Smyrna times., 1908-05-06
WHIT6,l,1n'S WILDRIDF
1t Was Worth Three Stars to the
American Flag.
SAVED US VAST TERRITORY.


ton Made by Brave Man and the
Results Which Followed In Its Wake
The ride of Marcus Whitman was
over snow capped mountains and along
dark ravines. Travelled only by savage
men. 1t was a plunge through lev riv.
ers and across trac5less prairies. q
ride Of 1900 miles across a continent
in the dead of winter to save a mighty
territory to the Union
Compared with this what was the
feat of Paul Revere, who rode eight
cen miles on Il calm night in April TO
arouse handful of sleeping patriots
and thereby save the powder at Con
cord?
Whitman's ride saved three stars to
the American flag. 1t was made in
| 1872
In 1892. during the first administra-
tion 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 DOS
session in the name of the United
| States
In lSOJ, under JefrersOns 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 at
colonization was made save the estab-
ishment 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 number of trading posts and filed
the country with adventurous fur trad
ers. SO here was a 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.
a man of 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 a mission Of
the American board. They had been
sent out to Christianize the Indians.
but Whitman was also to build a state
lie was at this time thirty-five years
old. In his journeys to and fro for
the mission he soon saw the vast nos
slbilities of the country. and he saw.
TOO. that the English were already an
prlSed of this and were rapidly pour
ing into the territory. Under the terms
OF the treaties of 1918 and 1923 if was
the tacit belief that whichever nation
ality settled and organized the splen-
dld territory would hold it. If Eng
land and the English fur traders had
been successful in their plans. the
three great states of Washington. Ore
gon and Idaho would now constitute a
part Of British Columbia. But it was
not destined to be.
In the fall of 1912 it looked as if
there would be Il great inpouring of
EhgIlsh into the territory. and DIR.
Whitman took the alarm. There was
no time to lose. The authorities at
washington must be warned Hastily
bidding his wife adieu, DR.. Whitman |
started on his hazardous journey. The
perlls' hardships and delays he en- |
countered on the way we can but |
talntly conceive. His feet were frozen |
ne nearly starved. and once he came |
very near to losing his life. He kent
pushing right on. and at the end of
nNe terrible months he reached Wash |
ington.
lie arrived there a worn, bearded.
strangely picturesque figure. clad en-
llreIy IN buckskin and fur, a typical
man of the prairies. He asked audi-
ence 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 Ore
gon.
His statement was a revelation TO
the administration Previous to Whit
mans visit it was the general idea in
that Oregon was a barren
worthless country. fit only for wild
beasts and wild men He opened tba
eyes of the government to the limit
less wealth and splendid resources of
that western territory. He told them
OF It's great rivers and fertile valleys
lts mountains covered with forests
and its mines filled with precious
treasures. He showed them that it
was a country worth keeping and
that it must not fall into the hands of
the English. He spoke as a man in
splred, and his words were needed
What followed-the organization of
companies of emigrants, the rapid set
tlement of the territory and the treaty
made with Great Britain in 1s46 nv
which the forty-ninth parallel was
made the boundary line west of the
Rocky mountains-are matters of his
tory