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This anniversary year on the Columbia River has special significance to those residing along its upper courses as well as to those at its mouth, and it is well worth while for the people of Kettle Falls and vicinity to rehearse the career and honor the name of the first man of the white races who explored and made permanent record of the sources of this magnificent stream, and who was the first to traverse its entire length from source to mouth. Strangely enough the work of this really great and notable man is just coming to public prominence, particularly so any account of his achievements in the basin of the Columbia; even the historians of our river have failed to award him much more than passing notice. Brief mention only is possible within the limits of this address; and let it first be stated that one of the few geographical points to which the name of this man, David Thompson, was once attached (by himself or by some of his associates)—the only locality in fact ever so designated on the main course of the Columbia—is the stretch of rapids a few miles below these Falls and now locally known as Rickey Rapids in recognition of your pioneer settler, Mr. John Rickey. On the early maps used by the Hudson's Bay Company these rapids were noted as the Thompson Rapids, doubtless because of some incident as yet unknown to us.

​196 T. C. ELLIOTT Our interest in any one is always enlivened by his likeness or some bit of writing from his hand. Something of what David Thompson wrote in his journal (now to be seen at Toronto, Canada), and thus actually recorded while here at Kettle Falls one hundred years ago this very week, will serve as an introduction to him personally. His journal reads: "June 29th, 1811, Saturday, very fine day but cloudy. Finished the canoe to one board in each side * * . All the timbers of the other canoe got burnt by neglect.* * * . The indians speared six salmon, they gave us two. They carry the aversion they know the salmon to have to the taste of the water in which men and animals and especially salmon have been washed to superstition. They did (not) begin spearing till near noon, as the spearer had seen the bearer of a deathshead boy since dead ; to have speared fish with such unclean eyes would have driven all the salmon away and he pacified himself with a decoction of the scraped bark of the red hem (lock) ; thus cleaned he proceeded to work. The salmon are about 15 to 25 to 30 pounds weight here, well tasted, but they have cut all their feet retaining all their meat ; their flesh is red and they are extremely well made. "June 30th, Sunday, a fine cool cloudy day, in the afternoon slight rain, they speared eleven salmon, gave us three, one is a fine one. Finished the boards of the canoe, rested the rest of the day. "July 1st, Monday, a very fine day. Men went for gum which they gathered and made and gummed a very small part of the canoe. One salmon. Engaged Billaris as hunter etc. Sent off the balance to Juco. Gave the horses to the care of the Chief here and killed one for food. July 2nd, Tuesday, very fine day, gummed the canoe and arranged many little affairs." The following day he started down the Columbia in this one canoe with seven companions of French and Indian blood on that first journey of a white man from Ilth-koy-ape, as the Indians called these Falls, to the ocean. The night of the 5th found them encamped some distance below the mouth of the ​DAVID THOMPSON AND THE COLUMBIA RIVER 197 Okanogan river, on the 9th they were a little way above the mouth of Snake or Lewis river, and on the 14th or 16th arrived at Fort Astoria, there to be greeted by Duncan McDougal and other former associates of Mr. Thompson in the Northwest Company, but then partners and managers in the Pacific Fur Company of John Jacob Astor. These people had arrived in the Columbia by sea during the month of April preceding. You ask how did David Thompson arrive at Kettle Falls in June, 1811, and whether by chance or design? He came on horseback from Spokane House, a trading post or fort then already established, erected the previous year at the junction of the little Spokane with the main Spokane river by one of his men, presumably Finan McDonald. This seems a little early to find the name Spokane in written form, but so it ap- pears; "Skeetshoo" was the designation given by David Thompson to the Spokane river and to the lake later known as the Coeur d'Alene. He had reached Spokane House by the "Skeetshoo road" or trail from the Kullyspell (Pend d'Oreille) river and tribe. The Kullyspell (or Saleesh) river and lake were already fa- miliar to him through several months spent in exploring and trading there during 1809-10 and the establishment of two trad- ing posts, one near to the Thompson Falls, Montana, of the present day. To the Saleesh he had come by the "Kullyspell Lake Indian Road" from the Kootenay river, where he left the canoes used in descending the Kootenay from a point in British Columbia opposite to the waters of the Upper Colum- bia Lake and distant from that lake not more than three miles across the low divide since known as Canal Flat, but to him as McGillivray's Portage. This portage he had reached by canoes UP the Columbia from Canoe river at the extreme bend of the river in British Columbia, so named by himself because of his enforced encampment there from January until April of this same year 1811 in preparation for his "sortie" to the mouth of the Columbia. The occasion for this "sortie" was the per- mission given to him or the instructions received from his partners of the Northwest Company at their annual meeting ​198 f . C. ELLIOTT at Fort William on Lake Superior in the summer of 1810 ; for the "Northwesters" had declined to join with Mr. Astor in the enterprise to occupy the mouth of the Columbia and expected to develop the Indian trade there on their own account, as they afterward did. But let me revert to David Thompson's own records. He was at Astoria on the 16th of July and from there visited Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the river, but at once started up river again, for his journal reads: "August 8th, 1811, Chapaton River, at noon, latitude 48 degrees 36 minutes 26 seconds north, longitude 112 degrees 22 minutes 15 seconds west. Laid up our canoe." The Chapaton (Shahaptin) was the Snake river and this entry shows him to have been at the mouth of the Palouse river, a well known camping place for the Nez Perces Indians; from whence the party took to the hurricane decks of as many Nez Perces horses and followed the well established Indian trail to the Spokane (Aug. 18th) and thence to Kettle Falls again (Aug. 23rd). By the third of September he was again prepared with canoe and provisions and proceeded UP the Columbia, through the Arrow Lakes and the Dalles des Mort to Boat Encampment on Canoe river, and from there crossed the Rocky Mountains again to the Athabasca in October. I mention the details of the career of David Thompson in the year 1811 because these facts are not yet familiar to the residents of our Columbia river region, because they are perti- nent to our anniversary season and because their narration serves to reveal to us the traits individual to the man. At the age of forty-one years David Thompson thus traversed every reach of this magnificent river from source to mouth, a physi- cal achievement for a man even at the present day ; but much more than a mere physical achievement by him because his record gave first to the world its knowledge of the long sought for source and windings of this river, as a few years previous lie had been the first to discover and mark the real source of the mighty Mississippi river. ​DAVID THOMPSON AND THE COLUMBIA RIVER 199 David Thompson was a "goer". If anything further is needed to indicate this let it be said that during the last days of April, 1810, he was at Pend d'Oreille lake of Northern Idaho, and in July of the same year was at the Rainy Lakes near Lake Superior (and probably at Fort William), and on the 6th of September of the same year was again near the head waters of the Saskatchewan preparing to cross the divide on to the Columbia to complete his journey to its mouth and establish the rights of the "Northwesters" on the entire river. He journeyed to the Rainy Lakes because he had an appoint- ment to keep there with his partners, and he hurried back again because he had a duty to perform for his Company and for his Country. Those were not yet the days of fees to porters in Pullman cars or even of the Rocky Mountain stage coach, but time and distance yielded to the energy and endur- ance of such men as the fur traders. David Thompson was possessed of great physical courage and ability to lead men. You or I would hesitate to cross the Rocky Mountains on foot after the winter begins, but let me quote from "The Journals of Alex. Henry and David Thomp- son" (including Dr. Coues' admirable notes) a resume of the story of his terrible journey across the continental divide in mid-winter; prefacing with the explanation that provisions were very low that Fall of 1810 at the few fur trading estab- lishments on the Saskatchewan, and that owing to sudden hostility of the Piegan Indians the mountain pass used in 1807- 8 and 9 was closed to Mr. Thompson then and he was com- pelled to seek an entirely new and unknown one. "Nov. 7th, 1810. At 11 a. m. Pichette and Pierre arrived * from Mr. Thompson's camp. They left him on Panbian river, with all his property, on his way to the Columbia, cutting his road through a wretched, thick, woody country, over moun- tains and gloomy muskagues and nearly starving, animals be- ing very scarce in that quarter. His hunter * could only find a chance wood buffalo on which to subsist; when that failed they had to recourse to what flour and other douceurs Mr. Thompson had in fact the case is pitiful. * * On ​200 T. C. ELLIOTT Dec. 5th, 1810 Thompson had reached a point on Athabasca r ; which he gives as Lat. * * From this place he dispatched men to Mr. Henry at Rocky Mt. House asking for pemmican and supplies. * He was in dire extremities, and his men were disaffected to the verge of mutiny by the sufferings they shared with him. On the 15th the thermometer was minus 30

• On Saturday, the 29th, thermometer 31 he started. * *

On New Year's Day 1811, thermometer minus 24, the dogs were unable to move their loads, a cache was made * Thomp- son struggled on, with ever-increasing difficulty and danger ; but there was no alternative. Jan. 4th, he came to a bold defile whence issued the main Athabasca r., 'the canoe road to pass to the w. side of the Mts.'. * Jan. 8th, the brook still seemingly the main stream dwindling away; Mts. about 1 mile apart, 2000 to 3000 feet high. * Thursday, Jan. 10th, crossed the Height of Land. Jan. llth, held DOWN a brook.

• Jan. 13th, sent back to Height of Land for some things

left there, but wolverines had destroyed everything except 5 Ibs of balls. Jan. 14th, Dogs could no longer haul their loads, owing to depth and softness of the snow ; reduced all baggage to a weight of about 3 & ^ pieces, and abandoned every- thing not absolutely necessary, including his tent, courage of the man fast sinking. * Jan. 15th, sighted mountains on other side of the Columbia. * Jan. 21st, Down to the Co- lumbia. Jan. 22nd, Down the Columbia 1 m. to a bold brook and 1 & YT, m. to a cedar point. F. d. P. men dispirited, 'use- less as old women' * determined to return to Canoe river and wait for men, goods and provisions and build canoes." So we see that even in these desperate circumstances he was ready to proceed, and had he been able to cross the mountains by the Howse Pass in September or October, 1810, in all probability he would have pushed on down the Columbia to its mouth during the winter and anticipated the Astor party in actual occupancy. Failing in the effort he proceeded more slowly. Courage and ability to endure hardships were but common attributes of the fur trader, but ability to observe intelligently and record with continual care the daily events and experiences, ​DAVID THOMPSON AND THE COLUMBIA RIVER 201 and the habits and names of the Indian tribes and localities was not so common. David Thompson kept his note-book or jour- nal under all conditions of weather or travel, and made record of the daily camping places in scientific terms and with such exactness that these localities can be checked today with scarce a variation. His instruments were small, only such as were held in the hand, but his observations were accurate. A promi- nent engineer and scholar of Canada has had occasion to follow many of the routes of travel and gives, testimony to this fact. And this ability and habit were not based upon the diploma of any school or institution of learning, not at all. At the age of seven years and a poor boy David Thompson had been placed by his father in a charity school in London, and remained there seven years learning all that was taught, which included a little navigation; and reading all that came in his way, for he was an omniverous reader. When about fourteen years old (about 1783) the Hudson's Bay Company applied for a suitable boy to enter their service and he was then apprenticed to that Company for a period of seven years, and began life in the fur trade along the bleak shores of Hudson's Bay. His compan- ionships were improved to the utmost, and a spirit of ambition inspired him to outdo his associates. His love for exploration was influenced perhaps by the travel of Samuel Hearne, who was one of the officers over him. Considering himself held back by the ultra commercialism of the Hudson's Bay Company after due time he turned to their more enterprising competi- tor, the Northwest Company of Merchants of Canada, with headquarters at Montreal, and became a "Northwester." As such he was chosen, after some years, to push the trade across the continental divide further south than Peace river, where Simon Eraser crossed over, and thus it fell to him to find the sources of the long looked for "River of the West" which both Alex. Mackenzie and Simon Fraser had hoped to* find before him. Let it not be supposed that the Northwest Company of Mer- chants of Canada were at all ignorant of the goings and com- ings of the Lewis and Clark party in 1805-6. Those very same years Simon Fraser (& McLeod) penetrated to the waters of ​202 T. C. ELLIOTT the river afterward named in his honor, and in the month of June of 1807 David Thompson descended the western slope of the Rocky Mountains by way of the pass at the head of the Saskatchewan river, which pass was afterward generously named in honor of a rival trader in the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. The winters of 1807-8 and 1808-9 were both spent at the trading house built by him in July, 1807, on the lower of the two lakes forming the source of the main Columbia ; but explorations down the Kootenay river and a journey back to Fort William to meet his partners engaged his time. In the summer of 1809 he pushed across the Indian road southward from the Kootenay to the Kullyspell (Pend d'Oreille) lake, ex- plored both the lake and rivers below and above it, and spent that winter (1809-10) at a trading house (already mentioned) established near the Flat Head Indians of Montana ; but all the time was gathering information from the Indians as to the courses of the streams flowing to the ocean, and his men were extending their trade and acquaintance with the country during his absence. But the entries in David Thompson's journal tell of more than courage, endurance, intelligence and care ; they show that he was a devout man. His common expressions "thank God" and "thank Heaven" were sincere outbursts of a spiritual na- ture and not mere habitual repetitions. That season of 1811 at midsummer he had an important mission to perform and unknown miles to travel, and yet on Sunday here at Kettle Falls he rested. Five years afterward he was engaged under appointment from the British Government in the important work of directing the survey and establishment of the boundary line between the United States and Canada from Maine to the Lake of the Woods. While thus engaged an associate ob- served and afterward remarked the following : "Mr. Thompson was a firm Churchman, while most of our men were Roman Catholics. Many a time have I seen these uneducated Canadians most attentively and thankfully listen, as they sat upon some bank of shingle, to Mr. Thompson, while he read to them in most extraordinary pronounced French three chapters out of ​DAVID THOMPSON AND THE COLUMBIA RIVER 203 the Old Testament and as many out of the New, adding such explanations as seemed to him suitable." The same individual thus describes Mr. Thompson physical- ly : "A singular looking person of about fifty. He was plain- ly dressed, quiet and observant. His figure was short and compact, and his black hair was worn long all around, and cut square, as if by one stroke of the shears just above the eye- brows. His complexion was of the gardiner's ruddy brown, while the expression of his deeply furrowed features were friendly and intelligent, but his cut short nose gave him an odd look. His speech betrayed the Welchman. No living per- son possesses a tithe of his information respecting the Hudson's Bay countries, which from 1793 ( ?) to 1820 he was constantly traversing. Never mind his Bunyan-like face and cropped hair ; he has a powerful mind and a singular faculty of picture- making. He can create a wilderness and people it with war- ring savages, or climb the Rocky Mountains with you in a snowstorm, so clearly and palpably, that only shut your eyes and you hear the crack of the rifle, or feel the snowflakes on your cheeks as he talks." This quotation is from an address delivered recently before the Royal Geographical Society of London by the eminent engineer already mentioned, Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, to whose personal research and interest the world is chiefly indebted for its growing knowledge of David Thomp- son. Hurrying down the Columbia in July, 1811, David Thomp- son landed at a large Indian encampment near to where you are now accustomed to "keep your eye on Pasco," and erected the^e a pole with this written notice upon it: "Know hereby that this country is claimed by Great Britain as part of its territories, and that the Northwest Company of Merchants from Canada finding the factory of this people inconvenient to them do hereby intend to erect a factory in this place for the Commerce of the Country around." Intelligent students of American history today candidly ad- mit that the American diplomats did exceedingly well in final- ly placing the line of the Canadian boundary at the 49th ​204 T. C. ELLIOTT parallel of north latitude, and agree that the work of David Thompson gave a considerable degree of fairness to the British demand for that boundary to follow the line of the Columbia river south from the 49th parallel, which is the most Great Britain ever seriously claimed. And we of the Republic may well be thankful that those pesky Indians of the Sas- katchewan in the early Fall of 1810 hindered David Thompson from crossing the "height of land" and thus from coming down the Columbia that year and actually occupying the mouth of the Columbia in advance of the Astor party. During the final stages of the negotiations for the settlement of the international boundary with Great Britain, between 1842 and 1846, David Thompson, then about seventy-five years old, wrote several letters to the officials of his government emphasizing the extent and value of this wonderful Columbia river country and relating the services he had performed here. These letters are now on file in the Public Records Office at London and they are the plea of an old and forgotten man for recognition ; for in sorrow be it said the last years of his life were spent in poverty and perhaps at times in distress. His death occurred at Longueil, near Montreal, in the year 1857, during his eighty-seventh year. The families of the Merchants of Canada who had grown wealthy through the fur trade forgot him in his failing years, and the government had no time to listen to his story. That other grand man of the Columbia, Doctor John Mc- Loughlin, during that same year, 1857, died at Oregon City, Oregon, under similar circumstances of distress of mind. The people he had befriended became forgetful and even sought to despoil him. But during these anniversary years these men are coming to their own in the memory of the genera- tions of the present, and these two names, David Thompson and John McLoughlin, will be placed high among all others of the early history of the Columbia river. Ilth-koy-ape is the more appropriate and musical name for this beautiful and romantic part of this magnificent river, but the French-Canadian voyageurs and employees came to term ​DAVID THOMPSON AND THE COLUMBIA RIVER 205 these Falls La Chaudiere, in recollection of similar forma- tions in the rocks of the falls on the Ottawa river, and that name came in turn to be translated into the English meaning. The first line of direct communication, trade and travel across the continent of North America (Mexico excepted) passed up and down the Columbia river and for a period of thirty years and more was used as such, with the portage at Kettle Falls affording one of the most important supply and resting stations. We do well to honor the career and name of the man who discovered, explored, made known and opened this highway of communication, David Thompson, who loved his work and did it well, and who is proclaimed by Mr. Tyrrell as the greatest land geographer the British race has ever

produced. ​

It sometimes happens that the indirect results of great movements are far greater and more important than the direct results intended. The intentions of the Crusaders to obtain possession of Jerusalem and to establish a permanent European government there failed, but the indirect results were the beginning of the end of feudalism and the new beginning of civilization and culture in Europe. The vanity and luxury of men and women in Europe and in China developed and made to prosper the fur-trade in North America, but the indirect results are the present developments of the Western United States and of Western and Northwestern Canada.

Capt. Robert Gray, looking for furs, when he discovered the Columbia River, May 11, 1792, and also John Jacob Astor, when he organized the Pacific Fur Company in 1810, and founded Astoria, April 12, 1811, had no thoughts of what the great indirect results would be.

In this brief address I cannot go into the details of the growth of the fur-trade in North America. I shall speak of some of its incidents.

Prior to 1766, Russians had established themselves in the fur-trade in what is now called Alaska, but these furs went to China, then the best market for fine furs in the world. It was the eventful third and last voyage of Capt. James Cook, which began in July, 1776, and ended in October, 1780, that the great impetus was given to securing furs in Alaska and in what was afterwards known as the "Oregon Country." This was the indirect result. The object of Cook's voyage was to ascertain whether a northwest passage, i. e., a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, existed. During the ​times this expedition was at Vancouver's Island and Alaska the officers and sailors had obtained from the natives a quantity of furs, at trifling cost, which were used as clothing and as bedding. On the arrival of the expedition, homeward bound, at Canton, China, in 1779, what was left of these furs were sold for about two thousand pounds, sterling, a large sum of money in those days. After this expedition returned to England, the facts relating to furs on the North Pacific Coast became known and vessels, British, American and Portugese, engaged in the trade for many years.

The Hudson's Bay Company was granted a Royal Charter in 1670, by King Charles II., and thereafter engaged in the fur-trade in the eastern part of what was then known as British North America. In 1784 Canadian fur- traders, who had been in competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, united their interests, under the name of Northwest Company of Montreal, but usually called the "Northwest Company." The latter was composed of intelligent, forceful and resolute men and took for themselves the fur-trade in the western part of British North America, and extending to the Pacific Coast, excluding the Russian-American possessions.

June 17, 1793, Alexander Mackenzie, one of the partners of the Northwest Company, discovered a large river which he called Tacoutche-Tesse, from the name given it by the Indians. At the time of its discovery Mackenzie did not know of the Columbia River or its discovery. After his return to England and, at the time of the publication of his voyages, in 1801, and, until the exploration of this river to its mouth by Simon Eraser in 1808, it was supposed to be the upper part of the Columbia River. The Tacoutche-Tesse is now called Eraser River in honor of Simon Fraser.

In 1805 the Northwest Company sent a party to establish its first posts west of the Rocky Mountains on the TacoutcheTesse and in its vicinity. By the year 1806 some of these posts were established. These were the first settlements by ​208 FREDERICK V. HOLMAN white men in the Oregon Country, i. e., north of latitude 42 degrees and south of 54 degrees and 40 minutes. These posts were established in what Eraser named "New Caledonia," being in the northern interior of what is now British Columbia. Undoubtedly these posts were established so early and the Eraser River explored to its mouth because of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and to forestall occupation by American fur-traders. But, in addition, along the Columbia and its tributaries, there were sure to be quantities of fur-bearing animals. Goods and supplies could be brought by sea, at least to the mouth of the Columbia, and furs shipped by the returning vessels. The discovery by Eraser that the Tacoutche- Tesse is not a part of the Columbia River merely delayed these plans of the Northwest Company. John Jacob Astor and His Enterprises. I shall not, in this address, go into the matter of John Jacob Astor and his various enterprises prior to the time he thought of engaging in the fur-trade on the Northwest Pacific Coast. At that time he had a great knowledge of the fur-trade and had become, what was then considered, a very wealthy man. He had engaged in trade with China and also in the Indian countries, west of the Mississippi River, and in Canada. The Expedition of Lewis and Clark arrived at St. Louis, Missouri, on its return, in September, 1806. Astor then learned that the Columbia River and its tributaries abounded in fur-bear- ing animals, including great numbers of beaver. Prior to 1810, John Jacob Astor saw the great opportunity and elaborated a great, comprehensive scheme, which resulted in the founding of Astoria, as a part of his enterprise. His plans, in brief, were the organization of a company which he would control and furnish the capital for. It would have trad- ing-posts on the Columbia River and its tributaries, and also on the upper Missouri. Some furs would be shipped, prob- ably, down the Missouri to St. Louis. But most of the furs would be taken to the Columbia River and transported to a post or fort at or near its mouth. Vessels would carry goods ​RESULTS FROM ASTOR EXPEDITIONS 209 and supplies to the Columbia; thence they would be taken to the interior. These vessels would also furnish supplies to the Russians in Alaska and would trade with the Indians on the Northwest Pacific Coast. These vessels would then return to the Columbia to obtain supplies of furs procured there and transported from the interior. These vessels would then sail to China, sell their cargoes of furs, purchase Chinese teas and merchandise and return to New York. Thus three profits would result on each trip. Of course, there would be great risks, but probably great profits. It would require busi- ness skill and large capital to conduct the enterprises, but Astor was a man who had accumulated his fortune by his ability and by his willingness to dare and to do. Astor obtained from the Russian government the right to trade with the Russian posts on the northwest coast of Amer- ica. He obtained the moral support of President Madison and his administration to Astor's plans. At that time there was friction between the United States and Great Britain, which resulted in the war of 1812. Had President Madison had the foresight and political sagacity and courage of Thomas Jefferson, the present northern boundary line of the United States, west of the Rocky Mountains, would probably be much further north than it now is. The discovery of the Columbia by Gray ; the expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804- 1806, followed by the occupation by an American Company, as proposed by Astor, and protected by the Government of the United States, would have established its rights to the country and joint-occupancy would probably never have been even thought of. Astor endeavored to interest the Northwest Company in his undertakings, but it declined and began preparation to anticipate Astor and to secure for itself alone what he had planned for his company. As I have stated, the Northwest Company then had trading posts on the Fraser River. David Thompson, one of its partners, had discovered the head- waters of the Columbia in 1807 or 1808, and was the first white man to explore the part of that river which had not been explored by Lewis and Clark. ​210 FREDERICK V. HOLMAN As I have said, Astoria was founded April 12, 1811. The Tonquin, the vessel which brought the party around Cape Horn to the Columbia River, left the river June 5, 1811, on a trading expedition to the north. Shortly afterwards she was captured by Indians at Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver's Island, and was totally destroyed by the explosion of her powder magazine, caused probably by one of the survivors of the massacre, when the Tonquin was cap- tured. July 15, 1811, David Thompson arrived at Astoria, from the upper Columbia, too late to establish a post near the mouth of that river for the Northwest Company prior to Astor's party. He had been dispatched, in 1810, for that pur- pose. Unforeseen difficulties had prevented his earlier arrival. The prior arrival of Astor's party was of great importance. The War of 1812. The war of 1812 frustrated all of Astor's plans. He vainly sought to have the United States Government send a war vessel to protect Astoria or to send troops overland for the same purpose. In October, 1813, the exact day is uncertain, Duncan McDougal, acting for the Pacific Fur Company, in the absence of Wilson Price Hunt, the chief agent for Astor, treacherously sold all the property of that company to the Northwest Company. McDougal's virtue was of a kind which needed constantly to be guarded. In the Message of President Monroe, of January 25, 1823, to the House of Representa- tives, a copy of which, printed at Washington in 1823, I have in my library, there is set forth at length, a copy of a letter, dated New York, January 4, 1823, from John Jacob Astor to John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State. In this letter Astor wrote : That when Hunt returned to Astoria (February 28, 1814), "He then learnt that McDougall had transferred all my prop- erty to the Northwest Company, who were [then] in posses- sion of it, by a sale, as he called it, for the sum of about $58,000, of which he retained $14,000, for wages said to be ​RESULTS FROM ASTOR EXPEDITIONS 211 due to some of the men. From the price obtained for the goods, &c., and he having himself become interested in the purchase, and made a partner of the Northwest Company, some idea may be formed as to this man's correctness of dealings. It will be seen, by the agreement, of which I trans- mit a copy, and the inventory, that he sold to the Northwest Company, 18,170 1-4 Ibs. of beaver, at $2, which was at about that time selling at Canton at $5 and $6; 907 otter skins, at 50 cents, or half a dollar, which were selling in Canton at 5 to $6 per skin. I estimate the whole property to be worth nearer $200,000, than $40,000, about the sum I received by bills on Montreal." Thus ended these great enterprises of John Jacob Astor. November 30, 1813, about six weeks after this sale to the Northwest Company, the British sloop-of-war Raccoon, of 26 guns, commanded by Captain Black, entered the Columbia River, to capture Astoria. To the chagrin of its officers and crew, they learned that the rich booty they had intended to make their own had become the property of British subjects. National Possessions of Astoria. December 12, 1813, Capt. Black took formal possession of the establishment and country, in the name of His Britannic Majesty, causing a British Union Jack to be run up to the top of the flag pole, at Astoria, and changing its name to Fort George. Had Capt. Black known what would be the result of his grandiloquent actions he would have hesitated, if he had not wholly refrained from attempting to take pos- session for his sovereign. In consequence of Capt. Black's action the claim of the United States to the Oregon Country was strengthened. It is true that this capture of Astoria was not known to the American plenipotentiaries when the treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814. But on March 22, 1814, James Monroe, Secretary of State, under President Madison, knowing that Astoria might have been captured, out of excessive caution, gave the following instruc- tions to the American Plenipotentiaries, appointed to nego- tiate the treaty : ​212 FREDERICK V. HOLM AN "Should a treaty be concluded with Great Britain and a reciprocal restitution of territory be agreed on, you will have in mind that the United States had in their possession at the commencement of the war a post at the mouth of the River Columbia, which commanded the river, which ought to be comprised in the stipulations should the possession have been wrested from us during the war." Henry Clay, of Kentucky, one of these plenipotentiaries, on February 7, 1838, then an United States Senator, said in a debate on Oregon in the Senate, that he himself had intro- duced the word "possessions" in this stipulation for mutual surrender for the express purpose of securing the restoration of Astoria, if it had been captured. (Marshall's "Acquisition of Oregon," Part I, pages 143, 144.) In the first article of the Treaty of Ghent it was agreed that: "All territory, places, and possession, whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned [in the Bay of Fundy] shall be re- stored without delay." Without going into the diplomatic details it is sufficient to say that J. B. Prevost, an agent for the United States, was taken to Astoria in 1818, by the British frigate Blossom. October 6, 1818, Capt. Hickey, the Captain of the Blossom, and J. Heath, of the Northwest Company, as joint-commis- sioners on the part of Great Britain, presented to Prevost a paper declaring that, in obedience to the commands of the Prince Regent and in conformity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, they restored to the Government of the United States, through its agent Prevost, the settlement of Fort George on the Columbia. Prevost thereupon, in return, gave these joint commissioners another paper, signed by him, which is as follows : "I hereby acknowledge to have received, in behalf of the Government of the United States, the possession of the set- tlement designated above, in conformity to the first article of the Treaty of Ghent. Given under my hand, in triplicate, at Fort George (Columbia River), this 6th of October, 1818." ​The British flag was then formally lowered, and that of the United States was hoisted, in its stead, over the fort or post, and the American flag was saluted by the Blossom.

(Greenhow's "History of Oregon and California" (1845 Ed.), pages 306-310.)

I cannot here discuss the legal effect of this possession surrendered by Great Britain to the United States. It gave added weight to the contentions of the United States in the final settlement of the Oregon Question.

I have purposely reserved, to this point, mention of the overland parties of the Astor expeditions to and from Astoria.

In 1810 Astor had determined to send to the mouth of the Columbia River not only a party by vessel, around Cape Horn, but also a party overland. In June, 1810, Wilson Price Hunt, one of the partners of the Pacific Fur Company, began organizing the overland party. He first went to Canada, engaged some Canadian voyageurs and trappers there, and then went, with his party, to St. Louis, Missouri, where additions were made to the party. They wintered near a small stream, called the Nadowa, a short distance above what is now St. Joseph, Missouri. April 21, 1811, Hunt and his party, left the Nadowa on their long journey. They ascended the Missouri River, by boats, to the villages of the Aricara Indians, where they arrived June 12, 1811. These villages were situated a distance of about 1,325 miles above the mouth of the Missouri. Hunt had intended to ascend the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, following substantially the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but the great danger of attempting to pass through the country of the Blackfeet—the Ishmaelites of the Western Indians—induced him to leave the Missouri River at the Aricara villages and to travel the rest of his journey to the Columbia by land. To that end he tried to procure sufficient horses for his whole party and for the transportation of his goods and supplies. In this he was only partially successful. On the Missouri River Hunt was able to procure only 82 horses, ​214 FREDERICK V. HOLMAN of which 76 were packed with goods and supplies. The whole party, consisting of 64 persons, left the Aricaras July 17, 1811. Early in August he was able to procure 36 more horses from a camp of friendly Cheyennes, which enabled Hunt to allot one horse to each two of the party, excepting those who had previously been given a horse apiece. The party arrived on the Snake River, September 26, at the abandoned Fort Henry, established by Andrew Henry, of the Missouri Fur Company, in the fall or winter of 1810, and abandoned by him in the spring of 1811. Hunt, yielding to the importunities of his party, decided to abandon his horses, make canoes and en- deavor to descend the Snake River to its confluence with the Columbia. October 19, 1811, the party with its goods and supplies embarked in 15 canoes. A short time afterwards, owing to the difficulties of navigating the Snake River, they were compelled to abandon their canoes, cache their goods and most of their supplies, and endeavor to go, on foot, down the almost impassable Snake, running through a region so barren that but few Indians were able to exist there. The party was separated into two main smaller parties, going on each side of the river. I cannot here recite their privations and suffer- ings. One of these parties reached Astoria January 18, 1812 ; the other, led by Hunt, arrived at Astoria February 15, 1812. Ramsay Crooks, one of Astor's partners, and John Day arrived at Astoria May 11, 1812. A few, who had separated from their parties, did not arrive at Astoria until January, 1813. Although the misfortunes and disasters of Hunt's main party were great, it had established that there is a feasible route overland from the Missouri River to the Snake River, south of the route of Lewis and Clark. The Overland Party from Astoria to St. Louis. After the arrival of the Astor ship Beaver at Astoria, in May, 1812, it became necessary to send a party overland to carry dispatches to Astor, at New York, giving reports of the affairs of the Pacific Fur Company, on the Pacific Coast. The party of six, under the command of Robert Stuart, left ​RESULTS FROM ASTOR EXPEDITIONS 215 Astoria June 30, 1812, with a larger party, who were bound for the interior posts of the Company. July 31, the Stuart party set out, from near the mouth of Walla Walla River, on its overland journey. After being- robbed by the Indians of its horses and supplies and staying all winter in temporary quarters, the party arrived at St. Louis, Missouri, April 30, 1813. The important result of this trip, by the Stuart party, is that it traveled south of the route taken by the Hunt party, in 1811, and along the Platte River, and practically discovered the Oregon Trail, or at least a large part of it. As to whether it discovered the great South Pass, by which wagons were able to cross through the Rocky Mountains, there is some ques- tion. Marshall, in his "Acquisition of Oregon," says the Stuart party discovered South Pass ; Chittenden, in his work, "The American Fur Trade of the Far West," says this party passed near but did not discover it. This question is not material, for, as Chittenden wrote of the Stuart party (Vol. I., page 214): "The route pursued on the return journey was, with three exceptions, that of the Oregon Trail of later years. Stuart's party kept south of Snake River, instead of crossing and fol- lowing the line of the Boise. They also missed the line from Bear River to the Devil's Gate, although near it a good deal of the way. From Grand Island to the mouth of the Kansas they followed the rivers, instead of crossing the angle between them, as the Trail afterwards did. All of these variations from the true route would have been avoided on another journey. The two Astoria expeditions, therefore, are entitled to the credit of having practically opened up the Oregon Trail from the Missouri River at the mouth of the Kansas to the mouth of the Columbia River." The importance of this discovery, of what became the Ore- gon Trail, is great. It is true it would have been discovered some time, probably by trappers or fur-traders. It appears to have been first used, after its discovery, by W. H. Ashley, of the Missouri Fur Company, with his party, in 1824. The ​216 FREDERICK V. HOLMAN |^ Stuart party, which was an Astor expedition, is entitled to the credit of the discovery of the Oregon Trail, as Capt. Robert Gray is entitled to the credit of discovering the Columbia River. It is only a question of time when the Columbia would have been discovered. It was over this route that the Oregon immigrants traveled. It was over it that the immigrants of 1843 home-seekers the first real Oregon immigrants, brought their wagons to The Dalles. The other Oregon immigrants up to, and including that of 1846, were a great factor in causing the settlement of the Oregon Question by the boundary treaty of 1846. The route of Lewis and Clark was impracticable for the establish- ment of permanent settlements in Oregon by immigrants with their wagons. The route of Hunt's party would have pre- vented the early settlement of Oregon, as was accomplished over the Oregon Trail. While small parties from Canada traveled, overland to, and from Montreal and Fort Vancouver, north of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, that route was not practicable for immi- grants to use to settle the Oregon Country. But one party of immigrants came from Canada to Oregon in those early days. It left the Red River Settlement June 5, 1841, and reached Fort Vancouver about October 4, 1841. They were compelled to abandon their carts and pack their goods on oxen and other animals. This is the Canadian immigration, which the inventors of the myth that Whitman saved Oregon, largely base their fictions on as having arrived in Oregon in the fall of 1842. (Marshall's "Acquisition of Oregon," Part I, page 341.) Authorities Consulted. I have been compelled to write this address somewhat hur- riedly, owing to other duties. I have not had time to consult many original sources. I have consulted and relied on Fran- chere's "Narrative" (Translation of 1854), Greenhow's "His- tory of Oregon and California" (Edition of 1845), Chittenden's "The American Fur Trade of the Far West," and Marshall's ​RESULTS FROM ASTOR EXPEDITIONS 217 "Acquisition of Oregon." I have made some small use of the original journals of Bradbury and of Brackenridge. I have also been aided by some knowledge of the history of Oregon and of the Pacific Northwest, which I have acquired from a somewhat desultory study, for many years, and from reading original journals, books, pamphlets, and reports, many of which I have in my library. Review of Astor's Enterprises. In reviewing Astor's enterprises at Astoria, and in the Pa- cific Northwest, it must be conceded that they were conceived in sagacity, skill, boldness, and with rare business sense. The plans were admirable and, but for the war of 1812, would probably have been very successful. The selection of Thorn as the captain of the Tonquin was most unfortunate. The destruction of the Tonquin stopped any trade on the coast until the arrival of the Beaver. It also caused the accumulation of furs at Astoria, a part of which were sold to the Northwest Company by McDougal. There is no excuse for the treachery of McDougal. The furs on hand, at the time of the sale, could have been sent easily up the Columbia to a point inaccessible to any war vessel or its officers and crew. The Indians were friendly to the Astor party. But for the war there was an opportunity to make the great profits which were made by Dr. John McLoughlin for the Hudson's Bay Company after his arrival in the Oregon Country in 1824. It is true the Pacific Fur Company might have been forced into a commercial war with the Northwest Company, and later with the Hudson's Bay Company, after the coalescence of these two companies in 1821, but Astor's wealth and business skill should have been a match for any opposition by either of those companies. He had made his fortune in spite of opposition. His choice of his Canadian partners was unfortunate, con- sidering the chance of war with Great Britain, when his en- terprises were inaugurated. A majority of those partners, and of the employees and servants of the Pacific Fur Company, ​218 FREDERICK V. HOLMAN % were British subjects. Had the majority of the partners been American citizens, especially at Astoria, there would have been no sale to the Northwest Company. It is to the credit of some of the Canadian employees that they refused to enter the service of the Northwest Company after the sale. Among these was Gabriel Franchere, whose private journal was printed, in French, at Montreal in 1820, and the English translation of it was printed in New York in 1854. This journal is simply, but charmingly written and is the first book written and printed on Settlements in Oregon. It should be read by every one desirous of obtaining information concerning early Oregon from original sources. As to whether these Canadian partners would have remained true to Astor's interests in a contest for supremacy with the Northwest Company or with the Hudson's Bay Company, after their consolidation, that is merely a matter of conjecture. Probably they would have been true, but their exceedingly friendly treatment of the visiting parties of the Northwest Company, prior to the sale, raises a doubt. But this matter is really outside the scope of this address. Important Results from Astor's Expeditions. Although these enterprises of Astor's were business failures, there were certain results which were of great national im- portance to the United States. Notwithstanding the discovery of the Columbia River by Gray, the time had come when the mere discovery of the mouth of a river or the exploration of the river itself, as was done by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, should be followed by some kind of actual occupation by the nation or its people who claimed by right of discovery or of exploration. This occupa- tion, in part, at least, of the country drained by the Columbia River, was had by Astor's American Company. The loss of occupancy by the sale to the Northwest Company and by the theoretical capture of Astoria, by the Raccoon, was largely, if not more than completely, offset by the formal restoration of possession to the United States, October 6, 1818. ​RESULTS FROM ASTOR EXPEDITIONS 219 But the greatest result, to the benefit of the United States, was the discovery by the Stuart party of an easy and conven- ient way of passage from the Missouri River to the Columbia, that became the Oregon Trail, by means of which the Oregon of today was peopled by citizens of the United States, prior to the year 1847, and the Oregon Question amicably and final- ly settled. Fortunately the enmity and bad feeling between the United States and Great Britain, which caused the war of 1812 and which resulted therefrom, and which nearly caused a war be- tween them over the Oregon Question, have long since passed away and are now of historic interest only. By common con- sent and by mutual feeling, which are stronger and more enduring than any written treaties, these two nations and their peoples are united in a motive and in an endeavor that the genius, the traditions, and the institutions of the English-

speaking peoples shall be foremost in the world. ​

"McDonald of Oregon," is the hero of Old Astoria, the first native born Oregon traveler and explorer. It is a scant score of years since Ranald McDonald died, yet the archives of ancient chivalry are filled with crusaders such as he. The story of the American Northwest and the story of modern Japan can never be told without telling the life-story of McDonald of Oregon. Twenty years ago William Eliot Griffis, the famous writer on Japan, said: "It was McDonald who began educational activity in Japan the story of which will some day be fully written." Hildreth, the American historian, Nitobe of Japan, and others, accord to him the highest honor; but none knew where to find McDonald, none knew he belonged to Oregon. When recently "McDonald of Oregon" fell into the hands of Dr. Griffis, he wrote forthwith to my publishers and to me, "I had hoped to tell that wonderful story, I searched America for his record, but never dreamed of looking to Oregon." But Oregon is making a mark on the literary map of the nation, her heroes, past, present and to be, will loom larger in the limelight of the future.

It is now some twenty years since the story of John McLoughlin engaged my pen. "Oh, you must see Ranald McDonald," cried the old traders and voyageurs. "McDonald knows more of the old time than anybody."

"But where shall I find this McDonald?" "Oh, over at old Fort Colville," and at Colville I found him, the strangest, most romantic and picturesque character of Northwest annals, not even excepting Dr. McLoughlin. But when I spoke of McLoughlin as "King of the Columbia," with lifted head and hand McDonald protested "Nay, nay, I am the King of the Columbia." And when his story was told I was, indeed, compelled to admit that claim to kingship.

As early as 1823 Archibald McDonald came over the ​Canadian mountains and down into Oregon to Astor's old fort, where, in process of trade, exactly as McDougal had done before him, McDonald met and married a daughter of King Cumcumly. On a Sunday morning the wedding took place, and the bride was christened the Princess Sunday. Shortly before his father left on the upbound brigade of 1824 for Canada, Ranald was born, and was already a good-sized baby when his fur-trading father returned in the autumn with Dr. McLoughlin. "How far back can I remember McLoughlin? As far back as I can remember anything," said McDonald in later years.

When McLoughlin moved his headquarters to the new Fort Vancouver little Ranald went also, and was a child of eight when in 1832 three Japanese from a castaway junk were brought to Fort Vancouver. On that incident hinged McDonald's future story. He became acquainted with the castaways, learned a few words of their language and was fired with a zeal to visit their wonderful country. Sent to Canada to be educated, and later apprenticed as a clerk in the bank of an old friend of his father, Ranald McDonald planned to run away to Japan, and did so, finding his way on a whaler to those forbidden shores. Pretending to be a castaway, in June, 1848, he was picked up by fishermen on the northern shore of Japan, and was sent to the Governor of province after province for investigation and examination. For Japan was then closed to the world, no ships were permitted in her harbors, and staring thousands followed this "ijin," this foreigner, from the "Black Ships," as passing whale ships were called. Fortunately, McDonald's Indian tint caused him to be classed as a "Nippon-jin," a Nippon-man, or Japanese. Through the entire length of the land he was carried to Nagasaki, and here, again, before the governor, he was questioned and his answers carefully written down. "Some day," says Griffis, "these records will be found in the archives of Japan." But I have McDonald's own journal and story.

When others fell face to the ground before august governors, Ranald sat bolt upright, he and the governor alone facing ​each other "He has a great heart; he must be a prince," said the Japanese. When questioned he told of his home in Oregon, that his father was a great fur trader, pointed out Astoria and the Columbia River on the map, long before Perry ever crossed the seas to "open Japan." McDonald's description of Fort Colville, and of his father's retinue of servants, confirmed them in the opinion that he came of feudal rank, "not less than a samurai of old Japan."

So genial, docile and polite was Ranald, so ready to adopt Japanese dress and manners, that he became a general favorite, and was appointed by the governor of Nagasaki to teach the English language to a class of interpreters, the first school of English ever taught in Japan. Those are the interpreters who later met Commodore Perry and assisted in drawing up the treaties with Japan. Their pictures are given in Commodore Perry's reports. Here learned men and high officials gathered around McDonald, to learn of the outer world and to ask questions about America. "And who," they inquired, "who holds the highest rank in your country?"

Ranald thought a moment and answered, "The people." "What! greater than the President!" exclaimed the astonished Japanese. "Yes, the people are greater than the President."

This story of McDonald was frequently told by Edward Everett Hale when chaplain of the Senate.

After Ranald had been in Japan nearly a year, one day he heard a signal gun, a strange ship was approaching, the United States gunboat "Preble" in search of castaway sailors known to have been stranded on that coast. For the first time Ranald learned that several Americans were immured in the dungeons of Japan for the simple crime of having been wrecked there. All the more his own good fortune appeared remarkable. With those, he, too, was liberated, although it was his earnest desire to remain among his new friends in Japan.

To Commodore Glynn of the "Preble" McDonald gave a report of his adventures. These, published in Washington in ​executive document number 59 of the Thirty-second Congress, started Perry to Japan. McDonald always insisted that he opened the way for Perry, and it was his suggestion that models of western ingenuity should be taken and exhibited.

After years of adventure, Ranald McDonald returned to Oregon, to find it divided into Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and among the ruins of old Fort Colville he spent his declining years. In 1892 he made a pilgrimage to Astoria to press his claims for recompense as heir to the Chinook lands of his grandfather, King Cumcumly. But alas, he found himself, "A prince without a principality, a king without a subject." Sadly he journeyed back up the Columbia where, widely known as "Old Sir Ranald," the aristocratic old man died among his tumble-down buildings at the ripe age of seventy years, August 24, 1894.

Of all Oregonians, Ranald McDonald deserves a statue, pointing toward Japan. ​ ​THE RISE AND EARLY HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON IV JI Walter Carlclon Woodward CHAPTER VIII ​DEMOCRATIC DISCORD The process of division in the Oregon Democracy along lines drawn by the interpretations of the Dred Scott decision had begun before the close of 1857. But the local factional dif- ferences were to overshadow the growing national schism for some months yet to come. The breach between the machine and the independent Democrats had been steadily growing wider. Revolt against the iron-clad, caucus sovereignty rule of the Clique and protest against the exploitation of the party for the personal benefit of a small coterie of politicians, were the principal bases for the attack against the Organization. At the beginning of the year 1858 it was evident that a complete split in the party was imminent. In announcing to his readers that a movement was being launched whereby a new party was to come to light, Bush noted the fact that ever since the organization of the party in Oregon, there had been a faction, which, while adhering to the name, had never possessed the character of Democrats. "This mixed opposition have always blown the same vhistle and beaten the same drum always whining and whanging about the 'Salem Cli-que, the 'Salem Platform,' 'hidden cau- cus' or 'secret cabal.' This party, whatever its name, is the same old opposition, which, like the snake, sheds its skin an- nually, but at the same time adds a rattle to its tail." 1 The gauntlet was thrown down by nine anti-organization Democratic members of the legislature of 1857-'58, who met and called a convention of "National Democrats" to meet at Eugene, April 8, for the purpose of nominating candidates for state officers. The nine men signing the call were: Wm. M. King, Multnomah; J. H. Slater, Benton; Nathaniel Ford, Polk and Tillamook ; Thos. Scott, Yamhill and Clatsop ; F. A. Col- lard, Geo. Rees and S. P. Gilliland, Clackamas ; Wm. Allen and A. Shuck, Yamhill. 2 i Statesman editorial "A New Move The Old Snake in a New Skin." Feb. 2, 1858. aOregonian, Feb. 6. I ; ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 227 "Where 'Nationalism' Tends Are You Prepared to Go Into the Black Republican Camp?" was the caption of an editorial in which Bush urged all Democrats to think well before they made up their mind to "leave the old Democratic flag" to join "this National-wool party this Eugene Negro equality move- ment." 1 As a matter of fact, some of the most pronounced pro-slavery advocates were numbered among the Nationals and this editorial is an excellent example of Bush's habit of begging the question and befogging the issue, to meet his own purposes. The bitter factional feeling existing among the Democrats is illustrated by the resolutions adopted by the reg- ular Linn county convention and introduced by Delazon Smith, the "Lion of Linn." The Nationals were referred to as "cer- tain malcontents" and "traitors" without honest devotion to principle or sympathy with the Democratic party, who were determined to ruin where they could not rule. Therefore "we utterly repudiate and denounce the miserable, soft faction, self-styled 'National Democrats' * * * We will never again admit them into our confidence as Democrats, until they shall have adopted the ancient mode of purification washed seven times." 2 On the other hand, an honest effort was made in some cases to meet the charges of Clique or boss rule, by a more adequate and practical method than that of vilification. In this connection it is exceedingly interesting to note that Clackamas county Democrats inaugurated and carried through a complete system of direct primary nominations in the spring of 1858. It was ap- parently as thorough an embodiment of the Direct Primary ideal as that so vigorously acclaimed in Oregon a half century later.3 Naturally, this reaction against close political organ- i Statesman, March 16. 2 Ibid. 3The plan is outlined in the following resolution: "In order to ascertain the wish of the Democratic voters of Clackamas county, fully, fairly and justly ex- pressed, in relation to all county officers, it is recommended that every Democrat, in a meeting to be held in his precinct, proceed to vote for such nominees as he may prefer to be supported by the Democratic party of this county." Pro- vision is made for transmitting the votes to the chairman of the county commit- tee and for the canvassing of the vote so returned. Those persons obtaining the highest number of votes were to be declared "as the unanimous nominees of the party." Gov. Geo. L. Curry was chairman of the Convention, March 13, which inaugurated the plan. The report of the Clackamas county nominations, given in the Statesman, May 18, shows that the scheme was carried through as planned. ​228 -W. C. WOODWARD ization was most pronounced among the opposition. The Clat- sop county Republicans declared in convention that "whoever is a loyal partisan, of whatever party, is no patriot." In ac- cordance with this sentiment, they stated that they acknowl- edged no allegiance to the Republican party, further than it should adhere to its avowed principles. 1 The Yamhill Repub- licans announced that while believing in the propriety of party organization, they were diametrically opposed to any partisan usage that tended to paralyze the will of the citizens. 2 The first Democratic convention for the nomination of state officers met March 16. 3 It reaffirmed the Kansas-Nebraska doctrine of squatter sovereignty in one resolution of its plat- form and in the next endorsed the Dred Scott decision "as an authoritative and binding exposition !" President Buchan- an was warmly endorsed, leaving the inference that he, in his coercive, Lecompton constitution policy in Kansas was to be supported rather than Douglas, who stood out for that "Kan- sas-Nebraska doctrine" for which the convention so strongly declared ! The famous fifth resolution adopted the year before was reaffirmed. The assembled Democrats, to add the cap sheaf to their illogical resolutions, proceeded to "hail with gratifi- cation the efforts of the Democratic Administration to initiate the construction of the Pacific Railroad" and earnestly called upon Congress to "exercise all its constitutional powers to forward the great enterprise of the age." 4 L. F. Grover, a member of the Salem Clique, received the nomination for Congressman, and John Whiteaker, an irreconcilable, pro- slavery man, was nominated for Governor. Bush, who had been elected from year to year by the legislature as Territor- ial Printer, was nominated for State Printer. This gave him his first opportunity for personal vindication at the hands of the people, in the face of the attacks made upon him as polit- ical autocrat and tyrant. i Argus, March 20. 2lbid., March 27. 3 The different party organizations nominated state tickets in the spring of 1858, so that state government could be put in operation as soon as Congress should pass an act admitting Oregon into the Union. However, members were elected as usual to the Territorial legislature at the June election at the same time that a state legislative assembly was chosen, in view of the fact that Congress might delay action in the matter. 4Statesman, March 23. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 229 The platform adopted by the Nationals in their convention at Eugene differed but slightly from that of the Organization, on National issues. However, after endorsing the Adminis- tration of President Buchanan, the convention affirmed its belief "in the cardinal principles of popular sovereignty and in the right of the people of the Territories * * * to frame and adopt their constitutions and all local laws for their own government," etc. This could easily be taken as a defense of Douglas in his break with Buchanan over the Lecompton constitution, and it was so charged by Bush. 1 The point of issue between the Oregon Democrats was given in the fol- lowing resolution: "We reassert the great principles of the right of the represented to instruct the representative and pro- claim it the bounden (duty) of the representative to obey the instructions of his constituents or resign whatever position he may at that time hold." 2 This was a direct contradiction of the principles of caucus rule pronounced in the notorious fifth and sixth resolutions of the Democratic platform of 1857. E. M. Barnum was named for Governor. James K. Kelly was nominated for Congressman, and at the same time a resolution was passed endorsing the record of Lane as delegate ! This endorsement of Lane by the insurgent wing of the Oregon Democracy, is suggestive of his adroitness in steering clear of factional difficulties and of his continued popularity with Oregon Democrats. Those who had been looking to the National Democrats to take issue with their opponents on national issues were dis- appointed. In comment upon their platform, the Argus, which had been accused of "honey-fugling" the Nationals, declared that not a single issue was made with the Salem dynasty upon the great question convulsing the nation, in regard to the right of the people of a Territory to adopt or reject a constitution before it should be fastened upon them by Congress. 3 The schism in the Democratic party placed the Opposition (Republicans and Whigs) in a new and delicate situation. i Ibid., April 13. aOregonian, April 17. 3 Argus, April 17. ​230 *W. C. WOODWARD Republican organization which had been started aggressively in 1856, had not been followed up. The Free State Repub- lican convention had been held early in 1857, at which time the principles of the new party had been promulgated, but no Territorial ticket had been nominated and practically no effort had been made to maintain a distinct party organization in the campaign. Dryer's attitude of semi-hostility toward the nascent party had been influential in preventing many Whigs from joining it and it still felt its weakness in numbers. The threats of the Democrats to introduce slavery if the Black Republicans should attempt to abolitionize Oregon led the timid to be conservative as to the expediency of aggres- sive efforts. With some Republicans, the advocacy of nobly conceived principles was the ruling motive. With others, the controlling ambition was to overthrow the Democratic ma- chine in Oregon. The latter saw their opportunity in 1858 and were in favor of going to the assistance of the National Democrats and of further postponing active Republican or- ganization. These conditions are illustrated in the press and in the proceedings of conventions in the spring of 1858. In a leader, "What Has Been and What Is to Be," Adams called attention to the surprisingly large vote against slavery in November, 1857, and attributed it to fearless agitation of the subject. 1 And this, despite the warning of the Democrats, which "so intimidated many weak-backed Republicans that they fairly quailed before the imaginary danger of 'agitation' and some of them strongly recommended us to let the Albany convention go by default, even after the call had been pub- lished throughout the Territory." Adams accordingly exhort- ed Republicans to declare themselves boldly, asserting that there was but one great issue before the people ; that "there is a bigger fight on hand than the present squabble between Leland 2 and Bush." He clearly manifested his anxiety to prevent Republicans allying- themselves with the Nationals, whose principles he declared in the main to be "equally black, i Argus, Dec. 19, 1857. sRditor of the Democratic Standard, the organ of the "soft" or National Democrats. He was succeeded about this time by James O'Meara. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 231 equally damnable" with those of the Clique. Perceiving that the National Democratic organization must be temporary, he urged Republicans to "put their house in order and make prep- arations for comfortably housing those who, after escaping from Babylon, will want a Jerusalem to flee to. Republicans never need look for many deserters from the ranks of the foe as long as they have no more comfortable quarters to invite them into than an area covered by a few slab seats under a fir tree. 1 While Dryer had not yet espoused Republicanism, he was as zealous as Adams in efforts to prevent a "coalition with in- famy" on the part of the "old line Whigs and all opponents of the bogus Oregon Democracy." He maintained vigorously that the quarrel among the Democrats was entirely a matter of their own, and that they should be left to fight it out in their own way. 2 The proceedings of the Marion county Republican conven- tion contain much that is suggestive of the situation in 1857- '58 from the Republican standpoint^ The preamble to the resolutions referred to "a considerable number of professed Republicans who have been and are opposed to the organiza- tion of an Oregon Republican party and who have by their influence thus far prevented any general organization." It was declared to be worse than useless to wait or hope for any ad- vantage to be gained by the schism among the Democrats, and a thorough organization was demanded. Early in March the Yamhill Republicans declared in favor of the nomination of a state ticket and recommended that the approaching convention nominate such candidates as can and will boldy go before the people in support of Republican principles. The Republican state convention met at Salem April 2. In the platform adopted the first several resolutions dealt with the Kansas question and denounced the pro-slavery action of the . Administration. The Dred Scott decision, "which makes the Constitution a grand title instrument to every holder of lArgus, March 6, 1858. sOregonian, Feb. 13, Feb. 20. 3Proceedings, in Oregonian, April 3. ​232 W. C. WOODWARD slaves," was stigmatized as a disgrace to the judiciary of the Nation and a stain upon the national character. Locally, the Democratic doctrine of caucus sovereignty was repudiated as dangerous and anti-Republican. Likewise, the Viva Voce voting system, subjecting the suffrage of the citizen to the surveillance of partisan inspectors, was condemned as a relic of barbarism which found fit friends in a party whose whole organization was devoted to the extinguishment of every spark of personal freedom. 1 The ticket nominated was as fol- lows : Congressman, J. R. McBride, Yamhill ; Governor, John Denny, Marion ; Secretary of State, Leander Holmes, Clack- amas ; Treasurer, E. L. Applegate, Umpqua ; Printer, D. W. Craig, Clackamas, who was associated with Adams in the publication of the Argus. In commenting upon the convention Dryer characterized "this Republican movement" as premature and unwise. 2 He charged a few men in and about Oregon City with having orig- inated it, and with having called the convention "without the knowledge and consent of those who have a right to advise at least in matters of this kind. * * * Now, these men will have to elect their ticket, if elected at all." Personal pique at being ignored by the presumptive Republican leaders, com- bined with a feeling of jealousy over the ascendancy of the Argus with the new party, is clearly recognized in Dryer's attitude. Furthermore, his name had been unsuccessfully used in the convention in the nomination of Congressman. He de- clared the whole movement was conceived in error by those restless minds who lacked the all important element neces- sary to ensure political triumph over the Salem dynasty. With three tickets in the field, each bidding for Whig support as the heir of the Whig party, the Oregonian entered an eloquent protest. "Do not bury us until we are dead," said the irre- concilable Whig editor. "Let us say when we are dead." In an editorial "To Oregonians who Love Their Country More than Party" he sounded the last clarion call to Whigs to hold their ground. 3 i Proceedings in Oregonian, April 10. 2Oregonirm, April 10. 3"Have the principles ... of the Whig party ceased to exist? We think not. . . . What though the organization of the old Whig party be broken up its principles still live. ... Is John J. Crittenden, the gallant standard bearer, left alone? Have you all deserted him? . . . Have you de- nied the faith? Are you willing, do you wish to lose your political identity? Will you sell your birthright for a mess of pottage? Shame! Shame!" Ore- gonian editorial, April 17, addressed to Whigs. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 233 The political situation in the campaign of 1858 is confusing. For, while many issues were declared, the one real issue was who should have the offices ?' Should the Salem Clique con- tinue to dominate Oregon politics? Hence, any attempt to explain the political alignments in the light of national issues then before the people leads to confusion. The regular Demo- cratic ticket was referred to as the pro-savery ticket by the enemies of the Clique. True, it was headed by Whiteaker, an avowed slavery man, and the "hards" strongly upheld Bu- chanan in his Kansas policy. However, in interpreting the Dred Scott decision, Bush and other leaders of the "hards" were more conservative than some of the opposition Demo- crats, represented by the Occidental Messenger, which held that even a state did not have the right to keep slavery out of its borders. In fact, the members of the Clique were un- derstood to be free state men. Nevertheless, the "hards" ap- plied indiscriminately the epithet "Black Republican" to the "soft" Democrats. Both free state and pro-slavery Democrats were found co-operating with the maligned "freedom shriek- ers" for the purpose of beating the Organization. Bush charged the Messenger or "Avery's Ox," with being as silent as death on the subject of slavery and Black Republicans during the campaign, for the reason that Avery was running for office and wanted Republican support But he showed that after the election the latter again took up the cause of slavery and restored the prefix "Black" to his erstwhie friends, the Re- publicans. 2 But Bush certainly had very little ground for charging anyone with inconsistency in this campaign. He was at heart, and had been openly, an enthusiastic supporter of Douglas and his policies. But with the break between Douglas and Bu- chanan, the Oregon Democracy espoused the latter and politi- cal patronage, as illustrated in the platform adopted. Bush, wishing to retain the lucrative job of public printer, quietly accepted the Buchanan, Lecompton platform and had no word iM. P. Deady, correspondence to San Francisco Bulletin, dated April 20, 1864. sStatesman, June 29. ​234 W. C. WOODWARD to say in defense of his friend Douglas during- the campaign. It was in reference to this campaign that Delazon Smith, in speaking later of Bush, said he "packed the dumb dog over the state and barked for him because he couldn't bark for himself." 1 Bush had praised the state platform unstintedly, declaring that there was not a word too much or too little in it and that the confidence expressed in the wisdom and integ- rity of Buchanan was fully merited. 2 Lane, alarmed at the prospect of Democratic discord in Oregon and at its probable relations to his political fortunes, made plain what he considered the paramount issue to be. In an open letter to the Statesman^ he said : "Fellow Democrats of Oregon, division in the Democratic party will not do.

• Shall Oregon come into the Union under the aus-

pices of a sectional organization or shall she come in to strengthen the hands of the Constitution and the Union?

• * * All Democrats should bear in mind that the Demo-

cratic party is the Union." He appealed to the Democracy to bury all private animosities and sacrifice ill feelings and heart burnings on the altar of the public good and to unite as one man in support of the regular nominees. On May 21, preceding the June election, the Republican candidates for Congressman, Governor and Secretary of State publicly withdrew from the race, leaving the contest to be settled between the "hard" and "soft" factions of the Demo- crats. The majority of the counties had put out Republican tickets and adopted aggressive platforms. But Holmes, one of the retiring candidates, complained that too many Repub- licans counted their work done when the nominations were made. The candidates, in their withdrawal, said the organiza- tion for the campaign was incomplete and defective and not calculated to inspire success. Hence they thought better to retire than to make a poor showing of Republican strength, i "Delazon harked against Douglas, barked for Buchanan and barked for Lecomptqn and Dred Scott, giving an opportunity at the close of his speech for his 'candidate' to get down, wiggle his tail and whine an endorsement of what had been said, which he always did with relish." Argus, Dec. 27, '62. ^Statesman, March 23. 3Quoted in Oregonian, May i. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 235 waiting to draw the issue at a more propitious time. The Argus deprecated their action but made the best of it, asserting that every Republican agreed that thereafter the Republican ticket must be adhered to in full every year until victory should be achieved. 1 The inevitable result was a more or less complete coalition between the Republicans and the National Democrats. The Argus of June 5 made the statement that in Clackamas and Yamhill counties the National Democratic candidates repudi- ated their own platform, accepting that of the Republicans. In a few counties, the Republican organization was kept intact and the three tickets were voted upon. As far as observable, in those counties where the "hards" lost, it was the "softs" which won. Washington county, which elected a Republican ticket, was an exception. Republican organization had for the time largely disintegrated in the face of the general desire to help overthrow Bush and the Salem Clique. The election was a victory of organization over disorgan- ization, the "hards" winning by very comfortable margins. But while Grover was elected Congressman by a majority of 1,669 and Whiteaker Governor by 1,138, Bush was victor over his nearest competitor, James O'Meara, by a bare 400 votes. The combined opposition secured the election of eleven members of the state legislature. The strongholds of the Op- position proved to be in Benton, Multnomah, Douglas and Yamhill counties. Following the election, Adams made some very plain state- ments in a leader "To the Republicans of Oregon." 2 Begin- ning with, "You now see that this election, like all that have preceded it, has been a perfect failure," he pointed out that the Republican party, instead of having consolidated itself by a thorough organization in every county, had lost ground. This, by listening to the counsels of "old pitchers in" who had long been "beating the Clique" whenever they saw a good opening to slip themselves into office between two factions. i Argus, May 22. ​' 236 W. C. WOODWARD "We have seen enough of the rottenness and recklessness of demagogues in this campaign to satisfy us that the most dead- ly hostility to the Republican party may be looked for here- after from adventurers, who, while they are terrible on the Clique, are determined that any opposition to it shall be so shaped as to secure their own personal preferment. * * * We trust the friends of sound principles will hereafter listen to no proposals for a 'Clique-beating party' upon a rotten plat- form. If we are beaten, let us be honorably beaten." A good share of this was evidently intended for Dryer who had op- posed Republican organization and who had secured election to the legislature. Early in the campaign the Oregonian had attacked Adams viciously as a self-confessed dictator who had put out the Republican state ticket on his own responsibility. 1 The Constitution which had been adopted provided that the newly-elected state legislature should convene on the first Monday in July, and proceed to elect two United States Sen- ators and make such further provision as should be necessary to the complete organization of the state government. 2 Ac- cordingly, the legislature met July 5 and elected Lane and Delazon Smith as Oregon's first senators. Lane received 46 votes, every "National" Democratic member joining their ene- mies, the "hards," in supporting him. Smith received 39 votes, the strength of the Organization in the assembly. Five of the seven "soft" members joined the three Republican members in voting for David Logan, against Smith. 3 A few acts were passed which were not to become operative until Congress should admit Oregon into the Union. Shortly before this special session of the legislative assembly, the United States Senate had passed the bill for the admission of the state of Oregon. Lane, in writing from Washington to Bush in the interest of his candidacy for the senate, an- nounced the Senate's action and indicated clearly that there was no question at all of the passage of the bill in the house. But Congress adjourned without conferring statehood upon lOregonian, April 24. 2Article 18, section 6, Constitution of Oregon. 3Proceedings, in Argus, July 17. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 237 Oregon. The fact soon became known that Lane had done practically nothing toward securing favorable action in the house. No satisfactory explanation of his strange attitude could be had. Oregon Democracy was surprised, disappointed and chagrined. Popular adulation of the idolized leader, who had just been honored by Democracy's unanimous vote for United States Senator, began to give way to doubt and sus- picion. His attitude was attributed to ulterior motives. It has been pointed out that the relations between Lane and the Clique had never been cordial. 1 Especially was this true between Lane and Bush, as the private correspondence between the various leaders clearly shows. 2 But a public break between them did not take place until in December, 1858. In a long editorial, "Why the State was not Admitted," Bush attacked Lane for his inaction, intimating that Lane, fearing he might not be elected Senator, was not anxious to have the Terri- torial government superseded, under which he had an un- expired term to fill out as delegate. He declared that there was no room for doubt that Oregon's delegate had proven un- faithful and false to his trust.3 From this time on the States- man bitterly attacked Lane.* And as Delazon Smith, who, with Congressman-elect Grover, had. gone on to Washington, took sides with his colleague, he came in with Lane for a full share of abuse. Contributed articles in the Statesman indicate that the feeling against Lane was general and that the Demo- crats were losing faith in his devotion to the interests of Ore- gon as above his own personal interests. The difficulties of the Oregon Democracy in 1858 in finding and maintaining a status, in harmony with conditions at Wash- ington, demand more than the passing notice already given. The Democratic policy was to evade expression on any issue i Supra, pages 81 82, 142. 2"Lane didn't get anything allowed me for that 2nd volume of statutes says Black Republicans prevented him. Likely, I reckon he thinks it best to keep that suspended over my head to 'hold the wretch in order.' Well, let it hang. 'Who's afeard'"? Letter, Bush to Deady, Oct. n, 1856. 3Statesman, Dec. 21. 4The Democratic Crisis, Feb. 9, 1859 attributed Bush's sudden attack on Lane to the fact that the latter did not secure the passage of a bill introduced in Con- gress for the relief of Bush to the extent of $6000 for printing the statutes of Oregon. ​238 W. C. WOODWARD which might threaten the unity and harmony of the party organization. It has been seen how such unity was endan- gered by the rise of the slavery question in Oregon and by the Dred Scott decision. Further trouble was encountered in the attempt to maintain harmony in the face of the disagree- ment between President Buchanan and Douglas over the Lecompton constitution in Kansas. The reflection of this controversy is first found in Oregon in January, 1858. 1 In February Bush expressed his opinion privately in favor of Douglas' position. 2 Publicly, he approached the question very gingerly and in the Statesman did his best to belittle and smooth away the apparent discord between the two national Democratic leaders. "There is no difference between the President and Mr. Douglas in matter of any vital principle in- volved," he declared. 3 After epitomizing Buchanan's conten- tions, he said, "Mr. Douglas denies all these conclusions and raises issues of fact tending to vitiate their basis." This was as near as Bush came in 1858 to supporting Douglas with whom he was in sympathy. Having summed up the situation diplomatically, he added the words of paternal admonition, "We cannot encourage our (Oregon) Democracy to turn much attention to this subject until it shall assume more tan- gible shape or involve some more important principle." The Linn county Democrats, whose declarations in conven- tions were generally those of the Democratic orator and leader, Delazon Smith, asserted that the Kansas difficulty could never rise to the dignity of a national issue ; that they regarded the difference of opinion between President Buchanan and Sen- ator Douglas as "both honest and courteous"; that "members of the Democratic party may everywhere differ in opinion to i "Jo Lane's Times which had just committed itself and the Oregon Democ- racy to the Douglas and Walker horn of the Kansas swindle, has changed its coat since Jo Lane has sent in his instructions, and came out last Saturday with a flaming endorsement of Buchanan's plan of subjugating Kansas, although it still contends that the Constitution should have been submitted to the people of Kansas." Argus, Jan. 30. 2"As to the position of Buchanan and Douglas they are both right in one sense. I think Douglas' position is undeniably correct. . . . But the conduct of the free state men in Kansas, in refusing to vote for delegates to the Consti- tutional Convention, leaves them without much right to complain and I am not not certain but that I would vote for the Lecompton Constitution if I was in Con- gress." Letter, Bush to Deady, Feb. 12, 1858. 3 Statesman, March 2, ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 239 the same extent and upon the same subject, without impair- ing their standing as Democrats." 1 But by the time the state convention assembled, the prestige of the Administration made itself felt, with the result of the aforementioned endorsement of Buchanan and his policies. As the campaign progressed the support of President Buchanan became more and more cordial and pronounced. Douglas was completely deserted. The Lane county Democrats, not content with a general hearty endorse- ment of the administration of "our present patriotic and dis- tinguished Chief Magistrate," singled out for special com- mendation, "that policy pertaining to the admission of Kansas." But before the end of the year Oregon Democracy began to experience a change of heart. Dryer wrote from Salem in December, when the last Territorial legislature was in ses- sion, that those who had been loudest in denouncing Douglas and lauding Buchanan were now pronouncing eulogies upon the former and "cursing both loud and deep Old Buck as a humbug and knave." He attributed the sudden conversion solely and entirely to the Illinois election, which had "pro- duced a change almost equal to that of Pentecost." Dryer proceeded with a picturesque characterization of the Oregon Democracy 2 and also predicted the open break between Bush and Lane which occurred that very month. Though a state constitution had been adopted, state officers elected, a state legislature held, United States Senators chosen and the new Governor inaugurated, Oregon remained a Ter- ritory. Lane advised the people of Oregon to proceed under the auspices of the state government just as though Congress had admitted the Territory as a state. He recommended the holding of the regular session of the state legislature in Sep- tember in accordance with the schedule of the Constitution. Such semi-defiant procedure was vigorously opposed by the Statesman. The assembly-elect followed the lead of Bush i Proceedings, in Statesman, March 16. 2"Democracy in Oregon means devotion to the personal interests of Asahel Bush. ... It means that you must relish the egotism as well as the Toryism of D y [Deady] and commend the recreancy of B E [Boise] the Massa- chusetts Whig and laugh immoderately at the obscenity of "Nes" [Nesmith] and down on your belly at their bidding where you must crawl, meekly looking up and eating any quantity of dirt that is set before you." Oregonian, Dec. 18. ​240 W. C. WOODWARD and the September session was not held, though an abortive attempt was made to organize the session, on the part of the Opposition members. Hence, the Territorial legislature which had been elected in June as a precautionary measure, at the same time that the state assembly was elected, was called to meet in December. The same question relative to the protection of slave prop- erty, that had embroiled the session of the preceding year, was now again introduced. A comparison of the discussions of the two sessions is interesting as showing the advanced ground which had been taken by certain Democrats in the interim relative to the rights of slavery in the Territories. The "petitions of several citizens of Oregon praying for the passage of a law for the protection of slave property in Ore- gon" 1 were referred to the judiciary committee of the house. The majority report, signed by W. W. Chapman, chairman, and W. G. T'Vault, held that the Constitution guaranteed equal rights to all property holders in the Territories, includ- ing slave owners. And further, that "when Congress does organize a Territorial government that the Constitution guar- antees to the inhabitants the right to legislate, and regulate the manner how any person shall have his property protected." 2 Hence the committee introduced r bill containing the follow- ing provisions : First, that those wiio had brought slaves into the Territory, should have all the rights and remedies in the several courts of the Territory, which were allowed for the protection and recovery of any other personal property of like value. Second, that those knowingly harboring or employing a slave without consent of the owner should be subject to a forfeit of five dollars per day to the owner. Third, that slaves should be rated and assessed to owners like any other prop- erty. Fourth, that any master or owner of a boat carrying a slave out of the Territory or to any point in the Territory without the consent of the owner, should forfeit the value of the same to the latter. i Proceedings, Oregonian, Jan. 22, 1859. 2lbid., Jan. 15. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 241 Two minority reports were returned from the committee. One was by N. H. Cranor of Marion, who had taken an im- portant part in the discussion on the same question a year previous, at which time he had held that slavery was excluded from Oregon by the act of Congress organizing the Territory. 1 Now, he held that as the Territories were property of the Gen- eral Government, the citizens of all sections had equal rights therein; that neither Congress nor the Territories, under the Dred Scott decision, had power to legislate upon the question of slavery in the Territories. Hence, the legislation petitioned for was impossible and was also useless, as by the decision of the Supreme Court, slavery was already protected in the Terri- tories and needed no special legislation. One year before, Cranor had taken just the opposite position. He presents a good example of the rapid intellectual development of good Demo- crats whose chief object was to adjust their ideas to the con- stitutional doctrine of the Administration. The other minority report was presented by E. D. Shattuck, a Republican, representing Washington and Multnomah. He reviewed at length the Republican doctrine on the question, de- claring that that part of the Scott decision affecting the ques- tion at issue was gratuitous and had not the force of law ; that under its organic act, the Territorial legislature had power to legislate upon the subject in the negative only. In short, Cranor held that a Territorial legislature could take no action ; Chap- man and T'Vault that it could take action, but only affirmative- ly ; Shattuck that it could take action, but only negatively. Action was not taken upon the majority report until near midnight of the last day of the session, when, with a small at- tendance present, it was adopted by a vote of 13 to 9. This was the action of the house only, and of course the negro bill introduced was abortive. However, it is an interesting fact that such a bill was actually introduced and rather heartily sup- ported. And that too, after the people of Oregon, in accord- ance with the Democratic doctrine of popular sovereignty, had decided against slavery by a vote approximatey five to one.

i Supra, page 161. ​ ​ ​ ​

The statement has been made that no state, not of the orig- inal thirteen, has contributed so materially as Oregon in the circumstances of its acquisition and territorial organization to the great national issues which have divided the country. 1 Whether the statement is literally true or not, it forcefully suggests what is apt generally to be overlooked the close, vital relation of isolated Oregon to the great issues which have stirred the whole nation. It is not the purpose here to dwell upon this interesting phase, further than to suggest the rela- tion of the admission of Oregon as a Territory in 1848 and as a state in 1859 to the development of the national issue of slavery.

In 1848 the organization of the Territory had been opposed by the pro-slavery element in Congress. In the struggle over the Oregon bill, occasioned by the anti-slavery provision, Cal- houn laid down the principles which were thereafter to be maintained by the South and on which the policy of the Na- tional Democracy was to be based. He declared that the ter- ritories were the common property of the people of the United States and that as a result the South was entitled to the same property rights therein as the North. Ten years later Oregon was knocking for admission to the Union as a free state. This time the opposition arose from the anti-slavery element in Con- gress, the Oregon bill being championed by the regular Demo- cratic organization. In the first place it was not considered strictly a party question. In 1857 the lower house of Congress had passed an act authorizing the people of Oregon to organ- ize a state government, but Congress adjourned before action was taken by the Senate. In May, 1858, the Senate passed a bill by a vote of 35 to 17 to admit Oregon, with the constitu- tion which had in the meantime been adopted. Eleven Repub- lican senators were among the 35 and six among the 17.

Hon. Frederick N. Judson, St. Louis, Mo., in anniversary address com- memorating admission of Oregon to the Union. See Proceedings, p. 33. ​246 V. C. WOODWARD Among the minority were some of the radical Southern sena- tors including Jefferson Davis, who were opposed to the ad- mission of any more northern states. The leader of the eleven Republicans who favored admission was Wm. H. Seward. 1 As has been suggested, the first session of this the 35th Con- gress came to a close without action having been taken by the lower house. 2 The action of the rabid, pro-slavery Southern senators in opposing the admission bill, made it plain that the Administra- tion Democrats could not command the full party vote in support of the bill. The Republicans, whose numbers had been steadily increasing in Congress and who were anxious to make their influence felt, now found in the Oregon question the eagerly awaited opportunity to exhibit their party strength. Various reasons for their opposition to the admission bill were publicly stated by the Republicans. Oregon's popu- lation was not sufficient to entitle her to statehood. The same requirements should be made of Oregon which had been prescribed for Kansas. Some criticism of the constitution was indulged in. But these were not the real sources of opposi- tion. Oregon gave promise of being a Democratic state had in fact already elected Democratic senators and congressman and her admission would materially increase the strength of that party in Congress. It was, moreover, already conceded that the approaching presidential election would be closely con- tested and Oregon might turn the scale the wrong way from the Republican viewpoint. The sincerity of the people of Ore- gon in adopting a free-state constitution under which discrimi- nation was made against free Negroes, and furthermore in electing a recognized pro-slavery advocate in Lane to the Sen- ate, was questioned. The strength of the pro-slavery element in Oregon was known and feared. Furthermore, there was a desire on the part of the Republicans to retaliate upon the i Franklin P. Rice, "Eli Thayer and the Admission of Oregon" in the Wor- cester (Mass.) Magazine for February and March, 1906, republished in "Pro- ceedings of the soth Anniversary of the Admission of the State of Oregon to the Union." Mr. Rice gives a concise, lucid account of the situation, based upon the records of Congress and the newspapers of the period, and his account has here been closely followed. zSupra, page ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 247 Democrats for their refusal to admit Kansas. Influenced by these various motives, the Republican organization in Congress, encouraged by such prominent Republicans as Horace Greeley, determined to test its strength against the Administration forces by opposing the Oregon bill. Accordingly, when, in January, of the second session of this Congress, the bill for the admission of Oregon was reported in the house, the Republican policy of opposition was declared. But when the party managers undertook to rally the full Re- publican strength against the bill, they encountered serious defection in the ranks. Fifteen Republicans, led by Eli Thayer of Massachusetts, refused to regard the Oregon bill as a party measure, which it had really now become. The most strenuous efforts were made to enforce party discipline upon them but in vain. Viewing the question upon its own merits, they declared that the people of Oregon had proceeded in accordance with the accustomed usages, had acted in good faith and were en- titled to statehood. Hence they voted for the bill, with the Administration forces, as opposed to the Republican organiza- tion and the Southern extremists. On February 12, 1859, the house passed the bill by a vote of 114 to 108 and two days later the President affixed his signature. Oregon was at last a state and the eager hopes of a decade were realized. The passage of the admission bill seemed to reinstate Lane partially with Oregon Democrats, though not with Bush and the Clique with whom the break was irrevocable. The general attitude toward Lane is reflected in the actions of the county Democratic conventions held in the spring of 1859. The Polk county Democrats declared that they would not aid in building up a personal party for any man, no matter what his present position and future prospects might be. They demanded a strict adherence to the doctrine of rotation in office. 1 On the other hand, the Clackamas Democrats viewed "with pride and re- newed confidence the continuous and untiring zeal of our fel- low-citizen, the Hon. Jos. Lane, in his efforts to secure the highest good of Oregon and we believe that but for his per- i Statesman, April 12, 1859. ​248 W. C. WOODWARD sonal efforts in our behalf, Oregon would now be in Territorial vassalage." In harmony with this resolution, the Statesman was condemned for its assults upon distinguished members of the Democratic party. 1 Similar action supporting Lane was taken by Josephine, Multnomah and Linn county, though in some cases by a bare majority vote. 2 The break between Lane and the Clique gave the Nationals or "soft" faction of the party their opportunity. As has been shown, they remained steadfast in their loyalty to Lane and they now began to rally round him as their champion against the Clique. The leadership of Lane gave them that political legitimacy which was so essential. They were no longer po- litical pariahs. In fact they began looking forward at once to securing, through the prestige of Lane, the control of the regu- lar party machinery. The return of the Nationals to the regular organization was hailed with satisfaction by several county conventions and by the following resolution adopted by the state convention : "We approve and rejoice over that thor- ough and harmonious unison of the party which has displaced past differences and given assurances of future united action." As the Nationals were in control of the convention, however, the "approval" was easily understood and there was a lurking suspicion of irony in the reference to the harmonious unison of the party. The Democratic state convention met on April 20 at Salem. It was the first convention in which the Lane forces and the Clique had been in open opposition. A trial of strength was at once made and the Clique was worsted for the first time. A minority of the committee on resolutions dissented from the re- port. Thirty votes were cast against the fifth resolution which strongly commended the three Oregon representatives in Con- gress for their effective work in securing the admission of Oregon. 3 The real test of strength, however, came in the vote for nomination of a Congressman to succeed Grover. Lansing i Ibid., April 19. 2lbid., April 19, April 26. aProceedings, Statesman, April 26. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 249 Stout, a young Portland attorney who had recently come from California, was nominated by the Lane-Smith faction. Grover, a member of the Clique, was supported by the old organization for renomination. Stout was nominated by a vote of 40 to 33. As to the methods by which this result was achieved, charges and recriminations were many and bitter. Bush charged that Linn county promised to vote for Grover if Marion county would pledge itself to vote for the re-election of Delazon Smith as United States Senator. This was refused, whereupon the opposition to the Clique joined forces in a secret caucus where successful plans for the defeat of Grover were matured. Bush declared that the latter was sacrificed because he had chosen to devote his time and influence at Washington to the interests of his constituents and country rather than to the perpetuation of Gen. Lane in office. 1 The attitude of the old organization leaders on seeing their factional enemies step in and at once secure control of the party organization may be easily imagined. Bush was furious and made it plain in the Statesman that little help might be expected from him in the campaign. Other members of the Clique were equally irreconcilable. 2 On the other hand, the Nationals were correspondingly jubilant. The expression of the Oregon Weekly Union of Corvallis, edited by Jas. H. Slater, a National, may be regarded as typical of the attitude of the "softs". In reviewing the proceedings of the conven- tion^ Slater announced that in the repudiation of the old fifth and sixth resolutions, the principles contended for by the Na- tional Democrats were thus triumphant even in the old organi- zation. Believing that a return to correct principles had been effected; that caucus sovereignty had been abandoned and re- pudiated; that censorship of the Democratic press was not to be continued; that effect was to be given to the voice of the i Editorials in Statesman, April 26, on "Democratic State Convention" and "The Personal Party." 2"You have doubtless heard of the damnable outrage perpetrated by Lane and ^ Smith's friends in our mis-called Democratic Convention." (Details given.) "This is a remarkable triumph of caucus sovereignty! I boldly denounced the 'dirty bargain' in the Convention laid the thing open to public gaze exposed Stout's Know Nothingism in California." Nesmith to Deady, April 25. 3Oregon Weekly Union, April 23. ​250 W. C. WOODWARD masses in preference to the dicta of a few who had usurped authority, Slater pledged his best efforts to the support of the ticket. Early in the spring the Republicans began organizing with a new determination to establish a permanent and independent party, free from all connection with Democratic factions. As an illustration of what was taking place over the state, a city mass meeting was held at Portland, March 5, "for the purpose of organizing a party which shall be opposed to the present (so-called) Democratic party of Oregon." The resolutions adopted called for the thorough organization of the National Republican party in Oregon; utterly repudiated the doctrines of abolitionism and denied that it constituted any part of the Republican creed ; declared unreservedly for the full and free application to the Territories of the doctrine of popular sov- ereignty. 1 This last resolution indicates the heresy of Oregon Republicanism on the great issue of squatter sovereignty, further evidence of which was to be frequently given. Among those addressing the meeting was Dryer. In the next issue of the Oregonian he strongly endorsed the meeting and from this time may be considered a Republican. In the spring of 1858 he had denounced the idea of political organization of the opposition as likely to prove as baneful as that of the Salem Clique. But in December he had turned squarely about and urged the necessity of the organization of a political party by the People of Oregon as the only remedy for the existing evils under Clique rule. 2 In February, 1859, he referred to the call made by "W. T. Matlock and four other residents of Clackamas county calling themselves a 'Republican Central Committee' " for a state convention to be held at Salem, April 21. He could not withhold some insinuations as to the presumption of a few Clackamas county politicians, self-constituted as leaders, but concluded with expressing the hope that the convention would prove successful in organizing the forces against the ruling dynasty. 3 All of which indicated that Dryer was "coming i Oregonian, March 12. aOregonian, Dec. 4, 1858. 3lbid., Feb. 5, 1859. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 251 round" gradually. A little later in a leader, "The Republi- cans !" he speaks of the aggressive work of the Republicans in the several counties, which he gives guarded commendation, and tacitly joins his fortunes with the new party. 1 Thus, after holding aloof for three years, the old Whig veteran now brought the Oregonian to the aid of the Republican cause. The Republican state convention met at Salem on the day following the meeting of the Democrats. The Republicans pro- ceeded with a seriousness of purpose, with a practical determi- nation to achieve results as well as to declare high sounding principles, which had not before characterized them. They now acted as members of a political organization rather than as a mere assembly of reform enthusiasts and political doc trinaires. The resolutions adopted, written by such men as J. R. McBride, T. W. Davenport and Jesse Applegate, were sane, conservative and even conciliating. 2 The strongest devo- tion to the Union was avowed and anything approaching hatred of any part of it was as strongly disavowed. While announc- ing unalterable opposition to slavery extension, the right to interfere with institutions existing in the states, was disclaimed. A guarded declaration was made in favor of popular sov- ereignty, which, though not in accordance with orthodox Re- publicanism, would tend to mollify aggressive Westerners and would clearly strengthen the party in Oregon. Intervention of Congress for the protection of slavery in the Territories, demanded by leading Democrats, was severely denounced. While declaring for the purity of the ballot box, a wel- come was extended to those foreigners who preferred free institutions to despotism. The belief was expressed that the enforcement of the existing naturalization laws was all that was necessary as a barrier against foreign immigration. This set the Republicans clear on the subject of Know Nothingism. The annexation of adjacent territory was favored, by fair and honorable means, with the consent of the governed. The reso- lutions further declared for a homestead bill, the construction i Ibid., Feb. 26. aProceedings in Statesman, April 26 and in Argus, April 30. ​252 W. C. WOODWARD of the Pacific railroad, internal improvements and for a tariff upon imports to meet the current expenses of the government, which should discriminate in favor of home industry. The immediate payment of the Oregon Indian war debt was urged upon Congress. David Logan was nominated for Congress with 32 votes, his nearest competitor being B. J. Pengra of Eugene, editor of a new Republican paper, the People's Press. Dr. W. Warren, Leander Holmes and A. G. Hovey were chosen as delegates to the National Republican convention of 1860, and were in- structed to use their influence for W. H. Seward. 1 H. W. Cor- bett, W. C. Johnson and E. D. Shattuck were elected as a state central committee. Bush, enraged and disgusted over the results of the Demo- cratic Convention, gave the Republicans unwonted considera- tion. He stated that Logan was well known throughout the state and was the strongest man that could have been named ; that there were some good things in the platform and some "colored" things ; but that it was unexpectedly decent to come from such a body as the convention was. 2 In fact, after a week for reflection, Bush began to find fault with the Repub- lican platform because it was so mild and inoffensive. He pointed out at once the singular incongruity between the plat- form and candidate for Congress on the one hand, and the Seward instructions on the other. He said that the platform had no Seward Republicanism in it and that Logan's slavery opinions no more accorded with Seward's than with Garrison's. The opinion was expressed that the platform was three-fourths humbug; that neither it nor the candidate even approached the eastern standard of black Republicanism. Nor did they i The Seward instructions were slipped through rather surreptitiously near the close of the Convention by Pengra, after many delegates had left. See Argus, Oct. 29, 1859. 2 Statesman, April 26. "Logan was nominated by the blacks and Jesse made the best platform that could be constructed out of the materials. I believe he will be elected. The Shannons, English, Cornoyer and all the French are up in arms for Logan." (Referring to the fact that Stout had been a Know Nothing.) "Jo and Ahio Watt are electioneering for Logan in Yamhill so you may know h is broke loose." Nesmith to Deady, April 25. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 253 even represent the anti-slavery opinions of the majority of the convention from which they were sent forth. 1 The Argus, in commenting upon the convention and its re- sults, declared that for the first time in the history of Oregon the issue was now fairly made between the Republicans as the friends of free laborers and the Jo Lane Democracy as the advocates of negro-breeding, negro-extension fanaticism. The first time, because "the blacks", under the management of Lane, had run up their true colors. The 2600 fanatics who had voted for slavery in Oregon had now succeeded in crushing out the free soil element from the Democratic party by throwing Grover, Williams and other free state men overboard; 2 by striking out from their creed "everything that savored of a license for Democrats to favor freedom and take an occasional squint at the North Star." This was the issue which Adams had been impatiently trying to force ever since the establish- ment of the Argus. "Parson" Adams was no "waiter on Providence." Believing the world to be full of time-crusted error and that he had a special mission to set it to rights, he preferred to lead the forlorn hope and let the slow and con- servative masses come limping after him in their own good time, never doubting but that they would come sooner or later.3 He now entered upon the campaign with aggressiveness and enthusiasm. The great question of the power of the federal government over slavery in the Territories occupied so important a place in the campaign of 1859 that it is necessary to dwell upon the state of opinion in Oregon upon the national issue. When the doctrine of squatter sovereignty was given official and legal sanction in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854, the free state men in Oregon were quick to repudiate it. But i Statesman, May 3. 2"We heard one of the most prominent and most active of Lane's supporters from Southern Oregon denounce Williams for writing his free-state letter, and the Salem organ for publishing such 'rotten abolitionism*. The publication of that letter did the work for Williams and the endorsement of it has done the work for many more, and these headless Democrats are now as effectually killed off in the party as though they had joined the Rpublicans." Argus, April 30. 3 Characterization by M. P. Deady in correspondence to the San Francisco Bulletin, dated May 20, 1863. ​254 W. C. WOODWARD the spirit of the West of the self-governing frontiersmen, was too strong. Years before the doctrine of popular sov- ereignty was enunciated, the Oregon pioneers had established the first American government upon the Pacific Coast solely upon the principles of absolute popular sovereignty. It was the cardinal doctrine in their political creed in fact it was their common creed, before the new country became involved in national politics. When the Democratic party espoused it as a political issue, the Oregon Democrats pushed their favorite doctrine to the extreme, as will be shown. The opposition were thus placed on the defensive, and at first were prompted by the binding force of party loyalty to oppose it, but only in its rela- tion to the slavery question. In all other particulars they were in favor of the people of the Territories managing their own affairs without interference from Washington. The distinc- tion was hard to maintain. Hence, when the pro-slavery Demo- crats abandoned the ground of squatter sovereignty for that of direct intervention in behalf of slavery, it gave the Oregon Republicans, especially the more conservative ones, the oppor- tunity to espouse the doctrine, in its entirety. There was thus very little difference between them and the Douglas Democrats. It is interesting to note that at a time when allegiance to party doctrines was almost a matter of religion, that inherent desire of the Western pioneers to govern themselves was strong enough to override party barriers on the one question of popular sover- eignty. On the other hand, the fact that many Western Demo- crats saw fit to forsake the popular doctrine suggests how in- fatuated was their devotion to the cause of the slave power. The typical Western attitude on the question was expressed by Bush in 1857 in an editorial on squatter sovereignty, 1 in which he declared that the principle should be extended to give people in the Territories power over all legislation to the same extent as enjoyed by citizens of the states. "We are just as capable here in Oregon to elect our officers, make our laws unrestricted and in all things govern ourselves, as we were, scattered over the thirty-one states. And we are presuming iStatesman, March 17, 1857. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 255 enough to claim that we of right ought to have the same pow- ers here that we exercised there." In 1858 when the Oregon Democrats supported Buchanan and his Lecompton policy in Kansas, their attitude toward the Douglas doctrine was passive, at best. This made it easy for Dryer to declare his sentiments upon the subject. He stated that he was and always had been in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska doctrine of popular sover- eignty and had opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill merely be- cause it disturbed a long-established and accepted settlement of a difficult problem. He went so far as to declare that he would cheerfully support either Douglas or Crittenden for the presi- dency upon that issue. 1 Now in 1859, with Lane and the radi- cal, slavery-extension Democrats in control of the party or- ganization, Bush renewed his allegience to Douglas and his doctrines with increased zeal, as if to atone for his apostasy of the previous year. In developing to its last conclusion his favorite doctrine, he declared that the only power which Con- gress possessed over the Territories by virtue of the Constitu- tion was based upon the "power to dispose of and make all useful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States" ; that it conferred no power to legislate for the people of the Territories, to appoint officers over them nor to govern them in any way whatsoever ; Congress therefore had no warrant whatever for the existing system of territorial government, yet the people had long sub- mitted in silence to many of the same grievances for which their forefathers threw off the British yoke. "Officers have been imposed upon us without our consent and in direct viola- tion of our will. Our judges have been made dependent upon the will of the President and Senate alone for the tenure of their offices and for the amount and payment of their salaries. The administration of justice has been obstructed by the pass- age of unjust and unwholesome laws. We have been repeatedly annoyed by the insolence of officials not of our own choosing. And all this without even the semblance of constitutional au- thority !" 2 What a familiar ring this has to those who have fol- lOregonian, May 8, 1858. sStatesman, March i, 1859. ​256 * W. C. WOODWARD lowed at all the proceedings of the old colonial assemblies in pre-revolutionary days ! It indicates clearly what the doctrine of popular sovereignty meant to Oregonians. The State Democratic platform of 1859 stated that the de- cision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case was acknowledged by the Democratic party as a correct interpreta- tion of the Constitution on the question of slavery. This was a palpable evasion as there were no less than three distinct in- terpretations of that decision among the Democrats. The Douglas phase of the doctrine, that of absolute non-interven- tion, was still very generally held by the rank and file of the Oregon democracy. Many, however, were now following the lead of Lane, who maintained that slavery existed in the Ter- ritories by virtue of the Constitution and that the people of the Terrtories had no authority either to establish it or pro- hibit its introduction. Bush hence charged him with having deserted the Democratic principle of popular sovereignty and with having taken up "the quibble devised by some place-seeking demagogues, to cheat unthinking Southern extensionists." 1 Lane had merely advanced to the Buchanan or Administration interpretation, but Bush refused to recognize the latter as Dem- ocratic doctrine. The radical Democratic position was voiced by Editor O'Meara in the Standard, who declared for positive intervention by Congress for the protection of slavery in the Territories. He charged that whoever held a different doctrine was a Black Republican. He attacked Douglas for his Freeport speech doctrine, as either a demagogue or "a very thick-headed numbskull," charging him with utterances treasonable and sub- versive of the Constitution. 2 In the campaign, Lansing Stout, the Democratic candidate for Congressman, supported the Administration doctrine and even approached that of the interventionists, maintaining that the people were obliged to enact laws for the protection of slaves in the Territories. He was supported on the stump by Smith and Lane, who spent most of their time in denouncing i Statesman, editorial, "Then and Now", Nov. 22, 1859. zQuoted in Argus, May 28. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 257 the Statesman and defending themselves. Bush carried Stout's name at the head of the ticket in the Statesman. He did noth- ing- for his election, however, merely damning him with faint praise very faint, indeed. Almost the entire editorial space of the Statesman was devoted to the detraction and defamation of Smith and Lane, vituperative and scurrilous to the last de- gree ; especially when directed against Delazon Smith, or "De- lusion" Smith, as he was universally referred to by his political enemies. This tendency of Oregon journalism towards the Billingsgate, which had always been pronounced and which became known as the "Oregon Style," reached its height, or rather, depth, during this period. David Logan was a very conservative Republican, to say the least. He could almost as truly be termed a Douglas Demo- crat. But he was the logical candidate to run upon the Repub- lican platform adopted in April. It had declared for popular sov- ereignty, "in deference to the prevailing public sentiment" as Bush said, 1 and Logan, in harmony with a few independent Re- publicans like Eli Thayer, was a hearty supporter of the doc- trine, which he now freely proclaimed. In this he was strong- ly supported by the Oregonian which declared that the Repub- lican party of Oregon stood firmly pledged to non-interven- tion. 2 It is not to be presumed that this position upon the ques- tion was pleasing to all the Republicans of the state, by any means. A very different class of men rallied round the Repub- lican standard in 1858 and 1859, from those who had set up that standard in the Territory, and who for their devotion to the cause of human freedom had been known by the inelegant but expressive term "dam-Black Republican." The growing success of the party in the East, and the admission of Oregon to statehood, which would bring Oregon Republicans in direct con- nection with the National organization, was exerting a decisive influence. Many, who had taken no active interest in the great moral issues at stake, seeing an opportunity to aid in the defeat of the Democratic party and to advance their own fortunes, i Statesman, Aug. 2. 2Oregonian, Aug. 6. ​258 V. C. WOODWARD political and otherwise, now "rallied to the party conventions and were active participants therein, as though they were na- tive to the manor born." 1 With these, party success was more important than unwavering allegiance to some abstract prin- ciple. It must not be inferred, however, that the later acces- sions to the party were actuated solely by personal and mer- cenary motives. Many of those who had been associated with the beginnings of Republicanism in Oregon might almost be termed professional reformers. They had aided in the temper- ance movement, had been identified with Knownothingism, abolitionism and had advocated various doctrines regarded by the public at large as visionary and fanatical. This explains to some degree the extent to which the early Republicans had been maligned. Their very zeal caused them to be mistrusted. It was the anxious purpose of the Republicans in 1859 to free themselves from all stigma of fanaticism, and to inspire confi- dence in themselves as statemen rather than to incur suspicion as doctrinaires. This did not mean necessarily a desertion of Republican principles. It did imply a re-statement of them and some readjustment, as on the question of popular sovereignty. It is from this general situation that the conservative, semi- orthodox attitude of the Oregon Republicans in 1859, must be viewed. Dryer, who was a good example of the second edition Republicans, gave apt expression to their viewpoint in the fol- lowing: "There are a large number of people possessed of a kind of night-mare upon this question of slavery. This class is composed both of the ultraists for and the ultraists against slavery. Each branch of this class seems to have set up a Congo Negro as a fit subject or idol of their worship. We are none of this class and we speak for the Republican party of Oregon by authority, when we sav that they do not compose either branch of this class." 2 The election resulted in almost a political revolution. The issue was long in doubt and when finally determined it was found that Stout had been elected by a bare majority of 16 i Davenport, in Oregon Historical Quarterly for December, 1908, p. 334. sOregonian, Aug. 6. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 259 votes. With the Democrats in charge of the machinery of elec- tion, this was indeed a narrow margin. The result was as- tounding to both parties. Marion county, the seat of the gov- ernment and of the Salem Clique, which normally might have been expected to give Stout a majority of some 500 votes, gave Logan 782 majority. Bush declared that he voted for Stout, but admitted that he did not give him the earnest, active sup- port that he would have done had he been regularly and fairly nominated. He attributed the decreased Democratic vote to lukewarmness on the part of many old Democrats, due to Stout's former active connection with the Know Nothing party in California. Particularly was that the case in Marion county in which there was a large foreign vote. On the other hand, Logan's espousal of popular sovereignty made it easy for many Douglas Democrats to support him. It was only by the Demo- cratic steadfastness of the isolated southern counties that the great defection was overcome and Stout's election secured. Out of the sacrifice of Grover at the Democratic convention in April by the Lane faction, there grew a political vendetta among the Democrats. As a result there was no election of United States senator at the special session of the legislature called in May to complete the details of state organization. Smith had drawn the short term which had expired on the adjournment of Congress, within a month after he and Lane had been sworn in. He had been in Washington during the winter, however, and had thoroughly identified himself with Lane in the growing strife between the latter and the Clique. He apparently entered upon a life of dissipation in Washing- ton, lurid stories of which found their way back to Oregon to be given full publicity by Smith's enemies, particularly by Bush in the Statesman. Smith made a desperate effort for re- election at the May special session, with the apparent support of Lane, whose good faith toward his colleague and ally was questioned. Though Smith was himself discredited and unable to secure re-election, the factions in the legislature seemed evenly enough divided so that the Lane-Smith forces could probably have prevented the election of a member of the oppos​260 ' W. C. WOODWARD ing faction. At any rate, the Democrats were not disposed to force the issue at this time by opening up the struggle and chose to allow the seat in the Senate to remain vacant until the regu- lar session of the next legislature in 1860. At the State Democratic Convention in April, when the Lane faction by its secret caucus captured the organization, it se- cured control of the state central committee. The committee met at Eugene, September 24, and issued a call for a state con- vention to be held at Eugene, November 16, to elect delegates to the National Democratic Convention to be held at Charles- ton the coming year. A split occurred in the committee over the choice of a basis of representation on which delegates to the Convention should be chosen. The Lane forces were in the majority and voted that the representation be based upon the Democratic vote for Stout in the late election. This was in accordance with past procedure. It would now prove favorable to Lane as it would very materially diminish the number of delegates from the Willamette Valley counties, where opposi- tion to him was pronounced, and increase the number from the southern counties which remained loyal to him. The Bush or Salem faction maintained that this basis disfranchised two thousand Democrats who had constantly battled for Democra- tic principles "both before and since the late Democratic candi- date proved recreant to those principles by a desertion to the secret conclave of an oath-bound enemy." Accordingly the mi- nority, demanding representation upon the basis of the vote cast for Whiteaker for governor in 1858, withdrew and issued a separate call to the Democracy of Oregon in which they asked the counties to send delegates to the Eugene convention on this basis. In this action they were upheld and supported by the Statesman. The reasons for Lane's special anxiety to secure control of the Eugene convention lay in his ambition to be named on the national ticket to be nominated at Charleston. As early as 1852 he was an active candidate for the nomination of presi- dent of the United States and received no little encourage- ment. 1 From that time on he had been at least a willing, re- iln the collection of Lane letters in the possession of the Oregon Historical Society are to be found scores of private letters addressed to Lane in reference to his candidacy in 1852 and chances of success. Most of these are from politicians of his home state, Indiana, but several other states are also represented. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 261 ceptive candidate and he now became a very active one. He was a bombastic, self-assertive man, and was a born leader, which made him a success as a General or a politician. He had not the capabilities or training of a statesman and his speeches on the issues of the day were composed largely of generalities and platitudes. But recognizing no limitation to his abilities, he placed no limitations on his ambitions. Depend- ing first on his successful military record as the "Marion of the Mexican War", and as the hero of a number of Indian fights in the far West, and second upon his standing with his party and especially the pro-slavery element of it, he entered the field for national honors. Of course the first requisite of success was to secure the endorsement of his own state. This would have been easy enough a few years previous for in- stance, when, after his decisive victory over Gaines in 1855, Bush had carried the legend in the Statesman, "Gen. Joseph Lane for President in 1856." 1 But with the Oregon Democ- racy divided into two hostile camps, Lane faced a difficult situation in 1859. The Lane-Stout faction was in control of the Eugene Con- vention. The committee on credentials reported in favor of decreasing the size of the delegations of certain counties which were based on the vote for Whiteaker, in accordance with the recommendation made by the minority of the state central committee. For example, the size of the Marion county dele- gation was thus cut from ten to four members. 2 Upon the adoption of the report, Grover arose and said: "I am au- thorized by eight counties here to say to the convention on behalf of those counties, that they retire from the convention upon this decision." All the delegates from Marion, Polk, Wasco, Clatsop, Washington, Umpqua, Coos and Curry coun- ties then retired. They immediately assembled in another room where they resolved that inasmuch as they did not represent the majority of the counties in the state, they would not elect delegates to the Charleston convention, but pledged the De- i Supra, p. 72. ^Proceedings, Statesman, Nov. 22. ​262 V. C. WOODWARD mocracy of the several counties represented, to a cordial sup- port of the National Democratic nominee. After the withdrawal of the eight counties from the con- vention, a committee of one member from each remaining county, reported the names of Lane, M. P. Deady, and Stout as delegates to the national convention. The committee on resolutions, on which was L. F. Mosher, son-in-law of Lane, reported the following: "Resolved That we recommend to the consideration of the Charleston Convention as a candidate for the office of chief magistrate, our distinguished fellow citi- zen, the Hon. Gen. Joseph Lane, and our delegates are in- structed to use their best efforts to secure his nomination for the office of President or Vice President, and that we pledge the Democracy of the state to support cordially the nominee of the Charleston Convention, whoever he may be." In this man- ner, through resolutions, did Mosher very cleverly get a "unan- imous" declaration for Lane, in the face of the fact that even of the eleven counties which remained after the bolt, Josephine and Clackamas had instructed for Douglas for President; Yamhill for Dickinson and Benton had voted down a Lane resolution. As far as the published proceedings of the various county conventions show, only Lane, Douglas and Jackson had instructed for Lane. The Statesman declared that these "cut- and-dried" instructions for Lane were merely to resuscitate his political popularity and give him some prestige as a candidate for re-election to the Senate. "The Presidential humbug is merely to catch gulls with." 1 The Oregon Weekly Union, anti-Clique organ, thus com- mented on the schism in the Eugene Convention : "A factious minority, heretofore controlling the action of the party, having lost the confidence long reposed in them, failing to coerce the Convention * * * have deliberately withdrawn and propose to form a new organization * * * There can be but one ob- ject in view and that is an Open or Secret Alliance with the Republicans! The whole influence of the Statesman for the i Proceedings, Statesman, Nov. 22. ​POLITICAL PARTIES IN OREGON 263 past year has been on that side." 1 It is noticeable during this period that the Statesman made no attack on Republicanism, devoting its energies to righting the Lane-Stout-Smith faction. The Union on the other hand, was diligent in exposing the dangers of Sewardism and the revolutionary tendency of Re- publicanism. The striking political events of 1860 were thus foreshadowed. i Union, Nov. 19. ​OREGON HISTORY FOR "THE OREGON SYSTEM" y F. G. Young "The Oregon System" is a new and unique organization for the determination of public policy in the affairs of a com- monwealth. It is being more and more freely used, and prom- ises in Oregon to reduce to a minimum the functioning of the historic representative government. The people not only rule but their rule is direct, summary, absolute and affects well- nigh all their public interests. In law-making deference to the specialist, the experienced and the expert is at a low ebb. The supposed virtues of the deliberative assembly with parliament- ary procedure come dangerously near being repudiated alto- gether. This tendency of almost exclusive reliance upon the "system" means immediate and definitive action by popular vote on all matters of commonwealth interest. This direct responsibility assumed by the people for the detailed control of their public affairs involves an ambitious role. The elevation of the voter to the position of law-maker and judge affecting highest matters of state must, in the nature of things, if all is to be well, be paralleled by a cor- responding enlargement of his understanding, enlightenment of his views and ennoblement of his attitude. How is he to be made equal to this new sphere that he has assumed ? Trip-hammer action of public opinion is secured through the initiative, referendum and recall, in the easy and absolute form of their application in Oregon. Vox populi, vox Dei is here adopted as an inherent principle of the eternal order and is being applied without reservation. The situation brings all our social heritage into the crucible, subject to complete trans- formation on any election day. Democracy has thus been made absolute and the machinery for registering its edicts simplified to the last degree. Under such a regime, unless there is a corresponding response in effort and attitude on the part of the individual voter, only inspiration can save from serious, cumulative and consequently fatal blunders. How can ​OREGON HISTORY FOR OREGON SYSTEM 265 the private citizen attain the insight and poise that will insure action for the public good ? The Oregon system stands for the ne plus ultra in popular government. It represents a farthest extreme, and the shift to it came as the sequel to most trying experience with represent- ative government. The selected few, or the controlling ele- ments among them, into whose hands the interests of the masses had been intrusted had regularly played false or were duped. The strong were getting undue privileges, and were escaping their share of the public burdens. No return to normal condi- tions of social justice seemed possible under the old dispensa- tion. Such proficiency in political manipulation, in machine methods and in the arts of demagoguery had been developed by the designing few that in one way or another the people were too frequently served the crusts while the loaf went to the special interests. Under such circumstances the only thing to do was done the people took the management of their collec- tive affairs directly into their own hands. But however fully justified the people were in making this venture, the almost complete renunciation of parliamentary procedure and repre- sentative government by them imposes certain conditions that must be fulfilled if hopes are to be realized. Suppose the rank and file of an army were to presume to march abreast of their captains and to be heard in the councils of their commanders. Would not that be preposterous if the common soldier were not as fully versed in the art of war as his general and had not as large a part in the elaborating of the plan of campaign ? By as much as the art of statesmanship is of a higher order than that of war so much higher order of proficiency does the Oregon system imply to be the possession of the private citizen. Furthermore, the exchange of the system of representative government for pure democracy is made just when the state is sweeping forward into a new era. Its development is becom- ing intense; a more complex economic organization is being assumed and so many constructive readjustments are urgently called for. Vision is needed if the rapidly increasing density of ​266 F. G. YOUNG population is not to develop the social abominations that are the curse of the older communities. While all conditions are thus nascent are the features being incorporated into the new rural community that will make for the best uplift in the life of the boy and girl and the woman and the man on the farm? Are the fixed improvements in the towns, their systems of public utility, affecting the health, comfort and enjoyments of all classes, being planned with foresight and with concern for the highest interests dominant? Eastern states and cities are awakening to the fact that as the result of past heedlessness even herculean labors give but faint and long deferred hopes of ever attaining the ideal. It is true that these woeful sacri- fices of the interests of the masses of this and future generations took place there while representative institutions were in vogue. But a like outcome can be avoided here only as constructive and far-seeing policies are devised and supported. Such are the exigencies in the situation in Oregon that confront the sys- tem. A competent performance of his part by the individual voter involves a high calling. It may be that the disposition of the Oregon people with re- gard to the measure of use to be made of the system of direct legislation has been misinterpreted. Possibly the almost ex- clusive recourse to it, and the slight put upon representative government, were due to the necessity of correcting old abuses and adjusting perverted economic relations resulting from the failings of the former system. Suppose, therefore, that a re- newal of confidence in the procedure of representative govern- ment is to be expected and that the machinery of direct legis- lation is to be held in reserve for the occasions when legisla- tures go amiss, yet the necessity is not removed of the need of fine discernment on the part of the private citizen in judging rightly when these occasions arise and in determining what substitute measures will bring greater and more lasting good to all. Moreover, situations are bound to develop when the in- dividual's interest will clash with that of the community as a whole. Verily, the Oregon system applied even most ​OREGON HISTORY FOR OREGON SYSTEM 267 moderately imposes an arduous duty upon the individual voter. The old order of citizenship no longer suffices. Civic duty was formerly comprehended in that attention to public affairs which insured a wise choice among the several candidates for each public position to be filled. The demands made on civic virtue under the Oregon system are incomparably more rigorous. It calls for a zeal in public service and a de- votion to the common good that insures an understanding of the issues involved in each problem as it arises. Nothing less than a finer loyalty, a livelier patriotism and a higher social intelligence must now prevail if all is to be well. With these alone, if at all, can a people secure that discernment and poise that mean safety and social progress with the complex and tangled affairs of a commonwealth under a pure democracy. Considering the closely limited time and vitality available to the average citizen, after the demands of his personal and essential non-political interests have been met, the political duties he owes under a pure democracy are simply stupendous. It is a matter, therefore, of the utmost importance for Oregon welfare that the best possible conditions be afforded him for the fulfilment of his part faithfully and well. The most effec- tive service to him towards giving him competence for his new role is that which secures for him an intimate and realistic comprehension of our commonwealth life. This will also kindle in him a real and abiding love for Oregon, insuring zeal and loyalty. The key for this consummate grasp of the situation in which he is to be a factor is a knowledge of its course of evolution, of its making, of its essential history. What are the vital elements in the heritage of the Oregon people of today, in natural resources, in ideas, in customs and in institutions ? What also are their handicaps ? What are the vital features in their commonwealth organization and what purposes have actuated its policies? What vision or lack of vision has each generation displayed ? Its history viewed from this standpoint of human and higher interests conserved no doubt discloses much that causes feelings of regret. The lead- ers followed have in many cases misled. The people have now ​268 ' F. G. YOUNG and then been heedless affecting interests of transcendant im- portance. And yet a commonwealth not unlovely was trans- mitted to the present generation. Commonwealths for twentieth century life are not born but are made. They are gradually remolded and renewed through transforming the elements and factors in them coming out of the past. The imaginations of the people prompted by their best impulses and using the best achievements recorded in the history of humanity outline their visions and their ideals. For the realization of these ever-receding millenniums the struggle goes on. The "Oregon System" presupposes that every citizen will be able and will be disposed to ascend to this high plane of thought and action so that he will be a positive factor in effecting change in the right direction. ​DOCUMENT Report on the Territory of Oregon {By Charles Wilkes, Commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 The Wilkes expedition was a world cruise. It was to demon- onstrate the safe sailing- routes and commercial opportunities open to American shipping on the high seas, that is, in those regions which would naturally be covered in passing from the eastern shores of this country, via Cape Horn, around the world. The islands of the Pacific were to be given special attention. In the long list of his instructions we find that he was to "direct course to the Northwest Coast of America, making such surveys and examinations, first of the territory of the United States on the seaboard, and on the Columbia river, and after- wards along the coast of California, with special reference to the Bay of San Francisco, as you can accomplish by the month of October following your arrival." But Lieutenant Wilkes' examination of the Oregon Country was altogether more extended and purposeful than these meagre instructions seemed to call for. The Puget Sound country was given a careful examination; a party was sent east across the mountains ; from Fort Vancouver another party was dispatched overland to California. Immediately following his departure from the Northwest Coast, he sent from Honolulu to the Navy Department, No- vember 24, 1841, a preliminary report on the Oregon Terri- tory, promising a complete statement of what his examination had revealed as soon as he returned to New York. His sense of responsibility in the matter was expressed in his first report as follows : "Having been well aware of the little information in possession of the Government relative to the northern sec- tion of this country [Oregon], including the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with its extensive sounds and inlets, I thought it proper, from its vast importance in the settlement of the boundary ​270 CHARLES WILKES question, though not embraced in my instructions, to devote a large portion of my time to a thorough survey and examina- tion, without, however, overlooking or neglecting any part of that which was distinctly embraced in them." The report given below, made on his return to this coun- try, would probably have been of use to Webster in the nego- tiations leading to the Webster-Ashburton treaty, signed August 9, 1842, had Ashburton's instructions not forestalled all possibility of the settlement of the Oregon boundary ques- tion at that time. The Columbia river was the most favorable line that Lord Ashburton was by his government authorized to offer. During the following session of Congress Pendleton in the House and Linn in the Senate introduced resolutions request- ing this report from the Secretary of the Navy. The Pendle- ton resolution was passed, but the action was rescinded after a few days ; Linn's was on his own motion on January 5, 1843, laid on the table. The reluctance of the administration to make this report of Wilkes public in January, 1843, was due probab- ly in part to the earnest plea in it that none of the 'Oregon country south of 54-40' should be relinquished by the United States ; the plan of military occupation of the region which Wilkes outlined and urged action on was no doubt the main cause for withholding the report. The measure of influence that the publication of this report early in 1843 would have had will be appreciated when it is remembered that Linn's bill passed the Senate on February 3, 1843, and that nearly a thousand pioneers were just then pre- paring to rendezvous at Westport, Missouri, for migration to Oregon. The text of the document was taken from the Congressional Record of July 15, 1911. Hon. Thomas W. Prosch of Seattle had secured a copy from the archives of the Navy Depart- ment, and had prevailed upon Representative William E. Humphrey of Washington to secure the publication of it as an extension of his "remarks in the Record." Through the kind- ness of Mr. Prosch the editor of the Quarterly was furnished with the copy. ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 271 U. S. S. Vincennes, New York, June, 1842. Sir : I have the honor to inclose herewith a report upon the Territory of Oregon, together with the maps referred to there- in. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES WILKES, Commander of Exploring Expedition. To the Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy, Washington. OREGON TERRITORY. The Territory embraced under the name of Oregon, and rep- resented on the accompanying map, extends from latitude 42 north to that of 54 40' north and west of the Rocky Moun- tains. Its natural boundaries, were they attended to, would confine it within the above geographical limits. On the east it has the range of Rocky Mountains along its whole extent ; on the south those of the Klamet Range running on the parallel of 42 and dividing it from upper California; on the west the Pacific Ocean ; and on the north the western trend of the Rocky Moun- tains and the chain of lakes near and along the parallels of 54 and 55' north dividing it from the British Territory, and it is remarkable that within these limits all the rivers that flow through the Territory take their rise. The Territory is divided into three natural belts or sections, viz: First. That between the Pacific Ocean and Cascade Moun- tains, or western section. Second. That between the Cascade Mountains and the Blue Mountain Range, or middle section. Third. That between the Blue and Rocky Mountain chains, or eastern section, and this division will equally apply to the soil, climate, and productions. ​272 CHARLES WILKES The mountain ranges run for the most part in parallel lines with the coast, and rising in many places above the snow line (here found to be 6,500 feet) would naturally produce a dif- ference of temperatures between them and also affect their productions. Our surveys and explorations were confined for the most part to the two first, claiming more interest, being less known and more in accordance with my instructions. MOUNTAINS. The Cascade Range, or that nearest the coast, runs from the southern boundary on a parallel with the seacoast the whole length of the Territory, north and south, rising in many places in high peaks from 12,000 to 14,000 feet above the level of the sea in regular cones. Their distance from the coast line is from 100 to 150 miles, and they almost interrupt the communi- cation between the sections except where the two great rivers, the Columbia and Eraser, force a passage through them. There are a few mountain passes, but they are difficult and only to be attempted late in the spring and in the summer. A smaller range (the Classet) lies to the north of the Colum- bia between the coast and the waters of Puget Sound and along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This has several high peaks which rise above the snow line, but from their proximity to the sea they are not at all times covered. Their general direction is north and south, but there are many spurs or offsets that cause this portion to be very rugged. The Blue Mountains are irregular in their course and occa- sionally interrupted, but generally trend from north by east to northeast and from south to southwest. In some parts they may be traced as spurs or offsets of the Rocky Mountains. Near the southern boundary they unite with the Klamet Range, which runs east and west from the Rocky Mountains. The Rocky Mountains are too well known to need descrip- tion. The different passes will, however, claim attention here​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 273 after. North of 48 the ranges are nearly parallel and have the rivers flowing between them. ISLANDS. Attached to the territory are groups of islands bordering its northern coast. Among these are the large islands of Vancou- ver and Washington or Queen Charlotte, the former being 260 miles in length and 50 in breadth, containing about 15,000 square miles, and the latter 150 miles in length and 30 in breadth, containing 4,000 square miles. Though somewhat broken in surface their soil is said to be well adapted to agri- culture. They have many good harbors, and have long been the resort of those engaged in the fur trade. They enjoy a mild and salu- brious climate, and have an abundance of fine fish frequenting their waters, which are taken in large quantities by the natives. Coal of good quantity is found here, specimens of which I obtained. The Hudson Bay Co. have made a trial of it, but owing to its having been taken from near the surface it was not very highly spoken of. Mines of mineral are also said to exist by those acquainted. They both appear to be more densely inhabited than other portions of the territory. The natives are considered a treach- erous race, particularly those in the vicinity of Johnstons Strait, and are to be closely watched when dealing with them. At the southeast end of Vancouver there is a small archi- pelago of islands through which the Canal de Arro runs ; they are for the most part inhabited, well wooded, and composed of granite and pudding stone, which appears to be the prevailing rock to the north of a line east and west of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. They are generally destitute of fresh water, have but few anchorages, and strong currents render navigation among them difficult. The islands near the mainland, called on the maps Pitts and Banks, or the Prince Royal Islands, are of the same character and are only occasionally resorted to by the Indians for the purposes of fishing. ​274 CHARLES WILKES The coast of the mainland north of the parallel of 49 is broken up by numerous inlets, called canals, having perpendicu- lar sides and very deep water in them, affording no harbors and but few commercial inducements to frequent. The land is equally cut up by spurs from the Cascade Range, which here intersects the country in all directions, and pre- vents its adaptation to agriculture. Its value is principally in its timber, and it is believed that few, if any, countries can compare with it in this respect. There is no point on the coast where a settlement could be formed between Erasers River or 49 north and the northern boundary of 54 40' north that would be able to supply its own wants. The Hudson Bay Co. have two posts within this section of the country, Fort McLaughlin in Mill Bank Sound, in latitude 52 10' north, and Fort Simpson, in latitude 54 30' north, within Dundas Island, and at the entrance of Chatham Sound, but they are solely posts for the fur trade of the coast, and are supplied twice a year with provisions, and so forth. It is believed that the company has yet no establishment on any of the islands, but I understood it was in contemplation to make one on Vancouver Island in the vicinity of Nootka Sound or that of Clayoquot. Owing to the dense fogs the coast is extremely dangerous, and they render it at all times difficult to approach and navigate upon. The interior of this portion of the territory is traversed by these ranges of mountains, with the several rivers which take their rise in them, and is probably unequaled for its rugged- ness, and from all accounts incapable of anything like cultiva- tion. The Columbia in its trend to the westward under the parallel of 48 cuts off the central or Blue Mountain Range, which is not again met with until on the parallel of 45. From 45 they trend away to the south and afterwards to the south and west until they fall into the Klamet Range. They are partially wooded. ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 275 RIVERS. The Columbia claims the first notice. Its northern branch takes its rise in the Rocky Mountains in latitude 50 north longitude 116 west; from thence it pursues a northern route to near McGillivary's Pass through the Rocky Mountains. At the boat encampment it is 2,300 feet above the level of the sea, where it receives two small tributaries the Canoe River and that from the Committee's Punch Bowl; from thence it turns south, having some obstruction through its safe navigation, and receiving many tributaries in its course to Colville, among which are the Kootanie, or Flat Bow, and the Flat Head, or Clarke River, from the east, and that of Colville from the west. It is bounded in all its course by a range of high mountains, well wooded, and in places expands into a line of lakes before it reaches Colville, where it is 2,200 feet above the level of the sea, having a fall of a little over 100 feet in 220 miles. To the south of this it trends to the west, receiving the Spokane River from the east, which is not navigable, and takes its rise in the Lake of Coeur d'Alene. Thence it pursues a westerly course for about 60 miles, receiving several smaller streams, and at its bend to the south it is joined by the Okano- gan, a river that has its source in a line of lakes, affording canoe and boat navigation of considerable extent to the north. The Columbia thence passes to the south until it reaches Walla Walla, or the latitude of 45, a distance of 160 miles, receiving the Piscous, Yakima and Point de Bois, or Entiyate- combe, from the west, which take their rise in the Cascade Range; and also its great southeastern branch, the Saptin, or Lewis, which has its source in the Rocky Mountains near our southern boundary, and brings a large quantity of water to increase its volume. The Lewis is not navigable even for canoes, except in reaches. The rapids are extensive and of frequent occurrence, it general- ly passing between the Rocky Mountain spurs and the Blue Mountains. ​276 CHARLES WILKES It receives the Kooscooske, Salmon, and several other rivers from the east and west, the former from the Rocky Mountains, the latter from the Blue Mountains, and were it navigable would much facilitate the intercourse with this part of the country. Its length to its junction with the Columbia is 520 miles. The Columbia at Walla Walla is 1,286 feet above the level of the sea and about 3,500 feet wide; it now takes its last turn to the westward, receiving the Urnatilla, Quisnels, John Days, and Shutes Rivers from the south and Cathlatses from the north, and pursuing its rapid course for 80 miles previous to passing through the range of Cascade Mountains in a series of falls and rapids that obstruct its flow and form insurmountable barriers to the passage of boats by water during the flood; these difficulties are, however, overcome by portages. From thence is had still-water navigation for 40 miles, where its course is again obstructed by rapids; then to the ocean, 120 miles, it is navigable for vessels of 12 feet draft of water at the lowest state of the river, though obstructed by many sand bars. In this part it receives the Willamette from the south and the Cowlitz from the north. The former is navigable to the mouth of the Klackamus 20 miles, 3 miles below its falls, for small boats ; the latter can not be called navigable except for a small part of the year during the flood, and then only for canoes and barges. The width of the Columbia within 20 miles of its mouth is much increased, and it joins the ocean between Cape Disap- pointment and Point Adams, forming a sand spit from such by deposit and causing a dangerous bar, which greatly impedes its navigation and entrance. Fraser River, next claims attention. It takes its rise in the Rocky Mountains near the source of Canoe River, taking a westerly course of 80 miles. It then turns to the south, re- ceiving the waters of Stuarts River, which rises in a chain of lakes near the northern boundary of the Territory. ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 277 It then pursues a southerly course, receiving the waters of the Chilcouten, Pinkslitsa, and several small streams from the west, and those of Thompsons River, Quisnels, and other streams from the east (these take their rise in lakes, and a few may be navigated in canoes by making portages), and under the parallel of 49 it breaks through the Cascade Range in a succession of falls and rapids, and after a westerly course of 70 miles it empties into the Gulf of Georgia in the latitude of 49 07' north. This latter portion is navigable for vessels that can pass its bar drawing 12 feet of water; its whole length being 350 miles. The Chikeeles is next in importance. It has three sources among the range of hills that intersect the country north of the Columbia River. After a very tortuous course and receiving some smaller streams issuing from the lakes in the high ground near the headwaters of Hoods Canal and Puget Sound, it dis- embogues in Grays Harbor. It is not navigable except for canoes ; its current is rapid and the stream much obstructed. To the south of Columbia there are many small streams, but three of which deserve the name of rivers, the Umpqua, Too- too-tut-na (or Roque River), and the Klamet, which latter empties into the ocean south of the paralled of 42. None of these form harbors capable of receiving a vessel of more than 8 feet draft of water, and the bars for the most part of the year are impassable from the surf that sets in on the coast. The character of the great rivers is peculiar, rapid and sunken much below the level of the country, with perpendicular banks; indeed, they are, as it were, in trenches, it being ex- tremely difficult to get at the water in many places owing to the steep basaltic walls, and during their rise they are in places confined by walls, which back the water some distance, sub- merging islands and tracts of low prairie, having the appear- ance of extensive lakes. LAKES. There are in the various sections of the country many large and small lakes. The largest of these are the Okanogan Chain, ​278 CHARLES WILKES Stuarts, Quisnells, and Kamloops in the northern section ; the Flat Bow, Coeur d'Alene, and Kallushelm in the middle sec- tion; and those forming the headwaters of the large rivers in the eastern section. The country is well watered, and there are but two places where an abundance, either from rivers, springs, or rivulets, can not be obtained. The smaller lakes add much to the picturesque beauty of the country. They are generally at the headwaters of the smaller streams. The map will point out more particularly their ex- tent and locality. HARBORS. All the harbors formed by the rivers on the seacoast are ob- structed with extensive sand bars, which make them difficult to enter, and they are continually changing. The rivers bring down large quantities of sand, which on meeting with the ocean is deposited, causing a gradual increase of the impediment which already exists at their mouths. None of them can be deemed safe ports to enter. The entrance to the Columbia is impracticable two-thirds of the year, and the difficulty of leaving equally great. The north sands are rapidly increasing and extending farther to the south. In the memory of several of those who have been longest in the country, the cape has been encroached upon some hundred feet by the sea and the north sand much extended to the south, and during my short experience nearly half an acre of the middle sand was washed away in the course of a few days. These are known to change every season. The exploration of the Clatsop, or south channel, it is be- lieved, will afford more safety to vessels capable of enter- ing the river. The depth of water on the bar seems not to have changed, though the passage has become somewhat narrower. Grays Harbor will admit of vessels of light draft of water (10 feet), but there is but little room in it on account of the ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 279 extensive mud and sand flats. A survey was made of it, to which I refer for particulars. This, however, is not the case with the harbors found within the Strait of Juan de Fuca, of which there are many, and no part of the word affords finer inland sounds or a greater number of harbors than can be found here capable of receiving the largest class of ships, and without a danger to them that is not visible. From the rise and fall of the tide (18 feet all) facili- ties are afforded for the erection of work for a great maritime nation. For further information our extensive surveys of these waters are referred to. CLIMATE. That of the western section is mild throughout the year, neither experiencing the cold of winter nor the heat of summer. By my observations the mean temperature was found to be 54 F. The prevailing winds in the summer are from northwest, and in the winter from southwest and southeast, which are tem- pestuous. The winter is supposed to last from December to February ; the rains usually begin to fall in November and last until March, but they are not heavy though frequent. Snow some- times falls, but it seldom lays over three days. The frosts are early, occurring in the latter part of August ; this, however, is to be accounted for by the proximity of the mountains. A mountain or easterly wind invariably causes a great fall in the temperature. These winds are not frequent. During the summer of our operations I find but three days noted of easerly winds having occurred. The nights are cold and affect the vegetation so far that corn will not ripen. Fruit trees blossom early in April at Nisqually and Van- couver, and at the former on the 12th of May peas were a foot high and strawberries were in full bloom, and salad had al- ready gone to seed 3 feet high. ​280 CHARLES WILKES The mean height of the barometer during our stay at Nis- qually was 30.046 inches, and of the thermometer 66 58' F. The greatest heat was 98 F. at 2 p. m. July 4, and at 4 a. m. of the same day it was 50 F. The lowest degree was 39 at 4am. May 22, and at 5 p. m. of the same day the temperature was 72 F. From June to September at Vancouver the mean height of the barometer was 30.32 inches and of the thermometer 66 33' F. Out of 160 days 96 were fair, 19 cloudy, and 11 rainy. The rains are light. This is evident from the hills not being washed, but having a sward to their top although at great declivity. The second or middle section is subject to droughts; during the summer the atmosphere is much dryer and warmer, and the winter much colder than in the western section. Its extremes of heat and cold are more frequent and greater, the mercury at times falling as low as 18 F. in the winter and rising to 108 F. in the shade in the summer, and a daily difference of temperature of about 40 F. It has been, however, found ex- tremely salubrious, possessing a pure and healthy air. The stations of the missionaries and posts of the Hudson Bay Co. have afforded me the means of obtaining information rela- tive to the climate; although they have not kept full data, yet their observations afford a tolerably good knowledge of the weather. In summer it is cooled by the strong westerly breezes to re- place the vacuum produced by the heated prairie grounds. No dew falls in this section. The climate of the third or easterly section is extremely variable ; the temperature during the day, ranging from 50 to 60, renders it unfit for agriculture, and there are but few places in its northern part where the climate would not effect- ually put a stop to its ever becoming settled. In each day, from the best account, one has all the changes incident to spring, summer, autumn, and winter. There are places where small farms might be located, but they are few in number. ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY SOIL. 281 That of the first, or western, section varies in the northern part from a light-brown loam to a thin vegetable earth, with gravel and sand as the subsoil ; in the middle parts, from a rich, heavy loam and unctuous clay to a deep, heavy black loam on a trap rock ; and in the southern the soil is generally good, ranging from a black vegetable loam to decomposed basalt, with stiff clay and portions of loose, gravelly soil. The hills are generally basalt, sandstone, and slate. Between the Umpqua and the boundary the rocks are primi- tive, consisting of talcose, hornblende, and granite, and produce a gritty and poor soil. There are, however, some portions with rich prairies covered with oaks. The soil of the second, or middle, section is for the most part a light, sandy loam, in the valleys rich alluvial, and the hills are generally barren. The third, or eastern, section is a rocky, broken, and barren country, stupendous mountain spurs in all directions, and ar- fording little level ground, with snow lying on the mountains nearly, if not quite, the whole year through. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS, ETC. The first section, for the most part, is a well-timbered coun- try. It is intersected with the spurs or offsets from the Cascade Mountains, which render its surface much broken up ; these are covered with a dense forest. It is well watered, and com- munication between the northern, southern, and middle parts is difficult on account of the various rivers, spurs of mountains, and so forth. The timber consists of pines, firs, spruce, oaks (red and white), ash, arbutus, arbor vitse, cedar, poplar, maple, willow, cherry, and yew, with a close undergrowth of hazel, rubus, roses, and so forth. The richest and best soil is found on the. second, or middle, prairie, and is best adapted for agriculture, the high and low being excellent for pasture land. ​282 CHARLES WILKES The line of woods runs on the east side and near the foot of the Cascade Range. The climate and soil are admirably adapted for all kinds of grain wheat, rye, oats, barley, peas, and so forth. Corn does not thrive in any part of this territory where it has been tried. Many fruits appear to succeed well, particularly the apple and pear. Vegetables thrive exceedingly well and yield most abund- antly. The surface of the middle section is about 1,000 feet above the level of the lower or western section, and is generally a rolling prairie country. That lying to the north of the parallel of 48 is very much broken, with mountain chains and rivers ; consequently barren and very rugged. From the great and fre- quent changes in its temperature it is totally unfitted for agri- culture, but is well filled with game of all kinds that are found in the country. The mountain chains on the parallel of 48 are cut off by the Columbia, as before stated, leaving an extensive rolling country in the center of the territory, which is well adapted for grazing. The southern part of this section is destitute of timber or wood, unless the worm wood, Artimesia, may be so called. To the north of the paralled of 49 it is covered with forests. Wheat and other grains grow well in the bottoms where they can be irrigated. The soil in such places is rich and capable of producing most anything. The missionaries have succeeded in getting good crops. Stock succeeds here even better than in the lower country, and, not- withstanding the severe cold, their cattle are not housed, nor is provender laid in for them, the country being sufficiently supplied with fodder in the natural hay that is abundant every- where on the prairie, and is preferred by the cattle to the fresh grass of the bottoms. No attempts at agriculture have been made in this section ex- cept at Fort Hall. The small grains thrive tolerably well, to​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 283 gather with vegetables, and a sufficient quantity has been ob- tained to supply the wants of the post. The ground is well adapted for grazing in the prairies, and, despite its changeable climate, stock is found to thrive well and endure the severity of the winters without protection. This section is exceedingly dry and arid, rains seldom falling and but little snow. The country is partially timbered and the soil much impregnated with salts. The missionary station on the Kooscooske, near the western line of this section, is thought by the missionaries to be a wet climate. The soil along the river bottoms is generally alluvial, and would yield good crops were it not for the overflowings of the river, which check and kill the grain. Some of the finest por- tions of the land are thus unfitted for cultivation; they are generally covered with water before the banks are overflown in consequence of the quicksands that exist in them and through which the water percolates. The rivers of this territory afford no fertilizing properties to the soil, but, on the contrary, are destitute of all substances, being perfectly clear and cold. The temperature of the Colum- bia in the latter part of May was 42 and in September 68. The rise of the streams from the Cascade Mountains usually takes place twice a year in February and November from the rains ; that of the Columbia in May and June from the melting of the snows. Sometimes it is very sudden, if heavy rains occur at that period, but usually it is gradual in reaching its greatest height about the 6th to the 15th of June. Its perpendicular rise is from 18 to 20 feet at Vancouver, where a line of embankment has been throw up to protect the lower prairie, but it has been gradually flooded, although the water has not risen within a few feet of its top, and has in most cases destroyed the crops; it is the intention to abandon its cultivation and devote it to pasturage. The greatest rise in the Willamette takes place in February, and I was informated that it rose sometimes 20 to 25 feet, and quite suddenly in some places, but soon subsides. It occasion- ally causes much damage. Both the Willamette and Cowlitz ​284 tHARLES WlLKES in their lower sections are much swollen by the backing of their waters during the height of the Columbia and all their lower ground submerged. This puts an effectual bar to their being used for anything but pasturage, which is fine through- out the year, and used excepting in the season of the floods, when the cattle are driven to the high grounds. My knowledge of the agriculture of this territory, it will be well to mention, is derived from visits being made to the various settlements, except Fort Langley and Fort Hall. That of the Indians on the different islands in Puget Sound and the Admiralty Inlet consists of potatoes principally, which are ex- tremely fine and raised in great abundance, and now constitute a large portion of their food. At Nisqually the Hudson Bay Co. had fine crops of wheat, oats, peas, potatoes, and so forth. The wheat, it was supposed, would yield 15 bushels to the acre. The farm has been two years under cultivation, and is principally intended for a graz- ing farm and dairy. They have now 70 milch cows, and make butter, and so forth, to supply their contract with the Russians. The Cowlitz farm is also in the western section; the pro- duction of wheat is good, about 20 bushels to the acre; the ground, however, has just been brought under cultivation. They have here 600 acres, which are situated on the Cowlitz River, about 30 miles from the Columbia. The company is about to erect a saw and grist mill. This farm is finely situ- ated, and the harvest of 1841 produced 7,000 bushels of wheat. Several Canadians are also established here, who told me that they succeeded well with but little work. They have erected buildings, live comfortably, and work small farms of 50 acres. I was told that the stock on this farm does not thrive so well as elsewhere. There are no low prairie grounds on that side of the river in the vicinity, and it is too far for them to resort to the Kamass plains, a fine grazing country a few miles distant, where the wolves would make sad depredations with the increase if not well watched. The hilly portions of the country, although the soil in many parts is very good, yet it is so heavily timbered as to make it ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 285 in the present state of the country valueless. This is also the case with many fine portions of level grounds, but there are large tracts of fine prairie suitable for cultivation and ready for the plow. The Willamette Valley is supposed to be the finest portion of the country, though I am of opinion that many portions of it will be found far superior in the southern part of it. It is the largest settlement and is included within a distance of some 15 miles in the northern part of the valley. About 60 families are settled there, the industrious of whom appear to be thriv- ing. They are composed of American missionaries and the trap- pers and Canadians who were formerly servants of the Hudson Bay Co. All of them appear to be in good condition, but I was, on the whole, disappointed from the reports that had been made to me, not to find it in a state of greater forwardness, consid- ering the advantages the missionaries have had. In comparison with our own country, I should say that the labor required in this Territory for subsistence and to acquire wealth is%i the proportion of one to three, or, in other words, a man must work through the year three times as long in the United States to gain the like compensation. All the care of stock which occupies so much time with us requires no atten- tion here, and on their rapid increase he would alone support himself. The wheat of this valley yields 35 to 40 bushels for one sown, or 20 to 30 bushels to the acre, its quality is superior to that grown in the United States, and its weight near 4 pounds to the bushel heavier. The above is the yield of new land, but it is believed that it will greatly exceed this after the third crop, when the land has been broken up and well tilled. After passing into the middle section the climate undergoes a decided change ; in place of the cool and moist atmosphere, one that is dry and arid is entered, and the crops suffer from drought. The only wood or bush seen is the wormwood (Arti- mesia), and this only in the neighborhood of the streams. All cultivation has to be more or less carried on by irrigation. ​286 CHARLES WILKES The country bordering the Columbia above the hills to the north and south, is the poorest in the Territory, and has no doubt lead many to look upon the middle section as perfectly useless to man. Twenty or 30 miles on either side of the river is so, but beyond that a fine grazing country exists, and in very many places there are portions of it that might be advantag- eously farmed. On the banks of the Walla Walla, a small stream running into the Columbia, about 25 miles from the company's post, a missionary is established, who raises very fine wheat on its low bottoms and is enabled to use its waters for the purpose of irrigation. This is also the case at the mission establishment at Lapwai, on the Kooscooske, where fine crops are raised ; grains and vegetables thrive remarkably well, and some fruits are raised. In the northern part of this section, at Chimekaine, there is another missionary station near the Spokane, and at Colville the country is well adapted for agriculture, and it is successful- ly carried on. Colville supplies all the northern posts., and the missionaries are doing well. The northern part of this section will be able to supply the whole with wood. Here also the changes of tem- perature are great during the 24 hours, but are not injurious to the small grain. The cultivation of fruits has not been suc- cessful. T'f'^ FISHERIES. It will be almost impossible to give an idea of the extensive fisheries in the rivers and on the coast; they all abound in salmon of the finest flavor, which run twice a year, from May until October, and appear inexhaustible; the whole population live upon them. The Columbia produces the finest and probably affords the greatest numbers. There are some few of the branches of the Columbia that the spring fish do not enter, but they are plenti- fully supplied in the fall. ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 287 The great fishery of the Columbia is at The Dalles, but all the rivers are well supplied; the last one on the northern branch of the Columbia is near Colville, at the Kettle Falls, but they are found above this in the river and its tributaries. In Fraser River they are said to be very numerous, but not so large ; they are unable to get above the falls, some 80 miles from the sea. In the rivers and sounds are found several kinds of salmon, salmon trout, sturgeon, cod, carp, sole, flounders, ray, perch, herring, lamprey eels, and a kind of smelt called sprow in great abundance; also large quantities of shellfish, viz, crabs, clams, oysters, mussels, and so forth, which are all used by the natives and constitute the greater proportion of their food. Whales in numbers are found along the coast, and are fre- quently captured by the Indians in and at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. GAME. Abundance of game exists, such as elk, deer, antelopes, bears, wolves, foxes, muskrats, martins, beavers, a few grizzly bears, and sifflines, a kind of rat which are eaten by the Canadians. In the middle section, or that designated as the rolling prairie, no game is found. In the eastern section the buffalo is met with. The fur-bearing animals are decreasing in number yearly, particularly south of the parallel of 48. Indeed it is very doubtful whether they are sufficiently numerous to return the expenses of hunting them. The Hudson Bay Co. have almost the exclusive monopoly on this business. They have decreased owing to being hunted without regard to season. This is not, however, the case to the north ; there the company have been left to exercise their own rule and prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of the old and young and out of the proper season. In the spring and fall the rivers are literally covered with geese, ducks, and so forth. ​288 CHARLES WILKES In the eastern section the buffalo abound and are hunted by the Oregon Indians, as well as the Blackfeet. Wolves are troublesome to the settlers, but they are not so numerous as formerly. From the advantages this country possesses it bids fair to have an extensive commerce on advantageous terms with most parts of the Pacific. It is well calculated to produce the following, which certainly in a few years after its settlement would become its staples, viz, furs, salted beef and pork, fish, grain, flour, wool, hides, tallow, lumber and perhaps coal. A ready market for all these is now to be found in the Pacific and in return for them sugars, coffee, and other tropical productions may be had at the Sand- wich Islands advantages that few new countries possess, viz, the facilities of a market and one that in time must become of immense extent. MANUFACTURING POWER. This country, it is believed, affords as many sites for water power as any other, and in many places within reach of its navi- gable waters. The timber of the western section to the south of 49 is not so good as that of the north; this is imputed to the climate being milder and more changeable. A great difference is found between the north and south sides of the trees, the one being a hard and close grain, while the other is open and spongy. To the north of the parallel of 49, on Frazer River, an abundance of fine timber for spars of any dimensions is easily obtained. There will always be a demand for the timber of this coun- try at high prices throughout the Pacific. The oak is well adapted for ship timber, and abundance of ash, cedar, cypress, and arbor-vitse may be had for fuel, fencing, etc. ; and although the southern part of the middle section is destitute of timber it may be supplied from the eastern and northern parts by water carriage.

​Intercommunication would at first appear to be difficult between the different parts of the country, but I take a different view of it. Stocks of all kinds thrive exceedingly well, and they will in consequence always abound in the Territory. The soil affords every advantage for the making of good roads, and in process of time transportation must be comparatively cheap.

They consist principally of those belonging to the Hudson Bay Co., and where the missionaries have established themselves. They are as follows: In the western section Fort Simpson, Fort McLaughlin, Fort Langley, Nisqually, Cowlitz, Fort George, Vancouver, and Umpqua; Fort St. James, Barbine, Alexandria, Chilcouten, Kamloops (on Thompson River), Okanogan, Colville, and Walla Walla in the middle; and in the eastern Kootenai and Fort Hall. Fort Boise has been abandoned, as has also Kaima, a missionary settlement on the Kooscooske.

These are all small settlements, consisting of a palisade or picket with bastions at their corners around the houses and stores of the company, sufficient to protect them against the Indians, but in no way to be considered as forts. A few Indians have lodges near them who are dependent on the fort for their food and employment.

These forts, being situated for the most part near the great fisheries, are frequented by the Indians, who bring their furs to trade for blankets, and so forth, at the same time they come to lay in their yearly supply of salmon. Vancouver is the principal depot from which all supplies are furnished and returns made. At Vancouver the village is separated from the fort and near the river. In addition to its being the depot of the Hudson Bay Co., there is now attached to it the largest farm of the Puget Sound Co., the stockholders in which are generally the officers and servants of the Hudson Bay Co. They have now farms in successful operation at Vancouver, Cowlitz, Nisqually, Colville, Fort Langley, and the Fualtine ​[Tualatin] Plains, about 10 miles from Vancouver, all of which are well stocked. They supply the Russian post at Sitka, under contract, with the variety of articles raised on them.

They have introduced large herds and flocks into the Territory from California, and during our stay there several thousands were imported. In this they are doing incalculable good to the Territory and rendering it more valuable to the future settlers; at the same time it exerts an influence in domesticating the Indians, not only by changing their habits, but food, and attaching them to a locality.

The Indians of this Territory are not a wandering race, as some have asserted, but change for food only, and each successive season will generally find them in their old haunts seeking it.

The settlements established by the missionaries are at the Willamette Falls and Valley; at Nisqually and Clatsop in the western section, and at The Dalles, Walla Walla, Lapwai, and Chimekaine on the Spokane in the middle.

Those of the middle section are succeeding well, and, although little progress has been made in the conversion of Indians to Christianity, yet they have done much good in reforming some of their vices and teaching them some of the useful arts, particularly that of agriculture, which has had the effect, in a measure, to attach them to the soil, construct better houses, exchanging their corn, and so forth, with those who hunt, for Buffalo meat.

The men now rear and tend their cattle, plant their corn and potatoes, and the squaws attend to their household and employ themselves in knitting and weaving, which they have been taught.

They raise on their small patches corn, potatoes, melons, and so forth, irrigating the land for that purpose. There are many villages of Indians still existing, though greatly reduced in number from former estimates. ​

It is extremely difficult to ascertain with accuracy the amount of population in the Territory, particularly of Indians, who change to their different abodes as the fishing seasons come around, and if [this fact were] not attended to would produce very erroneous results.

The following is believed to be very nearly the truth. If anything, it is overrated:

Vancouver and Washington Islands 5,000 From the parallel of 50 to 54 40' north 2,000 Penns Cove, Whidbeys Island, and mainland opposite (Scatchat) 650 Hoods Canal (Suquamish and Toando) 500 At and about Okanogan 300 About Colville, Spokane, etc 450 Willamette Falls and Valley 275 Pillar Rock, Oak Point, and Col. R 300 Clallams: Port Discovery 150 Port Townsend 70 New Dungeness 200 Walla Walla, including the Nezperces, Snakes, etc 1,100 Killamouks, north of Umpqua 400 Closset tribe: Cape Flattery, Quiniault, to Point Grenville 1,250 Blackfeet tribes that make excursions west of the Rocky Mountains 1,000 Birch Bay 300 Frazers River 500 Chenooks 209 Clatsops , 220 At the Cascades 150 At The Dalles 250 Yakima River 100 Shutes River 125 Umpquas 400 Rogue River 500 Klamets . 300 Shastys 500 Kalapuyas 600 Nisqually 200 Chikeeles and Puget Sound 700 Cowlitz Klackatacs 350 Port Orchard Suquamish 150 Total 19,204

The whole Oregon territory may be estimated as containing 20,000. Of whites, Canadians, and half-breeds there are between 700 and 800, of whom about 150 are Americans; the rest are settlers and the officers and servants of the company.

​The Indians are rapidly decreasing in all parts of the country. The causes are supposed to be their rude treatment of diseases and the dissipated lives they lead.

The white American population, as far as I have been able to judge of them, are orderly, and some industrious, although they are, with the exception of the missionaries, men who have led for the most part dissolute lives.

The absence of spirits as long as it continues will probably secure them from other excesses. Very much to their credit, they have abandoned the use of spirituous liquors by consent of the whole community. I can not but view this territory as peculiarly liable to the vice of drunkenness. The ease with which the wants of man are obtained, the little labor required, and consequent opportunities of idleness will render it so. The settlers of the Willamette Valley have with a praiseworthy spirit engaged to prevent the establishment of distilleries, and there are yet no places where spirits can be bought, to my knowledge, in the territory.

It is highly creditable to the H. B. Co. that on a vessel arriving on the coast with spirits on board, in order to prevent its introduction they have purchased the whole, while at the same time their storehouses were filled with it. They have with praiseworthy zeal interdicted its being an article of trade, being well satisfied that it is contrary to their interests and demoralizing in its effects on all the tribes and people with whom they have to deal, rendering them difficult to manage, quarrelsome among themselves, and preventing their success in hunting.

Endeavors have likewise been made by the officers of the company to induce the Russians, on their side, to adopt their example and do away with it as an article of trade, but hitherto without success.

It no doubt has been one of the causes effecting the decrease of the native tribes, as it was formerly almost the only article of trade.

In the event of this territory being taken possession of, the necessity of circumscribing the use and sale of spirits can not ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 293 be too strongly insisted upon by legal enactment, both to pre- serve order and avoid expense. As far as the Indians have come under my notice, they are an inoffensive race, except perhaps those in the northern part ; but the depredations committed on the whites may be traced to injuries received or from superstitious motives. MISSIONARIES. Little has yet been effected by them in Christianizing the natives. They are principally engaged in the cultivation of the mission farms and in the care of their own stock, in order to obtain flocks and herds for themselves, most of them having selected lands. As far as my personal observation went, in the part of the country where the missionaries reside there are very few Indians, and they seem more occupied with the settlement of the country and in agricultural pursuits than missionary labors. When there, I made particular inquiries whether laws were necessary for their protection, and I feel fully satisfied that they require none at present. Besides the moral code it is their duty to inculcate, the Catholic portion of the settlement, who form a large majority of the inhabitants, are kept under con- trol by their priest, who is supposed to act in unison with the others in the proper punishment of all bad conduct. The boundary will next claim my attention. In a former report to the honorable Secretary of the Navy I stated that the boundary formerly proposed, viz, that of the 49 latitude, ought not to be adopted, and the following are my reasons for it, viz: First. That it affects the value of all that portion of the middle and eastern sections south of that parallel. Second. That it places the whole territory south of that parallel completely under the control and at the mercy of the nation who may possess the northern by giving the command of all the water and a free access into the heart of the terri- tory at any moment. ​294 CHARLES WILKES Third. Giving up what must become one of the great high- ways into the interior of the territory altogether, viz, Erasers River. Fourth. And also, to all intents and purposes, possession of the fine island of Vancouver, thereby surrendering an equal right to navigate the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and by its possession the whole command of the northern waters. Fifth. Giving rise to endless disputes and difficulties after the location of the boundary and in the execution of the laws after it is settled. Sixth. Affording and converting a portion of the territory which belongs to us into a resort and depot for a set of ma- rauders and their goods, who may be employed at any time in acting against the laws and to the great detriment of the peace not only of this territory but of our Western States by exciting and supplying the Indians on our borders. The boundary line on the 49 parallel would throw Frasers River without our territory, cut off and leave seven-eighths of the fine island of Vancouver in their possession, together with all the harbors, including those of Nootka, Clayoquot, and Niti- nat, which afford everything that could be desired as safe and good ports for naval establishment. They would not only com- mand the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the inlets and sounds leading from it, but place the whole at any moment under their control by enabling them to reach and penetrate to the heart of the territory with a comparatively small force and destroy it and lay it waste. The whole middle and part of the eastern section would be cut off from their supplies of timber by losing its northern part, from which it can only be supplied with an article of the first necessity both for fuel and building, rendering it dependent on a foreign state. We should also give up what may be considered a store- house of wealth in its forests, furs, and fisheries, containing an inexhaustible supply of the first and last of the best quality. Endless difficulties would be created in settling the boun- dary, for Great Britain must or does know that the outlet ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 295 from Frasers River by way of Johnstons Strait, between Van- couvers Island and the mainland, is not only difficult but dan- gerous to navigate from the rapidity of the currents and can not be made use of. She will, therefore, probably urge her claim to the southern line, say, the Columbia, as the boundary which they are desirous of holding, and are now doing all in their power to secure its permanent settlement through the Hudson Bay Co., and extending the laws by which she governs the Canadas over her own citizens settled in the territory ; and by the delays of our Government hope to obtain such a foot- hold as will make it impossible to set aside their sovereignty in it. This, as far as I was enabled to perceive, is evidently their intention, being extremely desirous to appear as the larger claimants of the territory and to assert their right to the soil to the north of the Columbia River. This boundary would subject the island of Vancouver to two sovereignties and, of course, their laws. It never could be sur- rendered by us without abandoning the great interest and safety of the territory. And it will be perceived how very prejudicial it would be if the British in possession of the north- ern section should establish free ports, and thus be enabled to counteract all our revenue laws, and so forth. The contract for supplies with the Russians now enables the Hudson Bay Co. to purchase the grain and produce from the Willamette settlers, but in a short time it will be supplied by themselves through their great farms, and consequently the produce of settlers can obtain no market whatever, all trade being in the hands of that company. The Puget Sound Co. are enabled to compete with and un- dersell all others from the low price of labor 17 per annum absence from duties, and the facilities of sending their products to market by the ships of the Hudson Bay Co., which hitherto have returned almost empty, the furs occupying but a small part of the vessel, which will hereafter be filled with hides and tallow; this must operate very prejudicially to the settlement and increase their hold on the territory. ​296 CHARLES WILKES I have stated these views in order to show the necessity of prompt action on the part of the Government in taking posses- sion of the country in order to obviate difficulties that a longer delay will bring about and prevent many persons from settling advantageously. For the military occupation of the country I conceive that it would be necessary to establish a post at some central point, viz, Walla Walla, and I herewith inclose you a topographical sketch of the surrounding country within 30 miles. As respects its position with reference to the country, you will be well informed by the map. It appears to me to be peculiarly adapted to the general de- fense of the territory in order to preserve peace and quietness among the Indian tribes. The Nez Perces, Snakes, and Blackfeet are those generally engaged in committing depredations on each other and requir- ing more looking after than those of the other tribes. They are in and around this section of country. The facilities for maintaining a post and at a moderate ex- pense are great; the river abounds with salmon during a greater part of the year and the herds thrive exceedingly well. Cattle are numerous, particularly horses, which are the best that the country affords. Grains of all kind flourish, and at about 25 miles distant the missionaries have an establishment from which I have but little doubt the troops could be supplied. The climate is remarkably fine and healthy. There is, per- haps, no point from which operations could be carried on with so much facility to all parts of the territory as this, it being situated, as it were, at the forks of the two principal branches of the Columbia. Any number of horses could be kept at little or no expense, and a force could reach almost any part of the lower territory with the least possible delay. The permanent land force I conceive necessary to keep this territory quiet and peaceable would be one company of dra- goon? and one of infantry, say, 200 men. The only Indians of the country south of 49 who are dis- posed to make war upon the whites are the Klamets, residing ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 297 on the southern borders of the territory along Rogue and Klamet Rivers and in the passes of the Shasty Mountains. The show of a small force would, I am sure, have a good tendency in preventing their depredations on the whites who pass through the country, their hostility to whom, in a great measure, is to be ascribed to the conduct of the whites them- selves, who leave no opportunity unimproved of molesting them. Cases have frequently occurred of white men shooting a poor, defenseless Indian without any provocation whatever. A friendly disposition, with sufficient force to prevent any attack, could not fail to bring about the desired disposition on their parts. The country they inhabit is a very rich one and would afford all the necessaries as well as the comforts of life. A steamer having a light draft of water, a small fort on Cape Disappointment, and a few guns on Point Adams to de- fend the south channel with its dangerous bar, would be all sufficient for the defense of Columbia River. Some points within the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, or Puget Sound might be settled, where supplies, and so forth, could be had and depots established. Two Government steamers would be able to protect our trade and territory and prevent disturbances among the northern tribes; they would be a more efficient force than stationary forts, and much more economical. In case of difficulties, steamers would be enabled to reach any part of the coast from these points in two days. In the event of hostilities in this country, the posts, so called, of the Hudson Bay Co. are not to be considered of strength against any force but Indians; they are mere stockades, and all their buildings, granaries, and so forth, are situated without the palisades. They could offer but little resistence to any kind of armed force and their supplies could readily be cut off, both by sea and land. The occupation of the mouth of the Columbia River, togeth- er with some point in the Strait of Juan de Fuca or the waters ​298 * CHARLES WILKES and sounds leading from it, I view as highly necessary in any event, and there is no force so well adapted for the security of this territory as that of steamers. The waters of Puget Sound might be effectually defended from a naval force by occupying the narrows leading to it through which vessels must enter; at all times a dangerous narrow path, with strong current, no anchorage, and the winds almost always variable. I refer you to the charts which show this point distinctly. Much has been said of the effective force of the Hudson Bay Co. ; this, in my opinion, is an entire mistake and exaggeration of it. It is true that the servants of the company are bound to bear arms during their term of servitude, but they are without any sort of discipline, few in number, generally of the class of farm- ers, worn-out Canadians, some few Iroquois Indians, and other tribes from the Canadas, and illy adapted to bear arms ; about 100 at all the posts could be raised. With regard to the natives, they are so distributed in small tribes that I am confident they would only be looked to as scouts and messengers, and those of the northern tribe would be too unruly to meddle with. I am decidedly of opinion that the company would do every- thing to avoid the territory becoming a scene of war, particu- larly its officers. They are now for the most part bound up with its peaceful occupation, being largely engaged in agriculture and grazing, which must all in a measure be sacrificed. And there would also be great difficulty, if not a total interruption, in their carrying on their fur trade. It is not very probable that they would make any very strenuous endeavors to retain their interests under the British authority, as they well know that they may come in for the preservation of their property under the preemption right by transferring it to citizens of the United States, some of whom are well known to be interested and active partners in the busi- ness. ​REPORT ON OREGON TERRITORY 299 There are four passes through the Rocky Mountains. The one known as McGillivarys Pass, by the Committee's Punch Bowl is very difficult, and can only be used during the sum- mer months, at which time the parties of the Hudson Bay Co. pursue this route. Proceeding south we come to the great district through which Lewis and Clark found their way; and, finally, the two southern routes, which are preferable, susceptible of being used at almost all seasons, and a good wagon road may be con- structed with little expense. This leads to the first post of the Hudson Bay Co., viz, Fort Hall, established by Capt. Wyeth, and has since been trans- ferred to the company, so that it is readily to be perceived that the difficulties of communication with the territory are far less for us than the British. I can not close this report without doing justice to the officers of the Hudson Bay Co.'s service for their kind and gentle- manly treatment to us whilst in the territory, and to bear tes- timony that during all my intercourse with them they seemed to be guided by one rule of conduct, highly creditable to them not only as men of business but to their feelings as gentlemen. They afforded us every assistance that lay in their power, both in supplies and means of accomplishing our duties. There are many persons in the country who bear testimony to the aid and kindness rendered to them in their outset, and of their hospitality it is needless to speak, for it has become proverbial. To conclude, few portions of the globe, in my opinion, are to be found so rich in soil, diversified in surface, or capable of being rendered the happy abode of an industrious and civilized community. For beauty of scenery and salubrity of climate it is not surpassed. It is peculiarly adapted for an agricultural and pastoral people, and no portion of the world beyond the Tropics is to be found that will yield so readily to the wants of man with moderate labor. Respectfully submitted, CHARLES WILKES, Commanding Exploring Expedition.