Page:History vs. the Whitman saved Oregon story.djvu/21

Rh But neither he nor any other. advocate of the Saving Oregon theory of Whitman's ride has ever been able to produce one word written by Rev. E. Walker in support of it, though he lived in Oregon till his death in 1877, and knew exactly as much about the origin and purpose of that ride as any of his associates.

Great as is this amount, it is but a faint index of the extent to which Dr. Mowry uses the statements of Spalding, Gray and C. Eells made subsequent to 1864-5, for practically all of his book that relates to Whitman is a mere condensation of, or a paraphrase of those statements, or of the statements of others whose ideas about the matter are plainly derived from Spalding, Gray and C. Eells.

An example of how very peculiar are Dr. Mowry's ideas as to the proper use of "original sources," is found in his Chapter X, "The. Missionaries Discuss the Situation," of which he devotes 3 pages to C. Eells' "recollections" (in 1866, and subsequent years down to 1882), which "recollections" (from 24 to 40 years after the event) Mr. Eells did not pretend to support by reference to any contemporaneous letters, journals or other written or printed documents, as to the patriotic origin of Whitman's ride, and of the details of the Special Meeting of the Mission held at Whitman's Station, Sept. 26-27, 1842, which authorized his ride.

But neither in Chapter X, nor elsewhere in the book, does he even allude to the 14-page letter (received by D. Greene, Sec, on May 3, 1843), dated Oct. 3, 1842, in Gushing Eells' handwriting and signed by him (and indexed by the American Board among C. Eells' letters), which has a brief note of endorsement of its correctness in E. Walker's handwriting, and signed by him, which letter contains the official report of that Special Meeting of Sept. 26-27, 1842, signed by E. Walker, I Moderator, and Cushing Eells, Scribe, which record, written I but six days after the dose of the meeting, gives only the business of the mission as engaging its attention, without the least i intimation that any political or patriotic ideas were even mentioned during its whole session.

Yet knowing well that this record still exists in the archives of the American Board, Dr. Mowry copies without comment (on p. 129) Rev. C. Eells' statement made in 1882, that the record of that Special Meeting was destroyed at the time of the Whitman massacre!

The second such "original source" as to "A" is the correspondence of Mrs. Whitman with her parents, brothers and sisters after March, 1840, when Gray began to bring the quar-