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Union County, OR AGHP
it, he was for it, and that was the reason he assented to the treaty. The record of that council was made up by intelligent and dispassionate men; and the speeches of all there made are recorded verbatim. The dignity, humanity and justice of the national government are there signally exhibited; and none of the actors therein need fear the criticism of an intelligent community, nor the supervision of intelligent superiors. By those treaties, had the Indians been faithful to them, the question as to whether the Indian tribes of this territory can become civilized and christianized beings would have been determined practically, and as to whether the intervention of an Indian service, for the supervision of the Indians, might not become unnecessary, in consequence of the Indians being able to govern themselves. This spirit lies at the basis of all the treaties made in this territory.
"Another council followed, in which three considerable tribes were convened, which lasted eighty days, - the Indians at the close again expressing the utmost joy and satisfaction. It is due to you, gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly, to make this frank and full statement. The printed record will show that the authorities and the people of this territory have nothing to blush for, nothing to fear in the judgment of impartial men now living, nor the rebuke of posterity.
"As to the causes of this war, it is not a question necessary to dwell upon. It has been conclusively demonstrated, that it has been plotting for at least two or three years. I am frank to admit that had I known, when the council at Walla Walla was convened, what I had learned afterwards, I should not have convened that council. I learned from one of the fathers, some days after it had commenced, and I was satisfied that his information was correct from the deportment of several of the principal chiefs, that many of the Indians came to that council with hostile feelings. But, when I left Walla Walla, I thought that by the treaty such feelings were entirely assuaged, - that those who were once for war were now for peace.
"It is difficult to see how such a combination should have existed, and not have been known; and yet it extended from the Sound to the Umpqua, - from one side to the other of the Cascade Mountains.
"Fellow citizens, war has existed
for three months, and still exists, - a war entered into by these Indians
without a cause, - a war having its origin not in those treaties, nor in
the bad conduct of our people. It originated in the native intelligence
of restless Indians, who, foreseeing destiny against them, that the white
man was moving upon them, determined that it must be met and resisted by
arms. I regret on this occasion to be compelled to criticise the official
acts of a gallant and war-worn veteran, one whose name has been on the
historic rolls of the country for nearly half a century. But it is due
to the people, and the authorities of the territory of Washington, that
the facts should appear and be known to the national government. Governor
Mason, in obedience to the commanding officer of the United States forces
upon the Columbia river, raised two companies of volunteers of excellent
material. They were well mounted, and ready for the field. Another company
was raised to protect the commissioner appointed by the President of the
United States to make treaties with the Indian tribes in the interior of
the continent. Those troops were disbanded, - were brought down into the
garrison. The regulars were kept in garrison. And there stands out the
broad fact that seven hundred Indians in the Walla Walla valley were met
and defeated by volunteers when the regulars were in garrison. The President's
commissioner, a high functionary, deriving his powers from the President
of the United States, and not from any department, was left without
protection; and the troops raised to protect him Major-General Wool thought proper to disband and bring into the garrison. That officer acted, unquestionably, from a sense of duty. His reputation as a gallant soldier, his long and valuable services to the country, cannot be disputed. I do not wish to impugn his motives. I only desire to submit facts for the judgment of superiors at home.
"I learn from good authority that his plan of operations is to delay till spring, probably until May. It is well known, by those who have experience and knowledge of the country, that February and March are the best months for the prosecution of this war. I think it due to the Legislative Assembly to state the reasons why all voyageurs, and gentlemen of experience in these matters, give it as their opinion that now is the proper time for action. there is a vast plain between the Cascade and Bitter Root Mountains. The Columbia, Snake, Clear Water and Spokane rivers are to be crossed. The snow is but a few inches deep, and lasts but a short time, seldom over a fortnight. There is but one continuous period of cold weather; and that period has now passed. The mountain passes are all closed up with snow, which can only be scaled by snowshoes. For these reasons the Indians cannot escape, should vigorous operations be made. On these plains our forces can operate well. There is an abundance of fuel for camps, grass for animals, and the rivers are low. The Indians must be struck now. But if we delay, in a few months the roots and fish will abound, supplying the Indians with food. The snows will melt, and the mountain passes will allow them hiding places. It is my opinion, if operations are deferred till summer, thus must be deferred till winter again.
"What effect would it have on the Sound, should nothing be done until May or June? The whole industrial community would be ruined, the Sound paralyzed. The husbandman would be kept in a state of suspense by rumors of war, and could not adhere to his pursuits; fields would not be tilled, and the territory would starve out.
"I am of the opinion that vigorous operations should be prosecuted on both sides of the Cascade Mountains. Whenever it is practicable or expedient, it is best that volunteers should be mustered into the United States service. It should go to the authorities at home, that we endeavored to co-operate with the regular service. But there has been a breach of faith. Troops mustered into service were disbanded, in violation of a positive understanding; and it is now proper that the authorities of this territory should conduct the movements of their own troops, co-operating with the regulars where such co-operations can be effective. I therefore do not think the volunteers of this territory should be mustered into the United States service. I am ready to take the responsibility of raising them, independent of that service; and it is due to the territory, and to myself, that the reasons for assuming it should go to the President and the department at Washington. The spirit of prosecuting this war should be to accomplish a lasting peace, not to make treaties, but to punish their violation.
"Gentlemen of the Legislative
Assembly, I have done my duty. It was a pleasant feeling that actuated
me on my mission, in making those treaties, to think I was doing something
to civilize and render the condition of the Indian happier; and, while
justice and mercy should characterize the acts of our government, there
should be no weakness, no imbecility. In nations, as well as individuals,
we may apply the precept, a man who has deceived you once should not again
be trusted. Let the blow strike where it is deserved. I am opposed to any
treaties. I shall oppose any treaties with these hostile bands. I will
protest against any and all treaties made with them. Nothing but death
is a meet punishment for their perfidy. Their lives only should pay forfeit.
A friendly Nez
Perce informed me that, in the Cayuse tribe, nineteen ill-disposed persons caused all the trouble. Could these be punished, the tribe could be governed. These turbulent persons should be seized and put to death. The tribes now at war must submit unconditionally to the justice, mercy and leniency of our government. The guilty ones should suffer, and the remainder be placed upon reservations under the eye of the military. In a few years, the policy might be changed. By such a decisive, energetic and firm course, the difficulty may be grappled with, and peace restored.
"Let our hearts not be discouraged. I have an abiding confidence in the future destiny of our territory. Gloom must give way to sunlight. Let us never lose sight of the resources, capacities and natural advantages of the territory of Washington. We have an interior soon to be filled up with settlements. Gold, in considerable quantities, has been discovered in the northern part of the interior. There are fine grazing tracts, and rich agricultural valleys; and that interior will fill up when these Indian difficulties are at an end. Then, too, will the Sound resume its prosperity. Gather heart, then, fellow citizens. Do not now talk of leaving us in our hour of adversity, but stay till the shade of gloom is lifted, and await the destiny to be fulfilled. Let us put our hands together, and rescue the territory from its present difficulties, so that we all may feel that we have done our whole duty in the present exigency."
These copious extracts demonstrate the animus of the territorial authorities of Washington as expressed by the man who was long fiercely maligned for his agency in making those treaties. For executing the war policy here foreshadowed, he was denounced as a raider upon the national treasury, a conspirator with Governor George L. Curry of Oregon, who as steadily pursued the same policy in the campaign by him inaugurated to protect the settlements of Washington Territory, called upon as he was to extend to the United States military authorities assistance in protecting the frontier, which they were powerless to do through the negligence of the general government and the commander of the Department of the Pacific.
In the spring and summer of 1856, notably, and to a great extent during the entire year, owing to the existence of the Indian war, there was a general stagnation of business and industrial pursuits. Settlers had been banished from their farms, and had taken refuge in the blockhouses that were erected at short distances from each other throughout the settled portion of the territory, or had been driven to the towns. Travel, except with escort, was dangerous. Small tracts of land were cultivated, guards being stationed to protect those at labor. The pending war was a setback, from the evil effects of which the territory could not hope to recover for years.
Personal issues as to the conduct
of the war, as to the policy of treating with the Indians, distinguished
the politics of that period. Governor Stevens had infused his great personality,
not only into the territorial administration, into his management of Indian
affairs as superintendent, into the conduct of the war in its every detail,
but into partisan politics; so much so that party lines were about obliterated,
and partisan division hinged upon opposition to or support of the governor's
policy, war, Indian or personal. For the time, the darling names of "Whig"
and "Democrat" had become measurably meaningless, and had lost their rallying
power. Parties were called "Stevens" and "Anti-Stevens;" and such were
the issues upon which the election in the summer of 1856 was contested.
The declaration of martial law by the governor in Pierce and Thurston counties
in April and May had furnished the opposition with a rallying cry. It had
tended also to array many Democrats in open opposition to the
governor. That measure, and the acts consummated during its continuance, had contributed greatly to detach from a personal support the many Whigs in the territorial volunteer service who were identified with the war, were at least passively a part of the Stevens régime, and who had during the fall of 1855 and the spring of 1856, regardless of party feeling, cordially supported both Governor Mason and Governor Stevens, in every measure adopted or proposed, to place the territory in a proper state of defense. Those acts of Governor Stevens strengthened the opposition of the indifferent or lukewarm, and alienated many Democrats. In fact, a number of the most prominent members of that political party had become his most strenuous opponents. There were several causes tending to produce such a condition of affairs. The Whig party of the territory at this time, upon the personal issue, had lost a considerable number of its adherents. Many believed that the welfare of the territory depended upon supporting the territorial administration in its war policy; that abandoning Governor Stevens or his policy was measurably condemnatory of his course, and so far an indorsement of the malignant libels of him and the people of the territory; and that sustaining him was the proper loyal course to be pursued to secure a recognition of his services, his policy, and of the large debt created to carry on the war, the nonpayment of which would bankrupt so many citizens who had so generously contributed their services and means.
The Whigs who adhered to their party organization, and the Anti-Stevens Democrats, acted in unison. This temporary combination derived additional strength during the Know-Nothing excitement; and the opposition thus composed, in the election (July, 1856) obtained an "Anti-Stevens" majority in each branch of the legislature. Late in the fall, the campaign of the Washington Territory volunteers had ended by the disbandment of the Second Regiment on the 30th of October, 1856.
The Legislative Assembly convened December 1st. The Council organized by the election of William H. Wallace (1) President, and Elwood Evans Chief Clerk, both Whigs. The House of Representatives elected Joseph S. Smith Speaker, and Reuben L. Doyle, both Anti-Stevens Democrats.
The governor's message was an able defense of himself from the charges of his opponents, and a clear, conservative and dispassionate explanation of his war policy, the measures adopted, and his motives. In succeeding pages, treating the Indian war as a specialty, those acts will be detailed, and his reasons appear; and upon them the wisdom or necessity of his policy must depend. Fearlessly, and with that self-reliance so conspicuous an element of his character, he concluded that last message:
"In this, my last annual address to the Legislative Assembly, I am especially reminded of the duty which devolves upon me of acknowledging the courtesy and kindness which has ever been extended to me by the several Legislative Assemblies of the territory, and by the constituency which elected them. I have endeavored faithfully to do my whole duty, and have nothing to reproach myself with as regards intention. I
(1) Colonel
William H. Wallace, a native of Ohio and a lawyer by profession, came to
Steilacoom, Washington Territory, from the State of Iowa in the fall of
1853. He at once commenced to practice, and was soon recognized as the
leading jury lawyer of the territory. At the first election, January, 1854,
he was the Whig nominee for delegate to Congress, but was defeated by his
Democratic competitor, Hon. Columbia Lancaster. Although his county was
strongly Democratic, he was elected to the territorial House of Representatives,
sessions 1854-55 and 1855-56. He resigned his seat in the last, having
been elected, on the breaking out of the Indian war, captain of Company
D, First Regiment, washington Territory Volunteers; and with his company
he made a winter campaign against the hostile Indians, who were infesting
the White river country. At the election of 1856, he was elected a member
of the territorial council, and at the session of 1856-57 was the president
of that body. At the election of 1857, he ran as an independent candidate
for delegate to Congress against Isaac I. Stevens, the Democratic nominee.
Colonel Wallace received the votes of the Republicans and Anti-Nebraska
Democrats, but was defeated. In 1861, President Lincoln appointed him governor
of the territory. During his absence, he received the Republican nomination
for the delegateship. His competitors were Selucius Garfielde, Democratic
nominee, and ex-Chief Justice Lander, Independent Democrat. Colonel Wallace
was elected by a handsome plurality. Before his term had expired, the territory
of Idaho had been set off from Washington; and he was commissioned first
governor of that territory. Upon his arriving in the territory, at its
first election he was nominated by the Republicans and elected first delegate
to Congress from that territory. His term expiring, he returned to his
Pierce-county home and resumed his law practice. He was an eloquent speaker,
of fine address and presence, full of humor and anecdote; and his suavity
made him a successful stump speaker and advocate. Having outlived all enmities,
and to an eminent degree gained the affectionate regard of his fellow citizens,
on the 7th of February, 1879, he quietly passed away.
could have wished some things had been done more wisely, and that my whole course had been guided by my present experience. I claim at your hands simply the merit of patient and long labor, and of having been animated with the fixed determination of suffering and enduring all things in your behalf. Whether in the wilderness contending with the hostile elements, managing and controlling the more hostile aborigines, or exploring the country, or at the capitol struggling with disaffection, the subject of obloquy and abuse, I have no end but my duty, no reward in view but my country's good. It is for you to judge how I have done my part, and for the Almighty Ruler to allot to each man his desert.
"I close this address with the expression of the confident hope that your session will be harmonious, and will result in the advancement of the best interests of our territory and common country."
In the body of the message, he had reported to the legislature the circumstances connected with the declaration of martial law, and had closed the reference in this manly language: "When the time had come for all members of the community to resort to arms, when the officers of justice are in the field in command of troops, it would seem to be the dictate of patriotism, and to be an obligation of duty, to avoid a collision with the authority intrusted to the general defense. Least of all would it be expected that the field should be abandoned to the general defense. Least of all would it be expected that the field should be abandoned not only without orders, but without notice, to enter upon a course the inevitable result of which was to bring about a collision, and engender strife and ill feeling amidst a population already too small, when united, to defend itself from the common enemy and leave hands enough at home to procure food for the coming year.
"I impute no want of patriotism, no inconsiderateness of action, to those who have differed from me. I concede to all the highest motives of action which may be claimed. I speak of stubborn facts, and of the inferences to be drawn therefrom, and of the practical tendency and effect of the action of those who sought to strike down the executive, when laboriously and honestly exerting his whole force to bring back peace and prosperity to a suffering people. I now leave this matter of martial law in your hands, fellow citizens of the Legislative Assembly; and I invite your most rigid scrutiny into the necessity of proclaiming it, and the measures taken to enforce it."
That legislature did investigate
patiently. The discussion was long and protracted. William Strong, who
had been the Whig nominee for delegate to Congress in 1855, championed
the governor and his policy in the House. In that disintegration of the
national Whig party which had so recently occurred, Judge Strong had to
select his future political associates. Personal associations and surroundings,
his recent connection with the military organization as a captain, the
selection of himself as counsel to the governor to defend in the courts
those acts which had grown out of the declaration of martial law, and the
necessary confidential relations that clientage begets, all fully explain
his affiliation with the Stevens following. It would not have been Judge
Strong to have seemingly deserted the cause of a client or friend. It also
accounts for his subsequent action with the Democratic party. Joseph S.
Smith, an ardent Democrat, who had at an early day been mayor of the city
of Portland, and who afterwards so ably represented the state of Oregon
in the Congress of the United States, an able lawyer and debater, and a
man of earnest convictions, was the recognized leader of the anti-Stevens
forces in the House. In the Council, the veteran Whig, Colonel Wallace,
its president, with Denny, Abernethy and Alonzo M. Poe on the floor, all
old Whigs, who subsequently identified themselves with the Republican party,
together with William Cock of Olympia, a
Democrat, constituted the opposition to the governor's declaration of martial law, and other acts under investigation. James W. Wiley, editor of the Pioneer and Democrat, Democratic councilman from Thurston county, led the Stevens supporters. Messrs. Pagett of Lewis county, Huff and Van Vleet of Clark county, voted with him. The resolution disapproving of the proclamation of martial law was passed by both houses. Kindred questions connected with the martial-law investigation took the same course; but fuller reference belongs in another chapter.
This part of the author's labor is performed with many misgivings as to his ability to be strictly impartial. That silent appeal from the grave which reminds him to "be just and fear not," - that injunction which is due to those whose lips are closed, whose hands are motionless in death, - imperiously demands him to be just to their memories and to their deeds through life. He is also commanded with equal emphasis to be just to truth and to one's self. Time, which makes all things even, has restored the sweet incense and remembrance of the good of other days, had brought oblivion of everything which marred friendships or poisoned the steams of personal goodwill. It has done its charitable work of healing wounded feelings, and of appeasing disappointed ambitions. It has obliterated the recollection that social relations were shattered, and even for the time suspended, by the acerbities of political or personal controversy. It has effaced all vestiges of personal rancor and partisan prejudice. And now, when the great hero of that hour sleeps in the patriot's grave, shall one who, at the time, was among his most ardent of political opponents, be false to the trust imposed on him of recording the occurrences of those times? It were a labor of love to follow the preference so sincerely, felt, - to present nothing but a tribute of affectionate remembrance. No words of detraction nor denial of the patriotism of Governor Stevens shall be found in these pages, whatever differences of opinion may now be entertained, or however harshly or bitterly in that past those acts in those troublous times were condemned in language of censure, a censure provoked at the time, and which found its occasion for utterance in the heat of an excited political contest, or in the warmth of partisan discussion.
Recurring to the message, it will be found that the governor recommended, in appropriate language, "that the hostile tribes be planted by the strong arm of military power on reservations to be established by act of Congress." He justly denounced the usurpation by an army officer, in the plentitude of his power, issuing edicts wiping out the entire county of Walla Walla (1). The governor congratulates the legislature "That, on this your assembling, you will find nothing to reproach the people of our beloved territory with for their conduct either at home or in the field. During the first six months of this war, not an Indian was killed except in battle. Throughout the war, not an Indian has been killed in a volunteer camp. Captured animals have been accounted for as public property. The animals and property of friendly Indians have been cared for and returned to them. Since last April, some murders have occurred, one recently, under circumstances of great aggravation (2). But the wonder is, that these murders were not much more numerous; for it must be borne in mind that for a long time the fealty of all the tribes was uncertain, our citizens were in constant apprehension, and a spirit of exasperation gradually rose and gained strength in consequence of the positive suffering of the entire
(1) Order of Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe, U.S. Army, August 20, 1856: "No emigrant or other white person, except the Hudson's Bay Company, or persons having ceded rights from the Indians, will be permitted to settle or remain in the Indian country, or on land not settled or not confirmed by the Senate and approved by the President of the United States. These orders are not, however, to apply to the miners engaged in collecting gold at Colvile mines.
Governor Steven's message and documents, session of 1856-57, page 59.
(2) The murder of Quiemuth, a
hostile chief, in the executive office, Olympia, November 18, 1856, by
Jos. Buntin, son-in-law of Lieutenant McAllister, killed by Quiemuth.
community. We have waged the war with humanity, with moderation, with honor to our country and honor to ourselves. The dignity, the justice and the mercy of the government has been vindicated at our hands."
Recommendations for legislation and memorializing Congress were then made, with suggested amendments to the militia law. From a statement of the surveyor-general incorporated in the message, the legislature is informed as to the extent of the public surveys: Amount surveyed under contracts from the surveyor-general of Oregon Territory, 1,876 miles; since the organization of Washington Territory, 2,969 miles; making a total of 4,845 miles.
As before stated, the investigations invited by the governor occupied much of the session. On the 16th of August, 1856, Congress had passed a law entitled, "An act to amend the acts regulating the fees, costs and other judicial expenses of the government in the states, territories and District of Columbia."
Sections five and ten of that act are as follows:
"Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, that the judges of the supreme court in each of the territories, or a majority of them, shall, when assembled at their respective seats of government, fix and appoint the several places of holding the several courts in their respective districts, and limit the duration of the terms thereof: Provided, that the courts shall not be held at more than three places in any one territory."
"Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, that it shall be the duty of each of the judges and the supreme court of the respective territories of the United States to designate and appoint one person as clerk of the district over which he presides; * * * and only such district clerks shall be entitled to a compensation from the United States, except fees taxable to the United States."
Heretofore every court created
in the territory, whether of a district composed of several counties, or
of a single county, was called an United States district court, so treated
by bench and bar, and attended by the marshal and district court of the
territory. In section seven of this act, the title of these courts is reduced
from its hitherto lofty pretension of being an United States district court,
and is called plain and simply, "the district court of the territories."
Those by sections five and ten are limited in number to one for each judicial
district; and "they shall not be held at more than three places in any
one territory," and only one clerk shall be appointed for each of the districts.
To conform the civil and criminal procedure to the new condition of things,
to regulate the selection of grand and petit juries, to arrange the courts
so as to accomplish their purpose, in fact, to adopt the judicial system
to the change, necessitated a series of amendatory laws. A joint committee,
consisting of three from the House, Messrs. Strong, Morrow and Hinkley,
and two from the Council, Messrs. Wiley and Denny, were appointed. Those
laws were drafted by Hon. William Strong, the chairman of the joint committee,
and unanimously passed. The judicial-districts were redefined. The newly
created county of Slaughter was added to the third district; and Chehalis
was changed from the first to the second district. One place in each district
had been designated at the term of the supreme court as the place for holding
the terms of the district court therein, as also the times of holding and
the length of terms. The number of courts in the territory were thus reduced
to three; and the new legislation, to conform the practice to the requirements
of the acts of Congress of August 16, 1856, declared "each judicial district
shall constitute one county; and wherever in the acts, to which these acts
are amendatory, the words 'county' or 'district' are used, they shall be
construed to mean
either 'district' or 'county,' whenever such construction shall be required to conform the practice of the courts to the said act of Congress." The attempt was also made to enlarge the civil jurisdiction of probate courts, and to confer criminal jurisdiction upon said courts to try cases of misdemeanor. But soon a general opinion prevailed that such enlarging of the powers of probate courts was inconsistent with the Organic Act; and those acts became inoperative. For years thereafter, only three courts at places separated by a great distance supplied that large area of territory, which, considering the difficulty and expense of transportation, and the time occupied in traveling to the place of holding court by suitors and parties not residents of the county in which the court was held, amounted to a practical denial of justice, except to the few residents of the county in which the courts were held.
A new county nominated Slaughter in the act creating it, in honor of the gallant Lieutenant William A. Slaughter (1), was set off from the counties of King and Jefferson. A few days after its passage, a supplementary act, authorized the legal voters of the county at the next general election to settle, by the highest number of votes, the name of such county. At that election the name Kitsap was adopted, such being the name of a war chief of the band whose haunts were upon the peninsula adjacent to Port Madison, the county seat of the new county. At the time of the passage of the act, he was one of the most prominent of the chiefs in the camps of the hostile Indians, and was a medicine man. During the war he had received serious wounds on different occasions, which, unaided by others, he treated and successfully healed. He took occasion to boast that it was impossible for either white man or Indian to kill him; and he succeeded for years in creating in the minds of his people such a belief; and they had a superstitious dread of his surgical powers, or, as they called it, tamanous. On the 18th of June, 1856, Governor Stevens addressed a communication to Colonel George Wright, Ninth Infantry, U.S. Army, commanding the Columbia river district, offering, as superintendent, to take charge of such Indians "Who may be reported by yourself (Colonel Wright) as having changed their condition from hostility to peace." The governor excepted, however, from any amnesty, Leschi, Nelson, Kitsap and Quiemuth, from the Sound. From the motives of prudence, considering the inflamed state of public mind, Colonel Wright thought it best not to act at once upon the governor's requisition. On October 4th, Governor Steens renewed the demand, adding Stehi to the list, and asking that those five "be sent to the Sound to be tried by civil authority," giving reasons for insisting that those named should be tried. On the 16th of October, Colonel Wright directed Major Garnett, Ninth Infantry, U.S. Army, commanding at Fort Simcoe, to deliver them up. Each of those named had been indicted for several murders. Leschi was tried, convicted and executed. His brother Quiemuth voluntarily came to the executive office November 7, 1856, and surrendered himself to the governor to answer charges, and was to have been taken to the guardhouse at Steilacoom the next morning at daylight. He was murdered in cold blood, in the presence of a guard, during the night. A son-in-law of James McAllister, an early victim of the war, who had been treacherously killed by Quiemuth, shot him. The slayer rushed to the door, Quiemuth pursuing, where he was fatally stabbed and fell dead. Governor stevens made the complaint and had the supposed murderer arrested; but there was insufficient evidence to hold the party. This was the case of murder referred to by the
(1) First Lieutenant William
A. Slaughter, Fourth Infantry, U.S. Army, graduated at West Point in the
class of 1848. No officer of the army ever came to Fort Steilacoom who
so endeared himself to the citizens of the territory as did this gallant
and enterprising gentleman. From the breaking out of the Indian war, till
his untimely death on the night of the 4th of December, 1855, when a night
attack was made upon his little camp by Kanaskut, chief of the hostile
Klikitats, who fired the fatal shot, he distinguished himself for his gallant
conduct.
Governor in the paragraph quoted from his message. Kitsap, having escaped from the guardhouse at Fort Steilacoom, was subsequently arrested by a detachment of six United States troops under Sergeant Gardner on the 6th of January, 1859. He was tried shortly afterwards at Olympia and acquitted. He was killed by Indians of his own band, April 18, 1860. The circumstances connected with his death, published at the time, are as follows: "While in the guardhouse at Fort Steilacoom awaiting his trial, Kitsap was taken ill; and a prescription composed of red liquid was administered. This had the effect of restoring him to health; whereupon Kitsap thought he had made a wonderful discovery. Shortly after his return to his people, three of his warriors became sick. Having previously informed them that during his captivity he had acquired a knowledge of the healing art, he officiated as the medicine man for the occasion; and, preparing a mixture of water and the red stuff used to paint their faces, he gave it to them to drink. Unfortunately for Kitsap, this didn't operate upon them as the medicine of like color had operated upon him at the garrison. The three invalids went the way of all flesh a few hours after swallowing it. To the relatives and friends of the deceased, this looked like willful murder, and they accordingly vowed to be revenged. A favorable opportunity occurring by Kitsap being drunk, he was induced in this state to accompany his executioners to a vacant cabin near Montgomery's, where two of them fired simultaneously at him, both shots taking mortal effect. With knives they afterwards cut his throat from ear to ear, and severed the body from the lower extremities, leaving only the backbone connecting the two parts. In this condition, his remains were found on the Sunday following.
The usual amendatory legislation to school, road and revenue laws was consummated. A number of acts of incorporation were passed, notable among which was the act incorporating the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, the route being designated as "commencing at one of the passes of the Rocky Mountains, and connecting with such road passing through the territories of Minnesota and Nebraska, as the company may elect, thence westward through Washington Territory by the Bitter Root valley, crossing the Coeur d'Alene Mountains by the most practicable route; thence across the great plain of the Columbia with two branches, one down the columbia to Vancouver, the other over the Cascade Mountains to the Sound, with a connection from the river to the Sound;" also the act incorporating the Territorial Geographical and Statistical Society; also the City of Vancouver. The Penitentiary Commission Bill was amended, naming new commissioners, who were to supervise the building of the penitentiary at Vancouver when Congress appropriated the necessary funds. Trade with or employment of Northern Indians was made a misdemeanor, with fine and imprisonment as the punishment. The license law was amended to prohibit the issuing of a "license for the sale of intoxicating liquors, unless the applicant presents a petition signed by a majority of all the adult white inhabitants of the precinct in which it is to be used."
The assembly memorialized Congress
to separate the offices of governor and superintendent of Indian affairs,
or rather to make the latter an independent office, urging as a reason
that the experience of the late war had demonstrated that the duties of
the two might be inharmonious; that the precarious relations between settlers
and Indians required that the arduous duties of Indian superintendent should
be performed by an officer exclusively appointed for the purpose. The usual
prayer was made for a steam war vessel upon the Sound to protect the exposed
settlements against the inroads of Northern savages; the extinguishment
of the rights of the Hudson's Bay and Puget
Sound Agricultural Companies; and for extra pay to Sergeant Kelly and his detachment, Company H, Fourth Infantry, U.S. Army, for "their efficient aid in protecting the citizens that escaped massacre at the Cascades on the 27th of March, 1856, and their gallant conduct in defending the blockhouse at that place against the combined attack, for three days, of several hundred Indians;" also to confirm to settlers, who were actually residing upon their Donation claims at the time of the commencement of Indian hostilities in 1855, the title to the same as though four years' actual residence had been made.
Before the members of the legislature had departed for their respective homes, those who favored the principles enunciated by the national Republican convention held in Philadelphia in 1856, and which nominated John C. Frémont for the Presidency, together with prominent citizens from all part of the territory (invited because of their having heretofore acted with the opposition to the national or territorial administration, or Democrats of pronounced free-soil views, or those who had expressed sympathy with the national Republican movement), assembled at Olympia and formally indorsed the national Republican platform of principles, and organized the Republican party for the territory. A territorial central committee was appointed, and the resolution adopted to organize in each county, and to nominate full territorial, district and county Republican tickets to be supported at the next general election.
In the spring, business began to resume a more active and confident appearance. Farmers were gradually returning to their claims. At the usual time, the Democratic and Republican territorial conventions, respectively, assembled for the nomination of a candidate to be supported at the ensuing election. The proceedings were conducted with apparent unanimity. Governor Stevens received the Democratic nomination. Alexander S. Abernethy was his Republican competitor. About the time that the political canvas commenced, Selucius Garfield, who but shortly before had been appointed receiver of the United States district land-office at Olympia, had arrived at his post. He came with a national reputation as an orator and stump speaker. He had, in the Presidential contest of 1856, stumped many of the western and northwestern states, being steadily engaged during the whole canvass. Of admirable personal presence and address, with a rich, round and full voice of which he had singular control, with a peerless enunciation of well-selected language, ofttimes rising to exalted eloquence and high-wrought imagery, with a splendid physique, his style of oratory was effective and captivating. He had but few equals and not superior as a stump speaker, a platform orator or a jury advocate. His natural gifts were extraordinary, his acquirements varied; but he required spring by some motive to incite him to labor. He lacked application. His ambitions for office were boundless, but were merely those of a place-hunter. With talents that fitted him for any office within the gift of the people or of a national administration, he lacked the energy to establish his claim, and forgot what was due to himself. He was neither true to himself nor to his friends, nor to any political party, nor consistent in anything. No man was ever welcomed more cordially by a community than he. None ever made greater prestige in his political début. In politics, at the bar, in society, he might have been master of the situation had he assumed to claim and retain the personal homage his newly found home was so ready to accord.
He at once entered upon the congressional
canvass for Governor Stevens, accompanying him and making speeches on the
national issues. Fresh from his political services in which he had won
so many laurels, in this smaller arena he dazzled the eyes of his Democratic
votaries, as he fought over in most eloquent style the political battles
of
1856, and repeated those able and matured addresses on Democracy so popularly received and frequently made in the preceding national campaign. How eloquently and successfully he invoked the Democracy to achieve in the territory what their political brethren had accomplished in the nation! There was great plausibility in that encouragement. It had always been the favorite theory in territorial politics that the territorial delegate should be in political accord with the majority in Congress, especially with the national administration. His presence and championship of partisan issues enabled the Democratic candidate to devote his time and remarks exclusively to urging the necessity of martial law as a war measure, thereby palliating its proclamation. He appealed to those who had furnished their services and made advances, urging that, as he had incurred the indebtedness, he was best adapted to explain the exigency; and that to secure the recognition of that debt and its payment by the general government, as he was en rapport with the national administration, as also with the Democratic majority in Congress, it was safest as a business proposition to elect him. There was still more urgent appeal made by him. He it was, above all others, against whom General Wool and his co-slanderers of the territory, its people and its soldiery, had hurled their poisoned shafts of malice and falsehood for the purpose of ruining him in public esteem, and defeating the just claims of the citizens of the territory and its volunteers in the defense of their homes. Reliantly, he asked, "Would the people consent to his sacrifice, and join with their slanderers to consummate a wrong to him and to themselves?
His Republican competitor, Alexander S. Abernethy, one of the oldest settlers, and a most respected and worthy citizen, not a public speaker, but a think, a concise and clear talker and an able writer, rich in knowledge, of ample experience and thoroughly informed in the science of politics and in the needs of the territory, modest and unassuming to a fault, declined to make open speeches in the canvass, and remained at home. William H. Wallace and Elwood Evans represented him as the Republican canvassers. Both ere identified with the opposition to martial law. By the Democratic journals, both had been classified as opponents of the governor's war policy. Both had been denounced as "confederates of Leschi." The political platforms were fearlessly discussed by the Republican speakers and Mr. Garfielde. Salient points of the governor's personal policy were not spared; yet no personal rancor entered into the canvass on the stump. The issue at the polls ingeniously and steadily pressed was not Democracy as against Republicanism. It was simply this, nothing more: "A vote against Isaac I. Stevens is a vote against the Indian war as carried on by the people of the territory. It is an admission that the charges made against him and the territorial authorities of Oregon and Washington are true, and were justly made. It is a rebuke by the people themselves of their officers. It is the verdict that the Indian war debt has no claim to recognition and payment by the general government." Such was that contest of 1857. Never did those engaged in the conduct of that canvass forget the amenities of social life. It was pleasantly and gentlemanly conducted between the canvassers; yet never were men more disparagingly referred to in the partisan journals of the successful party than were the two canvassers who carried the standard of the Republican party in its first canvass in Washington Territory to signal defeat.
Governor Stevens was triumphantly
elected, his policy sustained, and the instructions given to repeal the
Anti-Stevens measures, passed by the legislature of 1856-67, by the
following decisive vote: Stevens 953, Abernethy 518. The legislature elected consisted of, in the Council, six Democrats, and two Republicans; in the House, twenty-two Democrats and seven Republicans.
On the 11th of August, an event took place on Whidby's Island which caused the greatest consternation throughout the territory, and threw the whole lower Sound country into a state of the highest alarm and indignation. That night or towards morning, Colonel Isaac N. Ebey was cruelly murdered at his own house by a band of Northern Indians, and his head severed from his body and carried away. The perpetrators of this brutal outrage were a party of Kake Indians, who have their homes as far north as between fifty-eight and fifty-nine degrees north latitude. They made a descent upon Whidby's Island, and were supposed to have numbered about two hundred. During the day, they had called at the house of Colonel Ebey and had been kindly received. When midnight came, they again went to the house, called him out, shot him and cut his head off, and made their escape, carrying away the head. George W. Corliss, United States marshal, and his wife, were visiting at the Colonel's. They and the Colonel's family managed to escape while the Indians were parleying outside of the house (1).
For a long time, every effort to ascertain where the head of the murdered Ebey was, and to secure its return, was unsuccessful. During the usual northern fall trip (1858) of the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Beaver, a village of Kake Indians, fifty-eight degrees, thirty minutes north, was visited; and Captain Swanston, master of the steamer, learned that the band had the scalp of Colonel Ebey. Chief Trader Dodd, who was on board, sent word to the chiefs of the village that he wanted to purchase it. Almost immediately three or four large canoes filled with armed men came alongside of the Beaver, and some eight or ten had boarded the steamer before their warlike appearance and conduct were observed. The crew of the Beaver was beat to quarters, the guns run out, and the ship prepared for action. The Indians were then put off and the canoes warned away from the vessel. Inquiry was then made as to the cause of the hostile attempt to board the vessel. The reply from the Indians was that they supposed the demand for the scalp was preliminary to an attack on the village, if the demand was not complied with. On being advised that no such intention existed, quiet was restored, and the Indians became peaceable; but they would not on any terms consent to surrender the scalp. On the fall trip a year later, Chief Trader Dodd on the Labouchere secured Colonel Ebey's scalp from the Northern Indians, and presented it to Alonzo M. Poe, who gave it to the relatives of the deceased. That blood-curdling horror had no provocation in any act of the gallant Ebey. He was always just and discreet in his treatment of that race. It was a reprisal on the part of the Northern savages. It was the delayed gratification of revenge. It was the deferred execution of the threat made by the subtle, unrelenting, unsubdued savages chastised in November, 1856, at Port Gamble, by Captain Samuel Swartwout, U.S. Navy, then in command of the U.S. steamship Massachusetts.
The election of Governor Stevens to Congress, as also the fact that his commission had expired in the early days of the previous March, had created a vacancy which was filled by the appointment of Fayette McMullin of Virginia, who had served in several Congresses as a member of Congress from that state. He reached Olympia early in September. On the 7th of December, the Legislative Assembly (fifth annual session of 1857-58) convened at Olympia. Christopher C. Pagett, of Lewis county, was elected
(1) Both
Mr. Corliss and his wife were subsequently murdered on the island by Northern
Indians, supposed to be the same band, and actuated by the same motive.
president of the Council; and John M. S. Van Cleave, of Pacific county, was elected speaker of the House of Representatives. On the twelfth, Governor McMullin delivered the customary message. He alluded to his recent advent to the territory as a reason why he could give but little information beneficial to the Assembly, and was unable to make any recommendations. This afforded the opportunity to land the President of the United States and his Cabinet advisers: "Gentlemen of enlarged and liberal views, who are true to the Constitution and the Union, and who will contend for the rights and equality of the states. In conclusion, I will stay to you, my countrymen, that if we wish to preserve this great and glorious Union, which has recently been shaken to its very center, and which I seriously fear is still in imminent danger, it can only be done by adhering strictly to the Constitution, - that sacred instrument which will be to us as a 'cloud by day and a pillow of fire by night.' We must, at the same time, practice and carry out the clear and unmistakable doctrine of non-intervention, a doctrine which will and must be maintained so long as we recognize the right of a representative government. If we will but do these things, I hope and believe that God, in the plentitude of his mercy, will continue to bestow upon us, as he has hitherto done, his rich and innumerable blessings."
He protested against "the attempt to rob Washington Territory," characterizing it as "political, moral and social outrage" on the part of Oregon in the northern boundary of the state, as suggested in its proposed constitution. Instead of following the forty-sixth parallel, after its intersection with the Columbia river, eastward, it aimed to preserve a natural boundary by continuing up the channel of the Columbia to the mouth of the Snake, and then adopting its channel as the east. This would have secured to the new state of Oregon the Walla Walla valley; but at that time it was unoccupied and unsettled, the military interdict against American occupancy issued by General Wool not having been removed. The state constitution of Oregon, however, had expressly provided for the alternative, anticipating that Congress would not disturb the boundaries of the territory of Washington as defined by the Organic Act. That boundary was adopted by Congress in the Oregon Admission Act; and Walla Walla valley, or so much of it as lies north of the forty-sixth parallel, remained a part of Washington Territory.
As an encouragement to emigration, the governor recommended a gift of a quarter section, without any restrictions imposing residence or cultivation.
The legislature was advised that
Congress had appropriated thirty thousand dollars to erect the public buildings
at the seat of government. Responsive to this suggestion, an act was passed
appointing commissioners to provide for the erection of the capital building
at Olympia; "but no money was to be expended until the Attorney-General
of the United States had pronounced the title valid in Washington Territory
to at least ten acres of land, including that whereon the present capitol
stands." commissioners were also appointed, by an amendatory act, to superintend
the construction of the penitentiary, which had been located at the "Short
claim," in the city of Vancouver. Much routing legislation was accomplished,
including amendments to the militia law, common school law, and also providing
for the distribution of territorial arms, the recording, as also the vacating,
of town plats, and making it a criminal offense to sell liquor to Kanakas.
The United States coast-surveying officers were authorized to enter upon
lands to erect signals; and the destruction of those signals was made a
misdemeanor. The territorial university was relocated at Cowlitz Farm Prairie,
in Lewis county, provided a donation of one hundred and sixty acres could
be secured. In such event, the two townships of university lands reserved
by Congress were to be sold. There were a great number of incorporation
acts passed and county boundary lines changed. The county of Spokane was cut off from Walla Walla county, and included all Eastern Washington, commencing at the mouth of the Snake river, following its channel to the forty-sixth parallel, thence east to the Rocky Mountains, thence north to the northern boundary of the territory, thence west to the Columbia river, and down that river to the place of beginning. Several divorce bills were passed, notably that of Fayette McMullin and Polly A. McMullin. The name of his divorced wife was Polly Wood. When the governor had shuffled off that "marital coil," he did not pause, but took to himself another Mary Wood, with whom he returned to old Virginia within the year, leaving the administration of affairs of state to secretary Charles H. Mason, as acting governor.
The legislature, in obedience to the popular verdict at the election in 1857, rescinded the action of the previous session disapproving of Governor Stevens' declaration of martial law. The legislature now resolved: "That the resolution passed January 16, 1857, does not now, and did not at the time, express the opinion of a majority of the citizens of Washington Territory, but was in direct contravention of the same, a fact manifested by the triumphant election of Governor Stevens as delegate to Congress, he receiving in such election over two-thirds of the votes cast." The legislature also censured its predecessors because of their omission to condemn the course pursued by General Wool and Colonel George Wright, and then went on to censure those officers and to commend the war policy of Governor Stevens, and acknowledge in eulogistic terms the services of the volunteers. They also united with Governor McMullin in rebuking the alleged covetous desire of Oregon to acquire Walla Walla valley, and strongly upbraided the interdict of the United States army officers in expelling American settlers and prohibiting settlement. A vote of thanks was tendered to Governor Curry of Oregon for his able message to the Oregon legislature concerning the Indian war, and the policy of that executive. A memorial was adopted urging the separation of the office of joint superintendent of the territories of Washington and Oregon, and the creation of a separate superintendency of Indian affairs for Washington Territory (1). Additional memorials on many subjects were also passed, suggested by the condition of affairs growing out of the Indian war, and the privations of citizens consequent thereupon, and the usual needs of a frontier territory, together with the fact that it had an exclusive coast line and was without appliances to encourage commerce.
Immediately before the adjournment of the United States Senate, June 18, 1858, that body confirmed the appointment of Obadiah B. McFadden as chief justice of the supreme court of Washington Territory, and William Strong and Edmund C. Fitzhugh as associate justices.
In 1853, parties of the Northern Pacific Railroad exploration ahd found traces of gold in many streams west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1855, the bars of the Upper Columbia and its tributaries proved remunerative to miners; and reports were numerous that north of the forty-ninth parallel gold existed in large quantities, and was extensively diffused. But the attention of the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company was not excited until about March 1, 1856, when Archibald McDonald, Chief Trader, in charge of Fort Colvile, apprised Governor Douglas that gold had been found in paying quantities on the Upper Columbia, within British territory. On the 16th of April, 1856, Governor Douglas communicated the intelligence to the British government, suggesting a tax upon miners
(1) The provision that the governor
should exercise the duties of superintendent of Indian affairs had been
abrogated by an act of Congress approved March 3, 1857; and the territories
of Oregon and Washington had been consolidated into one superintendency.
James W. Nesmith had been appointed the superintendent in the consolidated
district.
and the employment of a military force to secure its collection. Mr. Labouchere, then colonial secretary, replied August 4, 1856, that the government was unprepared "to increase its expenses on account of a revenue derivable from such a source from that distant quarter of the British dominions." Governor Douglas answered October 29, 1856: "The number of persons engaged in gold digging is yet extremely limited in consequence of the threatening attitude of the native tribes, who, being hostile to the Americans, have uniformly opposed the entrance of American citizens into their country. The people from American Oregon are therefore excluded from the gold district, except such as are resorting to the artifice of denying their country, and succeed in passing for British subjects. The number of persons at present engaged in the search for gold are chiefly of British origin and retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company." He then reiterates that experiments upon the tributaries of Fraser river justify the belief that the gold region is extensive.
It must be borne in mined that, in 1855-56, the Indian war in Washington Territory had closed all the avenues of approach by land into adjacent British territory. Governor Douglas asserted that Americans were deterred only by the hostility of British Indians from rushing in to enjoy these new discoveries. He desired the adoption of a policy by the British colonial authorities which would save British Columbia for the enjoyment of British settlers to the exclusion of their American neighbors, and secure government support and authority as an auxiliary to the Hudson's Bay Company in exacting tribute from Americans should they be tempted into British Columbia. But chief of all he desired the attention of the government to the importance of its possessions on the northwest coast of America, and to incite such a permanency of establishment as would secure British competition for the commerce, wealth and political benefit of these regions. There really had been no Americans within British Columbia, at that time called New Caledonia, nor was there any real foundation for anticipating a raid by them, warranting the assertion that to their ingress the natives were hostile. The efforts of governor Douglas to secure colonization from England, under the auspices of the British government, were without success. After waiting more than a year, he redoubled his efforts to make British Columbia attractive.
On the 29th of December, 1857,
Governor Douglas was still corresponding with the home government in regard
to these gold fields, now designated by him as the "Couteaux mines," from
the name of the tribe inhabiting the region. "It appears from report that
the auriferous character of the country is becoming more extensively developed
through the exertion of the native Indian tribes, who, having tasted the
sweets of gold-finding, are devoting much of their time and attention to
that pursuit. The reputed wealth of the Couteaux mines is causing much
excitement among the population of the United States territories of Washington
and Oregon; and I have no doubt that a great number of people from those
territories will be attracted thither, with the return of fine weather
in spring." Although the governor was silent on the subject, yet, on the
day previous to the foregoing dispatch, he had issued a proclamation declaring
the existence of gold in the Fraser river and Thompson's river districts,
claiming the same as a royalty of the Crown, and prohibiting mining in
British territory without first having obtained a license, the fee for
which was fixed at twenty-one shillings per month. A copy of that proclamation
had been at once forwarded to Dr. William F. Tolmie, Chief Factor of the
Hudson's Bay Company, in charge of Fort Nisqually, for publication in the
Pioneer
and Democrat, printed at Olympia, then the only newspaper on the Pacific
coast north of the Columbia
river. As a postscript to the advertisement, this notice was appended: "The Couteaux Indians have driven all the Whites who have attempted to work the mines out of their country; and people should be warned that they are decidedly dangerous."
At the commencement of the year 1858, there was no excitement whatever in Oregon or Washington territories as to the supposed existence of gold anywhere in this northern region. The Couteaux mines had never been heard of, much less were they an occasion of excitement. Indeed, the people of those territories, after extensive and unsuccessful prospecting, had abandoned the hope that the discovery of gold might become an incentive to immigration. Not a single journal in Oregon or Washington, at that period, heralded any such ideas, or published any sensational matter upon the subject. In the advertising columns of an Olympia paper, the proclamation of Governor Douglas stood for weeks, without even a comment from the editor. But it cannot be doubted that such official acts by Governor Douglas, than whom no man stood justly higher for probity, prudence and thorough acquaintance with the country, did engender a popular belief that gold must exist in large quantities, or that that eminent official would never have adopted so delicate a step.
It was not until March 5, 1858, that the Pioneer and Democrat ventured to advert editorially to the "supposed" discoveries of gold in the British territory. It then announced "Reported gold discoveries." Accompanying its publication of the rumors from Victoria came the quasi-official assurance: "The same license is demanded of Britains as well as Americans. British subjects and American citizens stand in perfect equality as to the privilege of working the mines." The issue of March 12th chronicles "Good news from the gold mines." With more confidence, on the 26th of March, the paper heads its notice: "The gold regions north! Highly favorable reports." April 9th: "Latest from the gold regions. Further encouraging news." April 16th, in glowing colors, the Pioneer gives the latest intelligence "From the Fraser river gold mines. Late reliable and confirmatory tidings." Those who started from the American side of the forty-ninth degree could not have reached the diggings, owing to the difficulties of travel and the high stages of water. Hence it was not the personal success of the gold seekers. It was merely the word sent back which the Americans received from the Hudson's Bay Company's employés as the former journeyed to the Upper Fraser.
This much has been quoted to
show the progress of heralding the existence of gold. The rapid spread
of the excitement, substantially based upon the dignity of its origin and
the great deference for its eminent apostle, is illustrated by a statement
from the columns of the San Francisco Herald, as early as April
20, 1858, that the excitement in California "was fully equal to that existing
in the Atlantic States in 1849-50, in regard to California." The Pioneer
of April 30th announced the arrival of the steamer Commodore at
Victoria with 450 passengers, and the Columbia at Olympia with 250.
In the foregoing memoranda is portrayed the modest doubting start of the
journal nearest to the gold fields, most liable to be infected with the
excitement, and most interested in attracting immigrants to the vicinage.
Although its advertising columns contained the authoritative invitation
of Governor Douglas to come and pay for the privilege of digging for gold
where he officially proclaimed its existence, yet that journal, reflecting
the sentiments of the people of Oregon and Washington, did not feel warranted
in attempting to create a sensation. These facts, which are indisputable,
repel the idea that there was any excitement in the American territories
previous to the spring of 1858. They clearly establish the proposition
that the inception of the Fraser river excitement is attributable exclusively
to the official acts of
the late Sir James Douglas, then governor of Vancouver Island. The tide had now fairly set towards Fraser river, - towards British Columbia.
The contemplation of one of these gold migrations is a pardonable, if not a necessary, digression. The one under consideration is well marked in all its phases. It is eminently worthy of the close attention of the student. Like a fever, it will be found to have had its successive stages. Spreading far and wide over the earth's circumference, possibly infecting even a larger field than its predecessor of California, it developed quickly, rushed madly to the crisis, then as rapidly subsided. One short eventful year chronicled its rise, its progress and its fall. It almost depleted Oregon and Washington of their male population, who rushed in large numbers to the new gold fields. All the approaches to the new mines were through and around those territories. The hitherto unfrequented and almost unknown ports of Puget Sound were suddenly enlived by the bustle and excitement of a newly created trade, and swarmed with the gold pilgrims en route to the Fraser. San Francisco will not forget that eventful year, the vast cargoes leaving the Golden city on all sorts of vessels, calling into requisition old hulks long before laid up to rot, which, in ordinary business transactions, a man of judgment would hardly risk the weight of a feather aboard, surely not invest more than its value in such a venture; yet those old hulks carried thousands to the northern El Dorado. Truly the gold mania is irresistible, carrying all before it, remodeling and revolutionizing every section it infects.
To recur now to the current acts of Governor Douglas after the arrival of vast numbers at Victoria. On the 6th of April, 1858, he had written to the Secretary of State for the colonies: "The search for gold and prospecting had, up to the last dates from the interior, been carried on by the native Indian population." Can any one doubt that till this time Governor Douglas was acting solely on the statements of Indians, and his faith in the country? On the 8th of May, he again addressed the Secretary, exulting in the advent of numbers to the colony, and boldly avowing the project of making Victoria a port between San Francisco and the gold mines, converting the latter into a feeder and dependency of the colony of Victoria. After developing his plans, he concludes: "By that means, also, the whole trade of the gold region would pass through Fraser river, and be retained within British territory, forming a valuable outlet for British manufactured goods, and at once creating a lucrative trade between the mother country and Vancouver Island." That very interesting correspondence tends in the same general direction; and pages might be quoted to illustrate the designs of that sagacious statesman, whose great natural ability had been tempered by an experience of a third of a century on the Pacific, where he was the leader of men and improviser of governments. Governor James Douglas meant nothing less than the founding of an empire. He aimed at the creation of British interests upon the Pacific, which would become of such importance as to cause Great Britain to permanently establish its power in these regions. His attachment to the Hudson's Bay Company, to whose service he had devoted a long life, induced the hope that the company would contribute to the success of, and reap the advantages flowing from, the accomplishment of his programme. Wise and sagacious was the projector of British commerce and supremacy in these seas. He merited the compliment he received, - the commission as first governor of British Columbia, and the honors of knighthood.
The first grand effect of the
Fraser river excitement proclaims that during its short-lived continuance,
had the United States been owner of the ports of Esquimault and Victoria,
the advantage of position alone would have secured to the United States,
or at least have controlled for an American center of trade, the entire
benefits which have
accrued from that remarkable gold hegira and its consequent events. If Victoria had not become the recognized emporium of the gold fields, it is safe to say that a large city would have sprung into life upon the shores of Puget Sound. Such a city in American territory would have continued the outlet and absorber of the mineral wealth of the exhaustless gold-bearing regions of British columbia. The progress of the "excitement" has already been traced to May, 1858. The advent of thousands had indicated that the most sanguine hopes of Governor Douglas had been fully justified. The cloak had been thrown off, the purpose avowed, of establishing Victoria as a port, concentrating all the trade with the interior, through Fraser river, and of prohibiting American competition and enterprise within British territory. Of even date with his dispatch to the British Secretary of State for the colonies (May 8, 1858), when thousands, mostly Americans, were congregated at Victoria, and at various points on Puget Sound, waiting for means of transportation to Fraser river, Governor Douglas issued a proclamation declaring an embargo of said river, except to vessels and boats of the Hudson's Bay Company, without a sufferance first obtained from the custom-house at Victoria. Conditions were imposed that the owner was to receive goods only of the Hudson's Bay Company, and that no arms, ammunition or utensils of war should be carried up the river except from the United Kingdom. No passengers were to be transported, except those who had a license and permit from the government of Vancouver Island. There was an entire prohibition of trade with the natives. After fourteen days from date, the violation of the said proclamation subjected the boats and property to forfeiture. The proclamation asserted the sole right of the Hudson's Bay Company to trade with the Indians in the British possessions on the northwest coast of America, to the exclusion of all other persons, whether British or foreign. To enforce this proclamation, Governor Douglas called into requisition H.M. ship Satellite, Captain James B. Provost, R.N., who for several weeks maintained a strict blockade of the river. Three hundred and four permits were issued. A number of small craft were seized, together with several small cargoes of merchandise.
In announcing these acts to the
British government (May 19, 1858), Governor Douglas thus justified his
course: "In the meantime, with the view of escaping the greater evil of
compelling people to have recourse to expedients for entering the country
by unlawful means, I am striving to legalize the entrance of gold miners
into Fraser river on certain conditions, which at once assert the rights
of the Crown, protect the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company, and are
intended to draw the whole trade of the gold district through Fraser
river to this colony, which will procure its supplies directly from the
mother country. With those views, I proposed an arrangement on the following
terms to the agents of the United States Pacific Mail Steamship Company:
1. That they should place the necessary steamers on the river, between
the mouth and the falls; 2. That they should carry the Hudson's Bay Company's
freight, and such as they permitted to be shipped into Fraser river, and
no other; 3. That they carry no passengers except such as have secured
a permit and mining license from the government of Vancouver Island; that
they pay to the Hudson's Bay Company, as compensation, at the rate of two
dollars head money for each passenger carried into or upon Fraser river."
The maximum charges for freight from Victoria to the mines were also regulated
by this agreement. He concludes the dispatch: "The object of all these
measures is to gain facilities to miners, and to secure the trade of the
gold regions for our own country, as it will otherwise take the direction
of the Columbia river into American Oregon."
An idea of the development of the "excitement" is admirably presented in a letter of Governor Douglas to the home government early in July, 1858. From that document we learn that, from May 19th to July 1st, the records of the Victoria custom-house exhibited arrivals at that point of nineteen steamships, nine sailing ships, fourteen decked vessels, with 6,133 passengers reported. And it may safely be added that large numbers came as passengers whose names found no place on those reported lists. To this should be added the fleet which arrived at Puget Sound ports, probably quite as numerous, and which landed their living cargoes at Whatcom, Port Townsend, Seattle, Steilacoom and Olympia. Nor must we forget the overland gold seekers who journeyed thither from Oregon and Washington, by all the mountain routes, and appropriated that great natural channel of communication, the Columbia river. There was also a vast exodus from Canada, Minnesota and the lake states. Every part of the globe contributed its quota to this remarkable stampede.
The object of the distinguished author of this gold bubble has already been abundantly depicted, - the grandeur of the British Crown traveling hand in hand with and contingent upon the permanent establishment and assured success of the Hudson's Bay Company. In the mind of Governor Douglas, this two-fold result was to be attained by those two elements depending upon and contributing each to the other. He founded Victoria as an emporium of commerce, a center of power. He caused to be filled with a numerous population the adjacent province of British Columbia. Such province was to be entirely dependent upon Victoria; and the Hudson's Bay Company was to be chief almoner to the needs of that people; and they in turn were to be the dependants upon the company as their source of supply. The termination of the exclusiveness of right in the Hudson's Bay Company to operate or trade in British America west of the Rocky Mountains was the immediate response by the British government when advised that the "Fraser river excitement" was about to be urged as the basis of claim to increase the privileges of that company, and to continue territorial or proprietary rights in the British territory west of the Rocky Mountains.
It is no part of the purpose of this work to trace the history of British Columbia or Vancouver Island, or of the relations of the Hudson's Bay Company thereto, being content to leave that history at the point where the world-renowned Bulwer placed upon record his commentaries upon the Hudson's Bay Company. It is claimed, however, that the "Fraser river excitement" merits an enduring place among the notable events in history, because it hastened the downfall of that great monopoly as an agent in colonization or settlement.
Having commended the prudence
and vigilance of Governor Douglas' administration, improvised to meet an
unanticipated and unparalleled emergency, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, then British
Secretary of State for the colonies, reminds that official that his commission
strictly was confined to Vancouver Island; but the steps taken to prevent
the landing at Fraser river of articles prohibited by the customs laws
is approved. The dispatch proceeds with instructions as to the terms upon
which foreigners will be permitted to navigate the Fraser river, and to
disembark passengers and goods. The governor is emphatically warned against
"using the powers intrusted to him in maintenance of the Hudson's Bay Company
in the territory, who, under its license, is entitled to exclusive trade
with the Indians, and possesses no other right or privilege whatever."
The exclusion of persons or the prevention of importation of goods, because
of apprehended interference with the monopoly, is strictly forbidden, "still
more to make any governmental regulations
subservient to the interests or revenues of the company." The proclamation of May 8, 1858, is disallowed; and the contract with the Pacific Mail Company is disapproved. Secretary Lytton, in this dispatch, discards in toto all claim of exclusiveness of privilege to the Hudson's Bay Company under its "license of trade," except the mere franchise of exclusive trade with the Indians.
Accompanying that official dispatch, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton transmitted a confidential letter to Governor Douglas, tendering the commission of the first governor of British Columbia, then about to be established as a colonial government: "My public dispatch of this date will have shown you the high value which Her majesty's government attach to your services, and, at the same time, will guard you against some of the errors into which you may be led by your position as an agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, while at the same time an officer of Her Majesty's government. The legal connection of the Hudson's Bay Company with Vancouver Island will shortly be severed by the resumption by the Grown of the grant of the soil. And their legal rights on the continent will terminate in May next, at all events, by the expiry of their license, if Her Majesty should not be advised to terminate it sooner on the establishment of the new colony. It is absolutely necessary, in their view, that the administration of the government, both of Vancouver Island and of the mainland opposite, should be intrusted to an officer or officers entirely unconnected with the company. I wish, therefore, for your distinct statement, as early as you can afford it, whether you are willing, on receiving the appointment which is thus offered to you, to give up, within a short a time as may be practicable, all connection which you may have with that company either as its servant, or a shareholder, or in any other capacity."
On the 31st of July, Mr. Bulwer notified Governor Douglas that the confidential letter of the 16th of July should have also mentioned the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, a disconnection with which was also a sine qua non to the reception of an appointment as governor of British Columbia. On the 14th of August, 1858, the British parliament passed the act establishing a government for the province of British Columbia. In transmitting to Sir James Douglas the copy of said act, Mr. Bulwer advises him, as its first governor, that "The Hudson's Bay Company have hitherto had an exclusive right to trade with Indians in the Fraser river territory; but they have had no other right whatever. They have had no right to exclude strangers. They have had no rights of government or of occupation of the soil. They have had no rights to prevent or interfere with any kind of trading, except with Indians alone. But to render all misconceptions impossible, Her Majesty's government have determined on revoking the company's license (which would itself have expired in next May) as regards British Columbia, being fully authorized to do so by the terms of the license itself, whenever a new colony is constituted."
One of the immediate and direct
results of the Fraser river excitement is an exposé of British
policy, fraught with vast interest and full of instruction. Now plainly
is exhibited the strictness with which that wary government acts in her
direct dealings with her own subjects. How marked the contrast between
the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company growing out of their pursuit of
trade in American territory, under the license of trade of 1838, when sought
to be enforced as against the United States, and the obligations recognized
as due to the same company growing out of a cotemporaneous presence under
the same license, in a portion of the same region which had become British
territory, and the British government had become the party to construe
the contract. The
grant, though continuing until May, 1859, was revoked in British territory by the British Crown in the summer of 1858. And that government denied any liability whatever to indemnify the grantees for abruptly terminating the license. Neither did the Hudson's Bay Company pretend to assert a claim for privation of benefits, the enjoyment of which, for a prescribed term, it might have supposed, had been guaranteed. In British territory, "possessory rights" ceased to exist with the termination of the license which conferred their enjoyment. By the treaty of 1846, the United States had stipulated to respect those identical "possessory rights" attaching under the same license when exercised in American Oregon. British opinion ascribed an entirely different significance to that term, under the treaty. As against the United States, those rights were construed as continuing as proprietary interests, extinguishable only by purchase by the United States. The Fraser river excitement is therefore interesting in a national view because it provoked the necessity of the British government authoritatively construing the measure of privileges, franchises and tenure of the Hudson's Bay Company under the license of exclusive trade in the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, and the duties and obligations of the British government to said company upon the recall of the grant. By the decision of that government, no vested rights had attached in the territory, - no "possessory rights."
No sooner did British Columbia begin to attract settlers, than Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, speaking as one of the British cabinet the will of the British government, set at rest all pretensions of proprietary claim, all continuing rights or equities supposed to attach to such a license of trade, although such license had necessarily carried with it a permission to occupy territory. "The company's private property will be protected in common with that of Her Majesty's subjects; but they have no claim whatever for compensation for the loss of their exclusive trade, which they only possessed subject to this right of revocation."
That memorable stampede is eminently
worthy of study. True, it was short-lived, but how pregnant with results!
The mammoth monopoly, to benefit whom it was written into existence by
the ablest officer in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, that empire organization
which had survived for nearly two centuries, which profited so much while
the excitement continued, was itself to pass into history, its first great
death-blow dealt as a necessity growing out of the attraction of people
to Fraser river. Vancouver Island and British Columbia had become settled
by free or individual settlers. Free settlements and the Hudson's Bay Company
occupancy were two principles which could not harmonize. The former depended
for its success upon the recognition of man's individuality; whilst the
discipline of organized monopoly was the thralldom of the individual to
its behests. The one is vitality of progress, the other mere inanity. Both
cannot survive. It was admitted that the occupancy of a country by such
an organization as the Hudson's Bay Company could not be promotive of free
settlement and colonization. It cannot have escaped notice that, as the
"excitement" progressed, the company was deprived of exclusiveness of privilege
to trade. Then it was put under the ban of government, and its able chief
compelled to renounce all connection with it before he could be intrusted
with the administration of the civil government. Strongly, too, was marked
the opinion of the eminent colonial secretary, that what might subserve
the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company was inimical to the true purposes
of government, and to that security of the immunities due to the settlers.
More recent events show that that great company, once exercising more than
imperial power in a vast portion of the North American continent,
never recovered from the ordeal to which it was subjected in 1858, but that it was thereafter divested of all territorial characteristics and proprietary powers; that thereafter it was confined to the enjoyment of the profits of legitimate trade, a mere commercial association. This "excitement" marks the era when the transition commenced, if of itself it did not contribute to or hasten the downfall of that vast controlling power.
Such were the results consequent upon the Fraser river excitement. Its pre-eminent benefit to the Pacific slope is to be found in its powerful invocation to attention to the great Northwest and its growing importance. It attracted to British Columbia and Vancouver Island immigrants from California, Oregon, Washington, the Atlantic states, Canada, Europe, Australia, the Sandwich Islands and the Celestial Empire. As it subsided, it left a colony in a prosperous condition, to whom it had contributed a large population. Greater accessions to the population of Oregon, Washington and California were furnished as the excitement expended its force than had been drawn from those places during its continuance. To the latter it afforded a new and vastly increased demand for her staples, and opened and new and vastly increased field for commercial enterprise. To Oregon and Washington, the same benefits accrued, though necessarily in a less degree, of the great utilitarian idea of the age, - transcontinental land communication! The states (no longer western), and even the very conservative Canada, yearned for continuity with the great Pacific. The remoteness between the two great oceans lost its idea significance, while the growing importance of the Pacific slope commanded the attention of the Atlantic states. National ties were extended to and reciprocated upon the shores of the Pacific, and the oneness of our nation intensified. Mountain chains were leveled; and the denizens of the Pacific slope were again brought nearer in feeling to early homes. Less than ten years before, California had inspired the thought that the Pacific was much nearer what we still call home than our generation had learned at school. The Fraser river excitement followed, approximating west to east. In this annihilation of idea remoteness, in this realization of oneness of country, in the triumphant assurance that the Pacific is to become the center of American commerce and empire, how much was contributed by that singular episode, so intimately connected with the territorial development of the great empire of Oregon and Washington, the "Fraser river excitement!"
The sixth session of the Legislative
Assembly convened December 6th. The Council organized by electing Crumline
La Du, of Cowlitz county, president. The House elected Edward S. Dyer,
of Jefferson county, speaker. On the eighth, Acting Governor mason's message
was delivered. It opened by contrasting the situation then with the time
(1855) he in the same capacity had performed the like duty. An interesting
résumé
of
the Fraser river gold excitement and its effects was given, with appropriate
comments upon the restrictive policy pursued by the British authorities
towards American miners. The renewal, by the Indians of Northeastern Washington,
of robberies and murders of miners as they journeyed through their territory
en route to the northern mines, and the subsequent chastisement
of the murdering bands by Colonel Wright, U.S. Army, were recounted, and
the gallant services of that distinguished officer acknowledged in fitting
terms. There was a hearty approval of the recent creation of the military
department of Oregon, because in the vicinage of the region where the presence
of troops were required, where duty was to be performed. The problem of
transcontinental communication by
rail, and the necessity of building properly located military roads within and to the territory, were descanted upon, and attention thereto requested as proper subjects for memorials. Those treaties, negotiated so long ago by Governor Stevens, remained unratified (1). An urgent memorial was suggested. The legislature advised that General Nesmith, Superintendent of Oregon and Washington, had recommended the establishment of Oregon as an exclusive superintendency; and it was suggested that the Assembly concur in a memorial approving of such recommendation. the recognition and speedy payment of the Indian war debt received proper attention. The resources of the territory, especially its coal and lumber, were portrayed. The progress made in the public surveys, and in the marking of the public boundary, was exhibited by reports from those in charge. The necessity for the creation of additional land-offices to accommodate the extended nature of new settlements received appropriate attention. The legislature was informed of the completion of lighthouses at Camp Flattery, New Dungeness, Shoalwater Bay, and upon Smith's Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. An appropriation had been made for a lighthouse on Red Bluff, Whidby's Island, the arrangement for which had been completed to secure its erection in the spring. The governor recommended memorials for additional ones to be placed at Gray's Harbor, and upon the north end of Vashon's Island or at Sandy Point.
At the last session of the Assembly, a joint resolution had passed appointing William Strong, Selucius Garfielde and Butler P. Anderson to compile the laws of the territory and report to the present session. Mr. B.P. Anderson of said commission made a report of his individual labor on the seventh. His work was referred to a special committee who reported, December 16th, that about two-thirds of the compilation had been made, and recommended the continuance of Mr. Anderson at the work for twenty-five days, to report January 20, 1859. At that time, Mr. Anderson submitted his "revision and compilation" to a special committee, to whom the matter had been referred, who reported it to be "an all-sufficient revision and compilation." The special committee were discharged; and Mr. Anderson's work was laid on the table. On the 4th of January, Mr. Maxon of Clark county introduced a Council resolution, stating in its preamble that the resolution of the last legislature had not been complied with, and that Mr. Anderson's work was unauthorized; and, as the territorial treasury might be called upon to pay for such labor, the president of the Council correspond with Mr. Anderson, "asking him to communicate in writing to this body that he will in no event claim of the territory, whether as part of the commission or an individual upon his own responsibility, any compensation from the treasury of the territory."
Later in the session, Public Printer Edward Furste was, by a resolution introduced by Mr. Maxon, asked whether he would print the said Anderson compilation, and in no event look to the treasury of the territory for compensation. In the meantime, the House passed a bill providing for payment of a compilation, which in the Council reached two readings, was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, reported to the Council without recommendation, and, on being ordered to a third reading on motion of Mr. Maxon, was laid on the table and made the special order for the 4th of February ensuing. Mr. Mason introduced a bill creating a code commission. One of its provisions was that the parties performing the labor should look to the United States, and disclaim any liability of the territory to pay for the service. That bill failed to pass the House. But few laws were passed of a general nature, though numerous amendatory sections were added to
(1) They were all ratified March
8,1859. See "United States Statutes at Large," Vol. XII.
existing laws. Several county lines were slightly changed. A number of incorporation acts were passed, among which may be named the "Town of Olympia," the "Cascade Railroad Company," the "Sisters of Charity of the House of Providence." The memorials in the main are such as the governor's message suggested, reaching the establishment of roads, lighthouses and other territorial needs.
On the 14th of February, 1859, the President approved the Oregon State Admission Bill, whereby the southern boundary line of Washington Territory were adhered to, so far as the same constitutes the northern line of Oregon. The residue of Oregon was formally declared to be a part of the territory of Washington. The area of the territory was thereby greatly amplified, and Eastern Washington extended southward to the forty-second degree of north latitude, embracing within its borders the "South Pass" of the Rocky Mountains, the great doorway of the overland route for immigrants to the Pacific states and territories. Northward it extended to the forty-ninth parallel. It embraced all of Idaho and Montana west of the Rocky Mountains.