USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 49
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my office with Mr Campbell. ... But after again giving the subject my fullest consideration, I am sorry it is not in my power, consistent with my trust, to give any other answer than that in mine of the 12th inst. I have, etc.
Oregon City, Aug. 20, 1845.
38 Or. Laws, 1843-9, 32.
JOHN MCLOUGHLIN.' 39 Or. Archives, MS., 69-70.
40 Applegate had resigned before the legislature passed this unjustifiable act. In his marginal notes to Gray's History, 430, he says: 'Dr McLoughlin was bound to the government of the United States for the safe-keeping and delivery of the launch of the Peacock, and not to any of its dependencies.' See Niles' Reg., 1xx. 340.
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AMENDMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS.
navy, a few months after the passage of the act, who sold it to a Mr Shelly, for the avowed purpose of using it as a pilot-boat.41
The first bill passed by the duly authorized legisla- ture was to prevent duelling; the immediate cause for it being a quarrel between S. M. Holderness and J. G. Campbell, both estimable citizens, who could think of no other honorable way out of their difficulties than mortal combat. On hearing of this, Applegate at once introduced a bill on the subject, asked for a suspen- sion of the rules, secured its passage, and sent it to the governor to be signed, when it became a law within thirty minutes of its inception. Under its provisions the would-be duellists were arrested and placed under bonds to keep the peace. Early in the session a bill was passed adopting the statutes of Iowa, so far as they were applicable to the circumstances of the coun- try. This tendency in each legislative body to have its enactments based upon the code of Iowa was greatly a matter of necessity, owing to a scarcity of law-books in the territory, as I have explained; but with the legislature of 1845 it was something more. Iowa was a new state and nearest to Oregon. It was a free state, which the leading men in the colony had deter- mined Oregon should be, and had passed its minority as Oregon was doing, under the ordinance of 1787, under conditions also similar to those of Oregon; and its laws moreover were less conservative and more progressive than those of the older states.
Having adopted a code and set the committees at work adapting it to the country's needs, which they did in a measure by adopting the laws of 1844, the next movement was to restore the jurisdiction of the provisional government to the country north of the Columbia River. This was done by setting off
41 Howison's Coast and Country, 4; Or. Spectator, Sept. 3, 1846. Gray says because the doctor refused to deliver the boat to the Oregon legislature, it was 'allowed to rot on the beach at Astoria.' Hist. Or., 430. If it did so rot, it was as the private property of a citizen of Oregon.
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NORTH OF THE COLUMBIA.
the district of Vancouver,42 which embraced all that part of Oregon north and west of the Columbia River.43 But now arose the question of apportion- ment and other matters connected therewith; a point in legislation upon which Applegate and a few others regarded as most important, to wit: Would the offi- cers of the Hudson's Bay Company become parties to the articles of compact by the payment of taxes, and complying with the laws of the provisional gov- ernment, which only promised protection to its adhe- rents ?# Should they refuse their support, they would become outlawed, and the objective point if not the prey of any turbulent spirits of the next immigration, who like Alderman might choose to settle on their lands, or like Chapman, threaten to burn Fort Vancouver.45
The committee on apportionment was composed of I. W. Smith, H. A. G. Lee, B. Lee, Applegate, and McClure. Applegate proposed in a private session of the committee to get the sentiments of the Hud- son's Bay Company on the question of the compact, and was deputized by them to hold a private inter-
42 It seems from the archives that McClure from the committee on districts reported a bill in relation to two counties north of the Columbia; but that Applegate, who had a prejudice in favor of the word ' district,' was allowed to control the choice. It was his wish, also, to name the two counties Lewis and Clarke; but upon reconsidering the matter, gave up Clarke for Vancouver. Only one district was defined at this time; and at the next session Lewis County was created, and the word ' county ' was substituted for district in all the laws where it occurred.
+3 Or. Laws, 1843-9.
# Applegate says: 'To organize a civil or military power that did not in- clude all parties was simply organizing internecine war. To prevent such a state of things, I took a seat in the legislature.' Marginal notes on Gray's Hist. Or., 422.
45 This man is several times referred to in McLoughlin's Private Papers, where he says Chapman boasted that he came all the way from the States for the purpose of burning Fort Vancouver. White relieved the country of this dread by inducing Chapman to return with him to the United States. But there were several dangerous men who came with the immigrations in the territory, of whom McLoughlin stood in fear, one of whom confessed in a Methodist camp-meeting that he had belonged to the famous Murrill band of robbers which gave the authorities trouble for a number of years in the Mississippi Valley. Burnett speaks of several 'idle, worthless young men, too lazy to work at home, and too genteel to steal; while some others were gamblers, and others reputed thieves; ' but says that in Oregon they were com- pelled to work or starve, and that this necessity made them good citizens. Recollections of a Pioneer, 180-1.
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view with McLoughlin before making a formal propo- sition. To most of the people of Oregon the bring- ing the officers of the British fur company into the organization was a surprise, and the manner of it a secret. Gray, who as a member of the legislature must have known much of the inside history, dis- misses the subject by attributing the concession to what he calls McLoughlin's amphibiousness. 46 But this curt ignoring of a matter of the highest impor- tance to the colony does not answer the purpose of history. McLoughlin has himself left on record a narrative of the circumstances, in which he says that Applegate approached him, privately, with the propo- sition to unite with the Americans in the government compact, and that at first he objected; but that Apple- gate pointed out to him the security it would offer the property of the company, and how much it would conduce to the maintenance of peace and order to have it known to the American people that the two nationalities were united in Oregon. "There will be a large immigration this year," said Applegate; "you may depend there will be many who will follow Wil- liamson's example." 47
Remembering the feelings which the person urging him to the measure had once entertained, and reflect- ing that he had a thorough knowledge of the sen- timents of his countrymen, McLoughlin deemed it prudent to yield ; especially as in June he had received in answer to his call on the directors of the company in London a communication informing him that in the present state of affairs the company could not obtain protection from the government, but it must protect itself the best way it could.48 In the judgment of McLoughlin, the best way to protect the company's property was to accept the invitation tendered by the Americans to join in their government organization,49
46 Gray's Hist. Or., 422.
47 Private Papers, MS., 3d ser., 15.
48 Private Papers, MS., 2d ser., 13, 14.
49 Tolmie, in his Hist. Puget Sound, MS., 22, says substantially that Mc.
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495
THE FUR-TRADERS BROUGHT IN.
and he, with Douglas, signified his consent to receive a formal proposition. A letter was then addressed to McLoughlin, and conveyed to him by Applegate.50
In the consideration of the proposition made to them, there were other subjects besides that of alle- giance to be duly weighed, an important one of which was the matter of taxes, the company's property being all taxable according to the laws of the organization, and being greater in value than that of all the colonists together. To avoid being made to support the Oregon government in toto, an agreement was entered into that the company should pay taxes only on the goods sold to the white inhabitants of the country; and on this understanding a letter of acceptance of their invi- tation was returned to the committee,51 and the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company became, with all the British residents, parties to the political compact of Oregon.52 In the election of officers, James Douglas
Loughlin and Applegate arranged between them the method by which the British and Americans could unite without prejudice to their duties as loyal citizens and subjects of their respective countries.
50 ' Oregon City, Aug. 14, 1845. To Dr John McLoughlin, Chief Factor of H. B. Co. Sir: As a question has arisen in the house of representatives on the subject of apportionment upon which we feel peculiarly situated, we beg leave to ask of you a question, the answer to which will enable us to come to a definite conclusion upon that subject. The question to which we would be happy to receive an answer is this: Do you think the gentlemen belonging to the company over which you preside will become parties to the articles of compact, by the payment of taxes and in other respects complying with the laws of the provisional government? Your answer to this query is most respectfully solicited. Yours, with the highest respect. I. W. Smith, H. A. G. Lee, J. M. Garrison, Barton Lee.' Or. Archives, MS., 71.
51 'Oregon City, Aug. 15, 1845. I. W. Smith and others. Gentlemen: We have the honor to acknowledge your favor of the 14th inst., and beg in reply to say, that, viewing the organization as a compact of certain parties, British and American subjects residing in Oregon, to afford each other protec- tion in person and property, to maintain the peace of the community, and prevent the commission of crime-a protection which all parties in this coun- try feel they particularly stand in need of, as neither the British nor American government appear at liberty to extend the jurisdiction of their laws to this part of America; and moreover seeing that this compact does not interfere with our duties and allegiance to our respective governments, nor with any rights of trade now enjoyed by the Hudson's Bay Company-we, the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, consent to become parties to the articles of compact, provided we are called upon to pay taxes only on our sales to settlers. We have the honor to be, etc. John McLoughlin, James Douglas.' Or. Archives, MS., 72.
52 At the very time these negotiations were going on, a resolution was offered in the house by David Hill, ' that no person belonging to the Hudson's
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was chosen district judge for three years, and Charles Forrest, superintendent of the Cowlitz farm for one year; while M. T. Simmons of Newmarket on the Sound was elected to the two years' term; and John R. Jackson was made sheriff of Vancouver district. So soon after war had seemed imminent on Oregon soil were the extremes of both parties united in a common service by the sagacity of a few men of good judgment on both sides.
Having accomplished so much, the house proceeded to elect officers for the several districts south of the Columbia. The first choice for supreme judge was Na- thaniel Ford, who declined, and Peter H. Burnett was elected. For Champoeg County, E. E. Parrish, F. X. Matthieu, and Daniel Waldo were chosen in the order named to fill the three, two, and one year terms of district judges; William Morrison, sheriff. For Tua- latin County, B. Q. Tucker, H. Higgins, and William Burris were chosen judges; T. Smith, sheriff. For Yamhill County, James O'Neil, J. Hembre, and Joel P. Walker,53 judges; and A. Hembre, sheriff. For Clackamas County, P. G. Stewart, Frederick Prigg, and F. W. Pettygrove, judges; William Holmes, sheriff. For Clatsop County, W. T. Perry, Robert Shortess, and Calvin Tibbits, judges; Thomas Owens, sheriff. Some changes were made at the December session, Prigg being chosen in place of Stewart, re- signed; C. E. Pickett in place of Prigg, and S. Whites in place of Pettygrove. For Champoeg County, W. H. Willson was chosen president of the bench; and a Mr Golding was elected a judge for Clatsop County. The governor was elected superintendent of Indian affairs; John E. Long, secretary of the territory; F. Ermatinger, treasurer: W. G. T'Vault, postmaster-
Bay Company, or in their service, shall ever be considered as citizens of the government of Oregon, nor have the right of suffrage or elective franchise;' but was rejected by the majority.
53 Joel P. Walker had returned from California, whither he went in 1841, and brought with him a large herd of cattle for sale. He remained several years in Oregon, but finally settled permanently in California.
497
VESSELS OF WAR.
general; and Joseph L. Meek, marshal. Thus was the machinery of a popular and efficient form of gov- ernment set in motion, which joined the lion and the eagle not one moment too soon. For a few days after McLoughlin and Douglas had given their consent to the union, there arrived from Puget Sound, in com- pany with Chief Factor Ogden, Lieutenant William Peel, third son of Sir Robert Peel, and Captain Park, of the royal marines, with a letter from Cap- tain John Gordon, brother of the earl of Aberdeen, and commander of the British fifty-gun ship of war America, of the British squadron in the Pacific, at that time amounting to fifteen vessels, carrying over four hundred guns.54
Captain Park brought also a letter from Admiral Seymour, informing McLoughlin that firm protection would be given British subjects in Oregon, and not long after, another letter from Captain Baillie of the Modeste, which had been in the Columbia the previous summer, informing him that he was sent by the admiral to afford protection to her Majesty's subjects in Oregon, if they required it.
Had these proffers of protection, which really meant war, come in the month of June instead of August, the Oregon Question would have taken a different
54 The English fleet of war in the Pacific, besides the America, consisted of the following vessels:
Collingswood, ship of the line, 80 guns, Sir G. F. Seymour, commander. Frigates: Grampus, 50 guns, C. B. Martin, commander; Fisgard, 42 guns, J. A. Duntz, commander; Juno, 26 guns, P. J. Blake, commander; Talbot, 26 guns, Sir T. Thompson, commander; Carysfort, 26 guns, Seymour, com- mander; Herald, 26 guns, Henry Kellet, commander. Sloops: Modeste, 18 guns, Thomas Baillie, commander; Daphne, 18 guns, Onslow, commander. Steamers: Sampson, 6 guns, Henderson, commander; Cormorant, 6 guns, George T. Gordon, commander; Salamander, 6 guns, A. S. Hammond, com- mander. Brigs: Frolic, 6 guns, C. B. Hamilton, commander; Pandora, 6 guns, S. Wood, commander. Spy, brigantine, 3 guns, O. Woodbridge, com- mander. Total number of guns, 355.
United States vessels of war in the Pacific: Columbus, ship of the line, 86 guns, Biddle, commander. Frigates: Congress, 60 guns, Stockton, com- mander; Savannah, 60 guns, J. D. Sloat, commander. Sloops: Portsmouth, 24 guns, Montgomery, commander; Levant, 24 guns, Page, commander; War- ren, 24 guns, Hall, commander; Cyane, 24 guns, Mervine, commander. Shark, schooner, 12 guns, Howison, commander. Erie, store-ship, 8 guns, Turner, commander. Total number of guns, 322. Oregon Spectator, Dec. 10, 1846.
HIST. OR., VOL. I. 32
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turn. McLoughlin could not then have refused to have the company's property protected, especially after having expressed his fears, as he did in 1843. Nor did he refuse it now; although, as he says, he was at first inclined to do so, thinking himself safe through the organization; but Douglas suggested that it would be well to have the Modeste in the river, in view of the threatening aspect of the political horizon, and the large immigration expected in the autumn. 55
The discussions at Vancouver during the visit of the British naval officers were often warm, Captain Park anxiously inquiring into the practicability of bringing troops overland from Canada, and saying that if it came to blows, "we will hit them a good deal harder than we would other people," to the dis- tress of McLoughlin, who could only answer in aston- ishment and disapproval, "O Captain Park! Captain Park !" 56
Before returning to the sound, where the America was lying, near the lower end of Whidbey Island, Park and Peel made a brief tour of the Willamette Valley, visiting some of the principal men among the settlers, perhaps at the suggestion of the wise Mc- Loughlin, who could foresee the effect of such con- tact. At the house of Applegate, who gave him an account of the emigration of 1843, Peel declared that such men as composed it must make "the best soldiers in the world," with a new comprehension of what it would be to fight them. "I told him," says Apple- gate,. "that they were probably brave enough, but would never submit to discipline as soldiers. If the president himself had started across the plains to command a company, the first time he should choose a bad camp, or in any other way offend them, they would turn him out, and elect some one among them- selves who should suit them better." 57
55 Private Papers, MS., 2d ser., 16.
56 Roberts' Recollections, MS., 5.
57 Views of History, MS., 14, 15.
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TWO PAIRS OF SPIES.
I have no doubt, from the evidence, that the visit of Park and Peel, together with the act of McLoughlin in joining the compact of the provisional government, saved the country a war, and influenced the final set- tlement of the boundary question. When they came to Vancouver they expected to maintain England's hold of the north side of the Columbia River; but they found the Hudson's Bay Company bound in an agreement of mutual protection with the Americans; they learned the fearless and resolute character of the colonists, and their rapidly increasing numbers, and were constantly checked in their expressions of hos- tility by McLoughlin, who assured them, and even wrote to England, that the country "was not worth a war." 58
After a few weeks Park and Peel returned to join the America, which sailed for Honolulu and Valpa- raiso in September; the Fisgard, Captain Duntz, taking her place on the sound, and remaining some months at Nisqually; and the Modeste anchoring in front of Vancouver, about the 1st of October. Cap- tain Gordon, after arriving on the South American coast, received such advices from England as to cause him to gather up in haste the money of the British residents, and sail away to England without waiting for orders from the admiral.59 In the mean time, Lieutenant Peel was beforehand with him, taking the shorter route by Vera Cruz and Habana 60 to London, where he arrived in January 1846, as bearer of de-
58 Says Roberts: 'The doctor counselled those about him to peace, saying that all that could be done in Oregon in the event of a war between the United States and Great Britain could not affect the final issue, and it was better to remain friends.' Recollections, MS., 61.
59 It is said that Gordon, when questioned, agreed with McLoughlin, that ' the country was not worth a war,' but on entirely different grounds. He was speaking literally, because he found the Nisqually plains a bed of gravel; and because, being fond of angling, the salmon would not rise to the fly. A country where the fish were not lively enough for his sport was in his esti- mation worthless. But the salmon were not the only fish in Oregon that refused to rise to the fly of the British angler.
60 This information was communicated by letter to the N. Y. Journal of Commerce, and copied in the S. I. Polynesian of April 25th, whence it found its way into the Or. Spectator, July 4, 1846.
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spatches from Admiral Seymour. It was rumored in Habana that the whole English squadron was making sail for the Columbia River; but the rumor did not, apparently, originate with Lieutenant Peel.61
Before one pair of spies quitted Vancouver another arrived. On the 28th of August appeared, unan- nounced, at the headquarters of the fur company, Lieutenant Henry Warre of the 54th, and Lieutenant Vavasour of the royal engineers, who had left Eng- land April 5th, and crossed the continent by way of Red River, Fort Pitt, and Fort Colville. They spent their time in apparent half idleness at Vancouver, surveying a little about the mouth of the Columbia, but in reality gathering information relative to the position of affairs between the British subjects and American citizens in Oregon. That which they learned was not at all satisfactory, as it afterward appeared; and their report, though doubtless tending, like that of Peel, to influence the English government in resigning its pretensions to the territory south of the 49th parallel, was damaging in its accusations against McLoughlin, as a British subject, if not as the head of the corporation he represented in Oregon.
It was charged, mainly, that the policy pursued by the Hudson's Bay Company at the different posts in the Oregon Territory had tended to the introduction of American settlers into the country until they out- numbered the British. 62 And to prove this position, they instanced the assistance rendered the different immigrations, one of which was arriving while they were at Vancouver. They had, it was said, sold
61 Roberts describes Peel as a 'fine young fellow, well bronzed, rather taller, but reminding me of young Dana, geologist of the U. S. exploring expedition. Peel died in India, in command of the Shannon.' Park, he says, was a 'well-knit man, capable of unlimited service, who probably had charge of Peel.' Neither was an officer of the America. Recollections, MS., 5.
62 McLoughlin, in answer to this particular charge, says that ever since 1826, when Smith, Sublette, and Jackson led their trapping parties west of the Rocky Mountains, the Americans had outnumbered the British in Oregon. This would have been a point on the side of the American plenipotentiary had ho known it.
501
McLOUGHLIN'S ANSWERS TO CHARGES.
goods to the American settlers at cheaper rates than to British subjects. They had suffered themselves to join the provisional organization, " without any reserve except the mere form of the oath." Their lands had been invaded, and themselves insulted, until they re- quired the protection of government "against the very people to the introduction of whom they have been more than accessory," and more of a like import.
The answer made by McLoughlin, while it was intended only for the eyes of the London directors, or the ministry, contains matter of much interest to the student of Oregon history. Concerning the friend- ship shown the missionaries, he said : "What would you have ? Would you have me turn the cold shoulder to the man of God who came to do that for the Indians which the company had neglected to do?" As to the first settlers, men from the mountains and the sea, he had tried to prevent their remaining idle and becoming destitute, and therefore dangerous to the good order and safety of the company's servants. Drive them away he could not, having neither the right nor the power. To the allegation that the trading posts of the company had been used to save American im- migrants from starvation and the Indians,63 he replied that it had long been safe for two men to travel from Fort Hall to Vancouver, or twenty men from Fort Hall eastward, and therefore that the immigrants owed it not to the trading posts that they were spared by the savages, and as to other assistance rendered in furnishing boats, and in some instances goods, the im- migrants had not come to Oregon expecting a cordial reception from him, but quite the contrary; and that while he had done some things for humanity's sake,64
63 By the wording of the report of Warre and Vavasour, it might be inferred that they preferred the immigrants to be cut off, and blamed the doctor that they were not.
64 I have before me a letter written by Courtney M. Walker, who was for some time a clerk of the company at Fort Hall, in which he says: 'Well indeed was it that this noble man was at the head of affairs of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany when the American pioneers came to these shores seeking homes; for without the aid they met at the hands of the doctor, they could not have
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AMENDMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS.
he had intended to and had averted evil from the company by using courtesy and kindness toward the American immigrants.
As to joining the organization, he showed that in 1843 he had written to England of the threats against Vancouver, and asked for protection, but had not received it, while the dogs of war were snarling and threatening, and the Americans outnumbered the British subjects ten to one in the settled portions of Oregon; and failing in this, had done the best thing he knew how to do for the company and humanity. He admitted that the lands of British 'subjects had been invaded, but proportionally in a less degree than those of the colonists by each other.65 " And, after all," he says, " I have found British subjects just as keen at catching at an opportunity to benefit them- selves, and that in instances to my cost, as these American backwoodsmen." 66
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