ORGANIZING CIVIL GOVERNMENT.--THE INDIAN SERVICE
It was indeed a wild country, untouched by civilization, and a scanty
white population sparsely sprinkled over the immense area that were
awaiting the arrival of Governor Stevens to organize civil government,
and shape the destinies of the future. A mere handful of settlers, 3965
all told, were widely scattered over western Washington, between the
lower Columbia and the Strait of Fuca. A small hamlet clustered around
the military post at Vancouver. A few settlers were spread wide apart
along the Columbia, among whom were Columbia Lancaster on Lewis River;
Seth Catlin, Dr. Nathaniel Ostrander, and the Huntingtons about the
mouth of the Cowlitz; Alexander S. Abernethy at Oak Point; and Judge
William Strong at Cathlamet. Some oystermen in Shoalwater Bay were
taking shellfish for the San Francisco market. At Cowlitz Landing,
thirty miles up that river, were extensive prairies, where farms had
been cultivated by the Hudson Bay Company, under the name of the Puget
Sound Agricultural Company, for fifteen years; and here were a few
Americans and a number of Scotch and Canadians, former employees of that
company, and now looking forward to becoming American citizens, and
settling down upon their own "claims" under the Donation Act, which gave
320 acres to every settler, and as much more to his wife. A score of
hardy pioneers had settled upon the scattered prairies between the
Cowlitz Farms and the Sound; among them were John R. Jackson, typical
English yeoman, on his prairie, ten miles from the Cowlitz; S.S.
Saunders, on Saunders's Bottom, where now stands the town of Chehalis;
George Washington, a colored man, on the next prairie, the site of
Centralia; Judge Sidney S. Ford on his prairie on the Chehalis River,
below the mouth of the Skookumchuck Creek; W.B. Goodell, B.L. Henness,
and Stephen Hodgdon on Grand Mound Prairie; A.B. Rabbeson and W.W. Plumb
on Mound Prairie. A number of settlers had taken up the prairies about
Olympia, the principal of whom were W.O. Bush, Gabriel Jones, William
Rutledge, and David Kendrick on Bush Prairie; J.N. Low, Andrew J.
Chambers, Nathan Eaton, Stephen D. Ruddell, and Urban E. Hicks on
Chambers's Prairie; David J. Chambers on the prairie of his name. James
McAlister and William Packwood were on the Nisqually Bottom, at the
mouth of the river, just north of which, on the verge of the Nisqually
plains, was situated the Hudson Bay Company post, Fort Nisqually, a
parallelogram of log buildings and stockade, under charge of Dr. W.F.
Tolmie, a warm-hearted and true Scot. Great herds of Spanish cattle, the
property of this company, roamed over the Nisqually plains, little cared
for and more than half wild, and, it is to be feared, occasionally fell
prey to the rifles of the hungry American emigrants. Two miles below
Olympia, on the east side of the bay, was located a Catholic mission
under Fathers Ricard and Blanchet, where were a large building, an
orchard, and a garden. They had made a number of converts among the
Indians.
Towns, each as yet little more than a "claim" and a name, but each in
the hope and firm belief of its founders destined to future greatness,
were just started at Steilacoom, by Lafayette Balch; at Seattle, by Dr.
D. S. Maynard, H.L. Yesler, and the Dennys; at Port Townsend, by F.W.
Pettygrove and L.B. Hastings; and at Bellingham Bay, by Henry Roder and
Edward Eldridge.
Save the muddy track from the Cowlitz to Olympia and thence to
Steilacoom, and a few local trails, roads there were none. Communication
was chiefly by water, almost wholly in canoes manned by Indians. The
monthly steamer from San Francisco and a little river steamboat plying
daily between Vancouver and Portland alone vexed with their keels the
mighty Columbia; while it was not until the next year that reckless,
harum-scarum Captain Jack Scranton ran the Major Tompkins, a small black
steamer, once a week around the Sound, and had no rival. Here was this
great wooded country without roads, the unrivaled waterways without
steamers, the adventurous, vigorous white population without laws,
numerous tribes of Indians without treaties, and the Hudson Bay
Company's rights and possessions without settlement. To add to the
difficulties and confusion of the situation, Congress, by the Donation
Acts, held out a standing invitation to the American settlers to seize
and settle upon any land, surveyed or unsurveyed, without waiting to
extinguish the Indian title, or define the lands guaranteed by solemn
treaty to the foreign company, and already the Indians and the Hudson
Bay Company were growing daily more and more restless and indignant at
the encroachments of the pushing settlers upon their choicest spots.
Truly a situation fraught with difficulties and dangers, where
everything was to be done and nothing yet begun.
It is a great but common mistake to suppose that the early American
settlers of Washington were a set of lawless, rough, and ignorant
borderers. In fact they compare favorably with the early settlers of any
of the States. As a rule they were men of more than average force of
character, vigorous, honest, intelligent, law-abiding, and
patriotic,--men who had brought their families to carve out homes in
the wilderness, and many of them men of education and of standing in
their former abodes. Among them could be found the best blood of New
England, the sturdy and kindly yeomanry of Virginia and Kentucky, and
men from all the States of the Middle West from Ohio to Arkansas. Most
of them had slowly wended their way across the great plains, overcoming
every obstacle, and suffering untold privations; others had come by sea
around Cape Horn, or across the Isthmus. They were all true Americans,
patriotic and brave, and filled with sanguine hopes of, and firm faith
in, the future growth and greatness of the new country which they had
come to make blossom like the rose. Governor Stevens, as has been shown,
at once appreciated the character of these people.
After the arduous and exposed journey up the Cowlitz by canoe,--where
the Indian crew had to gain foot by foot against the furious current of
the flooded river, oftentimes pulling the frail craft along by the
overhanging bushes,--and over the muddy trail by horseback, Governor
Stevens reached Olympia on November 25, 1853, just five months and
nineteen days since starting from St. Paul. He found here awaiting his
arrival the new territorial secretary, Charles M. Mason, brother to his
old friend Colonel James Mason, of the engineers, who had just come out
by the Isthmus route. Mason was of distinguished appearance and bearing,
with fine dark eyes and hair, fair, frank face, and charming but
unobtrusive manner. He was highly educated, gifted with unusual ability,
and a noble and amiable disposition, and was beloved by all who knew
him. The other territorial officers on the ground were: Edward Lander,
chief justice, and Victor Monroe, associate justice; J.V. Clendenin,
district attorney; J. Patten Anderson, marshal; and Simpson P. Moses,
collector of customs.
[Illustration: CHARLES H. MASON
_Secretary of Washington Territory_]
Among the settlers welcoming their new governor were: Edmund Sylvester,
the founder of Olympia; Colonel William Cock, Shirley Ensign, D.R.
Bigelow, George A. Barnes, H.A. Goldsborough, John M. Swan, C.H. Hale,
Judge B.F. Yantis, Judge Gilmore Hayes, John G. Parker, Quincy A.
Brooks, Dr. G.K. Willard, Colonel M. T. Simmons, Captain Clanrick
Crosby, Ira Ward, James Biles, Joseph Cushman, S.W. Percival, Edwin
Marsh, R.M. Walker, Levi and James Offut, J.C. Head, W. Dobbins, Isaac
Hawk, Rev. G.F. Whitworth, Jared S. Hurd, H.R. Woodward, B.F. Brown, and
M. Hurd.
The arrival of the governor and his party was the great event for the
little town, as well as for the new Territory generally, and warm and
hearty was his greeting by the pioneers. And when shortly afterwards,
December 19, the governor delivered a lecture, giving a description of
his exploration and an exposition of the Northern route, their hopes and
expectations were raised to the highest point, and they already saw in
the mind's eye the iron horse speeding across the plains and through the
mighty forests, and the full-flowing tide of immigration following its
advent.
Without delay the governor issued his proclamation, as empowered by the
organic act marking out and establishing election districts, appointing
time (January 30) and places for holding the elections, for a delegate
in Congress and members of the legislature, and summoning that body to
meet in Olympia on the 28th of February.
The Indian service next engaged his attention. He appointed Colonel M.T.
Simmons Indian agent for the Puget Sound Indians, with B.F. Shaw and O.
Cushman as interpreters and assistants, and sent them to visit the
different tribes and bands, to assure them of the protection and
guidance of the Great Father in Washington, to urge them to cultivate
the soil and "follow the white man's road," that is, to adopt the
habits of civilized life; and to impress upon them the necessity of
making treaties, in order to prevent future trouble and secure them
peace and safety. He also appointed A.J. Bolon agent for the Indians
east of the Cascades, and William H. Tappan agent for the coast and
river Indians on the Chehalis and Columbia rivers, Gray's Harbor, and
Shoalwater Bay.
Governor Stevens deeply commiserated the condition and probable future
of the Indians under his charge, and felt the greatest interest and
concern in their welfare and improvement. How wise, generous, and
beneficent a policy he established in his treaties, with what great
kindness, justice, and firmness he uniformly treated them, will be shown
later in this work. It is enough to say now that the Indians came to
know him as their friend and protector, and to this day hold his memory
in reverence; that the treaties he made and the policy he inaugurated
have remained in force to the present time, and that under them the
Indians of Washington have more fully preserved their rights and
improved their condition than the aborigines of any other State.
Having thus started the civil government and Indian service, and set the
young men of the exploration hard at work preparing the reports, and, as
already related, dispatched McClellan to run the line from the Sound to
the Snoqualmie Pass, the governor took the Sarah Stone, a small
sailboat, or "plunger," and, accompanied by Mr. George Gibbs, went down
the Sound in person, in order, as he states, "to visit and take a census
of the Indian tribes, learn something of the general character of the
Sound and its harbors, and to visit Vancouver Island and its principal
port, Victoria.
"In this trip I visited Steilacoom, Seattle, Skagit Head, Penn's
Cove, the mouths of the Skagit and Samish rivers, Bellingham Bay,
passed up the channel De Rosario and down the channel De Haro to
Victoria, and on my return made Port Townsend and several other
points on the western shore of the Sound. We examined the coal mines
back of Seattle and Bellingham Bay, and saw a large body of Indians
of nearly all the tribes. I became greatly impressed with the
important advantages of Seattle, and also with the importance of the
disputed islands."
In a report to the Secretary of War, written immediately after this
trip, he remarks:--
"I was agreeably impressed with Elliott's Bay, on which are the
flourishing towns of Seattle and Alki, and I agree entirely in the
opinion of Captain McClellan that it is the best harbor on the
Sound, and unless the approach to it from the pass should, on a more
minute examination, prove less favorable than to some other point,
which is hardly to be expected, that it is the proper terminus of
the railroad."
In his reports Seattle is assumed as the terminus on the Sound, and all
the distances measured and calculations of cost, etc., are made with
reference to that point as the western end of the route.
The above is a provokingly brief and meagre record of this trip, which
occupied the whole month of January, the same month that McClellan,
after balking the Snoqualmie survey, turned back from Camano Island and
abandoned the examination of the lower Sound in consequence of the
inclemency of the weather. The governor's trip could have been no
holiday excursion, in an open sailboat in that stormy, rainy season, and
among the swift tides and fierce gales of the lower Sound. But it was
fruitful in results. He grasped with the acute and discriminating eye of
an engineer the whole system of waters and the several harbors and
points of importance, talked with the principal men of each place and
gleaned all the information they could furnish, and gained a
comprehensive and correct idea of the numbers, distribution, and
character of the Indians.
Moreover, he met at Victoria Governor Sir James Douglass and the other
officers there of the Hudson Bay Company, and discussed with them their
claims within our borders. He had now visited and personally examined
all but one (Fort Okanogan) of that company's posts within his
territory, Colville, Walla Walla, Vancouver, Cowlitz Farms, and
Nisqually, and had discussed their claims with the officers in charge of
them, and with the chief factor, Sir James Douglass. As the result of
this investigation he made, on his return to Olympia, an exhaustive
report to the Secretary of State, setting forth in detail the actual
holdings and improvements of the company at each point. He estimated
that their value could not exceed $300,000, and recommended that a
commission be appointed to adjudicate the claims, and that such sum be
appropriated by Congress to extinguish them. Secretary Marcy adopted his
views and recommendations, and transmitted them to Congress, and a bill
appointing the commission and making the appropriation passed the Senate
the following session, but failed in the House. These claims remained a
bone of contention between the countries for many years, until finally
Great Britain, by means of a joint commission, and by sticking to the
most extravagant demands with true bulldog tenacity, succeeded in
wringing nearly a million dollars from the United States.
At the election Columbia Lancaster was chosen delegate in Congress. He
was a lawyer by profession, and a man of ability and education.
The legislature assembled on the appointed day, and Governor Stevens
delivered his first message. Briefly reviewing the great natural
resources of the Territory and its commercial advantages, with its
unrivaled harbors and location to control in due time the trade of China
and Japan, he recommended the adoption of a code of laws, the
organization of the country east of the Cascades into counties, a
school system with military training in the higher schools, and the
organization of the militia. The latter he declared necessary in view of
their remote situation, compelling them to rely upon themselves in case
of war, for a time at least, and to enable them to draw arms and
ammunition from the general government, which could be issued only to an
organized militia force. He dwelt on the importance of extinguishing the
Indian title and the claims of the Hudson Bay and Puget Sound
Agricultural Companies, and settling the boundary line on British
territory, and recommended them to memorialize Congress in behalf of
these measures. He informed them that, under instructions from the
Secretary of State, he had already notified the foreign Fur Company that
it could not be allowed to trade with Indians within the Territory, and
would be given until July to wind up their affairs. He also urged them
to ask Congress for a surveyor-general and a land office, for more rapid
surveys of public land, so that they might be kept in advance of
settlement; to amend the land laws by facilitating the acquisition of
title, and by placing single women on the same footing with married
women; for a grant of lands for a university; for improved mail service;
for roads to Walla Walla, to Vancouver, and to Bellingham Bay along the
eastern shore of the Sound; and for continuing the geographical and
geological surveys already begun. He boldly advocated the construction
of three railroads across the continent, undoubtedly the first to
foresee the necessity of more than a single line. From this time he
always advocated three transcontinental roads.
All these recommendations were promptly adopted by the legislature,
except as regarded the militia, concerning which no action was taken; an
unfortunate neglect, which left the people almost defenseless when the
Indian war broke out less than two years later.
Soon after arriving at Olympia, Governor Stevens writes his friend
Halleck announcing his arrival and the successful achievement of the
exploration. In this letter he expresses the opinion that the waters of
San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound should both have their connections
with the States by railroad.
He asks Halleck how lands should be donated and managed for the
establishment of a university in Washington Territory, and his views as
to a plan, etc.
January 9 he writes Joseph Grinnell & Co., of New York, a great
mercantile and shipping and whaling firm, suggesting to them the
establishing of a whaling and fishing depot on one of the harbors of the
lower Sound.
Halleck writes a cordial letter in reply to the governor's, and gives
him a glimpse "behind the curtain" of California and Southern Democratic
politics, which throws light on Jefferson Davis's action in shutting off
the further exploration of the Northern route.
"I have by no means lost my interest in the Democratic party, or the
great public questions of the day. The first and most important of
these is the great continental railroad. Present examinations would
seem almost conclusive against Benton's central project. If so, this
road must run from some point in New Mexico to some pass near Los
Angeles, and thence to San Francisco (and San Diego, perhaps).
"If this southern route should be selected, it would lead to another
northern route, perhaps the one explored by yourself to Puget Sound.
Even if a single road should be adopted on the central line, it must
fork to San Francisco and Puget Sound, the two great termini of the
Pacific coast.
"The pro-slavery extension party will work very hard against the
North Pacific States, which must of necessity remain free. The first
branch of this project was to call a new convention in California
dividing it into two States, making the southern one a slave State,
with San Diego as the port and terminus of a railroad through Texas.
Circulars and letters to that effect were sent to pro-slavery men in
California, and the attempt made to divide the State, but it
failed. The next move was to acquire Lower California and part of
Sonora and Chihuahua, making Guaymas the terminus, and the newly
acquired territory slave States. Two separate plans were set on foot
for the same object, the Walker 'filibustering' expedition against
Lower California and Sonora, and Gadsden's treaty with Santa Anna.
The former is thus far a most complete and contemptible failure, but
rumor says the latter is likely to be successful, and will be
undoubtedly, if backed with sufficient money. If the territory is
acquired, it will be slave territory, and a most tremendous effort
will be made to run _a_ railroad if not _the_ railroad from Texas to
Guaymas, with a _branch_ to San Francisco."
Amid all these pressing and engrossing official duties the governor
found time to purchase his future homestead in Olympia, Block 84, and
also a tract of ten acres a little farther back, where Maple Park is now
situated. He also contracted for the purchase of the north half of the
Walker Donation claim, a tract of three hundred and twenty acres
situated a mile and a half south of the town and half way to Tumwater.
All these tracts were then buried in the dense and tall fir forest; but
when the country was cleared, it appeared that the governor had selected
them with unerring judgment, for they are the finest sites in the town
or vicinity.
During all this time the governor and the officers and scientific men of
the exploration were hard at work on the reports of their operations,
working up the observations, and classifying the collections. As
McClellan, Donelson, Lander, Suckley, Gibbs, Arnold, Tinkham, and Grover
successively reached Olympia, bringing fresh contributions of
information gathered in their trips, each took hold of the work. The
offices of the survey were in two small, one-storied buildings on the
west side of Main Street, between Second and Third, hired of Father
Ricard, and presented a busy scene, filled with desks, tables,
instruments, collections, maps, and papers, among which the young men
were writing and working for dear life.
Lieutenant Arnold and Dr. Suckley executed the reconnoissances intrusted
to them most satisfactorily. Lieutenant Grover, starting from Fort
Benton in January with his dog-train, crossed the main range to the
Bitter Root valley, finding only eight inches of snow, and thence
continued with horses down Clark's Fork and Pend Oreille Lake and to the
Dalles. On reaching Vancouver the governor dispatched an express to
Lieutenant Mullan by Spokane Garry, who had accompanied him to that
point, and in January he sent wagonmaster Higgins with a second express
to the same point. Thus, by these expresses going and returning, he had
the route between the Bitter Root valley and Olympia traversed four
times in addition to Grover's trip. Lieutenant Mullan crossed the main
continental divide six times that winter, extending his trips to Fort
Hall, on the upper Snake River, and traveling nearly a thousand miles.
The explorations made by the young officers, including Tinkham and Doty,
were very remarkable and valuable, and were attended at times with great
exertions and privations, and full accounts of them are given in the
final report.
Thus, by his winter posts and parties, the governor was solving, in the
most complete and satisfactory manner, the questions of mountain snows
and climates. From Olympia he reported to Secretary of War Davis the
results of the explorations, and particularly on these points. He urged
that the posts be continued, and a closer examination made of the more
favorable mountain passes, and that lines be surveyed from the Northern
route to Great Salt Lake and to San Francisco.
At this juncture Governor Stevens received a curt and peremptory order
from Secretary Davis, disapproving his arrangements, and ordering him to
disband the winter parties and bring his operations to a close.
Acknowledging the receipt of the order, February 13, he declares that it
shall be promptly obeyed, and continues:--
"But I earnestly submit to the department the importance of the
continuation of these surveys, and indulge the hope that Congress
will make liberal appropriations, both in a deficiency bill and in
the general appropriation bill, in order that the field now so well
entered upon may be fully occupied.
"I will respectfully call the attention of the department to the
peculiar circumstances of my exploration, which will, it seems to
me, explain the exceeding of the appropriation, with every desire
and effort on my part so to arrange the scale and conduct it as not
to involve a deficiency. The field was almost totally new, rendering
it impossible to form an estimate. Much work of reconnoissance had
to be done, which had previously been done for all the other routes,
before a direction could be given to the railroad examinations and
estimates proper. Unforeseen expenses in the way of presents, etc.,
had to be incurred to conciliate the Indian tribes, for our route
was the only one, so far as I was informed, that at the time was
deemed particularly dangerous; and the investigation of the question
of snow was a vital and fundamental one, essential to making any
reliable report at all, and included within the express requirements
of the original instructions. I deeply regretted the deficiency
which I found impending at Fort Benton, and I took at that place
that course which I believed Congress and the department would have
taken under the circumstances."
Moreover, to provide funds indispensable for the immediate needs of the
survey, the governor had drawn on Corcoran and Riggs, government bankers
in Washington, to the amount of $16,000, and these drafts all went to
protest.
But the Secretary's order arrived too late to frustrate Governor
Stevens's thoroughgoing measures for determining the snow question. The
problem was solved before the work of the winter parties could be
arrested, and this most important point was clearly and satisfactorily
set forth in the report. The much-feared mountain snows were found to be
greatly exaggerated, and to present no real obstacle to the operation of
railroads. In this respect the report has been fully confirmed by
subsequent experience, and in fact less difficulty has been encountered
from snow in the mountains than on the plains of Dakota.
He decided, therefore, to hasten to Washington the earliest moment his
threefold duties of the governorship, Indian service, and the
exploration would admit of, filled with the fixed determination to
prevent the discontinuance of the exploration, to secure the payment of
the protested drafts, and to enlighten the government as to the
necessity of the Blackfoot council, and of extinguishing the Indian
title within his own Territory.
To justify his going without leave first obtained, the legislature
passed a joint resolution that "no disadvantage would result to the
Territory should the governor visit Washington, if, in his judgment, the
interests of the Northern Pacific Railroad survey could thereby be
promoted."