The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-12-06
WHAT A NOTED MINISTER SAID
ABOUT THE GREAT WEST
ERIN MISSIONARY.
His Work, His Name and Fame Are
Part of History of the
Republic.

I
sion. of the National Congregational
council recently, Rev. DR.. Newell
Dwight Hills delivered remarkable
address on "A Century After Lewis
and Clark Crossed the Continental
| Hundred Years of Home Missionary
| Work in the Great West His adj
dress was printed in, the Brooklyn
Eagle, and he had the following to say
regarding DR.. Marcus Whitman, the
missionary:
But if these missionaries have built
states and spread manhood over AM
erica, sometimes they have saved
states and one of them made a pres
ent Of two commemorative to this
country. OF late Oregon and Marcus
Whitman have been in the flames of
historical criticism. Professor Bourne
of Yale has written much on the
Whitman myth. He has led Marcus
Whitman to the edge of the limbo
where ghosts live and bowed him out
of existence. All this is entirely safe
for Professor Bourne, as Whitman has
long been dead. His chief argument
is that it was not until years after
Whitman's death that any one ever
Oregon to the republic. He thinks
that by happy coincidence Webster
ignorantly insisted on the region, and
that by treaty gained Washington and
Oregon. But now open to the pages of
the Hudson River company-those
splendid volumes published by Low
man & Green. Call that distinguish
ed historian, their author, to the
stand. He will tell you that the Hud-
son Bay company ruled Canada, once
called Prince Rupert's land; that they
had the power of life and death, as
well as of making laws and that they
controlled western Canada, by their
factors, like old DIR. Mclaughlin, who
was their great man on the Columbia
river, and who watched Whitman and
his moves and sent Indian runners
with messages to Montreal. Last
summer this distinguished historian
said to me at dinner: Your president
did not understand the Importance
of Oregon and Washington, your
Daniel Webster did not know about
the country. My people thought they
had it, and we would have the rich
est section of the Pacific slope but for
that missionary of yours, Marcus
Whitman, who crossed the continent
in. winter, endured the pitiless rains
and SHOWS, swan his horse through
stream and river midst floating ice,
and startled Webster and the presi-
dent by the story of the, resources of
the land we coveted And now, all
along the track Of Whitman's ride has
sprung up old men who Indignantly
scorn Professor Bourne's attempt to
book called The Whitman Myth.
Men to the west of the Rockies, old
men in st. Louis and Cincinnati, New
York and Washington, who heard
Whitman describe the resources of the
country, and listened to his impas-
stoned appeal for assistance in waking
up his government. Today there are
a hundred proofs of Whitman's
achievement. And one of the books
| that have gone to the exploded limbo
of myths is the volume that started
| up to destroy Wnltman's name.
What! The Whitman Myth That is
the Bourne to which no scholar will
| ever return. Whitman was knight
| errant who rode to victory. His work
for Oregon, his name and fame, are
henceforth a part of the history of the
| 30