Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/15

viii It is in the missionary rather than in the commercial or agricultural elements that I find that romance which underlies all human endeavor before it becomes of interest sufficient for permanent preservation in the memory of mankind. A mountain-walled plain, between the coast elevations and the northern stretch of the great Andean range, with a fertile soil, a genial climate, and picturesque scenery, through a peculiar sequence of events becomes the western Utopia of the American states, and kindles in the breasts of those who here lay the foundations of a commonwealth the fire of patriotism, forever sacred even when fed by fallacies. The silent conquest of this area by men and women from the border, intent on empire, is a turning-point in the destinies of the country; and it is to me no less a pleasure than a duty to recognize the heroic in this conquest, and to present one more example of the behavior of the Anglo-Saxon race under the influence of American institutions.

Nor did the people of the earlier west enter upon these achievements without a well-defined purpose. Proselyting alone was not the object; nor yet traffic, nor even broad lands. There was present, besides the desire to secure for themselves and their descendants some small portion of this earth, the determination to plant here those pure moralities and fair civilities which belong to the higher Christian civilization; and one glance at the present condition of the people is sufficient to assure us that they succeeded. Aside from the somewhat antiquated sentiments of eternal justice and the rights of man as apart from man's power to enforce his rights, the quick extermination of the aborigines may be regarded as a blessing both