Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/97

 and to provide liberal inducements to emigrants to come to this coast."

Whether this part of Lovejoy's letter is equally free from the influence of the Spalding narrative might be questioned, but I believe it can be taken as a genuine recollection, although possibly with some exaggeration of the number of interviews with Tyler and Webster, for it shows no trace of the Spalding legend of Whitman's having arrived in the nick of time to save Oregon from being "traded off for a cod fishery." Such as it is, this is the only account of what Whitman urged upon the government that is not interwoven with fictitious elements and based on a misconception of the situation. A further light, however, on the nature of Whitman's interviews with the officials is afforded by his letter to the Secretary of War, with the accompanying draft of a bill dispatched after his return. That he was asked to present this proposition which he made to the Secretary of War in the form of a bill, appears in the opening words: "In compliance with the request you did me the honor to make last winter while in Washington, I herewith transmit to you the synopsis of a bill." The specific proposals of this bill were designed to facilitate immigration to Oregon by rendering the journey safer from Indians' attack, less expensive, and more comfortable to the immigrants. The most serious difficulties in the transit were the illness often caused by lack of a variety of diet, the scarcity of fodder and water, the dangers in fording the streams, the liability of the wagon wheels to fall to pieces in the long passage of the elevated arid region and the exposure to Indian depredations. To meet these needs Whitman proposed the establishment of ferries at the important river crossings and of government