CHAPTER XLI.
Governor Simpson and Dr. Whitman in Washington.—Interviews with Daniel Webster and President Tyler.—His cold reception in Boston by the American Board.—Conducts a large emigration safely across the Rocky Mountains into Oregon.—The “Memorial Half-Century Volume.”—The Oregon mission ignored by the American Board.—Dr. McLaughlin.—His connection with the Hudson’s Bay Company.—Catholic Cayuses’ manner of praying.—Rev. C. Eells.—Letter from A. L. Lovejoy.—Description of Whitman’s and Lovejoy’s winter journey from Oregon to Bent’s Fort on the Arkansas River.
Governor Simpson, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, had reached Washington and been introduced to Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State, by the British Minister. All the influence a long-established and powerful monopoly, backed by the grasping disposition of the English government, can command, is brought to bear upon the question of the northwestern boundary. The executive of the American republic is about ready to give up the country, as of little value to the nation.
Just at this time, in the dead of winter, an awkward, tall, spare-visaged, vigorous, off-hand sort of a man, appeared at the Department in his mountain traveling garb, consisting of a dark-colored blanket coat and buckskin pants, showing that to keep himself from freezing to death he had been compelled to lie down close to his camp-fire while in the mountains, and on his way to Washington he had not stopped for a moment, but pushed on with a vigor and energy peculiarly his own. It is but justice to say of this man that his heart and soul were in the object of the errand for which he had traversed the vast frozen and desert regions of the Rocky Mountains, to accomplish which was to defeat the plans of the company, as shown by the taunting reply of the Briton, “that no power could make known to his government the purposes of those who had laid their plans and were ready to grasp the prize they sought.” While they were counting on wealth, power, influence, and the undisputed possession of a vast and rich country, this old pioneer missionary (layman though he was), having no thought of himself or of his ridiculous appearance before the great Daniel Webster and the President of a great nation, sought an interview with them and stated his object, and the plans and purposes of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the British government: that their representations of this country were false in every respect as regards its agricultural, mineral, and commercial value to the nation; that it was only to secure the country to themselves, that the false reports about it had been put in circulation by their emissaries and agents; that a wagon road to the Pacific was practicable; that he had, in 1836, in opposition to all their false statements and influence to the contrary, taken a wagon to Boise; and that, in addition, wagons and teams had, in 1841, been taken to the Wallamet Valley, and that he expected, his life being spared, to pilot an emigration to the country that would forever settle the question beyond further dispute. He asserted that a road was practicable, and the country was invaluable to the American people. Mr. Webster coolly informed him that he had his mind made up; he was ready to part with what was to him an unknown and unimportant portion of our national domain, for the privilege of a small settlement in Maine and the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland.
There was but one other hope in this case. This old off-hand Oregon missionary at once sought an interview with President Tyler. He repeated his arguments and reasons, and asked for delay in the final settlement of the boundary question, which, to those high in office, and, we may add, total ignorance of all that related to this vast country, was of small moment. But that Dr. Whitman (for the reader has already guessed the name of our missionary) stood before the President of the United States the only representative of Oregon and all her future interests and greatness, a self-constituted, self-appointed, and without a parallel self-periled representative, pleading simply for delay in the settlement of so vast and important a question to his country,—that he should be able to successfully contend with the combined influences brought against him,—can only be attributed to that overruling power which had decreed that the nation, whose interests he represented, should be sustained.
Mr. Tyler, after listening to the Doctor’s statements with far more candor and interest than Mr. Webster was disposed to do, informed him that, notwithstanding they had received entirely different statements from gentlemen of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the British minister, then in Washington, yet he would trust to his personal representation and estimate of the value of the country to the American people. He said: “Dr. Whitman, in accordance with your representations and agreeable to your request, this question shall be deferred. An escort shall be furnished for the protection of the emigration you propose to conduct to that distant country.”
It is with deep regret, not to say shame, that truth and justice compel us to give in this connection any notice of this faithful and devoted missionary’s reception and treatment, on his arrival in Boston, derogatory to the Board whom he had served so faithfully for seven years. Instead of being received and treated as his labors justly entitled him to be, he met the cold, calculating rebuke for unreasonable expense, and for dangers incurred without order or instructions or permission from the mission to come to the States. Most of his reverend associates had, as the writer is credibly informed, disapproved of his visit to Washington, being ignorant of the true cause of his sudden determination to defeat, if possible, the British and Jesuitical designs upon the country; hence, for economical and prudential reasons, the Board received him coldly, and rebuked him for his presence before them, causing a chill in his warm and generous heart, and a sense of unmerited rebuke from those who should have been most willing to listen to all his statements, and most cordial and ready to sustain him in his herculean labors.
His request at Washington to save this richest jewel of our nation from British rule is granted, while the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is appealed to in vain for aid to save the Indians and the country from becoming the boast of the Italian Jesuit, and a prey to his degrading superstitions. The Doctor’s mission, with all its accumulated influence, labors, and importance, is left to be swallowed up and destroyed by the same influence that had divided and destroyed that of the Methodist Mission.