USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 18
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officers in their effort to deprive the legislators of the use of the territorial library, an act was passed re- quiring a five thousand dollar bond to be given by the librarian, who was elected by the assembly. 56
Besides the memorial concerning the governor and judges, another petition addressed to congress asked for better mail facilities with a post-office at each court-house in the several counties, and a mail route direct from San Francisco to Puget Sound, showing the increasing settlement of that region. It was asked that troops be stationed in the Rogue River Valley, and at points between Fort Hall and The Dalles for the protection of the immigration, which this year suffered several atrocities at the hands of the Indians on this portion of the route; that the pay of the revenue officers be increased;57 and that an ap- propriation be made to continue the geological survey of Oregon already begun.
Having elected R. P. Boise district-attorney for the first and second judicial districts, and I. N. Ebey to the same office for the third district; reelected Bush territorial printer, and J. D. Boon territorial treasurer,58 the assembly adjourned on the 21st of January, to carry on the war against the federal offi- cers in a different field.59
C. Kinney, and Joel Palmer. Or. Local Laws, 1851-2, 62-3. The Meth- odist church in Oregon City was incorporated in May 1850.
56 Ludwell Rector was elected. The former librarian was a young man who came out with Gaines, and placed in that position by him while he held the clerkship of the surveyor-general's office, and also of the supreme court. Or. Statesman, Feb. 3, 1852.
5i See memorial of J. A. Anderson of Clatsop County in Or. Statesman, Jan. 20, 1852.
58 J. D. Boon was a Wesleyan Methodist preacher, a plain, unlearned man, honest and fervent, an immigrant of 1845. He was for many years a resident of Salem, and held the office of treasurer for several terms. Deady's Scrap Book, 87.
59 There were in this legislature a few not heretofore specially mentioned. J. M. Garrison, one of the men of 1843, before spoken of, was born in Indiana in 1813, and was a farmer in Marion county. Wilie Chapman, also of Marion, was born in South Carolina in 1817, reared in Tenn., and came to Oregon in 1847. He kept a hotel at Salem. Luther White, of Linn, preacher and farmer, was born in 1797 in Ky, and immigrated to Oregon in 1847. A. J. Hembree, of the immigration of 1843, was born in Tenn. in 1813; was a merchant and farmer in Yamhill. James S. Holman, an immigrant of 1847,
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NEWSPAPER WAR.
From the adjournment of the legislative assembly great anxiety was felt as to the action of congress in the matter of the memorial. Meanwhile the news- paper war was waged with bitterness and no great attention to decency. Seldom was journalism more completely prostituted to party and personal issues than in Oregon at this time and for several years thereafter. Private character and personal idiosyn- crasies were subjected to the most scathing ridicule.
With regard to the truth of the allegations brought against the unpopular officials, from the evidence be- fore me, there is no doubt that the governor was vain and narrow-minded; though of course his enemies ex- aggerated his weak points, while covering his credit- able ones,60 and that to a degree his official errors could not justify, heaping ridicule upon his past mili- tary career, as well as blame upon his present guberna- torial acts, 61 and accusing him of everything dishonest,
was born in Tenn. in 1813; a farmer in Polk. David S. Risdon was born in Vt in 1823, came to Oregon in 1850; lawyer by profession. John A. Ander- son was born in Ky in 1824, reared in north Miss., and came to Oregon in 1850; lawyer and clerk in the custom-house at Astoria. James Davidson, born in Ky in 1792; emigrated thence in 1847; housejoiner by occupation. George E. Cole, politician, born in New York in 1820; emigrated thence in 1850 by the way of California. He removed to Washington in 1858, and was sent as a delegate to congress; but afterward returned to Oregon, and held the office of postmaster at Portland from 1873 to 1881.
60 Applegate's Views of Hist., MS., 48. Gaines assaulted Bush in the street on two occasions; once for accidentally jostling him, and again for something said in the Statesman. See issues of Jan. 27th and June 29, 1852. A writer calling himself 'A Kentuckian ' had attacked the governor's exercise of the pardoning power in the case of Enoch Smith, reminding his excellency that Kentucky, which produced the governor, produced also nearly all the murderers in Oregon, namely, Keen, Kendall, Turner, the two Evermans, and Smith. 'Common sense, sir,' said this correspondent, ' shouldl teach you that the prestige of Kentucky origin will not sustain yon in your mental imbecility; and that Kentucky aristocracy, devoid of sense and virtuc, will not pass cur- rent in this intelligent market.' Or. Statesman, June 15, 1852.
6% John P'. Gaines was born in Augusta, Va, in September 1795, removing to Boone county, Ky, in early youth. He volunteered in the war of 1812, being in the battle of the Thames and several other engagements. He rep- resented Boone county for several years in the legislature of Ky, and was subsequently sent to congress from 1847 to 1849. He was elected major of the Ky cavalry, and served in the Mexican war until taken prisoner at Encarnacion. After some months of captivity he escaped, and joining the army served to the end of the war. On his return from Mexico, Taylor appointed him governor of Oregon. When his term expired he retired upon a farm in Marion county, where he resided till his death in December 1857. S. F. Alta, Jan. 4, 1858.
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ADMINISTRATION OF GAINES.
from drawing his family stores from the quarter-mas- ter's department at Vancouver, to re-auditing and changing the values of the certificates of the commis- sioners appointed to audit the Cayuse war claims, and retaining the same to use for political purposes; 62 the truth being that these claims were used by both par- ties. Holbrook, the United States attorney, was charged with dishonesty and with influencing both the governor and judges, and denounced as being responsible for many of their acts;63 a judgment to which subsequent events seemed to give color.
At the regular term, court was held in Marion county. Nelson repaired to Salem, and was mnet by a committee with offensive resolutions passed at a public meeting, and with other tokens of the spirit in which an attempt to defy the law of the territory, as passed at the last session, would be received.64 Mean- time the opposing parties had each had a hearing at
62 Or. Statesman, Nov. 6, 1852; Id., Feb. 26, 1853. Whether or not this was true, Lane procured an amendment to the former acts of congress in order to make up the deficiency said to have been occasioned by the alteration of the certificates. Cong. Globe, 1852-3, app. 341; 33d Cong., 1st Sess., II. Com. Rept. 122, 4-5.
63 Memorial, in 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Misc. Doc. 9, 2; Or. Statesman, May 18, 1852.
64 The ridicule, however, was not all on one side. There appeared in the Oregonian, and afterward in pamphlet form, with a dedication to the editors of l'ox Populi, a satire written in dramatic verse, and styled a Melodrama, illustrated with rude wood-cuts, and showing considerable ability both for composition and burlesque. This publication, both on account of its political effect and because it was the first book written and published in Oregon of an original nature, deserves to be remembered. It contained 32 double-col- umned pages, divided into five acts. The persons satirized were Pratt, Deady, Lovejoy, King, Anderson, Avery, Waymire, Parker, Thornton, Will- son, Bush, Backenstos, and Waterman of the Portland Times. The author was William L. Adams, an immigrant of 1848, a native of Painesville, Ohio, where he was born Feb. 1821. His parents removed to Michigan in 1834. In 1835 Adams entered college at Canton, Ill .; going afterward to Galesburg, supporting himself by teaching in the vacations. He finished his studies at Bethany College, Va, and became a convert to the renowned Alexander Campbell. In 1845 he married Olivia Goodell, a native of Maine, and settled in Henderson County, Ill., from which state he came to Oregon. He taught school in Yamhill county, and was elected probate judge. He was of- fered a press at Oregon City if he would establish a whig newspaper at that place, which he declined; but in 1858 he purchased the Spectator press and helped materially to found the present republican party of Oregon. He was rewarded with the collectorship at Astoria under Lincoln. Portland West Shore, May, 1876.
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POLITICAL ISSUES.
Washington. The legislative memorial and commu- nications from the governor and secretary were spread before both houses of congress.65 The same mail which conveyed the memorial conveyed a copy of the location act, the governor's message on the subject, the opinion of Attorney-General Crittenden, and the opinions of the district judges of Oregon. The presi- dent in order to put an end to the quarrel recom- mended congress to fix the seat of government of Oregon either temporarily or permanently, and to approve or disapprove the laws passed at Salem, in conformity to their decision66 in favor of or against that place for the seat of government. To disapprove the action of the assembly would be to cause the nullification of many useful laws, and to create pro- tracted confusion without ending the political feud. Accordingly congress confirmed the location and other laws passed at Salem, by a joint resolution, and the president signed it on the 4th of May.67
Thus far the legislative party was triumphant. The imported officials had been rebuked; the course of Governor Gaines had been commented on by many of the eastern papers in no flattering terms; and let- ters from their delegate led them to believe that congress might grant the amendments asked to the organic act, permitting them to eleet their governor and judges. The house did indeed on the 22d of June pass a bill to amend,68 but no action was taken upon it in the senate, though a motion was made to return it, with other unfinished business, at the close of the session, to the files of the senate.
The difference between the first Oregon delegate and the second was very apparent in the management
65 32d. Cong., 1st Sess., S. Jour., 339; Cong. Globe, 1851-2, 451, 771; 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Misc. Doc. 10; 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 94, 29. 66 33d Cong., 1st Sess., HI. Ex. Doc. 94, 1-2; and Id., 96, 1-8; Location Law, 1-39. The Location Law is a pamphlet publication containing the documents on this subject.
67 C'ong. Globe, 1851-2, 1199, 1209; 32d Cong., 1st Sess., S. Jour., 394; Or. Statesman, June 29, 1852; Or. Gen. Laws, 1845-64, 71.
6832d. Cong., 1st Sess., Cong. Globe, 1851-2, 1594.
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ADMINISTRATION OF GAINES.
of this business. Had Thurston been charged by his party to procure the passage of this amendment, the journals of the house would have shown some bold and fiery assaults upon established rules, and proofs positive that the innovation was necessary to the peace and prosperity of the territory. On the con- trary, Lane was betrayed by his loyalty to his per- scnal friends into seeming to deny the allegations of his constituents against the judiciary.
The location question led to the regular organiza- tion of a democratic party in Oregon in the spring of 1852, foreing the whigs to nominate a ticket. The democrats carried the election; and soon after this triumph eame the official information of the action of congress on the location law, when Gaines, with that want of tact which rendered abortive his administra- tion, was no sooner officially informed of the eonfirma- tion of the laws of the legislative assembly and the settlement of the seat-of-government question than he issued a proclamation calling for a special session of the legislature to commence on the 26th of July. In obedienee to the call, the newly elected members, many of whom were of the late legislative body, assembled at Salem, and organized by eleeting Deady president of the council, and Harding speaker of the house. With the same absence of discretion the governor in his message, after congratulating them on the settle- ment of a vexed question, informed the legislature that it was still a matter of grave doubt to what ex- tent the location act had been confirmed; and that even had it been wholly and permanently established, it was still so defective as to require further legisla- tion, for which purpose he had called them together, though conseious it was at a season of the year when to attend to this important duty would seriously in- terfere with their ordinary avocations; yet he hoped they would be willing to make any reasonable sacri- fice for the general good. The defects in the location
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OFFICIAL WARFARE.
act were pointed out, and they were reminded that no sites for the public buildings had yet been selected, and until that was done no contracts could be let for beginning the work; nor could any money be drawn from the sums appropriated until the commissioners were authorized by law to call for it. He also called their attention to the necessity of re-arranging the judicial districts, and reminded them of the incon- gruous condition of the laws, recommending the ap- pointment of a board for their revision, with other suggestions, good enough in themselves, but distaste- ful as coming from him under the circumstances, and at an unusual and inconvenient time. In this mood the assembly adjourned sine die on the third day, with- out having transacted any legislative business, and the seat-of-government feud became quieted for a time.
This did not, however, end the battle. The chief justice refused to recognize the prosecuting attorney elected by the legislative assembly, in the absence of Amory Halbrook, and appointed S. B. Mayre, who acted in this capacity at the spring term of court in Clackamas county. The law of the territory re- quiring indictments to be signed by this officer, it was apprehended that on account of the irregular proceed- ings of the chief justice many indictments would be quashed. In this condition of affairs the democratic press was ardently advocating the election of Frank- lin Pierce, the party candidate for the presidency of the United States, as if the welfare of the territory depended upon the executive being a democrat. Al- though the remainder of Gaines' administration was more peaceful, he never became a favorite of either faction, and great was the rejoicing when at the close of his delegateship Lane was returned to Oregon as governor, to resign and run again for delegate, leav- ing his secretary, George L. Curry, one of the Salem clique, as the party leaders came to be denominated, to rule according to their promptings.
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CHAPTER VI. DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.
1850-1852.
POLITICS AND PROSPECTING-IMMIGRATION-AN ERA OF DISCOVERY-Ex- PLORATIONS ON THE SOUTHERN OREGON SEABOARD-THE CALIFORNIA COMPANY-THE SCHOONER 'SAMUEL ROBERTS' AT THE MOUTHS OF ROGUE RIVER AND THE UMPQUA -MEETING WITH THE OREGON PARTY- LAYING-OUT OF LANDS AND TOWN SITES-FAILURE OF THE UMPQUA COMPANY-THE FINDING OF GOLD IN VARIOUS LOCALITIES-THE MAIL SERVICE-EFFORTS OF THURSTON IN CONGRESS-SETTLEMENT OF PORT ORFORD AND DISCOVERY OF COOS BAY-THE COLONY AT PORT ORFORD- INDIAN ATTACK-THE T'VAULT EXPEDITION-MASSACRE-GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE.
WHILE politics occupied so much attention, the country was making long strides in material progress. The immigration of 1850 to the Pacific coast, by the overland route alone, amounted to between thirty and forty thousand persons, chiefly men. Through the exertions of the Oregon delegate, in and out of con- gress, about eight thousand were persuaded to settle in Oregon, where they arrived after undergoing more than the usual misfortunes. Among other things was cholera, from which several hundred died between the Missouri River and Fort Laramie.1 The crowded condition of the road, which was one cause of the pestilence, occasioned delays with the consequent ex- haustion of supplies.2 The famine becoming known in Portland, assistance was forwarded to The Dalles
1 White, in Camp Fire Orations, MS., 9-10; Dowell's Journal, MS., 5; Johnson's Cal. and Or., 255; Or. Spectator, Sept. 26, 1850.
2 Says one of the sufferers: 'I saw men who had been strong stout men walking along through the hot desert sands, crying like children with fatigue, hunger, and despair.' Cardwell's Emig. Comp'y, MS., 1.
( 174 )
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IMMIGRATION OF 1850.
military post, and thence carried forward and distrib- uted by army officers and soldiers. Among the arrivals were many children, made orphans en route, and it was in the interest of these and like helpless ones that Frederick Waymire petitioned congress to amend the land law, as mentioned in the previous chapter. Those who came this year were bent on speculation more than any who had come before them; the gold fever had unsettled ideas of plodding industry and slow accumulation. Some came for pleasure and ob- servation.3
Under the excitement of gold-seeking and the spirit of adventure awakened by it, all the great north-western seaboard was opened to settlement with marvellous rapidity. A rage for discovery and pros- pecting possessed the people, and produced in a short time marked results. From the Klamath River to Puget Sound, and from the upper Columbia to the sea, men were spying out mineral wealth or laying plans to profit by the operations of those who pre- ferred the risks of the gold-fields to other and more settled pursuits. In the spring of 1850 an association of seventy persons was formed in San Francisco to discover the mouth of Klamath River, believed at the
* Among those who took the route to the Columbia River was Henry J. Coke, an English gentleman travelling for pleasure. He arrived at Vancouver Oct. 22, 1850, and after a brief look at Oregon City sailed in the Mary Dare for the Islands, visiting San Francisco in Feb. 1851, thence proceeding to Mexico and Vera Cruz, and by the way of St Thomas back to England, all without appearing to see much, though he wrote a book called Coke's Ride. Two Frenchmen, Julius Brenchly and Jules Remy, were much interested in the Mormons, and wrote a book of not much value. Remy and Brenchly, ii. 507-8.
F. G. Hearn started from Kentucky intending to settle in Oregon, but seized by cholera was kept at Fort Laramie till the following year, when with a party of six he came on to the Willamette Valley, and finally took up his resi- dence at Yreka, California. Hearn's California Sketches, MS., is a collection of observations on the border country between California and Oregon.
Two Irishmen, Kelly and Conway, crossed the continent this year with no other supplies than they carried in their haversacks, depending on their rifles for food. They were only three months in travelling from Kansas to the Sac- ramento Valley, which they entered before going to Oregon. Quigley's Irish Race, 216-17. During Aug. and Sept. of this year Oregon was visited by the French traveller Saint Amant, who made some unimportant notes for the French government. Certain of his observations were apocryphal. See Saint Amant, 139-391.
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DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.
time, owing to an error of Fremont's, to be in Oregon. The object was wholly speculative, and included be- sides hunting for gold the opening of a road to the mines of northern California, the founding of towns at the most favorable points on the route, with other enterprises. In May thirty-five of the shareholders, and some others, set out in the schooner Samuel Rob- erts to explore the coast near the Oregon boundary. None of them were accustomed to hardships, and not more than three knew anything about sailing a ship. Lyman, the captain and owner, was not a sailor, but left the management of the vessel to Peter Mackie, a young Canadian who understood his business, and who subsequently for many years sailed a steamship be- tween San Francisco and Portland. Lyman's second mate was an Englishman named Samuel E. Smith, also a fair seaman; while the rest of the crew were volunteers from among the schooner's company.
The expedition was furnished with a four-pound carronade and small arms. For shot they brought half a ton of nails, screws, hinges, and other bits of iron gathered from the ashes of a burned hardware store. Provisions were abundant, and two surveyors, with their instruments, were among the company,4 which boasted several college graduates and men of parts.5
By good fortune, rather than by any knowledge or superior management, the schooner passed safely up the coast as far as the mouth of Rogue River, but without having seen the entrance to the Klamath, which they looked for north of its right latitude. A
4 These were Nathan Schofield, A. M., anthor of a work on surveying, and Socrates Schofield his son, both from near Norwich, Connecticut. Schofield Creek in Douglas county is named after the latter.
5 Besides the Schofields there were in the exploring company Heman Win- chester, and brother, editor of the Pacific News of San Francisco; Dr Henry Payne, of New York; Dr E. R. Fiske, of Massachusetts; S. S. Mann, a gradu- ate of Harvard University; Dr J. W. Drew, of New Hampshire; Barney, of New York: Woodbury, of Connecticut; C. T. Hopkins, of San Francisco; Henry H. Woodward, Patrick Flanagan, Anthony Ten Eyck, A. G. Able, James K. Kelly, afterward a leading man in Oregon politics; Deau, Tierman, Evans, and Knight, whose names have been preserved.
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ROGUE RIVER EXPLORATIONS.
boat with six men sent to examine the entrance was overturned in the river and two were drowned, the others being rescued by Indians who pulled them ashore to strip them of their clothing. The schooner meantime was following in, and by the aid of glasses it was discovered that the shore was populous with excited savages running hither and thither with such display of ferocity as would have deterred the vessel from entering had not those on board determined to rescue their comrades at any hazard. It was high tide, and by much manœuvring the schooner was run over the bar in a fathom and a half of water. The shout of relief as they entered the river was answered by yells from the shore, where could be seen the survivors of the boat's crew, naked and half dead with cold and exhaustion, being freely handled by their captors. As soon as the vessel was well inside, two hundred natives appeared and crowded on board, the explorers being unable to prevent them. The best they could do was to feign indifference and trade the old iron for peltries. When the natives had nothing left to exchange for coveted articles, they ex- hibited an ingenuity as thieves that would have done credit to a London pickpocket. Says one of the com- pany: "Some grabbed the cook's towels, one bit a hole in the shirt of one of our men to get at some beads he had deposited there, and so slyly, too, that the latter did not perceive his loss at the time. One fellow stole the eye-glass of the ship's quadrant, and another made way with the surveyor's note-book. Some started the schooner's copper with their teeth; and had actually made some progress in stripping her as she lay high and dry at low water, before they were found out. One enterprising genius undertook to get possession of the chain and anchor by sawing off the former under water with his iron knife! Con- scious of guilt, and fearing lest we might discover the mischief he intended us, he would now and then throw a furtive glance toward the bow of the vessel, to the HIST. OR., VOL. II. 12
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DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.
great amusement of those who were watching him through the hawse pipes."
An examination more laborious than profitable was made of the country thereabout, which seemed to offer no inducements to enterprise sufficient to war- rant the founding of a settlement for any purpose. Upon consultation it was decided to continue the voyage as far north as the Umpqua River, and hav- ing dispersed the tenacious thieves of Rogue River by firing among them a quantity of their miscellaneous ammunition, the schooner succeeded in getting to sea again without accident.
Proceeding up the coast, the entrance to Coos Bay was sighted, but the vessel being becalmed could not enter. While awaiting wind, a canoe approached from the north, containing Umpquas, who offered to show the entrance to their river, which was made the 5th of August. Two of the party went ashore in the canoe, returning at nightfall with reports that caused the carronade to belch forth a salute to the rocks and woods, heightened by the roar of a simultaneous dis- charge of small arms. A flag made on the voyage was run up the mast, and all was hilarity on board the Samuel Roberts. On the 6th, the schooner crossed the bar, being the first vessel known to have entered the river in safety. On rounding into the cove called Winchester Bay, after one of the explorers, they came upon a party of Oregonians; Jesse Applegate, Levi Scott, and Joseph Sloan, who were themselves ex- ploring the valley of the Umpqua with a purpose similar to their own.6 A boat was sent ashore and a joyful meeting took place in which mutual encourage- ment and assistance were promised. It was found that Scott had already taken a claim about twenty-six miles up the river at the place which now bears the name of Scottsburg, and that the party had come down to the mouth in the expectation of meeting
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