The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1866-12-08

LECTURES BY REV. \. \. SpAULDING
Early Oregon MissiOns...Their.Tn
pOrtnncc im Securing the Conn.
try to Americans.
.rNuMBrR rouR.1

en- streets Of heaven with some of their
Indian converts, was to obey their Lord
and carry the gospel to the Indians. God
had also another, a great National pur-
pose, to accomplish: the opening of the
great emigrant wagon road from the
Missouri to the Columbia, and the open
ing of the mines These feeble women
were selected of God to settle the ques-
| tiQn by their own sacrifices, and trials and
hardships, that white women and wagons
and cattle could cross the mountains
thing pronounced impossible by hum
dreds of mountain men. The gold of
California did not, and the gold Of the
world could not have induced them to
undertake what they did. But God
knew the power that would move them
He brought single short sentence from
the words of Jesus: s'Go teach all ma
tions, to bear upon their minds. and be-
hold the stupendous national results and
the end is not yet. Mark the finger of
God in directing the several agencies
concerned. Had Mrs Spaulding listened
to the strong remonstrances of those who
pronounced the undertaking an act of in
sanity; or had she yielded to my wishes
and delayed, the fate of this country
would have been ized. 1t would have
been to-day a British province. Two
weeks later, after the decision was made
and we had started, the report of Mr.
Lee reached the States Mr.. Lee, after
personally examining the whole route.
pronounced it. as all the other mountain
travellers had done, impossible for white
woman to endure the hardships and dam
gers of the overland route; therefore he
changed his mission fields from the noun
tains to the coast, and sent for his lady
missionaries to come around Cape Horn.
Had our wives seen this opinion of Mr.
Lee, they would have been deferred, and
had they come at all they would have
doubtless come around Cape Horn. Or
had DIR. Whitman not come back from
Green river the same year. the offer to
cross the mountains would not have come
before Mrs. Spaulding. And, whereas
these two missionary women were the
first and only two women found in the
United States up to 1896 who had the
physical and moral courage, in obedience
I W t1SfI 4LbIu- lO tdCG tttG dHu
dangers of the overland route; and
whereas, that settled the question thai
women could cross the mountains, and as
this mission called out reinforcement o
four lady missionaries. who crossed the
mountains two years after, in 1888, anc
thus established the great emigrant wagon
road frem the Missouri to the Columbia
and as this, our mission party of 1888
afforded convoy from the Popeiage eas
of the Rocky mountains to Oregon, t,
Captain Suffer, who vent thence to Cali
fornia, and ten years later opened in hi
mill race the first gold mines on thi
coast; and, whereas, the overland emf
grant road led to the settling of this coas
and finally the interior Territories, b.
American families and miners, and thi
again has secured this great country t
the Government and, again, as the re
markable man, Dr. Whitman, would no
have been here to rush, as if supernatu
rally sent, to Washington in the winte
of 1928, at the risk of his life, just il
time to save this country from bein;
traded off for codfshery, but for tn
commencement of our mission then an,
d there IN the town of Howard. in tn
Is State of New York, by the decision O
II that remarkable disciple of Christ, unde
the judicious but energetic influence o
e the Doctor and, whereas, the giganti
ieforts of wise men and men of wealth t
establish an American colony on the Pa
cifc coast had thus far failed; therefore
to the self-exiling, the hardships and dan
gers Of these two missionary heroines, ar
the American people and the America
Government indebted more than to an
Ie other two persons, dead or alive, for a
they hold valuable on this Pacific slope
their commerce now whitening every Sc
r and river, their gold and silver mine
pouring out every day increasing thou
sands to augment their National wealth
a and for the civilization and christianit
which are everywhere taking the place
t the thick moral darkness that had reigne
unbroken for unknown ages.
The Doctor, on receiving our consent t
le share with him and his the fate of cros
J. ing the Rocky mountains, wrote by us t
k, his intended companion, Miss Narciss
Prentiss, then living in Allegheny count,
lie that he had obtained the required assoc
a. ates, and that he would be there at oil,
en- time to lead her forth forever from ht
" parents and her home, to share with hil
the tolls and dangers of the Rocky moul
tains, and the JOY of preaching Christ I
ne the benighted tribes beyond; and, ;
d, events have shown, to share with him I'll
Id terrible death by the hand of savages.-
st Miss Prentiss received this Intelligent
p as only one would who had early made a
IS entire surrender of all to Christ. ST
ed had given herself to the Lord at the ear
age of thirteen by a public professio
with seventy others the same day. II
wv writer was wicked boy among the spe
se tators that day, and it was until FIVE yea
rd after that God, in His sovereign mere
ch brought him unto the same church und
the faithful labors of that most god
man, James H. Hotchkin. Hence '
an we're members of the same church, al
es for years of the same school, in that O.
'es dear home, Prattsburg, and now to
Us companions in a fearful journey acre
the continent to erect mission amor
the Indians
!, Myself and wife spent the next Sund
K in her town, Angelica, where commenc
the acquaintance and christian fellowsh
no of these two missionary heroines viii
Twas ended only bJ death. The real 4