The San Francisco call., 1895-07-28

over the road and have it now"
Ofcourse, as this conversation had no wit
| nesses, it is purely an imaginary one, though
if we were willing to believe DR.. Whitman
liar, as l am not, it might have taken
place. DR.. Whitman aid not take any
wagon to the Columbia River in 1886. The
American Fur Company, with which he
travelled, annually took wagons as far as
Green River, which was the rendezvous OF
the trappers, white and Indian. Beyond
there the country was rough, mountainous
and rocky, and very trying to the feet of
animals, as well as hard upon wheels.
For this reason the leaders of the Hudson
Bay Company, to whom the American
Company transferred the missiona-
ries for guidance and protection, OBJ
iected to the proposition to con-
tinue the use of wagons beyond
party found wagon great convenience,
and, in the case of Mrs. Spalding, a neces-
sity, for her health was such that she could
not sit on a horse all day. This motive,
with possibly others, induced Mr.. Whit
man to cling to the ightest of his two
wagons. He took off the front wheels at
Fort Hall and made it into cart, and in
this shape took it as far as Fort Boise,
where it was left, the horses being quite
worn out, and Mrs. Spalding having re-
covered her health. Farnham, who came
to Oregon in 1889, speaks of having seen
this cart at Fort Boise. In 1910, when the
American fur companies were abandoning
the mountains, beaver no longer being
plenty, two mountain men-Robert New
ell and Joseph L. Meek-brought both of
Whitman's wagons through to the Column
bia, leaving the cart at the mission, but
taking the four-wheeled vehicle to the
Willamette Valley the following year.
This part of the road to Oregon-from the
Snake River to the Misunderstanding by
far the most difficult portion of the route,
why should history deprive these men of
the honors which belong to them and be-
stow 1t upon another?
The want of candor in DR.. Nixon's book
is too glaring to be passed over. For in
stance, he quotes from "Senate document
(without number) December 81, viz, the
Forty-trst Congress, February 8, 1871, " as
follows: "There is no doubt but that the
arrival of DR.. Whitman in 1843 was oppor-
tune. The President was satisfied that
the territory was worth the effort to win
1t. The delay incident to transfer of
negotiations to London was fortunate, for
there is reason to believe that if former
negotiations had been renewed in Wash
ington, and that, for the sake of a settle
ment of the protracted controversy, and
the only remaining unadiudicated cause
of difference between the two Govern
ments, the offer had been renewed of the
forty-ninth parallel to the Columbia,
and thence down the river to the
Pacific Ocean, it would have been
accepted. The visit of Whitman COM
mitted the President against any such
action. "This is clear statement" says
DR.. Nixon, summarizing the great his
torlc event and forever silencing effectually
the slanderouS tongues that have in mod
ern times attempted to deprive the old
hero of his great and deserving tribute"
Why is the fact concealed that this Senate
document is a chapter from "Gray's His
tory of Oregon" and penned by the same
hand, or the further fact that its purpose
was to obtain from Congress a grant of
land at Lapwai, ostensibly for the Ameri-
can Board of Missions, but really to en-
rich men connected with the Oregon mis-
sions? The history of this case in the
courts is not without value in connection
with the subject in hand. On this busi-
ness Mr.. Spalding went to Washing
ton and while in the East presented
the Whitman story, as published in
this document, to the editor of the New
York Evangelist, DIR. ]. G. Craighead,
with the request that he should do all that
he could to maintain DR.. Whitman's s claim
to be considered the savior of Oregon.
This the gentleman promised, and after
ward went to Washington, where he spent
two months in looking for evidence that this
claim had any foundation. Failing in this
he wrote to Hon. Elwood Evans of Olym-
pia, now of Tacoma, telling him that there
was nothing discovered to corroborate the
statement of Gray and Spalding, and ask
ing him for light. A copy of this letter is
among papers in my possession.
/ now come to the consideration of that
part of the Gray Nixon narrative which
deals with the immigration of 1s43. 1t
should be unnecessary to go into the eX-
animation of recorded evidence, the claim
being on the face of it untenable. DR..
Whitman arrived in the United States in
March, 1843, and found, according to his
own report to the board, preparations al
ready in progress for large migration. 1t
goes without saying that body of 800 or
1000 people with cattle and household
goods could not be got together by the
efforts of one man between the first of
March and the middle of May in country
thinly settled like the border States, or in
deed anywhere. Nothing snort of years
time would suffice. Farms and other
property were TO be disposed Of wagons
and cattle with six months provisions to
be provided, and all arrangements per-
fected for quitting the country forever.
Yet Gray says that the magic voice of
Whitman accomplished this marvellous
exodus by simply passing through Missouri
on his route to Washington, and DR.. Nixon
says, by way of making an improbable
thing sound probable. that While w hltman
was in the East attending to mission and
private affairs, Mr.. Loveioy was publish
ing far and wide that DIR. Whitman and
himself would early in the spring pilot
across the plains to Oregon body of
immigrants" and further, sit is just as
certain that the large immigration to Ore
gon that year was melted by the move
ments of Whitman and LoUejoy as any
fact could be-" He had overlooked the
fact that Lovejoy himself says, and he has
inserted the statement in his appendix,
"The doctor remained all night at the fort
Dents Fort, in Colorado), starting early
on the following morning to join the st.
Louis party. Here we parted. The doctor
proceeded to Washington. / remained at
Bents Fort until spring, and joined the
doctor the following July near Fort Lara
ME, on his way to Oregon, in company
with train of emigrants."
There could be no mistake about this
statement, though he, depending on mem
ory and influenced by the impressions of
others, says little further on, 1.-THE doc
tor came to the frontier settlements, urg-
ing the citizens to emigrate to the Pacific.
He left Independence, Mo-, in the month of
May, 1843, with an emigrant train of about
1000 souls for Oregon"-clearly matter of
hearsay, as he was himself at Fort Bent at
the time mentioned. To quote as reliable
anything stated after an interval of thirty
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