That this explanation is a mere afterthought, to supply a political crisis to account for Whitman's journey when the Walla Walla dinner story collapsed is as nearly certain as anything of the kind can be.
In the first place, the immigration of 1842 was organized by Dr. Elijah White with the approval and encouragement of the Administration in Washington, from which he received the commission of sub-Indian Agent, with the assurance that if Dr. Linn's Oregon bill passed Congress he would receive an appointment as Agent.[1] Lovejoy joined the immigration from western Missouri, and would derive his notions of the policy of the government in regard to Oregon from Dr. White. The first American that White saw after he crossed the Blue Mountains was Dr. Whitman. "The visit was very agreeable to both, as he had much to tell Dr. White of Oregon affairs, and the Dr. him of his two years' residence in the States."[2] Dr. White then went on to the Willamette Valley, where he called a meeting "for the purpose of communicating certain information from the government of the United States, relative to this country."[3] The drift of this communication can be gathered from the resolutions drawn up by the meeting. The most significant for our purpose is the first one: "That we, the citizens of Willamette valley, are exceedingly happy in the consideration that the government of the United States have manifested their intentions through their agent, Dr. E. White, of extending their jurisdiction and protection over this country."[4]
It is then from Mr. Lovejoy and others of Dr. White's party, as Dr. Geiger solemnly informs us after forty years, that Dr. Whitman learned "that the United States was
- ↑ Letter of Ex-Secretary of War J. C. Spencer to Dr. White, under date of July 29, 1846. "You was," writes Spencer, "to raise as large a company of our citizens as possible, to proceed with you, and settle in Oregon." Ten Years in Oregon. Travels and Adventures of Dr. E. White and Lady, etc. Ithaca, 1850, 322–325. This will be cited henceforth as White's Ten Years in Oregon.
- ↑ White's Ten Years in Oregon, 166.
- ↑ Ibid., 168. The meeting was held Sept. 23, not June 23 as printed.
- ↑ Ibid., 169.
Washington at once and stay such proceedings if possible." C. H. Farnam, Descendants of John Whitman of Weymouth, Mass., New Haven, 1889, 237.
