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“ They endured every hardship and surmounted every obstacle borne or met by the pioneers of any land. Too often their reward has been that of the pioneer of every place and all times discomfort and hardships during life in order that the way might be the easier for those who were to follow them. Well may we be proud of the Oregon pioneer, for the time will come when the early history of Oregon will read like a romance. ”

“ How little do the petty turmoils and ambitions and disappointments of this life bank up against the problems of eternity or the opportunities and potentialities of the universe. How purposeless and ineffective is the scramble and how pitiful are the rewards of wealth and fame and ambition. Generation after generation spends its brief day and passes on. Yet we cherish this life, and while it lasts we are almost wholly absorbed in its pleasures and its problems. When death comes we call a brief halt. We hold a ceremonial, ostensibly to perpetuate the memory of the dead. ”

“ Though we cannot say that this is the only hope of Oregon—for whether it lives or dies, Oregon will yet be redeemed from the remains of Paganism and the gloom of Papal darkness with which she is enshrouded; yet we are compelled to adopt the sentiment, that the subject of the Oregon Institute is vital to the interests of our Methodist Zion in this country. If it lives, it will be a luminary in the moral heavens of Oregon, to shed abroad the lights of science and knowledge, to dispel the surrounding darkness, long after its founders have ceased to live. ”

“ We must become a part of the great North American Republic. It remains for the Christian churches of that Republic to say whether our territory shall prove a blessing or a sore curse to the nation. Shall the needed help be denied us? As a people, we are in the most help- less infancy; the power of the Gospel of our ever Blessed Saviour must be exerted to bind this legion and drive it into our mighty Pacific, or we shall be abandoned, the prey of the worst of spirits and the basest of passions. Dear brother, it is far beyond the power of language to describe the blessings of the Gospel. ”

“ The valleys of these streams sometimes penetrate far into the bosom of the mountains, affording some of the richest and best watered lands in the world. Farther east the mountains rise, pile above pile, till at last may be seen some six or seven lofty conical peaks, raising their summits far into the region of perpetual snow. At one view the eye can survey the luxuriant plains with their meandering streams, the ever- varied mountain side clad with dense forests of evergreen firs and the still more lofty snow-capped mountains, around whose sides the clouds sport in wild confusion. ”

“ With his family do Thou bless Thy servant, the donor of this memorial, designed perpetually to remind us of the service and sacrifice of the heroic dead. As the mystic cords of memory bind the Oregon country to Robert Booth today, do Thou bathe all our souls in the passion of Calvary, that like him we, too, with persuasive tongues, may tell how Christ died to save men, and still lives to bless and help them. ”

“ It is always in evidence, and subject to call, in every crisis, but it is powerless without the support of that quality of citizen- ship that is the distinguishing mark of American civilization. We honor our departed friend not as a statesman, or a soldier, or a diplomat not as a scholar or a sage, but as a splendid type of such a citizenship as is needed to insure the quality and the permanence of what we call the state.
No higher tribute can we pay to the memory of Francis Xavier Matthieu than to say that in his death the state of Oregon lost a splendid citizen. ”

“ Lower down the river the mountains occasionally arise from the water's edge with great abruptness and some- times raise their basaltic walls like perpendicular battlements 500 or 600 feet, from whose heights the timber lands rise with a gradual ascent and, during the rainy season, drain their waters in imposing cascades over these buttresses of nature into the bosom of the noble river whose rolling floods perpetually wash their base. As you approach nearer the ocean the scenery becomes more imposing. ”

“ Doing all the things that fell to the lot of the early missionary, baptizing the babies, ministering to the sick, marrying the youths, burying the dead, preaching and exhorting and helping in every way,—is it a matter for surprise that these brave and simple, god-fearing souls should have endeared themselves to their friends and neighbors and now that they are gone, have left their memory a priceless heritage. Such men as these do not die. ”

“ Now I, for one, am quite content that the record of the Republicans, in respect to Oregon, should be better than the record of the Democratic party in respect to Kansas. I am quite content that the record of the Democratic party, in respect to Kansas, should be just what it is; and I do not think it is possible very much to improve the Republican record, or to impair the Democratic record. Are we to sacrifice our own political principles and advantages, for the sake of compelling the Democratic party to consistency of action? ”

“ The Constitution presented by the people of Oregon is not submitted to our vote. We cannot amend it; all we have to do about it is to see that it is republican in form. If it is unconstitutional, it is not in the power of Congress to impart to it the least vitality, and it will fall by its own weight. But gentlemen argue here, as if we could by our votes give life and power to an instrument in violation of the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ Fifth, slavery can no more stand as a paying institution with one- half of public sentiment arrayed against it than a house can stand with one corner stone. Sixth, introduce slavery, and free white labor will become degraded, if not impossible to secure alto- gether. To mix slave labor and free labor aggravates the evils of each and subtracts from the benefits of each. Finally, can Oregon afford to throw away the friendship of the North the overruling power of the nation for the sake of slavery ? ”

“ We fill up the grave. We cover it with flowers, and then we dsperse to plunge again into the vortex where only the trivialities of this life are considered and soon leave the memories of the dead to oblivion. So soon does the world forget. Today we are met—a goodly company—composed in large measure of the men and women of the pioneer element—to pay homage to the work of a generation that has almost wholly disappeared, and incidentally to pay our respects to the memory of one of the pioneer Argonauts of Oregon, who left us but a few short months ago. ”

“ The minister's training and experience imply all that is claimed. Usually he has come in contact with many phases of life. The nature of his work compels him to be a reader of the best literature; and he gives currency to all the most significant facts and the careful thought and the beautiful fancy of all the ages culled by his extensive reading. He is compelled to emphasize culture, intelligence, morality and patriotism. He is naturally the foe of autocracy in state and industry, the undoubted enemy of vice and intemperance, the certain opponent of greed in places high and low. ”

“ The demands made on civic virtue under the Oregon system are incomparably more rigorous. It calls for a zeal in public service and a de- votion to the common good that insures an understanding of the issues involved in each problem as it arises. Nothing less than a finer loyalty, a livelier patriotism and a higher social intelligence must now prevail if all is to be well. With these alone, if at all, can a people secure that discernment and poise that mean safety and social progress with the complex and tangled affairs of a commonwealth under a pure democracy. ”

“ But, sir, if the pilgrims of the Atlantic coast finally became examples to the world in all that exalts our race, may we not hope that the pilgrims of the Pacific coast may yet become worthy of our esteem?
Nearly one-quarter of a century ago, in my boyhood, I studied the adventures of those men, who founded upon the western shore of the American continent what are now the cities of Oregon and Astoria. These men, who were then in the vigor of their lives, are now old men gray-haired and trembling with age. Their work of life is nearly completed ”

“ What a ridiculous figure would the Pacific Republic cut among the nations. With a population of little more than half a million scarcely able to protect ourselves from the inroads of the Indians upon our borders, hardly rich enough to sus- tain the expenses of our economical state governments, and dependent upon the bounty of the general government for military protection, mail facilities, and for the salaries of a large number of our public functionaries, what would be our fate were we to cast ourselves loose from the protection and assistance which we receive from it. ”

“ This God of mission is still with us even He who hath said: "I will never leave thee or forsake thee," so that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper." Thanks be to God, the seed sown in this barren land has not perished ; its roots are strong in the earth; to God we look for the increase. Nor is it with our natural organs that we look. Our eyes are indeed "to the hills from whence cometh our help," but they are the eyes of faith. ”

“ As I got across into the standing side of the Capitol, I was so grieved to see the edifice thus mutilated, that I awoke amidst the greatest anxiety. And as soon as I awoke, the dream seemed to be a foreshad- owing of the dissolution of the Union, and so wrought upon was I that I had no more quiet sleep for the night. May God grant that the wretches who shall attempt to knock out the basements from under this nation or from under any part of it, may be crushed with the ruins if it falls. ”

“ The construction of a railroad nine miles long was not of much consequence; but the spirit behind its building carried a lesson which all could understand.
Today we have come together to celebrate the consummation of the efforts, the hopes, the dreams of more than forty years. From the peerless city of Spokane, from Idaho's seaport Lewiston, from the twin cities of the Columbia, Pasco and Kennewick, from Umatilla, from Walla Walla, from Pendleton, representatives of the Inland Empire have come to rejoice. ”

“ It is true he continued to be an important factor in Oregon politics for many years thereafter, but he never attained the prominence in the councils of his party or in the affairs of state that his friends predicted he would. The cause of this arrest of development was lack of application and over-indulgence in intellectual whimsies. The science of political economy and the true principles of statesmanship do not come by intuition even to the most acute and luminous minds. The old maxim "there is no excellence without great labor" applies to everyone, no matter how great his intellect may be. ”

“ I love the whole country, North, South, East and West, and will fight to preserve this Union. I have no sympathy with any man, no matter from what section he may come, who is not for the Union, now and forever, one and indivisible. ”

“ England wants a monopoly of this "business," and Germany is fighting for "self-preservation," that is, to keep England from getting all or more than her share of the trade and wealth of other countries. Under the gold and silver system of money that had existed for thou- sands of years these nations could not have drawn such fabulous wealth from "investments" in other countries, and this greatest war the world has ever known would in all human probability not have ever been, and surely not during the present age. ”

“ For a wealthy corporation in their very midst, enjoying a large measure of monopoly over their industrial life, to take daily toll of their meager incomes, and to secure the benefits of the peace and order maintained by the government they had established while contributing noth- ing to its support, seemed to the political leaders of the infant state a very real grievance. Every effort ought therefore to be made to persuade the company that it owed a duty to help support a government that brought it such manifest blessings and a community that was to it such an important source of profit. ”

“ A nameless child of an Indian mother, born in the wilderness amid ice and snow, and a week later laid in an unmarked grave, is a short life history which would seem to have but little interest for those living one hundred years later. The child, however, was the first native of Eastern Oregon to have the blood of the white race in its veins, whose brief but entire lifetime was spent with those early explorers who crossed the continent to Astoria a century ago. ”

“ From The Dalles, from Portland, from Astoria by the Sea, from city and farm in every section drained by the mighty Columbia River, this throng has gathered, moved by a common impulse to commemorate an event of the utmost consequence to the Northwest—the opening of The Dalles-Celilo Canal. While the, completion of this great engineering work—great even in this day of great things—is in itself well worthy of being celebrated, the reasons which have brought us together lie far deeper. ”

“ Today we emphasize especially those men who waged the first hard conflicts in this last frontier of America. It is they especially whom we honor today. It is they upon whom we should place the laurel of the valleys and hills which they watered and enriched by their tears. Jason Lee, David Leslie, Gustavus and H. K. Hines, John McKinney, John F. DeVore, Father Wilbur, Robert Booth and T. L . Jones, are the men to be crowned today by filial and grateful hands. Their names should be repeated over and over, that the thousands who enjoy the benefits they secured may know their benefactors. ”

“ In a folk festival the people of the Pacific Northwest obtain a new view of their past-making and their traditions. It would be a medium of culture for all. Out of its past alone can a people obtain an inspiration for genius and future greatness. On the past alone must the enduring achievements of a people be built. ”

“ The hearts of all were glad- dened at sight of the forming corral, and the oxen quicken their pace as they see it. We unloosen them and they are soon scattering over the sun-burned prairie, seeking to allay their hunger, while we go at our camp duties, get- ting our wood and water and otherwise preparing for supper. Silently and mechanically we go through our task, a feeling of weariness and sadness, not to say peevishness pervading all. ”

“ Morality is necessary for the health and vigor and longevity of the individual and the nation. And morality must be propagated by religion. The best teachers and thinkers of all time have recognized and declared this truth. Washington said, 'Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Morality has never propagated itself. It always must have an apostle moved by religious fervor if it is to live and grow. ”