The Whitman Controversy/4. Rev. M. Eells
[From the Sunday Oregonian of February 8, 1885.]
DR. WHITMAN.
Reply to Honorable Elwood Evans.
BY REV. M. EELLS.
In the Weekly Oregonian of December 26 is an article from Hon. Elwood Evans about Dr. Whitman in reply to one by Mr. E. C. Ross. I would be glad of the privilege of correcting some mistakes and making a few remarks in regard to it.
Governor Evans has found one witness, Dr. C. Eells, who has made a clear statement of his knowledge in regard to Dr. Whitman's journey East, and his object in doing so. It by no means agrees with Governor Evans' theory; hence, he must destroy the evidence. Knowing that Dr. Eells has as fair a reputation for truthfulness as some other common mortals, he very kindly has simply charged the fault to Dr. Eells' memory thirty-six years after the memorable journey. I do not deny that the memory of aged people is sometimes treacherous as well as that of some of us who are younger; but whether it failed Dr. E. at this time must be decided after reading the following: In 1882 I published a pamphlet about Dr. Whitman, his journey East in 1842, and what he did to save Oregon and promote the immigration of 1843. I sent a copy of this to Gov. Evans. [Others can have copies of it they wish by writing to me.] I speak of this because I wish to refer to it in this reply to Gov. Evans. In two or three points Gov. Evans has at tempted to show that Dr. Eells' memory was at fault.
First—Gov. Evans says: "W. H. Gray, in the fall of 1841 had become dissatisfied at and with the mission, and early in 1842 had removed with his family to Wallamet Valley. It is certain that he was not at Waiilatpu after June, 1842; so if he was present at the meeting referred to [Sept., 1842], as stated by Eells, then such meeting could have been no other than the annual meeting, in June. But Mr. Eells is mistaken on that point, for Gray had removed to Wallamet as early in 1842 as he could find conveyance to the Wallamet."
Mr. Gray had not removed with his family to the Wallamet early in 1843. A few years ago Mrs. Victor maee the same state-that Mr. Gray was in the Wallamet in September, 1842, and so could not have been at that meeting. Mr. Gray replied in the Astorian by saying that when he first went down, he did not take his wife, eldest son and two little daughters with him, and that he returned to his family at Waiilatpu September 21, 1842. If there are any who doubt Mr. Gray's statement and think they know more than he does about it, I will add that I have the copy of the first letter written by Mrs. Whitman to her husband after he left for the East in 1842. I copied it from the original, which was loaned me a year or two ago. It was begun October 4, 1842. On that day she wrote: "Mr. G. and family did not leave till this morning." On the 7th she wrote that Mungo returned this eve (from Fort Walla Walla), bringing letters from Mr. McKinlay and Brother Gray," who, it seems, was not off yet.
Second—He says: "Rev. Henry H. Spalding, under date of January 9, 1843, uses language which leaves no doubt whatever that no meeting had been held since June touching or concerning Dr. Whitman's journey to the East."
This is a mistake, although Governor Evans devotes considerable space to prove his point. From circumstantial evidence in the annual report of the American Board for 1843 (page 169) it is stated that "early in the autumn of last year, and immediately after receiving the instructions of the Prudential Committee to discontinue the southern branch of the Oregon mission, a meeting of the missionaries from all the stations was held to consider the course to be adopted." It also says he started October 3d. Forty-one years after this was| published |Governor Evans says it was in the early summer. In the Missionary Herald for September, 1843, I read: "At a special meeting of the mission, held in October last, to consider this decision [i. e., the one by the Board to discontinue the southern branch] it was thought advisable that Dr. Whitman should personally communicate the condition and prospects of these stations to the Prudential Committee." Here is a point which I wish to make. Governor Evans says—"The official organ of the American Board of Foreign Missions should be accepted as conclusive authority." He then makes a lengthy quotation from the Missionary Herald of September, 1842, beginning thus—" It was thought advisable that Dr. Whitman should personally communicate," etc., as I have given above. He begins a quotation in the middle of the sentence and leaves out the first part, which says the meeting was held, which he tries to prove was not held. On noticing this I have wondered whether he was seeking for veritable history or whether he was still the paid attorney of the Hudson's Bay Company in regard to their Vancouver claim, or some other company.
I acknowledge there is a slight discrepancy between that quotation and Dr. Eells' statement, who says that the meeting was held in September, a discrepancy of five days, not very strange in an editorial written in Boston. The fact is, Dr. Eells is right, for the journal of Rev. E. Walker, deceased, for September 20, 1843, Tuesday, says: "Just as we were about to sit down to breakfast the long looked for express came in with some letters from the Doctor and Mr. Greene [Sec'y at Boston of the Mission Board]. The Doctor requested us to come down immediately." On Wednesday, the 2 1st, they started. On Sunday they were at the Touchet, and on Monday they reached Dr. Whitman's, and that evening, the next day and Wednesday morning the discussions were held according to this journal. So in these instances cotemporary evidence shows that Dr. Eells' memory is of more value than Governor Evans' reasoning. It has always seemed to me strange that persons who were not in the country knew much better what was done eight years before than those who did the things.
Third—Again I quote: "No living person in Oregon or Washington prior to July 4, 1865, ever heard national motive or political influence attributed to the winter journey of Dr. Whitman in 1842-43."
As Governor Evans has been so particular as to day and month, I must say he is mistaken. If he had only said that he had never heard it, I should make no criticism. In my pamphlet on the subject (page 21), are these words—" Dr. Geiger's statement gives one reason why it was not immediately published—because it would arouse the enmity of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mrs Walker gives another—for fear it would bring disgrace on the mission. Still it was given earlier than Mrs. Victor is willing to allow. The writer can remember of hearing of it between 1857 and 1862. Mr. Spalding published it in the Pacific (of San Francisco) in 1864. Rev. C. Eells published it in the Missionary Herald in December, 1866, and Mr. Treat, one of the secretaries of the A. B. C. F. M., made great use of it almost as soon as it was obtained from Mr. Eells, and it was copied into many prominent Eastern papers. Mr. Eells then said, in the hearing of the writer, to his wife, substantially as follows: "See what a great man like Mr. Treat can do with such a fact. The world is greatly aroused by it, while we less noted ones have been trying to say the same things for years, but the world does not get hold of it until a great man makes it public."
Mr. S. A. Clarke wrote it for the Sacramento Union in 1864. Previous to the writing of this article by Mr. Clarke, Mr. Moores of Marion county, speaker of the house, related the story to the Oregon Legislature when the hatchet with which Dr. Whitman was killed was presented to the legislature.
Fourth—Still he says: "In 1866 Rev. Cushing Eells had in his possession at the time he made his statement of that year, all the official records of the missions, the minutes of all the missionary meetings."
I can not conceive where Governor Evans obtained his information, certainly not from any member of Dr. Eells' family. As a member of that family I deny the statement. In my pamphlet (page 10) Dr. Eells, under oath, says—"record of the date and acts of the meeting was made. The book containing the same was in the possession of the Whitman family. At the time of the massacre, November 29, 1847, disappeared."
Fifth—Still further, he says: "The assertion that those records were destroyed by fire in 1872 will not be accepted as a satisfactory excuse that between 1865 and 1862 those minutes were not appealed to."
The above quotation from Dr. Eells settles this statement. I am not aware that anybody except Governor Evans ever made that assertion.
Sixth—While Mrs. Victor thinks that Governor Ramsey must have seen Dr. White, who was in Washington the year before Dr. Whitman went there, Mr. Evans thinks he saw Rev. J. Lee. He says—"cotemporary history establishes that Rev. Jason Lee, the pioneer missionary of Oregon, was in Washington that winter [1843-4] and without doubt Governor Ramsey has confounded Dr. Whitman with that eminent missionary."
Cotemporary history establishes the fact that Rev. J. Lee was not in Washington during that winter. Rev. G. Hines, in his "History of Oregon," (chapter x.) says that Mr. Lee and himself and others left Columbia for the United States via the Sandwich Islands January 31, 1844, and they reached the Islands February 26. Here they found no vessel sailing for the United States, but a small Hawaiian schooner, the Hoa Tita, was about to sail for Mazatlan, Mexico. It was found, however, that it could accommodate but one passenger. As Mr. Lee's business was the most urgent, it was decided that he should go, while Mr. Hines returned to Oregon. Accordingly Mr. Lee left the Sandwich Islands February 28, 1844, for Mazatlan, with the intention of crossing Mexico and so proceeding to the United States." How long it took him to accomplish the journey in such a small craft and by that route in those days, I have not been able to discover; but he certainly was not in Washington that winter, nor could he have been until late in the spring or in the summer.
Seventh—Mr. Evans' first three conclusions are that Dr. Whitman's winter journey of 1842-3 had no political intent, or significance whatever; that no feeling as to the Oregon boundary controversy, or desire or wish to defeat British claim to the territory or any part of it had any influence in actuating such journey; but that his exclusive purpose was to prevent the giving up of the southern branch of the mission. As Governor Evans knows more about it than those- who conversed with Dr. Whitman on the subject, it must be so; but it is very strange that at least eleven men, scattered from Washington to Connecticut, all of whom talked with him on the subject, some of them his most intimate friends, and some of them hardly more than passing acquaintances, as Dr. William Barrows and Mr. Hale; some of them missionaries and some of whom had but little sympathy with missionary work, and some of whom never saw or heard of each other until lately, state that he said to each of them that he went with this intent, to save the country. The statement of ten of these, some of them under oath, is given in my pamphlet. They are William Geiger, Jr., now of Forest Grove, Oregon, who had charge of Dr. Whitman's station during his absence; Rev. H. H. Spalding, Hon. W. H. Gray, Rev. C. Eells, D.D. and Mrs. Mary R. Walker, his missionary associates; Hon. A. L. Lovejoy, deceased, who was Dr. Whitman's traveling companion during that journey East; Mr. P. B. Whitman, of Lapwai, Idaho, a nephew of Dr. Whitman, and who came out with him in 1843; Hon. A. Hinman of Forest Grove, who came in 1844 and taught school the next winter at Dr. Whitman's; J. J. Parker, M.D. of Ithaca, N. Y., a son of Rev. S. Parker, who came to the coast in 1835, and with whom Dr. Whitman consulted while on his way to Washington; Rev. William Barrows, D.D., of Massachusetts, who met Dr. Whitman in St. Louis in 1843. In addition to their evidence I found, last summer, among the papers left by Rev. H. H. Spalding, a letter from Edward Hale, a dentist, to Mr. Spalding. Mr. Hale's letter was dated at North Cornwall, Conn., July 19, 1871, when he was seventy years old. He says: "1 had the pleasure of entertaining Dr. Whitman at St. Louis on his last visit eastward to confer with the President and heads of department in relation to the settlement of the northeast boundary question with Great Britain by bartering away for a song the whole of the northwestern Pacific territory. Also on his return to Oregon my house was [his] home while in St. Louis." All of these eleven persons say that Dr. Whitman went East with a political intent to save the country, while Governor Evans says he did not.
It is certainly very strange that these eleven persons should conspire together to impose the story on the public; some of whom have never seen each other, and others of whom said to me they had no idea of the testimony of others until I informed them of it. I doubt whether any of those witnesses now living have ever heard of Mr. Hale before this. If they had concocted the story they would certainly have arranged so that their stories should at least wholly agree—but as it is, one person brings up an item of which the others never heard, as for instance Mr. Hinman's story about Dr. Whitman's interview with Horace Greely on the subject, while in some minor matters, Mr. Spalding, Mr. Gray and Dr. Eells fail to agree. Is it not more strange that these persons should have concocted the story than that Dr. Whitman should have gone East with political as well as missionary intent? Neither have I ever been able to see how this should impugn Mr. Webster's patriotism and character, but only his knowledge; and no man can know everything. In 1844 the renowned lawyer, Mr. Choate, spoke in the senate about "equivalents for Oregon," but his character and patriotism are not impeached. Neither is that of Mr. Dayton, who, February 23 and 24, 1844, gave as bad a description of Oregon as the most one-sided Englishman. The fact is, but very few of us have understood the full value of this country. Old residents have been astonished to see how the sage-brush land of the inland empire has developed. Hence it is not strange if Mr. Webster did not understand its value.
Governor Evans says—"That he in any manner whatever or in the most remote degree stimulated the great immigration of 1843, is as untenable as the political claim we have been discussing. No opportunity had ever occurred for meeting parties who could be influenced to go to Oregon. In those early days the Oregon immigrant had to arrange in the fall of the preceding year for the next year's journey. Dr. Whitman's connection with that great immigration commenced with the crossing of the North Platte river in June, where he overtook the train.
I claim four mistakes in those four sentences, and the evidence to sustain it comes from the immigrants of that year. I have never been able to assent on the one hand to Mr. Spalding's statement that Dr. Whitmun originated the whole of that immigration, because the testimony of some of the immigrants is against it. Nor have I been able on the other hand to accept Governor Evans' assertion that he had nothing to do with it until he overtook it on the Platte, because the testimony of some of the immigrants is against that also. In my pamphlet from pages 26 to 31 is the testimony of fourteen of those emigrants, and I wrote to all the living immigrants of that year whose post office address I could obtain. Ten of these say that nothing that Dr. Whitman said or wrote induced them to start for Oregon, namely: Hon. L. Applegate, Hon. J. Applegate, Hon. J. M. Shively, Messrs. A. Hill, Matheny, W. J. Dougherty, S. M. Gilmore, J. B. McLane, J. G. Baker and Hon. J. W. Nesmith. Four others state that it was the representations of Dr. Whitman by a pamphlet, newspaper articles and personal conversation, which induced them to come, namely: Mrs. C. B. Carey, Hon. John Hobson, and Messrs. William Waldo and John Zachrey. All of these, I think, came from Missouri except Mr. Zachrey, who was from Texas. Mr. Hobson was from England on his way to Wisconsin, but was in St. Louis when the family met Dr. Whitman, who persuaded them to come to Oregon. Even Dr. Whitman in a letter which he wrote from Westport May, 28, 1843, says that no sheep are going "from a mistake of what I said when passing."
According to Hines' History of Oregon, published in 1851, even the Indians understood, before Dr. Whitman's return in 1843, that he had gone with the avowed purpose to bring back as large an immigration as possible. As far as having to get ready the fall before, even Hon. L. Applegate says it was not till the 1st of March, 1843, that he put a notice in the Booneville, Mo., Herald that an effort would be made to get up an emigration for Oregon. He also says about the same time a similar effort was made in the north part of the state. Gov. P. H. Burnett, in his Recollections of An Old Pioneer (and I had nothing to do with getting up that book) says that he kept a concise journal of the trip as far as Walla Walla and I have it now before me. According to him a meeting of the emigrants was held at the rendezvous, twelve miles west of Independence, Missouri, on May 18, which adjourned to meet at Big Springs. At the first meeting a committee was appointed to see Dr. Whitman and at the second lie met Dr. Whitman. (Messrs. Nesmith, Dougherty, and Gilmore agree with this statement). It was not till the 24th of July that he crossed the north fork of the Platte (pp. 101, 114). Consequently I assert that in some degree Dr. Whitman did stimulate the immigration of 1843; that he had an opportunity for meeting parties who could be influenced to come to Oregon; that all the emigrants did not have to arrange for the journey the preceding fall; and that Dr. Whitman's connection with that immigration did not begin with the crossing of the north fork of the Platte.
If I am not greatly mistaken I have seen nearly all the books from which I have quoted in Governor Evans' library, for he has been very successful in collecting works on the early history of this Northwest Coast—consequently he has had an opportunity of learning most of the facts which I have stated. From the number of mistakes which he has thus made the public must judge of the value of his article. But if he has made even half as many mistakes, been half as unsuccessful in his researches and unluky in his quotations with reference to Eastern matters on the subject where he does not live, as he has about these Western matters where he does live, has he not at least been extremely unfortunate? Both Mrs. Victor and Governor Evans have charged Mr. Spalding and Mr. Gray with strange blunders and mistakes, and yet after all of their investigation during nearly twenty years, it seems that they have made as many mistakes and as strange ones as either of these gentlemen, as I have showed in this article, and the one of The Oregonian of January 11—hence, is it too much to ask that in regard to some other of their statements about the affairs at Washington connected with this subject, they be required to give book and page from which they quote, so that others can verify the truth or mistake of their statements.