The memorial was widely published in the papers, and produced an excellent effect on the Pacific coast. The Hudson Bay Company relinquished its attempt to compel the miners to purchase supplies from it exclusively, and the monthly mining tax was reduced to a moderate yearly one. The memorial was a timely and much-needed warning to the Buchanan administration to stand up against the ever greedy and bull-dog demands of the British upon the Pacific Northwest.
The news of Steptoe’s defeat reached Washington in June, and created a great sensation. It was looked upon as a complete vindication of Governor Stevens’s views and policy in regard to the management of the Indians, and a convincing proof of the folly and failure of the Wool military peace policy. The very officers who had condemned and denounced the governor’s plan of punishing and subduing the hostiles in order to preserve the fidelity and peace of the friendly and doubtful tribes, now that their weak temporizing had drawn the latter into hostilities, breathed nothing but war. Writes Colonel Nesmith with glee, natural enough considering how his request for two howitzers had been brusquely refused, and himself treated with contumely, by Wool:—
“General Clarke and the whole military are now fully answered, and they believe there is a war. The military now find themselves in something like your position when the Indians, in violation of all pledges, attacked your camp in the Walla Walla. I say again, ‘Hands off;’ they have a fair field, and I hope they will have a free fight!”
The War Department took energetic measures in consequence of Steptoe’s defeat. Colonel Wright was largely reinforced, and in September led a thousand troops into the Spokane country, defeated the Indians in two engagements, and summarily hanged sixteen of them without trial. The same month Oregon and Washington were constituted a separate military department, and the veteran general, William S. Harney, was sent out in command. This appointment was highly satisfactory to Governor Stevens, for General Harney adopted all his views in regard to the military problem, the Indians, the opening of the country to settlement, and later, as will be seen, in regard to defending our right to the San Juan archipelago. The governor writes Colonel Nesmith and Governor Curry requesting them to call on the veteran commander on his arrival, and extend to him their good will and support.
General Harney’s first act on reaching his new command was to throw open to settlement the whole upper country, revoking Wool’s orders excluding settlers therefrom. This was a notable victory for Governor Stevens, and wiped out the last of Wool’s reactionary measures.
The governor spent the whole recess in Washington, except for a flying visit North in July (when, in passing through New York, he had his phrenological chart again drawn by Fowler) and a visit of three weeks in the fall to Newport and Andover.
In the evening of December 2 he delivered before the American Geographical and Statistical Society, in New York, an elaborate address on the Northwest, comprising fifty-six printed pages. Mr. E.V. Smalley, the historian of the Northern Pacific Railroad, says of this address that “he presented the whole argument in behalf of the Northern route. Some of his statements were received with a great deal of skepticism, but time has shown that they were strictly and conscientiously accurate.”
Mr. Swan returned to the Pacific coast in the fall, and a very capable, faithful, and agreeable young man, Mr. Walter W. Johnson, succeeded him as secretary. The adjacent house on the south side was occupied by Mr. Johnson’s aunts, Mrs. W.R. Johnson and Miss Donelson, most estimable, cultivated, and attractive ladies, and the two families contracted the warmest friendship for each other.
Congress reassembled December 6. During the session Governor Stevens offered seven bills and five resolutions, and moved four amendments. His longest and most important speech was on the payment of the war debt, delivered February 21, 1859. He also spoke on bringing Indian chiefs to Washington, twice on the Northwest boundary, and on the military road between Fort Benton and Walla Walla.
In January he had two hearings before the Senate Indian Committee. The treaties were all confirmed in the Senate on March 8 without serious opposition, for by this time their wisdom and merit were recognized on all hands. J. Ross Browne, special agent sent out by the Interior Department to investigate matters, strongly urged their confirmation. Judge G. Mott, another special agent, who had been dispatched to examine Nesmith’s superintendency, did the same. Colonel Mansfield, the inspector-general of the army, after visiting the upper country and studying the conditions there, strongly recommended the treaties. And even General Clarke and Colonel Wright, nobly acknowledging their mistake in opposing them, joined in the recommendation. At last Governor Stevens’s great work was vindicated by the test of experience, and approved by its former opponents.