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CHAPTER VII
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TERRITORY AND STATE
''The West" of the days of the Revolution was embraced within the limits of the Atlantic coast and longitude 89 degrees west from Greenwich, or 12 degrees west from Washington, D. C. Compare this narrow strip of territory with the magnitude of the Northwest of today and remember, also, that the geographical center of the United States, from east to west, lies at a point in the Pacific Ocean six hundred miles west from San Francisco, California. From the latter fact we are enabled to obtain a fair comprehension of the extreme western extension of our Alaskan possessions.
States have increased, territorially, since the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. The "midgets," smaller than many western counties, lie along the Atlantic shore. Washington, the "Evergreen State," of whose stirring and romantic past this history treats, is more than three-fourths the size of New York and Pennsylvania, combined, or more than equalling the size of all Kentucky, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware and Maryland. Its area is 69,994 square miles. Its entire western boundary is washed by the waves of the Pacific; the great "ill-tasting lake" of the Indians; discovered by Balboa and once claimed in all its sublime immensity by Spain as her own national property. From British Columbia it is separated by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which forms its boundary until it reaches a point where the 49th degree of north latitude crosses the strait. Thence the northern boundary line of Washington runs east on the 49th parallel two hundred and fifty miles nearly to the 117th degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and thence south to the 46th degree of latitude; thence west on that degree until the Columbia river is reached, where Klickitat, Walla Walla and Yakima counties converge, the Columbia river then forming its southern boundary on to the coast.
The Puget Sound Basin and the great valley of the Upper Columbia combine to greatly
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diversify the topography of Washington. Between these two distinctively marked territories runs the Cascade Range of mountains, north and south, separating "The Inland Empire" from "The Coast," or variably, "The Sound Country." This mountain range is, in its entirety, one of the most imposing on the North American continent. Creeping upward from the far south, for hundreds of miles but a succession of low hills, or chain of buttes, the range grows bolder in contour and height until to the far north Mount St. Elias accentuates its most imposing altitude. Volcanic, snow-capped cones rise to heights of fifteen and twenty thousand feet, and a number of the highest of these are within the boundaries of Washington.
In a preceding chapter outlining the "Oregon Controversy," it was noted that in 1846, when the southern line of British Columbia was finally determined, all that remained south of that boundary to the 43d parallel was called Oregon. In 1849 a territorial government was granted covering all the original Oregon. It was then an indefinite region embracing the lands lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and north of the 43d parallel. In 1851 steps were taken toward dividing Oregon. All that portion north and west of the Columbia river was thrown into a new territory, supplied with a distinct territorial government. No opposition having appeared either from the Oregon legislature or from congress the consummation of this division was effected in 1853. Then Washington embraced the rather indefinite territory of Idaho. Oregon became a state in 1859. Washington, then including Idaho, was under territorial government, remaining thus until March 3, 1863. when the territory of Idaho was set off by congress. The eastern portion of Washington, from a line near the 117th degree of west longitude, and portions of Montana, Dakota and Nebraska combined to form the creation of Idaho at that period.
Of the first inroads of civilization, aside from the Hudson's Bay Company, into the territory of Oregon, then including Washington, Archibald M'Vickar writes:
The earliest emigration from the United States for the purpose of settlement in this territory was in 1832. Three years afterward a small party went out by land with Nathaniel Wyeth, of the Boston Fishing and Trading Company under the direction of Rev. James Lee and David Lee, who established a mission settlement among the Callopoewah Indians, on the Willamette river. This colony afterward received some small accessions, and in November, 1839, Rev. James Lee sailed from the United States for the Columbia river with a party of fifty-four persons, among them six missionaries and a physician, with their families. This party arrived safely out, and the annual report of the missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal church, in May, 1841, presents a favorable account of their labors among the Indians. Some parties of young men had started for the Columbia from states bordering on the Mississippi. The whole number directly attached to the mission is only sixty-eight, including men, women and children. The first settlers along the river, according to Mr. Parker, who visited- the country in 1835, consisted of Canadian Frenchmen formerly in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company.
"The Oregon Controversy," and "Tragedy of Whitman's Mission," preceding chapters, have traced in outline the more important details of this early settlement. Western Washington, on the coast, was the first portion of the territory settled. The advantages of sea coast fishing and fur-trading, of course, account for this fact, together with its accessibility by voyages around the Horn, and proximity to the more fully developed settlements of California. The name, "Puget Sound" was much more familiar to eastern people and students than the coasts of Oregon or Washington. Thus, in a general way, the resources of western Washington became gradually known to a certain limited number of the inhabitants of the extreme east. Concerning the various enterprises of these pioneers of Washington Hubert Howe Bancroft has pertinently said in his "History of Washington, Idaho and Montana:"
In the previous chapters I have made the reader acquainted with the earlier American residents of
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the territory north of the Columbia, and the methods by which they secured themselves homes and laid the foundation for fortunes by making shingles, bricks and cradling machines, by building mills, loading vessels with timber, laying out towns, establishing fisheries, exploring for gold and mining for coal. But these were private enterprises concerning only individuals, or small groups of men at most, and I now come to consider them as a body politic, with relations to the government of Oregon and to the general government.
The plan of this history demands that we pursue the same course in the treatment of our subject, and also to show how narrowly Washington escaped being called "Columbia." The provisional government of Oregon adopted in 1843 did not include the territory north of the Columbia river. So late as 1845, at the time of the Hudson's Bay Company made a compact with this provisional government, there existed no county organizations north of that river with the exception of Tualatin and Clackamas "districts," which claimed to extend northward as far as 54 degrees 40 minutes. But these districts were not peopled by American citizens, and not until the compact went into effect was there established an American settlement in the region of Puget Sound, and a new district created called Vancouver. The first judges were M. T. Simmons, James Douglas, and Charles. Forrest John R. Jackson was sheriff.
Lewis county was created December 19, 1845. Primarily its northern limit extended to 54 degrees, 40 minutes, or was supposed to, comprising territory north of the Columbia, and west of the Cowlitz, rivers. In 1846 it was represented in the legislature by W. F. Tolmie; Vancouver county by Henry N. Peers, the latter described as "a good versifier and fair legislator." He was an attache of the Hudson's Bay Company. The initial agitation for a new territory north of the Columbia was made July 4, 1851. At Olympia a number of American citizens of the Sound had assembled to appropriately celebrate the day. In his oration Mr. Chapman alluded eloquently to "the future state of Columbia." His remarks awakened an enthusiastic response, and the same evening a meeting was held, the avowed object of which was to procure a separate territorial government. Of this meeting Clanrick Crosby was chairman; A. M. Poe, secretary. H. A. Goldsborough, I. N. Eby, J. B. Chapman and C. Crosby addressed the audience. Their speeches were followed by the appointment of a committee on resolutions which recommended that a meeting to be held August 29 at Cowlitz landing, the object of which "to take into careful consideration the present peculiar position of the northern portion of the territory, its wants, the best methods of supplying those wants, and the propriety of an early appeal to congress for a division of the territory." The convention thus called was attended by twenty-six delegates. It adjourned the following day, having defined the limits of twelve intended counties, requested the benefits of donation lands, petitioned congress for a plank road from the Sound to the mouth of the Cowlitz, and a territorial road from some point on Puget Sound to Walla Walla, and otherwise memorializing congress on the important subject of division. It was the expressed intention of the delegates to move, should their request be denied, for immediate admission into the union as a state. It is needless to say that enthusiasm ran high at this meeting on the Cowlitz. At that period the population of the territory under consideration was less than four thousand souls.
Nothing tangible resulted from this meeting, although The Columbian, a weekly news- paper, published at Olympia, continued the agitation for territorial division and independent organization. November 25, 1852, a convention was held at Monticello, on the Cowlitz river, at that period an enterprising municipality of Northern Oregon. Congress was
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again memorialized and the document forwarded to Hon. Joseph Lane, territorial delegate. This memorial contains so concise and graphic a description of early territorial conditions that it is deemed best to reproduce it in full:
To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled:The memorial of the undersigned, delegates of the citizens of Northern Oregon, in convention assembled, respectfully represent to your honorable bodies that it is the earnest desire of your petitioners, and of said citizens, that all that portion of Oregon Territory lying north of the Columbia river and west of the great northern branch thereof, should be organized as a separate territory under the name and style of the Territory of Columbia, urging these reasons: In support of the prayer of this memorial, your petitioners would respectfully urge the following, among many other reasons, viz.:First: That the present Territory of Oregon contains an area of 341,000 square miles, and is entirely too large an extent of territory to be embraced within the limits of one state.Second: That said territory possesses a sea coast of 650 miles in extent, the country east of the Cascade mountains is bound to that on the coast by the strongest ties of interest; and, inasmuch as your petitioners believe that the territory must inevitably be divided at no very distant day, they are of the opinion that it would be unjust that one state should possess so large a seaboard to the exclusion of that of the interior.Third: The territory embraced within the boundaries of the proposed "Territory of Columbia," containing an area of about 32,000 square miles, is, in the opinion of your petitioners, about a fair and just medium of territorial extent to form one state.Fourth: The proposed "Territory of Columbia" presents natural resources capable of supporting a population at least as large as that of any state in the union possessing an equal extent of territory.Fifth: Those portions of Oregon Territory lying respectively north and south of the Columbia river must, from their geographical position, always rival each other in commercial advantages, and their respective citizens must, as they now and always have been, be actuated by a spirit of opposition.Sixth: The southern part of Oregon Territory, having a majority of voters, have controlled the territorial legislature, and benefit from the appropriations made by congress for said territory, which were subject to the disposition of said legislature.Seventh: The seat of the territorial legislature is now situated, by the nearest practicable route, at a distance of four hundred miles from a large portion of the citizens of Northern Oregon.Eighth: A great part of the legislation suitable to the south, is, for local reasons, opposed to the interests of the north, inasmuch as the south has a majority of votes, and representatives are always bound to reflect the will of their constituents, your petitioners can entertain no reasonable hopes that their legislative wants will ever be properly regarded under the present organization.Ninth: Experience has, in the opinion of your petitioners, well established the principle that in states having a moderate sized territory, the wants of the people are more easily made known to their representatives there is less danger of a conflict between sectional interests, and more prompt and adequate legislation can always be obtained.In conclusion your petitioners would respectfully represent that Northern Oregon, with its great natural resources, presenting such unparalleled inducements to immigrants, and with its present large population, and rapidly increasing by immigration, is of sufficient importance, in a national point of view, to merit the fostering care of congress, and its interests are so numerous and so entirely distinct in their character, as to demand the attention of a separate and independent legislature.Wherefore your petitioners pray your honorable bodies will at an early day pass a law organizing the district of country above described under a territorial government, to be named "The Territory of Columbia."Done in convention assembled at the town of Monticello, Oregon Territory, this 25th day of November, A. D., 1852.G. M. McConaha, President.R. V. White, Secretary.
This memorial was signed by forty-one other delegates. Congressional Delegate Joseph Lane earnestly supported the bill for the formation of Columbia Territory subsequently introduced. February 10, 1853, the bill, amended by Mr. Stanton, of Kentucky, striking out the word "Columbia" and inserting in lieu thereof "Washington," passed the house by a vote of 128 to 29, and on March 2, without further amendment, it was passed by the senate. It should be taken into consideration that the bill, as passed by both houses, did not limit the new Territory to the boundaries prescribed by the memorial of the Monticello convention. Our national legislators took a broader view of the matter, and continued the line of partition from a point near Walla Walla, east along the 46th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. This was a far more equal
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division, and included what is now the "Panhandle" of Idaho, an area considerably larger than the present state of Washington. At that period, according to a census taken in 1853 by Marshal Anderson, the counties in the new Washington Territory contained the following population: Clarke, 1,134, Island, 195, Lewis, 616, Jefferson, 189, King, 170, Pierce, 513, Thurston, 996, Pacific, 152; total, 3,965. Of these 1,682 were voters.
The first Territorial governor of Washington was Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who was appointed to this office and, also, made ex officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs of Washington Territory, and by the secretary of war was given charge of an exploration and survey of a railroad from the headwaters of the Mississippi to Puget Sound. In a communication to A. A. Denny, dated at Washington, D. C, April 18, 1853, Governor Stevens said:
Herewith you will find a printed copy of my instructions from the secretary of war, by which you will see an exploration and survey of a railroad from the headwaters of the Mississippi to Puget Sound is entrusted to me * * * A military road is to be built from Fort Walla Walla to Puget Sound. Captain McClellan, an officer distinguished for his gallantry in Mexico, has command of the party who will make the exploration of the Cascade range and the construction of the military road. His undertaking of the task is a sure guarantee of its accomplishment. I expect to pierce the Rocky Mountains, and this road is to be done in time for the fall's immigration, so that an open line of communication between the states and Sound will be made this year.
Isaac Ingalls Stevens was born in the historic and classic town of Andover, Massachusetts, and educated at West Point, from which military institution he was graduated with honors in 1837. For several years the young officer was in charge of the New England coast fortifications. During the war with Mexico he was attached to the staff of General Scott. Four years preceding his appointment as Territorial Governor of Washington he was associated with Professor Bache in the coast survey. It will be seen that the duties assigned to Governor Stevens were manifold and arduous. Aside from the appointive office of governor of a young, though important Territory, he was to superintend the construction of a military road from the Sound to the Rockies; survey the line of what eventually became the great transcontinental highway, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and at the same time superintend the complicated affairs of the savage and turbulent Indian tribes between the coast and the Rocky Mountains. Certainly a heavy responsibility to be placed upon the shoulders of one man. The sagacity and efficiency with which he met these heavy responsibilities have been recorded in preceding chapters of this work. It was his destiny to be called higher. In May, 1861, news was received at Olympia of the surrender by Major Anderson of Fort Sumter. "The Irrepressible Conflict" between North and South had for years worn heavily on the patriotic spirit of Governor Stevens. He was a pro-slavery democrat, yet he loved his country and placed her national and indissoluble interests above party or purely sectional benefits. In reply to a speech welcoming him home from his perilous expedition among hostile tribes of Indians he said: "I conceive my duty to be to stop disunion." These were brave words, for at this period the Territory of which he was chief executive was thickly populated with avowed secessionists.
Dissensions were rife in his own party. Assaults were made by the press upon his patriotism and even his personal character was assailed. He was accused of attempting a coalition with Lane and Grim for the purpose of forming an independent Pacific republic. Visionary and chimerical as was this scheme; impossible for one of the sterling patriotism of Governor Stevens to cherish for a moment, the charge found many professed believers among
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his opponents. With the darkening of war clouds Stevens, who had intended to stand for re-election, renounced the project and hastened to Washington to offer his services to the government. July 31, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 79th New York Infantry, and was among the first of the defenders of Washington and Arlington Heights. In March, 1862, he received a commission as brigadier general, and on July 4, was made a Major General of volunteers. Such was his rapid rise by promotion in the army. His death was a fitting close of a heroic life. At the battle of Chantilly he seized the flag which had fallen from the dead hand of a color sergeant, and was shot in the forehead, dying upon the field. Sudden was the revulsion of feeling in Washington Territory when news of his death was received. The legislature passed resolutions in his honor, and crape was worn by the members ten days. He died at forty-four years of age. In a letter touching upon the character of Governor Stevens, written by Professor Bache, of the coast-survey, he said:
He was not one who led by looking on but by example. As we knew him in the coast-survey office, so he was in every position of life. * * * This place he filled, and more than filled, for four years, with a devotion, an energy, a knowledge not to be surpassed, and which left its beneficent mark upon our organization. * * * Generous and noble in impulses, he left our office with our enthusiastic admiration of his character, appreciation of his services, and hope for his success.
The apportionment for the first Washington Territorial legislature was made by Governor Stevens soon after his arrival from the east. The proclamation concerning the same was made November 28. 1853, designating January 30, 1854, as the day for election of legislative members. February 27 was the time set for the meeting of the legislature and Olympia the place. Nine members composed the original council: Clarke county, D. F. Bradford, William H. Tappan; Lewis and Pacific counties, Seth Catlin, Henry Miles; Thurston county. D. R. Bigelow, B. F. Yantis; Pierce and King counties. Lafayette Balch, G. N. McConaha; Jefferson and Island counties, William P. Sayward.
Twice this number of members composed the house, viz: Clarke county, F. A. Chenoweth, A. J. Bolan, Henry R. Crosbie, A. C. Lewis and John D. Biles; Thurston county, C. H. Hall, L. D. Durgin, David Shelton and Ira Ward, Jr; Island county, Samuel D. Howe; Pierce county, H. C. Moseley, L. F. Thompson and John M. Chapman; Jefferson county, Daniel F. Brownfield; King county, A. A. Denny; Lewis county, H. D. Huntington and John R. Jackson; Pacific county, John Scudder.
In this legislative membership we have a fair roster of the pioneer statesmen of Washington Territory. The most of them have been stricken by the hand of death, but the work they did in laying the foundation of Washington's future territorial and commonwealth improvement can never be stricken from the pages of history. One of these members, Hon. A. A. Denny, representative from King county, in a paper read before the Historical Society, at Tacoma, said:
At the time of the Monticello convention, Thurston county embraced all the territory north of Lewis county to the British line, and the session of the Oregon legislature, just prior to the division of the territory, formed out of Thurston county Pierce, King, Island and Jefferson counties, making a total of eight counties in Washington Territory when organized, Clarke county at that time extending to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. The first session of the legislature formed eight new counties. Walla Walla was formed at this session, embracing all the territory east of the mouth of the Des Chutes river and running to the forty-ninth parallel on the north and the parallel of forty-six degrees thirty minutes eastward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and I well remember that a board of county officers was appointed and representation in the legislature provided for, but when tin- succeeding legislature convened, no members from Walla Walla appeared, and it was found that no organization of the county had been made for want of population, and the widely scattered condition of the few who then inhabited that vast territory.
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It will be recalled that so early as 1852 the impetuous members of the Monticello convention were determined to demand admission to the union as a state should congress deny territorial division. But thirty-seven years were destined to pass before the culmination of such an event. And yet, during a large portion of the last half of this period Washington was a state in all but name. Her statesmen and politicians indulged in commonwealthian struggles much the same as those at present exploited by older states in the union. In 1859-60 a certain faction plotted for the removal of the Territorial capital from Olympia to Vancouver. It was secretly arranged by legislative manipulation to apportion Territorial institutions as follows: to Vancouver the capital; to Seattle the university; to Port Townsend the penitentiary. An act to this effect passed both bodies of the legislature. It carried, however, two fatal defects; no enacting clause was inserted, and it violated the terms of the organic act by attempting a permanent location of the capital. Consequently the law fell to the ground of its own legal impotence. As in Louisiana, in 1872, two legislatures were in session in Washington, or rather the regular body at Olympia and a "rump" organizing at Vancouver. The supreme court's decision on the removal law brought the factions again together at Olympia. In 1861 the corner stone of a university was laid at Seattle, A. A. Denny donating eight, and Edward Lander two, acres of land for that purpose. In this circumstance, also, the Territory of Washington assumed many of the effects of modern statehood, through subsequent "mismanagement" of university funds. Truly a state in all but name!
Quite similar in point of contention for the capital was the struggle for the possession of the custom-house between Port Townsend and Port Angeles. In August, 1861, Victor Smith arrived from Washington, D. C, with credentials as collector of United States revenue. Possessing the confidence of the national administration he was accused of utilizing it to further an intrigue for removal of the custom-house. It was openly charged that he was speculating in Port Angeles real estate and working for his personal financial interests. Besides this Smith was one of the original "carpet-baggers," even at that early day detested by the democracy in Washington Territory, which party was, numerically, quite powerful. Removal of the custom-house from Port Townsend to Port Angeles was recommended by Secretary Salmon Portland Chase, and in June, 1862, congress passed a bill making the change. A subsequent act of congress was in the nature of "a bill for increasing revenue by reservation and sale of townsites." It was at this point that the crux of Smith's real estate enterprises became apparent. Port Townsend citizens were wild with excitement. They accused Smith of a defalcation of $15,000, but he promptly repaired to the national capital and showed conclusively that the alleged crime was nothing more than the transference of one fund to another. This custom-house imbroglio continued for some time, in the course of which the guns of the revenue cutter Shubrick were shotted and brought to bear on the town of Port Townsend. Finally, after many serious complications, involving numerous arrests and much ill-feeling, the custom-house was removed from Port Townsend to Port Angeles. George B. McClellan, afterwards general commanding the army of the Potomac, had reported favorably upon the change of location. Here the institution remained until December 16, 1863, when the town of Port Angeles was washed away, causing the death of Inspector William B. Goodell and Deputy Collector J. W. Anderson. In 1865 the custom-house was taken back to Port Townsend, and the same year Victor Smith was lost in the wreck of the steamship Brother Jonathan, wrecked near Crescent City, involving the loss of three hundred lives.
For a number of years the residents of
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Washington had been engaged in various wars with Indians. Therefore it was not unusual that some most excellent fighting material was to be found among the ex-volunteers of the Cayuse war, Steptoe's invasion and the important battle of White River. In May, 1861, news of President Lincoln's call for volunteers was received at Olympia. Henry M. McGill was acting-governor; Frank Matthias adjutant-general. The latter appointed enrolling officers in each county in the Territory, at this period comprising twenty-two, east and west of the Cascades. The same summer Wright, now brigadier general, was placed in command of the department of the Pacific, and Colonel Albermarle Cady of the district of the Columbia. Colonel Justin Steinberger came to the coast in January. 1862, and enlisted four infantry companies, one each from Port Madison, Walla Walla, Port Townsend and Whatcom. From the Olympia Standard, of July 20, 1861, it is learned that a company had previously, in May, been enlisted at Port Madison, designated at the Union Guards, consisting of seventy men, officered as follows: William Fowler, captain; H. B. Manchester, first lieutenant; E. D. Kromer, second lieutenant; non-commissioned officers, A. J. Tuttle, Noah Falk, William Clendennin, Edgar Brown, S. F. Coombs, R. J. May, J. M. Grindon, John Taylor. The Lewis County Rangers, mounted, were organized in June. 1861, Henry Miles, captain; L. L. Dubeau, first lieutenant; S. B. Smith, second lieutenant. To the four companies enlisted by Colonel Steinberger four more were added from California, General Alvord assumed command in July, and Colonel Steinberger went to Fort Walla Walla, where he relieved Colonel Cornelius, of the Oregon cavalry. These troops were stationed at Walla Walla and Fort Pickett.
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