Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/39

Rh ing snow peaks full in view. The beauty and grandeur of the scenery was some recompense for the tremendous decline in my previous high estimation of the military arm of the Republic.

To an American boy, when the army is mentioned, come memories of Bunker Hill, Lexington, Valley Forge, Yorktown and the sublime virtues of the revolutionary patriots. Nothing sordid or mean mars his patriotic fervor. To be sure, he may have read about some bickerings among aspiring under-officers in the Continental Army, but they were so overshadowed by Arnold's treachery, so lost to sight by reason of the general loyalty and the matchless career of the Father of His Country that he fails to consider such trifles as incident to human nature. At least, such had been my mental condition until my visit to the fort, when I became disagreeably conscious, in the short space of two days, that the selfish in human nature did not depart when American citizens joined the army. Intrigue and jealousy resulting from favoritism were very noticeable. At first I could not understand why an apparently intelligent man like Colonel Steinberger should propose so irrational a scheme as ordaining capital punishment upon a ward of the Government, against whom no felony had been charged, much less proved; for certainly it was no crime to allow two unknown persons to come into one's house and depart without hindrance. I was amazed at the determination and asked Captain Harding what he thought of the matter. His reply was so sententious and striking that I shall never forget it. "Oh! he wants to kill an Indian; he has never killed one." But I learned afterwards that the Colonel was not that kind of man. AB the boys now say, "he was merely standing in" with his pet Lieutenant, whom he wished not to see humiliated by a bootless foray in search of the miscreants who robbed and shot the miner. I had small opportunity to study the Colonel, but had no thought that he was a vicious person; rather that he lacked a judicial mind. The officers under him, so far as I heard, said he had the rare faculty of keeping the spirit of the troops up to the military standard. As this was a favorite saying of his admirers and repeated by