Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-09-25
A HISTORICAL RIDE.
II WAS WORTH THREE STARS TO
THE AMERICAN FLAG.

Il
Oregon to Washington and the Re-
| suits which Followed In Its Wake.
| The ride of Marcus Whitman was
| ever snow capped mountains and along
| dark ravines, Travelled only by savage
men. 1t was plunge through icy riv-
| Crs and across trackleSs prairies, n
ride of 1000 miles across continent
| in the dead of winter to save mighty
| territory to the Union.
Compared with this. what was the
| feat of Paul Revere, who rode IS miles
! en- a calm night in April to arouse 4
handful of sleeping patriots and there
by save the powder at Concord?
| Whitman's ride saved three stars to
| the American flag. 1t was made in
| 1912.
| In 1872, during the first administra-
ton of Washington, Captain Robert
Gray, who had already carried the
| American flag around the globe, dis
| covered the mouth of the Columbia
| river. He sailed several miles up the
great stream and landed and took pos
session in the name Of the United
| States.
In 1865, under Jefferson's administra-
| ton, this vast territory was explored
| by Captains Lewis and Clark, whose
| reports were popular reading for our
grandfathers, but the extent and value
| OF this distant possession were very
| slightly understood, and no attempt 1T
| colonization was made, save the estab-
| lishment of the fur trading station of
Astoria in 1911.
Strangely enough. England, too,
| claimed this same territory by virtue
| of rights ceded to it by Russia and
also by the Vancouver surveys of 1892.
| The Hudson's Bay company establish
| ed n number of trading posts and filled
| the country with adventurous fur trad
| ers. So here was vast territory, as
| large as New England and the state Of
Indiana combined, which seemed to be
| without any positive ownership. But
for Marcus Whitman it would have
been lost to the Union.
1t was in 1896 that DIR. Whitman and
n man by the name of Spaulding. with
their young wives, the first white wo-
men that ever crossed the Rocky
mountains, entered the valley of the
Columbia and founded mission of the
American board. They had been sent
out to ChristianiZe the Indians, but
Whitman was also TO build state.
He was ut this time 81 years old. In
his Journeys to and fro for the mission
he soon saw the vast possibilities of
the country, and he saw, too. that the
English were already appraised of this
and were rapidly pouring into the ter
ritory. Under the terms of the treaties
of 1878 and 1S2S IL was the tacit be-
lief that whichever nationality settled
and organized the territory. that nation
would hold II. If England and the
English fur traders had Deen success
full in their plans. the three great states
of Washington. Oregon and Idaho
would now constitute n part of Brit
ish Columbia. But it was not destined
to be.
In the fail of 1872 it looked as if
there would he n great importing of
English into the territory. and DIR.
Whitman took the alarm. There was
no time to lose. The authorities ut
Washington must he warned. Hastily
bidding his wife adieu, Or. Whitman
started on his hazardous journey. The
pcrils. hardShips and delays he en-
cOuntered on the way we can but faint
ly conceive. His feet were frozen. he
nearly starved. and once lie came very
near to losing his life. He kept
pushing right on. and at the end of five
terrible months lie reached Washing
ton.
He arrived there worn. bearded,
strangely picturesque figure, clad en-
tirely in buckskin and fur. a typical
man of the prairies. He asked audience
of President Tyler and Secretary Of
State Webster. and it was accorded
him. All clad as he was, with his
frozen limbs, just in from his 1000
mile ride, Whitman appeared before
the two great men to plead for Oregon.
His statement was n revelation TO
the administration. Previous to Whit
mans visit it was the general idea in
congress that Oregon was Il barren.
worthless country, fit only for wild
beasts and wild men. He opened the
eyes of the government TO the limit
less wealth and splendid resources of
that western territory. He told them
of its great rivers and fertile valleys
its mountains covered with forests and
its mines filled With precious treas
ures. He showed them that IL was 4
country worth keeping and that it
must not fall into the hands of the
English. He spoke as man inspired,
and his words were needed.
What followed-the organization of
companies of emigrants, the rapid set
Element of the territory and the treaty
made with Great Britain in 1876 by
which the forty-ninth parallel was
made the boundary line west of the
Rocky mountains are matters of his
tory.
The foresight and the heroism OF one
man and his gallant ride had saved
three great states TO the Union.-Oma-
ha World-Hera