The details of this important meeting need not be here entered into, except so far as concerns the recollection of Mr. Matthieu. The ability of the common people to organize and maintain a sufficient government, in a remote corner of the world, in the midst of numerous and even in some cases of powerful and cunning bands of Indians; and in opposition to the interests and business policy of a great corporation—was to be tested. The character and calibre of the men who constituted the “people” is a matter of the highest and most lasting interest. What items Mr. Matthieu recollects of them are worthy of the most careful preservation. He remembers W. H. Gray as one of the most active and strenuous of the Americans at the meeting. “Gray took part,” he says. “He wanted to organize the worst way—he would not give up to any other notion.” G. W. Le Breton, whom he describes as very popular, both with the French and with the Americans, and who acted as secretary, was not less alert. He remembers Le Breton as a young man, short in person, but very active. “He never stood still a minute.” He recollects Rev. J. S. Griffin of Tualatin Plains as present, but not as taking a very active part. Robert Shortess, with his tall, slim figure and strongly Roman profile, was also among the number. Sydney Smith, from Chehalem, was there too. Mr. Matthieu recalls of Smith that he once hired him to assist in filling out a bill of logs, contracted to be delivered at Oregon City. To Matthieu’s dismay—he was inexperienced as a lumberman—the first cut, which was from a white fir, that he had rolled into the river, sank out of sight in the water. Smith used a strong expression implying lack of sense on the part of the person to whom it was applied, and then exclaimed—“I will show you.” Then he bored a hole in a log to be rafted and inserted a large cedar plug, or chunk, which just floated the white fir. Thomas Hubbard was also at the meeting. Others whom he recalls were Amos Cook and Francis Fletcher of the Yamhill Fords, near La Fayette; and George Gay, who was formerly an English sailor, but took leave of his ship at Monterey, California, and came to Oregon in the well known party with Doctor Bailey, and became a large landholder near Dayton, building the first brick house in the valley, and becoming famous for his hospitality to travelers. Others were G. W. Ebbert, Wilkins, Doctor Newell and Joseph L. Meek, of the Tualatin Plains, and Messrs. Babcock, Hines, Doctor Wilson, Alanson Beers, and J. L. Parrish of the Methodist Society.
Matthieu understood that there were three parties in reference to organizing a government. These were the strongly American for it, led by Gray and others, and the Canadian settlers who opposed, or at least did not favor it; and Dr. McLoughlin and his near friends, who really favored an independent government and expected to become citizens of it, but who thought the movement at that time premature. Mr. Matthieu does not recall that Bishop Blanchet was present at the meeting. A memorial had been prepared by the Bishop, on the part of the Canadians, to show that organization was unnecessary and inadvisable. At the critical juncture, however, after there had been some discussion and the meeting was becoming confused, and, indeed, was in danger of breaking up without action, he remembers well how old Joe Meek strode forth, and by the simple power of voice and example gained control after parliamentary tactics had failed. He cried out, as he would to a company of militiamen: “All in favor of organization, come to the right.” One hundred and two men were present. Fifty of these quickly went over to the right, in favor of independence. The other fifty-two, all Canadians, remained as they were, or withdrew in the other direction.
Now came out Matthieu’s republican training, which he had received in his schoolboy days, under Velade, at Terrebonne. His “mind was made up,” he says, “ever since I left Canada. I knew what it was to live and die a slave under British rule.” And he was still carrying the picture of Papineau, the liberator.
Now that a time for action had come, he was not wanting. He said, therefore, to the Canadians that he was going with the Americans. He knew what he was doing, and was fully decided which was the right side.
Old Lucier, the trapper of 1811, followed him, and now the vote stood fifty-two for, and fifty against organization. Then went up the shout, led by Joe Meek and his mountain men.
The Canadians, though defeated, were entirely satisfied with the result, and had not favored the movement principally because they did not understand it, and, like Lucier, had obtained incorrect ideas. But when the vote prevailed, they acquiesced cheerfully, and became among the best citizens of the little republic—the smallest, probably, since the days of the Pilgrim fathers, who organized their government in the cabin of the Mayflower.
After organization was effected, and a body of laws was framed, Matthieu was called upon to take part in affairs, and was elected justice of the peace for Champoeg County, an office which he says he filled to “the satisfaction of every body.” He settled disputes by inviting the complaining parties to sit down with him to a good dinner, and after an hour’s cheer and pleasant chat, he sent them away well contented with his findings.
He had some trouble with distillers, who sometimes set up little stills in out of the way places, and made liquor to intoxicate the Indians. He recalls one case in which he and Doctor Wilson, the judge, traced a distiller out into the woods, back of French Prairie, at DePot’s, and found him over a teakettle, which he used as his still, manufacturing what was called “blue ruin”—a liquor made out of Sandwich Island molasses, and was an article so destructive as to almost relieve the authorities of the necessity of estopping the manufacture—the juice being the executioner of its producer.
Of all the characters of the early day, McLoughlin stands out foremost, and overtops all others, in Mr. Matthieu’s recollection. The old chief factor had some of the elements of greatness: “He was the finest man I ever knew,” says Mr. Matthieu, “and there will never be another like him. He did what no other man would do.” With Doctor McLoughlin, Doctor Whitman, whom he greatly respected, he says, “bore no comparison.” McLoughlin had the immense physique, the great voice, and the commanding manner, and also the positive and decisive mind that carried all before him.
Many are the incidents that Mr. Matthieu relates illustrating his qualities. Once, he says, an Indian was brought to him charged with committing a gross offense. “Is he guilty?” asked the doctor. “Yes,” they replied, and presented the proof. “Tie him to that cannon,” he replied, pointing to one of the two pieces of artillery that commanded the entrance to the fort. When this was done, he said, “Give him fifteen lashes.” Soon after a white man was brought, charged with the same offense. Doctor McLoughlin made the same inquiries, and finding him guilty administered the same punishment. This illustrates why his authority was so absolute among the Indians. His administration exactly filled their conception of justice.