Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/297

 RKCOLLKCTIONS OF AN OLD PIONEER. 287 of 1845; and it is quite probable that this committee found it very difficult to coerce a Supreme Court to decide questions of law before cases were properly brought before it. My extracts from the laws of 1844 are taken from "Ore- gon Laws and Archives, by L. F. Orover, Commissioner," '-cpt the act in reiranl to slavery, and the fourth section f War. These two acts are not found in G rover's compilation. The act in regard to slavery, free negroes, and mulattoes is a certified copy from the original on file in the office of the Secretary of State. My reference to the journals of 1844 and 1845 are to the same compilation. In the summer and early fall of 1846 Jesse Applegate, at his own expense as I then understood, opened a new wagon road into the Willamette Valley at its southern ^nd. He met the emigrants at Fort Hall and induced a portion of them to come by that route. They suffered great hardships before they reached the end of their journey. This was caused mainly by their own mistakes. Though he was much cen- sured by many of them, he was not to blame. He had per- formed one of the most noble and generous acts, and deserved praise rather than censure. I traveled with him across the plains in 1S4.J. and I can testify that he was a noble, in- tellectual, and irenerous man; and his character was so per- fect as to bear any and all tests, under any and all circum- Man.-es. The Hon. J. W. Nesmith. in his address before the Oregon pioneers in. I line. 1875. paid a glowing tribute to the character of "Uncle Jesse Applegate." I knew him long and well, and shall never cease to love him so long as I live. I left him in Oregon in 1848. He was then a rich man, for that time and that country. I did not see him again until 1872. a period of nearly twenty-four years. In the meantime lie had 1 me a gray-haired old man. He and myself are near the same age, he being about two years the younger. One day. without my knowing that he was in California, he walked into the Pacific Hank in San Francisco. I knew.