66
come to Oregon; the other ten said that they were not. I know no reason why we may not suppose that the doctor's influence ran through the whole number of immigrants of that year in about the same proportion. If so, we will have to give him credit for influencing nearly one-third of that year's immigration, even if Mr. Evans does say nay. It seems from the answer of some of these emigrants, that Dr. Whitman had been writing newspaper articles and had published a pamphlet descriptive of Oregon, all of which, coming from a man who actually lived here, must have had influence with those men who were so anxious to leave Missouri, Illinois, and other Western States and Territories. He was helping men to buy teams and giving them counsel; stayed back until after a portion of the emigration had started, and then came on, although we are told that his connection commenced with the emigration at the North Platte in June, and that he was "escorted" across the plains by the emigration! Would Mr. Evans have us to understand that the man who had made his way across the plains the winter before, needed an escort to bring him home in the summer? Up to this time no wagon train had ever passed Fort Hall. Had Dr. Whitman not been with the train, I will not undertake to say whether the wagons would have come farther or not. As it was, Grant, the Hudson's Bay trader at that post, tried to induce the immigrants to leave their wagons, as all others had done up to that time. But the doctor insisted on taking the wagons on. Had the wagons been abandoned it is not probable that another emigrant would have tried to cross the plains for years, if ever. A letter now before me from Rev. J. S. Griffin, of Hillsboro, Oregon, tells how Dr. Whitman related this circumstance to Mr. Griffin in 1845. A letter from Hon. John Minto, of Salem, Oregon, who crossed the plains in 1844, says: "I heard Captain Grant * * * tell how he had tried to persuade the immigrants of last year (1843) that they could not get their wagons through." So it seems that Dr. Whitman was an important factor, both in stimulating the emigration of that year as well as of great service in aiding in the successful accomplishment of the undertaking. That emigration, more than any one thing, settled the Oregon question. It drew attention this way: the campaign watchword of 1844 became "Fifty-four forty, or fight," and although it was mostly buncombe, it seated Polk in the presidential chair, and thoroughly committed his administration on the Oregon question.
