same paper they learned that the frigate Congress, Commander Dupont, with Commodore Stockton on board, had sailed for the Pacific coast, her cruising ground supposed to be the Oregon coast; and also that it was rumored that the whole British force in the Pacific was making sail for the Columbia River.[1]
There was always something to protract anxiety; yet the colonists continued the cultivation of their fields, building, and road-making, with unceasing faith that their claims to land and improvements would be protected. In this spirit preparations were made for a Fourth-of-July celebration in Salem, recently so named, and in Oregon City. At the latter place was erected a liberty-pole presented to the committee of arrangements by William Holmes; a round of thirty-one guns was fired, and an oration delivered by Peter H. Burnett,[2] which was followed by a dinner and toasts, with cheering and firing of guns, the festivities being concluded by a ball in the evening.
At Salem the management of the celebration was placed in the hands of the newly organized military company, the Oregon Rangers. It was on this occasion that the company was presented with a flag made by Mrs Horace Holden and Miss Looney. The
- ↑ Honolulu Friend, May 1, 1846; Polynesian, April 25, 1846.
- ↑ As this was the first public celebration by the colonists of the Fourth of July, the following facts concerning its observance may not be without interest. The procession was formed under the management of Wm Finley, marshal of the day, at the City Hotel, kept by H. M. Knighton, and marched to the Methodist church, the flag of the United States being borne at the head. The ceremonies opened with prayer by J. L. Parrish; the declaration of independence was read by A. L. Lovejoy, after which followed the oration of Judge Burnett. The assembly then marched back to the hotel, where a public dinner was served, after which the usual toasts were read, with cheering and firing of guns, but without the use of wines or liquors. There were 13 regular toasts, full of the spirit of 1776, and a number of others, all more or less colored by the peculiar situation of the country. The toast, 'Oregon belonging to the United States and rightfully claiming her protection, and ever ready to repel any insult offered in seducing her from that path by hired emissaries, come from what source they may,' was received with 10 cheers and 3 guns. 'The United States of America, an example for the world, a bone of jealousy to tyrants, the home of the free, the land of the brave, and an asylum of the oppressed,' received 13 cheers and 5 guns. Among the volunteer toasts was one by A. L. Lovejoy, 'May the time soon cone when the lion and unicorn may cease to go about the North American continent seeking whom they may bite!' Oregon Spectator, July 9, 1846.
