Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/217

Rh had insured the success of their great enterprise. A spark of genius may strike out a great idea,—a dashing general may win a great battle for a noble cause, and a close student may solve a great scheme of government; but the even tempered, patient, tireless, honest, practical man of common sense is absolutely necessary to utilize the great idea, the great battle, or the great scheme. So also with the Oregon provisional government. From its very inception there were ambitious men thirsting for glory and anxious to lead, but had not the necessary brains or ballast. A dual executive was tried and found inefficient. Impatience for results, the jealousies of little men, and petulant tempers of bigger men, all conspired to threaten the governmental experiment with failure. The final success of the effort was only secured by the majority of citizens who asking nothing for themselves but peace and safety, determined that their efforts should not be wrecked by incompetency or lack of conscientious effort. And so after more than two years of careful consideration of every name in the whole country, favorable to the government, Abernethy was chosen to pilot the ship of state, and continued at the helm until the United States government assumed all responsibility and relieved him of the great duties he had discharged with singular integrity and efficiency.

To raise money to support a government in a country where half the people did not want any government, and where there was not even the power to enforce taxation, and where the legal tender was wheat, beaver skin, etc., and serve the government for years without salary or pay, was not half a list of the trials and difficulties Governor Abernethy had to contend with and overcome.

That he was able to keep the little craft afloat, and steer clear of the opposition of open enemies, and the petty annoyances of backbiting rivalry, until he finally reached the secure harbor of national protection, is a marvel of good management, patient forbearance to all criticism and patriotic devotion to the welfare of his fellow-men. Where all Americans were ardent patriots, and many were captious critics, the slightest deviation from the straight and narrow way of strict rectitude, and even self sacrifice, would have lost him the confidence of the little commonwealth and plunged the community into that anarchy that would have wrecked the whole effort to found a new state. And to have succeeded as Governor Abernethy did, was to save and strengthen the entire movement from day to day, until from infantile weakness it reached the vigor and capacity to defend itself from foreign intrigues and Indian wars. And thus saving the organization was in fact making the state, and the labor and success of the achievement places the name of George Abernethy among those who really in truth and fact saved Oregon to the United States.

George Abernethy was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, though reared in New York city. Left New York in 1839, and arrived in Oregon in 1840, coming with a missionary party. He was an ardent Methodist, but smooth and politic in a marked degree, and able to manage Catholic and Protestants with equal facility. He was actively supported by his Methodist brethren for the office of governor and made a good executive. On his canvass for re-election, he had serious opposition, and it is said that a majority of the voters preferred General Lovejoy, but put aside their preferences rather than disturb an existing order of administration. He went actively into business after the expiration of his official duties. He was not successful in mercantile affairs, and after loosing most of his fortune, removed from Oregon City to Portland, and resided here for sixteen years, passing away in May, 1877.

No record of the strenuous times in which the foundations of civil government were laid in Oregon would be just, or complete, that failed to recognize the united efforts of all the men and women to organize society and promote good works here from 1840 to 1848. There were leaders as there must be in all forward movements, which the turn of events or characteristic abilities brought to the front. But the record and the results show, that while individuals stoutly contended for their opinions, and for their policies of government, yet on the one