One shudders at the fratricidal bloodshed and awful guerilla warfare that would have come to pass in this mountainous and thinly settled country had the first outbreak happened and the torch of rebellion been lighted. That it did not so come to pass was another evidence of the mysterious workings of Divine Providence. In 1864 Governor Gibbs called for ten companies to be known as the First Oregon Infantry, each company to consist of eighty-two privates, maximum, or sixty-four minimum, besides officers. Eight companies were ultimately enlisted, and at first were chiefly employed in garrison duty throughout the Northwest, but later performed gallant service in the Indian wars that were ever in progress. I wish that it were possible within the necessary limits of this article to write down some of the many deeds of matchless heroism wrought by the loyal men of the Northwest in the dark days of the war--deeds fit to rank with the gallantry of Sheridan's dashing troopers, with the glorious achievements of Sherman's March to the Sea, with the steadfastness of the iron phalanxes of the immortal Grant. But we can at least pay our tribute of praise to those rude frontiersmen of the Pacific, who loved their country, their country's flag, and the cause of freedom,--who fulfilled, without murmur, the self-sacrificing duty placed upon them by the martyr President, who wrought out in blood and fire the destiny of the Northwest, and whose only reward has been the sense of duty done. Of each of them the beautiful words of Tennyson are peculiarly appropriate: "Not once or twice in our rough island story The path of duty was the way to glory: He that walks it, only thirsting For the right, and learns to deaden Love of self, before his journey closes, He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting Into glossy purples, which outredden All voluptuous garden roses. Not once or twice in our fair island's story The path of duty was the way to glory: He that ever following her commands, On with toil of heart and knees and hands, Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won His path upward, and prevailed, Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled Are close upon the shining table-lands To which our God himself is moon and sun. Such was he, his work is done. But while the races of mankind endure Let his great example stand Colossal, seen of every land, And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure: Till in all lands and thro' all human story The path of duty be the way to glory." ROBERT TREAT PLATT. FOOTNOTES: [36] An address delivered before the University of Oregon, May 20, 1903. THE GREAT WEST AND THE TWO EASTS.