And so, worried and troubled without surcease, Dr. McLoughlin maintained his grand, but kindly, attitude to the last. But these matters affected his health. For several years before his death he was an invalid, but his pride assisted him to persevere and to transact such business as he could, although his heart was breaking. His flesh became greatly reduced, his eyes deeply sunken. He grew so emaciated that his great frame stood out, making him look gaunt and grim. For a few weeks, only, before his death he was confined to his bed.
Thus encompassed and overcome, and crucified by robbery, mendacity, and ingratitude, Dr. John McLoughlin died at Oregon City, September 3, 1857, a broken-hearted man. He was buried in the churchyard of the Roman Catholic Church in Oregon City, where his body now lies. The stone which marks his grave bears the simple inscription:
"Dr. John McLoughlin
DIED
Sept. 3, 1857.
Aged
73 Years.
The pioneer and Friend of Oregon.
Also the founder of this City."
Dr. John McLoughlin is not the only great character in history, whose memory shall live for all time, but whose death was under sad circumstances and whose heart, at the time of his death, was then filled with thoughts of the wrong-doings and the ingratitude of others.
The frontispiece to this address is made from a photograph of a daguerreotype of Dr. McLoughlin taken in 1856, when his sorrows and tribulations were beginning to tell on him. This daguerreotype belongs to Mrs. Josiah Myrick, of Portland, Oregon, who is a granddaughter of Dr. McLoughlin. She kindly loaned this daguerreotype to have the photograph made of it.
Governor L. F. Grover was elected Governor of Oregon for two consecutive terms. He resigned during his last term to be an United States Senator, to which latter office he was elected. He is now living in Portland, at an advanced age. On the fourteenth of September, 1905, he gave me a written statement of an incident which occurred in the last sickness of Dr. McLoughlin. In this statement Governor Grover said that he was riding on horseback through Oregon City on his way from Salem to Portland, and passed down the street directly in front of Dr. McLoughlin's home, a few days before his death. As Governor Grover was giving directions for the care of his horse, a messenger came to him from Dr. McLoughlin requesting Governor Grover to call at Dr. McLoughlin's house. Governor Grover says: "I found him extremely ill.... He said that he was dying by inches. He said: 'I shall live but a little while longer and this is the reason I sent for you. I am an old man and just dying, and you are a young man and will live many years in this country, and will have something to do with affairs here. As for me, I might better have been shot'—and he brought it out harshly—'I might better have been shot forty years ago.' After a silence, for I did not say anything, he concluded: 'than to have lived here and tried to build up a family and an estate in this government. I became a citizen of the United States in good faith. I planted all I had here and the government has confiscated my property. Now what I want to ask of you is that you will give your influence after I am dead to have this property go to my children. I have earned it as other settlers have earned theirs, and it ought to be mine and my heirs.' I told him I would favor his request, and did."
Justice to Dr. McLoughlin's Memory.
Although the Donation Land Law went into effect September 27, 1850, and its section eleven provided that the "Oregon City Claim" should be at the disposal of the Territory for the establishment and endowment of an university, nothing was done with this land claim until 1862, three years after Oregon became a state. In October, 1862, the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon passed an act, which was approved by the Governor October 17, 1862, conveying and confirming to the legatees under the will of Dr. McLoughlin, who were his son, David, his daughter, Eloisa, and her husband, Daniel Harvey, the McLoughlin or Oregon City land claim, excepting Abernethy Island, upon the condition that said legatees pay to the University Fund of Oregon, the nominal sum of one thousand dollars. This was forthwith paid by Daniel Harvey and wife in gold coin although they might have paid it in greenbacks, which were then at a large discount. As the eleventh section of the Donation Land Law provided that the proceeds of the sale of said Oregon City Claim should be applied to the establishment and endowment of an university, there had to be some consideration paid on its disposal by the State. All this occurred twelve years after the passage of the Donation Land Law and five years after the death of Dr. McLoughlin. During all those twelve years the title of this land claim was in the Territory, or State of Oregon. It stopped the growth of Oregon City. It impoverished Dr. McLoughlin.
As appears by the Senate and House Journals of the Legislative Session of 1862 said act passed the Senate, with two negative votes only, and there were none in the House after the act was amended in the Senate in the form in which the act became a law. The injustice of the Donation Land Law to Dr. McLoughlin had appealed to the people of Oregon in the twelve years which had elapsed since the passage of the latter law. What Dr. McLoughlin had done for Oregon and its pioneers could not be forgotten. Justice to him and his memory was, at last, triumphant. The enactment and approval of this law of October 17, 1862, was an official vindication of Dr. McLoughlin, by the Legislative and Executive Departments of the State of Oregon, of all the false statements about, and all charges against him made by Thurston and others, and of all their misrepresentations of Dr. McLoughlin and of his acts. It was a formal official acknowledgment of the injustice of the Oregon Donation Land Law to Dr. McLoughlin. It was an official recognition of his sterling qualities; of his humanity; of his great services in assisting the early immigrants; of what he had done for Oregon; and of what was due to him and to his memory as the Father of Oregon. It cleared his character and reputation from every imputation of unfairness, injustice, and chicanery. It was, in effect, an official condemnation of the acts of the conspirators against him.