admit of."[1] Still again, in a letter to her sister, March 11, in remarking upon the sacrifice of so long separation from her husband, Mrs. Whitman said: "I can see no earthly inducement sufficiently paramount to cause me voluntarily to take upon myself such a painful trial. … But there is one object, our blessed Saviour, for whose sake, I trust, both you as well as we are willing if called to it, to suffer all things. It was for Him, for the advancement of His cause, that I could say to my beloved husband, 'Go; take all the time necessary to accomplish His work; and the Lord go with and bless you.'"[2]
If we compare the situation and purpose revealed by these contemporary private letters from all the parties concerned with the accounts published by Spalding[3] and Gray[4] from which the Legend of Marcus Whitman has been derived it is clear that Spalding's account of the transaction is purely fictitious. There is not a hint of the Walla Walla dinner nor any place for it in the chain of events, and on the other hand Spalding's narrative suppresses the real facts. More than that, "the colony from the Red River" over the "glad news" of whose approach there was such rejoicing, arrived the year before,[5]
- ↑ Letter-book, Oregon Indians.
- ↑ Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association, 1893, 155. That Whitman went east on the business of the mission was a matter of common knowledge at the time. "In 1842 Dr. Whitman visited the United States to obtain further assistance, in order to strengthen the efforts that had already been made. … In 1843 Dr. Whitman returned again to Oregon and resumed his labors." Ten Years in Oregon, by D. Lee and J. H. Frost, N. Y., 1844, 213. According to Nixon, Mrs. Whitman's diary reveals nothing as to a political object. He explains this silence on the ground that absolute secrecy was necessary. How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon, Chicago, 1895, 107. Yet, according to Gray, Whitman defiantly announced his purpose at the Fort Walla Walla dinner. Gray's Oregon, 288. Spalding, in his contemporary letter to Dr. White, the sub-Indian Agent, mentions Whitman's visit to the States, but gives no reason. White's Ten Years in Oregon, 202. Gray's Oregon, 235.
- ↑ Supra, p. 9.
- ↑ History of Oregon, 288, and supra, p. 9.
- ↑ Sir George Simpson, An Overland Journey Round the World, Philadelphia, 1847, 1, 62 and 94. There were twenty-three families in the party. "Chaque année il vient da Canada un certain nombre de families qui ne sont point engagées.
