The San Francisco call., 1895-07-28

conscientious nineteenth century his
torian that any man or set of men
should undertake to foist upon an intelli-
gent public, history constructed on the
plan of the Niebelungenlied, the tales of
King Arthur's round table or the story of
William Tell. Yet this is what DR.. Oliver
w. Nixon, ''for seventeen years president
and literary editor of the Chicago Inter-
Ocean" has done in his book, "How Mar
Gus Whitman Saved Oregon" which he
very properly in his subtitle names, "a
True Romance"
Even if l were not called by name to de-
fend myself from the calumny of being
styled "a defamer" of DR.. Nixon's hero,
natural reverence for what 1 am convinced
by my Judgment and assured by the facts
is the truth on the subject of Dr. Whit
mans agency in Oregon affairs, would i'm
pei me to take notice of Dr. Nixon's book.
Why man who is killed, as the natural
sequence to a course of events in which he
has taken a principal part, should be
idealized as martyr because he failed to
accomplish what he had undertaken. my
reason is too obtuse to discover. Why a
man who during his lifetime had abso-
lutely nothing to do with the politics of
Oregon, and who has LETT not the least
record of desiring to have any, should be-
come, nearly half century after his
death, shining example of devotion to
his country's interest as against another
power, with whose subjects he was on
terms of amity if not OF dependence, my
darkened intellect fails to comprehend.
The real author of DR.. Nixon's "true
romance was w. H. Gray, the carpenter
and general assistant of the Waiilatpu mis-
sion in the Walla Walla Valley, which was
the superintendent's or DR.. Whitman's sta
ton. Besides this there were other sta
tions-that in charge of Rev. H. H. Spal-
ding at Lapwai, eighty miles or more dis
tant from Waiilatpu; another in charge OF
Messrs. Walker and Eells in the Spokane
country, and for year or longer fourth
among the upper Nez Perces. Mr.. Gray
was sometimes employed at Waiilatpu and
sometimes at Lapwai. | mention these
particulars to show the ground covered by
the Presbyterian missions, and for another
reason, which is to account for my own
fault as an historian in following Gray's
narrative in nv River of the West" /
naturally supposed that a man for years
employed about the missions and inti-
mately acquainted with their affairs must
be telling the truth about them, and |
went into print before | found out my
error. When l found it out [ sought to
rectify it, and it is this conscientious effort
to correct my own, and incidentally
Others mistakes, which has brought down
on my devoted head the heavy blows of
the Gray-Nixon controversialists. But al
Though they have attacked my position by
the press and from the pulpit they have
not been able to overturn it, because l am
able to prove my statements, while they
have only the resource of repeating un-
founded assertions. In the columns of a
newspaper I am limited, but brief review
of DR.. Nixons book will bring out some
general points which desire to make.
Taking up chapter VI, entitled THE Ride
to Save Oregon" Nixon closely follows
GRAY, making difference sufficient to give
an appearance of independent knowledge.
Gray says that in the autumn of 1912 DR..
Whitman, happening. to be at Fort Walla
WalIa, the Hudson Bay Company's post
on the Columbia, and at dinner with
some newly arrived Catholic priests, heard
them boasting that some sixty settlers
from the Red River country were about to
arrive, who would give the balance of
power to the British in Oregon. He also
states that Sir George Simpson, Governor
of the Hudson Bay Company, not only
ordered this colony to Oregon for the pur-
panied it himself. Gray further represents
that DR.. Whitman on the occasion OF this
dinner impetuOusly replied to the
priests that he would bring thousand
settlers for their sixty, and jumping on
his horse rode home, a distance Of thirty
miles, in great haste, and before dismount-
ing from his foaming steed announced
to Mrs. Whitman that he was going i'm
mediately to the States to bring out a
large immigration and save Oregon to the
United States. He also says that he did set
off within two or three days. In the same
chapter in which he relates these exciting
incidents he tells US that Sir George Simp-
son went to Washington that winter to
take a hand in shaping the boundary
treaty, which was also Whitman s errand.
all this is romantic enough, but unfor-
tunately 1t is not true. If any one inter-
ested to know the facts {and we might
assume that DR.. Nixon should be such
man) will take the trouble to open
Sir George Simpsons Voyage Around
the World, " he viii find that the purpose
of Simpsons visit to America was solely
TO look after the affairs of the London
company; that the visit took place in 1841
and not in 1S42; that the Red River settlers
arrived in 1841 instead of 1912; that Sir
George, after paying visit to Stickeen to
Investigate the causes which led to the
killing of DR.. McLoughlin's son, and a
VlSlG 10 San FRANCISCO TO eSCdDllSh a DuSl-
ness house there, returned to London
through Russia, and that in his whole
narrative he makes no mention of having
seen any United States territory, much
less that he had paid a diplomatic visit 10
Washington to interfere with treaty-mak-
ing.
So far from any Catholic priests arriving
with or before the Req River settlers in 1841,
the Hudson Bay Company refused to allow
two priests who wished to come to Oregon
that year from Canada the privilege of
travelling with their express, a privilege
never refused to the American mission
aries. l have not the space required to go
into explanations of these apparently con-
Trajectory acts of the British company.
can only state facts directly opposed to the
Gray-Nixon romance. AS DR.. Whitman
did not 60 East in 1841, but in 1912, all that
interesting story of the utterances OF the
avant-couriers of the Red River settlers.
Whitman's impetuous reply to their boast
of occupying the country, and his hastv
departure for Washington, falls fat.
Cray, in his ignorance sof history, has
said that Whitman made mis- visit to Wash
ington to prevent Webster from trading off
Oregon for a codfshery on the coast of
Newfoundland with Lord Ashburton
and that he did prevent it, the truth being
that the Oregon boundary was not consid-
cred in the correspondence between Web
ster and the British nleninotentiarv in