Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/403

Rh directing that all Indians should be treated as enemies who did not show unmistakable signs of friendship. No other instruction was given but to advise a concert of action with the United States forces which might be engaged in that section of the territory.

Meanwhile, communications from democrats at Rogue River had reached the capital, and immediately the war became a party measure. It was ascertained that Ross in calling out the militia had made several whig appointments contrary to the will of the ruling party, which had attacked the governor for appointing whig surgeons in the northern battalion; so paramount were politics in ministering to the wants of wounded men! The governor, unfortunately for his otherwise stainless record, was unable to stem the tide, and allowed himself to become an instrument in the hands of a clique who demanded a course of action disgraceful to all concerned. Five days after issuing the proclamation, the governor ordered disbanded all companies not duly enrolled by virtue of said proclamation, information having been received that armed parties had taken the field with the avowed purpose of waging a war of extermination against the Indians without respect to age or sex, and had slaughtered a band of friendly natives upon their reservation, despite the authority of the agent and the commanding officer of the United States troops stationed there. The immediate effect of the proclamation was to suspend volunteering in Douglas county, to which Ross had written to have another company raised, and to throw discredit on those already in the field.