Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/132

114 T. C. Elliott. that Government was planning to extend its jurisdiction and protection over Oregon. The national question was warmly debated, in family and neighborhood and at the Oregon Lyceum during the winter. Whatever other reasons may or may not have been then advanced among the settlers in favor of an immediate organization it is now reasonably clear that the spirit of Americanism that was abroad really led up to the final action. Who were influential in arousing that spirit? Not the Applegates, Nesmith, Burnett and many other strong men afterward prominent; for these had not yet arrived. Not the leaders of the missionary party, Jason Lee and George Abernethy, for these men had publicly advocated postpone- ment until four years later. And not the officers of the Hud- son 's Bay Company, who favored a neutral organization, if any. The young men were in the saddle, in fact there were few old men of experience even for counsel, and it cannot be a wide guess that Doctor Robert Newell, whose love of coun- try amounted to a passion, ' ' who was the leader of the moun- tain men and the neighbor and special adviser of Joseph L. Meek, who commanded the respect of the Hudson's Bay people and hence had much influence among the wavering French- Canadians, figured largely in the result. But we would not hear about it from Newell himself. In the late fall of 1847 the Whitman massacre occurred and Dr. Newell was the Speaker at that session of the legislature; the terrible news was received at Oregon City on the 8th of December. The first impulse was that of self protection, the next that of punishment (the Hudson's Bay Company party under Peter Skeen Ogden having already become responsible for the rescue of the survivors) ; and immediate steps were taken to first dispatch a small armed force to The Dalles and to next organize a larger one to invade the Indian country. But some of the members who were best informed as to dealing with the Indians were not so sure of the wisdom of sending an organized fighting force at once into the interior; and on the 14th of December while military preparations were being made the legislature adopted the following resolution : ' ' That