A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic InformationGray, W. H. (William Henry)
History
A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information
Gray, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Oregon Territory -- History
The Hudson's Bay Company held by this
means the exclusive liquor trade, while the mission were compelled to
use their influence and means to prevent and buy off any enterprise that
conflicted with their interests. Mr. Young says, in his reply:--
"Gentlemen, having taken into consideration your request to
relinquish our enterprise in manufacturing ardent spirits, we
therefore do agree to stop our proceedings for the present: but,
gentlemen, the reasons for first beginning such an enterprise were
the _innumerable difficulties_ placed in our way by, and the
_tyrannizing oppression_ of, the Hudson's Bay Company, here under
the absolute authority of Dr. McLaughlin, who has treated us with
more disdain than any American's feelings could support; but,
gentlemen, it is not consistent with our feelings to receive any
recompense whatever for our expenditures, but we are thankful to the
society for their offer."
The writer of the above short paragraph has long since closed his
labors, which, with his little property, have done more substantial
benefit to Oregon than the Hudson's Bay Company, that attempted to drive
him from the country, which I will prove to the satisfaction of any
unprejudiced mind as we proceed, I am fully aware of the great number of
pensioned satellites that have fawned for Hudson's Bay Company pap, and
would swear no injustice was ever done to a single American, giving this
hypocritical, double-dealing smooth-swindling, called honorable,
Hudson's Bay Company credit for what they never did, and really for
stealing credit for good deeds done by others. The company insisted that
the mission party should, as a condition of being permitted to remain in
the country, comply with their ideas of Indian trade and justice in
dealing with the natives. The utmost care and attention was given to
impress this all-important fact upon the minds of these first
missionaries. They were told: "Gentlemen, your own pecuniary interests
require it; the good--_yes, the good_--of the natives you came to teach,
requires that you should observe our rules in trade." And here, I have
no doubt, lies the great secret of the partial failure of all the
Protestant missions. But, thank God, the country is relieved of a curse,
like that of slavery in the Southern States. An overgrown monopoly, in
using its influence with Catholicism to destroy Protestantism in Oregon
and the American settlements, has destroyed itself. Priestcraft and
Romanism, combined with ignorance and savagism, under the direction of
the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company traders, is a kind of mixture which
Mr. Ewing Young says "is more than any American citizen's feelings could
support;" yet for six years it was submitted to, and the country
increased, not so much in wealth, but in stout-hearted men and women,
who had dared every thing, and endured many living deaths, to secure
homes, and save a vast and rich country to the American Republic. Was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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