Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon Part 13

In the _History of Oregon_ in Bancroft's Works, it is said: That Judge Bryant's home was in Indiana; that he was appointed Chief Justice of Oregon in August, 1848, and arrived in Oregon April 9, 1849; that he resigned as Chief Justice January 1, 1851, having spent but five months in Oregon; that upon his resignation he returned to Indiana, where he soon died.

DOc.u.mENT L

_Letter of Dr. John McLoughlin, published in the "Oregon Spectator,"

Thursday, September 12, 1850._

"Mr. Editor:

"In the Congressional Globe of May 30th, 1850, is the following language of Mr. Thurston, the Delegate from Oregon, to which I wish to invite the attention of the public.

"'And as to the humbug about the Hudson's Bay Company, mentioned by the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Bowlin], I have to say that I know of no humbug about it; this Company has been warring against our Government for these forty years. Dr. McLoughlin has been the chief fugleman, first to cheat our Government, out of the whole country, and next to prevent its settlement. He has driven men from their claims, and from the country, to stifle its efforts at settlement. In 1845 he sent an express to Fort Hall, eight hundred miles, to warn the emigrants, if they attempted to come to the Willamette, they would all be cut off; they went and none were cut off. How, sir, would you reward Benedict Arnold, were he living; he fought the battles of the country, yet, by one act of treason, forfeited the respect of that country. A bill for his relief would fail, I am sure; yet this Bill proposes to reward those who are now, have been, and ever will be, more hostile to our country, because more Jesuitical.'

"What Mr. Thurston means by 'warring against our government for these forty years,' I know not. I am certain, however, that the H. B. Co. had a right to carry on trade under the treaty of joint occupation of the country--even were we to look no farther for another foundation of the right. I am sure, moreover, that the business of the Company was so managed as to bear the strictest scrutiny, and to be in all respects subservient to the best interests of the country, and the duties of religion and humanity. The government and policy of the Company were such as to render traveling safe, and the Indians were friendly to whites. When the Hudson's Bay Company first began to trade with these Indians they were so hostile to the whites that they had to mount guard day and night at the establishment, have sentinels at the gates to prevent any Indian entering, unless to trade, and when they entered, to take their arms from them. The Columbia could not be traveled in parties of less than sixty well armed men; but, by the management of the Company, they were brought to that friendly disposition that _two_ men, for several years back, can travel in _safety_ between this and Fort Hall.

"Mr. Thurston is pleased to describe me as 'chief fugleman to the Hudson's Bay Company.' This is a term which he probably gathered from the vocabulary in which he found the word 'gumption,' with which he recently garnished another dish, and which he seems to have prepared for appet.i.tes similar to his own. By the use of this, and such like epithets it will at once be seen that he has a field of literature which he is likely to occupy without a rival, and the exclusive possession of which no one will deny him. Neither my principles nor my tastes lead me in that direction. But I am described as a 'fugleman' of the Hudson's Bay Company; first to cheat our Government out of the whole country, and next to prevent its settlement. I am an old man, and my head is very white with the frost of many winters, but I have never before been accused as a cheat. I was born a British subject--I have had for twenty years the superintendence of the Hudson's Bay Company's trade, in Oregon, and on the North West Coast; and may be said to have been the representative of British interests in this country; but I have never descended to court popularity, by pandering to prejudice, and doing wrong to anyone. I have, on the other hand, afforded every a.s.sistance to all who required it, and which religion and humanity dictated; and this community can say if I did so or not. My language to all who spoke to me on the subject of politics, was that situated as we were we ought to say nothing about the boundary question, as that was an affair of the Government; but to live as Christians in peace and concord, and in acting as I did I consider that I have rendered services to the British and American Governments. But if I had acted differently, the Government would have had difficulties, and this community would perhaps not have enjoyed the peace it has, nor be in so prosperous a condition as it is, and certainly there is not a man in it who will say that I have sought to prevent its settlement. There are, in this Valley, very many persons, and especially among the earliest immigrants, of the first years of the settlement of the country, who are sufficiently honest to admit that the country could never have been colonized as easily as it was, but for the timely, ample, and continuous a.s.sistance rendered by me, to them, with the means of the Hudson's Bay Company under my charge. Provisions were sent to meet the immigrants--boats were dispatched to convey them down the Columbia,--when arrived on their claims, cattle were loaned them--they were supplied with clothing, food, farming utensils, and wheat for seed. Very many of these men honorably paid, as soon as they could; others, though able to pay, and though their notes have been standing for many years, testify their sense of the number and magnitude of my favors by signing a _secret_ Memorial to the Congress of the United States, to take from me my property, and to leave me in the decline of life, and in the decrepitude of old age, to the companionship of adders, who--when they were benumbed with frost, I gathered from the hedges and warmed into life, to feel, when alas! too late, the stings of their ingrat.i.tude.

"For additional proof, in repelling these calumnies, I could refer to many sources: Wilkes' Journal, Fremont's Narrative, to American travelers and writers, and to letters from many and many an immigrant to this country, and now residents in this valley, stating to their friends in the States the kindness I had shewn them, and who, I am sure, would acknowledge it, and are as much surprised at the charge brought against me as I am myself. But, moreover, it is well known that the fact of my having aided in the settlement of this country has been a subject of serious complaints, and grave charges made against me, by subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, during the pending of the boundary question--who seem to have been imbued with the same kind disposition toward their fellow men as Mr. Thurston.

"Mr. Thurston says, 'In 1845 he [Dr. McLoughlin] sent an express to Fort Hall, eight hundred miles, to warn the immigration that if they attempted to come to the Willamette, they would be all cut off.' This is a calumny as gratuitous as it is unprovoked; but it is with mingled emotions of astonishment and indignation that I have accidentally become acquainted with the contents of another doc.u.ment, ent.i.tled a 'Letter of the Delegate from Oregon to the members of the House of Representatives, in behalf of his const.i.tuents touching the Oregon Land Bill.' On the back of the only copy sent, is written in the handwriting of Mr.

Thurston--'Keep this still till next mail, when I shall send them generally. The debate on the California Bill closes next Tuesday, when I hope to get it and pa.s.sed--my land bill; keep dark till next mail.

"'THURSTON.'"

"'June 9, 1850.'"

"In the paragraph already quoted from the Globe of June 30, Mr. Thurston affirms that I am a more dangerous man than Benedict Arnold was; because, as he states, I am more 'Jesuitical.' Webster, the celebrated American Lexicographer, defines Jesuitism thus: 'Cunning, deceit, prevarication, deceptive practices'--yet this same man, Mr. Thurston, who bestows epithets upon me without stint and beyond measure; who accuses me of being 'Jesuitical,' and who occupies the situation of a grave legislator, admits that his measures will not bear the light of truth, and he requires his friend to keep still, until he shall complete the perpetration of a deed of wickedness. Is this not the cunning of the fox? who prowls around in the darkness, that he may rob the hen-roost of the farmer while he is sleeping, without a suspicion of a meditated evil. Is not the sending of such a doc.u.ment, with the request written upon it to keep 'dark,' a deceptive practice, within the very letter and meaning of Webster's definition of Jesuitism? Mr. Thurston, it appears, was afraid of the light of facts, which he did not desire to have communicated to the Government at Washington, before he completed an act of contemplated wrong doing.

"In the letter referred to, speaking of Oregon City, he says, 'The Methodist Mission first took the claim with the view of establishing here their Mills and Mission--they were forced to leave it under the fear of having the savages of Oregon let loose upon them.' This charge is likewise without a fraction of truth, as a few facts will demonstrate. In 1829, I commenced making preparations at the falls of the Willamette, for building a sawmill. I had a party residing there during the winter of 1829 and 1830. This party, in my employment, and paid with my money, built three houses, and prepared the timber for the erection of a mill. Circ.u.mstances rendered the suspension of the mill for a while necessary. In the spring of 1830 I commenced cultivating the ground at the Falls. In the year 1832 I had a mill race blasted out of the rocks, from near the head of the island which Mr. Thurston calls Abernethy Island--but Mr. Thurston found it convenient to conceal from the United States Government that Mr. Abernethy and others purchased the island from F. Hathaway, who jumped the island in the first instance, and that Judge Bryant and Gov. Lane finally purchased whatever right Mr.

Abernethy had acquired. The Indians having burnt in 1829 the timber which during that same year had been prepared for the erection of the mill, I had, in the summer of 1838, another house built at the Falls; during the same year I had squared timber prepared and hauled to the place at which I had originally proposed to erect a mill; the erection of the mill was again postponed. In 1840 the Rev. Jason Lee, superintendent of the Methodist Mission in Oregon, applied to me for the loan of some of the above mentioned timber, for the purpose of erecting a Mission building. To this request I a.s.sented, and at the same time sent Dr. F. W. Tolmie to point out to the Rev. Mr. Lee the spot upon which he might build. Up to this time, it should be observed that no effort had been made to interfere with my claim, and no one called in question my perfect right to make it. It should be borne in mind, too, that I commenced improving in 1829, and that the missionaries did not come here till 1834. To prevent, however, any future misunderstanding, growing out of any occupancy of sufferance, I handed Mr. Lee a letter, dated Vancouver, 21st July, 1840, in which I described the extent of my claim, as embracing 'the upper end of the Falls, across to the Clackamas Falls, in the Willamette, including the whole point of land _and the small Island in the falls, on which the portage is made and which I intend to claim when the boundary line is drawn_.' The words italicised are not so in the original. I now do this to call attention to them. Up to this time no one but myself claimed the island. Mr. Lee promised to return the timber he procured to erect the building, with the wood thus loaned Mr. Waller and family, who were placed in it by Mr. Lee. I gave Mr. Lee permission to occupy, as a mission store room, a house I had got erected for myself. Up to 1841 my claim to the island had never been interfered with; in this year Mr. Felix Hathaway put some logs on the island. I gave him notice of my claim, and erected a small house upon the island. Hathaway finally proceeded with his building. I did not forcibly eject him because I wished to preserve the peace of the country. In the autumn of 1842, I first heard that the Rev. Mr. Waller, as I was informed, set up a claim in conflict with mine, (not for the Mission, but in his own name.) I subsequently bought off Mr. Waller, in the same anxious desire to preserve the peace.

"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 a.s.sist him in putting up the logs which I had loaned to Mr. Lee, Capt.

Kilbourn said to him: 'I will not a.s.sist 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 circ.u.mscribed 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 to more 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 a.s.sert, 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 the _suggestions_ of 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 n.o.blest work of G.o.d.'"

"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 ent.i.tled, 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 a.s.signed 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 a.s.signs, is the same island which Mr. Hathaway and others jumped in 1841, and formed themselves 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 a.s.sociates, 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 States of 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; but now 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 a.s.sert I never made such a statement to Mr. Thurston, and I a.s.sert 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 months before 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 a.s.signs, was, in fact, proposing to donate it to Judge Bryant, his heirs and a.s.signs.

"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.]"

DOc.u.mENT 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 G.o.d 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 any property 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 a.s.sert that Mr. Thurston _knew_, 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 circ.u.mstance to show that Mr. Thurston knew exactly how Dr. McLoughlin stood. The a.s.sertion of Mr. Thurston that Dr. McLoughlin has 'worked diligently to break down the settlements,' is also without foundation.