Dr. Whitman disposed of his own little private property in the States, and, with the aid of his brother and brother’s son, returned to Missouri, joined the emigration of 1843, and, as he had intimated to President Tyler, brought on an emigration outnumbering all the Hudson’s Bay Company had brought to aid in securing the country to the British crown, proving to the American people and the world, what had long been asserted as impossible, that there was a practicable wagon road to the Pacific Ocean on American soil. His care, influence, aid, and attention to the emigration of 1843, I leave with those who can speak from personal observation. Their gratitude and deep sympathy for this self-devoted, faithful, and generous missionary led five hundred of them with uplifted hand to say they were ready with their own life-blood to avenge his death, and protect and defend the country. But influences, such as we have been speaking of, came in, justice was robbed of its right, and crime and murder permitted to go unpunished.
The cause in which Dr. Whitman enlisted, labored, and fell a victim, is allowed to suffer and fall, and in a Memorial Volume of the American Board, page 379, a false impression is given to the world, and a whole mission ignored. In this splendid, well-bound, and elegantly gotten up “Memorial Half-Century Volume,” justly claiming much credit for the fifty past years of its labors, this Board has ignored all its errors and mistakes, and with one fell swoop of the pen consigned to oblivion, so far as its great standard record is concerned, one whole mission and a vast Indian population, as unworthy of a name or a notice in their record, further than as “Rev. Samuel Parker’s exploring tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, under the direction of the Board, in 1835, 1836, and 1837, brought to light no field for a great and successful mission, but it added much to the science of geography, and is remarkable as having made known a practicable route for a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific.” This shows a want of candor and also a disposition to ignore all influences and causes of failure of one of their own missions, and directs the attention of the reader to foreign objects, leaving their missions to become an easy prey to avarice, the Indian tribes to ignorance and superstition, and their missionaries to be despised and superseded by Jesuits; giving their enemies the benefit of that influence which they should have exerted to save their own missionary cause. Such being the case, we are not to wonder at the cold reception of Dr. Whitman, or the boundless influence and avarice of the men who compassed the early destruction of that mission; and, failing to destroy the American settlement, that they should now seek to rob our national treasury as they sought to rob the nation of its rightful domain. After being defeated by the American settlers in the organization of the provisional government in 1843, by the provisional army of 1847-8, they now come forward with the most barefaced effrontery and claim millions of dollars for a few old rotten forts. They have fallen to the lowest depths of crime to obtain compensation for improvements of no real value.
As we said when speaking of the “combination of influences and no harmony,” we believe Dr. John McLaughlin to have been one of the best and noblest of men; yet the governing power of the Hudson’s Bay Company would, if it were possible, have compelled him to starve the immigrants, and sacrifice all the early settlers of the country. Do you ask me how I know this? I answer, by the oaths of good and true American citizens, and by my own personal knowledge. These depositions or statements under oath but few of the readers of this history will ever see. In this connection we will give part of one deposition we listened to and penciled down from the mouth of the witness, who was the legal counselor and confidential friend of Dr. McLaughlin from the fall of 1846 till his death. This witness, in answer to the inquiry as to what Dr. McLaughlin told him about the Hudson’s Bay Company’s encouraging the early settlement of Oregon, said Dr. McLaughlin had not encouraged the American settlement of the country, but from the fact that immigrants arrived poor and needy, they must have suffered had he not furnished supplies on a credit; that he could have wished that this had not been necessary, because he believed there were those above him who strongly disapproved of his course in this respect, affirming that it would lead to the permanent settlement of the country by American citizens, and thus give to the United States government an element of title to the country; the United States government could not have a title to the country without such settlement, and these persons, thus alluded to as being dissatisfied, would report him to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s house in London; that he ascertained finally that such complaints had been made, but that he still continued to furnish the supplies, because, as a man of common humanity, he could not do otherwise; and he resolved that he would continue thus to do and take whatever consequences might result from it; that the company’s managing and controlling office in London did finally call him to an account for thus furnishing supplies as already stated, and for reasons indicated; that he represented to them the circumstances under which he had furnished these supplies, alleging that as a man of common humanity it was not possible for him to do otherwise than as he did; that he foresaw as clearly as they did that it aided in the American settlement of the country, but that this he could not help, and it was not for him but for God and government to look after and take care of the consequences; that the Bible told him, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he is naked, clothe him;” that these settlers were not even enemies; that in thus finding fault with him they quarreled with heaven (the witness said, “I do not know as that was the exact expression or word”) for doing what any one truly worthy the name of a man could not hesitate to do, and that he immediately concluded by indignantly saying, “Gentlemen, if such is your order, I will serve you no longer,” and from that day Oregon secured a warm and faithful friend in that old white-headed man, and he a base and infamous enemy in those who claimed the title of the Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company, who in 1860 are claiming all the credit and pay for this old man’s generous and noble deeds.
The readers of our history will excuse this interruption in the order of events, or rather the introduction of this testimony at this time in our sketches, for we shall still have to speak of Dr. McLaughlin as the head of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and continue him as a representative of that influence, as also connected with the Roman Catholic efforts in the country; for while we condemn and speak of base and infamous acts in all alike, we will not forget the good and the noble. We have other items of testimony that reveal to us the deep-laid plans, the vast influence used, and efforts made, to prevent the American settlement of this country, which shall be brought to light as we proceed.
One other item we will now give as developed by the testimony above referred to. Dr. McLaughlin informed his attorney “that he had proposed to the company’s authority in London, that if they would allow him to retain the profits upon the supplies and advances made as above mentioned to the settlers, he would very cheerfully personally assume the payment to the company of all the sums thus advanced, but this the company declined to do.” The witness said: “My memory is not very distinct, at least, not so much as it is as to the statement above made, but my recollection is that he also informed me that the company, although it refused to permit him to retain the profits above mentioned, did hold him responsible for every dollar of the advances he made, and I do know that he regarded and treated the debts thus owing by American citizens as debts owing not to the Hudson’s Bay Company, but to himself individually.”
Dr. McLaughlin charges ingratitude upon those who were able to, and did not pay him, and were guilty of denouncing him as an aristocrat. He was no aristocrat, but one of the kindest, most obliging, and familiar men; yet his tall, erect, and noble frame, a head covered with white hair, a long white beard, light complexion, rather spare but open countenance, with a full light blue or gray eye, made the coward and the mean man hate him, while the truly noble man would love him for his generous and unbounded benevolence. Like Dr. Whitman, the influences around him weighed heavily upon his soul; he keenly felt the pain of ingratitude in others; he felt it from the Hudson’s Bay Company, whom he had faithfully served, and from the persons he had befriended. An attempt was made by a member of the company, who had previously sworn to the justness of their infamous claims, to excite the sectarian prejudice of the witness against Dr. McLaughlin on his cross-examination, by handing to the company’s attorney the following questions to be asked the witness:—
Ques.—“Do you not recollect that Dr. McLaughlin told you that Sir George Simpson’s complaint against him was his allowing a credit of ten thousand pounds sterling to Bishop Blanchet, of the Catholic mission, without any security?”
Ans.—“This is the first time I have heard of that transaction.”
Ques.—“Do you not know from what Dr. McLaughlin told you, that he gave large credits to the Catholic Mission while in charge of the company’s business?”
Ans.—“I do not.”
In reference to the last two questions and answers, in looking over the items of account against our government, something over this amount is stated as an item of claim for improvements and a Catholic church building and two schoolhouses at Vancouver, as having been made by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the Catholic missions and the benefit of the company’s business, which are still standing and in possession of the priests and nuns of that order. This matter should be closely investigated. We have abundance of other evidence to show the intimate and continued connection of the Jesuit missions with the company, and we look upon this attempt to change the responsibility of that connection from the company to Dr. McLaughlin’s individual account, as among the basest of their transactions. The Jesuitical Catholic concern was a child of their own, and one they are still nursing in all their vast dominions. They made use of Dr. McLaughlin as long as they could, and when they found he was inclined to favor the American settlement of the country, he fell under the displeasure of his superiors and was called to an account.
These facts explain the careful and repeated injunctions, and positive directions given to the early missionaries not to interfere with the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trade, and by no means to encourage the settlement of white men about their stations, compelling those white men to become subject to, and connected with, the missions. They also explain the reasons for the extreme caution exercised by the company over the supplies granted to the American missions. They invariably limited them to the smallest possible necessity, and by this means sought to prevent the settlement of the country. It also explains fully the complaint of Rev. Mr. Griffin in his effort for an independent mission, and shows conclusively the continued effort of the company to check as much as possible the progress of the settlement, as also the desperate effort they made in 1847 to destroy the missions and all American settlements; and more than this, it explains the continued wars with all the Indians who have ever been under the influence of the company, or their pet child, the Jesuit missions.
The Hudson’s Bay Company had no fault to find with Dr. McLaughlin, except in his refusing to carry out their base designs upon the American settlers and for the assistance he rendered upon his own responsibility to the naked and starving immigrants that Grant, at Fort Hall, with the Indians along the route, had combined to deceive and rob, while on the way to the country. This old, white-headed man, who had served them for forty years, was compelled, in maintaining his honor as a man possessing one noble feeling of humanity, to leave their service.