Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/31



Hall Jackson Kelley 15

show his "statesman-like foresight," the historian must exercise all possible caution. When that politician is Benton, the need for caution is imperative, for in him were combined the qual- ities of unquestioned personal integrity and of equally unques- tioned political agility. So this booklet with its selections bear- ing no dates more specific than those on the title page, could hardly be accepted in the absence of supporting evidence.

Fortunately, we have such evidence and of a conclusive char- acter. There is nowhere a complete file of the St. Louis En- quirer, but from the numbers available it is possible to identify one of the selections.'' Furthermore, if such evidence were lacking, it would be possible to prove that as early as 1819 Benton's newspaper was giving space to the discussion of the settlement of Oregon. In the Independent Chronicle and Bos- ton Patriot of June 9, 1819, appeared an article "from the St. Louis Enquirer" under the head, "The Columbia River." This article is reproduced in part below :

"The project of some citizens of Virginia to settle on the Columbia, revives the idea of a town or colony on that river.

"Mr. John Jacob Astor of New York, made an establishment at its mouth just before the commencement of the last war, which was broken up soon after by British and Indian hostility.

"The Virginians contemplate an establishment on the navig- able waters of the Colimibia, but we should think that the place of its junction with the Multnomah would furnish the most eligible. — These rivers unite their streams, in tide water, one hundred and twenty miles from the Pacific Ocean, and a short distance below the range of mountains. From thence to Asia the navigation would be easy and direct, the distance not great, and the sea so peacable, as its name indicates, that no more mariners would be wanting to conduct a ship, than hands enough to set her sails at the outset of the voyage, and take them down at its termination. To the same point also (the

7 The editorial, "Treaty of 1818 — Columbia River** (Selections, 8-9) appeared in the St. Louis Enquirer of March 17, 1819. The Enquirer on Januar^r 0, i8ai, rej>riated an article "from the Western Spy*' on "Commerce with Asia,** which dcdared *'A series of essasrs on this subject was imblished in the St, Louis En- quirer,"