USA > Oregon > Pioneer days of Oregon history, Vol. II > Part 25
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Judge Collamer of Vermont was a noble man, and took intense interest in Oregon. He attached the Oregon repre- sentative to him by much kindness and by words and deeds of kindly encouragement that were a source of strength to Thornton, embarassed as he was. The power of the Northern press never was more evident than at that time. Thornton's presence was announced by many correspondents and his
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movements heralded as of importance. He embodied a prin- ciple, and was fortunately able to present it free from per- sonal antagonism and entanglement. It was a time when public men took sides and no half-way view was possible. The Northern "doughface" got his distinctive name at that time, and the long struggle grew fierce and hot that was to culminate in secession and civil war. Cass had just retired from the Senate that session, to accept a nomination for the Presidency. Dr. Linn was dead, and with him died one of the truest friends Oregon ever had. Henry Clay had left politics forever, and was replaced by Crittenden, who stood where Clay would have been, for he was friendly to the Oregon bill. The old generation of statesmen had partly left the forum, and the race that was to fight the battle for and against free soil was coming upon the field. This bill was the grand battle ground that introduced the free soil element into national politics.
What was known as the Oregon donation land act was also pending at the session's close, and would undoubtedly have passed without dissent, only for the prolonged delay in bringing the organic act to a final passage. That bill went over for the session, but could certainly have passed had there been time. Judge Collamer of Vermont took charge of it until a delegate could appear from Oregon in Congress, when it passed without objection, substantially as Judge Thornton had drawn it up, having received some immaterial amendments.
During all this time Thornton received every attention it seemed possible to bestow on him. He associated con- stantly with the greatest minds of that time, and was allowed free access to the floors of the two houses of Congress. At
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the suggestion of President Polk there was incorporated in the organic act an item placing $10,000 at his disposal, to be used to pay the expenses of messengers from Oregon. He had given Thornton to understand that out of this fund his wants should be supplied, his expenses fully repaid and his services well rewarded. In private conversation he had also assured him that, having made his acquaintance, it would be a pleasure to remember him in making judicial appointments for Oregon. These kind assurances kept hope alive and were very flattering to the recipient of them.
There came a cloud over this flattering horizon, a cloud that rose at the far North at Hudson's Bay, and over- shadowed the hero of the Oregon bill at Washington, and this incident forms one of the most important features of Judge Thornton's journey. Some weeks before the session adjourned Thornton received a call at his lodgings from the private secretary of President Polk-Major Knox Walker -who introduced a friend of his-Mr. George N. San- ders-and excusing himself, left his friend to disclose his private business. This visitor commenced conversation by some remarks about the relations of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany to the people of Oregon. He talked of a possible con- flict of interests ; of war as a result between the two nations, from the fact of an English company holding such posses- sions on our soil, and argued the great advantage to result to Oregon should the United States Government buy out this company. Thornton gave occasional dissent as the speaker advanced his propositions, but he as often reiterated them, and finally announced that Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, had placed in his hands seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) to be used as
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in his judgment might best facilitate the sale of their Ore- gon interests to the United States for the sum of three mil- lions of dollars ($3,000,000).
This announcement was followed by a comfortable pause, and the glittering bait-$75,000-was allowed to dwell for awhile in the imagination of the simple-minded Ore- gonian, that the idea might take root that some part of this munificent bribe was to be had for the mere taking. But the Oregon man had not learned Washington ways, and made no sign that he appreciated his opportunity. He knew it was a swindle that all the property involved was not worth to the United States one-tenth the sum named. He had no intention to return to Oregon with his skirts soiled with the discredit of having indorsed such an outrageous claim.
The dénouement came in a direct offer of a stupendous bribe. Thornton was to write letters briefly endorsing the purchase, to two members of the Cabinet who refused to favor the treaty pending for this purpose, for it seems a treaty was actually negotiated between Great Britain and the United States for this purchase and at the figure named, but these two Cabinet officers had dissented from it. They expressed a wish to hear from Thornton, for if the Oregon messenger would endorse the sale they would accept his opinion as authority, and make the voice of the Cabinet unanimous for ratifying the treaty.
When Thornton should write the two notes to the mem- bers of the Cabinet he was to receive a check on Corcoran & Riggs for $25,000-a price about a thousand times greater than Judas got, and as much as Benedict Arnold received, perhaps. Thornton's response was that the con- versation was not agreeable, and he desired it to stop there.
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He had tried several times to stop the subject and to find other topics, but his visitor was determined, and would take no hint of that kind. He was asked to leave the room, and could not understand that the judge was in earnest. He only did leave when the indignant Oregonian held the door open and threatened to kick him down stairs. Sanders -as was afterwards learned-went directly to Major Walker's room at the White House, and told his friends that he "would as soon try to approach a grizzly bear as that d-d Oregonian."
It comes in properly to say here that during the con- ference Sanders assured Thornton that the treaty was al- ready agreed to by the majority of the Cabinet and the President, and would in any case go to the Senate, but those who had the matter in charge were anxious to have the President and his Cabinet united in its favor.
Thornton had the discretion not to tell this unpleasant incident to even his best friends, but he wrote out the par- ticulars the same evening fully for the information of the President-all of which was done from a very unsophisti- cated sense of duty. While he felt mortified and indignant at having been approached in that manner, he realized that it would be inexpedient to communicate anything of the Sanders interview to others, save the President himself, toward whom he felt the highest sense of duty. So he for- warded his statement through the post-office. The next morning Major Knox Walker called again and politely ex- plained that the messenger at the post-office had brought Thornton's letter, and he called to urge him to withdraw it. It was his duty to open all business letters, he said, so that he had seen this before handing it to the President, but
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he hoped Thornton would save him the trouble of bringing the matter to President Polk's attention.
Thornton answered that he had written the President under a strong conviction of duty, and could not withdraw it, though he would not communicate the facts to any one else, and had not done so. Walker begged and entreated, but Thornton remained firm-the letter must go and the President must know the facts. Suddenly the manner of the private secretary changed from entreaty to menace, and he said: "Well, you'll find there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip"-a significant hint that Thornton very well understood and lived to realize the force of to the fullest.
Sanders had told Thornton that he had conversed with Jo Meek, and that worthy free trapper had assured him that the property of the Hudson's Bay Company was cheap at three millions. After Thornton's departure from Oregon, the Whitman massacre occurred, and Jo Meek had been sent post haste to Washington to advise the government of the fact of the great danger that surrounded the far-off settle- ments. Meek affected in Washington all the eccentricities of the mountain man, wore a buckskin suit, full fringed at all the seams, and made himself as conspicuous as was possible thereby. He was a hero with the rabble, and it seemed that he had free and easy access to the White House, being related to the Polk family by marriage of one of his brothers to some lady relative of the President. This for- tuitous circumstance, however, gave him no influence; he seemed not to have been consulted as authority. He only served the purpose of a messenger to convey certain papers to the President. His astonishing "yarns" were repeated without credence and he remained without special influence,
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though he gave cheerful testimony-possibly for a valuable consideration-as to the value of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany's property in Oregon. It would be a close matter of doubt if Jo Meek really had a correct idea of how much money three millions was.
Thornton's reply to the menace contained in the sneer of the President's private secretary was that he intended to preserve his own self-respect until his return to Oregon. But he was not done with the matter yet, by any means, for a few days only passed when he was met by Major Walker again. He had a copy of the New York Herald in his hand, which he held out in an excited manner and begged to know why Thornton had communicated to a public newspaper of such extensive circulation the particulars of his interview with Sanders. The Oregonian assured him that he had not done so, and further, that he had not even mentioned the subject to his most intimate friend. Walker tried to look fierce, and said with vehemence: "You did, sir, for here it all is in the New York Herald." Thorn- ton's temper gave out at this and he replied: "I did not, sir, and if you repeat it I will knock you down with my cane." His tone then changed and he said quietly : "Well, here it is in the Herald, the whole story substantially as Sanders told it to me at the White House when he came from you to my room. How could it be there?"
Thornton's reply was that he had not seen the Herald, but if it got the story at all it must have been through Walker or Sanders himself.
"Well," said Walker, "I never told it." Recollecting suddenly, he said: "Yes, I did, too."
"Who was it to?" said Thornton.
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"Why, you know Jo Meek has a free and easy access to the White House. Well, he came there the same afternoon and I told him, under strict promise of privacy, what oc- curred between you and Sanders."
Thornton told him Jo Meek holding a secret was like a sieve holding water. Jo, it seems, told the story before night to half a dozen members of Congress, every time under in- junctions of the strictest secrecy. To cap the climax of his folly, late in the afternoon he took into his most sacred con- fidence Dr. Wallace, who was Washington correspondent of the New York Herald. Wallace generously shared his con- fidence with the world at large, who paid liberally for Wash- ington items. The same day that Walker saw Thornton he was met by Benton, Herald in hand, who asked if the story was true as there told. Several other Senators made the same inquiry, including Mr. Douglas of Illinois and Hale of New Hampshire. His answer was to all that while he had never told the story, it was substantially correct as told.
The conclusion of this affair was matter of current gossip on the streets of Washington. What occurs in executive sessions is supposed never to transpire, but nevertheless it often leaks out and the current belief at the capital was that the treaty in question was officially negotiated, approved by the President and majority of the Cabinet, and sent to the Senate for their confirmation, and was by that body re- jected. The New York Herald's article killed it, and Jo Meek's want of consideration rendered the national treasury a distinguished service. It is probable the members of the Senate would have consulted Thornton before taking action had not the Herald's exposé served the purpose.
Congress had adjourned, the Oregon bill had surmounted
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all opposition and was a law, Thornton was out of funds, and in a situation to worry the mind of the best man living. He had lost the favor of the President, to whom he had to look for assistance, as Congress had just placed $10,000 at his disposal for the purpose of paying him and other Oregon messengers. Mr. Polk was master of the situation, and though not in the least to blame for the unfortunate publicity that had reflected unpleasantly upon his adminis- tration, Thornton was the unwitting cause.
Robert Smith, member of Congress from the Alton, Ill., district, went to President Polk on behalf of Thornton, and received a peremptory refusal to all requests and sugges- tions. Thornton might stay there penniless, and he should not have a penny of the fund Congress had placed in the hands of the President of the United States almost exclu- sively for his use and benefit. Thornton went to Benton, but "Old Bullion" was too proud, under any circumstances, to ask a favor of Polk, so sent him (Thornton) to Douglas. The latter called on the President and received a resolute and unqualified "no" to every request for aid to be given Thornton. Every possible plea was urged, and met with an unreasoning negative. Douglas called again and took Rob- ert Smith with him, but "no" was all the response they could get until Mr. Douglas, as he rose to retire, said: "It only remains, then, Mr. President, for me to do what will be very unpleasant for me, and you must judge if it will be pleasant to you. I shall furnish Mr. Thornton with means to remain here until the next session convenes, and shall then move for a committee of inquiry to investigate certain matters in which he is concerned." This proved a home-thrust that brought the executive to terms. He said: "Come again this
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afternoon. You come, Mr. Smith, and we may agree on something that will be satisfactory." He did not care to discuss that matter any further with the "Little Giant" of Illinois.
That afternoon the three friends-Douglas, Thornton and Smith-walked down Pennsylvania Avenue together, to Willard's Hotel, where the first two remained, while Mr. Smith went on to the White House to keep his appointment with Mr. Polk. And as they waited there for his return, the conversation went back to old times and the days of their first acquaintance. Douglas recalled a circumstance which, he said, had always caused him to take peculiar interest in Thornton. It was only a minor incident, but one which re- lated to his highest ambition- his desire to be President of the United States. Many years before, when Thornton was beginning the practice of law at Quincy, Ill., where he had just removed, a friend, an attorney of distinction, invited him to go to the court house and hear Judge Douglas de- liver a charge to the grand jury. They went, and when re- turning, the elder friend asked: "Well, what do you think of the judge before whom we hereafter will have to prac- tise?" The reply of Thornton was: "That was the grand- est effort I ever heard made from the bench. If Judge Douglas lives and is ambitious, and has no faults of life to mar his success, he will become President of the United States." That same evening, when a group of distinguished lawyers were conversing in the parlors of the Quincy Hotel, this friend took Thornton up and introduced him to Judge Douglas, reciting the anecdote here told, to the confusion of each of them. They afterwards became better acquainted, as Thornton practised in his court up to leaving for Oregon.
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As they waited there that August day at Willard's, al- most in sight of the White House, Douglas said: "Thorn- ton, I have always felt a special interest in you, because you were the first person who ever mentioned my name in con- nection with the Presidency." After a moment's pause he added, with prophetic force: "I have left toomany tracks be- hind me ever to attain that high position"-a remark that was the unsealing of the deepest feelings of the heart of a great man and a statesman, who intellectually has outranked most of our Presidents, but who, like Clay, Webster and a great many more, was grieved because he could not reach the highest place.
When Hon. Robert Smith returned to Willard's and joined his waiting companions, it was with a smiling visage and satis- fied expression. The President was able to see things in a different light. He could not see any good to come from a resolution of inquiry and with Thornton kept over as a wit- ness. It is almost beyond a reasonable doubt that the Presi- dent of the United States, through the mediumship of his private secretary, was in sympathy with a prodigious steal, and it would not be reasonable to suppose he was so far compromised without he had some reliable inducement for bestowing his sympathy. Jo Meek was utilized to give the affair plausibility, but something more of character was re- quired to secure for this bald-faced fraud the entire support of the Cabinet and the confirming vote of the Senate. What was finally received by the Hudson's Bay Company was only a small fraction of what was demanded. Of the $10,000 appropriated for this purpose, to be used at the President's discretion, Judge Thornton, who came on an im- portant mission and secured important results by his com-
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ing, received $2,750, enough to make him easy on the score of expenditure, but not enough to compensate him for all expenses incurred and pay him anything like what such ser- vice would be worth under ordinary circumstances. He was about nineteen months and ten days from Oregon, and that was small compensation.
The following incident occurred not long before he left Washington. Passing one day down Pennsylvania Avenue, he saw a lady in a doorway who wore a hesitating look, and said as he was opposite:
"Is not this Judge Thornton of Oregon?"
"It is, madam," was the reply.
"Will you be kind enough to step into the parlor a mo- ment?" said she.
Thornton entered, and the embarrassed lady proceeded to state her case. She had a sister who was the object of ad- miration of a gentleman from Oregon. She liked him so well that she was inclined to accept his proposals of mar- riage, but the sister said: "Wait till I can question Judge Thornton, who passes every day." Pleading the importance of the case, she asked questions and received brief replies.
"Do you know Mr. -? "
"I do, madam."
"Is he sober and temperate?"
"He has been intemperate, but has since joined a temper- ance society."
"Have you seen him drink since?"
"I have."
"Do you know any good reason why he should not marry my sister?"
"One madam."
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"And will you please state it?"
"He has a lawful wife and several half-grown children already."
Exit Thornton. So an Oregonian did not marry a Washington lady, as intended. This was one of the rather unpleasant incidents that attended a momentous journey fraught with much that was important for Oregon.
Before closing we must say that Jo Meek was the favored recipient of the President's bounty to a degree that might be styled nepotism in view of the slight existing relation- ship. It was said that he received the remainder of the $10,- 000 put by Congress at the disposal of Mr. Polk. If by any means Thornton could have been shoved aside probably Meek would have had the round ten thousand.
The menacing remark of Knox Walker: "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," was partly verified, as Thornton failed of the promised judgeship. Meek, who was merely a messenger, got the lion's share of the money in sight, but Thornton could justly in his old age point to his services rendered so long ago and claim a goodly share of the glorious common school fund of Oregon as his lasting monument. The Secretary of War furnished him trans- portation home, as far as San Francisco, in the bark Sylvia de Grace, that was under a government charter. Some time after that she made a trip to Oregon and got aground off Tongue Point, near Astoria, where her bare ribs have rotted for over half a century. He received the best of accom- modations and the kindest of treatment on the voyage and needed it. The months of tension and nervous excitement in Washington incapacitated him for making the tedious journey overland. On the voyage he suffered much from
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nervous prostration and was bleeding at the lungs when the vessel he was on entered the Columbia River. All the way from Valparaiso home he was very low, and at times his life was despaired of. One time the ship's doctor assured him he had not over a half hour to live.
From San Francisco he came up to Oregon on the bark Mary and Ellen, on board of which was Judge O. C. Pratt, who received the appointment Polk promised to Thornton. They formed a pleasant acquaintance then, and Thornton recognized always that this appointment was "fit to be made." Also, there were on board three hundred men from Oregon returning from the mines with well-filled purses, for Oregonians were proverbially fortunate as miners in that early day.
This sketch of the organization of Oregon territory is of especial interest as connecting that event with the career of many of the most illustrious men who ever were in public life in our nation. Henry Clay had retired from the busy arena of politics, but his presence there would have insured one more great name recorded in favor of young and hope- ful Oregon.
CHAPTER LXIII
JO MEEK, THE LEGISLATIVE MESSENGER
WHEN Thornton reached Washington in May he was but a week or two in advance of Jo Meek, who had been sent overland to take East the news of the Whitman massacre and that the settlers of Oregon had an Indian war on their hands. The massacre occurred soon after he left the Columbia River and gave fearful corroboration of the mes- sage he bore to the President and Congress, that the set- tlers considered an Indian war imminent, and that there was great need of government protection. While Thorn- ton was Supreme Judge of Oregon, he was also the friend of the missionaries ; Governor Abernethy considered him emi- nently fitted to represent the interests of Oregon and deemed the emergency too pressing to lose time. The Wilton was ready to leave for the States and offered the only oppor- tunity by sea, and the land journey was difficult, dangerous and uncertain.
There could not easily be any more striking con- trast between representatives of civilized humanity than was presented in the characters of Judge Thornton and Major Meek, to which title he afterwards attained in Ore- gon Indian wars. Thornton was dignified, self-respecting, well read and scholarly ; a man who could appear to advan- tage among statesmen and have influence where the best results should be accomplished. He had not the elements of popularity, and it would have required a surgical opera-
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tion to enable any ordinary jest to pierce his cranium. He was wrapped up in his devotion to distant Oregon and mag- nified his office in all sincerity as well as with earnestness of purpose. The legislature felt some prejudice because he was appointed, though many leading men endorsed it. The emergency had intensified since he left; there was ample excuse for sending a messenger, and Meek was a messenger and not a diplomat or statesman.
Meek had served a long career as a mountaineer before he settled in Oregon. To cross the plains in winter was all one with him, for there he was in his element. He had two experienced companions, and they made their way to the Missouri River in the shortest time that ever was known. He was clad in hunter's garb of dressed deer skins, and after such adventures as would grace a comic almanac, he made his way by steamboat and stage to Washington and applied for a hearing at the White House. Mrs. Victor, in her "River of the West," virtually wrote the biography of Jo Meek under a happy inspiration that she was prepar- ing history. We who knew the old campaigner and have listened to his wonderful narratives of "moving accidents by flood and field," can appreciate the fascination with which a lady with talent as a litterateur and genius as a raconteur, could listen to the wonderful tales that Jo Meek would tell, and are only surprised that she could in all con- fidence publish them to the world as unequivocal truth and salient fact.
There is no denying that Meek was a genius, for since he dictated this autobiography, he has been gathered to his fathers, and all concede that he was "a fellow of infinite jest" and sparkling humor, whose career would have made
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a wonderful volume if given as he gave it, untrammelled by any respect for the Muse of History. Taking the story as Mrs. Victor pleasantly tells it, Meek reached the National Capital penniless and as uncleanly as a scout would be who had just crossed the plains and reached the shores of the Missouri when it was not warm enough to bathe. With bravado that was Meek, but was not meekness, he got trans- portation by river and stage on showing his credentials as minister plenipotentiary from the wilds of Oregon, and by letting the native exuberance of his spirits have full play.
President Polk, as has been stated, was Meek's relative by marriage ; and his private secretary, Knox Walker, seems to have been some way a nephew to both Meek and the President. Jo had made up his mind, very sensibly, that it was not possible for him to assume the grand air ; that the only way was to be Jo Meek, exactly as if he was at an evening camp fire in the mountains spining wild yarns to wild humanity ; or in the valley of Oregon entertaining "tenderfeet" by magnifying his no doubt romantic career. Imagine then that President Polk refuses all excuse and adopts this relative from the farthest and wildest Oregon to make himself at home in the White House; and that this man, whose own home was graced by the presence of a pleasant-faced Indian woman, who had accompanied him on many a mountain trip and became the mother of his chil- dren, is transformed in a moment's time to be an inmate of the President's mansion and associates with the élite of all lands !
Indeed, Jo Meek had rather a "soft thing." The Presi- dent was his friend; the private secretary rushed to his arms, dirty and ragged and lousy as he was, and called
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him "Uncle Jo!" Even when discounting the story ever so much, as we must when we know that it is given as Meek gave it, leaving an enormity of exuberance off, it was a wondrous transformation, and not many a mountain man could have adapted himself to a swallow tail, a white vest and a fashionable choker, to take a superb woman, loaded with rustling silks, on either arm, and promenade through the corridors and grand parlors of the Presidential man- sion! But Meek was a man of resources; he justified the President's confidence in him and his own confidence in him- self. For a little while he forgot he was half an Indian- and that his better half was all Indian-to play the grand seigneur and mix in the plots and gaieties of a court !
The lady who wrote his autobiography does scant credit to Judge Thornton, who was a man whom few could know well enough to do him the credit he deserved, but she sums the situation in a fair way when she says: "While Thornton sat among Senators, as a sort of consulting member, or referee, but without a vote, Meek had the private ear of the President and could mingle freely with members of both houses in a social character, thereby exercising a more immediate influence than his more learned coadjutor. Hap- pily, their aims were not dissimilar, though their characters were, so the proper and prudish mission delegate, though often shocked at the private follies of the "Legislative Messenger from Oregon," could find no fault with the manner in which he discharged his duty to their common country.
The $500 order on the treasury of the Methodist Mission was not much for Meek to go on when he got to attending champaigne suppers, and, as a matter of course, had to
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give one occasionally. The President had his contingent fund, and that was made to pay the way of the Oregon mes- senger, who found money come easy and let it go as easy as it came. Kit Carson was there, as poor as a mountain man would be when just off a trip across the world with Fremont. When Kit got to the bottom of his pocket he came to Meek, and Meek went to the President. Surely, Fortunatus' purse was suddenly put in Meek's pocket! Not only so, but he soon became a popular favorite. He truly had an uncom- mon gift of talk and his adventures were wonderful and romantic enough without the kalaidoscopic effect of change and color he found time to put on them. It was a relief for lovely women and gallant men, who only knew the processes and adventures of civilized life and the magnetism of social affairs, to meet this good-looking adventurer, who was cousin to the President and at home in the White House, and listen to the tales that could give Sindbad the Sailor heavy odds, and leave him far behind. Now, it was a fearful struggle among bears; another time, a night surprise by cruel Sioux or Blackfeet, and half his company are slain. At times, too, among Indian people who were as kind as could be asked; tales of hunting bear, buffalo, elk, ante- lope, the mountain goat or big-horned sheep of the middle ranges. Surely, it required a man of far more than ordi- nary versatility, and adept as a reader of human nature, to leave his Indian wife behind and forget his life-long experience in a wilderness, while he played the courtier, as Jo Meek did.
Washington society probably never saw before, nor ever will see again, so curious an anomaly as this occidental mes- senger afforded in 1848. He was of heroic stature, well
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formed, easily adapted himself to ultra-social conditions and accepted their ways. He became the fashion and the world around gave him recognition. The city of Baltimore invited him, where a thousand ladies showered roses on him that he gallantly raised to his lips and kissed as he bowed and smiled himself past the festive groups who waited to receive the messenger from far-off Oregon! So many beau- tiful ladies, and Baltimore ladies were as beautiful as they are to-day, what wonder was it that when telling his fair biographer the story of it, twenty years later, he pro- nounced it the proudest day of his life, graced as it was by the bright eyes of that thousand of beautiful women!
When the 4th of July came and the President laid the corner-stone of the Washington Monument, General Scott and staff rode on one side of his carriage and Jo Meek was one of those on the other. He was a splendid horse- man and took pains to let them all see it. He took by the hand the most notable men of his time and managed to make himself agreeable to beautiful women who gathered at the capital. Sometimes these latter were inquisitive, and all the time his lady relatives were so pleased at his success as a "society man," that they were kind and delightful in their treatment of him. Yet he must have often thought, when mingling with those fairest and most cultivated of women- kind, that he had ostracised himself from his own kind in a measure, and that the "Mary" who waited his home coming and commanded his respect as a good wife was not such as these. Is it, then, a wonder if he thought, "Saddest of all, it might have been !"
So that wonderful summer passed. From May until August is not so very long, but it was a never-ending chap-
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ter in Jo Meek's life and remained a constant vision with him to the last. The new Territory was organized by Con- gress and the President appointed Jo Meek marshal of it, a position suited to his wishes and his character. Pleasure will pall upon the taste. Congress had adjourned, no doubt, and he now had a mission to perform he was proud of. Polk endowed him handsomely with government finances. He bade the President and his kindly lady cousins good-by at Bedford Springs, where they were spending the heated term; then with all the glow of his summer in Paradise un- impaired, and the memory of Washington life at its fullest and best, he took the road for Oregon. He carried to Gen- eral Jo Lane of Indiana a commission as governor of the new Territory, which he accepted, and in three days they were on the Santa Fé road to California.
At St. Louis, Jo Meek took one of his sporadic turns and bought several dozen knives, "just for fun," and three pieces of dress silk at $1.50 a yard, "just to be doing some- thing." When they reached California, the middle of January, the gold era had commenced, and here Meek "un- loaded," selling the silk for $10 a yard and his knives at an ounce apiece, at least $500 above cost price for the two lots. General Lane said he knew he was drunk when he bought the things, and believed he was drunk when he sold them, but he seemed to have made a good thing of it as a trader. With two hundred returning Oregonians, who had been in the mines and were now bound home, Lane and Meek took passage at San Francisco in the Jeannette, and thus the messenger returned after a little over a year's absence. I give these journeys of Thornton and Meek as sample pic- tures of the romance of the early time.
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