Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/43



DOCUMENTARY

THE LETTERS OF THE REV. WILLIAM M. ROBERTS, THIRD SUPERINTENDENT OF THE OREGON MISSION.

Edited by ROBERT MOULTON GATKE, A. B., Graduate Fellow in Oregon History, Willamette University.

Letters hold no small place among our best historical sources. To read what a man says under conditions demand- ing accuracy in expression and yet free from the restraint of a self-consciousness resulting from the expectation of his writings being published, is indeed to get very near his real motives and opinions, especially as the passage of years have not allowed events to become unduly colored by later opinions and information. We get as close to history in the making as we are ever able to get. We do not secure information which has been brought forth by the suggestive question of the investigator but by the circumstances of the day which pro- duced the letter, hence their great value. Often the incidental reference to things of apparently slight importance opens for us a straight passage way into the very heart and spirit of the day we are seeking to understand.

The letters of Rev. William M. Roberts are splendid examples of what letters can show us of the period in which they were written. They were written by a man who was a keen observer, and usually directed to men whom he felt must be made to understand Oregon as he saw it. They are the product of a man who was himself one of the molding factors in the State's development as the leader of one of the great formitive forces of our State the Methodist Mission. Our regret upon reading the Roberts letters is that they are so few in number, and cover such a limited period, mainly 1847- '49. Most of his papers were destroyed by his surviving relatives