Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon Part 7

_The Persecution Continued._

The conspirators and their friends did not cease their persecution of Dr. McLoughlin. They were determined he should not have his land claim.

To protect the reputation of Thurston and the other conspirators, it was necessary to defeat all actions of the Oregon Legislative a.s.sembly in favor of Dr. McLoughlin. If that body made any pet.i.tions to Congress or pa.s.sed any resolutions in favor of Dr. McLoughlin, it would show that he was ent.i.tled to his land claim, the injustice of section eleven of the Donation Land Law, and that Thurston was guilty of malicious untruths in his letter to, and his speeches before Congress relating to Dr.

McLoughlin and his land claim. Oregon could not, with propriety, pretend to act justly to Dr. McLoughlin and still retain his land claim. I regret to say that the House of Representatives of the Oregon Legislative a.s.sembly, at its session in 1853-4, not only refused to help Dr. McLoughlin, but by its actions did him harm. January 6, 1854, several pet.i.tions were presented to the House asking that Congress be memorialized in favor of Dr. McLoughlin's right to his land claim, "excepting the Abernethy Island," but the pet.i.tions were immediately laid on the table. January 28, 1854, Orlando Humason presented to the House the following resolution: "Whereas, the acts of John McLoughlin in regard to his treatment of the early settlers of Oregon, have, as we believe, been misrepresented, therefore--RESOLVED, that the generous conduct of Dr. John McLoughlin in a.s.sisting the early settlers of Oregon, merits our warmest commendations, and that as evidence of the high estimation in which his services are held by his fellow citizens, the thanks of this a.s.sembly be tendered to the said Dr. John McLoughlin."[54] But by the vote of sixteen to seven, three being absent, the resolution was indefinitely postponed, which was the legislative way of defeating it. All honor to the seven who voted in favor of the resolution. Their names are F. C. Cason, L. F. Cartee, Orlando Humason, B. B. Jackson, J. W. Moffitt, Chauncey Nye, and L. S.

Thompson.

_The End of Dr. McLoughlin's Life._

All these troubles and tribulations naturally told on Dr. McLoughlin. He was a man of fort.i.tude, who brooded, almost silently, over his sorrows, with an occasional outburst when his sufferings were too intense. He had made expensive improvements on his land claim, including a flour-mill and a saw-mill, and other buildings. No provisions were ever made by Congress to pay for these improvements. Even his dwelling house at Oregon City, which for several years had been the home of himself and his family, was taken from him, with his other improvements, by section eleven of the Oregon Donation Land Law. It is true he remained in possession of these improvements, including his home, but by sufferance only. Because the Territory of Oregon did not sell the land he was not actually ousted. There was no way to acquire land in Oregon City, taken from Dr. McLoughlin by said section eleven, except by a law pa.s.sed by the Oregon Legislature. And the legislature did nothing.

He could not move nor sell his improvements. They belonged to the land on which they were erected. Even if he could have sold them they would have brought but little as they would have to be moved. His mills were erected to be run by water power and they were conveniently situated on the bank of the river near the falls, for the economical handling of wheat and logs and the s.h.i.+pping of products of these mills. They could not, at that time, be successful financially if they were moved and operated by steam. He hoped that Congress or the Legislature would restore his land claim to him. But he hoped and waited in vain. The lion was entangled in a net. He struggled but he could not escape. And so Dr.

McLoughlin became straitened financially. Had Dr. McLoughlin been allowed to have his land, he could then have built up a large town at Oregon City. As it was, investors went to places where t.i.tles to land could be obtained and there built up enterprises. With the moneys from the sale of land Dr. McLoughlin could have paid the Hudson's Bay Company all the moneys due by settlers, who had failed or refused to pay. The payment of this heavy indebtedness Dr. McLoughlin had a.s.sumed. It was a matter of honor with him. He owed nothing else to the Hudson's Bay Company. The settlers who would not pay their indebtedness caused Dr.

McLoughlin to feel keenly their ingrat.i.tude. If they had paid him, he would have paid the Company in full.

And there, too, was the question of providing after his death for his loving and faithful wife, to whom he was devoted, and his children. He had always been generous to his family. He had provided for his mother until her death at the age of eighty-three years. He had educated four nieces. He had helped other of his relatives. Is it to be wondered at that he sometimes felt bitter?

The McLoughlin Doc.u.ment was undoubtedly written at this period. It is a brief of his defense. He probably wrote it so that his descendants would understand. At the end of this Doc.u.ment, Dr. McLoughlin said: "By British demagogues I have been represented as a traitor. For what?

Because I acted as a Christian; saved American citizens, men, women and children from the Indian tomahawk and enabled them to make farms to support their families.[55] American demagogues have been base enough to a.s.sert that I had caused American citizens to be ma.s.sacred by hundreds by the savages. I, who saved all I could. I have been represented by the Delegate from Oregon, the late S. R. Thurston, as doing all I could to prevent the settling [of Oregon], while it was well known to every American settler who is acquainted with the history of the Territory if this is not a downright falsehood, and most certainly will say, that he most firmly believes that I did all I could to promote its settlement, and that I could not have done more for the settlers if they had been my brothers and sisters, and, after being the first person to take a claim in the country and a.s.sisting the immigrants as I have, my claim is reserved, after having expended all the means I had to improve it, while every other settler in the country gets his. But as I felt convinced that any disturbance between us here might lead to a war between Great Britain and the States, I felt it my bounden duty as a Christian, to act as I did, and which I think averted the evil, and which was so displeasing to some English demagogues that they represented me to the British government as a person so partial to American interests as selling the Hudson's Bay Company goods, in my charge, cheaper to American than I did to British subjects.... Yet, after acting as I have, spending my means and doing my utmost to settle the country, my claim is reserved, while every other settler in the country gets his; and how much this has injured me, is daily injuring me, it is needless to say, and certainly it is a treatment I do not deserve and which I did not expect. To be brief, I founded this settlement and prevented a war between the United States and Great Britain, and for doing this peaceably and quietly, I was treated by the British in such a manner that from self respect I resigned my situation in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, by which I sacrificed $12,000 per annum, and the 'Oregon Land Bill' shows the treatment I received from the Americans."

And so, worried and troubled without surcease, Dr. McLoughlin maintained his grand, but kindly, att.i.tude to the last. But these matters affected his health. For several years before his death he was an invalid, but his pride a.s.sisted him to persevere and to transact such business as he could, although his heart was breaking. His flesh became greatly reduced, his eyes deeply sunken. He grew so emaciated that his great frame stood out, making him look gaunt and grim. For a few weeks, only, before his death he was confined to his bed.

Thus encompa.s.sed and overcome, and crucified by robbery, mendacity, and ingrat.i.tude, Dr. John McLoughlin died at Oregon City, September 3, 1857, a broken-hearted man. He was buried in the churchyard of the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon City, where his body now lies. The stone which marks his grave bears the simple inscription:

"DR. JOHN McLOUGHLIN DIED Sept. 3, 1857.

AGED 73 Years.

The pioneer and Friend of Oregon.

Also the founder of this City."

Dr. John McLoughlin is not the only great character in history, whose memory shall live for all time, but whose death was under sad circ.u.mstances and whose heart, at the time of his death, was then filled with thoughts of the wrong-doings and the ingrat.i.tude of others.

The frontispiece to this address is made from a photograph of a daguerreotype of Dr. McLoughlin taken in 1856, when his sorrows and tribulations were beginning to tell on him. This daguerreotype belongs to Mrs. Josiah Myrick, of Portland, Oregon, who is a granddaughter of Dr. McLoughlin. She kindly loaned this daguerreotype to have the photograph made of it.

Governor L. F. Grover was elected Governor of Oregon for two consecutive terms. He resigned during his last term to be an United States Senator, to which latter office he was elected. He is now living in Portland, at an advanced age. On the fourteenth of September, 1905, he gave me a written statement of an incident which occurred in the last sickness of Dr. McLoughlin. In this statement Governor Grover said that he was riding on horseback through Oregon City on his way from Salem to Portland, and pa.s.sed down the street directly in front of Dr.

McLoughlin's home, a few days before his death. As Governor Grover was giving directions for the care of his horse, a messenger came to him from Dr. McLoughlin requesting Governor Grover to call at Dr.

McLoughlin's house. Governor Grover says: "I found him extremely ill....

He said that he was dying by inches. He said: 'I shall live but a little while longer and this is the reason I sent for you. I am an old man and just dying, and you are a young man and will live many years in this country, and will have something to do with affairs here. As for me, I might better have been shot'--and he brought it out harshly--'I might better have been shot forty years ago.' After a silence, for I did not say anything, he concluded: 'than to have lived here and tried to build up a family and an estate in this government. I became a citizen of the United States in good faith. I planted all I had here and the government has confiscated my property. Now what I want to ask of you is that you will give your influence after I am dead to have this property go to my children. I have earned it as other settlers have earned theirs, and it ought to be mine and my heirs.' I told him I would favor his request, and did."

_Justice to Dr. McLoughlin's Memory._

Although the Donation Land Law went into effect September 27, 1850, and its section eleven provided that the "Oregon City Claim" should be at the disposal of the Territory for the establishment and endowment of an university, nothing was done with this land claim until 1862, three years after Oregon became a state. In October, 1862, the Legislative a.s.sembly of the State of Oregon pa.s.sed an act, which was approved by the Governor October 17, 1862, conveying and confirming to the legatees under the will of Dr. McLoughlin, who were his son, David, his daughter, Eloisa, and her husband, Daniel Harvey, the McLoughlin or Oregon City land claim, excepting Abernethy Island, upon the condition that said legatees pay to the University Fund of Oregon, the nominal sum of one thousand dollars. This was forthwith paid by Daniel Harvey and wife in gold coin although they might have paid it in greenbacks, which were then at a large discount. As the eleventh section of the Donation Land Law provided that the proceeds of the sale of said Oregon City Claim should be applied to the establishment and endowment of an university, there had to be some consideration paid on its disposal by the State.

All this occurred twelve years after the pa.s.sage of the Donation Land Law and five years after the death of Dr. McLoughlin. During all those twelve years the t.i.tle of this land claim was in the Territory, or State of Oregon. It stopped the growth of Oregon City. It impoverished Dr.

McLoughlin.

As appears by the Senate and House Journals of the Legislative Session of 1862 said act pa.s.sed the Senate, with two negative votes only, and there were none in the House after the act was amended in the Senate in the form in which the act became a law. The injustice of the Donation Land Law to Dr. McLoughlin had appealed to the people of Oregon in the twelve years which had elapsed since the pa.s.sage of the latter law. What Dr. McLoughlin had done for Oregon and its pioneers could not be forgotten. Justice to him and his memory was, at last, triumphant. The enactment and approval of this law of October 17, 1862, was an official vindication of Dr. McLoughlin, by the Legislative and Executive Departments of the State of Oregon, of all the false statements about, and all charges against him made by Thurston and others, and of all their misrepresentations of Dr. McLoughlin and of his acts. It was a formal official acknowledgment of the injustice of the Oregon Donation Land Law to Dr. McLoughlin. It was an official recognition of his sterling qualities; of his humanity; of his great services in a.s.sisting the early immigrants; of what he had done for Oregon; and of what was due to him and to his memory as the Father of Oregon. It cleared his character and reputation from every imputation of unfairness, injustice, and chicanery. It was, in effect, an official condemnation of the acts of the conspirators against him.

In 1846 the fame of Dr. John McLoughlin as a great and good man had extended to Rome. That year Gregory XVI, then the Pope, made Dr.

McLoughlin a Knight of St. Gregory the Great, of civil grade. The original patent, written in Latin, is now in the possession of a descendant of Dr. McLoughlin. A copy in English is in the possession of the Oregon Historical Society. The Pope sent to Dr. McLoughlin the Insignia of the Order, which was delivered to him by Archbishop Francis N. Blanchet on his return from Europe in August, 1847. It was a high and deserved honor. But without it Dr. John McLoughlin was one of Nature's knights in all qualities which the highest and best of knights should have. He was such a knight, _sans peur, sans reproche_.

_Opinions by Dr. McLoughlin's Contemporaries._

In 1887 the people of Portland determined to raise six hundred dollars for a three-quarter life-size portrait of Dr. McLoughlin, to be painted by William Coggswell, the artist, to be owned by the Oregon Pioneer a.s.sociation. The money was raised by popular subscription. The total amount subscribed was nearly double the sum required. This portrait was formally presented to the a.s.sociation at its annual meeting, June 15, 1887. Judge M. P. Deady made the presentation address. He was a judge for forty years continuously in Oregon. A part of the time, six years, he was on the Oregon Territorial Supreme Bench, and for thirty-four years he was United States District Judge for Oregon, after Oregon became a State. In his presentation address Judge Deady, speaking of Dr.

McLoughlin,[56] said: "The man, whose portrait now hangs before you, came to this country from the Atlantic commissioned as Chief Factor and Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky mountains. He was clothed with absolute power.... He was the ruler of this country, and had the peace and security of the people in his hands. He was distinguished for his justice and fair dealing with the Indians. When the immigration came he was distinguished for kindness and hospitality.

He always literally obeyed the scriptural injunction to feed the hungry, visit the sick and clothe the naked. The maintenance of law, order and justice rested on his shoulders and he was equal to the occasion.

"The people of Portland have thought to honor his memory by having his portrait painted and giving it to the Pioneer a.s.sociation, to be taken to the fair city of Salem and hung in the State Capitol, where you may look at it and show it to your children, and they to their children, and say: 'This is the old doctor, the good doctor, Dr. John McLoughlin.'

Thirty years ago he laid down his life at the Wallamet Falls, where he had builded and lived since 1845, somewhat in obscurity, somewhat in sorrow, somewhat in sadness and disappointment. But the political strife and religious bigotry which cast a cloud over his latter days have pa.s.sed away, and his memory and figure have arisen from the mist and smoke of controversy, and he stands out today in bold relief, as the first man in the history of this country--the Pioneer of Pioneers."

The Oregon Pioneer a.s.sociation deemed it best to present this portrait to the State of Oregon. This was done February 6, 1889, at a joint session of the Senate and House of the Oregon Legislative a.s.sembly held for the purpose. This portrait now hangs in the Senate chamber of the State Capitol at Salem in the place of honor, immediately back of the chair of the President of the Senate. John Minto, an honored pioneer of 1844, was selected to make the presentation address. In this address Mr.

Minto said:[57] "In this sad summary of such a life as Dr. McLoughlin's, there is a statement that merits our attention, which, if ever proven true--and no man that ever knew Dr. McLoughlin will doubt that he believed it true, namely, that he prevented war between Great Britain and the United States--will show that two of the greatest nations on this earth owe him a debt of grat.i.tude, and that Oregon in particular is doubly bound to him as a public benefactor.... It is now twenty-six years since the Legislative a.s.sembly of the State of Oregon, so far as restoration of property to Dr. McLoughlin's family could undo the wrong of Oregon's land bill, gave gladness to the heart of every Oregon pioneer worthy of the name. All of them yet living now know that (good man as they believed him) he was better than they knew. They see him now, after the strife and jealousies of race, national, business, and sectarian interests are allayed, standing in the centre of all these causes of contention--a position in which to please all parties was simply impossible, to maintain which 'only a good man could bear with patience'--and they have adopted this means of conveying their appreciation of this great forbearance and patient endurance, combined with his generous conduct. Looking, then, at this line of action in the light of the merest glimpses of history known to be true by witnesses yet living, can any honest man wonder that the pioneers of Oregon, who have eaten the salt of this man's hospitality--who have been eye witnesses to his brave care for humanity and partic.i.p.ators of his generous aid--are unwilling to go to their graves in silence, which would imply base ingrat.i.tude--a silence which would be eloquent with falsehood?"

In accepting this portrait, on behalf of the State of Oregon, Gov.

Sylvester Pennoyer, also an Oregon pioneer, who served two consecutive terms as Governor of the State of Oregon, said:[58] "This gift is alike creditable to the venerable men of your a.s.sociation in its bestowment and to the State of Oregon in its acceptance. It does honor to the pioneers of Oregon, because it shows their full appreciation of the high qualities of a true and n.o.ble manhood; and the placing of this painting in the honorable position it now occupies in the senate-hall of the state capitol evinces a like appreciation on the part of the representatives and the people of this great State. Dr. McLoughlin was, indeed, a most extraordinary man. Entrusted with a most responsible position under the British flag at a time when there was a bitter contest for governmental supremacy in Oregon, it was the undoubted and honorable wish and prompting of his heart that the flag of his country might continue to wave over Oregon soil, and yet in instances repeated without number, he extended the hand of charity and unstinted aid to the poor immigrants of the contesting people, whose advent here threatened the supremacy of his government over the contested territory. While he was loyal to his country he was, as became his lofty character, more loyal to his conscience; and while never forgetting his full allegiance as a Briton, he never forgot his higher duty as a man.... Then let this picture of the grand old man, whose numerous deeds of charity are inseparably interwoven in the early history of our State, ever enjoy the place of honor it now holds; and when our children and our children's children shall visit these venerated halls, let them pause before the portrait of this venerable man and do homage to his memory, who, with his patriotic devotion to his country and his devout service to his G.o.d, crowned the full completeness of his high character with an unmeasured love for his fellow men."

I have already spoken of the Rev. H. K. Hines, D.D., a Methodist minister who came to Oregon in 1853, and of his memorable address delivered at Pendleton, December 10, 1897. In this address Dr. Hines said that "Dr. McLoughlin should escape the traduction of sectarian rancor and bigotry, ... was perhaps an impossibility. He certainly did not. Of course all could see at the outset, and none more clearly than the missionaries themselves, that the att.i.tude he a.s.sumed towards the American missions and missionaries, must needs decide the success of their work, and even the very inauguration of it.... Dr. McLoughlin was a Christian, professedly, and it does not lie in me to say that he was not really and truly. At this time, and long before, and for years afterwards, he was a member of the Church of England. That subsequently, in 1841, I think, he became a devout member of the Roman Catholic church, does not, to my mind, take from or add to the estimate I make of him as a devout believer in that form of religion called Christianity."

And speaking of Dr. McLoughlin's treatment of the missionaries of all denominations, Dr. Hines said: "All these missionaries came while Dr.

McLoughlin was not connected with any of the churches they represented.

His treatment of them was on a broader and higher plane than that of the sectary. It was that of the humanitarian and the Christian, and it continued thus even after he must have seen that, at least, the missions of Mr. Lee and Dr. Whitman were, in the order of events, gathering about themselves the elements of an American civilization that indicated what the future of Oregon would be--what it has long since become." And referring to the early immigrants and Dr. McLoughlin's treatment of them, Dr. Hines said: "What would Dr. McLoughlin do? Would he shut the gates of his fortress? Would he lock the doors of his granaries? Would he deny asylum to the weary, footsore, famis.h.i.+ng immigrants? What would he do? We can answer by rehearsing what he did. He forgot, in large measure, that those who lay at his door, sick, weary, poor, and almost ready to die, were not his friends. He fed them and pointed them out the ways in which they could take living root in the soil of that very Oregon which was the covet of England, and had so long been the possession of his own Company, albeit they who came were American citizens, and each brought an American flag in his heart if not in his hand.

"To me it seems evident that Dr. McLoughlin clearly saw the inevitable outcome of the struggle between dilatory and procrastinating diplomacy and the steady tramp of the growing army of ox teams that slowly swung down the slopes of the mountains, and, in his humanity, which was wider than his national prejudices, and stronger to control him than his love of gain, gave the final cast of his own act to humanity and peace, rather than to gain and war. I cannot here trace the individual acts that demonstrate this general conclusion, as my aim has been rather to indicate the results and show the conclusions of history than to relate its incidents and chronicle its dates.

"A few years pa.s.s on. The great Company, erst and long the rulers of Oregon, disown the acts and reprove the conduct of this man of men.

Rising to an even higher alt.i.tude of resplendent manhood, with a magnificent scorn he casts down his lofty office, with its salary of $12,000 a year, at the feet of these knights of the counting-house and ledger, cuts all the bonds that bind him to their service, comes back from the palaces of London to the green woods and soft plains of Oregon, takes his place as an American citizen under the stars and stripes, and thus wins the place of imperishable honor and fame as the true 'Father of Oregon.' There his ablest contemporaries place him. There the great State within whose bounds he died and whose foundations he laid, by the voice of her legislature and her chief executive has crowned him. There history, whose verdict I record to-night, and with which my own heart agrees, enshrines him as the greatest of our really great pioneer era."

I have given these opinions because they are those of men who personally knew Dr. McLoughlin. And years after his death, after careful consideration and reflection, they have properly estimated him and, thus remembering, have spoken truly and justly.[59]

_Eulogy upon Dr. McLoughlin._

Like many others of the world's great men, Dr. John McLoughlin had many characteristics, apparently conflicting, but making in the aggregate a wonderful and harmonious whole. He was the autocrat of the early Oregon Country, yet all his feelings and political sympathies were for a republican form of government, and for rule by the people, and for personal liberty; he was a trader, with the training of a trader and of a business man, yet he gave credit, without security, to the early pioneers, because he was a humanitarian; he was quick tempered and impulsive, yet he was courteous and kind, for he was a gentleman; he was stern and severe and a strict disciplinarian, yet he had a sympathy like that of a woman, and a heart as tender and susceptible as that of a little child.

Whatever Dr. John McLoughlin did to or for the Oregon settlers, missionaries and immigrants, he did to every citizen of Oregon, man, woman, and child, for all time, then, now, and to come. In honoring him, we honor ourselves. To fail to honor him and his memory, we would dishonor ourselves. To every true, honest Oregon pioneer, and to the descendants of every Oregon pioneer, has come the pleasing and loving duty of letting the whole world know of Dr. McLoughlin's actions and character, so that memory of him and his humanity shall never perish.

The time will come--and it should come soon--when a magnificent and stately monument will be erected in Oregon in honor of Dr. John McLoughlin. But it must be a monument of such size and beauty as, in that manner, to show the appreciation of the people of Oregon for him, and of the good and n.o.ble deeds of this grand old man.