Joseph Gaston

“ Portland stands alone in its founding and development. In less than sixty years it has arisen from an unbroken forest, uninhabited save by wild beasts and native Indians, separated from its native hearthstones by two thousand miles of unpeopled deserts, plains and mountains, to a city and seaport, one hundred and ten miles from the ocean, that ships more lumber than any other city in the world, more wheat than any other city in America, except New York, and handles more money every day than any other city in the nation of its class. ”

“ Has all the experience of two thousand years, the statesmanship of Pericles, the wisdom of Cato, the learning of Bacon, the patriotism of Washington and the great heart of Lincoln — all, all gone for nothing? Is there no wisdom in counsel; no strength in combination? Is it now to be a factional scramble for place and power by antagonistic and diverse interests ; great capitalists, great corporations, multi-mil- lionaires, deft political schemers, all appealing to the ignorance, prejudices or self- interest of rival and incoherent bodies of unorganized voters? ”

“ Not only does this ruling military power of the world, led and ruled by the most successful and brilliant soldier in the history of mankind, turn over this empire of rich territory to the keeping of the young republic of the west, but a greater power than the wealth and resources of the land goes with it—the power to rule two great oceans and dictate the peace of the world. ”

“ In Washington the public school had not begun; in Oregon it was making here and there its earliest start.
In October, fifty-four years ago, the weather was fine as now. The early rains had washed the smoky dust out of the atmosphere, and the woods were fresh and clean, untouched by frost. The cheerful spirits of the young and lonely traveler, who was on his way from Puget Sound that week, and who was, so far as he knows, the only passenger on the road, put nature also in her cheerfulest mood; for whether we find nature kind and genial, or harsh and sour, depends on ourselves. ”

“ We would not be subjected to all the innumerable and indescribable tortures of a journey to Oregon for all the soil its savage hunters ever wandered over. All the writers and travelers agree in representing Oregon as a vast extent of mountains, and valleys, of sand dotted over with green, and cultivable spots. Russia has her Siberia, and England has her Botany Bay, and if the United States should ever use a country to which to banish its rogues and scoundrels, the utility of such a region as Oregon will be demonstrated. ”

“ Around Willamette Falls centers the dramatic history of Oregon City. Gateway to the interior, every enterprise paid tribute to that upheaval of rock that for half a mile cuts the river in two, and lifts the shores into precipitous benches like colossal stairways. ”

“ And no matter how much we may condemn the Hudson Bay Company for holding the country solely for furs, and working the Indian to discourage American fur traders, there is a silver lining to even that cloud, as we shall see later on. The Hudson bay men got along with the Indians, prevented bloody wars, like those that ravaged the Ohio valley and visited upon the pioneer settlers on the Ohio a thousand more terrors than ever troubled the pioneer Oregonians, by skillfully turning the sexual instinct of the race to the work of peace with the savages, and profits to the corporation. ”

“ But as time rolls on and this city swarms with its hundreds of thousands, and its commerce covers the great Pacific, the genius and justice of the laws and institutions which these men founded will be seen to be far greater than any possible material pros- perity. And then the lengthening shadows of their colossal work and fame, will cover the whole land, and place their names among the greatest and best of mankind. ”

“ If history is to teach us anything it should show who were the teachers, and what it was they taught.
Some men and women are continually in the public eye, and yet their lives are mere bubbles, flotsam and jetsam on the stream of time, to be picked up or dashed down by any wind of circumstance. Of others we get only a glimpse from some noble act or work, and touch them only at one point or trait in their lives. Portland can boast the names of many noble men and women who have shown from unselfish lives and deeds their real character. ”

“ And so the great caravan of Oregon pioneers had to wait on the banks of the Missouri river for the grass to grow before they could turn a wheel towards the goal of all their hopes. It was the grass that must feed the teams to haul the wagons, that must feed the milk cows for support of men, women and children, and it was the grass to feed the buffalo and antelope to furnish beef and venison to feed the pioneers, on their long and toilsome journey. ”

“ Here then was the first attempt of white women to cross the great American desert, as the plains of Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming were then called; and scale the Rocky mountains and penetrate the wilderness of old Oregon. It was indeed on the part of these two women an act of the greatest heroism, requiring more than ordinary courage and self-sacrifice. While thousands of women and children followed after them, it was these two women who pointed the way, set the pace and showed the world that women could accomplish the great and hazardous trip. ”

“ To accomplish this result the pioneers who founded the city of Portland passed through every phase of human experience. Toils, labors and dangers beyond number or description; joys, sorrows, pains, suffering and death. The unmarked graves by the wayside of those who fell in the march to Oregon were thousands. The dust and heat at times were intolerable. Think, if you can, of a moving mass of humanity and dumb brutes, often mixed in inextricable confusion, moving along in a column twice as wide as Portland street. Here and there were drivers of the loose cattle lashing them to keep moving. ”

“ Washington, the all-wise leader, whose great soul could not be moved by great success or still greater defeat; Franklin, the diplomat, whose profound wisdom and humanity moved the whole civilized world, and whose genius compelled even his enemies to serve his cause; and Thomas Jefferson, the seer, prophet, and greatest colonizer of all the world. With three such men, supported by the self-sacrificing and invincible soldiers of the Continental army, success of the King was an utter impossibility. ”

“ George Washington's birthday anniversary, February 22d, is rose planting day at Portland, Oregon, and this patriotic remembrance of "the father of his country" is thus happily united with the festival that brings recreation, pleasure and joy to the hundreds of thousands of people who lay aside all business cares to rejuvenate health and strength.
Portland has in common with all other American cities, ample means of social culture, and society dissipation. Much of this has been noticed, but the great mass of what goes under the name of social culture is foreign to the purpose of this history. ”

“ Jefferson read the future as if by inspiration. The great water ways pouring their traffic down to New Orleans at the least possible expense, and building up in the great valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers an empire of population. He thought, as everybody else thought, that the trade of even Pittsburgh only four hundred miles west of the Atlantic port of Philadelphia must of necessity float down the Ohio and Mississippi, and go out to the world by the way of New Orleans. And also all the traffic west and south of Pittsburgh must go the same way. ”

“ Corbett's private benevolences were many and, in fact, no good work done in the name of charity or religion sought his aid in vain. He never allowed the acquirement of wealth to warp his kindly nature, but remained throughout life a genial, courteous gentleman, appreciative of social amenities and generously bestowing warm regard in recognition of true personal worth. Many enterprises of Portland today stand as monuments to his life work, but a more fitting and even more lasting tribute to him is the cherished memory which his friends entertain for him. ”

“ But here is an Empire of natural wealth in a vast region claimed and owned by the then foremost military power on the globe, quietly, speedily and with a friendly hand passing over to the youngest member of the family of nations, to be by it, in its inexperience in government, ruled and developed for the happiness and blessing of mankind. ”

“ Without the people who take the trouble to record the progress of events, to write down the recollection of things past and gone forever, and to treasure up the accomplished works of the men and women of a country or a city, the past would be as much of a blank to us as is the history of the native Indian to all the world. ”

“ Few cities in the United States has ever received so great a bounty. The monetary foundation of the gift, amounting to about three million dollars, will be ample to erect all needed buildings and endow a teaching force equal to all the demands of this northwest upon the most liberal and comprehensive lines of study. It is something for a city to be proud of to have produced such people and to have been the theatre of their successful labors, to have secured their affection and final benediction in this great gift for the welfare of humanity. ”

“ Why were there no Indian wars in the dominions of the Hudson Bay Company, a region as large as the United States? Because that company was a business government managed upon business principles and could not afford to have wars. If they allowed the Indians to have whiskey they would not go out and hunt for furs. And besides that, if the Indian got drunk he was incapacitated for work and business. If an Indian committed some offense the company did not go out and shoot down the first Indian met. The company did not wage war on Indian women, or allow white men to debauch Indian wives. ”

“ A sporadic genius suddenly arose at Massillon, Ohio, like a comet in the sky, calling himself "General Coxey," and appealed to the unemployed throughout the land to form a grand army, "the Army of the Commonweal," and march to Washington city in such divisions as was convenient and demand relief from the president and congress. Armies formed all over the country ; one at Los Angeles, one at San Francisco, one at Portland, and one at Seattle. ”

“ Its foundation and existence stand for a principle; it is the result and fruit of evolutionary forces which could not be turned aside; and it has been, and must continue to be the nerve center towards which and from which tend all the historic ideas and influences which turned the tide of dominion from Russia and Great Britain, and made Portland, Oregon, in fact and truth, unconsciously, the guiding star of that empire which westward took its predestined and irresistible way. ”

“ Populations are stirred profoundly by all the powers of social agitation, by travel, by rapid movements of commerce, by daily transmission of news.
The United States has a frontage on the Pacific as well as on the Atlantic ocean. We must expand in the direction of the Pacific, where the future development of our country lies. Over there is China. Over there is India. Over there are the regions which the energy of the world is now beginning to develop. This is one of the great movements of history, without any one in particular bringing it about. It is irresistible ”

“ To go forward and establish a government l-or mutual protection was the only alternative of common sense and brave men. And when we stop and take a look at the surroundings of this handful of Americans, away out here two thousand miles from any friendly encouragement, and wholly neglected and ignored by the American president and congress, without arms or means of defense, without money or funds of any kind to maintain an organization, their resolution to organize a government and found an American state seems absurd and chimerical to reason. ”