Page:Letters to Mrs. F. F. Victor, 1878-83.djvu/4

 The concept of 'equality' in regard to land claims in the Oregon Country evidently was applied stringently to more desirable locations. The companies and the Mission, like the Indians when they made claims, were not entitled to any larger share of plums by right of prior occupancy. Indeed, the companies, in the popular feeling, had no right to any—they were not individuals; the Methodist Mission was American, morally uplifting and educational, and to that extent might claim some part of the pie, but no more than an individual; the Indians were not morally uplifting, they neither toiled nor spun, and they could not exert international pressure. First come, first served did apply, but the extent of the application depended on who came first and the quantity they wished to serve themselves. The law of the times when not provided by what the local citizens brought with them, was frequently applied by them, and what appeared as a bend or even break by more distant standards, looked straight enough in the community.

Roberts' vicissitudes as resident representative of the PSA Company on the Cowlitz Farm and the controverted PSA and HB Company claims which dragged along through various local, national and finally international proceedings for more than twenty years, came to an end in i 869. According to the findings of the Joint Commission which considered the claims, the U. S. purchased the rights of the two British companies for $650,000, of which $200,000 went to the PSA Company. Final payment was made in 1871, the year Roberts left the Cowlitz Farm for good and moved to Cathlamet, where other company employees had settled.

In editing the letters, repetitions (particularly in regard to the Cowlitz claim) have been omitted where possible, as well