Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/577



THE CENTENNIAL IllSTOIv'Y OF OREGON ;!.s7

caps, 100 lbs. flour; M. Burton, 1 pair pants; RiL-liard Miller, 1 horse, 6 boxes caps' Amos Harvey, 1 guu; James Burton, 1 sack and stirrups. Salem Mercury, in Albany State Rights Democrat, Oetobci' 12. 1S77. Says Abernetliy to Lee, "We are now getting lots of pork and some wheat . Or., Archives, MSS., 103. Thomas Cox, Avlio had lironslit a stock of goods across the plains the jjrevious summer, had a coiisidcralilc (|uantitv of anununilion which was manufactured by himself ill Illinois, and winch lir now freely furnished to the volniifeers without charge. Or. Literary Vidilt,. A])ril, 1879. The "Caps" mentioned in the above muni- tions of war wci-c "percussion caps" to fire the guns.

JOE JIKKK's 1MIS8ION TO WASHINGTON

As a part and parcel of the whole country-wide uproar over the murder of Whitman, the Provisional Government decided to send a special messenger far- H-way over the mountains to President Polk beseeching aid to the colony. All niiiuls turned at once to one and the same man — Joseph L. Meek, for the danger- ous mission. Meek's knowledge of the mountains, plains, Indians and dangers of every sort between Oregon and the Missouri river identified him as the man to undertake the hazardous trip ; and besides all this, his cousin, James K. Polk, whom he had not seen since boyhood, had been elected President of the United States, and it was believed that the extraordinary trip of such a delegate over the Rocky mountains in the depth of winter would arouse the President and Congress to immediate action. Meek resigned his membership in the Pro- visional Government Legislature, accepted the commission to Washington and made speedy arrangements for his departure. For company and aid in trouble he took along with him as far as St. Louis his old mountaineer friends, John Owen and George W. Ebberts. They packed their pack horses and took saddle horses and left Oregon City for the east by the way of the Barlow road around Mt. Hood on January 4, 1848; Meek carrying with him authority from the legislature and governor to present Oregon's ease to the President and Congress of the United States. And it must now be recorded here that by this commission to Meek, Oregon had so far as its governor had authority, put two delegates to Congress on the w'ay to Washington City. After much consideration and advice from interested parties Governor Abernethy had on the 18th of October, 1847, appointed and commissioned J. Quinn Thornton to go to Washington City and advocate the cause of Oregon with the president and congress. Thornton was at the time Supreme Judge of the Provisional Government, a smooth, plausible man and popular with the Methodist mission. But his appointment by tlie governor was not relished by the legislature, which passed resolutions indi- rectly condemning the appointment as the " offieiousness of secret actions." Thornton sailed from Portland October 18, 1847, on his mission to Washing- ton by the ocean route on the bark Whittou, whose captain contracted in con- sideration of certain voluntary contributions of flour and very little money, to carry the Oregon delegate down to Panama. But on this ship and contract Thornton got no farther than San Juan on the coast of Lower California, where the United States Sloop of War Portsmouth picked up the stranded Thornton and carried around Cape Horn and landed him at Boston on May 2, 1848.

Returning now to the Meek party we find 'it delayed tw^o weeks at the Dalles