Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/107

Rh Lucier, had obtained incorrect ideas. But when the vote prevailed, they acquiesced cheerfully, and became among the best citizens of the little republic the smallest, probably, since the days of the Pilgrim fathers, who organized their government in the cabin of the Mayflower.

After organization was effected, and a body of laws was framed, Matthieu was called upon to take part in affairs, and was elected justice of the peace for Champoeg County, an office which he says he filled to "the satisfaction of everybody.' He settled disputes by inviting the complaining parties to sit down with him to a good dinner, and after an hour's cheer and pleasant chat, he sent them away well contented with his findings.

He had some trouble with distillers, who sometimes set up little stills in out of the way places, and made liquor to intoxicate the Indians. He recalls one case in which he and Doctor Wilson, the judge, traced a distiller out into the woods, back of French Prairie, at DePot's, and found him over a teakettle, which he used as his still, manufacturing what was called "blue ruin" a liquor made out of Sandwich Island molasses, and was an article so destructive as to almost relieve the authorities of the necessity of estopping the manufacture the juice being the executioner of its producer.

Of all the characters of the early day, McLoughlin stands out foremost, and overtops all others, in Mr. Matthieu 's recollection. The old chief factor had some of the elements of greatness: "He was the finest man I ever knew," says Mr. Matthieu, "and there will never be another like him. He did what no other man would do." With Doctor McLoughlin, Doctor Whitman, whom he greatly respected, he says, "bore no comparison.McLoughlin had the immense physique, the great voice, and the commanding manner, and also the positive and decisive mind that carried all before him.