Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 43/The Columbia Gorge

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

THE COLUMBIA GORGE

E. D. BAKER

[Of the Oregon senatorial race of 1860, Bancroft said: "E. D. Baker, a prominent politician, who came from California, where his star was not propitious, to Oregon, where he hoped to have a finger in the new politics. He made many speeches during the summer campaign . . . ". One of his many triumphs that year was his Fourth of July speech at Salem: "The orator's fame had spread far and near, and when the speaker began the crowd was so vast that fully one-fourth were fortunate in finding standing room; but the eloquence of the speaker was such that in less than 20 minutes all were standing." The following sample of his eloquence, a description of the Columbia gorge, is from his first speech in the United States Senate in January, 1861.]

Mr. President: The adventurous traveller, who wanders on the slope of the Pacific and on the verge of civilization, stands awestruck and astonished in the great chasm formed by the torrent of the Columbia, as, rushing between Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens, it breaks through the ridges of the Cascade Mountains to find the sea. Nor is this wonder lessened when he hears his slightest tones repeated and reechoed with a larger utterance in the reverberations which lose themselves at last amid the surrounding and distant hills....

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) before 1964, and copyright was not renewed.

Works published in 1942 could have had their copyright renewed in 1969 or 1970, i.e. between January 1st of the 27th year after publication or registration and December 31st of the 28th year. As this work's copyright was not renewed, it entered the public domain on January 1st, 1971.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1861, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 162 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

It is imperative that contributors ascertain that there is no evidence of a copyright renewal before using this license. Failure to do so will result in the deletion of the work as a copyright violation.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse