On motion of Mr. Lovejoy (another lawyer), the several members were excused from producing their credentials, and on motion of the same gentleman, the house proceeded to elect a Speaker. M. M. McCarver was duly elected.
The journal of the proceedings of this Legislative Committee shows that no regard was paid to any previous laws, or constitutional provisions.
David Hill, of Tualatin District, was from Ohio. He was a tall, slim man, of sallow complexion, black hair, with strong prejudices, having no regard for religion or morality. He left an interesting wife and family in Ohio, and passed himself off in Oregon for a widower or bachelor. He was favorable to all applications for divorces, and married a second wife, as near as we could learn, before he obtained a divorce (if he ever did) from his first wife. He early took an active part in the provisional government, and was a decided opponent of the Hudson’s Bay Company, as also of all missionary efforts in the country. This rendered him popular among the settlers, and secured his election as a representative for that district for several years, although his education was quite limited. As a citizen he was generally respected. Though intimately acquainted with two of his sons, we could never learn that he was any thing but kind and affectionate as a husband and father. The fact of his leaving a wife and young family in Ohio, coming to Oregon, and remaining for years without making any provision for them, is evidence of guilt in some one. The friends of his wife and family spoke of them as being highly esteemed by all who knew them. But it is of his public acts, as connected with the history of Oregon, that we wish particularly to speak.
The social standard adopted by the people of Oregon was peculiarly adapted to favor men of Mr. Hill’s morality, and aid them in rising from the effect of any former misconduct they may have been guilty of in any other country. This standard was, to receive as fellow-citizens all who came among us; to ignore their former actions, and give them a chance to start anew, and make a name and character in the country.
There must be something noble and generous in a people occupying a new and wild country, as Oregon was in those days, that would lead them to adopt a standard for common action and citizenship, so peculiarly republican and in accordance with the most liberal and enlightened Christianity. To this spirit of toleration and benevolence must be attributed, under an all-wise Providence, the complete success and stability of the first civil government formed on this coast. Hence, as we have before said, we shall deal with men, morals, and politics as they belonged to Oregon at the time of which we are writing.
M. M. McCarver, from having acted as commissary in the Black Hawk war, in Iowa, was called General. This title secured to him considerable influence, and many favors from the Hudson’s Bay Company. General McCarver was a man of common education, making large pretension to political knowledge, without much judgment or understanding of political economy. He was an intolerable debater, and acquired, among the lobby members of the Legislature, the name of “Old Brass Gun.” In his political course, he strove hard for popularity, and attempted to secure places of honor for personal promotion. He was what would be considered a Simon Pure pro-slavery Democrat. Like the silly moth in the fable, he fluttered around the shadow of Dr. White, the sub-Indian agent, and assisted him in insulting the Legislative Committee of 1845, and attempted to get his name before the Congress of the United States as an important and influential man, which was divulged and defeated by another member of the same committee, though in a cowardly and dishonorable manner. We are not aware that General McCarver ever originated any important measure, or performed any extensive or important service in the country. His political schemes were generally so supremely selfish that they died still-born.
Mr. Gilmore, from the same district, was a substantial farmer. He neither said or did much, and but little is known of him.
A. Lawrence Lovejoy, formerly from Massachusetts, was a man of medium size, light complexion, light hair, rather impetuous and dogmatical in his conversation. He crossed the mountains with the immigration of 1842 to Dr. Whitman’s station; from that place he attempted to return to the United States with Dr. Whitman. As near as we can learn, he became utterly exhausted by the time they reached Bent’s Fort on the Arkansas River, and was left there by the Doctor. In the summer of 1843 he returned to Oregon and pursued his profession of law. In Oregon he has always acted with the radical Democratic party, rather doubtfully on the pro-slavery platform. He was the first regular nominee for governor of Oregon. George Abernethy, the secular agent of the Methodist Mission, was run as an independent candidate, and, with the assistance of Peter H. Burnett, Mr. Russell, and his friends, who bolted the general convention, was elected governor, though at the time he was on a visit to the Sandwich Islands. A large number of political friends still adhered to Mr. Lovejoy, and made a second attempt to elect him governor. Mr. Abernethy was again the opposing candidate. It appeared in the canvass of that year, that the Hudson’s Bay Company generally voted for Mr. Lovejoy; but the personal kindness of Mr. Abernethy to a priest traveling up the Wallamet, induced him to tell his people to vote for Mr. Abernethy, and by this vote he was elected, although a fair majority of the votes of the American settlers was given for Mr. Lovejoy. Mr. Lovejoy, like many of us, leaves but little usefulness or philanthropy to record, that his talents and position should have led him to aspire to. As a citizen and neighbor, he is kind and obliging, as a lawyer not above mediocrity, and it is generally understood that he makes no pretensions to religion.
Daniel Waldo, formerly of Missouri, was a plain, substantial farmer, and the first man who ventured to experiment upon the hills, or upland portions of Oregon. He had owned extensive tracts of land on the banks of the Missouri, a large portion of which had been washed away by the floods, which cause continual changes along the banks of that river. In coming to Oregon, he had made up his mind to take the hills, if there were any in the country. He did so, and has proved by his experiment the value of a large portion of country that was before considered worthless for cultivation. From the time Mr. Waldo arrived in the country he became an enthusiastic admirer of Oregon. Soon after he had located in the hills bearing his name, an old acquaintance of his, and also of his brother in Missouri, came to Oregon on a visit, and was about to return to the States. He paid Mr. Waldo a visit, and after chatting awhile and looking over his farm, on which we could not see a single rail, except a few he had in a corral, his friend (Colonel Gilpin) said to him: “What shall I say for you, to your brother in Missouri?” “Tell him,” said Waldo, “that I would not give the bare idea of owning a section of land in Oregon for all I own in Missouri [which was then two sections, 1,280 acres], and that I would not give a section of land here for the whole State of Missouri.” Such men gave a good report of Oregon, and it is to such that the country is indebted for her stability and prosperity. Mr. Waldo’s experiment has shown the capacity of the country for settlement to be more than double what it was previously considered, and while some of those who laughed at him and called him an enthusiast here had their farms, cattle, and houses swept away by floods, he has remained in the hills uninjured and secure.
Thomas D. Keizer, from Arkansas. Of this man’s early history we have learned but little. It seems that, for some cause, he and his family were compelled to leave the State. Their story is that a gang of counterfeiters was exposed by them, and in consequence of their becoming informers they were surrounded by a mob and compelled to leave. On first arriving in the country they were not scrupulous as to the rights of their neighbors, or those of the Oregon Institute, or mission claims. They found themselves comfortably housed in the first buildings of the Oregon Institute, and occupied them till it suited their pleasure to leave, and to find other quarters upon land claimed by the mission. As was to be expected, Mr. Keizer was inclined to do all he could to curtail the mission and Institute claims, he being the gainer by curtailing the claims of others. As a politician, he considered all little dirty tricks and slanders against an opponent justifiable. In religion he professed to be a Methodist.