At the present time, when interest is becoming more generally centered upon the Pacific Coast and the future which seems to be lying before it during the next century of our national life, any contribution to a knowledge of its history can hardly be out of place. It is quite clear that from now on through the future it must more and more pass out from the sphere of purely local interest and assume a larger place in the current of our national history. Although the southern half of the coast may be more familiar to the greater number of people, yet the northern half has a history which is fully as rich and well repays most careful study. Of the many interesting phases which have presented themselves, none has had so great an attraction for the writer as the development of civil institutions. It is interesting to review the gradual evolution of a locality from primitive conditions of wildness to that perfect form of social life where individuals act under the privileges and restrictions of a civil government, voluntarily imposed and perfectly integrated with the larger scheme of national government. It is a stimulating process to try to make any correct estimate of the various agencies which have taken part in the complex process of growth, and to place an accurate valuation upon the services of leading personalities, the influence of aggregates of less prominent individuals, and general determining influences which may not at first be seen at all. It is a test of judgment to put oneself at the different points of view, so often conflicting, to be fair to all and to be firm in drawing conclusions where the weight of evidence seems to lie; and a knowledge of the slowness of this process of growth, with the careful thought and heroic action by which it has come about, creates a respect for government and prepares for a wiser use of the privileges enjoyed under its beneficent rule. In following out the theme set before us it is to be remembered that by Oregon is meant that piece of territory whose boundaries have been gradually shrinking to their present compass from an area extending from the Spanish possessions at the forty-second degree of latitude to the Russian possessions at the fifty-fifth degree, and between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
In many respects this history resembles that of the other states of our Union. In common with them there has been a gradual growth from those fragmentary germs of civic life out of which civil government grows, which fragmentary forms begin to operate as soon as individuals come together in social relation, often long before localities are entitled to take their places as parts of a nation. As in the case of other states, there was the acquisition of territory, in this case preceded by a partial acquisition. Like the other states, it has passed through the various steps prescribed by congress for the transition from newly acquired territory to perfect statehood; but, as other states have passed through this common process with a great variety of interesting and unique experiences, so Oregon has had its own history, peculiar to itself, and in some respects different from that of any other state. It is the purpose of this paper to set forth briefly the leading facts, so far as they may be gained from the sources at present available, and to present them, so far as possible, in historical perspective, and as a part of the growth of our national life.
In the examination of a subject connected with local history it is easy to be carried away by local circumstances, and to fail to grasp those larger features which connect it with the history of the nation and to some extent with that of the world. Our truest knowledge of the subject, however, will come from this broader approach and a search first for those general conditions which underlay the more detailed history and were instrumental in determining its drift.
In order that we may see the wider scope of our subject we need only to remember that during the early centuries of exploration the territory whose civil life we are to study was at stake in the great struggle between those countries which were striving for the mastery of the world, and many a stroke of policy that seemed to affect these remote regions had its only significance as it bore upon the conflict of England and Spain. And then, when the Russian Empire, through the impetus received from Peter the Great and Catherine II, continued its process of expansion eastward, its outer wave reached the western shores of America and they became an important factor in the larger stream of world history. And finally when the thirteen colonies separated from England, this new and vigorous nation found an interest in those regions, and they became an important factor in the relations of England and the United States.
In the study of the development of civil government in Oregon, since the region has had any interest to our nation, we need first to note those general conditions which have to a large extent been responsible for the detailed history. The one which is perhaps most apparent and whose effect has been greatest, is the geographical location of the territory as compared with the rest of the United States. Separated from the older sections of the country by long stretches of prairie, and by two large mountain systems, accessible by water only after a long and tedious journey around Cape Horn, its position was one of extreme isolation. This peculiar isolation explains very much that is characteristic of the early history of our civil government. It explains the ignorance that prevailed so long in the older sections regarding the value of the country, and the consequent apathy against which the champions of the west in congress had so long to contend; it explains, likewise, that voluntary and heroic action by which the colonists, stung by the delays and impelled by their needs and desires for a democratic type of government, took the initiative and brought into being a pioneer provisional state to bridge over the period of delay, and to hold the country in trust until the slow movings of the national consciousness should awaken to its interests.
Another and equally important factor in determining the drift of events was the joint claim and occupancy of the country with England. The history of civil government under such circumstances must necessarily be different from that of territory fully acquired by the national government. It is clear that it must connect, indissolubly, the question of a government with that of the boundary, and render any satisfactory solution of the former impossible until the settlement of the latter. The framing of any kind of a plan of government that would really be efficient without giving cause for offense to the partner to the title of the land must be a problem of the most difficult nature, as it was found to be. And the problem was still further complicated by reason of the fact that the question of boundary belonged to the executive part of the government, while that of the formation of a civil government belonged to the legislative. And then, too, by virtue of its being thrown into the realm of international affairs, the formation of a civil government was delayed because of its connection with that complicated balancing of interests which always characterizes diplomatic procedure, where settlement of questions is slow and ofttimes accompanied by national friction.
To joint occupancy also must be attributed the throwing into close relationship of two different and antagonistic types of life. There was in the first place the difference of nationality, which, in view of the feelings engendered in the struggle for independence and the war of 1812, did not promise cordiality; there was the difference of industrial systems which brought into sharpest and most bitter conflict the ably managed monopoly of the English company and the independent American trader or trapper with his idea of free competition and equal right to operation in the region jointly held. And lastly, there was the difference in regard to the treatment of the native races. The English found it mostly to their interest to leave things as they were, and to keep the country a wilderness, suitable for a trapping ground for many years to come, while the Americans aspired to better the life of the savage, and to build up a condition of civilized life. The difference was all the more marked because of the entrance of the missionaries and the important part played by these leaders, who exercised an influence perhaps second only to that of the early religious leaders of New England, and whose energies were untiring in the interests of good government and a moral population. That two such diverse types of life could exist side by side during the twenty-eight years of joint occupancy without influencing the course of civil government is not to be conceived. That the relation was harmonious at first is true, but that irritations arose as time went on was inevitable.
In any analysis of the influences affecting the course of civil government in Oregon a prominent place should be given to that slow yet powerful westward movement of population. It consisted of a people aggressive and assertive of their own desires, patriotic, and upright in the main, with a consciousness of their own wants and their ability to get them, and possessing but little knowledge of, or reverence for, the intricacies of international usage, or the restrictions of a conservative legislative body. Being a part of the people, they were the sovereign power, and if they determined upon having the west, it must finally be had. This was a movement which led thousands of intrepid immigrants to anticipate the government in going to remote regions. Those who remained behind had now a greater interest in the country, and ere long it was to be the impulse from this movement which aroused the national consciousness to the importance of the Oregon question, gave it a place among the problems of the nation, put it upon the platform of a political party as a prominent issue, and forced a settlement of the boundary, and finally secured a civil government.
After all other difficulties were overcome, after the barrier of distance was removed, after the stormy season of threatened war over the boundary line had passed away, civil government in Oregon became inevitably connected with another question which was to affect its destiny. The deepening bitterness between the north and the south was drawing everything into the maelstrom of slavery discussion, and particularly was this true in the case of every piece of newly acquired territory whose destiny was inseparably connected with the defeat or justification of the system of slavery.
With this brief survey of the general conditions which have operated to determine the course of events, the narrative of the more important details in the growth of civil government in Oregon may be better understood. We find that in the days of the discoverer, explorer, and fur trader there was no civil government at all, except such as was exercised by the native races for the regulation of their primitive life. Every one was dependent upon his own resources for the protection of life and property. From the time that the first Spanish ship, under the command of Ferrelo, touched the southern shore of Oregon, in the middle of the sixteenth century, until the beginning of the nineteenth, there was as much freedom from the restraints of social order as any anarchist could wish. There was nothing to check the conflicts that might arise between the crews of vessels, from the same or different nations, in their eagerness for the glories of discovery or the profits of trade with the Indians. There was nothing to shield from the danger of massacres from tribes, hostile by nature, or by contact with the whites. The explorer or trader who penetrated the interior must trust to his own ability for safety, and to his judgment in making friends with the Indians. There was nothing to regulate men in the struggle to reap the natural advantages of the region. They had little interest in the Indians, except as they could use them to their profit; they had small regard for the rights of others, as they were outside the pale of rights and laws; they cared nothing for the conditions that they made for the future, as it was not to be their home. It was a period for romantic adventures, to pass away before the quieter but more beneficent regime of social order.