West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-02-03
THE PIONEER EXTINCT.

/. hgiil America. = at0iiH /
FROM the Portland oregonian, Dec. 20
!. Mr.. John p. Irish, of San Francis
co, in his speech at "the driving OF
the spike" on Saturday afternoon,
l,tonched upon a very suggestive
thought when he said: In The sue
cessiye stages of the history OF the
State the pioneer must never be for
gotten, because his couragess his
boldness, his devotion, his, love OF
wife and children, his desire to build
for them home, have made him,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the
leonqueEor Of the witdernessIapd the
| founder of Srates" -
The pioneer of which MIR. Irish
speaks as extinct in the future of
this country, is the Aztec. His blood
is immortal, but his work is done
and well wrought, and it viii never
be done over again in the United
States, because there are no fresh
fields left or pastures new to tempt
the American pioneer to further life.
His restless motion began on the At
lantic seaboard, and it stops only
when it strikes the barren waters of
the Pacific. There is something eX-
traordinary and peculiar in this i'm
pulse of the American pioneer that
persuaded him to undertake that old
time fearful six months march of
peril and privation across the con-
tinent to the Pacific coast. The over
flow of New England into western
New York and the Middle West is
comprehensive, for the New England
pioneer left hard soil, cold eli
mate, and brought his children to a
land where the soil was fertile and
the climate less severe. The over.
flow of Virginia into Kentucky and
Tennessee, the overflow of Pennsyl-
vania into Ohio, and of Kentucky
into Indiana and Illinois, was the
natural progress of the stream OF
westward immigration; but the i'm
pulse which led men 20 leave the IA
vored spots of the Middle West and
Southwest for the long and pelilous
journey across the Continent is not
so easy of explanation. They were
men of good blood, of exceptional
vigor of mind and body, and in the
favored regions Of the Middle West
could have found no insuperable diff
ficulty in earning respectable liv-
log quite up to the social level of
their section. Why, then, did these
men take their wives and chill ,ren.
and enter upon this daring march to
the Pacitic-a march so long and
severe that their path was marked
by the graves Of their comrades and
"blazed'' by the bones of the cattle
that died on the way? The only an
swer that is satisfactory is To say
that these men belonged to race
that had the same restless de. TO
gel to aplace where they could mind
their business without undue re-
straint or pressure or annoyance that
animated the first colonists of New
England, who did not come to the
bleak Atlantic seaboard because
they cared about free religion and
civic liberty for all, but because they
wanted full moral, spiritual, civic
and intellectual freedom for them
selves. This feeling joined to that
restless love of wandering in search
of new soil, and scenes that Cooper
describes in his picture of Ishmael
Bush, explains fairly that extraor-
dinarv movement of emigration from
the Middle West and Southwest to
the Pecific coast.
The Oregon immigrant was not
gold seeker primarily, like the
thousands that flocked to California
in 1S49. He was not fanatic like
the Mormon that colonized Utah.
He was not primarily hunter or
trapper. He was restless American
of vigorous body and mind, who was
ready to leave safety and compare
tive comfort TO risk the exceptional
dangers and privations of long
overland journey to reach county
that would satisfy his desire to mind
his own business in his own way and
allay his discomfort with the land Of
his birth Perhaps he felt something
of vexatiou with the growing tame
ness of his home civilization that all
men feel who have grown up in new
country and began to scent in the
air the smell of trade, and on whose
nerves CRATES harshly the rumble OF
the pedler's cart. AT all events.
whatever be the explanation of the
overland emigration to the Pacific
coast, it is unique in the history OF
the American Pioneer. The emigra-
tion from New England to the Mis-
sissippi and the settlement Of the
| South were natural, but the fight
from the fertile Middle West to Or
egon was the boldest, most adventur-
Gus. and most extraordinary perfor-
nance of the American pioneer.
Only men of exceptional courage and
individuality would have thus ex-
changed certainty of comparative
comfort for the uncertainty OF new,
unknown. untried land, and only a