Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/433



in the midst of his career by the treacherous hands of those he vainly sought to bless, has not, and probably never will be fully known or compi'ehended. There can be no doubt that "Whitman was one of the first to divine the plans of the Hudson's Bay Company, as the representative of Great l^ritain in Oregon, and probably the first man to personally appeal to the govcriiiiu'ut Tor that support which was so long and so wrongfully withheld.

An immense effort has been made, principally by college professors and their co-adjutors to belittle the work of Dr. Whitman. And recently a volumiaous book written by one William I. Marshall has been published by i)rivate sub- scription because it could never have seen the light of day in any other way, which bitterly attacks the work of the dead martyr to the cause of Oregon. There are certain great facts which the enemies of Whitman cannot deny; but being themselves narrow and limited in their conceptions or real greatness they cannot comprehend the importance of these undeniable facts. For example. Whitman in the dead of winter made a two thousand mile dash on horseback over two ranges of mountains, conc^uering the icy blasts of winter the depth of snows that had housed all animal life, staking his life and that of his faithful steed against starvation, freezing to death in crossing snowy falls on Alpine heights, fording icy rivers, braving Indian enemies and landing safely at his goal. Such a feat was never heard of in the world before. It astonished the the nation, and the news of it spread far and wide by wireless messengers and proved to the waiting missionaries and all the west that emigrants could get to Oregon safely and surely in summer weather. That single fact alone puts Whitman to the very forefront of all the Oregon savers.

The Whitman critics say there is no evidence that Whitman ever saw Presi- dent Tyler or Secretary of State Webster on the Oregon question. But there is evidence that Whitman did visit Washington City for some purpose. And there is no evidence that he did not see both of those officials. Marcus Whitman was not an idle gadder-about. His time was too precious. His life was too serious; his work in Oregon was too great for any trifiing of time or opportun- ities. Many of the greatest feats of public service are never heralded to the world. Does any sane man of this age suppose for a moment that if Marcus Whit- man had interviewed the president and secretary of state and obtained any kind of an expression of purposes from them in relation to Oregon that he would have violated the confidence given him by those high officials and gone out and published to the world the result of the interview? The idea is absurd. And the Whitman critics only expose their own ignorance and bitterness by their reiteration of the state and senseless fault finding about a man whose pur- pose and career in life was above their comprehension.

The work and career of Jason Lee was in many respects different from that of McLoughlin and Whitman. Lee, himself a native Canadian, was able to command the friendship of McLoughlin from his first appearance in Oregon; but being a citizen of the United States, all his aims and ambitions were en- thusiastically enlisted with his adopted country; and he w'as withal an in- tensely practical man. He passed over the country that Whitman settled in. He sized up the native red man from some observation of him in Canada. He saw at a glance that the Willamette valley offered a better and broader foun- dation for a missionary station than the more rugged regions east of the Cas-