Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 20/Number 4
THE QUARTERLY
of the
Oregon Historical Society
Copyright, 1919, by the Oregon Historical Society
The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages.
BRITISH SIDE OF THE RESTORATION OF FORT ASTORIA-II.
By Katharine B. Judson, M. A.
(Continued from page 260)
Meanwhile, the Nor'westers had been very uncertain as to their rights and standing on the North West Coast, not only as indicated by McGillivray's interview with Lord Bathurst, but by the letters of Inglis, Ellis & Co., to Henry Gouldburn.
In one, dated London, July 25th, 1815,[1] they stated they had fitted out for the River Columbia quantities of manufactured goods, solely for Indian trade, but "We have been very much alarmed by reports circulated of other stipulations made in a commercial treaty subsequent to that of Ghent, by which all intercourse of trade is said to be interdicted between His Majesty's subjects and the Indian tribes residing within the United States." They ask for information, and whether the British Government will protect them, especially on the Columbia, and on the coast north of it, should they "be molested by American citizens or the American government." "We are perfectly aware," they add, "that our own interests in this trade must be sacrificed by necessity to views of public policy." They insist, however, they must have the actual situation before investing more money in the Columbia.
Three days later,[2] the firm again wrote to Henry Gouldburn, 28th July, 1815, "to ascertain whether we may rely on the protection of His Majesty's Government in our arduous undertaking of establishing a colony, (to carry on the fur trade between China and the Columbia River) on the shores of the Pacific, which was first discovered and taken possession of by British subjects. . . .
"We certainly would prefer prosecuting the trade as British subjects, unconnected with citizens of any other state, but still from circumstances which have come to our knowledge, it may become absolutely necessary, either to combine our interests in the trade with those of American merchants, or to abandon it entirely, without we have some assurance of protection on the part of our government."
Again on 2nd August, 1815,[3] in a third letter to Gouldburn, Inglis, Ellis & Co. write: "We have established a colony of British subjects on the Columbia River, for the purpose of carrying on the fur trade with China."
Three vessels in two years, they stated, had been sent with Indians goods, "for that trade [Columbia] in which we have involved property exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling.
"We are now assured that that property is subjected to the risk of forcible seizure by American citizens or the American government, on the plea that as British subjects we have no right to carry on trade with Indians within the territories of the United States, which are now said to extend to the shores of the Pacific."
The Nor'westers again demand assurance of safety in carrying on their trade from the mouth of the Columbia to Russian settlements, and from the Rocky Mountains to the sea. If the colony on the Columbia river was on British soil, they could advance trade; otherwise they must abandon it.
The other side of this correspondence will never be known, RESTORATION OF ASTORIA until the long-lost
307
North West Company documents are discovwhich will probably be in
unless burned, or destroyed,
ered,
some cellar or attic in Montreal. They are not in London, nor have they ever been in the possession of the Hudson's as stated by
Bay Company,
in a letter of 1825, after the
Edward
Ellice to that
Company
two companies had merged and
company made inquiry regarding the papers of
the English
the Nor'westers.
The year 1815 was
a busy one for the Americans, as the Aside from the economic problems involved by the great European wars, a rumor was out that Spain had again ceded the Floridas to Great Britain in payment for British
saw
it.
16
money loaned during the war in the Peninsula. Secretary Monroe was very anxious about it. That year, also, there was the war with the Dey of Algiers. The Indians were also on the rampage, on the northern and western the Floridas.
The
British noted
it.
And
frontiers,
and
in
the determination
seems to have become stronger at Washington to have the future of the United States troubled with as few neighbors as possible, and that meant controlling a larger section of the North American continent. War had broken out also in
South America, where Spain was fighting her badly-treated colonists.
A
bill
appeared again in 1816; but the public were paying
moment. seemed to have been By reached, as shown in a letter from Sir James Lucas Yeo, written from H. M. S. Inconstant, Spithead, 30th August, 1817, to John Wilson Croker, Secretary of the Admiralty, London. 17 The sympathies of the United States were with the Spanish insurgents, he wrote, especially in Florida, trade was at a standstill, and Americans said to be in close touch with the Spanish insurgents on the Pacific. The United States were little
attention to the Columbia, at that
1817, decisions
"indefatigable in training the militia and have i6F. O.
s,
Vol. 106.
17 F. O.
s,
Vol. 128.
Baker
to
Foreign Office.
removed every KATHARINE
308
B.
JUDSON
foreigner from their army." Large orders had recently been given to the cannon factory, and everything "portends a rest-
and same
towards
Meanwhile, in U. S. James Horn comof around the with three was war, sailing sloop missioners and two secretaries "to obtain possession of some less
the
hostile spirit letter, Sir
this country."
also noted that the Ontaria, a
island or territory in that quarter, preparatory to their establishing a very extensive commerce in those seas."
To omit
the Ontario for a
moment, a better view
is
gained
of the United States as a whole, by continuing the British comments on the general trend of things. On April 16th, 1818, James Buchanan (a relative of the President of the
same name), then British Consul Lord Castlereagh 18
at
New
York, wrote to
The
acquisition of Louisiana, the claims founded thereon, the seizure of and means used to obtain the Floridas, the
energetic increase of the navy, the determination to rival the naval and maritime power of Great Britain, the commercial
now carrying on towards Engavowed aim to possess Cuba and His Majesty's possession in North America, which pervades all classes, sancwarfare the United States are land, the
tioned by the measures of the executive well, it made America a rather difficult country for Great Britain to deal with. And it explains John Quincy Adams and the send.
.
.
ing of the Ontario.
On November
Bagot wrote to Lord Cas19 Washington: "A report has been in circulation here that the United States sloop of war Ontario who has lately sailed from New York, and which is believed to be destined to the South Pacific, has
tlereagh,
from
7th, 1817, Charles
his post at
received instructions to proceed also to the mouth of the Columbia river, I cannot hope to ascertain positively whether
founded or not, but I thought it right to comprivately to Sir John Sherbrooke, in order that he thinks proper, put the North West Company
this report is well
municate he may,
it
if
i8~F. O. 5, Vol. 135. 19 F. O. 5, Vol. 123. RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
309
guard against any design which may possibly be American government to re-establish the settlement which they formerly attempted to make at the mouth of that river, and of which your Lordship will see by a reference to Mr. Baker's despatch No. 24, of the year 181 5, 20 that soon after the peace they endeavored to claim the restitution under the 1st article of the Treaty of Ghent ." But Simon McGillivrary, down in New York City, had also heard rumors, and he took prompt means to communicate with the British representative at Washington, as below 21
upon
their
in contemplation of the
.
.
"New "To
York, November 15th, 1817.
his Excellency,
the British Ambassador. "Sir,
am
induced to take the liberty of addressing this letter to your excellency, in consequence of information which I have "I
obtained, relative to the destination of the United States ship Ontario, which sailed about six weeks ago for South America,
and which, according to newspaper report, is likely to have gone to the Pacific Ocean. "I am not at liberty to mention the channel through which I have received the information in question, but it comes from a source which in my opinion entitles it to attention. Otherwise, I certainly should not have presumed to make this application to your Excellency upon the subject. "My information is that the Captain of the Ontario has instructions to proceed ultimately to the Columbia River, and to seize or destroy the establishment and trade of the North West Company upon that Coast, what pretext may hereafter
be set up to justify this attack I really cannot imagine unless it should be the recent act of Congress prohibiting foreigners
from any trade or intercourse with the Indians within the of the United States, and the assumption that the country bordering upon the Columbia River form a part of
territories
20 Quoted above. 21 F. O. 5, Vol. 123. KATHARINE
310
B.
JUDSON
This assumption, destitute of foundation as can easily be shown to be, is one which the American government has aimed at setting up ever since the purchase of Louisiana, and the attention which they have always directed
their territories. it
opinion a strong corrobo ration of the story relative to the Ontario. "In the month of July, 1815, Mr. Baker, who was then Charge d'Affaires at Washington, applied to Sir Gordon
towards that object affords
Drummond, who
at that
in
my
time administered the Government of
Canada, for some information relative to the actual situation of the country in question, and Sir Gordon Drummond consequently applied to my brother, who, as the principal director of
West Company, was of course the person most competent to speak to the facts. I happened at the time to be in Canada, having recently arrived from England, where I usually reside, and where I had the honor of seeing and conthe North
versing with my Lord Bathurst upon this very subject, subsequent to the ratification of the Treat of Ghent. Having also been the person chiefly engaged in planning and fitting out the
North West Company's adventures to the Columbia River, from the first suggestion of that undertaking, I necessarily had an intimate knowledge of the particulars which appeared requisite to answer Mr. Baker's enquiries, and after due consideration and comparison of the information thus possessed 22 by different individuals a statement was drawn up and sent
to Sir
Gordon Drummond, who transmitted it to Mr. Baker, whom I had the honor of seeing at Wash-
and that gentleman,
ington afterwards, but before your Excellency's arrival, acknowledged having received the statement, but discouraged
any discussion relative to it which I attempted to introduce. "I heard no more upon the subject until now, on my way from Canada to England, that the information reached me which has caused this letter, and having among my papers a copy of the statement in question, I take the liberty to enclose to contain any thing worthy of your it, in case it may be found 22 See McGillivray statement above. RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
311
Excellency's consideration. The state of the country in quesstill remains nearly the same as at the time this paper
tion
was written. Fort George and various trading stations in the interior are held by the North West Company, who have about three hundred persons permanently employed in the trade of the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacifick Ocean. have one vessel now on that coast and
We
another sailed from England with supplies for our people in
September
last.
"I cannot presume to suggest to your excellency any course to be adopted on this occasion but it appears to me that the
question might be put whether the Ontario had any instructions to act [with] hostility towards the British traders on the
North- West Coast, and the Columbia River. This, however, merely venture to submit to your Excellency's judgment, and have the honor to be, &c. &c. I
}
SIMON McGiLLivRAY."
On November
21st, 1817, Sir Charles Bagot received this from Simon McGillivray, that the Ontario was "to seize or destroy the establishments and trade of the North West Company" on the Columbia. In a report to Lord Castlereagh, he wrote: 23
notice
"Upon receipt of this letter, I thought it my duty to lose no time in endeavouring to ascertain distinctly, from the American government, whether such a measure really was in contemplation; and I accordingly asked for a conference with Mr. Adams, at which I communicated to him the information I received, and requested him to acquaint me whether it had any foundation. "Mr. Adams appeared to
me to be considerably embarrassed but a short silence, he said that the after by my question, Ontario had certainly gone to the North West Coast of America,
but that she had not received any orders either to destroy
or disturb the trade of the North
"He
then said that
2$ F. O.
5,
Vol. 123.
I
West Company.
must be aware
that the United States KATHARINE
312
B.
JUDSON
had long possessed a settlement upon the Columbia River which had been captured during the late war, and that upon the peace, application had been made to Mr. Baker for its restoration, to which Mr. Adams alleged that Mr. Baker merely replied that the fort had been destroyed, and that he believed that no persons would be found there who could make restitution, and that the object of the voyage was to re-establish this settlement which, he rather seemed to imply, was already in the possession of the United States. "Having ascertained the fact of which I desired to be assured, I made very little observations upon Mr. Adams' remarks but in the short conversation which followed, he stated that the Columbia had been first discovered by an American ship which sailed from Boston between the years 1780 and 1790. To this I immediately replied that the coast had been
uniformly claimed by Great Britain, as might be seen by reference to the discussions which had formerly taken place with the Spanish government, the only government with discussion upon that subject could arise."
whom
any
Mr. Adams then "only observed that, would be hardly worth the while of Great have any differences with the United States on
Further than in his opinion,
Britain to
that,
it
account of the occupation of any part of so remote a territory." But Sir Charles thought that a ship of war sent to a country
He had sent an express to Sir John Sherbrooke, asking if they could warn the North West Company through an express sent by their interior posts, overland. The Ontario, so Sir Charles noted in a closing sentence, had on board a Mr. Tyler for Peru. But Sir John's answer 24 was that it was too late for an express overland. The North West Company would send a claimed by Great Britain was "a serious matter."
memorial, to be used as a basis of representations to "the United States cabinet."
On December
23,
1817,
25
the
North West Company did
present a petition to Sir John C. Sherbrooke, Governor of 5, 5,
Vol. 130. Vol. 131. RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
313
Upper and Lower Canada, and Vice Admiral, asserting their rights to the North West Coast, stating that the Ontario "is bound for the North West Coast of America, with intentions hostile to the trade and establishments of the North West Company in that quarter." She was going to Fort George, yet that was a "place not having been taken possession of by right of conquest but by a right founded on the just claims of discovery and previous possession of the country by His
Majesty's subjects."
On November
24th, Sir Charles wrote to
Lord Castlereagh,
in cipher: 26
"My
Lord,
"I have been this day informed by Mr.
Adams,
in
answer
thought my duty to make upon the States sloop Ontario, of United the of destination the subject commanded by Captain Biddle, and rated at eighteen guns to
an inquiry which
which
sailed
I
it
from New York the 4th of last month [October] had been ordered to proceed to the mouth of the
that that vessel
Columbia River, for the purpose of establishing the settlement of which the United States were dispossessed during the late war. "I have thought it proper to lose Lordship this information. "I shall write
more
fully
no time
in giving
by the packet which
Your
will sail in
a few days. "I have the honour to be with great truth and respect, "Your Lordship's most humble, obedient servant,
CHARLES BAGOT."
Two
days
later,
November
John Quincy Adams
26th, 1817,
27
Sir Charles wrote
was not captured, but abanthus appears that no claim for
that the post
doned by agreement, and "as
it
the restitution of the post can be grounded upon the 1st article of the Treaty of Ghent, and as the territory itself was early O. 27 F. O.
5,
5,
Vol. 123. Vol. 123. KATHARINE
314
B.
JUDSON
taken possession of in His Majesty's name, and has been since considered as forming a part of His Majesty's dominions, I
have to request that you
will
do me the honour to furnish
me
with such explanation as you may judge proper of the object of the voyage of the Ontario, so far as it may relate
to establishments
that I
ment
may
upon the
territory to
which
I refer, in
order
be enabled to represent to His Majesty's governa measure in which His Majesty's rights and
...
interests appear to be so materially involved."
On December
1st,
Sir Charles wrote to
Lord Castlereagh, 28
as follows:
"Washington, December
1,
1817.
"Sir: private letter of the 3rd of last month, I had the honour to acquaint your Excellency with a report which has been in circulation here respecting the destination of the United
"In
my
States sloop-of-war Ontario. I have since had an opportunity of ascertaining that this report is well founded. "At an interview which I had a few days ago with the
Secretary of State, I communicated to him the information which I had received upon this subject, and I requested that he would inform me whether orders had been given to the Ontario, to proceed to the Columbia River, for the purpose of
making establishments in its vicinity, or of disturbing in any the trade of the North West Company. "Mr. Adams stated to me in reply, that the Ontario had certainly been directed to proceed to the North West Coast of America, and that she had been instructed to establish a settlement, which the United States had formerly possessed, at the mouth of the Columbia River, and which has not been
way
its capture in the late war, but that she has not received any orders to disturb or interrupt the trade of the
restored since
North West Company. "It
is
not necessary for
me
to trouble your Excellency, at
present, with any examination of the arguments which the American government may design to urge, in support of this ?JfF. O.
5,
Vol. 123. RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
315
measure which they have thought proper to adopt, but a reference to Sir Gordon Drummond's despatches to Mr. Baker of the 14th and 31st of August, 1815, will prove to your Excellency that the settlement to which Mr. Adams adverted was not captured during the war, consequently that its restitution cannot be claimed under the 1st article of the Treaty of Peace.
"The enclosed copy of a note which I have addressed to American government, will sufficiently explain to your
the
Excellency the course which I have thought it my duty to take can receive an answer to the despatches
in this business, until I
which
I
have forwarded by
this mail to
His Majesty's govern-
ment. "I have not yet received an answer to this note, nor is it necessary for the immediate purposes of this letter, that I should.
"Whatever may be the grounds which the American government may assign for the step which they have taken, it appears to
me
to
me
to be in the highest degree important, that the if possible, find upon her arrival at the Columbia
Ontario should
River, that the Territory
is
in the actual possession of
His
am
anxious to submit purpose Majesty's subjects. to your Excellency's consideration, whether it might not be still practicable, through the means of the interior posts of the
For
this
I
North West Company, to convey to such of its traders, as may happen to be upon that Coast, intelligence of the destination and object of the Ontario, which may reach them before her arrival.
sailed from New York on the 4th of October, been directed to take out Mr. Tyler, who has has but as she business on the part of the American with some been charged
"The Ontario
government in Peru, she will probably be detained some time upon the South West Coast of South America. "I am fully aware that it will be a matter of great difficulty to
make
this
communication, but
it
me
will also
be a matter of Your Excel-
that unless
great delicacy for it appears to lency can entirely rely upon the intelligence of the North
- KATHARINE
316
West Company that
it
is
B.
JUDSON
traders in that quarter, clearly to understand, being upon the spot pre-
only in the event of their
viously to any attempt being made by citizens of the United States to establish settlements, that they are to take into their
own hands the assertion of the territory, they may perhaps be induced to dispossess by force American settlers whom they may find there, and by so doing greatly embarrass any negotiawhich may hereafter take place upon the subject, if they do not occasion yet more serious consequences. "I have the honour to be, &c., &c. &c., CHARLES BAGOT."
tion
?
The next day, Sir Charles wrote again to Lord Castlereagh. 29 The letter is somewhat confused. The three commissioners he had mentioned as in the Ontario, were he
said,
presumably
Mr. Graham, late the chief clerk in the Department of State, Mr. Rodney, and Walter Jones, District Attorney of the United
The Ontario, he said, sail destined to in summer of 1817 [ which the originally the letter of Sir Lucas Yeo, given above] but explains James States in the District of Columbia.
was
was delayed for unknown reasons.
So
comand he seemed to have difficulty in getting exact information on this mysterious Ontario did not sail on the Ontario, but went on the frigate Chesapeake to South America, in a diplomatic that the three
missioners, so far as Sir Charles could
make out
capacity.
On
30 January 6th, 1818, Sir Charles reported to Lord Castlehad that he received no answer from Secretary Adams reagh
to his note of
November 26th regarding
the sailing of the
Ontario.
On January 26th, 1818, Lord Castlereagh notified Lord Bathurst as follows, the draft of the letter only being found in the Records: 31 29 F. O. 30 F. O. 31 F. O.
5, 5, 5,
Vol. 123. Vol. 130. Vol. 139. RESTORATION OF ASTORIA "Draft
317
"Foreign
Office,
Jan. 26, 1818. Comnirs. of the
"I have this day addressed to the Lord Admiralty, acquainting their Ldps [Lordships] that Mr. Bagot, His Ms Minister in America, having transmitted intelligence that the U.
war Ontario has been
sloop of
sent by the on the Columbia River, R H's held by that state on the breaking out of the war, it is in that of the 1st of Article the pursuance pleasure Treaty of Ghent (without, however, admitting the right of that Govt to the Possession in question), due Facility should be given to
Amn
Govt
S.
to reestablish a Settlement
H
the Reoccupation of the said Settlement by the officers of the United States, and I am to request that Your Lp will be pleased to take such steps in furtherance of that object, as
you may
judge expedient." [Signed] CASTLEREAGH.
That same January Simon McGillivray sent to Henry Gouldburn the letter in which he states that he had instructed Mr. Keith, in charge of Fort George, to obey any instructions given
him with regard
On
February
32 up Fort George. 1818, Lord Castlereagh wrote
to giving 4th,
Charles Bagot as follows
to
Sir
33
"Foreign
Offiice,
Febr. 4, 1818.
"You will observe, however, that whilst this Government is not disposed to contest with the American gov't the point of possession as it stood in the Columbia River at the moment of the rupture, they are not prepared to admit the validity of title of the Govt of the United States to this Settlement.
the
In signifying therefore to Mr. Adams the full acquiesence of your govt in the re-occupation of the limited Position which the U. States held in that River at the breaking out of the war, you will at the same time assert in suitable terms the Claim
of Great Britain to that Territory upon which the American 32 F. O. 33 F. O.
5, 5,
Vol. 139. Vol. 129.
(Enclosure by Gouldburn, Feb.
2,
1818.) KATHARINE
318
B.
JUDSON
Settlement must be considered as an
encroachment.
You
same time acquaint that Minister, that whilst your Govt could not but view with some surprise and regret the will at the
departure of the Ontario for the purpose of re-occupying the Port in question, without any previous concert with yourself,
and amicable transfer of this possession, that have nevertheless lost no time, as will appear by Court your the enclosed instructions, in taking such steps as depended on for the regular
them, in order to obviate any unpleasant
collision.
from your Despatch that Mr. Adams, in conversation, attempted to account for this on grounds of a former reference to Mr. Baker, but upon turning to the correspondence which then took place, it does not appear to this Govt that anything which then passed would justify the Govt of the U. States in taking such a step without at least some previous communication with you. "In adverting to this point with the American Secretary of State, which brings pointedly into view the unsettled nature of the pretensions of the two govts in the whole extent of their Frontier to the Westward, from the Lake of the Woods to the "It appears
Ocean, adverting also to the omission in the Treaty of Ghent of any provision for the demarcation of Limits beyond the point above referred to, it has appeared to the Prince Regent's Govt insistent with the friendly Spirit of our existing relations, to take measures for settling our Boundaries with the U. States throughout the whole of this line." and this was always It was easier, Lord Castlereagh stated, Pacific
the position taken by the British Government, right up to the Treaty of 1846 to settle the boundary before the country it was little known, because there were one fewer difficulties, way and another, with settlers. A new the was now motive treaty of America with Spain, giving the old the Americans Spanish rights, such as they were, and
was
settled
and while
Bagot was therefore ordered tion if he could.
The
easiest
way
to try to settle the
boundary ques-
to do this, Castlereagh thought,
was by a RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
319
supplement to the Treaty of Ghent, or by additional articles, and the United States was to be requested to give its Minister in London power to sign such article. And he thought it well to begin on the Coast. Meanwhile the Ontario reached Valparaiso, then blockaded, between January 19th and February 1st, 1818. Commander 34 under date of February 18th, 1818, reported Bowles, "The arrival of the Ontario at Valparaiso caused much specuShe carried out a Mr. Prevost who was said to be high lation. in the confidence of the present President [of the U. S.]. He to went General (Prevost) immediately Santiago, visiting San Martin's quarters on his way." Prevost was to remain in Chili a month or six weeks at She sailed least, while the Ontario was to go to the Columbia. after of in late the Battle had returned immediately Maypie;
June.
Orders from the British Government to the North West Company were received by Commander Bowles, at Rio Janeiro on April 19th, 1818, enclosed from London in a letter of January 27th. The Blossom was to be sent to the 'Columbia. The Blossom reached Valparaiso on 16th of May. On June 1st, Earl Bathurst's orders were sent to Captain Sheriff, the Blos-
som to be detached immediately for service to the Columbia. The Blossom sailed July 12th, under Captain Hickey, some two or three weeks after the Ontario had returned to ValPrevost was fully empowered to receive possession. paraiso. Meanwhile on June 2nd, Sir Charles Bagot wrote to Lord 35 Castlereagh as follows:
Washington, June
"My Lord
2, 1818.
"Upon receipt of your Lordship's despatch No. 7, of the 4th of February last, I immediately communicated to Mr. Adams the acquiesence of His Majesty's Government in the re-occupation, by the United States, of the position held by them upon the Columbia River prior 34 Admiralty :, Vol. 23. 35 F. O. 5, Vol. 132.
to the late war.
I stated KATHARINE
320
him
to
that
B.
JUDSON
His Majesty's Government entertained no doubt
of the United States being entitled under the provisions of the 1st Article of the Treaty to resume possession of whatever was held by them at the moment of rupture which was not subject
and
I
made by
the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th articles; him with the orders which were given to acquainted
to the exceptions
prevent any interruption being offered to the re-establishment of the Post in question. In conformity, however, to Your Lordship's instructions, I did not disguise from him that His Majesty's Government had seen with some regret the irregular mode in which the United States had seen fit to resume possession of the settlement; and I took the opportunity of laying a general claim, on the part of the British Crown, to the territory upon which it had been made.
"Mr. Adams appeared
what I said in good part. American government put very That the Ontario had little value upon the post of Astoria. received her orders before he had entered upon the duties of his office, but that he could assure me that she had been instructed not to commit any act of hostility or force whatever and that with regard to her having been despatched without
He
to receive
%
stated that in fact the
previous concert with me, he could take it upon himself to say that it was entirely owing to the belief founded upon a
statement formerly made by Mr. Baker, that there was no person upon the spot by whom a formal surrender could be
made." Sir Charles urged upon Secretary Adams the settlement of the whole question of contiguous boundaries. And Secretary Adams agreed, adding other points, such as the fisheries question, slaves, colonial trade, etc.
The
letter continues
"Mr. Adams informed me that he had been directed by the
me that the circumstances of the Ontario to the Columbia River without any been despatched having intimation being given to me of her destination, was entirely incidental; that she had received her instructions whilst he President to assure
was
at
New York on
his tour to the northern frontier,
and that RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
321
he had omitted to direct the proper communication to be made to me upon the subject." But if the Ontario was originally destined to sail in August, in the pressure of business there,
.
one wonders whether
this
.
.
excuse was entirely truthful.
Meanwhile, in August, the Ontario arrived at the Columbia and we have reason to think from other reports that it was one of the soft summer days at the mouth of the river, when the river flowed swift and wide and blue as it does today, on a sunny August day, under a blue sky, though lashed to
gleaming whiteness in the crashing breakers on the bar. James Keith tells the story, two months later, in October, and a ludicrous yarn it is, to any one with a sense of humor though Keith had no intention of being humorous.
Captain Frederick Hickey of the Blossom, sent in his formal request to the fur trader
36
H. M.
S.
Ship Blossom, Columbia River, Oct. 4, 1818.
To James
Keith, Esq.,
Fort George.
Upon the restitution of the post and settlement of Fort George to the American Government, I request that you will have the goodness to furnish me with an exact account Sir:
of
its
state
and condition, and with such other information as of importance should be communicated to His
you may deem
Majesty's Ministers. I have the honor to be, &c., &c.
FREDERICK HICKEY.
And
the fur trader promptly replied, with full details, and Part of this is published in the U. S. Government documents, but not the Ontario
then gave the story of the Ontario. episode.
37
36 F. o. 37 F. O.
5, s,
Vol. 147. Vol. 147. KATHARINE
322
B.
JUDSON
"Fort George, Columbia River, 7th October, 1818.
"To Captain Frederick Hickey, H. M. Ship Blossom. "Sir:
"In compliance with your request conveyed to me in your communication of the 4th instant, of being furnished with an exact account of the state and condition of this settlement on its restitution, together with such further information as I might deem of importance to be communicated to His Majesty's Ministers, I shall
who (myself
first
advert to the
excepted) were and
number
of
its
inhabitants
under either written or verbal agreements, as servants of the North- West Company consisting of two gentlemen clerks, and one surgeon of Scotch parents, one overseer, seventeen engagees, including mechanics, and mostly Canadians twenty-six natives of Owhyhee, and one Indian boy (native of the soil) who added to two Owhyhees absent, and sixteen trappers, Canadians and Iroquois still
are,
employed by the Company among the surrounding tribes to hunt skins, form a grand total of sixty-six persons, exclusive of women and children who may properly be said to belong to the settlement; and with regard to the minor establishments
in the interior of this River, supplied
from and dependent
number
of people employed, the extent of our trade, annual produce, prospects, and mode of conducting it, it would too far exceed my intended limits to detail, and other-
hereon, the
is not altogether unknown to Government. to the progressive improvements and material changes the settlement has undergone subsequent to our purchasing
wise
I
presume
"As
from the American Company in October, 1813, and which have been extended with immense labour and heavy expenses, you will be enabled to form an imperfect idea from the extent it occupied under that concern, the nature and properties of buildings raised with precipitancy to protect persons and prop-
it
from the injuries of the weather, as well as the attacks of the Natives, and the prospects which a five years quiet
erties RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
323
possession now open to view, and which joined to your own observation, the minute sketch of one of your officers I trust will sufficiently demonstrate. 38
"With regard
to the transfer,
ought to have been con-
it
sidered by the party benefited thereby, as one of those fortunate contingencies seldom to be met with; what the said party
upwards of three months antecedent
to
such transfer had
otherwise fully resolved to abandon by the dissolution of their concern, as expressed at full length in the preamble [of the bill of sale of Astoria]. But to return to my subject; the
arms and ammunition we now possess consist of two long 18-pounders mounted in the square of the buildings, six Guns two 6-pounder co6-pounders, and four 4-pounders. horns and seven swivels stationed in the block houses and on the platforms, besides blunderbusses, muskets, and fusils there are upwards of eight hundred round and cannister shot for the cartridge guns, principally 18 and 6-pounders, together with a certain proportion of powder, ball, etc., part of which is indispensable for the trade, etc., and the gross amount of property (buildings excluded) on a rough estimate, cannot, I principal
conceive be over rated at about
30,000.
The Natives
are
very numerous and much addicted to theft, lying, and plunder, and though with few exceptions we have hitherto kept smooth with them without which we must long ere now have ceased to be a trading establishment,
we
require to be vigilant, cir-
cumspect, and much on our guard. These I conceive constitute the leading points which your communication embraces. "One circumstance, however, I had almost omitted. I allude
manner of Captain Biddle's last visit. By the Levant, a Boston vessel, freighted with part of our annual supplies, and from on board of which were landed 80 to 90 bags of
to the
Spanish flour belonging to the Ontario
we were informed by
verbal authority, founded on conjectures, that the latter was destined hither for the purpose of taking possession either of the settlement, or of the country, but having entertained similar suspicions the preceding 38 Ore. Hist. Quarterly, V.
summer and moreover conceiving
XIX,
pp. 276-82;
V.
XX,
p. 30, T. C. Elliott.
it KATHARINE
324
B. JUDSON
a mere piece of formality which I had every reason to think the British Government could not consistently wink at, I felt
and secure until the Ontario arrived off Cape Disappointment, on the morning of the 19th of August, followed by Captain Biddle's appearance about 3 p. m. Accom-
perfectly easy
panied by a strong party, including
officers,
in three boats,
apparently well armed, only Captain Biddle and his Surgeon landed at the settlement, the others being immediately ordered off,
conducted by one of
"Exceedingly
social
my men and
to Point George, to cut spars. polite, but not the most distant
intimation of the object of this visit of which, as if studious of exciting the least suspicion, he glossed over the circumstances of the arms, etc., from his apprehensions of the Natives. With
much
reluctance (from our having a superabundance) and not
after repeated solicitation, I gave him bills on Canada for the flour, and towards 5 p. m. accompanied by another of my till
men
in an Indian canoe rowed by the natives, Captain Biddle and surgeon set off to join their party, giving to understand they would proceed on board however, learning that they had encamped where my people left them, I next morning despatched the same two men with some fresh supplies, who
soon after returning with accounts of their departure, reported having seen a board unusually painted and nailed upon a
and unfrequented place on Point one-half about mile hence, whereon we found inGeorge
tree in a rather secluded
scribed in large characters:
Taken possession
of in the
name and on
the behalf of the
United States
By
Captain James Biddle, commanding the United States Sloop of War, Ontario Columbia River, August 1818
"Such mysterious and unaccountable proceedings, of which the subsequent reports of the Natives, joined to the gloomy, desponding conjectures of my own people rather aggravated the unfortunate impression, excited the most anxious and painful sensations at what would probably be the next step and so RESTORATION OF ASTORIA far operated to redouble our vigilance that
325
on your arrival with
J. B. Prevost, Esqr., every gun was shotted and small arms ready for all hands. The agreeable contrast since experienced it would be deemed flattery in me to dwell upon. Justice,
however, demands that
should bear testimony to the handsome, unassuming, yet dignified manner in which Mr. Prevost I
comported himself, during the disappointed in
my
late
changes and though much
expectations relative to the pledges of
security and publick faith, without which no commercial body much less contribute to the national
can promote their own,
prosperity, I attribute the cause solely to his circumscribed powers and must act accordingly. There is nothing of a
public or private matter connected with the late change, of which you have not official documents, or are perhaps ac-
quainted with, excepting my communication with Mr. Prevost 39 copies of which I herewith transmit together with his replies, you, and as your short stay precludes the possibility of my completing the various papers I intended forwarding for London, as well as Canada, I request that you will be pleased to hand the present for the perusal of Mr. Prevost to enable him to extract such materials for the information of the Govern-
ment of the United
States,
as he
be, sir,
your obedt
may
think proper to lay
before them. I
have the honor to
& humble
servant,
JAMES KEITH.
"To Frederick Hickey, Esq., Captain H. M. S. Blossom, Bakers Bay." Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent. British commissioners and John Quincy Adams were debating a treaty which should settle the boundary of the North- West Coast of America. In orders to F. Robinson and Henry Gouldburn from Lord Castlereagh, dated London, August 24th, 1818, he
gave as a fifth point to be considered under consideration 40
in the
commercial treaty
39 F. O. 40 F. O.
5, 5,
Vol. 147; also V. Vol. 138.
2,
Miscellaneous American State Papers. KATHARINE
326
B.
JUDSON
"5th. The position on the Columbia River occupied by the Americans, and now ordered to be restored to them in pursuance of the first article of the Treaty of Ghent, but under a
protest as to their right to the same." If actual douSt existed as to sovereignty, the commissioners were to consider a species of stipulation which would serve
the rights of all states from being prejudiced by a transaction which the British government were then parties so read
to
He urged them to adopt some prinsuch as a parallel, to save delay and expense of survey. The question was to be settled if possible by amicable discussion, or referred for adjudication similar to Castlereagh's instructions.
ciple of demarkation,
the 4th, 5th and 6th articles of the Treaty of Ghent. During the discussion on the North- West Coast of America, incident to the joint-occupancy treaty, three subjects: the
Columbia River, the North- West boundary, and the problem of captured negroes, the United States refused to submit to arbitration, because (1), of the difficulty of an impartial arbitration, its
own
and (2), because the United States preferred to keep affairs to itself. So wrote Henry Gouldburn to Lord
41 Castlereagh, August 29th, 1818.
A month later, September 26th, 1818, Gouldburn wrote to Lord Castlereagh with regard to the American claims on the North-West Coast of America, and one can fairly feel the gasp of amazement in his letter. The words in italics were underscored by him.
The
He
wrote
41a
"article for settling the
boundary
to the
westward of
Rocky Mountains, claimed on
the part of the United States, an extent of territory beyond what had ever been contemplated as belonging to them. the
"They stated it generally to rest on the right of prior discovery and occupation, but in the statements which they subsequently made, they appeared rather to address agreements mouth of the Columbia River,
in support of their claim to the
than to the whole of the interior territory which the terms of their article conveyed to them." 41 F O. 41 a F. O.
s,
5,
Vol. 138. Vol. 138. RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
327
The Treaty
of 1818, with one paragraph making the Oregon a But the country joint-occupancy country was the result. restoration of Astoria, as a post, had been secured a private
fur company's post, claimed after its sale, by the American government, as a national possession.
Under
the circumstances one
is
hardly surprised at what
happened a few years later. Something of the British view again, is shown in a letter from Lord Castlereagh to Stratford Canning, then British Minister at Washington, under date of August 7th, 1820, in response to a worried letter from Canning. It was marked "Confidential"
42
"The tendency
American government
of the
contentious discussion.
The
is
rather to
ancient relations of the British
and American nations, and the jealousies as yet imperfectly Govt of the United States to maintain their
allayed, incline the
pretensions in discussions with us, perhaps in deference to those prejudices, in a tone of greater harshness than towards any other Government whatever. The American people are more easily excited against us, and more disposed to strengthen the hands of their Ministers against this than against any other state. Time has done a good deal to soften these dispositions,
and the more we can permit them to subside by avoiding angry discussions, the less will the American Govt be capable of contesting unreasonably those various points which the reciprocal interests of the two countries may from time to time be expected to present themselves for adjustment." Castlereagh continued that he looked for an "abatement of
most unbecoming acrimony which has generally been prevalent between these two nations since the period of their that
separation."
Six months later came an example of this. On January 28th, Stratford Canning wrote an eighteen-page letter, on
1821,
heavy plate paper, but
it
was the
42 F. O. 43 F. O.
5, 5,
in "fair
round hand,"
to
Lord Castlereagh Having heard
letter of a startled statesman. 43
Vol. 150. Vol. 157.
- KATHARINE
328
much about bills
B.
JUDSON
the occupation of the Columbia
had been appearing regularly
Floyd's annual
he went to Mr.
Adams
The reduction of the army was under debate Congress, when a member asked if this was prudent when
about in
it.
the United States were planning a settlement on the Columbia. The bill to occupy the Columbia had been read twice. The
began that "The President of the United States be, and hereby authorized and required to occupy that portion of territory of the United States on the waters of the Columbia " River It gave lands to settlers and prescribed a government. It was H. R. 222, of January 25th, 1821. It was read twice and was to come before the Committee of the Whole
bill
he
is
.
.
.
the day after Canning's letter, that is, January 29th. He enclosed a copy, with a newspaper letter from Mr. Robinson, author of a book on Mexico.
upon Mr. Adams, though knowing Mr. Adams' character," but with conrelations had been "satisfactory and con-
Canning therefore
called
the "peculiarities of fidence, since their
fidential heretofore."
"Mr. Adams replied in the most determined and acrimonious United States did probably mean to make a new settlement on the Columbia, and that they had a perfect right to do so, the territory being their own." Being asked if this answer could be said to come from the tones, that the
Government, "he
replied,
with increased asperity,
in the af-
He
seemed determined to consider my interference respecting the Columbia as offensive and unwarranted." In the course of further conversation, he expressed "an em-
firmative.
repetition of the right the undisputed, indisputable of the United States to the territory of the Columbia right and an utter denial of any right on my part, as British Minister,
phatic
arrangements on Lord remark, Castlereagh's Canning quoted
to interfere with their eventual
that head." in a letter of
February 4th, 1818, to his predecessor, Sir Charles Bagot, that "It is always more easy to come to an arrangement on such subjects little
where the
territory in discussion
cultivated, than
is little known, or where enterprise and industry have led RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
329
to settlements which cannot be abandoned without loss, and cannot be ceded without the alienation of subjects owing al-
legiance to one or another state."
Mr. Adams promptly replied regarding Great
Britain's posi-
tion in 1818,
"That he considered the claim then put forward as a mere moment. What more, he exclaimed, would at ? Could it be worth while to make a serious England grasp question of an object so trifling as the possession of the Columbia? What would be thought in England if Mr. Rush were to address the Secretary of State on the occasion of a regiment being destined for New South Wales, or the Shetland Islands? The United States had an undoubted right to settle wherever they pleased on the shores of the Pacific without being molested by the English Government and he really thought they were at least to be left unmolested on their own continent of North America." Those eighteen pages are rather interesting reading. But Lord Castlereagh, determined to keep peaceful relations between the two countries, wrote to Canning, on April 44 1st, 1821, directing him not to renew the discussion of the Oregon question without special instructions from the king. He reminded him that by article 3 of the treaty of 1818, "The rights of both parties were saved for subsequent adjustment, but no attempt was made either to determine those rights, to define what might be regarded as the existing state of occupation, or to preclude either party from forming new settlements chicaine of the
within the disputed territory during the period, viz., ten years together with the reservation of any right which the .
.
.
formation of such settlement might either appear to impeach or establish. Whatever therefore may be the pretensions of .
Great Britain upon the Columbia River, they must be urged But it is not His on antecedent grounds of right. to provoke circumstances under present Majesty's intention .
.
.
any discussion with the American Govt on the of these claims." 44 F. O.
5,
Vol. 156.
final
adjustment KATHARINE
330
B.
JUDSON
On
April 27th, 1821, Minister Canning reported to Lord 45 Castlereagh, after another interview with Adams.
"Mr. Adams went on to say that he hoped nothing would occur for a long time to weaken those mutual dispositions" between the two nations. from the above, and yet in close connection with it, is a letter from Sir Charles Bagot to Lord Castle46 reigh, dated Washington, March 6th, 1819 "... A small expedition is preparing by the Government, under the command of Major Biddle of the United States army, for the purpose of ascending to the source of the MisThis expedition, which is entirely unconnected souri River. with that of the Yellowstone River, is to be performed by means of a steam boat which is to draw eighteen inches of water only.
to
good
A
will
little
aside
Upon
reaching the source of the Missouri, Major Biddle hopes
to be able to carry the steam machinery of the boat to the other side of the Rocky Mountains, where he proposes to build
another vessel, in which he will descend the Columbia River to its mouth, where he may expect to meet with the Ontario, sloop-of-war, commanded by his brother. Major Biddle appears to be of the opinion that this expedition will occupy about two years. There can, I think, be little doubt that it is
connected with some proposed establishment at the mouth its object the double purpose
of the Columbia which has for
of securing the fur trade, and promoting the fishery in the South Seas."
THE 47F. O. 46 F. O.
5, 5,
Vol. 158. Vol. 142.
END.
American whale THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
(Some Hudson's Bay Company Correspondence)
By T. C. Elliott.
The documents presented herewith are supplemental to that printed at pages 27-34 of this volume of the quarterly and are taken from the same source and very little need be said by of introductory comment. These are of special interest as showing the intimate connection of the Hudson's Bay Company with the British cabinet in 1825-26; Messrs. Henry Addington and William Huskisson being the two commissioners appointed by Secretary George Canning to discuss with representatives of the United States the question of the Northwest Boundaries. These are also of interest when compared with our own congressional reports and speeches during the period of 1821-27, showing that the British were then concerned only in the trade in this Columbia River Country while the attention of Americans was already being directed toward occupation and settlements. It was in 1825 that Senator Thomas H. Benton first uttered his oft-quoted declaration that the ridge of the Rocky Mountains should forever remain as the western terminus of the government of the United States an opinion which he later directly reversed.
At the time of reorganization following the coalition of the North- West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 Mr. George Simpson was placed in charge of all the properties, men and business of the last named company in North America, and hence came to be known as the "governor of Rupert's Land"; Mr. J. H. Pelly of London was governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Two years, 1822 and 1823, were necessary to reconcile differences and reorganize the business East of the Rocky Mountains, but after the regular summer council meeting in 1824 Governor Simpson started from York Factory on Hudson's Bay for his first personal visit to the Columbia District, Dr. John McLoughlin accompanying him to assume the duties T. C. ELLIOTT
332 of
manager of the
district.
The winter
of 1824-25
was spent
at
Fort George (Astoria) and in selecting the location for the new trading post to be called Fort Vancouver and Governor Simpson returned to the East side of the mountains in the spring of 1825, having personally visited all the trading posts in the district except those at Thompson River, the Kootenay river and among the Flatheads. His knowledge of the Columbia River basin in 1825 cannot be said to have been complete but was not superficial. His replies to 'Messrs. Addington and Huskisson were therefore partizan rather than ignorant. These documents should be read in connection with that in this Quarterly for March, 1919, already cited, and also in connection with the valuable contribution upon The Federal Relations of
Oregon (L. B. Shippee)
Quarterly for
in this
September, 1918.
(DOCUMENTS) Journal 721,
p.
261)
Mr. Henry Addington presents his compliments to Mr. Simpson, and having received Mr. Secretary Canning's directions to communicate with Mr. Simpson on the subject of the Columbia River and North-West Boundaries with a view to the final adjustment of those important questions with the Government of the United States he is desirous of arranging an interview with Mr. Simpson and in so doing wishes to consult Mr. Simpson's convenience equally with his own.
He therefore requests that Mr. Simpson will have the goodness to let him know at what hour and day, and where it would be most convenient to him to favour Mr. Addington with an interview. If f] >
'
!
>
,
191 Regents Street, 28th
Decemb:
1825.
Mr. Simpson presents respectful compliments to Mr. Addington will have much pleasure in communicating with and giving him all the information he possesses in regard to the Columbia River and North- West Boundary; for which purpose Mr. Simpson will do himself the honour of waiting on Mr. Addington when and where he may be pleased to appoint, Mr. Simpson's time being quite at Mr. Addington's disposal. THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
333
Hudson's Bay House, 29th Deer. 1825. Mr. Addington presents his compliments to Mr. Simpson, and requests the favor of a visit from him agreeably to his proposal at one o'clock p. m. to-morrow, if perfectly convenient to Mr. Simpson.
Thursday 29th December 1825. 191 Regent Street,
30th December, 1825. inclose herewith the set of queries on which I wish
I Sir: for more particular information. The answers to them may be as concise as is consistent with The more matter of fact they are, the perfect perspicuity. better. That to query IX, I wish to be as strictly conformable to fact and history as possible. I am, Sir, Your very obedt. humb servt.,
H. W. ADDINGTON. your answer whenever it may be ready addressed to me at the Foreign Office. Mr. Henry Addington requests that Mr. Simpson will have the goodness to send in the answers to Mr. A's queries (whenever they shall have been finished at Mr. Simpson's entire leisure) addressed to him at his own lodging which he has changed, instead of to the Foreign Office, 194 Regent Street, Jany 4th, 1826. Mr. Simpson presents respectful Compliments to Mr. Addington, begs to hand him answers to his list of Queries likewise a corrected chart of the Country on both sides of the Rocky Mountains; should Mr. Addington require further information on this important subject Mr. Simpson will do himself the honour to wait upon him at any time he may appoint.
Be
P. S.
so
good
as to send
Hudson's Bay House, 5th Janry, 1826.
What
the nature of the soil, its capability of proin the vicinity of the Columbia and Lewis's 1 Rivers ? What the climate ? A. The banks of the Columbia on both sides the River from Capes Disappointment and Adams to the Cascade Portage a distance of from 150 to 180 miles are covered with a great variety of fine large timber consisting of Pine of different
Q.
1.
duction,
kinds, of Cedar, i
is
and general character
Snake River.
Hemlock, Oak, Ash, Alder, Maple and Poplar 334
T. C. ELLIOTT
with many other kinds unknown to me. The soil of the low grounds is alluvial and found very productive, that of the high grounds a rich black mould, chiefly composed of decayed vegetables. Some of the points formed by the windings of the river are extensive and beautiful with sufficient timber for use and ornament, and where the plough may be used immediately and the point on which the Company's Establishments of Fort Vancouver is situated is from its extent and from the fertility of its soil capable of producing large quantities of grain of every kind of pasturing numerous herds of cattle and nutritious roots are so abundant that almost any number of Hogs
may be reared. The climate delightfully
temperate from the month of April of October, and from November until March rainy with little or no Frost or Snow. From the Cascade Portage to the entrance of Lewis's River, the banks are sterile, the Soil very Sandy producing Stinted Grass and willows and little or no timber. The Country in the vicinity of Lewis's River I understand is level and generally fertile but I cannot speak with certainty on this point not having had an opportunity of visiting it personally except at its junction with the River Columbia. Q. 2. Are the natives on the Northern bank of the Columbia warlike or pacific, inclined or averse to intercourse with the whites ? Is the Country between the Rocky Mountains and the Columbia densely or thinly inhabited ? A. The different Tribes on the banks of the Columbia are generally bold and warlike as regards each other and extremely jealous of any encroachments on each others Territory or privileges, but peaceable and well disposed towards the whites with whom they are very anxious to maintain a friendly intercourse. Occasional differences I understand took place when we first entered the Country in which some lives were lost on both sides but at present the best understanding exists between us and them. The Country is densely inhabited, on account of the great abundance of its resources in the way of living. Q. 3. Is there good hunting ground immediately on the northern bank of the Columbia ? A. The hunting grounds immediately on the Northern banks of the Columbia are nearly exhausted in respect to furbearing animals, but the back country is still productive and Beaver are found in all the small Rivers and Lakes. Q. 4. What, on a rough calculation are the annual profits of Trade in the district of Columbia and do they arise from until the
month THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
335
the Northern or Southern portion of that district principally? A. The Trade of the Columbia district is yet in its infancy and the countries to the Northward and Southward produce about an equal quantity of Furs amounting together in value to between 30 and 40,000 pr. annum.
Q. 5. Have the Americans any Post or trapping parties on the Columbia or to the West of the Rocky Mountains in that direction
?
The Americans have not had a Post on the West side of the Rocky Mountains since the year 1813, and I am not aware that they ever had any Trapping parties on the West side of the Mountains until last year when the Hudson's Bay ComA.
pany's Snake Country Expedition fell in with five Americans who had straggled across the sources of the Missouri. 2 Q. 6. Is the Country Northward of the Columbia favour-
Land and Water communication? The Country to the Northward of the Columbia
able for
A.
is not favourable for water communication with the Coast on account of the impetuosity of the current at particular Seasons in the different rivers and frequent chains of rapids and dangerous falls, and the Communication with the Coast by Land is quite impracticable on account of the mountainous character of the Country which is covered with almost impenetrable forests. Q. 7. For what extent of Country does the Columbia River furnish an outlet for Trade? Specify this exactly and according to the latest and most accurate accounts? A. The Columbia is the only navigable river to the interior from the Coast we are acquainted with, it is therefore the only certain outlet for the Company's Trade west of the Mountains 3 comprehending that of thirteen Establishments now occupied
Vancouver.
1.
Ft.
2.
Nez
3.
Okanagan.
4.
Colville
5.
6.
Perce.
House
Flat Head Kootenais.
7.
Kilmany.
8.
Eraser's Lake.
9.
Ft. St.
McLeod's Fort.
11.
Chilcotin Fort. Thompson's Fort.
12.
13.
James.
10.
Alexandria Fort
Q. 8. What time is required for communication between Hudson's Bay (York Fort) and Fort Vancouver? A. I was last year occupied 84 days traveling from York These were Jedediah Smith and others. See Or. Hist. Quar., Vol. Also see The Ashley-Smith Explorations (Dale), page 97. Note 17 at page 33, Vol. 20, Or. Hist. Quar. See 3
a 385.
14,
page 336
T. C. ELLIOTT
Fort, Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Columbia, but I think the journey can be performed in the height of the season in a light canoe, unincumbered with baggage for the water communication and with good horses for the journey by Land which may be about 1/6 of the whole distance, in 2 months or 65 days by a different route 4 to that which I took. Q. Upon what foundation does the assertion rest that "British subjects had been trading on the Coast in the vicinity of the Columbia, prior to Gray's voyage thither in 1788? N. B. Consult every authority within reach on this point and state the fact if anywhere positively ascertained, accompanied by date, and specification of the point which such persons opened an intercourse with the Natives. A. Both Meares' and Vancouver's Voyages confirm the assertion that "British subjects had been trading on the coast in the vicinity of the Columbia prior to Gray's voyage thither in 1788 Vizt. In Meares' observations on the probable existence of a North- West passage page 55 it is stated "that the Imperial
Eagle Captn. Barclay sailed from Europe beginning 1787 and not only arrived at Nootka Sound in August but explored the Coast from Nootka to Wacananesh and so on to a Sound to
which he gave his own name. The boat's crew was dispatched and discovered the extraordinary Straits of John de Fuce, and also the coast as far as "Queenhythe" within 30 to 40 miles of the Columbia River "when after the fatal catastrophe which happened to some of them, the ship quitted the Coast and proceeded to China having performed the whole voyage in twelve months." The following note appears in Meares' Journal page 124: "The Imperial Eagle was a Ship employed to collect Furs on the Coast of America, in 1787, in the course of its business the Captain dispatched his long boat from King George's Sound on a trading expedition as far as 47 degrees North. She then anchored abreast of a river, the shallowness at whose entrance prevented the long boat from getting into it." A small boat however, which was attached to the other was sent up the River with Mr. Millar an officer of the Imperial Eagle, another young Gentleman and four seamen. They continued rowing till they came to a village where they were supposed to have been seized and murdered by the Natives, as their clothes were found afterwards stained with blood." 5 By Meares' Journal pages 163 to 168 it appears that on the 4 In 1841 Gov. Simpson followed this different route and journeyed from Fort Garry on Red River to Fort Vancouver in less than sixty days. incident occurred at the mouth of Hoh River in the State of WashingfThis ully 100 miles north of the mouth of the Columbia River. THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
337
5th July 1788 he traded with Natives of Cape Shoalwater in about Lat. 46, 47 N. and on the 6th he named "Cape Disappointment" calling the mouth of the Columbia Deception Bay, making it by an indifferent observation in Lat. 46.10 Lon: In page 219 same Journal (17th Septr. 1788) it is 235.34. stated that Mr. Gray in the Washington joined him at Nootka Sound, that vessel had sailed in company with the Columbia from Boston in August 1787, they separated in a gale of wind in Lat. 59 South and had not seen each other up to that time. Mr. Gray informed Meares that he had put into a Harbour on the Coast of New Albion where he got on shore, and was in danger of being lost on the Bar, was attacked by the Natives and had one man killed and one of his officers wounded. The harbour could not admit vessels of a very small size and must
somewhere near Cape Lookout Meares in page 220 further says that he (the Master of the Washington) "appeared to be very sanguine in the superior advantages which his Country Men from New England might reap from this track of Trade, lie
and was big with mighty Projects in which we understand he was protected by the American Congress." It, therefore, appears evident that up to this period, Gray knew nothing of the Columbia and that the Americans were total strangers to the Country and Trade of the North- West Coast altogether. Vancouver's Voyages Volume 2 page 53 April 1792 states that the River Mr. Gray mentioned should from the situation he assigned to it, have existed in the Bay, South of Cape Disappointment. Mr. Gray stated that he had been several days attempting to enter it and at length he was unable to effect it
in
consequence of a strong outset.
Page 388 same Work October 1792 Vancouver prepares to examine the Coast of New Albion and particularly a River and Harbour discovered by Mr. Gray in the (Ship) Columbia between the 46th and 47th degrees of North latitude of which Senr. Quadra had given him a Sketch. Vol 3 page 124 Decbr. 1792 "The Discovery of this River
we
is claimed by the Spaniards who Entrada de Ceta after the Commander of the Vessel
are given to understand
call
who
it
is
said to be
its first
discoverer, but
who never
entered
it,
46 degrees North Latitude it is the same opening that Mr. Gray stated to us in the Spring (1792) he had been nine days off the former year (1791) but could not get in in consequence of the out setting current. That in the course of the late Summer (1792) he had however entered the River or he places
it
in
- T. C. ELLIOTT
338
rather the Sound and had named it after the Ship, he then commanded (Columbia). The extent, Mr. Gray became acquainted with on that occasion, is no further than I have called Gray's Bay (15 miles from the mouth of the River) not more than 15 miles from
Cape Disappointment, though according to Gray's sketch it measures 36 miles. By his calculation its entrance lies in Lat. 46 degrees 10, Lon 237 degrees 18 differing materially in these From these extracts it will respects from our observations." appear that Lieut. Meares of the R. N. was the first who discovered the entrance of the Columbia in July 1787 naming the head Land of the Northern entrance of the River Cape Disappointment which it still bears, and that Captn. Barclay of the Imperial Eagle had previously traded in the vicinity of the River and at about half a degree to the Northward lost a boat's crew in the year 1787. Gray's Bay is situated on the North side of the Sound about half way between Cape Disappointment and the mouth of the River which he appears never to have entered as Vancouver's Voyages Vol 3 page 109 says "Previously to his departure however he formally took possession of the River and the Country in its vicinity in His Britannic Majesty's name having every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilized Nation or State had ever entered this River before in this opinion he was confirmed by Mr. Gray's sketch in which it does not appear that Mr. Gray either saw or was within five leagues of its
entrance." 6 These extracts and remarks will I trust satisfactory answer
query Q.
9.
What comparison does Eraser's River bear in magnitude and capacity for the purposes of Trade with the Columbia? Is the Native population on its banks dense or not-well-disposed or not- warlike or pacific? A. Eraser's River is not so large as the Columbia and not to be compared with it for the purposes of Trade, the depth of water found at its entrance was about 3 fathoms and banks are generally high and steep, covered with Timber and such places as are sufficiently low and clear for the site of an establishment bear marks of having been over flown in the Seasons
of high water. About 70 miles from its entrance the navigation is interrupted by Rapids and Falls so as to render it nearly impossible, and according to the best information I have been able to collect, the 6 See Note 3 at page 28 of Vol. 20, Or. Hist. Quar. THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
339
banks of the river about 150 miles up form precipices where the towing line cannot be used, and the Current so impetuous at certain Seasons as to render it impossible to use either the setting Pole or Paddle, Canoes being the only craft that can attempt to stem the current at any Season. The Natives treated our party 7 with civility and seemed anxious that we should settle among them. They assembled from the back Country to the banks of the River in great numbers during the fishing season (from April until October) when the population is very great, and at all Seasons the Country may be said to be densely peopled, and their character much the same as that of those inhabiting the banks of the Columbia. I should not however consider it safe to form an Establishment there, with a smaller force than 60 to 70 men and officers, until we are better acquainted with them. Q. Could the Fur produce to the North of Eraser's River and West of the Rocky Mountains be conveniently transported by means of this river for shipment to other Countries? A. From all the information I have been able to collect respecting Fraser's River, it is not my opinion that it affords a communication by which the interior Country can be supplied from the Coast or that it can be depended on as an outlet for the returns of the interior. I will further altho' unasked take the liberty of giving it as my opinion, that if the navigation of the Columbia is not free to the Hudson's Bay Company, and that the territory to the Northward is not secured to them,
they must abandon and curtail their Trade in some parts and probably be constrained to relinquish it on the West side of the
Rocky Mountains
altogether.
(Signed)
GEO. SIMPSON.
London, 31st December, 1825. Journal 722,
p.
3
Hudson's Bay House, London, 25th July, 1826. the Right Honourable, Wm. Huskisson. I have annexed to your queries such answers as Sir the records to which I refer afford: I think that there is sufficient proof that the Traders of the N. W. Company had established Posts on the Columbia long before the establish-
To
Dear
7 See the Wash. Historical Quarterly, Vol. 3, page 198 et seq., for the journal of this expedition. T. C. ELLIOTT
340
ment at Astoria in 1811. Harmon distinctly states that they were established in 1806, the American Fur Company was only formed in 1810 and were erecting their Fort in August 1811 when Thomson went there from one of the North-West Company's posts in the Interior. Lewis and Clarke had been down the Columbia in 1805 and returned in 1806 the natives on their route had many European articles but McKenzie had crossed the mountains and proceeded to the sea in 1793 and Thompson further south in 1802 at which time he was I understand on one of the tributary streams of the Columbia. From Meares' Memorial it appears that certain merchants under the immediate protection of the East India Company fitted out ships in the year 1786, and and traded with the natives between the Lat. of 60 and 45.30, and obtained from the Chief of the District surrounding Port Cox and Port Effingham in Lat. 45 and 49, promise of free and exclusive trade with leave to build on the land, and purchased from another a tract of land. I likewise inclose for your information copy of a statement relative to the Columbia River and Territories connected therewith drawn up in 1815 at the request of Sir Gordon DrumIt was sent me in 1822 by Mr. Simon McGillivray if there is any other information that you require I shall be happy to furnish it as far as I am able and shall feel obliged if you will allow me an audience any morning either this or the fol-
mond.
lowing week except Thursday. I am, Dear Sir, Your faithful
&
obedt. servt.
(Signed)
J.
H. PELLY.
Q. State the date (the year if possible) when any party or individuals belonging to the Northern or Hudson's Bay Company first had a station in or near to the Columbia or to any of its Tributary Streams and the proof on which such state-
ment
rests
The first year that any party belonging to the NorthWest Company had a station on or near to the Columbia was in 1806. Harmon, an American by birth who was a clerk in the North- West Company's service and afterwards a partner A.
published a Journal of Voyages and travels commencing April 1800 and ending August 1819 says in page 282 "That the country West of the Rocky Mountains with which I am acquainted has ever since the North-west Company first made an Establishment there, which was in 1806 gone by the name of New Caledonia" and in page 220 he states "Monday April 6th. THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
341
who delivered a letter written by Mr. David Thompson which is dated 8 August 28th 1811 at Yek-koy-ope Falls on the Columbia River. It informs me that this Gentleman accompanied by seven Canadians descended the Columbia River to the place where it entered the Pacific Ocean where they arrived on the 16th day of July. There they found a number of people employed in building a Fort for a company of Americans who denominated themselves as the Pacific Fur Company; he also writes that Mr. Alexander McKay and others have proceed Northward in the vessel that brought them there on a coasting trade. Mr. Thompson after having remained seven days with the American people set out on his return to his establishments which are near the source of the Columbia River." From this it would appear that Mr. Thompson hearing at his Establishment higher up the Columbia of the unexpected arrival of the Americans at the mouth of the River went down to reconnoitre their proceedings, was with them when they were erecting their Fort and then returned to his own Posts which had been established after his first visit to the Country from the East of the Mountains in 1803, herewith is sent a copy of Harmon's work and in pages 194, 196, 218, 224, 228, 237, 239, 240, 242, 245, 246, 9 will be found remarks relating to the establishments. in the service of Note: Mr. Alexander McKay has been the North-West Company for several years, was a British subject and was engaged by the Pacific Fur Company from the knowledge which he had acquired of the trade while in There were also the service of the North-West Company. Duncan McDougall, Donald McKenzie, David Stuart and several other British subjects who had all been previously in the service of the North-West Company attached to the crew and party sent out in the Tonquin and who built the American Fort on the South bank of the Columbia River. Q. When was the Name of McGillivray given to the River now bearing that name? Was its course or any considerable part of it explored by any person of that name being a subject of His Majesty in the service of the Company and was there any settlement or station formed by him or others acting with him on that River and about what time? A. In 1803 when Mr. Duncan McGillivray who died in 1807 set out on an Expedition with David Thompson from the NorthSix Indians have arrived from Eraser's Lake
to
me
8 Ilth-koy-ape, or Kettle Falls, in the State of Washington; see "David Thomp' son's Narrative (Tyrrell) for verification of this. 9 Daniel Harmon was located at Lake Stuart in, British Columbia, many miles from the Columbia River. 342
T. C. ELLIOTT
West
Go's post in Saskatchewan River to cross the Rocky Mountains to explore the country and with a view to establish Trading posts, Mr. McGillivray was taken ill and obliged to remain behind. Mr. Thompson proceeded with the Expedition crossed the upper part of the Columbia and called the first River he reached McGillivray the next after himself. McGillivray and Thompson were both partners in the North- West Company. They traded with the Natives but formed no Establishment at that time. 10 x Q. Did McKenzie explore and what parts of the Columbia or its Tributary Branches: in what year and was he then in the service of the Company ? A. Sir Alexander McKenzie did not explore any part of the Columbia or its tributary branches he proceed from the Athapescow district by Peace river crossed the Mountains and travelled to the Pacific far to the Northward both of the Columbia and Thompson Rivers, this was in the year 1793 at which time he was a partner in the North-West Company. Q. In what year was the first English ship sent to the Columbia for the purpose of collecting Furs and carrying supplies to the Company's Agent sand trading with the natives on the Columbia River? Has a ship been sent every year since the first? A. The Isaac Todd which sailed from England in 1813 and arrived at the Columbia River in April 1814; was the first ship that took any Produce of the North-West Company's trade collected on the West side of the Rocky Mountains and carried it to China from whence she brought a cargo of tea to England for account of the East India Company; all that had been collected in former years having been sent by the Interior to Canada but as early as 1786 the East India Compy had vessels on the Coast and purchased Land of the Natives as related by Meares in his Memorial see States papers annual Register 1790 page 287. The Isaac Todd took at the same time all that had ever been collected by the American Fur Company at the Establishment of Astoria. The Americans arrived in the Columbia as before observed Summer 1811, the Furs that were collected the following Winter, they were not able to send away the ship that was to have conveyed them 10 These statements as to the movements of David Thompson are incorrect. In the year 1800, on the waters of Peace River nearly all that year.
He was
company with Duncan McGillivray, he made a trip from Rocky Mountain House on the Saskatchewani westward into the Rocky Mountains, but neither of them
in
reached the summit, as their survey notes clearly show. Narrative" (Tyrrell), page 8t.
See "David Thompson's THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
343
having been destroyed by the Natives on the coast and the whole of the Crew massacred. No ship arrived in 1812 and in the fall of 1813 it was that the North- West Company purchased of the American Traders all they had collected the preceeding two years therefore no American ship ever took away, or have the Americans ever taken any produce of their Trade from the Country and when they established themselves in 1811 on the South side of the River, they had no establishment on the North side, and from the terms of the Treaty for the purchase it appears that they had one subsequently on Thompson River but abandoned it when they left the Country and they have never been there since. In 1814 the schooner Columbia was sent out which arrived at Fort George in the spring of 1815 and having delivered her supplies proceeded with skins to Canton from whence she returned to the Sandwich Islands and to the Columbia River in order to carry the skins of the following season to Canton. The supplies sent from England in 1815 and which reached Fort George in the Spring of 1816 were sent in the Brig Colonel Allen which vessel returned from the Columbia to England. All these were British vessels belonging to and fitted out by the Agents of the North- West Company with supplies for their Traders at the Columbia River. The outfits of these vessels having been found expensive and
unproductive in consequence of the restriction of British subjects from trading in China except under License from the East India Company which Company refused to permit the Agents of the North-West Company to carry away tea in return for the skins sold by them at Canton whilst American ships and Traders not being under similar restrictions had the benefit of freight for the whole voyage to China and back. Under these circumstances in the year 1815 an arrangement was made with a house at Boston under which the supplies of British manufactures required for the establishments at the Columbia were sent from England to Boston from whence a ship was dispatched to convey them to the Columbia to take the skins from the Columbia to Canton and to carry the proceeds of their sale in Teas and other produce of China from Canton to Boston where the American house retained a certain proportion of the net proceeds as a compensation for the freight. In this
River
in
manner annual supplies were sent to the Columbia each year from 1816 to 1820 and in 1821 the Estab344
T. C. ELLIOTT
lishments were transferred to the Hudson's Bay Company since which time the proceeds have been brought by British ships to England.
House many
posts and settlements has the Company or near the Banks of the Columbia or its Tributary Branches when as nearly as can be ascertained were they first formed and how many are North and how many are South of the Rivers or of its Branches? A. The Company have now six settlements on the Columbia and its Tributary Branches exclusive of Fort George and thirteen settlements in the whole on the North side of the River in New Caledonia. The Company have none on the south side but parties have been fitted out from Fort George to hunt the Country on that side. Q. When the Company was formed on which Mr. Astor was the head, of how many partners did it consist, how many of that Company were citizens of Great Britain and how many citizens of the United States? A. Formed in 1810 after Lewis and Clarke's return, do not know their number but several of them were British subjects and had been in the service of the North- West Company. Q. Had the Company any charter of incorporation or other instrument of special recognition from the State of New York or any other authority in the United States ? A. Cannot say if had a charter of incorporation, but they believe they were recognized by the State of New York.
Q.
now on
- THE FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
By LESTER BURRELL
VII
SHIPPEE, Pu.D,
CHAPTER XIII THE TERRITORY OF OREGON In Chapter
IV
there
was noted the establishment of the
Provisional Government in Oregon, with its dependence on voluntary contributions and its tripartite executive, a government over some six hundred souls of European descent who
then found themselves within the limits of the territory. If the American contingent was doubled in 1842, 1843 brought nearly twice as many whites as Oregon had previously had, for the migration of that year numbered close to a thousand
persons
who came
over the Oregon Trail with their wagons
and herds, from Missouri and the surrounding States. At this point a word in relation to Dr. Marcus Whitman's relation to the migration of that year may not be out of place. While Whitman did go to Washington in the winter of 1842-3, and while he talked with President Tyler, Webster and others, there seems to be no warrant for the "Whitman Legend" which would have it that it was his work that -saved Oregon for the United States. 1 Oregon was becoming well known, the more so because the Wilkes Expedition and the later exploring expedition led by Lieutenant Fremont had resulted in accounts which were spread abroad in pamphlets, books and in
newspaper
reprints.
greater numbers sought the Coast, most of the emigrants settling in the Willamette Valley, although the efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company, acting through the
In 1844
still
chief factor. Dr.
McLoughlin, to prevent their entrance into
investigations of Professor E. G. Bourne (see Legend of Marcus Hist. Rev., VI, 276-300) and Principal William I. Marshall (his Acquisition of Oregon, 2 volumes, contains the bulk of his findings) have pretty thoroughly exploded the theory that Whitman's journey east in the winter of In 1842-3 was due to the fear that the Unied Sates was going to abandon Oregon. like manner these historians have demonstrated that the migrations of those years in such assertions the of Whitman, despite had nothing to do with the activities works as Barrows' Oregon. See also Letters and Times of the Tylers, II, 438. i
The
Whitman, Am. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPER
346
the fertile regions north of the Columbia and about Puget Sound, served to goad a few families to find homes in that
The stream of migration, started in 1842, continued unabated until the news of gold in California turned the greater flood in that direction in 1849 and the years following. country.
Such was the volume of emigrants that in the debates in Congress as early as 1845-6 ten thousand was freely stated A as a conservative figure for the population in Oregon. memorial in 1848 said that there were 12,000 American citizens in the territory, and Governor Lane's census of 1849 showed a population of 8,785 Americans, and at that time the exodus had started. The first actual enumeration, in showed a total non-Indian population of 13,294, hence it is probable that the estimate of the Provisional Government in 1848 was not more than twenty per cent, above the actual
to California
1850,
figure.
The great increase in population obliged the people of Oregon to modify their organic laws. The Utopian scheme of a government supported by voluntary contributions, however well would have continued to operate with the original parties to the compact, proved inadequate as soon as the new comers, it
unfamiliar with the situation, were on the ground. In 1844 the Legislative Committee levied a tax of one-eighth of one
per cent, on certain improvements and on some commodities; all who refused to pay were to have none of the benefit of the laws of
Oregon and were
2 not,-io vote.
In the revision
of the organic laws in 1845 the legislative body was specifically given power to "pass laws for raising a revenue, either by the levying and collecting of taxes, or the imposing licenses on
merchandise, ferries or other objects." The revision of the organic law in 1845 also brought about a change which gave practically a constitution on the lines of the State constitutions of the time, including the customary bill of rights. 3 Instead of a Legislative Committee there was to
be a House of Representatives composed of not 2 Act given in White's 3 Ibid., 358-67.
Ten Years
in Oregon, 347-9.
less
than FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
347
thirteen nor more than sixty-one members. The powers of this body were those "necessary for a legislature of a temporary government, not in contravention with the restrictions imposed in (the) organic law/' Specifically power was given to impeach officials, constitute districts and apportion representatives, enact revenue laws, open roads and canals, regulate inter-
course with the Indians, 4 establish a postal system, declare war
and suppress insurrection, provide fdr ia militia, regulate the importation, manufacture and sale of ardent spirits, 5 regulate the "currency and internal policy of the country," create inferior tribunals and offices, and "generally, to pass such laws promote the general welfare of the people of Oregon, not contrary to the spirit of this instrument; and all powers not hereby expressly delegated to remain with the people/' to
A
judicious admixture of liberal and strict construction was thus placed in the fundamental law, presumably to meet the opposing political doctrines of those who came from different por-
United States. For the peace of mind of the was no doubt fortunate that the Territory of Oregon was erected by Congressional act before there came any pertions of the
courts
it
plexing problems over the interpretation of "all powers necessary for a legislature of a temporary government, not in contravention with the restrictions imposed in this organic law" and the "general welfare" clause, in the light of the restriction in "all
powers not nearby expressly delegated to remain with
the people."
The Executive Committee was thrown over and executive power was vested in "one person, elected by the qualified voters at the annual election." The judiciary was to be cominferior tribuposed of a supreme court with one judge and of constitutional That nals. import might be decided questions decide upon and annul to have shall court "the supreme power
any laws contrary to the provisions of these articles of compact and whenever called upon by the house of representatives, the
be 4 In the bill it was stated that "the utmost good faith (should), always observed towards the Indians," whose lands were not to be taken without their the authorized lawful and in by "unless wars, invaded or just consent, rights representatives of the people." and importation of spirits. 5 In 1844 the Legis. Com. had prohibited sale . LESTER BURRELL SHIPPER
348
supreme judge shall give his opinion touching the validity of any pending measure." In the land law, which constituted one of the articles of the new compact, there was an important modification of the original act, for the proviso which allowed religious missions to pre-empt a square mile was omitted. As before, an individual might take 640 acres, although partnerships might take up tracts of 640 acres per member provided no member had a claim in his own name. There was no thought that all these provisions would be other than temporary in nature; they were merely to fill in until the United States should have extended over the territory its protection and its laws. While there was some talk of an independent establishment, caused by the delay in settling the boundary and then by the failure of Congress to provide ter-
government, few thought seriously of that possibility. of the organization had been referred to in the memorial which was presented to Congress in 1848, 6 as well as in the letter from Governor Abernethy which formed the basis of Thornton's memorial. ritorial
The temporary nature
The officers
At
advent, then, in Oregon of the newly appointed Federal was hailed with joy as well as relief in March, 1849.
list was General Joseph Lane, of Indiana, appointed by Polk after the first choice, General 7 The James Shields of Illinois, had declined the nomination. other territorial officials were Knitzing Pritchett of Pennsyl-
the head of the
who had been
vania, secretary; William P. Bryant of Indiana, chief justice, and James Turney of Illinois and Peter H. Burnett of Oregon
(one of the promoters of organization in 1843 and 1844),
Meek, who had brought the dispatches from the legislature, marshal Isaac W. R. Bromley of New York, district attorney, and John Adair of Kentucky, collector of the port. Burnett and Bromley declined the positions offered them and these were filled by William Strong and Amory Holbrook, both of Ohio. It is to be noticed that the names of only two Oregonians appear in this list and that associate justices; Joseph L.
6
See Chapter XII. IV, 91-3.
7 Polk, Diary, FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON neither of these
is
that of J.
Governor Abernethy's lature,
the majority
letter. 8
of
349
Quinn Thornton, who brought The memorial from the Legis-
which represented
onie
Oregonian
had
practically requested the President to give the more important positions to persons who were not residents of the clique,
territory in order to prevent the appointment of Abernethy, who headed another faction, as governor.
While the new
officers
were on
their
way
to
Oregon
the
President received another appeal from Governor Abernethy for aid against the Indians. 9 The conflict which had broken out,
the
Up
known as the Cayuse War, was the immediate Whitman massacre which occurred in the fall to this outbreak there
had been comparatively
trouble with the Indians in the
Bay Company's
Oregon Territory
influence over the native tribes
tributed to prevent hostilities
and some
little
result of
of 1847.
little
serious
the Hudson's
had long congood seems to
have been accomplished by Elijah White, the sub-Indian agent appointed by President Tyler, although he had been inclined to make promises which he neither was able nor attempted to fulfil. White had resigned his position in 1846, when Conhis petition for the extra salary which he conrefused gress 10 and Charles E. Pickett had been appointed due sidered him, After in his place. White left Oregon, however, the relations between the settlers and the Indians had been taken over by the Provisional Government acting through the Governor.
When
the warlike activities of the Indians were reported to had applied to Governor Mason
Pickett, then in California, he
for forces with which to
go to the assistance of the Oregonians. his request and Pickett remained in California believing that his mere presence would count for No assistance was received from Washington either, little. for Congress had not' acted on the measures reported in both
The Governor refused
8 This factional situation is hinted at in Polk, Diary, IV, 81-3, in the account of Thornton's attempt, finally successful, to secure payment of his expenses in The inner features of the episode are not indicated by going to Washington. Thornton, History of Oregon and California, II, 249-50. For the whole affair see Bancroft, History of Oregon, I, 773, note, where the account is based on MSS. in the
Bancroft collection. 9 Polk, Diary, IV, 144, 10 Oct., 1848. to Washington with the 1845 memorial
to
10 White had gone Oregon until 1850.
and did not return LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
350
houses for the defense of the whites and the regiment of
men, released from service
in the
Mexican War, had
rifle-
to be
it could be sent to Oregon. however, had been on the President's mind, for just before receiving the second communication from Abernethy he had, after consultation with his Cabinet, decided to
recruited to full strength before
The
situation,
unite the military districts of Oregon and California and put them under the command of General Persifer F. Smith. General Smith, who was then in Washington (October) had already been ordered to Oregon with the mounted riflemen as
soon as they should be ready to leave. 11 Abernethy's plea, then, could receive no other direct response, although the Secretary of the Navy was directed to order the commander of the Pacific squadron to proceed at once with a part of his force to Oregon and to furnish the inhabitants with arms and am-
munition and such of his
more took occasion
men
as he could spare. 12
to confide to his diary
what
Polk once
he believed to
be the cause of the misery of the Oregonians; "the neglect and inattention of Congress" which had failed to act in accord
had been "more occupied President-making than in attending to
with his recommendations, because at the last session in
it
public business."
Oregon, therefore, was forced to defend herself. A volunwas raised and this, together with the efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company and of the Catholic priests from teer force
the missions, succeeded in
making the allied tribes seek peace. Incidentally the massacre which had opened the strife was made the excuse of declaring forfeit the lands of the Cayuses about Walla Walla, thus throwing them open to settlement.
The expenses incurred by the Provisional Government in war became the cause of a long-standing claim against
the
the
Federal Government.
Annual Message 13 Polk did not hesitate to speak plainly on the Oregon situation and emphasized his remarks by sending to Congress the latest letter he had received from In his
last
Polk, Diary, IV, 149. 2 Ibid., 155-6. 13 Globe, XIX, 7.
1 1 1 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
351
Governor Abernethy. It had always been the policy of the United States to cultivate the good will of the aborigines, and "that this could have been done with the tribes in Oregon, had that Territory been brought under the government of our laws at an earlier period, and had suitable measures been cannot be doubted. Indeed, adopted by Congress the immediate and only cause for the existing hostility of the Indians of Oregon is represented to have been the long delay of the United States in making them some trifling compensa.
.
.
in such articles as they wanted, for the country now occupied by our immigrants." This compensation had been promised by the Provisional
tion,
Government but the
fulfilment
had been postponed for two
years while awaiting Congressional action. Accordingly Polk repeated his recommendation for laws to regulate intercourse '
with the Indians.
No
further recommendations did he
make
Oregon, although he reiterated his reasons, given in the message accompanying the signed territorial bill, He announced that steps had been for approving the act. with regard to
taken to carry into effect the act for mail service between Panama and Oregon, and in this connection mentioned a proposal for establishing a line of steamships to New Orleans and Vera Cruz as potentially beneficial to the commerce of
both Oregon and California.
But the Thirtieth Congress had spent enough time on OreThe whole question of California and New affairs. Mexico, with relation to slavery extension, had been left over from the first session, and, as this was the short session, there was little time to attend to other than the most pressing and
gon
Consequently all the action taken to deal with Oregon was the passage of a resolution allowing the Secroutine business.
War to furnish emigrants to Oregon, California and New Mexico with arms and ammunition. 14 The greater quesretary of
removing the most important source of trouble between titles, was not touched, neither did Congress take any steps to remove certain diffi-
tion of
the settlers and the natives, that of land
T^Globe, XIX, 535, 560, 616. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
3S2
culties in the land situation
which had arisen from the Terri-
torial Act.
The
of the organic act of 1848 had confirmed of lands occupied as missionary stations to an amount not exceeding 640 acres each, and the fourteenth section had
the
first section
title
declared null and void the laws of the Provisional Government making grants to settlers. The result was that of all the people living in Oregon only the missionaries, and they only for their religious organizations, and persons whose "possessory rights" had been guaranteed under the Treaty of 1846, had any valid claims under the law. 15 The title to all land, no matter what improvements might have been made or how long it had been occupied, was in the United States there to remain until Congress saw fit to pass an act relieving the situation. Those already in Oregon and those about to emigrate thither petitioned Congress to act but though several bills were introduced nothing was done and it was left to the Thirty-first
Congress, under a
new Administration
to deal with the re-
maining problems which Oregon presented to the attention of the Federal Government. This new administration appeared to Polk to have at its head a man with the most astounding ideas. When President Taylor and ex-President Polk were riding back from the inaugural exercises the former said, in reference to a chance remark, that in his opinion both Oregon and California were too far distant to become members of the Union and it would be better for them to set up independent establishments. Well might the man who had made the acquisition of California the paramount purpose of his Administration note that these were alarming sentiments to be heard spoken by a President of the United States. 16 15 See letter of the Secretary of the Treasury transmitting the annual report of the Commissioner of the Land Office, Ex. Doc. (House) No. 12, pp. 14-15, 30th Cong., ad Ses. He had discussed this possibility with his cabinet in the 16 Diary, IV, 375-6. previous December and had stated that he thought the leading Whigs would be glad to give up California in order to get rid of the Wilmot Proviso; consequently If California went, thought Polk, Taylor's remark must have seemed significant.
Oregon would join
her. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
353
"I have entertained serious apprehensions and have expressed in this diary, that if no Gov(ern)ment was provided for California at the late session of Congress there was danger that that fine territory would be lost to the Union by the establishment of an Independent Government, Gen'l Taylor's opinions as expressed, I hope, have not been well considered. Gen'l Taylor is, I have no doubt, a well meaning old man. He is, however, uneducated, exceedingly ignorant of public affairs, and, I should judge of very ordinary capacity. He will be in the hands of others, and must rely wholly upon his cabinet to administer his Government."
them
Circumstances changed, however, and even if President Taylor did seriously entertain the opinion he expressed to Polk, by the end of 1849 he would have found few in the United States to agree with him; the gold fields, if nothing else,
prevented giving up California, slavery agitation or no
slavery agitation. Nothing in the Annual Message which sent to Taylor Congress in December, 1849, indicated that he retained his pessimistic views on the desirability of keeping the Coast territories. 17 Railroads and canals across the Isthmus,
and
came in for considerable read the the mineral wealth of both attention; for, Message, railroads across the continent,
and Oregon made it certain that a large population both of those regions would demand speedier means of transportation than those actually existing. For Oregon speCalifornia in
he called attention to the land title situation. Congress took up and disposed of most of the issues connected with the land question, although minor questions concifically
tinued to arise for
many
years.
The Indian
title
was
extin-
guished and provision was made for surveys and for disposing of the public domain, and questions of special grants as well as the status of the holdings of the Hudson's Bay Company were brought up. Samuel R. Thurston, the Delegate from Oregon, was sufficiently active in keeping the needs of his constituents before the House.
He
it
was who took the
first
His steps with most of the measures dealing with Oregon. resolution for looking into the matter of extinguishing the e,
XXII,
Pt.
i,
70-1. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
354
was referred to a bill of the cuson Indian the Committee Affairs, although in the Senate, introduced tomary type for this purpose was passed by that body and adopted by the House. Indian
title
to the land west of the Cascades
Disposing of the public domain, however, gave rise to great After the introduction of a resolution requiring the interest.
Committee on Public Lands to look
into the expediency of
creating a land office and providing for the survey of lands in Oregon, Thurston, in February, moved a set of eight resolutions.
The Committee on
Territories
was
to be directed
to inquire as to the relative numbers of Americans and foreigners in Oregon, and what proportion of the latter had de-
clared an .intention to
become
citizens of the
United States
the expense and time it took to reach Oregon; how long the people there had managed for themselves without assistance
from the Federal Government. 18
The purpose of
tions was, of course, to point out the duty of
the resolu-
to provide liberally for those who had undertaken the sacrifice necIn April a bill was introduced in essary to go to Oregon.
each house, and in the one on
its
May
calendar.
the
Congress
House of Representatives took up questions arose. As reported
Two
bill would make grants of land to settlers, but Bowlin wished to amend the provisions by inserting the word "white" thus provoking a little anti-slavery skirmish led by Giddings, who always took every opportunity to deliver a blow at anything connected with slavery. The obnoxious word remained in the bill as passed by the House, for Thurston told the Congressmen that the people of Oregon were so in dread of the introduction of free negroes that they had passed a law pro-
the
coming to the territory. The second question was on the new policy of giving away the public lands, which some opposed. A long delay ensued and Thurston began to get uneasy he feared that the session would end before his land bill became law and so, at the end of July, he tried to introduce a resolu-
hibiting their
iSGlobe, XXII, 413. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
355
which he showed the flourishing condition of Oregon under the Provisional Government and the chaos which had resulted from the territorial organization which had nullified
tion in
While there was objection to the reception of it had been read and its work accomplished, for a few days later the land bill was brought up, and after a few minor changes passed. In the Senate some little question was raised as to whether a clause should be inserted so that
all
land
titles.
this resolution,
lands designated by the President for public purposes should be excepted from the provisions of the bill. Douglas said that such a provision might result in taking arbitrarily the
improved land of settlers, that he learned from the Delegate from Oregon that exactly that had happened at Astoria. Jefferson Davis, who had moved the amendment, looked up the point and found that no injury had been done; he insisted upon his amendment, therefore, and the Senate adopted it. In this way was defeated a rather shrewd attempt to make the government of the United States pay for many of the sites which might be desired for military posts and the like. The law as it was passed at the very end of the session allowed every white man or Indiam half-breed, citizen of the United States or having declared his intention to become such, to take a half-section of land this quantity. 19
who were
in
This very
married
liberal gift
men might
was made only
Oregon and should take advantage of Those who came after
the first of December, 1851.
and
double
to those it
before
this date
December, 1853, could receive a donation one could claim under the act and the treaty. Special provisions granted two townships for the endowment of a university and the so-called Oregon City until the first of
half as large.
No
claim, at the falls of the Willamette,
was given the
territory
to be disposed of
university. in the river
by the Legislature also for the benefit of the In this gift two exceptions were made the island
was confirmed to the Willamette Milling and Trading Company, and the title to all city lots sold by Dr. 19 Globe, XII, 1846, 1953.
St. at L.,
IX, 496-500. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
356
McLoughlin before the fourth of March, 1849, was confirmed to the purchaser.
Not only was there a departure from precedent in the disposal of lands by donation rather than by sale but no provision whatever for sale of parts of the public lands was made. The British claimants under the treaty presented problems for the
Land Office
to solve, but local officials
were instructed 20 to
avoid sectional or other minute subdivisional lines in confirming the claims presented. In 1853 Congress amended the land act by extending the donation privileges two years, and by
allowing the settler, after an occupation of two years, to comthe remainder of the residence requirement by a payment
mute
of $1.25 per acre. Joseph Lane, then Delegate to Congress, attempted to have included in the amendment a provision whereby bounty lands (which were allowed to those who had participated in Indian wars anywhere since 1790) might be located in unsurveyed as well as in surveyed regions. This
was opposed
as a possible opening for speculation in lands.
Said one objector, Oregon had already been treated with more than ordinary liberality, what with land donations, bounty
$100,000 for the Cayuse War, university lands and double school lands, and there was no reason for allowing great tracts to come under the control of small groups of lands,
persons. The House was inclined to this view and Lane could not secure his amendment. He did, however, have added to
the general appropriation bill a sum of money for extinguishing the Indian title north of the Columbia where emigrants
were going
in constantly increasing
numbers. 21
The year
following these changes Lane came back to Confurther with requests. Especially did he desire the law gress amended so that a sale might be made of a part of a claim
persons, he said, had taken claims for one to three years before the original law had been enacted so that while the
many
law had been complied with no sale could take place because, No.
20 Report of Commissioner of i, 32d Cong., ist Ses. 21 Globe,
XXV,
Pt.
i,
Land
Office,
627, 1445; 890, 1852.
26 Nov.,
1851;
Sen. Ex. Doc. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
357
instances, the survey had not been made and no 640 acre claim, with no privilege could be issued. patent of sale, made population sparse and schooling dear; many young men had gone to Oregon and they should be allowed to in
many
A
a portion of their land in order to be able to return to the States for wives. Although the restriction was removed there
sell
was some opposition; Letcher (Virginia) saw in it another evidence of the intention of the North to force population into the northern territories thus further destroying the balance which had been disturbed by letting California in on the prinHe urged men of the South ciple of squatter sovereignty. to oppose all these attempts to propagate northern sentiment
and to multiply northern representatives
in
both house of
22
Congress. Lancaster, the Delegate from the newly-created territory of Washington, who was in favor of Lane's amendment as a benefit to his
own
constituents,
threw into the discussion a
reference to one factor which had proved troublesome in the territory ever since 1845 and which had persisted in coming
Congress whenever the land question was mooted. He charged Thurston with having secured the original restriction on account of fear that the Hudson's Bay Company and the up. in
Puget's Sound Agricultural Company would get control of large tracts, and that Dr. McLoughlin would "reap some bene-
from the labor and money he bestowed interests of American citizens." fits
The
relation of
McLoughlin
in
promoting the
to the land question brings
up
one of the least pleasant incidents of early Oregon history. While it was the almost universal testimony that the venerable
had treated with the utmost consideration and liberality the early settlers in Oregon, and had united with them in all proper activities for promoting mutual interests, he had incurred the enmity of some persons, notably of those with whom he came in contact on account of the claims at
chief factor
A
22 Globe, XXIX, Pt. 2, 1075 seq. provision prohibiting the establishment of donation claims on townsites and places selected for the purposes of business The law also extended to without and not of agriculture was adopted opposition. Oregon and Washington the provisions of the Preemption Act of 1841. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
358
Oregon
City,
merce.
The
a
site
for manufacturing and according to 'McLoughlin's
valuable
com-
idea, place was, "destined by nature to be the most important place in the country," hence he had, in 1829, taken a claim there in the
name of the Company, thinking to use a part of it for himHe self when he should have retired from active service. knew that it would be on American soil, but he intended to become an American citizen when he no longer was employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. Furthermore he considered it a good business venture for the Company to have a station at the Falls.
.
People connected with the Methodist mission, this site as McLoughlin at a later date
saw the value of
also,
said: 23
"The Methodist Mission wanted to possess themBut I selves of the place, of which I was informed in 1840. could not believe that persons calling themselves Ministers of the Gospel would do what their countrymen in the most humble station in life having the least regard for right, would con.
.
.
.
demn." In view of the animosity toward the Hudson's Bay Company, fostered in some degree by the Mission, he had made Sir George improvements at the Falls in his own name. Simpson, however, was not in favor of this project, since it would eventually be located upon territory of the United States, consequently McLoughlin could get no authorization from the Company to act either for himself or for it. When, thereafter, attempts were made to encroach upon his claim he could but protest and point to the fact that he had established A rival mill was built on the his claim many years before. island and, as the emigrants of 1842 began to arrive, people sought lots at this desirable location. ".
.
went so far in my zeal as to risk my private on the works at Wallamette Falls so as to from persons who wanted to get it in order to use
.
.
many
I
means
to carry
secure
it
23 See letter from McLoughlin to Governor, etc., of the Hudson's Bay Company, 20 Nov., 1845, his last official communication and the one in which he In Am. Hist. Review, XXI, 110-34. his resignation. Incidentally this letter disposes of the oft repeated charge that it was the purpose of the Company to drive Americans out of Oregon.
announced FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
359
would give to the prejudice of the Hudson's Bay Company, to which I was also induced on account of the hostile feeling the immigrants had to the Company, as I was afraid if I did (not) give them employment, that animated with this feeling and urged by their wants, they might make an attack on the property at this place which might be destroyed, and for which the Hudson's Bay Company would never get any indemnification, and the ComIn pany's business in this department would be ruined. doing which, by Sir George Simpson's not writing me in 1843, to take the place in my own name, I had to give five acres of the best ground for building lots, and five hundred dollars to Rev. Mr. Waller, and by the Hudson's Bay Company not giving me sanction to take it in my own name in time (which they could readily have done) I had to pay three thousand four hundred and twenty dollars for improvements not worth one half the money and one thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars for lots to which they had no claim." 24 the influence that place
Dr. McLoughlin resigned his position as chief factor in 1845 to disagreement with Sir George Simpson on the general policy of the Company in the Columbia district. He took
owing
his residence at Oregon City where he spent the remainder of his days, expecting when the boundary question was settled that there would be little difficulty in straightening the tangle over the title, for the Provisional Government had
up
made no
effort to adjudicate
between him and
his rivals, chief
among whom was Alvan F. Waller, one of missionaries. When the treaty was concluded of
Oregon found
that
it
the Methodist the inhabitants
contained a clause which stated that
"the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company and of all British subjects who may be already in the occupation of land or other property lawfully acquired within said territory, shall be respected." This apparently gave to Dr. McLoughlin a specific basis for his claim for, in the absence of laws recognized by the respective countries, priority of claim would give title, especially since the convention of 1818 and 1827 placed
American 24 Ibid.,
citizens p.
133.
and British subjects
For
a
discussion of the
in exactly the
McLoughlin
Dr. John McLoughlin; also Bancroft, History of Oregon,
I,
affairs,
203 seq.;
see II,
same Holman, 113 seq. 360
LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
Nevertheless there were many who had footing in Oregon. that the hoped treaty would not only place the boundary at 54 40' but also oust both British companies as well; these
were much disappointed that they could not immediately posimproved lands held by those organiza-
sess themselves of the
Some
of the disaffected took revenge by squatting upon of portions McLoughlin's Oregon City, whereupon he brought suit for trespass in the court of Clakamas county. Claimtions.
jumping, however, did not meet with widespread approval for once it received sanction there would be no security for any claim in the territory.
Two years passed by and then the territorial act produced even greater dissatisfaction for it annulled the land laws of Government and put none in their place. The only persons who enjoyed legal title to their land claims were the missions, in the name of the religious bodies controlling the Provisional
them, and those
who
held under the treaty.
One
of the most
important things, then, for a territorial Delegate to secure from Congress was a land law and Samuel Thurston took ?
of
the British Company and everybody connected with them to win popularity and an election. He began his campaign in the House of Representatives on February sixth, 1850, by introducing a series of
advantage
the
hostility
to
resolutions. 25
In the form of an inquiry addressed to the Committee on Judiciary the resolutions raised the question of the meaning of "possessory rights"; could the United States, by
making payment, dispose of the lands occupied by the British Companies and British subjects; had any British subject "lawfully acquired" land at the time the treaty was made; how much land could be claimed by the Puget's Sound Agricultural
Company and
could the Hudson's
Bay Company import goods
free of duty through the port of Astoria? 26
While on the surface Thurston did not appear 25 Globe, XXII, 295.
House.
The Company's
to be taking an
This was his second attempt to bring them before the
to navigate the Columbia was under the same restrictions applying to American citizens, hence duty would have to be paid on imported goods, a fact which had been overlooked by the British when the treaty was made.
26
right FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON active part in framing the details
361
and pushing the land
bill,
ex-
consideration, he had placed in it certain apparently innocuous clauses which would practically have prevented every British subject in Oregon from obtaining a donation
cept to urge
its
grant as well as have deprived Dr. McLoughlin of his claim. To accomplish the first purpose the bill contained the words "all
white American citizens" to designate those eligible to the Committee on Public Lands had considered
secure land
this a little too
strong and had changed
it
to "all
male
citizens
of the United States, or persons emigrating from the United States, and who shall have made a declaration of intention to
become citizens." This amendment the House adopted, but it meant that every British subject in Oregon, including those who had long since established their homesteads along the Willamette, would have to go into some one of the United States and "emigrate" from there in order to qualify for a
The Senate
struck this out, leaving it necesmake a declaration of intention. should sary only that aliens the process of naturalizauntil Aliens still would have to wait
donation claim.
tion should
would be
have been completed before a patent for their lands
issued.
Dr. McLoughlin, however, was dealt with in a section by This was the more easily done since Thurston had itself. played upon the ignorance of the members of Congress; he had described McLoughlin as the enemy of Americans in
Oregon and Oregon City
as
a menace to American interests
still.
The
claim, except for the lots sold or given away by the Doctor before the fourth of March, 1849, was to become
property of the territory. Abernethy's Island in the Willamette, on which the mills had been erected, was granted to the Willamette Milling and Trading Company which had bought up the claims of the Methodists. No provision was
the
made
to reserve to
McLoughlin any of
had declared formally of the United States, he had as he
When
his original claim, and,
his intention to lost his
become a
citizen
standing under the
the text of the proposed act
was received
in
treaty.
Oregon LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
362
was much dissatisfaction; some felt that McLoughlin had been treated unfairly; others to whom he had sold lots after the fourth of March were angry because they had not been protected, and many of them demanded back their purchase money. The latter class was later appeased by an act of the territorial Legislature which confirmed their titles, although certain members protested that there was no power Before Thurston given to rob the university in this way. returned to Oregon some of the dissatisfied persons met and drew up a memorial to Congress. They protested against any discrimination among purchasers of the Oregon City lots and prayed Congress not to pass the bill in the proposed form since it would work a hardship upon them as well as do an injustice to the county to which Dr. McLoughlin had recently donated some two hundred lots for educational, religious and charitable purposes. At the following session of Congress this memorial raised a storm for Thurston had represented that his bill would meet the approval of most of the, people, and all the Americans, in Oregon. Thurston defended his course in a
there
violent
whom
speech against McLoughlin
having made advances
to him,
Thurston,
he charged with for his
influence
27 respecting the claim. The land law was made the main issue in the campaign to elect a successor to Thurston, and it is significant that the sit-
ting Delegate
was supported for
re-election,
in April, 1851, put an end to his career. not act immediately to accept the gift
although his death
The for
Legislature did the university
28 In 1862, five although eventually it did so, ( 1856-57). years after the death of McLoughlin, the Legislature allowed
his heirs to purchase
Abernethy Island for the nominal sum
of one thousand dollars. 29 27 Globe, XXIII, 120. In a similar manner Thurston has attacked McLoughlin his bill had been up in the previous session he had asserted that McLoughlin would not become an American citizen, and that he had always worked against American interests. Most of his statements were unfounded, but a letter from Judge Bryant, one of the assignees of the Willamette Milling and Trading Company, affirmed their truth. Globe, XXII, 1079. 28 In Feb., 1856, the Oregon Legislature memorialized Congress to release the claim to McLoughlin, except the island, and grant two townships instead. Nothing was done. H. Misc. Doc. No. 97, 34th Cong., ist Ses. 29 See document, found among McLoughlin's papers, expressing the deep disappointment of his old age. In Ore. Pioneer Ass'n Transactions, 1880; also in
when
Marshall, Acquisition of Oregon,
I,
430-40. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
363
Although Thurston had been successful in ousting Dr. McLoughlin from his claim, the attempts against the Hudson's Bay Company and the P'uget Sound Agricultural Company were less successful. According to the terms of the treaty the United States might purchase from the latter company its property if "the situation of these farms and lands should be considered by the United States to be of public and political importance." It was the expectation both of the settlers and the Hudson's Bay Company officials that steps would be taken immediately to act in accordance with this permission, and the Company was the more willing to sell because of the indefinite character of its rights as reserved under the treaty. Its desire to sell was further increased after the passage of the donation land act and the discovery of gold in California had made it increasingly difficult to retain its servants on the old terms.
In July, 1848, the first offer of sale was made through George N. Sanders, who proposed that the United States pay a million dollars for all the property and rights of both companies, everything, in fact, claimed south of
49. 30 The
Presi-
dent refused the offer immediately on the ground that the United States would be purchasing something the value of
know furthermore he suspected that Sanders, had characterized as unscrupulous and unprin31 When Congress concipled, was acting for speculators. vened Sanders again made his appearance and secured the interest of some Senators, Hannegan and Breese in the number. They asked Polk if he would enter into negotiations for the purchase of the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company and the privilege of navigating the Columbia if the which
whom
it
did not
he
Senate, in Executive
Session,
should pass a resolution re-
The President replied that he was questing him to do so. or entering into negotiations for to anything buying opposed the purpose until more specific information had been received. 30 The correspondence covering the period down to Oct., 1850, is in Sen. Doc. No. 20, 3ist Cong., zd Ses. Polk had submitted to the Senate, replying to a resolution, the first offer of the Company; Richardson, Messages, IV, 603.
E.v.
31 Polk, Diary, IV, 301-?, LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
364
The unsatisfactory situation of the Hudson's Bay Company was emphasized when in 1850 a vessel, the Albion, was seized and condemned by the revenue officers of the United States on the^ charge of violating the revenue laws. Although the Federal Government restored the seized property such a thing was likely to happen at any time, as Sir John Pelly pointed out to Secretary of State Webster, when he called attention an offer the Company had made the year before. 32 At that
to
time Sir John had offered to sell all the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company for $700,000 and all the farms and property for The Company had been more impressed $150,000 more.
with the lessened value of the Columbia
its
rights since free navigation of necessity of paying
was accompanied by the
all goods brought in for trading purposes this added cost cut further into the profits which had already begun to decrease by the time of the treaty. Nevertheless Congress was unwilling to take the matter
duty upon
seriously,
although the lands claimed by the British
Com-
panies were constantly being "squatted" upon by Americans who refused to recognize any prior rights. In December, 1855, President Pierce called attention to the situation and recom-
mended a "cession of the rights "readiest means of terminating all
of both companies" as the questions," a cession which
It he believed could be obtained upon reasonable terms. 33 was not, however, until 1863 that a treaty 34 was concluded by which a commission with an umpire was to investigate all claims and fix the purchase price. In 1869 the commissioners
awarded Puget's
to the Hudson's Bay Company $450,000 and to the Sound Agricultural Company, $200,000, and thus
ended the long controversy. If securing large appropriations from the Federal treasury forms the basis of a successful career as a representative of a State or territory, then the first Delegate from Oregon deserves to be ranked high in the regard of that State. Not 32 See Note 30 above. The same recommendation was 33 Richardson, Messages, V, 333. following year. and Treaties Conventions, 1871, 402-4. 34
made
the FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
365
only did he secure the donation land act, the essential idea of which. had been in Dr. Linn's bill many years before, and a bounty land law, but appropriations for paying the expenses of the Cayuse War, for extra customs houses, for government buildings and a penitentiary (most of which was wasted so that later $67,000 more was appropriated), for light houses,
and for the expenses of an extra session of the Well Legislature. might he move that a bill for building roads and bridges at an expense of $100,000 be laid aside because he did not wish to draw too heavily upon the treasury or upon the good nature of Congress "who have treated me with such for surveying,
magnanimity." Thurston's acquisitive example was followed by the second Delegate, Joseph Lane, who had lost his position of territorial governor when the Whig administration came in. 35
Lane succeeded
in obtaining additional
money
to settle the
War
and also an act to pay the exin incurred the Rogue River War, in which he had pense taken an active part when governor. Military roads added expenses of the Cayuse
$40,000 to be expended in the territory, although some queswas raised as to whether such an appropriation could
tion
constitutionally be
made.
Military roads, however, were felt to be a necessity in dealing with the Indian outbreaks which took place with especial ferocity in the summer of 1855 and had not wholly ended until 1857.
The most serious of the Indian wars in Oregon Rogue River country in Southern Oregon and
started in the
involved most of the tribes of that region. Its story forms a part of the local history of Oregon but it had a side which 36 Like most of the particularly brought in the United States, Indian wars it represented on one side the Indian's determina-
man from overrunning his hunting was on the other the white man's desire to clear grounds;
tion to keep the white
35 Globe, XXIII, 67; Lane was called by Ewing of Ohio (Whig) one of the electioneering office holders who had so abused Taylor in the presidential campaign, when the question of his removal from, office had been brought up in the
House. 36 See Bancroft, History of Oregon, No. 66, 34th Cong., ist Ses.
II,
chapters 12, 15, 16.
Sen. Ex. Doc. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
366
the land of Indians.
It
did not take long for the struggle to
become one of extermination on both
sides.
The Federal
offi-
cials, in attempting to protect the innocent Indians, aroused
some of the settlers, and further animosity was produced by the lack of harmony between the United States officer in command of the Federal troops, General John E. Wool, and the territorial officials of Oregon and Washington. the ire of
The
territorial
governments raised volunteer forces to fight
the Indians and issued script to pay them. The whole affair came before Congress in
the
form of
requests for appropriations to cover these expenses. The discussion brought out the lack of cooperation between the local
and Federal authorities, and Congress was inclined to allow some weight to the statements of General Wool that the whole thing was nothing less than a crusade on the part of the whites to rid the country of the Indians: wrote, in one dispatch, "say that
war
is
"Oregonians," he a God-send to the
37 country." Congress did, however, pass a measure authorizing a commission to investigate the whole affair. At the next
session
(1856-7) the Committee on Military Affairs of the to be discharged from further consideration of
House asked
which was framed to pay the award of the commisIn spite of the efforts of Lane the sum recommended by the commission was cut down materially. Two years later, after the report of a special commissioner who had been sent to Oregon, the claim was allowed, and Oregon claimants rethe
bill
sion.
ceived $424,000 while those in Washington got $229,000. 38 This amount was not considered by Oregonians as sufficient
and the desire
to secure
of the factors which
an additional appropriation was one
made them work
for statehood.
The
great distance between the Mississippi valley and the Pacific Coast and the dangers attending the journey to Oregon
continued to come up in Congress in one form or another. of mounted riflemen, which had been authorized
The regiment
37 Globe, XXXIII, 1135. Part of the troubles had been 38 H. Ex. Doc. No. 37, 34th Cong., 36! Ses. to ,a failure of the Senate to ratify the treaties negotiated by the Indian See Fillmore's message, 6 Dec., 1852, Richardson, Messages, Superintendent.
due
V, 178, FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON and then diverted to service
in the
Mexican War, was one
tangible evidence that Congress recognized some of the danThe regiment, however, had been of little service to gers.
Oregon.
In 1852 Lane brought in a resolution calling upon House what steps had been taken
the President to inform the
for the protection of emigrants, and in case nothing had been done to request him to order the regiment placed on duty within the Territory of Oregon. The resolution, as was intended, did nothing more than call attention to the fact that the regiment had been withdrawn from Oregon, much depleted, in 1851.
At
the same session (July, 1852,) the Senate had before a definite and elaborate measure for the protection of emigrants. Douglas had brought in a bill which would provide it
three ten-company regiments, with one hundred
men
to the
company, guard and protect emigrants on their way to and California. The bill also proposed to allow H. Oregon the of O'Reilly privilege erecting at his own expense a teleof line each the routes, to be protected, of course, graph along 39 the In troopers. spite of the numerous petitions and by memorials which were coming to Congress the bill found support only from one Senator besides Douglas; opponents like Senator Butler looked upon it as little more than a bounty of $4,000,000 per year granted to emigrants who were lured away by the promise of free lands on the Pacific Coast. Others opposed it on the ground of excessive cost, and still more because such a measure would tend to defeat any provision to
for a railroad.
The the
air.
project of a railroad to the Pacific had long been in It had come up in connection with the bills intro-
duced by Dr. Linn. At the time of the territorial bill agitation there were numerous petitions for rail communication. 40 The scheme most favorably mentioned in such appeals was that
which Eli Whitney had long had before Congress. As
Whitney
early 1848 Douglas had presented 39 Globe, XXV, 1683-6; 1758-60. O'Reilly's petition for telegraphic communication between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast. 40 There were memorials and petitions from the legislatures of Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
as LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
368
had succeeded in arousing interest in his plan both in and out of Congress, to such an extent that even in the crowded session when the Territorial Act was passed there was found time to give
it brief consideration. Senator Benton had been and was astonished that any Senator would take the time of the Senate to suggest its consideration; he had studied the history of Oregon and California before Niles (who had moved to take up the bill) had ever thought of it; he would never vote a million acres to any man. It would not
skeptical
be surprising, thought Benton, if Whitney brought in a bill damages to reimburse him for going to the legislatures of all the States in the Union for recommendations. Nevertheof
notion that there was something in the scheme was gaining ground, for twenty-one out of the forty-eight Senators would have been willing to consider the bill. less the
At the next session not only did Whitney's bill reappear, but there were requests from Timothy Carver and his associates for a grant to construct a railroad over the same route, and one requesting government aid in building a railroad across The last request was from W. H. the Isthmus of Panama. and others who had secured a long-term contract Aspinwall Benton favored this to carry the mails for New Granada. idea and brought in a bill to assist the project but the Senate was not interested. Another plan which Benton brought up at this session, and again in the next, was for a National Central
the grants of land to railroads, but strip of territory a mile wide from the
Highway he opposed
he would
set apart
a
Missouri frontier to San Francisco, with a 1000-foot branch whereon all kinds of roads might be con-
to the Columbia,
structed railroads, plank roads, macadamized roads, and even one with "magnetic power, according to the idea started by Professor Henry," when that should have ripened into pracHere everyone might travel without payment in the ticability. 41 he preferred. way notion had progressed to the point railroad 1850 the By
where the House Committee on Roads and Canals brought 41 Globe,
XIX,
470-4.
in FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
369
a report on the Whitney project and a bill in furtherance of The House would not print the report and the matter it. rested so far as the Pacific railroad was concerned, although
which Congress began making land grants The Senate had before it a bill for a preliminary survey of a route to some point on the Pacific Coast. This bill showed the effect of agitation for a southern route, as opposed to Whitney's Northern Pacific route, and also inaugurated the struggle over the location of the eastern terminus of the proposed road, a struggle which did not end until during the Civil War. In 1852 the House Committee on Public Lands condemned this
was the year
in
in aid of railroad construction.
the Whitney plan as presenting obstacles, both as regards the route and the method of financing, which could not be over-
come. 42
In the Senate in the next session Senator
Gwin
of
California brought in a bill which substituted San Francisco for some point on the Columbia as the western terminal, and
which would carry the route from Memphis, via Fulton, to the Coast. There was still one voice, however, raised for Oregon. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio proposed that the road start at some point between Independence, Missouri, and Kanesville, Iowa, on the Missouri River.
"We
have," he said, "a population in Oregon. The day is have when we shall have a State in Oregon.
We
not remote
....
It is to State south of Oregon. already a great connect Oregon and California with the Eastern States, that
we want
this
road
.
.
.
Point out to
me the
shortest route,
the cheapest route, and the route which will accommodate the greatest number of people, and that route shall have my supSuch a route, he port, my earnest and persevering support."
maintained, would be northwest through South Pass, that is, over the Oregon Trail, then one branch would go to California and another north to Oregon. Although continued agitation, mostly over an eastern terminus, kept the Pacific railroad project before Congress 42 Globe, XXV, 1274. 43/btd., XXVII, 127, 280-7; 3I4-43; 469 seq. 370
LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
during the Civil War, a land grant was finally made, it was no longer the road to Oregon but the road to California. Eventually, after the War, a line was extended north to the Columbia and Puget Sound, but it was many years before the first direct route, Whitney's route, was threaded with rails. Railroad or no railroad, however, Oregon's population until,
continued to increase although not with the rapidity with
which California's grew.
The Oregonians were beginning
to
think not only that it was time to shufflq off the territorial shell for the dignity of a State, but that a State would receive
much more
consideration from Congress;
ills
would be rem-
edied and rights acknowledged with greater readiness if a real Representative sat in one house of Congress and two Senators in the other. CHAPTER XIV THE STATE OF OREGON The old Oregon Territory is divided into four roughly equal parts by the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River; the mountain range forms the upright of a cross while the river is
the transverse.
Today Oregon and Washington are very
distinctly divided into
Eastern and Western parts; the "East
Side" and the "West Side" are understood by all, just as "Up State" is in New York. In the Fifties it was all "West Side."
The Columbia, however, was a
sufficiently well defined boundtwo sections the into which the bulk of the between ary had the Willamette poured valley, and the Puget migration Sound Country where later emigrants had sought the fertile valleys marked at one time by the Hudson's Bay Company as its legitimate field of activity. Squatters had encamped upon the farms and claims of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Comline
some pioneers, either more scrupulous or later in arrivhad ing, gone to other portions of the land west of the Cascades about the indentations of the Sound, some even going to the islands which dot its waters. From 1845, when the first American took up his abode in what is now Western Washpany
ington, to 1853, the stream of immigration grew in volume, excepting only in 1849 when the gold rush to California 1
temporarily checked its flood. When the distances and lack of roads are considered
it
is
not necessary to search farther for reasons why people of the region north of the Columbia soon began to cast about for means by which they could bring the machinery of government nearer to them. If one also takes into consideration the universal desire of Americans to have a finger in governmental affairs, and to lift a voice which may be heard, then the agitation for separate organization is wholly explained. South of the Columbia the population was increasing more rapidly than i
See Bancroft, Washington, Idaho and Montana, Ch.
i. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
372
north, to say nothing of the fact that a goodly population was found there before even a handful lived north of the river.
This meant that to the disadvantage of distant location was added the fatal defect of comparative paucity of representation. Consequently at a Fourth of July celebration in 1851, after program of the day, the first step was taken to secure
the set
A
a separate organization for the "Territory of Columbia." committee selected there called a meeting of representatives
from the counties north of the Columbia, to be held in August on the Cowlitz. Here twenty-six delegates, all from Lewis County, met, discussed the situation, and drew up a memorial to be presented to Congress by the Oregon Delegate. This document represented the necessity for a division of the territory of Oregon, prayed Congress to extend the provisions of the donation land act to the northern district, and asked appropriations for divers objects. Another meeting was set for the following May, when, if Congress should not have acted in accordance with the memorial, steps were to be taken for
State organization, and immediate admission to the
Union
would be sought.
The
congressional session of 1851-2 ended with no attention would-be territory of Columbia. Neither
to the requests of the
was the new State organized in May. But in September, 1852, was held at Monticello a convention to consider the sub-
there
During the past year a little newspaper, the Columbian, had been established at Olympia in order to agitate for sepSo successful had its campaign been, in connection aration. ject.
with the other motives urging separation, that the Monticello convention drew delegates even from the region bordering the Columbia River where it had been feared there would be opposition to the movement, since those people were not so seriously inconvenienced in their relations with the govern-
ment on the Willamette as were the inhabitants of the Sound A committee drew up a memorial which Lane predistrict. sented to the House of Representatives when the bill for territorial organization was brought up in Committee of the Whole. The memorial represented that Oregon Territory was too FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
373
large for a single government; that the region north of the Columbia was large enough for another territory since it con-
some 32,000 square miles; that the northern region on account of its distance from the seat of government and the preponderance of population in the Willamette valley and that the local nature of the laws enacted by the Territorial Legislature was against the interests north tained
was
at a disadvantage
of the Columbia.
While the question was raised in the House as to whether was sufficient population north of the Columbia to
there
warrant the creation of a new peared.
unit,
no
real opposition ap-
With "Columbia" changed
to
"Washington" the
House passed
the
bill.
2
In the Senate there was even
discussion than in the House.
less
one of the old-fashioned territorial bills," said some one, and the measure was passed without further comment. 3 "It
is
Oregon territory was thus bisected by a line which followed the middle of the Columbia River to a point, near Walla Walla, where the forty-sixth parallel cuts the stream; this summit of the Rocky MounWashington territory comprised what is now the State of Washington together with northern Idaho and the strip of Montana which lies between the main ridge of the Rockies and the Bitter Root Mountains. With the division of Oregon came the question of Statehood. While desultory discussion had raised the question from time to time, it was not until after Washington had been set off that the issue was seriously debated. During the latter part of 1853 and in 1854 interest grew. Answering this agitation, which was fostered by the Democratic party in Oregon, Lane introduced in the House a bill for an enabling act in April of 1854, at a time when the Kansas-Nebraska controversy was uppermost. When the measure came up in Committee of the Whole it was not seriously considered; the population of parallel
formed the
line to the
tains.
Oregon had been
less
than 15,000 at the time of the 1850 census
2 The memorial is in the Globe, 3 Ibid., 1020.
XXVI,
541.
Passage of the
bill,
555. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
374
and
it
was thought impossible
for
it
to have increased suffi-
ciently in four years to warrant statehood. Lane, however, was sure that the population was at least 60,000, certainly 20,000 greater than Illinois' when that State had been ad-
mitted, and people were pouring into the territory at the rate of five thousand a year. Besides, he said, the people of Ore-
gon were tired of being dependent. A remark from Millson of Virginia showed the
relation of
question of state admission to the slavery issue; he said it might be inferred, from the quarter whence proceeded all opposition to the measure (it had been only southerners who all
had raised the population question), that it was due "to the peculiar relations existing between certain members of the Confederacy." As for himself he should view the question on its merits, and if Oregon should be found entitled to ad-
was for it nevertheless, he could not disguise the alarm with which he looked upon the multiplication of Free States, and he was mortified at the apathy with which
mission, his vote
House was allowing this measure to proceed without any knowledge upon which to base action. Seward of New York gave notice that he would move an additional sec-
the
sufficient
whereby all restriction as to slavery should be removed, leaving the question to be decided by the people in the terBefore any conclusion had been reached the comritory.
tion
come up again that sesIn the following session it was taken up, amended in some details, although Seward's proposal was not adopted, reported by the Committee of the Whole and passed by the mittee rose and the measure did not sion.
1
House. 4 The Senate Committee on Territories, when asking consideration of the
House
bill,
called attention to the
amendment
had added; namely, that Oregon should not be admitted until it had a population of at least 60,000. Owing to the raising of objection to its immediate consideration the bill lay over until the third of March. At that time only Douglas which
it
?,
XXVIII,
936,
i
it 7 seq.;
XXX,
455. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
375
and Seward would take an active part favoring the bill. Seward pointed out that already there were indications that if the bill did not become law Oregon would come in as CaliBut the Senate showed little disposifornia had, uninvited. tion to act, and even Douglas would move to table the measure, although he said he was willing to sit it out as long as there was any hope (it was then eleven o'clock on the morning 1
of Sunday, March 4th). Douglas said there was evidently a combination of Senators of the extreme North and the South bill. The vote to table, (27 to 11) however, did not reveal any ground for sustaining this accusation. 5 Of the eleven who voted against tabling, five were from New Eng-
to defeat the
two from Ohio, and one each from New York, Texas, Michigan and California. Thus the Thirty-third Congress came to an end with Oregon
land,
swaddling clothes.
in its territorial
still
In spite of occasional
echoes of the slavery contest over Kansas, that issue did not appear in any degree worthy of note in the Oregon discuswait until it was had a population equal to the ratio for one congressman; they were suspicious that the assurances of Joseph Lane were tempered by his hopes. This was, indeed, the case. Even in 1859, when the State was
Many
sion.
Senators were inclined to
affirmatively shown
that the territory
short by many thousands of the number Lane confidently stated in 1854. The Thirty-fourth Congress found Oregon before it with a
admitted, the population
new
bill
for statehood. 6
the measure
came up
fell
Late
in the
in the first session (June,
House and again met with
1856)
opposi-
on the population question. In all the preliminary discussion of the bill there were references to the pending legis-
tion
Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania, a Repub-
lation
on Kansas.
lican,
said very bluntly,
when controverting
the proposition
depended on Congress whether or not the people of Oregon should form a constitution, that there was no power
that
it
to prevent the people of a territory, although that organization .:
.
6 Globe,
XXXII,
1443.
The debate occurred
.IB.'
%
- ',Vd
ol^
23 and 24 June.; Ibid., 1443-58. LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
376
was
a creature of Congress, from framing a constitution whenever they wished. Later he said, after several other Representatives had discussed the population topic, "This debate
seems to have been anticipating that which will take place on bill. Let us dispose of this bill today." Those
the Kansas
who
desired to see Kansas a slave state, however, were trying
to establish a point on the population issue in the Oregon bill. Smith of Virginia said that the Ordinance of 1787, "to which
some gentlemen look as an impersonation of inspired wisdom," required 60,000 as the population before the territory could be made a State, consequently by what right could Oregon ask to be represented in the House with less than the legal ratio for a Congressman.
Giddings took issue with that and said the
right depended
on the
all
this objection
ability to support a State government; about the population ratio was a new one
and not based upon the Constitution.
The
rule of propriety
alone, he maintained, should determine admission,
and
it
was
When pressed to state definitely proper to admit Oregon. whether he would vote to admit Oregon with or without slavery Giddings practically announced that he would only favor admission as a free State, for he said he would not vote to transgress the laws of God and of nature.
Proposed amendments, confining the proposed State to the territory west of the Cascades, extending the suffrage to noncitizens (the territorial bill ha'd given the franchise to those
who had
declared intention to become citizens), restricting the
right to vote for delegates to the constitutional convention to free white males over twenty-one years of age, were all rejected.
woman clause
Bowie of Maryland discovered a possible opening for suffrage, and moved to insert the word "male" in the where the vote was given to "the people of Oregon,
being citizens of the United States." All the discussion and modification, however, did not get Oregon into the sisterhood of States. Congress adjourned with the bill still in Commit-
Whole, and Mr. Lane was obliged to return to Oregon disappointed both as to statehood and the money for the Indian war expenses which his constituents had trusted him to
tee of the
secure. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
377
In the following January the matter was up again. An enabling act for the territory of Minnesota had passed the House (31 January, 1857), and Grow, chairman of the Com-
....
mittee on Territories, said, "The Committee have a bill similar to the this, agreed upon authorizing people of form to constitution a State and State Government; Oregon
but as gentlemen seem to be so
much
averse to giving this
authority, which is a mere form, (as the people of the Territory can meet in their Assemblies and form a Constitution, and
send it here, as well without this authority as with it), I will not therefore press this bill now." 7 The bill was, however, called up later in the day, agreed to by the Committee of the
Whole and
reported to the House. Like its predecessor this had not confined the right of voting to citizens of the United States only, and an attempt to insert that restriction bill
to 60) after Lane spoke against Lane, indeed, did not wish any change in the bill, unless should be in the part fixing the eastern boundary line at
was narrowly defeated (61 it.
it
W. Long., whereas, according to the Oregon Delegate, should have been at 118 W. Long. Two amendments were
120 it
adopted; one restricted to citizens of the United States the privilege of voting for delegates to the constitution convention the other eliminated a clause by which delegates to the
convention were to have voted on the question whether the people of the territory desired to form a State government before proceeding with their constitution making. An amendment to require the population to equal the ratio for one repre-
was rejected, and also one to strike out the allowed the proposed State to have ten secwhich provision sentative (93,420)
Letcher (Virginia) tions of public land for public buildings. been had that out appropriating money for Congress pointed
Oregon
buildings
public
unheeding
ears.
In
its
fell on was passed by
for years, but his protest
modified form, the
bill
the House. 7
The
senate
7 Globe,
was more accommodating
XXXVI,
519-23.
in the matter of a LESTER BURRELL SHIPPER
378
boundary
line, for
the Committee on Territories
amended
that
clause to accord with the desires of Lane, and fixed the line as it exists today for the State of Oregon. Another amend-
ment by the Committee put the region south of 46 N. Lat. and east of the Oregon line under the territorial jurisdiction of Washington. The Senate, however, went no farther, and the Thirty-fourth Congress, like its predecessor, came to an end with Oregon still a territory. 8 Dissatisfaction over the delay of Congress resulted in inde9 Since 1854 the statehood pendent action by the Oregohians. sentiment had been growing although it had been opposed at
the beginning by the
expense which would
Whigs who
pointed out the additional
But the Whigs were few in number and not politically influential so their opposition had little significance. The dominant party had, by legislative resolutions, directed Lane to work for the enabling act, and at the same time had made provision (1856-7) for taking the sense of the people as to whether a convention should be held and for electing delegates to it. Meanwhile a little of the white-hot conflict over slavery extension had crossed over the mountains so that anti- and pro-slavery movements had gained enough headway to make this question the dominant one before the people during the months preceding the election of result.
delegates to the convention. were descendants of those
many
of
A
large majority of the people lived in slave States;
who had
them had themselves been slave-owners.
Their four-
times elected Delegate to Congress, Joseph Lane, was not opposed to slavery as he demonstrated, in 1860, by accepting
candidate for vice-president from the of the Democratic party. Newspapers and Breckinridge wing took the men up question and advanced arguments as to public
the
nomination
as
why Oregon would benefit or receive injury from the presThe anti-slavery agitation found a rallying in little a group of men who organized as Free-State point who gained sufficient strength to have repand Republicans, ence of slaves.
8 Ibid., 821, 878. 9 Bancroft, History of Oregon, II, chapter 17. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON resentation,
little
379
the
in
Legislature in the issue, especially after a convention, in the spring of 1857 to nominate a candidate for Delegate to Congress, had proclaimed that "We deny 1856-7.
although
weight,
The Democrats were divided over
the right of any state to interfere with such domestic institutions of other states as are recognized
by the constitution."
The
disruptive tendencies of this declaration were added to by an attempt of the dominant faction to gag all independent action within the party. In August, 1859, the constitutional convention
From
the first
it
was decided
that there should be
was held. no discus-
sion of the slavery issue in the convention, but that the question should be submitted to the people with the constitution which
should be framed. Accordingly two propositions went before the electorate in addition to the constitution Should there be
Oregon ? Should free negroes be permitted to live in Oregon? The constitution itself provided that no negro, mulatto, or Chinaman should be allowed to vote, neither could Chinese, slavery in
immigrating to Oregon after the adoption of the constitution, hold land or mining claims, or work the latter, and the Legislature was to enact suitable laws to enforce these prohibitions.
The
constitution fixed the boundaries of the State as
the Senate Committee on Territories had, except that for the 46th parallel eastward from the Columbia the line was placed farther north in order to bring the Walla Walla valley within the limits of Oregon. qualifying clause allowed the line to
A
be moved back to 46 if Congress should so will; and ConIn its general features the constitution was not gress did. materially different from most State constitutions framed in
one provision, however, is worthy of note, for it forbade making the property and pecuniary rights of women Half of liable for the debts or contracts of their husbands.
that period
each donation claim taken by a married man, then, was the absolute property of the wife. In November the people voted on the propositions and the In a poll of slightly over 10,000, slavery was constitution. a majority of 5,082; free negroes were debarred rejected by LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
380
by a majority of 7,559; and the constitution itself was adopted by a majority of 4,000. In February, 1858, Lane presented an official copy of the constitution to the House of Representatives and it was ordered Mr. printed and referred to the Committee on Territories. Lane, however, did not press for action. Moreover, when Senator Gwin of California asked Douglas why the Oregon bill
could not be
made an amendment
of the Minnesota
bill
then before Jthe Senate, the latter replied that he had no official information of the facts of the case Lane had told him it
would be better to let the matter rest until after the contest over Minnesota and Kansas had been ended. Thus prodded, Mr. Lane transmitted to Senator Douglas a copy of the constitution, and the Senator, when he presented it to the Senate, remarked that he did not desire to have the impression go forth that Mr. Lane had failed in his duty. With the constitution in its possession the Senate was in a position to proceed with the Oregon bill, and in May, when the slavery controversy was in one of its quiescent stages,
was resumed. The Dred Scott decision of the previous year had been a score for those who desired the extension of slavery; Kansas' attitude on the Lecompton conWhile the manner in stitution had caused Congress to act. which the constitution had been referred back to the people of Kansas had not been just that desired by the majority, it had been such that Kansas must become a State where slavery was legal or remain inj the status of a territory. In either case the Southern wing of the Democratic party had scored at least a technical point. There had never been any real question about the admission of Minnesota because it was in the old Northwest Territory, in part. Congress could, then, proceed with Oregon. Such, at any rate, was the opinion of those the debate
who
advocated the doctrine of popular sovereignty, for Oregon had, in the adoption of the constitution, exemplified that doctrine, untrammelled by such chicanery as had characterized the Kansas situation. Nevertheless the Senate still found objections to the Oregon bill. Some of the Republicans thought that debarring free negroes nearly nullified the rejection of slavery, although Douglas pointed out that if the clause should be stricken out Oregon could insert it again the day after her admission. Some felt that the same spirit which debarred negroes caused the prohibition of land owning by negroes, mulattoes and Chinese. Moreover, according to Wade, an Ohio Republican, the Chinese feature brought out a new question and might cause international complications by placing the Chinaman on a level with the negro. Some Republicans and many Southern Democrats opposed admission on the old ground of too small population. Brown of Mississippi very frankly said that he should vote against the bill for if the Republicans wished to exclude a free State it was not for him to interest himself particularly in getting it in. If the admission, said he, would be put on the ground that Kansas had come in as a slave State (the constitution had not yet been rejected under the terms of the congressional act of 1858) and a balancing free State was desired, then he would vote for it; as for the talk about debarring free negroes, it appeared to him that Massachusetts, New York and other Northern States desired to see an increase in free negroes but wanted to send them all to Oregon.
On the nineteenth day of May a test vote was taken on a motion to postpone the bill until the following December. The motion was lost and the passage of the bill followed, by a vote of 35 to 17. An analysis of the vote shows the following results:
For Admission
Against Admission 8
Democrats
22
Republicans Native Americans
12
6
1
3
Free State
21
6
Slave State
14
11
~
XXXVI,
2203-9. 382
LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
Neither party nor sectional lines offer any adequate explanation so far as the Senate is concerned. The explanation of the opposition so far as the Republican vote is concerned,
may be derived from the action of the House at and the following session. There were two grounds; the less important was that of population, the more important was connected with the all-powerful slavery issue in its however, this
relation to party politics.
tution licans
By allowing the Lecompton constigo before the people of Kansas again the Repubhad deviated somewhat from a consistent course, a
bill
to
course they probably would not have taken had they not believed the free State population was strong enough to defeat the slavery provisions of the constitution. In the case of Ore-
gon, even though slavery was not to be allowed, the freenegro clause was in conflict with their constitutional views on the power of any State to exclude citizens of the United States. Besides all this, and most potent of all, was the belief
Oregon was overwhelmingly Democratic, and her admiswould mean a Democratic delegation in both houses. While one Democratic Representative in the lower house would not make much difference, two Democrats added to the small number of the Senate would be maintaining too well the prethat
sion
ponderance of Democracy in the upper house. the Thirty- fifth Congress adjourned final action on Oregon.
The people see
the
of
Oregon
fulfillment
stitutional convention
of
felt
their
its
Consequently without
first session
sure that the next session would hopes,
hence,
since
the
National officers in July of 1858, they proceeded to
ready their cess.
The
con-
had provided for an election of State and
make
governmental machinery against the day of sucRepublicans of the United States could see in the
what they had feared, for three DemoLa Fayette were to represent Oregon in Congress. Grover was elected Representative, and the Democratic Legislature elected Joseph Lane and Delazon Smith to the Senate. result of the elections
crats
Lane, therefore, went to Washington as a Delegate of the terIt was ritory and as a Senator from the prospective State. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
383
perhaps fortunate for him that it was the Legislature to which he presented himself as a candidate rather than to the elector-, for his inactivity in the last session of Congress had up much feeling; some said that he purposely put off
ate,
stirred
acting in order that he might draw the mileage of both DeleIt appears that few gate and Senator at the next session. people in Oregon realized the bitterness of the contest which
was being waged over Kansas, or recognized the bearing of upon their own interests. Kansas had, however, voluntarily deferred the time of her admission to the Union by rejecting the Lecompton constitution and had to wait until her population should be numerous enough to equal the number required as a ratio for one representative. Commenting on this Buchanan, in his Annual Message, said, "Of course it would be unjust to give this rule a retrospective application and exclude a State, which, acting upon the past practice of the Government, had already formed its constitution, elected its legislature and other officers and is that contest
now prepared to enter the Union. " n The President's opinion, obviously prompted
if
not dictated
by party considerations, found a response in the House where the Senate bill was waiting. Alexander Stephens, chairman of the Committee on Territories, stated (7 January) in answer to inquiries both in and out of Congress, that he was prepared to report the Oregon bill whenever his committee was called. A month later (9 February) he announced that the Committee on Territories had been reached, saying that he gave notice in order that there might be a full attendance on the next day. The bill was reported (10 February) 12 with a recommendation for passage from the majority of the committee. There had been no census since 1855, when the population was 43,474, but there was $18,000,000 worth of personal property to tax, which, allowing for a legitimate increase, and using the ratio in Ohio, would indicate a population of 250,000. Either Oregon 11
Richardson, Messages, V, 502. Crow's report, page 946. i, 943 seq. 10, u, 12, an d the bill was passed February 12.
12 Globe, 1858-9, Pt.
on February
The debate occurred LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
384
was very wealthy or the population had increased very rapidly any rate there was no question that it was at least some 90,000 or the ratio for a Representative. It was the solemn
at
obligation of Congress to admit the State since the territorial act of 1848 had included the guarantees of the Ordinance of 1787, among which was the provision for admission whenever a population of 60,000 should have been attained. This appeal to the Ordinance of 1787 brought Grow to his feet with a protest that a rule
of
Kansas requiring
it
had been
laid
down
in the case
to double its population before
it
could
furthermore, the Ordinance had imposed no obligation to admit a State, no matter what its population. He then
be a State
presented a report from a minority of the Committee, signed by himself, Amos P. Granger of New York and Chancey L.
Knapp
of Massachusetts,
all
Up
Republicans.
to that time,
ran the report, Congress had followed no uniform rule for the admission of States, but Kansas, with a population large
must wait
had 93,420 people President had declared in his Message that any attempt on the part of that territory to form a constitution before it had secured that population would be a distinct violation of the law, and should In it be attempted he would use Federal power to prevent it. 1855 the population of Oregon was 43,473, and the largest vote ever cast there was 10,121, while Kansas had polled
enough to be a
before
it
could
slave State,
come
in as
until
a free State.
it
The
13,089 in rejecting the Lecompton constitution. The minority were unable to perceive any fairness in one rule for Kansas and another for Oregon; both were alike in having no enabling act, and the only real difference was that Oregon had a territorial government which was disliked, while Kansas had an organization in which political power was wielded by Therefore without expressing an usurpers and despots. opinion as to the propriety of a numerical ratio, the minority recommended a repeal of that portion of the act for the ad-
mission of Kansas which provides "Whenever, and not before, it is ascertained by a census duly and legally taken, that the population of said territory exceeds or equals the ratio of repFEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON resentation required for a tives
of
.
.
member
of the
385
House of Representa-
."
.
Felix K. Zollikoffer of Tennessee, one of the small number Know-Nothings in the House, presented a second minority
report, reflecting the tenets of his political organization. This report solemnly protested against the provision in the Oregon
constitution which allowed others than citizens of the United
States to vote; such a provision was unconstitutional according to the interpretation of the courts and the testimony of the framers of the United States Constitution. The report also protested against the admission of
Oregon with
its
small
population. all
Practically
the opposition on the floor of the
came from Republicans, although Millson opposed the
House bill
as
he had done before, on the population question. Hughes, an Indiana Democrat, definitely charged that there was a Republican plot to
keep Oregon out,
reasons, there
for, in addition to their stated
was the stronger one
that there
must be no new
Democratic State before the presidential election Turning to the Republican side of the House he said
in
1860.
Vote against Oregon. But re"Go, then, f reedom-shrieker member, you vote against the compact of the ordinance of 1787, expressly extended to that Territory by act of ConYou vote against 'popular sovereignty,' and deny to gress. the people of Oregon the 'right to regulate their, domestic in!
You vote for negro equality, stitutions in their own way/ and plant yourself in opposition to the Constitution of your country, which you have sworn to support. You vote to deny to the white foreigner what your enlarged philanthropy claims for the negro who happens to be born in the United States. You vote to keep a free State out of this Union a State which comes on our own invitation, and comes in the most orderly, regular, and appropriate way. There are some of you that will not do this thing and some that dare not. Upon those who do I invoke the condemnation of an intelligent and patriotic people."
The charge brought by Mr. Hughes was essentially supported by the facts of the case. The Republicans had deterLESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
386
mined to use Oregon as a lever to bring Kansas in if Kansas was kept out, Oregon must stay out. All the strength of the Republican organization was to be used to prevent the passage of the Oregon bill; Thurlow Weed and Horace Greeley went
Washington to use their influence to prevent any Repubfrom getting out of line. 13 It was, nevertheless, a Republican who was responsible for the passage of the bill. Eli Thayer, who had been a member of the New England Emigrant Aid Company and who was chiefly responsible for the Kansas Crusade, took the stand that it was unfair to make Oregon suffer for the sins of others. As Mr. Thayer, writing to
lican
many
years later,
14
says
"I protested against this policy (of the Republican caucus), saying that Oregon had been a territory for ten years, that the House had passed an enabling act with which she had complied, and that the Senate had voted to admit her with the aid of Republican votes that she now asks admission into the Union as a State, presenting for our acceptance a freeState Constitution. That I would not be bound by the decision of the caucus that I was strongly in favor of the admission of the new State, and that I should work for it, and induce other members of the party to vote for it, but that I should vote in favor of it even if no other Republican could be
found to do so. "As soon as the caucus was over I went to Mr. Stephens and told him that I would work night and day in favor of his report "I began at once to urge upon Republicans the duty and good policy of admitting Oregon. By persistent effort I secured sixteen who promised to vote for admission, and should have had others, but Greeley and Weed frightened some of these away and weakened my support. But on the day of the vote we retained fifteen who, with the Democrats, were able to admit the State by a majority of eleven. 15 "On the day of the passage of the bill I gave my reasons .
.
.
.
13 See "Eli Thayer and the Admission of Oregon," by Franklin P. Rice, Proceedings of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Admission of the State of Oregon Into the Union (Salem, 1909), from the Worcester Magazine of Feb. and
in
Mar., 1906. 14 In a letter to Rice. 15 Either Mr. Thayer's memory was treacherous or he counted as Republicans some who were not so considered, for the roll call of the vote shows but thirteen Republican votes and one Whig vote for the bill. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
387
very fully for the course I had pursued. It was well known at that time that it was due to my work that Oregon became a State, and for a few days I was roundly abused by some of the inferior Republican journals and the Tribune. Soon, however, under the lead of the New York Evening Post and the National Era, nearly all the Republican papers defended my position.
"Among those whose confidence in their own judgment Greeley had seriously impaired was Schuyler Colfax, who remained undecided to the day of voting. That morning I 'I was walked to the Capitol with him. On the way he said never in such perplexity about my duty as I am in this Oregon matter.' were just then passing the office of the National Era, and I suggested that he get Dr. Bailey's opinion. Ac'Dr. Bailey, I do not cordingly we went in, and he said: know what to do about Oregon. Thayer wants me to vote for admission, while Greeley is just as earnest the other way. Now I have come to you for a decision. I shall vote upon this question as you advise.' Bailey at once replied: 'Vote with proceeded to the Capitol, and Mr. Thayer, for he is right.' Colfax cast his vote in favor of the bill. "I had felt sure of John Sherman's vote, but he did not
We
We
appear in the House at
." all that day intentional or not, it proved fortunate for the .
.
.
Reher vote was for otherwise admitted Oregon would have been lost in the Chicago Convention of 1860, and the Senate in the Thirty-seventh Congress would have had less
Whether
publicans that
Republican strength. Contrary to Republican fears Oregon did not remain in the Democratic ranks.
in 1859,
The bill was fought to the very last ditch; a roll-call was demanded upon all amendments which were offered (the chief of which were to require a larger population and to prevent non-citizen suffrage), and upon motions to table. There were
by roll-call and one by tellers. On its passage secured 114 affirmative votes and 103 were cast against Thirteen Republicans and one Whig saved the day for
six divisions
the it.
bill
Oregon.
In the Democratic ranks there was no such unanim-
the Republicans, nor did the division within the party follow sectional lines. Seven of the ten Virginia votes (one was paired), four of the eight from North Carolina (one ity as
among 388
LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
Native American voted against the
from Georgia, and
bill),
five of the seven
from Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, were cast for the measure. Two of the three Texas votes were for it. The South Carolina and Alabama vote was solid against the bill. Practically the whole of the northern Democracy was for the bill, although two from New York and one each from Pennsylvania and Illinois were against it. Party succeeded in overcoming western zeal for a new western State in most all
for seven of Ohio's ten Republicans, one of the five from Indiana, all four from Illinois, two of Wisconsin's three, four from Michigan, and one from Missouri were against ad-
cases,
The Republicans who saved the day were scattered were from New England, four from Indiana, three from The solitary Whig who Ohio, and one from Wisconsin. flocked with the majority on this occasion was J. C. Kunkell of Pennsylvania, who both for the Thirty- fourth and Thirtyfifth Congresses ran as a Whig and defeated the Democratic
mission.
five
candidate in his
The
district.
feeling of Greeley at the passage of the
bill
was
indi-
cated by an editorial in the Tribune, in February, I860: 16
"We
hold that the great body of Republicans voted just this question, and of the course of the fifteen who separated from, opposed and defeated them, did a grievous If Oregon in 1860, unbalanced by Kansas, wrong shall elect a pro-slavery President, then woe to those Republicans whose votes shall have enabled her to do so. It is said that Oregon is a free State, but it would vote for pro-slavery interests. By the express terms of the Constitution, any of Mr. Eli Thayer's constituents and supporters guilty of having African blood in his veins who should visit Oregon with intent to settle therein, is guilty of a grave offense against the majesty of that State, and will be treated like an outlaw and a felon That border ruffian Democrats should sanction and give effect to such cruel injustice is but natural; that a few Republicans should be induced, no matter on what specious grounds, to aid them, is deplorable." right
on
....
....
1 6 Quoted by Rice. Only thirteen Republicans and one Whig are as voting See Poore, Political Register; Note 15 above. oting for the bill.
recorded FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
389
The
fight for admission was over and Oregon's Senators and Representatives immediately entered upon their duties in Congress. Lane drew for the class the term of which expired in 1861, while Smith found himself in the class which would end his term in a few days, on the third of March, 1859. Before the close of the session there was one further echo of the Kansas-Oregon population controversy. Hale (New Hampshire), in moving as an amendment to the appropriation bill a clause removing the restrictive proviso from the Kansas act called upon the Senators from Oregon to state whether they would do unto others as they had been done by according to the argument which had been much used in urging the passage of the Oregon bill the public faith was pledged to admit a territory when the population reached Would they vote to let Kansas in ? Both Lane and 60,000. Smith refused to commit themselves, showing that they could work in harmony with their Democratic brethren of the Senate, and both asserted that Oregon's population far exceeded that of Kansas in fact, Smith declared it was a third greater,
.
misleading statements of the Republican party. in the Union, and all questions of population were was Oregon realm of theoretical speculation. Nevertheless to the relegated despite the
the returns of the census of 1860 are interesting, for it appeared that Oregon had a population of 52,465 while that of Kansas
was 107,206. With statehood Oregon felt herself in a position to remedy some of the evils which had beset her no longer was it necessary to tolerate a governor and other administrative officers
who were not elected by Oregonians the long-standing grievance against the Federal Government over Indian war expenses might stand a chance of redress. There were hopes that the postal service, against the inadequacy of which they
They bitterly, would be improved. such public lands as fell to the State could be much more satisfactorily managed than had been the case before. In short the people of Oregon felt that their time of tutelage had
had complained long and felt that
lasted long enough, yes, far too long,
and recognition of
their 390
LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
ability to
manage
their
own
affairs
was no more than
their
just due.
Of
international problems connected with Oregon, besides from the possessory rights of the British Com-
that arising
remained in 1859 the matter of marking Although President Polk had refrained from pressing this matter, events soon demonstrated that it would have been a wise act on the part of Congress to have immediately made appropriations and given authority whereby a commission for the United States could act with a similar panies, there the boundary.
still
body for Great Britain to settle definitively the line indicated by the treaty. In his first Annual Message (December, 1851) President Fillmore called to the attention of Congress the Government to take this step, and he
desire of the British
recommended an appropriation. 17
Nothing was done, how-
ever; and subsequent reminders proved as fruitless. President Pierce, in his second Annual Message, 18
said,
"There is a difference of opinion between the United States and Great Britain as to the boundary line of the Territory of Washington adjoining the British possessions on the Pacific, which has already led to difficulties on the part of the citizens and local authorities of the two governments." This difficulty arose over the question of the San Juan Islands; the British government contended that the main channel of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was east of the islands, while the United States Local disturbances took place both it was west. over possession and jurisdiction. 19 No action was taken to end the controversy, which was allowed to become more acute until it required, in 1871-2, a court of arbitration to decide insisted that
Had that the disputed land was American and not British. the line been run before 1850 it is probable that no contest would have arisen and great expense as well international friction would have been avoided. 1
7
as considerable
Richardson, Messages, V, 119.
q See report of Secretary of the Interior, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. i, 33d Cong., 2d (1854); Sen. Rep. No. 251 34th ist; H. Ex. Doc. No. 77, 36th ist. The whole matter is discussed in all its phases in the papers presented to the Emperor William, 3d. 1872, H. Ex. Doc. No. i, i
4d FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
A
391
study of the Federal relations of Oregon reveals the fact Oregon Question in one form or another, occu-
that, while the
pied the attention of the authorities of the United States for nearly half a century, there was no episode connected with it which stood alone as a paramount issue. Such a fact is the interesting when one takes account of the high degree of excitement which accompanied each episode. Three periods stand out as the most spectacular and probably the most
more
important; the division of the Oregon Country with Great Britain, the formation of the territory, and the admission of the
In each of these the Oregon Question was linked with
State.
issue which lent a fictitious importance. In the boundary controversy Oregon was really subordinated to Texas which was a national issue in and of itself. Texas, with all the agitation attending its entrance into the Union,
some other national
was a nation
vital
factor in the history of the development of the decisive issue in the great struggle
Texas figured as a
which centered about the question of the nature of the Federal Government. One is forced to believe with the legislators who, after 1818, were willing to let the Oregon Question rest and allow time to determine the outcome that all the furor of 1845 and 1846 did not vitally affect the outcome. To be sure, Great Britain has always been willing to accept additions to her Empire and has not been averse from making the most of favoring circumstances, so there may have been something in Richard Rush's belief that the commotion of 1846 brought England to a desire to end the controversy and to yield something more than had been her previous intention. Nevertheless, down to the time the hue and cry of 54-40 was raised, and that as a campaign issue and a blind, both the United States and Great Britain agreed that the other had rights in the Oregon Country, and each had shown a disposition to make an adjustment on equitable lines.
The struggle over territorial organization came at a time when territories in general and their actual and potential meaning for the most.
issues
between North and South were upperpoints which were brought out
The heatedly argued LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
392
in connection with
Oregon were not primarily about Oregon; other any territory, as the discussions of 1848 and 1850 demonwould have and did serve the purpose as well; but strated, Oregon was held up on account of the effect action would have on other questions. So it was in the statehood question. Oregon interested most legislators on account of its bearing on the rapidly approaching crisis over the disputed nature of the
Union; for the Democrats as a whole its admission seemed to mean political strength and they worked for its admission on that ground. For those who thought that "popular sovereignty" was the solution not only of the controversy about Federal and States' Rights but of its by-product and its cause slavery and its extension Oregon was an illustration of the way the doctrine worked. Those who were fighting the extension of slavery saw in the admission of Oregon an obstacle in the path they meant to follow. Even in the West where Oregon found from the beginning its champions, it must be confessed that Oregon's significance for the West as such played a greater part than did Oregon as an entity. The westerners, those of the Mississippi valley, saw in the action of their brothers on the Atlantic seaboard a disposition to subordinate to their own interests the functions Each additional territory, then, was a
of the government. potential State,
and each State meant votes
in
both houses of
Congress.
Obviously
this conclusion that the
Oregon Question was
for
the most part a subordinate phase of some other national issue does not in any way affect one's opinions of the territory itself, history and its development. As a matter of fact Oregon gained immensely by being thus brought into prominence; no territory had been so liberally advertised for so long a period; no territory was more bountifully treated in the disposal of the its
public domain, so that emigration thereto was vastly stimulated and the disadvantage of its distance from the old settled porAnd in the tions of the Union to a large degree overcome.
end Oregon became a State much more easily than had been the case with most territories. FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
393
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Adams,
(Lippincott, 1874-77.) J. Q., Writings of
Adams,
John
Quincy Adams,
(Ed.
Ford)
Macmillan, 1913-.)
American American American American
Historical Association, Reports. Historical Review. State Papers, Foreign Relations.
Whig Review. Ashley, A. E. M., The life of Henry John Temple, viscount Palmerston: 1846-65. (Bentley & Sons, 1876.) Bancroft, H., History of the northwest coast. (The History Company, 1890.) Bancroft, H., History of Oregon, (Written by Mrs. Frances Fuller (The History Company, 1886-8.) Victor.) Bancroft, H., History of Washington, Idaho and Montana. (The History Company, 1890.) for the Barrows, W., Oregon; struggle possession. (Houghton, 1892.)
Benton, T. H., Thirty years' view; of the
American government
or, a history of the working for thirty years. (Appletons,
1863.) British and Foreign State Papers. Buchanan, J., The Works of James
Buchanan.
(Ed.
Moore.)
Lippincott, 1908^11.)
Correspondence of John C. Calhoun. (Ed. Jame(Fourth annual report of Historical Manuscripts Commission, in Annual Report of American Historical Asso-
Calhoun,
J.
C.,
son.)
ciation, 1899.)
Chase, L. Clay, H.,
C.,
History of the Polk Administration.
Works
of
Henry
Clay.
(Ed. Colton.)
(Putnam,
1850.)
(Henry Clay Pub.
Co., 1897.)
Congressional Globe, 1824-59. Congressional Record. Crittenden Papers, Library of Congress, Division of MSS. Debates in Congress, 1824-1833. Eclectic Magazine. Edinburgh Review. Eraser's Magazine. Foreign Quarterly Review. Gallatin, A., Writings of Albert Gallatin, (Ed. Adams). (Lippincott, 1879.)
J., A great peace maker; the diary of James Gallatin, (Scribners, 1914.) secretary to Albert Gallatin, 1813-1827. Garrison, G. P., Texan Diplomatic Correspondence. (Annual report of the American Historical Association, 1908; Vol. II, parts 1-3.)
Gallatin, LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
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(A. Colder, F. A., Russian Expansion on the Pacific, 1641-1850. C. Clarke, 1914.) historical and on the northwest political, Greenhow, R., Memoir, coast of North America. (U. S. 1840.) Greenhow, R., The history of Oregon and California, 4th ed.
(Freeman and Bolles, 1847.) Hansard, Parliamentary Debates. Hertslet,
Holman,
Map
of
Europe by treaty. John McLoughlin. (Clark, 1907.) The works of Thomas Jefferson.
F. V., Dr.
Jefferson,
T.,
(Putnam, Jenkins,
J. S.,
(Ed.
Ford.)
1904-5.)
James Knox Polk and
a history of his administration.
(1851.)
Judson, K. B., Subject index to the history of the Pacific northwest and Alaska. (State of Washington, 1913.) Lane-Poole, S., The life of the Right Honorable Stratford Canning, viscount de Redcliffe. (Longman, 1888.) Linn and Sargent, Life and public service of Dr. L. F. Linn. (Appleton, 1857.) London Quarterly Review. Manning, W. R., The Nookta Sound Controversy. (Report of the
American Historical Association, 1904.) McLaughlin, A. C., Lewis Cass. (Houghton, Mifflin, 1909.) Marshall, W. I., Acquisition of Oregon and the long suppressed evidence about Marcus Whitman. (Lowman & Hanford, 1911.)
Monroe,
J.,
Writings of James Monroe.
(Putnam, 1898-1903.)
National Intelligencer. New England Magazine. Niles'
Weekly
Register.
North American Review. Northwest Boundary Arbitration.
(Ho. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 42d Cong. 3d Session.) Political Science Quarterly. Polk, J. K.. The diary of James K. Polk during his presidency.
CMcClurg. 1910.) K., Polk Paoers, Library of Congress, Division of MSS. Poore, B. P., The Political register and congressional directory. (Houorhton, Osgood, 1878.) Polk,
J.
Historical Society. Opinions and policy of Viscount Palrnerston, minister, diplomatist, and statesman. (Ed. Francis.)
Quarterly,
Oregon
Palmerston. H. as
J.
T..
Colburn, 1852.) Richardson. J. D.. A compilation of the messages and papers of the presidents.
1789-1887.
(Washington, 1896-99.)
Richmond Enquirer. Rush, R., Memoranda
of a residence at the ronrt of London. 1817January, 1819. (Bentley, 1819.> 1st Ed. Rush, R.. Residence at the court of London, 1819-1827. Carey, Lea fc Blanchard, 1833.) Stapleton, E. J.. Some official correspondence of George Canning.
(Longmans, 1887.) Stanwood, E., History of the presidency.
(Boston, 1898.) FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
395
Thornton, J. Q., Oregon and California in 1848. (Harpers, 1849.) Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association. Treaties and Conventions. (U. S. 1871.) Tyler, L. G., The Letters and times of the Tylers. (Whittet and Shepperson, 1884-96.) Twiss, J., The Oregon question examined. (Longman, 1848.) United States, Congressional Documents. Webster, D., The letters of Daniel Webster, from documents owned principally by the New Hampshire historical society. (Ed. Van Tyne.) (McClure, Phillips, 1902.) Webster, D., The writings and speeches of Daniel Webster. (National Ed.) (Little, Brown, 1903.) Van Buren Papers, Library of Congress, Division of MSS. Wilkes, Narrative of the exploring expedition, 1838-1842. 1845.)
(Phila. Document
Letter, Jesse Applegate to W. H. Rees, Secretary Oregon Pioneer Association.
W. H. Rees, Esq.,
Sec. O. P. A.
Dear Sir:
Your letter informing me that I had been named as a speaker to your association at the fair ground on the 15th June next has been received. I will not be present.
Did my circumstances permit, it would afford me great pleasure to meet my old friends and neighbors on that happy occasion.
Many of them crossed the plains when I did, and we have shared the toils and dangers of the journey, and the privations and hardships of settling a new country together. May they long enjoy in honor the just fruits of their enterprise.
It would be a great enjoyment once more to meet them and present them with an address. There are many pleasant and flattering things I could truthfully say to them, and some scraps of history in which some of the early settlers of Oregon deserve honorable mention yet untold, which I should like to see go on the record.
The pioneers of the U. S. are of illustrious descent. Their forefathers were that band of heroes who shed their blood for the rights of conscience in Europe three centuries ago. And rightly appreciating the blessings of civil and religious liberty, they ran all risks and endured all hardships to plant these precious seeds in a virgin soil. They have taken deep root, and, watered with the blood of patriotism, they have borne abundant fruit.
From Plymouth Rock to Cape Disappointment, from Mexico to the Pole, all is sacred to liberty. Multitudes of men of all LETTER OF JESSE APPLEGATE
398 races, colors
each
and languages
live together in
own manner,
seeking happiness in his
each worshipping
God
all
peace and unity,
and equal
free
as seemeth best to himself.
seems to the purpose of the Deity that the human race should increase in knowledge, virtue and happiness, and men, as the physical forces of nature, are but the instruments in His It
When
hands to effect His purposes. a physical advance, the agent
So
is
the world
found to carry
is it
ready for
into effect.
moral reform, the nation, race or individual is always found prepared to meet the crisis; and though the physical forces have existed through all time precisely as they exist today, they remain hidden in the womb of nature until a knowledge of them is a necessity. So of moral progress the occain
sion calls forth the
man.
In this view of the case there
is little
honor due the human
more than the physical agent he executes the purpose assigned him and passes off the stage of action, just as the old machine is
superseded by a superior or later invention. were in our day So it is with the race of pioneers.
We
precisely adapted mentally and physically to perform the part assigned us in the march of civilization, and no matter what
our individual motives as individuals, as a class we have well executed the purposes of our creation. But like the scythe, the sickle and the shovel plow, the best of tools among the roots and stumps of a new land, we will be thrown aside and
now our work is done. Descended from the old Puritans of England, the love of liberty is as natural to us as the color of our skins. A life of many generations on the border between the civilized and the savage has not only trained us to such a life of hardship and forgotten
The pioneer does adventure, but fits us for its enjoyment. not settle down to stay, he only halts he can no more bear to be crowded into cities than his half-brother, the savage; while the range
may
is
remain
When
good, firewood convenient and until the near
game
plenty he
approach of the pursuing multitude. these arrive, with the din of machinery and the snort of LETTER OF JESSE APPLEGATE
399
the engine, the pioneer follows the beaver to a
more
quiet
land.
True, there are some
among
us
who
differ
from the
rest,
who came
to preach the gospel to the heathen. They are entitled to honor for their motive, however small their success.
But for myself and those of my class I claim no higher motive for coming here than the inherent restlessness of our nature, and if we have done any praiseworthy thing it has only been incidental to aims purely selfish, and so far from being proud of the years I have been in this country, I am ashamed to confess the insufficient motives
upon which
I acted.
Most of us were
well-to-do farmers or, rather, graziers, in the valley of the Mississippi, had young and growing families and the means to educate them up to the requirements of civilization,
which must overtake us
advantages to a land almost
in the end.
unknown, and
We
fled these
to be reached only
by a journey so long and exhaustive that there was no more retrieving it than to return from the grave. Yet we started with slow moving ox teams, encumbered with our wives and children and all our worldly wealth, to cross a continent intersected by great rivers and high mountain ranges and the way beset by fierce and treacherous enemies. Those who came to Oregon in 1843 can never forget the toils,
the dangers, the sufferings of that journey, nor the years that followed after
of want and struggle True, our coming
!
incidentally established or at least hastened the establishment of the Republic on the shores of the Pacific. But is even this much of honor our due? Is it not rather the due of Senator Benton, whose far-seeing statesman-
ship comprehended at that early day the great value of our Pacific possessions, and whose sagacity directed him to the choice of the proper instruments to secure them?
Decree a statue to the Hon. Thos. H. Benton, if you choose, let his humble and almost blind instruments slip away to
but
their
unknown
graves.
Very
respectfully,
JESSE APPLEGATE. Naming and Reservation of the Oregon Caves.
"OREGON CAVES"
"In 1909 Mr. C. B. Watson, one of the members of the Commission, called the attention of the Commission to the beauty and grandeur of the Josephine County caves and asked that steps be taken to preserve and keep them, in their original beauty as a national monument. The Commission took up the matter with Mr. Gifford Pinchot, then Forester of the United States, and on July 12, 1909, the caves were by proclamation of President Taft duly set apart as a national monument under an act approved June 8, 1906, under the name 'Oregon Caves.' These caves are under the immediate care of the Forest Service, being in a national forest. They are of great beauty and will be preserved as a public monument forever."
INDEX