DOCUMENT L
Letter of Dr. John McLoughlin, published in the "Oregon Spectator," Thursday, September 12, 1850.
"Mr. Editor:
"In the Congressional Globe of May 30th, 1850, is the following language of Mr. Thurston, the Delegate from Oregon, to which I wish to invite the attention of the public.
"'And as to the humbug about the Hudson's Bay Company, mentioned by the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Bowlin], I have to say that I know of no humbug about it; this Company has been warring against our Government for these forty years. Dr. McLoughlin has been the chief fugleman, first to cheat our Government, out of the whole country, and next to prevent its settlement. He has driven men from their claims, and from the country, to stifle its efforts at settlement. In 1845 he sent an express to Fort Hall, eight hundred miles, to warn the emigrants, if they attempted to come to the Willamette, they would all be cut off; they went and none were cut off. How, sir, would you reward Benedict Arnold, were he living; he fought the battles of the country, yet, by one act of treason, forfeited the respect of that country. A bill for his relief would fail, I am sure; yet this Bill proposes to reward those who are now, have been, and ever will be, more hostile to our country, because more Jesuitical.'
"What Mr. Thurston means by 'warring against our government for these forty years,' I know not. I am certain, however, that the H. B. Co. had a right to carry on trade under the treaty of joint occupation of the country—even were we to look no farther for another foundation of the right. I am sure, moreover, that the business of the Company was so managed as to bear the strictest scrutiny, and to be in all respects subservient to the best interests of the country, and the duties of religion and humanity. The government and policy of the Company were such as to render traveling safe, and the Indians were friendly to whites. When the Hudson's Bay Company first began to trade with these Indians they were so hostile to the whites that they had to mount guard day and night at the establishment, have sentinels at the gates to prevent any Indian entering, unless to trade, and when they entered, to take their arms from them. The Columbia could not be traveled in parties of less than sixty well armed men; but, by the management of the Company, they were brought to that friendly disposition that two men, for several years back, can travel in safety between this and Fort Hall.
"Mr. Thurston is pleased to describe me as 'chief fugleman to the Hudson's Bay Company.' This is a term which he probably gathered from the vocabulary in which he found the word 'gumption,' with which he recently garnished another dish, and which he seems to have prepared for appetites similar to his own. By the use of this, and such like epithets it will at once be seen that he has a field of literature which he is likely to occupy without a rival, and the exclusive possession of which no one will deny him. Neither my principles nor my tastes lead me in that direction. But I am described as a 'fugleman' of the Hudson's Bay Company; first to cheat our Government out of the whole country, and next to prevent its settlement. I am an old man, and my head is very white with the frost of many winters, but I have never before been accused as a cheat. I was born a British subject—I have had for twenty years the superintendence of the Hudson's Bay Company's trade, in Oregon, and on the North West Coast; and may be said to have been the representative of British interests in this country; but I have never descended to court popularity, by pandering to prejudice, and doing wrong to anyone. I have, on the other hand, afforded every assistance to all who required it, and which religion and humanity dictated; and this community can say if I did so or not. My language to all who spoke to me on the subject of politics, was that situated as we were we ought to say nothing about the boundary question, as that was an affair of the Government; but to live as Christians in peace and concord, and in acting as I did I consider that I have rendered services to the British and American Governments. But if I had acted differently, the Government would have had difficulties, and this community would perhaps not have enjoyed the peace it has, nor be in so prosperous a condition as it is, and certainly there is not a man in it who will say that I have sought to prevent its settlement. There are, in this Valley, very many persons, and especially among the earliest immigrants, of the first years of the settlement of the country, who are sufficiently honest to admit that the country could never have been colonized as easily as it was, but for the timely, ample, and continuous assistance rendered by me, to them, with the means of the Hudson's Bay Company under my charge. Provisions were sent to meet the immigrants—boats were dispatched to convey them down the Columbia,—when arrived on their claims, cattle were loaned them—they were supplied with clothing, food, farming utensils, and wheat for seed. Very many of these men honorably paid, as soon as they could; others, though able to pay, and though their notes have been standing for many years, testify their sense of the number and magnitude of my favors by signing a secret Memorial to the Congress of the United States, to take from me my property, and to leave me in the decline of life, and in the decrepitude of old age, to the companionship of adders, who—when they were benumbed with frost, I gathered from the hedges and warmed into life, to feel, when alas! too late, the stings of their ingratitude.
"For additional proof, in repelling these calumnies, I could refer to many sources: Wilkes' Journal, Fremont's Narrative, to American travelers and writers, and to letters from many and many an immigrant to this country, and now residents in this valley, stating to their friends in the States the kindness I had shewn them, and who, I am sure, would acknowledge it, and are as much surprised at the charge brought against me as I am myself. But, moreover, it is well known that the fact of my having aided in the settlement of this country has been a subject of serious complaints, and grave charges made against me, by subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, during the pending of the boundary question—who seem to have been imbued with the same kind disposition toward their fellow men as Mr. Thurston.
"Mr. Thurston says, 'In 1845 he [Dr. McLoughlin] sent an express to Fort Hall, eight hundred miles, to warn the immigration that if they attempted to come to the Willamette, they would be all cut off.' This is a calumny as gratuitous as it is unprovoked; but it is with mingled emotions of astonishment and indignation that I have accidentally become acquainted with the contents of another document, entitled a 'Letter of the Delegate from Oregon to the members of the House of Representatives, in behalf of his constituents touching the Oregon Land Bill.' On the back of the only copy sent, is written in the handwriting of Mr. Thurston—'Keep this still till next mail, when I shall send them generally. The debate on the California Bill closes next Tuesday, when I hope to get it and passed—my land bill; keep dark till next mail.