Marcus Whitman

“ He at once visited Dr. Pearsons, thanked him for his generous offer, and set about his task of raising the money. The difficulty was in getting a start. On June 20, 1895, the book "How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon" was published in Chicago, and on the Fourth of July, Sunday, two weeks later, forty ministers in Chicago and neighboring places took Marcus Whitman as a patriotic text. Many of them took up collections for the memorial college, and the Congregational Club gave its check for one thousand dollars. ”

“ Yet it is the true Marcus Whitman whom they wish to honor, the devoted and heroic missionary who braved every hardship and imperilled his life for the cause of Christian missions and Christian civilization in the far Northwest and finally died at his post, a sacrifice to the cause, and not a political deus ex machina, a figment of H. H. Spalding's invention. ”

“ The good Presbyterians who were a part of the American Board at that time, and were not then at all anxious to share in any honors to Whitman, latterly saw new light in something of the character grandeur of the neglected missionary. They caused a beautiful statue of Dr. Marcus Whitman to be placed in their Witherspoon building at Philadelphia. To the boys and young men, let me say the lesson in this is, that all good things come to the good who wait! Stand true for the right. ”

“ She lived to see every member of it an active Christian. She died September 6th, 1857, aged 79, and was buried beside her husband near Rushville, New York.
Dr. Marcus was her second son, and inherited from her a strong frame and great endurance. After his father's death he was sent to his paternal grandfather, Samuel Whitman, of Plainfield, Massachusetts, where he remained ten years for training and education. There he received a liberal training in the best schools the place afforded, supplemented by a thorough course in Latin, and more advanced studies under the minister of the place. ”

“ It was in this environment of scholarship, with the oversight of an excellent teacher, and in association with other boys of capability and ambition coming from a wide area, that Marcus Whitman developed the ambition to rise above the intellectual level of his direct ancestry and become a professional man. Since the major influence in the school was toward the ministry it was natural that Marcus Whitman's early ambition tended toward that career. ”

“ What could have been grander work for any Christian man than Whitman's brave part in saving the whole great territory to the Union? Patriotism is a part of Christianity, and an important part. That man is a feeble Christian who does not love his home and fatherland.
The American Board never claimed, or received, a moiety of the reward deserved, because of its [168] poor estimate of the great work done at that time by its servants. Well did Dr. Frank Gunsaulus say:
"Marcus Whitman was more to the ulterior Northwest than John Harvard has ever been to the Northeast of our common country." ”

“ It would not have done for Whitman to have waited for next year and warm weather as his friends demanded. "I must go," and "now," and at this day it is easy to see from the light of history how God rules in the minds and hearts of men, as he rules nations. They, as men and nations, turn aside from His commands, but a man like Marcus Whitman obeys.
Go still farther. From the time gold was discovered in California up to the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion, nine hundred millions of gold were dug from the mines of California and Oregon. ”

“ The sturdy manliness and Christian devotion of Marcus Whitman, the unceasing labors of his life and his death in the service of Christian missions in Oregon, fully deserve every honorable memorial. The perversion of history cannot honor such a man. ”

“ Incidental or collateral assumptions usually accompany this statement to the effect that great ignorance and indifference in regard to Oregon prevailed in Washington and generally throughout the United States, and that Dr. Whitman was able to dispel the ignorance and to transform the indifference into a deep and widespread interest. In both the essentials and the explanatory details the story of how Marcus Whitman saved Oregon is fictitious. It is not only without trustworthy contemporary evidence, but is irreconcilable with well established facts. ”

“ Fifty-two years later, in the most careful appraisal of human achievement in America that has ever been made, the voting for the Hall of Fame at New York University, Marcus Whitman received nineteen out of a possible ninety-eight votes to be ranked as one of the fifty greatest Americans. ”

“ And so Marcus Whitman on his twenty-first birthday saw the possibility of satisfying his suppressed but not dead ambition for further study and entrance into a profession of service, a profession no less worthy than that of the ministry, toward which his mind had been directed by the associations of his school days in western Massachusetts. ”

“ Having indicated, so far as has been practicable in the absence of explicit testimony, the occasion and motives which gave rise to the legend of Marcus Whitman, I will now complete the story of its diffusion and acceptance. In the summer of 1866 during the period of suspense in regard to the settlement of the Hudson's Bay Company's claims, and while the counsel were taking testimony in Oregon, Mr. W. H. Gray, the former mechanic and helper at the Whitman mission, published his version of the early history of Oregon in a series of articles in the Astoria Marine Gazette. ”

“ The Whitman critics say there is no evidence that Whitman ever saw Presi- dent Tyler or Secretary of State Webster on the Oregon question. But there is evidence that Whitman did visit Washington City for some purpose. And there is no evidence that he did not see both of those officials. Marcus Whitman was not an idle gadder-about. His time was too precious. His life was too serious; his work in Oregon was too great for any trifiing of time or opportun- ities. Many of the greatest feats of public service are never heralded to the world. ”

“ It is unfortunate that persons who have shown most commendable eal in clipping and preserving scraps of historic worth, have often failed to properly label their clippings, thus greatly impairing their value for reference, and making them bibliographically worthless.
Few, if any, in the list of American heroes, have been more variously estimated than Marcus Whitman. For twenty years before Professor Bourne called the attention of Eastern historians to the saved Oregon story, the question of Whitman's political influence was being debated in Oregon and Washington. ”

“ As these negotiations of Governor Simpson in Washington and Whitman's success in frustrating them are the very heart and life of the legend of Marcus Whitman, [131] without which it would never have come to anything, and as they are a pure invention, one of three conclusions is forced upon us. Either this story was invented by Marcus Whitman himself and reported years afterward by Spalding and Eells, or it was invented in common by Spalding and Eells, or Spalding invented it and Eells copied it from him. The last is, I believe, the true solution. ”

“ It is reprinted in Nixon's How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon, p. 146–163. Applegate says, "Whitman's great experience and indomitable energy were of priceless value to the emigrating column. ... To no other individual are the emigrants of 1843 so much indebted for the successful conclusion of their journey as to Marcus Whitman," p. 131–132. Cf. Burnett's Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, N. Y., 1880, "Dr. Whitman, who had performed much hard labor for us and was deserving of our warmest gratitude," p. ”

“ The real history of Marcus Whitman is briefly as follows: Sent out as a missionary to the Oregon Indians in 1836, he established a prosperous station which proved a haven of rest for the weary emigrant and traveller. In 1842 he is ordered to give up the station, but at the very time when the orders come a large emigration party arrives much reduced by the hardships of the journey from Fort Hall. Their leader, Dr. White, announces that the United States are going to occupy the country and that many are preparing to come the following year. ”

“ M. Eells' "Reply to Professor Bourne's 'The Legend of Marcus Whitman'" is very difficult, because Mr. Eells' methods are so unlike those of careful historians that one accustomed to reading books whose authors summarize fairly, and quote honestly and accurately the authorities to which they refer, and never suppress all mention of authorities which they cannot twist to support their own preconceived theories, is continually bewildered in reading this "Reply," and in doubt whether what he encounters on almost every page is evidence of incapacity or dishonesty. ”

“ Whitman stopped among the Cayuse Indians. And commenced their labors at a place since called Waiilatpu, situated twenty-five miles east of Ft. Walla Walla.—The missionary work was prosecuted rather steadily among the Cayuse, Nez Percés, and Spokane Indians till 1847. On the 29th of November of that year. Dr. and Mrs. Whitman met a violent death at the hands of the Cayuse Indians." [14] If Cushing Eells knew at this time that Marcus Whitman saved Oregon to the United States in 1843 it would have been a fitting occasion upon which to mention it. ”

“ Mowry has written all the rest of the book on the same lines as the parts herein criticized, after this examination of his treatment of every important original source, it seems unnecessary to further notice his treatment of minor "original sources" or his numerous errors in other matters.
Dr. Mowry asserts that his "Marcus Whitman" is a "history," and that "from first to last it deals with facts," and very positively denies that it is "an embellished story." ”

“ This has been accomplished through contribution of money by some twelve residents of Oregon and Washington, who saw the need of bringing to fruition the life work of Professor Marshall. This effort, headed by C. B. Bagley of Seattle, has been entirely successful.
Whitman Needs No False Glory.
Dr. Marcus Whitman needs no false glory; nor does the missionary cause which did great things for Oregon; neither does Whitman College—an ever growing monument to this patriot hero. Dr. Whitman will be an everlasting figure in Oregon annals; always will be honored by the gratitude of our people. ”

“ With that triumph, the name of Marcus Whitman is most closely associated, through a brilliant but rather useless feat of his, of which we shall speak later on. Polk seems to have been an able and conscientious man, without any pretensions to genius—just a good, average man, like any one of ten thousand other Americans. ”

“ There it was decided to leave the cart until spring, together with half a dozen footsore cattle, which could be sent for, or exchanged for others at Fort Walla Walla. Packs were now divided and the patient mules, which had long drawn the cart, became packers.
An old wagon is the common rubbish in every farm-yard, and if my reader enters a protest to the large place I have given it, or to protest against Marcus Whitman for his persistent refusal to take the advice of his companions, I will state in simple defense, I believe Whitman was an inspired man! ”

“ As stated, it was unusual to admit a man to examination immediately after his first course of lectures. The diploma is dated at Fairfield, the town in which the school was located, and the only members of that society who knew him were the professors in the school and they would not have recommended him for examination unless he had shown himself a good student. Thus we have indirect, but none the less convincing, evidence that Marcus Whitman was of good intellectual capability and had been a diligent and proficient student. ”

“ Make it worthy of the man whose love of country felt that no task was too difficult and no danger so great as to make him hesitate.
After the endowment is full and complete, a great College Hall should be erected from a patriotic fund, and upon the central pillar should be inscribed: "Sacred to the memory of Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. While lifting up the banner of the cross in one hand to redeem and save savage souls, they thought it no wrong to carry the flag of the country they loved in the other." ”

“ In 1843 he founded what is now the School of Medicine of Western Reserve University where he ended his teaching and where he died in 1867.
It was repeatedly said by his colleagues that he was the best medical teacher in the United States. He was personally of equally high standing. Of the highest degree of morality and integrity, benevolent, deeply religious, and with high ideals, he was the pride of every community in which he lived.
On January 29, 1832, Marcus Whitman received the degree of doctor of medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York. ”

“ In those days news travelled slowly along the frontier, and it was the following spring before the British outposts along the Columbia learned that the British minister at Washington had been beaten by the diplomacy of a Yankee missionary and that the great, despotic company which for well-nigh [231] two centuries had been in undisputed control of this region, and which had come to regard it as inalienably its own, would have to move on. From that moment Marcus Whitman was a doomed man, for it was a long-standing boast of the company that no man defied it—and lived. ”