Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/218

156 purpose in view, there was more harmony and united action than is generally found in small communities. It was all the people who united in the provisional government, and manfully pulled together through good and evil report, that saved Oregon to the United States.

Of all these, three men have secured great prominence, and one at least, a national reputation, in the work of saving Oregon. And of these three, one was not for a time, a citizen of the United States.

The work of John McLoughlin in co-operating to organize society and establish the institutions of education, religion and civil government, is unique and unexampled in the history of the west. The work of Marcus Whitman, cut off in the midst of his career by the treacherous hands of those he vainly sought to bless, has not, and probably never will be fully known or comprehended. There can be no doubt that iWhitman was one of the first to divine the plans of the Hudson Bay Company as the representative of Great Britain in Oregon, and probably the first man to personally appeal to the government for that support which was so long and so wrongfully withheld. The work and career of Jason Lee was in many respects different from that of McLoughlin and Whitman. Lee himself, a native Canadian, was able to command the friendship of McLoughlin from his first appearance in Oregon. But being a citizen of the United States, all his aims and ambition were enthusiastically enlisted with his adopted country. And he was withal an intensely practical man. He passed over the country that Whitman settled in. He sized up the native red man from some observation of him in Canada. He saw at a glance that the Willamette valley offered a better and broader foundation for a missionary station than the more rugged regions east of the Cascades. The characteristics of these three great men were entirely dissimilar. Their work, careers and influence in Oregon and in saving Oregon has been the subject of a great controversy for a quarter of a century. Books have been written, each covering four hundred or more pages, proclaiming the good work of these men for Oregon. And that the work of each of them may be fully and justly presented, and preserved in this history, it has been deemed best to have their careers sketched by friends who have made a special study of their lives. And in pursuance of that arrangement, Mr. Frederick V. Holman, has prepared the monograph on Dr. John McLoughlin; Joseph R. Wilson, D. D., has rendered a like service for Dr. Whitman, while Mr. John Gill has given us the career of Jason Lee. These sketches will be found at the end of this chapter.

If the publisher had given more space it would have been a pleasant duty to have noticed at length such men as W. H. Gray, John S. Griffin, Robert Newell, Robert Shortess, James W. Nesmith, Peter H. Burnett, John Minto and others all of whom did valiant and effective work in saving Oregon to the United States. Gray was practically the lieutenant of Whitman. Energetic, omnipresent and courageous to the limit, he lost no opportunity in his determined purpose to do all, and say all, that could be done or said for Protestanism and the provisional government. And besides this, Gray's work lives after him in a history of Oregon, which contain many facts and phases of life in pioneer times that cannot be found in other works on Oregon. Peter H. Burnett one of the judges of the provisional government did useful work for the new state, attained prominence here and going to California was made the first governor of that state. James W. Nesmith was also one of the judges of the provisional government, colonel in the Indian wars, and United States senator. John S. Griffin (Father Griffin) was for many years a pioneer preacher of usefulness, giving his services freely to all, and living to the honored old age of Q2. Robert Newell was the wit and philosopher of the whole community, and the peace-maker in all petty contentions for office or precedence. He was the diplomatist that could "sooth the savage breast" and bend the red men to his will. What "Dr. Bob Newell" could not plan, and successfully carry out, to promote the public welfare and peace of the community, sixty-five years ago, is not worth mentioning.