Page:History vs. the Whitman saved Oregon story.djvu/13

Rh, as its main purpose is to revive the shameful slander that the Catholics and the Hudson's Bay Co. instigated the Whitman Massacre.

From the Daily Oregonian (of Portland, Oregon), September 3, 1902:

"It is well to call attention to the article published to-day on 'The Whitman Myth,' by Principal William I. Marshall of Chicago. This article is a dissection of the pretensions of Dr. W. A, Mowry as an historian, as exhibited in his 'Marcus Whitman and the Early Days of Oregon.' It explodes completely the theory on which the Whitman myth is built—the theory, namely, that Oregon was about to be surrendered to Great Britain; that Whitman undertook his winter ride to prevent that result; that his ride 'saved Oregon'; that he collected and organized the migration of 1843, directed its march and showed it a wagon route over the plains and mountains. It shows how Dr. Mowry, following a preconceived idea and purpose of hero-making, has colored the history by his assumptions and misrepresented it by his suppressions. In this article there is close examination of the original sources of information for ascertainment of the origin and purpose of Whitman's ride; there is a review of the condition of the Oregon question at Washington, with positive proof that the assumption that the Tyler administration was indifferent to Oregon was unfounded, and consequently that Whitman could have exerted no influence to change die policy of the National Government towards Oregon; and, finally, there is demonstration that Whitman's relation towards the great migration of 1843 was slight and practically unimportant Great service is done to the truth of history by this review. It is devotion to truth, not hostility to the memory of Whitman, that prompts the effort to clear this subject of its modern accretions of myth and fable.

"Whitman was but one of our pioneers. He was energetic and adventurous, at times far beyond wisdom or prudence; and to his blindness to real danger, which a wiser man would have avoided, the destruction of himself and of his family was due. He was apotheosized through his fate. Hero worship, stimulated by religious or by ecclesiastical devotion, has created his legend or myth, which in earlier and less critical times would doubtless have passed unchallenged. But in our age written and printed records are preserved, and the mythopeic faculty of the human mdnd receives checks and corrections unknown in the composition of the Homeric poems or portions of the Biblical narratives. But the tendency to hero worship and