USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 8
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Before gold was discovered it was land that drew men to the Pacific, land seen afar off through a rosy mist which made it seem many times more valuable and beautiful than the prolific valleys of the middle and western states. And now, even before the dona- tion law had passed, the tide had turned, and gold was the magnet more potent than acres to attract. How far population was diverted from the north-west, and to what extent California contributed to the develop-
47 Gen. Smith in his report to the secretary of war said that the roads to Oregon were made to come into it, but not to go out of it, referring to the steep descents of the western declivities of the Cascade Mountains.
48 A long dry autumn in 1849 was followed by freshets in the Willamette Valley in Dec. and Jan., which carried off between $40,000 and $50,000 worth of property. Or. Spectator, Jan. 10, 1850.
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ABSENCE OF THE INFERNO.
ment of the resources of Oregon,49 the progress of this history will show. Then, perhaps, after all it will be seen that the distance of Oregon from the Sierra Foothills proved at this time the greatest of blessings, being near enough for commercial communication, and yet so far away as to escape the more evil conse- quences attending the mad scramble for wealth, such as social dissolution, the rapine of intellect and prin- ciple, an overruling spirit of gambling-a delirium of development, attended by robbery, murder, and all uncleanness, and followed by reaction and death.
49 When J. Q. Thornton was in Washington in 1848, he had made a seal for the territory, the design of which was appropriate. In the centre a shield, two compartments. Lower compartment, in the foreground a plough; in the distance, mountains. In the upper compartment, a ship under full sail. The crest a beaver; the sinister supporter an Indian with bow and arrow, and a mantle of skins over his shoulders; the dexter supporter an eagle with wings displayed; the motto-alis volet propriis-I fly with my own wing. Field of the lower compartment argent; of the upper blue. This seal was presented to the governor and secretary in 1850, and by them adopted. By act of Jan. 1854, it was directed to be deposited, and recorded in the office of the secretary, to remain a public record; but so far as can be ascertained it was never done. Or. Gen. Laws, 1845-1864, p. 627. For fac-simile of seal see p. 487, this vol.
HIST. OR., VOL. II. 5
CHAPTER III.
LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
1849-1850.
INDIAN AFFAIRS-TROUBLES IN COWLITZ VALLEY-FORT NISQUALLY AT- TACKED-ARRIVAL OF THE UNITED STATES SHIP 'MASSACHUSETTS'-A MILITARY POST ESTABLISHED NEAR NISQUALLY -THORNTON AS SUB- INDIAN AGENT-MEETING OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY-MEASURES ADOPTED-JUDICIAL DISTRICTS-A TRAVELLING COURT OF JUSTICE- THE MOUNTED RIFLE REGIMENT-ESTABLISHMENT OF MILITARY POSTS AT FORT HALL, VANCOUVER, STEILACOOM, AND THE DALLES- THE VAN- COUVER CLAIM-GENERAL PERSIFER F. SMITH-HIS DRUNKEN SOL- DIERS-THE DALLES CLAIM-TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE WHITMAN MURDERERS.
GOVERNOR LANE lost no time in starting the political wheels of the territory. First a census must be taken in order to make the proper apportionment before or- dering an election; and this duty the marshal and his deputies quickly performed.1 Meanwhile the governor applied himself to that branch of his office which made him superintendent of Indian affairs, the Indians themselves-those that were left of them-being prompt to remind him of the many years they had been living on promises, and the crumbs which were dropped from the tables of their white brothers. The result was more promises, more fair words, and further assurances of the intentions of the great chief of the Americans toward his naked and hungry red children. Nevertheless the superintendent did decide a case
1 The census returns showed a total of 8,785 Americans of all ages and both sexes and 298 foreigners. From this enumeration may be gathered some idea of the great exodus to the gold mines of both Amerieans and Brit- ish subjects. Indians and Hawaiians were not enumerated. Honolulu Friend, Oct. 1849, 51.
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PACIFICATIONS.
against some white men of Linn City who had pos- sessed themselves of the site of a native fishing village on the west bank of the Willamette near the falls, after maliciously setting fire to the wretched habita- tions and consuming the poor stock of supplies contained therein. The Indians were restored to their original freehold, and quieted with a promise of indemnification, which, on the arrival of the first ten thousand dollar appropriation for the Indian ser- vice in April, was redeemed by a few presents of sınall value, the money being required for other purposes, none having been forwarded for the use of the terri- tory.2
In order to allay a growing feeling of uneasiness among the remoter settlements, occasioned by the insolent demeanor of the Kliketats, who frequently visited the Willamette and perpetrated minor offences, from demanding a prepared meal to stealing an ox or a horse, as the Molallas had done on previous occa- sions, Lane visited the tribes near The Dalles and along the north side of the Columbia, including the Kliketats, all of whom at the sight of the new white chief professed unalterable friendship, thinking that now surely something besides words would be forth- coming. A few trifling gifts were bestowed.3 Pres- ently a messenger arrived from Puget Sound with information of the killing of an American, Leander C. Wallace, of Cowlitz Valley, and the wounding of two others, by the Snoqualimichs. It was said that they had concocted a plan for capturing Fort Nisqually by fomenting a quarrel with a small and inoffensive tribe living near the fort, and whom they employed sometimes as herdsmen. They reckoned upon the com- pany's interference, which was to furnish the oppor- tunity. As they had expected, when they began the
2 Honolulu Friend, Oct. 1849, 58; Lane's Rept. in 31st Cong., 2dl Sess., H. E.c. Doc. 1, 156.
3 Lane says the amount expended on presents was about $200; and that he made peace between the Walla Wallas and Yakimas who were about to go to war.
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LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
affray, the Indians attacked ran to the fort, and Tolmie, who was in charge, ordered the gates opened to give them refuge. At this moment, when the Snoquali- michs were making a dash to crowd into the fort on the pretence of following their enemies, Wallace, Charles Wren, and a Mr Lewis were riding toward it, having come from the Cowlitz to trade. On seeing their danger, they also made all haste to get inside, but were a moment too late, when, the gates being closed, the disappointed savages fired upon them, as I have said, besides killing one of the friendly Indians who did not gain the shelter of the fort.4 Thibault, a Canadian, then began firing on the assailants from one of the bastions. The Indians finding they had failed retreated before the company could attack them in full foree. There was no doubt that had the Sno- qualimichs succeeded in capturing the fort, they would have massacred every white person on the Sound. Finding that they had committed themselves, they sent word to the American settlers, numbering about a dozen families, that they were at liberty to go out of the country, leaving their property behind. But to this offer the settlers returned answer that they intended to stay, and if their property was threatened should fight. Instead of fleeing, they built block houses at Tumwater and Cowlitz prairie, to which they could retire in case of alarm, and sent a messen- ger to the governor to inform him of their situation.
There were then at Oregon City neither armies nor organized courts. Lieutenant Hawkins and five men
4 This is according to the account of the affair given by several authorities. See Tolmie in the Feb. 3d issue of Truth Teller, a small sheet published at Fort Steilacoom in 1838; also in Hist. Puget Sound, MS., 33-5. A writer in the Olympia Standard of April 11, 1868, says that Wren had his back against the wall and was edging in, but was shut out by Walter Ross, the clerk, who with one of the Nisquallies was on guard. This writer also says that Patkanim, a chief of the Snoqualimichs, afterward famous in the Indian wars, was inside the fort talking with Tolmie, while the chief's brother shot at and killed Wallace. These statements, while not intentionally false, were colored by rumor, and by the prejudice against the fur company, which had its origin with the first settlers of the Puget Sound region, as it had had in the region south of the Columbia. See also Roberts' Recollections, MS., 35; Rabbison's Growth of Towns, MS., 17.
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TROUBLES AT NISQUALLY.
who had not deserted constituted the military force at Lane's command. Acting with characteristic prompt- ness, he set out at once for Puget Sound, accompanied by these, taking with him a supply of arms and ammunition, and leaving George L. Curry acting sec- retary by his appointment, Pritchett not yet having arrived. At Tumwater he was overtaken by an ex- press from Vancouver, notifying him of the arrival of the propeller Massachusetts, Captain Wood, from Boston, by way of Valparaiso and the Hawaiian Islands, having on board two companies of artillery under Brevet-Major Hathaway, who sent Lane word that if he so desired, a part of his force should be moved at once to the Sound.5
Lane returned to the Columbia, at the same time despatching a letter to Tolmie at Fort Nisqually, re- questing him to inform the hostile Indians that should they commit any further outrages they would be vis- ited with chastisement, for now he had fighting men enough to destroy them; also making a request that no ammunition should be furnished to the Indians.6 His plan, he informed the secretary of war after- ward, was, in the event of a military post being established on the Sound, to secure the cooperation of Major Hathaway in arresting and punishing the Indians according to law for the murder of American citizens.
On reaching Vancouver, about the middle of June, he found the Massachusetts ready to depart,7 and Hathaway encamped in the rear of the Hudson's Bay Company's fort with one company of artillery, the other, under Captain B. H. Hill, having been left at Astoria, quartered in the buildings erected by the
5 The transport Massachusetts entered the Columbia May 7th, by the sail- ing directions of Captain Gelston, without difficulty. Honolulu Friend, Nov. 1, 1849. This was the first government vessel to get safely into the river.
6 Lane's Rept. to the Sec. War., in 31st Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 1, 157.
7 The Massachusetts went to Portland, where she was loaded with lumber for the use of the government in California in building army quarters at Beni- cia; the U. S. transport Anita was likewise employed. Ingall's Rept., in 31st Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 1, 284.
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LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
Shark's crew in 1846.8 It was soon arranged between Hathaway and Lane that Hill's company should es- tablish a post near Nisqually, when the Indians would be called upon to surrender the murderer of Wallace. The troops were removed from Astoria about the mid- dle of July, proceeding by the English vessel Har- pooner to Nisqually.
On the 13th of May the governor's proclamation was issued dividing the territory into judicial districts ; the first district, to which Bryant, who arrived on the 9th of April, was assigned, consisting of Vancouver and several counties immediately south of the Colum- bia; the second, consisting of the remaining counties in the Willamette Valley, to which Pratt was assigned; and the third the county of Lewis, or all the country north of the Columbia and west of Vancouver county, including the Puget Sound territory, for which there was no judge then appointed.º The June election gave Oregon a bona fide delegate to congress, chosen by the people, of whom we shall know more presently.
When the governor reached his capital he found that several commissions, which had been intended to overtake him at St Louis or Leavenworth, but which failed, had been forwarded by Lieutenant Beale to California, and thence to Oregon City. These related to the Indian department, appointing as sub-Indian agents J. Q. Thornton, George C. Preston, and Robert Newell,10 the Abernethy delegate being re- warded at last with this unjudicial office by a relenting president. As Preston did not arrive with his com- mission, the territory was divided into two districts,
8 The whole force consisted of 161 rank and file. They were companies L and M of the Ist regiment of U. S. artillery, and officered as follows: Major J. S. Hathaway commanding; Captain B. H. Hill, commanding company M; Ist lieut., J. B. Gibson, Ist lieut., T. Talbot, 2d lieut., G. Tallmadge, com- pany M: 2d lieut., J. Dement, company L; 2d lieut., J. J. Woods, quarter- master and commissary; 2d lieut., J. B. Fry, adjutant. Honolulu Polynesian, April 14, 1849.
9 Evans, in New Tacoma Ledger, July 9, 1880.
10 American Almanac, 1850, 108-9; Or. Spectator, Oct. 4, 1849.
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TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.
and Thornton assigned by the governor to the north of the Columbia, while Newell was given the country south of the river as his district. This arrangement sent Thornton to the disaffected region of Puget Sound. On the 30th of July he proceeded to Nis- qually, where he was absent for several weeks, ob- taining the information which was embodied in the report of the superintendent, concerning the numbers and dispositions of the different tribes, furnished to him by Tolmie.11 While on this mission, during which he visited some of the Indians and made them small presents, he conceived it his duty to offer a reward for the apprehension of the principal actors in the affair at Nisqually, nearly equal to the amount paid by Ogden for the ransom of all the captives after the Waiilatpu massacre, amounting to nearly five hundred dollars. This assumption of authority roused the ire of the governor, who probably ex- pressed himself somewhat strongly, for Thornton re- signed, and as Newell shortly after went to the gold mines the business of conciliating and punishing the Indians again devolved upon the governor.
On the 16th of July the first territorial legislative assembly met at Oregon City. According to the act establishing the government, the legislature was organized with nine councilmen, of three classes, whose terms should expire with the first, second, and third years respectively; and eighteen members of the house of representatives, who should serve for one year; the law, however, providing for an increase in the number of representatives from time to time, in proportion to the number of qualified voters, until the maximum of thirty should be reached.12 After the
11 31st Cong., 2d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 1, 161.
12 The names of the councilmen were: W. U. Buck, of Clackamas; Wilson Blain, of Tualatin; Samuel Parker and Wesley Shannon, of Champoeg; J. Graves, of Yamhill; W. B. Mealey, of Linn; Nathaniel Ford, of Polk; Norris Humphrey, of Benton; S. T. Mckean, of Clatsop, Lewis, and Vancouver coun- ties. The members of the house elected were: A. L. Lovejoy, W. D. Holman,
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LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
usual congratulations Lane, in his message to the legislature, alluded briefly to the Cayuses, who, he promised, should be brought to justice as soon as the rifle regiment then on its way should arrive. Con- gress would probably appropriate money to pay the debt, amounting to about one hundred and ninety thousand dollars. He also spoke of the Wallace affair, and said the murderers should be punished.
His suggestions as to the wants of the territory were practical, and related to the advantages of good roads; to a judicious system of revenues; to the re- vision of the loose and defective condition of the statute laws, declared by the organie aet to be opera- tive in the territory;13 to education and common schools; to the organization of the militia; to election matters and providing for apportioning the repre- sentation of counties and distriets to the council and house of representatives, and defining the qualifiea- tion of voters, with other matters appertaining to government. He left the question of the seat of gov- ernment to their choice, to decide whether it should be fixed by them or at some future session. He re- ferred with pleasure to the return of many absentees from the mines, and hoped they would resume the cultivation of their farms, which from lying idle would give the country only a short crop, though there was still enough for home consumption.14 He
and G. Walling, of Clackamas; D. Hill and W. W. Eng, of Tualatin; W. W. Chapman, W. S. Matlock, and John Grim, of Champoeg; A. J. Hem- bree, R. Kinney, and J. B. Walling, of Yamhill; Jacob Conser and J. S. Dunlap, of Linn; H. N. V. Holmes and S. Burch, of Polk; J. Mulkey and G. B. Smith, of Benton; and M. T. Simmons from Clatsop, Lewis, and Van- couver counties. Honolulu Friend, Nov. 1, 1849; American Almanac, 1849, 312. The president of the council was Samuel Parker; the clerk, A. A. Robinson; sergeant-at-arms, C. Davis; door-keeper, S. Kinney ; chaplain, David Leslie. Speaker of the house, A. L. Lovejoy; chief clerk, William Porter; assistant clerk, E. Gendis; sergeant-at-arms, William Holmes; door-keeper, D. D. Bai- ley; chaplain, H. Johnson. Honolulu Friend, Nov. 1, 1849; Or. Spectator, Oct. 18, 1849.
13 Lane's remarks on the laws of the provisional government were more truthful than flattering, considering what a number had been simply adopted from the Iowa code. Message in Or. Spectator, Oct. 4, 1849; 31st Cong., 1st Sess., S. Doc. 5º, xiii. 7-12; Tribune Almanac, 1850-51.
14 Patent Office Rept., 1849, ii. 511-12.
73
ACTS AND MEMORIAL.
predicted that the great migration to California would benefit Oregon, as many of the gold-seekers would re- main on the Pacific coast, and look for homes in the fertile and lovely valleys of the new territory. And last, but by no means least in importance, was the reference to the expected donation of land for which the people were waiting, and all the more anxiously that there was much doubt entertained of the tenure by which their claims were now held, since the only part of the old organic law repealed was that which granted a title to lands.15 He advised them to call the attention of congress to this subject without delay. In short, if Lane had been a pioneer of 1843 he could not have touched upon all the topics nearest the public heart more successfully. Hence his imme- diate popularity was assured, and whatever he might propose was likely to receive respectful consideration.
The territorial act allowed the first legislative as- sembly one hundred days, at three dollars a day, in which to perform its work. A memorial to congress occupied it two weeks; still, the assembly closed its labors in seventy-six days,16 having enacted what the Spectator described as a " fair and respectable code of laws," and adopted one hundred acts of the Iowa stat- utes. The memorial set forth the loyalty of the peo- ple, and the natural advantages of the country, not forgetting the oft-repeated request that congress would grant six hundred and forty acres of land to each actual settler, including widows and orphans; and that the donations should be made to conform to the claims and improvements of the settlers; but if congress decided to have the lands surveyed, and to make grants by subdivisions, that the settler might be permitted to take his land in subdivisions as low as twenty acres, so as to include his improvements, with- out regard to section or township lines. The govern-
15 Or. Gen. Laws, 1843-9, 60.
16 The final adjournment was on the 29th of September, a recess having been taken to attend to gathering the ripened wheat in August, there being no other hands to employ in this labor. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 3-5.
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LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
ment was reminded that such a grant had been long expected; that, indeed, congress was responsible for the expectation, which had caused the removal to Oregon of so large a number of people at a great cost to themselves; that they were happy to have effected by such emigration the objects which the government had in view, and to have been prospectively the pro- moters of the happiness of millions yet unborn, and that a section of land to each would no more than pay them for their trouble. The memorial asked payment for the cost of the Cayuse war, and also for an appro- priation of ten thousand dollars to pay the debt of the late government, which, adopted as a necessity, and weak and inefficient as it had been, still sufficed to regulate society and promote the growth of whole- some institutions.17 A further appropriation of twenty thousand dollars was asked for the erection of public buildings at the seat of government suitable for the transaction of the public business, which was no more than had been appropriated to the other territories for the same purpose. A sum sufficient for the erec- tion of a penitentiary was also wanted, and declared to be as much in the interest of the United States as of the territory of Oregon.
With regard to the school lands, sections sixteen and thirty-six, which would fall upon the claims of some settlers, it was earnestly recommended that congress should pass a law authorizing the township authorities, if the settlers so disturbed should desire, to select other lands in their places. At the same time congress was reminded that under the distribu- tion act, five hundred thousand acres of land were given to each new state on coming into the union; and the people of Oregon asked that the territory be allowed to select such lands immediately on the public
17 Congress never paid this debt. In 1862 the state legislature passed an act constituting the secretary commissioner of the provincial government debt, and register of the claims of scrip-holders. A report made in 1864 shows that claims to the amount of $4,574.02 only had been proven. Many were never presented.
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JUDICIAL DISTRICTS.
surveys being made, and also that a law be passed authorizing the appropriation of said lands to the support of the common schools.
A military road from some point on the Columbia below the cascades to Puget Sound was asked for; also one from the sound to a point on the Columbia, near Walla Walla;18 also one from The Dalles to the Willamette Valley; also that explorations be made for a road from Bear River to the Humboldt, crossing the Blue Mountains north of Klamath Lake, and entering the Willamette Valley near Mount Jefferson and the Santiam River. Other territorial and post roads were asked for, and an appropriation to make improvements at the falls of the Willamette. The usual official robbery under form of the extinguish- ment of the Indian title, and their removal from the neighborhood of the white settlements, was unblush- ingly urged. The propriety of making letters to Oregon subject to the same postage as letters within the States was suggested. Attention was called to the difficulties between American citizens and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company with regard to the extent of the company's claim, which was a large tract of country enclosed within undefined and imagi- nary lines. They denied the right of citizens of the United States to locate on said lands, while the people contended that the company had no right to any lands except such as they actually occupied at the time of the Oregon treaty of 1846. The government was requested to purchase the lands rightfully held by treaty in order to put an end to disputes. The memorial closed by coolly asking for a railroad and telegraph to the Pacific, though there were not people enough in all Oregon to make a good-sized country town. 19
This document framed, the business of laying out
18 Pierre C. Pambrun and Cornelius Rogers explored the Nisqually Pass as early as 1839, going from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Nisqually by that route. Or. Spectator, May 13, 1847.
19 Oregon Archives, MS., 176-186; 31st Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Mis. Doc. 5, 6.
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LANE'S ADMINISTRATION.
the judicial districts was attended to. Having first changed the names of several counties,2º it was decreed that the first judicial district should consist of Clack- amas, Marion, and Linn; the second district of Ben- ton, Polk, Yamhill, and Washington; and the third of Clarke, Clatsop, and Lewis. The time for holding court was also fixed.21
While awating a donation law an act was passed declaring the late land law in force, and that any per- son who had complied or should thereafter comply with its provisions should be deemed in possession to every part of the land within his recorded boundary, not exceeding six hundred and forty acres. But the same act provided that no foreigner should be en- titled to the benefits of the law, who should not have, within six months thereafter, filed his declara- tion of intention to become a citizen of the United States. 22
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