THE CHANGE IN PUBLIC SENTIMENT.
The reader of history seldom sees a more notable instance of a changed
public sentiment, than he can find in the authentic records dating
from March, 1843, to July, 1846. If the epitome sketch made in another
chapter has been studied the conditions now to be observed are
phenomenal. Statesman after statesman puts himself on record. You hear
no more of "No wagon road to Oregon," "That weary, desert road," those
"Impassable mountains;" nor does Mr. McDuffie jump up to "Thank God
for His mercy, for the impassable barrier of the Rocky Mountains." No
Mr. Benton arises and asks that "The statue of the fabled God Terminus
should be erected on the highest peak, never to be thrown down." Nor
does Mr. Jackson appeal for "A compact Government."
Before the man clothed in buckskin left the National Capital, a
message was on the way to our Minister to England proclaiming "The
United States will consent to give nothing below the latitude of
forty-nine degrees." When it was known that a great caravan of two
hundred wagons and one thousand Americans had started for Oregon, a
second message went to Minister Everett still more pointed and
positive, "The United States will never consent that the boundary line
to the Pacific Ocean shall move one foot below the latitude of
forty-nine degrees." It is a historical fact that one hundred and
twenty-five of the wagons went through.
The whole people began to talk, as well as to think and act. They had
suddenly waked up to a great peril, and were casting about how to meet
it. A political party painted upon its banners, "Oregon, fifty-four
forty, or fight." Multitudes of those now living remember this great
uprising of the people. How was it done? Who did it? Was it a
spontaneous move without a reason? Intelligent readers can scan the
facts of history and judge for themselves. But it is an historical
fact there was a remarkably sudden change.
President Tyler, and his great Secretary, Webster, during the balance
of his administration, used all the arts of diplomacy, and seemed to
make but little progress, except a promise of a Minister
Plenipotentiary to treat with the United States. At any time prior to
the arrival of Marcus Whitman in Washington, or any time during the
conference upon the Ashburton Treaty, had the English diplomats
proposed to run the boundary line upon forty-nine degrees until it
struck the Columbia River, and down that river to the ocean, there is
multiplied evidence that the United States would have accepted it at
once.
But England did not want a part, she wanted all. During the
negotiations in 1827 as to the renewal of the Treaty of 1818, her
commissioners stated the case diplomatically, thus: "Great Britain
claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of that territory.
Her present claim is not in respect to any part, but to the whole and
is limited to a right of joint occupancy in common with other States,
leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance."
Some have urged that this was a give-away and a quit claim on the part
of England, but at most, it is only the language of diplomacy, to be
interpreted by the acts of the party in contest. Those who met and
know the men in power in Oregon in those pioneer days, can fully
attest the assertion of the Edinburgh Review in an article published
in 1843, after Whitman's visit to Washington. It says: "They are
chiefly Scotchmen, and a greater proportion of shrewdness, daring and
commercial activity is probably not to be found in the same number of
heads in the world." They made their grand mistake, however, that
while being true Britons, they were Hudson Bay Company men first and
foremost, and were anxious to keep out all immigration. None better
knew the value of Oregon lands for the purposes of the agriculturist,
than those "shrewd old Scotchmen" did.
About every trading post they had cleared farms, planted orchards and
vineyards, and tested all kinds of grains. Mrs. Whitman, in her diary
of September 14th, 1836, speaking of her visit to Fort Vancouver,
says, "We were invited to see the farm. We rode for fifteen miles
during the afternoon and visited the farms and stock, etc. They
estimate their wheat crop this year at four thousand bushels, peas the
same, oats and barley fifteen and seventeen hundred bushels each. The
potato and turnip fields are large and fine. Their cattle are large
and fine and estimated at one thousand head. They have swine in
abundance, also sheep and goats, but the sheep are of an inferior
quality. We also find hens, turkeys and pigeons, but no geese. Every
day we have something new. The store-houses are filled from top to
bottom with unbroken bales of goods, made up of every article of
comfort."
She tells of "A new and improved method of raising cream" for
butter-making, and "The abundant supply of the best cheese."
In another note she gives the menu for dinner. "First, we are treated
to soup, which is very good, made of all kinds of vegetables, with a
little rice. Tomatoes are a prominent vegetable. After soup the dishes
are removed and roast duck, pork, tripe, fish, salmon or sturgeon,
with other things too tedious to mention. When these are removed a
rice pudding or apple pie is served with musk melons, cheese, biscuits
and wine."
Shrewd Scotsmen! And yet this is the country which for years
thereafter American statesmen declared "A desert waste," "Unfit for
the habitation of civilized society," and from which our orators
thanked Heaven they were "separated by insurmountable barriers of
mountains," and "impassable deserts." We repeat, none better knew the
value of Oregon soil for the purposes of agriculture, than did these
princely retainers of England, and they well knew, that when
agriculture and civilization gained a foothold, both they and their
savage retainers would be compelled to move on. They held a bonanza of
wealth in their hands, in a land of Arcadia, which they ruled to suit
themselves.
It is not at all strange that they made the fight they did; they had
in 1836 feared the advent of Dr. Whitman's old wagon, more than an
army with banners. They had tried in every way in their power, except
by absolute force, to arrest its progress. They foresaw that every
turn of its wheels upon Oregon soil endangered fur. Those in command
at Fort Hall and Fort Boise were warned to be more watchful. The
consequence was that not another wheel was permitted to go beyond
those forts, from 1836 to 1843. Dr. Edwards, however, reports that
"Dr. Robert Newell brought three wagons through to Walla Walla in
1840."
But the fact remains that wagon after wagon was abandoned at those
points and the things necessary for the comfort of the immigrant were
sacrificed, and men, women and children were compelled to take to the
pack-saddle, or journey the balance of the weary way on foot. Great
stress was laid at these points of entrance, upon the dangers of the
route to Oregon, and the comparative ease and comfort of the journey
to California. Hundreds were thus induced to give up the journey to
Oregon, in making which they would be forced to abandon their wagons
and goods, and they turned their faces toward California.
General Palmer, in speaking of this, says: "While at Fort Hall in
1842, the perils of the way to Oregon were so magnified as to make us
suppose the journey thither was impossible. They represented the
dangers in passing over Snake River and the Columbia as very great.
That but little stock had ever crossed those streams in safety. And
more and worst of all, they represented that three or four tribes of
Indians along the route had combined to resist all immigration." They
represented that, "Famine and the snows of Winter would overtake all
with destruction, before they could reach Oregon."
They did succeed in scaring this band of one hundred and thirty-seven
men, women and children in 1842 into leaving all their wagons behind,
but they went on to Oregon on pack-saddles.
In the meantime they ran a literary bureau for all it was worth, in
the disparagement of Oregon for all purposes except those of the fur
trader. The English press was mainly depended upon for this work, but
the best means in reach were used that all these statements should
reach the ruling powers and reading people of the United States.
The effect of this literary bureau upon American statesmen and the
most intelligent class of readers prior to the Spring of 1843, is
easily seen by the sentiments quoted, and by their published acts, in
refusing to legislate for Oregon. Modern historians have said that,
"The Hudson Bay Company and the English never at any time claimed
anything south of the Columbia River." Such a statement can nowhere be
proved from any official record; on the contrary, there are multiplied
expressions and acts proving the opposite.
As early as the year 1828, the Hudson Bay Company saw the value of the
Falls of the Willamette at Oregon City for manufacturing purposes,
and took possession of the same; as Governor Simpson in command of the
Company said, "To establish a British Colony of their retired
servants." "Governor Simpson," says Dr. Eells in his "History of
Indian Missions," "said in 1841 that the colonists in the Willamette
Valley were British subjects, and that the English had no rivals on
the coast but Russia, and that the United States will never possess
more than a nominal jurisdiction, nor will long possess even that, on
the west side of the Rocky Mountains." And he added, "Supposing the
country to be divided to-morrow to the entire satisfaction of the most
unscrupulous patriot in the Union, I challenge conquest to bring my
prediction and its own power to the test by imposing the Atlantic
tariff on the ports of the Pacific."
Such sentiments from the Governor, the man then in supreme power, who
moulded and directed English sentiments, is of deep significance. A
man only second in influence to Governor Simpson and even a much
broader and brainier man, Dr. John McLoughlin, Factor of the Company,
"said to me in 1842," says Dr. Eells, "that in fifty years the whole
country will be filled with the descendants of the Hudson Bay
Company." But while they believed, just as the American immigrants
did, that as a result of the Treaty of 1818-28, the country would
belong to the nationality settling it; yet they had so long held
supreme power that they were slow to think that such power was soon to
pass from them.
That the diplomacy of the home Government, the bold methods and "The
shrewdness, daring and commercial activity in the heads" of the
Rulers, that the Edinburgh Review pictures, were all to be thwarted
and that speedily, had not entered into their calculations, and they
did not awake to a sense of the real danger until those hundred and
twenty-five wagons, loaded with live Americans and their household
goods, rolled down the mountain sides and into the Valley of the
Willamette on that memorable October day, 1843.
It was America's protest, made in an American fashion. It settled the
question of American interests as far as Americans could settle it
under the terms of the Treaty of 1818, as they understood it.
Under the full belief that Whitman would bring with him a large
delegation, the Americans met and organized before he reached Oregon.
And when the Whitman caravan arrived, they outnumbered the English and
Canadian forces three to one; and the Stars and Stripes were run up,
never again to be hauled down by any foreign power in all the wide
domain of Oregon.
True, there was yet a battle to be fought. The interests at stake were
too grand for the party who held supreme power so long to yield
without a contest. But there were rugged, brave, intelligent American
citizens now in Oregon, and there to stay. They had flooded home
people with letters describing the salubrity of the climate and the
fertility of the soil. Statesmen heard of it.
Sudden conversions sometimes make unreasonable converts. The very men
who had rung the changes upon "worthless," "barren," "cut off by
impassable deserts," now turned and not only claimed the legitimate
territory up to forty-nine degrees, but made demands which were heard
across the Atlantic. We will have "Oregon and fifty-four forty, or
fight."
In a lengthy message in December, 1845, President Polk devotes nearly
one-fifth of his space to the discussion of the Oregon question, and
rehearses the discussion pro and con between the two governments and
acknowledges, that thus far there has been absolute failure. He tells
Congress that "The proposition of compromise, which was made and
rejected, was, by my order, subsequently withdrawn, and our title up
to 54 degrees 40 minutes asserted, and, as it is believed, maintained
by irrefragable facts and arguments." In that message, President Polk
argued in favor of terminating the joint occupancy by giving the
stipulated notice, and that the jurisdiction of the United States be
extended over the entire territory, with a line of military posts
along the entire frontier to the Pacific.
It all seemed warlike. The withdrawing of "the joint occupancy," many
statesmen believed would precipitate a war. Senator Crittenden and
others believed such to be the case. War seemed inevitable. Even
Senator McDuffie, whom we have before quoted, as unwilling to "Give a
pinch of snuff for all the territory beyond the Rockies," now is on
record saying, "Rather make that territory the grave of Americans, and
color the soil with their blood, than to surrender one inch." While it
was generally conceded that we would have a war, yet there were wise,
cool-headed men in the Halls of National Legislation, determined to
avert such disaster if possible, without sacrificing National honor.
The debate on giving legal notice to cancel the Treaty of 1818, as to
joint occupancy, was the absorbing theme of Congress, and lasted for
forty days before reaching a vote, and then passed by the great
majority of 109.
But the Senate was more conservative, and continued the debate after
the measure had passed the House by such an overwhelming majority.
They saw the whole Country already in a half paralyzed condition. Its
business had decreased, its capital was withdrawn from active
participation in business, and its vessels stood empty at the wharves
of ports of entry. Such statesmen as Crittenden and others who had not
hurried to get in front of the excited people, now saw the necessity
for decided action to avert war and secure peace. To brave public
opinion and antagonize the Lower House of Congress required the
largest courage.
Mr. Crittenden said, "I believe yet, a majority is still in favor of
preserving the peace, if it can be done without dishonor. They favor
the settling of the questions in dispute peaceably and honorably, to
compromise by negotiations and arbitration, or some other mode known
and recognized among nations as suitable and proper and honorable."
Mr. Webster had been too severely chastised by both friends and
enemies for his part in the Ashburton Treaty, to make him anxious to
be prominent in the discussion in the earlier weeks, but when he did
speak he pointed out the very road which the Nation would travel in
its way for peace, viz.: a compromise upon latitude forty-nine.
Webster said, "In my opinion it is not the judgment of this country,
nor the judgment of the Senate, that the Government of the United
States should run the hazard of a war for Oregon by renouncing, as no
longer fit for consideration, the proposition of adjustment made by
this Government thirty years ago and repeated in the face of the
world." His great speech, which extended through the sessions of two
days, was a masterly defense and explanation of the Ashburton-Webster
Treaty, which was signed three years before.
No American statesman of the time had so full and complete a knowledge
of the questions at issue as had Webster. He had canvassed every one
of them in all their bearings with the shrewdest English diplomats and
had nothing to learn. His great speech can be marked as the turning
point in the discussion, and the friends of peace took fresh courage.
The first and ablest aid Mr. Webster received was from Calhoun, then
second to none in his influence. In his speech he said, "What has
transpired here and in England within the last three months must, I
think, show that the public opinion in both countries is coming to a
conclusion that this controversy ought to be settled, and is not very
diverse in the one country or the other, as to the general basis of
such settlement. That basis is the offer made by the United States to
England in 1826."
It may here be observed that President Monroe offered to compromise on
forty-nine degrees. President Adams did the same in 1826, while
President Tyler, in the year of Whitman's visit (1843), again offered
the same compromise, and England had rejected each and all. She
expected a much larger slice.
Gen. Cass followed Calhoun in a fiery war speech, which called out the
applause of the multitude, in which he claimed that the United States
owned the territory up to the Russian line of 54 degrees 40 minutes
and he "Would press the claim at the peril of war."
Dayton and other Senators asked that present conditions be maintained,
and that "The people of the United States meet Great Britain by a
practical adoption of her own doctrine, that the title of the country
should pass to those who occupied it."
This latter view was the pioneer view of the situation, and which was
so fully believed as to cause the memorable ride of Whitman in
mid-winter from Oregon to Washington. The resolution of notice to the
English Government, as we have seen, passed the House Feb. 9, 1846,
and came to a vote and passed the Senate April 23d, by 42 to 10. It,
however, contained two important amendments to the House resolution,
both suggestive of compromise. And as the President was allowed "At
his discretion to serve the notice," the act was shorn of much of its
warlike meaning.
When it is remembered that the President's message and recommendations
were made on the 2d of December, 1845, and the question had absorbed
the attention of Congress until April 23, 1846, before final action,
it can be marked as one of the most memorable discussions that has
ever occurred in our Halls of National Legislation.
It had now been three years since Whitman had made his protest to
President Tyler and his Secretary; and while Congress had debated and
the whole Nation was at a white heat of interest, the old pioneers had
gone on settling the question in their own way by taking possession of
the land, building themselves homes, erecting a State House, and,
although four thousand miles distant from the National Capital,
enacting laws, in keeping with American teachings, and demeaning
themselves as became good citizens. Love of country, with sacrifices
made to do honor to the flag, has seldom had a more beautiful and
impressive illustration than that given by the old pioneers of Oregon
during the years of their neglect by the home Government, which even
seemed so far distant that it had lost all interest in their welfare.