Lovejoy's reply failed to substantiate the essentials of the Spalding story.[1]
Among the other publications of 1869 which gave currency to the story may be mentioned Mrs. F. F. Victor's The River of the West, an article by her in the Overland magazine,[2] and Dr. Rufus Anderson's Foreign Missions, their Relations and their Claims.[3]
The first elaborate presentation in book form of the legend of Marcus Whitman will be found in Gray's History of Oregon, Portland, 1870. William H. Gray, as has been said, was originally the mechanic and helper at the Whitman mission, from which he resigned in September 1842. As a contemporary of Whitman, his testimony was naturally regarded from the first as an important corroboration of Spalding's narrative. His account, although professedly based upon his own knowledge and interviews with Whitman, was derived from Spalding, whose articles in the Pacific he quotes. Like Spalding, Gray was equally vindictive towards the Hudson's Bay Company and the Catholics, and made repeated use of the Whitman story to create public opinion against them both.[4]
In the following year, 1871, Spalding's compilation, Early Labors of Missionaries in Oregon,[5] which has already been
- ↑ See Lovejoy's letter to Gray of Nov. 6, 1869. Gray's Oregon, 324-327.
- ↑ The River of the West, Hartford, 1869, pp. 308 and 312. Gray's articles in the Astoria Marine Gazette were the source from which she drew the account. The Overland, Aug. 1869, pp. 154-55. Mrs. Victor accepted the incident of the Walla Walla dinner in the Overland article, but expressed some doubt as to whether Whitman exerted any real influence in Washington, or had much to do with starting the emigration of 1843. Five years later in the Overland, 1874, she still accepted the legend in part, pp. 45, 122, and 126. When by subsequent investigation she found that the story was fictitious, and said so, she was denounced as the enemy of missions.
- ↑ New York, 1869, see p. 200. The statement was derived from Doctor Atkinson's speech before the American Board.
- ↑ Gray's Oregon, pp. 288-291, 315-317, 322-327, and 361.
- ↑ Executive Doc. 37, Senate, 41st Cong., Third Session. The true character of Spalding's compilation was set forth in a review in The Catholic World for Feb. 1872, 665-682. This is the only critical examination of this document which I have seen. Internal evidence indicates that it was written by one of the Catholic priests familiar with the events of the massacre, and I am inclined to
