USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 11
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The author still retains a very distinct recollection of an in- cident of his army life on the Texas frontier in the '40's, when, going from the tent where he had been sleeping to that in which he proposed to breakfast, he found in his path the body of one of his men, his whole scalp and one of his ears torn off, and his breast pierced with a score of arrows, yet still warm, with wide-open eyes distorted by horror, which only too plainly showed that he had been mutilated while still living and conscious of his agony. But at that time these things were almost every-day occurrences in Southwestern Texas -- " accidents" that might hap- pen to anybody. We have ventured to quote it, however, as one of the many reasons which influences our belief, not to be eradi- cated, that the dead savage is in every way to be preferred to his red brother not yet providentially removed to the "happy hunting grounds."
Yet again, and finally under this head, there has been too much loose treaty-making with the Indians. A great government like the United States can well afford to be, and should be, re- liable in its dealings ; but however honest in making the bargain and in appropriating the money to carry it out, if they permit the Indian Bureau to send a rascally agent, who, as the Indian ex- presses it, " comes with nothing but a trunk, and bime by heap rich, way up," to disburse that money, feed, or rather starve the Indian, while he himself fattens on his ill-gotten gains, then Uncle Sam is to blame. As the guardian of these ofttimes un- ruly national wards, he owes it to American credit, not to say common honesty and humanity, to see that they are as fairly treated in our bargains with them as they should be vigorously controlled and punished when detected in wrong-doing. As we have already said, put them and their reservations in the charge of Regular army officers. They may commit errors of judgment, but they don't steal.
Washington. Territory was fortunate in beginning her civil history with such astute and well-informed leaders as governors Stevens and Mason. Of the latter it may be said that seldom has any man acting as a substitute in the gubernatorial office, under such trying circumstances, acquitted himself so well. His message to the Legislature, delivered in the absence of Governor Stevens at the Blackfeet Council in 1855-56, was a model in its way, patriotic in tone, and a clear exhibit of the condition of
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Eng ª by F G Kernan, N.Y
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things, with the pressing need of immediate action, the Indian outbreak furnishing its most important theme. We have used the word " patriotic," and we will interpolate here a fact which should perhaps have found its place upon an earlier page of this history. It may be a surprise to some of our readers, but it is nevertheless true, that while the sagacious Benton was recom- mending the placing of the god Terminus upon the Rocky Moun- tain divide to mark the fit and proper boundary of the western limits of the American Union, others equally short-sighted were debating the propriety of making Oregon a separate country, alike independent of Great Britain and the United States. It was to be a sort of republic of the Pacific ; and strange as it may seem to us now, it was, nevertheless, favored in the early forties by certain leading citizens. Prominent among these, a Mr. Has- tings, afterward a judge in California, where he probably found it convenient to forget his action upon this subject, actually offered a resolution at a lyceum debate in what is now Oregon City, where the subject came up for discussion to the following effect :
"That it is expedient for the settlers upon the Pacific coast to establish an independent government."
It found a strong opponent in Abernethy, afterward Oregon's first Governor ; but Evans tells us that warmly as it was dis- cussed and earnestly combatted, the resolution was adopted by a large majority.
To check this incipient disregard for the Union, Abernethy introduced for the next debate this proposition :
" Resolved, That if the United States extends its jurisdiction over this country within the next four years it will not be ex- pedient to form an independent government."
This cleared the air ; and despite of the neglect and indiffer- ence with which the far-away mother regarded the daughter dwelling amid the solitudes of the wild Northwest, the settlers determined to wait and hope for that recognition which they trusted would yet bind them to their own loved land, its flag, its government, and the traditions of their childhood. We are told that one of these early patriots was wont to speak of this as " the secession movement of Oregon." Had it been carried out, the three States west of the mountains would undoubtedly have been British territory to-day. Feeble as she then was, English
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foothold and English influence would have been too much for them. To return :
The Legislature of 1855-56 thanked Governor Douglas, of Vancouver, for aid in furnishing arms to prosecute the Indian war, prayed for congressional aid in the matter of sound and in- land protection, asked for arms, which were sent in muskets, when rifles, the weapon of the frontiersman, was asked for and re- fused (red tape again) ; and furthermore, when the quota allowed the Territory was sent, they shipped them to Fort Vancouver, which, the roads being impassable, rendered necessary a tran- shipment by sea to make them available where they were need- ed, for the defence of the settlers on Puget Sound. Many other matters also became subjects of this Legislature's action-the survey of the public lands ; lighthouses ; various hospitals, thanks to the Governor of Oregon (Curry) for the services of their Volunteers, and a joint resolution requesting the War De- partment to inquire into certain acts of Major Rains in withdraw- ing his troops from the Yakima country and disbanding Volun- teers organized to relieve Governor Stevens, then endangered among the hostiles. Last, but by no means least, they passed a special tribute to the services and gallantry of Lieutenant Will- jam A. Slaughter, killed by Indians in the discharge of his duty. And here we too pause to lay our humble wreath upon the grave of this dead soldier, known to us personally. Like the first grenadier of France, he who is gone to answer to the roll-call of the silent majority, lies " mort sur le champs de bataille." A truer heart, a braver soldier, or more accomplished gentleman never wore the livery of the republic than William A. Slaughter of the Fourth U. S. Infantry. They named a county after him, subject, however, to a popular vote of the citizens, who-and it seems inexplicable-voted it down, preferring the name of Kit- sap, a war chief, whose haunts were in the vicinity of their county- seat. The Indian whom they thus honored was even then in the field as a hostile, actively engaged against the whites, and, worse still, a " medicine man." So the legal voters ignored the mem- ory and name of the gallant soldier who had fallen in their de- fence, to substitute that of a rascally native, who boasted that, as he was a " medicine man," neither white nor Indian could kill him, until his own people actually began to fear him and believed in his magical invulnerability. They were rudely disenchanted
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at the last, when he himself met a fit and most unexpected end- ing ; for this Kitsap, whose evil name one of our fairest coun- ties is destined through all time, unless changed -- as it ought to be by legislative act -- to Slaughter, to bear and perpetuate, was the identical Indian of whom we have already spoken who medi- cated his sick patients with red paint, and followed them to the spirit land accordingly. His taking off, all because he forgot to label his decoction of face vermilion not to be used internally, occurred on April 18th, 1860.
On Governor Stevens' return from the Blackfeet Council, in compliance with the request of a joint committee of both Houses, he also delivered an address to the Legislature, in which, com- menting upon his recent treaties with the Indians, he said : " Nineteen evil-disposed persons " (Cayuses) "made all the trouble. Could they be punished the rest could be governed. They should be seized and put to death." With his wonderful personal magnetism the Governor managed for the time being to wipe out the ordinary party lines. Whig and Democrat ceased to be heard ; they gave way to Stevens and anti-Stevens. He was the centre, round which all revolved or were politically re- pelled. Of his declaration of martial law and the controversies growing out of it we have already spoken. For the rest we have neither space nor inclination to enter into the political combina- tions and complications of that early period-the intriguing for office, the stump speeches and newspaper articles intended to favor or impede some particular candidate, with the thousand and one questions regarded as all-important in their little hour of life, but dead letters now. Their actors for the most part have given place to others on the stage, having gone to their final rest. They glide like shadows across the pages of our story, pursuing phantoms as unsubstantial as their present selves, or gaining that which, like the Dead Sea fruit, turns to ashes in the moment of its enjoyment.
The politicians of the East had penetrated with their party cries the Pacific Slope and aroused a responsive excitement among the far-off settlements of Puget Sound and the Columbia. Both Democrats and Republicans held their conventions and ventilated their respective views. They chose their standard- bearers ; and while Governor Stevens became the Democratic
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nominee for the office of Delegate to Congress, Alexander S. Abernethy was selected by the Republicans for the same posi- tion. The prize was warmly contested for. Stevens found an able advocate in a certain Mr. Garfield, a new-comer and federal appointee, who warmly espoused his cause and canvassed the electors in his interest. Mr. Garfield was a gentleman of fine gifts, an able debater, and fresh from larger fields, where he had won laurels as a stump speaker. His oratory found many listen- ers, while Abernethy, a quiet man, declined to canvass, and most probably lost votes thereby. Many elements entered into this election contest, and, as might have been expected, the declara- tion of martial law by Governor Stevens came prominently to the front. It ended, however, in the final election of Stevens, who was returned by a triumphant majority, the vote standing 953 in his favor to 518 for his competitor. It, moreover, gave popular endorsement to his political acts, and led to the rescind- ing of the unfavorable comments of the Legislature of 1856-57, the result giving a large Democratic majority both in the Coun- cil and the House, who were naturally not slow to take advan- tage of this superiority.
The vacancy caused by the election of Governor Stevens as Delegate to Congress was promptly filled by the appointment of Fayette McMullen, of Virginia, who had served for several terms in Congress as a representative from that State. He reached Olympia in September, and delivered the customary gubernatorial address, in which he took occasion to say many good words for the President and his Cabinet, but, as a new- comer, was unable to give the Legislature any special informa- tion on which to act. He referred, possibly by way of oratori- cal fireworks, to our glorious Constitution, which he likened to the " cloud and pillar" which led the Hebrews in their journey through the wilderness, touched upon the land question, always dear to the heart of the settler, and in that connection recom- mended its gift, without residence or cultivation being required, to every incomer.
This Legislature, like its predecessors, was industrious, and did considerable work. Among others it passed several bills of divorce. One of the parties rendered happy by this legal un- mating was no less a person than the Governor himself, who thus divested himself of his wife Polly, and to fill the vacancy
Henry Killing
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immediately proceeded to take another Polly, this time née Wood, with whom, having probably had enough of governing Washington, he returned, possibly to be governed himself, to his native Virginia, leaving an excellent substitute in Acting Gov- ernor Mason, who was again called to fill for the time the execu- tive chair.
By this Legislature also, the course pursued by General Wool and his officers in closing the Walla Walla valley to settlers was strongly denounced, as also the supposed disposition of Oregon to acquire that portion of the Territory.
Then followed the Fraser River gold discovery excitement, of which the only results to-day are visible in the moss-grown trails and wagon roads, with their broken log bridges, which once led to this once much-lauded Eldorado. It produced at the time, however, a whirlwind of agitation, which stirred the whole North Pacific coast as a mountain storm stirs the leaves of the forest. Its short-lived existence may be compared to a tide rapidly rising and sweeping all before it, at first wild enough in its period of flood, but soon destined to subsidence, leaving but dry rock and stranded driftwood where once it so gallantly ran its foaming course. It floated more than driftwood, however, for far away, from San Francisco wharfs, it sent to sea many a leaky hulk which had long rotted in harbor, but was considered good enough to carry thousands of eager gold-seekers, all anx- ious, with pick and shovel, or store of tempting merchandise, to try their fortunes amid the wilds of beautiful Fraser River. And still the wonder grew till from the ports of the sound and the rugged steeps of the interior men flocked to the mines. But it was but a repetition of the old fable -- the mountain was- in labor and brought forth a mouse. Yet pale face and Indian alike expected more from its throes. As usual, the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, with Governor Douglas at their back to as- sist with his proclamations, planned to obtain the lion's share of its possible profits. Its expectations might well take an airy flight when we remember that within forty days the arrivals at Victoria alone numbered no less than forty-two vessels and up- ward of six thousand passengers. As a natural result it at- tracted many settlers to British Columbia, thereby dealing the first death-blow to the exclusive supremacy of the Hudson's Bay Company. They looked for gain from the gold fever, but it
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brought them loss. "The engineer was hoisted by his own petard." They had lost their power to dictate. Free settlers who came to take up land and cultivate it were much more difficult people to manipulate than the Indian hunters and French Cana- dian voyageurs, whom they had so long bent, like reeds, in per- fect submission to their will. So far as Washington was con- cerned, it resulted at first unfavorably by drawing off some of its citizens, who hoped to better their fortunes at the mines. The wave of reaction, however, following upon their failure, not only returned the bulk of these deserters, but so advertised the Territory that many new settlers flocked in.
The admission of Oregon as a State, and its approval by the President, settled the northern boundary line of that State, and consequently fixed definitely that of Southern Washington. The residue of Oregon being thus formally declared to belong to Washington greatly increased the latter's area, taking in the famous South Pass, as also that portion of the present States of Idaho and Montana west of the Rocky Mountains.
General Clark, having succeeded General Wool, issued his orders in the fall of 1858, throwing open Eastern Washington, so long barred to the whites by the folly of the General last named, for settlement. Thanks to the successful campaign of Colonel George Wright, the hostiles of this region had received their quietus, peace reigned, and with it came civilized development. Both cattlemen and farmers found just what they required-the farmer in the rich soil bordering its many streams. and the grazier locating his herds upon the extensive natural pastures. The Walla Walla valley was soon dotted with homes, and the future of the inland empire was assured. In 1860 gold in pay- ing quantities was found through following up an Indian legend, wild and fantastic as a dream, in the Nez Percés country. The mines were worked with good results during the winter, but the spring of 1861 brought the rush.
The next event of special interest was the episode of the hog, the " unclean beast," in this instance very nearly precipitating war, with the help of General Harney and the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, between Great Britain and the United States. We have no space to devote to this extended story ; but that pig is embalmed in history ; his decease was made the sub- ject of official letters and reports, of demands and rejoinders, of
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threats and explanations. It moved fleets and armies, and, what was more important than all, it moved our own " Fuss and Feathers" General Scott to the scene of action, and in the same spirit which gave up "Fifty-four-forty or fight"' removed Gen- eral Harney, " whose presence was deemed offensive to the Brit- ish officials," to Washington. It established a joint military occupation on San Juan's Island, and its cry of distress pene- trated even to the council chambers of Washington and St. James, till finally cured, after leaving both nations in something of a pickle for two long years, by solemn treaty on May 8th, 1871, which sent the difficulties growing out of the unfortunate porker up to no less a personage than the Emperor William, of Ger- many, for arbitration, who, by defining the exact meaning of the boundary treaty, settled the whole affair. A live goose saved Rome, and a dead pig decided that our line ran through the Haro Channel, and, what was more important, an archipelago of islands lying between the continent and Vancouver's Island.
But this chapter, already too greatly extended, must now find an end. Our next will chronicle the admission of Washing- ton into the sisterhood of States.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
WASHINGTON'S ADMISSION TO STATEHOOD.
" Arise at last, and enter in Thy robes of state, to wear and win. By long probation fully earned ; The flowing tide for thee hath turned. Fair Washington, no longer wait ; Columbia hails thee, sovereign State, And bids thee welcome to her halls To hang thy banner on her walls, Adding thy star to grace the wreath Of which the ' Old Thirteen ' were chief. Thrice honored thou to hold the name Of him who bore it on to fame. Do thou in turn move grandly on To grace the name of Washington."
-BREWERTON.
THE age of advancement in which we live is lacking in the sense of realization. Blunted by custom, we have ceased to be surprised. The events of our era, like the exhibits of a world's exposition, crowd in upon us with such startling rapidity that occurrences which would once have excited universal interest either cease to attract our attention or become "a nine days' wonder" at the best. In olden days, if an empire had been add- ed to some feudal crown, it would have agitated the nations ; in our own, Washington, with her fair sisters, the Dakotas and Montana, stepped into the legislative halls of the American Con- gress, received the congratulations of their peers, and added four stars to the azure field of the Union, with scarce a ripple of ex- citement. Yet they were an empire in themselves, rich in every good and perfect natural gift with which the beneficent All-Giver can endow His creature man, and, moreover, fast filling with a population of which any nation under the sun might well be proud.
It now becomes our task to trace in outline the course of legislative action by which Washington passed from her circum-
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scribed territorial limits to the full enjoyment of all the rights which our Constitution accords to a legally recognized sovereign State.
Evans tells us that " the proposition to admit Washington as a State had been discussed in the United States House of Repre- sentatives even before the meeting of the constitutional conven- tion of 1878, created by the territorial Legislative Assembly." The first bill, however, to admit to statehood was offered in the national Congress by Thomas H. Brents, Washington's delegate in the Forty-fifth Congress ; it proposed to admit under the con- stitution of the convention already- named. Objections were made, and the matter went over till the Forty-seventh Congress (1881-83), when he introduced a second bill, drawn in accordance with the legislative memorial. It was an enabling act, authoriz- ing the people of Washington and the northern part of Idaho Territory to hold a convention to frame a State constitution and form a State government. The smallness of her population was made an excuse to further delay recognition, but the real rea- son lay in the fact that the party in power dreaded a vote which might be cast against them at the next Presidential election, and possibly send to Congress two senators to strengthen the opposi- tion. Session after session the prayer for admission went up from the territorial Legislature, but without favorable response. Senator Dolph, of Oregon, ever the friend of the Territory, cham- pioned her cause in the spring of 1886 by introducing a bill for her reception. Of this bill Evans says :
" Its boundaries included the pan handle or northern coun- ties of Idaho. Another bill travelled hand in hand, an adjunct bill, providing for the annexation of those three northern Idaho counties to Washington -both of their Territories had passed memorials favoring such annexation, and the people of Northern Idaho had voted for it almost unanimously. It passed both Houses of Congress, but was vetoed by President Cleveland. Later on separate bills had passed the Senate for the division of Dakota, and to enable the people of North and South Dakota, Washington, and Montana to form constitutions and State gov- ernments. The Presidential election of 1888 was over. The next Congress and administration would be Republican. There was no just cause to keep out these Territories, teeming with wealth and population, vastly superior to many of the States.
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" Springer's Omnibus Bill was obnoxious to the friends of the applying Territories. Hope of admission by the Fiftieth Congress seemed dead. Already was there talk of an extra ses- sion to do this act of simple justice." Cox, of New York. rose superior to party. On January 15th, 1889, he addressed the House, then considering the admission of Dakota ; he favored Springer's Omnibus Bill, with certain amendments ; he proposed, as a last resort, if the Territories could not be brought in within a reasonable time, to help any conference between the two bodies looking to the statehood of Dakota and the other Territories ; he admitted that Congress had been derelict ; he urged that de- cisive action should be immediately taken ; his proposition in- cluded New Mexico, but purposely ignored Utah ; he argued the question of population, and declared that there was a moral as well as a legal touchstone by which States should be ad- mitted ; he warned the House that these Territories would be received in any event by the Republicans of the next Congress, and their people prove their gratitude by advocating at the polls the principles of their friends ; he declared that Congress might as well refuse to admit as to enact that frost should cease in the North and bloom in the South, or the figure of Proteus could be fixed by statute. Then, with a grand and well-deserved tribute to the people of the Northwest, he concluded as follows : " Their spirit is that of unbounded push and energy. These are the men who have tunnelled our mountains, who have delved our mines, have bridged our rivers, who have brought every part of our empire within the reach of foreign and home markets, who have made possible our grand growth and splendid development. They are the men who have made our national life. There is no parallel in history to their achievements. You cannot hold them as captive to the federal system. You must give them self-reliant statehood."
We now quote from the same speaker's magnificent Fourth of July oration, delivered in 1889, at Huron, Dakota. He en- titled it " The Four New States." He spoke as follows :
" After many weary delays, on January 16th last the Senate bill for the admission of South Dakota was taken up. It was very unlike the measure which was reported by a majority of the House Committee on Territories. That committee disfavored the division of Dakota. Finally it reported a substitute known
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