Portal:Oregon Historical Society

“ A nobler woman never breathed the breath of life. She lived to raise her family and came to Oregon in 1845. She died on the place that I now live on and was almost worshipped by all who knew her. It was from her that I got my first idea of gold mines. She was born and raised in the State of South Carolina, and at that time such a thing as gold or silver mines were never heard of west of the Mississippi. But she would tell us children about the great gold mines of South Carolina. She said she knew a man there who had a gold mine on his own land and owned the negroes that worked it. ”

“ When in the progress of its journey it reaches warmer waters, a great mass of ice often splits off from the front of the glaciers and the iceberg sails away like a phantom ship, carrying the frozen load of rocks which it has gathered in the heart of the far distant mountains. It was so on the Willamette Sound. We have no native granite in the valley, but throughout its entire length from near Portland and Forest Grove to near Eugene, granite boulders, varying from hand specimens to the weight of several tons, were dropped into the Willamette Sound by melting icebergs. ”

“ The navigation of the Columbia is absolutely necessary to the Hud- son Bay Company; without this, they have no passage into the heart of their finest possessions in the interior, New Cale- donia, etc. I know not what political influence they command ; but this monopoly is very wealthy; and, when the question of our western lines of territory is settled, they (the Hudson Bay Company) will make the most strenuous efforts to retain free navigation of the Columbia more important to them than the free navigation of the St. Lawrence is to the people of the United States. ”

“ The children of modern Europe, too, have a priceless heritage in their historic relations to classic Greece and Rome. But the children of the New World find but little of this historic background as part of their nation's life. While we of the Northwest have least of all, for we even lack the unique chapter of Colonial history of which our Eastern States are so justly proud. ”

“ It is only by this admirable distribution that a great extent of territory with a proportional population and power, can be reconciled with freedom, and consequently, that safety and respectability be given to free States. ”

“ Whenever a man tells me that there is not just as sound metal and just as good metal in silver as there is in gold to make an honest dollar, I will tell you he is either a knave or a fool, and should be either in the penitentiary or the asylum, according to his intellect, for he is a dangerous man in either case. ”

“ The word patriotism in its derivation suggests mainly associated effort in the winning and in the defense of the home land. Thanks to the world peace movement, the indications for the future are that sentiment for the land we call our own must arise out of different associations and ideals cherished in connection with it. The people to lead in the world's civilizations henceforth will commemorate rather the policies that result in the making of a happier and richer national or commonwealth home than in any achievement in wresting that land from another. ”

“ We could sell out now and make fine outfit for Oregon. We could have laid out a thousand dollars for young cattle, which would have made us a fortune in Oregon, but the old gent thought he would better keep his money than take chances by the stock being run off by the Indians. March 30th, 1845, arrived. Well, now we are off for Ore- gon, the land of sundown. We had four wagons, four yoke of oxen to one wagon and three to each of the others. They were all young, well-broken cattle, and could trot like horses. With wagons loaded light, they could walk off twenty-five or thirty miles a day easy. ”

“ I cannot leave this subject without pointing out the great facility and the advantages that would result from a thorough cut of not more than three-quarters of a mile through the lowest point of the Cape Disappointment, from Baker's bay to the ocean. The soil is light, and the height not more than sixty feet at the point proposed; and I have not the slightest doubt that a deep and safe channel would soon be made by the action of the tide (at the rate of five to six knots an hour) as it sweeps around the bay, bringing with it the whole volume of water of the Columbia and its tributaries. ”

“ In order to supplement their usual study of history, The Oregon Historical Society wishes to offer to the schools of our state a few sketches of Oregon's geological history, that, while the children of the Orient are studying the growth of dynasties and pyramids built by the, power of the few and degradation and oppression of the many; the children of the Northwest may be studying some of the long rich chapters of its ancient life and the upbuilding of its mountains. ”

“ The chief natural features along the route of the Astorians have remained unaltered, although irrigation has produced an almost miraculous change in parts of the desolate wilderness, such as that around "Caldron Linn," now Milner, Idaho, which has become like an immense garden. A network of railroads now covers what was formerly a trackless wild, while through- out the region, where no foot of white man had ever trodden, are now scattered a steadily increasing multitude of towns and cities, with all the adjuncts of modern civilization that they imply. ”

“ For the first time, the Statesman distinctly questions the Government's policy in an editorial, October 6, 1862, on "The President's Proclamation." This referred to the preliminary proclamation issued September 22 by Lincoln, that unless the inhabitants of the revolting states returned to their allegiance by January 1, the slaves should be declared free. In the first place, such a policy at this time was held to be unnecessary and impracticable. But, more to the point, were the words: "It is not the loss that will fall upon the slave states that we object to. ”

“ I firmly believe that, those in- dividuals and sections of country, who have the most enlight- ened and devoted zeal to the common interest, have also the greatest influence. "I have sometimes feared that the Missouri question will create suspicions to the South very unfavorable to a correct policy. Should emancipation be attempted, it must and will be resisted at all costs, but let us first be certain that it is the real object, not by a few but by a large portion of the non- slave-holding states." Social justification was Calhoun's argument in defense of slavery. ”

“ Every man in office must be responsible to the head of the department and in the perform- ance of his work, observe the most careful economy. This did not mean that Calhoun wished to reduce the military force as a means of lessening the expenses. To his mind it was far more economical to have a well prepared army in case of a crisis, than to waste time and money organizing one when the nation was thrust into war. ”

“ Remember and pray for us that we may labor successfully for the promotion of our Master's cause in this heathen land. A few words to the little folks. Tell them we often think how happy they must be to have kind parents to take care of them, give them good food and clothes and books and send them to school where they can learn much that will be very useful to them. We have seen a great many Indian children who have no clothes and never have bread or anything very good to eat. ”

“ The Statesman is 'for Andrew Johnson against all his enemies.' We are for the whole loyal party and will not sever our connection with it to go with a single person, even though that person be the one who has all the federal offices at his disposal. ”

“ I am decidedly in favor of the new system, be- cause the poorest child in the country can get a better educa- tion now than the richest man's child could then, at least in the Western states. Such a thing as a school tax was never thought of and would have been unanimously hooted down if it had been thought of. Of course, there were no very poor people in the West in those days ; the poor people had to stay back East. All the men in the West owned their own farms, built their own schoolhouses, hired their own teachers and sent their children to school during the winter season. ”

“ Man's co-operation with the forces of nature towards making his heritage a better dwelling place cannot be begun too soon. To evoke a commonwealth spirit aiming to promote the highest welfare of those to come after us nothing can be more useful than an exercise of the imagination in picturing truthfully the stages through which this Oregon home of ours has, as a whole, passed in coming to its present development. ”

“ While Europe has a rich chapter of very ancient human history, tell- ing of the "Cave Dwellers," who lived in England, France, Belgium and other countries, when this same Mammoth ele- phant still lived in Europe and America. Let us borrow for a time, some of those people who made their homes in caves, and in imagination transfer them to our Willamette Sound. No scientist will object, for they really belong here and this old Oregon was far too beautiful to have no human beings hunting in its forests, fishing in its streams or building little villages upon its wooded islands. ”

“ Baker City and the whole of Eastern Oregon were for many long years served only by stage. All the little towns of the Willamette Valley nestling near the foot- hills of the Cascades and the Coast ranges got their mail by stage or on horseback, once a week sometimes ; once a month at others. All over this whole region of today the daily mail and the rural mail delivery are accepted as a matter of course, and only a gray-haired man or woman here and there remem- bers the old days and the isolation and privations of pioneer
life. ”

“ Tide sets up 50 miles above Vancouver. Probably a larger quantity of water must flow than in the Mississippi, but it is frequently pressed into a channel of ten rods. Many lives are lost in this river. None but Canadians and Indians would ever think of navigating this terrible Columbia. Last night we had a little shower of rain, the first drop in this region since the first of May and the first we have experienced since the 24th of June as we were entering the mountains. Air is very pure and healthy. I think this the healthiest country in the world. ”

“ It appears that the Oregon boundary is finally settled, on a basis more favorable to the United States than we had reason to anticipate . . . Business will, of course, go on as usual, as the treaty will not take effect on us for many years to come." In early years the Hudson's Bay Company established a house at Honolulu, shipped thence lumber, timber, salmon, grain, flour and such other articles as were in demand in the Sandwich Islands, and in turn brought back such products of the Islands as were serviceable at Vancouver. ”

“ Here is no natural pass you breast the lofty hills and climb them there is no way around them, no avoiding them, and each succeeding one, you fancy is the dividing ridge of the range." The Barlow road was an important asset to both immigrants and settlers. It enabled the former to divide their trains and avoid the overcrowded condition on the Columbia ; it furnished the latter a means of communication and trade with the settlers east of the mountains. Large numbers of Willamette valley cattle were driven over it to be slaughtered in the mines and many a packer has paid toll at its gates. ”

“ Rain is plentiful in Columbia in the winter season; water in this country is most delicious. We have become so attached to our mode of living as to prefer a lodging in the open air to indoors. The atmosphere at night is exhilarating. Have just returned from exploring the Walla Walla river. ”

“ Some men may differ with us, but we have no time to argue with those who are green enough to wish to carry adders in their bosoms till they are stung to death If there is any hope for the success of pure principles in Oregon, Union men must scotch this new head of the hydra-headed snake of secession at once." On the other hand, the feeling manifested toward Bush by the organized Democracy was no more cordial, as is made evi- dent by Malone in the Corvallis Union : "The political harlot of the Salem Vampire has had a new revelation ! ”

“ But the waters of a river pass swiftly on leaving the larger stones found in their pathway, while a glacier slowly reaches out or down and freezes to the loose stones as it passes on, making them a part of its own frozen mass. ”

“ If the encroachment of the sea crowded back the Columbia until it produced such high water in Eastern Oregon and Washington, what was its effect upon the valley of the Willamette? When the waters stood over three hundred feet above their present level at the mouth of the Willamette they evidently covered the whole valley from the coast mountains to the Cascades and from the Scappoose Mountains on the north, to the hills that surround Eugene on the south. ”

“ The Oregon Sentinel, which represented the Union party in the southern part of the state, declared the best test of a man's Unionism to be that he was a firm, consistent supporter of the Johnson Administration, exactly as the support of the Lincoln Administration had been the test during the war.54 Even after the veto of the Freedmen's Bureau bill in February, 1866, which marked the decisive break between Johnson and Congress, the Sentinel was conservative and declared its allegiance to the President. ”

“ Since the year 1828, a party of forty to fifty trappers, (Cana- dians,) with their women, slaves, &c., generally amounting to 150 to 200 persons and 300 horses, go out from Vancouver, towards the south, as far as 40 north latitude, These parties search every stream, and take every beaver skin they find, regardless of the destruction of the young animals: excesses, too, are unquestionably committed by these hunting parties on the Indians; and every small American party (save one) that has passed through the same country has met defeat and death. ”

“ A Conservative Union party in Oregon, under the leadership of the President, as desired by Senator Nesmith, was made impossible. Whatever danger there was of a division of the Unionists was averted, and the way was paved for the future rehabilitation of the Republican party. The situation was forcefully expressed in a private letter from Judge Deady to Senator Nesmith, dated August 9, 1866: "You ask me to recommend a man for the place (U. S. Marshal) who is a Johnson man—who is neither a Radical nor an opposer of the war. ”

“ When later on an iceberg comes gliding slowly across the waters, its beautiful icy pinnacles glistening in the moonlight, perhaps it seems to him the wandering spirit of that snowpeak driven out by the wild demon of fire. ”

“ Whereas we, the undersigned, settlers upon the Wallamette river, are fully convinced of the importance and necessity of having neat cattle of our own, in order successfully to carry on our farms, and gain a comfortable, livelihood ; and whereas we find it impossible to purchase them here, as all the cattle in the country belong to the Hudson Bay Company, they re- fusing to sell them under any circumstances; and as we be- lieve that the possession of cattle would not only benefit us personally, but will materially benefit the whole settlement, we, the undersigned, do therefore agree 1st. ”