"In conclusion of this part of the subject I will remark that when Mr. Waller requested Capt. W. K. Kilbourn, who resides in this place, to assist him in putting up the logs which I had loaned to Mr. Lee, Capt. Kilbourn said to him: 'I will not assist to build the house, if you intend to set up any claim here.' Mr. Waller disavowed any such intention.
"In 1842 I had the claim surveyed by Mr. Hudspath, and laid off some lots; in the fall of 1843, there being better instruments in the country, I had my claim surveyed by Jesse Applegate, Esq., who more accurately marked its streets, alleys, lots, etc., etc. When the Oregon Provisional Government was formed, I recorded my claim in accordance with the provisions of its organic laws; this record covers the island and the site of Oregon City. In making this record, I circumscribed the limits of my claim, so that instead of extending down to the Clackamas River, as I had made it previous to there being any government in the country, I made it so as to extend only about half way down. This I did because the Organic Law provided that no one should hold more than six hundred and forty acres. This I did also for the sake of peace, notwithstanding Mr. Thurston is not ashamed tomore than intimate a disposition to 'let loose upon them savages of Oregon.' Mr. Thurston says, 'He has held it by violence and dint of threats up to this time.'—That I have held my claim or any part of it by violence or threats, no man will assert, and far less will one be found to swear so, who will be believed on his oath, in a court of justice. I have probably no other enemy than Mr. Thurston, so lost to thesuggestionsof conscience as to make a statement so much at variance with my whole character.
"He says that I have realized, up to the 4th of March, 1849, $200,000 from the sale of lots; this is also wholly untrue. I have given away lots to the Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists. I have given 8 lots to a Roman Catholic Nunnery, 8 lots to the Clackamas Female Protestant Seminary, incorporated by the Oregon Legislature. The Trustees are all Protestants, although it is well known I am a Roman Catholic. In short, in one way and another I have donated to the county, to schools, to churches, and private individuals, more than three hundred town lots, and I never realized in cash $20,000, from all the original sales I have made. He continues, 'He is still an Englishman, still connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, and refuses to file his intentions to become an American citizen.' If I was an Englishman, I know no reason why I should not acknowledge it; but I am a Canadian by birth, and an Irishman by descent. I am neither ashamed of my birth-place or lineage—but it has always appeared to me that a man who can only boast of his country has little to be proud of:
"'A wit's a feather, a chief, a rod—An honest man's the noblest work of God.'"
"I was a Chief Factor in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, and by the rules of the Company, enjoy a retired interest, as a matter of right.—Capt. McNeil, a native born citizen of the United States of America, holds the same rank as I held in the Hudson's Bay Company service. He never was required to become a British subject; he will be entitled, by the laws of the Company, to the same retired interest, no matter to what country he may owe allegiance.
"I declared my intention to become an American citizen on the 30th May, 1849, as any one may see who will examine the records of the court, in this place. Mr. Thurston knew this fact—he asked me for my vote and influence. Why did he ask me for my vote if I had not one to give? I voted and voted against him, as he well knew, and as he seems well to remember. But he proceeds to refer to Judge Bryant for the truth of his statement, in which he affirms that I assigned to Judge Bryant, as a reason why I still refuse to declare my intention to become an American citizen, that I cannot do it without prejudicing my standing in England. I am astonished how the Supreme judge could have made such a statement! as he had a letter from me pointing out my intention of becoming an American citizen. The cause, which led to my writing this letter, is that the island, called Abernethy's Island by Mr. Thurston, and which he proposes to donate to Mr. Abernethy, his heirs and assigns, is the same island which Mr. Hathaway and others jumped in 1841, and formedthemselves into a joint stock company, and erected a saw and grist mill on it, as already stated. From a desire to preserve peace in the country, I deferred bringing the case to trial, till the government extended its jurisdiction over the country; but when it had done so, a few days after the arrival of Judge Bryant and before the courts were organized, Judge Bryant bought the island of George Abernethy, Esq., who had bought the stock of the other associates, and as the Island was in Judge Bryant's district, and as there was only two judges in the Territory, I thought I could not at the time bring the case to a satisfactory decision. I therefore deferred bringing the case forward to a time when the bench would be full. In July or August, 1849, Gov. Lane told me Judge Bryant would speak to me in regard to my claim on the Island; the Judge did so and asked me to state the extent of my claim. To avoid mistakes and misunderstandings, to which verbal communications are subject, I told him I would write him, and accordingly addressed him the following letter:
"Oregon City, 21st Aug. 1849."
"To the Hon. W. P. Bryant:"Sir—
"I hasten to comply with your request, 'that I state the extent of my claim to the Island within ten days,' and I beg to refer you to the books of recorded land claims, kept by Theo. McGruder, Esq., for the extent of my claim; and I shall expect a transfer of the fee simple of the whole ground, with all and every privilege from the United Statesof America, as soon as it shall meet the pleasure of my adopted government to act in the matter.
"I have the honor to be
"Your obedient humble servant,
[Signed] "John McLoughlin."
"This letter was handed to Judge Bryant by J. D. Holman, Esq., and it seems quite incomprehensible to me, how, after receiving and perusing this letter, Judge Bryant could corroborate (if he did so) Mr. Thurston's statement, that I had declined to file my intention to become an American citizen. I filed my intention on the 30th May. Mr. Thurston left this (Territory) in August, and Judge Bryant in October. Is it probable! nay, is it possible! in so small a place as Oregon City, where every little occurrence is so soon known—where the right of voting is so scrutinized—that I should have voted, and against Mr. Thurston, and that his partisans and supporters did not inform him of it, or that Judge Bryant did not know that I had filed my intention to become an American citizen? But Mr. Thurston makes another statement in which there is not more truth. He says, 'Last summer he,' meaning myself, 'informed the writer of this that whatever was made out of the claim was to go to the common fund of the Hudson's Bay Company, of which he and other stockholders would share in proportion to their stock; in other words, that he was holding this claim in trust for the Hudson's Bay Company.'
"Mr. Thurston had just before said that I had made for myself $200,000 from the sale of lots; butnow after having made my conservative purse vastly capacious finds it convenient to shrivel it up by transferring this cheering amount of coin to the coffers of the Hudson's Bay Company. I assert I never made such a statement to Mr. Thurston, and I assert that I hold my claim for myself alone, and that the Hudson's Bay Company, nor no other person or persons, hold or have any interest in it with me.
"Mr. Thurston says that on the 4th March, 1849, Governor Lane apprised Dr. McLoughlin and all others that no one had a right to sell or meddle with government lands. This is given as a reason why every man that has bought a lot since that time shall lose it. If by this statement anything more is meant than at that date the Territorial government was put in operation, then it is wholly untrue; but were it otherwise, what is the motive for the commission of such an act of injustice that necessarily involves in pecuniary loss half the inhabitants of this place, in addition to many who do not reside here? Mr. Thurston says, Abernethy's Island is in the middle of the river. Such a statement could only be made to persons unacquainted with this place, and conveys a wrong impression, as every one who knows the place will admit the island is not in the middle of the river, but separated from the main land only by a chasm over which there is a bridge about 100 feet long. In the dry season, the stream is not more than forty feet broad at the Falls, which separates it from the main land, and can the people of Oregon City and its vicinity believe Mr. Thurston did not know, some monthsbefore he left this, that Mr. Abernethy had sold his rights, whatever they were, to Judge Bryant, and therefore proposing to Congress to donate this Island to Mr. Abernethy, his heirs and assigns, was, in fact, proposing to donate it to Judge Bryant, his heirs and assigns.
"Jno. McLoughlin."
"[At the request of Dr. McLoughlin, we stepped into the Clerk's office and read upon a paper filed in the office that on the 30th day of May, 1849, John McLoughlin filed his intention to become an American citizen, and that the said paper was duly certified to, by the then acting Clerk, Geo. L. Curry.—Ed.]"
DOCUMENT M
Letter by William J. Berry, published in the "Oregon Spectator," December 26, 1850.
"Forest Creek, Polk Co., December 15, 1850."
"Mr. Editor:
"Truth crush'd to earth, shall rise again:The eternal years of God are hers;But error, wounded, withers with pain,And dies among his worshippers."
"Believing that the characters of public men are public property, I desire, with your permission, to speak through the columns of the 'Spectator' about some of the doings of our Delegate in Congress.
"I am dissatisfied with his course in regard to the 'Oregon City Claim.' And now permit me to say, that I am not influenced in this matter by mercenary motives of any kind. I never owned anyproperty in or about Oregon City, nor do I ever expect to; but I am influenced by motives of a certain kind, which are: the veneration I feel for the sacred principles of truth and justice,—and the mortification I feel at seeing these principles not only overlooked, but indignantly trampled under foot.
"Up to the time of writing his celebrated 'letter to the members of the House of Representatives,' I, in common with a large portion of the people here, was led to admire the ability, the zeal, and industry, with which Mr. Thurston conducted the business of this Territory. But in that portion of said letter, where he speaks of the Oregon City claim, I think he has placed himself in the position of the old cow, who, after giving a fine pail of milk, kicked it all over. With the disposal of said claim as contemplated in the bill, I have no fault to find; but with the means employed by Mr. Thurston to effect that end, I do find most serious fault.
"Some of these I will notice. Speaking of Dr. McLoughlin, he says: 'He still refuses to file his intentions to become an American citizen.' Now, I assert that Mr. Thurstonknew, previous to the election, that Dr. McLoughlin had filed his intentions. I heard him say in a stump speech, at the City Hotel, that he expected his (the Doctor's) vote. At the election I happened to be one of the Judges; Dr. McLoughlin came up to vote; the question was asked by myself, if he had filed his intentions? The Clerk of the Court, George L. Curry, Esq., who was standing near the window,said that he had. He voted. Some time after the election, when I was holding the office of Justice of the Peace, in Oregon City, Mr. Thurston came to me, in company with a man whose name I have forgotten, having an affidavit already prepared which he wished sworn to, and subscribed by this man; which was done. Said affidavit went to state that Dr. McLoughlin had written a letter, or letters, to some French settlers north of the Columbia, directing them to oppose Thurston and vote for Lancaster, &c., &c. I merely mention this circumstance to show that Mr. Thurston knew exactly how Dr. McLoughlin stood. The assertion of Mr. Thurston that Dr. McLoughlin has 'worked diligently to break down the settlements,' is also without foundation. There are scores of persons in this valley of the early emigrants, who testify to the kindness received at the hands of Dr. McLoughlin. And many there are who would doubtless have perished had it not been for his humane attention. He helped them to descend the Columbia—fed them, clothed them; and now he is accused of 'working diligently to break down the settlements!'
"I shall notice but one more of Mr. Thurston's assertions in regard to this claim. Mr. Thurston says: 'The Methodist Mission first took this claim.' Now this is an assertion which any one who knows anything about the history of Oregon City, knows to be utterly without foundation.—On the contrary the said Methodist Mission never had a right to any part of said claim, unless jumping constitutes right.
"In what I have said about Dr. McLoughlin, I have not spoken from interested motives. I never received any favor at his hands, nor do I expect to. But I am ashamed of the course of our Delegate; I think it is unbecoming the Representative of a magnanimous people.
"What must be the feelings of Dr. McLoughlin? A man whose head is whitened by the frosts of perhaps eighty winters! Who, during that long period has been living subject to the nation under whose flag he was born. And who, at that advanced age declares his intention of becoming a citizen of our great Republic.—I say what must be his feelings? and what must be the feelings of all candid men—of all men of honor and magnanimity, who have read Mr. Thurston's letter. And yet this same Honorable (?) Delegate in his address to his constituents lectures us upon Religion and Morality.
"Very respectfully, yours,
"Wm. J. Berry."
DOCUMENT N
Excerpts from speech of Samuel R. Thurston in Congress, December 26, 1850.
December 26, 1850, Thurston attempted to answer, by a speech in Congress, Dr. McLoughlin's letter, published in theOregon Spectator, September 12, 1850. It is a scurrilous speech. Most of its asserted statements of fact are untrue. It is too long to be set forth here in full. It will be found at pages 36 to 45 of the Appendix to volume 23 oftheCongressional Globe. The italics in this Document N are those appearing in theCongressional Globe.
He first discussed the petition of the fifty-six persons who signed the petition at Oregon City, September 19, 1850, against the passage of the eleventh section of the Donation Land Bill, and attempted to show that the petition was against Dr. McLoughlin instead of being in his favor. This was pettifogging. Thurston set forth that he had not been in favor of recognizing in the bill transfers of land by Dr. McLoughlin after March 3, 1849, for the reason that "If such transfers were confirmed in general terms, up to the passage of the bill, the whole of what the Doctor claimed would be covered by fictitious transfers for his benefit." Thurston attacked J. Quinn Thornton and Aaron E. Wait, the attorneys of Dr. McLoughlin, and called them names too vile to be inserted in this address.
Referring to Dr. McLoughlin's statement in his letter that the Hudson's Bay Company's business was so managed "in all respects subservient to the best interests of the country, and the duties of religion and humanity," Thurston said: "If to make the settler paywith his lifethe penalty of settling where they did not want him to, or to oppress him until he was compelled to yield; if tearing down houses over families' heads, and burning them up, and leaving a poor woman in the rain, houseless and homeless; if attempting to break down all American enterprises, and to prevent the settlement of the country—if, sir, to do all these things,and many more, which are hereafter proved, then is the quotation true. If this is their religion, then have they adorned, for the last ten years, the religion they profess." These charges are maliciously false.
Thurston charged that Dr. McLoughlin was "for all practical purposes, as much in, of, and connected with the [Hudson's Bay] Company as he ever was ... yet he comes up here with a hypocritical face and pleads poverty! and says that he has picked up my people out of ditches, mud-puddles, from under the ice, and warmed them into life; which Wait and Thornton virtually testify to.... Who ever heard a Jew or a Gypsy making up a more pitiful face than this." Thurston further said that Dr. McLoughlin persuaded some of the immigrants of 1842 to go to California; that he provided outfits for them "and took notes, payable in California. And this was done for the purpose of ridding the country of these unwelcome visitors.... That the Doctor was determined to do all he could to prevent the country from finally settling up, and with this object in view, undertook to persuade our early settlers to leave." This is absolutely untrue, except the part that Dr. McLoughlin furnished said immigrants with outfits and took their notes payable in California. Most of these notes were never paid.
Thurston then proceeds to pettifog about his injunction to keep his letter to Congress about the Donation Land Bill "dark till next mail." He had to pettifog or say it was a forgery. He said he wrote this as he feared the bill "never wouldpass, and I dreaded the effect the news of its failure, on the first day, would have on business of the territory.... It was to avoid the general panic that I adopted this course and this is why I requested to have nothing said till the time of trial might come."[67]Thurston was compelled to admit that he knew that Dr. McLoughlin had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States prior to the election in June, 1849, but Thurston said he did not know that Dr. McLoughlin had filed his intentions to become a citizen. Thurston endeavored to justify himself by technicalities. He knew that the Circuit Courts of the Provisional Government had ceased to exist May 13, 1849, or prior thereto. It was on that day that Governor Lane assigned the Territorial judges, appointed by the President, to their respective districts. Yet Thurston asserted that "The court, or the tribunal, in which Dr. McLoughlin took his oaths was not such a court as the law requires, but was a creature of the Provisional Government." He asserted that George L. Curry, the Clerk of the court, before whom Dr. McLoughlin took the oath of allegiance and filed his intentions to become an American citizen, did it in his capacity as a clerk of a court of the Provisional Government (which was no longer in existence), instead of in the capacity of a clerk of the new Territorial court, and said that Judge Bryant informed him that this was the case.
May 30, 1849, George L. Curry, if not thede jureclerk, was thede factoand acting clerk of theTerritorial District Court, before whom it was lawful and proper to take the oath of allegiance under the United States naturalization law. If, for any reason, Dr. McLoughlin did not comply technically with the law, it was nevertheless his intention to do so. He subscribed and filed two oaths on May 30, 1849. In these he swore it was his intention to become an American citizen and that "I renounce all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign Prince, Potentate, State and Sovereignty, whatsoever and particularly to Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the provisions of 'An Act to establish the Territorial Government of Oregon.'" Under these oaths, or one of them, Dr. McLoughlin became a citizen of the United States September 5, 1851. In admitting him to citizenship the Judge must have found that Dr. McLoughlin's original declaration was sufficient and was filed in a court of competent jurisdiction. And yet Thurston had said in his letter to the House of Representatives and in his speech of May 28, 1850, that Dr. McLoughlin "refuses to become an American citizen."
In this speech of December 26, 1850, Thurston said that if any persons in Oregon owed money to Dr. McLoughlin, he could proceed in the Courts. This is true. The difficulty was to enforce judgments. Judgments could not then or prior to that time and until long afterwards be enforced against land. An execution could only reach personal property. If a debtor did not wish to pay a debt,he could sell his crops privately in advance, or he could cover them and other personal property by chattel mortgages. Thurston as a lawyer knew the law. The law establishing the Territorial Government of Oregon provided that "all laws heretofore passed in said Territory [i.e., by the Provisional Government] making grants of land, or otherwise affecting or incumbering the title to lands, shall be, and are hereby declared to be, null and void."
Under the Donation Land Law a settler on public land had merely a possessory right which did not ripen into a title to the land until he had "resided upon and cultivated the same for four consecutive years." It was an estate upon condition. It was not subject to execution sale. If such a sale could have been made, under a law of the Territory of Oregon, a purchaser would take nothing—not even the possessory right of a settler.[68]The settler was the only one who could complete the four years' residence and cultivation. In fact, it was a long time after the passage of the law before a land claim could be lawfully taken up. The settlers really held a kind of squatter's title until the Surveyor-General was ready to proceed or to receive applications for surveys. The first notifications were not filed until 1852. Besides, the statute of limitations, for bringing suit on these debts, did not exceed six years.
The case of McLoughlin v. Hoover, 1Oregon Reports, 32, was decided at the December term, 1853, of the Supreme Court of the Territory ofOregon. This case shows that Dr. McLoughlin did bring a suit shortly after September 29, 1852, the exact date not being given in the decision, against John Hoover to recover from Hoover a promissory note for $560 dated October 2, 1845, and payable one year after date. Hoover pleaded the Statute of Limitations. It was held by the Supreme Court of Oregon Territory that at no time under the Provisional or Territorial governments of Oregon was the statute of limitations to recover on notes and accounts for a longer period than six years. But by reason of amendments of the law, that the statute of limitations did not run a longer period than three years succeeding the act of September 29, 1849. The full six years from the time said note became due would end October 5, 1853, counting three days of grace, but under this decision the statute of limitations had run September 29, 1852, being less than five years from the time said note became due. The statute of limitations does not extinguish a debt. It merely stops the collection of it by law.
In this speech Thurston was compelled to admit that he had no proper foundation for the statement in his letter to Congress that Dr. McLoughlin had sent word to Fort Hall to turn the immigration to California. He said in this speech that the immigrants to Oregon "at a very early period, perhaps as early as 1842 or 1843, were met with the tale that the Indians were hostile to the immigrants; that they would be cut off if they proceeded further on the Oregon trail; and that this story was told by the officer in charge of Fort Hall, as havingbeen received from Vancouver, [the headquarters of Dr. McLoughlin] and that this same officer advised the emigrants to go to California." This statement is not borne out by the facts. That there was danger to the immigrants in coming to Oregon is shown by the intended massacre of the immigrants of 1843, as set forth in this address and in the McLoughlin Document.
Thurston, in this speech, took up the Shortess petition and read numerous parts of it. He said in reference to the phrase that the petitioners hoped that Dr. McLoughlin never would own his land claim, that that is "just what the land bill provides for." Referring to the assertion in the Shortess petition that Dr. McLoughlin "says the land is his, and every person building without his permission is held as a trespasser," Thurston said: "What do you think of this, Mr. Speaker? An Englishman holding anAmerican citizena trespasser for settling on American soil, where the American Government had invited him! This, sir, was before the treaty [of 1846] and before the Provisional Government was formed, and when one American citizen had as good a right to settle there as another, and all a better right than Dr. McLoughlin. Yet this barefaced Jesuit has the effrontery to pretend he did not hold that claim by dint of threats." Thurston does not explain how the American Government invited the immigrants prior to 1847 to settle in Oregon. The truth is that the American settlers who left the East prior to 1849 went on their own initiative. They were neither invited nor helped nor protected by the Government, untilafter the establishment of the Territorial Government in 1849. Under the Conventions of joint-occupancy Dr. McLoughlin had the same rights, up to the Treaty of 1846, as a British subject, that any citizen of the United States had—no more, no less. This, Thurston as a lawyer, knew.
After quoting further from the Shortess petition, Thurston said: "Now, Mr. Speaker, all this was before the Provisional Government was in operation—before the treaty, when no man had any right to meddle with the soil. Who can contemplate the helpless condition of these few and feeble American citizens, at that time and place, struggling for life, and for subsistence, thus kicked and buffeted round at the mercy of one of the most powerful corporations on earth, headed by a man whose intrigues must have furnished Eugene Sue with a clue to his 'Wandering Jew,'—who, I say, sir, can thus contemplate our flesh, and blood, and kindred, with their land, their houses, their all, thus posted up, and declared subject toanydisposition this unfeeling man might make of them without shedding tears of pity for their distress.... Now, sir, just turn to my correspondence in letters one and two, where he tells you, if a man settled where the company did not allow him to, he paid theforfeiture with his life, or fromnecessitywas compelled to yield. And here, again, the names of Wait and Thornton rise up before me, and while reading their laudations of McLoughlin, I can think of nothing but two Jews lauding Judas Iscariot....
"This petition is signed by many persons, many of whom I know, who are now living in Oregon.I can bear unqualified testimony to their character in society, to their honor and to their veracity. I undertake to say, that not a word is uttered in it but the truth, and it is susceptible of any reasonable proof. I know the gentleman who wrote the original, whom to know is to respect, to listen to, to believe. He is a gentleman of the highest standing in Oregon, of some twelve or fourteen years' residence, and who would be universally believed on any subject on which he would presume to speak. That gentleman informs me that every word of it is true to the letter.... If in the mouth of two or three witnesses all things are established, then surely sixty-five men are good evidence of the facts stated in the petition to which their names were attached, and, then, you and the country can judge whether this man McLoughlin, by whom all the abuses here complained of were dictated, is entitled to receive gratuities of the American Government for such rascalities, or whether the people of Oregon owe him a debt of gratitude which they refuse to pay."
Thurston set forth the letter of Dr. McLoughlin to Robert Shortess, dated at Vancouver, April 13, 1843, in which Dr. McLoughlin wrote: "I am informed that you have circulated a petition for signatures, complaining of me, and of the Hudson's Bay Company. I hope you will, in common fairness, give me a copy of the petition, with the names of those who signed it, that I may know what is said against us, and who thosearewho think they have cause of complaint against us." Thurston said: "Thenamesmust be given, and for what? I will not say whether as a sure guide to the tomahawkof the Indian, or as a precursor to death by combined and grinding oppression—I leave this to the witnesses who have already spoken. But could you read in the records of heaven the deeds of this power in Oregon, while you would admire the consummate skill with which they were conducted, your whole moral nature would be shocked by the baseness of the design, and the means for their accomplishment."
Thurston in this speech, without giving names, gave excerpts from a number of letters he had received, sustaining his actions against Dr. McLoughlin in the Donation Land Bill. Shameful as Thurston's actions were against Dr. McLoughlin, Thurston had reason to believe that his actions were sustained and approved by leaders and members of the party which had elected him. Those who thus abetted Thurston in his misstatements and actions against Dr. McLoughlin were as culpable as Thurston was—they became his accessories. Some of these afterwards were ashamed of their actions against Dr. McLoughlin. Their repentances, although late, are commendable.
DOCUMENT O
Correspondence of S. R. Thurston, Nathaniel J. Wyeth, Robert C. Winthrop and Dr. John McLoughlin, published in the "Oregon Spectator," April 3, 1851.
"Chicopee, Mass., Nov. 16, 1850."
"Capt. Nath. J. Wyeth:
"My Dear Sir—You will excuse me, I am sure,when I assure you I am from Oregon, and her delegate to the Congress of the United States, for addressing you for a purpose of interest to the country to which I belong.
"I desire you to give me as correct a description as you can at this late period, of the manner in which you and your party, and your enterprise in Oregon, were treated by the Hudson's Bay Company, and particularly by Doc. John McLoughlin, then its Chief Factor. This Dr. McLoughlin has, since you left the country, rendered his name odious among the people of Oregon, by his endeavors to prevent the settlement of the country, and to cripple its growth.
"Now that he wants a few favors of our Government, he pretends that he has been the long tried friend of Americans and American enterprise west of the mountains. Your early reply will be highly appreciated, both for its information, and your relation to my country.
"I am, sir, yours very truly,
"S. R. Thurston."
"Cambridge, Nov. 21, 1850."
"Hon. Sam'l R. Thurston:
"Dear Sir—Your favor of the 16th inst., was received on the 19th. The first time I visited the Columbia, in the autumn of 1832, I reached Vancouver with a disorganized party of ten persons, the remnant of twenty-four who left the States. Wholly worn out and disheartened, we were received cordially, and liberally supplied, and there the party broke up. I returned to the States in the Spring of 1833 with one man. One of the party, Mr. John Ball, remained and planted wheat onthe Willamette, a little above Camp du Sable, having been supplied with seed and implements from Vancouver, then under the charge of John McLoughlin, Esq., and this gentleman I believe to have been the first American who planted wheat in Oregon. I returned to the country in the autumn of 1834, with a large party and more means, having on the way built Fort Hall, and there met a brig which I sent around the Horn. In the winter and spring of 1835, I planted wheat on the Willamette and on Wappatoo Island.
"The suffering and distressed of the early American visitors and settlers on the Columbia were always treated by Hudson's Bay Company's agents, and particularly so by John McLoughlin, Esq., with consideration and kindness, more particularly the Methodist Missionaries, whom I brought out in the autumn of 1834. He supplied them with the means of transportation, seeds, implements of agriculture and building, cattle and food for a long time.
"I sincerely regret that the gentleman, as you state, has become odious to his neighbors in his old age.
"I am your ob't serv't,
"Nath. J. Wyeth."
"Cambridge, Nov. 28, 1850."
"Hon. Robert C. Winthrop:
"Dear Sir—I have received a letter from Sam'l R. Thurston, of which the following is a portion:
"'I desire you to give me as correct a description as you can at this late period, of the manner in which you and your party, and your enterprise inOregon, were treated by the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky mountains, and particularly by Dr. John McLoughlin, then its Chief Factor. This Dr. McLoughlin has since you left the country, rendered his name odious among the people of Oregon, by his endeavors to prevent the settlement of the country and cripple its growth. Now that he wants a few favors of our Government, he pretends that he has been the long-tried friend of Americans and American enterprise west of the mountains.'
"I have written Mr. Thurston, in reply to the above extract, that myself and parties were kindly received, and were treated well in all respects by J. McLoughlin, Esq., and the officers of the Hudson's Bay Co.; but from the tenor of his letter, I have no confidence that my testimony will be presented before any committee to whom may be referred any subjects touching the interests of said John McLoughlin, Esq.
"The very honorable treatment received by me from Mr. McLoughlin during the years inclusive from 1832 to 1836, during which time there were no other Americans on the Lower Columbia, except myself and parties, calls on me to state the facts.
"The purpose of this letter is to ask the favor of you to inform me what matter is pending, in which Mr. McLoughlin's interests are involved, and before whom, and if you will present a memorial from me on the matters stated in Mr. Thurston's letter as above.
"Respectfully and truly your ob't servant,
"Nath. J. Wyeth."
"Washington, Dec. 28, 1850."
"Dear Sir—I took the earliest opportunity to enquire of Mr. Thurston what there was pending before Congress or the Executive, in which Mr. McLoughlin's character or interest were concerned. He would tell me nothing, nor am I aware of anything.
"Respectfully your ob't serv't,
"R. C. Winthrop."
"To. N. J. Wyeth, Esq."
"John McLoughlin, Esq.:
"Dear Sir—On the 19th of December, 1850, I received a letter from Sam'l R. Thurston, delegate from Oregon, of which see copy No. 1, and by same mail an Oregon newspaper containing a communication over your signature, the letter [latter], I think, addressed in your handwriting.
"From the tenor of Mr. Thurston's letter, I presumed he wanted my testimony for some purpose not friendly to yourself. I answered his letter as per copy No. 2, but doubting if my testimony, except it suited his views, would be presented, and being ignorant of his intentions, I wrote the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, late Speaker of the House of Representatives, and at present a member of the Senate of the United States, as per copy, [No. 3] and received from him a reply as per copy [No. 4].
"Should you wish such services as I can render in this part of the United States, I shall be pleased to give them in return for the many good things you did years since, and if my testimony as regards your efficient and friendly actions towards me and the other earliest Americans who settled in Oregon,will be of use in placing you before the Oregon people in the dignified position of a benefactor, it will be cheerfully rendered.
"I am, with much respect, yours truly,
"Nath. J. Wyeth."
"Mr. Thurston writes to Mr. Wyeth, 'That Dr. McLoughlin has, since you left the country, rendered his name odious to the people of Oregon.' (That I have rendered my name odious to the people of Oregon, is what I do not know.) And 'By his endeavors to prevent the settlement of the country, and to cripple its growth.' I say I never endeavored to prevent the settlement of the country, or to cripple its growth, but the reverse. If the whole country had been my own private property, I could not have exerted myself more strenuously than I did to introduce civilization, and promote its settlement. 'Now that he wants a few favors of our Government, he pretends that he has been the long tried friend of Americans and American enterprise west of the mountains.' Mr. Wyeth states how I acted towards him and his companions, the first Americans that I saw on this side of the mountains. Those that came since, know if Mr. Thurston represents my conduct correctly or not. As to my wanting a few favors, I am not aware that I asked for any favors. I was invited by the promises held out in Linn's bill, to become an American citizen of this territory. I accepted the invitation and fulfilled the obligations in good faith, and after doing more, as I believe will be admitted, to settle the country and relieve the immigrants in their distresses, than any otherman in it, part of my claim, which had been jumped, Mr. Thurston, the delegate from this territory, persuades Congress to donate Judge Bryant, and the remainder is reserved. I make no comment—the act speaks for itself, but merely observe, if I had no claim to Abernethy Island, why did Mr. Thurston get Congress to interfere, and what had Judge Bryant done for the territory to entitle him to the favor of our delegate? Mr. Thurston is exerting the influence of his official situation to get Congress to depart from its usual course, and to interfere on a point in dispute, and donate that island to Abernethy, his heirs and assigns, alias Judge Bryant, his heirs and assigns.
"Yours respectfully,
"Jno. McLoughlin."
With this correspondence was published the following letter from Doctor McLoughlin to the Editor of theOregon Spectator: "I handed the following letters to the Editor of theStatesman, and he refused to publish them, unless as an advertisement." This last letter is quoted to show that the letters set forth in this Document O are authentic. The first number of theOregon Statesmanwas published March 28, 1851.[69]
DOCUMENT P
Letter from Rev. Vincent Snelling to Dr. John McLoughlin of March 9, 1852.
The original of the following letter is now in thepossession of the Oregon Historical Society, from which this copy is made. Rev. Vincent Snelling was the first Baptist minister who came to Oregon.
"Oregon City, 9th March, 1852."
"Mr. John McLoughlin, Esq.,
"Dear Sir:
"Having learned that you intend shortly to visit Washington City, and knowing that you have been misrepresented by our Delegate from this country,—and wishing as an honest man, and a friend to truth and justice, to contribute something toward the correction of those misrepresentations, I submit to your acceptance and disposal the following:
"I arrived in Oregon in the fall of 1844 and have been an observer of your treatment of and conduct to the American immigrants. I know that you have saved our people from suffering by hunger and I believe from savage cruelty also. I know you sent your boats to convey them down the Columbia river, free of charge, and that you also sent them provisions when they were in a state of starvation, and that you directed them to be distributed among the immigrants, to those that were destitute of money equally with those that had. Nor did your kindness stop there, as many of us lost nearly all we possessed by the time we arrived in the valley. You continued your favors by letting us have both food and raiment for the year, seed wheat, and charging no more than the same number of bushels the next harvest, plows and cattle to plow with. To conclude I do affirm that your conduct ever since I have known you has been such asto justify the opinion that you were friendly to the settlement of the country by Americans. I judge the tree [by] its fruit; you have done more for the American settlers than all the men that were in it, at that time.
"With sincere wishes that you may obtain your rights,
"I subscribe myself yours,"Vincent Snelling,"Ord. Minister Gospel, Baptist."
DOCUMENT Q
Excerpts from "The Hudson's Bay Company and Vancouver's Island" by James Edward Fitzgerald, published in London in 1849; and excerpt from "Ten Years in Oregon" by Rev. Daniel Lee and Rev. J. H. Frost, published in New York in 1844.
In order to show some of the unjustifiable abuse of Dr. McLoughlin from British sources, I here insert an excerpt from pp. 13-18, inclusive, of "The Hudson's Bay Company and Vancouver's Island" by J. E. Fitzgerald. He says: "Dr. M'Loughlin was formerly an Agent in the North West Fur Company of Montreal; he was one of the most enterprising and active in conducting the war between that Association and the Hudson's Bay Company. In the year 1821, when the rival companies united, Dr. M'Loughlin became a factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. But his allegiance does not appear to have been disposed of alongwith his interests; and his sympathy with anything other than British, seems to have done justice to his birth and education, which were those of a French Canadian.
"This gentleman was appointed Governor of all the country west of the Rocky Mountains; and is accused, by those who have been in that country, of having uniformly encouraged the emigration of settlers from the United States, and of having discouraged that of British subjects.
"While the Company in this country were asserting that their settlements on the Columbia River were giving validity to the claim of Great Britain to the Oregon territory, it appears, that their chief officer on the spot was doing all in his power to facilitate the operations of those, whose whole object it was to annihilate that claim altogether.
"There is one story told, about which it is right that the truth should be ascertained. It is said that a number of half-breeds from the Red River settlement were, in the year 1841, induced by the Company's officers to undertake a journey entirely across the continent, with the object of becoming settlers on the Columbia River.
"It appears that a number went, but on arriving in the country, so far from finding any of the promised encouragement, the treatment they received from Dr. M'Loughlin was such, that, after having been nearly starved under the paternal care of that gentleman, they all went over to the American settlement on the Wallamette valley.
"These emigrants became citizens of the United States, and it is further said, were the first tomemorialize Congress to extend the power of the United States over the Oregon territory.
"For the truth of these statements we do not of course vouch. But we do say they demand inquiry.
"Dr. M'Loughlin's policy was so manifestly American, that it is openly canvassed in a book written by Mr. Dunn, one of the servants of the Company, and written for the purpose of praising their system and policy.
"Sir Edward Belcher also alludes to this policy. He says,—'Some few years since, the Company determined on forming settlements on the rich lands situated on the Wallamatte and other rivers, and for providing for their retired servants by allotting them farms, and further aiding them by supplies of cattle &c. That on the Wallamatte was a field too inviting for missionary enthusiasm to overlook; but instead of selecting a British subject to afford them spiritual assistance, recourse was had to Americans—a course pregnant with evil consequences, and particularly in the political squabble pending, as will be seen by the result. No sooner had the American and his allies fairly squatted,—(which they deem taking possession of the country) than they invited their brethren to join them, and called on the American Government for laws and protection.'
"A great deal of importance is attached to the account given by Commodore Wilkes, U. S. N., of the operations of the Hudson's Bay Company on the north-west coast; and it is inferred that testimony, coming from such a quarter, is doubly in favour of the Company.
"Nothing, indeed, can be higher than the terms in which Captain Wilkes speaks of the Hudson's Bay Company's chief factor, Dr. M'Loughlin, and of the welcome he met, and the hospitality he experienced during his stay upon the coast.
"Captain Wilkes was far too sensible and discriminating a man, not to see, plainly enough, whose game Dr. M'Loughlin was playing. But there is something strange, if we turn from the perusal of Captain Wilkes' narrative, and the description of the facilities which were ever afforded him, to the following passage from Sir Edward Belcher's voyage:
"The difference of the reception which a frigate of the United States Navy met with, from that which one of Her Majesty's ships experienced, is a most suspicious fact, as suggesting the animus of the Company's agents upon the north-west coast. Sir Edward Belcher says: 'The attention of the Chief to myself, and those immediately about me, particularly in sending down fresh supplies, previous to my arrival, I feel fully grateful for; but I cannot conceal my disappointment at the want of accommodation exhibited towards the crews of the vessels under my command, in a British possession.'
"We certainly were not distressed, nor was it imperatively necessary that fresh beef and vegetables should be supplied, or I should have made a formal demand. But as regarded those who might come after, and not improbably myself among the number, I inquired in direct terms what facilities Her Majesty's ships of war might expect, inthe event of touching at this port for bullocks, flour, vegetables, &c. I certainly was extremely surprised at the reply, that 'they were not in a condition to supply.'... The American policy of the Hudson's Bay Company would seem from the above facts, to be more than a matter of suspicion.
"It is very easy to say, these are idle tales; they are tales—but such tales, that Parliament ought to make a searching investigation into their truth.... It is certain that Dr. McLoughlin has now left the Hudson's Bay Company, and has becomenominally, what he seems to have been for years,really—anAmerican citizen, living in the midst of an American population, which he collected around him, upon soil, to which he knew that his own country had, all along, laid claim."
Sir Edward Belcher's exploring expedition was at Fort Vancouver in August, 1839. He insisted that the crews of his vessels should be supplied with fresh beef. Dr. McLoughlin was not then at Fort Vancouver. Probably he had not returned from his trip to England in 1838-9. Mr. Douglas, who was in charge, refused Belcher's request because the supply of cattle was not sufficient for that purpose. Fresh beef was supplied to Sir Edward Belcher and his officers.
Commodore Wilkes and his exploring expedition were on the Oregon Coast in 1841. He did not ask for his crews to be supplied with provisions. He was grateful for the kind treatment of himself, his officers and men, by Dr. McLoughlin and other officers of the Hudson's Bay Company.Sir Edward Belcher, it seems, was not grateful.[70]
In relation to the Red River immigrants, who arrived in 1841, the statement of Fitzgerald is mostly untrue. These settlers came to Oregon in 1841 under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company and settled on Nisqually Plains, near Puget Sound. These plains are almost sterile, being an enormous bed of very fine gravel mixed with some soil at the surface. It is easy to understand how these settlers were disappointed in living by themselves on the Nisqually Plains, when they could come to the Willamette Valley with its fertile soil and be near the settlers in the Willamette Valley. It must be borne in mind that when these Red River settlers went to the Willamette Valley, they were practically as much dependent on the Hudson's Bay Company and Dr. McLoughlin, as though they had stayed on the Nisqually Plains.
Rev. Daniel Lee and Rev. J. H. Frost wrote a book entitled "Ten Years in Oregon," which was printed in New York in 1844. On page 216 of that work they say of these settlers from Red River: "They went to Nesqually, on Pugit's Sound; but, after spending a year, it was found that the land was of a very inferior quality, and that they could not subsist upon it. Thus, after having subjected themselves to many hardships, and privations, and losses, for almost two years, they had yet to remove to the Walamet Valley, as promising to remunerate them for their future toil, and make them forget the past. Accordingly most of them removed and settled in the Walamet in 1841-2."
DOCUMENT R
Note on authorship of "History of Oregon" in Bancroft's Works; and sources of information for this monograph.
Hubert Howe Bancroft obtained a fine collection of books and pamphlets relating to early Oregon and a great deal of other information before the "History of Oregon," in his Works, was written. A great many Oregon pioneers were personally interviewed and their statements reduced to writing. He also borrowed, on a promise to return, a great many private papers and other documents, including letters and copies of letters from the heirs of Dr. McLoughlin and from other Oregon pioneers and heirs of pioneers, which he has not yet returned, although he borrowed these papers and documents more than twenty years ago. Said "History of Oregon" is largely supplemented by foot-notes taken from this information obtained, or caused to be obtained by Bancroft. The defense of Dr. McLoughlin to the report of Capt. Warre and Lieut. Vavasour, was afterwards returned to Dr. McLoughlin by James Douglas, to whom it was sent by Sir George Simpson. It was among the papers loaned to Bancroft.
While Bancroft was a handy man in collecting materials, he wisely employed Frances Fuller Victor, Oregon's best and greatest historian, to write the "History of Oregon" for his Works. It was largely, if not wholly, written by her. Thisapplies particularly to that part of the history up to and including the year 1850. For years she had been a careful student of Oregon history. She had access to all the data collected by Bancroft.
In 1871 Mrs. Victor published "The River of the West" which sets forth many of the facts about Dr. McLoughlin, his land claim, and the actions of the missionaries and the conspirators against him, which are contained in this address and in the "History of Oregon" in Bancroft's Works. Volume one of the latter history was published in 1886, and volume two was published in 1888.
In writing this monograph on Dr. McLoughlin I have foundThe River of the Westand Bancroft'sHistory of Oregonof some use, especially where the information was taken from the documents so borrowed by Bancroft. But I have obtained most of my facts from original sources. Wherever it was possible I have consulted Oregon newspapers and books and pamphlets written by persons who took part in the events described, or which were written contemporaneous therewith, and letters written by pioneers.
The Oregon Historical Society has a number of original letters, files of early Oregon newspapers, and other documents relating to events in early Oregon. Many of these I have examined and taken copies of. In this I have been greatly aided by Mr. George H. Himes, for years the efficient Assistant Secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, and Secretary of the Oregon Pioneer Association. I have also obtained copies from two issues of theOregon Spectatorin the possession of theUniversity of Oregon, through the courtesy of Prof. Frederic G. Young.
DOCUMENT S
Excerpts from opinions of contemporaries of Dr. McLoughlin.
In addition to opinions of Dr. McLoughlin set forth in the address, I here set forth excerpts from other opinions, given by some of his contemporaries. I have selected these out of many high opinions and eulogies upon Dr. McLoughlin.
Judge Matthew P. Deady, in an address before the Oregon Pioneer Association, in 1876, said:[71]"Dr. John McLoughlin was Chief Factor of the Company [Hudson's Bay Company] west of the Rocky mountains, from 1824 to 1845, when he resigned the position and settled at Oregon City, where he died in 1857, full of years and honor.... Although, as an officer of the Company, his duty and interest required that he should prefer it to the American immigrant or missionary, yet at the call of humanity, he always forgot all special interests, and was ever ready to help and succor the needy and unfortunate of whatever creed or clime.
"Had he but turned his back upon the early missionary or settler and left them to shift for themselves, the occupation of the country by Americans would have been seriously retarded, and attended with much greater hardship and sufferingthan it was. For at least a quarter of a century McLoughlin was a grand and potent figure in the affairs of the Pacific slope.... But he has long since gone to his rest. Peace to his ashes! Yet the good deeds done in the body are a lasting monument to his memory, and shall in due time cause his name to be written in letters of gold in Oregon history."
Governor Peter H. Burnett, from whose "Recollections and Opinions of An Old Pioneer," I have already quoted, also said in that book (pp. 143, 144): "Dr. John McLoughlin was one of the greatest and most noble philanthropists I ever knew. He was a man of superior ability, just in all his dealings, and a faithful Christian. I never knew a man of the world who was more admirable. I never heard him utter a vicious sentiment, or applaud a wrongful act. His views and acts were formed upon the model of the Christian gentleman. He was a superior business man, and a profound judge of human nature.... In his position of Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company he had grievous responsibilities imposed upon him. He stood between the absent directors and stockholders of the Company and the present suffering immigrants. He witnessed their sufferings; they did not. He was unjustly blamed by many of both parties. It was not the business of the Company to deal upon credit; and the manager of its affairs in Oregon was suddenly thrown into a new and very embarrassing position. How to act, so as to secure the approbation of the directors and stockholders in England, and at thesame time not to disregard the most urgent calls of humanity, was indeed the great difficulty. No possible line of conduct could have escaped censure.
"To be placed in such a position was a misfortune which only a good man could bear in patience. I was assured by Mr. Frank Ermatinger, the manager of the Company's store at Oregon City, as well as by others, that Dr. McLoughlin had sustained a heavy individual loss by his charity to the immigrants. I knew enough myself to be certain that these statements were substantially true. Yet such was the humility of the Doctor that he never, to my knowledge, mentioned or alluded to any particular act of charity performed by him. I was intimate with him, and he never mentioned them to me."
Col. J. W. Nesmith,[72]from whose address in 1876 I have already quoted, in that address also said:[73]"Dr. John McLoughlin was a public benefactor, and the time will come when the people of Oregon will do themselves credit by erecting a statue to his memory.... Thus far detraction and abuse have been his principal rewards."
Hon. Willard H. Rees, a pioneer of 1844, in his address before the Oregon Pioneer Association, in 1879, said:[74]"Dr. McLoughlin, as director ofthe affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky mountains, had more power over the Indians of the whole Northwest Coast, which he judiciously exercised, than all other influences multiplied and combined. He was a great and just man, having in no instance deceived them, firm in maintaining the established rules regulating their intercourse, making their supplies, so far as the Company was concerned, strictly depend upon their own efforts and good conduct, always prompt to redress the slightest infraction of good faith. This sound undeviating policy made Dr. McLoughlin the most humane and successful manager of the native tribes this country has ever known, while the Indians both feared and respected him above all other men.... Dr. McLoughlin was no ordinary personage. Nature had written in her most legible hand preeminence in every lineament of his strong Scotch face, combining in a marked degree all the native dignity of an intellectual giant. He stood among his pioneer contemporaries like towering old [Mount] Hood amid the evergreen heights that surround his mountain home—a born leader of men. He would have achieved distinction in any of the higher pursuits of life.... His benevolent work was confined to no church, sect nor race of men, but was as broad as suffering humanity, never refusing to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and provide for the sick and toilworn immigrants and needy settlers who called for assistance at his old Vancouver home. Many were the pioneer mothers and their little ones, whose hearts were madeglad through his timely assistance, while destitute strangers, whom chance or misfortune had thrown upon these, then, wild inhospitable shores, were not permitted to suffer while he had power to relieve. Yet he was persecuted by men claiming the knowledge of a Christian experience, defamed by designing politicians, knowingly misrepresented in Washington as a British intriguer, until he was unjustly deprived of the greater part of his land claim. Thus, after a sorrowful experience of man's ingratitude to man, he died an honored American citizen."
J. Quinn Thornton was one of the early Oregon pioneers. He came to Oregon with the immigration of 1846. At the meeting of the Oregon Pioneer Association in 1875, he furnished to that Association a history of the Provisional Government of Oregon. In this history, speaking of Dr. John McLoughlin, Thornton said:[75]"The late Dr. John McLoughlin resided at Fort Vancouver, and he was Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky Mountains. He was a great man, upon whom God had stamped a grandeur of character which few men possess and a nobility which the patent of no earthly sovereign can confer.... As a Christian, he was a devout Roman Catholic, yet, nevertheless, catholic in the largest sense of that word.... He was a man of great goodness of heart, too wise to do a really foolish thing, too noble and magnanimous to condescend to meanness, and too forgiving to cherish resentments. The writer, duringthe last years of Dr. McLoughlin's life, being his professional adviser, had an opportunity such as no other man had, save his confessor, of learning and studying him; and as a result of the impressions, which daily intercourse of either a social or business nature made upon the writer's mind, he hesitates not to say, that old, white-headed John McLoughlin, when compared with other persons who have figured in the early history of Oregon, is in sublimity of character, a Mount Hood towering above the foot hills into the regions of eternal snow and sunshine."
Col. J. K. Kelly was Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Regiment of Oregon Mounted Volunteers in the Yakima Indian War of 1855. He was afterwards a United States Senator from Oregon, and Chief Justice of the Oregon State Supreme Court. In his address to the Oregon Pioneer Association in 1882, speaking of Dr. McLoughlin, Col. Kelly said:[76]"Just and generous as that law [Oregon Donation Land Law] was to the people of Oregon, yet there was one blot upon it. I refer to the provisions contained in the 11th section of the act by which the donation claim of Dr. John McLoughlin, known as the Oregon City claim, was taken from him and placed at the disposal of the Legislative Assembly to be sold and the proceeds applied to the endowment of an university. It was an act of injustice to one of the best friends and greatest benefactors which the early immigrants ever had. I do not propose to speak of the many estimable and noble qualities of Dr. McLoughlinhere. They have been dwelt upon by others who have heretofore addressed the Pioneer Association, and especially by Mr. Rees in 1879. I concur in everything he said in praise of Dr. McLoughlin.
"It was my good fortune to know him well during the last six years of his life, years which were embittered by what he considered an act of ingratitude after he had done so many acts of personal kindness to the early immigrants in their time of need. That Dr. McLoughlin was unjustly treated in this matter, few, if any, will deny. And I am very sure that a large majority of the people, in Oregon, at that time, condemned the act which took away his property, and tended to becloud his fame. And yet no act was ever done by the Territorial Government to assert its right to the Oregon City claim during the life of Dr. McLoughlin; and in 1862, five years after his death, the State of Oregon confirmed the title to his devisees upon the payment of the merely nominal consideration of $1,000 into the university fund. And so five years after he was laid in his grave an act of tardy justice was done at last to the memory of the grand old pioneer." It was largely through Col. Kelly's influence and actions that this act was passed in favor of Dr. McLoughlin's devisees.
Horace S. Lyman was a son of Rev. Horace Lyman, a Congregational minister who came to Oregon in 1849, and who founded the First Congregational Church of Portland in June, 1851. Horace S. Lyman grew up in Oregon and from his own knowledge, from personal associationwith pioneer missionaries and others, and from reading, he became well acquainted with the history of Oregon. He was the author of a "History of Oregon" published in 1903. His associate editors were Mr. Harvey W. Scott, Judge Charles B. Bellinger, and Prof. Frederic G. Young. In the fourth volume of this history, page 381, it is said: "Whether the justice of history, and the recognition of after times, when personal interests and partizan spites are dissipated, and a character like that of McLoughlin stands forth as one of the best ever produced under the British flag, and one of the best ever given to America, should be regarded as compensation for the injustice and sufferings of a life darkened in old age, may not be determined. Yet the historian must ever assert that a character worthy of perpetual commemoration and admiration, illuminating, by humanity and Christian doctrine, the dark chapters of wilderness life from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and setting a star of hope over the barracks of a mercenary trading company, is worth all personal sacrifice. It is of such acts that great history consists. Even to the Doctor himself, going down in old age and poverty, and doubting whether his family would have a support, and believing that he had better have been shot as a beast than to have so suffered, we may hope that it was but 'a light affliction, compared with the perpetual consciousness of a life of peace and good will sustained in a period menaced by war."
As I have said, my uncle, Daniel S. Holman, was one of the immigrants of 1843. He was thenabout twenty-one years old. He will be eighty-five years old the fifteenth of November, 1907. He lives at McMinnville, Oregon, strong in mind and body. When I was honored by being selected to deliver the address, I wrote him asking for his opinion of Dr. John McLoughlin, for I knew his feelings. He wrote me August 7, 1905. In this letter he said: "I received yours requesting me to tell you of some of the kind acts of Doctor McLoughlin. It would take more time than I have to speak of all the very good things that he did, but I can say that he did all that was in his power to do to help the starving, wornout and poverty stricken [immigrants] that came to Oregon. For the first three or four years after I came if he had not helped us we could not have lived in Oregon. At the time we came he sent his boats to The Dalles, free of cost, to help all that could not help themselves to go down the river. He also sent food and clothing to the destitute and gave it to them. He also furnished seed grain to everyone who wanted, and waited for his pay until they raised wheat to pay. The fact is there never was a better man than he was. He did more than any other man did to settle Oregon. History says Doctor Whitman was the man who saved Oregon to the United States, but that is not true. It was Dr. John McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company. So says every man that is a man, that came to Oregon up to 1849. He furnished the entire immigration with food and clothing for the first year after we came. The people did not have money to live on and so he fed and clothed us all.Some never paid him but some did pay the good old man."
And he added a postscript to say that his wife thought he had not said enough about Dr. John McLoughlin. She has been my uncle's loving and faithful help-mate for more than fifty-nine years. She is a pioneer of 1846. She, too, is still strong, mentally and physically. My uncle said in the postscript: "I can say that I am sure no man could have done better than he did to us all. In the fall of 1845 I went out to meet the immigrants and was gone from home six or eight weeks without a change of clothing. I got back to Vancouver where the Doctor then lived. I was as ragged as I could be. I went to his office and told him I wanted some clothing, but had no money. He gave me an order to his son to let me have whatever I wanted in the store. He treated others as he did me. In 1848 he let every one who wanted to go to the mines have all they needed, on time, to go to California. Some never paid him. Have you anyone in Portland that would help any and all such men off to the mines on such chances of getting their pay? I don't think there is such a man in Oregon, or any other place. You can't say too much in his praise."