USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 44
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The two sessions of the committee of 1844 occu- pied less than three weeks, in which time forty-three bills were passed, many of them of general impor- tance. Some of the shorter ones showed the improve- ments to which the accession of population was giving rise. Hugh Burns and Robert Moore were granted rights to keep public ferries on the Willamette; John McLoughlin to construct a canal round the falls ; W. H. Wilson and L. H. Judson to construct a mill-race in Champoeg County. Jesse Applegate was appointed engineer to survey for a canal from the crossing of the Tualatin River, down Sucker Creek, to the Willamette River, in order to determine the cost of making this a mode of transportation from the Tualatin plains to the Willamette. Several road acts were also passed.
The legislative committee fixed the pay of the ex- ecutive committee at one hundred doliars each, per annum, for their services, the three receiving nothing above the amount fixed as the salary of the gov- ernor provided for by an act passed the following day. But as the organic law did not contemplate paying the executive committee in anything but honors, one hundred dollars to each might be considered as a gift. The legislative committee voted themselves two dol- lars a day, and the assessor of the revenue the same.22
21 The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and nappiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another as a site of a prison.' Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, 53. 'We are getting along finely,' writes a settler; 'and have already laid the foundation of a jail.' Niles' Reg., Ixx. 214. 22 Oregon Laws, 1843-9, 76.
441
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
The judiciary report of 1843, in defining the pow- ers of the executive committee, gave them authority to "recommend such laws as they might consider necessary, to the representatives of the people, for their action;" and they had, at the opening of the second session, recommended to the representatives to make provision for framing and adopting a constitution for Oregon previous to the next annual election on the first Tuesday in June. Accordingly an act was passed to provide for holding a constitutional convention, requiring the executive committee to notify the in- habitants of all the counties that they should at the next annual election give their votes for or against the call for a convention to frame a constitution, and notify the legislative committee elected of the result. This act, in which both committees elected by the people were agreed, was unfavorably commented upon by certain friends of the original organic law, as a movement toward an independent government. Ap- plegate expressed the opinion that the changes made in the mode of administration were unnecessary for the short time the provisional government was expected to last. 23
Two of the executive committee, I think, leaned toward independent government, and they were among those who had been longest in the country. This was hinted in the message of June signed by the whole committee,24 though bearing the impress of but one author.25 The second message explains that adjournment to December was made in the ex- pectation of receiving some information from the United States relative to the adjustment of claims with Great Britain. When this fact is taken into consideration, and that no satisfactory intelligence had been obtained of such settlement, the coloring given to the acts passed in December is such as to justify
23 Views of History, MS., 41.
24 The message of December was signed only by Russell and Stewart.
25 Burnett says, 'I think Russell wrote the message,' but this is simply an opinion.
442
LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
an opinion that there was a determination to perfect as rapidly as possible a government which would be able to cope with the exigencies to which it was liable to be subjected.26 In advising the adoption of a con- stitution, the writer of the message used this lan- guage: "It should be constructed in such a manner as would best suit the local situation of the country, and promote the general interests of the citizens, without interfering with the real or pretended rights of the United States or Great Britain, except when the protection of life and property actually require it." The legislative committee, by calling for the votes of the people upon a constitutional convention, may have been feeling their way toward what the future had in store for them, without meriting much opprobrium.
It is noteworthy, however, that at the first session Lovejoy moved to strike the word 'territory' out of the journal of legislative proceedings. This might mean that the legislative committee did not wish the country to be considered a territory of the United States, or that in their estimation it was not such at present. An attempt was made in the legislature of 1845 to establish the name Oregon Territory, but it was never adopted until the boundary was determined and the question of sovereignty set at rest. Again, in the judiciary act, the nineteenth article of the organic law is repealed, the same being a resolution that a committee should be appointed to "draw up a digest of the doings of the people of this territory, with regard to an organization, and transmit the same to the United States government for their informa- tion." That committee, consisting of Lee, . Hines, and Walker, never informed the government of the organization, nor did the legislative committee of 1844. It was not until 1845 that congress was notified that Oregon enjoyed a government in which the United
26 McLoughlin wrote to Alexander Simpson under date of Nov. 1844: 'They declare that, if in ten years the boundary is not settled, they will erect themselves into an independent state.' This refers to the colonists at large. See Simpson's Or. Ter. Claims, 41.
443
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES.
States had as yet no part. The repeal of the resolu- tion may have signified that the committee did not desire to have its doings reported to congress, or it might have been done, because such a resolution was out of place in the organic law.
But however the legislative committee may have favored the independence of Oregon, there is no reason to suppose they intended to yield aught to the British government or Hudson's Bay Company,27 but on the contrary, there appeared a disposition to vote down the bills and petitions presented in the interest of John McLoughlin.28 In many small ways they unintentionally left proof that, if they aimed at independence for Oregon, it was as a government free from all influences foreign to their republican principles. 29
The economy of the government is shown in the appropriations, which for its whole expenses for the first year amounted to $917.96, to meet which there were $358.31 in the treasury, the tax collector not yet having completed his labors. This was less than fifty cents for each individual in the country, accord- ing to the census of 1844, the correctness of which I doubt, giving as it does a total of 2,109,30 including the immigration of that year, which was also taxed.
27 Gray accuses Burnett 'and a few other Americans' of truckling to the fur company. Hist. Or., 384; Niles' Reg., Ixix. 224; Howison's Coast and Country, 17.
28 One of the first petitions presented was from McLoughlin for permission to establish a ferry across the Willamette River, which was refused. Mc- Longhlin also remonstrated against leave being granted certain Americans to construct a route to the island mills, but the leave was granted. But the petition for leave to construct a canal around the falls was allowed, because that was a work requiring a large outlay, and one which would be of great benefit to the colony. McLoughlin's name of 'Oregon City' for his town was steadily rejected by the legislative committee, who wrote Willamette Falls' at the head of their proceedings, till at the December session it was formally incorporated as Oregon City.
29 Waldo's Critiques, MS., 8.
30 Males over 18 years, 725; under 18 years, 536; females over 18 years, 363; under 18 years, 485. Champoeg County had the largest population; Tualatin next; then Yamhill, Clackamas, and Clatsop, in a descending scale. White in his report gave the population at 4,000. T'en Years in Or., 225; Con- cise View, MS., 54. The census of 1844 was taken by Thomas H. Smith, later a resident of Los Angeles County, Cal., according to an act of the legislature. It would ha been impossible to obtain a perfect count at the time.
444
LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
No census was taken of the amount of property in the country.
Applegate calls the acts of the legislative commit- tee of 1844 "impolitic and unpatriotic;" and asserts further that the conservative class, which greatly out- numbered the mere demagogues and their followers, determined these wrongs should be righted at any cost.31 Had Mr Applegate ever done anything to deserve the name of demagogue, here would be the time to accuse him of wishing in his turn to subvert a good government, because it was proposed to place it on a firm basis. He was perhaps unconscious of the influence at work to create public sentiment against the acts of the legislative committee, or the jealousies which struggled to prevent either of two of the members of the executive committee from being governor of the colony. How the people finally decided I shall relate in a future chapter concerning the legislature of 1845, of which Applegate was a member.
After all there appeared to be no great need of law in Oregon. The only occasion on which Judge Bab- cock, elected at the primary meeting of 1841, exercised his probate powers, was at the death of Cornelius Rogers in the spring of 1843.32 All the disturbances occurring in the colony had been of a nature to bring them under the jurisdiction of White. There is but a single mention of an assault previous to the estab- lishment of circuit courts, and that one was accom- panied by extenuating circumstances, the offender escaping with a fine. But in the spring of 1845 Joel Turnham assaulted Webley Hauxhurst with such violence that a complaint was entered against him. Turnham, being a constable, could not take himself into custody, and John Edmonds was deputed to make the arrest. Turnham resisted and attacked Edmonds,
31 Views of History, MS., 41-2.
32 Hines and Gray appraised thestate at $1,500, debts $700. Rogers' heirs resided fin Utica, N. Y. Hines' Or. Hist., 140.
445
SHERIFF MEEK.
who was compelled to fire on him, the shots result- ing fatally. The grand jury found no bill against Edmonds.33 Not long after this, Sheriff Meek had a warrant to arrest V. W. Dawson, an enemy of the government, who openly defied the organization, and would have resisted the officer had not Meek been as kind and cool as he was courageous. Dawson, finding he must submit, thereafter was a firm friend of law, and insisted that as he obeyed, every other must.
33 White's Concise View, MS., 40; Niles' Reg., Ixviii. 393; Kaiser's Nar., MS., 10, 11: Salem Directory, 1871.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1844.
BELLIGERENT ATTITUDE OF THE BRITISH AND AMERICANS-VANCOUVER FOR- TIFIED - GATHERING OF THE EMIGRANTS -THE SEVERAL DIVISIONS AND COMPANIES-THE INDEPENDENT COLONY-CORNELIUS GILLIAM- NATHANIEL FORD-THE JOURNEY-SUFFERINGS ON THE JOURNEY- THEIR DESTITUTE CONDITION-RECEPTION BY MISSIONARIES AND FUR- TRADERS-NAMES OF THE IMMIGRANTS-BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
I HAVE said that there were two session's of the legislative committee of 1844, which adjourned from June 27th to December 16th, in order to have an opportunity of learning from the immigrants who were expected in the autumn the attitude of affairs between the rival claimants of the Oregon Territory. No less anxious than the Americans were the British subjects, who, being well informed by the belligerent speeches in congress, and the temper of the western people, began to look on their position in Oregon as insecure.
Nor was McLoughlin ignorant that the pilgrims of 1843 were prevented by circumstances rather than by will from hostile acts; and notwithstanding that the danger was averted for the time, he did not regret having written to England for protection.1 In the summer of 1844 he had added a bastion to Fort Vancouver, and otherwise increased the defences of the place, which before was hardly in a condition to resist attack. The reason given for these prepara- tions was the threatening demeanor of the natives of the interior, and the necessity of doing something to
1 McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., 3d ser., 12.
(446 )
447
WAR CLOUDS.
secure the company's property in case of an outbreak. But these explanations did not deceive the more in- telligent of the Americans, and while some smiled at the admission that the Americans were feared,2 others chose to take alarm, and to accuse the company of intending to make war on them.
Early in July 1844 a British sloop of war, the Modeste, Captain Thomas Baillie, carrying twenty guns, entered the Columbia, and anchored opposite Vancouver; but it does not appear from McLoughlin's papers that any proffer of protection was made, or that the sloop remained long. It is certain, however, that the board of management had been officially notified that England would not yield any of Oregon north of the Columbia, and that they were to govern themselves accordingly.
The position which the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company filled at this time was one of great delicacy and not a little dread, which every fresh intelligence from the United States or England in- creased. On the 24th of January Wentworth of Illinois had said in congress: "I think it our duty to speak freely and candidly, and let England know that she never can have an inch of Oregon, nor another inch of what is now claimed as the United States territory." A determination to maintain this position was the issue upon which a president of the United States was to be elected. On the other hand, it had been said in the English parliament, by Sir Robert Peel, " England knows her rights and dares maintain them;"4 and by Lord Palmerston, that if Linn's bill
2 Gray, who seems not to understand the influence of congress on these acts of the company, attributes its defensive attitude at this time to the forma- tion of the military force called the Oregon Rangers; and says sneeringly: 'The company had found that since the Americans began to settle in the country these Indians had become more dangerous." Hist. Or., 374-5. Blanchet takes Gray up sharply on this statement, which he seems to think is seriously meant. He says: 'It is false that the company had anything to fear from the Indians. If the fort was repaired, bastions built, and all other protective and defensive measures were completed, it was to defend itself against another kind of savageness.' Hist. Cath. Church in Or., 145.
3 Greenhow's Or. and Cal., 394.
+ Roberts' Recollections, MS., 6.
148
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1844.
had passed both houses of congress it would have been a declaration of war.5 This belligerent attitude on both sides was also as well known to uneducated western men, who were capital Indian-fighters, and who had served under Jackson and Taylor, as it was to the 'scholarly officers of the British fur comyany.6
The inducement to go to Oregon was not lessened by the prospect of having to drive out the nation which had been fought at New Orleans and along the bor- der, and a large number of people7 collected at differ- ent points on the Missouri River, amounting in all to fourteen hundred persons. The company which ren- dezvoused near Weston, at a place called Capler's land- ing, was led by Cornelius Gilliam, who had conceived the idea of an independent colony, as best suited to his fancy and the temper of the men. The leaders of 1844 were hardly equal to those of the previous
5 Cong. Globe, 1843-4, app. 98.
6 Minto's Early Days, MS., 20.
7 McLoughlin places the number of immigrants of 1844 at 1,475. Private Papers, MS., 2d ser., 9. A letter in the Western, Mo., Expositor of May 18, 1844, and dated at 'Oregon Camps ' May [15th, says: 'Our company when joined with yours will be very large-much the largest that has ever crossed the Rocky Mountains. There are in the Independent Oregon Colony, at this date, 1 minister, 1 lawyer, 1 millwright, 3 millers, 1 tailor, 1 ship-carpenter, 2 blacksmiths, 1 cooper, I tailoress, 2 cabinet-makers, 5 carpenters, 4 wheel- wrights, 2 shoemakers, 1 weaver, 1 gunsmith, 1 wagon-maker, I merchant, and the rest farmers. There are 48 families, 108 men (of whom 60 are young men), 323 persons; 410 oxen, 160 cows (16 of which are team cows), 143 young cattle, 54 horses, 41 mules, and 72 wagons. Many men from the adjoining counties are on their way to join us.' This letter was written by Captain Cornelius Gilliam, who was encamped with his company nine miles below St Joseph, Mo., to Captain Nathaniel Ford, who was at Independence with another company. S. I. Friend, Nov. 1, 1844; N. Y. Express, June 7, 1844; Niles' Reg., Ixv. 160. John Minto, who joined Gilliam's company, thinks the immigration of 1844 numbered about 800. Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1876, 42. A correspondent of the S. I. Friend, of June 2, 1845, says there were over 600. In the message of the executive committee of December 1844 the number is estimated at upwards of 750 persons. Gray's Hist. Or., 382. Elwood Evans, in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1877, 26, places the number at 475. We can count 300 of Gilliam's company, before the accession of all the 87 wagons comprising it. Ford's company swelled the host to about 800, and there was still another company under John Thorp, which started from near the mouth of the Platte River, and travelled on the north side of that stream. As they would not come together until the different organizations had been much broken up, it would be difficult to judge of each other's original numbers. No count would again be made until they reached the Dalles, from which point the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company would be on the alert to ascertain their strength, for obvious reasons.
449
CORNELIUS GILLIAM.
year. Nor by saying this do I mean any disrespect. They were brave, loyal, earnest, but better fitted to execute than to command; to be loyal to a govern- ment than to construct one. Their tendencies were more toward military glory than pride of statesman- ship. This spirit led them to organize under military rules for their journey to the Columbia, and to elect a set of officers sufficient for an army, with Gilliam as general.
Nothing is known of Gilliam's antecedents. He was brave, obstinate, impetuous, and generous, with good natural abilities, and but little education. His accomplishments were varied; he had served in the Black Hawk war, and also in the Seminole war in Florida, as captain; he had preached the gospel of Christ; he had been sheriff of a county, and had served in the Missouri legislature. He was, indeed, just the robust, impulsive, sympathetic, wilful, and courageous leader the men of the border would choose. His aid was John Inyard.8
The colonel of the organization was Michael T. Simmons, uneducated, but brave and independent, who sought in emigration to Oregon recovery of for- tune and health. Four captains were elected under Gilliam: R. W. Morrison, William Shaw, Richard Woodcock, and Elijah Bunton.9 Instead of a judge advocate, with that instinct toward civil liberties which characterized the frontiersman, a court of
8 Minto, in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1876, 39; Letter of W. H. Rees to John Minto. Inyard had served, in a subordinate capacity, with Gilliam in the Seminole war, taking part in the battle of Okechobee. In General Taylor's report of the battle, some disobedience of Captain Gilliam, which entailed a loss of life, was mentioned, for which unfavorable report both Gilliam and Inyard bore ever after an inveterate enmity toward the future hero of the Mexican war. Inyard, according to Rees, was 'an average man of the class reared in the south-west amid the ruinous institutions of human slavery.' Id. This name, I find, is sometimes spelled Engart.
9 Morrison was a thrifty fariner from the neighborhood of Weston. Minto's Early Days, MS., 18. Shaw was born in North Carolina, near Raleigh, in 1795; but emigrated with his father to Tennessee when a child; and again to Missouri in 1819, when the inhabitants were living in forts to protect them- selves against the natives. He had fought under General Jackson in 1814- 15, in the war against the Creeks and the British. Shaw's Pioneer Life, MS., 1, 2.
HIST. OR., VOL. I. 29
450
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1844.
equity was established by the election of a judge, with two associate justices.10 But the court was in- operative, martial law prevailing during the mainte- nance of military discipline.11
When the independent colony reached the buffalo grounds, Gilliam used to dash off after the game, to the disappointment of those left in charge of the train.12 Speeches were made in camp on this subject, and some regulations were laid down for hunting, but they were not regarded; and as happened in 1843, when the Rocky Mountains had been passed, there was no longer any attempt to keep together in large companies.
The other divisions, led by Nathaniel Ford, a man of character and influence, and John Thorp, appear not to have found it necessary to burden themselves with too many regulations, and progressed well with- out them. Moses Harris, well known in the moun- tains among the fur-traders and trappers as Black Harris, acted as guide. A company under Sublette also travelled with them from the Platte to Green River. The spring was unusually rainy. By the over- flowing of streams, as well as the softening of the earth, so much time was lost that by the 1st of July not more than one hundred miles in a straight course had been travelled. Yet they did not suffer them- selves to be discouraged, only one man out of Gil- liam's command turning back.13 Two months of wet weather produced dysentery and rheumatism.14 The delay occasioned by storms was so much additional time in which provisions were being consumed; hence
10 Benjamin Nichols, judge; Joseph Gage and Theophilus Magruder, asso- ciate justices. Charles Saxton was secretary of the independent company.
11 Clark Eades, for violating a general order, was tried before General Gilliam, and sentenced to be 'tied, and staked out in the hot sun from eleven o'clock A. M. until the going down of the same.' Letter of W. H. Rees.
12 Frémont's Rept. for 1843-4, in U. S. Cath. Mag., iv. 265.
13 ' An Oregonian,' in Salem Will. Farmer, Dec. 17, 1875.
14 Sublette's company consisted of 22 men, 11 of whom were travelling for their health. Three of these died within a few days of each other: Marshall, June 27th, Ketchum, July 3d, Browning, July 7th. Clyman's Note Book, MS., 22, 25, 26. A Mr Barnett of the emigration died at Green River, of typhoid fever. Id.
451
CLYMAN. MINTO, AND WATT.
at Fort Laramie many families were already without flour, and compelled to purchase it at thirty and forty dollars a barrel. Sugar could be procured only at a dollar and a half a pint.
The route from Green River to Fort Hall was the same opened the year before by way of Fort Bridger. Many were bitterly disappointed on reaching this point to be told that they were then only half-way to their destination ; and a small company of men without families abandoned their wagons two days west of this post, and prepared to travel with horses only.15 They reached Fort Hall on the 10th of September, finding flour at this place too high for their means. Gilliam's wagons arrived here the 16th, where a letter awaited them from Burnett, advising them, if they were likely to need assistance before reaching the Columbia, to send word to the settlers. As it was manifest that assistance would be needed, a party of young men were sent forward on horses, who reached Oregon City on the 18th of October. These were John Minto,16
15 Of this company was James Clyman, who kept a daily journal or note- book, which has fortunately been preserved through many vicissitudes, and which I have found very useful. Besides the incidents of the journey, it con- tains many instructive remarks on the country traversed; and an account of affairs in the Oregon colony during the winter of 1844-5. Clyman was a Vir- ginian by birth, but emigrated from Stark County, Ohio.
16 John Minto became well known and highly esteemed in Oregon. He was of English birth and education, a native of Wylam on the Tyne, in Nor- thumberland, born Oct. 10, 1822. He came to the United States in 1840, and settled at Pittsburgh, Pa., as a coal-miner. From Pennsylvania he went to St Louis in the spring of 1844, on his way to the frontier of Iowa, and learned at this place of the emigration to Oregon, which he determined to join. Having no means to procure an outfit, he engaged with R. W. Morrison to drive team and make himself useful, for his passage and board. It is to Minto's Early Days, a manuscript by his own hand, that I am chiefly indebted for the account of Gilliam's company. It contains, besides, valuable remarks on the political situation of 1844-6, on the industries of the country and stock- raising, and on the social condition of the colonists, with other miscellaneous matter. Minto married Miss Martha A. Morrison when they had been about three years in Oregon, and they went to reside near Salem. Minto has been a useful, intelligent, and every way an exemplary builder on the edifice of a new state; a farmer, stock-raiser, and editor; public-spirited in every position he has been called upon to fill. Mrs Minto is known throughout the state for her fearless vindication of what she esteems the right; and has been called the 'musket-member' of the Woman's Suffrage Association of Oregon. According to Minto, her mother carried, or at least was furnished with, a rifle, on her journey to Oregon, which she was competent to use had it been necessary. Mrs Minto has, as well as her husband, furnished a manuscript to my collec-
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