Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

WHITMAN PARTY ON CREST OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS, JULY 4, 1836

While these difficulties were harassing the missionaries, very important events were taking place in national life. The slavery and the tariff questions had become firebrands in domestic politics. The questions of annexation of Texas, of the occupation of Oregon, of possible trouble with Mexico over the former, and with England over the latter, were threatening corresponding chaos in foreign affairs. Doctor Whitman, reticent and sagacious, saw clearly that his chosen aim of leading the natives to civilization and Christianity was rapidly sinking in importance in comparison with the question of the white race in the new land, and of the ownership of this great region. In 1842 the Ashburton treaty with England settled the Northeastern boundary and the supposition was that it would also settle the Oregon question. But when the treaty was signed on August 9th, it appeared that the question of Oregon was left unsettled. In a message of August 11th, President Tyler explained to the Senate that so little probability of agreement existed that it was thought not expedient to make that subject a matter of negotiation.

While the Ashburton treaty was pending, the first real immigration, though a small one of 112 persons, came to Oregon. In it, among several of the most notable of the old Oregonians, was A. L. Lovejoy, a young New England lawyer, a man of energy and ambition, destined to play a conspicuous part in Oregon history. When the party reached Whitman's Station on the Walla Walla, they delivered to him letters from the United States and discussed with him the pending treaty and the danger that it might draw the line so as to leave Oregon to Great Britain, or at least to make the Columbia River the boundary, placing the entire Puget Sound Basin and the mountains and plains eastward to the river in possession of Great Britain. Seeing the imminence of the danger, Whitman determined upon a supreme effort. He decided to make a mid-winter journey East with three aims in view: to present to the Government the situation and the vital need of preserving Oregon for the United States; to try to aid in forming and guiding an immigration to Oregon; and to settle affairs of the mission with the Board at Boston. He asked Lovejoy to go with him. It looked like a desperate undertaking, but Lovejoy, an athletic, ambitious young man, agreed to go.

At this point comes in the bitterly disputed "Whitman Controversy." It is not within the scope of this work to undertake an argumentative treatment of this question. The question at issue, if rationally considered, is rather the extent of the services of Doctor Whitman in "saving Oregon to the United States." Mrs. F. V. Victor, Elwood Evans, Prof. E. G. Bourne, and Principal W. I. Marshall have, more than others, presented arguments in favor of the contention that Doctor Whitman had no important part to play in the great political drama of Oregon, while the claim that he had large political aims and bore a conspicuous part in influencing the final result has been supported in books written by Dr. O. W. Nixon, Rev. William Barrows, Prof. William Mowry, and Rev. Myron Eells. The final book by the last named, the "Life of Marcus Whitman," is, in the judgment of the writer, the final and unanswered and indeed unanswerable word on the subject. The author of this history has given in the Washington Historical Quarterly of April, 1917, his reasons for thinking the statements of Professors Bourne and Marshall inaccurate and their arguments inconclusive. The fact acknowledged by all is that Whitman made a ride during the fall and winter of 1842 and succeeding months of 1843, which for daring, heroism, and fortitude has few parallels in history. The question of controversy is, what did he make such a journey for? His critics say that it was in consequence of the decision of the Missionary Board to discontinue his mission on the Walla Walla. Mrs. Victor and Principal Marshall are the only ones among these critics who have achieved the distinction of attributing base or selfish motives to Whitman. They have held forth the idea that he, foreseeing the incoming of immigrants, wanted to maintain the station at Waiilatpu in order to raise vegetables and other supplies to sell at a high price. Whether a motive of that sort would lead a man of Whitman's type to take that desperate ride in mid-winter through the Rocky Mountains, at peril of life a dozen times over from Indians, freezing, and starvation, is a question which different people would view differently, according to their way of estimating the motives which determine men's actions. Perhaps people whose estimate of human nature, based possibly on their own inner consciousness of motives, is that selfish gain is the leading motive, would agree that the hope of cornering the vegetable market at Waiilatpu was an adequate cause of Whitman's ride. To some people it would seem likely that the mainspring of his action was some great national and patriotic aim and that while he wished to maintain the mission, his great aim was to convince the Government of the value of Oregon and to help organize an immigration which would settle the ownership of Oregon in favor of his country. At any rate, he went. That much is undisputed.

Practically the only account of that memorable mid-winter ride from Waiilatpu to St. Louis is from A. L. Lovejoy, the sole white companion of Whitman. Whitman himself was, like most heroes, a man of few words. He told various friends something of his experiences in Washington and Boston, and told to associates and wrote a few letters to friends about the immigration of 1843, but he seems to have been very reticent about the "Ride." Mr. Lovejoy wrote two letters about that journey, one dated November 6, 1869, which is found in W. H. Gray's History of Oregon, and one addressed to Dr. G. H. Atkinson and used by him in an address on February 22, 1876. This letter so vividly portrays the character of this undertaking as it comes from the only witness besides Whitman himself, that we deem it suitable to incorporate it here.

"We left Waiilatpu October 3, 1842, traveled rapidly, reached Fort Hall in eleven days, remained two days to recruit and make a few purchases. The doctor engaged a guide, and we left the Fort Uinte. We changed from a direct route to more southern, through the Spanish country, via Salt Lake, Taos and Santa Fe. On our way from Fort Hall to Fort Uinte we had terribly severe weather. The snows retarded our progress and blinded the trail, so we lost much time. After arriving at Fort Uinte, and making some purchases for our trip, we took a new guide and started for Fort Uncumpagra, situated on the waters of Grand River, in the Spanish country. Here our stay was very short. We took a new guide and started for Taos. After being out some four or five days we encountered a terrific snowstorm, which forced us to seek shelter in a deep ravine, where we remained snowed in for four days, at which time the storm had somewhat abated, and we attempted to make our way out upon the highlands, but the snow was so deep and the winds so piercing and cold, we were compelled to return to camp and wait a few days for a change of weather. Our next effort to reach the highlands was more successful; but, after spending several days wandering around in the snow without making much headway, our guide told us that the deep snow had so changed the face of the country that he was completely lost and could take us no further. This was a terrible blow to the doctor, but he was determined not to give it up without another effort.

"We at once agreed that the doctor should take the guide and return to Fort Uncumpagra and get a new guide, and I remain in camp with the animals until he could return, which he did in seven days with our new guide, and we were now on our route again. Nothing of much import occurred but hard and slow traveling through deep snow until we reached Grand River, which was frozen on either side about one-third across. Although so intensely cold, the current was so very rapid that about one-third of the river in the center was not frozen. Our guide thought it would be dangerous to attempt to cross the river in its present condition, but the doctor, nothing daunted, was the first to take the water. He mounted his horse; the guide and myself shoved the doctor and his horse off the ice into the foaming stream. Away he went, completely under water, horse and all, but directly came up, and after buffeting the rapid foaming current, he reached the ice on the opposite shore a long way down the stream. He leaped from his horse upon the ice and soon had his noble animal by his side. The guide and myself forced in the pack animals, and followed the doctor's example, and soon were on the opposite shore, drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable fire. We reached Taos in about thirty days, having suffered greatly from cold and scarcity of provisions. We were compelled to use mule meat, dogs and such other animals as came in our reach. We remained at Taos a few days only, and started for Bent's and Savery's Fort, on the head waters of the Arkansas River. When we had been out some fifteen or twenty days we met George Bent, a brother of Governor Bent, on his way to Taos. He told us that a party of mountain men would leave Bent's Fort in a few days for St. Louis, but said we would not reach the fort with our pack animals in time to join the party. The doctor, being very anxious to join the party so he could push on as rapidly as possible to Washington, concluded to leave myself and guide with the animals, and he himself, taking the best animal, with some bedding and a small allowance of provision, started alone, hoping by rapid travel to reach the fort in time to join the St. Louis party, but to do so he would have to travel on the Sabbath, something we had not done before. Myself and guide traveled on slowly and reached the fort in four days, but imagine our astonishment when on making inquiry about the doctor we were told that he had not arrived nor had he been heard of. I learned that the party for St. Louis was camped at the Big Cottonwood, forty miles from the fort, and at my request Mr. Savery sent an express, telling the party not to proceed any farther until we learned something of Doctor Whitman's whereabouts, as he wished to accompany them to St Louis. Being furnished by the gentleman of the fort with a suitable guide, I started in search of the doctor, and traveled up the river about one hundred miles. I learned from the Indians that a man had been there who was lost and was trying to find Bent's Fort. They said they had directed him to go down the river and how to find the fort. I knew from their description it was the doctor. I returned to the fort as rapidly as possible, but the doctor had not arrived. We had all become very anxious about him.

"Late in the afternoon he came in very much fatigued and desponding; said that he knew that God had bewildered him to punish him for traveling on the Sabbath. During the whole trip he was very regular in his morning and evening devotions, and that was the only time I ever knew him to travel on the Sabbath.

"The doctor remained all night at the fort, starting only on the following morning to join the St. Louis party. Here we parted. The doctor proceeded to Washington. I remained at Bent's Fort until spring, and joined the doctor the following July near Fort Laramie, on his way to Oregon, in company with a train of emigrants."