Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/432



the little commonwealth and plunged the community into anarchy that would have wrecked the whole effort to found a new state. And to have succeeded as Gov- ernor Abernethy did, was to save and strengthen the entire movement from day to day, until from infantile weakness it reached the vigor and capacity to defend itself from foreign intrigues and Indian wars. And thus saving the organiza- tion was in fact making the state, and the labor and success of the achievement places the name of George Abernethy among those who reall}' in truth and in fact saved Oregon to the United States.

George Abei'nethy was a native of New York City and was born October 7, 1807. Left New York in 1839, and arrived in Oregon in 1840, coming with a missionary party. He was an ardent Methodist, but smooth and politic in a marked degree, and able to manage Catholic and Protestants with equal facility. He was actively supported by his Methodist brethren for the office of governor, and made a good executive. On his canvass for re-election, he had serious oppo- sition, and it is said that a majority of the voters preferred General Lovejoy, but put aside their preferences rather than disturb an existing order of administra- tion. He went actively into business after the expiration of his official duties. He was not successful in mercantile affairs, and after losing most of his fortune, removed from Oregon City to Portland, and resided there for sixteen years, pass- ing away May 2, 1877.

It is appropriate to notice here a suggestion that has been made occasionally, that but for the timely arrival of the immigration of 1843 the provisional govern- ment organized at Champoeg would have gone to pieces and failed. And that it was saved by such men as James W. Nesmith, Jesse Applegate and Peter H. Bur- nett coming in 1843, and in time to save the organization from dissolution. There is no doubt that the immigration of 1843, and such men as are named did greatly reinforce the organization that had been effected. Both Nesmith and Burnett were successively Supreme Judges of Oregon, and Applegate was active in the Legislature. But the fact is the government did not go to pieces; and the assumption, that it would have gone to pieces but for the reinforcements of 1843, has no foundation on any historical facts.

No record of the strenuous times in which the foundations of civil govern- ment were laid in Oregon would be just or complete that failed to recognize the united efforts of all the men and women to organize society and promote good works here from 1840 to 1848. There were leaders, as there must be in all for- ward movements, which the turn of events or characteristic abilities brought to the front. But the record and the results show that while individuals stoutly contended for their opinions and for the policies of government, yet on the one purpose in view there was more harmony and united action than is generally found in small communities. It was all the people who united in the provisional government and manfully pulled together through good and evil report, that saved Oregon to the United States.

Of all these, three men have secured great prominence, and one at least, a national reputation, in the work of saving Oregon. And of these three, one was not for a time a citizen of the United States.

The work of John McLoughlin in co-operating to organize society and estab- lish the institutions of education, religion and civil government, is unique and unexampled in the history of the West. The work of Marcus Whitman, cut off