debt. It cannot, therefore, be said of him that he was greater in a business capacity than as a statesman or philanthropist.[1]
A history that is written from the very mouths of the living actors, and that despises no authority however humble, if it has any claim to be thought just, should have brought to light, had there been anything to record, some acts of generosity, of self-sacrifice, of devotion to the good of the country, performed by this leading man among the missionaries; but in all the instances requiring the exhibition of these qualities, during the early period of Oregon history which closes with the establishment of the territorial government, the men who came to the front were the men whom Governor Abernethy despised. There remains to be recorded yet one more act in the life of the colonial governor deserving of preservation in history, which I reserve for a future chapter.[2]
I have spoken freely of the Oregon colonists, their personal peculiarities, and all their little and great jealousies, and occasional misdoings. I have not made of them religious martyrs, but something better; I have not made of them pilgrim fathers, but something nobler, their fanaticism being less fierce and cruel, while for self-denying application and high and holy purpose they were the peers of any who landed on Plymouth Rock. If I have not presented the leaders of the several migrations as heroes, to me they were none the less heroic; while the people were filled with a patriotism as lofty and purposes as pure as any appearing upon the highways of history.[3]
- ↑ Beacon's Mer. Life in Or. City, MS., 10; Moss' Pioneer Times, MS., 35–9; Mrs Wilson, in Or. Sketches, MS., 18; Buck's Enterprises, MS., 10.
- ↑ Governor Abernethy, aside from his unfortunate speculations, sustained the wreck of the remnant of his fortune in the flood of 1861–2, which swept away the most valuable improvements at Oregon City. He then removed to Portland, and engaged in a small business, which he followed till his death in 1877. He remained always a firm friend of the church and of temperance, and is well spoken of for these traits. See Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1876, 68; Salem Statesman, in San José Pioneer, May 12, 1877.
- ↑ Herewith I give some modern biographies, more of which will be found in vol. ii., History of Oregon. W. H. Effinger, born in Va, Nov. 14, 1839,
