A two-volume life of Gen. Isaac Ingalls Stevens by his son, Gen. Hazard Stevens, is announced to appear in May. The history of the Pacific Northwest during the eight eventful years from 1853 to 1861, cannot be understood without a knowledge of the striking personality of General Stevens. As Governor of Washington Territory, in command of the exploration and survey of the northern route for the Pacific Railroad, in authority during the terrible Yakima war, 1855-56, and as author and executor of the summary proceedings for the settlement of the difficulties arising out of that war, Governor Stevens had a most conspicuous part in making that history. Gen. Hazard Stevens has been at work on this life since 1877, and during the last two years has given almost his whole time to it. He says that he found his father’s reports in the Indian Department, and others in Washington very full and complete, especially those relating to his Indian councils and treaties. “The proceedings at the Walla Walla council,” he remarks, “are especially interesting, particularly the speeches of the Indian chiefs.” He believes that the life will have especial historical value in setting the origin of the Indian war of 1855-56, the policy pursued towards the Indians, and the prosecution of the Indian war in a correct light. General Stevens recognizes that the Oregon Historical Society is the rightful heir to the rich collection of historical material from which this part of this work was written.
The Oregon Historical Society, as a perusal of the reports of its activities during the first year of its existence reveals, has entered upon its work under most favorable auspices. The legislature appreciated the importance of the functions undertaken, and the expense attending a successful fulfillment of them. The membership roll indicates a hearty and strong response to the idea that Oregon shall be true to her makers. The Society had at the date of the first annual report of the Secretary seventy-six life members and two hundred and ninety-four annual members.
The primal mission of the Society is to bring together in the most complete measure possible the data for the history of the commonwealth, and to stimulate the widest and highest use of them. Every member should avail himself of his first opportunity to visit the rooms of the Society in the City Hall at Portland. The Directors believe that he will be assured that there has been commendable zeal in the prosecution of the Society’s work. They are concerned, however, that every member shall realize that the trust devolving upon the Society is such that it cannot be adequately or gloriously fulfilled unless each is alert in discovering material, and concerned that it shall reach the collections of the Society. In this line of our commonwealth’s interests everything as to serviceability and value depends upon the concentration of the material.
REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU.
By H. S. Lyman.
Francis Xavier Matthieu, a pioneer of French Prairie, near the old town of Champoeg, of the year 1842, and a participant in the movement for the Oregon provisional government of May, 1843, was a French-Canadian by birth. His native town was Terrebonne, twelve miles from Montreal, and his father and mother were of pure French descent—the father’s family being from Normandy, and the mother’s from Brittany; and both branches were very early immigrants to Canada. They belonged to the working class, and the parents of F. X. were only in the moderate circumstances of the independent farmer. Owing to this circumstance, young Matthieu was obliged at an early age to begin life on his own account. He went to Montreal when quite young, and engaged as a clerk in a mercantile house. There was, however, still earlier, while he was yet a schoolboy in his native town, a very powerful formative influence that moulded all his ideas, and though somewhat blindly as it first seemed, finally, with wonderful selective affinity, turned his course westward, and made him almost the deciding factor of free government in Oregon.
The date of his birth, 1818, brought his early life and schoolboy days into the very critical time of the patriot movement in Canada. With that disregard of political obligations for which the British government was formerly noted, such as had caused the rupture with her greatest American colonies, the royal authority had failed to keep the promises made to the Canadian provinces; and, now restive under a rule that seemed both tyrannous and faithless, the leaders of those Canadians were demanding their covenanted rights as they understood them. Louis J. Papineau, an orator of the character of Laurier of the present day, was leading the movement. He had drawn up the famous memorial, or bill of grievances, to the British crown. Though not a successful military leader, and, indeed, discountenancing the use of force, he was a thrilling orator, and had fired the heart of the French-Canadians with the hope of equal rights; and created the determination to acquire these, if not by agitation, then by revolution.
It happened that in the town of Terrebonne, where the little F. X. Matthieu was living, there was a highly educated civil officer, a notary public—the office of notary then being a profession that required special legal, and classical education. The name of this notary was Velade; and, besides his official duties, he was schoolmaster, receiving a small stipend from the government, and nominal fees from his pupils. Velade was a student of government, and a great admirer of the United States. American liberty and law as developed in this country, he taught in his school almost to the entire neglect of the Canadian system. This he not only taught, but actually instituted. Every term his school held an election after the American plan. Some of the boys also regularly celebrated the Fourth of July, carrying American flags. This was in connection with some young men from the United States who had come to Terrebonne, and started a nail factory. With this extreme Americanism, however, the townspeople were not altogether pleased, and sometimes broke up their demonstrations.
While still a mere boy, Matthieu went to Montreal, where he was engaged in clerking, and there acquired a certain impress and manner that distinguishes him even yet from the farmer. Being already imbued with ideas of free government, it was easy for him to find and join the Sons of Liberty—a secret organization auxiliary to the party called “Democrats,” who opposed the “Bureaucrats.”