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conversations with Whitman "touching the future prosperity of Oregon," but he does not mention the subject matter of any of them. When Lovejoy met Whitman the next summer "near Laramie," Whitman told him he had seen "President Tyler, Secretary Webster, and a good many members of Congress," and that he "urged the immediate termination of the treaty relative to Oregon, and begged them to extend the laws of the United States over this country." Not once does he say that Whitman told him that he went to Washington to save Oregon, or that his visit had saved it.
Daniel Lee says that "Whitman went to the United States to obtain further assistance." (Lee and Frost's Oregon, p. 213.)
While Whitman was on his journey, McKinlay, factor of the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Walla Walla, a warm personal friend of Whitman, wrote the American Board in reference to the mission at Lapwai; praising Spalding as a missionary, and hoping that be would not be recalled. This letter was evidently written to strengthen Whitman with the Board.
The American Board received Whitman coldly, refusing to pay the expenses of his journey, but authorizing him to continue the missions without putting the Board to any expense. The danger which Whitman apprehended that the Catholics would take possession of the missions if they were abandoned, seemed to have had no weight with the Board. Slow collections, because of hard times, had most probably a great deal to do with the action of that body.
It would be expected that Whitman, in common with other citizens of the United States, was anxious that Oregon should be settled by Americans, but be had less to do with the colonization of the country than the Lees and others sent out by the Methodists. Elijah White, first Indian agent in Oregon, who conducted the immigration of 1842 to Oregon, on his journey to assume the duties of his office, had been to Oregon as a missionary and had gone back to the States because of a disagreement with Jason Lee. The latter had crossed the plains to the States in 1838, and lectured on Oregon at every convenient place as he traveled East from the Missouri river. He carried with him a memorial to Congress in regard to the condition of affairs in Oregon. This, with a letter written by him, was published in Cushing's report to the House of Representatives in 1839. Nathaniel J. Wyeth also contributed a paper to this report, showing the character of the soil and climate of Oregon. The Methodists of the United States deserve whatever credit is due for the colonization of Oregon. It was their men and money that laid the foundation for the States of Oregon and Washington.
