Page:Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, re Whitman Massacre, 1871.pdf/20

Rh empire. To cross this immensity of land, or to avoid it being crossed, really had be come the problem before the pilgrim fathers thought of settlement in America. The latter theory was regarded the one which needed solution. None were bold enough to attempt crossing the continent itself, yet this was the task the Oregon emigrant had to accomplish or to make the voyage around Cape Horn. The history of the Oregon controversy develops the fact that it long continued to be doubted whether it were possible to people Oregon overland from the United States, or whether that Territory must receive its population by sea, via Cape Horn. If the former failed, then Great Britain, with her over-glutted centers of population, could use Oregon as an escape-valve, and all the probabilities seemed to indicate that British colonization would ultimately settle the Oregon controversy by maturing occupancy and possession.

But a third of a century ago two heroic, self-sacrificing American women found the solution of this problem of doubt and uncertainty. Actuated by as holy an impulse as inspired the Puritan fathers to spread the blessings of the Christian religion in new lands, they undertook the pilgrimage to Oregon to convert the Indians. What sermon could be more eloquent than that silent readiness to undertake such a journey: No heroism more sublime than their willingness to go. How sanctified has been that preaching! How shortly after the fruit appeared, in opening to Americanization the vast region west of the Rocky Mountains preparing it for the homes of men, women, and children. If women could reach Oregon overland the settlement of territorial claim was attained. That interesting incident of the past was the sure harbinger of what we are now about realizing. The great engineering and utilitarian idea of the 19th century is about to be consummated. The continent is crossed by a railroad. After American women had traversed the broad plains and crossed the great mountain chains of the American continent, it was needless further to search for a "Strait of Anian." That journey, accomplished safely, preceded the emigrant wagon road. As a natural consequence the railway has been substituted, the commerce of the Pacific and the eastern seas is concentrated in American cities on the Pacific shores, and the United States of America is the leading power of the world.

The example of the sainted heroines—one of whom (Mrs. Dr. Marcus Whitman) was slain at her post of duty by the perfidious savage for whose benefit she had gone into exile from home, kindred, and all its endearments, and the other (Mrs. Rev. H. H. Spalding) lies under the clod in an Oregon valley—was soon followed by a hardy band of men, women, and children. In each of these was a living argument of the integrity of claim of their nation to this territory. They were alike devoted to the glorious task of dedicating the wilderness to become a home for God's creatures, and reclaiming for their country a vast expanse of valuable territory, well-nigh lost by the "masterly inactivity" and apathy of the Government.—Hon. Elwood Evans's (late secretary Washington Territory) address at Port Townsend, W. T., January, 1869.

{{c|THE MARTYR WHITMAN'S SERVICES TO THE EMIGRANT ROUTE.

{{smaller|HIS TERRIFIC WINTER JOURNEY THROUGH THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS—HIS SUCCESSFUL MISSION AT WASHINGTON.}}

However the political question between England and the United States as to the ownership of Oregon may be decided, Oregon will never be colonized overland from the United States. The world must assume a new face before the American wagons will make plain the road to the Columbia as they have to the Ohio.–Edinburgh Review, 1843.

{{c|{{smaller|SENATOR LANE OF OREGON ON THE MISSIONARY WHITMAN.}}}}

Among those who thus labored faithfully and unremittingly and with a singleness of purpose and self-sacrificing zeal which commanded the admiration and respect of all who observed his elevated and untiring labors, was the Rev. Marcus Whitman. Never, in my opinion, did missionary go forth to the field of his labors animated by a nobler purpose or devote himself to his task with more earnestness and sincerity than this meek and Christian man. He arrived in 1836, and established his mission in the Waiilatpu country, east of the Cascade Mountains, and devoted his entire time to the education and improvement of the Indians, teaching them the arts of {{SIC|civilation|civilization}}, the mode of cultivating the soil, to plant, to sow, to reap, to do all the duties that pertain to civilized man. He erected mills, plowed their ground, sowed their crops, and assisted in gathering in their harvest.

About the time he had succeeded in teaching them some of these arts and the means of using some of these advantages, they rose against him without cause and without notice, and massacred him and his wife and many others who were at the mission at the time.—General Lane in the House of Representatives, April, 1856. {{nop}}