming to Oregon with their prop- erty if they saw fit. It was the voice of a minority. But so completely was the slave power getting control of the Demo- cratic party of the United States and so subservient were the rank and file to party action and decrees, that it was not a wild and unreasonable fear on the part of those who saw in this minority the possibility of the encroachment of slavery in Ore- gon. It was this fear which gave zest to Republican organiza- tion. It was this fear that led the conservative Dryer to change his policy of "letting slavery alone." The progress of the civil strife in Kansas, in which the Ad- ministration had actively interfered in behalf of the pro- iSee Argus, October 4, 1856. albid., November i, 1856. ​134 W. C. WOODWARD slavery party, was followed anxiously by Oregonians for whom it had peculiar significance. Sumner had been assaulted by Brooks in the United States Senate chamber on May 22, 1856. Moved by these various events, Dryer made his first de- termined assault on slavery in the Oregonian of July 12, 1856. In strongest terms he arraigned the system which had always been a source of discord and whose present "fearful reckless- ness" now threatened the actual dissolution of the Union. 1 He also attacked Lane for his action in the Sumner-Brooks affair in serving as Brooks' second when the latter challenged Senator Henry Wilson to a duel ; also when Brooks challenged Anson Burlingame. Lane's personal sympathies were thus publicly declared, but the Oregonian objected especially to his thus compromising and crippling the Territory which he rep- resented. 2 It has been shown that in the elections of 1854, 1855 and 1856, the Oregonian strongly opposed statehood. In the last election its opposition had been very pronounced, indeed. In a leader, "Shall Oregon Become a State ?" in the issue of November first of the same year, Dryer turned squarely about and began advocating state organization. He attributed his change of attitude to the policy of the Buchanan Administra- tion in acting as "the handmaid for the extension of slavery over free territory." In his own words, "If we are to have the institution of slavery fastened upon us here, we desire the people resident in Oregon to do it and not the will and power of a few politicians in Washington City. If the power of the regular army is to be used to crush out freedom in the Terri- tories ... we had better throw off our vassalage and become a state at once." This seemed to be the general sentiment of the people of Oregon. Whereas in the election of 1856 the question of statehood had been lost by 249 votes, in the very next year it i "We dislike modern abolitionism as much as we do slavery; and although we shall never go where slavery is already established for the purpose of op- posing it, we shall contend against its introduction here or elsewhere, where freedom now exists." Oregonian, November i, 1856. 2Oregonian, September 20, 1856. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 135 was to win by an overwhelming majority of 5938. The pas- sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill had opened up the foreign issue of slavery in distant Oregon and had set movements in operation which were to result in complete political realign- ment. Likewise, the aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the strife over Kansas and the National Administration's inter- ference therein was reflected in the revolution of public sentiment in the isolated Territory on the subject of state- hood. It was the general determination that Oregon must be made secure against the possibility of the distress of "Bleeding Kansas" and a state organization seemed to promise the only
CHAPTER VII
THE NATIONAL ISSUE IN OREGON IN 1857
The session of the legislature which met December 2, 1856, passed what had become a customary act, calling for a vote at the ensuing election on the question of holding a constitutional convention. Considering the narrow margin by which the measure had been defeated the preceding June, and in view of the fact that the Oregonian had changed front on the issue, the result of the coming election was almost a foregone conclusion; so nearly so that it was provided that at the same time at which the vote should be taken, delegates should be elected to the convention. As far as the people of Oregon could bring it about, statehood was imminent. In the erection of the framework of the new government vital issues were involved. How those issues were met and settled, the following pages will endeavor to show.
To the Republicans the one paramount issue was that of freedom or slavery for the new state. To meet this great issue successfully they were zealous in extending their party organization. On February 11, 1857, a convention was held at Albany, at which delegates were present from eight counties Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Yamhill, Linn, Umpqua, Polk and Benton. W. T. Matlock, of Clackamas, was chairman, and Leander Holmes, of the same county, secretary. Other prominent men in attendance were Stephen Coffin, J. R. McBride, W. L. Adams, E. L. Applegate, T. S. Kendall, S. M. Gilmore and W. B. Daniels. The platform of principles adopted declared strongly against the extension of slavery over "any Territory of the United States now free." It held that there was no real difference as to the "true interests of Oregon" dividing honest Whigs, Democrats, Republicans, and Americans, who had had the manly independence to resist the usurpation and abuse of power on the part of "the present ruling faction." It bespoke the necessity of the Union of all ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 137 free and independent citizens to secure the adoption of a "Free State Constitution" for Oregon. "We therefore ... an- nounce ourselves as the 'Free State Republican Party* of Ore- gon, and as such will fight the political battle of freedom." Another important plank in the platform was that declaring for the immediate construction of a central Pacific Railroad and for the improvement of rivers and harbors of a national character, by congressional appropriations. A Territorial Executive Committee was elected and more thorough county organization urged. A committee composed of W. L. Adams, Thos. Pope and Stephen Coffin was selected to prepare an address to the people of Oregon. This address was prepared at length, with great care and was not published until two months after the convention. 1 It was a complete and most able presentation of the slavery question in American politics, since 1784, when a resolution denouncing the slave trade was passed in the Con- tinental Congress. Facts were cited to show that the General Government in all its legislation for seventy years, showed a strong tendency to carry out the wishes of the founders of the government, who looked upon slavery as a great national calamity to be tolerated where it existed, but who shaped the Constitution and all their legislation so as to prepare the way for its gradual extinction. In all this salutary legislation, from the time of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, onward, the opposition of South Carolina had been marked. The growth and extension of this opposition throughout the South was traced, resulting finally in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, "which has raised the present storm that now rocks the fabric of the Union to its center." The farce of popular sovereignty was shown in a vivid sketch of conditions in Kansas. The modern Democratic party was declared by its policy to have made slavery the paramount issue. The only security for the per- petuity of the Union now lay in "non-extension" the cardinal principle of the Republican party. Clear-cut and well defined, iFor txt, see Oregonian, April 18, and Argus, April n. ​138 W. C. WOODWARD the dominant issue was presented squarely to the people of Oregon. In conclusion, local affairs were treated and the Democratic administration in Oregon was attacked along the following lines: the "frittering away" of public funds and appropria- tions; keeping the state capital question inflamed; making the Indian war a party war; enactment of the Viva Voce law; tardiness in completing land surveys. For a thorough understanding of the situation in Oregon at this time, it will be necessary here to give attention to what was taking place in the ranks of Democracy. As has been suggested, the yoke of Bush and the Salem Clique was galling to many Democrats. In the first place such abject obedience as was demanded was humiliating, and a reproach to men of strong individualism. In the second place, there was a protest against monopolizing the perquisites of Democratic Adminis- tration by a small, self-constituted ring. 1 The spirit of mutiny was rising. It was felt in the session of the legislature of '56-'57 and began to be manifested early in 1857. The Demo- cratic Standard had come to be looked upon as an anti-machine paper. At a Democratic caucus held January 20 while the legislature was in session it was formally discarded from the party and denounced as an organ of the opposition. The vote declaring such action, however, was close 15 to 12. 2 The issue was thus joined. On the one side was the organization or machine, standing for unquestioning obedience to party rule and declaring for the binding authority of regular party con- ventions, or for "caucus sovereignty." On the other, were the independent Democrats who denied the absolute authority of party or caucus action. The former were called "the hards" ; the latter, "the softs." Bush at once took up the fight against the mutinous, begin- ning with an attack on the twelve who formed the minority in i As popularly conceived, the Salem Clique was composed of Asahel Bush, L. F. Grover, B. F. Harding, J. W. Nesmith and R. P. Boise. ^Statesman, January 27, 1857. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 139 the above mentioned caucus. 1 Prominent among these were Nat. Ford of Polk, J. C. Avery of Benton, Andrew Shuck of Yamhill and J. K. Kelly of Clackamas, the latter being presi- dent of the Council. The Statesman's definition of an inde- pendent Democrat was "one who votes for the meanest kind of a Know Nothing, nigger-worshipping apostate from the Demo- cratic party." 2 But the opposition was not to be dissipated this time by the mere applying to it a few ugly names. The revolt grew and preparations were made in different counties for nominating independent Democratic tickets as opposed to the regular. Nearly all the regular Democratic precinct and county con- ventions held in the spring of 1857 followed the lead of the caucus of January 20, in denouncing the Standard and hurling defiance at all bolters. The disregard of party nominations was held to be unpardonable sin in politics. 3 The attitude of the "hards" toward the "softs" is summed up in the expres- sion of Labish precinct, Marion county: 4 "Whereas, there are some persons who profess to belong to the Democratic party and talk about the true Democracy and stigmatize the Demo- cratic party now in power as a 'clique' ; Resolved That we recognize none as Democrats who do not support with their votes the present Democratic organization, and further, that those who bolt or countenance bolting should not be recognized as belonging to the regular organization." Some counties, however, assumed a neutral, judicial attitude. The Multnomah convention attributed the division to controversies in which the Democratic press "have so wantonly indulged, and we re- pudiate such as anti-Democratic and unjust." 5 Despite the gathering clouds, Bush stated April 7 that the party was never more vigorous and strong; that it had a con- stitution fully strong enough "to spew out the putrid matter i Ibid., January 27, February 3 and February 24. 2lbid., March 31. sDeclaration of South Salem precinct. Statesman, April 7. 4Statesman, March 31. Slbid., April 7. ​140 W. C. WOODWARD which had collected on its stomach." The characteristic atti- tude of Bush toward opposition in the ranks was exactly stated by him in the Statesman editorial, April 14: "Divisions are not to be avoided by winking at error and temporizing with treason and traitors. If you would have a healthy body, cast off the rotten limbs. ... A cancer can't be healed until the af- fected parts are removed. The knife must precede the plaster. Caustic before salve." Bush was no compromiser. With him it was war to the last. Such was the general situation in the Oregon Democratic party, when the Democratic Territorial convention met at Salem on April 13. The "hards" were in complete control of the convention, which fact was strongly emphasized by the plat- form adopted. 1 The famous fifth and sixth resolutions gave full and adequate expression to the demand of the ma- chine for party regularity and the exercise of party discipline. They demanded unwavering allegiance to the organization and its candidates and placed all who refused it under the ban of party excommunication. 2 The seventh resolution denounced the Standard and a special one was adopted, "that this convention recognize the Portland Times as Democratic and its editor as a worthy man." Thus easily was the enduement or deprivation of Democracy accomplished by enactment in the days of the Oregon Democratic Regime. The position taken by the assembled Democrats upon the question of slavery and their attitude toward it, is not less suggestive and significant. They denied in general terms the right of the Federal Government to interfere with such domes- tic institutions of states or territories as were recognized by the Constitution, and deprecated attempts to exercise such a right i Proceedings Statesman, April 21; Oregonian, April 25. 2Fifth Resolution: That we repudiate the doctrine that a representative or a delegate can, in pursuance of the wishes or fancied interests of the district he represents, go into or remain out of a caucus or convention of his party, and refuse to support the nominations thereof, and still maintain his standing as a Democrat. Sixth Resolution : That the re-election of any representative or delegate, thus refusing to support Democratic nominations, would not "be an endorsement or approval of his conduct, beyond which the Democracy of other districts would have no right to enquire, but that it would be both the right and the duty of sound Democrats everywhere, to discard him as a disorganize and an enemy." ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 141 as subversive of republicanism and productive of anarchy. This led directly to an expression on the situation in Oregon. Noting the fact that the people were called on to elect delegates to a constitutional convention and to pass upon the question of slavery in Oregon before the Democratic party should again assemble, they declared that in the choice of those delegates they would not discriminate between pro-slavery and free state Democrats ; that the delegates should not predetermine that question in the formation of the constitution, but should sub- mit the same in a separate clause to be voted upon directly by the people. Here was a practical recognition of the doctrine of popular sovereignty to which Oregon Democrats long pointed with pride. 1 It was all the more popular with them as a solution, in that it saved them the necessity of assuming an embarrassing if not fatal position upon the all-important ques- tion. The paramount issue with Oregon Democrats was Ore- gon Democracy and its perpetuity. Party declaration upon the disturbing issue of slavery, which would foment party dissen- sion and invite party disruption and loss of power, must be avoided at all hazards. The one consuming desire of the regu- lar or machine Democrats was to maintain the organization in- tact. From this standpoint it was therefore a very serious situa- tion which confronted the Democracy. Hence the humor and significance of the eleventh and following resolution could hard- ly have appealed to the convention: "Resolved That each member of the Democratic party in Oregon may freely speak and act according to his individual convictions of right and policy upon the question of slavery in Oregon, without in any manner impairing his standing in the Democratic party on that account provided that nothing in these resolutions shall be construed in toleration of black republicanism, abolitionism or any other factor or organization arrayed in opposition to the i Resolution adopted by Linn County Democratic convention, March, 1858: With pride and exultation we point the citizens of the States and Territories to the course pursued by the people in Oregon in framing, canvassing and adopt- ing their state constitution. . . Because here, the principles embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska bill have had their first and only fair and legitimate test; and here, too, their wisdom, equity and practicability have been triumphantly vindi- cated. In Statesman, March 16, 1858. ​142 W. C. WOODWARD Democratic party." The artless, serious manner in which Ore- gon Democrats were thus formally granted the exceptional boon of holding individual convictions on a political issue, is in it- self a striking and sufficient commentary on the absolutism of the Democratic Regime. For the fourth time the Democrats nominated Lane for dele- gate. The Clique would have preferred another man, but his hold upon the people was still strong, and in the face of threat- ened rebellion in the ranks, the leaders feared to put up a less popular man. 1 The reception in certain counties of the conven- tion's proceedings was ominous of coming schism in the Demo- cratic party. For example, the National Democrats in Yamhill county withdrew from the regular county convention, which en- dorsed the Salem platform and reassembled in a convention of their own. They put out a separate ticket and refused to sup- port Lane unless he should unconditionally repudiate the fifth, sixth and seventh resolutions of the late Territorial convention. 2 Similar action was taken in Clatsop, Multnomah, Clackamas and Benton counties and Democratic disaffection existed in some measure throughout the Territory. It found expression in the action of G. W. Lawson, an independent, free state Democrat, who announced his candidacy for delegate in opposition to Lane. The Republicans did not yet consider their organization strong enough to warrant their nominating a candidate. The Democrats were largely successful in their efforts to avoid raising the slavery issue in the June election and there was no opposition sufficiently strong to force that issue. In a few counties "Free State Conventions" were held for "the single purpose of electing delegates to form a state constitution ;" 3 but comparatively little was accomplished. The Oregonian realized that the opposition had little to gain and much to lose in draw- i Private letter Nesmith to Deady, May 3, 1857, concerning the convention: "The 'institution' was decidedly hard. A great amount of enthusiasm was ex- hausted upon the platform but not a d bit upon the candidate. I accom- panied the 'amiable' Doctor [Drew] and Bush to Portland and saw the 'true prin- ciples of the Government' [Lane] placed squarely upon the platform. He mounted it with the same alertness that he would any other hobby to be ridden in the direction of his own success." ^Proceedings, Oregonian, May 9. 3Lane County Convention, May 14. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 143 ing party lines in the selection of delegates to the convention and deprecated such action. 1 The anxiety of the Democrats to avoid disaster on the slavery question is reflected in the pro- ceedings of various of their county conventions held in the spring of 1857. Stoutly denying that theirs was a pro-slavery party, they revolted at the idea of making slavery a party issue and followed the lead of the Salem convention in demanding a separate vote of the people on the question, when the constitu- tion should be submitted. 2 But while granting that members of the party should vote for a free state if they saw fit, the latter were urgently recommended to guard against "in any way coun- tenancing that contention-loving, union-hating party called the Black Republican party." 3 The campaign of 1857 was peculiar in the history of Ore- gon politics. The success of the state constitutional convention issue was practically assured and for the first time in years there was no struggle over this question. Slavery was begin- ning to cast its shadow over the Territory and presented the only real issue before the people. But the determined and effec- tive efforts of the Democrats had succeeded largely in obscur- ing or at least waiving that issue. It was not a clear-cut party campaign. Both the candidates for delegate were Democrats, which was expressive of the discord and division in Demo- cratic ranks. The opposition was inchoate and unorganized. In the absence of a candidate to support and issues to defend, Editor Dryer of The Oregonian took little interest in the con- test, which certainly bespeaks the abnormal nature of the cam- paign. Adams of The Argus, however, entered the lists for Lawson against the Salem "caucus sovereignty" platform. 4 The rather chaotic nature of the situation may be indicated by not- ing the different kinds of county tickets which were supported. Washington county had the only avowed Know Nothing ticket in the field, 5 and it was successful over the Democratic. Mult- i Oregonian editorial on "State Constitution," April 4. 2"The Democratic party is not a pro-slavery party, but contends that slave holders have equal rights in the Territories with their Northern brethren and wishes to maintain them in peaceable enjoyment of those rights." From Lane County convention proceedings in Statesman, April 14. 3lbid. 4"We hear of some who refuse to vote for either candidate. We think this is foolish very. There are many good reasons why every freeman who has a soul ought to vote at this election." Argus, May 23. 5 Supra, page 68. ​144 W. C. WOODWARD nomah had an "anti-Salem" or independent ticket which won generally over the Democrats. 1 Yamhill had two Democratic tickets and a partial Republican one. The latter was successful where it offered candidates. In other cases the "softs" or "National Democrats" won heavily over the "hards." Linn presented an independent, free state ticket, which proved no match for organized Democracy. Columbia added to the va- riety by putting out a Whig ticket, the "last of the Mohicans," which, however, manifested sufficient vitality to defeat the Democracy. Benton had two Democratic tickets the "Na- tional" and the "Bush federal," the former being generally suc- cessful. The Clackamas opposition was denominated "Repub- lican and Independent" but lost heavily. In Marion, Polk, Douglas and Wasco, the Democrats won easily over the opposi- tion, variously denominated. In the general results of the election, Lane defeated Lawson by a vote of 5662 to 3471. The vote for the constitutional con- vention was 7617, opposed by a vote of only 1679. In the legis- lature, the Democrats secured but a majority of one in the coun- cil, while the opposition placed ten members in the house. Fully one-third of the delegates-elect to the Constitutional Conven- tion were anti-Democratic. 2 The opposition, though unorgan- ized, had profited by the defection in the Democratic ranks. The people of Oregon had now committed themselves un- equivocally for state government. Their delegates had been chosen to the constitutional convention which was to meet in August. The question of Oregon free or Oregon slave, must soon be settled. The realization of this fact now began to stir the Territory, and whereas there had been little discussion of the slavery question before the June election, from that time on until the vote upon the Constitution in November, and even after- ward, the question was prominently before the people. The Argus of August 1, said: "The Oregon papers that come to hand this week are pretty much filled up with the great ques- iThus Dryer, who ran for joint-representative for Washington and Mult- nomah, was elected as a Know Nothing in one and an Independent in the other. ^Official returns in Statesman, July 7. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 145 tion that now constitutes the politics of the Nation." Feeling became intense. At this distance it may seem almost inconceiv- able that there was any basis for such agitation ; that there was any danger of Oregon's becoming a slave state. Whatever may be the mature conclusions on this point after the lapse of a half century, the fact remains that there was apparently very serious danger at the time. Indeed it has been recently stated by a careful writer who was a participant in Oregon politics in 1857, that the people of Oregon were then in far more danger of the introduction of slavery among them than the people of Kansas were at any time. 1 The state of blind subservience of the masses of Democracy to their leaders has been dwelt upon. This fact was ominous to free state advocates, for while few of the Democratic leaders had thus far come out aggres- sively for slavery, the sympathies of several of them were well known. Lane had shown himself a Southern sympathizer and a pro-slavery man, and his influence upon the rank and file, who felt, in a vague way, that "the king can do no wrong," was sinister. The Statesman had taken no definite position. But it had been free to abuse and berate free state agitators, and this was far from reassuring. Newspapers were started for the advocacy of slavery. The adaptability of the institution to Ore- gon was freely argued. The National Administration had com- mitted itself to the slavery propaganda and its attitude toward federal office holders and politicians made them at least very charitable in their attitude toward the sacred institution of the South. And finally, the Dred Scott decision had rendered that institution national had invested it with the sanction of the final and most sacred tribunal of the Nation. These are some of the general considerations which, appar- ently at least, rendered slavery an actual menace to Oregon. To arrive at a closer understanding of the real situation during this period of the situation as it actually appeared to the people then, not as it appears now in perspective it will be necessary to notice the opinions, the impressions, the apprehensions of the iT. W. Davenport, in Oregon Historical Quarterly for September, 1908, p. 226. ​146 W. C. WOODWARD people and upon what they were based. These are largely to be found and reflected in the newspaper press of the Territory. From observations at Salem in his capacity as legislator dur- ing the session of '56-'57, Dryer avowed at the end of the ses- sion that the leaders, office holders and office-hunters had been busily preparing all winter, with ever-increasing boldness, to force slavery into Oregon ; that several of the prominent leaders had openly declared that the Democratic party in Oregon was in favor of the introduction of slavery. 1 A little later he de- clared it to be an undeniable fact that nine-tenths of the Terri- torial office holders could be counted upon to exert their whole official influence in favor of slavery ; that they were busily en- gaged in "whipping in" those who disagreed with them by branding them as Abolitionists and Black Republicans. 2 In an editorial "Foreshadowing Events Lane and Deady " Dryer cited : Lane's actions in the Sumner-Brooks affair, and his re- cent importation from the East of a man named Hibben to edit the Portland Times as a pro-slavery organ ; the public ad- vocacy, by Judge Deady, one of the most prominent, gifted and popular Democrats in Oregon, of the introduction of slavery ; the establishment of new journals in the Territory for the pur- pose of defending "that beneficent institution." 3 In August he told of the determined and aggressive canvass being made to win over to the cause of slavery the delegates to the Constitu- tional Convention. He declared that while during the campaign there was not a single newspaper that dared advocate slavery, there were now at least five of the eight in the Territory that directly or indirectly favored that institution. 4 But the more open and pronounced became the contest, the better it suited lOregonian, February 7, 1857. 2lbid., March 21. 3lbid., June 20. 4The eight papers Oregonian, Argus, Standard, Pacific Christian Advocate, Statesman, Times, Table Rock Sentinel and the Occidental Messenger. The last four were certainly included in the five referred to. The Standard, while Democratic, opposed slavery. Rev. Thos. H. Pearne, editor of the Pacific Chris- tian Advocate, a Methodist organ, shut his eyes and said there was no slavery issue in Oregon. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 147 the pugnacious Dryer, who defied the hosts of slavery in lan- guage expressive and picturesque. 1 However, the Argus, as the Republican organ of the Ter- ritory, was looked upon as the true exponent of free state ideals. It contained more contributed articles on the subject at issue than any other paper, and Editor Adams wielded a pen as defiant and trenchant as that of Dryer. While the Constitutional convention was in session, in an editorial on "Aspects of Locofocoism," Adams gave a review of the politi- cal situation which was sufficiently suggestive and significant to warrant special attention. 2 He declared that among the Democrats in the Territory one pro-slavery man was equal to ten free state men. By which he meant that whereas the lat- ter, afraid of the displeasure of their leaders and fearing the taunt of "Black Republican," were silent and passive, the pro-slavery men, by their aggressive activity, their political tact and sagacity, their "brazen, boisterous effrontery," more than made up for their disparity in numbers. In support of this contention he offered several pertinent proofs or illustrations. First, that while the Democratic party probably had a free state strength of two to one, yet Jo Lane, a rabid, pro-slavery man, had been made the candidate for Congress over free state men of greater ability. Second, out of the five Democratic organs, three of them were doing their utmost to fasten slavery upon Oregon, while the other two evinced "such a craven and cowardly character" as to leave their real convictions in doubt. 3 Third, the "driven-nigger" majority meekly submitted and voted for Deady, the "nigger- driver's pet," for president of the Constitutional convention. Fourth, that while the Democratic party had reiterated it that each member was perfectly free to speak, write or vote pro or con on the subject without impairing his standing as a Demo- i"Come on, ye hirelings of slaveocracy, and *d d be he who first cries hold! Enough.' " Oregonian, June 27. 2Argus, September 5. 3The five papers Statesman, Jacksonville Herald, Table Rock Sentinel (Jack- sonville), Messenger, Times. The last three were the rabid slavery advocates. The Herald was established August i, 1857. Adams did not include the Standard, as it had been formally read out of the party. ​148 W. C. WOODWARD crat, Judge Williams had lost caste and influence with his party for no other crime than that of having published an ar- ticle in the Salem organ in favor of a free state. 1 And that while the Judge had been virtually ostracized for writing one letter against the introduction of slavery in Oregon, neither of the editors who were zealous in sowing pro-slaveryism broadcast over the Territory, nor Deady who had made stump speeches for slavery during the last canvass, had failed to raise themselves in the estimation of the "nigger-driving wing, while not a single driven-nigger, so far as we are aware, has had the audacity to whimper a syllable of doubt as to their orthodoxy as Democrats." The viewpoints of the Oregonian and the Argus, the two radical anti-slavery organs, have been given. Their statements are not presented as conclusive evidence. They were prob- ably colored by partisan prejudice. But Dryer and Adams presented the situation as they saw it and it was generally so accepted by their readers. The correctness of the presenta- tion of the conditions made by the Oregonian and Argus and of the conclusions drawn, can be determined to a great degree by the evidence presented by the opposition press. The Statesman was looked upon as a neutral in the con- test. Bush declared that the sole question at issue was "Will it pay?"the moral question scarcely entering into the problem at all. 2 But in warning the "Northern Kansas fa- natics and maniacs" of the results of their agitation, he pre- sented a succinct view of the situation, which, to say the least, strongly corroborates those views given by Dryer and Adams. "Although it cannot now be safely said whether Oregon will be a free or slave state," he wrote in March, he declared that should some New England Emigrant Aid Society attempt to abolitionize Oregon, the latter would certainly enter the Union as a slave state. "Such is the temper of the Oregonians ; they want no outside interference." The sweeping and startling i Infra, page 149. 2"Did our climate, productions and market unquestionably favor slave labor, Oregon would knock for admission into the Union as a slave state." Statesman, March 31, 1857. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 149 admission was made that "Every man here realizes and ac- knowledges that the number of voters in favor of introducing slavery into Oregon is at least 100 per cent greater than it was one year or eighteen months ago; we believe it is 300 per cent greater." After the June election, Bush threw open the columns of the Statesman for signed contributed articles on the slavery ques- tion. Judge Williams' famous free state letter appeared July 28, which will be noticed later. A few letters followed, pro and con. But as a rule free state contributors, other than Democrats, looked to the Argus as their medium, and of the free state Democrats, very few, indeed, had anything to con- tribute. On the other hand the pro-slavery agitators were in- clined to turn to the pronounced pro-slavery organs. One of the contributors was F. B. Martin, of Yamhill County, who argued that cheaper labor was needed to develop the agri- cultural resources of the country, and that Oregon's salubrious climate would be beneficial to Negro slaves. 1 J. W. Mack, of Lane county, argued against the contention that nature had decreed against slavery in Oregon. 2 John Whiteaker, destined to become the first state governor, avowed strong pro-slavery sentiments and announced that making Oregon a free state would abolitionize the country and be a decided step in the direction of "equality of the races." 3 The Jacksonville Sentinel stated the issue unreservedly, and bluntly committed the Oregon Democracy to the Southern cause : "There is no longer any doubt but the issue will here- after be narrowed down to slavery and anti-slavery. The Black Republicans will rally under the banner of Free State and Free Soil in Oregon and the pro-slavery party under the Consti- tution and the measures to perpetuate the Union." 4 But the ne plus ultra of the slavery propaganda in Oregon was found in the Occidental Messenger. It was established i Statesman, August 4. 2! hid., August 1 8. 3 Reprint in Statesman, October 27, from Occidental Messenger. 4Quoted in the Argus, July 25. The editor of the Sentinel was W. G. T'Vault, the first editor of the Spectator, issued at Oregon City, February 5, 1846. ​150 W. C. WOODWARD at Corvallis in the summer of 1857, through the instrumentality, it was thought, of J. C. Avery, a prominent Democratic poli- tician. More radical, vehement and defiant advocacy of the slavery dogma could hardly have been expected in South Carolina, than was given by this paper away out on the ex- treme Northwestern frontier, over two thousand miles from the home of the "divinely appointed institution." In the very first issues, in calling attention to the subject of domestic slavery, "now agitating the public mind of Oregon from one extent of the Territory to the other," the imported editor, L. P. Hall, declared that he not only believed it to be right in principle, but that the prosperity of the country depended upon its adoption. "We desire to awaken the people of Ore- gon fully to the importance of this subject. African slavery is the conservative feature in our system of government . . . and must be broadly maintained or the historian may now be alive who will record the dissolution" of the Union. Again, "The Hlavcry representation in the United States Sen- ate needs strengthening . . . and a fine opportunity is now presented to restore the equilibrium by the admission of Oregon with a slavery clause." 1 But more significant and ominous yet was the declaration made by the Messenger at the time of the vote upon the Constitution in November: "Whether our principles triumph in the present election or not, so strong is our faith in the omnipotence of Truth, that we Khali throw out upon our banner, to the pro-slavery men of Oregon, in whom we place our chief reliance, the conse- crated words of Paul Jones 'We have not yet begun to fight.' ' In other words, the wishes of the people of Oregon as expressed at the polls were not to be recognized as final. Here was a frank portrayal of the characteristic attitude of the slave power in politics. It was a covert threat that the doc- trine of popular sovereignty, the shibboleth of Democracy, would be prostituted in Oregon as ruthlessly as it had in Kan- sas, should the expression of that sovereignty be inimical to the interests of slavery. i Quoted in Oregonian, July 4. zQuoted in Statesman, November 17. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 151 Enough has been said to show conclusively that there was a degree of danger that the people of Oregon might decide in favor of a slave state. Bush had said that the only question was "Will it pay?" And at the same time he added that in his belief, pro-slavery sentiment had increased three hundred per cent within a year or a year and a half. Evidently the opinion was growing that it would pay. Leading and influ- ential Democrats were declaring that slavery was adaptable to Oregon and was desirable. The Democratic masses were in the habit of believing what their leaders told them. The Democratic press, where not openly and radically pro-slavery, was ominously non-committal, and it must be remembered that as a rule the rank and file of Democracy read their own papers as the law and the gospel and read none other. They did not see the Oregonian and the Argus. They spurned the Black Republican, free state agitators as "unclean," politically. They were not concerned with the moral aspect of the situation. Under all these circumstances it is not so strange after all, that the public sentiment of Oregon was undergoing a subtle change; that this change was felt and recognized by many close and anxious observers in the summer of 1857 ; and that grave apprehensions of the result were entertained. One of these apprehensive observers was George H. Wil- liams, chief justice of Oregon Territory by appointment of President Pierce and whose Democracy had never been ques- tioned. On July 28th, the whole first page of the Statesman was occupied with a contributed article over his signature which is known in Oregon history as "Judge Williams' Free State Letter." A man of prominence and influence in his party, he entertained hopes of political advancement not un- natural in a man of his ambition and ability. He was warned by friends as to the results of the publication of his letter and he himself clearly understood that "in those days to be a sound Democrat, if it was not necessary to advocate slavery, it was necessary to keep still upon the subject." 1 But from the time when he became a voter he had been opposed to the extension of slavery into the new states. 2 While many other Oregon i Private letter: Williams to Geo. H. Himes, August 26, 1907. This letter was written "fifty years after," on request of Mr. Himes, as a personal re- view of the considerations which called forth the Free State Letter. albid. ​152 W. C. WOODWARD Democrats of more or less prominence, doubtless felt as he did upon the subject, he was the only Democrat of standing in the Territory 1 who jeopardized political ambitions by entering the contest on the side of "nigger-worshippers, Union-hating abolitionists and dis-union black Republicans." But Judge Williams differed from the latter in that he ignored the moral issue altogether, attacking the question entirely from its prac- tical, financial aspect. It was from arguments presented from this viewpoint that slavery sentiment was growing and the Judge recognized that nothing but a complete refutation of these arguments would be effective in turning the tide. 2 "What was needed at this juncture was just what happened an earn- est, thoughtful communication from one who could not be ac- cused of having any designs on the unity and harmony of the Democratic party." 3 To review very briefly the Free State Letter the writer, in a concise, historical introduction showed that before the slave question was dragged into the political arena, the judgment of all parts of the country was against the advantages of slavery ; that even in those districts whose climate and agricultural re- sources specially favored the institution, its ultimate benefits were doubtful. How much less expedient then would be its introduction in Oregon, whose conditions could easily be shown to be anything but favorable to a system of slave labor. In the first place, there is no ambition, no enterprise, no energy in such labor. One white man is worth more than two Negro slaves slave labor is "demonstrably the dearest of any." 4 Second, Negro slaves other than house servants would be per- fect leeches upon the farmers during the long, rainy winters. lAddress before the Legislative Assembly of Oregon, delivered February 14, 1899. Quoted in Oregon Historical Quarterly for September, 1908, p. 232. aPersonal conversation with Judge Williams, July 28, 1909, in effect as fol- lows: The letter has been criticized as written on too low a plane. I knew what I was doing. It was the only argument I could make to the people I wanted to influence. I had my own views as to the morals of the question, having always been an opponent of slavery, but generally speaking the morals of slavery were not called in question by the people. To have hinted that side of the ques- tion would have roused opposition to me as a "d d abolitionist" and Black Republican and my letter would have gone for naught. 3Davenport, in Oregon Historical Quarterly for September, 1908, p. 236. 4john Randolph. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 153 Third, the risk and expense in transporting slaves to distant Oregon, and the ease of escape in the sparsely settled, wooded and mountainous country, would render investment in slave property altogether too hazardous. Fourth, the escaped Ne- groes would find refuge and consort with Oregon's Indian enemies and become an added menace to the people. Fifth, slavery can no more stand as a paying institution with one- half of public sentiment arrayed against it than a house can stand with one corner stone. Sixth, introduce slavery, and free white labor will become degraded, if not impossible to secure alto- gether. To mix slave labor and free labor aggravates the evils of each and subtracts from the benefits of each. Finally, can Oregon afford to throw away the friendship of the North the overruling power of the nation for the sake of slavery ? These and other points were supported by such close, logical reasoning, and backed up by an array of facts and figures which made them irrefutable and convincing. The effects of the letter were soon evident. First, in the changed attitude manifested toward Judge Williams by his party. 1 In his own words, his hopes for the United States senatorship, 2 "vanished like the pictures of a morning dream. I was unsound on the slavery question." 3 But the influence of the letter upon public opinion was soon manifest throughout the Territory. Through the medium of the Statesman, it reached practically all the Democratic voters. It came bring- ing words of warning, of calm reasoning and of practical ad- vice and from a well-known fellow Democrat whose word was that of authority. His presentation of the situation was convincing. As pro-slavery sentiment had up to this time been steadily rising, from the publication of the Free State Letter on to the election in November, it seemed steadily to recede. 4 i Letter: Williams to Himes "The pro-slavery men claimed that though I pretended to be a Democrat, I was an abolitionist in disguise, and to be called an abolitionist then, especially in Oregon, was to be classed among outlaws and enemies to the peace of th country." aPersonal conversation: Had it not been for that letter I would have been one of Oregon's first senators. 3Address before the legislature, 1907. 4Davenport, "The Slavery Question in Oregon," in Oregon Historical Quar- terly for September, 1908, pp. 234, 235. "After the circulation of this address, any observing person could notice that a change was taking place; any sensitive person could feel it." ​154 W. C. WOODWARD The Constitutional convention assembled at Salem on Au- gust 17th. It was a matter of no little political significance, as Adams pointed out in the Argus, that Judge Deady, "the only man in the convention who took bold ground for slavery while canvassing for his seat," 1 should be elected president of Oregon's constituent assembly. The Democrats organized the convention, just as they would a session of the legislature. Dryer was a member and in editorial correspondence to the Oregonian related that the "soft" and free state Democrats who had opposed the machine organization in the late elec- tion, now did penance and joined the Clique forces in caucus. He called attention to the fact that no delegate opposed to the Salem Clique had been placed at the head of a committee and declared that every committee had a pro-slavery majority. Early in the convention Jesse Applegate presented resolu- tions to the effect that as a large proportion of the delegates had been chosen with the understanding that the question of slavery would not be decided by the convention but by the people directly, all debate on the subject should be considered out of order. The presentation of these resolutions was fol- lowed by an extended flow of oratory. Some acquiesced, while others objected strenuously to having the liberties of free speech thus arbitrarily abridged. Alignment on the issue was not partisan, but for the most part the resolutions, which failed to pass, were opposed by the free state men. Other resolutions were introduced against the admission of free Negroes. On September 11, J. R. McBride, of Yamhill, the only member of the convention elected under the name of Republican, in fulfillment of pre-election pledges to his con- stituents, 2 introduced the anti-slavery provision of the Ordi- nance of 1787. It was defeated by a vote of 41 to 9. McBride was chagrined to find some of his trusted free state associates i Oregonian, August xa. Observations on the convention are based chiefly on the stenographic reports of P. J. Malone, found in the Oregonian in issues from August 22 to October 10, inclusive. 2john R. McBride, address: "The Oregon Constitutional Convention,." de- livered before the annual meeting of the Oregon Historical Society, December 20, 1902. Proceedings for the years 1902-1905, p. 33. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 155 voting against him, on the plea that his measure was "too radical/' 1 The convention determined to present the question of slavery and that of the admission of free Negroes as sep- arate issues to be decided by the people, at the time of the submission of the Constitution. With the solution of the vexed question thus diplomatically arranged, the members pro- ceeded with the further business of the convention, with which it is not the purpose to deal here. The final vote on the completed Constitution was 34 to 11; absent or not voting, 15. The vote was almost wholly along party lines, the affirmative showing the strength of the Demo- cratic ruling faction. With the affirmative voted most of the Anti-Salem Democrats, or those who were elected as such but who had been acting with the Clique. The "Opposition," including some "soft" Democrats, were found among the negative and "absent or not voting." After the close of the Convention, Dryer voiced the objec- tions of the Opposition to the Constitution. He maintained that future legislative assemblies had been "tied up" by the Convention's assuming to establish fundamental law; that there was too much of politics in the frame of government adopted that it was drawn up with the main purpose of ad- vancing- the fortunes of the Oregon Democracy. 2 In the cam- paign which followed, the Oregonian, Argus, Standard free state papers, and the Messenger, the rabid pro-slavery organ, opposed the adoption of the Constitution. Editor Adams branded it as "a huge viper, with poisonous fangs in its head, a legion of legs in its belly and a deadly sting in its tail." 3 From the adjournment of the Convention September 18 to the election on November 9, the agitation over the slavery issue was intense. It was even reflected in the advertising i ibid. aOregonian, September. 26. 3"We shall vote against the Constitution for many good reasons. . . It is now coiled up, labeled from head to tail with Democracy, trying to charm the people to take it into their bosom, when it will instill its poison into the body politic and render it as completely paralyzed as under the odious principle of caucus sovereignty." Argus, October 10. ​156 W. C. WOODWARD columns of the press. In August, P. J. Malone, correspondent for the Sacramento Union, wrote that paper from Salem that the men who desired slavery in Oregon were limited to the comparatively few who had owned one or two negroes in some slave state; and who had early secured a section of land in Oregon under the donation land law; that they were generally too lazy to cultivate their own lands and thought it very desirable to have slaves to raise wheat that they might compete sucessfully with California farmers in California markets. On the other hand, those who had come later to Oregon, and had secured only 160 or 320 acres did not as a rule desire slavery. "And they are the more numerous class, as the ballot box will show." 1 On November 9, the Constitution was adopted by the people of Oregon by a vote of 7195 to 3215. Free negroes were re- fused admission into Oregon by the overwhelming vote of 8640 to 108 1. 2 One-fourth of the people desired slavery while about one-tenth only were willing to receive the negro free. The vote on slavery in a few of the southern counties was close, but was almost unanimous against the negro unenslaved. 8 The summing up of the situation by Bush immediately after the election, is important as presenting the regular Democratic viewpoint. 4 He felicitated the party on having taken the "high and distinct ground of the Kansas principle on the subject of slavery," and "without any of those abuses or obstructions which have been most unfairly cast in the way of state organi- zations otherwheres, by designing and characterless politi- cians." He held that to bring to a successful conclusion the great, model scheme initiated by Douglas for adjusting the vexed question, it now remained only for Congress, a majority of the members of which had been elected on the basis of that scheme, to receive Oregon into the Union with or without slavery, as its Constitution should prescribe. This done and i Quoted in Argus, September 12. zOfficial returns in Statesman, December 22. 3See appendix for the vote in detail. 4Statesman, editorial: "Democracy and the Slave Question," November 17. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 157 the nation could point to a bright and living example of Democratic policy, wrought out to a perfect demonstration in Oregon, as contrasted with conditions in Kansas, which had suffered from foreign Black Republican interference. He de- clared that Oregon Democrats, in their future policy would regard the question as settled and would recognize no difference in individual membership and influence between those who in the late election had voted for, and who had voted against slavery. "The watchword shall be harmony." In another editorial in the same issue, Bush admonished eastern papers not to misinterpret the vote against slavery. He assured them that the majority of the Oregon electors were Southern born and bred, while a large majority of the Northern men were sound, Constitutional men, who would be characterized by the Black Republican press as "pro- slaveryites." "Let not Black Republicanism lay the flattering unction to its soul that we are free soilish here. We are as far from that as California or Virginia." The Messenger refused to accept the result as final. Main- taining the doctrine of equal rights between the States, and that the Territories were common property, it contended that the people of a Territory, in the formation of a state govern- ment, had no power to exclude slave-holders, as the exercise of such a right would invalidate the common partnership. "As great an evil as disunion would be, we consider there is still a greater, and that is, submission to the unrestricted will of a reckless fanaticism which overrides the barriers erected by the Constitution for the protection of the minority, and tramples with ruthless iron heel, upon the plainest principles of justice and equality." Thus early was the standard of secession raised in Oregon. Before the election, C. E. Pickett, a zealous slavery apostle, self-imported from California, had written a letter to the Messenger advocating the call of a con- vention of pro-slavery men during the coming winter, whether the Constitution was adopted or not. 1 He expressed the belief i Republished in Statesman, November 10. ​158 W. C. WOODWARD that a line of policy could be agreed upon that would ensure them the balance of power in Oregon. The regular session of the Territorial legislature met De- cember 17. The organization or "hard" Democrats secured control of the assembly, officers being chosen on the issue of their allegiance to the fifth, sixth and seventh resolutions which had been adopted by the Democratic Territorial Convention in the spring. The assembly considered that it was meeting in an interregnum between a territorial and a state form of govern- ment, with the result that little was accomplished at this ses^ sion. However, some discussions took place which are very significant, from a political point of view. Wm. Allen, a "soft" Democrat from Yamhill county, offered the following preamble and resolution : "Whereas, it has been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that Con- gress has no power to prohibit the introduction of slavery into the Territories ; and, whereas, slavery is tolerated by the Con- stitution of the United States, therefore, Resolved that the chair appoint a committee of three to report what legislation is necessary to protect the rights of persons holding slaves in this Territory." 1 After following the heated Oregon newspaper controversies which followed so closely the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill and the troubles in Kansas, it is a matter of no little sur- prise to note the scant and tardy attention given the rendering of the Dred Scott decision. Apparently, it was looked upon by both the Democratic and the Opposition press as a two- edged sword, each being willing to allow the other to make the first attempt at wielding the dangerous weapon. The Oregon- ian ignored it. The Argus of August 29 reproduced Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois, speech of June 20, in answer to Douglas on the decision, but made no editorial comment until Septem- ber 5. There was published in the Pacific Christian Advocate, in the absence of the editor, T. H. Pearne, a clipping from an exchange, headed "Judge Taney in 1819." In the article the i Proceedings in Oregonian, December 26. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 159 words "infamous decision" occurred in allusion to the Scott case. The following week Pearne, whose sole purpose seemed to be to maintain his seat on the fence as regards the great issue of the day, apologized for the appearance of the article, emphasizing the fact that it was an extract and not the ex- pression of a personal opinion. This roused Adams to reply : "We do not believe there is a Christian in the world who could say less of a decision (we view it as an opinion) that reduces a part of those for whom Christ died to the level of brutes, destroys state and territorial sovereignty and renders man- stealing national a crime which by the Jewish law is punish- able with death." As far as noted, this was about the extent of notice given the Dred Scott decision in the leading press of the Territory up to the meeting of the legislature. To return to the latter, the Allen resolution was indefinitely postponed by a vote of 17 to 9. The debate, however, took up a large part of the day on which the resolution was introduced. In support of the latter Allen made the statement "There are some slaves here" but no law to protect this kind of prop- erty. He argued "If our Constitution is rejected by Congress, we shall remain a long time as we are, under our Territorial government, and by passing laws protecting property in slaves, we shall encourage immigration." The statement has been made 1 that there was not one negro slave within the far-reaching boundaries of the Territory after Judge Williams' decision in the Ford case in 1853. 2 And such is the general understanding. From a purely legal standpoint this is true, as slavery was not recognized under the organic law of the Territory. It was at least true up to the time of the Dred Scott decision after that, it was a debatable ques- tion. But in the course of the debate on the Allen resolution, at least three men made the statement, apparently as a matter of course and without thought of contradiction, that there were negro slaves in Oregon. J. W. Mack said "My neighbor in Lane county owns slaves and is now in California endeavoring iT. W. Davenport, in Oregon Historical Quarterly for September, 1908, p 196. 2Supra, page 125. ​160 W. C. WOODWARD to test the validity of the fugitive slave law." 1 Dryer, as far as reported, offered the only contradiction to the statement that slavery existed in Oregon and that was apparently made from the legal standpoint that slavery did not and could not exist because the organic act prohibited it. 2 In reply to him Allen said: "It has been proved upon this floor that slavery does exist in the Territory in several counties. There are some in Benton, Lane, Polk, Yamhill and I know not how many other counties. That matter was fairly proved on this floor on a former occasion and I do not deem it necessary to bring any further proof than the veracity of honorable gentlemen who are representative of their constituents here." 3 In its report of the legislative proceedings the Statesman naturally did not devote as much space to this debate as did the Oregonian. The Allen resolution, involving the interpre- tation of the Dred Scott decision, was the entering wedge by which Oregon Democracy was to be split asunder, and its sig- nificance was pretty fully recognized at the time. 4 Indeed Allen, a "soft" Democrat, was promptly accused by the "hards" of having introduced his resolution merely to create discord in the ranks of Democracy, as he knew there was a difference of opinion among the machine or "hard" Democrats upon the subject. The attitude of the pro-slavery men was well shown in re- marks of Mack, of Lane, a "hard." He expressed surprise at the courage of the member from Yamhill in offering such a resolution at that period of Oregon affairs, 5 but announced that he would vote for it. "We have, under the Constitution as much right to hold our property slaves and have them pro- tected as we have to hold our cattle and have them protected." He admitted, with an injured air, that he did not expect the i Proceedings in Statesman, December 22. ^Proceedings, Oregonian, January 30. 3lbid. 4Dryer, in editorial correspondence to the Oregonian, January 23, 1858: "The Negro bill has kicked up quite a stir among the harmonious Democracy. The pro-slavery wing accuse the free state Democrats of having joined the Black Re- publicans." sThe resolution was introduced in December, following the decisive popular vote against slavery in November. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 161 resolution to pass as "we are used to having injustice done us," but avowed his determination to remain loyal to the Democratic party, "unless that shall become abolitionized." W. M. Hughes, a "hard" from Jackson county, took the same ground. On the other hand, note the position of N. H. Cranor of Linn county, likewise a "hard." He held that the decision of the Supreme Court did not apply to Oregon as Congress in its act organizing the Territory had expressly prohibited slavery ; that Congress had granted Oregon the privileges of the north- western states in this matter and it had been their undoubted privilege to decide for or against slavery. He declared that immigrants to Oregon came with the full knowledge that slavery was prohibited and did not expect to hold such prop- erty in the Territory. Respects were then paid to Allen and other "soft" Democrats : "Men who have advocated Black Re- publican doctrine and supported Black Republican candidates, and were elected as avowed enemies to the decision of the Supreme Court certainly betray a strange inconsistency in advocating such doctrine as they do here. It comes with very poor grace from Black Republicans to charge Democrats with being Black Republicans Democrats, too, who endorse the whole of the Dred Scott Decision." 1 There was apparent basis for the charge that the opposition Democrats were acting with the intention of sowing dissension in the ranks of the regulars, and of thus breaking the power of Bush and the Salem wing of the party. The discussions and the vote 2 on the Allen resolution show how successful they were in their attempts. We find Mack and Cranor, both "hard" or machine Democrats, making opposite interpretations of the Dred Scott decision. Cranor, representing the free state or Douglas Democrats, still held to the principle of squatter sovereignty; while Mack, representing the Southern or pro- slavery Democrats, had gone beyond that doctrine in demand- ing the rights for slavery in the Territories which he claimed iCranor's epithet of "Black Republican" refers to the opposition in general as no members of this session were elected under the name "Republican." 2 In the vote on indefinite postponement, 13 "hards" and 4 opposition voted in the affirmative and 5 "hards" and 4 opposition in the negative. ​162 W. C. WOODWARD
were recognized by the Supreme Court. Thus, despite the efforts of the leaders to keep the issue down, the coming break in the Oregon Democracy on the slavery question was fore- casted in this debate. In view of his dominant position in Oregon politics, the stand taken by Bush on the Dred Scott decision is important. In a long editorial "The Power of a State over Slave Prop- erty" appearing in the Statesman, December 8, he defended the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Opinions handed down in the decision were quoted to the effect that each state had the power to decide the question for itself. Whereupon Bush adds : "Nor is there any difference in this particular, between the power of the people moving in the formation of a state govern- ment, and the power of those already organized as a state. It is the very gist of the Kansas-Nebraska principle that the people are called upon when they form a state gov- ernment, to act upon the subject of slavery." He then pro- ceeded to attack, on one hand, the abolitionists, who were de- termined to interfere with the rights of those owning slaves ; who contended that the Constitution did not recognize slavery and therefore it could not lawfully exist within the Union. But, more important, on the other hand Bush said : "There is another class who declare that the Constitution does recognize property in slaves and that whatever is recognized by the Con- stitution is constitutional and national. Therefore slavery is constitutional and national." To refute this, the Scott decision is quoted to show that the Constitution recognizes and protects as property within the states whatever the state laws determine to be property. Thus Bush interpreted the Dred Scott decision to harmonize with the doctrine of popular sovereignty. But it is noticeable that his discussion was limited to the immediate conditions in Oregon i.e., to the situation presented in approaching state- hood. As to the place, under the Dred Scott decision, of his favorite doctrine of popular sovereignty in the Territories themselves, he said nothing. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 163 In the spring of the year 1857, the Democratic party an- nounced its policy of ignoring the question of slavery as a political issue. In line with that policy it declared for the settlement of the question in Oregon in accordance with the doctrine of popular sovereignty. In the pursuance of such a course, the people of Oregon, after a period of turmoil, de- clared decisively against slavery. In the very month follow- ing that decision of the people, by which the Oregon Democ- racy had apparently so successfully evaded a dangerous issue, the Democrats were confronted with the dilemma presented by the Dred Scott Decision. Some, maintaining their alle- giance to the principle of popular sovereignty, seized one horn of the dilemma, while others, more zealous in the cause of the slavery propaganda than in the maintenance of party consist- ency, seized the other. At the close of the year 1857 this read- justment had begun. The line of separation was not yet
THE FIRST-BORN ON THE OREGON TRAIL
By J. Neilson Barry
A nameless child of an Indian mother, born in the wilderness amid ice and snow, and a week later laid in an unmarked grave, is a short life history which would seem to have but little interest for those living one hundred years later. The child, however, was the first native of Eastern Oregon to have the blood of the white race in its veins, whose brief but entire lifetime was spent with those early explorers who crossed the continent to Astoria a century ago.
Pierre Dorion, son of the Canadian interpreter, who had accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition, joined the overland party under Wilson Price Hunt on condition that his wife and two children might be allowed to accompany him, and the identification of the birthplace of his third child who was born on Monday, December 30th, 1811, will do much to determine the route taken by those early explorers who helped to open the way for the settlement and development of the great NorthWest.
The general idea seems to have been that the route of the Hunt expedition, at the time of this episode, lay through what is known as the Wallowa country in north-eastern Oregon, and is so marked on the map of early explorations issued by the Government. The birthplace of the Dorion baby, however, as well as other places along this portion of the route, would seem to be determined by the identification of a locality to which Irving refers three times in his account of the Astoria party, and which the character of the country shows to be in the vicinty of Huntington, Oregon, where the Snake River leaves the great Idaho plains and enters into that great canyon through which even to this day there is no passage.
Irving's description of the travels of Hunt's party shows that they were in the open country through the greater part of November, 1811, following along the banks of the Snake River which the Canadians called "the accursed mad river." During ​FIRST-BORN ON OREGON TRAIL 165 the three days, November 24, 25 and 26, "they made about seventy miles ; fording- two small streams, the waters of which were very cold" (Chapter XXXIV) "on the 27th of November the river led them into the mountains" beyond which point traveling was exceedingly arduous, and after many days of suffering and privation in an endeavor to follow the river through that rocky canyon, they were forced to turn back, and to retrace their steps to the open country above the point where the river entered the mountains. On this return journey, about December 15th they found their road "becoming easier, they were getting out of the hills, and finally emerged into the open country, after twenty days of fatigue, famine and hard- ship of every kind, in the ineffectual attempt to find a passage down the river. They now encamped on a little willowed stream, running from the East, which they had crossed on the 26th of November." Leaving Mr. Crooks they were led from here by an Indian guide, along an apparently well known trail, to the Grande Ronde Valley and across the Blue Moun- tains to the Umatilla country. This vicinity where the river leaves the plain and enters the mountains was visited for the third time the following summer by Mr. Stuart and his party on their return to the States. They returned along the same "route which had proved so disastrous to Mr. Hunt's party during the preceding winter" (Chapter XLIV). On the 10th of August they reached "the main body of Woodville Creek, the same stream which Mr. Hunt had ascended in the preceding year, shortly after his separation from Mr. Crooks. . . . On the 12th of August, the travelers arrived on the banks of Snake River, the scene of so many trials and mishaps. . . . They struck the river just above the place where it entered the mountains, through which Messrs. Stuart [Hunt] and Crooks had vainly endeav- ored to find a passage. The river here was a rapid stream, four hundred yards in width, with high sandy banks, and here and there a scanty growth of willow." These three visits to the same locality, below which the ​166 .J. NEILSON BARRY Snake flows through a canyon, and above which through a level plain, determines the locality as being in the vicinity of what is now Huntington, Oregon, and this point being estab- lished it becomes possible to identify other places along the route, and while there is naturally a considerable variation be- tween the distances traveled, as estimated by Mr. Hunt, and the accurate surveys of the Government, they are at least ap- proximately correct, considering the circumstances. "Caldron Linn" where Mr. Hunt and his party abandoned their boats and set out on foot, October 9th, 1811 (Chapter XXXIV), may have been the vicinity of Twin Falls and Sho- shone Falls, Idaho. Having followed along the river for ten days, they took the advice of Indians whom they met, and leaving the river went along a trail across the prairie, through a dreary waste, till on November 21st they came "to the banks of a beautiful little stream, running to the West, and fringed with groves of cotton-wood and willow," probably the Boise River, which they followed to "its junction with the Snake River, which they found still running to the north. Before them was a wintry looking mountain covered with snow on all sides," possibly Malheur Butte. "In three days more they made seventy miles; fording two small rivers, the waters of which were very cold," the Payette River and the Weiser, which was described as "A little willowed stream, running from the east" which they crossed on November 26th and to which they re- turned twenty days later, after "their ineffectual attempt to find a passage down the river" (Chapter XXXVI). The town of Weiser, Idaho, is now situated at this point. It was here that they were able to prevail upon an Indian to guide them along the route, well-known to the Indians, to the Columbia River, and along which Mr. Stuart and his party re- turned the following summer, so that these members of the Hunt expedition were the first white men to travel the "Old Oregon Trail" so famous in song and story. On December 21st they left their encampment where the City of Weiser now stands, and crossed the Snake River in a canoe ​FIRST-BORN ON OREGON TRAIL 167 made of the skins of two horses, possibly in the vicinity of Old's Ferry, "on the 24th of December they turned their backs upon the disastrous banks of the Snake River, and struck their course westward for the mountains" (Chapter XXXVII), ascending the Burnt River, called "Woodvile Creek," in Chap- ter XLIV. On December 28th, "they came upon a small stream winding to the north, through a fine level valley," the Baker Valley, and it is interesting in this connection that near the junction of Sutton Creek with Powder River, where they probably camped that night, there is black sand resembling gun powder, which probably suggested the name for Powder River. The "chain of woody mountains to the left [west], running to the north, and covered with snow," is the beautiful Elkhorn Range, the most striking feature of the Baker landscape. "They kept along the valley for twenty-one miles on the 29th, suffering much from a continual fall of snow and rain, and being twice obliged to ford the icy stream" of the Powder River. Their encampment that night must have been almost at the present site of the village of North Powder, where "early in the following morning the squaw of Pierre Dorion, who had hitherto kept on without murmuring or flinching . . . enriched her husband with another child, as the forti- tude and good conduct of the poor woman had gained for her the good will of the party, her situation caused concern and perplexity. Pierre, however, treated the matter as an occur- rence that could soon be arranged and need cause no delay. He remained by his wife in the camp, with his other children and his horse, and promised soon to rejoin the main body, who proceeded on their march." A few miles beyond the village of North Powder the river enters a canyon, and here the party "finding that the little river entered the mountains, they abandoned it, and turned off for a few miles among the hills, . . . thus, with difficulties augmenting at every step, they urged their toilsome way . . . half famished and faint of heart, when they came to ​168 . J. NEILSON BARRY where a fair valley spread out before them, of great extent and several leagues in width, with a beautiful stream meander- ing through it." Here they obtained food from the Indians and rested in the famous Grande Ronde Valley, which in Chap- ter XLIV is described as "a vast plain, almost a dead level, sixty miles in circumference, of excellent soil, with fine streams meandering through it in every direction, their courses marked out in the wide landscape by serpentine lines of cottonwood trees and willows, which fringed their banks, and afforded sus- tenance to great numbers of beavers and otters. In traversing this plain, they passed, close to the skirts of the hills, a great pool of water, three hundred yards in circumference, fed by a sulphur spring, about ten feet in diameter, boiling in one corner," where now the Hot Lake Sanatorium is situated. "In the course of the following morning the Dorion family made its appearance. Pierre came trudging along in the ad- vance, followed by his valued, though skeleton steed, on which was mounted his squaw with her new-born infant in her arms, and her boy of two years old wrapped in a blanket and slung at her side. The mother looked as unconcerned as if nothing had happened to her." Previously, in Chapter XXXIV, Irving says of her, "and here we cannot but notice the wonderful patience, perseverance and hardihood of the Indian women, as exemplified in the conduct of the poor squaw of the inter- preter. She . . . had two children to take care of; one four and the other two years of age. The latter, of course, she had frequently to carry on her back, in addition to the bur- den usually imposed upon the squaw, yet she had borne all her hardships without a murmur, and throughout this weary and painful journey had kept pace with the best of the pedes- trians. Indeed, on various occasions in the course of this en- terprise, she displayed a force of character that won the ap- plause of the white men." There is a lesson in this woman's story, So brave, yet meek, whose love did never fail, Undaunted courage was her crown and glory, The foremost mother on that famous trail. ​FIRST-BORN ON OREGON TRAIL 169 Note i. That the route taken by Hunt's party along this portion of their journey has been hitherto uncertain is seen by (1) the map published by the U. S. Dept. of the Interior. "Showing routes of principal explorers," etc., from data prepared by Frank Bond, chief clerk, by I. B. Berthong, chief of drafting division. This map locates routes of "Hunt (Astor) party, 1810-12," through the Wallowa country. (2) Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, March, 1910, "History of the Oregon Counties," etc., by Frederick V. Holman, p. 59. Speaking of the route of Hunt's party : "On the way from the Snake River to the Columbia, the exact route of the party is not described nor can it be definitely ascertained, but undoubtedly it was through what is now Wal- lowa county, probably south of Wallowa Lake." (3) "The Columbia River," by Wm. D. Lyman of Whitman College, p. 93. In referring to the part of the route after leav- ing Snake River : "In another fortnight the cold and hungry party floundered painfully through the snow across the rugged mountains which lie between what is now known as the Powder River Valley and the Grande Ronde." (4) The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. XXVIII, History of the N. W. Coast, Vol. II, 1800-1846. The History Co., San Francisco, 1886, p. 189: "They were now on Snake River, near where was subsequently old Fort Boise." Note 2. The identification of Baker Valley as the "Fine level valley" reached December 28th, 1811. The valley reached December 30th and in which the Hunt party spent New Year's Day, was undoubtedly the Grande Ronde and is so identified by Lyman in "The Columbia River," p. 94: "Thither hastening eagerly they soon found themselves in a beautiful valley, which from the description must have been the Grande Ronde Valley." ​170 . J. NEILSON BARRY The fact that the party under Mr. Stuart returned through it and described it and Hot Lake (Astoria, Chapter XLIV), makes it practically certain. The valley reached December 28 was over 20 miles long run- ning north and south (Chapter XXXVII), so that their route December 29 and part of December 30 was to- ward the north and as the Grande Ronde Valley was over a low range of hills beyond where the "little river entered the mountains" it must necessarily follow that this valley was near the Grande Ronde, apparently south of it, and the only valley which answers this description, and furthermore exactly and entirely satisfies every condition is the Baker Valley. (1) The distance from the point on Snake River "above where the (Snake) river enters the mountains" they left the Snake December 24th and arrived December 28, making "about 14 miles a day," 5 X 14=70 miles. (2) A fine level valley. (3) A small stream winding to the north. (5) "Woody mountains covered with snow" on the left hand (or west side as they were going northward). (6) The length of valley 21 miles to camp- ing place on night of December 29th and apparently a few miles further December 30 (the exact length of valley is 22 miles. (7) The river at the north end entering the "moun- tains" (canyon above Thief Valley). (8) The loca- tion of the Grande Ronde Valley just beyond this across the low divide at Telocaset (9) The fact that Stuart's party "retracing the route" (Chapter XLIV, opening sentence), ap- parently went along the direct route from the Grande Ronde to the point on Snake River (Huntington) above where the river entered the mountains. The identification of this valley with the Baker Valley satis-
THE HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
By F. G. Young
INTRODUCTION The Pacific Northwest has been quite distinctively the last region to be fully reached by the westward movement of Ameri- can settlement across the continent. The culminating phase of that wave is just breaking over this region. It was, however, the first section not only of the Pacific Coast but of the whole territory west of the Missouri River to receive quite a body of forerunners, who came as home-builders. This early influx of settlers was continued without interruption, but as a very tiny stream, for some forty years before the first phase of the real wave of occupation arrived. 1 Its turn now has come as the "next" and last section of vacant public domain for occu- pation by a great moving mass of the American population. The phenomena exhibited in the progress of the settlement of this region, the early beginning of it, the long period of very slow filling up, its coming last in order, were all largely de- termined by the conditions peculiar to its location and character as a possible home of a civilized community of considerable numbers. Not only its settlement but even the discovery and exploration of it were determined by stern conditions of access to it of routes of travel and traffic leading to it. Its resources as soon as seen by the white man attracted. Conditions of transportation have mediated, as it were, as the prime factor at every stage of its history. Much as the history of the region has its key in a knowledge of the advance of the lines of ex- ploration and travel to it and the provision of facilities of trans- portation, so is an idea of this growth of its system of trans- portation best gained by reference to those determining char- acteristic conditions of situation and natural features : 1. Its location is on the Pacific side of the continent where access to it from Atlantic inlets required the longest stretches of overland travel. During the centuries in which the out- lines of the American continent were being developed by ex- iThe census of the United States gives the population of this section in 1850 as 13,294, exclusive of Indians. ​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 173 ploring expeditions setting out from Europe and seeking a "northwest passage" to the Orient this region was naturally the last to be traversed. 2. Access and occupation from the Asiatic side were also delayed by the wide expanse of the ocean lying between the two continents in this latitude. From these two conditions pertaining to its location, affect- ing access to it, the coming of the white man to this region proceeded on lines of exploration converging from every direc- tion. It was "rounded up," and a map, showing these lines of exploration upon which advances toward it were made nearly contemporaneously, suggests a picture of the ranging lines of approach of hunting parties in beating up game. It was the last recess of the continent to be brought upon the map. Bryant in his "Thanatopsis," in 1820, could still use it as representative of solitude. 3. However, its great river, the Columbia, has its source in the far interior, just across the backbone of the continent, from the source of the great Missouri. As soon as the search for a sea passage was given up, and during the long period while waterways were relied upon as the only avenues along which to penetrate continental areas, this fact stimulated ex- ploration. Early, too, a new motive for securing an overland route had developed. The valleys of the Missouri and the Columbia lying end to end, as it were, incited to transconti- nental exploration and to the choice of their courses for trad- ing routes. When an easier and more direct line of river course travel across the continent was discovered through the substitution of the Platte for the Missouri, and using the south fork of the Columbia instead of the north, a practicable route for the pioneer settler was available and schemes for the se- curing of an all-rail highway for transcontinental travel and traffic soon blossomed out galore. 4. Furthermore, the fact that it was this part of the Pacific Coast that first became the possession of the vigorous young republic, with territory contiguous on the opposite side of the mountains from this region, and with a restless and almost ​174 . F. G. YOUNG nomadic population on its western borders, determined that all the earlier schemes for a transcontinental highway neces- sarily contemplated its western terminus at the mouth of the Columbia, or at the head of the navigation of that river. The age-long lure of the oriental trade, for which no better passage- way seemed to offer itself than this almost uninterrupted line of waterways across the continent, strongly reinforced the de- sire for the construction of a railway to the Pacific North- west Coast. 5. The Pacific Northwest, however, was destined to be eclipsed. The acquisition of California, just to the south of this region, and the discovery of rich mines of gold there leading to a rapid filling up of that part of the Coast by Amer- ican settlers, about 1850, brought about the side-tracking of the region to the north. The Sacramento Valley and San Fran- cisco Bay were alone, from that time on, seriously considered as the terminus of the proposed first transcontinental railway. The development of the Pacific Northwest tarried. The less glittering prizes offered through farming and grazing could overcome the drawback of isolation only with the few inher- ently restless. The cumulative effect of these conditions of remoteness of this region from settled portions of the country to the east and to the south, and of its slow development by a farming and grazing population, was to confine its progress in securing of transportation for a long time mainly to that of opening rail connections with the larger masses of population in California and on the Atlantic side of the continent. Only just recently has a vigorous beginning been made on the features of a system
CHAPTER II
The Valley of the Columbia—Only After Centuries of Westward Exploration Placed Upon the Map—Becomes an Alluring American Interest on the Pacific—Suffers Eclipse.
With the conditions controlling the transportation to this region at the successive stages in mind, attention is now directed to the course of that development as it is swerved by these conditions. Beginning with the opening of modern times a long train of explorers, with more or less extended intervals of time between successive expeditions, set out from the western nations intent upon finding a shorter passage to the Indies. To these the lands of the American continent were stumbling blocks. It required the contributions in turn of a Columbus, a Cabot, a Magellan, a Balboa, Verrazano and Hudson, a Verendrye, a trio of Spanish explorers—Heceta, Perez and Cuadra; a McKenzie and Gray, and Lewis and Clark, to develop the map of this region. Captain Robert Gray and Lewis and Clark not only added features to the map but also laid the basis for the claim of the United States to this part of the continent.
The mind of Thomas Jefferson, zealous for the advancement of scientific knowledge and for the pre-emption of the whole continent for the American idea of liberty and democracy, planned this last exploration. His purpose looked to the founding here of a sister republic rather than that of incorporating it as an integral part of the Federal Union. The difficulties of communication made no closer union feasible. The original motive of interest in this region had by this time been transformed from the purpose of finding an open sea route through this latitude to that of securing a practicable transcontinental passageway to a highly desirable territory from the eastern portion of the United States.
The Astor project for the exploitation on a grand scale of the fur-bearing resources of the region came as a natural sequel to the Lewis and Clark exploration. Though a financial ​176 F. G. YOUNG failure Astor's enterprise added much to our knowledge of the country and strengthened the basis of our claims to it. When in 1819 we added the former rights of Spain to ter- ritory north of the 42nd parallel to our previous basis for claiming it, our title was clear to at least a share of this re- gion ; and the motive for securing means of transportation to it was reinforced. The more visionary and audacious in pre- senting schemes began to plan conditions for immediate and general occupation of it. Agitation in and out of Congress, projects for trade and colonization, for the planting of mis- sionary stations among the Indians there, brought the region into the consciousness of the restless pioneering element among our population. The idea of rivalling the activities of the English traders already in this farthest West, contributed in stirring up the American frontiersmen to the point of action. Annual cavalcades of pioneers were early in the forties on the way across the plains to the valley of the Columbia. The building of a transcontinental railway to this territory was then only a matter of time. But the Oregon country was not to continue the leading American interest on the Pacific. The discovery of gold in California, to the south of this region, and the influx of vast hordes of gold-seekers, who were to remain as settlers, just when this El Dorado became a possession of the United States, transferred the interest from the Columbia to the Sacramento Valley and made the building of a railroad thither a matter of but a few years, while the Pacific Northwest was, as it were, to fall into the background. Without equally alluring attractions settlement was slow and it was destined to remain in isolation for decades. The fair promise of continuing to be the leading American community on the Pacific Coast, as its auspicious beginning seemed to presage, suffered eclipse. While there had been no actual railway construction during the three decades in which the Pacific Northwest, so to speak, held the center of the stage, from the very year of our undisputed right to sovereignty there plans and projects were being submitted for securing ​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 177 adequate facilities of transportation to it. These advanced in definiteness and contemplated a railway as soon as the locomo- tive had been demonstrated as practicable. Thus during near- ly a third of a century while the valley of the Columbia was our only territorial possession on the Pacific the development and maturing of these projects was in progress. Though there was no laying of rails "a fund of suggestion" was maturing through which the day was hastened for actual construction and which was brought into requisition in formulating the provisions of the charters of the roads that later were built. The evolution of the different types of these projects will be
CHAPTER III
The Rising Tide of Schemes and Agitation for a Transcontinental Railway to the Oregon Country, 1818-1850.
Through the treaties with England and Spain, 1818 and 1819, respectively, our national foothold on the Pacific Coast was fully acknowledged. Our southern boundary was the forty-second parallel; but until 1846 we were not able to come to an agreement with Great Britain on a line for a northern boundary. In the interval the status of "joint occupation" obtained for the coast between latitudes forty-two degrees and fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north. Here then was a possession on the opposite side of the continent, with resources largely undetermined, though some were known to be of exceedingly great value; through it was the natural gateway to the commerce of the Pacific and to that of the Orient. American explorers had proven the practicability of the overland route.
The American frontier was being pushed rapidly to the west. Traders, missionaries and home-builders even, representing our nationality, were defying difficulties and dangers and in regularly increasing numbers were making their way over the continent to this possession facing the western sea. Invention was making available more and more effective means for overcoming distance. All these circumstances appealed to the national sense of duty and strengthened the motive urging the undertaking of the construction of a transcontinental highway.
Responses were not slow in coming. An anonymous communication appeared in the American Farmer of Baltimore, July 9, 1819, suggesting the Bactrian Camel as the means by which the speedy communication between the opposite sides of the continent might be obtained. The same need of binding together these remote portions of the country was referred to that Washington had urged in pleading for closer communication between the Ohio Valley and the Atlantic seaboard. "Less broken intercourse," must be had, "with the opposite coast of our continent, before the settlements, which must, ​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 179 very soon, take root and spread along it, shall have their inter- ests developed in other directions, and be estranged from their natural and beneficial connection with their kindred of the Atlantic mother country." 1 The very next year this same consideration is urged, with- out acknowledgment, however, to the unknown author. This time by an engineer, Robert Mills, of Baltimore. His idea was to have a canal connect the waters of the Atlantic Coast with those of the Mississippi Valley ; then he would penetrate the continent to the west with the steamboat on the Missouri ; use would be made of the Columbia in like manner ; the dis- tance between the heads of navigation on these two rivers, esti- mated at 340 miles, should be spanned by a portage railway. This suggestion came some ten years before the locomotive had been proven a success in the historic Manchester and Liverpool trial. During the early part of these ten years in- terest in our Pacific Coast possessions had been heightened by Dr. John Floyd, through pressure of measures before Congress for taking possession of them. In the latter part of this decade there was strenuous agitation of projects of colonization by Hall J. Kelley and others in and around Boston. When the railroad became a recognized success with us application of it was proposed from many sources for serving as a bond to bring into normal union the distant sections of the country. Until very near the close of the forties the Oregon coun- try was regularly the region in which the proposed *western terminus lay. Judge S. W. Dexter, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow, of Granville, Massachusetts, contented themselves in proposing routes and schemes. Later in the thirties Dr. Hartwell Carver, of Rochester, New York, and John Plumbe, of Dubuque, Iowa, separately, not only proposed plans, but memorializing Congress undertook the promotion of them. Rev. Samuel Parker, too, in the record of his overland trip, taken in 1835, comments on the feasibil- ity of the construction of a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. i Quoted by Cleveland and Powell, "Promotion and Capitalization of Rail- 5 in the United States," pp. a6i-a. ​180 . F. G. YOUNG During the forties, John Plumbe continues his petitioning and memorializing for a charter and grant of lands. But the representative promoters of a transcontinental railway during this decade were Asa Whitney and George Wilkes, both of New York. Whitney as a merchant had spent some time in China and Japan and became completely taken with the idea of a railroad across the American continent as a means of making "the United States the center and axle of the com- merce of the world" j 1 such a road would "invite an indefinite and incalculable amount of exchanges across the continent, between the Atlantic and the Pacific States, between the At- lantic slope and Eastern Asia, and between Europe and Asia, which could not otherwise be afforded, and which but for this, would never take place." 2 "He gave up business, and with the fanaticism of a Mad Mullah preaching a holy war devoted ten years of his life and all of his fortune to advocating the immediate building of a transcontinental railroad." 3 His plan contemplated individual proprietorship. His re- quest was regularly for a grant of land sixty miles wide throughout the whole length of the road, thirty miles on each side. The Government was, however, to be paid ten cents an acre for this domain of nearly 100,000,000 acres. This scheme of Whitney's represented the extreme of the private ownership with subsidy idea. Other promoters, urging plans involving private ownership relied upon a corporate organization and called for grants of less royal proportions. Whitney expected to finance the building of the road with the returns to be secured from the sales of lands. Such sales were to be achieved through an elaborate process of coloniza- tion conducted as the building was in progress. The promoters under corporate organization depended upon stock subscrip- tions or the loan of the national credit. George Wilkes was, on the other hand, the most active advocate of a transcontinental railway as a government en- iThe reports of committees, 3ist Congress, first session, Vol I, No. 140, p. 3. 2lbid., p. ii. 3Carter, When Railroads Were New, p. 228. ​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 181 terprise. He urged the construction of it out of direct ap- propriations, claiming that the sales of public lands would be so stimulated that "in less than one year from the marking out of the line more than thirty millions would be poured into the treasury. . . Furthermore, he held that "its vast rev- enues," under government operation, "would not only enable the government, after paying off the cost, to relieve the coun- try of the burden of almost every tax, whether imposed or otherwise, but afford a surplus. . . ," 1 The result of turning this national duty, as he regarded it, over to private enterprise would, as he contended, be initially a great fraud perpetrated upon the unsuspecting public in the first wave of excitement caused by a demonstration in a formal beginning of construction ; later, if the work was prosecuted at all, a monopoly of menacing proportions would be de- veloped, probably under the control of a foreign government. All this criticism was directed against Whitney's project. 2 Wilkes pressed his project for a "national railroad" vigor- ously. It was submitted to Congress in December, 1845. A memorial by him "praying for an expression from the legis- lature of Oregon to the Senate and House of Representa- tives on the subject of his project of a national railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean . . ." reached that territory in September, 1846. It elicited favorable comment and brought out resolutions adopted at a public meeting held in Oregon City, soon after the receipt of his memorial and pamphlet from the East. The main suggestion looking toward co-operation with him was for the sending of a delegate to Washington to support the Wilkes project along with Ore- gon interests pertaining grants of lands for the early settlers and for "nothing short of 54 degrees and 40 minutes north" for the boundary of Oregon territory on the north. 3 In Congress, the Committee on Roads and Canals, to whom the Wilkes memorial, "with numerous petitions and memorials i Wilkes, "The History of Oregon, Geographical and Political," reprinted in "The Washington Historical Quarterly," Vol. II, pp. 190-192. 2lbid., pp. 277-279. 3Oregon Spectator, September 3, 17, and October 3, 1846. ​182 . F. G. YOUNG upon the subject of constructing a railroad . . ." had been referred on July 13, 1846, made what amounted to an adverse report. In this report it is first noted that Congress has un- questionable constitutional power "to grant the prayer of the petitioners, by proceeding to construct a thoroughfare from a point west of the State of Missouri to the mouth of the Co- lumbia River, for military, for post office and for commercial purposes." Furthermore, "upon the importance of the Amer- ican commerce and trade in the Pacific Ocean," there was "the same pleasing unanimity of opinion. Of its present and prospective value more than one hundred members of Congress, and a far greater number of editors and pamphleteers and essay- ists, and bookmakers have treated in a manner more or less elaborate, within the last five years." To indicate the posi- tion taken by the committee in their report, they go on to say, "All consider it (American trade in the Pacific) large, growing and worthy of proper and reasonable encouragement. If confined within suitable limits, measures tending to foster and promote this trade and commerce, will, it is believed, be decidedly popular with all classes of citizens. While the pru- dent and sober-minded would, probably, be unwilling to see the revenues or the property of the nation pledged, or in any wise committed to the construction of a costly railroad of some 2,800 or 3,000 miles in length, stretching across vast un- inhabited prairies and lofty mountains, involving an original outlay of at least a hundred millions of dollars, and a large annual cost for superintendence and repairs, it is believed they w -ild cheerfully assist to open an eligible avenue, if one could be assured at a small cost compared with the object sought to be realized." 1 The committee had examined quite carefully Colonel Fremont's report of his explorations and had consulted Colonel Benton on the matter of the "best commercial route to Oregon." Senator Benton had suggested the improvement of the Missouri to the Great Falls and also of the Columbia and the Clark's Fork. By so doing the limits i" Railroad to the Pacific Ocean," reports of committees, sgth Congress, first session, House of Representatives, No. 773, pp. i (Ser. No. 491). ​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 183 of steamboat navigation on these rivers could be brought with- in 150 miles of each other. Over this distance "the goods of India and of China may be transported ... in many ways, as they are light and of sufficient value to justify the expense." The committee fell in with the idea of Senator Benton and earnestly recommended to the House a bill making provision for a survey to ascertain the feasibility of the pass between the headwaters of the Missouri and those of the Columbia and for determining the practicability of the improvement of those rivers for navigation. "If this route," they say, "upon examination, proves impracticable, the committee greatly fear that a cheap, safe, and speedy communication with our posses- sions upon the Pacific, through the territories we now own, may not reasonably be expected to be obtained for many years." 1 While several expressions in the report of this com- mittee are quite significant, at least on the position of the committee itself, it is to be noted that the prize of the trade with the Orient figures as the dominant motive rather than the binding of the Oregon country closely with the remainder of the nation. Wilkes' strictures on Whitney's project seemed only to in- cite the latter to more vigorous efforts to secure a charter and land grant for the road. He was before Congress with me- morials in 1845, 1846 and again in 1848. The Committee of the House on Roads and Canals, or a majority of it, if the language of its report is to be accepted as evidence, was brought to the point of simply worshipping the man and his project. "Much deference is due," they say, "to one who has so long, and with such effect, devoted himself to this great object, and who has in these labors compassed sea and land, traversed the globe, passed through the states of the Union again and again, and himself penetrated eight hundred miles of the almost trackless route which he thinks most expedient to be adopted." 2 Again, they express their sense of the backing of Whitney in i Ibid., p. 6. 2 Whitney's Railroad to the Pacific, reports of committees, 3ist Congress, first session, House of Representatives, No. 140, p. a (Ser. No. 583). ​184 F. G. YOUNG the country at large by the following reference to the meas- ure of pressure that had been brought to bear upon them: "The voice of the most eminent men of the country, the pub- lic action of twenty separate states of the Union, renewed in some cases for years, and the favorable reports of special and standing committees of both houses of Congress, heretofore and repeatedly made, with great unanimity, all in favor of Mr. Whitney's proposal, together with a corresponding action of a great variety of public meetings and corporate bodies, throughout the length and breadth of the republic, for several years past, augmenting in number and zeal with the progress of time. . ." Moreover, the committee is impressed that "all feel that this road is wanted, and must be made." For many reasons they "most profoundly deprecate the undertaking of this work by the general government in any form whatever." They would not loan the public credit for the accomplishment of this de- sign as was proposed by one of the plans submitted to them. The following language indicates the limit to which this ma- jority of the committee committed themselves in favor of Whitney's project: "Your committee have reason to believe that the government itself, with all its means and credit, would sink under the attempt to build this road on any other plan than that of Mr. Whitney. Again, after animadverting on the positions taken by national conventions that had just been held at St. Louis and Memphis for promoting a transcontinen- tal railway, they say: The question of means, therefore, is exhausted, and falls to the ground, without hope of rescue, on any other plan than that of Mr. Whitney." In the same confident tone they met all the objections that had been brought against Whitney's plan on the ground of the vast grant of public domain involved. The country would net more through that disposition of its lands than in any other way. The risk is all his ; his is the only feasible plan. Not only would no other plan than Mr. Whitney's succeed, but they could not refrain "from expressing their solicitude in re​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 185 gard to the great and momentous interests of our country which are contingent on the execution of this magnificent de- sign." 1 In contrast with the main purpose to be achieved by a trans- continental railway as conceived by the committee in 1846, this committee in 1850, March 13, states the objects of the enterprise as follows: "First, your committee think that it would bind and cement, on the largest scale, and in the most enduring form, the commercial, social and political re- lations of our Eastern and Western domain, as naturally di- vided and marked out by the summit of the ridge between the Mississippi and the Pacific. A primary effect of this work would naturally be, by surmounting the obstacles of nature, to bring into the most intimate commercial contact the two vast regions of productive industry which are destined to be on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of North America, and thus by creating an everlasting bond of interest, to cement between the same quarters social and political ties equally intimate and equally enduring." 2 This enthusiasm for the Whitney project did not, however, avail. It was pitted against the opposing idea of a national railroad to the Pacific; it was checked by the rising spirit of sectionalism, for it contemplated a route quite to the north; local jealousies of cities aspiring to become the Eastern term- inus also developed opposition. The vigorous agitation by the exponents of the idea of a, transcontinental railway for more than a decade; the migra- tions of the Oregon pioneers throughout the forties to the valley of the Columbia ; and the grand rush of the argonauts in 1849 to California these all contributed to bring the idea most vividly into the public consciousness of the nation and nearer to realization. The following abstract of the salient features of the dif- ferent schemes for overland transportation to the Pacific de- veloped before 1850 may be of service: ilbid., pp. 2-7, 5 and 9. zlbid., pp. a, 42. ​186 F. G. YOUNG 1. Author "American" (anonymous), July 9, 1819, Ameri- can Farmer of Balto. Means The Bactrian Camel for rapid communication rather than for travel and traffic. Purpose To bind together populations of opposite shores of continent. Route Not defined except that it needed to be more di- rect than via the Missouri River. 2. Author Robert Mills, 1820, "A Treatise on Inland Nav- igation." Means A portage railway or turnpike across the moun- tains between highest navigable portions of the Missouri and the Columbia Rivers. Purpose To enable the Government to wield its potent energies with effect on the Pacific Coast in the interests of the Union. Route The Missouri and the Columbia Rivers. 3. Author Hall ]. Kelley, 1829. "Geographical Sketch of Oregon." Means Grant of land, alternate sections, thirty miles wide, fifteen on each side of road. Purpose To establish quick and direct communication be- tween the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Ocean. Route From Missouri River, near mouth of the Kansas, crossing backbone of Continent near 43d parallel, then along the Valley of the Snake to the Columbia River, near Fort Walla Walla (Wallula at the present time), and terminating at the southern extremity of Puget Sound. 4. Author S. W. Dexter, February 6, 1832, Emigrant of Ann Arbor. Means A national project or the organization of a com- pany and a grant of three millions of acres of land for the purpose. ​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 187 Purpose No special purpose named. Route From New York along south shores of Lakes Erie, Michigan, up the Platte, through South Pass, down Lewis Fork of Columbia. 5. Author Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow, 1834, Westfield ( Mass. ) Intelligencer. Means Annual appropriations of the surplus from the duties and taxes continued at existing rates after public debt was paid. Route Virtually identical with that suggested by Judge Dexter. Purpose Settlement of Far West would be facilitated, commerce would be stimulated, and sections of coun- try would be bound together by stronger ties of common interest. 6. Author John Plumbe, 1836, memorial against Whitney's railroad scheme. Means Alternate sections on each side of route turned over to company ; reserved sections at double price would prevent any cost to Government. Wide distribution of stock, twenty million shares at five dollars each. Purpose No data. Route From Lake Michigan, across Wisconsin and Iowa, over the northern route to Oregon. 7. Author Dr. Hartwell Carver, August 11, 1837, Morning Courier and New York Enquirer for the Country. Means Varied. Twenty miles either side of the road, or eight million acres, to be sold him at cost of $1.25 or 50 cents an acre, to be paid for in stock of company. Purpose Commerce of Asia and the Eastern Isles. Route Lake Michigan to the South Pass with branches to San Francisco Bay and the mouth of the Columbia. ​188 4 F. G. YOUNG 8. Author Asa Whitney, 1841 or 1844, project for a rail- road to the Pacific ; memorials to Congress. Means Grant of land sixty miles wide, thirty on each side of road. Purpose To bind together the opposite shores of the con- tinent ; to make America the axle of the commerce of the world. Route From Lake Michigan to the Pacific Coast. 9. Author George Wilkes, History of Oregon, Geographical and Political (Colyer), 1845. Means Appropriations by Congress ; expected increased sales of public domain would easily furnish means. Purpose Mainly to get trade of Orient. Route The "Old Oregon Trail." 10. Author Albert Pike, at Memphis convention, 1849. Means Loan of National credit. Purpose and Route No data. 11. Author Thomas H. Benton, his prediction, 1844. Championed National project between territories. At first favored portage between highest points accessible with steam- boats on Missouri and the Columbia. Later favored a South- ern route. Benton is credited with having defeated Whitney's project before Congress in 1848. Wilkes' project found most favor during this period in the Oregon settlements. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. Bancroft, Hubert Hozve History of California, V. VII., Chap- ter XIX, pp. 494-514 (Volume XXIV of the general series of Pacific States Histories). Bancroft's narrative furnishes basis of other secondary sources. These, however, commonly add one or more names of early projectors of schemes and quote freely from the favor- ite they introduce into the list of advocates of a transcontinental ​HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 189 railway. Bancroft gives by far the most details pertaining to discussions, in and out of Congress, of the plans proposed. Smalley, Eugene V. History of the Northern Pacific Rail- road. Chapters VI. and VII., pp. 51-68. Smalley champions Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow of Gran- ville, Mass., as the first advocate of a transcontinental railroad. Bancroft had not mentioned Barlow. Smalley quotes in full Barlow's communication to the Intelligencer of Westfield in which the plan is set forth. George Wilkes' plan gets its first notice and Hartwell Carver's claim advanced by Bancroft is ridiculed. Davis, John P. The Union Pacific Railway, Chapters I. and II, pp. 1-34. Davis presents Judge S. W. Dexter as author of the first plan for a transcontinental railway. His editorial in the Emi- grant, February 6. 1832, in which his suggestion is made is quoted from. Robert Mills, as an advocate of a Pacific rail- way, is mentioned and John Plumbe is brought prominently into the list of advocates of such a highway. Cleveland, Frederick A. and Powell, Fred Wilbur Railroad Promotion and Capitalization in the United States. Chap- ter XVI, pp. 257-273. An anonymous contributor to the American Farmer, of Baltimore, July 9, 1819, is given credit for "the germ of the idea" of a transcontinental railroad. These authors seem to have pretty thoroughly ransacked the material extant per- taining to these projects and compare and criticize them to good purpose. Carter, Charles Frederick When Railroads Were New. Chap- ter VII, pp. 226-230. Very brief notice, devoted to Plumbe and Whitney. Gives
NOTES
OREGON HISTORICAL LITERATURE TO BE ENRICHED.
John Minto, in collaboration with a personal friend, is preparing for publication a book outlining his life and work from his boyhood years in England, down to the present time in Oregon.
Ex-Governor T. T. Geer has well advanced an account of "Fifty Years in Oregon." Mr. Geer's work will be taken up largely with estimates and characterizations of the men who have had leading parts in the up-building of Oregon.
Thomas Fletcher Royal at the time of his death, March 8, had ready for the press his work, entitled "Trail Followers and Empire Builders." In it he gives the story of pioneer life in Illinois and Oregon. Mr. Royal come to Oregon in 1853 and was prominent in educational work and as a Methodist Episcopal minister.
A LONG ROLL OF EMINENT DEAD.
The last quarter has witnessed the passing of many of Oregon's prominent men. A partial list, with dates of their death, comprises the following names:
Frank W. Benson, April 14.
T. W. Davenport, April 18.
Lafayette Grover, May 11.
John C. Carson, June 1.
George W. McBride, June 29.
The political records of the state show that Governor Benson had a strong hold on the Oregon people. He began his active life as a school teacher, served in the land office and in the county clerk's office at Roseburg, practiced law and in 1906 was elected secretary of state. After the promotion of Governor Chamberlain to the United States Senate, Secretary Benson became governor. He was re-elected secretary of state in 1910.
The readers of The Quarterly must have felt well acquainted with Mr. Davenport. His many frank and strong papers ​tributed to its pages have surely elicited the admiration of all who had not earlier the good fortune of knowing him per- sonally.
He served many terms in the state legislature, was for a time Indian agent and from 1895 to 1899 was state land agent. He was always the ardent, fearless and able advocate of what appeared to him the cause of humanity. His place is among the elite of Oregon. He did noble civic service from his coming to the state in 1851 until the date of his death.
Ex-Governor LaFayette Grover, who died on May 10, had a leading part in the public affairs of Oregon from the time of his coming in 1851 to the close of his term as United States Senator in 1883. He compiled the legislation of the Provisional Government period, adjusted claims arising out of depreda- tions of Rogue River Indians, 1854, 1 and those due for services and supplies furnished during the Yakima War. 2 He was a member of the State Constitutional convention, one of the most active. When Oregon was admitted he was the state's first representative in Congress. In 1870 he was elect- ed governor, mainly on the Chinese exclusion issue. During his two terms he was very active in securing title for the state to the lands inuring to it under the different congressional grants. In his term the Willamette Falls canal and locks were constructed, but the entrance upon the policy of subsidizing railways was blocked by his vetoing a bill for Portland to issue $300,000 of bonds to aid Ben Holladay in building a railroad from Portland up the west side of the Willamette Valley. In 1876 he came into the national limelight, so to speak, when he refused to certify the election of John W. Watts as one of the Republican presidential electors on the ground that his posi-
His associates were Addison C. Gibbs, governor of Oregon in 1862-66, and G. H. Ambrose.
This war began early in October, 1855, and lasted about one year. It was caused by a general uprising of most of the Indian tribes then in Oregon and Washington Territories in order to drive the whites from the country. As the military force of the United States in these territories was weak, volunteers were called into service by the respective governors and the Indians were subdued. By virtue of an act of Congress passed August 18, 1856, the Secretary of War appointed Captains A. J. Smith and Rufus Ingalls, of the Regular Army, and Capt. L. F. Grover, of the volunteer forces, as commissioners to audit all claims con- nected with this war. ​192 NOTES. tion as postmaster disqualified him. As United States Senator he was active in securing the adoption of exclusion of Chinese immigrants. John C. Carson contributed many years of service to the public as a member of the city council of Portland and as a member of the state legislature. Geo. W. McBride was eight years secretary of state, from 1887 to 1894, inclusive. He was then elected to succeed J. N. Dolph as United States Senator. Upon completing his term in 1901 he was appointed United States Commissioner for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He was a member of the distinguished McBride family that numbers so many eminent representatives in the annals of the Pacific Coast. The Quarterly hopes to enlist the aid of some of the ready pens of the pioneers to give the tribute of careful estimates of the activities and personalities of these who died during the last few months and also of those whom we have lost in recent years. The Quarterly has not yet contained worthy tributes to such historic personages as Charles B. Bellinger, John B. Waldo and Harvey W. Scott. THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL PIONEER REUNION. The annual reunion of the Oregon Pioneers the 39th held in Portland on June 21, was again about as delightful an occasion as the human heart can reach to. The registered attendance was thirteen hundred and fifty, and the average age was sixty-nine years. When it is remembered that no one who came to, or was born in, Oregon later than the year 1859, is eligible to membership in the Oregon Pioneer Association, it will be seen that this was a remarkable gathering. The youngest person in attendance was fifty-two years old and the oldest, Captain James Blakeley, of Brownsville, Oregon, a pio- neer of 1846 was in his ninety-ninth year. He will be ninety- nine on November 26th next, and is in excellent health, both physically and mentally. He rendered excellent service at the head of a company of volunteers in the Yakima Indian war. ​NOTES. 193 The banquet, the annual address and the other exercises were all fitted to bring- keenest enjoyment to the heroes and heroines who won Oregon and laid here the foundations of a most promising civilization. Colonel Robert A. Miller was elected president; Joseph Buchtel, vice president; George H. Himes, secretary, and Charles E. Ladd, treasurer. STATE PARK AT CHAMPOEG. The Champoeg meeting of May 2, 1843, at which was ef- fected the first political organization of American settlements on the Pacific Coast, was of the highest order of historic im- portance. Mr. Joseph Buchtel's patriotic efforts to secure ade- quate public grounds at Champoeg for surroundings for an appropriate monument, auditorium and park are reported as crowned with success. A ten-acre tract has been secured to be added to the three acres already owned by the state. The funds were raised through private subscription. A growing historical sense will enable our future legis- latures to see the propriety of having this financial burden as- sumed by the state and also provision made for the erection of suitable monumental structures.
* ↑ Judge Williams, in Oregon Historical Quarterly for March, 1901, pp. 5, 6. Nathaniel Ford, of Polk County, had brought with him from Missouri in 1845 as slaves, a man named Robbin and family, and held them in servitude in Oregon. Robbin sued for their liberty by writ of habeas corpus.
* ↑ See Statesman, December 18, 1852. A petition for the special enactment, with 113 names subscribed, was presented to the legislature. Washington, an early pioneer, was a man of means and had generously assisted needy immigrants.
* ↑ Statesman, May 23, 1854.
* ↑ Statesman, April 17, 1855.
* ↑ Proceedings, in Oregonian, February 21, 1857.
* ↑ "The gentlemen who composed the convention seem to have imagined themselves the first advance guard who have ever had the courage to assault the citadel of the Salem dynasty, or who dare strike for freedom." Oregonian, February 21. "The Nigger-worshipping convention at Albany came off last week and waa a slim affair." Statesman, February 17.