Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 19/An Event of One Hundred Years Ago
AN EVENT OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
By T. C. ELLIOTT.
The calendar year nineteen hundred and eighteen marks important centenaries in Oregon history which even the stress of war activities should not permit to go by unnoticed, although not formally commemorated. The immediate events belong more particularly to the vicinity of the mouth of the Columbia river, but their significance and influence apply to the entire stretch of the Oregon Country facing the waters of the Pacific ocean and extending back as far as the summit of the Rocky mountains. They relate to the chain of title by which Oregon finally became a part of the grand Republic now shedding the blood of her sons in the struggle to preserve the civilization of the world from autocratic rule and military aggrandizement. The events of 1818 also direct attention to the fact that the history of Oregon abounds in dramatic incident.
In the early morning of August 19th, 1818, a sloop of war floating the stars and stripes dropped anchor close to Peacock Spit off the bar at the entrance to the Columbia river. This vessel, named the Ontario, was of five hundred and fifty-nine tons burden, carried twenty guns and a crew of one hundred and fifty officers and seamen, and was under the command of Captain James Biddle. By direction of the State Department of the United States she had sailed from New York in October, 1817, under commission "to proceed to the Columbia River, with a view to assert on the part of the United States the claim to the sovereignty, by some symbolical or appropriate mode adapted to the occasion." Leaving his vessel at anchor outside the bar Captain Biddle "proceeded in with three boats well armed and manned with more than fifty officers and seamen." The party landed inside Cape Disappointment on the quiet shore of Baker's Bay near where the buildings of Fort Canby are now located, and there went through the ceremonies of waving and saluting the American flag (with three cheers), of turning up a sod of earth and 182 T. C. ELLIOTT nailing a leaden tablet to a tree. Meantime the guns of the sloop roared in salute, the few Chinook Indians who happened to be present looked on in wonder, and the fur traders at Fort George fifteen miles away were suddenly awakened from the monotony of their secluded life. Immediately after- ward the boats proceeded up along the north side of the river to Chinook Point where Captain Bid : dle called briefly upon Comcomly, the one-eyed chief of the Chinook Indians who was inseparable from anything of importance that took place along the lower Columbia during those days ; then crossed the four mile width of river to Fort George (Astoria) for a call upon Chief Factor James Keith of the North- West Company ; then proceeded down the south shore to Point George (Smith Point, Astoria), and repeated the ceremonies of taking formal possession; and then returned to Chinook Point to spend the night. The next morning the party returned on board the Ontario and the anchor was raised and her course laid to the southward again. That part of Captain Biddle's report which includes this event has been printed in the Oregon Hist. Quar- terly (see Vol. Ill, pp. 310-11) and furnishes the source for the above narrative. The caution of Captain Biddle in anchoring outside the bar was quite indicative of a good naval officer: not to unneces- sarily endanger his vessel when on a distant coast. It will be remembered that Captain George Vancouver in 1792 declined to take his vessel into the Columbia but anchored four or five miles at sea. Evidently the Ontario was anchored closer in since her guns at the proper moment took part in the ceremonials. And evidently August 19th, 1818, was one of those beautiful summer days such as present day visitors at Cape Disappointment keenly enjoy. Another account of the occurrences of this 19th day of August, 1818, has not yet been printed on the Pacific Coast. It is found in a journal kept by one of the officers of the "Ontario," Lieut. J. H. Aulick, and gives us a glimpse of the physical conditions at Astoria at that time. "At 9 A. M. the ist and 2nd cutters and the jolly-boat were hoisted out and EVENT OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 183 manned with fifty men well armed ; Capt. Biddle and Dr. Hoff- man in the first, myself in the second, and Lieutenant Voorhees in the last, set off for the river for the purpose of taking pos- session of the country that bounds it, in the name of our coun- try." After mentioning their inability to land on the outer shore of Cape Disappointment because of the reefs and heavy seas and their passage in by the channel, the journal continues : "And with the usual forms took possession of the country in the name and on the behalf of the United States of America. The ship about this time fired a national salute. We nailed up a piece of lead to a tree, on which was inscribed an account of what we had done ; gave three cheers and drank success to the new enterprise." Here is given a description of the Chinook Indians. "From the Chennook village we stood across the river for the establishment founded here by Mr. Astor of New York, and now in the possession of the English N. W. Company. As we approached it I had the mortification to see the British flag run up, and to know that Captain Biddle was not authorized by his instructions to haul it down and place in its stead the American standard. The establishment consists of one large two story and four or five small dwelling houses, two or three stores, and other out-houses, round the whole of which there is a strong and high picket. There is at this time but three guns mounted, although they have five or six more without carriages. Twenty-five whites, and the same number of Sandwich Islanders, constitute the present force of the settlement. The place is commanded by James Keith, a Scotchman. On our way back we landed at Point George and took formal possession of the country on that side of the river in the name and on behalf of the United States, nailed up a board, on the one side of which was painted the American coat of arms, and on the other an inscription, the same as that on the lead put up at Cape Disappointment." (See Amer. Hist. Record, Vol. Ill, pp. 292-3.) This description of Fort George (Astoria) is of interest in connection with the statement made by Mr. W. A. Slacum, 184 T. C. ELLIOTT who as official repreesntative of the United States govern- ment spent about six weeks in Oregon during the winter of 1836-7. He wrote : "Soon after the departure of the United States Ship Ontario, Captain Biddle, the buildings at Fort George were destroyed by fire." (See p. 184, Vol. 13 of Or. Hist. Quar.). The correctness of this tale to Mr. Slacum is somewhat doubtful; no other document of that period men- tions such an event, as far as now known to the writer. The establishment was certainly intact in October, 1818, when Mr. J. B. Prevost and Captain Hickey were there in H. M. S. Blossom. The contiguous location of so many wooden build- ings inside a wooden stockade would naturally have occasioned a general conflagration had any occurred, and such disaster would probably have been mentioned by others. The caution of Captain Biddle in not attempting to lower the British flag is also of interest, as it would have been quite in keeping with his reputation for boldness and firmness to have done just that thing. Doubtless Chief Factor Keith was expecting him to do so as word had been sent from London by way of Montreal and Fort William that a war vessel had been dispatched to the Columbia river for some such purpose. When the Ontario sailed from New York she also carried as joint special commissioner to represent the United States at this surrender, Mr. J. B. Prevost, appointee of the State Department. Upon arrival in South American waters it was found that no officer of the British naval forces had received instructions in this matters and so Mr. Prevost deemed it wise to delay a little and disembarked from the Ontario at Lima or Valparaiso. At this very date, August 19th, 1818, however, he was sailing north in a British naval vessel, the Blossom, as guest of a British officer also designated to proceed to the Columbia on this errand. Possibly a difference of opinion existed between Captain Biddle and Mr. Prevost, but that concerns more properly an account of the acts of Mr. Prevost. The instructions were to assert the claim "in a friendly and peaceable manner, and without the employment of force." Captain James Biddle of the Ontario was a member of the EVENT OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 185 distinguished Philadelphia family of that name, whose ances- tors came to America in the time of William Penn. He was thirty-five years of age in 1818 and! already had performed many important duties as naval officer. As a midshipman he was one of those in 1803 who were wrecked off Tripoli and held as prisoners during the war with the Barbary States. During the War of 1812 with Great Britain he performed distinguished services, was wounded, captured and exchanged, and when in command of the "Hornet" sank an enemy vessel in a dual battle, and was presented with a gold' medal by Congress after the close of the war. In 1845 he was flag officer in the East India Squadron and assisted in negotiating our first treaty with China. When on his way to Oregon in 1818 he found a state of revolution existing in Chili and a squadron of Spanish naval vessels blockading the port of Valparaiso. The Spanish commodore in command sent word to Captain Biddle not to enter that harbor, but to this notification the Captain replied' that his government had instructed him to enter the port of Valparaiso and that it was necessary for him to do so, and he then proceeded to sail in. He remained in South American waters during- the duration of this struggle, protecting American shipping and acting as a sort of mediator between the two warring nations, and after- ward was officially thanked by Spain for the service rendered. He then continued up the coast to the Columbia river. His official report which is on file in the Navy Department at Washington contains much that is of interest in addition to the portion relating to the ceremonies in the Columbia. Aside from there being some satisfaction to Captain Biddle in being assigned to a mission which included a surrender by the British as a result of the war of 1812 there may have been a peculiar personal interest to him in visiting the mouth of the Columbia river. It will be remembered that the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were officially edited by Nicholas Biddle of Philadelphia under appointment from President Thomas Jefferson. These two members of the Biddle family seem to have been cousins (the writer is not 186 T. C. ELLIOTT positive of this) and were of nearly the same age, and entered the government service at about the same time, one in the field of diplomacy and the other in the navy. There exists a strong presumption therefore that Captain Biddle had some knowledge of the country at the mouth of the Columbia river through his relative, Nicholas Biddle, and hence may have been able to converse with Comcomly and Chief Factor Keith with some personal intelligence, and perhaps to have avoided contact with the fleas Lewis and Clark had found so numerous in their camp near Chinook Point. In 1818 Oregon was not known among nations by that name, but was called the Columbia River Country or the Northwest Coast of America. The Ontario was the first United States naval vessel that ever visited this Columbia River Country and her dispatch to this region was in reality the first official act of the United States Government in asserting her title to Oregon. The insertion of the word "possessions" in Article I. of the Treaty of Ghent (December, 1814) and the brief inquiry by our Department of State in 1815 were the pre- liminaries. The official immediately responsible for the send- ing of the Ontario may have been John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State under President Monroe, for in a letter to Mr. Rush, our Minister at London, dated May 20th, 1818, Mr. Adams authorized the following explanation to Lord Castlereigh, the British Foreign Secretary: that "the expedition was determined and the vessel dispatched during the President's absence from the seat of government last season." It had been suggested then and in later discussions was claimed that the quiet and sudden departure of the Ontario was a bit of sharp practice on the part of the United States. It is not intended to suggest that President Monroe was unaware of the appointment of and intended departure of Mr. Prevost upon this mission but that John Quincy Adams as the leader of the three commissioners who had negotiated the treaty of Ghent and immediately after as U. S. Minister to England had wide knowledge of and especial interest in the claims of the United States to the Columbia River Country, and that his influence in the Monroe administration was very great.
During recent years casual writers of history have accorded some emphasis to a mistaken doctrine that Oregon was nearly lost to the United States through the indifference of the government and the people. Mr. H. Addington Bruce, a gifted writer upon a wonderfully wide range of subjects, in his "The Romance of American Expansion," 1909, advanced this conclusion. In this year, 1918, Bishop James Bashford of the M. E. Church in his "The Oregon Mission" (p. 81) concurs with Mr. Bruce. In that connection it is not amiss to direct attention to the friendly attitude to Oregon acquisition of John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, whose career needs no rehearsing, 'during all of the years 1814-1846. In the same letter to Mr. Rush he wrote: "If the United States leave her (Great Britain) in undisturbed enjoyment of all her holds upon Europe, Asia and Africa, with all her actual possessions in this hemisphere, we may fairly expect that she will not think it consistent either with a wise or friendly policy to watch with eyes of jealousy and alarm every possibility of extension to our natural dominion in North America, which she can have no solid interest to prevent, until all possibility of her preventing it shall have vanished."