USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 23
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White was the only one who openly protested against this treatment. He wished to prevent the petition from being sent, and that it might be partly deprived of its force, wrote to the United States commissioner of Indian affairs that had any one not connected with the fur company been at half the pains and expense to establish a claim at the Willa- mette falls, there would have been few to object.37 Some who signed the petition with too little care, or under the influence of its framers, years afterward wholly repudiated the sentiments therein contained.38 The constant defamations with which he was pursued under the name of patriotism, for years after the arrival of the great Methodist reenforcement, must have warped any character less strong and generous than McLoughlin's, but with him it was not suffered to change his settled policy of benevolence toward all men, though it sometimes betrayed him into exhi- bitions of resentment, or of helpless protest against
35 Gray's Hist. Or., 292-6; Niles' Reg., lxv. 26; Roberts' Recollections, MS., 21.
36 Mrs Edwards, in Or. Sketches, MS., 23-4.
37 White's Ten Years in Or., 200-1; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 260.
38 Says Medorum Crawford: 'The universal sentiment of the country then and now is, that Dr McLoughlin was a good man,. .. that his heart was right, and that he never did wrong; that he encouraged society to a greater degree than any other man in the country.' Missionaries, MS., 6, 7; Moss' Pioneer Times, MS., 20.
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JOHN RICORD, ESQUIRE.
the devices of his enemies. Little of that gratitude did he receive which is the heartiest praise to man. the holiest prayer to heaven. "Nil homine terra pejus ingratio creato," says Ansonius. Well might the settlers on the Willamette have profited by the juris- prudence of Lilliput where ingratitude was a capital crime. Informed of the accusations brought against him and the Hudson's Bay Company in the petition of 1843, he exclaimed indignantly : "Really, really, the citizens are themselves the best judges if we did so or not, and I am certain if they are so lost to a sense of what is due to truth as to make such an assertion, it is useless for me to say anything." " I am astonished," he adds, "that there should be one person in the country to say such a thing of me." 39
The milling company continued to make improve- ments upon the island part of McLoughlin's claim, while Abernethy, Waller, and others still resided on the site of the town. In the autumn of 1843 there arrived the first large immigration overland, of fami- lies, many of whom remained at Oregon City acquir- ing building-lots and making improvements. This aggregation of people and means at this place in- creased the determination of the missionaries to secure the land to themselves, and alarmed McLoughlin still more lest they should succeed.
Among the immigrants was one John Ricord, of tall, commanding person, insinuating address, and some legal knowledge, all shown off conspicuously by per- sonal vanity. He signed himself "Counsel of the Supreme Court of the United States," whatever that might mean, and was both admired and laughed at by his fellow-travellers.
39 Letter to L. W. Hastings, in Private Papers, MS., Ist ser. 41. This brings to mind the remarks of a clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company, John Dunn, referred to in a previous chapter. 'The patriots,' at Vancouver, he says, 'maintained that the doctor was too chivalrously generous, that his generosity was thrown away, that he was nurturing a race of men who would by and by rise from their meek and humble position, as the grateful acknowl- edgers of his kindness, into the bold attitude of questioners of his own author- ity and the British right to Vancouver itself.' Dunn's Or. Ter., 177.
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CLOSE OF THE METHODIST REGIME.
The question of legality of claims at Oregon City was every day growing more important to the con- testants. They now took the ground that McLough- lin as a British subject was precluded from holding land by preemption, Thereupon McLoughlin con- sulted Ricord on points of American law, but found him unwilling to give advice. Not long after, how- ever, he visited Vancouver in company with Jason Lee and made a proposition in writing to the follow- ing effect: He would become McLoughlin's legal adviser, provided the doctor should so alter his pre- emption boundaries as to exclude the island part of his claim, on which had been erected the saw and grist mills of the Island Milling Company, conceding to them as much water as was necessary for their mills; that Waller should be secured in the ultimate title to two lots in Oregon City, already in his pos- session, and other lots, not to exceed five acres, to be chosen by him from lots unsold; and that Jason Lee should be in like manner secured in the possession of certain lots in Oregon City not described or numbered, to be held for the Methodist Episcopal Mission; all of which conditions he considered necessary to an amicable arrangement.
For his services in attempting to establish Mc- Loughlin's preemption rights, Ricord demanded the sum of three hundred pounds sterling, to which was added the request that the fact should not be made public that he had been retained by McLoughlin, and the suggestion that some person not directly connected with the Hudson's Bay Company should be appointed as McLoughlin's agent at Oregon City. Should these terms not be complied with, he should proceed, at the earliest opportunity, to the Hawaiian Islands. "These terms of Ricord's," says McLoughlin, " appeared to propose an amicable arrangement, when all the sacrifices were to be made by me." Ten days were asked in which to consider this proposition, at the expiration of which McLoughlin wrote to Ricord
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FURTHER PROPOSALS.
that some of his proposals were inadmissible, as he could not dispossess certain persons of lots already deeded, to give them to others; and that he did not see how he could accept his services on the con- ditions offered. To this Ricord replied that it was the only proposal he could make in respect to his friends at the falls, and affecting to regret the circum- stance for McLoughlin's sake and the sake of the peace of the community, expressed the hope that the matter might be arranged by an interview with Waller.
Soon afterward McLoughlin offered to compromise, by yielding to the Mission eight lots for church and school purposes in Oregon City, to be chosen out of unoccupied property, the Mission to restore certain lots held by them which were necessary to his business, on one of which Abernethy was living ; he offered to pay for Abernethy's house whatever it should be ad- judged to be worth by five commissioners, two chosen by the Mission, two by himself, and the fifth by the four. In addition, he would allow the Mission to re- tain one lot on which they had built a store, and one on which Waller's house stood; these lots to revert to him in case the Mission should be withdrawn, by his paying for the improvements; or he would take them and pay for the improvements, giving two lots in closer proximity to the eight lots offered, in their place.
He proposed also to permit the milling company to retain possession of the island until the boundary question between the United States and Great Britain was settled, when if his claim should be allowed, he would purchase their property on the island at the price agreed upon by five commissioners, or sell them the island in the same way, the choice to be optional with him which course to pursue.
The proposal here given was made to Ricord and Lee at Fort Vancouver, the latter expressing himself satisfied with it, as being fair and liberal, but regretting
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CLOSE OF THE METHODIST RÉGIME.
that he had no power to treat for Waller, always the Mission superintendent's most convenient scape-goat.4℃
I would not present Jason Lee as a bad man, or as a good man becoming bad, or as worse now, while tricking his eastern directors and cheating McLough lin out of his land, than while preaching at Fort Hall or seeking the salvation of the dying Indian children. He was the self-same person throughout, and grew wiser and better if anything as the years added ex- perience to his life. He was endeavoring to make the most of himself, to do the best for his country, whether laboring in the field of piety or patriotism; and if on abandoning the missionary work and engaging in that of empire-building he fell into ways called devious by business men, it must be attributed to that specious line of education which leads to the appropriation of the Lord's earth by ministers of the Lord, in so far as the power is given them. In all things he sought to do the best, and he certainly was doing better work, work more beneficial to mankind, and more praise- worthy, as colonizer, than he had formerly achieved as missionary. He had passed through his five years of silence during which time Pythagoras had been wash- ing out his mind and clearing his brain of rubbish, and being now in a position to learn something, he was fast learning it.
While pretending so much concern over what he termed the obduracy of Waller, he was plotting deeply
40 The duplicity practised in the affair of the Oregon City claim, and other matters, reflects seriously on Jason Lee's character for truthfulness. Mc- Loughlin affirms that in the summer of 1843 he spoke to Lee about the pretence of the milling company that they did not know of his claim when they commenced building; and Lee replied, that they must have known of it, as he had himself told them before they began operations. Not long after- ward, Lee and Parrish being together at Fort Vancouver, the latter at the public table declared he had never heard of the doctor's claim before the mill was begun, when Lee replied, 'I attended your first or second meeting, and it is the only meeting I attended, and I told you that McLoughlin claimed the island.' This must have been rather hard for Parrish, who was acting accord- ing to instructions: but Jason Lee had his part as superintendent to play, which was not to allow himself to be implicated, or he would lose his influence with the fur company.
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WALLER DISCLOSES HIMSELF.
to accomplish more than Waller, as his secret agent, ever aimed at. He had determined to again visit the United States, to secure, if possible, from the government a grant, conditioned on the sovereignty of the United States, of all the tracts of land settled upon as missions, which would include Oregon City, and a gift of $5,000 in money toward the endowment of the Oregon Institute.# With this purpose in view he had resigned the presidency of the board of directors of the institute in September, and had offered his ser- vices as an agent for the collection of money in the States, with which to furnish chemical and other appa- ratus to the school, an offer gladly accepted by the other members of the board.
The visit to Fort Vancouver, before mentioned, was while he, in company with Ricord, and Hines and family, was on his way to the mouth of the river to embark in the fur company's bark Columbia, Captain Humphries, for the Sandwich Islands. Before leaving the Willamette Valley, Ricord had penned a caveat against McLoughlin, in which he called Waller his client, and in which McLoughlin was warned that measures had been taken at Washington to substan- tiate Waller's claim to Oregon City as the actual pre- emptor upon six hundred and forty acres of land at that place; and that any sales which McLoughlin might make thereafter would be regarded by his client and the government as fraudulent.
Waller founded his claim on the grounds of citizen- ship of the United States, prior occupancy of the land, and improvement. He denied McLoughlin's clain for the following reasons: that he was an alien, and so not eligible; that he was officer of a "foreign cor- porate monopoly ;" that he did not reside and never had resided on the land; that while he pretended to hold it for himself, he was in fact holding it for a foreign corporate body, as was proved by the employment of individuals of that company as his agents; and as no
41 White's Ten Years in Or., 222; Hines' Or. and Ins., 155.
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CLOSE OF THE METHODIST RÉGIME.
corporate body in the United States could hold land by preëmption, so no foreign corporation could do it ; and lastly, that if his claim had any validity at all, it arose more than two years subsequent to Waller's.42
In addition to the caveat prepared for McLoughlin, Ricord framed an address to the citizens of Oregon, in which he counselled them to resist the aggressions of McLoughlin, and talked grandiloquently of the rights of his client; going so far into this missionary enterprise as to declare that he had read a correspond- ence, which never took place, between McLoughlin and Waller, in which the latter asserts his rights "in modest and firm terms," offering, however, to relinquish them if McLoughlin would comply "with certain very reasonable and just conditions." These documents had been prepared, and left in the hands of the mis- sionaries, to be made public only when Lee and Ricord were embarked for the Islands.
It was on the 3d of February, 1844, that they sailed, and the caveat was served on McLoughlin on the 22d. Lee was well informed of all these things, when he earnestly and with every appearance of sincerity ex- pressed the hope that Waller would agree to Mc- Loughlin's proposition before mentioned; he also drew a promise from McLoughlin to take no measures to dis- possess the Mission at the falls before his return from the United States; which having obtained, he de- parted, satisfied that he would return armed with an assurance from the government of the United States, which would bring heavy loss on McLoughlin, and triumph to himself and the Methodist Mission. 43
42 Letter of John Ricord, in McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., Ist ser. 17-19. If no corporate body could hold land by preemption, how could Mr Waller hold Oregon City for the Mission ?
43 The Private Papers of John McLoughlin, from which the history of the Oregon City claim is chiefly obtained, consist of several documents, with his comments and explanations. They are divided into series, as they relate to different matters-to the settlement of the country; to early efforts at trade by the Americans; to the milling company, and the Oregon City claim in mis- sionary and afterward in territorial times. McLoughlin was no writer, in a literary sense; but every sentence penned by him is endowed with that quality which carries conviction with it; direct, simple, above subterfuge. The care
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THE MERITS OF THE CASE.
As to the actual merits of the opposing claims to Oregon City, the facts on the side of McLoughlin were these: The improvements at the falls of the Willamette were begun in 1829 for the Hudson's Bay Company. But the company objected to the location of a mill south of the Columbia River, for the reason that in the settlement of the boundary question it would almost certainly be found on the American side of the line; for at that time, and for many years thereafter, it was understood from the official an- nouncements of the British government that Eng- land would insist only on the country north of the Columbia being conceded to her in the future boun- dary treaty,4 and that no claim would be made of any territory south of the Columbia, in Oregon.
McLoughlin, however, who had a fondness for farming, after agreeing to settle some of the released servants of the company in the Willamette Valley, which he foresaw would be a great wheat-raising country, determined to build the mill with his own means for himself; but being strenuously opposed by some of his friends in the company, he decided about 1838 to relinquish the land and the water-power at the falls to his step-son, Thomas McKay. He finally yielded to his own strong inclination in favor of the place, however, and determined to keep it, putting up a house to replace those destroyed by the Indians, and openly claiming a preemption right to the land, keeping himself informed of the proceedings of the United States congress in the matter of Oregon lands.
Linn's land bill, which was suggested by Jason Lee himself, had no clause preventing foreigners of any nation from becoming citizens of Oregon, but bestowed
with which letters and other historical data were preserved by McLoughlin renders these papers of great value. They were furnished by Mrs Harvey to the fund of material out of which this history has been made. Without them, many of the secrets of missionary ingratitude would never have come to light ; with them, much that was obscure is made plain.
# A Copy of a Document, in Trans. Or. Pioneer Assoc., 1880, 49.
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CLOSE OF THE METHODIST RÉGIME.
on every white male inhabitant six hundred and forty acres of land. McLoughlin accordingly had that amount surveyed to himself in 1842, and although Linn's bill never passed the house, he with the Amer- icans confidently believed that this, or some similar law, would follow the settlement of the boundary of Oregon, and he intended to take advantage of it. The opposition he met with in his endeavor to hold his claim occasioned increased expenditure. The im- provements made by both claimants drew settlers to Oregon City, and made it more valuable as a town site. Strictly speaking, neither McLoughlin nor Waller had any legal right to the land in question. But in justice, and by a law of common usage among the settlers of Oregon, McLoughlin's claim, being the elder, was the stronger and the better claim. His right to it would be decided by the future action of congress. The greatest difficulty he experienced was that of meeting the untruthful representations made to the government, and the efforts of his enemies to mould public opinion in Oregon. As Ricord has already given the points in Waller's case, they need not be repeated here.
Lee and Ricord were within four days' sail of Hono- lulu when the truth was made known to McLoughlin concerning their covert proceedings. But that mill of the gods which slowly grinds into dust all human ambitions held Jason Lee between the upper and the nether millstone at that identical moment, though he knew it not. On reaching Honolulu, and before he stepped ashore, he was met by Dr Babcock with the intelligence that he had been superseded in the super- intendency of the Oregon Mission by the Rev. George Gary, of the Black River conference, New York, who was then on his way to Oregon to investigate Lee's career since 1840, and if he thought proper, to close the affairs of the Mission. The reports of White, Frost, Kone, Richmond, and others had taken effect,
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DEATH OF JASON LEF.
and an inquiry was to be instituted into the financial affairs of the Mission in Oregon
When Lee left Oregon it was with the intention of waiting at the Islands for a vessel going to New York or Boston, and with the expectation that Mr and Mrs Hines and his little daughter would accompany him. He had been superintendent for ten years, and just at the time when the position seemed most important to him he was to be deposed. For a while he was staggered, but after the first revulsion of feeling he determined to make at least a protest. After con- sultation with Hines and Babcock, it was settled that they should return at the earliest opportunity to Oregon, and do what they could in his interests there. Without waiting for an American vessel, and leaving his child, he hastened on to New York by the Ha- waiian schooner Hoa Tita, for Mazatlan, and thence proceeded to Vera Cruz and to his destination.
In the work of colonization the way was oftentimes difficult, and seemed at times exceedingly slow, yet he could not but feel that though the soft air bites the. granite never so gently, the rock will crumble beneath constant effort.
He felt uneasy at the thought of meeting his brethren. Surely there were enough redskins in the west who knew not God. What should he say to those who had sent him forth, when they should ask why he had not converted the heathen? Though he might wrap himself in a newly slain bullock's hide, after the manner of the Scotchman, and lie down beside a water-fall or at the foot of a precipice, and there meditate until the thoughts engendered by the wild surroundings should become inspiration, yet could he not fathom the mystery why God's creatures, whom he had been sent by God to instruct, should wither and die at his touch !
45 Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Managers of the Missionary Society of the M. E. Church, in White's Ten Years in Or., 132. See also Hines' Oregon Hist., 235-7.
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CLOSE OF THE METHODIST RÉGIME.
Lee arrived at New York in May, but what trans- pired between himself and the missionary board is unknown. He employed himself during the year in soliciting funds for the Oregon Institute, which he was destined never to see again, for he died March 2, 1845, at Lake Memphremagog, in the province of Lower Canada. His last act was to make a small bequest to the institution for which he was laboring. and for the advancement of education in the country of his adoption.46
In the books of the missionary writers, "Jason Lee of precious memory" is alluded to only in his char- acter as director of a religious mission, no reference ever being made to his political schemes. The reason is obvious. To impute to him all that belonged to him would be to acknowledge that the missionary society in New York was right in dismissing him for mis- representation of the requirements of Oregon, and a misappropriation of a large amount of the funds of the society; therefore, that part of his career which best illustrates his talents is left entirely out of the account, and appears only in the reports of congress and the private manuscripts of McLoughlin. That he had the ability to impress upon the Willamette Valley a character for religious and literary aspira- tion, which remains to this day; that he suggested the manner in which congress could promote and reward American emigration, at the same time craftily keep- ing the government in some anxiety concerning the intentions of the British government and Hudson's Bay Company, when he could not have been ignorant of the fact that so far as the country south of the Columbia was concerned there was nothing to fear ; that he so carefully guarded his motives as to leave even the sagacious McLoughlin in doubt concerning them, up to the time he left Oregon-all of these taken together exhibit a combination of qualities which were hardly to be looked for in the frank, easy-tem-
46 Hines' Or. and Institutions, 156.
221
HONOR TO JASON LEE.
pered, but energetic and devoted missionary, who in the autumn of 1834 built his rude house beside the Willamette River, and gathered into it a few sickly Indian children whose souls were to be saved though they had not long to remain in their wretched bodies. How he justified the change in himself no one can tell. He certainly saw how grand a work it was to lay the foundation of a new empire on the shores of the Pa- cific, and how discouraging the prospect of raising a doomed race to a momentary recognition of its lost condition, which was all that ever could be hoped for the Indians of western Oregon. There is much credit to be imputed to him as the man who carried to suc- cessful completion the dream of Hall J. Kelley and the purpose of Ewing Young. The means by which these ends were attained will appear more fully when I come to deal with government matters. Taken all in all, and I should say, Honor to the memory of Jason Lee !
Hines and Babcock returned to Oregon in April by the brig Chenamas, Captain Couch, and Gary, the new superintendent, arrived at Oregon City on the Ist of June, 1844. Early on the 7th of that month a meeting of the missionaries took place at Chemeketa, for the purpose of consultation upon affairs of the Mission, and an investigation by Gary. "Such was the interest involved," says Mr Hines, "that the in- vestigation continued until daylight the next morn- ing." The result of the conference was the dissolu- tion of the Mission ; the laymen being offered a passage for themselves and families to their former homes, or its equivalent out of the property owned by the Mis- sion, an amount, in each case, reaching $800 or $1,000. With one exception the laymen all preferred to remain, and were discharged, except Brewer, who was retained at the Dalles. The Mission farm, buildings, and cattle at Clatsop were ordered to be sold. The property of the Willamette Mission, consisting of houses, farms, cattle, farm-tools, mills, and goods of every descrip-
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CLOSE OF THE METHODIST RÉGIME.
tion, was likewise sold. Many of the immigrants of the previous year would have been glad to purchase part of the property, but the missionaries secured it to themselves.
Hamilton Campbell purchased, on a long credit, all the Mission herds, and was thereafter known among the indignant immigrants as Cow Campbell, a sobriquet he always continued to bear.47 George Abernethy came into possession of the Mission store, and bought up at a discount all the debts of the French settlers, to whom a considerable amount of goods had been sold on credit.48 In a similar manner houses and farms were disposed of to the amount of over $26,000, or at less than half the original cost, the sales amounting to little more than a distribution of the society's assets among the missionaries.
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