USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 61
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The summer rolled round, and September came- more than a year after the settlement of the boun- dary-before any information was received of the doings of the national legislature in the matter of Oregon's establishment as a territory, and then it was only to inflict further disappointment. The president had indeed recommended the establishment of a ter- ritorial government in Oregon, and a bill had been reported by Douglas of Illinois in December, which had passed the house the 16th of January; but there southern jealousy of free soil nipped it.
Other rumors reached Oregon City of the inten- tions of congress and the president. Private advices gave it as certain that an Oregon regiment of mounted · riflemen was being raised; a splendid regiment, it
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POLITICS AND PROGRESS.
was said, commanded by Persifer F. Smith of New Orleans.18 The only definite intelligence was that an act had been passed establishing certain post-routes, including one from Oregon City by way of Fort Van- couver and Fort Nisqually to the mouth of Admiralty Inlet, and another from Oregon City up the Willa- mette Valley to the Klamath River, said routes to go into operation on the 1st of July, 1847, or sooner if practicable, or if any one could be found to contract for transporting the mails over these routes for the revenues to be derived from them. As the greater portion of both routes lay through an uninhabited country, and as the correspondence of the savages was not great, the matter rested. The postmaster- general was empowered to contract for transporting a mail from Charleston, South Carolina, touching at St Augustine, Key West, and Havana, across the Isthmus of Panamá to Astoria; the mail to be car- ried each way once in two months, or oftener should the public interest require it, provided the expendi- ture should not exceed $100,000 per annum. In case of the route being put in operation he could establish a post-office at Astoria, and such other places on the Pacific coast as might be required by public necessity. The same act fixed the postage on letters from Oregon or California to the States at forty cents.
In accordance with this act, post-offices were estab- lished at Astoria and Oregon City. Cornelius Gilliam was appointed superintendent of postal matters in Oregon, David Hill postmaster at Oregon City, and John M. Shively postmaster at Astoria.13 An Indian agent had also been appointed, namely, Charles E. Pickett, a man ill suited to any office, if the Spectator may be believed. "Who can credit the appointment,"
18 Or. Spectator, July 22, 1847.
19 ' Mr Shively,' says Burnett, ' is an engineer, a plain, unassuming man, but possessed of much greater genuine ability than most people supposed. Justice has never been done him. He was in Washington in the winter of 1845-6, and was the originator of the project of a steamship line from New York to this coast, by way of Panama." Recol., 141.
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NEGLECT OF GOVERNMENT.
it asked, "or believe that the United States govern- ment could have made its appearance in such a shape ?" At a time, too, when the Indians were becoming alarmingly insolent, requiring the utmost wisdom to deal with or restrain them.20 In what way had the people of Oregon displeased the president that he should afflict them thus ?
The people of Oregon found it indeed difficult to perceive any benefit that they had received from con- gress, or the presidential appointments. They were still without a proper government; they had no troops, no shipping, no light-houses, no pilot-boats, no appro- priations-nothing,21 if they excepted two post-routes to places where there were no settlers, and two post- offices-the distributing office being at the mouth of the Columbia, a hundred and twenty miles from Ore- gon City, with no other conveyance for the mails between the two places than Indian canoes. To add to their indignation, a leading eastern paper con- gratulated its readers that nothing had been done for Oregon, because it was a saving of expense at a time when the government was overburdened by the Mexi- can war,22 and regretted that congress had not estab- lised a port of entry at the mouth of the Columbia, and appointed a collector to increase the revenue from the imports of the British fur company, adding insult to injury by complimenting the inhabitants of the ter- ritory on their good sense, good order, and good laws.
20 A writer in the Spectator, Sept. 2, 1847, says that Pickett was not in Oregon, but was absent at the Islands; and alleges that he had advised emi- grants on the road to California to 'kill all the Indians you may find from Oregon to California.' What Pickett did say was: 'Treat the Indians kindly along the road, but trust them not. After you get to the Siskiyou Mountains, use your pleasure in spilling blood, but were I travelling with you, from this on to the first sight of the Sacramento Valley my only communication with these treacherous, cowardly, untamable rascals would be through my rifle. The character of their country precludes the idea of making peace with them, or ever maintaining treaties if made; so that philanthropy must be set aside in cases of necessity, while self-preservation liere dictates these savages being killed off as soon as possible.' Spectator, April 29, 1847.
2] The citizens of Clatsop County, becoming impatient, in November started a subscription for a temporary light-house to be erected on Cape Disappoint- ment; but it was never established.
22 New York Tribune, Aug. 26, 1846
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POLITICS AND PROGRESS.
Somewhat ashamed of it all, Secretary Buchanan wrote Shively, on his departure for Oregon, express- ing the sympathy of the president, and his regret at the failure of the Oregon bill.23 He assured the peo- ple of Oregon that the president would reiterate his recommendations to congress in regard to Oregon, and assured him there could be no doubt of a near relief.
He referred to the act establishing post routes and offices, and the act of the 19th of May, 1846, provid- ing for a regiment of mounted riflemen, to protect travellers 24 on the road to Oregon. Strong assurance was given that the United States would never aban- don or prove unmindful of the welfare of Oregon, but that everything possible should be done for the welfare of that country.25 Thomas H. Benton also wrote a letter of condolence.26
23 'It failed in the senate, not, as I am firmly convinced, from any want of disposition on the part of the majority to provide a government for that interesting portion of the republic, but because other urgent and important business connected with the Mexican war did not allow the necessary time, before the close of their short discussion, to discuss and perfect its details.' Or. Spectator, Extra, Sept. 8, 1847.
24 It was asking a good deal of the Oregon people to appreciate that act, since the regiment was no sooner raised than it was sent to Mexico. Steele's Rifle Regt., MS., 1.
25 Cong. Globe, App. 1847-8, 40.
26 He said: 'The house of representatives, as early as the middle of Jan- uary, passed a bill to give you a territorial government, and in that bill had sanctioned and legalized your provisional organic act, one of the clauses of which forever prohibited the existence of slavery in Oregon. An amendment from the senate's committee, to which this bill was referred, proposed to abro- gate that prohibition; and in the delays and vexations to which that amend- ment gave rise, the whole bill was laid upon the table and lost for the session. This will be a great disappointment to you, and a real calamity; already 5 years without law or legal institution for the protection of life, liberty, and property, and now doomed to wait a year longer. This is a strange and anomalous con- dition, almost incredible to contemplate, and most critical to endure, a colony of freemen 4,000 miles from the metropolitan government, and without law or government to preserve them. But do not be alarmed or desperate. You will not be outlawed for not admitting slavery. Your fundamental act against that institution, copied from the ordinance of 1787, the work of the great men of the south in the great day of the south, prohibiting slavery in a territory far less northern than yours, will not be abrogated, nor is that the intention of the prime mover of the amendment. Upon the record of the judiciary committee of the senate is the author of that amendment; but not so the fact. It is only midwife to it. Its author, Mr Calhoun, is the same mind that "generated the firebrand " resolutions, of which I send you a copy, and of which the amendment is the legitimate derivation. Oregon is not the object. The most rabid propagandist of slavery cannot expect to plant it on the shores of the Pacific, in the latitude of Wisconsin and the Lake of the
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YET ANOTHER MEMORIAL.
According to eastern journals, the president had in readiness a full register of officials in case the Oregon bill passed the senate.27 But there were those in Oregon who thought the colony too far advanced in self-government to be treated like a new territory, and that they were entitled to select their own offi- cers. A convention at Lafayette was proposed for the purpose of memorializing the president as to appointing Oregon men to offices in the territory; but local jealousies defeated the scheme. However, the convention appointed a committee, consisting of Burnett, George L. Curry, then editor of the Spec- tator, and L. A. Rice, to draught a memorial to congress upon the wants of Oregon, to be submitted to the people for their signatures. The memorialists com- plained of neglect. They declared that they did not leave their homes to traverse, with wives and children, uninhabited wastes to reach their present abode from ignoble motives; they had been animated by a desire not only to benefit themselves and their children, but to aid their common country in sustaining her rights on the Pacific, and to bring to a satisfactory close the long and harassing controversy with a foreign rival;
Woods. A home agitation for election and disunion purposes is all that is intended by thrusting this firebrand question into your bill, and at the next session, when it is thrust in again, we will scourge it out, and pass your bill as it ought to be. I promise you this in the name of the south as well as of the north; and the event will not deceive me. In the mean time the president will give you all the protection which existing laws and detachments of the army and navy can enable him to extend to you; and until congress has time to act, your friends must rely upon you to govern yourselves as you have heretofore done, under the provisions of your own voluntary compact, and with the justice, harmony, and moderation which is due to your own character and to the honor of the American name.' The letter concluded with the assurance that the writer was the same friend to Oregon that he had been for 30 years, that he was when he opposed the joint occupation treaty in 1818, and that he was when he wrote his articles on the grand destiny of that country, which he hoped to live long enough to witness. Or. Spectator, Sept. 8, 1847; Cong. Globe, 1845-6, 921-2; Or. Argus, March 28, 1857; St Louis Republican, April 1847; Oregon Archives, MS., 61; Niles' Reg., lxxii. 148. His letter is preserved in the archives of the state of Oregon. "Tuthill, in his Hast. Cal., 254, remarks that it was said of Douglas that he had a special mission to give California a government. The same might be said of Benton concerning Oregon from 1842-8.
27 Judge Semple of Illinois was mentioned by some as the future governor. Rowan of Kentucky was said to be the president's choice; and Richard M. Johnson was recommended by the Tribune of Aug. 26, 1846.
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POLITICS AND PROGRESS.
as also to extend the area of freedom and christianity, by which they hoped to confer a lasting benefit upon mankind.
Neither did they intend to expatriate themselves by emigrating to Oregon. But when they had reached this distant country they found themselves in embar- rassing circumstances-in the midst of a jealous and predatory Indian population, among the subjects of Great Britain in the height of the excitement over the boundary question; without law or protection, except as they governed and defended themselves, which they had done amid many trials; it being much more difficult to administer temporary laws than a fixed system of government.
While their means were slender, their taxes were high, owing to the necessity of improving the country, opening roads, building bridges, and erecting school- houses and churches. They could not raise money to pay the members of their legislature for more than two weeks' service at a time, and were compelled to adopt the laws of Iowa, modified by a few local acts. They had no printing-press, and no books on law to refer to; nor any means of making the laws known to the people until the Spectator was established, in whose columns only the local laws were published.
The memorialists declared that they had been grieved at being debarred from enjoying the protec- tion which the subjects of Great Britain received in their very midst; but comforted themselves that the omission of their government to afford it was out of regard to the sacredness of treaty obligations; but that when the boundary question was settled they could see no reason for the studied neglect of con- gress. They had acted under the conviction that the duties of citizens and government were mutual. "Our forefathers," said they, "complained that they were oppressed by the mother country, and they had a just right to complain. We do not complain of op- pression, but of neglect. Even the tyrant has his
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DONATION OF LANDS.
moments of relaxation and kindness, but neglect never wears a smile."
The particular injuries of which mention was made as arising from the condition of affairs were aside from the discomfort of uncertainty, of suspension of enterprise, and the inability of the colonial govern- ment to treat with the surrounding natives, who were every day becoming more aggressive, owing to the non-fulfilment of promises of payment for their lands. They could not tell when war would be upon them, and the coming of their friends to Oregon cut off. Their position with regard to criminals was equally embarrassing. They had no prison 28 and no money, nor means of punishing offences without re- turning to the branding-iron, cropping-knife, and whipping-post.
The conclusion of the whole matter was the usual reference to the donation of land which the settlers expected from congress, and which they insisted they had justly earned in the aid they had given the gov- ernment in settling the vexed question of title. "We think we merit the respectful consideration of our government. It is with our country, whether she will hear us or not." With this parting note of warning the address concluded. It was the threat so often covertly, and sometimes openly, made, that loyal as were the settlers of Oregon, they were independent enough to disregard a government which had no care for them.
By common consent the subject of a delegate seems to have been avoided, for it was well known that no choice could be made wholly satisfactory to all parties ; and since as yet they had no right to one, for any clique to insist on sending a man of their choice to represent the colony would only lead to protests and confusion. The memorial, after being circulated for
28 The jail erected at Oregon City with funds from the estate of Ewing Young in 1844 was burned by an incendiary in August 1846. Or. Spectator, Sept. 3, 1846.
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signatures, was placed in the mail of the bark Whiton, Captain Galston, to sail on the 19th of October for San Francisco and Panamá, in the expectation that it would be received and read in congress in time to influence the legislation for Oregon at the session of 1847-8.29
But the power in Oregon behind the throne had settled the matter of a delegate without consulting the people; and when the Whiton sailed, it carried J. Quinn Thornton, the private agent of Abernethy, to represent in a general way the wants of the territory, but in a more particular manner the views of the Methodist missionaries with regard to those sections in the Oregon treaty which related to the possessory rights of British subjects.30
Thornton endeavors to explain away the odium attaching to his position as a delegate not chosen by the people, by implying that the general desire for office was likely to frustrate the wishes and wants of the community; therefore, he took it upon him to become the savior of the people by appropriating the best paying position for himself; but professes to have feared that letters would be written to Washington in revenge, which would damage his power with the government. This becomes the logical reason of his secret departure, his going on board the Whiton at night after the bark had already weighed her anchor, and the general mystery surrounding the transaction.
He succeeded in getting to sea without any inter- ruption, and arrived in San Francisco on the 10th
29 Thornton erroneously says the memorial was addressed to Thomas H. Benton. He also says that 'it was proposed to elect a delegate, but that it was decided to be impracticable.' Or. and Cal., ii. 37-8.
30 That the discovery of Abernethy's action in this matter resulted in unfa- vorable comment may be gathered from Curry's remarks in the Spectator, which, though an Abernethy organ, was not taken into the secret of the pri- vate delegate. Some will have honors, said the editor, whether or no, and we understand that one of our distinguished functionaries has gone to the States, that another started in the height of desperation in a Chinook canoe to go around along the coast in order to head off the first one, and that one of the members of the late Yamhill convention intends crossing the mountains on snow-shoes to be in at the death, etc. Or. Spectator, Nov. 11, 1847; Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 3-4.
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THORNTON'S ADVENTURES.
of November, where the bark remained till the 12th of December. While at this port, where the progress- ive American was making a great stir and business was extremely brisk, Thornton disposed of a quantity of flour which constituted a part of the cargo of the Whiton, loaned to him by Noyes Smith, one of those who came in 1844,31 as a means of raising money for his expenses. He had received from Rev. George Gary a draft on the treasury of the Methodist society in the east, and from Abernethy whatever more it required to furnish him with means for his journey.
At San José in Lower California was found the sloop of war Portsmouth, Captain J. B. Montgomery, to which Thornton was transferred on invitation of the commander, and was carried to Boston, where he arrived May 5, 1848.32
When the legislature met in December, a set of resolutions were introduced in the house by Nesmith, remonstrating against the appointment of Thornton to any office in the territory, which were at first adopted, afterward reconsidered, and finally lost by the speaker's vote.33 It is but just to Thornton,
31 The career of Noyes Smith is given as follows: 'Over a quarter of a century since, the world was astonished at hearing of the defalcation and dis- appearance of an Albany bank officer. Having made the circuit of the world, he some years afterwards appeared in Oregon under this name, became a merchant's clerk, then himself a merchant, and was rich and prospering when he was recognized by an officer of the U. S. army. Exposure drove him to dissipation and ruin. His friends at the east seem to have finally compromised his case, and his family sent for him to return home, which he did to find his children grown up, and everything much changed during his long absence.' S. A. Clarke, in Overland Monthly, x. 410-15. Noye's real name was said to be Egbert Olcott. Buck's Enterprises, MS., 13.
32 Thornton's Or. and Cal., ii. 247-8. I think it not unlikely that the Whiton was looking for a vessel of the U. S. navy for this very purpose; since Benton in his letter to the people of Oregon had assured them that detach- ments of the army and navy should give them all the assistance in their power, while waiting the action of the government; on which hint the gov- ernor seems promptly to have acted.
33 Or. Spectator, Dec. 25, 1847; Grover's Or. Archives, 232, 242. So well had the secret of Thornton's agency been kept that the preamble to the resolutions declares only that it is 'generally believed' that Thornton had been secretly despatched to Washington City with recommendations, peti- tions, and memorials for the purpose of obtaining for himself and friends the most important offices in the territory.
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whose position was sufficiently odious, to remind the reader that the author of the resolutions was a son- in-law of David Goff, whom Thornton had mercilessly abused in the Spectator for his share in inducing the immigration to take the southern route. For the same reason, however, the selection of Thornton for the position of delegate was an unfortunate one. For allowing the resolutions to be printed in the Spectator the directors of the printing association dismissed Curry from the editorship.34
Trusting to time's obliteration of the evidences of in- trigue, Thornton says in his manuscript History of Oregon, that he was " sent by the provisional govern- ment of Oregon" to Washington; in which case the governor, and not the legislature, was the government. He also says in an address before the pioneer associa- tion of 1874, that he obeyed the desire of Whitman, who in the spring of 1847 urged him to yield to the solicitations he had received to go to Washington on behalf of the people and the provisional government. There were some persons besides the governor who were willing Thornton should go to Washington; and there were strong reasons why Whitman should be one of them, in the yearly increasing danger of his situation among the Cayuses, which nothing could avert but the sword or the purse of the United States.
Of this fact the authors of the memorial were well advised when they said that they did not know how soon they might be involved in an Indian war. For reasons connected with the speedy settlement of Ore- gon by a population which would entitle them to elect a delegate, and to enjoy other privileges dependent on numbers, they had touched but lightly upon those facts which if known in the States might retard immi-
34 In his remarks on his dismissal, Curry referred bitterly to the attempt to muzzle the press, on the part of George Abernethy, Rev. W. Roberts, J. R. Robb, and Robert Newell, 'who constitute a bare majority of the board of directors.' Or. Spectator, Jan. 6 and 20, 1848; Honolulu Polynesian, iv. 206; Friend, vi. 47 68: Pickett's Paris Exposition, 10.
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IMMIGRATION OF 1847.
gration, the still existing hardships of the journey, and the threatening attitude of the Indians.
Owing to the settlement of the boundary question, and the prospect that a donation law would soon be passed, between four and five thousand persons came to Oregon in 1847, most of them people of comforta- ble means. 35 They commenced arriving at the Dalles as early as the 22d of August, and continued to arrive until November, when two hundred wagons were still on the eastern side of the mountains.
Every expedition by wagon had been attended by suffering and loss; nor was this one an exception. Its number was the principal cause of its misfortunes ; the foremost companies exhausting the grass, compelling the rear to delay in order to recruit their cattle, which brought them in late, with great loss and in a starv- ing condition. For the same cause, sickness attacked the trains, an epidemic called the black measles pre- vailing, from which many died on the latter part of the journey or after arrival. The caravan of wagons was also a cause of hostility on the part of the sav- ages, from the Blue Mountains to the Dalles, who attacked several small companies, robbing the wagons, and in some instances tearing the clothing from the persons of the women, leaving them naked in the wil- derness, and committing other outrages.
There being now two routes opened, there should have been a division of the travel; but this was pre- vented by the efforts of some who had met with losses
35 It was said that not one wagon was bound for California this year; an evident mistake, as is shown by the account of the 'Wiggins party,' which attempted to pass through the mountains on the head waters of the Sacra- mento, and failing, turned back to the southern Oregon road. This party arrived in California in the spring of 1848, by the brig Henry. S. F. Cali- fornian, April 19, 1848. A correspondent of the Polynesian, iv. 123, 137, writing from California, says that 1,000 wagons were destined for that country, but that Oregon agents met them on the road and turned them to the Wil- lamette Valley, by representations of the disordered state of California, and the insecurity of property and life. Expositor, Independence, Mo., May 17, 1847; Niles' Reg., Ixxiii. 6; Johnson's Cal. and Or., 202-3; Findlay's State- ment, MS., 2; Victor's River of the West, 394.
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