The Log School-House on the Columbia eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 174 pages of information about The Log School-House on the Columbia.

The Log School-House on the Columbia eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 174 pages of information about The Log School-House on the Columbia.

The British claimants of the territory, finding that American immigration was increasing, began to bring settlers from the Red River of the North.  A struggle now began to determine which country should possess this vast and most important territory.  When Dr. Whitman learned of the new efforts of the English to settle the country, and the danger of losing Oregon by treaties pending at Washington, he started for St. Louis, by the way of Santa Fe.  This ride, often called “Whitman’s Ride for Oregon,” is one of the poetical events of American history.  He went to Washington, was treated cavalierly by the State Department, but secured a delay of the treaties, which proved the means of saving Oregon and Washington to the United States.

So his missionary efforts gave to our country an empire that seems destined to become ultimate America, and a power in the Asian world.

III.

GOVERNOR STEVENS.

In the long line of brave American soldiers, General Isaac Ingalls Stevens deserves a noble rank in the march of history.  He was born at Andover, Mass., and was educated at West Point, where he was graduated from the Military Academy in 1839 with the highest honors.  He was on the military staff of General Scott in Mexico, and held other honorable positions in the Government service in his early life.

But the great period of his life was his survey of the Northern route to the Pacific, since largely followed by the Northern Pacific Railroad, and his development of Washington Territory as a pioneer Governor.  He saw the road to China by the way of the Puget Sea, and realized that Washington stood for the East of the Eastern Continent and the Western.  He seems to have felt that here the flag would achieve her greatest destiny, and he entered upon his work like a knight who faced the future and not the past.  His survey of the Northern Pacific route led the march of steam to the Puget Sea, and the great steamers have carried it forward to Japan, China, and India.

His first message to the Legislature at Olympia (1854) was a map of the future and a prophecy.  It was a call for roads, schools, a university, and immigration.  The seal of Washington was made to bear the Indian word Alke—­“by and by”—­or “in the future.”  It also was a prophecy.

He created the counties of Sawanish, Whatcom, Clallam, Chehalis, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Skamania, and Walla Walla.  Olympia was fixed upon as the seat of government, and measures were taken by the Government for the regulation of the Indian tribes.

Stevens was the military leader of the Indian war.  He reduced the tribes to submission, and secured a permanent peace.  He was elected to Congress as a Territorial delegate in 1857, and sought at Washington as earnestly as on the Puget Sea the interests of the rising State.

He was a man of great intellect, of a forceful and magnetic presence—­a man born to lead in great emergencies.  He carried New England ideas and traditions to the Pacific, and established them there for all time to come, creating there a greater New England which should gather to its harbors the commerce of the world.

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The Log School-House on the Columbia from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.