USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
45 31st Cong., 1st Sess., S. Doc. 47, viii. 108-16; Rep. Com. Ind. Aff., 1865, 107-9.
46 31st Cong. 1st Sess., S. Doc. 47, viii. 104.
87
DESERTION OF TROOPS.
the safety of troops and stores which must usually be transported by sea requiring these guides to navi- gation. He recommended the survey of a railroad to the Pacific, or at least of a wagon-road, and that it should cross the Rocky Mountains about latitude 38°, deflect to the Humboldt Valley, and follow that direc- tion until it should send off a branch to Oregon by way of the Willamette Valley, and another by way of the Sacramento Valley to the bay of San Francisco.47
Before the plans of General Smith for the distribu- tion of troops could be carried out, one hundred and twenty of the riflemen deserted in a body, with the intention of going to the mines in California. Gov- ernor Lane immediately issued a proclamation for- bidding the citizens to harbor or in any way assist the runaways, which caused much uneasiness, as it was said the people along their route were placed in a serious dilemma, for if they did not sell them provi- sions they would be robbed, and if they did, they would be punished. The deserters, however, having organized with a full complement of officers, travelled faster than the proclamation, and conducted them- selves in so discreet a manner as to escape suspicion, imposing themselves upon the farmers as a company sent out on an expedition by the government, getting beef cattle on credit, and receiving willing aid instead of having to resort to force.48
47 Before leaving California Smith had ordered an exploration of the coun- try on the southern boundary of Oregon for a practicable emigrant and mili- tary road, aud also for a railroad pass about that latitude, detailing Captain W. H. Warner of the topographical engineers, with an escort of the second infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Casey. They left Sacramento in August, and examined the country for several weeks to the east of the head-waters of the Sacramento, coming upon a pass in the Sierra Nevada with an elevation of not more than 38 feet to the mile. Warner explored the country cast and north of Goose Lake, but in returning through the mountains by another route was killed by the Indians before completing his work. His name was given to a mountain range from this circumstance. Francis Bercier, the guide, and George Cave were also killed. Lieut. R. S. Williamson of the expedition made a report in favor of the Pit River route. See 31st Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 2, 17-22, 47.
43 Strele's Rifle Regiment, MS., 7; Brackett's U. S. Cavalry, 127; Or. Spec- tator, May 2, 1850.
88
LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
But their success, like their organization, was of brief duration. Colonel Loring and the governor went in pursuit and overtook one division in the Umpqua Valley, whence Lane returned to Oregon City about the middle of April with seventy of them in charge. Loring pursued the remainder as far as the Klamath River, where thirty-five escaped by making a canoe and crossing that stream before they were overtaken. He returned two weeks after Lane, with only seven- teen of the deserters, having suffered much hardship in the pursuit. He found the fugitives in a miserable plight, the snow on the Cascade Mountains being still deep, and their supplies entirely inadequate to such an expedition, for which reason some had already started on their return. Indeed, it was rumored that several of those not accounted for had already died of starvation.49 How many lived to reach the mines was never known.
Great discontent prevailed among all the troops, many of whom had probably enlisted with no other intention than of deserting when they reached the Pacific coast. Several civil suits were brought by them in the district court attempting to prove that they had been enlisted under false promises, which were decided against them by Judge Pratt, vice Bry- ant, who was absent from the territory when the suits came on.50
Later in the spring Hathaway removed his artillery company to Astoria, and went into encampment at Fort George, the place being no longer occupied by the fur company. A reserve was declared of certain lands covered by the improvements of settlers, among whom were Shively, McClure, Hensill, Ingalls, and Marlin, for which a price was agreed upon or allowed.51
49 Or. Spectator, April 18, 1850.
50 See case of John Curtin vs. James S. Hathaway, Pratt, Justice, in Or. Spectator, April 18, 1850.
51 Ingalls remarked concerning this purchase: 'I do not believe that any of them had the slightest right to a foot of the soil, consequently no right to have erected improvements there.' Whether he meant to say that no one
89
GOVERNMENT RESERVATIONS.
Here the troops had a free and easy life, seeing much of the gold hunters as they went and came in the numerous vessels trading between San Fran- cisco and the Columbia River, and much too of the most degraded population in Oregon, both Indian and white. A more ill-selected point for troops, even for artillery, could not have been hit upon, except in the event of an invasion by a foreign power, in which case they were still too far inside the capes to prevent the enemy's vessels from entering the river. They were so far from the real enemy dreaded by the people it was intended they should defend-the interior tribes of Indians-that much time and money would be required to bring them where they could be of service in case of an outbreak, and after two years the place was abandoned.
The mounted riflemen, being transferred to Van- couver, whither the citizens of the Willamette saw them depart with a deep sense of satisfaction,52 cele- brated their removal by burning their old quarters. 53 At their new station they were employed in building barracks on the ground afterward adopted as a mili- tary reservation by the government.
The first reservation declared was that of Miller Island, lying in the Columbia5+ about five miles above Vancouver. It contained about four square miles, and was used for haymaking and grazing purposes, in con- nection with the post at that place. This reserve was made in February 1850. No reservation was declared
had a right to build houses in Oregon except military officers, or that the ground belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company, I am unable to determine from the record. See 32d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 1, i. pt. ii. 123.
52 Says the Spectator, Nov. 1, 1849, 'the abounding drunkenness in our streets is something new under the sun,' and suggests that the officers do something to abate the evil. But the officers were seldom sober themselves, Hathaway even attempting suicide while suffering from mania a potu. Id., April 18, 1850.
53 Strong's IIist. Or., MS., 3.
54 Much trouble had been experienced in procuring grain for the horses of the mounted troops; only 6,000 bushels of oats being obtainable, and 100 tons of hay, owing to the neglect of farming this year. It was only by putting the sol- diers to haymaking on the lowlands of the Columbia that the stock of the regiment was provided for; hence, no doubt, the reservation of Miller Island.
90
LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
at Vancouver till October 31st of that year, or until it was ascertained that the government was not pre- pared to purchase without examining the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company. On the date mentioned Colonel Loring, in command of the department, pub- lished a notice that a military reservation had been made for the government of four miles square, "com- mencing where a meridian line two miles west from the flag-staff at the military post near Vancouver, O. T., strikes the north bank of the Columbia River, thence due north on said meridian four miles, thence due east four miles, thence south to the bank of the Columbia River, thence down said bank to the place of beginning." 55 The notice declared that the reserve was made subject alone to the lawful claims of the Hudson's Bay Company, as guaranteed under the treaty of 1846, but promised payments for improve- ments made by resident settlers within the described limits, a board of officers to appraise the property.
This large reserve was, as I have before indicated, favorable to the British company's claims, as the only American squatter on the land was Amos M. Short, the history of whose settlement at Vancouver is given in the first volume of my History of Oregon. Short took no notice of the declaration of reserve,56 think- ing perhaps, and with a show of justice, that in this case he was trespassed upon, inasmuch as there was plenty of land for government reservations, which did not include improvements, or deprive a citizen of his choice of a home. He remained upon the land, con- tinuing to improve it, until in 1853 the government restricted the military reservations to one mile square, which left him outside the limits of this one.
65 Or. Spectator, Oct. 31, 1850; 32d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 1, pt. ii. 124.
5G Short had shotand killed Dr D. Gardner, and a Hawaiian in his service, for trespass, in the spring of 1850. He was examined and acquitted, of all of which Colonel Loring must have been aware. Or. Spectator, April 18, 1850; Id., May 2, 1850. He was himself regarded as a trespasser by the fur com- pany. U. S. Ev. Hudson's Bay Company Claims, 90.
91
AT THE DALLES.
The probate court of Clarke county made an appli- cation for an injunction against Loring and Ingalls at the first term of the United States district court held at Vancouver, beginning the 29th of October 1850, to stop the further erection of buildings for military pur- poses on land that was claimed as the county seat. The attorney for the United States denied that the legislative assembly had the power to give lands for county seats, did the territorial act permit it, or that the land could be taken before it was surveyed; and declared that the premises were reserved by order of the war department, which none might gainsay.57 The court sustained the opinion. At a later period a legal contest arose between the heirs of A. M. Short and the Catholic missionaries. The military reserva- tion, however, of one mile square, remains to-day the same as in 1853.
On the 13th of May Major Tucker left Vancouver with two companies of riflemen to establish a supply post at The Dalles.58 The officers detached for that station were Captain Claiborne, Lieutenants Lindsay, May, and Ervine, and Surgeon C. H. Smith. A reservation of ten miles square was made at this place, and the troops employed in erecting suitable store-houses and garrison accommodations to make this the head-quarters for the Indian country in the event of hostilities. Both the Protestant and Cath- olic missions were found to be abandoned,59 though the claims of both were subsequently revived, which together with the claim of the county seat of Wasco county occasioned lengthy litigation. The military reservation became a fourth factor in an imbroglio out of which the Methodist missionary society, through
57 The solicitor for the complanants in this case was W. W. Chapman; the attorney for the U. S., Amory Holbrook. The decision was rendered by Judge William Strong in favor of the defendants. Or. Spectator, Nov. 7, 1850. 58 Steel's Rifle Regiment, MS., 5; Cardwell's Emigrant Company, MS., 2; Coke's Ride, 313; 31st Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 1, pt. ii. 123.
59 Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 6.
92
LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
its agents in Oregon and in Washington, continued to extort money from the government and individuals for many years. Of The Dalles claim, as a case in chancery, I shall speak further on in my work.
As if Astoria, Vancouver, and The Dalles were not enough of Oregon's eligible town sites to condemn for military purposes, Loring declared another reservation in the spring of 1850 upon the land claims of Meek and Luelling at Milwaukie, for the site of an arsenal. This land was devoted to the raising of fruit trees, a most important industry in a new country, and one which was progressing well. The appropriation of property which the claimants felt the government was pledged to confirm to them if they desired, was an encroachment upon the rights of the founders of American Oregon which they were quick to resent, and for which the Oregon delegate in congress was instructed to find a remedy. And he did find a remedy. The complainants held that they preferred fighting their own Indian wars to submitting to mili- tary usurption, and the government might withdraw the rifle regiment at its earliest convenience. All of which was a sad ending of the long prayer for the military protection of the parent government.
And all the while the Cayuse murderers went un- punished. Lane was enough of a military man to understand the delays incident to the circumstances under which Loring found himself in a new country with undisciplined and deserting troops, but he was also possessed of the fire and energy of half a dozen regular army colonels. But before he had received any assistance in procuring the arrest of the Indians, he had unofficial information of his removal by the whig administration, which succeeded the one by which he was appointed.
This change, though eagerly seized upon by some as a means of gaining places for themselves and secur- ing the control of public affairs, was not by any means
93
INDIAN AGENT.
agreeable to the majority of the Oregon people. No sooner had the news been received than a meeting was held in Yamhill precinct for the purpose of ex- pressing regret at the removal of General Lane from the office of governor.60 The manner in which Lane had discharged his duties as Indian agent, as well as executive, had won for him the confidence of the peo- ple, with whom the dash, energy, and democratic frankness of his character were a power and a charm. There was nothing that was of importance to any in- dividual of the community too insignificant for his attention; and whether the interest he exhibited was genuine, whether it was the suavity of the politician, or the irrepressible activity of a true nature, it was equally effective to make him popular with all but the conservative element to be found in any commu- nity, and which was represented principally in Oregon by the Protestant religious societies. Lane being a Catholic could not be expected to represent them.61
As no official notice of his removal had been re- ceived, Governor Lane proceeded actively to carry into execution his plans concerning the suppression of Indian hostilities, which were interrupted tem- porarily by the pursuit of the deserting riflemen. During his absence on this self-imposed duty a diffi- culty occurred with the Chinooks at the mouth of the Columbia, in which, in the absence of established courts in that district, the military authorities were called upon to act. It grew out of the murder of Will- iam Stevens, one of four passengers lost from the brig Forrest while crossing the bar of the Columbia. Three of the men were drowned. Stevens escaped alive but
60 The principal movers in this demonstration were: Matthew P. Deady, J. McBride, A. S. Watt, J. Walling, A. J. Hembree, S. M. Gilmore, and N. M. Creighton. Or. Spectator, March 7, 1850.
61 It is told to me by the person in whose interest it was done, that Lane, while governor, permitted himself to be chosen arbitrator in a land-jumping case, and rode a long distance in the rain, having to cross swolleu streams on horseback, to help a woman whose husband was absent in the mines to resist the attempt of an unprincipled tenant to hold the claim of her husband. His influence was sufficient with the jury to get the obnoxious tenant removed.
94
LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
exhausted to the shore, where the Chinooks murdered him. Jones, of the rifles, who was at Astoria with a small company, hearing of it wrote to the governor and his colonel, saying that if he had men enough he would take the matter in hand at once; but that the Indians were excited over the arrest of one of the murderers, and he feared to make matters worse by attempting without a sufficient force to apprehend all the guilty Indians. On receiving the information, Secretary Pritchett called for aid on Hathaway, who sent a company to Astoria to make the arrest of all persons suspected of being concerned in the murder; 62 but by this time the criminals had escaped.
Negotiations had been in progress ever since the arrival of Lane for the voluntary delivery of the guilty Cayuses by their tribe, it being shown them that the only means by which peace and friendship could ever be restored to their people, or they be permitted to occupy their lands and treat with the United States government, was the delivery of the Whitman mur- derers to the authorities of Oregon for trial.63 At length word was received that the guilty members of the tribe, who were not already dead, would be sur- rendered at The Dalles. Lane went in person to receive them, escorted by Lieutenant Addison with a guard of ten men. Five of the murderers, Tiloukaikt, Tamahas, Klokamas, Isaiachalakis, and Kiamasump- kin, were found to be there with others of their people. They consented to go to Oregon City to be tried, offer- ing fifty horses for their successful defence. 64
The journey of the prisoners, who took leave of their friends with marked emotion, was not without interest to their escort, who, anxious to understand the
62 Or. Spectator, March 21, and April 4, 1850.
63 Lane's Autobiography, MS., 56.
6+ Blanchet asserts that the Cayuses consented only to come down and have a talk with the white authorities, and denies that they were the actual criminals, who he says were all dead, having been killed by the volunteers. C'ath. Ch. in Or., IS0. There appears to be nothing to justify such a state- ment, except that the murderers submitted to receive the consolations of the church in their last moments.
95
THE CAYUSE MURDERERS.
motives which had actuated the Indians in surrender- ing themselves, plied them with questions at every opportunity. Tiloukaikt answered with a singular mingling of savage pride and Christian humility. When offered food by the guard from their own mess he regarded it with scorn. "What hearts have you," he demanded, "to offer to eat with me, whose hands are red with your brother's blood?" When asked why he gave himself up, he replied: "Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? So die we to save our people."
This apparent magnanimity produced a deep impres- sion on some minds, who, not well versed in Indian or in any human character, could not divest themselves of awe in the presence of such evidences of moral greatness as these mocking answers evinced.
The facts are these: The Cayuses, weary of wan- dering, with the prospect before them of another war with white men, had prevailed upon those who among themselves had done most to bring so much wretched- ness upon them, to risk their lives in restoring them to their former peace and prosperity. Doubtless the representations which had been made, that they would be defended by white counsel, had had its influence in inducing them to take the risk. At all events it was a case requiring a desperate remedy. They were not ignorant that between twenty and thirty thousand Americans, chiefly men, and several government expe- ditions had traversed the road to the Pacific the year previous; nor that their attempt to expel the few white people from the Walla Walla valley had been an igno- minious failure. There was scarcely a chance that white men's laws would acquit them; but on the other hand there was the apparent certainty that unless the few gave up their lives, all must perish. Could a chief face his people whom he had ruined without an effort to save them? All that was courageous or manly in the savage breast was roused by the emergency; and who shall say that this pride, which doggedly accepted
96
LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
a terrible alternative, did not make a moral hero, or present an example equivalent to the average Chris- tian self-sacrifice?
The trial was set for the 22d of May. The pris- oners in the mean time were confined on Abernethy Island, in the midst of the falls, the bridge connect- ing it with the mainland being guarded by Lieutenant, Lane, of the rifles, who was assigned to that duty. 65 The prosecution was conducted by Amory Holbrook, district attorney, who had arrived in the territory in March previous, and the defence by Secretary Pritchett, R. B. Reynolds, of Tennessee, paymaster of the rifle regiment, and Captain Claiborne, also of the rifles, whom Judge Pratt assigned to this duty; and whether from a sense of justice, or from a desire to win the fifty horses offered, the trio made a vigor- ous effort to clear their clients.
The plea first set up was that the United States, at the time the massacre was committed, possessed no jurisdiction over Oregon. This was overruled by showing that an act of congress had been passed in 1844, which declared all the Indian territory west of the Mississippi subject to the laws regulating inter- course with the Indians, and that the territorial act of 1848 gave jurisdiction to the district courts to take cognizance of the crimes of which the prisoners were accused. Counsel for the defence then pleaded not guilty to three indictments for murder, brought to show the killing of Dr Whitman, Mrs Whitman, and Mr Saunders, and attempted to procure a change of venue to Clarke county, on the ground of the excited state of the public mind in Clackamas. This petition was also overruled.
On the second day a continuance of the case was asked for on an insufficient affidavit, and denied. Much difficulty was experienced in securing a jury, twenty persons being challenged. At length the trial proceeded. When the women who had witnessed the
65 Lane's Autobiography, MS., 139.
97
THE TRIAL.
butchery of their husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers were put upon the stand to identify the murderers, the feeling was intense; and was heightened by the evident sympathy for the prisoners of certain persons who had come in with the new order of things, and who thought it more shocking to conviet the Indians than that they should have committed the crimes for which they were being tried. The witnesses for the defence were few. Stiecas testified to having given Whitman a warning similar to that which he gave Spalding, but which he had no time to take. Spald- ing told his story of the warning received by him. Dr MeLoughlin was called upon to say that he had counselled Whitman to remove to the Willamette as early as 1840 or 1841; and Osborne, after having been a witness for the prosecution, was made to state that he knew Whitman to be anxious about his situation among the Cayuses. But all this did not change the nature of the crimes committed, rather confirming the theory of premeditated guilt than helping the case of the criminals.
The solemnity and quiet of religious services char- acterized the trial, at which between two and three hundred persons were present. At its close, when the jury had returned the verdict of guilty, there was no unseemly approval; only a long drawn sigh of relief that the dreadful business was approaching the close.
Attending this episode were the usual hypocrisies of society. It was predetermined by the people that these Indians should die. For myself I think they were guilty and ought to have died. But I would not on that account as a narrator of faets indulge in divers little fictions to make the affair more pathetie. Nor was it at all necessary for the Spectator to pat the judge on the back for being "so firm and fearless." There was not the slightest danger that Pratt would go against the people in this matter. But he ruled as he did, not so much from any just or noble senti- ment, as, first, because there was present no inducement HIST. OR., VOL. II. 7
98
LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
to do otherwise, the fifty horses not going to the judge; and secondly, he well knew the country would be too hot to hold him should he do otherwise.
Sentence of death was passed upon each of the five prisoners, the 3d of June being appointed for their execution. Soon after their condemnation, which they received some in sullen silence, some with signs of terror, all confessed to having shared in the mur- ders except Kiamasumpkin, who, while admitting that he was present at the massacre, persistently de- clared that his hands were not imbued in the white man's blood. 66
When Lane had signed the death warrants, he pre- pared his resignation, to take effect the 18th of June; and leaving Pritchett acting governor, for the clerical duties of which office Lane had little liking, he set out on an expedition to southern Oregon, where he thought he might do something to pacify the Rogue River Indians, now as formerly committing depreda- tions upon travellers. 67 His personal affairs were left in charge of his son.68
No sooner was he well away than Pritchett began to talk of a reprieve, and even of liberating the Ca- yuses, but the marshal was incorruptible.69 It was
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.