A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Part 48

August 17, 1845.

_To the Hon., etc.:_

GENTLEMEN,--Being on my way, and having but a moment to reflect, I have been at much of a loss which of your two resolutions most to respect, or which to obey; but at length have become satisfied that the first was taken most _soberly_, and, as it answers my purpose best, I pledge myself to adhere strictly to that. Sincerely wis.h.i.+ng you good luck in legislating,

I am, dear sirs, very respectfully yours, E. WHITE.

On the 20th, on motion of Mr. Applegate, it was

"_Resolved_, That the secretary be requested to forward to the United States government, through the American consul at the Sandwich Islands, a copy of the articles of compact, as adopted by the people of Oregon Territory, on the last Sat.u.r.day of July, A.D.

1845; and that the same be signed by the governor, and attested by the secretary; also, all resolutions adopted by this house relative to sending said doc.u.ments by E. White, late Indian agent of this Territory; also, a copy of the letter of E. White, directed to this house."

These doc.u.ments and papers, with depositions respecting White's opening and destroying private letters, were prepared, duly signed, and sent on to the Sandwich Islands by Captain Couch, of the _Lausanne_, and reached Was.h.i.+ngton just in time for President Polk to refuse White an important commission in New Mexico. The President, on receiving the doc.u.ments and learning of White's course, asked an explanation, which he at first declined to give, on account of an attempt, as he alleged, of _some low blackguards in Oregon to slander him_. The legislative doc.u.ments were referred to, when he found he was cornered, and left the President's house without his appointment.

Thus ended, for a time, the official course of a base and unprincipled man, who seemed only to live and move for selfish ends. His influence as a missionary, and as an officer of the government, were alike vile and unprincipled. He sought friends and partisans only to deceive and betray them. Applegate, McCarver, Garrison, Lee, McClure, and Newell were compelled to acknowledge his deception. In fact, no one but the Hudson's Bay Company could make any use of him, and with them he was considered an irresponsible man, and only useful as a tool to combine the Indians, and divide and destroy the influence of the settlement, as he had done that of the Methodist Mission.

The history of Dr. White, as connected with Pacific City and Spiritualism, and his secret agency under President Lincoln's administration, are of small moment when compared with the moral blight he fixed on the cause of missions and religion, in his early relations in Oregon. All who have ever attempted to a.s.sociate with him, or a.s.sist him, have been made to feel his immoral influence. He made great professions of sustaining the temperance cause, while acting as Indian agent, and still allowed the Hudson's Bay Company to do as they pleased with their liquors, without a single word of complaint or remonstrance to the American government, while he pursued a high-handed and injudicious course toward the American citizen in his efforts to prevent the introduction or manufacture of liquors in the country. In his zeal, he h.o.a.rded a vessel of which Captain J. H. Couch was master, and a.s.serted his right to search and seize all the liquors he had on board.

Captain Couch, knowing his rights and duties better than the Indian agent did his, ordered his men to get ready a couple of swivels he had on board, ranging them fore and aft along the vessel. He then said to Mr. Indian Agent. "If you are able to take my s.h.i.+p, you can search and seize her, and not otherwise." The doctor found he was dealing with the wrong person, and left, to visit Mrs. Cooper, who had recently arrived in the country from Sydney, New South Wales, with a supply of liquors.

He succeeded in getting a dram from "Old Mother Cooper," as she was called, and inquired if she had any more like it. The old woman had by this time a suspicion of his object, and informed him that, if she had, he could have no more.

Soon after, he learned that d.i.c.k McCary had put up a teapot distillery somewhere near his own house. He then got a party of men and went down and destroyed the whole concern, except the kettle, which answered for a bell, upon which he beat and drummed on his way back to Oregon City, and then took an adz and stove a hole in it, thus destroying it. If this had been done on the ground, no exceptions would have been taken to it; but White's proceedings disgusted the friends of temperance so much, that a few days after, when Newell presented a communication from him to the Legislature, with a bill to prevent the sale of liquor, it was defeated--5 for and 8 against.

The governor, having confidence in the morality and honesty of the people, suggested in his message the repeal of all laws for the collection of debts. He seemed to be of the opinion, that as they had lived and prospered under the mission and Hudson's Bay Company's rule without any such laws, the same rule would apply to a more numerous and civilized community. He was sustained in his opinion by Applegate, Hendricks, H. Lee, B. Lee, and Newell--5; Foisy, Gray, Garrison, Hill, McCarver, McClure, Straight, and Smith--8, were of a different opinion.

This vote seemed to annoy Applegate, as he had taken an active part in shaping the governor's suggestions into a bill to prevent litigation, and he seemed to insist upon the experiment being tried in a more extensive manner in the government of Oregon. It is due to this legislative body and to the governor to state, that none of them had ever had any experience in law-making until they found themselves in a country where there were no laws, and where the representatives were without law-books (with the single exception of a copy of the statutes of Iowa) to guide them. They had to originate, revise, and do as the majority thought best, in all the laws presented. That they were adapted to the time and the people then in the country there can be no question.

This shows the innate love of law and order in the American people, as also a disposition to abide by and sustain right principles, though not immediately in the presence of prisons and punishment.

Had there been no foreign influences in the country, it would, perhaps, have been safe to risk the governor's suggestion, and Applegate's experiment. I arrive at this conclusion from my experience in four times crossing the continent, and in visiting the early mining regions of California, British Columbia, and Oregon. In all American caravans and mines, the company and miners make their own laws. In British mines, the government makes the laws, and the revenue officers enforce them. So with the Hudson's Bay Company and Roman missions: the committee in London, and the pope in Rome, give their subjects certain laws by which to be governed; and whenever those laws come in conflict with the more liberal American idea of government, there is opposition; for the disposition to oppress and the desire to be free can never harmonize.

With the one is organized wealth and superst.i.tion, backed by irons, flogging, and ignorance. With the other is liberty and the love of right, sustained by intelligence, honesty, and virtue. No one acquainted with the early history of the people of Oregon can fail to admire their virtue and stability, and the firmness they displayed in maintaining their natural rights. We have already explained the secret influences that were combined to hold them in a state of half-savage and half-religious or ecclesiastical va.s.salage, till some action should be taken by the United States government.

This state of things did not accord with the feelings of a great majority of the people. They had ruled their own individual actions too long to submit quietly to any religious or political power, in which they had no voice. Hence they were ready for any mutual organization, that was of their own choice and creation.

They adopted a system of currency suitable to the time and country. This system became necessary, from the known disposition of the Hudson's Bay Company to oppress and force payment, in what did not then exist in sufficient quant.i.ty to meet the wants of the settlement; besides, they held the commercial power; and here again protection was required. The two pet.i.tions to the Congress of the United States of 1840 and 1842 state their policy as to internal matters. The first section of this currency law is:--

"_Be it enacted by the House of Representatives of Oregon Territory:_ 1st. That, in addition to gold and silver, treasury drafts, approved orders on solvent merchants, and good merchantable wheat at the market price, delivered at such place as it is customary for people to receive their wheat at, shall be a lawful tender for the payment of taxes and judgments rendered in the courts of Oregon Territory, and for the payment of all debts contracted in Oregon Territory, where no special contracts have been made to the contrary.

"2d. The personal estate of every individual, company, body politic or corporate, including his, her, or their goods or chattels, also town or city property, or improvements claimed and owned in virtue of occupancy, secured and allowed by the treaty between Great Britain and the United States, shall be subject to execution, to be taken and sold according to the provisions of this act; excepting, that wearing-apparel shall not be considered as any part of the estate of any defendant or defendants in execution; and no land claim or improvement upon a land claim, held according to the laws of this Territory, shall be subject to execution; and no stay upon execution shall be permitted or allowed, except by the consent of the party in whose favor the execution has been issued, nor for any time other than the time agreed upon by the parties.

"3d. Specifies that personal property shall be sold previous to town lots.

"4th. Exempts (if a family) one Bible, one cow and calf, one horse, or yoke of cattle, five sheep, five hogs, household and kitchen furniture not to exceed in value thirty dollars, one stove fixed up in the house, one bed for every two in the family, farming utensils not to exceed in value fifty dollars, one month's provisions for all the family, all mechanics' necessary tools, and all the books of private libraries not to exceed one hundred dollars' worth."

Who says we were not willing to give a poor family a good show to start with in Oregon in 1845?

"5th. Fifteen days' notice of any sale was to be given.

"6th. No property was to be sold for less than two-thirds its appraised value."

On the second section of this act, there was a long and animated discussion, Newell and Garrison claiming that we had no right to subject the property of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Methodist and other missions, to our laws; McCarver and Hill, that we ought to exempt town sites and lots from execution. On its final pa.s.sage, the vote was Applegate, Foisy, Gray, Hendricks, McClure, Smith, Straight, and H.

Lee--8, for; Garrison, Hill, B. Lee, Newell, and McCarver--5, against.

This body adjourned _sine die_ on the 20th of August, 1845, and in consequence of there being no provision made for a new election in the amended organic compact, they were again called to meet on Tuesday, December 2, 1845, in accordance with the organic law, to arrange and fill up any deficiencies in the offices and laws.

Applegate had resigned. There were present, Foisy, Garrison, Newell, and Barton Lee from Champoeg; Gray and Straight from Clackamas; Hill and McCarver from Tualatin; and McClure from Clatsop.

There were absent, from Yamhill, Hendricks; from Tualatin, J. M. Smith; and from Clackamas, H. A. G. Lee.

Newell, of Champoeg, was elected on the final vote as Speaker; Dr. J. E.

Long, clerk.

Jefferson's Manual, which had for the first time strayed across the Rocky Mountains, was presented to the house, and used to govern its proceedings, so far as it was applicable. I think it must have come into the Multnomah Circulating Library, in part payment for a share in that inst.i.tution. Gray moved its adoption to govern the proceedings of the house, which was considered organized by the election of Speaker, clerk, and sergeant-at-arms.

On the second day all the members were present except Applegate. The governor was called upon to issue his warrant to fill the vacancy, which he did. I think, however, that no election was held, as no representative appeared to claim the seat.

An effort was made to locate the seat of government, but failed, on account of Dr. McLaughlin not having put in his bid in time to have it considered by the house; and a remonstrance was got up by Ermatinger and the Hudson's Bay Company's influence, with sixty names attached, against locating it at all.

This was in accordance with the short-sighted policy of Dr. McLaughlin, aided by the influence secured over the people by such men as Ermatinger, Long, Newell, and McCarver, who had become a resident of Clackamas, while he represented Tualatin County.

CHAPTER LIII.

The liquor law.--Amended act of 1845.--Message of the governor on the same.--Repeal of the prohibitory and pa.s.sage of the license law.--Letter of James Douglas.--Reply of Mr. Samuel Parker.--Dr.

Tolmie's resolution on the judiciary.--The governor's veto of the license law.--Immigration for Oregon and California in 1846.--Arrival of the brig Henry.--The Oregon Printing a.s.sociation.--The _Spectator_, the first newspaper in Oregon.--W.

G. T. Vault, first editor.--H. A. G. Lee, second editor.--G. L.

Curry, third editor.--Judge Wait, fourth editor.

_The Liquor Law._--Peter H. Burnett framed a law on this subject, which was revised by Newell in the summer of 1845, and lost on the final vote.

In December, 1845, Gray, from committee on ways and means, reported a bill on ardent spirits, expressing the views, and gaining the approval of a decided majority of the people. Governor Abernethy, in his annual message the next year, expressed an opinion that this law required some amendment, but, by combining the whole liquor influence in the country, the law was repealed, and a license law subst.i.tuted, by a two-thirds vote over his veto; while, at the same time, nearly two-thirds of the voters of the Territory voted to _prohibit_ the sale of liquor, instead of to _regulate_ it, as expressed in the organic law.

The law, as reported by the committee of ways and means, was pa.s.sed December 6, 1845, by the following vote: Gray, Garrison, Hendricks, H.

Lee, B. Lee, McClure, and McCarver--7, for; Foisy, Hill, Straight, and Newell--4, against.

On the 8th, the Monday following this vote (Hendricks and Barton Lee having been treated and tampered with), on motion of B. Lee--

"_Resolved_, That the house now reconsider the vote on the final pa.s.sage of the bill on ardent spirits."

_Yeas_--Hendricks, Hill, B. Lee, Smith, Straight, and Newell--6.

_Nays_--Foisy, Gray, Garrison, H. Lee, McCarver, and McClure--6.

So the motion to reconsider was lost, and the bill published in the first newspaper ever published on this coast, as provided for in the bill itself, which is as follows:--

_Amended Act of 1845._