Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/156

138 of undoing his work. And all felt that not he alone, but his secret advisers were likewise responsible.

In view of all the circumstances of Thurston's career, it is certainly to be regretted, first, that he fell under the influence of, or into alliance with, the missionary party; and secondly, that he had adopted as a part of his political creed the maxim that the end sanctifies the means, by which he missed obtaining that high place in the estimation of posterity to which he aspired, and to which he could easily have attained by a more honest use of his abilities. Associated as he is with the donation law, which gave thousands of persons free farms a mile square in Oregon, his name is engraved upon the foundation stones of the state beside those of Floyd, Linn, and Benton, and of Graham N. Fitch, the actual author of the bill before congress in 1850. No other compensation had he; and of that even the severest truth cannot deprive him.

Thurston had accomplished nothing toward securing a fortune in a financial sense, and he left his widow with scanty means of support. The mileage of the Oregon delegate was fixed by the organic act at $2,500. It was afterward raised to about double that amount; and when in 1856–7 on this ground a bill for the relief of his heirs was brought before congress, the secretary of the treasury was authorized to make up the difference in the mileage for that purpose.