# History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 1/Chapter 21

CHAPTER XXI.
THE WAR FEELING IN OREGON.
1846.
While the events just narrated were taking place the political condition of the colony remained unchanged. From the newspapers brought by the immigrants, and occasional news received by way of the Hawaiian Islands, the Oregon question still threatened war. Among other rumors was one that the British plenipotentiary had proposed as a dernier ressort to leave the question open for twenty years to be settled finally by the choice of the people. But this was believed by Americans to be improbable, because it was shown by Gallatin in 1827 that the country must be settled by Americans, and the late immigrations had demonstrated it. British subjects received the rumor with equal incredulity, believing that England would not consent to any compromise by which the country north of the Columbia would be endangered. So uncertain and critical seemed the ​position of affairs, that an agent was sent in March, by the fur company, to San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands, to make arrangements for obtaining supplies for the Hudson's Bay Company's posts, in case their farming lands should be seized. The Russians also, who depended on Oregon for the larger part of their supplies, anticipating trouble, forestalled the action of the British company, and purchased, early in the spring, the whole tara crop of the Islands, and large quantities of sugar and rum, for Sitka.
Everything in the Pacific seemed to point to an early collision. The Modeste, as a British man-of-war stationed in the Columbia, was regarded ominously, and to soften the resentment thus created, the officers and men, following the advice of the fur company, gave a series of entertainments, to which all were invited, which served the purpose of diverting the minds of many from that strained feeling which McKay says obtained between the rival nations, perceptible even in the Sandwich Islands. A better acquaintance enabled men of either nation to express political bias freely, and wordy encounters were harmless, as there were no offensive exhibitions of patriotism. ​Little of all this would have been preserved had not the printing association, just previous to this happy thought of the crew, commenced the publication of the Oregon Spectator, the first American newspaper on the Pacific coast. This publication was begun just in time to record the occurrences of the eventful year of 1846.
​With the exception of drinking, no objection seems to have been made to the Modeste's officers or men. Captain Baillie rarely left his ship; but the younger officers, besides giving theatrical entertainments, horseraces, balls, and curling matches, visited among the settlers wherever invited, and attended a ball given at Oregon City, in honor of Washington's birthday, by H. M. Knighton, an immigrant of 1845, who was the second marshal of Oregon under the provisional government, and sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives in the winter of 1846. The editorial notices received of these amusements were studiedly ​inoffensive, but never cordial. The ultra-American and missionary portion of the inhabitants regarded them with disfavor, and beneath guarded phrases a covert sneer could be detected.
There was another object in the gayeties of the Modeste, which was to avert the temptation on the part of the inferior officers and seamen to desert and take up a section of land, without price, under the Oregon land law. Though the legislature of 1844 had passed an act in relation to deserting seamen, that they should be returned to their vessels, there to be dealt with by their officers, the practice of abandoning their ships in the Columbia River was one that gave sea-captains much trouble. In a country so wild and free, it was useless to employ severe measures, even if a captain might venture it, and kindness and tact were judged by the officers of the Modeste and the Hudson's Bay Company as more effectual. Roberts remarks that sufficient importance has never been attached to the influence of the good order maintained at Fort Vancouver in preserving the peace of the country; and also that the naval service gave them more trouble than the landsmen, the captains of vessels often having to appeal to the authority of McLoughlin or Douglas to keep their men under control. Palmer, who visited Vancouver during the Christmas holidays, one of ​those rare occasions, as aleady mentioned, on which the company's servants received their small allowance of spirits, describes a grand carouse, ending on shipboard.
The subject of military organization had been neglected in the amended organic law, through a wise forbearance, as its existence was calculated to create suspicion and prevent the perfect fusion of rival elements. The apparently critical aspect of affairs in the spring of 1846, however, induced some public-spirited citizens to call a meeting at the house of David Waldo, in Champoeg County, and organize a company of mounted riflemen. Charles Bennett was made captain. It appears to have been a revival of ​Captain Kaiser's company of Oregon Rangers, as they took that name, some of the same members being again enrolled, and the former captain acting as president of the meeting.
On the very day that Kaiser sent his report of these proceedings to Oregon's journal, Ogden, writing from Fort Vancouver to the same, announced the arrival at Nisqually of H. M. frigate Fisgard, forty-two guns and a crew of three hundred and fifty men, which had come to remain for the summer, or as long as the war-cloud threatened. The news brought by the Fisgard, as late as December from England and January from New York, was rather quieting than otherwise. It was thought that the corn laws would be repealed and free-trade instituted, which would open British ports to American bread-stuffs, and it was believed greatly lessen the war feeling in the western states, where President Polk's supporters were strongest. The president had also made proposals for altering the tariff, favorable to Great Britain; all of which was reassuring. At the same time it was evident that the French government, whose officers in the Hawaiian Islands courted the favor of the officers of the English fleet in the Pacific, would support the claims of Great Britain; and the pretensions of the French in the Pacific were tolerated by England in order to obtain this support.
​The newspaper mail of the Fisgard, however, revealed the fact that there was a majority of the democratic party in the United States house of representatives of nearly two to one, and in the senate a majority of six. This latter circumstance was regarded as indicating that the president's policy would be carried out as defined in his message.
On the 23d of August, 1844, said President Polk, the negotiations on the subject of the Oregon boundary, which had been pending in London since October 1843, were transferred to Washington. The proposition of the British plenipotentiary was to divide the Oregon Territory by the 49th parallel, from the Rocky Mountains to the point of its intersection with the northernmost branch of the Columbia River, and thence down that river to the sea, leaving the free navigation of the river to be enjoyed by both parties; the country south of this line to belong to the United States, and that north to Great Britain. In addition to this, it was proposed to yield a strip of coast north of the Columbia extending from Bullfinch Harbor to the Strait of Fuca, and from the Pacific to Hood Canal; and to make free to the United States any ports they might desire, either on the Mainland or on Vancouver Island—a proposition identical with one offered in 1826, with the exception of the free ports, and which was promptly rejected by the United States plenipotentiary. A request was then made that the United States should frame a proposal. Nothing, however, had been done when the administration changed, and Polk came into office.
The president said that though he held the opinion that Great Britain had no title to the Oregon Territory that could be maintained upon any principle of public law recognized by nations, he had felt it his duty to defer to the opinions and acts of his prede- ​cessors, who had offered to adjust the boundary on the 49th parallel, two of them also offering the free navigation of the Columbia; and a proposition had accordingly been made, repeating the offer of the 49th parallel, but withdrawing the free navigation of the Columbia; and which in its turn had been indignantly rejected by the British plenipotentiary. He was now of opinion that the year's notice required by the convention of 1827 should be given, and the treaty of joint occupancy terminated, before which neither government could rightfully assert or exercise exclusive jurisdiction over any portion of the territory.
In the mean time he recommended such legislation by congress as would be proper under the existing treaty, and considered it beyond question that the protection of the United States laws and jurisdiction ought immediately to be extended over Americans in Oregon, who had just cause to complain of long neglect, and who had been driven to organize a government for themselves. The extent to which jurisdiction might be extended over the territory should be in full as far as the British government had gone in the act of parliament of July 2, 1821, by which the courts of Upper Canada were empowered to take cognizance of civil and criminal cases, and to appoint justices of the peace and other political officers in Oregon. He also recommended that the laws of the United States regulating trade and intercourse with the natives east of the Rocky Mountains should be extended over the tribes west of the mountains; that a suitable number of military posts should be established on the route to Oregon, to give protection to emigrants; that an overland mail, as often as once a month, should also be established; and in addition to these proposed measures, congress should be prepared, ​as soon as the year's notice had expired, to make liberal grants of land to the settlers in Oregon.
The president closed that portion of his message which related to Oregon with the avowal of his belief in the Monroe doctrine of non-interference of foreign powers with North American territories, and the assurance that should any such interference be attempted it would be resisted at all hazards.
Notwithstanding this decided policy of the new administration, it was generally thought by the leading men in congress that there would be no war. The senate was entirely against it, and it was ridiculed even in the house, though the propriety of increasing the navy was considered, as a peace measure. The house would probably be in favor of giving notice; but in the senate the measure was opposed, particularly by southern members.
Such was the intelligence that reached Oregon in May, and was published in the Spectator in June. News of a few weeks' later date, received from the Islands, informed the colonists that a resolution had passed the house to give the notice, by a vote of one hundred and sixty-three to fifty-four; but that in the senate, the vote, if taken, it was believed would stand twenty-two for and thirty-four against it. By the ​same paper they learned that the frigate Congress, Commander Dupont, with Commodore Stockton on board, had sailed for the Pacific coast, her cruising ground supposed to be the Oregon coast; and also that it was rumored that the whole British force in the Pacific was making sail for the Columbia River.
There was always something to protract anxiety; yet the colonists continued the cultivation of their fields, building, and road-making, with unceasing faith that their claims to land and improvements would be protected. In this spirit preparations were made for a Fourth-of-July celebration in Salem, recently so named, and in Oregon City. At the latter place was erected a liberty-pole presented to the committee of arrangements by William Holmes; a round of thirty-one guns was fired, and an oration delivered by Peter H. Burnett, which was followed by a dinner and toasts, with cheering and firing of guns, the festivities being concluded by a ball in the evening.
At Salem the management of the celebration was placed in the hands of the newly organized military company, the Oregon Rangers. It was on this occasion that the company was presented with a flag made by Mrs Horace Holden and Miss Looney. The ​oration was delivered by W. G. T'Vault, after which a barbecue and public dinner were served, followed, not by a ball, but by a sermon, as was considered proper in a missionary town, delivered by Harvey Clark.
It had been a subject of annoyance to the colonists that two well-equipped British men-of-war should be stationed in Oregon waters, and that while a fleet of American vessels sported in the Pacific, not one was in the Columbia. But this grievance was removed when there entered on the 18th of July the schooner Shark, twelve guns, Neil M. Howison, commander, which had been repairing at the Islands since the month of April, and left Honolulu on the 23d of June. Reaching the mouth of the Columbia, she anchored, and fired guns signalling for a pilot, but no pilot appearing, Lieutenant Howison, with the master, pulled in between the breakers and sounded the channel, after which he brought the vessel in. On rounding Cape Disappointment he was hailed by a boat which contained A. L. Lovejoy, H. H. Spalding, and W. H. Gray. The negro pilot, already mentioned, was recommended, but in twenty minutes he ran the schooner hard aground on Chinook shoal. Lovejoy and Gray immediately put off to Astoria for assistance, and in the morning Mr Latta, the pilot of the Hudson's Bay Company, was brought on board, who took the Shark to her anchorage off Astoria, the vessel having worked off the sands during the night. Howison then proceeded with his ship to Vancouver, where he was received July 24th with the utmost cordiality by the officers of the Modeste and the fort. On the 26th he made an attempt to cross the bar at the mouth of the Willamette, with the intention of as​cending that river as far as possible; but not being able to get the schooner over, was forced to return to Vancouver, while a party of the Shark's officers proceeded in a boat to Oregon City.
Howison arrived at Vancouver in time to participate in the first formal horse-races on record, which occurred on the 25th of July, and which, together with the advent of a United States war vessel, drew together an unusual number of people, and furnished. the American officers an opportunity to become acquainted with the prevailing state of feeling. Every courtesy was extended to the commander of the Shark, which attentions were received as courteously as rendered; but, as in the case of Wilkes, the independent American settler would have preferred that the United States officers should not have been thus placed under obligations.
Howison's report is probably the best authority extant upon the condition of affairs in Oregon at this time He came as an observer, had good opportunities of hearing both sides of the question, and appears to have written fairly, and without prejudice there was no motive for him to conceal anything from the eyes of government. He affirms that he found prevailing an intense excitement on the boundary question among all classes; and that he enjoined his officers in writing to refrain from arguments touching the ownership of the soil, but to allay instead of increase the excitement, while at the same time they were to sock all the information they could gather respecting the country.
But it would have been impossible, under the circumstances, to prevent the marines and sailors horn mixing with the people, and becoming inspired with ​much of their intolerance of foreign intrusion; for in that spirit, notwithstanding the facts in the case, they insisted on viewing the presence of the British men-of-war, the Modeste, Fisgard, and Cormorant, which latter strongly armed vessel was stationed at the entrance to Puget Sound.
The presence of the British flag, which had been a source of ill-suppressed ire, was rendered more openly obnoxious by the appearance of the United States colors, and the intelligence brought by the Shark that the United States squadron, consisting of the frigates Congress and Savannah, and the sloops of war Cyane, Portsmouth, Levant, and Warren, were on the coast of Mexico and California, while the store-ship Erie was at the Islands provisioning for the fleet. Thus sustained, the belligerent feelings of the ultra-patriotic were privileged to exhibit themselves. Nor was the feeling of hostility with which many of the colonists regarded the officers of the British vessels entirely of a national character. In the eyes of the free and independent emigrants from the border of the United States, anything so cultivated, disciplined, and formal as a British naval officer was an intrusion. They were not inspired with awe, like an Englishman, but with dislike and envious contempt.
After ascertaining that the Shark could not be taken into the Willamette, Howison visited Oregon City, where the people received him with a salute fired from a hole drilled in an anvil, probably the same which had done service on the 4th of July, and where ​he became the guest of Abernethy Accompanied by the governor, he made a tour of the Willamette Valley, after which Abernethy returned with him to Vancouver, where for two days he was entertained on board the Shark. A warm intimacy sprung up between the commander and the governor, and every opportunity was afforded the former for becoming acquainted with the social interests of the country. While the commander was thus engaged, the other officers were visiting points on the Columbia with the same object, Howison being under orders to leave the river by the 1st of September. Meanwhile ten of his men deserted, tempted by the high price of labor and the prospect of owning land, always a great allurement to sailors. Two of the deserters were returned to the vessel, but the others succeeded in escaping arrest Howison perceived that to retain his crew he must shorten his stay, and on the 23d of August took his departure from Vancouver. Passing slowly down the river in going out on the 10th of October the Shark was carried on the south spit, and became a total wreck.
This disaster, the second to a United States vessel at the mouth of the Columbia, was most complete. Officers and men were cast ashore without food or clothing helpless and miserable. Leaving his crew poorly sheltered at Astoria, Howison returned to Vancouver meeting by the way the cutter of the Modeste loaded with provisions, clothing, and such articles as were likely to be needed, which had been sent from the fort "where the news of the wreck was received on the 14th Purchasing the necessary supplies on the most favorable terms at Vancouver, Howison returned to ​Astoria, where three houses were erected for the winter quarters of the crew, there being then no expectation of leaving the country for some time. The United States flag was planted on shore, the place taking on quite an air of military life. About the end of October the fur company's vessel Cadboro was chartered for the removal of the Shark's crew to San Francisco, and the 16th of November they went on board, but the winter storms prevented the vessel from crossing the bar before the 18th of January.
On the breaking-up of the Shark's quarters at Astoria, Howison presented to the government of Oregon the colors of the wrecked schooner, and also as many of the vessel's guns as could be recovered. This was the first flag owned by the territory; and the only gun they had hitherto was a twelve-pounder which had been presented to the corporation of Oregon City by Benjamin Stark, Jr., who arrived in Oregon as supercargo of the American bark Toulon in June previous.
The loss of the Shark was especially regretted by the ​colonists, as damaging to the character of the Columbia's entrance. They chafed under the fact that the United States had lost two men-of-war on the sands at the mouth of the river, and that the reports of government officers were of a nature to alarm shipmasters and keep commerce away. The occasion was seized upon to discuss this subject in all its bearings in the columns of the Spectator, and, what was of more importance, the legislature of 1846 was impelled to pass a pilotage law, authorizing the governor to appoint commissioners to examine and license pilots for the bar and river, who should give bonds, keep suitable boats, and collect fees, according to law. Under this act, in April 1847, S. C. Reeves was appointed the first pilot for the Columbia River bar, which office he retained until the gold discovery in California. Thus little by little, as necessity demanded, were added those means of safe passage to and from the colony, by land and sea, which the means at hand afforded.
While Lieutenant Howison was yet at Vancouver, intelligence arrived that congress had at length passed the notice bill—that is to say, the year's notice which should lawfully terminate the treaty—recommended by the president, and which the colonists had so long desired. This agreeable news was brought by Selim E. Woodworth, bearer of the despatches to the ​United States squadron in the Pacific, including the commander of the Shark. No special communication was made to the government of Oregon, but a bundle of newspapers contained sufficient good tidings in the notice bill, and a bill requiring the president to establish military posts between the Missouri and the Columbia, at suitable distances, and authorizing the raising of a regiment of mounted riflemen for service along the line of travel and in Oregon; with the promise also of a mail route to the Pacific, and talk of a railroad to the Columbia River. A pamphlet by George Wilkes was received, containing a memorial to congress, praying for the construction of such a road, appended to which was a memorial to the speaker and representatives of the legislature of Oregon, asking for an expression from them to the congress of the United States on the subject of a national railroad to the Pacific Ocean, in the hope that their prayer, joined to his own, might procure the passage of a bill then before congress for this purpose.
These subjects, so full of interest to the colonists, promising the fulfilment of their loftiest dreams, dulled their appreciation of the accompanying intelligence that the United States was actually at war with Mexico, and that, therefore, since England still maintained a belligerent tone, there was prospect of serious work for the government. Nor did the fact create any obvious dissatisfaction that Benton, Oregon's champion for more than two decades, as well as Webster, Calhoun, and other distinguished statesmen, now advocated the final settlement of the question on the 49th parallel instead of the popular 'fifty-four forty' boundary. A salute was fired, and the American flag hoisted, while a general expression of cheerfulness and ​animation prevaded the entire community, inspired by the thought of a glorious future as a part of a federal union extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In this hopeful humor, and occupied by the changes occurring on the influx of a large immigration, two months passed rapidly by, and then came the grand announcement of the settlement of the Oregon boundary. The gratifying intelligence was found in Honolulu papers brought from the Islands by the bark Toulon. The British consul at the Islands sent other papers to McLoughlin, in one of which, containing the announcement that the Oregon Question was settled, was an extract from a letter by A. Forbes, consul at Tepic, to Sir George Seymour, commanding the English squadron in the Pacific.
The Oregon government received no official notification; this chance information was all; but eroded with care which threatened to wear away its foundation the colony now threw off anxiety, assured that congress would establish the Territory of Oregon with a proper government at once; that without war and with no further trouble, this great boon was theirs; and such a country, broad, beautiful, majestic! Again the cliffs round Oregon City fling back the jubilant boom of cannon, and from a tall flag-staff on the banks of the Willamette, over the newly captured wilderness, proudly wave the stars and stripes, promise of happy homes and lofty endeavor. Men grasp each other by the hand, and the organ of a free people spreads in broad capitals across its front the stirring words 'Hail Columbia, happy land!'
Such was the state of feeling when it was only known in general terms that the boundary was fixed at the 49th parallel, that Vancouver Island was excluded from the possession of the United States, and ​that the navigation of the Strait of Fuca and neighboring waters was left open, while the Columbia remained free to the Hudson's Bay Company till the expiration of its charter. But when the treaty itself reached Oregon the disapproval of the Americans was general; not because of failure to secure the whole of Oregon, but because in the territory claimed by and relinquished to the United States, the Hudson's Bay Company were confirmed in the possession of land or other property occupied by them in the territory, and promised payment for the same in case they relinquished it to the United States.
Man is a preposterous pig; probably the greediest animal that crawls upon this planet. Here were fertile lands and temperate airs; meadows, forests, and mountains; bright rivers and a broad ocean seaboard, enough of earth for half a dozen empires; and all for nothing—all stolen from the savages, and never yet a struggle, never yet a dollar in return, only fevers, syphilis, and the like by way of compensation; and yet these colonial representatives of the great American nation grudge their brethren, but little later than themselves from Great Britain, a few squares of land round the posts which they had built and occupied so long, and that when they could not positively say with truth that these same British brethren had not as good a right as they to the whole of it. And they fell to cursing; they cursed the British, and particularly President Polk for failing to carry out his policy avowed before election. Believing ​in that promise, they had inscribed on their wagon-covers "54° 40′, all or none," and poverty-stricken and piggish, had wended their way to the Pacific in the faith that they were helping to accomplish this high destiny for the United States, this broad destiny for themselves; when lo! here was a treaty which not only gave up nearly five degrees of latitude, but actually granted to the British company in possession south of the boundary all the lands occupied by them, the same being several of the choicest portions of the now undisputed American territory. "England," said the Spectator, "could have expected nothing more. We can say nothing for and much against the document. It can never be popular with the great body of Americans in Oregon. We shall wait anxiously to see how this singular circumstance can be accounted for at home, and how this surprising and unconditional surrender of right will be justified."
The people of Oregon were unable to do justice to Mr Polk on the Oregon Question, though the brilliancy of his administration could not be denied. Nor can we fail now to see that he displayed great tact in the management and final settlement of the long-disputed Oregon affairs. He began his administration by informing the world in his message of the long controversy as to title, the concessions offered and rejected by Great Britain, his determination to insist at last upon the United States claim to the whole of Oregon, and with advice to congress to give the twelve months' notice required of the termination of the convention of 1818.
Thus Great Britain was made to understand that instead of gaining greater concessions by delay she was in danger of losing all. Her fleet repaired to the Pacific, but so did Mr Polk's, and there was no material difference in number of the guns that were carried on either side; while on the soil of Oregon itself the citizens of the republic greatly outnumbered those of ​Great Britain. England sent her spies to report upon these facts, and they found nothing to encourage them to expect a victory. The United States appeared quite as willing to maintain their rights as Sir Robert Peel. So far Polk had redeemed his pledge to the people. But in May 1846 Buchanan, secretary of state, after the passage of the notice bill, received a proposition from the British plenipotentiary embodying the main points of a treaty which would be agreeable to the English government; namely, the 49th parallel and the Strait of Fuca for the northern boundary of the United States; security to British subjects north of the Columbia River and south of the 49th parallel, of a perpetual title to their lands and stations of which they were in actual occupation, in all respects the same as to citizens of the United States; and lastly, the present free navigation of the Columbia River, on the same footing as United States citizens.
But in reference to the lands occupied by the subjects of Great Britain, it was represented that their settlements north of the Columbia were not numerous; but consisted of "a few private farms, and two or three forts and stations;" and Buchanan was reminded that by their charter the Hudson's Bay Company were prohibited from acquiring title to lands, and that only the lands of these few private settlers, or the Puget Sound Company, would be required to be secured to them. As to the actual extent of the Puget Sound Company's lands the negotiators on both sides seemed equally ignorant, as well as the senate, when called upon for advice. It was also suggested to Buchanan that as there was impending a change in the British ministry, which was likely to take place before the end of June, it might be well for the president to make such modifications of the proposition offered as might be deemed necessary in case of its acceptance, in the hope that the whig minister, when he came into power, would not meddle with that which ​if left entirely to them might be more objectionable than the present offer.
These considerations were certainly not without weight, and President Polk hastened to lay the matter before the senate, and to seek its advice. In his message on this occasion he declared: "My opinions and my action on the Oregon Question were fully made known to congress in my annual message of the 2d of December last, and the opinions therein expressed remain unchanged. Should the senate, by the constitutional majority required for the ratification of treaties, advise the acceptance of this proposition, or advise it with such modifications as they may, upon full deliberation, deem proper, I shall conform my action to their advice. Should the senate, however, decline by such constitutional majority to give such advice, or to express an opinion on the subject, I shall consider it my duty to reject the offer."
In asking the advice of the senate on a matter of so much importance as a war with Great Britain, the president only discharged his duty; in taking its advice he was relieved, not only from the responsibility of war, but also from the terms of the treaty to which no important alterations were proposed by the president's advisers.
There were many, indeed, outside of Oregon, who shared the somewhat unintelligent and extremely partisan feelings of the late immigrants, who thought the president had betrayed the party which elected him. It was, besides, the general impression that the Hudson's Bay Company arranged the terms of the treaty, which was another affront to those who had ever regarded that company with hatred and distrust. There was at once truth and error in the surmise. The governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, ​while not a member of the government council of England, was consulted as to the third and fourth articles of the treaty, which were for a long time in contemplation by the company in Oregon, and in anticipation of which the posts south of the Columbia were not withdrawn, as the directors at one time ordered, to the north side of the river. From the Oregon–American standpoint, the United States had been overreached in the matter of these two articles; and instead of the treaty making an end of the fur company's monopoly, it seemed to fix it upon the territory more firmly than ever.
There was, however, a weak spot in the treaty which was overlooked by the British plenipotentiary, and by the company itself; and that was in the second article, which left the Columbia River free to British traders, but placed them "on the same footing as citizens of the United States." Citizens of the United States paid duties on imported goods; and so hereafter must the fur company on the Columbia and on the Sound. This point, on the other hand, was not overlooked by Benton while the treaty was under discussion in the senate, but was pointed out to the objecting members by that avaricious but astute statesman. In Oregon this point was not at first perceived by either side, and it was only when a United States collector of customs appeared at the mouth of the Columbia that the company itself awoke to its true position.
As to the boundary, the company in Oregon held that England had made a concession, but that it had been wise to do so; and that in the settlement the United States had been treated by England, whose people could afford it, much as a kind parent treats a ​wayward child. And in this they were right; for had England been as unreasonable, overbearing, and insulting as the people of the United States, there assuredly would have been war. Yet, after all, in regard to the opposing views of the British and American inhabitants of Oregon, I would not say that either was wrong. Both were educated to a belief in the views they professed, and to see in every circumstance confirmation of their belief. That which in the eyes of a disinterested spectator might appear as an exhibition of the crudest selfishness was in their estimation only insisting in a manly spirit on their rights. That the Americans were most demonstrative in this display of feeling was natural. England in her dealings with the American colonies, and her behavior toward the young United States, had been far from reputable. The greed and selfishness of that nation has ever grown with its increasing strength. This the people of Oregon knew; and they would gladly have prevented Great Britain from occupying a rood of territory on the American continent, and esteemed it a privilege as well as a duty to defend from her grasp any portion of it that by the most liberal construction might be claimed as territory of the United States. Maintaining this position, they felt that they were not only doing their duty to themselves, but serving posterity and enlarging free institutions.
But while, as I have elsewhere shown, many statesman were as opposed as ever to the division of the Northwest Coast with Great Britain, the time had come when a settlement must be made. It had come, too, at a juncture when the hands of the government were filled by the acquisition of new territory south of the southern limits of Oregon, extending to ​the gulf of Mexico; and when Great Britain, perceiving the rapidly growing strength of the republic, was beginning to consider whether it was not best to defer somewhat to its demands for more favorable commercial treaties. To involve the nation in a war at a moment so favorable to its prosperity would have been poor statesmanship. The treaty secured the better portion of the disputed territory to the United States, and made their northern boundary one continuous line westward from the Lake of the Woods to the gulf of Georgia, where alone it deflected south and continued through the Strait of Fuca to the ocean.
As to Oregon itself, the boundary left it in the best possible shape, with the Columbia River, Puget Sound, and all the harbors of the mainland belonging to it. But notwithstanding its apparent merits, the treaty was not a popular one in Oregon. Instead of healing all wounds, and establishing peace by removing causes of contention, it confirmed the hostility of the anti-British monopoly and missionary party, and set them to devising methods of doing for themselves what the treaty had not done for them—that is, to providing for the ejectment from the lands occupied by them of the members of the Hudson's Bay Company.
The year of 1846, the most exciting and eventful of any since the settlement of the country, witnessed a great change at Fort Vancouver. John McLoughlin was no longer at the head of affairs, having retired to private life in Oregon City. James Douglas had removed to Vancouver Island, where a post had been established at Victoria, which became the company's headquarters, and Peter Skeen Ogden was in conmaud on the Columbia. Mr Roberts, a clerk in the company's service, who had been fifteen years at ​Vancouver, and was factotum of the establishment, had been sent to the Cowlitz farm to superintend the affairs of the Puget Sound Company.
The ancient glory was departing from Vancouver. The Modeste remained through the winter, her officers amusing themselves as best they could. To add to their entertainment, they had the society of Paul Kane, a painter whom Sir George Simpson patronized; who studied Indian character, customs, and costumes, and wrote a book entitled Wanderings of an Artist, which contains much diversion and some instruction, though for the most part superficial. His visit was preceded by that of the Prussian naturalist, Teck, who sailed from Oregon to the Hawaiian Islands, in the autumn of 1845. In the latter part of April 1847 the Modeste took her departure, and the company she came to protect were left, at a time when they were most assailed, to care for themselves, their rights under the former convention being at an end.
How the adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay succeeded in defending themselves from the disasters consequent on the inexorable outspreading of the great republic, the pages which follow will reveal.
* ↑ Honolulu Polynesian, Jan. 10 and March 14, 1846.
* ↑ Roberts' Recollections, MS., 6; Niles' Reg., xlix. 242; Dunavan's Great Divide, 330; Yreka Union, June 28, 1871; San Bernardino Guardian, July 29, 1871; Antioch Ledger, Aug. 5., 1871; McKay, in his Recollections, MS., 3, says the officers of the British war ship America expressed to him the opinion that the country between the Columbia River and Puget Sound must be held at all hazards—'an opinion which apparently carried no weight with the home government.'
* ↑ This was J. W. McKay, who says that he found the whole population much excited over the prospect of annexation to the United States; and various rumors were afloat concerning Fremont's intentions. 'Such of my countrymen,' he says, 'as I had an opportunity to converse with during my stay in San Francisco seemed to take sides with the Americans; though they blamed the English government for not taking prompt action with a view of securing to the British crown a colony which would certainly prove valuable in the future.' Recollections, MS., 4, 5; Marsh's Letter, MS., 14, 15.
* ↑ As the first theatrical representations ever produced on the Pacific coast, the performances on the Modeste are worthy of mention. I find by the Spectator of Feb. 19, 1846, that on the 3d of the month, under the patronage of Captain Baillie and the officers of the Modeste, and before a full and respectable audience, was performed the comedy of Three Weeks after Marriage, followed by The Deuce is in Him, and The Mayor of Garratt. The scenery was painted by the crew. The prologue was composed and spoken by Pettman, and ended with the mot referred to in the note, 'Modeste is our ship,' etc. The young ladies who took part in the play were the daughters of Oregon settlers: Miss Allen, Miss Hedgecock, Miss Lloyd, and Miss Rossi. These were the earliest pupils of the mimic art on the Northwest Coast. At a second performance in May, Love in a Village, The Meek Doctor, and Mayor of Garratt were played. Or. Spectator, May 12, 1846; Taylor's Spec. Press, 247.
* ↑ There had been a small press in California since 1834, but no newspaper was published until after the American conquest, 6 months later than the publication of the Oregon newspaper. The Spectator was a semi-monthly journal of 4 pages, 15 by 11 inches in size, containing 4 columns each, printed in clear type and a tasteful style, by John Fleming, a practical printer, and an immigrant of 1844. The paper was first edited by the president of the Oregon printing association, W. G. T'Vault, after whom several other editors were employed and removed in quick succession for holding opinions adverse to the controlling power in the association. The general aim of the Spectator was, while advocating good morals, temperance, and education, to pursue the Hudson's Bay Company with unremitting, if often covert, hostility; and in this respect it might be considered the organ of the American merchant class against the British merchants. T'Vault was dismissed at the end of 10 weeks for being too lenient. H. A. G. Lee then issued 9 numbers, and was dismissed for publishing some articles reflecting with good reason on the course of the American merchants toward the colonists; and several numbers appeared without any ostensible editor, when in October 1846, George L. Curry, an immigrant of that year, took the chair. He pursued the plan of allowing both sides a fair hearing, and after successfully conducting the paper a longer time than any of his predecessors, was dismissed for publishing some resolutions of the house of representatives of 1849, reflecting on the Methodist candidate for the important office of Oregon delegate to congress. He was succeeded by A. E. Wait, and subsequently oy Wilson Blain. In 1850 the paper and press were sold to Robert Moore, who employed Blain for a time to edit it, but displaced him by D. J. Schnebley, who soon became proprietor, and associated with himself C. P. Culver as editor. In March 1854 the paper was again sold to C. L. Goodrich, and by him discontinued in March 1855. It was published semi-monthly until September 1850, when it changed to a weekly; and was printed on one of Hoe's Washington presses. Its first printer, John Fleming, went from Ohio to Oregon in 1845, and continued to reside in Oregon City till the time of his death, Dec. 2, 1872, at the age of 78 years. He left a family in Ohio, to whom he never returned. He was esteemed in his adopted home as an honorable and exemplary man. He was appointed postmaster in 1856. Associated with Fleming for a time was T. F. McElroy, who after Fleming's retirement from business formed with C. W. Smith a partnership as printers and publishers. These were succeeded in the publishing department by T. D. Watson and G. D. R. Boyd, and they by Boyd alone. Having outlived colonial times and seen Oregon City dwindle from the first town in Oregon to the rank of second or third, the press and material of the Spectator were sold in 1855 to publish a paper under another name, and for political purposes. That paper became finally merged in another at Salem, and the old Spectator press was taken to Roseburg to start a paper at that place, and finally to Eugene City, where it remains. The type and material were carried to Portland to be used in the publication of the Daily Union, for a short time, after which it was taken to Astoria, where was printed on it the Marine Gazette, in which Gray's History of Oregon first appeared. On the termination of that journal, what was left of the material of the Spectator was taken back to Oregon City. The authorities through which I have followed the course of Oregon's first press are Portland Oregonian, March 25, 1854; Olympia Columbian, Sept. 10, 1853; Olympia Pioneer and Democrat, March 18, 1854; Parrish's Or. Anecdotes, MS., 5, 6; Lane's Nar., MS., 5, 6; Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1875, p. 72; Portland Weekly Oregonian, Dec. 26, 1868; Olympia Transcript, Dec. 26, 1868; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 333; Applegate's Views of Hist., MS., 50; Brown's Willamette Valley, MS., 34; Pickett's Paris Exposition, 10; Or. City Weekly Enterprise, Dec. 19, 1868; Solano (Cal.) Herald, Jan. 9, 1869; Olympia Wash. Standard, Jan. 2, 1869; Niles' Reg., lxx. 340–1; S. F. Alta, March 15, 1855; Sac. Union, April 10, 1855; Portland West Shore, Nov. 1878. The general news chronicle in the Spectator was usually at least 6 months old, and was obtained from papers brought out by the annual immigrations, from the Sandwich Island papers brought over in chance sailing vessels, or through the correspondence and mail of the fur company, which arrived once or twice a year overland from Canada, or by the aunual vessel from England. But the intelligence conveyed was read as eagerly as if the events had but just transpired, and by the extracts published, it is easy to gather what kind of news was considered most important.
* ↑ The officers of the Modeste were Thomas Baillie, captain; T. M. Rodney, T. G. Drake, and T. P. Coode, lieutenants; G. J. Gibbon, master; John Gibson, surgeon; J. M. Hobbs, purser; A. A. D. Dundas, mate; A. Gordon, asst. surgeon; A. T. De Horsey, J. Montgomerie, Charles Grant, and R. T. Legge, midshipmen; Thomas James Clarke, G. Pearce, master's assistants; J. White, clerk's assistant; J. Hickman, gunner; J. Stevens, boatswain; Wm Ellicott, carpenter. Or. Spectator, Feb. 5, 1846. Roberts says these officers were fine fellows, and that the men could not be induced to desert by the temptation of 640 acres of land, the ship losing but one seaman during a stay in the river of more than a year. McLoughlin also says: 'I am convinced that it was owing to the Modeste being at Vancouver, and the gentlemanlike conduct of Captain Baillie and his officers, and the good discipline and good behavior of the crew, that the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company have had less trouble (though they have had a great deal more than I suspected) than they would have had, and which certainly they have done nothing to incur, but everything they could to avoid.' Private Papers, MS., 2d ser., 16, 17. One of the midshipmen of the Modeste was afterward Admiral De Horsey. Rodney, 1st lieutenant, was grandson of Admiral C. R. Rodney. Drake, 2d lieutenant, was the author of Lines to Mary and other similar effusions published in the Spectator. Roberts' Recollections, MS., 38–9.
* ↑ Recollections, MS., 5. At a ball held in McLoughlin's mill, one of the Modeste's officers wagered a bottle of wine that the majority of the men present would fight on the British side in the event of having to choose; but a count being made he lost his bet. He then singled out one man who he offered to bet would fight on England's side, W. H. Rees. On the question being put, 'Sir, which flag would you support in the event of war?' Rees replied, 'I fight under the stars and stripes, sir!' to the no small chagrin of the challenger. Minto's Early Days, MS., 10; Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans., 1874, 26-7. 'At one of the plays,' says Roberts, 'I heard, "Modeste is our ship, and modest men are we — one word more, and up shall rise the scene: Ladies and gentlemen all — God save the Queen!" One slouched hat was unremoved amongst the uncovered crowd, and I heard a tar say, "Please, sir, may I pitch that chap overboard?"' Roberts' Rec., MS., 33. On the other side: George W. Jackson, an immigrant of 1845, being at an entertainment on board the Modeste, where there was singing, treated the audience first to the 'Star-spangled Banner,' to which they did not object, and afterward to 'Ye Parliaments of England' of 1812 memory, which displeased his entertainers. Camp-fire Orations, MS., 8, 9; Palmer's Journal, 111.
* ↑ 'This was holiday with the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, and such ranting and frolicking has perhaps seldom been seen among the sons of men. Some were engaged in gambling, some singing, some running horses, many promenading on the river-shore, and others on the large green prairie above the fort. H. B. M.'s ship of war Modeste was lying at anchor about fifty yards from the shore. The sailors also seemed to be enjoying the holidays—many of them were on shore promenading and casting sheep's-eyes at the fair native damsels as they strolled from wigwam to hut, and from hut to wigwam, intent upon seeking for themselves the greatest amount of enjoyment. At night a party was given on board the ship, and judging from the noise kept up until ten at night, they were a jolly set of fellows. About this time a boat came ashore from the ship with a few landlubbers most gloriously drunk. One of them fell out of the boat and his comrades were barely able to pull him ashore.' Journal, 111.
* ↑ The preamble to this organization reads: 'Whereas, the people of Oregon Territory are situated remote from, and without the protection of, any government, we therefore, as members of a free and enlightened community, wishing to preserve the principles of a free and republican form of government, and being well aware that the body of the people is the only power capable of sustaining such institutions, therefore, we deem it advisable to form ourselves into military bodies, for the purpose of preserving peace and order at home, and preventing aggressions from abroad.' Or. Spectator, June 11, 1846. The officers of the company were: captain, Charles Bennett; 1st lieut., A. A. Robinson; 2d lieut., Isaac Hutchins; 3d lieut., Hiram English; ord. sergeant, Thomas Holt; 2d sergeant, Thomas Howell; 3d sergeant, S. C. Morris; 4th sergeant, William Herring; 1st corporal, P. C. Kaiser; 2d corporal, Robert Walker; 3d corporal, B. Frost; 4th corporal, John Rowe. The privates were 33 in number. This company, when called upon to pursue some supposed horse-thieves, charged upon a peaceable native village, and shot an Indian who was innocent of any offence. It seems an anomaly that men who were able to pen sentiments as lofty as those contained in their preamble were so little to be trusted in the execution of their duty. It is due, however, to Captain Bennett to state that he was not in command; and to the company, to say that all regretted the occurrence which happened rather through a mistake than by design. Kaiser's Emigrant Road, MS., 6, 7; Kaiser's Nar., 12-14.
* ↑ The Fisgard was officered as follows: captain, J. A. Duntz; lieutenants, John Rodd, Charles Dyke, George Y. Patterson, Edward W. Lang, Edward D. Ashe; marines, Lieutenant Henry H. M'Carthy, and Fleetwood J. Richards: master, Edmund P. Cole; chaplain, Robert Thompson; surgeon, Thomas R. Durm; purser, Thomas Rowe; second master, James Crosby; instructor Robert M. Joship; 14 midshipmen. Roberts says: 'A small building erected for a midshipmen's school at Nisqually was standing only a few years ago. It was known to us as the "castle of indolence."' Recollections, MS., 78.
* ↑ Had the corn laws of England been abolished a few years earlier, so that a market could have been found for the grain raised in the Mississippi Valley, the history of Oregon might now be read differently, since the farmers who emigrated to the Pacific coast would have remained at home to raise corn and wheat for Great Britain.
* ↑ The N. Y. Herald of Nov. 30, 1845, remarks: 'The accounts from Tahiti state that H. B. M. ship Collingwood, Admiral Sir George Seymour, had arrived there and saluted the French Protectorate flag. This is rather singular, and seems to indicate that the English, in order to carry some point in the Pacific, have concluded to recognize and tolerate the French aggressions in that sea. See also Mofras, Explor., tom. i. 294; Id., tom. ii. 254; Greenhow's Hist. Or., 159, 341-3.
* ↑ 29th Cong., Ist Sess., Sen. Doc. No. 1, 11-14; London Chronicle, Dec. 24, 1845; Or. Spectator, June 11, 1846.
* ↑ Civil cases, not exceeding in the cause of action the sum of £200, and criminal cases, where the punishment was not capital, Wyse's America., ii. 304.
* ↑ The president's message changed the tone of the French press. In the Spectator of August 20th was a quotation from the Washington Union, taken from the Courrier des Etats Unis, containing these comments on President Polk's message: 'Not that the message does not bear the impress, in all the questions to which it refers, of a frankness and vigor which invest it with a powerful interest or thrilling importance, but Mr Polk has displayed an admirable skill in disguising the energy of thoughts and the boldness of intentions under forms full of moderation, address, and courtesy. It has been many years since the people of the United States held toward foreign nations a language so proud and so calm. Upon the Oregon Question the Courrier remarked that 'there had been little suspicion of the extent of the concessions which had, up to the last hour, been offered to Great Britain, and which are now for the first time revealed. Public opinion is scandalized, and with great reason, at the blundering obstinacy which England has shown in refusing these concessions; and those even who were least disposed to insist on the rights of the United States are of opinion that concessions wore carried sufficiently far; and if they have any regrets, they are not disposed to blame the resolution taken by Mr Polk to yield nothing more to John Bull, whose avidity is insatiate.'
* ↑ N. Y. Jour. of Commerce, Jan. 21, 1846.
* ↑ Honolulu Friend, May 1, 1846; Polynesian, April 25, 1846.
* ↑ As this was the first public celebration by the colonists of the Fourth of July, the following facts concerning its observance may not be without interest. The procession was formed under the management of Wm Finley, marshal of the day, at the City Hotel, kept by H. M. Knighton, and marched to the Methodist church, the flag of the United States being borne at the head. The ceremonies opened with prayer by J. L. Parrish; the declaration of independence was read by A. L. Lovejoy, after which followed the oration of Judge Burnett. The assembly then marched back to the hotel, where a public dinner was served, after which the usual toasts were read, with cheering and firing of guns, but without the use of wines or liquors. There were 13 regular toasts, full of the spirit of 1776, and a number of others, all more or less colored by the peculiar situation of the country. The toast, 'Oregon belonging to the United States and rightfully claiming her protection, and ever ready to repel any insult offered in seducing her from that path by hired emissaries, come from what source they may,' was received with 10 cheers and 3 guns. 'The United States of America, an example for the world, a bone of jealousy to tyrants, the home of the free, the land of the brave, and an asylum of the oppressed,' received 13 cheers and 5 guns. Among the volunteer toasts was one by A. L. Lovejoy, 'May the time soon cone when the lion and unicorn may cease to go about the North American continent seeking whom they may bite!' Oregon Spectator, July 9, 1846.
* ↑ The ceremonies took place where the house of Asahel Bush now stands. Kaiser's Nar., MS., 11-12.
* ↑ The Shark's officers were Neil M. Howison, lieut. commanding; W. S. Schenck, acting master; Janes D. Bullock, lieut.; Wm S. Hollis, purser; Edward Hudson, assist. surgeon; T. McLanahan, T. J. Simes, and H. Davidson, midshipmen; J. M. Maury, passed midshipman, captain's clerk. Oregon Spectator, Aug. 6, 1846.
* ↑ Howison's Coast and Country, 1-3.
* ↑ Oregon Spectator, Aug. 20, Oct. 1, 29, 1846.
* ↑ Coast and Country, 3. The excitement was kept up by the surmises of the Sandwich Islands papers concerning the destination of the English fleet, the Polynesian of the 6th of June reporting that the Collingwood was going to Puget Sound, to deposit naval stores and to fortify. Or. Spectator, Aug. 20, 1846.
* ↑ 'The Shark people had said they would take the Modeste out of the river any time they were ordered.' Jackson, in Camp-fire Orations, MS., 9.
* ↑ 'Any future Martin who may write from the British side will say we got on smoothly, even lovingly, with the early immigrants, until after the advent of the U. S. schr. Shark, Capt. Howison. She came to show the flag. There was, we found, a noticeable change after that.' Roberts' Rec., MS., 49.
* ↑ 'The English officers used every gentlemanly caution to reconcile our countrymen to their presence, but no really good feeling existed. Indeed, there could never be congeniality between persons so entirely dissimilar as an American frontier man and a British naval officer. But the officers never, to my knowledge, had to complain of rude treatment.' Howison's Coast and Country, 4; Gibbs, in Pacific R. Rept., i. 421.
* ↑ 'The few American merchant vessels which hail visited the Columbia, suffered the greatest inconvenience from the loss of their men in this way, and it is now customary for them to procure a reënforcement of kanakas, in passing the Sandwich Islands, to meet this exigency.' Howison's Coast and Country, 4.
* ↑ Cash, at Oregon City, and with the American merchants, was worth 12 per cent more than bills; yet the company furnished all Howison's requisitions, whether for cash or clothing, taking bills on Baring Brothers at par. Coast and Country, 5.
* ↑ The houses were two log structures, 30 by 24 feet, 1½ stories, well floored and boarded, with kitchen and bake-oven, and a large, square, 2-story frame building, intended for officers' quarters, but which was never finished. The latter, long known as the Shark House, was left in charge of Colonel John McClure. It was afterward put to a variety of uses, and served at one time as a custom-house; but was finally taken as a residence by W. H. Gray; and later turned to account as a cheap tenement-house. Scammon, in Overland Monthly, Dec. 1809, 496; Crawford's Nar., MS., 136.
* ↑ Howison says the flag was hoisted on the 'very spot which was first settled by the white men on the banks of the Columbia;' seeming unaware of the settlement made by the Winship brothers at Oak Point.
* ↑ The price asked for the vessel's charter was £500, which Howison says in Ins opinion was an extravagant one. Coast and Country, 6. The company in this way, perhaps, reimbursed themselves for a part of their advances to American citizens; or considering the risk of crossing the bar at that season, the amount charged may not have been exorbitant.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 24, 1846.
* ↑ Three of the Shark's carronades came ashore at Tillamook with apart of the hull, but only one of them could be dragged above high-water mark by the party sent by Howison to recover them. He notified Abernethy of the position, hoping that during the smooth seas of summer they might be taken on board a boat. But there is no account of their recovery. Howison remarks the singular fact that all the articles recovered were of metal, and heavy; and was evidently ignorant of the current setting into this Strait of Fuca, which would have carried northward all the lighter portions of the wreck.
* ↑ Howison in his report said that the dangers of the bar were not only really great, but were magnified for political purposes by the Hudson's Bay Company, it not being to their interest to remove the fancied difficulties of the entrance. If Howison had said for commercial purposes, he would have been right; he was right in saying they had no charts, and wanted none.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, April 15, 1847. Reeves was a good pilot and daring sailor. He went to California m the autumn of 1848 in a ship's long-boat, carrying two spars to be thrown over in a triangle as outriggers in case of a storm. Two men from Astoria accompanied him. He returned as pilot of a ship in the winter of 1848–9, and again sailed for California, where he sailed a small sloop, the Flora, on the bay, which was capsized in a squall in the month of May, drowning Reeves and a son of James Loomis of Oregon. Crawford's Nar., MS., 191.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Sept. 3, 1846; Id., Oct. 1, 1846.
* ↑ Son of the author of 'The Old Oaken Bucket. ' While in California, in February 1847, he went to the assistance of the California immigrants who took the Hastings cut-off, and were snow-bound in the Sierra.
* ↑ This scheme was for a free national road to be supported by tolls sufficient to pay its expenses, and not a corporate monopoly. Wilkes was in advance of his times; but the principle he advocated is undoubtedly the correct one for developing the great interior of the continent. See Cong. Globe, 1845–6, 414, 445, 1171, 1206; Or. Spectator, Sept. 17, 1846.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Sept. 3, 17, 1846.
* ↑ Polynesian, Aug. 29, 1846; New York Gazette and Times, June 19, 1846; S. I. News, August 1846.
* ↑ Oregonian Spectator: Victor's River of the West, 380–1; Evans, in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1877, 27; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 288–93.
* ↑ Articles III. and IV. of the treaty ran as follows: 'In the future appropriation of the territory south of the 49th parallel of north latitude, as provided in the first article of this treaty, the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company and all British subjects who may be already in the occupation of land or other property lawfully acquired within said territory, shall be respected. The farm, lands, and other property of every description, belonging to Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, on the north side of the Columbia River, shall be confirmed to the said company. In case, however, the situation of those farms and lands should be considered by the United States to be of public and political importance, and the United States government should signify a desire to obtain possession of the whole or any part thereof, the property so required shall be transferred to the said government at a proper valuation, to be agreed upon between the parties.'
* ↑ Or. Spectator, April 1, 15, 1847.
* ↑ Cong. Glove, 1845–6, App. 1168.
* ↑ Roberts' Recollections, MS., 80; Niles' Reg., lxx. 341; Applegate's Views of Hist., MS., 43. No member of the company was ever in the British cabinet. Sir Henry Pelly, governor in 1846, was an influential man. He afterward was a director of the Bank of England, and also a director of the East India Company, and had the ear of government.
* ↑ Cong. Globe, 1845–6, App. 868. Roberts says: 'Most certainly, in my opinion, the having to pay duties on importations did not occur to them; and no provision for supplying the interior posts (in advance) was made on that account. The company's own stores at Vancouver were, for a time, constructive bonded warehouses.' Recollections, MS., 80.
* ↑ Even the most temperate Americans in Oregon felt sore over the relinquishment of so much territory. Mr Applegate, who labored so wisely and well to keep the peace, remarked later: 'If we had then as now a railroad across the continent, and had taken possession with an army of 100,000 men months before a British fleet could reach the coast, British arrogance would have taken a much lower key, and Mr Polk's administration would not have dared to yield an inch of Oregon.' Views of History, MS., 48.
* ↑ I have before quoted a remark by Roberts, that it was the appearance of the American flag in the Columbia which first occasioned the colonists to show openly their dislike of the company. It was not, however, the flag, it was the treaty which immediately followed it, which brought out the apparent change.
* ↑ The factors at Vancouver after Ogden were Ballenden and McTavish.
* ↑ Hines' Or. Hist., 248.