History of Oregon Literature/Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
Websters of the Columbia
...graceful and electric as few have been in speech, ardent and vigorous in debate....thomas starr king
Oratory has descended from the greatness and glory it enjoyed in Oregon in pioneer times. Other forms of communication have substracted from its prestige and usefulness, and the radio, by means of which can be heard the great of the nation, has made it pretty hard on the local orator winning his way, or who had won his way before such big-league competition responded tothe turn of a dial.
And otherwise the times are sadder for those with silver tongues. While the chance of turning up a cater through oratory is hardly considered any more, facility in discussion and exposition is widely cultivated. Thus the few have no such eloquence as the few in the old days, but the rank and file are far ahead of the rank and file of their forefathers. Audiences are divided up and specialized; they do not all flock together in a vast and inspiring conclave to hear one man, at least one local man. A newcomer with exceptional platform ability might be popular in something of the ancient way in his community for a few weeks ora few months; but his hearers, ultimately fatigued, would eagerly desert him for the next forensic immistant.
In pioneer times public loquacity was something you were born with, like poetry. The frontiersmen, scant and embarassed themselves in discourse, looked upon a smooth flow of words spontaneously on tap as a special dispensation from heaven. A boy of some humble household who showed his predilection by haranguing the cows and chickens, would be dedicated in the ambitions of sacrificing parents to something higher than agriculture, while if he simply drew pictures or silently dreamed dreams or had a mind of unspectacular logic, he could go trudging wearily on behind the plow.
The man who had something of a natural gift could move from one triumph to another. Oratory was the accompaniment of leadership; what the orator said was quoted and repeated, so that a speech spread far be yond the confines of the immediate listeners. The politician, the preacher, the lawyer or even the schoolmaster was expected to be a good speaker and if he failed in this respect it was much harder in those days than now to reach success without it. For instance, Peter Skene Ogden studied law for a while but gave it up, "owing to his harsh and squeaking voice."
The qualities that made men popular on the plat form in early Oregon, are evident in the appraisals contained in the biographical sketches written a long while ago. To give an idea of what an orator was expected to be like and often was like in former times, a few orator descriptions are here lifted from those old biographies. Take first Hon. John Burnett, who came in 1858 to Corvallis, "without money and without friends, a stranger in a strange land":
It is as an advocate that he has made some of his most effective speeces.... His style of eloquence is bold, manly and full of deep feeling; and there are hundreds of men who can testify to the power of his impassioned appeals to a jury.
In another line of work, there was Brother C. C. Riley, Oregon immigrant of 1853, who was pastor of the Baptist churches at Lacreole, Union, Yamhill, Shiloh and French Prairie:
Of all the ministers that I have had the good pleasure to labor with or listen to, he was the ablest in exhortation I ever heard; highly poetical in his flights of oratory.
Even Moses, an Indian chief, could break down the prejudices against his race by the hallowed gift of speech and oratorical looks:
He is now fifty years old.... Aside from the uncanny and searching look of his restless eyes, he is almost the perfection of barbarous beauty.... On account of his oratorical ability and majestic mien, he has often been called the Webster of the Columbia.
Marion Francis Mulkey, of Portland, came to Oregon in 1847 as a boy and later went east to Yale with J. W. Johnson, who became the first president of the University of Oregon. But even the restraints of a Yale training were sometimes broken through:
As a speaker he was logical, and kept his point in constant view, compelling the attention of the jury, and convincing them to the full extent of his premises. While usually cool and unemotional, he was capable of breaking into passages of deep feeling and eloquence.
The nature of the situation when there were two well-known orators on the platform, opposed to each other in tense and dramatic debate, has been described by a reporter, perhaps by the editor himself, in anything but a non-partisan way, in the State Journal, Eugene City, May 28, 1864:
Last Saturday a large crowd assembled in the court house to hear the ex-Senator and secession candidate for the Vice Presidency, Joe Lane. Gov. Gibbs, being present, was permitted to occupy an hour at the commencement. He made an able, eloquent and effective speech.... Lane followed and for two hours poured forth the most atrocious false hoods, the most disgusting epithets, the most insulting tirade of fanaticism and abuse ever uttered by the poisoned tongue of a rotten-hearted traitor. His boldness was astounding....
They were indeed days to gladden the heart of an orator. Such a man could practice the profession of eloquence and gain prestige and the comforts of life according to his gifts in this field alone. There were occasions when he could stimulate to concrete action or could furnish the stimulus and poetry their meager lives craved as a trapper craved sugar.
1
Speech at the "Second Wolf Meeting"
By W. H. Gray
W. H. Gray came west with Marcus Whitman. He assisted in the construction of the two missionary posts at Waiilatpu and Lapwai. He is best known as author of an early History of Oregon. At the Second Wolf Meeting "William H. Gray . . . arose and made the assembled settlers a little speech. He said that no one would for a moment question the propriety and judiciousness of their action. It was just and natural to thus seek to protect their animals from the ravages of wolves, bears and panthers. Continuing, he said:
How it is, fellow citizens, with you and me, and our wives and children? Have we any organization on which we can rely for mutual protection? Is there any power or influence in the country sufficient to protect us and all we hold dear from the worse than wild beasts that threaten and occasion ally destroy our cattle? Who in our midst is authorized to call us together to protect our own and the lives of our families? True, the alarm may be given, as in a recent case, and we may run who feel alarmed, and shoot off our guns, while our enemy may be robbing our property, ravishing our wives, and burning our houses over our defenseless families. Common sense, prudence and justice to ourselves demand that we act consistent with the principles that we have commenced. We have mutually and unitedly agreed to defend and protect our cattle and domestic animals; now, fellow citizens, I submit and move the adoption of the two following resolutions, that we may have protection for our person and lives, as well as our cattle and herds: Resolved, That a committee be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of taking measures for the civil and military protection of this colony. Resolved, That said committee consist of twelve persons.
2
Salem, Champoeg, Oregon City—A Toast
By Dr. Robert Newell
The donation act had passed, and the people were happy. The 4th of July, 1851, was celebrated through the Willamette Valley in suitable style. There was rivalry at that time between Oregon City, Salem and Champoeg. At the barbecue dinner in Salem, Dr. Robert Newell—who brought the first wagons to Walla Walla—"an old and prominent citizen of Champoeg," proposed the following toast:
3
40 Minutes Too Short for Some Speeches
By Delazon Smith
Delazon Smith came to Oregon from Iowa in 1852. He established the Albany Democrat in 1859 and in that year was short-term United States senator for Oregon. Previously he had been active in politics, serving as a member of the Territorial legislature, and of the Constitutional Convention of 1857, where, on August 19, he made a speech, from which the following selection is taken, on limiting the time of debate.
If the door is opened to the full discussion of the question of slavery, abstractly as a matter of policy—the proposition to introduce it into this country, I hope will be fully discussed, and the effects of slavery as exemplified in the three hundred years of our experience of it upon this continent, laid bare and open. I should prefer not to speak at all upon the question, but if I shall speak I do not desire to be cramped with your 40-minute rules. No man, sir, if he had the intellect of an angel and the concentration of a Webster could stand up here and do that question justice in 40 minutes time. He can but in that time state simple, naked propositions upon that question. Now, sir, suppose, for example, I should make a speech of 40 minutes duration here. I could say all I expect to say upon any other proposition contained in the constitution but this, in 40 minutes. I will suppose that I am about to address the house upon that question, and have my documents before me, and I arouse my memory. I desire to say the most cogent things upon that subject, and I should know, notwithstanding, that I must trot over the course in 40 minutes. Why, sir, I could not begin to have a good sweat on by that time. Some men can not get their minds off freely until they get warmed up. I am among that number. And right in the midst of my progress the hammer of the speaker falls, and I am cut short. As well to be cut off at the knees. I would rather not speak at all. Or if my friend, the distinguished gentleman from Marion (Mr. Williams) was entertaining the convention upon this question, I should regret to see him in the midst of one of his clear, logical speeches, cut off. The country does not demand it of me that I should be deprived of one-half of a mental feast here, at the bidding of some men who can not "talk."
4
"The Plains Across!"
By E. L. Applegate
E. L. Applegate, who was later commissioner of immigration, was on the losing Republican ticket as state treasurer in the campaign of 1858. "In this campaign," says Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor in Bancroft's History of Oregon, "E. L. Applegate, son of Lindsey and nephew of Jesse Applegate, first made known his oratorical abilities. His uncle used to say of him that he got his education by reading the stray leaves of books torn up and thrown away on the road to Oregon. He was however provided with that general knowledge which in ordinary life passes unchallenged for education, and which, spread over the surface of a campaign speech, is often as effective as greater erudition."
This proposition deeply touched the heart of the western pioneer. He had probably crossed the Blue Ridge or the Cumberland Mountains when a boy, and was now in his prime. Rugged, hardy and powerful of frame, he was full to over-flowing with the love of adventure, and animated by a brave soul that scorned the very idea of fear. All had heard of the perpetually green hills and plains of Western Oregon, and how that the warm breath of the vast Pacific tempered the air to the genial degree and drove winter far back towards the north. Many of them contrasted in the imagination the open stretch of a mile square of rich, green and grassy land, where the strawberry plant bloomed through every winter month, with their circumscribed clearings in the Missouri Bottom. Of long winter evenings neighbors visited each other, and before the big shell-bark hickory fire, the seasoned walnut fire, the dry black jack fire, or the roaring dead elm fire, they talked these things over; and, as a natural consequence, under these favorable circumstances, the spirit of emigration warmed up; and the "Oregon fever" became a household expression. Thus originated the vast cavalcade, or emigrant train, stretching its serpentine length for miles, enveloped in the vast pillars of dust, patiently wending its toilsome way across the American Continent. How familiar these scenes and experiences with the old pioneers! The vast plains; the uncountable herds of buffalo; the swift- footed antelope; the bands of mounted, painted warriors; the rugged snow-capped mountain ranges; the deep, swift and dangerous rivers; the lonesome howl of the wild wolf; the midnight yell of the assaulting savage; the awful panic and stampede; the solemn and silent funeral at the dead hour of night, and the lonely and hidden graves of departed friends—what memories are associated with the "plains across!"
5
The Echoing Gorge
By Edward D. Baker
Edward D. Baker, a friend of Lincoln, was brought up from California as a spellbinder in the Lincoln campaign of 1860. One of his many triumphs that year was his 4th of July speech at Salem: "The orator's fame had spread far and near, and when the speaker began the crowd was so vast that fully one- fourth were fortunate in finding standing room; but the eloquence of the speaker was such that in less than twenty minutes all were standing." He was killed in the Civil War in 1861. Baker County, formed the next year, was named after him, although he had been in the state just about long enough to captivate it with his eloquence and to get a senatorship from it. Following is the introduction to his first speech in the Senate in January, 1861:
Mr. President: The adventurous traveller, who wanders on the slope of the Pacific and on the very verge of civilization, stands awestruck and astonished in that great chasm formed by the torrent of the Columbia, as, rushing between Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens, it breaks through the ridges of the Cascade Mountains to find the sea. Nor is this wonder lessened when he hears his slightest tones repeated and reechoed with a larger utterance in the reverberations which lose themselves at last amid the surrounding and distant hills. So I, standing on this spot, and speaking for the first time in this Chamber, reflect with astonishment that my feeblest word is reechoed, even while I speak, to the confines of the Republic....
6
"Very Polite, Very Polite"
By Judge Aaron E. Wait
Aaron E. Wait drove an ox-team to Oregon in 1847—a near sighted man of 34 wearing glasses. At Oregon City he edited the Oregon Spectator for a while, was first assistant commissary-general under General Joel Palmer, audited the claims of the Cayuse War, went to the legislature and became the first chief-justice of the supreme court of Oregon as a state. "Early in the seventies his voice failed him for public speaking." He related many anecdotes and reminiscences, among them the following dialogue that took place between him and Dr. John McLoughlin when the two were alone in the judge's office at Oregon City:
7
"You Poor, Miserable Sinner, You!"
By Reverend Joab Powell
He had no education, in fact could read very poorly, and write scarcely at all." But he took care of any embarrassments that might arise from those limitations by memorizing his bible and his hymn book. "He ... murdered the English grammar, and used figures of speech that were certainly original. Yet he did a vast amount of good. His sermons were full of earnest appeals, and he would exhort, sing, pray, and entreat, until his audience was some times in tears and sometimes in smiles.... With his ready wit and uncultivated humor, he was always ready for interruptions, disturbances or emergencies. ... It was claimed that with his own hand he baptized nearly or quite 3000 persons."
There is some poetry about him in Rural Rhymes of Olden Times by Martin Rice:
Joab Powell preach the word,
But had his better feelings stirred,
By plain and simple talk.
One of His Sermon Titles
The Harp with a Thousand Strings
His Opening Remarks for Song or Sermon
I am Alpha and Omegay.
A Rebuke in Church
Young man! you feller leaning agin that post! you're the one I mean; you'd better go to praying than be standing there a laughin at me, you poor, miserable sinner, you!
8
"The Previous Question Passed Two Weeks Ago"
By James W. Nesmith
James W. Nesmith was one of the brilliant men in early Oregon political affairs. At the age of 23, he came with the Applegates and Peter Burnett in the immigration of 1843. His interest in law was started by a moot court held around the campfires on the plains. He served in the Cayuse, Rogue River and Yakima wars ; he was United States marshal and superintendent of Indian affairs; he went to Washington as United States senator from 1861 to 1865 and as congressman from 1873 to 1875. He died in 1885 at Rickreall. The home he had established there is interestingly described by his daughter Mrs. Harriet Nesmith McArthur, in her Recollections of the Rickreall. "As for his qualities of mind, he will be longest remembered for his wit and strong sense of humor.... His stories and sayings gained a world-wide celebrity, and rivaled Lincoln's in their appositeness and wit."
An idea of what he was like as a speaker at the age of 50 may be secured from a report in the Eugene City Guard for Saturday, June 4, 1870: "Hon. J. W. Nesmith spoke to an appreciative audience at the Court House on last Wednesday, for two and one half hours. His address was seasonably varied with sound logic, scathing sarcasm, and side-splitting ridicule, with occasional touches of true eloquence. He makes no pretensions to oratory, but in all that constitutes the effective speaker, in conclusive logic and clearness of diction, he stands to the frothy and bombastic Geo. S. Woods as 'Hyperion to a Satyr'. Any attempt at a synopsis would deprive the speech of half its pith—to be properly appreciated, it must be heard from Mr. Nesmith's own lips."
We do not have that speech, but we have another, of reminiscent nature, delivered before the Oregon Pioneer Association:
As an illustration of the honest and simple directness which pervaded our Legislative proceedings of that day, I will mention that in 1847 I had the honor of a seat in the Legislature of the provisional government. It was my first step on the slippery rungs of the political ladder. The Legislature then consisted of but one House and we sat in the old Methodist church at the Falls. Close by the church Barton Lee had constructed a ten-pin alley to which some of my fellow members were in the habit of resorting to seek relaxation and refreshment after the Legislative toils. I had aspired to the Speakership and had supposed myself sure of the position, but the same uncertainty existed in political matters that I have seen so much of since. Some of my friends "threw off" on me and elected a better man in the person of Dr. Robert Newell—God bless his soul! In the small collection of books at the Falls, known as the Multnomah Library, I found what I had never heard of before—a copy of "Jefferson's Manual"—and after giving it an evening's perusal by the light of an armful of pitch knots, I found there was such a thing in parliamentary usage as "the previous question."
I had a bill then pending to cut off the southern end of Yamhill and to establish the county of Polk, which measure had violent opposition in the body. One morning, while most of the opponents of my bill were amusing themselves at "horse billiards" in Lee's ten-pin alley, I called up my bill, and, after making the best argument I could in its favor, I concluded with, "And now, Mr. Speaker, upon this bill I move the previous question." Newell looked confused, and I was satisfied he had no conception of what I meant; but he rallied, and, looking wise and severe (I have since seen presiding officers at Washington do the same thing), said: "Sit down, sir! Resume your seat! Do you intend to trifle with the Chair, when you know that we passed the previous question two weeks ago? It was the first thing we done!"
I got a vote, however, before the "horse billiard" players returned, and Polk County has a legal existence today, not withstanding the adverse ruling upon a question of parliamentary usage.
Genial, kind-hearted Newell! How many of you recollect his good qualities, and how heartily have you laughed around the camp-fire at his favorite song, "Love and Sassingers." I can hear the lugubrious refrain describing how his dulcinea was captured by the butcher's boy.
A-frying sassingers for he."
He has folded his robe about him and lain down to rest among the mountains he loved so well and which have so often echoed the merry tones of his voice.
9
Fourth of July Oration at Roseburg, 1877
By Matthew P. Deady
Matthew P. Deady was an eminent Oregon judge and constructive citizen, whose services to the state were "great and arduouous." s.
He worked his way through an academy in Ohio by blacksmithing
and came to Oregon in 1849 as a young lawyer of 25. He lived for
a while in Yamhill County and for a while in Douglas County, but
the greater part of his useful life was spent in Portland, where he
died in 1893. In addition to making distinguished contributions to
the laws and government of Oregon, he was a resourceful leader in
developing its culture and education. One example of his ingenious
and "arduous" public service was his idea of selling life memberships
in the Portland Library Association. These were priced at $250 each.
It was a one-man drive — he sold them all himself, 101 of them
among his friends. He served as president of the board of regents of
the University of Oregon, and Deady Hall, the oldest University
building, is named after him.
Fellow Citizens , Friends and Old Neighbors of the Umpqua Valley:
Westward the course of Empire takes it way! But little more than a quarter of a century ago this beautiful and pic turesque aggregation of hill and vale, mountain and stream, forest and prairie, now called the Umpqua, was almost an unknown and unoccupied country. Occasionally the camp fire of the traveler was kindled along the trail which led through it from Oregon to California. Late in the year, when the beauty of its matchless verdure had partially disappeared, a few immigrant trains had passed over it on their weary way to the far-famed Wallamet. The very spot where we are met to celebrate this one hundred and first anniversary of American Independence —now a busy thriving town and com mercial centre — was still a silent grove. The stately oaks which adorn the site, were then only the shelter of the wild deer and the aborigine... . Oregon! The matchless land of snow-capped mountains and verdure clad valleys —of swelling rivers and placid lakes—of majestic forests and broad prairies —of rich har vests and luscious fruits —of fair women and brave men. Oregon! — Our own loved land! The first American com munity on the Pacific coast —may she ever be such a State! A pillar of this Union, firm and unswerving as her ever lasting hills. Upon her patriotic sons and daughters is de volved the duty of keeping this pillar in position. They must
see to it that their State keeps step to the music of the
Union —that she yields a willing obedience to the paramount
authority of the National government as declared by the
pre-ordained and final arbiter between the State and Nation
—
the Supreme Court of the Republic —and that she also
contributes by her example and her Representatives in the
National councils, to maintain the Union in its sphere, un-
disabled by weakness, and untarnished by corruption.
10
Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
By Chief Joseph
Young Chief Joseph, the able Nez Perce' leader of one of the
greatest Indian campaigns of the West, was also a natural orator.
The following was part of a speech he made at a grand council at
Lapwai, Idaho, in 1877, in reference to a thirty-day ultimatum
which the Government had given the Nez Perce's to leave their old
home and old Chief Joseph's grave to settle on the new reservation
assigned to them.
We are sprung from a woman, although we are unlike in
many things. We cannot be made over. You are as you were
made and as you were made you can remain. We are just as
we were made by the Great Spirit and you cannot change us.
Then why should children of one mother and one father
quarrel? Why should one mistreat the other? I do not be
lieve that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the
right to tell another kind of men the thing they must do.
11
Apostrophe to the Pioneers
By George H. Williams
George H. Williams began the practice of law at an early age in
Iowa, where he was soon elected a district judge. In 1852 he can
vassed Iowa for Pierce, and as a reward was appointed chief justice
of Oregon Territory. Under statehood he was succeeded by Judge
Wait, but he went on to higher things. He was United States s ena
tor from 1865 to 187 1 and then became attorney-general of the
United States under Grant...
.
"In person tall, angular, and awk
ward, yet withal fine-looking, he possessed brain power and force,
and was even sometimes eloquent as a speaker. "
The following selec
tion, the first two words of which are a slight change on Webster,
was part of a speech on "The Pioneers of Oregon," delivered at the
Thirteenth Annual Reunion of the Oregon Pioneer Association, at
Oregon City, June 15, 1885, as printed in his book Occasional Ad
dresses.
Venerable friends, you are representative men and women.
You impersonate the history of this country for nearly half
a century. You represent that hardy and fearless class of
people who have carried the banners of civilization from
Plymouth Rock to the Pacific Ocean. You meet to-day at a
place replete with stirring associations. Forty years ago, the
legislative committee, as it was then called, assembled here
to commence the work of statutory enactments. This is the
birthplace of Oregon legislation. Here is where a govern
ment of laws for Oregon was inaugurated. There was no
procession, with music and banners, to celebrate the day; no
salvos of artillery to distinguish the event. On the narrow
strip of land below here, between the eternal rocks over
hanging their heads and the ever-flowing river at their feet,
a few plain men quietly assembled to commence a business
big with the fate of empire. Now, as then, the same rocks
lift their rugged brows in unchangeable serenity. Now, as
then, the same river leaps with foam and mist and muffled
thunder down the steep declivities of its bed. Now, as then,
spring-time brings forth its flowers and the autumn yields
its fruits. But all the members of that committee, your old
associates and friends, have gone forever from our gaze.