reserving the town site of Oregon City, known as the 'Oregon City
Claim.' The capital of our Territory is located here (Oregon City) and
here is the county seat of Clackamas County. It is unquestionably the
finest water power in the known world; and as it is now, so will remain,
the great inland business point for the Territory. This claim has been
wrongfully wrested by Dr. McLoughlin from American citizens. 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; and,
successively, a number of citizens of our Country have been driven from
it, while Dr. McLoughlin was yet at the head of the Hudson's Bay
Company, west of the Rocky Mountains. Having at his command the Indians
of the country, he has held it by violence and dint of threats up to
this time. He had sold lots up to the 4th of March, 1849, worth
$200,000. He also has upon it a flouring mill, graineries, two double
sawmills, a large number of houses, stores, and other buildings, to
which he may be entitled by virtue of his possessory rights, under the
treaty of 1846. For only a part of these improvements which he may thus
hold, he has been urged during the past year to take $250,000. He will
already have made a half million out of that claim. He is still an
Englishman, still connected in interest with the Hudson's Bay Company,
and still refuses to file his intentions to become an American citizen,
and assigns as a reason to the Supreme Judge of the Territory, that he
cannot do it without prejudicing his standing in England. Last summer,
he informed the writer of this, that whatever was made out of this claim
was to go into 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 the claim for the benefit of the
Company. Now, the bill proposes to reserve this claim; subject to
whatever right he may have to it, or any part of it, by virtue of the
treaty; and confirms the title of all lots sold or donated by him
previous to March 4th, 1849. This is designed to prevent litigation.
That day is fixed on, because, on that day, in Oregon City, Governor
Lane took possession of the Territory, declaring the laws of the United
States in force, and apprising Dr. McLoughlin and all others, that no
one had a right to sell or meddle with the Government lands. Dr.
McLoughlin ought to have been made to pay back the $200,000, but not
wishing to create any litigation, the committee concluded to quiet the
whole matter by confirming the lots. Having in this way made $200,000,
and his possessory rights, if it shall turn out that he lawfully
acquired any, being worth $200,000 more, the people of Oregon think our
bounty is sufficient to this man, who has worked diligently to break
down the settlements ever since they commenced; and they ask you to save
their capital, their county seat, and the balance of that noble water
power from the grasp of this British propagandist, and bestow it on the
young American generation in Oregon, in the shape of education, upon
which you and the whole Country are to rely and to defend and protect
the western outposts of this glorious Union. The children of my Country
are looking up to you with countenances flashing eloquence, clamoring to
be educated, and asking you, in simple but feeling language, where your
charity begins. They call you 'fathers,' and ask you whether you will
put the moral weapons of defence in your children's hands in the shape
of education, or whether you will deny it to them, and put means into
the hands of him who will turn and rend both you and them. They do not
doubt your decision, nor do I.
"When the Methodist Missionaries were driven from this claim, they went
on the island in the middle of the river, and constructed mills and made
other improvements. This island is known as the Abernethy Island, and is
of no value, except for the improvements upon it. It consists of about
two acres of barren rock. This island was subsequently sold to George
Abernethy, and the bill ought to confirm the same to Abernethy or his
assigns.--This is a simple act of justice to American citizens, who now
have their mills and property staked on those rocks, and which, for a
long time, stood the only mills in the valley, where an American could
get any grain ground for toll. They are now, with the exception of Dr.
McLoughlin's mills, nearly the only mills in the whole country left
standing by the late freshet, and they have been very materially
injured. They must be repaired at vast expense, and if they are not, Dr.
McLoughlin will hold, as he has heretofore held, the bread of the people
of the Territory in his own fist. Your brethren ask you to confirm their
title to those rocks, that their property may stand there in safety.
They doubt not your decision. Hence there should be an amendment in the
bill to this effect."
It is not true, as asserted by Thurston, that the Methodist Mission
first took the "Oregon City claim." It was first taken by Dr.
McLoughlin, as I have shown. If the Methodist Mission ever took, or had
any interest in this land claim, it was through a secret agreement or
understanding with Waller, or with the Oregon Milling Company, excepting
only the lots given to the Mission by Dr. McLoughlin in 1840 and those
secured by the Mission under the Articles of Agreement, dated April 4,
1844.[43] Most of the statements, in the parts of this letter just
quoted, Thurston knew were false.
Thurston also succeeded in having a proviso added to the fourth section
of the bill, skillfully worded, which forbade anyone claiming under the
Donation Land Law to claim both under that law and under the treaty of
1846, that treaty providing that possessory rights of British subjects
should be respected. As Dr. McLoughlin had declared, in 1849, his
intentions to become a citizen and renounced his allegiance to Great
Britain, he probably was no longer qualified to claim under the treaty.
But even if he could have claimed under the treaty of 1846, as a British
subject, that would not have given him a right to obtain title to his
land claim under that treaty. It was afterwards held by the Supreme
Court of Oregon, in the case of Cowenia v. Hannah, 3 Oregon, 465, and by
Judge M. P. Deady, sitting as United States Circuit Judge, in the case
of Town v. De Haven, 5 Sawyer, 146, that the stipulation in the treaty
of 1846 that the United States would respect the possessory rights of
British subjects, was merely a recognition of such possessory rights and
conferred no right to, or in the land, and that no means were provided
by the Donation Land Law, or otherwise, to obtain title or a patent, but
a British subject might have a claim against the United States for
compensation; that a claim to land, under the treaty, was to be excluded
from any rights under the Donation Land Law, and a claim to land, under
that law, was a surrender of possessory rights under the treaty.
Unquestionably the Supreme Court of Oregon and Judge Deady were right in
their construction of the law, as they found it, as applicable to the
points involved in those cases.
Article III of the Boundary Treaty of 1846 is as follows: "In the future
appropriation of the territory south of the forty-ninth parallel of
north latitude, as provided in the first article of this treaty, the
possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of all British
subjects who may be already in the occupation of land or other property
lawfully acquired within the said territory, shall be respected." Good
faith, and to carry out the letter and the spirit of this Article III,
should have caused Congress to respect these possessory rights of
British subjects, so as to make them effective, and especially as they
had acquired these rights under the Conventions for joint-occupancy of
the Oregon Country. Means should have been provided in the Donation Land
Law by which such British subjects "already in the occupation of land"
in Oregon could have acquired the title thereto.
In the debate in the House of Representatives, May 28, 1850, on the bill
which became the Oregon Donation Land Law, Thurston said:[44] "This
company [Hudson's Bay Company] has been warring against our government
for these forty years. Dr. McLoughlin has been their chief fugleman,
first to cheat our government out of the whole country, and next to
prevent its settlement. He has driven men from claims and from the
country, to stifle the efforts at settlement. In 1845, he sent an
express to Fort Hall, 800 miles, to warn the American emigrants that if
they attempted to come to 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--more
dangerous, because more hidden, more jesuitical. I can refer you to the
Supreme Judge of our territory, for proof that this Dr. McLoughlin
refuses to file his intention to become an American citizen." Judge
Bryant was then in Washington, lobbying for the passage of the eleventh
section of the Donation Land Law, particularly the part giving
Abernethy's Island to the assigns of the Milling Company. I have already
shown the falsity of these statements of Thurston in his letter and in
this speech, by setting forth the truth in this monograph. The mention
by Thurston, in his speech, of Benedict Arnold in comparison with Dr.
McLoughlin, was contemptible. It was an insinuation which Thurston
should have been ashamed to make.
On September 12, 1850, Dr. McLoughlin published in the _Oregon
Spectator_ his answer to some of the statements, or rather
misstatements, in Thurston's speech in Congress, May 28, 1850, and in
his letter to the House of Representatives. Dr. McLoughlin there said:
"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.... 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 any one. I have on the other hand, afforded every
assistance to all who required it, and which religion and humanity
dictated; and this community can say if I did so or not.... 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 document, entitled a 'Letter of
the Delegate from Oregon to the members of the House of Representatives,
in behalf of his constituents, 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 passed--my land bill; keep dark till next mail."
"June 9, 1850. THURSTON.'"
"... 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.... 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 [Dr. McLoughlin's
land claim] 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 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.... 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 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 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.... 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 stock-holders would share in proportion to their
stock; in other words, that he was holding this claim in trust for 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.... Can the people of Oregon City and its
vicinity believe Mr. Thurston did not know, some months before he left
this [territory], 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."[45]
Thurston attempted to reply to this letter of Dr. McLoughlin, published
in the _Oregon Spectator_, in a speech made in Congress December 26,
1850.[46] With all its false statements this speech utterly failed to
justify the actions of Thurston against Dr. McLoughlin.
Lieutenant Neil M. Howison, of the United States Navy, came to Oregon in
1846, in charge of the United States schooner "Shark." He made a report
on Oregon to the Commander of the Pacific squadron. The report is dated
at San Francisco, February 1, 1847. It was printed by order of the House
of Representatives, at Washington, in 1848, more than two years prior to
Thurston's speech. It is Miscellaneous Document No. 29 of the first
session of the 30th Congress. In this report, after speaking in praise
of Dr. McLoughlin, Howison said of him: "He resides now altogether at
Oregon City ... and has, by his advice and assistance, done more than
any other man towards the rapid development of the resources of this
country." Lieutenant Howison also said, in this report, that Dr.
McLoughlin "has settled himself on the south side of the river
[Columbia] with full expectation of becoming a citizen of the United
States, and I hope the government at home will duly appreciate him."
In the report of Dr. Elijah White, dated Willamette Valley, Oregon,
November 15, 1843, to J. M. Porter, Secretary of War, Dr. White said:
"And here allow me to say, the seasonable service, in which hundreds of
dollars were gratuitously expended in assisting such numbers of our poor
emigrant citizens down the Columbia to the Willamette, entitles Gov.
McLoughlin, saying nothing of his previous fatherly and fostering care
of this colony, to the honorable consideration of the members of this
government. And I hope, as he is desirous to settle with his family in
this country, and has made a claim at the falls of the Willamette, his
claim will be honored in such a manner as to make him conscious that we,
as a nation, are not insensible to his numerous acts of benevolence and
hospitality towards our countrymen. Sir, in the midst of slander, envy,
jealousy, and, in too many instances, of the blackest ingratitude, his
unceasing, never tiring hospitality affects me, and makes him appear in
a widely different light than too many would have him and his worthy
associates appear before the world."[47]
_Protests against Thurston's Actions._
As shown in Dr. McLoughlin's printed letter of September 12, 1850,
Thurston had sent to a confidant in Oregon, with instructions for
secrecy, a printed copy of his letter to the House of Representatives.
He also sent a printed copy of the bill for the Donation Land Law. These
arrived in Oregon late in August or early in September, 1850. The
eleventh section of the latter began to be noised about, and Thurston's
friends, who were not in the conspiracy, met the charge with scornful
denials. They said such a thing was not possible. But it was.[48] There
were Oregon pioneers who protested. Before the law passed, when the
intended action of Thurston became known, in relation to said section
eleven, on September 19, 1850, a public meeting was held in Oregon City.
Resolutions were passed declaring that the selection of the Oregon City
claim for an university reservation was uncalled for by any considerable
portion of the citizens of the Territory, and was invidious and unjust
to Dr. McLoughlin; and that he "merits the gratitude of multitudes of
persons in Oregon for the timely and long-continued assistance rendered
by him in the settlement of this Territory." At the same time a memorial
to Congress was signed by fifty-six persons, which set forth that Dr.
McLoughlin had taken up the Oregon City claim like other claims in the
Territory, and it had been held by him in accordance with the
Provisional and Territorial governments of Oregon; that the memorialists
have ever regarded it as entitled to protection as fully as other
claims, without an intimation to the contrary from any official source
until that time; that under this impression, both before and especially
since March 4, 1849, large portions of it in blocks and lots had been
purchased in good faith by many citizens of Oregon, who had erected
valuable buildings thereon, in many instances, in the expectation of
having a complete and sufficient title when Congress should grant a
title to Dr. McLoughlin, as was confidently expected; that since March
4, 1849, he had donated for county, educational, charitable, and
religious purposes more than two hundred lots. They, therefore,
remonstrated against the passage of the bill in its present form,
believing that it would work a "severe, inequitable, unnecessary, and
irremediable injustice."[49] There were no telegraph lines in Oregon or
California in those days. And the bill was a law eight days thereafter.
I am happy to say that among those who took part in these proceedings
and signed this memorial were my father, James D. Holman, a pioneer of
1846, and my uncle, Woodford C. Holman, a pioneer of 1845. October 26,
1850, a public meeting was held at Salem, the stronghold of the Mission
Party. At this meeting a committee on resolutions was appointed. The
resolutions reported by the committee were adopted. They "highly
approved all the actions of Samuel R. Thurston in Congress," and said
"that facts well known in Oregon will sustain him in all he has said
about Dr. McLoughlin and the H. B. Company." Another of these
resolutions heartily approved the course taken by Thurston, in Congress
upon the Donation Land Bill "especially that part which relates to the
Oregon City claim," and "that if that claim should be secured to Dr.
McLoughlin it would, in effect, be donating land to the H. B. Company."
Another of these resolutions was, "That in the opinion of this meeting,
the children of Oregon have a better right to the balance of that claim
[Oregon City claim] than Dr. McLoughlin." Another of these resolutions
was, "That the H. B. Company, with Dr. McLoughlin as their fugleman,
have used every means that could be invented by avarice, duplicity,
cunning, and deception to retard American settlement, and cripple the
growth of American interests in Oregon."[50]
There are certain qualities in some men which move them never to forgive
a favor bestowed on them; to ruin those they have wronged or cheated; to
endeavor to cover with obloquy those they have lied about; and to seek
to hurt any one of better quality than they are. As a native son of
Oregon I am ashamed of some of its pioneers and their actions. But in
such a movement as the early settling of Oregon, there were, of
necessity, some men of coarse fiber, and of doubtful integrity and
honor. But such men were rare exceptions. To the honor of the
overwhelming majority of the Oregon pioneers, be it said that they took
no part in these actions against Dr. McLoughlin, nor did they endorse or
sympathize with Thurston's actions and those of his co-conspirators
against Dr. McLoughlin.