Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/224

 wift. ' '

In all the contentions between Protestants and Catholics in this Indian country, and between the partisans of American Colonization and the occu- pancy of the Hudson Bay Company, the Whitman massacre has ever been a subject of most bitter crimination. And no person of humane feeling can read the record of the horrible butchery of Whitman and his wife, children and others killed, without being -^^Tought up to an intense bitterness, not only against the savages, but against the white men who may have known of the possibility of murder, and took no step to prevent it. It seems clear that the chiefs of the Hudson's Bay Company did warn Whitman of his danger at the distant and unprotected station. Whitman was himself recklessly careless of the safety of himself and family. The Indians were permitted free access to all his prem- ises, and no preparation for protection or defense from harm was provided. The Hudson's Bay people did not trust the Indians. Thej^ had substantial bar- ricades and stockade forts well supplied with arms for defense; and at all times required the Indians to remain on the outside of protective defenses. McLoughlin never forgot the native ferocity of the savage when aroused. To the careless observer the Indians about the trading stations and missionary stations were peaceful and harmless; yet behind all this was the racial instinct of the savage, developed by ages of contention with wild beasts in the contest for existence. And with the first blow of the tomahawk on the head of the un- suspecting victim — Marcus Whitman — and the sight of blood, the savage gave tongue to demoniac yells that harked back a hundred thousand years when the naked savage man fought with clubs, the savage beast.

We here finally reach our bearings in the quest for the rightful ownership of the wilderness of Oregon. Whether it suits our wishes or our preconceived views or not, we are compelled to face the proposition that the white man, black man, red man and yellow man are all on this globe on equal land tenures. That they have all sprung from a single original pair and though now found in divers races, they have fought for and conquered their positions on the face of the globe, not only in competition Avith wild beasts, but also wild men. That this tremendous evolutionary program, so far as it has related to the posses- sion of land on which to live and grow, has never been settled in any other way than

"The good old rule, the simple plan,

That they should take who have the power,

And the}' should keep, who can. ' '

The coming of the white man was inevitable, and the subjection of the Indian equally so. Our pioneers but followed nature's impulse justified by the entire historj- of mankind. And if the inspiration of a higher humanity, and the precepts of Christianity can be used to enforce justice and inculcate charity to the poor benighted children of the forests that we fovmd in the possession of this beautiful land, it is our bounden duty to see that while we enjoy all the beauty and glory of these grand rivers and gorgeous mountains that the remnant of the native race be made as comfortable and enlightened as their mental and moral development will permit.

It would be a useless and unprofitable task to go into the rivalries and con-