Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/359

Political Parties in Oregon 329 The distance from the Atlantic Coast naturally excluded the undesirable, floating element of foreign immigration which has readier access to the East. Of the pioneer foreign born population of Oregon, which for the most part was of a desirable nature, less than twenty-five per cent, came directly. This means that it had already become largely, if not wholly, Americanized. The element of uncertainty as to the ultimate ownership of Oregon served to deter the conservative and incite the polit- ically resolute. With personal interest was merged in different degrees an inherited spirit of active and aggressive patriotism which was eager to enter upon the conquest of new empire, particularly when the loser would be Great Britain. The ele- ment of risk and venture, allied with the national instinct, fostered by the treaty of joint occupation of the Oregon Terri- tory between Great Britain and the United States, acted as an incentive to the aggressive western American. In the various motives influencing settlement, heretofore recounted, may be found in large terms, the character of the colonizers. The home builder, with a high, serious purpose in view, acted with a sense of sober responsibility. He was not erratic and vacillating. The desire to escape the moral and political evils of slavery likewise added to the moral tone of the new community. The religious element of the population, with the missionaries as a nucleus, exerted a striking formative influence in the development of the country. With the dis- covery of gold and the advent of a different type of men, the result was temporarily to lower this high standard. Above all, independence and freedom of individual action, characterized the Oregon pioneer. He was typically a western man and the heir of several generations of pioneers through which individ- ualism had been steadily developed. This fact stands out prominently from the very first, when the emigrant train organ- ized and chose officers for the journey. Lieutenant Wm. Peel of the British Navy, who was in Oregon in 1845, impressed by this characteristic of the American colonists, remarked to