set off
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to him. Some objections have been made to the instrument of March 12, 1852, (known as the escrow) but since the decision by Judjje Sawyer iu Lamb vs. Davenport, no doubt has been entertained of its correctness in principle and its accuracy in detail and as being well-suited to the reiiuire- ment of the occasion. In one or two instances courts have pretended to tlis- criminate of cases that did not fall within its provisions; but there is no oue who openly adopts the authorship of such discrimination, and the decision was manifestly unjust. The covenants of the "omnibus deeds" were also well-suited to the circumstances and situation of titles at the time. In the formation of all of these instruments Ool. Chapman always took a promi- nent part, and his conduct has been fully sustained by the lapse of time and the decisions of the highest courts, and by almost all of the courts. Col. Chapman has always been a man of very great energy. Where he has failed in his enterprises, others have reaped the benefit of fortunes as the re- sult of his pioneering. In order to place Portland ahead of its rivals as the town of Oregon, he and others entered upon the enterprise of purc'iasing the Gold Hunter steamship, to ply between San Francisco and Portland ; but being all unacquainted with nautical affairs the result was that it "bust- ed" them, but it made Portland. Conceiving the idea of a railroad between Salt Lake and Portland as a proper counter-plot to the Northern Pa- cific programme, as it was developed in 1873, when the company failed, which was to ignore Portland and adopt Puget Sound entirely as a tertniu- us. Col. Chapman spent much time and money in favor of the adoption of the Salt Lake (Short Line) route and the building of the railroad ui.- )n the south side of the Columbia river. These problems were discusspd at the East by his espousal of the one, so that when railroad building was com- menced, the south side of the Columbia river was adopted, as a matter of course, for the line of the railroad. Others have reaped the benefit of this work, although but for his eflbrts it would have been otherwise. As a poli- tician. Col. Chapman is a Democrat ; but was always anti-slavery in his views, having voted against slavery in Oregon at the adoption of the consti- tiou. No man, probably, ever was so inherently opposed to trickery, machin- ations and frauds in politics as he. Having taken his political lessons from the age and teachings of such leaders as Webster, Adams, Clay, Marshall and Jefferson, he has throughout his life deprecated and refused to adopt what are termed the common feats of legerdemain in politics, always be- lieving that what could not be done openly to inspection was unworthy. But such is the difference between forty and fifty years ago and now. Col. Chapman is as a connecting link with a past age of American manners and customs, from which the present is far more diiferent than can be readily believed.
J. M, BOWER
Was born in Salem, Clarion county, Penu., in the year 18.52, and in the his- toric and influential Keystone State received his elementary lustructions in the English language. At the age of fifteen he "went to seek his fortune," and landed at Des Moines, Iowa, where he learned the mysteries of the art
