F MS •ColamUa Unlvers-ity LiWary In ..exchange DATE DU£ DEC 7 1952 DW j/i|\l 9 1960 M P TTTieZ Cornell University Library F880 .B43 Opening a highway to the Pacific, 1838-1 olin 3 1924 031 001 591 Pi Cornell University J Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031001591 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 1838-1846 ^ "^ BY JAMES CHRISTY BELL, Jb. .^--^ SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL BULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE Faculty of Political Science Columbia University * When thy star of Destiny declineth, seek a new influence in a distant region.' " — Stewart, Catherine, New Homes in the West (Nashville, 1845). NEW YORK 192 1 03 o O ffl H Bi O 02 hJ -1! Q H Q « O C a H ;^ o OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC 1838-1846 JAMES CHRISTY BELL, Je. it SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE Faculty of Political Science Columbia University ' When thy star of Destiny declineth, seek a new influence in a distant region.' " — Stbwart, Catherine, New Homes in the West {Nashville, 1845). NEW YORK 1921 K '. T P ^ l\€\o%3i THE PIONEERS WHO " FORMED THE BROADEST, LONGEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL ROAD IN THE WHOLE WORLD — FROM THE UNITED STATES TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN" PREFACE At the close of the Revolution, the western boundary of the new Republic of the United States was fixed as the Mississippi River. To this was added by purchase, in 1803, the Louisiana Territory, with indefinite western boundary. In 1 81 8 the northern boundary of this new acquisition was made the forty-ninth parallel of latitude west as far as the Rocky Mountains. At the same time, Great Britain agreed to the joint occupancy and use of the Oregon Territory, and, in 1819, Spain ceded all territorial claims she might have in the Americas, north of the forty-second degree of latitude. Thus the Oregon country became for the United States the only territorial approach, short of conquest, to the Pacific Ocean, where the commerce of New England was already well established. It remained, however, a matter of latent interest to the people of the lusty young republic. For a considerable period after 181 9, the energies of the frontiersmen were fully absorbed in developing their glori- ous natural empire in the great valley of the Mississippi. The filling-up process was very slow, however, and lands even a little removed from routes of communication were not taken up. In 1840, the occupied parts of the Mississippi Valley were slight, indeed, as compared with the present day. It was the period anterior to the time when canals and railways, trolleys and passable wagon or motor roads, made accessible the great stretches of country lying away from the larger rivers. The politics of the day were almost exclusively concerned with internal, or local and personal questions. There was 7] 7 8 PREFACE [8 only brief conflict on the principles of the Federal Govern- ment. Small agrarian interests dominated the government; and once the hands of the big eastern financiers were tied by the destruction of the United States Bank, there was no one to control the amount and kind of speculation. Eagerly, the populace of small means and no credit turned to this wild game. By 1839, the bubble of internal paper expansion had burst; and, in a few years, the times were such that the old frontiersmen, and many others, began to feel the pinch of depression more keenly than they cared to endure. The monetary chaos particularly had been aggravated by the responsiveness of the government to the will of its people, and, in the absence of political foresight and strong leadership, the people were left to devise their own remedy. All became " land poor," and at once began to cast about for relief, in various forms of external expansion. " The breeders of mules and horses and hogs cry out, ' Let us have Texas, right or wrong! ' ", wrote a Democratic hench- man, in 1844. Texas was promptly annexed, Oregon set- tled, California conquered, and the area of the United States enlarged by one third. The people went off on another mad career of speculation, discovering new glories in the West, greatest among them, gold. It was a career that was not cut short until the rise of a crucial issue between the States brought civil war. The present monograph has grown out of a wish for more light on one early phase of this expansion. It pur- poses to study the hopes and fears and ideas of a definite and, in its way, articulate group of the American community — that body of farmers and mechanics in whose families the tradition of westward migration was imbedded through several generations after their first coming to the Virginia mountains. These ideas are to be studied in relation to cer- n] PREFACE g tain factors which hmited in some ways the existence of the pioneers, and in others opened new opportunities for their development. The aspirations of the men and women who undertook the long journey across the mountains are treated from the standpoint of social history, which is meant to be some- thing more than narrow political, personal, or economic history. The pioneers were few in numbers, their hopes and fears much aroused, their long and tedious trip accom- plished without insuperable difficulty. They were sober, hard-headed, industrious people, fairly well-off in their homes along the Mississippi. The solution of their troubles, found by fleeing westward from the difficulties confronting them, will appear, when seen in the light of the conditions environing their Hves, a wiser, more conserva- tive, and far-'sighted one than has been supposed by the learned, from that day to the present. The pioneers fore^ saw all the later developments of transportation, market- ing, and agriculture, which have helped to consolidate into a nation the people spread over this continent. Their undertaking was neither irrational nor mysterious. An idea was conceived, a plan devised, and an agitation worked up. This seized the imagination of a few, who undertook to translate their desires into action. The pioneers opened a road across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast — ^the preface to territorial expansion — ^because they wished to realize the benefits from its geographical position in opening a new market for agricultural produce, and because they could not await but must have a hand in making their own destiny. The agitation for expansion, however, soon outran the plan, became frantic, went off to war ; the side-show, as usual attracted the crowd, and, 'behold, the United States gained a continent before its farmers won a stable market for their produce. 10 PREFACE [lO Acknowledgment of help always generously given is due primarily to Professor William Archibald Dunning, to my friend and boyhood teacher, Mr. Robert Alston Stevenson, and to my friend, Mr. Oscar Ross Ewing, who have read and criticized the manuscript; and to the staff of the American History Room of the New York Public Library, where most of the work has been done. My thanks are also due to Professor Dixon Ryan Fox; to the authorities of the Methodist Mission House and the American Bible Society, in New York City, for permission to consult their records; to Mr. E. Eberstadt, a dealer in rare books, for the loan of many works not otherwise available; and, for various suggestions, to Miss K. B. Judson, of the New York State Library, as well as to the staffs of the Library of Congress, the libraries of Columbia and Harvard Uni- versities, the New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Oregon Historical Societies, and the Bancroft Collection in the University of California Library. Miss Anne Moore has most kindly checked my citations. I have enjoyed four visits to the Oregon territory, and have talked of this work with many to whom I am deeply grateful for the aid given me. J. C. B., Jr. YoNKERS, N. Y., October, 1920. CONTENTS PAGB CHAPTER I Discovery and Exploitation, 1785-1813 15 CHAPTER II Diplomacy Determines the Status of Oregon, 1818-1824 • • • . . 28 CHAPTER III British and American Fur Traders, 1813-1840 45 CHAPTER IV Missionary Colonists, 1834-1843 68 CHAPTER V Spread of the Oregon Fever, 1838-1843 gi CHAPTER VI Agrarian Discontent in the Mississippi Valley, 1840-1845. ... 116 CHAPTER VII The Journey to the Western Coast, 1843-1846 132 CHAPTER VIII I Settlement in the Willamette Valley, 1840-1846 152 CHAPTER IX Conclusion; The Interplay of Sentimental and Economic Forces. . 180 APPENDIX "Oregon Saved" 193 Bibliographical Note • • • 203 11] II LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I. Mount Hood and the Dalls of the Columbia . . Frontispiece (From Warre, J. H., Sketches in North America, London, 1849) Opposite paee II. Fort Bridges 66 A post for repair and supply of the wagon trains erected on Black's Fork of Green River by Jim Bridger, trapper. (From Fremont's Report) III. The Willamette Valley 86 (From Warre, J. H., op. cit.) IV. Independence Courthouse 104 Now Kansas City, Missouri; the starting point of the Santa Fe, California and Oregon roads. (From Meyer's Universuni) V, Crossing the Platte 138 The earliest emigrants used the fords, in the quicksands of which more than one wagon with its team disap- peared. (From Fremont's Report) VL Oregon City in 1844 160 The American settlement at the Falls of the Willamette. (From Warre, J. H., op. cit.) VII. Map of Western North America At end First published in 1846 13] 13 CHAPTER I Discovery and Exploitation 1785-1813 In the beginning was the Northwest Coast of America. The Northwest Coast remained for many years almost un- known to the incurious people of the European commercial nations. Spanish and Russian and English navigators touched infrequently along the whole of its forbidding line, yet did not seek to explore it carefully. Franciscan friars with military aid undertook the settlement from Mexico of Upper CaHfomia, after 1769, and, while the American Revolution was in progress, established a line of missions along the King's Highway between San Diego and San Francisco Bays. Navigators sent by the Viceroy of Mexico touched along the coast as far north as latitude 58° ; and Russians from the Asian shore knew the Alaskan coast down to latitude 56°. So far as commerce was concerned, these men made only landfalls, and dis- covered little of interest to their nationals, except the Rus- sians, nor were their findings widely published.^ The English Government sent Captain James Cook to the Pacific upon a series of famous voyages of discovery, in the years 1775 to 1780; and when his reports were made public it became known that not only was this bleak coast rich in sea otter, but that the skin brought a very high price in the China market.^ 1 Greenhow, R., History of Oregon and California (Boston, 1844), passim ; Coxe, Wm., Atcount of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America (London, 1787), p. 337, et seq. 'Cook, Capt. James, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (London, 1785), vol. ii, p. 296. IS] IS 1 6 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [i6 At once English and Portuguese merchants resident in China sent ships to trade with the native Indians of the Northwest Coast, and others were quick to follow. Be- tween 1785 and 1787, " expeditions were fitted out from Canton, Macao, Calcutta, and Bombay in the East, London and Ostend in Europe, and from Boston in the United States," and by 1792 there were twenty-nine vessels from seven dififerent countries engaged in this trade.^ For nearly forty years, imtil the sea otter were almost extinct, it was prosecuted with varying success. During the Napoleonic wars Americans were left in sole enjoyment, and several of the largest New England mercantile fortunes of the early nineteenth century were built up in the trade.^ The trade was three-cornered : firearms, axes, pots, blan- kets, and trinkets composed the outward cargo to be ex- changed for furs, which were taken to China, as America could offer little else save specie of value in the East. In China, silks and other manufactured goods were obtained for the homeward voyage. The profits of a three years' cruise were considerable, especially so to the Americans, who were shut out of the English colonial system.^ 'Hunt's Merchants' Magazine (New York, 1845), vol. xiv, p. S34; Vancouver, Geo., A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean (London, 1798), vol. iii, p. 498. Home ports were, England, 6, Bengal, 2, Canton, 3, America, 7, Portugal, 2, France, i, 'Spain and Mexico, 8. 2 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xiv, p. 536. For statistics vide, 29th Cong., 1st Sess. House Rept., no. 35 ; Forbes, A., and Green, J. H., Rich Men of Massachusetts (and ed., Boston, 1852), pp. 51, 64. The subject of American expansion in the Pacific down to 1844 is well covered by Latourette, K. IS., The History of Early Relations between the United States and China (New Haven, 1917), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Transactions, vol. xxii. •D'Wolf, John, A Voyage to the North Pacific (iCambridge, i86l), p. 146. A voyage of two and a half years yielded a profit of $100,000 on an investment of $35,000; cf. Myers, Captain John, Life, Voyages and Travels ^London. 1817), p. 70. I7J DISCOVERY AND EXPLOITATION 17 By 1 82 1, missionary interest in the spiritual condition of the natives of the coast had been aroused; and, in 1827, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions considered establishing a mission and small secular colony, with a view to " the planting of Christian institutions on the shores of the Pacific." Two years later they sent a minister from the Sandwich Islands Mission on a tour of inspection, with this object in view, but took no further action until 1834.^ In the course of a very few years the merchant skippers learned all the essential geographical features of the North- V. est Coast, so that they were able to communicate them to the expedition sent by the British Admiralty, under Cap- tain George Vancouver, to continue the work of Cook. In 1792, this navigator met the Ship Columbia, Gray, Master, of Boston, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and learned that the mouth of the long-sought " River of the West " lay between bold headlands, in latitude forty-six degrees. The river, which was to take its name from Captain Gray's vessel, was charted by Vancouver on this expedition. He also charted the whole coast far northward, although, curiously enough he missed the entrance of the only other large river in the whole extent of fifteen degrees of latitude. This river was later explored by Simon Fraser, whose name it bears. The merchant captains who traded along the coast found the bar of the Columbia River rather dangerous, and, con- sequently, they carried on the major part of their trade in the many beautiful sounds and deep, land-locked bays which characterize the coast northward from the magnific- ent Puget Sound. Their trade was a transitory affair, the natives coming to the ship anchored off shore in canoes, and 'Green, Jonathan S., Journal of a Tour on the Northwest Coast of America in the year 1829 (New York, 1915), passim. l8 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [i8 being allowed on deck in small numbers at a time. The ships wintered, to repair their gear and construct small boats, either at the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, or at Nootka Sound on Vancouver's Island. The traders never explored the interior or formed any permanent settlements. They found geographical conditions and the information derived from Vancouver's surveys sufficient for their opera- tions; but they did not consider the wonderful harbors in the terms of present-day commerce, which employs them as the terminals of transcontinental railways. The success of the coasting trade had hardly been estab- lished when the northern interior was explored from the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, by the individual in- itiative of an intrepid Scotchman, Alexander Mackenzie, a partner in the Northwest Company of Montreal fur traders. Quite acourate information concerning the country west of the mountains was available from the Indians on the western plains, and had attracted the attention of traders, who pushed into the old French country west of Lake Superior soon after the peace of 1763 had put an end to the French Empire in America.^ These Montreal traders found an easy water route from Lake Superior northwest to the middle waters of the rivers flowing into Hudson's Bay, and were soon competing with the sluggish Hudson's Bay Company. The English Com- pany held exclusive privileges of trade in all that great Northwest territory, and were supposed to have explored it in return for their charter; but, with a single exception, had never left the shore of Hudson's Bay. The Montreal traders were men of energy and daring, however, and, in spite of a very long route by which their goods were 1 Carver, Jonathan, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766-1768 (Dublin, 1779), p. 542. Henry, Alex- ander, Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the Years 1760 and 1776 (New York), 1809), p. 324. These journalists are not to be taken without reservations. IC)] DISCOVERY AND EXPLOITATION 19 brought up, they built forts on the rivers and lakes right to the Rocky Mountains, and successfully defied the Hudson's Bay Company to enforce its monopoly. It was in 1789 that Alexander Mackenzie of the North- west Company, one of the ablest and boldest men in the history of discovery, floated down the river which bears his name to the Arctic Ocean. Two years after his re- turn, he set out to cross the continent through the low Peace River Pass, and in 1793 arrived upon the Pacific, in latitude 50° 20". He reached the ocean by trail, having been compelled to abandon a river on the west of the mountains, which ran south through awful canyons. With only a small party, and without the help of govemmenit, Mackenzie not only traversed the northern part of the con- tinent in two directions, but showed that its western slope, at least in the North, was a very rugged and difficult country for traders to exploit. An even more important result of these journeys was the proof they offered of the non-exist- ence of the long sought practicable Northwest Passage be- tween the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.^ For the next fifteen y^ars the Nor'westers were busily engaged in their trade east of the mountains, and did no more exploring imtil they again began to extend their field of operations. It was in 1807 that Simon Fraser, one of the wintering partners, followed down the river which bears his name, (the same which Mackenzie had tried to explore,) in the hope that it might be the River of the West. He proved both that it was not the Columbia, and that its deep and awful canyons were unnavigable almost the entire distance to tidewater, which it reaches in latitude forty-nine degrees.* Fraser did not go quite down to its mouth, which ' Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, Voyages from Montreal to the Frozen and Pacific Ocean (London, 1801), passim. ' Masson, L. R., Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord Ouesi (Quebec, 1889-1890), premiere serie, pp. 96-108. 20 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [20 Vancouver had missed, though the city named from the naval officer stands there. Not until 1824 was the river's delta-like mouth explored and sounded, when the British Government asked the fur traders to get information relative to its possible use as a harbor for commerce. '^ In the same year as Eraser's exploit, David Thompson, astronomer and explorer of the Northwest Company, whose achievements equaled those of Mackenzie, crossed the mountains from the north fork of the Saskatchewan to the upper waiters of the Columbia. Here he spent the next five years trapping, trading and exploring, in a confused, rug- ged coimtry of high, narrow ridges, running almost due north and south. In the course of time he discovered the best pass to be a high one from the Athabasca to the Columbia, which became famous as the route of overland communication before the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. However, it was not until after American rivals established a port at the mouth of the Columbia that Thomp^ son went all the way down the river; but to him alone be- longs the credit of exploring its whole northern system, and part of the present map of Western Canada is based upon his surveys.^ 'Great Britain, Papers relative to the negotiation between Great Britain and the United States concerning boundaries (London, n. d. 1826?), pp. 70, 71, 75, 76. 2 Tyrrell (ed.), Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America (Toronto, 1916) ; Coues (ed.), Henry-Thompson Journals (New York, 1897) ; Elliott (ed.), "David Thompson's Journeys in the Spokane Cotintry," Washington Historical Quarterly, vols, viii-ix. Thompson in- 1814 completed a large map for the Northwest Company of its territories, which is published by Tyrrell. His scientific data have not been published', and his government was so ignorant of his work that it never based any territorial claims thereon, although he took possession of the Northern Columbia system in the name of Great Britain and founded the first trading posts on its waters. The simplest account of his journeys is found in Burpee, L. J., The Search for the Western Sea (London, igo8), pt. iii, ch. vi. 2 1 ] DISCO VER Y AND EXPLOIT A TION 2 1 The President of the United States initiated the second expedition that penetrated the Oregon interior ; and by this term is meant the whole region west of the Rocky Movm- tains, now comprising the states of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, with parts of Wyoming and Montana, and most of the province of British Columbia. Thomas Jeffer- son, exponent of American democracy, dreamt often of the western edge of his continent; so, when the opportunity came to explore the little known land beyond the mountains, he hastily put aside all theories of the powers of government, and squarely met the fact of expansion. Even before the purchase of Louisiana was consummated, the President set on foot plans for a number of expeditions to explore its distant confines. The most considerable of these, under Captains Lewis and Clark of the army, was sent by the route of St. Louis fur traders up the Missouri River to its head, with instructions to find, if possible, a " direct and practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce," ^ as well as to learn all about the plants, animals, rocks, and natives of the country trav- ersed. Before the Rockies had been reached. Captain Lewis wrote to Mr. Jefferson some information gleaned from the Indians about a large and rapid river, which runs from South to North, along the foot of the Rocky Mountains on the west side : and that this river passes at a small distance from the three forks of the Missouri. That the country between the mountains and the river is broken, with a number of barren sandy hills, irregularly distributed over its surface as far as the eye can reach.^ 'Thwaites, R. G. (ed.), Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 (New York, 1905), vol. vii, p. 248. ' Discoveries Made in Exploring the Missouri, Red River and Washita, by Captains Levais and Clark, Doctor Sibley and William Dunbar (Natchez, 1806), p. 60. 22 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [22 Some details filled in, this fact of a desert condition is all the expedition ever learned of the geography of the country- drained by the great southern affluent of the Colombia. Lewis and Clark were absent three years on their mission (1804-5-6), traveling leisurely, and collecting an enormous amount of scientific data about the country traversed.' Much of this time was spent in the tangled Rocky Moun- tain system, searching tmavailingly for a pass practicable for commerce between the two great rivers. After touch- ing the headwaters of many tributaries on the western slope, the explorers eventually went down to the main stream by way of the Kooskooskee (Qearwater) branch of the Snake, which joins it near its confluence with the Columbia. They continued down to the sea, where they wintered, without examining the fertile valleys just inside the coast range, and returned by the route they had come from the divide. Thus it appears that their expedition traversed the wide Columbia valley in an east and west direction without ex- ploring either branch of the main river, which runs north and south, except where in its lower course it breaks through the Cascade range. Therefore, while these explorers gathered much data interesting to scientists, the results of the expedition were almost negative as far as commercial exploitation and settle- ment were concerned. They learned, indeed, that the de- sert region was rich in beaver, but without game, for which salmon was a poor substitute, as food. They adopted the Indian mode of travel on horseback through this desert, but did not find any easy route by which to reach it from ' It is quite characteristic of America that the complete information gathered by this expedition was not published for an- hundred years. Vide, Thwaites, (R. G. (ed.), op. df, Quaife, M. M. (ed.), The Jour- nals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway, Wisconsin State Historical Society Collections (Madison, 1916), vol. xxii. 23] DISCOVERY AND EXPLOITATION 23 east of the mountains.^ So, the government explorers left the positive side of their task to be carried out by the fur traders, who were vitally interested in such knowledge, and who transmitted their knowledge to the emigrants. The first trading establishment to be attempted at the mouth of the Columbia was the beginning of a log house by Captain Winship of Boston, in 1810. A rise of the river flooded him out, and he did not return, fearing he would be unable to compete with the Astor enterprise.^ John Jacob Astor, fur merchant, was for many years the successful rival of the Canadians in the Great Lakes coxmtry. In 181 1, he initiated a large and well conceived plan to exploit the Columbia River covintry by means of a principal post on tide water, with smaller tributary posts in the in- terior. It was the establishment of Astoria which brought David Thompson of the Northwest Company down the river, and which, in spite of its admirable conception and the power with which it was sustained, became a commercial failure and later a diplomatic wrangling-point.* Refusal of the government to back a commercial enter- prise, poor location, loss of the supply ship, and inexper- ienced personnel, w«re the causes of failure of Astor's en- terprise. When the superintendent heard, in 1813, of war between the United States and Great Britain, he sold the '■History of the Expedition under Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, etc. (Biddle edition, Philadelphia, 1814), chs. xv-xxiv. To understand their wanderings, see the map in Thwaites, R. G., op. cit., or Wheeler, O. D., The Trail of Lewis and Clark (New York, 1904). 'Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xiv, p. 202; cf. Bancroft, H. H., Northwest Coast (iSan Francisco, 1884), vol. ii, pp. 130-136. ' Irving, W., Astoria (Philadelphia, 1836) ; Franchere, Gabriel, Narra- tive of a Voyage to the North West Coast of America (New York, 1854) ; Cox, Ross, Adventures on the Columbia River (London, 1831) ; Ross, Alexander, Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River (London, 1849) ; Coues, E. (ed.), Henry-Thompson Journals. 24 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [24 post and all goods of trade to a representative of the North- west Company, and remained with many of his men on the Columbia, in the employ of that company. Shortly there- after, an English sloop-of-war put in to the river and cap- tured Astoria as an enemy post, with an appropriate carouse. In 1 81 8 it was returned to the possession of the United States, with further ceremony, in accordance with the terms of peace ; and in these simple facts diplomats found material for much inconclusive argument as to rights of sovereignty over the territory. Thereafter the Nor'westers had to rely on American ships to carry furs to China, since the North- west Association, not being a Royal Chartered Company but a Canadian organization, was outside the British mercantile system.^ However, the British remained dominant in all the Oregon country until after 1840. But though the Astor enterprise was a commercial failure, its members rendered a notable service in exploring that still unknown region which lay just south of the Lewis and Qark route. A party was sent overland by this route, in 181 1, from St. Louis, to meet a ship with the trading goods from New Ybrk at the mouth of the Columbia. Before tiiey had gone far up the Missouri, however, they were diverted therefrom by three trappers, who the year before had been driven over to the head of Snake River by the always hostile Blackfeet. These fur trappers represented that if the party would leave the Missouri at the Arickara villages (Grand River), and travel on horseback southwest over the plains, they would cross the mountains to the south of the Blackfoot territory, in a country more open and with more game than that passed through by Lewis and Clark. This the party did, touching the Green (Colorado) River, and reaching a tributary of the Snake in considerably better time than ' Hunt's Merchants' Mag., vol. xiv, p. 536, 25] DISCOVERY AND EXPLOITATION 25 they could have made against the river current, " having travelled from the Missouri about 900 miles in 54 days." " On the Snake they gladly exchanged their horses for canoes, and with high hopes started on a voyage which quickly became a disaster, for the river dropped from its high plateau into a boiling canyon entirely xmnavigable/ Forced to abandon water travel, they made the best of their way down both banks of the river, until stopped by the deep gorge in which it breaks through the Blue Mountains. At length some found horses and the trail, and crossed this range before winter set in, but the others, delayed by sick- ness, were caught in the snow, and did not reach Astoria until spring. Returning in mid-summer of 181 2, the party on horse- back followed the Indian trail across the Blue Mountains, and kept along the bank of the Snake to a stream, which led them over an easy divide to Bear River, the principal inlet of Great Salt Lake. They continued southeast up this river, to avoid troublesome Indians, then turned north, back to the Columbia watershed, and eventually southeast again, to the head of Green River. Gradually swinging due east over wide sandy uplands, they at last came upon the Sweet- water branch of the Platte, where they wintered before pursuing their journey down that river to the Missouri and St. Louis.* 'The sources for this most important journey are an extract from the Missouri Gazette, May 15, i8i2, in Brackenridge, H. M., Views of Louisiana (Pittsburgh, 1814), pp. 297-302, and Irving's Astoria (Tacoma edition. New York, 1897, annotated by Dr. E. Coues, in New York Public Library). ' Irving does not tell us how they came to make this mistake, nor what information they had from the Indians, but we may presume it was due to the fact that all were more accustomed to travel in the forests about the Great Lakes, and were still seeking an overland route by rivers. ' The routes are traced out on the map in Chittenden, H. M., The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West (New York, 1902). 26 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [26 Both the outward and return journeys of this party re- quired a long time, for not only were its members inexper- ienced in travel on the western deserts, but they spent much time in trying to find a practicable and easy route across the continental divide. This most important work they accomplished; for, although they missed the South Pass of the later Oregon road, they actually traversed almost the whole length of this route at one time or another, and reported, that a journey across the continent of North America might be performed with a wagon, there being no obstruction in the whole route that any person would dare to call a mountain, in addition to its being much the most direct and short one to go from this place [St. Louis] to the mouth of the Columbia River.^ Before narrating the negotiations by which the interna- tional status of this great, newly opened region west of the Rockies was determined, it is as well to pause a moment to summarize the results of exploration. Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, American, and English visited the Northwest Coast of America, most of them after 1785, when the results of Cook's voyage had be- come known, and had attracted the attention of the com- mercial world. The honor of discovering the mouth of the Columbia, the only large navigable river on the whole coast, belongs to a Boston merchant skipper, while the survey of the coast was carried out by the British Admiralty. So there was made known to the world a wild and inhospitable coast line, broken in the south by a great river, and in the north by numerous islands and deep sounds, which reached far inland amongst wooded and snowcapped mountains. The interior of the northern part was penetrated from the 1 Brackenridge, op. cit., p. 298. This optimistic opinion was con- firmed by the fur trader, Andrew Henry, ibid., p. 96. 27] DISCOVERY AND EXPLOITATION 27 east by the intrepid explorers of the Canadian North West Company, who found a country rugged with mountains and drained by many swift rivers, only one of which proved to be navigable. This river, the Columbia, flowed south through a big in- terior basin which lay between the Rockies and a range of moimtains called the Cascade. In the north, the river ran past precipitous mountains, but where it met another great river coming from the south the country was almost wholly a desert. This southern affluent of the Columbia, which was explored chiefly by Aknerican fur traders, ran its entire course through the desert, but its deep canyon was found to be unnavigable. All who descended the Columbia through the Cascade Mountains became aware of a wide, wooded valley south of the river, lying between these mountains and the coast range. Through all this great basin and along the coast the beaver were found in great abundance, and it was the skin of this animal for which men came to trap and trade. It was through the individual initiative and courage of the fur traders that this great new land was opened to the eyes of others. They were the first whites to people it, though they nowhere founded settlements of any perman- ency. So, in the course of twenty years, or by 181 3, the fur traders had nearly completed the work of exploration, and had, in addition, added greatly to the fimd of scientific and geographic knowledge. It remained for them to fill in the details, to tread out tiie roads, to demonstrate through years of experience that the means of commercial intercourse must be that of pack-horse and wagon rather than river navigation. It remained for them also to make known the alluring prospects of a delightful and curious region, be- fore a host of farmers should see stretching out before them the path of destiny which they called the road to Oregon. CHAPTER II Diplomacy Determines the Status of Oregon 1818-1824 While the War of 1812 was still in an indecisive state, commissioners of the United States and Great Britain met at Ghent, in the summer of 181 4. By reason of European conditions, coupled with the cost in time, money, and blood, of winning a victory, they agreed to a treaty which decided only that the relationship of the two countries should be under the status of peace rather than that of war. " The real causes of the war received no mention in the treaty; the settlement of disputed points raised by the war was postponed. But peace and a peaceful solution of contro- versies had been obtained, in itself a triumph." ^ The compromise which made possible this justly cele- brated peace was the proposal by the American delegates of the doctrine of a return to the status ante bellum/ which was applied to territorial questions in the following language : " Art. I. All territory, places, and possessions whatso- ever, taken by either party from the other during the War, or which may be taken after the signing of this Treaty, . . . shall be restored without delay . . . .'" Less than six months after the conclusion of the treaty > Ford, W. C, " The Treaty of Ghent, and After," Wisconsin State Historical Society Proceedings, 1914 (Madison), p. 99. »/fetU, p. 95- •United States^ Treaties, Conventions, etc. (Washington, 1910), p. 613. 28 [28 2g] THE STATUS OF OREGON 29 the United States notified Great Britain that the Columbia River trading post was one of those places which were to be restored, but the press of other matters prevented action until 1817. In that year the American Government sent the sloop Ontario to the Pacific, charged, among other duties, with receiving the restitution of the trading estab- lishment founded by the Pacific Fur Company in 181 1. Mr. J. B. Prevost, Agent of the State Department, was sent upon the same mission jointly with Captain Biddle of the Ontario, under the following instructions, drawn up by Richard Rush, and dated September 25, 1817 : He will thence [from Peru] proceed to the River Columbia, with a view to assert there the claim of sovereignty in the name and on behalf of the United States, by some symbolical, or other appropriate mode, of setting up a claim to national au- thority and domination, but no force is to be employed by Captain Biddle if, in the attempt to accomplish this object, any unexpected obstructions should occur.^ Mr. Prevost and the Captain had a dispute while at Valparaiso, and the latter sailed to perform his mission alone. Prevost followed, a few months later, on a British sloop which had been designated for this service, and, on the sixth of October, 181 8, received in writing restoration of " the possession of the establishment at Fort George," the name given by the English to Astoria." The American ' American State Papers, Foreign Relations (Washington, 1832, et seg.), vol. iv, p. 854. The United States had not previously asserted a claim here, since this would be "in opposition to the Spanish Claim to the Western Coast of America south of that of Russia," and could not be done " without a contest unseasonable and premature." Smith to Adams, May 5, 1810, Am. St. Papers, For. Ret, vol. v, p. 440. ' Cf. Greenhow, R., op. cit., p. 309, and Am. St. Papers, For. Rel., Tol. iv, pp. 852-856, for papers relating to restitution of the Columbia River Post. 30 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [30 agent having accomplished his mission, then sailed away, leaving friendly memories among the Canadians, who were to remain for a considerable period the sole white occupants of the territory. Thus was the first claim of the United States to any portion of the Oregon cotintry asserted, but no mention was made of its extent, nor was it grounded upon other factors than that of restitution of a place which had been captured in the late war. While discussing the subject of the Ontario's voyage to the Pacific with Mr. Rush, in February, 1818, Lord Cast- lereagh intimated to that gentleman that Great Britian had a claim of dominion over the territory in question. However, he did not imfold the nature of the claim, al- though he did admit the right of the United States to be the party in possession while treating of title.^ This con- cession to the language of the Treaty of Ghent was made with a view to denying the right to the soil " upon which the American settlement must be considered as an encroach- ment." ^ Castlereagh proposed that the question of right be submitted to arbitraton, but J. Q. Adams, then Secre- tary of State, preferred direct negotiations, and it was there- fore joined with other questions relating to fisheries, trade, and boundaries, in a discussion which resulted in the Con- vention of 1 81 8 with Great Britain. In opening these nlegotiations, Adams felt a certain hesitancy about allowing the subject to be discussed, be- cause of its " minuteness " in relation to the immediate in- terests of either nation ; but he nevertheless took the oppor- tunity to intimate to Great Britain that she could afiford to base her policy toward the United States upon very liberal lines. His instructions to Mr. Rush, the Minister at the Mm. St. Papers, For. Rel, vol. iv, p. 853. ' Schafer, Joseph, "British Attitude toward the Oregon Question," American Historical Review, vol. xvi, p. 284. 31 ] THE STATUS OF OREGON 31 Court of St. James, would, if it were possible to bestow a title of endearment upon an Adams, entitle him to be known as the " Father of Oregon." Rush was directed to suggest that, from the nature of things, if in the course of future events it should ever become an object of serious importance to the United States, it can scarcely be supposed that Great Britain would find it useful or advisable to resist their claim to posses- sion by systematic opposition. If the United States leave her in undisturbed enjoyment of all her holds upon Europe, Asia, and Africa, with all her actual possessions in this hemisphere, we may very fairly expect that she will not think it consistent either with a wise or a friendly policy to watch with eyes of jealousy and alarm every possibility of extension to our natural dominion in North America, which she can have no solid interest to prevent, until all possibility of her preventing it shall have vanished.^ As the Convention of 181 8 set up a status in which the Oregon country was to remain for nearly thirty years, it is as well to state the claims put forward on each side, and the facts adduced to back them up. From the beginning of the negotiation the question of territory west of the " Stony " Mountains was closely interwoven with what was felt to be the more important and older question, namely, the northwest boundary and its extension to the Rockies so as to define the northern limits of Louisiana.^ Finding that the British were insistent upon thus intermingling separate issues, the Americans proposed the extension of the line (the 49th parallel of latitude), already agreed upon as the ^Am. St. Papers, For. Rel., vol. iv, p. 854; Reeves, J. S., American Diplomacy under Tyler and Polk (Baltimore, 1907), p. 217, rightly comments that " there was something of an absurdity in the idea that the United States vifould leave undisturbed the British possessions in Europe, Asia, and Africa." ' Am. St. Papers, For. Rel, vol. iii, pp. 165, 185. 32 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [32 boundary east of the mountains, to the Pacific. They did not assert that the United States possessed a perfect title to the region, but that ithey had a claim good against Great Britain to the whole basin of the Columbia River. This claim was based upon the discovery of the river at its mouth, and the first exploration " from its sources to the ocean by Lewis and Clark," as well as upon first settlement of the territory. Against this formidable if inexact state- ment of facts, the British only urged rights of discovery derived from the voyages of her navigators, and certain purchases alleged to have been made from the natives south of the Columbia prior to the American Revolution. How- ever, they intimated that the Columbia River would be a convenient boundary, as each nation could use the harbor at its mouth.'- In this stage of its development there was no object in pressing seriously the question of territorial sovereignty. The Oregon country, however great its potential value, was of no immediate use to any one except the fur traders, and the interests of these could be preserved by postponing settlement of the territorial question and allowing both governments to spread upon the record their respective claims to the territory in question.^ It was accordingly ^Ihid., vol. iv, p. 381. These arguments well illustrate the inaccurate information upon which the opinions of a generation were to be formed regarding this country. The British appear to have been ignorant of the work of David Thompson upon the northern branch of the Columbia, and of the fact that his trading posts were the first to be established upon its waters; while the American assertion of its exploration from its source is not clear in view of the maps provided by Lewis and Clark, who well knew that they had not explored either of its larger branches. It is perhaps as well that the American pretension to the Columbia basin was not acknowledged by the British in return for an acknowledgment of the superiority of their claims to the coast, as this would have denied the United States access to the excellent harbors on Puget Sound. '/Wrf., vol. iv, p. 378. 33] THE STATUS OF OREGON 33 agreed " that the country on the northwest coast, claimed by either party, should, without prejudice to the claims of either, and for a limited time, be opened for the purpose of trade to the inhabitants of both countries." ^ On this adjustment of one of the minor questions of the negotia- tion, Castlereag'h commented prophetically, " Time will do much more than we can," in which opinion Albert Gallatin, one of the American negotiators, concurred.^ At the very moment of these discussions in London, Adams was engaged in a negotiation with the Spanish Minister in Washington, designed to compel Spain to cede the Floridas to the United States. In the treaty issuing from this negotiation, the question of the eastern boundary of Mexico was also settled. After a protracted discussion, in which views were exchanged with considerable heat, owing to the vigorous and high-handed action of General Jackson in suppressing the annoyance of those renegades who took refuge in Florida, a Treaty of Friendship, Cession of the Floridas, and Boundaries was concluded February 22, 1819. In this treaty the northern boimdary of Mexico was fixed as the forty-second parallel from the source of the River Arkansas to the South Sea.^ By a further stipulation in the same article of the treaty. His Catholic Majesty also ceded to the United States, " all his rights, claims, and pre- tensions to any territories east and north of the said line." These pretensions were soon to be used by the United States to strengthen her claim upon the Oregon country. Meanwhile, another and greater power attempted to ex- pand her colonial system upon the F^cific. For many years the Russians had maintained settlements on the mainland ' Ibid., vol. iv, p. 381. U. S. Treaties, Conventiofts, etc.. p. 632, Convention of 1818. ' Diary of lames Gallatin (New York, 1916, 2nd ed.), p. 133. ' U. S. Treaties, Conventions, etc., p. 1653, Treaty with Spain of 1819. 34 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [34 and islands of the Northwest Coast, far to the north, which had grown out of the voyages in those parts made by her navigators and traders. The southernmost of these Rus- sian settlements was founded in 1799, at Sitka, in latitude 57° 30'. Moreover, other trading settlements had been formed by Russians, one on the Sandwich Islands, and the other on the mainland just north of 'San Francisco Bay, in 1814. These had attracted the notice of Judge Prevost, the agent sent to receive the restitution of Astoria, and aroused speculations in his mind upon the intentions with which they had been formed.^ His speculations were not un- justified, for on September 4/16, 1821, the Russian Government amiounced an Ukase, in which were put forth extensive pretensions to the exclusive trade, fisheries, and navigation of the Northwest Coast, from Bering Sea south to the fifty-first degree of latitude.^ As such pretensions were derogatory of the existing trade upon that coast of the nationals of both the United States and Great Britain, these countries at once made representa- tions at the Russian court. St» similar were the interests of the two countries in the matter that Adams intimated to Canning, the British Foreign Minister, the desirability of holding a common language in negotiation with Russia. He, however, coupled with it suggestions relative to dem- arcation of the territory and future settlements entirely un- acceptable to Great Britain, and, in the end, the negotiations at St. Petersburg proceeded separately, terminating in a fruitful conclusion for the United States in the Conven- tion with Russia of April 5/17, 1824.^ By this Convention Mw. St. Papers, For. Rel, vol. v, p. 436; vol. iv, p. 855. 'Ibid., vol. iv, p. 857, text of Ukase. Cf. correspondence of the Russian Ministers in Washington, 1818-1825, in Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xviii, pp. 309-34S, 537-562- • U. S. Treaties, Conventions, etc., p. 1512. 35] THE STATUS OP OREGON 35 the United States secured not only the acknowledgment of the right of free navigation on the Pacific, which was of great importance in the days of exclusive colonial systems, but the delimitation of Russian territorial claims in North America at latitude 54° 40'. Thus was the northern limit of the pretensions of the United States definitely established for the first time. Simultaneous with this negotiation there proceeded at London a prolonged discussion of several of the outstanding questions between the governments of Great Britain and the United States. Among these was the question of the respective claims of the two countries to the Northwest Coast. However, the discussion closed without result in the form of a treaty or other arrangement. As the whole of the claims of the two countries were stated fully in the simultaneous discussion at St. Petersburg and London of 1823-4, a^ng. 3rd Sess. House Rept., no. 31, Jan. 4, 1843 — Jooo extra copies printed for distribution. Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. ii, p. 275, letter from Oregon, July 17, 1844. =* 28th Gang. 2nd Sess. House Doc, no. 166, expedition of 1843-4; many editions between 1845 and 1851, under title of " Narrative of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44." 'For the account of this early agitation; see Powell, F. W., op. cit., chs. ii, iii, iv. The report of Floyd in Congress, 1822, noticed virtually all the advantages of Oregon, 17th Cong, ist Sess. House Rept., no. i& Benton published some articles on Oregon and Asian trade, at St. Louis, in 1819. See his speech in the Senate, May 22, 25, and 28, 1846 — App. I. 99] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER 99 Now, however, their cries seemed to be faUing upon ears that were no longer deaf, but were hearing the wind surging in the tall pines of the western coast. " Oregon itself caught our attention", cried the editor of the Pro- visional Emigration Society's organ in 1839: Oregon, the future home of the power which shall rule the Pacific ; Oregon, the theatre on which mankind are to act a part not yet performed in the drama of life and government; Oregon, whose far-spreading seas and mighty rivers are to teem with the commerce of an empire, and whose boundless prairies and verdant vales are to feel the footsteps of civilized millions. Oregon was before us in its future glory, and we grasped the prospect of its coming as the impulse of our scheme. We needed no speeches, no reports, to awaken us. Oregon invited us.^ The federal government could and did lend consider- able aid in fomenting an emigrant sentiment ; though but little could be given by the executive departments, which were responsible for the observance of the con- ventional status in Oregon. However, the legislative branch, where the politicians had their ears close to the ground, quickly found a way to circumvent the difficulty. Oregon must be left " free and open " to the citizens and subjects of England and the United States, which pre- cluded both military occupation and the establishment of real property rights in that territory ; but this did not prevent the introduction and discussion in Congress of bills looking toward such ends. Dr. Linn, the junior senator from Missouri, led this activity by adopting the suggestion of the Methodist missionaries regarding land donations, and in a short time Congress was besieged by an eager crowd of petitioners. It mattered not that ' The Oregonian, p. 220 (April, 1839). lOO OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [loo his bill could not be allowed to pass ; it was sufficient that there was in the mind of government a liberal policy of reward for those who should make the long journey. The pioneers needed no further urging. In the short space of five years, government aided most effectively to set in motion the activities of its citizens. These activi- ties swamped the British efforts to maintain their rela- tively strong position, and were soon of such importance as to necessitate the abandonment of the joint occupancy status and the adjustment of the boundary dispute. American citizens of the frontier-building class seemed to need very little egging on in this instance, however. By the summer of 1839, there were no less than ten em- igrating societies organized in New England, New York, and, especially, the prairie states, which was proof enough of the great interest felt in this new attraction for the energies of an idealistic people.' The represent- atives of the people continued to compile and publish all the information that came to their hands," and especially to foster the idea that the predominance of British inter- ests on the Columbia was inimical to the present as well as future prosperity and even peace of the American people. So successful were they at first in propagating this notion that the venerable Chief Factor of the Hud- son's Bay Company says the first immigrants arrived with their minds poisoned to the extent that they talked of whether or not they ought to take Vancouver.' How- ever, the kind treatment and ready aid received at Eng- lish hands led these immigrants promptly to correct the 1 The Oregonian, p. 349. ' 27th Cong. 2nd Sess. House Rept., no. 830 — May 27, 1842 ; 27th Cong. 3rd Sess. House 'Rept., no. 31 — Jan. 4, 1843; 27th Cong. 3rd iSess. House Rept., no. 157— Feb. 9, 1843. ' Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. i, p. 203. lOl] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER loi false impression in their letters to friends and newspapers in the States.' The notion, however, with regard to Oregon "that its speedy occupancy is rendered necessary by the circum- stance that every year the subjects of another govern- ment are increasing their strength there, and monopo- lizing a lucrative trade, the exclusive benefits of which ought to be secured to our own citizens ", did not lead those who were beginning to feel the emigrating fever to undertake the hardship and uncertainty of a transconti- nental trip for the single purpose of a noble and unselfish national service. The difficulties attendant on a removal thither, under any circumstances of encouragement by the government, are many and great [wrote some Missouri petitioners, with the emigrat- ing idea in their heads] . To exile ourselves from the land of our nativity, around which so many endearing recollections cluster, to encounter the toil and fatigue of traversing the long and wearisome distance, the difficulties and privations of mak- ing the pilgrimage through a barren wilderness, the climbing the mountain's brow, and stemming the current of mighty rivers, would, under the most favorable circumstances of en- couragement by the government, stamp the undertaking as one of Herculean labor, which nothing but the certain prospect of greatly bettering our condition could at all justify. But with- out such encouragement, and the protection of the strong arm of the government against Indian treachery and British in- solence and domination, every motive of prudence and self- preservation unite to forbid the enterprise. . . . Without the encouragement of considerable grants of land, we believe the country will not settle, at least to any available extent, for a long time to come. It will at once be obvious that the extent of the grant ought to be proportionate to the great difficulties of ^Miles' Weekly Register (iNov. 2, 1844), vol. Ixvii, p. 130, letter of P. H. Burnett, from Oregon, July 25, 1844 ; also other letters cited later. I02 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [102 moving and the dangers to which settlers will be exposed; the expenses attending a removal would necessarily be great, and it would take a considerable quantity of land even to reimburse them.^ A year earlier another body of citizens from this same state of Missouri had put the conditions of their under- taking a national service even more plainly in asking the Congress to "grant such a portion of land to each per- son actually settling" in Oregon "as shall bean induce- ment for us, and others, to form such settlement. And your petitioners will ever pray for the prosperity of our beloved country "/ It being well understood that the national sovereignty over the territory was not yet determined, the petition- ers asked that, if definite action was inexpedient at the moment, the Congress would indicate in some way its policy, and " so far pledge the faith of the government to give such grants ... as to justify us in making the contemplated removal ". This the senators and con- gressmen at Washington did by introducing in Congress bills to donate land a mile square to every bona fide settler in Oregon, which, while they could not be passed, were accepted at their face value by the emigrants, who later modeled their own land law on these liberal prin- ciples.' 1 26th Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 40 — petition of 152 citizens of Missouri, Jan. 6, 1840. '2Sth Cong. 3rd Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 237, Feb. 19, 1839; cj. 26th Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 172 — petition from citizens of Kentucky, Febru- ary 10, 1840. 'For a list and description of the different donation land acts intro- duced, see 31 Cong, ist Sess. House Rept., no. 271. Whitman wrote, May IS, 1846 (Ore. Pioneer Ass. Transactions, 1893, p. 194): "There are the best inducements to young men to come and locate a mile square of first-rate land in a better climate than in any of the States, with the broad Pacific Ocean to open in prospect before them. A good title will 1 03] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER 103 Nobody will quarrel with the intending emigrant for desiring a good fat bonus as a reward for his undertak- ing ; but just why the gift of a tract of land so large that one man could not hope to cultivate all of it, in a dis- tant, unsettled region, seemed more desirable to many at this time than the prospect of remaining on the rich farms they had purchased at a dollar and a quarter an acre, will appear more clearly in the next chapter. For the moment, it will suffice to say that the attraction of the Pacific Coast from 1840 to 1846 was a more rational one than the mere satisfaction it might give to those whose wandering propensities were very strong. Many found this kind of desire gratified by a much shorter journey to the next unoccupied county ; or to the neigh- boring territories of Iowa and Wisconsin, which were just being opened to settlement, and were being boomed by the ever friendly land speculator with his colored maps and glowing promises — a form of advertisement not enjoyed by Oregon at the time. The frontier in 1838 had reached the Missouri River at its great north- ward bend. Beyond lay the Indian territory, where the government had removed the tribes of the East and the South, rather in the expectation, many thought, that the barrier so formed would check the westward movement of its citizens, and give them a chance to fill up the vacant lands which lay all about the few scattered towns and farms of the Mississippi valley.' be secured to all who locate and reside on or occupy land or mile squares, according to the Oregon laws." Cf. also Bancroft, H. H., History of Oregon, vol. i, pp. 425-41)6. The Organic Law of Oregon as revised in 184s is found in 29th Cong, ist Sess. Sen. Doc., no. 353. 'Saxton, Charles, The Oregonian (Washington, 1846), p. 44; cf. The Polynesian, January 25, 1845. In this period two territories were erected and became states — Wisconsin, 1836-48; Iowa, 1838-46. I04 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [104 Representatives of the people kept up the agitation favoring land donations, and whatever other forms of aiding emigrants were requested in the numerous peti- tions which were sent to Congress. However, the noticeable thing about this movement was that a con- siderable number of the American people were far in ad- vance of the politicians. By 1841, their eagerness led them through the well-tried method of correspondence, to find a way to their land of dreams : " though there is no organized government, no established law there, and even the question of national jurisdiction is still un- settled." ' At Independence, Missouri, on the frontier, a few gathered in a public meeting, early in the winter of 1841, to issue a call for volunteers to go to the coast, and passed a resolution : That our object in going there is that of peace and good- will towards the people and government of California, and our principal inducement for emigrating to that country is, that we believe it, from the best information we have been able to procure, to be more congenial to our interests and enjoyment than that of the present location.^ Many of the mountain trappers, who sometimes stole horses from California,^ wintered on the Missouri border. In view of this, there was always available in this locality better and more recent information of the sort desired 'Buckingham, J. iS., Eastern and Western States (London, 1842), vol. iii, p. no. ' Such a resolution, with the name and address of the corresponding secretary, was copied far and wide in the local press, or spread about, as this one, by a public lecturer — ^Warner, J. J., Lecture at Rochester, N. Y., in 1841, in Colonial Magazine (London, 1841), vol. v, p. 229. • Sage, R. B., Scenes in the Rocky Mountains (Philadelphia, 1846), p. 27. I05] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER J05 than could be had elsewhere in the country; and these same trappers found employment, on returning to the mountains, as guides to the emigrants.' About fifty emigrants gathered that spring in response to this ap- peal, and set out upon their journey : but before their re- ports had come back to Missouri another spring had arrived. In 1842, Dr. White, a former member of the Meth- odist mission, while on his return to Oregon to fulfill an appointment from the government as Sub- Indian Agent, found that only a brief campaign in the frontier counties was necessary to gather a very respect- able emigration of over an hundred persons, who had assembled there from Illinois, Arkansas, and Missouri. His first experience with these traveling companions showed them unamenable to such discipline as the ex- perienced fur traders deemed necessary for protection from hostile Indians ; and when he called them together to consider a closer organization they demanded to be shown evidence of his federal appointment before elect- ing him captain and subscribing to other arrangements. This organization, however, did not last long under the stress of hard travel.* News of the success of the emigration of 1841 reached the Missouri frontier late the following year, and was published in the form of a little guide book, giving briefly the route, distances, delights of the mountain scenery, and unusual difficulties. With it, also, was the welcome information that the families which had gone to Oregon "were well pleased with the country", and that goods were cheaper there than in the western states. 'Williams, J., op. cit., pp. 5, 8, 9. 'Allen, A. J., op. cit., pp. 145-6. rc6 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [io6 Of California, it said, " prudence and economy would not fail to make you a vast fortune, provided you come in time to get a farm in a suitable place, and conform to the Spanish Laws " ; but some had gone home disgusted, for, " People generally look on it as the garden of the world, or the most desolate place of creation." ' Surely, it must have been pleasing to many to hear, that the white people live without any forms of law ; but, in general, are very honest in paying their debts, and give notes and bonds. They have no sheriffs, constables, fees, or taxes to pay. They profess to be very hospitable to strangers, and kind to one another. No breaking each other up for debts. Here are no distilleries, no drunkenness, nor much swearing. They seem, indeed, to be a very happy people.^ Cognizant of the growing interest in the territory claimed by the United States on the Pacific, several of the political leaders of the western States, such as Senator Semple of Illinois, Jesse B. Thomas, one time United States Senator from Illinois, Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, former Vice-President of the United States. and others, gathered the people in meetings at the larger centers of population, to consider what action should be recommended to the national government in the emerg- ency, which they were careful to point out as extremely pressing and dangerous. Such a meeting was held in the court room at Alton, Illinois, November 8, 1842, ' Bidwell, John, Trip to California, 1841, pp. 12, 28, 31, 29. In his manuscript "Recollections" (Bancroft Collection), Bidwell says that the fur trader, Roubidoux, told such glorious stories of California that nearly every one in Weston (Missouri border town) agreed to go, but that the merchants of the town spread contrary reports, and, especially, republished the letters of T. J. Farnham, from the New York papers, which nearly overthrew the work of his Committee of Correspondence. •WilHams, J., op. cit., p. 23. I07] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER loy which resolved not only to encourage emigration, but "that we will never give our consent to surrender any part of that territory lying between the Russian and Mexican boundaries, to any nation, for any considera- tion whatever." ' Further, the resolutions urged the people and legislators of the Union, and especially those of the states of Arkansas and Missouri, and of the terri- tory of Iowa, whose frontiers were exposed, " to prevent steps being taken that will for a moment weaken the claim which we have to that whole country ". They also denounced "the conclusion of a treaty' with Eng- land without settling our Western boundary, as wholly overlooking our Western interests". Senator Semple announced that he had been for the last four or five years placed in a situation where it became his duty as well as inclination to study the commercial interest of the United States. He had during that time made himself acquainted with the importance to us of the vast trade of the Pacific Ocean, and of the immense wealth that would flow into our country by means of the occupation of the Oregon Territory. The rich furs of the Northwest were alone a source of great wealth. Add to this the tropical pro- ductions of the western coast of Mexico and Central America, the pearls and gold of Panama and Choco, the inexhaustible mineral and other productions of Peru and Chili, on the west- em coast of South America, which would be brought within our limits through the Oregon, and across two thousand miles of desert, to be ex- ^Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. ix, pp. 304-5. ' Webster- Ashburton Treaty, Aug. 9, 1842, Utiited States, Treaties, Conventions, etc., p. 650. I08 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [io8 changed for the cattle and hogs of the Mississippi Valley.' Another such meeting was held, February 5, 1843, in the " Hall of the House of Representatives ", Springfield, Illinois, which viewed with great distrust the activity of Great Britain "in establishing military posts, and en- couraging her subjects to settle " in Oregon, as evidence of her policy of " encroaching upon the territory of other governments", and urged that this activity be resisted by every means. Moreover, the commercial advantages were large, and if the protection of the government were extended, the day is not distant when our enterprising and adventurous countrymen, invited by the salubrious climate and fertile soil bordering the Pacific, will extend thither their settlements, and dispense from the western shore of this vast continent, wealth, commerce, and freedom, to the remotest parts of the earth.^ The citizens of Columbus, Ohio, also busied them- selves turning out a long report on the Oregon Terri- tory, in the early spring of 1843.^ This report, like the Congressional reports on which it was largely based, 1 Cf. petition of a number of citizens of Indiana, praying the occupa- tiom and settlement of the Oregon Territory, and the construction of a road thereto; and remonstrating against the construction of the proposed ship-canal across the Isthmus of Darien — March 4, 1840, 26th Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 244. ^Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. ix, p. 397. 3 Report on th-e Territory of Oregon, by a Cotmnittee, Appointed at a Meeting of the Citizens of Columbus, to Collect Information in Relation Thereto (Columbus, Ohio, 1843). All of these reports cribbed from each other, often without credit, certain felicitous expressions, . such as that just quoted from Senator iSemple. For a list of the various peti- tions and reports printed in the Public Documents from 1839 on, vide Judson, K B., Subject Index to the History of the PacHic Northwest (Olympia, 1913), under title, "Oregon Country." I09] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER log was a mixture of history, description, and exhortation. The report joked about the Hberality of the proposed land grants to settlers in Oregon, saying: "Some fami- lies we might name, in Ohio, could sweep over territory enough to rival the possessions of the temporal lord of some European principality ", and marveled at the pros- pect of natural beauty beyond the ken of the plainsman. It declared : The Oregon is a country of magnificent heights and distances ; of bold and novel scenery. The broad green valley and out- stretched prairie, covered with a thousand varieties of flowers ; the sunburnt, sandy desert, destitute of living thing, and the mountain peak peering to the very heavens above, capped with eternal snow, meet the eye in continued change and variety. This report did not neglect to make the usual ap- peal for action on the part of the national government, but it went further than others in collecting and pub- lishing the most accurate information it could obtain , especially in the form of letters from settlers and re- turned missionaries or explorers. One of these letters, dated March 30, 1842, says : I have settled fifty miles from the great Pacific Ocean, eight miles from the Columbia River, in a beautiful country, and commenced farming. Our land produces from forty to sixty bushels of wheat to the acre, and that will weigh from seventy to eighty pounds per bushel. ... I came to this place with my wife and two children, and about forty mountaineers, and we have settled ourselves, and have got plenty around us to eat and to wear, and our produce bears a good price. Wheat from sixty cents to $1.25 per bushel; Pork, $10 per hundred- weight; Beef, from $6.00 to $8.00 per hundred-weight; Flour, $5.00 per hundred- weight ; and we can sell as much at that price as we can raise. ^ * Report on the Territory of Oregon, p. 7 ; cf. prices in next chapter. no OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [no TTie report quotes New England merchant skippers to show that : " ' American commerce in that part of the world must soon lower its flag'", and the necessity of government doing '"something to break up the British settlements in the Oregon Territory, and thereby de- stroy the source from which now emanate the most dire evils to American interests in the Western world '." The recent contracts of the Hudson's Bay Company to supply the Russian settlements with all they needed had driven Americans off the coast, and the British were further suspected of an intention " to add even Cali- fomia to their possessions". Before closing, the report devoted several pages to an analysis of the route, and comparisons between the opinions of the different writers who had described it, concluding that, the reason why this southern route is traveled, is because it is an almost continuous level ; so much so that a wagon or carriage might be driven from this city to Wallawalla, so far as hills or mountains would obstruct the passage. . . . Every new expedi- tion will search out new paths and conveniences, until a jour- ney to the Columbia will be considered, in a few years, an under- taking of no great magnitude, except as to time and distance. This is clear enough evidence of the Committee's accept- ance of General Ashley's statement that the route was " better for carriages than any turnpike road in the United States."' The efforts of the political leaders were not primarily directed to helping emigrants, as the politicians, of course, had no intention of undertaking the hardships of the journey themselves. ° They seem to have been in- ' Report on the Territory of Oregon, p. i8. ' McMaster, J. B., History of the People of the United States (New York, 1910), vol. vii, pp. 294-8, is an excellent study of this political movement in its relation to the emigrants. Ill] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER j 1 1 tent, rather, upon launching a sectional plank for the platform of either party which would use it in the presi- dential campaign of the following year. This unwonted lack of bias was probably due to the political confusion resultant upon the Tyler administration, and the preval- ent feeling that the people were a little weary of the old leaders and their familiar issues, which by that time seemed not to move the sufifering farmers of the North- west. These efforts culminated in a call, issued May 22, 1843, ^°^ ^ convention of the citizens of the Mississippi valley, to be held in Cincinnati, July 3rd, 4th and 5th, for the purpose of urging the " immediate occupation of the Oregon Territory by the arms and laws of the Re- public ", which action was to be based '* on Mr. Mon- roe's declaration of 1823, 'that the American continents were not to be considered subjects of colonization by any European powers '." Professor E. D. Mansfield was to expound the history of this declaration, and " de- fine its proper application and extension".' The convention duly met, and was conducted with "(decorum and good feeling." It proclaimed its purpose to carry wealth, commerce and freedom to the remotest parts of the earth, in doing which " we are but perform- ing a duty to ourselves, to the Republic, to the commer- cial nations of the world, to posterity, and to the people of Great Britain and Ireland"." It added "that, how- ever indignant at the avarice, pride, and ambition of Great Britain, ... we yet believe it is for the benefit of all civilized nations that she should fulfill a legitimate destiny, but that she should be checked in her career of aggression with impunity and domination without ' Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. ii, p. igo. Ibid., vol. ix, p. 410. 112 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [u2 right" .^ The declaration of Mr. Monroe evidently re- quired too much explanation, as it was omitted from the convention's resolutions. Thus, the formulation of one of the new national issues coincided exactly with the opening of the emigrant movement. A study of the rise and progress of this issue has been made elsewhere," and it has been intro- duced here only because it impinges on the emigrant movement at this point. It will not be necessary to refer again to the political activities of the time, since, though they became furious, they do not appear to have exercised any great influence upon the emigrant senti- ment ; those few farmers and mechanics who felt the call of the West in their blood were already preoccupied with their own affairs. These farmers and mechanics are the men who have contributed much that is futile and something that is unquenchably ideal to the history of the American peo- ple. Just at this period, when they were coming under the spell of expansion, which they associated with national greatness and honor, they could afford to be visionary, as they could afford little else. So, the men who intended to emigrate pushed a vigorous and de- termined propaganda by time-honored American meth- ods, and, in the spring of 1843, were rewarded by the crystallization of sentiment among a considerable body of the most substantial families on the frontier. Fearlessness, hospitality, and independent frankness, united with restless enterprise and unquenchable thirst for novelty and change, are the peculiar characteristics of the western pioneer. ^Cincinnati Daily Chronicle, July 12, 1843. Cf. ibid., July 10, 11, 19, 1843, for more accounts of the convention. ' Shippee, L. B., op. cit. 113] SPREAD OP THE OREGON FEVER 113 With him there is always a land of promise further west, where the climate is milder, the soil more fertile, better timber and finer prairies ; and on, on, on he goes, always seeking and never attaining the Pisgah of his hopes. You of the old states can- not readily conceive the every-day sort of business the " old settler " makes of selling out his " improvements," hitching the horses to the big wagon, and, with his wife and children, swine and cattle, pots and kettles, household goods and household gods, starting on a journey of hundreds of miles to find and make a new home. Just now Oregon is the pioneer's land of promise. Hun- dreds are already prepared to start thither with the spring, while hundreds of others are anxiously awaiting the action of con- gress in reference to that country, as the signal for their de- parture. Some have already been to view the country, and have returned with a flattering tale of the inducements it holds out. They have painted it to their neighbors in the brightest colors ; these have told it to others ; the Oregon fever has broke out, and is now raging like any other contagion.^ What was this traditional American method which was so effective during the winter of 1842- 1843? Men speaking in the courthouses of their county-seats on the Oregon question, and advocating emigration thither; others writing long letters to the local newspapers giv- ing their views upon this and that aspect of the subject ; still others, who knew the road, advertising themselves as guides ready to meet all who intended to make the jour- ney at an appointed time and place; and, lastly, the gathering of a few in the house of a neighbor to talk over the proposed undertaking, form a committee, and pass resolutions declaratory of their purpose and inform- ing of details. Newspapers, always hungry for copy, ^Ore. Hist. Qtiart., vol. iii, pp. 311, 312, letter from Iowa Territory, March 4, 1843. 114 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [114 gladly printed the resolutions, with the address of the secretary; and so like-minded people at a distance were enabled to get in touch with each other ; while some one went to Washington to make sure of the attitude of Con- gress toward land donations." What is this but the old successful method of corres- pondence for galvanizing a general sentiment into action ? The idea of a colony on the Pacific had been before the American people for a generation, but the conditions favoring its fulfillment had never been so ripe as now- Long before the agitation reached a climax, many eager frontiersmen had essayed the journey to the coast ; young men anxious to get away from home and find real exper- ience in a life of which they had heard so much ; older men, heads of families, more venturesome, or merely more restless, than their neighbors. Perhaps they were f arsighted ; perhaps they were only led by the old yearn- ings to be first in a new country. These either returned to relate their experiences to eager friends, or wrote letters and books of what they had seen. Returned travelers told all sorts of tales ; some liked it, some did not ; some were sick ; and some had never felt better in their lives ; but nearly every one insisted a man could live easier there than almost anywhere else, and certainly better than in the particular locality where the informant had formerly made his home. Lest the edge of their enthusiasm be dulled, men would not listen too seriously to stories of the hardships they must endure to attain their desires ; they were thinking most of the glories of the West. They knew there would be sufifering to get what they wanted, so without worrying they went about the task in hand. ^ Paxton, W. M., op. cit., p. 52; Ore. Hist. Quart., vols, i, ii, iii, iv, ix, XV — Documents. 115] SPREAD OF THE OREGON FEVER 115 Wisconsin and Iowa territories were just being opened to settlement, and high-class immigrants from Europe were going there in considerable numbers, but what at- tractions had these lands to offer that Missouri and Illi- nois had not also ? What in the great valley could com- pare with the land behind the mountains whose shores were washed by the South Sea ? The pecuniary distress was severe, and the outlook growing blacker, many not being able to pay the taxes on their land, or to enter their claims. There was slight prospect that those who did not own slaves would be willing to endure a prolon- ged depression. In this state of affairs conditions were ripe for the exaggerated and passionate advocacy of whatever happened to seize the popular fancy. The seed, so well sown, was taking root in the rich soil of desire; rumor gave way to preparation. CHAPTER VI Agrarian Discontent in the Mississippi Valley 1 840-1 845 The advantages of the western coast of the North American Continent had been called to the attention of the American people years before 1840, and passed over almost in silence. Men of no judgment, of the type of Hall J. Kelley, had only annoyed people with their propaganda. Politicians of the stamp of Benton, who liked to think themselves statesmen, had vainly sought to arouse the country, and had only succeeded in placing themselves in a position to say, " I told you so." Only two' merchants, Astor and Wyeth, had had the nerve to risk anything for their dreams. It is but natural to ask why any considerable portion of the American people should just at this time become so receptive to these old enthusiasms, why certain independent farmers and mechanics of the United States should think the time opportime to utilize some of these advantages. By 184JO, the frontier had barely reached the Missouri River, where the government was endeavoring to erect a barrier for the purpose of carrying out the well-meant in- tention of treating with fairness those Indian nations that the rapacity of the frontiersman had displaced from their hunting-grounds. The old Indian lands between the Mis- souri and the Mississippi, and about the upper waters of the 116 [116 117] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT 117 latter, were just being thrown open to entry, and were begin- ning to be settled by the hardy immigrants of North Europe, whose descendants now hold them. Vast sections of the old Prairie States, still untouched by the plow, were about to ftimish the new and permanent location of thrifty New Englanders.^ Even had there not been plenty of the finest land within the United States unoccupied, a glance at the map will make it seem somewhat surprising that the usual course of evolution of the frontier should be so funda- mentally altered as to carry it two thousand miles to the Pacific, leaving untouched, but not unnoticed, the best farm- ing region of the Mississippi Valley. Surely it could not have been land alone, even free land, which the emigrant sought ! Only a small portion of those territories laid down on the maps as Oregon and California, are at all calculated for settle- ment ; much the largest portion of both are nothing more than barren wastes, which yield little or nothing to the support of animal life. The valuable portion of Oregon lies between the Blue Mountains and the coast; and the valuable portion of California, between the California (Sierra Nevada) Mountains and the coast. The principal advantages that those countries possess over the Western States are a mild and very healthy climate and an excellent commercial situation.' The secret, then, of what the emigrant really sought will appear from an examination of the economic and social aspect of a farmer's life in the Mississippi Valley during the years following 1840. ' Vide Faust, A. B., The German Element in the United States (Boston, 1909) > passim; Mathews, L. K., The Expansion of New England (Boston, 1909), passim. 'Johnson and Winter, Route Across the Rocky Mountains (Lafayette, 1846), Preface, p. iv. Il8 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [ng The early thirties in this country was a period of rash, buoyant, hopeful prosperity. Paper, printed either as bank- notes or as the plats of cities which could never be,^ was plentiful, and was thought to be as good as represented on its face. Frantic speculation was the dominant tone; sta- bility of business conditions, regfularity, and fundamental soundness were undesired. Enterprising people — and who was not ? — were expectant of the morrow, but rather thoughtless of the day after. The acute political controversies of the Jacksonian era centered about the personality of the great Democratic leader, backed by the unorganized agrarians, who were en- joying their power and were ignorant of constructive ideas. Clay and other good Whigs might talk of an American system, but the very idea of a well-ordered system for the internal development of the United States in this period was somewhat abstract. It was a day when men were im- patient of any restraint, thinking they needed none, and not a few sought the wild freedom of the Rocky Mountain trapper. In the decision of the bank question, local ideals were triumphant — the Bank of the United States had too much power, it might become oppressive; it was destroyed; an old remedy for an old disease. There followed in 1837 a financial panic, the consequence of " overaction in all the departments of business," as Van Buren puts it, with its inevitable concomitants, — suspension of specie payments and contraction of credit. The panic itself was a small aflFair, no more than a pricking of the bubble of currency inflation and western land speculation. Agrarian prosperity continued. The banks soon got on their feet again, and the country seemingly was on the road to recovery, when, 1 Wilkey, Maj. W., Western Emigration (New York, 1834)— humor- ous account of speculation in ' Edensburgh,' 111. 1 19] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT ng in 1839, a second suspension of specie payments took place/ and both the United States and Europe entered upon an era of declining prices and a succession of lean years for the farmer, so long continued that men became restless, visionary, even revolutionary. Many aspects of this depression, such as the reaction upon the labor market of the almost entire cessation of work on the extensive systems of internal improvements vmder- taken by the States, are absolutely imknown, and must re- main so until historians and economists give the period the attention which its importance merits.' Indeed, we must fall back upon the all but meaningless phrases, "economic depression," " hard times," etc., in our effort to describe the progress and extent of misery among the farmers. The Jacksonian solution of the bank question was cer- tainly not the cause of the difficulties of the American farmer, but the chaotic condition in which it left the cur- rency greatly intensified the suffering. In the West, the distress from this was most severe in the spring of 1842, when one of the itinerant preachers and collectors of the American Bible Society wrote from Columbus, Ohio : Exchanges on New York have already fallen from 15 to 7 or 8 per cent ; and I have the best authority for believing that within a week they will be much lower still. . . . The currency is, however, in vast confusion. For instance, I had on Monday 'The banks' "recovery from the panic of 1837 had been too rapid. Of nearly I.CWJ banks in tfie country, including branches, 343 suspended specie payments entirely in 1839, 56 went out of business, and 62 re- sorted to partial suspension. As before, the larger number of these was in the West and ;South." Kinley, D., The Independent Treasury of the U. S. (Washington, 1910), pp. 39, 40. See especially article by Judge Curtis, in North American Review, vol. Iviii (1844), on "Debts of the States." • Vide bibliography for suggestions regarding sources. I20 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [120 a quantity of Chillicothe paper, which I there exchanged at par for Indiana State B. and 5's scrip. And was assured I had done well. But ere I reached home the state scrip had depre- ciated 50 per cent.^ From Jacksonville, Illinois, comes the same story: I shall wait your advice what I shall do with the funds now in my hands, most of which was paid in Bills on the Illinois State Bank, current money when paid, as any in these parts, but subject to a heavy rate of exchange with Eastern funds. But within a few days this Bank has received a severe revulsion, and its Bills are no longer current here, much less suitable to make remittances to the East, and whether the Bank can revive again is a problem we cannot solve. ^ A month later this same agent thought it prudent to refrain from purchasing for $122.00 a draft on New York for $50.00, on account of the loss the Society would incur, and so sent worthless paper to be disposed of " as you might find convenient." " The Western farmer got along fairly well so far as his purchases from the cross-roads store or the merchants of the county seat were concerned, as these were accomplished by means of barter; but he did need ready money with which to pay his taxes or enter his claim at the land office, and we may well imagine the discouragement which he faced when he found the bills he had hoarded against such a time were depreciated beyond any possible valvie to him.* 'American Bible Society, Letters Received 26th Year, pt. i, p. 236 — Rev. C Fitch, March i, i&p (MS.). ''Ibid., z^th Year, pt. i, p. 43— 'Rev. H. S. Spalding, March 5, 1842. ' Ihid., Letters Received 27th Year, pt. i, p. 40 — ^Rev. H. S. Spalding, April 14, 1842. * Brown, William, America: A Four Years' Residence in the United States and Canada (Leeds, 1849), ch. vii. I2l] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT 121 The situation in St. Louis was well expressed in a letter of Robert Campbell to his partner, William Sublette, formerly of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, dated June 4th, 1842 : I have no news to communicate — collections are entirely at a standstill — not a dollar has been received for a week or more. ... A number of persons collected together last night, with a view of mobbing the Brokers, on account of the depreciation in value of city and county notes, but they separated without do- ing any harm — it is feared there will be a mob tonight, but I don't think any harm will be done — the Brokers require a little regulating, for if ever a community was swindled by Brokers it is the citizens of St. Louis. ... I dislike to see mobs, but sometimes they do good, and a little fright might be of service.^ The situation must have been nearly desperate, since this writer could hardly be suspected of radical tendencies or favoring terrorism in principle. The immediate effects of both these financial panics fell, of course, upon the manufacturing and commercial classes. Though the panic of 1837 prevented the distribution of the fourth installment of the surplus federal revenue to the states, upon which the Western States especially were relying to finance internal improvements,^ this fact did not cause the immediate abandonment of construction work on roads and canals. The Western States, under the fever of speculation, had begun a magnificient system of communica- tions." Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan had under- 'MS. Sublette Papers (Missouri Historical iSociety) . ^ Bourne, E. G., The History of the Surplus Revenues of 1837 (New York, 188s), p. 59- 'Tanner, H. S., Canals and Railways of the United States (New York, 1840) has an excellent map showing the internal improvements completed and prospective. 122 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [122 taken the construction of some 1250 miles of canals, 750 miles of slack-water navigation, 1 540 miles of railroads, and 1400 miles of macadam roads. Illinois in particular was embarked upon a fantastic scheme, far beyond her actual needs. Her original scheme had been enlarged by log- roUing methods in the legislature, and she had borrowed large sums, with the result that she was compelled to default interest upon the loan after 1841.^ Banking difficulties really troubled the farmer but little, at least for the first few years after the panic, since he received his credit from the cotmtry storekeeper rather than from the town bank. For a year or so after the first panic, agriculture in the West prospered wonderfully, bodi as regards crops and prices, and President Van Buren spoke of fundamentally sound conditions. " Especially have we reason to rejoice in the exuberant harvests which have lavishly recompensed well-directed industry and given to it that sure reward which is vainly sought in visionary speculations." This more than usual abundance has " left our granaries apd storehouses filled with a surplus for exportation." ' But the people, under the witchery of hard cider, refused re-election, in 1840, to the genial successor of Andrew Jackson. The fact is that the heavens spiiled too benignly. The patron saint of agriculture produced too much. Even sup- posing the transportation system capable of getting the 'Bourne, E. G., op. cit., pp. 128, 129. A good study of the effect of proposed transportation systems upon land values is, Putnam, J. W., " The Illinois and Michigan Canal," Chicago Historical 'Society's Col- lections, vol. X, passim. In general, it may be said that the market on the Great Lakes fell off less than that on the Mississippi River. 'Richardson, J. D., Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Wash- ington, 1896), vol. iii, pp. 530, S42. 123] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT 123 surplus to the seaboard/ there was not one European country ready to take large quantities of American grain/ and the West India Islands required no more than usual. But there was no transportation system, as we understand the term; only a few river and canal routes, frozen up part of the year. Wheat was the staple, almost the exclusive, crop of the frontier, and corn was fed to live stock as the only means of getting it to market. This, of course, meant that the stock walked off many valuable pounds, for the drive was often very long; but the alternative, to salt the meat on the farm, was a task beyond the technical ability of most farmers. Should the farmer do this, if he did not live on a navigable stream, he had still the problem of haul- ing his products over roads which Dickens described as having " no variety but in depth." ^ In the face of such ' It is improbable that the means of transportation were insufficient to care for the business offered; but carriage charges were very heavy. Paxton, W. M., op. cit., pp. 48, gives the freight rate from Platte County to St. Louisas from one to two dollars per himdred pounds ; and Sargent, G. B., Notes on Iowa (New York, 1848), p. 45, has it for wheat as thirty cents per bushel for 340 miles on the Mississippi; too heavy for low-grade, bulky goods. Insurance rates were high, because boilers could not hold much pressure and frequently exploded, while the rivers were filled with snags and sawyers. Add the time in which capital was tied up, and it will be understood why farm products could not be ex- ported to compete in a distant market. 'See Commissioner of Patents, Report on Agriculture, yearly, from 1837-1843^ in the Public Documents. The Irish potato famine did not occu- until 1845-6. 'The agricultural periodicals of the time, Prairie Farmer, America>t Agriculturist, and others, were engaged in the attempt to persuade the farmer to diversify his crops, improve his stock, and better his pack- ing methods, and gave almost no attention to the marketing problem — a problem which our Department of Agriculture has only recently taken up. The condition of the Indiana roads is described by the Rev. C. Fitch, in speaking of his work : " It is hard to flesh and blood, and not less to horse flesh than to man flesh, to push it forward through 124 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [124 conditions in banking and transportation, we perhaps marvel how they were able to get along at all, but it is conceivable that the country might have gone on in the peaceful tenor of its ways had the government been able to assure to the husbandman the benefits that spring from steady devotion to his honorable pursuit. This is precisely what it could not do. What happened was that the bottom fell out of the market for agricultural produce in the fertile Mississippi valley. The price of flour per barrel in Cincinnati, in January, 1839, was $6.25; in October, 1842, it was $2.51. Wheat to be profiitable should have brought the farmer about fifty cents per bushel, at the nearest market, to which the haul might be as great as fifty miles, but in Springfield and Pekin, Illinois, it sold for only twenty-five cents. ^ In 1842, the condition of things was frightful, worse than has ever since been known. . . . During this year a number of the settlers concluded to collect their pigs in a " bunch " and drive them to Chicago themselves, for they could not believe that the price offered by drovers was really that of the Chicago market. But these misguided settlers received for their pork, after pay- ing expenses, about twenty-five cents per hundred.- the thick and thin of this region of intolerable mud and mire. Of the superlative and almost indescribable badness of the travelling of this region for months past (and it is growing worse and worse every day), our friends in New York, who walk and ride on pavements, railroads, etc., have no conception." American Bible Society, Letters Received, 28th Year, pt. i, p. 236. ^Cincinnati Daily Chronicle, June i, 1843; 28th Cong, ist Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 83 — a petition for aid in building a railway to Macon County, Illinois, that the settlers might send wheat to Canada, and thus reach the English market through the preferential duties, 1843. 'Duis, E., The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois (Bloom- ington, 1874, pp. I4> IS- ^ table, meagre as the figures are, will show the fall and continued depression in prices of agricultural products : 125] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT 125 On the Missouri frontier, where lands were being settled, the needs of new-comers and traders held prices up a bit, but even there all the ready cash was required to enter lands, and many had to sacrifice their personal property to hold their claims/ Dry-goods fluctuated to a certain extent, but the prices of groceries remained almost constant ; coffee and sugar being the most stable, at about twenty and ten cents, Illinois State Historical Society Transactiotis for 1904, article by Prince, Ezra M., " Prices in McLean County, Illinois, 1832-1860," p. 537, 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1843 1846 1847 1848 1849 Com .20 ■30K .24,'% ■2oyi .2.0% .21^ •14 Horses 139-So 45-00 60.00 SO. 10 39.05 61.68 56.80 48.62 37-37 18.87 37.00 35-00 42.12 39-87 42.81 53-57 Cows fii.o6 7.08 10.87 18.50 20.2s 12.60 20.09 13.89 13-54 7-50 6-44 8.50 8.45 7-75 10.50 8.56 17.07 Hogs $2.81 .72 1.83 1-52 3-51 3-33 4.20 3.47 1.76 1. 00 -SI .89 1-45 -92>^ 1.27 'Paxton, W. M., op. cit., p. S3- He gives prices taken, like those of Prince, previously cited, with which they compare quite closely, from the appraisal of estates. He says: "Abundant crops were raised in 18I42, but there was no market for them." Ibid., p. 48. " Until the Mexican War brought relief, I witnessed a state of awful pecuniary distress." Ibid., p. 53. Cf. also. History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri, pp. 585, 590. Newhall, J. B., The British Emigrants' "Hand Book" and Guide to the New States of America (London, 1844), p. 67, states that he was continually pressed to answer the reiterated question: "What signifies your productive country without a market? " For reply, he only urged the cultivation of other than staple crops. 126 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [126 respectively, for many years. ^ Labor cost only fifty cents per day, with board, while skilled labor was worth from $1.25 to $2.cx); but when we realize that wages were paid in orders on the various shopkeepers, butchers, bakers, grocers, clothiers, and shoemakers, payable only in goods,* we may assimie that the limitations upon the economic free- dom of at least the mechanic classes, must have been con- siderable. Though the yearly expenses, on the frontier, of a new settler with a family of five might be less than $150.,^ it is doubtful if men would care, should opportunity promise anything better, to endure long a scale of living such as this would entail. Those who owned slaves and cultivated cotton or hemp seem either not to have suffered so severely, or else were better able to tide over the depres- sion.* At all events, to the insistent question, whether to stick it out in the valley or try the luck of the coast, the slave- owner gave the conservative answer. The radical reply was returned with enthusiasm by that class which, hating slavery, had fled before it from the Virginia mountains to the Arkansas bottoms; that class with which dissent and change were traditional, because lacking organization and leadership it must search rather than fight for its ideals of happiness. To this class was added another, that of the ' Prince, Ezra M., op. cit., p. 541 ; American Bible Society, Letters Received, 27th Year, pt. i, p. 2124 — iRev. C. Fitch, February 9, 1843, " Our clothing and groceries are equally high, I believe, if not higher, than they were." Newhall, J. B., A Glimpse of Iowa in 1846 (Burlington, 1846), p. 60, gives the prices of all household' articles. 'Newhall, J. B., op. cit., pp. 40, 60; Rubio, pseud, of T. N. James, Rambles in the United States and Canada, 1845 (London, 1846), pp. I IS, 116. 'Newrhall, J. B., op. dt.. p. 59. * Paxton, W. M., op. cit., p. 37 ; the Proceedings of the Southwestern Convention at Memphis, 1845, throw some light on conditions in the Cotton States. 127] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT 127 Eastern fanners and a few foreigners who had recently come West and found their hopes rudely shattered. The population of the valley grew prodigiously during this decade, in spite of its uninviting features; but whether the strangers moved on or settled there, most of them joined in the outcry for expansion. Then, as now, that popula- tion was never inarticulate. It was no new political pheno- menon that they should give an almost fanatical allegiance to a dream, for they suffered in more ways than one. The hardy settlers of the Great Valley had other difficul- ties than low prices to test their endurance. The series of bountiful years ended with 1842, and capricious nature played her other hand. Heavy rains in 1843 retarded farm- ing operations, and in the following year many of those settlements which were in the river bottoms were almost wiped out by disastrous floods. Many towns along the Wabash were isolated or intmdated for weeks at a time, while the Missouri " spread from bluff to bluff, driving out to the hills families and their stock." ^ After the floods came sickness — malaria chiefly — then known as chills and fever, or the ague ; ' with cholera not infrequent. Often the river steamers were stopped an hour on the grassy bank, to bury a passenger suddenly stricken down. " The people were discouraged. Their fields were overgrown with weeds, the furrows were running with water, the land sales had exhausted their money, and to the failure of their crops, sickness is added." ^ Truth to tell, 'Paxton, W. M., op. cit., p. 61. These floods, however, had their compensations. When a steamer was able for the first time to come up the Little Platte to Platte City, in 1843, " the town got drunk, and J. P. Dorriss shipped a hogshead of sugar to New Orleans." Ibid., p. SS- But, in 1844, the arrival of several steamers " excited the vision- ary people, and for some years it was thought Platte City was destined to become an important seaport. Ground for a wharf was reserved, etc., etc." Ibid., p. 62. 'Ibid., p. 62. 128 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [128 sickness was rarely absent from frontier homes, for which the " noxious miasma " — otherwise the obnoxious mosquito — that rose from stagnant water, was held accountable ; but there is good reason for believing that malaria was epidemic in Iowa and Missouri about this time/ Time brought a measure of relief, for people at length began to know what value to fix upon the depreciated paper, and what loss they had actually sustained. On the other hand, they had become too accustomed to the advantages of a medium of exchange to endure for long a primitive barter economy; but either this was not the most pressing difficulty confronting the farmer of the West, or else he was tired of discussing a subject in which he had had his own way, for he suddenly turned his attention in another direc- tion — ^to the problem of markets. In the political language of the day this often took the form of a cry for more land, which has ever since seemed so unintelligible,^ since unoccupied land in the Mississippi valley 'American Bible Society, Letters Received, 30th Year, p. 207, from R. Bond, M. D., August 25, 184S. "Such was the sickness here [Van Buren County, Iowa Territory] . . . that there was scarcely any busi- ness done in any stores of this place, except at the drug store and the groceries. Religious meetings on the Sabbath were suspended for want of hearers, all of whom were sick, or engaged in taking care of the sick. Our physicians say that some of their patients died for want of proper care and nursing. A sufficient number of persons in health couW not be found to take care of them," Bible Society Record, no. 18, September, I846. Mrs. Whitman states that the widespread sickness in the Western States was the cause of the large emigration of 1847, Ore. Pioneer Ass. Transactions, 1893, p. 215. 'Polk Papers, vol. iv. Circular of a Carrol County (Kentucky) Mass Meeting, in November, 1843. " The new and unsettled States of Texas would offer an extensive market to the Eastern manufacturers, and a large carrying trade to the shipping of the great commercial cities, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; while the products of the West, which now too often glut the New Orleans market, would be carried off to Texas free of the onerous taxes which now fetter our trade. Our intercourse with Santa F^ would be greatly facilitated. 129] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT 129 was more than abundant ; but it was only another expression of the desire for new markets, which lay behind the " 54° 40' or fight" uproar.^ It was well known that the best harbor in Oregon lay in the disputed section, but even the magnificent Bay of San Francisco did not seem out of reach. It was a day of agitation. Pacific Railway schemes were not lacking either in number or variety ; ^ the position of Oregon as the key of the Pacific was considered invaluable to the United States, " even if it were as barren as the African Sahara." Just beyond lay Asia and all the storied Orient, as potent as ever to grip the imagination of man. The wealth, the curious and expensive manufactures of the East were waiting to be exchanged for the wheat and pork of the wonderful valley. Would the Chinese eat pork? And did they need grain? The Westerner thought so.* The really curious thing is that no one suggested feeding Russia by way of Siberia.* The frontiersman was not seek- ing land only ; It could not be long before the West would receive for her manu- factured articles a greater influx of specie from that source than from any other." Alfred Balch wrote from Nashville : " There is a political conflagration raging throughout the whole South-West. . . . The Breed- ers of mules and horses and hogs cry out, ' Let us have Texas, right or wrong!'" Van Buren Papers (Library of Congress, Mss.). 1 There were numerous petitions sent to Congress from western state legislatures, 1843-5, praying for the occupation of Oregon, and the exclusion of England therefrom, in order that American traders might have a freer hand in the Pacific. ' Haney, L H., Congressional History of Railways (Madison, 1910), pt. iii. 'Weston (Mo.) Journal, January 25, 1845. * In a report by Senator J. Semple, Chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, April 20, 1846 (aptfa Cong, ist Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 306), we have the argument in all its glory. As it is impos- sible to summarize, a few extracts will suffice to give the dirft of his thought. " In the occupation of Oregon, we are about to connect our- selves with the Pacific Ocean, to open our way to a new and indefinite 130 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [130 it will be at once acknowledged by any sensible man that a richer soil cannot be expected than that of the fertile valley of the Mississippi: what then is wanted? It is Position! The na- tural advantages of situation of our Territory on the Pacific coast, almost rivalling those of our Atlantic shores. . . . The position of commanding the trade of the Pacific and Southern Oceans, whose waters wash the shores of some of the wealthiest powers of the earth; and the position of holding a country fertile enough, rich enough in its natural advantages, salubrious enough to be the home of thousands of freemen, belongs to the Oregon Territory — let her take her place. ^ commerce, and bring ourselves into connection with Asia, Polynesia, and Southern America, by the most direct, natural, and easy route. We have seen that already over-growth, over-production, and too great agricultural competition at home have reduced the reward of labor in all employments, etc. . . . The transient nostrums sought to be applied to remedy a general depression, such as national banks, protective tariffs, and the contrary, home manufactures, and treaty stipulations with European powers, drawbacks, and premiums, are so miserably trifling in proportion to the great disease, as to prove unfit to be regarded as measures of relief." (p. 25). . . . "We already see amongst the Chinese a great and increasing market for the lead of the Mississippi Valley. The consumption of the coarse and cheap American^ tobacco has super- seded the use of all other narcotic drugs amongst the Europeans. It will in like manner substitute itself for opium amongst the Asiatics. The Chinese, the Japanese, the Indians, will take from us an unlimited quantity of cotton, of rice, of provisions of all kinds. They will send us the beautiful and inimitable cotton and silk fabrics of which they are the inventors, and still produce far more perfect than the machin- ery of Europe. The beautiful shawls of Cashmere, nankeens, crapes, a thousand varieties of crapes, silks, delicate and perfect fabrics of every kind and hue, works in ivory, japan ware, porcelain, drugs, spices, dyes, medicines, the excellent coffee of Java and Mocha, teas, the sugar of the East Indies, the hemp of Manilla, all this mighty laboratory whence the world has supplied itself for fifty centuries with articles of luxury, comfort, and common use, will pour itself forth in exchange for the produce of the Mississippi Valley." (pp. 31, 32). 'Independence (Mo.) Journal, January 4, 184S; cf. Cleland, R. (^-i "Asiatic Trade and American Occupation of the Pacific Coast," Ameri- can Historical Association, Report 1914, vol. i, no. xvi. 131] AGRARIAN DISCONTENT 131 Perhaps these are only parochial ideas made extravagant by prolonged suffering; yet we may agree with Albert Gallatin that, " the greater degree of excitement which pre- vails in the West is due to other and more powerful causes than self-interest." The course of emigration, bloodshed, and expansion, upon which this country then embarked could have been to the immediate interest of no considerable class, however firmly they believed it might be. The Chinese never tasted American pork, and the outfitting of the armies invading Mexico benefited only Platte County and St. Louis. Relief came in time, through the building of railways and the opening of European markets. But the indomitable energy of this nation has been and is nowhere displayed so forcibly as in the new states and settlements. It was necessarily directed toward the acquisition of land and the cultivation of the soil. In that respect it has performed prodi- gies. . . . Nothing now seems impossible to those men; they have not even been sobered by fresh experience. Attempting to do at once, and without an adequate capital, that which should have been delayed five-and-twenty years, and might have then been successfully accomplished, some of those states have had the mortification to find themselves unable to pay the interest on the debt they had contracted, and obliged to try to compound with their creditors. Nevertheless, undiminished activity and locomotion are still the ruling principles : the West- em people leap over time and distance; ahead they must go; it is their mission. May God speed them, and may they thus quietly take possession of the entire contested territory! ' And God did ; yet less than a dozen pioneers settled in the contested territory before 1846. ^ Gallatin, A,, The Oregon Question (New York, 1846), pp. 28, 29. CHAPTER VII The Journey to the Western Coast 1843-1846 When the emigrants start to the sun-down diggings of Oregon, they should not fancy that they are doing some great thing, and that they need military array, officers, non-commis- sioned officers, etc. : all this is folly. They will quarrel, and try to enforce non-essential duties, till the company will divide and subdivide, the whole way to Oregon.^ This caution from a handbook of information suggests the first problem that confronted the participants in the early migration to the western coast. The almost gigantic appeal of this task, the glamor and beauty of its set- ting, the consciousness of something heroic about their tmdertaking led the first emigrants to err on the side of too much organization, while their followers tended to- ward too little cohesion for their own safety and success. However, the families which opened the wagon road, clear through to the settlements on the coast, probably had an easier time of it than those who came after, in the gold rush, when the way was more crowded and worn, food and fuel scarcer, and the preparation less intelligent and thorough. The correspondence committees working in the winter and spring of 1843 were successful in bringing to the rendez- vous, at the Spanish encampment twenty miles west of In- dependence, on the Santa Fe road, a goodly throng of men, women, and children from the river counties of 'Arkansas, 'Shively, J. M., Route mid Distances to Oregon and California (Washington, 1&46), p. 3. 132 - [132 133] ^-^^ JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN COAST 133 Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa. They were already organized in local companies, ready and determined to put throtigh the thing they had started. They had listened with attention to the enthusiastic speeches of the promoters, had discussed earnestly details of route and equipment, and inquired care- fully into the character of applicants to join the companies. As officers had been elected, constitutions discussed and adopted defining the powers and duties of these, something of the heroic mood easily gathered about their ideas of this far journey into the West.^ Encamped at their rendezvous, with their wagons formed in a circle, rear end in, and their cattle grazing on the prairie, the emigrants proceeded to the election of a captain and council to govern the whole party. The candidates stood up in a row behind the constituents, and at a given signal they wheeled about and marched off, while the general mass broke after them " lickety-split," each man forming in behind his favorite, so that every candidate flour- ished a sort of a tail of his own, and the man with the longest tail was elected! ... if the scene can be conceived, it must appear as a curious mingling of the whimsical with the wild. Here was a congregation of rough, bold, and adventurous men, gathered from distant and opposite points of the Union, just forming an acquaintace with each other, to last, in all prob- ability, through good or ill fortune, through the rest of their days. . . . They had with them their wives and children, and aged, depending relatives. They were going with stout and determined hearts to traverse a wild and desolate region, and take possession of a far corner of their country, destined to prove a new and strong arm of a mighty nation. These men were running about the prairie, in long strings; the leaders, in sport and for the purpose of puzzling the judges, doubling and winding in the drollest fashion ; so that the all important ^Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. xv, pp. 286-299; vol. iii, pp. 390-392; vol. iv, pp. 278-280 — Documents: 134 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [134 business of forming a government seemed very much like the merry schoolboy game of " snapping the whip." ^ But they could not be merry long, for the reality of a passage over the open wastes was so utterly unlike the expectation that not even the wisdom bom of experience on the furthest frontier could fully prepare a family to meet its hardships. To begin with, there was always a certain amount of seasoning to be undergone during the first few weeks. Only buckskin clothing would last through the prickly sage, and eyes and lips would become swollen and ulcerated in the burning sun and the desert's dust. The wagons in which the family life was to be carried on were, in truth, moving households, having water-tight beds, and being fitted with boxes to carry the food and cooking utensils; they must also be equipped with falling tongues, as the hills were short, steep pitches, whose bottoms the lead oxen might reach before ever the wagon came over the crest; a well-seasoned log should be swung beneath, from which to make repairs; and the bows supporting the canvas tops must not be too large for safety, prairie winds being so fierce and sudden, that, upon occasion, some ingenious people tried to sail light cars over the level stretches. In regard to the equipment for an unfamiliar trip, one is apt to have either too many ideas, or else none at all. Many a wagon was elaborately fitted with bureau, carpet, and chairs. There were probably few, if any, families that did not learn, to their sorrow, of some necessary article omitted, or leave some family heirloom by the wayside, because its weight was breaking down the teams. There is record, however, of such articles as burr stones, soft soap, and grovnng plants, being carried through to Oregon. ^Ore. Hist. Quar., vol. i, pp. 399, 400 — extract from New Orleans Picayune, November 31, 1843. 135] ^^^ JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN COAST 135 The item of food was one from which they all suffered greatly, for it was impossible, with even the closest figuring, to carry supplies enough for four or five months, and there were sure to be many in the companies who would be hungry and near to starvation as they approached the Columbia. There were some who seemed to have no comprehension of the journey ahead, for they would start with provisions enough for only three or four weeks. Those who made the trip most successfully were those who figured upon the privations of the way as well as on the beauty of nature, and repeated warnings, by all who wrote of their experiences, to carry nothing but food, testify to the general ignorance regarding the magnitude of their tindertaking. The most interesting feature of the whole movement is the organization and re-organization of the companies. With the principle of co-operation and the necessity for a certain amount of it, all were f amiiliar enough ; but to obtain agreement upon the application and exercise of the principle, in unaccustomed ways, was a nearly insuperable task for the leaders. " If a company is strong and united, there is no security that it will long continue so; if it is weak to-day, it is no reason that it will not be weaker tomorrow." ^ The people who, by virtue of some inherent natural right, could organize a government for mutual aid and protection could, by a right of equal antiquity, revolutionize the thing; and they exercised both rights with something less than dis- crimination. The man who would pull his neighbor out of a slough in the afternoon might refuse to stand guard over his cattle that night, for, as some one has put it : " Each took his marching orders from his own soul." If they con- ceived a big idea, and created a close-knit organization with power and responsibility centered in the officers, at once " the 'Johnson, O. and Winter, W. H., op. cit., p. 120. 136 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [136 ' American character ' was fully exhibited. All appeared to be determined to govern, but not to be governed." ' A loose-knit organization with plenty of latitude for individual, freedom was actually no better, since incidents were sure to occur for which no one could be held to account ; and dissat- isfaction with the way things were run was no respecter of political theories. Good causes might, perhaps, be found for many of their disputes, since the captains were apt to play favorites; but most of them arose for no more soul- stirring reason than the mere ill-humor to which men are peculiarly prone when traveling with their fellows. " It was strange," but not unusual, " to see one small family traveling along through such a country, so remote from civilization," ' and even that ancient unit was sometimes subdivided. We may. look back on these primitive mani- festations of natural abilities and inherent rights half humorously, half regretfully, and agree with the young Nesmith, who was later to become Senator from Oregon, that ' the emigrants were their own worst enemies.' For all that, their achievement was astoundingly large. After 1840, in the spring of each year there gathered at Independence and other jumping-ofif places along the Mis- souri River a motley throng of Santa Fe traders, mountain trappers, sportsmen, and emigrants, with an occasional Indian stalking about. The town of Independence, now part of Kansas City, lay back in the hills, four miles from the landing. It was substantially built, for its trade was certain, its position making it then, as later, a natural center for the supply business of the plains. From its merchants could be purchased every useful article, from well-seasoned Conestoga wagons, brought by boat from Pittsburgh, to red 'Hastings, L. W., op. cit., p. 6. 2 28th Cong. 2nd Sess. iSen. Doc., no. 174, p. 133, Fremont, J. C, " Report of his Expedition of 1843." 137] THE JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN COAST 137 bandana handkerchiefs. The post office door was covered with communications from those who had started, to friends who were following. The postmaster played the part of an enterprising chamber of commerce by issuing circulars of information and inspiration to prospective emi- grants who applied for advice. Glad these emigrants must have been to get clear of the worry and bustle of the out- fitting place; or, if they came by one of the upper crossings, to leave behind the crowd that waited for weeks to be ferried over the Missouri.^ There were many roads leading from the Missouri river, developed by the growing traffic, all of which converged upon the great turnpike up the Platte." On leaving the States, the country traversed was open prairie, well timbered along the rivers, but " a bad country for wagons to travel through, having so many sloughs and bad creeks: the teams were often stalled and made very slow progress." ^ But beyond the trouble, if the season was wet, caused by this and the not infrequent stampedes,* there was little to break the 1 Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. xi, pp. 307-312, circular issued 1847, by the postmaster of Independence, Missouri. This was also the starting- point for the Santa Fe trade, which had been' in existence as long as the mountain fur trade. See Gregg, Josiah, Commerce of the Prairies (Philadelphia, 1855), passim. Mormons opened the road across Iowa to the mouth of the Platte, which became the usual route when the sources of the emigrations became more diversified than they were in the beginning. Cf. Van der Zee, " The Mormon Trails in Iowa," Iowa Journal of History and Politics, vol. xii. 'C/. Table of distances at end of chapter and map. ■• Weston, Mo., Journal, January 4, 1845, letter of J. Boardman, July 17, 1844. * "At noonday we were quietly pursuing our way along the route ; the prairies were clothed in a carpet of green interspersed with beau- tiful flowers; the face of the earth was as level as a floor; not a single tree, hill, or shrub could be seen to vary the monotony of sky and grass. The wagons, jogging along leisurely, were separated some distance from each other, so that the whole line of the train was about a mile 138 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [138 routine of travel, for the Indians were more disposed to beg than to steal. But vigilance could not be relaxed, since war parties of the Pawnees from their villages on the Platte often roamed these plains. Along the Platte on either side stretched a smooth, hard road — " the finest road imagin- long. There was a young mare, belonging to one of our company, running loose, and eating gfrass leisurely along by the roadside, at some distance behind the train. Finding that she was getting left behind, she quit eating to catch up with the other horses, and feeling, no doubt, very happy on the occasion, thought she would try how fast she could run. After kicking up her heels and snorting, away she started pell- mell as fast as she could run. The clattering of her hoofs, as she neared the loose cattle behind the train, startled them, and when she came a little closer away they started too; as they came nearer to the train, the oxen in the hindmost wagon became unmanageable, and when they came up, each ox gave a frightful bawl, and started out, with elongated tail, at full speed. I shall never forget that terrific bawl; it spread from wagon to wagon along the whole Une, with the velocity of a telegraph despatch. The ox, you know, has the reputation of being rather a slow animal, but, upon my honor, in a stampede, I don't think I ever saw anything so fast. The proper way to manage oxen when they take a stampede in the wagon is not to attempt to manage them at all — ' Let them rip ! ' If you do not attempt to control them, they will run in a straight line; but if you attempt to stop or control, them, they will take a short turn, when at full speed, upset the wagon, dash everything to atoms, break their own necks, and kill the driver. I was in advance of the train when the affair occurred, and could see every- thing. As soon as I saw what was up, I dismounted mighty quick, and it was with great difficulty that I could hold my horse. It was indeed a strange spectacle — to see such unwieldy animals, that seemed formed by nature to move at no faster pace than a snail's gallop, traveling so rapidly — then to see the drivers endeavoring in vain to stop them — ^to see men, women, and children getting pitched out of the wagons — to hear them scream, and the drivers shouting. I shall never forget the occurrence. One man got his shoulder dislocated, and was otherwise badly bruised; several others were somewhat injured; some of the women were rather roughly handled, but no serious accident occurred. Several oxen got their necks broken. ... As soon as the stampede was over (it did not last over three minutes) we went to work mending up things, and, in an hour afterwards, we were traveling on as usual." Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. xv, pp. 210-215, letter of Q. A. Brooks, 1851. C£, 01 0/ H ~ OJ > — ; I— ( OJ « S rt a B '5 t: ^ "« < .%■ i ^ 2 cc 0^ s -■^ !a -5 S C-> ac 139] ^^^ JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN COAST 139 able " — where travel became monotonous, and men, women, and children slept out the sultry afternoons under the welcome shade of the great white canvas top. If they were fortunate, and there were not too many Indians or sportsmen ahead, they might have the diversion of a buffalo hunt; but, when the emigrant travel became so heavy that the huge prairie schooners were visible on both sides of the river, as far as the eye could see, the buiifalo were driven to smaller streams for their summer range. Then the emigrants were forced to rely upon salt pork for food, which could be purchased at the numerous emigrant stations that sprang up along the way. If they were less fortunate, the cattle that were driven along might wander at night, or the horses be stampeded while the guards were asleep. Being a guard was not much fun, anyway, for if one fired at an Indian prowling on the dusky plain, who happened to be silhouetted against the sky, the company would be instantly in a uproar, and it usually turned out that someone's horse had been killed. But tragedy is at all times poignant, touching our deepest feelings, and of swift, overwhelming tragedy these emi- grants tasted bitterly. Thus runs a woman's diary: June 29th. This morning eight of our largest and best work oxen were missing, besides two yoke of Welch's, three yoke of Adam Polk's, and about thirty head belonging to the company — all work oxen right out of our wagons. Here we were, thousands of miles from any inhabitants, and thus deprived of teams — an appaling situation. We had only one yoke left. We hunted in every direction without success. June 30th. Hunted all day. Our cattle hunters, my hus- band among them, were so far away from camp, some thirty miles, that they stayed away all night. July 1st. To-day when our hunters came in they brought one dead man; he had shot himself last night, accidentally. I40 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [140 He left a wife and six small children. The distress of his wife I cannot describe. He was an excellent man, and very much missed. His name was Smith Dunlap, from Chicago, 111. The hunters found no cattle. July 2nd. A trying time. So many of us having to get teams, had to hire, borrow, buy, just as we could. Had to take raw cattle, cows, or anything we could get. Some had to apply to other companies for help; at last we moved off. Made fifteen miles.^ So they travelled up the North Fork of the Platte and Sweetwater to South Pass. They marveled at the weather- worn, wondrously carved rocks, some of which " resemble old demolished villages, half simk in the ground," but are forgotten now, for the railway does not go that way, and its folders advertise other curiosities than those of the emigrant hand-books. They danced at Fort Laramie, where there was a stra,nge mixture of people, and " plenty of talk about their damnation, but none about their salvation ; " * and celebrated the Fourth of July vdth neither safety nor sanity, if some one happened to be toting a brass cannon. Perhaps a marriage in the company would relieve the tedium; and all must, of course, inscribe their names on the " great registry of the desert," Independence Rock. But summer does not last all year, so they could not often £top to recruit the teams, air out the wagon, or give the women a chance to wash and bake. " We have more time for reading and meditation when we are traveling," wrote one of them, " than we do when we stop and spend a day. We have so much to do when we stop it keeps us busy all day. . . . We all take a great deal of comfort, (and) have 'Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1907, pp. 157, 158 — Diary of Mrs^ Geer. 'Williams, J., op. cit., p. 11. 141 ] THE JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN COAST 141 some jolly times, if we are in the wilderness." ^ Indeed, they did have a good time — the men buffalo-running, the women and children wading the shallow fords, or walking a little in advance of the dusty caravans. Music, or a game, around the dying embers of a camp fire, of a still evening, will compensate for many a chill night in wet blankets ; " but we cannot comprehend the dread horror of watching a wagon with its team sinking in the quicksands of the Platte, or a husband drowning in the rapid current of the Snake. The camping places were naturally selected in close pro- ximity to the infrequent water-holes; buffalo chips, cotton- wood, or sage, which burns quickly without leaving a coal, furnished fuel. As there was no protection from the wind, fires were built in narrow, shallow trenches, with the codfing-pots and frying-pans resting directly on the ground. If trouble with the Indians was anticipated, the wagons were drawn up in a circle about the camp, and the stock driven inside; a secure defense from the Indian mode of attack. The latter soon learned that they could get more out of the emigrants by peacefully making a nuisance of themselves, than by stampedes or night raids; so that all summer long many tribes were camped by the road to demand food and presents from all who passed. The poor emigrants were too fearful of their savage guests to resist ^ Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1904, pp. 293, 296 — Diary of Mrs. Adams. Visitors to the desert wonders " must be cautious, on account of the many rattlesnakes lurking round and concealed' in the clefts of the bluffs," Clayton, W., Latter Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide (St. Louis, 1848), p. II. ' " It is almost always the case that someone was thoughtful enough to bring a deck of cards with him ; and if they have none of them, they bet on the distance to some hill, or on the distance traveled during the day, or that my oxen can draw more than yours." Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1893, p. 84 — letter of Andrew Rogers, Jr., April 22, 1846. 142 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [142 their importunities, and yielded so often that the Indians became more and more insolent.^ If not bothered too much by the savages, it was often necessary to lay by a day or two on the barren uplands approaching the divide, in order to treat the swollen feet of the oxen with boiling tar, or to repair the wagons, which had become shrunken and rickety in the hot, dry sand. The sheer ingenuity, little short of marvelous, of the emigrants, in meeting their physical difficulties, is in sharp contrast to their timidity and indecision in dealing with those problems which involved human relationships.^ The road up the Sweetwater led directly, by an easy grade to the great gap in the mountains,^ and dropped a little to Bridger's Fort, on a fork of Green River, whence one of the old Indian trails struck directly we.jt to Salt Lake. From Bridger's it turned north, to meet again, just over Bear River divide,* the Sublette cutoff. This cutoff entailed '"After we passed Green River we abandoned guarding and broke up into small companies, . . . some of the emigrants were imposed on, in fact, some of them were robbed, though it was their own fault for not sticking together." Weston, Mo., Journal, March 15, 1845 — letter from S. M. Gilmore, of the Emigration of 1843. The government sent military expeditions over parts of the highway every few years, for the purpose of overawing the Indians. See for Col. Kearney's expedition in 1845, 29th Cong. 1st Sess. House Doc, no. 2, p. 210. '". . . Our wagon tires had become loose; and we had wedged until the tire would no longer remain on the wheels. . . . We had neither bellows nor anvil, and, of course, could not cut and weld tire. But, as a substitute, we took off the tire, shaved thin hoops, and tacked them on the felloes, heated our tire, and replaced it." Palmer, Joel, Journal (Thwaites, ed.), p. 65. On the emigrants' attitude toward strangers, see Parkman, F., The California and Oregon Trail (New York, 1849), passim. ' " We crossed very near the table mountain, at the southern extremity of the South Pass, which is near twenty miles in width, and already traversed by several different roads." (1843) Elevation, 7490 feet. 28th Cong. 2nd Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 174, p. 128. * "August 20th. We continued to travel up the creek by a very 143] ^^-^ JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN COAST 143 a forty-mile dry drive, but avoided the wide southern detour of the main highway. At Soda Springs, on Bear River,^ the CaHfomia road, by way of the Mormon settle- ments and Salt Lake, followed the river in its bend to the gradual ascent and a very excellent grassy road, passing on the way several small forks of the stream. The hills here are higher, present- ing escarpments of parti-colored and apparently clay rocks, purple, dark red, and yellow, containing strata of sand-stone and limestone with shells, with a bed of cemented pebbles, the whole overl^d by beds of limestone. The alternation of red and yellow gives a bright appearance to the hills, one of which was called by our people the Rainbow Hill; and the character of the country became more agree- able, and traveling far more pleasant, as now we found timber and very good grass. ... At noon we halted at the last main fork of the creek, at an elevation of 7,200 feet, . . . ; and in the afternoon continued on the same excellent road, up to the left or northern fork of the stream, towards its head, in a pass which the barometer placed at 8,230 feet above the sea. This [pass] is a connecting ridge between the Utah or Bear River Mountains, and the Wind iRiver chain of the Rocky Mountains, separating the waters of the Gulf of California, on the east, and those on the west belonging more directly to the Pacific, from a vast interior basin whose rivers are collected into numerous lakes having no outlet to the ocean. From the summit of this pass, the highest which the road crosses between the Mississippi and the Western Ocean, our view was over a very mountainous region, whose rugged appearance was greatly increased by the smoky weather, through which the broken ridges were dark and dimly seen. The ascent to the siunmit of the gap was occasionally steeper than the national road in th-e Alleghanies ; and the descent, by way of a spur on the western side, is rather precipitous, but the pass may still be called a good one." 28th Cong. 2nd Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 174, pp. 131, 132 — Fremont, J. C, "Report of his Expedition of 1843," which was much used as a guide-book. 'Here "we descended into a beautiful bottom, formed by a lateral valley, which presented a picture of home beauty that went directly to our hearts. The edge of the wood, for several miles along the river, was dotted with the white covers of emigrant wagons, collected in groups at different camps, where the smokes were rising lazily from the fires, around which the women were occupied in preparing the evening meal, and the children playing in the grass ; and herds of cattle grazing about in the bottom, had an air of quiet security and civilized comfort that made a rare sight for the traveler in such a remote wilderness." Ibid., p. 133. 144 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [144 southwest, while the Oregon road, crossing another divide and winding down a narrow, gloomy valley, reached the wide Snake River desert, near Fort Hall, the first of the Hudson's Bay Company posts. Here the emigrant was sure of accommodation for all his wants, except provisions, with which the post was never over-supplied. The Com- pany pursued a generous policy toward all who came its way/ out of sound good sense and those dictates of human- ity which make the Enghshman so unconscious of his superiority. Here also the emigrant was met by a horde of silver-tongued men from the settlements, offering to guide him by new routes to this or that point on the coast.^ Fortunate was the family which did not yield to the tempta- tion to leave the beaten way, for it was upon these ventures that most of the tragedy of the western migrations was enacted. Here, also, the emigrant was faced with his hardest pro- blem, the necessity of making a final decision. Tied to the soil, but to no particular portion of it, his restless habits bred in him a frame of mind of which this is pro- bably the extreme form, the desire tO' be up and doing, with the minimum definition of what he wished to do. With the care-free outlook of one who does not know where he is going, but is on the way, he enjoyed " rolling over the vast plains . . . with a jovial company," but he cared little 1 Weston, Mo., Journal, March 15, 1845 — letter of 'S. M. Gilmore, from Oregon, November 11, 1843. 'Through the efforts of these men, there came, in the course of time, to be many roads west of the Rockies to the American settlements. As use developed the route, and the hard surface was ground into fine, deep sand, it was often easier to tread out a new path through the low sage than to haul heavy loads in the old ruts. Thus, the road quickly Taecame not a single trace, but multiple throughout its whole length. Not infrequently, however, the emigrant who stuck to the old path could smile at a companion who was delayed by following one less well worn. Hastings, L. W., op. cit., passim. 145] ^^^ JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN COAST 145 where, so long as the prospect seemed inviting. In this frame of mind, he met many on the road, returning for diverse reasons, whose accounts and opinions of the coast were as various as their characters. Frequently those bound to California came by way of Fort Hall to the turn in the road ^ on Snake River, either still undecided, or in order to avoid the Mormons, who, after being driven out of Illinois, in 1845, were thought to be inhospitably inclined toward the emigrants. They encountered so many differ- ent opinions in regard to the coast region that any choice depended more upon feeling and influence than upon a balancing of the advantages and disadvantages of Oregon and California. Before the gold discoveries, however, a large number preferred the former country, since it was certain that their land claims would be respected, it being understood that the Willamette Valley, in which they settled, would in any division of the Oregon country become American territory. Whether the emigrant decided on California or on Oregon, he had before him many thirsty miles of travel over a desert country, which was " hilly, rocky, sandy, no timber, but an abundance of sage" — a country where the day's travel must be governed by the location of the water-holes and springs; where his wagon would break down, his team give out; where his family must suffer hunger and the savage weariness that accompanies toil under such circum- stances. " You in ' The States ' know nothing about dust. It will fly so that you can hardly see the horns of your tongue yoke of oxen. It often seems that the cattle must die for want of breath, and then in our wagons, such a spectacle — beds, clothes, victuals, and children, all com- pletely covered." ^ ' Fremont, " the Pathfinder," took this road by mistake. • Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1907, p. 163 — ^Diary of Mrs. Geer. 146 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [146 But though the desert strained nerves to the point where it seemed they must snap, it was neither the last nor the greatest lumbia winding through the forest-crested hills; and farther away to the North, St. Helene shows her towering crater of eternal fire; and, further still, the eye is lost in the wide labyrinth of dark and cluster- ing heights, in distance indistinct. Away to the South, the peering summits of some lofty chain are dimly drawn upon the sky. To the West, you hear the distant ocean's sullen roar, as its waves, with tremendous crash, break upon its rock- bound shores. The bright, clear blue above is cloudless; all beneath seems hushed in deep repose; even the loud cataract's thunders wake not so far the circling waves of air; and save, perchance, the carol of a mountain bird, the breeze sighing to the leaves, and the heavy murmuring of the distant deep, all else is silent as it was upon the morn when God created it.' The emigrant allowed his imagination to run riot in peer- ing " into the destinies of this fair land," peopling it writh busy and civilized inhabitants, seeing it as the home of a prosperous agriculture, industry, and commerce. Nor would he allow his vision to pause till it had rooted a literature in the beloved soil of Oregon; when these mountains, the rivers, these verdant vales, when every rock and hill and cataract, when every forest, glade, and glen, when every mountain, gorge, and precipice, and dark ravine, shall have been sung and storied, until they have grown old and honored by the poet's pen, and the thrilling legends of the past.^ 'Johnson and Winter, op. cit., pp. 66, 67. 2 Ibid., p. 68. 154 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [154 Such is the attractive picture the emigrant drew of the land of his longing; but, though ready to dream a bit, he was far from oblivious to the more prosaic features of his situation. There is enough to live on in this country [wrote one]. The inhabitants are generally good farmers, raise large quantities of grain, and have from 40 to 100 head of cattle, 20 to 60 head of hogs, and horses without number. Qothing is cheaper here than in Iowa. There is nothing to be found in your stores, but what we have an abundance of, and at a cheaper rate, as they are brought here free of duty.^ The first settlers in the Willamette Valley were New England Methodists, missionaries and laymen, together with a few French Canadians, old servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. There was a slow accretion of population from the beach-combers of the Pacific — ^Hawaiian Islanders and sailors off the whaling ships — and from the mountain trappers, but the number of these was negligible, and only the mountain men were equal in character and ability to the missionaries. The gentlemen directing the affairs of the English Company remained at Vancouver, across the river, and supported the initiative of the missionaries in all changes looking toward the benefit of the settlement. The dominant men were able to deal with the renegades and outcasts, from which class any new coimtry is apt' to suffer, by the simple device of denying them supplies which could be purchased only at the fort. This sufficed to maintain order in the settlement between whites and Indians alike. With the arrival, in the fall of 1842, of the first considerable emigration from the States, the American population was almost doubled by a class of people who were not considered by the New Englanders " as industrious or moral " as them- 1 Niks' Reg., vol. Ixv, p. 137— letter of Wm. T. Perry, March 30; 1843. 155] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 155 selves, and the following year the proportion of " hog and hominy " Westerners in the settlement was very largely in- creased.^ This element remained preponderant for the next three or four years. The mixture of these three very definite and not infre- quently divergent groups, known as the Mission, the Ameri- can settler, and the English, or Hudson's Bay, parties, in a rapidly changing country over which no national jurisdiction had been extended, caused the interplay of strong, passionate and fundamental human forces, which furnish a fascinating study in political beginnings. Early Oregon was quite near the fabled state of nature. Out of their own necessity, the people of Oregon drew the authority to form a Provisional Government, " for purposes of mutual protection, and to secure peace and prosperity " among themselves " until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdic- tion over us." ^ The conception and earliest activities of this government show that it rested quite as much upon well- grounded political principles as upon the personalities of those who strove to direct its destinies. Historically the oldest, and at all times the most power- ful group was that composed of the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, who, led by the white-haired, majestic old gentleman, John McLoughlin, had been in the country since 1824. Their business was trade with the natives, trapping for furs, and, after 1840, the supply of food-stufifs to the Russian settlements, and of clothing and implements to the Americans, who came late each fall, destitute and in great distress. Their important establishments were, Fort Van- couver, on the north bank of the Columbia, nearly opposite ^ Niles" Register, vol. Ixvi, p. loi — letter from Oregon, Oct. 20, 1843 ; tf. Williams, J., op. c-it., pp. 24, 27, 28. 'Oregon Archives (Salem, 1853), p. 28, " Preamble to Organic Law." 156 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [156 the mouth of the Willamette, and a farm at Nisqually, on Puget Sound. In addition, they maintained many interior posts, migratory brigades, and ships. The entire trade of the country, for they purchased wheat from the settlers, as well as sold them goods, was in their hands. The only rivalry attempted between 1840 and 1845 was by the mis- sionaries, the Cushings of Massachusetts, and the Benson firm of New York.^ When competition occurred, the Chief Factor endeavored to defeat it by the sound business principle of " selling at a small or even no profit for the time," but it was the policy of his company never to speculate, and always to sell its goods at a stated advance on the London cost. A large reserve stock was kept on hand, which, one of the emigrants says, was exhausted by 1846, and which all testify was of the greatest benefit to the settlers.'' By act of Parliament, the Chief Factor had the powers of a Justice of the Peace, and he could arrest and send to Canada for trial English subjects who were accused of 'White, E., A Concise View of Oregon Territory (Washington, 1846), p. 42; Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, vol. i, p. 198, " McLoughlin Narrative; " Allen, A. J., Ten Years in Oregon, p. 356 — Petition of Oregon Provisional Government, says : " for want of ade- quate protection, no private capitalist among us can establish a suc- cessful competition with a wealthy and powerful monopoly, possessing all the appliances of commerce, and all the influence over the natives, by an early establishment among them. We are, therefore, dependent for a market for a large and increasing surplus, and for nearly all our supplies, upon a single company which holds the market under its control." Cf. American Historical Review, vol. xxi, p. 124, " Mc- Loughlin's Last Letter." 2 Joel Palmer (op, cit., p. 217) says: "Great complaints have been made by the merchants trading in that quarter, that they were not able to compete with the Hudson's Bay Company; . . . but the fact is, the prices were much lower before these American merchants went into the country than they now are. Their mode of dealing is to ask whatever their avarice demands, and the necessities of the purchaser will bear." 157] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 157 criminal acts. Over the Indians he maintained authority by occasionally going among the tribes, surrounded by all the trappings and evidence of his position. McLoughlin and his suite would sometimes accompany the southbound expeditions from Fort Vancouver, in regal state, for fifty or one hundred miles up the Willamette, where he would dismiss them with his blessing, and return to the fort. He did not often travel, and seldom far ; but on these occasions he indulged his men rather than himself in some little variety. ... It pleased Mrs. McLoughlin thus to break the monotony of her fort life. Upon a gaily caparisoned steed, with silver trappings and bells on bridle reins, and saddle skirt, sat the lady of Fort Vancouver, herself arrayed in brilliant colours, and wearing a smile which might cause to blush and hang its head the broadest, warmest, and most fragrant sunflower. By her side, also gorgeously attired, rode her lord, King of the Columbia, and every inch a king, attended by a train of trappers, under a chief trader, each upon his best behaviour.^ Such show could hardly be expected to please the Americans, but there were other means in the hands of the Chief Factor for maintaining the prestige of his Company, as will presently appear. The missionary group arrived in 1834, and were rein- forced from time to time, being more than doubled in 1840 by the addition of a niunber of fanners, merchants, and mechanics. The Mission, in 1840, also received a large stock of goods, with which certain of its members undertook to rival the Hudson's Bay Company as supplier of tools, seed, groceries, and clothing to the settlers. They were all intelligent and well educated, and were all Yankees, with the exception of the leader, who was a Canadian. Whether this man, Jason Lee, was the moving spirit in these extra- ^ ' 25th Cong. 2nd Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 24. 158 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [158 religious activities, or was only a tool in the hands of his subordinates, A. F. Waller and George Abernethy, is to be answered only by interpreting circumstantial evidence, and need not detain us. At all events. Waller erected a build- ing at the Falls of the Willamette, on land claimed by Mc- Loughlin since 1829, and opened a store. Thus arose a situation which might have become of international delicacy, but for the wise course of McLoughlin. It is best told in the language of a petition to Congress from several of the mission party : In 1840, the Methodist Mission erected buildings at the falls, and stationed two families there, and made a claim to sufficient land for their buildings, not interfering with any others who might wish to build. A short time previous to this. Dr. Mc- Loughlin had a storehouse erected for the Company, not occupied, however, further than to store wheat and other articles in, and as a trading house during the salmon season. . . . During the years 1841 and 1842, several families settled at the falls, when Dr. McLoughlin, who still resides at Fort Vancouver, comes on the ground, and says the land is his, and any person building without his permission is held as a trespasser.^ The Doctor was clever enough to employ an American lawyer as his agent, to plat a town at this power site, and to give lots to certain influential people, which enabled him to increase the value of what he was able to retain ; but the real source of the dispute is to be found not in the greed of the missionaries so much as in their feeling of economic and social inferiority to the gentlemen of the Great Company. Laws are made to protect the weak against the mighty [said the *38th Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 105, pp. 2, 3. The dispute over the Oregon City town site is covered by Holman, F. V., Dr. John McLoughlin, passim. 159] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 159 colonists in this same petition to Congress] and we feel the necessity of them in steps that are constantly taken by the Honorable Hudson Bay Company, in their opposition to the improvement and enterprise of American citizens. . . . In the year 1841, feeling the necessity of having mills erected that could supply the settlement with flour and lumber, a num- ber of the inhabitants formed themselves into a joint stock company, for the purpose of supplying the growing wants of the community. . . . The company was formed, and pro- ceeded to select a site. They selected an island at the falls of the Willamette, and concluded to commence their operations. After commencing, they are informed by Dr. McLoughlin, who is at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs west of the Rocky Mountains, that the island is his, and that he (although a Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company) claims all the land at the east side of the Willamette, embrac- ing the falls down to the Klakamus River, a distance of about two miles. He had no idea, we presume, that the com- pany would succeed. However, he erected a shed on the island, after the stuff was on the island to build a house, and then gave them permission to buUd under certain restrictions. They took the paper he wrote them, containing his conditions ; but did not obligate themselves to comply with the conditions, as they did not think his claim just or reasonable. Many projects had been started by the inhabitants, but, for want of means and encouragement, failed. This fate was predicted for the milling company. But, after much labor and difficulty, they succeeded in getting a saw mill erected and ready to run; and entered into a contract to have a grist mill erected forthwith. And now, as they have succeeded, where is the Hudson's Bay Company? Dr. McLoughlin employs hands to get out a frame for a saw mill, and erect it at the Willamette Falls; and we find, as soon as the frame is up, the gearing which has been made at Vancouver is brought up in boats ; and that which caused a feeble company of Ameri- can citizens months of toil and embarrassment is accomplished by the Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company in a few l6o OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [i6o weeks (he has men and means) ; and it is said by him that in two weeks his mill will be sawing. And what will be the consequences? Why, if the milling company sell for $15. per thousand, he can sell for $12. ; if they reduce the price to $10., he can come to $8.00 or $5.00 or $2.00 per thousand. He says he will have a grist mill started as soon as he gets the saw mill in operation. All the wheat raised in Oregon they are anxious to get, as they ship it to the Russians on the Northwest Coast. In the first place, they measured the wheat in a half bushel, called by them imperial measure, much larger than the standard meas- ure of the United States; this not answering, they next pro- ceeded to kick the half bushel with the foot, to settle the wheat ; then they brought up a measure larger than the former one; and now they fill this measure, then strike it three times with a stout club, and then fill it up, and call it fair measure. Against such proceedings we need law that will be respected and obeyed.^ How utterly fatuous was this remedy of a law that would be respected and obeyed ! How often it has been appealed to in this country! Law could not build cities and mills and warehouses on the Pacific, but the Hudson's Bay Com- pany cotdd and did, effectually preventing any serious com- petition in the process. Under such exhibitions of superior power, some Americans chafed for several years, while the Company remained the strongest force in the upbuilding of the new community. The Mission interest had been petitioning Congress ever since 18.-^8 for the extension of the laws of the United States over the distant little settlement, but without success.* 1 Cf. Christian Advocate, December 21, 1843 — letter of the (Rev. A. F. Waller; White, Eh-. E., op. cit., pp. 18, 19. •1838 — 2Sth Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 514; 1840 — 28th Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 105. l6l] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY i6i The matter was not then pressing enough to require settle- ment of the boundary dispute, which was a condition pre- cedent to any assertion of exclusive jurisdiction in the Oregon Territory. Undiscouraged, however, they set about the agitation for a temporary government, which the death of a settler, in 1840, leaving a large estate and no heirs, gave them the opportunity to urge with some justifi- cation. ■ They endeavored to gain the adhesion of the French Canadians, but these, after first joining the mis- sionaries in the political activity, withdrew under the leader- ship of their priest.^ Moreover, most of the Americans were decidedly apathetic to the agitation. The com- mander of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, which was in the river at the time, discouraged the scheme, on the ground that it was undesired, unnecessary, unenforceable, and a poor substitute for the moral code they all fol- lowed; also, that it would make an unfavorable impression in the States, being an admission of the insufficiency of the Mission to prevent crime among themselves." The missionaries, nevertheless, the Indians of the Willa- mette Valley having practically disappeared by this time, were intent upon raising the value of their farms and stock by making the settlement attractive to immigrants from the States. The next good opportunity came after the ' The primary source for material on the Catholic Mission in Oregon, which was later erected into a bishopric — not the Jesuit Mission of Father De iSmet to the Rocky Mountain Indians — are the letters con- tained in Rapport sur les Missions du Diocese de Quebec, qui sont secouru par I' Association de la Foi (Quebec, January, 1839, no. i — March, 1851, no. 9) ; and Notice sur le Territoire et sur le Mission de L'Oregon (n. p., n. d. 1844?). 2 Wilkes, Charles, Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, 1S3S-1843 (New York, 1851), vol. iv, pp. 349 et seq. — "Johnson, trapper-like, took what I thought the soundest view, saying that they yet Uved in the bush, and let all do right there was no necessity for laws, lawyers, or magistrates." 1 62 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [162 emigration of 1842 had brought into the Willamette Valley a government Indian agent, some well-educated trappers, and a number of politically minded lawyers. This time they were successful. At a meeting held May 2, 1843, with the help of American settlers and the leadership of the mountain men, the Mission party carried the day by a vote of 52 to 50. The Canadians, defeated and fearing the misuse of authority, remained apart. The meeting chose a Supreme Judge, a Clerk, a Sheriff, a Treasurer, and a Legislative Committee charged with drafting a code of laws. This Committee reported July 5th, and their report, with only minor amendments, was adopted as the Organic Laws of the People of Oregon Territory.^ The extant journals of the various meetings, both public and committee,^ give only bare outlines of their "doings," but the finished work reveals what was uppermost in the minds of these creators. The Organic Law is a curious mixture, including not only constitutional and statutory rules, but also such minor provisions as the amount of fees and the dates for holding court. It begins with a bill of rights of the individual, declaring certain "Articles of Compact among the free citizens," which were common to nearly all state constitutions of the period, and the added proviso that, " There shall be neither slavery nor involun- tary servitude in said territory, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." It provides for full manhood suffrage; the vesting of executive power in a committee of three, of legislative power in a committee of nine, and of judicial power in a court of three; and for a recorder to keep all records, standards, and written instruments. The Laws 'Saxton, C, The Oregonian, p. 19; Oregon Archives, pp. 14, 15. ' Oregon Archives, passim. 163] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 163 of Iowa of 1838-9 were to " be the law of this territory, in civil, military, and criminal cases ; where not otherwise pro- vided for, and where no statute of Iowa Territory applies, the principles of common law and equity shall govern." Revenue to defray expenses was to be raised by subscrip- tion, from which an individual might withdraw, thereby insuring that the government would not become burden- some. All this was more than the colony needed at that moment, since crime is apt to be summarily dealt with on the fron- tier, and no private actions involving any great amount of property cotdd arise without the Hudson's Bay Company being a party. The ofificers of this company, of course, had been consulted, from the beginning of the agitation for a provisional government, and, while they could hardly have been expected to give official adherence, they did not throw any obstacles in the way of consummating the wishes of the Mission party. Also, the Americans did not care to raise questions with the Company which they were unable to settle, so they set as the limits of their jurisdiction, " the northern boundary line of the United States," although it had not then been determined west of the Rockies.^ There were, however, two features of this Organic Law which touched very closely the real needs of the new com- mimity. One of these, the Militia Law, provided for the organization of a battalion of "mounted riflemen" to be subject to the call of any commissioned officer " in case of invasion or insurrection — provided that he has sufficient reason for so doing, and give immediate notice thereof to the executive committee." The " duty " of military service 'A few years later, the political men of Oregon defined the Territory as extending north to 54° 40', and made it seem advantageous for the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company to join them as individuals. Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxi, p. no, et seq. — " McLoughlin's Last Letter." 1 64 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [164 for all males between the ages of sixteen and sixty was declared, but it was a duty only and not a liability, since the Provisional Government could not enforce its laws except by refusal to recognize as a "citizen" those who would not undertake its burdens. It was, therefore, not a govern- ment, but merely a private association. Citizenship, however, must have been a privilege of some value, for in such a community the principal form of wealth would be real property, and the guarantee of one's land claim by neighboring claimants a thing of actual worth. This was done in the most important and attractive section of the Organic Law, the provisions of which were modeled after the Linn Land Donation Bill in Congress.^ The law permitted " any person " to hold a claim of 640 acres of land anywhere, except at a town or power site, and guaranteed the action of trespass, provided the holder had marked out, recorded, improved, and occupied the claim within six months. Here again the power of the Mission is apparent, for the law specially recognized their claim "of an extent not more than six miles square." The French Canadian settlers, guided by their priest, had remained aloof from this whole scheme, and in advance of its completion had impugned the theories of the poli- tically minded missionaries. Asserting that they desired a " imion, and inexhaustible peace between all the people," as well as the guarantee of their rights and liberties, and that they were willing to submit to any lawful government when it comes, they criticized the militia as unnecessary and likely to arouse suspicion among the natives. More- over, they asserted that there was no "direct guarantee" ' The SuWndian Agent said of popular feeling in Oregon regarding the Linn Bill, that " should it at last fail of passing ... it will create a disaffection so strong as to end only in open rebellion." White, E., op. cit., p. 30. 165] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 165 that the proposed land law would not be broken or changed on the morrow. The rest of the scheme appeared to them "too self-interested, and full of degrees, useless to our power, and overloading the colony instead of improving it; besides, men of laws and science are too scarce, and have too much to do in such a new country." Furthermore, they expressed the pious idea : " That the members ( of the colony) should be influenced to interest themselves, to their own welfare, and that of the public, by the love of doing good, rather than by the hope of gain," in order to remove from "the people all suspicions of interest in the persons of their representatives." ^ The reply of the missionaries to this opinion would be of interest, but, unfortunately, even the debates by which this Provisional Government was formed are not available. Certain it is that the coorpora- tion and the leadership of the mountain men were required to carry the question by a slender majority.^ Events succeeding the organization of the Provisional Government show that the fears of the French Canadians, that it would overload the colony with officials, were un- founded. Indeed, it was so weak that the first sign of Indian trouble compelled the threatened neighborhood to call for volunteers, elect officers, and drill a company, though the Organic Law had made provision for all this.' But one criticism of the French Canadians proved only too true, namely, that there was no assurance that the land law Avould not be changed. In the very hour of the Mission party's triumph, the population of the settlement was quadrupled, and the fundamental law promptly altered by the new-comers. ' Oregon Archives, pp. 12, 13. 'Gray, W. H., History of Oregon (Portland, 1870), pp. 275-6, gives an answer, but it is not part of the contemporary debate. ' Oregon Archives, pp. 36-7. i66 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [i66 The Executive Committee in its first message to the Legis- lative, on June i8, 1844/ called attention to the fact that, until the question of sovereignty was settled and the Indian title quieted, no rights in the soil they cultivated could be conferred. However, the natives were almost gone. Great Britain had never claimed the Willamette Valley, and " the United States have held out inducements to their citizens, and indirectly encouraged the settlement of this country by them." Under the necessity of providing protection for themselves, the settlers had adopted certain rules, which, as there was no prospect of immediate aid from the United States, it was thought should be altered to the end of " a more thorough organization." It was recommended that a light tax be laid, the executive power be vested in one person, several minor changes of convenience be carried out, and that the article in the land law guaranteeing six square miles of land to the missions be repealed, as " detri- mental to the interests of the community." There were also other recommendations, such as the establishment of roads, ferries, and schools, indicative of a healthy growth. The message closed w'ith an appeal to that human sense of fairness which the Provisional Government exhibited from this day forth : We desire to impress upon your minds that, although the colony is small, and its resources feeble, yet the life, rights, and liberties of an individual here are of equal value to him as to one in the city of Washington or London. And it is a duty which devolves on you, and on us, to use as much discretion, vigilance, and caution, in maturing and adopting measures for promoting the interests of this little colony, as if we expected our names and acts would be enrolled in the pages of history, or inscribed on pillars of stone, when our day and generation shall have passed away. ' Text in Bancroft, H. H., History of Oregon, vol. i, p. 429, n. 8. 167] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 167 By 1844, when the new superintendent arrived, the Methodist Mission in Oregon was thoroughly disrupted by the strife of factions within itself, and it drops from politics as an organized and cohesive group. The mercantile busi- ness of the Mission had reached alarming proportions, its assets being about $30,000. in accounts receivable from the settlers, besides a mill, and extensive farms and herds, " so that it presented more the appearance of a design to estab- lish a colony, than of an associated effort to promote true Christian evangelization." To liquidate the business promptly, the superintendent arranged with the secular agent, George Abemethy, to take most of the property and the paper assets for $20,000., and also to assume the liabilities, amounting to $10,000. This change, so far as politics were concerned, was in name only, for Abernethy promptly be- came not only a prominent merchant, but also governor of the settlement, being elected on the temperance issue. The faction of which he was the leader assimied the name of the American Party.^ The first emigrants who came to Oregon were men of strong character and intelligence, who " seem to have sen- sible views of what they are to expect," and their women were tidy and care-free.' Among them were several leaders of real ability, who, in the excited state of public feeling, might easily have made considerable trouble for the Eng- lish Company, had not its officers been adroit enough to meet them more than half way. These officers encouraged the ' Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 29th Annual Report, pp. 31-33. There is much information regarding their activities in letters from the former missionaries to their friends in Hawaii, published by the Rev. S. C. Damon, in The Friend of Temperance and Seamen, vols, iii and iv, Honolulu, 1845-6. ' Niks' Register, vol. bcviii, p. 342 — letter from Col. Kearny's Ex- pedition, June 3, I&4.5. l68 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [i68 feeling of mutual accoramcxlation and desire to get along without quarreling, which seems to have been one of the most prominent features of life in the territory during the regime of the Provisional Government. The Company's officers and the missionaries had been cooperating from the first in preserving order in the settle- ment, which was the more easily accomplished since the policy of both looked to the prohibition of liquor. The Sub-Indian Agent, the sole representative of the United States Government, also took prompt steps to suppress " the manufacture and use of that most degrading, wither- ing, and damning of all the curses that has ever visited our race since the fall of Adam." In this course he had the aid of the great majority of the colonists.^ The Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company knew, however, that other and more active measures must be taken if the new arrivals were really to be assimilated into his commercial system and turned from hostility to his Com- pany. He made no attempt to press exclusive rights to his personal claim at Willamette Falls. Instead, he judiciously distributed certain lots as gifts to a selected few, who were also entertained by him hospitably and free of charge, at Fort Vancouver.^ McLoughlin was aware of the growing hostility to Great Britain; he saw how it freshened the natural pugnacity and determination of the emigrants, as well as strengthened their fears of British intentions in the West. To the settler he was the representative of his country as well as his company. A situation more preg- nant with opportunities for trouble can hardly be imagined than this, resulting from the necessarily close relations between the courtly, dignified old despot of the Columbia, 'White, E., op. cit., pp. 31-2. Cf. Hastings, L. W., op. cit., p. 57- 2 Niles' Register, vol. Ixvii, p. 130 — letter of P. H. Burnett, July 25, 1844. 169] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 169 accustomed throughout his Ufe to exercising power and commanding obedience, and the American frontiersman, accustomed to escaping from the slightest exhibition of either. The white-haired McLoughHn had the resourcefulness bom of a long experience in handling all classes of men; he knew when firmness counted for most, just the place to yield a point, and the moment to give a dinner in the great hall of his fort. Quickly he learned who should be signally honored with the Company's best wine, and to whom credit should be extended liberally. Yet the immense power which the leadership of the social and commercial life of the community placed in his hands alone would not have been sufficient to maintain the position of the Hudson's Bay Company. The pitiful condition of the way-worn emigrants who in the late fall came floating down the river gave him the opportunity to display kindly feelings and to aid his fellows in distress — ^help to the destitute, generously extended by a great-hearted man, which im- mediately placed them under lasting obligations to him.'^ By sending food and bateaux up the river to aid those arriving late, by offering the hospital facilities of his post to the sick, and by extending credit at the Company's stores payable in the next season's crops, he at once allayed their suspicions. He disarmed his critics by giving employ- ment at the Falls to mechanics and builders; and lent the resources of his Company to supporting an air of prosper- ous activity in the settlement.' For many of these acts ' "... In acting as I have done, I firmly believe that time will prove I have not only fulfilled the dictates of humanity, but most effectually promoted the best interests of the Company, ..." Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxi, p. 125 — Dr. McLoughlin's Last Letter. 2 Hastings, L. W., op. cit., pp. 56, 58; Johnson and Winter, op. cit., PP- 38, 39; Shively, J. M., op. cit., pp. 11, 12. The Methodist Mission also rendered material aid to the new-comers, Hastings, L. W., op. cit., p. 55- 170 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [170 he was severely criticised by his government and the direc- tors of the Company; especially for the extension of credit, since collections were slow and sometimes impossible to make. Most of these accounts with the settlers were small — from $5;o.oo to $200.00 — , though a few as large as $1,500. were carried with those who appeared to be leaders. This accommodation he gave " judiciously and prudently," and probably the Company was repaid for his liberal policy in many other ways, through the obligation it placed upon these men.*^ The aid which the Chief Factor derived, in exercising his control over settlers and Indians, from the Catholic Church in the Willamette Valley and the Jesuit Mission in the upper cotmtry is not to be overlooked. The Doctor was himself a Catholic, the parish priests were Canadians, and several of the emigrant leaders either were or else became Catholics upon their arrival ; yet so naturally and unobtru- 'Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1880, p. 54 — McLoughlin Document; Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. xiv, p. 224 — letter of Daniel H. Lownsdale; Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxi, pp. 125, 139 — ^Dr. McLoughlin's Last Letter. Lieutenant Howison, U. iS_ N., reported on the subject, in 1846, as follows : " I was told at Vancouver that the amount of debt due the Company by Americans exceeded eighty thousand dollars; and that so little dis- position was shown to pay off this debt, that it had been determined to refuse any further credits. . . . The bulk of this debt, however, is due in sums of from twenty to two hundred dollars, and seems to he the cause of no uneasiness to the officers of the iCompany, who told me they were often surprised by the appearance (after an absence of years) of some debtor who came forward to liquidate the claim against him. 'Much of this large amount will probably be lost to the Company ; but tfiere is some reason to presume that the larger credits were granted to individuals whose political influence was thus sought to be procured." 30th Cong. 1st Sess. House Misc. Docs., no. 29, p. 19, Cf. also letter of P. H. Burnett, from Oregon, Jan. 20, 1846, in the Weekly Tribune, Liberty, Clay Co., Mo., Aug. 22, 1846, and Hastings, L. W., of. cit., p. 58. 171] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 171 sively was this influence exerted that it is nearly impossible to make any just calculation of the extent or effect of its use. However, such a suitable power was not allowed to stand idle by those keen and intelligent men who directed the Company's affairs west of the Rocky Mountains, as is abundantly proved by the writings of Protestants/ For a few years everything went smoothly. The emi- grants scattered themselves over the face of the coimtry, each one staking out a claim of 640 acres of delightful prairie land, or engaged in the building operations at Oregon City.^ Though preoccupied with breaking the soil, putting in a crop, fencing and erecting log homes, they still found time to revise the Organic Law of the Provisional Government, with the intent of establishing it upon a firmer basis, by granting their government sufficient authority to be effective, and simpldfying its procedure to make it more re- sponsive to their needs. In its earlier form it 'had been a dis- trusted necessity, and its three-headed Executive Committee so unwieldy that it could accomplish but little. The new set- tlers, however, being a substantial class of genuine home- seekers, with an intelligent view of their own aspirations, and a recognition of both the opportunities and the limita- tions of their new position, proceeded to adapt the govern- ment to their desires. They saw in it an instrument by which they might regulate the most fundamental features of their 1 The contemporary sources upon this point are the fierce invective letter of D. H. Lownsdale {Ore. Hist. Quart, vol. xiv, pp. 213-249), and the Whitman correspondence (Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1891 and 1893). The Hudson's Bay ■Gjmpany's use of its power aroused a very bitter opposition, which succeeded in electing the first territorial delegate to Congress. The Lownsdale letter is the most important and informing source for the side of the opposition in early Oregon politics. ' This was the name given the settlement at the Falls of the Willamette. McLoughlin spent some $46,000 in commercial improve- ments at this place. Cf. Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. xiv, pp. 68, 69. 172 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [172 new life and property. The men who were politically domin- ant among the emigrants were conservative, recognizing neither American nor British interests as exclusive, and seek- ing only the orderly development of the country whose future they had chosen to mold for themselves. Few in number, yet superior in ability and sustained desires, they gave the Provi- sional Government, a tone which has lasted long. They re- garded the preservation of the peace, integrity, and fair name of Oregon as of first importance. In doing this they served well the interests of their country, for they never once gave a castts belli to the expanding wrath of the United States, although they passed through many delicate situations which might have been productive of excellent excuses for war, had they wished to fight. ^ The circumstances which made it advisable for the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company to join in the support of the Provisional Government flowed from the conciliatory attitude of the settlers in " remodeling the former organic ' The reason every critical situation was smoothed over is perhaps to be found in the friendly disposition and the willingness to com- promise exhibited by the officers of both the Hudson's Bay Company and the Provisional Government. Not that either had so very much at stake, but that each wanted to get along with the other, and pos- sessed the intelligence to find a way. This spirit is voiced in the message of the Executive Committee of December 16, 1844 : "As descendants of the United States and of Great Britain, we should honor and respect the countries which gave us birth; and, as citizens of Oregon, we should, by a uniform course of proceeding, and a strict observance of the rules of justice, equity, and republican principles, without party distinction, use our best endeavors to cultivate the kind feeling, not only of our native countries, but of all the powers or states with whom we may have intercourse." Oregon Archives, pp. 58, 59. Hast- ings, L. W., op. cit., p. 58, says : " The Oregon emigrants are, as a general thing, of a superior order to those of our people, who usually emigrate to our frontier countries. They are not the indolent, dis- solute, ignorant, and vicious, but they are generally the enterprising, orderly, intelligent, and virtuous." 173] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 173 law, and divesting it aitirely of its national character," ^ as well as the rather anomalous position in which the Company was placed by the coming of so many American settlers. The officers possessed legal authority over the Company's servants,^ which circumstances practically nullified when the American settlement became an enticing refuge for the disgruntled, into which it was unwise to pursue them.* The Company had certain possessory rights to the lands about its posts, necessary in the conduct of its business, but as soon as the most favorable locations in the Willamette Valley had been occupied, reckless 7\mericans refused to recognize these rights, and the Company's officers dared not eject squatters by force.* These intrusions, sometimes repeated by the same individual, were made with " a belief that the Hudson's Bay Company would be soon turned out of the country by the terms of the anticipated treaty, and many were led to this offensive course by a desire to succeed to those advantages which could not be conveyed away by the retiring Company." " From the increasing difficulty of maintaining the Com- pany's rights, and the desire to bring pressure on their creditors, Dr. McLoughlin and his assistants resolved, in the summer of 1845, to accept a proffered opportunity of ^ Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxi, p. 1 16 — " McLoughlin's Last Letter." »I and II George IV, 66. ^Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxi, p. ill. *Ibid., vol. xxi, p. 112. The ejected squatter always had a weapon of revenge in the threat to burn Fort Vancouver. ' " But although too many were influenced by motives so unworthy, yet it must not be supposed I would include among them the substantial cultivator, or any one of the great bulk of honest emigrants who came here to live by his labor, and not by his artifice or speculating genius, which would render the labors of others subservient to his use." 30th Cong. 1st Sess. House Misc. Docs., no. 29, p. 19, Lieut. Howison's report. Cf. Martinv R. M., The Hudson's Bay Territories, pp. 37-38. 174 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [174 joining the provisional government, as individuals, " for the purpose of mutual protection, with the white population in the Willamette." ^ They did this with good grace, as it had no appearance of a forced submission. The decision was a wise one, for so far from neutralizing their authority in the country, as an English lieutenant observed, it great enhanced their preistige, and put into their hands qtiasi legal weapons which they had not before enjoyed. With this new power in their possession, the Company's ofificers continued, for several years after the boundary had 'been established by treaty, in large measure to control, if not to govern, the commtmity west of the Cascade Mountains, for they had completely sub- merged the " Ultra Party," as the opposition was sometimes called. But the American party was neither defeated nor silenced. Their cause was the age-long cause of those who have aspired but have not attained, and they were left by their ill success in no mood to remain quiet long. The leaders of the American party were, many of them, the same men who had directed the Methodist Mission in its days of temporal grandeur, and who, dispossessed from a power they had barely tasted, bore in their hearts the bitter hatred which is born of balked desires. The governor, who was only a nominal leader, was unable to dominate the legislature, and so remained silent, awaiting the proper moment for a revenge, which forms a sad aftermath to the rather brilliant political beginnings of these people.^ Correctly speaking, there were no parties in Oregon dis- '^Am. Hist, Rev., vol. xxi, p. no. 'An unfavorable but correct estimate of this man may be found in Bancroft, op. cit., vol. i, p. 612, et seq., where the subject of Oregon's political decadence is fully treated. It centered about Dr. McLaughlin's claim to the site of Oregon City, of which he was deprived by the Donation Law of 1852. 175] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 175 tinguished by principles that were larger or more persistent than the prejudices of those individuals who led them. The divisions along lines of mere personal f ollowings were very numerous, and shifted rapidly with the growth of likes and dislikes. Numerically, the largest party were the American settlers, sometimes split by factions, without much leader- ship, and so well satisfied with their position that they were content to remain, like the Canadians, mere pawns, to be manipulated by those who were playing the political game. They were content because their land claims and the peace and safety of the settlement were well looked after by their government; and they were concerned in the squabbles be- tween American merchants and the Company only when their passions were stirred. They were substantial people, eager to build homes, pre- occupied with that task, and fairly prosperous. The young men, the speculators, the reckless, made a great deal of trouble for the Company as individuals, but could never be consolidated into a powerful group. The r^lly dissatis- fied drifted off to California, where there was considerably more excitement, as easily as they had drifted to Oregon. Then, too, they lacked leadership, because any one with ability found that his interest lay along conservative lines. There was too much speculation, especially in town sites and seaports which lined the Columbia for a hundred miles, to return quick profits to any one. The settlement was very prosperous for a number of years. The export of lumber to the Sandwich Islands and Cali- fornia early developed, while the needs of the new arrivals, and the Company's shipments of provisions to the Russian settlements in the North, furnished a ready demand and excellent prices for all the foodstuffs produced in excess of family consumption. But the much talked of Asiatic markets did not materialize, and, in 1847 and 1848, the old 176 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [176 Story of over-production and low prices was repeated. To make matters worse, this occurred at a time when the cost of all supplies had been raised, because of the gradual aban- donment by the fur company of it business along the lower Columbia. The Company moved its principal depot to Vancouver's Island, after the boundary treaty was con- cluded, and left the settlement to American enterprise. Temperamentally, the settlers had as little in common with the missionaries, whom they termed " American aristo- crats," as they had with the more real aristocracy, composed of those hard-headed, keen Scotchmen who directed the Company's affairs on the Columbia. Yet, by some queer outburst of feeling, the settlers were at length either led to back the Mission party, or else induced to remain quiet in the perfectly fruitless, if gratifying, campaign of revenge by which, when a territorial government had been organized, the old Chief Factor of the Company was deprived of his land claim at Oregon City. Oregon eventually made good its honorable obligation to this man, whose policy had " tended to the introduction of American settlers into the country." ^ From what has just been said, it may be concluded that early Oregon politics were too purely personal to be really interesting, save as the sidelights are amusing, or indicate some natural political aptitude.^ However, it would seem that in the chaotic political beginnings of Oregon may be 'C/. Gilbert, J. H., Trade and Currency in Early Oregon (New York, 1907) passim. 2 Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. x, p, 81, report of Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour, 1846. 'The Oregon legislature elected as its Speaker one of its members who was found of talking, simply to prevent his taking up too much time. Bancroft, op. cit., vol. i, p. 488, n. 32. A study of Oregon politics, is Woodward, W. C, " Rise and Early History of Political Parties in Oregon," Ore. Hist. Quart., vols, xi-xiii. 177] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY 177 found something other than mere faction; something that might have come to the surface and caused a row of con- siderable magnitude, had not the settlers been comparatively- contented and concerned with matters of more immediate import. By 1845 the settlers had worked the Provisional Government into such a shape that it fulfilled their every need, and the only political strife was involved in the struggle for commercial supremacy between the British Company on the one hand and the American merchants on the other. The more usual and fundamental political div- ergence between the interests of commercialism and agrarianism did not appear in early Oregon. Up to the present the moneyed power in Oregon has been in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company. . . . Not a merchant dared put his head into Oregon without the expectation of losing everything, unless he fell into the track marked out by the Company. . . . Everything has been written and said to kill the country in a commercial view with Atnerican merchants. '^ The settler did not suffer from this power; on the contrary, he benefited greatly by it; yet he apprehended its presence, and his quarrel remained latent only by reason of the adroit manner in which that power was exercised. If the interpretation placed upon the facts which have been adduced is the correct one, it follows that Oregon presented to the farming and mechanic classes cer- tain political advantages, in addition to its well-known 1 Ore. Hist. Quart., vol. xiv, p. 242' — letter of D. H. 'Lownsdale, of 1849. Cf. Palmer, Joel, op. cit. The line is not to be drawn too closely, for the Company sometimes withheld raw material from a mechanic, or refused further credit to a farmer, which provoked similar com- ment. By and large, however, if we judge by the purpose and excel- lence of the institutions the settlers erected for themselves in their Provisional Government, we must, I think, conclude that the old op- position between financial and farming interests was dormant in the settlement, because for the time being the objects of both coincided. 178 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [178 physical advatages, which in future years proved a powerful attraction for all who were yearning to make their homes in the midst of delightful natural surroundings. California, indeed, drew off many of the more adventur- ous, for the guide-books had it that even larger tracts of land were given the immigrant there than in Oregon, and the possibility of having the greatest commercial city of the coast grow up about one's cabin was not altogether fanciful. There was apt to be more excitement there, for the govern- ment was following the revolutionary tradition of Mexico, and the emigrants were by no means disinclined to try their luck at that diversion. Captain Sutter, from his enormous ranch near the present city of Sacramento, performed ser- vices to the new-comers similar to those rendered by the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon. While goods of all kinds were much higher there, owing to the enormous duties charged by the Mexican Government, nevertheless, the feel- ing that control of the country was rapidly passing into the hands O'f the immigrants was strong among them, and they were willing to endure minor annoyances and hazard any- thing, in order to be first in a country possessing the vm- equaled facilities, in respect to commerce and agriculture, of central California. In view of these things, it is small wonder that the Pacific Coast region quickly assumed, in the popular imagination, the aspect of the veritable El Dorado, which it has ever since remained. A government strong enough to guarantee the continuity of the emigrants' ideas regarding property and moral pro- gress, but in no sense a burden ; the almost certain prospect that Congress would fulfill its promise in regard to dona- tion of lands as soon as the joint occupancy status should be abandoned; and the undoubted natural advantages of the country for commerce, manufacturing, and farming, com- bined to induce the majority of emigrants to settle in 179] SETTLEMENT IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY lyg Oregon; but it was always difficult for them to separate truth from fiction in the stories they heard, so numerous and plausible were the rumors set afloat by the agents from the different settlements. Until the discovery of gold, however, the larger number of emigrants preferred the more northern portion of the Pacific Coast. Of the aspirations and ideals of these men, one who returned to urge their cause upon the federal con- gress, in 1846, said: Already Oregon has a white population of 8,000 souls, who have gone thither mostly from various portions of the Union, but far the greater part from the Southern and Western States ; there being more inhabitants there from Virginia, or whose forefathers have formerly resided in that state, than any other single state in the Union ; still possessing the same devotion to our free institutions, and carrying with them their accustomed politeness, which has ever characterized the people of the West, and are educating their sons and daughters in that country to act well their part in life when those who guided their foot- steps over the Rocky Mountains shall he no more.^ 'Saxton, C, op. cit., pp. 32, 33. By the middle of the next decade the proportion of New Englanders about equaled that of Westerners. The most thorough discussion of the occurrences in Oregon and the state of public feeling there is found in Bancroft, History of Oregon, vol. i, passim. CHAPTER IX Conclusion : The Interplay of Sentimental and Economic Forces In the beginning was the Northwest Coast with its native Indian population and vast untouched resources. Then there came the vague rumors of Russian and Spanish navigators. An EngUshman visited the coast, pubhshed his report, and the Northwest Coast became the resort of traders, who came from all parts of the world to try their luck in the new field of great promise. They brought to the coast cargoes of tawdry things, which they exchanged for furs of great value to the oriental peoples. From the East they received the curious products of its craftsman- ship, pleasing to occidental eyes. After a while, when the maritime nations of Europe became involved at home, Americans succeeded to the sole enjoyment of this wealth - producing trade; but for all that it was an impermanent thing, and the only record it left upon the coast as evidence of its passage was the white man's venereal disease among the natives. The shore was peculiar. Wooded mountains rose abrup- tly from the sea; to the northward the coast was indented by deep sounds which furnished the harbors necessary for the commerce of that day, as well as the present. The wide desert basin east of these mountains was drained by two branches of a great river system, the northern only being navigable. In its course to the sea the lower part of this river broke through two mountain ranges. Between these i8o [i8o l8i] CONCLUSION l8l mountain ranges lay a fertile valley with many open prairies, well adapted to agriculture, a valley such as the commerce of nineteenth-century America required as tributary to the creation of any port which might be founded in that day. But, as the river had a bar at its mouth, it was considered inferior to the northern sounds as a harbor for entrance by sailing vessels. While the maritime trade was at its height, others under- took the larger financial task of exploiting the interior by establishing a central depot on the Columbia, with many smaller posts in the hinterland reached by sea, or river, or trial. This fell into the hands of the English by the accident of war, as easily and naturally as the coast trade had fallen to the Americans. Once the English were firmly estab- lished, the geographical pecularities of the country conspired to prevent successful competition by Americans. American fur traders, however, found that nature had provided a route from their own western frontier across the mountains to the Pacific, which could be traversed by wagon, without road cutting. This route was far superior to the river and trail line of communication maintained by the English, far to the north. Before the fur trade was established on a remunerative basis, the diplomats of Great Britain and the United States contrived to exclude other goverrmients which had terri- torial pretensions to this region, and seized upon the activi- ties of their nationals to found wide and conflicting claims of territorial sovereignty. But, realizing the weakness of their respective cases, they amicably agreed to a modus vivendi by which the trade might be open to both for a term of years, in the hope that the passing of time and changed conditions would modify the extreme pretensions of each nation. Each nation, taking advantage of its opportunities, se- l82 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [182 cured some further, but still indecisive, accretion of strength to its position in that quarter. The British gained complete control of the fur trade, and the United States purchased from Spain the best set of claims then extant. The diplo- mats talked it all over again, in 1827, but, being no nearer an agreement, they decided to prolong the joint-occupancy convention indefinitely, until it should become apparent that a different status was necessary for the few inhabitants of Oregon. During the years that followed, the government of the United States was more alive to the developments of the future than were its citizens. These latter saw only a country which might be profitably exploited for its furs, and that was already being done by a foreign system with which they could not compete. The government, taking a larger view, sought to secure safe harbors for its commerce, which was already rising on the Pacific. In 1835, it made the first attempt to buy the Bay of San Francisco from Mexico; but, failing, bided its time, held on to its slender claim to Puget Sound, and sent an exploring expedition to obtain accurate information about the Pacific. Just when the fur trade was undergoing its largest devel- opment, a rather startling appeal to be taught the Word of God came from one of the interior tribes, and awakened a latent missionary interest in the Oregon country. The men who were sent in response paid scant heed to the tribe that had asked for instruction, but, taking the wants of the future into account, went down to the fertile valley near the sea. It was not long before the wants of the future ab- sorbed most of their attention, and they began to add their voice to the growing chorus of praise of the wonderful beauties of the coast ; its mountains, covered with perpetual snow, pouring into the prairies around their base transparent streams of the purest 183] CONCLUSION 183 water ; the white and black oak, pine and cedar and fir forests, that divide the prairies into sections convenient for farming purposes; the rich mines of coal in its hills, and salt springs in its valleys; its quarries of limestone, sandstone, chalk, and marble; the salmon of its rivers, and the various blessings of the delightful and healthy climate. . . . ^ Such words fell upon welcoming ears, for the farmers in the settlements about the jxmction of the Missouri and Mis- sissippi rivers, were coming into a more recipient mood, and they soon grew impatient to go and see for themselves what it was all like. In this impatience they were abetted by those trappers who wintered in the Missouri border towns. These trappers knew all the mountain passes, and had for years been in the habit of telling tales of their life in the open, " stranger and more romantic than fiction." They lived so ruthlessly ofif the country that, by 1840, they had nearly exterminated both beaver and game. When the price received for their peltries fell so low that their work grew unprofitable, the mountain fur hunters became footloose, and cast about for some other means of liveli- hood. Men who had been so long in the wild and silent places of the Rocky Mountains were not apt to care for the life of a mule driver in the caravans of the Santa Fe traders, and those who had Indian wives did not wish to return home and expose their squaws to the social inferiority which would be theirs in the settlements. As a result, most of the mountain men fast disappeared, " in the direction of the setting sun, expending their remaining energies and final services in lighting the way and guiding the footsteps of the emigrant and the settler to the home they are seeking in Oregon and California." ^ 1 26th Cong. 1st ISess., Sen. 000., no. 514 P- 2 — " Petition of Ameri- can Settlers, 1840." ' De Bow, J. D. B., Inditstrial Resources (New Orleans, 1852), vol. iii, P. 517- Cf. Hastings, op. cit., Preface. l84 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [184 There were also certain wanderers who crossed the plains and deserts to the western coast in search of health or adventure. These saw the splendid opportunities presented by the fertile lands near the sea, and, on their return to the States, wrote long accoimts of all the good things that might be found in Oregon and California. Though some of them turned back before completing the long trip, nevertheless, they found out enough from the trappers and Hudson's Bay people, who were met along the way, to be able to talk intel- ligently about the region beyond the mountains. When they reached home they found great interest everywhere in what they had to tell. The junior Senator from Missouri, Dr. Linn, in 1838, again took up the task of arousing popular interest in the claims of the United States to the Oregon country, which had been attempted frequently in the previous decade. The potential resources of the country had been noted in the early agitation, but the people were fully occupied at home, and had paid scant heed to these political agitations, which were tinged with personal aversion to John Quincy Adams. There was no such animosity, however, in the Missouri Senator's interest, and his sustained efforts began to show fruit within a few years. Of course, no action could be taken by Congress that would compromise treaty arrange- ments, but a suggestion was thrown out of what action might be expected, at a later day, regarding land donations. This was sufficient, for the golden sunsets of the Mississippi Valley had been setting for some time upon a very restless set of men, to whom a hint was as good as a promise. The idea of expansion among the American people was again taking root in the rich soil of desire for something new, greater, more wonderful, than anything they had yet known. As soon as the emigrant movement was well started, in 1 842- 1 843, many minor politicians, who had their ears to 185] CONCLUSION 185 the ground, began to speak in prophetic strain, and, in the name of a glorious future, to urge the Congress to do some- thing for the West and the nation. These politicians, cast- ing about for a new appeal to the people, saw the possibili- ties in this sentiment for expansion, and seized upon it as a new partisan question, before the parties could estimate its strength, or determine what attitude should be adopted. The local leaders in the West sought to make an issue of the sentiment, by playing upon the feeHng of fear and antipathy for the mother country. They found it a strong sentiment ready to be aroused. This they did so admirably that before the decade was over it would not have been outside the truth to have called it, as it has later been called, the period of the " Roaring Forties." In the meantime, economic conditions in the Mississippi valley had been growing worse, and it was difficult for a man moderately well-off to find money with which to run his farm, let alone pay his taxes. All were intelligent enough to know that lack of a market was the cause of the trouble. Indeed, no one could escape knowing it when he tried to sell the products of his labor. However, the remedy seemed a long way off ; in fact, it was quite beyond a farmer's ability to secure, if not his comprehension to devise. Instead of exhibiting that sort of conservatism which takes fright and will not budge, men in this situation showed a type of conservatism peculiar to the American pioneer, which has often been mistaken for its opposite. Feeling that the little he had was not worth further care, the emigrant disposed of it, and sought the traditional form of relief from his sufferings. In the words of one of them : . . . the people in Amerca, at the present time, are far ahead of the majority of our statesmen in regard to the great. enter- prise of inhabiting Oregon and taking possession of our North- west Coast. Causes have been operating, for the last twenty- l86 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [i86 five years, in the North Atlantic States, to produce this un- paralleled mighty movement across the American continent. A system of aristocracy has oppressed the laboring classes, and roused the people to fly to the Western States, to avoid the " soup and parish relief societies," as witnessed in Europe ; and in the West, the pioneers were compelled to seek new homes for their families, and to find, if possible, a suitable market for their produce, and a " range " for their herds. ^ The pioneers of the American frontier had always been a restless body of men and women. For twenty years or more, the Mississippi valley frontier had been in course of settlement, before serious depression came upon the market for farm produce. As the Indian land up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers offered no great change from their situation, and would require money to purchase, the pioneers naturally sought the distant region upon the Pacific, about which glorious stories were being told, where land might be had for the asking. And when they made the move, they located in the fertile valley of the Willamette, close to the principal post of the Hudson's Bay Company, where they could buy seed and tools, have their wheat ground, and sell the surplus of their farms and herds. That they lost no time in establishing themselves may be seen from advice dated from Honolulu, in June, 1845 : There are two packets now running between Oregon City and Honolulu; the American brig, Chenamus, Captain Sylvester, and the Hudson's Bay Company's barque, Cowlitz, Captain Heath. The Chenamus arrived at Honolulu on the 20th May, after a twenty-eight day passage. Cargo, 460 bbls. flour, 5 do. wheat, 45 bbls. and 15 boxes salmon, 37,200 feet lumber, 137,000 shingles, 9 spars„ and one American mare. The Cowlitz sailed for Oregon on the 15th May, with English and 1 Saxton, Charles, op. cit., p. 41. 187] CONCLUSION 187 American manufactures — tea, sugar, coffee, and other produc- tions from the Islands, India, and China. The voyage between the two places averages twenty-five to thirty days. The Poly- nesian newspaper advertises salted provisions, barley, oats, peas, ■beans, butter, etc., etc., from Oregon. The shingle trade is very brisk, an evidence that the Yankees are at work on the banks of the Columbia.^ All the ideas regarding Oregon, its attractions, advan- tages, resources, its mountains, rain, water-power, harbors, commercial routes, geographical peculiarities, situation, and beauties, which the emigrant movement ever developed, were present in its very earliest agitation. What gave im- pulse and life to the movement, what galvanized an idea into action, what moved the old frontiersmen over two thousand -miles of plains, mountains, and desert, was the feeling that the need and the time had come to make use of the latent resources on the western coast. Because of certain definite and keenly felt, though temporary, disadvantages of his situation in the middle West, the pioneer undertook the long journey at the very moment when the immigrants from Northern Europe — a class of people better equipped than lie to endure a long depression — were pushing settlements to the north and west along the upper Mississippi, and put- ting themselves in a position to be enriched by what he left. The pioneer regarded the long road he must travel as a dreary, tedious monotony, full of hardship and some suffer- ing, relieved only by the curiosities and savage beauty of nature, and by the few diversions he could make for him- self about the camp fire, or find in hunting. The Indians were always troublesome, though more apt to frighten than to be really dangerous. As the road became more traveled t>y Mormons and gold seekers it presented -more real dif- '^The Delta (New Orleans), October 19, 184s; cf. The Polynesian, January 25, 1845. l88 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [i88- ficulty to later emigrants than to those who first trod out the way, although to all it was very unpleasant after the smooth and level stretches by the Platte had been left behind^ Once arrived in Oregon, he staked out a claim from among the many desirable sites which were open to him, and set to work developing his property. The Provisional Government, after it had been recast in its final form, in 1845, save to the territory political attractions equal to those attractions with which nature had endowed the land. The fundamental provisions of the Organic Law expressed the simplicity and conservatism of the pioneer's creed : secur- ity of land claims, means for organized defence in case of need, exclusion of liquor and slavery, and provision for education, religious freedom, and other customary inalien- able rights of the individual. So long as these things were secured him, the settler could leave the administration in the hands of the missionary merchants and their friends,, and neglect the strife for prestige between them and the great English monopoly. The settlers became so busy de- veloping their farms that, after the stabilizing control of the Hudson's Bay Company was withdrawn, they over- produced their market again, and only the rush of gold diggers to California saved Oregon from ruin. This fur- nished a new market for their wheat, and, at the same time^ nearly depopulated the country. However, most of the Oregonians came back again richer in experience than in gold. Our thesis comes down to this : a glorious, and unusual^ natural region on the northwest coast of America was ex- ploited in a minor way by fur traders. For years it lay inviting to the settlers, yet too far off to be opportune for agricultural exploitation. The moment favorable to such- exploitation by American farmers came, not when settlers had filled the unoccupied lands in the States, but when the iSp] CONCLUSION 189 farmers had overproduced their available market, and had no other place so attractive to which they could go. So, -when the pioneers of the frontier needed relief, and sought new opportunity, they found it in a region which, though distant, was accessible by wagon, where land was free, and which seemed in the heat of fever to be a land where their dreams would come true. Thus settlers came to the Pacific shore. Two philosophical reflections should be made before clos- ing, in order that the interpretation placed upon this pre- face to the mid-century expansion of the American people may be seen more clearly. First, the reactions of the politically minded must not be confused with the underlying social desires of the in- dependent farming population. As often in American his- tory, the politicians, in seeking to turn these desires to their own account, failed to give them very precise expression. They naturally conceived of the enlargement of American markets in political rather than economic terms. They seemed to think that the remedy for existing hardshipsi could only be had at the expense of other nations rather than by cooperation with them in the upbuilding of new and mutually beneficial trades. As often before, the poli- ticians found it easy and profitable to work upon deep-seated prejudices. Yet it is highly probable, in viefw of the well advertised attractions of the Far West and the shortcomings of the economic situation in the States about 1840, that the moment would have been ripe for the overland migrations to have taken place, had the British not been within a thousand miles of the Columbia. We should remember that the frontiersmen possessed the habit of migration. But "had the British not been there, the sufferings of the pioneers on their arrival in Oregon would certainly have been greater, .and they would have had something else to worry about on 190 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [190 the way; so that, by and large, while hostility to the British was to some extent a factor in generating the heat of the Oregon fever, it may be said that it was in reality a small and not very potent factor. The ordinary emigrant — the man who bore the brunt of the movement — seems to have been nearly indifferent to the ideal of jingo patriotism, and gave about as much attention to organizing an independent state on the Pacific as he did to ousting the English from their position of vantage. He desired something quite different and of more immediate concern, and he made a point of international rivalry only when the policy of a foreign government actually did, or he thought it did, interfere with- his interests. The abstract idea of nationality had rela- tively slight influence upon his thinking or his emotions, though it might have been otherwise had his desire found no outlet. The pioneer did not seek to enhance national, glory or to vindicate national rights by adding rich and ex- tensive territories to the national domains.^ Though good farming lands were necessary to him, he was surfeited with, them in his old location. He only wished for what he really- needed — health and a sufficient reward for his labor. The pioneer sought a national market which he thought of in terms of new territory. As events turned out, it did not require the same extreme form of international action to- ward Great Britain to expand in the Northwest as was used to secure territory in the Southwest, at the expense of Mexico. The second reflection is, that the pioneers were in no sense radical ; unless the term, radical, is employed to denomi- 1 " Many of the people who went to California have left it and gone- to Oregon. I saw many of these while there; and they gave as one of the reasons of leaving — trouble with the Spaniards." Letter of John Boardman, from the iSandwich Islands, July 17, 1844, in Weston (Mo.) Journal, January 4, 1845. Many also drifted from Oregon down to California. C/. Hastings, op. cit., p. 22. igi] CONCLUSION 19I nate those who desire change in the interest only of main- taining their own relative position in society, rather than for the creation of a really new order of the means of earning a livelihood. Whether they might not have become radical, had they not found free land in the Far West is beside the immediate question. Their movement was not a move- ment of the aimless wanderer, of the "have nots." By far the larger number of emigrants were able, intelligent, substantial people, fairly well-off in the place from whence they first came. They were people — farmers and mechanics — tied fast to the soil, though to no particular portion of it, who were responding to a strong agitation which promised immediate relief from some very real hardships. They went West searching for the chance to make as easy and good a living, as they felt themselves entitled to ; but they did not start on their journey until they had thoroughly canvas- sed every phase of the situation, and were reasonably assured they would find on the coast opportunities of which they were deprived by circumstances in the Mississippi valley. After a year or two, there was no chance for a man to escape the restraints of community life by going to Oregon or California, for there was more restraint there than on the Missouri frontier : the fascinating stories of Bret Harte, and the Wild West show, are of a later date, when a golden civilization had filled the coast with a horde of less noble men. Nor could a youngster, weary of home, look for experience away from parental oversight ; home, father, mother, the " gals," and everything except the hogs were too likely to go with him. Then, too, a boy of sixteen might find himself an orphan, in entire charge of his sisters and brothers, before he reached the settlements. They were home-seekers, these men who tracked out the way, who enjoyed the pleasures of their travel, endured its tedium, and were not particularly on the lookout for adventures. They 192 OPENING A HIGHWAY TO THE PACIFIC [192 found upon the coast homes, in a beautiful and healthy- country, where one might earn a livelihood, and perhaps a fortune, amidst delightful surroundings. Such attractions soon sufficed to draw overland a throng of immigrants that grew in volume long after the return of prosperity had re- moved the original impetus to leave the States. These emigrants sought no change beyond a change of location, and the privilege of obtaining land by grant, in- stead of by purchase. They took with them all their old customs, all their prejudices, all their narrow ideas, all their habitual modes of cultivating the soil. In changing their geographical location on the continent, the American pioneers seldom sought to change their position in society; although, of course, an occasional individual was successful in lifting himself out of the pioneer environment and manner of thought. Surely this is conservatism ! It is a dynamic conservatism of which the American may well be proud, for as the years passed men continued to go down to the western sea in their great white prairie ships, there being many things over beyond the mountains of which they had long dreamed. APPENDIX " Oregon Saved " There has long been current an interpretation of the period of Oregon history with which this thesis deals, which has been so widely accepted, so vigorously denied and vehemently discussed, and which is so at variance with the interpretation of the present writer, that it cannot be passed over in silence, even though its ghost has been quiescent, and deservedly so, for some time past. It is an interpretation of well understood and indisputable facts; facts which necessarily arose while the Oregon territory was left free and open to exploitation by the nationals of two powerful, expanding, and jealous commercial nations. The convention between Great Britain and the United States, of 1818, expressly provided that no occurrence dur- ing the period of joint occupancy should prejudice the claims of either party to that territory. However, it was inevitable that, so long as the two governments were willing to compromise their extreme pretensions, the partisans on either side should feel that " the question of who^ should own Oregon would be settled by the fact of who should occupy Oregon." The indefiniteness with which the name " Oregon " has been used to cover either the whole or any of its parts has contributed not a little to cloud the vision; but the fact remains that there were many, very many, reasons why the actors in the unfolding drama of the expansion of the people of the United States should have in later life re- 193] 193 194 APPENDIX [194 garded their doings as contributory toward the end of " saving Oregon " to their country. The term is used advisedly, though no one can tell with precision what was meant by " saving Oregon." A few words upon the idea that " the question of who should own Oregon would be settled by the fact of who should occupy Oregon " will be sufficient to simplify the confusion that arises whenever the vexed question of the acquisition of Oregon by the United States is discussed. It will be recalled that the Convention of 1818 with Great Britain establishing joint occupancy of the whole of the Oregon country, stated "that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country." ^ The interpretation placed upon this quali- fication by both nations was, that in future negotiations the question of territorial sovereignty would be discussed and settled solely on the basis of facts which had occurred pre- vious to 18 1 8. In short, any happening whatever under the status of joint occupancy would be without effect upon the claims of either country. Such an interpretation of this provision, limiting the con- struction of the article in question, was, moreover, estab- lished by an article in the Convention of August 6, 1827, which continued in force indefinitely the joint occupancy status of Oregon. It was then agreed that nothing in this convention "shall be construed to impair, or in any man- ner affect, the claims " of either nation, and, with a single exception, every succeeding argument raised by either side was based upon acts previous to 18 18. This exception con- sists in the assertion by J. C. Calhoun, as Secretary of State in 1844, that the claim of the United States, " grounded oh continuity [of territory], has greatly strengthened" 1 U. S. Treaties, Conventions, etc., p. 632. 195] APPENDIX 195 through lapse of time by the progress of population west- ward, which he did not doubt would soon people the whole region drained by the Columbia. In rejoinder, the British negotiator remarked that what Calhoun had said on this point might " more properly be considered as demonstrating the greater degree of interest which the United States pos- sess, by reason of contiguity, in acquiring territory in that direction, than as affecting in any way the question of right." '^ A little further on, Pakenham stated the issue very succinctly: "It is for obvious reasons desira;ble that such a partition should take place as soon as possible, and the difficulty appears to be in devising a line of demarcation which shall leave to each party that precise portion of the territory best suited to its interest and convenience." ^ James Buchanan, successor of Calhoun as Secretary of State, in the same negotiation reverted to the former ground of considering that " the title of the United States .... was perfect and complete before the date of the treaties of joint occupation," and specifically states that none of the occurrences since that date, which he enumerates, " can in the slightest degree strengthen the British or impair the American title to any portion of the Oregon territory." * From this brief review, it appears that the only influence ex- ercised by the presence of American settlers in the Willa- mette valley upon the negotiation which determined the boundary west of the Rocky Mountains was that of furnish- ing the "obvious reasons" why a speedy partition of the territory was desirable.* In the final settlement the United • 29th Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. i, pp. 152, 154 — Diplomatic cor- respondence accompanying President's Message of 1845. ^Ibid., p. 157. 'Ibid., p. 168. 'C/. Moore, J. B. (ed.), The Works of lames Buchanan, vol. vi, p. 378. 196 APPENDIX [196 States acquired a large and commercially very valuable region, which was well " occupied " by the British, and contained but a half dozen settled Americans.'- The person whose actions are generally imderstood to have " saved Oregon " is Dr. Marcus Whitman, the medical missionary among the Cayuse Indans, who was massacred in 1847. However, claims of having "saved Oregon" are not by any means confined to Dr. Whitman, for other missionaries, as well as lawyers, business men, pioneers, and politicians, have put forward claims to this fictitious honor. The earliest assertion of this view which I have run across, and there are probably others still earlier, is in a speech of Senator Benton, made in 1843, in memory of his colleague from Missouri, Dr. Lewis F. Linn. The date was three years before the " saving '' was made effective, yet Benton, being one of those who would tell what was about to occur, said of the Linn Bill to donate land to the emi- grant : The settler has a right to have a home in the new country which he reclaims from the wilderness and the savage; the govern- ment of the United States can only save its domain on the Oregon by planting its citizens there. Land is the induce- ment and the reward to emigration, and that land was granted by the bill — liberally granted to the wife and the children, to the young man and the widow, as well as the husband and the father. That bill is the vindication and the assertion of American rights against the daring designs of England, and it was the only way to save the country.^ The able Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, when joining with his colleagues in the Provisional Govern- ment association, was conscious thereby that " we have se- ^Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxi, p. 113, note 11, by K. B. Judson. 'Linn, E. A., and Sargent, N., Life and Public Services of Dr. L. F. Linn (New York, 1857), p. 371; speech of Senator Benton. 197] APPENDIX 197 cured the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, without embroiling ourselves or the British Government in vexatious disputes with a gang of low, contemptable vagabonds, who would feel highly honored by such notice." This was the light in which the Conservative element, both English and American, viewed those who were seeking to squat on the Fort Vancouver farm land.^ Later in his life. Dr. Mc- Loughlin claimed to have been instrumental in founding the settlement, and preventing war between Britain and America, which might easily have resulted from the situa- tion developed on the Columbia, but for the quality of restraint and the spirit of mutual respect for the rights of the other party exhibited! by the peiople on both sides. McLoughlin did do this, and saved the emi- grants from the Indians as well.^ Mrs. Whitman, while watching the emigrants of 1844 pass her door, declared that, as the country was destined to be filled, " we desire greatly to have good people come, and ministers and Christians, that it may be saved from being a sink of wickedness and prostitution." ^ Dr. Whitman, too, as the years went by, and the Catholics gained greater ascendency over his Indians, identffied Catholic interest with British, and wrote to his friends and relatives, urging that they and others of their class come to his aid.* ^Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxi, p. 116 — " McLoughlin's Last Letter." ^ Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1880, p. 55, "McLoughlin Document." 3 Ore. Pioneer Ass., Transactions, 1893, letter, Oct. 9, 1844. *Ibid., 1893, pp. 176-7, 200, 201. Just why Whitman should have drawn such a conclusion is not clear, for the Catholics in the lower country were French Canadians, sent out by the Bishop of 'Red River, while those of the inland missions were of the Society of Jesus, from St. Louis, the personnel being largely Belgian, and the financial sup- port coming from that country, and from the Eastern states. So far as the Hudson's Bay Company had any religious affiliations, they were Church of England, as they supported an Episcopal chaplain at Fort Vancouver, for a nimiber of years. ,198 APPENDIX [198 The settlers, coming as they did with their fears and pre- judices thoroughly aroused against the English Company, have not been averse in moments of boasting to declaring that they had " saved " O'regon from the clutches of Great Britain. Though they were well enough aware that the only territory in dispute lay north of the Columbia, not one of them penetrated beyond the southern arm of Puget Sound, where a few settled, in 1845. The forests north of this point were known to be too dense for passage of wagons without road cutting, and the prairies were fewer and more widely separated. However, the assertion has been made by these pioneers that they " saved " Oregon, even though there is no evidence that occupancy was taken into account in determining the boundary line. It is curious, too, that none of them claimed to have " saved " California from the revolutions which became frequent under the Mexican regime. The particular phase of the " Oregon Saved " interpreta- tion which gained the largest circulation is that which gathered about the name of Dr. Marcus Whitman. It recites that, seeing the advance of British power on the Columbia, he feared for the future validity of the American claim to Oregon, and undertook to go overland to the East, in the dead of winter, 1842, for the purpose of arous- ing the government to the peril in its policy of " masterly inactivity," as the more sotinding precursor of " watchful waiting" was called. Further, that he gathered, organized, and piloted back to Oregon the large emigration of 1843, which was the first to bring wagons through the Snake River desert as far as the Columbia. Many romantic and exciting details filled in the outline given above, and were enlarged upon as the story grew, through oft repeating in the missionary and Sunday School press. It was first pub- lished without documentary evidence, by two of Whitman's 199] APPENDIX 199 colleagues in mission work, in 1865/ and was accepted by many historical scholars for a long period, although dis- credited by the old pioneers. It is not my purpose to give the history of this story, which could be made the subject of a fascinating mono- graph, but to indicate a few ideas regarding the underlying appeal of this interpretation, which have come to me in the effort to disentangle the true from the false of early Oregon history. The effort to document this story has led to the publica- tion of many letters of Whitman, his wife, and associates, from which the account of his activities given in Chapter IV has been drawn. These documents have disclosed the fact that this idea, that he. Whitman, had done his country a service and " saved Oregon " by helping to bring settlers there, was in his mind and the minds of many of his con- temporaries. Whitman stated in a letter to his Board in the spring of 1844, that he " brought the late emigration on to the shores of the Columbia with their wagons," and, after he had heard of the boimdary adjustment, that American interests acquired in the country, which the success of the immigration of 43 alone has and could have secured, have become the foundation and cause of the late treaty with England and the United States in regard to Oregon. . . . Any one may see that American interests as now acquired and exist- ing in the country, on one part, and British interests in the same way, on the other hand, have had more to do with bringing about and forming the treaty than original rights belonging to either party.^ It would be a profitless task to prove the falsity of 1 Marshall, W. I., The Acguisitioji of Oregon (Seattle, 1911), vol. ii, p. 61. 'Marshall, W. I., op. cit, pp. 178, 181, 182. 200 APPENDIX [200 these assumptions; to point out that ox teams and the stamina of determined men and women brought the emigra- tion to Oregon; that the first-hand information given by- Commander Wilkes of the Exploring Expedition was of more importance than any given by the missionaries; that Whitman was well aware that the real dispute between the governments was over the territory north of the Columbia ; that the joint-occupancy convention specifically provided that no new national rights could be acquired in the terri- tory; and that the boundary adjustment was not determined by the presence of settlers. All this was as obvious and as well known then as to-day.^ The interesting and really important point is that Whit- man and many others believed this interpretation, which they put upon the incidents leading to the boundary treaty of 1846. There is nothing tmusual in this, for men have often been under the illusion that, had they not acted as they did in certain circumstances, the course of history would have been diverted to entirely different channels, which might have been detrimental to the welfare of the things they loved; and no doubt men will continue to im- pute to themselves such honor as may be derived from these illusions. It is no unusual failing among writers of history to find the interpretation influenced by regard for what might have happened. Whitman's opinions and views could have remained, along with the similar opinions which have been quoted above, in the limbo of those ideas which flourish a little while and then decay, as the disputes from which they sprang are forgotten, had they not been resurrected out of the memories of some of his co-workers, to be fashioned, years later, into a wonderful and moving story. Some said 'Unfortunately it is not too ■well understood even now. 20l] APPENDIX 201 this was done for the purpose of persuading Congress that the missions had performed tangible services, which should entitle them to grants of the land they occupied ; but others said it was for the greater glory of God in Oregon and America. The growing legend passed from the field of local to national history, in 1884, through the medium of the volume in the American Commonwealth Series, by the Rev. WilHam Barrows. It has had a peculiar attraction for all classes of men, who have accepted even the most aston- ishing of the imaginative details without the slightest dis- turbance to their critical faculties. It has never been convincingly demonstrated that the country between the Columbia and the forty-ninth parallel of latitude was ever in any danger of being lost to the United States, but there was certainly some hostile feeling among the missionaries against Webster as Secretary of State. They seem to have feared that in the negotiations with Lord Ashburton, in 1842, he might be tempted to trade Oregon for a " mess of cod," whi<;h was a fish no more palatable as a steady diet to New Englanders than Columbia river salmon. The latest effort to establish this as a fact has been made by Bishop Bashford, who adduces as proof " a remarkable and little known episode in the history of our country." This is the plan to adjust the question of expansion on the Pacific by a tripartite agreement between England, the United States, and Mexico, regarding Oi-egon, California, and Texas, proposed by Tyler, in 1842-3, and is quoted from such writers as Adams, Tyler, Garrison, and Dunning. It is, however, but another instance of the confusion which arises throughout this controversy when the term " Oregon " is used indefinitely to cover the whole or any of the parts of the territory. So far as concerns the claim of the United States to the full extent of the Oregon territory, there was, of course, always the danger that a part might be lost 202 APPENDIX [202 through compromise^ — what part, the people in Oregon seem to have understood well enough/ Dr. Whitman, and many smother sturdy pioneer of the Far West, was genuine and sincere and without the slight- est suggestion of sanctimoniousness, in believing himself to have been the saviour of Oregon; and the history of this controversy is but evidence of the caution and the judgment one must use in dealings with a man's after- thoughts concerning his own actions. Looked at from this angle, it will be seen that the whole interpretation takes on a new and more vital form. Instead of a mere collection of misstatements, it becomes a veritable paean in praise of God and his wondrous ways. The Lord is seen at work, through his servant, effecting a righteous thing. It is the old, old lesson of history driven home by affirmation of the most positive and stirring kind — a symbol to the failing vision of men that, in modified form, has lasted long after dull reason in historical scholarship had entirely discredited the story ; and will persist so long as our history is intimately connected with the orator and the Sunday School. 126th Cong. 1st Sess. Sen. Doc, no. 514; Famham, T. J., op. cit., pp. 97-99, 102; WisIizMius, F. A., op. cit., p. 115; cf. Bashford, J. W., The Oregon Missions, ch. vi. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE This study has been based on primary sources so far as possible. "The best general accounts are : Edward S. Meany, History of the State of Washington (New York, 1909), and Joseph ,Schafer, A History of the Pacific Northwest, new edition (New York, 1918). Secondary works for the most part are either highly controversial or are reminiscences. Of the first class nothing need be added to what is said in the Appendix, since one can scarcely find a History of Oregon and California, except that of Robert Greenhow (Boston, 1844), which does not mention this aspect of the subject. Among reminiscences are a large number of works written in later life by the people who participated in the emi- grant movement. These run from short anecdotes and speeches, re- -corded in the Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association, to good- sized books. The memory of man is so notoriously inexact, that, in the presence of numerous primary sources, it seemed unnecessary either to criticize or to cite these reminiscences as authority for any points in -the monograph. It should be pointed out, however, that the reader will find in them a full discussion of the motives which urged the emi- grants to their large undertaking. Every conceivable motive for the movement is asserted in the reminiscences, so that one gets the impression that men went to Oregon and California for a variety of reasons — ideal and practical, religious, political, and economic, for health, for pleasure, and because they did not know where else to go, though they must go somewhere — all of which is true enough of individuals, yet they give no clue to the causes which drove the emigrants two thousand miles — rather than two hundred — from their former homes. In spite of this discussion carried on in -old age, there is nothing remarkable in the fact that the emigrants were not in the least introspective about motives in their writings con- temporary to the movement. They avoided all mention of their reasons for emigration in their contemporary books and diaries. There are full and entirely adequate bibliographical guides to the sources for the early history of Oregon and California. These are : C W. Smith, Check List of Books and Pamphlets Relating to the History of the Pacific Northwest to be Found in the Libraries of That Region (Olympia, 1909) [new edition in preparation] ; Katherine B. Judson, Subject Index to the History of the Pacific Northwest and of -Alaska, as Found in the United States Government Documents, Con- 203] 203 204 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE [204 gressional Series, in the American State Papers, and in Other Documents^ 1789-1881 (Olympia, 1913) ; R. E. Cowan, A Bibliography of the. History of California and the Pacific West, 1510-1906 (San Francisco, 1914) ; Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, volumes of the Bibliographical Series; L. J. Burpee, A Chapter in the Literature of the Fur Trade, Bibliographical Society of America, Papers, vol. v (Qiicago, 1911) ; Library of Congress, A Check List of American News- papers in the Library of Congress (Washington, 1901) ; G. M. Tucker, American Agricultural Periodcials: An Historical Sketch (Albany, p. p., 1909) ; Grace G. GriflSn, Writings on American History (New Haven, annual) ; and the lists in the Works of H. H. Bancroft. The. Quarterlies of various Historical iSocieties are extremely valuable, es- pecially those of Oregon and Washington. A few rare and useful works not listed in these bibliographies, to- gether with their location, are: Joseph Williams, Narrative of a Tour from the State of Indiana to the Oregon Territory, in the Years 1841-2^ (Cincinnati, p. p., 1843) [New York Historical iSociety] ; J. M. Shively, Route and Distances to Oregon and California (Washington, 1846) [Library of Congress and New York Public Library] ; W. Qayton, The Latter-Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide (St. Louis, 1848) [N. Y. P. L.] ; Charles Saxton. The Oregonian (Washington, 1846) [L. of C. and N. Y, P. L] ; The Oregonian and Indians' Advocate (Boston, vol. i, Oct., 1838-Aug., 1839) [L. of C] ; Report on the Territory of Oregon, by a Committee, Appointed at a Meeting of the Citizens of Columbus, to Collect Information in Relation Thereto (Columbus, 1843) [N. Y. P. L.] ; The Oregon Convention of July 3, 4, S, 1843, is fully reported in the Cincinnati Daily Chronicle of July 10, 11, 12, 19, 1843 (N. Y. P. L) ; Osborne Russel, Journal of a Trapper; or, Nine Years in the Rocky- Mountains, 1834-1843 (Boise, 1914) [Oregon Historical Society and N. Y. P. L] ; Sir W. G. D. Stewart, Edward Warren (London, 1854) [L. of C, fiction] ; the Journals of William H. Ashley and Jedidiab Smith are found in H. C. Dale, The Ashley-Smith Explorations, and the Discovery of a Central Route to the PaciHc . . . i8zz-i8zg (Cleveland, 1918) ; the journals of the Hudson's Bay Company traders have been edited by T. C. Elliott, in the Quarterlies of the Oregon and Washington Historical Societies ; letters of the emigrants of 1843 will be found in the newspaper files of the Missouri Historical Society — a few have been re- printed in the Oregon Historical Society Quarterly ; the Correspondence of the American Bible Society (MiSS.) is in the Bible House, New York City ; a file of the Missionary Herald is in the N. Y. P. L., and one of the Christian Advocate and Journal is in the Methodist 'Mission House, New York City, where also may be found the Annual Reports of the Missionary Society; scattered copies of The Polynesian (Honolulu, 1840-1841) and The Friend of Temperance and Seamen (Honolulu^ 20S] BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ■ 205 1843-1849) are in the N. Y. P. L. ; the Private {for the Cabinet) Papers Relative to the Negotiation between Great Britain and the United States, Concerning Boundaries (^London, n. d. 1826?) cited above as Great Britain — Boundary Papers, are in the N. Y. P. L. ; the series, Rapport sur les Missions du Diocese de Quebec, qui sont secouru par f Association de la Foi (Quebec, 1839-1851) are privately owned; while the Notice sur le Territoire et sur le Mission de I'Oregon (n. p., n. d., ^irca 1844) is in the Widener Library, Harvard University. The sources for Chapter VI, which deals with the economic aspect of farming in the Mississippi Valley States, following the financial panic of 1837-39, are very inadequate. Much has been written about the social life of American agricultural communities ; but then, as now, little was said about the return a man received for his labor, or the attitude of the producer toward his rewards. This is inherent in the subject, for men talk little of their incomes and never on the basis of exact figures, unless their returns become so low that they are driven to advocate a change of conditions. Yet it is the first duty of the historian to discover not only the attitude of those who advocate change, but the reasons therefore. Fortimately, a beginning has been made, by Ezra M. Prince, Prices in McLean County, Illinois, 1833-1860, in Illinois State Historical Society Transactions for 1904, p. 537, a study of the records of auctions in the County. The census before 1850 gives no aid in this matter, nor is there any help in the work of the Aldrich Committee on Prices (S2nd Congress, ist Session, Senate Report, no. 986, and 52nd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate 'Report, no. 1394). This is likewise true of the published reports of what is now the Department of Agriculture, wl.ich had its beginning under the Commissioner of Patents, in 1837. The agricultural journals of the day, nearly aU of which suspended during this period of depression, as did most of the local press of the tjuntry, were more concerned with the technique of farming than the economics of dis- tribution. Cf. H. L. Ellsworth, Improvements in Agriculture (Ne^r York, 1843). Price Currents of the various markets — 'Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans — which have been found ■( a few are in the N. Y. P. L.) are incomplete, and the prices vary widely with the receipts of produce. Moreover, then, as now, most of the selling of farm produce appears to have been done to itinerant buyers. Immigration to the West via the Great Lakes had just given birth to Chicago, but conditions there were no index of affairs and feeling in the heart of the Valley. The biographies of the politicians and statesmen, together with their manu- scripts in the Library of Congress, have also been searched, with but nominal reward. The Letters Received by the Corresponding Secretary of the American Bible Society yielded some specific information, where the writer was under the necessity of explaining the smallness of his collections for the 2o6 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE [206- Society's funds, but this correspondence naturally is not concerned with economic matters. In spite of a general willingness to give to such a cause, the Society with difficulty raised sufficient funds for its work. Many references to the bad niarket for farm produce have been found in the guide-books for immigrants, though always it is coupled with the statement that the wants of new settlers will provide a steadily increasing demand. Only infrequently do the County and State His- tories, which are really genealogical works, repay the searcher. The same observation is true of the Public Documents. Statistical compila- tions are of no value, since the country was growing so rapidly that one year or one place is incomparable with another. It should be observed that the hardships experienced were expressed in terms of money and the dark outlook for the future rather than in suffering for want of the necessities of life. The best discussion of this subject remains the contemporary one by Judge Curtis: "Debts of tht States," in the North American Review, vol. Iviii. INDEX Abernethy, Geo., 158, 174 Adams, J. Q., 29 et seq., 64, 184 Agricultural Journals, 123 Am. Bible iSoc, 119, 120, 124, 126, 128 Am. Fur Co., S4, 61, 65 Ashley, W. H., 54-59, no Asia, 15, 16, 24, 31, 52, 87, 129, 130, 175 Astoria, 23-25, 28, 29, 39, 45, 51, 52, 59, 93 Astor, J. J., 23, 51, 54, 62, 65, 66, 116 Ball, J., 71 Bancroft, H. H., 23, 166, 179 Banking, 118 et seq, iBear 'River, 25, 57, 84, 88, 142, 143 Beaver, 66 Benton, T. H., 16, 17, 23, 26, 62, 80, 98, 116 Fidwell, J., 89, 106 Bison (see Buffalo) Blue Mts., 25, 84, 88, 117, 146 Bonniville, Capt., 62 Boundary, 20, 31, 32, 39, 41, 64, 92, 94. 97, 107, 161, 163, 174, 19s, 199, 200, 201 Buchanan, J., 195 Buffalo, 48, 56, 89, 139 Burnett, P. H., loi Calhoun, J. C, 194 California, 15, 53, 62, 87, 98, 104, 106, no, 117, 145, 149, 175, 178, 183, 188, 190, 201 Campbell, 'Robt., 56 Canning, 43, 51-53 Carver, J., 18 Cascade Mts., 22, 27, 71, 89, 146, 153 Castlereagh, 30, 33, 43 Chittenden', H. M., 25, 54, 63, 66, 67, 69 Qaims (territorial), 23, 29 et seq., 92,94 Qark, Wm. {vide also Lewis and Qark), 69, 70 207] Clay, H., n8 Colorado River {vide Green River) Columbia River, 17-29, 32, 36-45, 51-64, 74, yg, 84, 96, 146, 153, 180 Congress, 43, 97 et seq., 184 Conservatism, 185, 190-192 Convention of 1818, 31, 33, 61, 194 Convention of 1827, 41, 194 Cook, Capt, 15, 26 Correspondence Committees, 104, n2-n4, 132 Cushing, C, 94 Dennis, iRev. J. S., 81 DeSmet, Father P. J., 69, 88, 147, 149 Emigrants, character of, 100, 105, 112, 131, 136, 142, 148, 167; equipment of, 134, 136; numlber of, 151 ; organization of, 88, 104, 132, 199; sentiment of, 91, 100, 112; societies of, 73, 95, 99, 104, 112-114 Equipper, 56, 62, 82 Exchange, 119, 120 Farnham, T. J., 57, 74, 78, 87, 106 Farming, 52, 71, 116 et seq., 156 et seq. Floods, 127 Floyd, J., 64, g8 Fort Bridlger, 67, 142 Fort Colville, 57, 62, 77 Fort Hall, 63, 83, 89, 144 Fort Laramie, 49, 50, 140 Fort Vancouver, 52, 60, 72, 83, 100, I5i5 Fort Walla Walla, 83, 88, no France, 16, 18, 26, 35, 44 Fraser, S., 17, 19 Eraser River, 17, 19, 43, 53 Freight rates, 123 Fremont, J. C, 98, 142 et seq. Frontier, 80, 82, 86, 103-105, 116, 126, 128, 186, 190 Gallatin, A., 33, 60, 69, 131 Gary, Rev. G., 76 207 208 INDEX [208 Gold discovery, 149, 179, 187, 188 Gray, iRobt., 17, 26 Great Britain (vide Boundary, Qaims, and Hudson's Bay Co.) Greenhow, Robt., 15, 29, 36, 46 Green River, 24, 55, 57, 59, 67, 89, I42' Harbors, 17, 26, 87, 92, 94, 129, 180, 182 Hastings, L. W., 75, 89 Hawaiian (Sandwich) Islands, 17, 37, 87, 17s, 186 Henry, Andrew, 26, 54 Hudson's Bay, 49-52 Hudson's Bay (Co., 18, 46-51, 57, 61-66, 72, 77, 86, 91-96, 144, 15s et seq., 181, 184, 186; farming by, 52, 79, no, 156, 175; and im- migrants, 148, 169, 176, 188; in- fluence of, 154-156, 160, 168, 170, I77> 197; rights of, 173, 197 Immigrants (European), 187 Indfependence (Mo.), 55, 104, 130, 136 Indians, 16, 24, 54, 60, 68-71, 77, 141, 147, 180 Indian territory, 103, 116 Indian trails, 25 Irving, W., 23, 25, 62, 85, 93 Jackson, A., 64, 91, 122 Jefferson, T., 21 Johnson, R. M., 106 Juan de Fuca, 17, 40, 42, 87 Kelley, H. J., 95, 98, 116 Land donations, go, 96, 99-104, 109, 114, 164, 178, ig6 Laws, extension of U. S., 96, 97 Lee, J., 70-76, 8s, 95, iS7 Lewis and Clark, 21-25, 32, 94 Liquor, 188 Linn, Dr., E. A., 90, 92, 96, 99, 184, 196 Louisiana, 21, 31 Mackenzie, Alex., 18, 45-47, 51, 54, 64 M'Kenzie, Alex., 43 McLoughlin, J., 51-53, 60, 71, 90, 100, 155-157, 168, 196 ; land' claim of, 158 et seq., 173, 174 M'Millan, 43 Markets (vide Asia, Hawaii, Hud- son's Bay Co., Oregon, Prices) Mercantile System, 16, 24, 33-37, 45> 46 Mexico, IS, 36, 55, 67, 131, 190, 201 Missionaries, Am. Bd., 17, 68, 71, 77-81 ; Catholic, 69, 78, 161, 197 ; Methodist, 69-76 ; agricultural activity of, 72, 78; colonizing activity of, 73, 78782, 85, 99, 161 ; commercial activity of, 75, iS7- 160, 167; religious activity of, 71-74, 77, 81 Mississippi Valley, 38, 67, 75, 86, 93, 103, III, 117, 124, 184, 186 Missouri River, 21, 24, 53-55, 61, 68, 84, 103, 116 Monroe Doctrine, 38, 39, in, 112 Moore, J. B., 37, 38, 42, 43, 195 Mormons, 143, 187 Nesmith, J. W., 136 Nootka Sound, 37-40 Northwest coast, 15-17, 33-40, 45, 68, 94, 98, 180 Northwest Company, 18, 23, 27, 40, 45-50 Ogden, P. S., 57, 66 Oregon City, 158, 171, 186 Oregon Country, 21, 24, 30, 32, 40, 45, 50, 51, 61, 96, 99, 109, 117, 152, 177, 183, 193 ; definition of, 41, 42; exploration of, is et seq., 97, 98; position of, 86, 87, 129, 130; status of, 31, 43, 51, 64, 92, 94, 99, 161, 181, 193-195 Oregon, fever, 91, loi, 113, 187; occupation of, 92, 97, loi, 129, 185, 199; Provisional Govern- ment of, 152 cf seq. ; road, 25, 27, 63, 67, 82-84, 93, 104, no, 132 et seq., 187 ; survey and dis- tances of Toad, g8, 151 Organic Law, 162-164, 188 Pacific Ocean, 15, 32-36, 39, 42-45, SI, 62, 87, 92, 107, no, 129, 182 Pakenham, Sir R., 195 'Panic of 1837, 86, 118 et seq. Parker, Rev. S., 53, 77 Pelley, J. H., 42, 51 Petitions, g3-98, 101-104, 129, 160, 183 Pilcher, J., 57-59, 64 Platte River, 25, 55, 58, 82, 93, 137 et seq. Political agitation, 106-112, 184, 189, 190 Political parties in Ore., 155 etseq. Portuguese, 16, 26, 35 Prices, 105, 109, 124-126, 154, 17s 209] INDEX 209 Puget Sotind, 17, 27, 32, 198 Puget Sound Agricultural Co., 78 Railway overland', 83, 84, 129 Red' 'River settlement, 48, 49, 78 Rendezvous, 55-57, 60-63, 77, 84 Rocky Mts., 18, 21, 27, 31, 42, 51- 57, 61, 66, 68, 83, 93, 143, 183 Rocky Mt. Fur Co., 54, 59, 61, 63 Routes of communication, 20, 26, 45, 57, 64, 93, no, 121 -123, 129 Rush., R, 29, 30, 31, 38, 41 Russel, O., 56, 67, 89 Russia, 15, 26, 29, 33-39, 44, 78, 87, no, 129, 17s Salt iLake, 25, 55, 57, 59, 62, 143 San Francisco Bay, 15, 37, 92, 129, 182 Santa Fe, 55, 68, 136, 183 Selkirk, LordI, 48-51 Semple, Senator, 106, 129 Settlements, American, 39, 71, 75, 85, 95, 97, 154 et seq., 188; French Canadian, 71, 78, 95, 164; English, 78, no, 155 Settlers, 69, 79, 91, 100, 154, 167, 169, 172, 175, i8s Shippee, L. B., 43, 64, 112 Sickness, 127, 128 Sierra Nevada Mts., 59, 117 Simpson, G., 51-53 Sfacum, W. A., 73, 93, 95 Slavery, 126, 162 Smith, J. S., 53-60 Snake River, 21-26, 53, 57, 60, 62, 66, 84, 87, 141 South Pass, 26, 58, 83, 89, 142 Spalding, Rev. H. H., 76, 83-85, 91, 93 Spain, 15, 26, 29, 33, 37, 39, 44, 94 St. Louis, 21, 24-26, 54, 57, 60-65, 69, 121 Sublette, Wm., 55, 62, 121 Sutter, 178 Texas, 129, 201 Thesis, 188-189 Thomas, Jesse B., 106 Thompson, David, 20, 23, 32 Townsend, J. K., 63, 72 Trade, 16, 20, 23, 27, 32, 34, 38, 42, 45-68, 80, 98, 116, 186 Trappers, 55-57, 61, 66, 79, 89, 104, n8 Travel, by canoe, 18, 19, 22, 25, 27, 54 ; by pack horse, 22, 25-27, 55; by wagon, 26, 55, 58 (rate of, 82), 85, 89, 93, no, 123, 132 et seq., 199 Treaty of Florida 1819, 33 Treaty of Ghent, 28, 30 Treaty with Great Britain, 1842, 107, 174, 201 Treaty with Great Britain, 1846, 42, 199 Treaty with Russia 1824, 34 et seq. Van Buren, M., 118, 122 Vancouver, Capt. Geo., 16, 20, 26 Vancouver Island, 18, 42 Waller, A. F., 75, 158 War of 181 2, 23, 28, so Webster, D., 201 White, Dr. E., 73, 105 Whitman, Dr. M., 77-81, 128, 196 et seq. Wilkes, Com. C, 75, 97, 162, 200 Willamette Valley, 27, 53, 67, 71, 75, 79, 8s, 88, 95, i45, 152, 181, 186, 195 Williams, Joseph, 76, 89, 105, 106 Wislizenus, Dr. F. A., 67, 87 Wyeth, N. J., 55, 62, 95, 97, n6 in fcONciTinjE lii. WIST moir i< ''ttonoulatror *••«» I f^SJj- ^ Jisjjcrslirt _Awo {^lil^O' *T /A 7oan.k < K»mlji>P' 7j^ J6 44 42 O WITH THE from the n PHIl Piiblishedl N.E.CORNER 01 fB'M ■^1 .\ I. Tiifi' J»S»«' 62, iAiJ'»oy*' »B/) 3^:^ u-afi- ,,L^'B" /, S'}'-" r -^^liomJi* "V, r-u^ *'Ti J -J --rx .„:irl.- .GrKlBt. .Wi -v s, ?*< ttinibt* t'-O'^S^-'^' ._fiD-lJ! V(w.i^- n ,nn / J J-^-'. ib rT-k'^ V- UirjkP^ ^ '>^ \^ 7 ^^^•'^ t^^ '^«D-l ({ i^ /V £ J^^^ :^ \Sa\Ji\ '^^Z-; f" Bjj4fe'»l H I f ,n -* , r- w •< i^; \v /V x:% ^'. /iapttt: or (riiUi of t rjrfe/^ ^O ri-i \,, ^i; I. \5 ^W ^^' :/ 'V7:r!-r- k' '.i-..r»i''^ ^' ^^-n. .a«'-""1!f'';^- '^\ Kf-^' "!•"*&•- /r *<>- BS^ >V< r o ^ '-^^. :'A. ^|... ■^ ^ ,;.iraf" WJ" r f /v s . 3^- ,//-^t.- / n^us-vw. 'luijj 14- .'»'<^ ~;.^~ , UAaJ t» /; s « c\ U 5^ -J. T ''■^''^ -J^iu'^! "^^ y Eanja -T^" JOTW-*" 2 I '. ^ ^2r'> Sk,(!,rc»k CJart^'T''^'' E NiH E S V /" ! / LIS -_23^C:;^i 9a]^ :«•»■ .>.*-.»,_> ^. V -I Iff y r- / "^ fi <>^ (ft' 40 38 VBr, %\^v ■■ ■ ■ I hjcnryl fti\7oon.K^ ^jr. ,J4> C/>^/ ^5o %H? 0.1; C tD-^i" "0/?/ >/ w r\ •<^^^ "■^^^ . V,' /, ft ^SMr^''^f>tc WITH THE from the n PHU Published] N E.CORNEROf r-lTBa )/ / l*e r "^CcOnlle (Bdf. m \ T /- % A o i^xrf^' H- 'IrOtl < ■J6 '"*»^i C'toji 33 ^^^sPt ^o^tftn L- ^ooJuuieBiA nxrf,^ '^*^= 'f^irn. SOWLt ^'^ }C 'I'nsRapu V ^T'^aflal f Sajxdj /~-^ II"*^ ;^xf?!-'Cj%>. ^y: "^-i(ij/i A>if&j ^KT^ JrE/TTt-. 44 f-fOfc / '''Ifei] * f^'-- ^. / f, .^'" * f ^.'^^f /f-^A ^' } m ayr- ^r h4\ ^-f- / flT t)N -^ ~^. Jlapids fjr 0tumhu ■v.. 'V --;-w«r-~^^53^ p '^^ »UA Ou 0,i^jr, J£^ 3« (■^aum^in o /' I SJJ« j*^ O R -^r^ '"■ "1^ — ■'T -^/i J« W >' -Jr - I, -S!^. Fn '• t « >■ ' « ' K e 4 c , 4--- 34 '<^Jf.Ae ^'f'^^ sJ^l Z^r, J" 'KV,*^. ,"".■•■ ■f«<^ ;* _3«; ■f 1 A c H T » A S ^^^' ' « I I /■^' ' M'^ 30 EXF1^\.\ATI0N. f-ipiiaU of Slalrs ^ I'ounu Tfwny^ Commim Ti'v.n.i r. foru* Trading B/>iise* m Th*- l-tundar\ of Oreqon aj praf\'s.d fry Ou Pnitj'd Stntes u u>hjurrd bfu^ and that jToptued. by Onot Bruaui is cifloiurd rfd Tht- rnngrani ruitle tjy Orrgan the rtttlf "t fransmu expionxrxj'tts the Uwavaji rauu trow Mlie^Ticn to SnJUa F^ aj.d ttu (>rar SpanurtL Tn'JL frtmi C^Ufornm to SajUa frarr aU sfu/yiii i>r-_ iKi M.ap. ?-:'! ^-^ f \ v: ■-J ^.--J^ ^ y"^ f **; /' TtarmcacoriSl, /■■ mill ■ ni-XULJVrxV/XlkJ ^UJUinilib. COMFILED rrom the most recent authorities. r?^ PH1LADEL.PHIA V ublislied bv S. Augustus 31itcheJl ^J? J E.CORNER OF MARKET & SEVENTH STREETS __i — = 1846 —_=== VITA The author was bom February 4th, 1889, in New York City. He studied at the The Hill School, Pottstown, Penna. when it was conducted by Professor John Meigs, and at the Allen-Stevenson School in New York City. He graduated with the degree of B. A. from Princeton Univer- sity in 1912, studying there under President Woodrow Wilson, Professors William Starr Myers, Royal Meeker, Winthrop M. Daniels, Robert McElroy and Edward S. Corwin. A year of Law at Columbia University followed, the author being greatly indebted to the training derived from a course in contracts conducted by Professor Charles Thaddeus Terry. The next three years were spent in study for the degree of Ph D. in Amrican History under the Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University. Here he attended seminars conducted by Herbert L. Osgood, Charles A. Beard, and John Bassett Moore. He has also studied under Professor William Archibald Dunning, with whose guidance this monograph has been written, Pro^ fessors James Harvey Robinson, James T. Shotwell, Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, Munroe Smith, E. R. A. Selig- man, and Henry R. Seager.