USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 14
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HIST. OR., VOL. II. 9
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to Winthrop, of Massachusetts, cautioning him against Thurston's misrepresentations. Then Thurston pre- pared an address to the people of Oregon, covering sixteen closely printed octavo pages, in which he re- counts his services and artifices.
With no small cunning he declared that his reason for not asking congress to confirm to the owners lots purchased or obtained of McLoughlin after the 4th of March, 1849, was because he had confidence that the legislative assembly would do so; adding that the bill was purposely so worded in order that McLough- lin would have no opportunity of transferring the property to others who would hold it for him. Thus careful had he been to leave no possible means by which the man who had founded and fostered Oregon City could retain an interest in it. And having openly advocated educating the youth of Oregon with the property wrested from the venerable benefactor of their fathers and mothers, he submitted himself for reelection,52 while the victim of missionary and per- sonal malice began the painful and useless struggle to free himself from the toils by which his enemies had surrounded him, and from which he never escaped dur- ing the few remaining years of his life.53
52 Address to the Electors, 12.
53 McLoughlin died September 3, 1857, aged 73 years. He was buried in the enclosure of the Catholic church at Oregon City; and on his tombstone, a plain slab, is engraved the legend: 'The Pioneer and Friend of Oregon; also The Founder of this City.' He laid his case before congress in a memorial, with all the evidence, but in vain. Lane, who was then in that body as a delegate from Oregon, and who was personally interested in defeating the memorial, succeeded in doing so by assertions as unfounded as those of Thurston. This blunt old soldier, the pride of the people, the brave killer of Indians, turned demagogue could deceive and cheat with the best of them. See Cong. Globe, 1853-4, 1080-82, and Letter of Dr McLoughlin, in Portland Oregonian, July 22, 1854. Toward the close of his life McLoughlin yielded to the tortures of disease and ingratitude, and betrayed, as he had never done before, the unhappiness his enemies had brought upon him. Shortly before his death he said to Grover, then a young man : 'I shall live hut a little while longer; and this is the reason that I sent for you. I am an old man and just dying, and you are a young man and will live many years in this country. As for me, I might better have been shot'-and he brought it out harshly- 'like a bull; I might better have been shot forty years ago !' After a silence, for I did not say anything, he concluded, 'than to have lived here, and tried to build up a family and an estate in this government. I became a citizen of the United States in good faith. I planted all I had here, and the govern-
131
DEATH OF McLOUGHLIN.
When the legislative assembly met in the autumn of 1850 it complied with the suggestion of Thurston, so far as to confirm the lots purchased since March 1849 to their owners, by passing an act for that pur- pose, certain members of the council protesting.54 This act was of some slight benefit to McLoughlin, as it stopped the demand upon him, by people who had purchased property, to have their money returned.55 Further than this they refused to go, not having a clear idea of their duty in the matter. They neither accepted the gift nor returned it to its proper owner, and it was not until 1852, after McLoughlin had com- pleted his naturalization, that the legislature passed an act accepting the donation of his property for the purposes of a university.56 Before it was given back to the heirs of McLoughlin, that political party to which Thurston belonged, and which felt bound to justify his acts, had gone out of power in Oregon. Since that time many persons have, like an army in a wilderness building a monument over a dead com- rade by casting each a stone upon his grave, placed their tribute of praise in my hands to be built into
ment has confiscated my property. Now what I want to ask of you is, that you will give your influence, after I am dead, to have this property go to my children. I have earned it, as other settlers have earned theirs, and it ought to he mine and my heirs'.' 'I told him,' said Grover, 'I would favor his request, and I always did favor it; and the legislature finally surrendered the property to his heirs.' Pub. Life, MIS., 88-90.
31 Waymire and Miller protested, saying that it was not in accordance with the object of the donation, and was robbing the university; that the assembly were only agents in trust, and had no right to dispose of the prop- erty without a consideration. Or. Spectator, Feb. 13, 1851.
65 " My father paid back thousands of dollars,' says Mrs Harvey. Life of McLoughlin, MS., 38.
56 The legislature of 1852 accepted the donation. In 1853-4 a resolution was offered by Orlando Humason thanking McLoughlin for his generous con- . duct toward the early settlers; but as it was not in very good taste wrongfully to keep a man's property while thanking him for previous favors, the reso- lution was indefinitely postponed. In 1855-6 a memorial was drawn up by the legislature asking that certain school lands in Oregon City should he restored to John McLoughlin, and two townships of land in lieu thereof should be granted to the university. Salem, Or. Statesman, Jan 29th and Feb. 5, 1856. Nothing was done, however, for the relief of McLoughlin or his heirs until 1862, when the legislature conveyed to the latter for the sum of $1,000 the Oregon City claim; but the long suspension of the title had driven money seeking investment away from the place and materially lessened its value.
7
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the monument of history testifying one after another to the virtues, magnanimity, and wrongs of John Mc- Loughlin.57
Meanwhile, and though reproved by the public prints, by the memorial spoken of, and by the act of the legislature in refusing to sanction so patent an iniquity,53 the Oregon delegate never abated his in- dustry, but toiled on, leaving no stone unturned to secure his reelection. He would compel the appro- bation and gratitude of his constituency, to whom he was ever pointing out his achievements in their be- half.59 The appropriations for Oregon, besides one hundred thousand dollars for the Cayuse war ex- penses, amounted in all to one hundred and ninety thousand dollars.60
57 Mckinlay, his friend of many years, comparing him with Douglas, remarks that McLoughlin's name will go down from generation to generation when Sir James Douglas' will be forgotten, as the maker of Oregon, and one of the best of men. Compton's Forts and Fort Life, MS., 2. Finlayson says identically the same in Vanc. Isl. and N. W. Coast, MS., 28-30. There are similar observations in Minto's Early Days, MS., and in Waldo's Critiques, MS .; Brown's Willamette Valley, MS .; Parrish's Or. Anecdotes, MS .; Joseph Watt, in Palmer's Wagon Trains, MS .; Rev. Geo. H. Atkinson, in Oregon Colonist, 5; M. P. Deady, in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1875, 18; Wa H. Reer, Id., 1879, 31; Grover's Public Life in Or., MS., 86-92; Ford's Roadmakers, MS .; Crawford's Missionaries, MS .; Moss' Pioneer Times, MS .; Burnett's Recollections, MS., i. 91-4, 273-4, 298, 301-3; Mrs E. M. Wilson, in Oregon Sketches, MS., 19-21; Blanchet's Cath. Ch. in Or., 71; Chadwick's Pub. Records, MS., 4-5; H. H. Spalding, in 27th Cong., 2d Sess., 830, 57; Ebbert's Trapper's Life, MS., 36-7; Pettygrove's Oregon, MS., 1-2, 5-6; Lovejoy's Portland, MS., 37; Anderson's Hist. N. W. Coust., MS., 15-16; Applegate's Views of Ilist., MS., 12, 15-16; Id., in Saxon's Or. Ter., 131-41; C. Laucaster, in Cong. Globe, 1853-4, 1080, and others already quoted.
58 Or. Spectator, Dec. 19 and 26, 1850.
69 W. W. Buck, who was a member of the council, repudiated the idea that Oregon was indebted to Thurston for the donation law, which Linn and Benton had labored for long before, and asserted that he had found congress ready and willing to bestow the long promised bounty. And as to the appro- priations obtained, they were no more than other territories east of the moun- tains had received.
60 The several amounts were, $20,000 for public buildings; 820,000 for a penitentiary; $53,140 for lighthouses at Cape Disappointment, Cape Flattery, and New Dungeness, and for buoys at the mouth of the Columbia River; $25,000 for the purposes of the Indian hill; $24,000 pay for legislature, clerks' hire, office rents, etc; $15,000 additional Indian fund; §10,000 de- ficiency fund to make up the intended appropriation of 1848, which had merely paid the expenses of the messengers, Thornton and Meek; $10,000 for the pay of the superintendent of Indian affairs, his clerks, office rent, etc .; $10,500, salaries for the governor, secretary, and judges; $1,500 for taking
133
PERSISTENT EFFORT.
Mr Thurston set an example, which his immediate successors were compelled to imitate, of complete con- formity to the demands of the people. He aspired to please all Oregon, and he made it necessary for those who came after him to labor for the same end. It was a worthy effort when not carried too far; but no man ever yet succeeded for any length of time in act- ing upon that policy; though there have been a few who have pleased all by a wise independence of all. In his ardor and inexperience he went too far. He not only published a great deal of matter in the east to draw attention to Oregon, much of which was cor- rect, and some of which was false, but he wrote letters to the people of Oregon through the Specta- tor,61 showing forth his services from month to month, and giving them advice which, while good in itself, was akin to impudence on the part of a young man whose acquaintance with the country was of recent date. But this was a part of the man's temperament and character.
Congress passed a bounty land bill, giving one hundred and sixty acres to any officer or private who had served one year in any Indian war since 1790, or eighty acres to those who had served six months. This bill might be made to apply to those who had served in the Cayuse war, and a bill to that effect was introduced by Thurston's successor; but Thurston had already thought of doing something for the old soldiers of 1812 and later, many of whom were set- tlers in Oregon, by procuring the passage of a bill establishing a pension agency.62
He kept himself informed as well as he could of everything passing in Oregon, and expressed his ap- proval whenever he could. He complimented the
· the census; $1,500 contingent fund; and a copy of the exploring expedition for the territorial library. 31st Cong., 1st Sess., U. S. Acts and Res., 13, 27, 28, 31, 72, 111, 159-60, 192, 198; Or. Spectator, Aug. Sth and 22d, and Oct. 24, 1850.
61 Or. Spectator, from Sept. 26th to Oct. 17, 1850.
62 Cong. Globe, 1849-50, 564. Theophilus Magruder was appointed pension agent. Or. Spectutor, July 25, 1830.
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school superintendent, McBride, on the sentiments uttered in his report. He wrote to William Meek of Milwaukie that he was fighting hard to save his land claim from being reserved for an ordnance depot. He procured, unasked, the prolongation of the legisla- tive session of 1850 from sixty to ninety days, for the purpose of giving the assembly time to perfect a good code, and also secured an appropriation sufficient to meet the expense of the long session.63 He secured, when the cheap postage bill was passed, the right of the Pacific coast to a rate uniform with the Atlantic states, whereas before the rate had been four times as high; and introduced a bill providing a revenue cutter for the district of Oregon, and for the establishment of a marine hospital at Astoria; presented a memorial from the citizens of that place asking for an appropria- tion of ten thousand dollars for a custom-house; and a bill to create an additional district, besides applica- tion for additional ports of entry on the southern coast of Oregon.
In regard to the appropriation secured of $100,000 for the Cayuse war, instead of $150,000 asked for, Thurston said he had to take that or nothing. No money was to be paid, however, until the evidence should be presented to the secretary of the treasury that the amount claimed had been expended.64
. This practically finished Mr Thurston's work for the session, and he so wrote to his constituents. The last of the great measures for Oregon, he said, had been consummated; but they had cost him dearly, as his impaired health fearfully admonished him. But he declared before God and his conscience he had done all that he could do for Oregon, and with an eye single to her interests. He rejoiced in his success;
63 Id., Oct. 10, 1850; 31st Cong., 1st Sess., U. S. Acts and Res., 31.
6+ A memorial was received from the Oregon legislature after the passage of the bill dated Dec. 3, 1850, giving the report of A. E. Wait, commis- sioner, stating that he had investigated and allowed 340 claims, amounting in all to $87,230.53; and giving it as his opinion that the entire indebtedness would amount to about $150,000. 31st Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. 29, 3-11.
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DECLINE OF INFLUENCE.
and though slander might seek to destroy him, it could not touch the destiny of the territory.85
Between the time of the receipt of the first copy of the land bill and the writing of this letter partisan feeling had run high in Oregon, and the newspapers were filled with correspondence on the subject. Much of this newspaper writing would have wounded the delegate deeply, but he was spared from seeing it by the irregularity and insufficiency of the mail trans- portation,66 which brought him no Oregon papers for several months.
It soon became evident, notwithstanding the first impulse of the people to stand by their delegate, that a reaction was taking place, and the more generous- minded were ashamed of the position in which the eleventh section of the land bill placed them in the eyes of the world; that with the whole vast territory of Oregon wherein to pick and choose they must needs force an old man of venerable character from his just possessions for the un-American reason that he was a foreigner born, or had formerly been the honored head of a foreign company. It was well un- derstood, too, whence came the direction of this vin- dictive action, and easily seen that it would operate against the real welfare of the territory.
The more time the people had in which to think over the matter, the more easily were they convinced that there were others who could fill Thurston's place without detriment to the public interests. An in- formal canvass then began, in which the names67 of
65 Or. Spectator, April 3, 1851. The appropriations made at the second session of the 31st Congress for Oregon were for the expenses of the territory $36,000; for running base and meridian lines, 89,000; for surveying in Ore- gon, $51,840; for a custom-house, $10,000; for a light-house and fog-signal at Umpqua River, $15,000; for fog-signals at the light-houses to be erected at Disappointment, Flattery, and New Dungeness, $3,000.
66 Writing Jan. 8th, he says: 'September is the latest date of a paper I have seen. I am uninformed as yet what the cause is, only from what I cxpe- rienced once before, that the steamer left San Francisco before the arrival of, or without taking the Oregon mail.' Or. Spectator, April 10, 1850.
67 'There are many very worthy and meritorious citizens who migrated to this country at an early day to choose from. I would mention the names of some of the number, leaving the door open, however, to suggestions from
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several well known citizens and early settlers were mentioned; but publie sentiment took no form before March, when the Star, published at Milwaukie, pro- claimed as its candidate Thurston's opponent in the election of 1849, Columbia Lancaster. In the mean time R. R. Thompson had been corresponding with Lane, who was still mining in southern Oregon, and had obtained his consent to run if his friends wished it.68 The Star then put the name of Lane in place of that of Lancaster; the Spectator, now managed by D. J. Sehnebley, and a new democratic paper, the Oregon Statesman, withholding their announcements of candidates until Thurston, at that moment on his way to Oregon, should arrive and satisfy his friends of his eligibility.
But when everything was preparing to realize or to give the lie to Thurston's fondest hopes of the future, there suddenly interposed that kindest of our enemies, death, and saved him from humiliation. He expired on board the steamer California, at sea off Acapulco on the 9th of April 1851, at the age of thirty-five years. His health had long been delicate, and he had not spared himself, so that the heat and discomfort of the voyage through the tropics, with the anxiety of mind attending his politieal eareer, sapped the low- burning lamp of life, and its fliekering flame was ex- tinguished. Yet he died not alone or unattended. He had in his charge a company of young women, teachers whom Governor Slade of Vermont was send- ing to Oregon,69 who now became his tender nurses,
others, namely, Jesse Applegate, J. W. Nesmith, Joel Palmer, Daniel Waldo, Rev. Wm Roberts, the venerable Robert Moore, James M. Moore, Gen. Joseph Lane and Gen. Lovejoy, and many others who have recently arrived in the country.' Cor. of the Or. Spectator, March 27, 1851.
68Or. Spectator, March 6, 1851; Lane's Autobiography, MS., 57.
69 Five young women were sent out by the national board of educa- tion, at the request of Abernethy and others, under contract to teach two years, or refund the money for their passage. They were all soon married, as a matter of course-Miss Wands to Governor Gaines; Miss Smith to Mr Beers; Miss Gray to Mr McLeach; Miss Lincoln to Judge Skinner; and Miss Millar to Judge Wilson. Or. Sketches, MS., 15; Grover's Pub. Life in Or., MS., 100; Or. Spectator, March 13, 1851.
137
DEATH OF THURSTON.
and when they had closed his eyes forever, treasured up every word that could be of interest to his bereaved wife and friends.7 Thus while preparing boldly to vin- dicate his acts and do battle with his adversaries, he was forced to surrender the sword which was too sharp for its scabbard, and not even his mortal remains were permitted to reach Oregon for two years.71
The reverence we entertain for one on whom the gods have laid their hands, caused a revulsion of feeling and an outburst of sympathy. Had he lived to make war in his own defence, perhaps McLoughlin would have been sooner righted; but the people, who as a majority blamed him for the disgraceful eleventh sec- tion of the land law, could not touch the dead lion with disdainful feet, and his party who honored his talents72 and felt under obligations for his industry, protected his memory from even the implied censure
70 Mrs E. M. Wilson, daughter of Rev. James P. Millar of Albany, New York, who soon followed his daughter to Oregon, gives some notes of Thur- ston's last days. 'He was positive enough,' she says, 'to make a vivid im- pression on my memory. Strikingly good-looking, direct in his speech, with a supreme will, used to overcoming obstacles ... "Just wait 'til I get there," he would say, "I will show those fellows !""' Or. Sketches, MS., 16.
71 The legislature in 1853 voted to remove his dust from foreign soil, and it was deposited in the cemetery at Salem; and in 1856 a monument was erected over it by the same authority. It is a plain shaft of Italian marble, 12 feet high. On its eastern face is inscribed: 'Thurston: erected by the People of Oregon,' and a fac-simile of the seal of the territory; on the north side, name, age, and deathı; on the south: 'Here rests Oregon's first delegate: a man of genius and learning; a lawyer and statesman, his Christian virtues equalled by his wide philanthropy, his public acts are his best eulo- gium.' Salem Or. Statesman, May 20, 1856; Odell's Biog. of Thurston, MS., 37; S. F. D. Alta, April 25, 1851.
12 Thurston made his first high mark in congress by his speech on the admission of California. See Cong. Globe, 1849-50, app. 345. His remarks on the appropriations for Indian affairs were so instructive and inter- esting that his amendments were unanimously agreed to. A great many members shook him heartily by the hand after he had closed; and he was assured that if he had asked for $50,000 after such a speech he would have received it. Or. Spectator, Aug. 22, 1850. With that tendency to see some- thing peculiar in a man who has identified himself with the west, the N. Y. Sun of March 26, 1850, remarked: 'Coming from the extreme west'-lie was not two years from Maine-'where, it is taken for granted, the people are in a more primitive condition than elsewhere under this government, and look- ing, as Mr Thurston does, like a fair specimen of the frontier man, little was expected of him in an oratorical way. But he has proved to be one of the most effective speakers in the hall, which has created no little surprise.' A Massachusetts paper also commented in a similar strain: 'Mr Thurston is a young man, an eloquent and effective debater, and a bold and active man, such as are found only in the west.'
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A DELEGATE TO CONGRESS.
of undoing his work. And all felt that not he alone, but his secret advisers were likewise responsible.
In view of all the circumstances of Thurston's career, it is certainly to be regretted, first, that he fell under the influence of, or into alliance with, the mis- sionary party; and secondly, that he had adopted as a part of his political creed the maxim that the end sanctifies the means, by which he missed obtaining that high place in the estimation of posterity to which he aspired, and to which he could easily have attained by a more honest use of his abilities. Associated as he is with the donation law, which gave thousands of persons free farms a mile square in Oregon, his name is engraved upon the foundation stones of the state beside those of Floyd, Linn, and Benton, and of Gra- ham N. Fitch, the actual author of the bill before con- gress in 1850.73 No other compensation had he;74 and of that even the severest truth cannot deprive him.
Thurston had accomplished nothing toward securing a fortune in a financial sense, and he left his widow with scanty means of support. The mileage of the Oregon delegate was fixed by the organic act at $2,500. It was afterward raised to about double that amount; and when in 1856-7 on this ground a bill for the relief of his heirs was brought before con- gress, the secretary of the treasury was authorized to make up the difference in the mileage for that purpose.
13 Cong. Globe, 1850-51, app. xxxviii.
14 Or. Statesman, April 14, 1857; Grover's Pub. Life, MS., 101.
CHAPTER V.
ADMINISTRATION OF GAINES.
1850-1852.
AN OFFICIAL VACANCY-GAINES APPOINTED GOVERNOR-HIS RECEPTION IN OREGON-THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY IN SESSION-ITS PERSONNEL- THE TERRITORIAL LIBRARY-LOCATION OF THE CAPITAL-OREGON CITY OR SALEM-WARM AND PROLONGED CONTEST-TWO LEGISLATURES- WAR BETWEEN THE LAW-MAKERS AND THE FEDERAL JUDGES-APPEAL TO CONGRESS - SALEM DECLARED THE CAPITAL-A NEW SESSION CALLED-FEUDS OF THE PUBLIC PRESS-UNPOPULARITY OF GAINES- CLOSE OF HIS TERM-LANE APPOINTED HIS SUCCESSOR.
FROM the first of May to the middle of August 1850 there was neither governor nor district judge in the territory; the secretary and prosecuting attor- ney, with the United States marshal, administered the government. On the 15th of August the United States sloop of war Falmouth arrived from San Fran- cisco, having on board General John P. Gaines,1 newly appointed governor of Oregon, with his family, and other federal officers, namely: General Edward Ham- ilton of Ohio,2 territorial secretary, and Judge Strong of the third district, as before mentioned.3
1 According to A. Bush, of the Oregon Statesman, Marshall of Indiana was the first choice of President Taylor; but according to Grover, Pub. Life in Or., MS., Abraham Lincoln was first appointed, and declined. Which of these authorities is correct is immaterial; it shows, however, that Oregon was considered too far off to be desirable.
2 Hamilton was born in Culpeper Co., Va. He was a lawyer by profession; removed to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he edited the Portsmouth Tribune. He was a captain in the Mexican war, his title of general being obtained in the militia service. His wife was Miss Catherine Royer.
3 The other members of the party were Archibald Gaines, A. Kinney, James E. Strong, Mrs Gaines, three daughters and two sons, Mrs Hamilton and daughter, and Mrs Strong and daughter. Gaines lost two daughters, 17 and 19 years of age, of yellow fever, at St Catherine's, en route; and Judge Strong a son of five years. They all left New York in the United States ( 139 )
140
ADMINISTRATION OF GAINES.
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