FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
In the work of the pioneers, whose efforts
we have been tracing up to this period, we have seen that
already the country was practically the territory of the
United States by the highest and best title in existence,
the actual occupation and control of it by her citizens.
This question was, therefore, virtually settled by the
inauguration of the provisional government in 1843, but from
that time until the treaty of 1846 was signed it was a
prominent issue in American political life. Mr. Polk, the
democratic candidate for President, made his campaign on a
party platform, which declared that our title to the whole
of Oregon up to fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north
latitude was "clear and indisputable." Negotiations were
promptly resumed after the inauguration of President Polk,
but the government elected upon a pledge to support and
maintain the claim of the United States up to the latitude
of fifty-four degrees and forty minutes, abandoned its
position and made the offer of a line on parallel
forty-nine, which Great Britain at once accepted, with a
modification that all of Vancouver Island should be left in
British territory. A treaty on this basis was concluded and
ratified June 15, 1846, whereby the long disputed question
of title and joint occupancy was settled. This
acknowledgment of the American claim to Oregon was only a
formal recognition of the fact that the long contest for the
occupation of the country had terminated in favor of the
Oregon pioneers.
The news of the signing of the treaty was received in Oregon
with feelings which plainly indicated the importance of the
measure. Joint occupancy, that uncertain tenure by which
power was held, was at an end. Threatened troubles with the
Indians in Eastern Oregon, before mentioned, now made the
people anxious that Congress should pass an act extending
territorial government over the
country. To this end they put forth every endeavor. That the
provisional government might be represented at Washington by
a prominent and influential citizen, who would make known to
the President and to Congress the exposed condition of the
people, and to ask the necessary legislation to protect them
from threatened danger, Gov. Abernethy sent Hon. J. Quinn
Thornton, the Supreme Judge of the provisional government.
Judge Thornton arrived in Boston in May, 1848, and at once
proceeded to Washington, not as a delegate, but rather as an
embassador from the little provisional government, to the
national government at Washington. In the meantime the
Whit-man massacre had occurred and the citizens were thrown
into a state of mingled grief and alarm. Joseph L. Meek was,
thereupon, sent as a messenger to Washington under the
sanction of the provisional legislature, to impart the
intelligence, impress the authorities with the precarious
condition of the colony and appeal for protection. The
intelligence brought by Meek, as well as his individual
efforts, did much to aid Mr. Thornton and the friends of
Oregon in Congress in securing the desired legislation.
The most enthusiastic and helpful friend Oregon had at
Washington at this time was Senator Benton, who for twenty
years had supported every measure that promised to advance
American interest on this part of the Pacific Coast. With
all his wonderful energy and ability this eminent man now
labored to secure territorial government in Oregon. The bill
creating the territory, drafted by Judge Thornton, contained
a clause prohibiting slavery, and for this reason was
objectional to the slave-holding power in Congress. Under
the lead of Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun, a vigorous
fight against the bill was made in the Senate. The contest
during the last two days of the session was exciting in the
extreme and the feeling intense throughout the Union. The
friends of the measure, however, under the lead of Senator
Benton, finally triumphed and on August 13, 1848, the bill
passed the Senate and a few hours later became a law by the
signature of President Polk. The region specified in this
act as Oregon Territory embraced all of the present States
of Oregon and Washington, and those portions of Idaho and
Montana lying west of the Rocky Mountains.
One of the provisions of the territorial act was that it
recognized the validity of the provisional government and
the laws passed by it, and declared that they should remain
in force until altered or repealed; and the officers of the
government were authorized to exercise and perform the
duties of their respective offices until their successors
should be elected and qualified. No higher tribute could
have been paid to the fitness of Americans for
self-government than this ratification of all the essential
laws and acts of the provisional government of Oregon, which
had been made and executed by the pioneer settlers for more
than four years. It was the judgment of the whole nation,
expressed by her representatives, that Americans could be
trusted to plant the standard of freedom, and to welcome
under its flag all friends of human rights.
President Polk appointed General Joseph Lane, of Indiana,
Governor of the new territory. He was a man of great
executive ability. His brilliant services in Mexico had made
him a popular hero, and earned for him the title of the
"Marion of the Mexican War." He immediately started for his
new field of duty, and on the 3d day of March, 1849, the
last day of Polk's administration, he issued his
proclamation assuming the government. On the same day
Governor Abernethy turned over to the new governor the
records of the provisional government, "and so," says
Bancroft, "without any noise or revolution the old
government went out and the new came in. The provisional
government was voluntarily laid down as it had voluntarily
been taken up. It was an experiment on the part of the
American people, who represented in this small and isolated
community, the principles of self government in a manner
worthy of the republican sentiment supposed to underlie the
Federal Union by which a local population could constitute
an independent State, and yet be loyal to the general
government."
The act organizing the territory of Oregon will ever be
memorable in our national history for two reasons: First,
because of the provisions for public education which granted
the sixteenth and thirty-sixth section in each township and
forever dedicated their proceeds as an irreducible fund, the
interest of which should be devoted to public schools. This
was a grant twice as large as that of 1787,
which had previously been the precedent observed by Congress
in creating territories out of the public domain. The act of
1848 now became the precedent and has ever since been
observed. It gave to the original territory of Oregon over
16,000 square miles of land for public schools, and opened
the way for the grant of more than 26,000, 000 acres in the
nine States, including Oregon, admitted to the Union since
1848. The idea of this magnificent donation, which will be
of inestimable value to future generations, originated with
Judge Thornton who framed the section in the territorial
act, and who zealously labored to overcome the opposition it
encountered at Washington. It was the inauguration of a
liberal national policy in behalf of free education which
should give imperishable fame to its author, a distinguished
representative of the Oregon pioneers.
The other fact which marks the creation of Oregon Territory
as a grand and inspiring event was the clause relating to
the entire and absolute exclusion of chattel slavery. This
was in accord with the general wish of the pioneers. Their
new empire on the Pacific; their toil to win it; their test
of self government, all bore the seal of liberty. In putting
slavery under perpetual ban in Oregon the whole region from
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, was under pledge for the
rights of man regardless of color or race.
Thus briefly have we attempted to summarize the leading
events in Oregon, from the time of the first explorations
along the Pacific Coast till, under the strong hand of the
whole nation, it rose from the weakness of a humble colony
of adventurers to the rank and power of a coordinate member
of the American Union. The event which the old pioneers had
so long waited and hoped for had come and they were no
longer counted exiles on a doubtful domain, but rightful
fellow heirs and owners of the country.
That the United States is indebted to the pioneers for the
confirmation of its title to the American possessions west
of the Rocky Mountains, will, perhaps, never be questioned.
To the pioneer is due all the honor mankind willingly gives
to the founders of States and the creators of civilization
in savage lands. But that these were the motives which led
to the colonization of Oregon, as some writers have
intimated, is contradicted by patent facts and contrary to
common sense. The early emigrants did not undertake the
toilsome
journey across the plains in the face of dangers and
privations animated by a patriotic desire to save this land
to the United States and plant the banner of republican
liberty on the shores of the Pacific. For the most part they
were men of limited means who sought a country where the
restraints of civil and social institutions would press less
hard upon individual freedom, and who in their plain way
would have answered an inquiry for their motive in coming
west with the common response that they had come to better
their fortunes and in order that their children might "grow
up with the country." They were actuated by the same strong
courage that has characterized the enterprising frontiersmen
in all our States. Circumstances called them to act a part
which, in the light of subsequent events, is shown to have
been of the utmost importance, securing to their country
dominion over a vast empire.
If, however, they did not come with an inspiration as
absorbing as that which moved the old crusaders, it was one
far more intelligent-an inspiration to seize the golden
moments when peacefully, with their small means, they might
possess themselves of homes, where prudence and economy
after some discipline of pioneer hardship and privation
would be sure of just rewards, and where ample means for the
nurture and education of their children should be within the
reach of every industrious citizen. Animated by high
purposes they laid the foundations of this commonwealth in
industry, frugality and the domestic virtues, and their
descendants who enjoy all the blessings of their toils and
privations, their trials and danger, will hold them in
loving remembrance.
For the purposes of this work it is unnecessary to follow
the further steps of these State builders, whose prudence,
loyalty and courage saved Oregon to the Union. In the
fullness of time Oregon was decked with the honors of
Statehood under the same perpetual dedication to equal
rights and universal liberty for which its founders had so
nobly battled. Its people may well take pride in the State,
whether they contemplate it simply in its own greatness, or
in comparison with other States. In the main its record is a
clear one, bearing upon it few marks that one would care to
erase. It has been steadily advancing with strong and even
pace, and has more than kept good the wonderful promise of
its earliest years.
