of which I shall give the history in its proper place. In January 1844 complaints were made to the Indian agent that a distillery was in operation at Oregon City. His authority for interfering was supposed to be derived from the laws of Iowa touching the sale of liquor in the Indian territory, the colonists having adopted the Iowa code. Since the United States had not extended the laws of Iowa over Oregon, he had really no authority. But he was sustained by public sentiment, and even required by the colonists to proceed in the matter. Accordingly, he seized and destroyed the distillery, and placed[1] the offender under bonds to the amount of three hundred dollars. Before the summer was over another distillery was in operation. This also was promptly suppressed. Conner, who was owner in both adventures, challenged White to fight a duel, for which he was fined five hundred dollars by the circuit court and disfranchised for life, but was restored to citizenship by the legislature of 1844.[2]
Considering that he was waging this war on whiskey with no better warrant than the sanction of those settlers who did not care to buy or drink it, one would think that White would at most have taken notice only of cases where the liquor was supplied directly to the natives. But this did not satisfy his zeal, which several times led him into embarrassing positions. On one occasion he boarded a vessel of which J. H. Couch was master, and attempted to search for liquors, but Couch, knowing his rights and duties better than the Indian agent, ranged his guns fore and aft along the
- ↑ This distillery, the first attempted since 1836, was owned by James Conner, who had been in the country since 1838. It consisted of sheet-tin pipes—the tin purchased from Abernethy—joined like a worm-fence, and placed in a large wooden trough with water flowing through it, the whole being covered with boards placed in the form of a house gable. Moss' Pioneer Times, MS., 53–4.
- ↑ This second distillery belonged to James Conner, Richard McCrary, and Hiram Straight. It consisted of a large kettle, with a wooden top, and a worm; and the whiskey, called 'blue ruin,' was distilled from shorts, wheat, and molasses. White's Or. Ter., 40; Watts' First Things, MS., 10, 11; Oregon Laws, 1843–9, 83.
