Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 8/Number 4 Notes and Reviews
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
The author had met the query stated in the title of this very attractive brochure and proceeded in a thoroughly effective and scholarly manner to answer it. The "co-temporary recorders" of Drake's expedition to the Pacific Coast were carefully ascertained, and the passages from their writings covering Drake's movements on this coast excerpted. Lest he might not have succeeded in finding all of the contemporary sources recourse was had to the expressions on the matter in hand by later reliable historians who might possibly have had access to original sources no longer available to him. The extracts from both the primary and the secondary sources are reproduced, also fac similes of three early maps of Drake's route on this coast. The author's conclusion, that he is "unable to find any reliable evidence" "from a careful study" of these extracts "to show that Drake ever landed anywhere on the Oregon coast," will be accepted by all.
The July number of the "Steel Points," in anticipation of the expedition of the Mountaineers' Club of Seattle into the Olympic region, is devoted mainly to setting forth what had up to that date been ascertained of the Olympics. In addition to articles on the "Names in the Olympic Region" and the ascents of Mount Olympus there is an exhaustive paper by Professor L. F. Henderson on the flora of the region. Mr. George H. Himes contributes papers on the "Discovery of Pacific Coast Glaciers" and on "Very Early Ascents" of Washington peaks.
This compact and very readable sketch of the services and personality of Associate Justice Miller gives what is worth most to know of its subject. The author is perfectly frank. He takes us in behind the curtains and we are enabled to see what influences secured an appointment to the bench of the United States Supreme Court in 1862; what degree of fitness Judge Miller had for his position; and how with his personality and point of view and the cast of his thought he wrought with his associates in determining the trend of the Supreme Court's decisions. The subject was a large one to handle in two hundred pages, but the author has made excellent use of the space he did take.
This is an extended argument to establish two propositions: That Dr. John McLoughlin treated the early settlers in Oregon with humanity and Christian kindness; and that some of the settlers afterwards ill requited his kindness by speaking ill of his treatment and particularly in exerting themselves to deprive him of his rightful holdings under the Government of the United States. Mr. Holman has put the case strongly, and it seems hardly possible that any unbiased reader should lay down the book without the feeling that both propositions are amply sustained by the facts.
In his preface the author says: "The one great theme of the pioneers was and still is Dr. McLoughlin and his humanity." This sentiment of the pioneers is abundantly attested by many of their public utterances. The community, too, seems to have accepted this estimate of Dr. McLoughlin as final, being the estimate of those who were best qualified to judge. This means that the people of Oregon had already accepted as true the first proposition of this book, and needed no proof of it.
The fact that the first proposition was thus generally and cordially accepted would seem to have rendered unnecessary any extended argument on the second. The late comer to Oregon who has heard from the first and always the name of Dr. McLoughlin mentioned only with affection and all but reverence cannot but regret that the author did not follow more closely the plan laid down in the first sentence of his preface and give us in fact "a plain and simple narrative of Dr. John McLoughlin and of his noble career in the early history of Oregon." There is room in the story of Oregon's origin for just such a narrative of the life of this truly noble man, and no one is better furnished for the writing of it than the author of this volume.J. E. WILSON.
Of special value to those interested in Pacific Coast history is the monograph on Trade and Currency in Early Oregon, prepared as a doctor's thesis by James Henry Gilbert and edited by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University. The monograph is a good representative of the kind of work that may be expected to appear with the collection and classification of historical material which has been going on for some time with such good success in Oregon.
Mr. Gilbert treats the two subjects of Trade and Currency together since a knowledge of the currency is dependent on an understanding of the trade relations at various times. A history of the trade of early Oregon would have required fuller treatment had it been the main subject of a thesis, but Mr. Gilbert has subordinated it to his theme and thus avoided the danger of a double subject, and the necessity of fuller treatment.
The thesis is divided into four chapters, each of which deals with one of four periods. The first chapter treats of the fur trade and its development into a monopoly under the Hudson's Bay Company, with the beaver skin as the medium of exchange. The second chapter de- scribes the development of agriculture and the use of wheat as a medium of exchange. The third chapter deals with the changes that followed the discovery of gold in California when the gold dust became a currency and was coined into Beaver Money in Oregon. The fourth chapter covers the period of the Civil War when the government sought to put the legal tenders into circulation.
Mr. Gilbert's treatment of his subject shows diligence in his search of material, thoughtful interpretation of his facts and logical construction into a thesis. His language is clear and fitted to the treatment of such a subject. In reading the thesis one gets a good idea of the stages of development of trade. The isolated condition of the early American settlers is well brought out and their dependence upon the Hudson's Bay Company both in selling and buying, as well as the relief that came with the discovery of gold in California. The use of beaver skins, wheat and store orders are properly distinguished as only a medium of exchange and not money in the full sense of the term. The early currency legislation is interesting and the whole experience of this isolated and primitive community struggling with currency problems illustrates principles in the development of money. It is especially interesting to note that both in custom and legislation the people of early Oregon favored and understood metallic currency even before the discovery of gold made its possession possible in any great quantity. This discovery, however, fixed the habit and lays the basis for that opposition to the legal tenders which makes such an interesting chapter in the monetary history of the whole coast. The opposition to the greenbacks is well analyzed, although it would seem to the reviewer that the latter part of the thesis should have received a fuller treatment, relative to the earlier part. It would, perhaps, lie beyond the scope of the thesis, but the reader cannot help desiring to know the attitude of the Oregon population to the national bank notes when they made their appearance. It would be interesting also to know more fully the influence of the attitude of the Pacific Coast in favor of the specific contract on the development of that idea in national monetary legislation. The use of the gold slug as a medium of exchange for large transactions is not noted.
The diagrams which are used to show the comparative fluctuations of legal tender notes in Oregon and New York City and the comparative table of prices of commodities to show that prices in Oregon did not follow the legal tender fluctuations of the east are instructive and interesting.
JAMES E. ROBERTSON.
Berkeley, California.