Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/385

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The colonization of Oregon by Americans, which occurred somewhat more than sixty years ago, deserves to rank well up among the four or five principal events of Pacific Coast history prior to the gold discovery. I think this position would not be disputed by those who have investigated the subject; but, unfortunately, the ordinary denizen of our section, whether he lives south or north of the forty-second parallel, begins his chronology with the rush of 1849, not even going back to the gold discovery of the preceding year. "Forty-nine" produced a psychological effect upon the western mind much like that which "the fall of the stars" or "the death of General Jackson" produced upon the Southern negroes of ante-bellum days. Of course, the tremendous revolution in economical and social affairs throughout the length of the coast, which clearly resulted from the gold discovery, is responsible for the false perspective in which our early history is viewed. The excitement beginning in 1848 and '49 was so intense, and the achievements of the years following were so wonderful, that earlier transactions sink, neglected, into the background.

Yet it was precisely the "day of small things" which preceded that made the era of grand things so easily possible. The colonization of Oregon gave to the United States an assured claim upon the valley of the Columbia, and led to the peaceful solution of the boundary question; it realized what twenty years earlier had been but the dream of a few enthusiasts, the American expansion to the Pa-