Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/217

Slavery Question in Oregon. 193 And continuing, lie said : ' ' I once examined the returns of the vote upon the Constitution and saw that only about one-third of the voters favored slavery and that nine out of ten voted to exclude free negroes. Now, is it possible that the Oregon pioneers, in any such proportion, were fearful of being over- run by them? Why, I would have come to the conclusion that they were either opium fiends frightened at their own shadows or had softening of the brain. And as for the rest- will it be any more or different from what has occurred mil- lions of times, and is common to every country — every fellow seeking his own petty end in his own petty way, and with little regard to his competitors? Suppose that half of such inci- dents were obliterated, would the remainder contain any dif- ferent lesson ? Isn't there a great surplus of incidents that may be cut out by the historian without changing the color of his discourse? Indeed, what is a battle more or a battle less in the world's history? Are not the human ingredients just the same, whatever the outcome ? And even as to the so- called decisive battles of the w^orld, though they may have changed the boundaries of a state and modified the laws, can any philosopher take up a single thread of life's tangled skein and show that it is different from any other? Let us admit that war is not so cruel as it once was ; that there are some amends for the wholesale slaughter practiced in ancient times, and that captured cities are not given over to rape and pillage by maddened soldiers, but who can show that such amelioration is not the result of improved weapons of warfare, the discovery of natural forces and laws, instead of any softening of human nature? Still, I am not averse to his- torical lessons often repeated, though I am as often re- minded of the fact that history has but little to do in shaping the lives and determining the conduct of men. Now and then an individual of favorable endowment imbibes the sprit of Washington, Socrates, or Christ, and with such help wrestles successfully with his selfishness, but such cases are very rare and their example finds few imitators. The American people are continually involved in the performance of duties of a