Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/128

 120 FREDERICK V. HOLMAN is here present, and who has just passed his ninety- fourth birthday. I congratulate him on his good physical and mental condition, with an unimpaired memory, his modesty, his sim- plicity, his mental, as well as moral, honesty. These are only some of the qualities which endear him to all true Oregonians. The noble and efficient part he took at the meeting of May 2, 1843, will never be forgotten. Already it is established in his- tory and in the traditions of Oregon. Long may his life be and, as long as he lives, he will have Oregon's heartfelt esteem and affection. And when he passes away, his memory will be cherished as long as the Oregon pioneers and what they did are known. THE MEETING OF MAY 2, 1843, DID NOT "SAVE" OREGON. There are some persons who believe that the meeting of May 2, 1843, saved Oregon to the United States, but this is not the fact. Such a belief comes from ignorance. It may be creditable to their enthusiasm, but not to their knowledge of Oregon history. What is now the State of Oregon did not need savers it was not in peril. The American people would not have submitted to its loss. The next year, 1844, James K. Polk was elected President of the United States, largely on the popular cry of "54-40 or fight." This belief must take its place in the realm of myths in which those of fairies, of ghosts, of Santa Claus, and of "Whitman Saved Oregon" are taking their eternal rests. In 1843, and until June 15, 1846, there was joint-occupancy in all of the Oregon Country which could not be terminated except by the United States or Great Britain giving one year's notice to the other of such termination. For Congress and the President to exercise or attempt to exercise control over any part of the Oregon Country would have been an unwarrantable violation of a treaty, a breach of faith, and tantamount to a declaration of war against Great Britain. What Congress and the President could not do could not be done by the resolutions of a mass meeting, carried by forty-two Ameri- can citizens and ten British subjects.