Page:Oregon Literature by Horner.djvu/95

Rh, and at measured intervals upon the moveless air, and hushing the mind to breathless thoughts that fain would know the whither of the departed. But death in the wilderness in the solitude of nature, and far from the fixed abodes of busy men, seemed to have in it solemnity that far surpassed all this. Hon. J. Quinn Thornton, A. M., D. C. L., LL. D.

Penetrating the veil and looking behind, what do we realize? Our fellow countrymen and women, few in numbers, but steadfast in purpose, who had been forgotten by their government, yet neglect could not weaken their loyalty and love. Submitting patiently to that injustice, always true to birthright and origin, they carried with them love of republican institutions, had established, and upon that very day were successfully administering a government of the people, by the people. Oregon already contained within it an infant republic. Here was a thriving, loyal American commonwealth, started by children of the great republican household, who, though for a time discarded, had ever been animated with unabated zeal for the glory and grandeur of their parent government.

When I contemplate this history, this undying devotion to fatherland, this patriotic love of their native institutions, I know not which most to com-