It was on a beautiful morning in the early fall that Governor Stevens with his family started from Olympia on the return journey to the East. He rode his noble gray charger Charlie, and his son was also mounted, while Mrs. Stevens and the three little girls rode in an easy spring wagon. The roads were dry, the weather of the finest, the country in its most beautiful garb, and all the family were in high health and spirits; and the governor, buoyant with courage, hope, and vigor, having accomplished the tremendous tasks laid upon him by the government, carried the Territory through the Indian hostilities, overcome all obstacles, and put down his enemies, now looked forward with renewed confidence to vindicating his course in Washington, and compelling a deceived and misguided Congress and administration to do justice to his people and himself.
The return journey to the Cowlitz, and down that stream in canoes, and up the Columbia to Portland by steamboat was uneventful but pleasant, in strong contrast to the discomforts of the trip on entering the country three years previously. San Francisco was reached after a short voyage down the coast, where the governor was again welcomed by his old friends, and everywhere received with the attention and deference considered due his remarkable achievements in face of unprecedented obstacles.
On the voyage to Panama, the steamer Golden Gate broke her shaft the second day out, and had to creep back to port with one wheel, like a bird with a broken wing, losing an entire week. The Golden Age, which took her place, came near meeting a worse disaster; for one stormy and misty afternoon, as the captain and cabin passengers were at dinner, a steerage passenger on the forward upper deck espied a rock-bound island directly in front of the steamship, upon which she was rushing at full speed, and gave the alarm. The great paddle-wheels were instantly reversed, and the vessel just managed to back off before striking.
Colonel John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder, the Republican candidate for the presidency, was one of the passengers,—a slender, alert man,—as was also one of the Californian senators, John Broderick, who fell in a duel with Judge Terry soon afterwards. The passage across the Isthmus was made safely and easily all the way by rail; and the voyage from Aspinwall to New York was unmarked, save by a severe storm, with mountainous billows for three days, off Cape Hatteras. They arrived in New York in time to make a short visit in Newport, and to spend Thanksgiving at Andover with the Puritan father.
CHAPTER XLIV
IN CONGRESS.—VINDICATING HIS COURSE
Governor Stevens lost no time in hastening to Washington, and the very next day after his arrival called upon the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in regard to the funds for, and accounts of, Superintendent Nesmith. The large numbers of Indians, chiefly in Oregon, still being restricted to reservations and partially supported by the government, necessitated heavy expenditures, some of which were made without previous authorization, and it was essential for the peace of the country that they should be approved and Nesmith sustained. Following the matter up with his accustomed energy and thoroughness, he calls upon the commissioner and Secretary of the Interior again and again; he has all the suspended accounts, estimates, and papers brought together, and, having mastered them, he sits down with the chief clerk,—“an old friend of mine,” he writes Nesmith,—posts him up and satisfies him on all points, and secures his favorable report, and then convinces the commissioner and secretary. By the very next steamer the funds for Washington Territory liabilities are sent to Nesmith, and during the next few months, by unremitting and painstaking efforts, his deficiency payments are allowed, his estimates approved, and ample funds remitted. This was an extremely difficult and laborious task, for the expenditures for the Indian service in the two Territories were unexpectedly large, the department was naturally reluctant to authorize them, and the difficulties were largely increased by the rasping and peppery, if not insubordinate, letters which Nesmith, indignant at the neglect of his recommendations, addressed to the commissioner, and which the governor ingeniously neutralized by personally vouching for Colonel Nesmith, and submitting extracts of Nesmith’s letters to himself evincing the superintendent’s devotion to duty.
The still more important duty of vindicating his Indian treaties and procuring their ratification engaged his closest attention. In one short fortnight, by his clear exposition of their wise and beneficent provisions, and by his graphic portrayal of the conditions in the Pacific Northwest, he satisfies Commissioner Mix, Secretary Thompson, and President Buchanan that the treaties ought to be confirmed, and secures their urgent recommendations to the Senate in favor of confirming them without delay. He seemed to take his former attitude of personal influence with the highest officers of the government at a bound, despite the serious charges that had been made against him. On December 2 he writes Nesmith:—
“We have had many conferences with the commissioner, and two with the President and Secretary of War, in regard to Indian affairs. I am working very hard with the department in order to have everything completely in train against the meeting of Congress.
“I have been most cordially received in all quarters since my arrival, and I hope I shall be useful to our Territories.”