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 ^titit ©oai^t^ 
 
 BY W. L. ADAMS. 
 
 Delirend U Tnaoit T«npl«, Boitoi, October 14, 1869. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 ISAAC W. MAY, PRINTER, 39 STATE STREET. 
 
 186 9. * ^ 
 
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 AND TUK 
 
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 BY W . L . ADAMS- 
 
 Heliverfd in Tremunt Ttmple. Bostoo, (klolier U, 18til«. 
 
 BOS T N : 
 ISAAC W. MAY, I'H INTER .{'.> STATE STREET. 
 
 * 1861). 
 
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 i 
 
LECTURE. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 The territory belonging to the United States, west of 
 the Rocky Mountains is but Httle understood by a large 
 majority of the people on this side of the Continent. 
 Although it has an area of 356.600 square miles more 
 than have the tweny-live States and District of Co- 
 lumbia east of the Mississippi river, and an area of 
 66.898 square miles more than all our territory be- 
 tween the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains; and 
 an intrinsic value in excess of all the wealth of the 
 whole Atlantic slope, yet I find but few people who 
 know much more about this country than they know 
 of China. 
 
 Our Pilgrim Fathers were pleased to inform their 
 Trans-Atlantic relatives, that they had found and set- 
 tled a " New World, " a country every way different , 
 and possessing superior advantages over the land from 
 which they fled. It was left for their children to ex- 
 plore and possess a country, so remarkable in all its 
 natural characteristics, and so different from any our 
 fathers ever saw, it seemed to me when first I saw it, 
 that I had indeed found a New World . To give one 
 who has not lived in it, travelled over it, and studied 
 it for more than twenty years, as I have, a correct idea 
 of it, would require a volume of many hundred pages. 
 
Do not •undeistauil that / am well acquainted with 
 thi.s country. 1 know perhaps as much about it aa 
 most ])e()ple on our coast; yet 1 know as little of it 
 almost, as Newton knew of the realms of science, when 
 he declared that he was but a child, standiii'i' on the 
 banks of an illimitabh ocean, and casting ])ebl)les into 
 it, knowing nothing of its depth, or of the countries 
 that skirted its farther shores. 
 
 It embraces an area of 1.300.404 square miles, which 
 nniv be divided up into ten thousand sections, every 
 section of which, is full of interest, and jiresents to the 
 explorer some new geological, agricultural, pastoral or 
 climatic feature or advantage ])eculiar to itself. 
 
 To <lescribe one section of Illinois, is to describe in 
 the main, Indiana, Iowa. Missouri, and the great heart 
 of the Mississi])pi \'alley To draw a picture of oue 
 man's home and surroundings on the Pacific coast, might 
 give no correct idea of the scenery, soil, climate, min- 
 eral, agricultural or pastoral advantages enjoyed by his 
 neighbor, living on the slope of a mountain, far a))ovo 
 him, or in some rich cosy valley far below him. oidy a 
 few miles away. Owing to the mountainous character 
 of the countrv, it aflbrds an infinite varietv of scenerv. 
 
 A man standing on one eminence, sees as it were a 
 different country from him who occupies a hill top only 
 half a mile away, or even from him who stands just 
 over on the other side of the same hill he stands on 
 himself How much could a man be supposed to know 
 of this vast country, containing almost a million and 
 a half of square miles, when / never take my rifle in 
 hand, to hunt over ground in sight of my own house, 
 without wandering over spots, and obtaining views I 
 never saw before, and when in a foggy day 1 am al- 
 most sure to be lost, unless 1 am guided in mv course 
 bv some nunmtain stream — lost on an area of onlva 
 
1 
 
 few miles coiiipiiss. over wliich, I have hvinted for nuiny 
 years. 1 mention this to shcnv you how dithenlt is the 
 task of one who attempts to ^ive a correet idea in a 
 short lectnre of that vast and interestini*' country. 
 
 1 nj'ght make sliort work of it, hy telling" yon that 
 the people who live over there, are the best contented 
 of any people 1 have found in travelling through 
 North and South America, and that [ believe every 
 man, in Oregon especially, thinks that he has got the 
 best farm on the coast, that his farm possesses some 
 one advantage that no other man's farm does. I might 
 also state, that those who have lived there the longest, 
 like it the best. 
 
 The hard shell Baptist brother, when trying to de- 
 scribe heaven to a Kentucky audience, after using all 
 the adjectives he could think otl, wound up by telling 
 them it was ''A perfect Kaintuck of a place." (applause.) 
 We have no Heaven on our coast, for it is a part of 
 this insignificant little planet we call Earth. I should 
 judge however from wh.tt 1 saw of Kentucky during 
 a late journey through that and other Southern States, 
 that our coast is rather 7nore of a good thing than a 
 ^'A perfect Kaintuck of a place," and tiiat the induce- 
 ments that Kentucky or any other Southern State, 
 otters to immigration, are hardly worth mentioning in 
 comparison with those of a country which, in a few 
 vears is to astonish the world with its greatness and 
 o-lory. If people wish to emigrate, as hundreds of 
 thousands do, let them get reliable information about 
 the South, about Kansas and Nebraska, ami about the 
 Pacific Slope, and let them elect between these coun- 
 tries. The popular earthquake however, that has 
 be<>'un to shake the Continent, is rolling an iunnense 
 tidal wave towards the setting sun — to a spot over 
 which, hovers the Star of Empire. This is going to 
 

 prove the tide in the afTairs of tens of thousands, 
 which, '' taken at the tiood, leads on to fortune." 
 
 In Washiii^'ton City I met an a*!:ent of tlie immi- 
 gration society in Nortli Carolina. Me presented the 
 claims of his State in glowing colors, and wished me to 
 go to North Carolina. I told him of the sujierior in- 
 ducements held out hy the Pacific Coast. He l)ecame 
 a convert and said he should go to Oregon. What is 
 true of him, will in my opinion })e true of nine-tenths 
 of all intelligent people, who become informed as to 
 the best place to settle in. 
 
 The inducements that our Coast offers to settlers, are 
 as diverse as are the peculiarities of its ten thousand 
 localities, as various as are the tastes, occupations and 
 aspirations of man. A section that would ])lease a 
 grain grower, might not suit a wine producer, or a 
 miner, and a locality that would suit either of these, 
 might not be the choice of a lumberman, fisherman, 
 stockraiser or manufacturer. The man who wishes a 
 cosy home in some quiet valley, where vegetation is 
 almost perpetually green, where mountains all around 
 him afford range for his stock, and furnish streams of 
 pure rapid water w^hich can be used in any part of his 
 house, his barn, or his plantation, where snow seldom 
 falls, and where the general rainfall is sufficient for 
 farming purposes, will find plenty of places to suit him. 
 Or, if he prefers a locality where snow never falls, and 
 rain seldom falls, but where by using the mountain 
 streams for the purpose of irrigation, he can produce 
 the choicest of grain, and the finest fruits and vege- 
 tables, he too can be suited. The manufacturer who 
 seeks for water power to enable him to convert illimit- 
 able forests to lumber, to grind into Hour the wheat of 
 graujiries now })eing burdened to bursting, or to spin 
 and weave the wool from flocks already beginning to 
 cover our hills, will find his water power everywhere. 
 
 I 
 
Till* miner uill tind an iirt'ii of more than V)()(M)(M> 
 square miles, stretc'liin*:; IVom the Paeilic Ocean eleven 
 hundred miles east, and reaehin»>; from the northern 
 lines of ()re<ron and Montana, to the southern bound- 
 aries of Arizona and New Mexico, vast j)ortions of 
 which are vet unexplored, and the whole of which has 
 not yet yielde<| a tithe of its precious metals. 
 
 The adventurer who wishes to invest in city proi)- 
 erty, can find places whidi are yet com[)aratively in 
 the woods, where cities are to he built that will eclipse 
 Chicago and Jioston. where are to he the termini ol 
 railroads running across the continent, and coiinectinjj,' 
 the vast interior with the seaboard — a ;-eaboard to 
 which will How the wealth of the iidand terrilorv, and 
 where sliips of all nations will discharge and receive 
 their mighty cargoes. The school teacher, the printer, 
 the common laborer, the inventoi', the !uechanic, the 
 man of letters and of capital, will all lind on this coast, 
 a field of operations more inviting than can be I'ound 
 elsewhere. 
 
 That portion of the Pacific Slope which is embiaced 
 in the boundaries of Oregon, is the spot that I and 
 many others sekM'ted for a home from twenty to twenty- 
 five years agi). As an agricultural country, it is in 
 my opinion the crea.muf the Pacific coast, and the best 
 state in the union. The only objection that has ever 
 been urged, or that can be urged against it, is the 
 amount of its winter rainfall. This objection oidy lies 
 however against that portion of the State west of the 
 (Jas(^ade mountains, and bordering on the Pacific ocean. 
 The state has an area of 05.248 square miles, is more 
 than twice as large as New York, and out of it could 
 be carved twelve such States as Massachusetts, with 
 more territory U ft than is embraced in Rhode Island. 
 
 Here, as (dsewhere on the Pacific coast a description 
 
s 
 
 of one portion of llic Stnte. would i/wo an iniuliMiiinle 
 idea of otlior sections. Taken as a whole, more than 
 three fourths of the entire State is prairie — not level, 
 but generally undulating, and covered with a wild grass 
 as nutritious as any of the tame grasses of New En- 
 gland. On this grass, stock raisers suhsist their cattle 
 during the entire \c.ir with hut little other feed. 1 
 have kept I'rom fifty to a hundred head of cattle, and 
 from twenty to fifty horses, without feeding to the 
 whole, fifty tons of hay in ten years. I have sold these 
 cattle from $12. to $j()0. a head, and the horses from 
 $17. to $150. From these figures, some idea can be 
 had of the profits of stock raising — and just here 1 
 might perha])s as well say that, the farmer can sell to 
 buyers who will couie to his door, all the cows he can 
 raise, at an average of $oO. or $oG. each ; beef cattle 
 at from $25. to $G0; sheep, at fiom $1.50. to $2.50. 
 each ; fat hogs at from $5. to $15. each ; and chickens 
 at from $2. to $4. a dozen. 
 
 Horses are plenty and not as ready sale as other 
 kinds of stock. Indian ponies are worth from $15. 
 to $25. and very superior American work horses, 
 equal to the average of the best draught horses in 
 New England, can be bought at prices varying from 
 $100. to $200. Our money is gold and silver, and 
 when 1 speak of dollars, 1 always mean coin dollars. 
 Greenbacks, go for what the telegram ever}^ day from 
 the gold gamblers in New" York, tell us they consider 
 them worth. 
 
 I said that three fourths of the State is prairie, des- 
 titute of timber and brush. It is so, and much of the 
 land, whether bottom land lying on banks of streams, 
 or upland rolling prairie, with an alluvial top and clay 
 bed, is as productive as any soil on the globe ; and the 
 pioneer, instead of wearing himself out to clear away 
 the timbei' and rocks, as our fathers in New England 
 
 » 
 
 \ 
 
 .w 
 
y 
 
 (li<l, had hiif to locate liis clnini. It'iicc it in, and no to 
 plowing land whore he could run his plow hi'ani deep 
 without striking a, root or a stone; where he could 
 subsist his team and keep it fat on the grass that cov- 
 ered the land he was plowing ; and where the soles of 
 his feet were stained at nearly every step, with the 
 juice of the most delicious sti-awherries. 
 
 In some localities, timhi'r is scarce, luit as a general 
 thing, every farmer has an abundance near at hand — 
 the streams which are numerous, being often skirted 
 with timber, while the adjacent mountains, furnish an 
 exhanstless supply. When the Missouri orator, in 
 painting the vastness of our growing country and the 
 giant proportions that Brother Jonathan was assuming 
 exclaimed — '' Faneuil Hall was his cradle, but «67ia/*, 
 Oh\ ivhar shall we find timber for his coffin?" The 
 Cascade Mountains echoed — Ilerel and the Coast 
 Chain, answered — "Enough here for the coffin of 
 John Bull too." [Applause.] 
 
 The remarks I have made about Oregon are appli- 
 cable in the main to that portion of the State Iviu"- 
 between Idaho, and the Blue Mountains, called " East- 
 ern Oregon." They ai-e also true of the Willanu'tte. 
 Unipqua, and Bogue Biver vallies, bounded by tlie 
 Cascade Mountains on the east, the Coast Chain on 
 the west, the Columbia Biver on the north, and Cali- 
 fornia on the south. This section, which is known as 
 Western Oregon ; being on the sea board, and possess- 
 ing superior attractions, was first settled : and it yet 
 contains a majority of the voters, wealth and enter- 
 prise of the State. It has for a winter, a - j-ainv sea- 
 son," lasting irom sometime in November, till the lirst 
 of April. 
 
 The portion known as Middle Oregon, which lies 
 west of the Blue Mountains, east of the Cascades 
 
10 
 
 south of the Cohimbia River, and north of Cahfornia, 
 is a vast roUing plain, covered with grass, but nearly 
 destitute of timber. The mountains to the east and 
 west of it, not more than seventy five miles cither 
 way from the center of the plain, Avill furnish all the 
 timber that is needed, when railroads abound there, 
 as they do here. This, as well as Eastern Oregon, is 
 exempt from the winter rains peculiar to the western 
 section, but the climate is colder in winter, the ther- 
 mometer having been known to go as low as twenty 
 degrees below zero, once or twice in twenty years. 
 The winters are generally milder than they are in the 
 State of Tennessee, and stock raisers seldom feed their 
 horses, sheep or cattle during the winter. Twenty 
 years ago I knew Indians who kept many hundred 
 horses, subsisting them on the native grasses the year 
 round. 
 
 It may astonish you, but it is nevertheless true, that 
 vast herds of cattle and horses are subsisted in this 
 manner, in the passes of the Rocky. Mountains through 
 which it is proposed to run the North Pacific Railroad. 
 
 They live in this way, in the northern portion of 
 Montana, Washington Territory, and on portions of 
 Vancouver's Island, as high as 50" north latitude. 
 
 A Georgian would be surprised to hear, that a man 
 had raised several wagon loads of sweet potatoes on 
 the banks of Moosehead Lake, away up in Maine, for 
 towards the place where Franklin froze to death — 
 [Applause] so should I. But 1 know a man who lives 
 at Walla Walla, Washington Territory, half a degree 
 further north, who, two years ago raised thirty seven 
 thousand pounds of sweet ])otatoes, and he didn't 
 think it a very extra year for sweet potatoes either. 
 
 Oregon as a whole, is best .adapted to the purposes 
 of agriculture, stock rai.'-ing, and manufacturing. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
11 
 
 lornia 
 
 I 
 
 though its mining resources are great. It has ex- 
 hauslless iron ore of a superior quality, and coal mines 
 in several localities ; while silver and gold, especially 
 the latter are found in almost every part of the state. 
 Mining is carried on but little, excepting in the east- 
 ern and southern portions, where gold and silver 
 mines exist of reputed gieat value, but which so far 
 as discovered, are mostly held by men who have no 
 capital to work them. It may stem incredible at this 
 distance away, but it is nevertheless true that men 
 have made, and still can make three dollars a day to 
 the hand in washing the sands of the ocean at the 
 mouth of the Columbia River — and yet they are not 
 washed, because nobodv in that vicinitv thinks three 
 dollars a day suflicient pay for such labor. We make 
 no groat boast of our mineral products ; as owing to 
 the high price of labor, the heavy cost of transporting 
 machinery into the mountains, the scarcity of capital, 
 tou'ether with the certain remunerations of agriculture 
 and other pursuits, our mines have been but little 
 worked. Yet it is nevertheless true that of the $66, 
 500,000 worth of precious metals supplied to the 
 world by our western gold fields last year, Oregon 
 contributed $5,000,000. California contributed . $20, 
 000,000, Nebraska $18,000,000, Montana $12,000,000, 
 Idaho $6,000,000, Colorado $4,000,000, Washington 
 Territory $1,000,000, while Arizona and New Mexico 
 contributed $250,000, each. 
 
 A few years hence we shall make a better report. 
 
 The County of Crrant, situated in the middle of 
 Middle Oregon, claims to have already produced over 
 $10,000,000 in gold, notwithstanding It has a popula- 
 tion of only about four thousand, and is infested with 
 hostile Indians who secrete themselves in the moun- 
 tains, and by their occasional inroads upon the settle- 
 
12 
 
 iiients, make both iiiiiiing and fnriiiing extremely Iiaz- 
 ardoiLs. This county contains accoiding to a report 
 just published by the Oregon Agricultural Society, 
 territory enough to make about two such States as 
 Massachusetts. This is the only county in the State 
 where the Indians are troublesome. In other jiarts of 
 the state there is no more danger from Indians than 
 there is in Boston. 
 
 The rest of my remarks upon Orey:on will he mainlv 
 applicable to the western part of the State. The cream 
 of Oregon is the Willamette valley, though other por- 
 tions of the state possess attractions, which suit a diver- 
 sity of ta'^tes and callings, and are constantly makiufj!; 
 draius upon the population of the Willamette. This 
 valley, measuring froui the siuumit of the Cascades, to 
 the sumuiit of the Coast Chain is about sixty-five miles 
 wide and about one hundred and fiftvlouu'. or about as 
 large as Massachusetts and Delaware. In richness ol' soil, 
 in the beauty of its scenery, the ])urity and abundance 
 of its water, consisting of rivers, springs and wells, 
 all of which is as soft as rainwater; its general health, 
 and average climate, its natural facilities tor c(;uimer- 
 cial intercourse with the world, its water power, and its 
 exhaustless mountain forests, it will compare with, and 
 in my humble opinion excel any other spot of equal 
 size in North America. 
 
 The first thing that strikes a stranger Avho reaches 
 this country, is the dissimularity he everywhere notices 
 between things there, and those on the Atlantic Slope. 
 He gazes with delight at mountain peaks, covered with 
 eternal snows sixty or eighty miles away, and yet, such 
 is the purity of the atmosphere, and the magnitude of 
 the mountains, it seems incredible to him that they are 
 more than ten or fifteen miles distant. He Avonders 
 that the mountain ranges, have a far richer soil uj* lo 
 
13 
 
 their ven' suiniiiits* than the average farming hinds of 
 New England. Ho is astonished to see thonsands of 
 cattle and sheep living and fattening on the wild grass 
 in these mountains, He is surprised to see that the 
 Cascade and Coast mountains, the land of which is un- 
 survejed and unclaimed by the Government, have a 
 better soil and milder climate than the best portions of 
 Maine. If I had my choice to open a farm on top of 
 the Coast Kano-e, near some rich and o-ras,^ covered 
 |)ruiries 1 know of, where I could have tall timber all 
 around me, deer, elk, bear and mountain trout for my 
 meat, breathe a pure and invigorating atmosphere, and 
 drink from springs as pure and cold as the fabled springs 
 of pagan Muses, or take the best farm in Maine as a 
 gift to live on, 1 should choose the mountain home in 
 Oregon without a moments hesitation — yet more land 
 of this kind than there is in the whole State of Maine 
 can be had in Oregon without money and without price. 
 He who visits that country sees elder stalks from 
 eighteen to thirtv inches in circumference, and hazel 
 l)ushes, from one to live inches in diameter. He sees 
 them making luml)er of aider sawlogs from twenty to 
 thirty inches in diameter, lie notices something new 
 in the form and color of nearly all the birds and animals. 
 He finds the quail is uncommonly large and beautiful, 
 the male of which has a feathery tuft on the top of its 
 head five or six inches long. He notices that many of 
 the d.c. have black tails, and are remarkable for size 
 and beautv. He has heard about the fir trees in Oreson 
 which reach an altitude of three hundred feet, or over 
 eighteen rods; trees out of which have been taken 
 eiu-hteen rail cuts, and manv of which will make from 
 five to ten tiiousand feet of lumber. AVhen he first 
 looks up into one of these trees, and perhaps watches 
 a squirrel, till in ascending it i^ lo:-*t to view, he believes 
 
14 
 
 that the storv i« true — after he measures the tree, 
 he knoios that it is true. He will find that, in wander- 
 ing through these shady groves, he will not be exposed 
 to the sting of poisonous insects and venemous reptiles, 
 or the ferocity of wild beasts, as in many other coun- 
 tries. He can sit on a mosj^y log or lie down on the 
 grass — everywhere, I was going to say, but I will not, 
 Jbr I aim to state nothing but what is strictly true. 
 
 I have lived there many years, during which I have 
 travelled through the entire state from north to south, 
 and from east to west; scaled mountains, swam rivers, 
 and visited nooks and corners where none but Indians 
 ever were before. During this time 1 have seen and 
 killed one rattlesnake, run into one swarm of mosqui- 
 tos, stirred up one family of hornets, about a dozen 
 families of yellow jackets, and slept in a good many 
 beds, whc": bed ))ugs or ileas kept reminding me that 
 I wasn't in Heaven. [Applause] 
 
 1 have seldom read a book of travels that gave the 
 reader a correct idea of the countries described. They 
 generally state the advantages in glowing colors, mixed 
 in with a good deal of poetry, while they say but little 
 about the disadvantages. Many of those books are 
 written by adventurers, perhaps well read, and liter- 
 jiry, but who are as incompetent to jvidge of the in- 
 ducements a country offers as a home, as they are to 
 decide upon the best method of making cheese or soap. 
 They will write glibly about the carbonate of lime, 
 oxide of iron, carbonate of magnesia, silicia alumina 
 kc. that compose the soil, without telling us just what 
 the soil will produce, or how much of it to the acre. 
 I have visited some countries, with these books of 
 travel in my hand, and found, as I found in Central 
 America, that while the books described the gorgeous 
 glory of its forests, they failed to tell me that every 
 
I 
 
 he tree, 
 wander- 
 oxposed 
 reptiles, 
 -r coun- 
 
 on the 
 ill not, 
 rue. 
 
 I have 
 ' south, 
 rivers, 
 ndians 
 n and 
 losqui- 
 dozen 
 many 
 e that 
 
 ^e the 
 
 They 
 
 nixed 
 
 little 
 
 s are 
 
 liter- 
 
 le in- 
 
 re to 
 
 3oap. 
 
 [ime, 
 
 nina 
 
 vhat 
 
 icre. 
 
 :s of 
 
 tral 
 
 ous 
 
 ery 
 
 step I took in the woods I wms in danger of being 
 stung by a venemous reptile, and that 1 could no more 
 sit down to rest in the shade, on Jiecount of gnats and 
 mosquitos, than 1 eould stand still in a hornets nest. 
 1 had to go there to find out that the eliolera and 
 yellow lever often carries oil' the p<'ople by liunMieds. 
 I read of it as a great cotton country but nevei* knew 
 till 1 talked with the people there that, while the cot- 
 ton grows luxuriantly, the worm is sure to destroy 
 almost every vestige of it before it matures — that the 
 weevil destroys the corn, and that the peo[)le liave 
 little or no market fur whjit they do raise. 
 
 1 have seen other countries, such as Chili in South 
 America, which, although settled by a class of peo|)le 
 that a liberal minded American would not like to live 
 among, is in natural advantages one of the finc-^t coun- 
 tries on the globe — more like our possessions on the 
 Pacific Coast than any country I ever saw, and yet 
 such a country is often turned off with a dash of 
 the pen or two, Ijecause the disgusted tourist didn't 
 get his boots blacked, his beard fashionably trinuned, 
 or {I leather bed to sleep on. 
 
 My object is, to correctly describe the country 1 hail 
 from. While I speak of its advantages, 1 shall not fail 
 to mention its disadvantages. No man shall ever go 
 to that coast and say that 1 deceived him by exagger- 
 ating, or nudving a single statement that was not true. 
 If all 1 have said, and all 1 shall say is true, you can be 
 your own judges as to whether it would suit you. 
 
 If 1 was going to pick in the United States the sec- 
 tion that man has done the most for, I shoidd select 
 New England, but if 1 was called upon to indicate the 
 portion that God has done the most for, 1 should point 
 right over towards Oregon and California. If God 
 had never done anv more for that countrv than he 
 
u; 
 
 has for this, it woulihi't hnvo hciMi scttlcil to this (hiy. 
 If our coiintrv is a reiiiiirkahlv U'ood coimtrv, it is soon 
 to hocouK' a QTcnt comitiv. If it is ji hi'ttor countrv 
 than this or the Mississippi N'nHey; more hoiilthy, more 
 tonipenitc ovorhciui. iin oasiorcoinitry to make a livinE^ 
 in, and make money in. then it will pay the farmer to 
 go there, and where it will pay the a<i;ri('ulturist. to go, 
 it will pay the capitahst and every hody else to go — 
 with the exception perhaps, of the soft handed young 
 gentlemen who sport switch Avalking canes, part their 
 liair in the middle, smoke perfumed cigars, and twist 
 their mustaches into horns. [Cheers] »Such insects had 
 probably better stay where they are, and let the old 
 folks take care of them. [Ap])lause] 
 
 The soil of Ore^oJi rests on a clav bed, so hard that 
 a nugget of gold could never work down through it, 
 hence the surface holds all the dressing it ever had, 
 and (iod gave it the first dressing it ever had, and the 
 last, for nobody that 1 know of ever manures except 
 it be perhaps some garden patch. I am asked every- 
 where — "Doesn't vour soil wear out?" It never has 
 worn out yet and I know of farms that were settled 
 nearly fifty years ago, by the emphn^ees of the Hudvson 
 Bay Company, which I believe will produce as many 
 bushels of grain to day, as they did forty years ago. 
 
 A man on this side the Rockv Mountains would think 
 he had a fortune if he owned a large farm that never 
 needed manure, and which had a rail fence around it 
 that would last a hundred years. Just imagine what 
 such a farm of 320 acres would sell for, a farm on which 
 snow so seldom falls that its owner's stock will live in his 
 pastures ten months out of twelve, on which with good 
 cultivation he can raise from thirty to sixty-two bush- 
 els of wheat to tiio acre, on which he has an abundance 
 of stock water, plenty of oak, ash. maple, alder, white. 
 
tin's (lay. 
 t is soon 
 country 
 i,v. mo 10 
 a living 
 liner to 
 t, to uo. 
 
 to go 
 
 1 young 
 rt their 
 1 twist 
 'ct8 had 
 the old 
 
 rd that 
 >ngh it, 
 r had, 
 md the 
 except 
 every- 
 er has 
 ettled 
 udson 
 many 
 
 go- 
 think 
 
 lever 
 nd it 
 what 
 
 hich 
 In his 
 
 ood 
 
 ush- 
 Mice 
 
 n"te. 
 
 17 
 
 rc'l iind yellow lir tlmher. a nerfcctlv healthy location, 
 and l)(>!iiitiriil scenery all around him; where the ther- 
 momet(M' never rises above 82". or sinks lower than sjx 
 degrees helow zero, and not as low as that only once 
 in many years — what would such a place he worth".' 
 But suppose that on his land he can raise common white 
 turnips and rutabagas, thai will weigh Irom live to thirty 
 live pounds each, and measure from ten inches to three 
 and a half i'eet round by simply plowing his ground 
 and sowing the f^vvil broadcast, and without bestowing 
 any labor upon them after covering the ^Qei]^ land that 
 will produce better potatoes and more of them, than 
 can be raised oil the Mississippi bottoms, or in the (Jen- 
 uessee Valley, and e(|ual Illinois land in its yield of 
 oats, and all kinds of vegetables — what would a man 
 ask for such land? 
 
 Sup[)ose that this fai-m was entirely exempt from 
 the terrible tornados tli.it freciuently sweep over Illi- 
 nois and other western states, and sometimes visit New 
 England, and suppose that it had a comfortable house, 
 and respectable out buildings, and an orchard, that 
 produced hundreds of bushels of the finest ap])les in 
 the world; plums, and cherries that no insect ever 
 molests; where his wheat never rusts, or is destroj'ed 
 by weevil ; his potatoes are not eaten up by bugs, or 
 seized with the rot — about what would such a home be 
 worth on the Atlantic Slope? 
 
 And suppose in addition to all this, he can sitwith his 
 coat on and he comfortable in the shade, the hottest 
 day that ever shines; and that the nights are so cool 
 that he generally sleeps under the same bedding sum- 
 mer and winter; that his stock is generally remarkably 
 healthy; his hogs never die with the cholera, but fre- 
 quently live the year round with but little feed; and not 
 unfre(juently get fat enough for pork on the acorns. 
 
Is 
 
 iiiits 1111(1 Kiols outside ol lii> ciiclosmvs; ;iiul wlnMV 
 liis cliildicn ciiii pick Ixislicls oi' wild strawhcnios on 
 the |)r;nrios, (|iiaiuiti('s of inspherrics. f^oosol)oiTies, 
 l»l!U'ki)('n'io>. rInniMclx'nie-; salm()iil)CMTii's jiiid ♦sid-nl 
 l)!MM'i(>s in llu' woods: idioiit wluit do yoii tliink sucli ii 
 |»Im<h' woidd lie Ihdd nt o\er lliis way? Do you hclicvc 
 that li'old woidd hiiy if.' And yet liundi'cds of {'anus 
 |io.vs('><in^'ali iIh'so ad\ antagcs. and more can ho hoiiglit 
 in OrcL-'on. at IVoni SS. to ^10. an acre; hccause the 
 scik'i' can soon stall another iiirin tliat will suit him 
 just as \\('n. wht'i'c hind is new. and worth ])crlia])s 
 ,*ii;J.li') an acre. Many of the I'urnis in Oregon, are too 
 large tor tlie good of society, thi; good of their owners, 
 or the gooil of anyl)ody. The (loverninent dcniated to 
 every man wlio settU'd there prior to 18'j4, ^520 acres 
 of hind, and also ;)'J1() acres to every married woman to 
 he licdd in iier own rigid. The hushands dehts can- 
 not touch it. The laws of the State also very j)ropcrly 
 ])rovide lor the holding of property ])y woman. The 
 owners of these large tracts of land will sell olf Avhen 
 they can find hnycM's. 'I'he coiintiy will not he the 
 great and hcautiful country it is destined to he till 
 farms generally contain only iVom twenty to sixtvacres, 
 as they do in New England. 
 
 Men in Oregon own sonmohland that very little of 
 it is more than half cultiyated. They are jus begin- 
 ning to learn that deep plowing and good cultivation 
 ]iays. When 1 first went to Oregon, such a thing as a 
 steel ])low that would scour, was nnknown in the ])art 
 T settled in. The people had nearly all emigrated from 
 Missouri. They still wore hntternut breeches and used 
 wooden mould board plows such as they used before 
 the Hood. They thought that human skill was exhaust- 
 ed when it gave birth to one of these plows. [Laughter.] 
 With them we skimmed the surface of the ground, and 
 
 4 
 
 "^S 
 
Ill 
 
 gut prrlKi[)-< l\\ cut V luishi'ls ol wheal t(» the acre. In 
 1S')0 I ])liiiitc'(l on <^r(M!n(l sfratciu'd over wilii one of 
 these "divine arts of Missoiiii, " six Idislieis of potatoes, 
 f'oi* wliieli 1 paid ij^ I • ■• I raised I'lom tlieiii ten luisliels. 
 woj'tli S H>. in the fall. Since stecj plows came into nse. 
 I liavi' raiseil 2 Hi hnshds from the same amount of m^'il 
 worth ?5l-0. I have laised from an aci'e. in wheat. 
 '.].!'){) pounds, or sixty two and a half hushels. I l»e- 
 Heve that with proper <'ultivation a man will ^eneiallx 
 raise Irom thirtv to forty hushels to the acre. 
 
 We now ha\(' foi- sale and in use. all the hest a^ri- 
 cultural implements, that are used any wheie in the 
 IJ^nited States. You can. not only huy these. Iiut you 
 can purchase any thinii; else in Oregon, that you ean 
 procure in New KuLi'laiid. 'I'he prices ai'e generally 
 ahout the same there in .irold, that they are here in 
 currency. 
 
 N(tl)odv irriixates land with us. as the\' do in Calilor- 
 nia. the sunnner rains though rare, heing sulHcient to 
 make the crops. The first of April the I'ainy season 
 is considered over, yet we have o(Mnvsional showers till 
 the middle of May, when spring sowing is generally 
 over. Ahout the first of June we bok for a weeks rain. 
 No more rain need be expected till the first of Sep- 
 tember; when several days rain may he looked for, 
 which starts the grass, and aflords the farmer an (.'xcel- 
 lent oppoi'tunity to sow fall wheat. Wheat sown then 
 will be from six to eight inches high by the time the 
 cold rains of November set in, and it generally makes 
 a better crop than wheat sown at any other time. When 
 the >''rain fields beuin to ripen, about the first of Juh'. 
 the t.-rass on the prairies beirins to tmii vellow, too. 
 This o-rass o-ots dead and drv enouu'h to l)urn. but it is 
 as nutritious, is eaten as readily by stock, and fattcMrs 
 them as fa^^t. or t'astei' than tlie u'reen <irass. It is not 
 
"■•<Koo(J/ij|.,|„||- ... 
 
 "•"lnn,„„,|,„.,iv.. ,l„,i„„ ,„,' " ' "''"'' "'•'• ""»■ 'Iry 
 
 •'■;;-"-'!'". "i" .v:/t :;;;;::;:•■;;::: "'"'^■- 
 
 i.ct.s-the reason., can l.o ■ , • ^ •■""'"■'■<•• to .state 
 0"Mo be on,b,.acocl in a .l.onJ!:^' '"" '"" """'""- 
 
 ^™ ^■". t:^" ::::;:'";;;i::r^^ "^-'^ "- --"■ 
 
 »'••"■■" P"rallel, wifl, north v^'' 'v°", *'"-' """'-' «"■ 
 
 Oregon. wlnVl, ha,, , k-'. '".' ■?''■'" "'^' '■■•'l-it^I oC 
 
 VoH...ont,.,.an;eX,.';::.i^^^^ 
 
 f'^i-a-'a. i-o,, will also hn,I • '"■'"^'•. ""'' ""'■'liern 
 
 .l""-;«. th.at, eo„,„are,l « i,h the "tl ";;'":;'"" ''"■''■ ''- 
 
 of minor range; that Ion! "• ' ?"''" """'""'• ""'' 
 ^■al-enheit, the' varilw^ '^r; 7">;:^' '-■ "■ ^>'r' 
 tliose on the Paeitie. U'hil,, ,| """■ '"<' ''""''I*' 
 t-perature at .San Fran i.!™, ■.:;::■■;',: ''""''-■ '"' '''"*''"■ 
 " »"'J 8"S0'; at Washi„,.t,, ",'■'"""" "'■•^"'•^' 
 "o'-e than five times a. .re^t "' " " "''' '^'>' ' "'■ 
 ^--i.. to .«,o.get: hVeta, eharK th. „„„ 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 iMiiiliill (jf r'alirornia, wlierc tin* clirimb? is mild, iiuil 
 where it ^^ciu'rallv ruins in winlci- instead of snowiiiir; 
 is only aliDUt liaii" what it is in sintcs east ol'tlie Missis- 
 si|»i)i. 'The a\e)'a;i(' rainliill on \ anconver's Islan(] is 
 only ahont sixty live in('lK">. at Astoria ()re;i-()n. ahont 
 sixty inches, at liuniholdt in northern Calilornia a'«ont 
 I'ortN' live inches, in i^an l"ianei>co ahout l\vent\' 
 two iiiche-i. Kroiii this.it (h'creasi-s sontli. till yon 
 reach the u'reat (,'oIoi"a(lo Desert, where it aniomits t(> 
 almost nolhinu". 
 
 1 have tohl von that the winters are generally mild 
 as far north as I'ortland. Oregon, and tliat onr coldest 
 weather had not occnri'ed oftener than once in seven 
 years. 1 lind most jx'ople u'c' a Ix'tter i(h'a of onr 
 winters, when told that, for \ears after I went there 
 peoj)le nes'er thoniiht of di^i^Liin;^' theii* ])otatoes, only as 
 they nsed them, through the winter, and wo seldom had 
 any potjitoes I'ree/e in the gronnd. 
 
 I have allnded to the su|)erior character of onr frnits. 
 "•rains and vegetahlos. My statements are corrohor- 
 atod by almndant proofs, (lied away in the (Joyeni- 
 ment archives. Professor Merrick of Washington city, 
 in one of his reports on the climate of tlie Paciffic 
 coast mys — 
 
 " Tliese ^'ciieral cotitrolliiij; elements CDiiiliiiiiiiij; with the uiiiqiie choro- 
 fjriipliic t'eatiires of tlie eoimtry, jiive ri.se t(» a niatehlcss versatility ul" lueal 
 ollinates. These acting npon a soil of exiiiiisiie I'eitility, yield, iu an ;\ver to 
 intelligent agriculture, a variety, Itixiirian 'e. ami delicacy of i)ro( action, 
 esenient. cereal, lilinms, and I'ruital, nnparrelled on the face of tin earth. 
 The sakibrity of the^e ciiinates, wilh a lew local exceidions is unsu passed. 
 Their freedom from injnrions variation was a matter of common report 
 long before it was verified hy scientilie observation. — *** 
 
 The most active ont-door labors may be performed at all seasons of the 
 year, and at all honi's of tlie day. even in the nmstsidtry valleys. This resnlts 
 from the dr\ne>s of the atmosphere which prevents the few hot d<iys from 
 being at all enervating. Snch a thing as a hard winter, as nndestood east 
 of the Mississippi, is unknown even as I'ar north as Washington Territory. 
 All reports, both common and (-cientitic, seem to coincide in the statement 
 that the Pacific Coast luvsenfs the most desirable conditions of climaticin- 
 ttnencps upon earth. " 
 
 M 
 
• )'} 
 
 Thut is stroiiLi' l;ini'"nai'"e. but it is neverllieless tnie. 
 And it is also true, that tliis climato which invigorates, 
 instead of relaxiiiu" and enei'vatinL!; the human system 
 as does tlie ('liinat(> of the ureat Mississippi valley? 
 sharpens a man's perception. opiMis his eves, anrl i'end- 
 ers him evervwav more vigorous, active, and wide 
 awake than he was Itef'oie u'oing there. You ask one 
 of onr men on lh<' road a (piestion, and vou don'i 
 have to wait ten or iil'teen seconds Ibi- a)i answer. 
 
 Alter I crossed the Rocky Mountains, and got down 
 into Nehraska. Illinois and Indiana, in June 1<S0S I felt 
 as though 1 had got Into a mannnoth hake oven. The 
 people appeared to he possessed with a sort of stu])or 
 that was new to me. It seemed to nie that, when I met 
 a man on the road just at the forks, and en((uired which 
 fork 1 must take, it generally took him ten or fifteen 
 seconds to o-et the idea into his head, and get his brain 
 to working [Laughter] so as to be able to give me an 
 answer. I soon swa that it was in the climate, foi' 1 
 hegan to get stupid too. [Laughter] 
 
 Yon take a raw Missourian v>'ho honestly thinks that 
 a Yankee is a man who always wants his daughters to 
 marrv -'nee ire rs." who believes that the world is flat, 
 and that Christ was born in Bethan}', Mistiouri, and who 
 f/iV/ believe previous to 1800, that he and his kind could 
 whip the Y'ankee nation with squirrel guns, and Arkan- 
 sas toothpicks; and send him to Oregon, and you will 
 find that he will shed olf his l)utternut breeches in 
 eighteen months, [great laughter] In three years he 
 will shed olf his old cuticle, and look as sleek as a snake 
 after crawlinu,' out of its old skin. In ten vears it he 
 doesn't ''get religion," and become as wideawake as 
 a New England Yankee; 1 will agree to furnish him 
 with a new suit of butternuts, and pay his expenses 
 back to Pike County. Missouri. [xVpplause.] 
 
t'less true. 
 vigorato;s, 
 111 system 
 V'^ vjilloy, 
 aurl iviifl- 
 111(1 wido 
 
 I ;isk one 
 oil don't 
 u-er. 
 
 ^ot down 
 ns I felt 
 11. The 
 ' stupor 
 
 II 1 met 
 t which 
 ' fifteen 
 « hi'.'iin 
 
 iiie ;in 
 ^ibr I 
 
 vs thcat 
 ters to 
 is fiat, 
 d who 
 leouhl 
 U^k an- 
 il will 
 los in 
 I's he 
 ^iiake 
 if lie 
 ke as 
 him 
 'Uses 
 
 
 I pretend not to say how iinieli our eliiuale inHuenced 
 the eloquence of Col. Baker, or what it did for the 
 pro^,' ss of such men as Grant. jNIcClellan. Sheridan and 
 Jo. Hooker; for all of these men once lived in Oregon, 
 and stmie of them I believe were about as j^ood fio-ht- 
 ing men as you had in the Union Army. [Apphiuse.) 
 
 1 have told you that the Pacific ('oast is reinarkabl}' 
 healthy — 1 will now say that it Is the healthiest part 
 of the United States: and 1 am troimi; to i)rove it. I 
 was down in Arkansas not long ago. This is one of 
 the delightful southern states, which newspaper writ- 
 ers and speculators, want you to go down and settle 
 in. to-be ha])py and (i,et rich. I shall not stop to tell 
 you of the gnats and mosipiitos that swarm there; of 
 the stories that ])eo])ie told me about having to build 
 fires in the Mississipf)i bottom to make smoke their 
 cattle could stand in. to ward off "the dod rotted flies" 
 in the day time, oi' of the charactei' of the people you 
 are invited to settle amoiiu'. I have a word to sav 
 about the climate, and avei'age mortality there. 
 
 1 find by examining meteorological tables kept 
 for the (Jovernment l)v Dr. Smith, who lives be- 
 tween the Kod and Washita Rivers, that the climate, 
 though not intensely cold in winter, is liable to vcny 
 sudden and disagrcnble changes. For histance — the 
 fust of December ISV,). they had a thunder shower. 
 The air wa. murky and wai'ui ; the thermometei' 
 standiu"' at 74". The next da\" the thermometei' stood 
 at '2C)'\ and the rain froze as fast as it fell. On the tenth 
 of the same month the thermometer stood at sunrise 
 at 24", an<l at 2 o'clock P. M. at ")4" — showing a change 
 of oO" in a few hours. On the twenty third, it stood 
 at 8" in the morning, and at .".4" at two P. M. These 
 sudden changes are not exceptional ones — such are 
 fiiMjuently occuning. 
 
24 
 
 1 tiiid ill comparing the rates of mortality in this 
 state with that of others for the same jieriod, that, 
 Arkansas fnrnishes more victims to the (Irim Monster, 
 in proportion to its population than any other state in 
 the Union — while Massachusetts isn't very far l)ehin(l 
 it. The deaths in Arkansas in LSGD, were at the rate 
 of one person out of every forty eight. Massachusetts 
 and Louisiana which tread close on the heels of Arkan- 
 sas, lost one in 57. Illinois and Indiana, one in (S7. 
 Kansas, one in 68. Vermont, the most favored State 
 this side the Kockv Mountains lost one in 02. Califor- 
 nia lost one in 101. Oregon one in 172 and Washing- 
 ton Territory one in 22(S. 
 
 You see the immense difference, in favor of our 
 coast at a glance. The difference, is really, much 
 greater than the figures niake it; for very many incur- 
 ably sick people have gone there in hopes of recover- 
 ing from old chronic complaints, your doctors over 
 here were not al)le to cure. Infirmity on crutches, has 
 been constantly hobbling out among us. Many of 
 these diseased people, have been cured by the climate, 
 many others have died. Fewer of these diseased un- 
 fortunates have reached Washington Territory than 
 California and Oregon : consequently it has the advan- 
 tage of us in the figures, though no more healthy, 
 than the states south of it. 
 
 I have also stated that we have a great advantage 
 over the Atlantic Slope, in having fewer high winds 
 and no hurricanes. In the last twenty one years, we have 
 only had three winds moving at the rate of 45 miles an 
 hour, with a force of ten pounds to the square foot. In 
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, the 
 Government reports from eleven stations where obser- 
 vations were made, show that in thirty months, there 
 were four winds of 45 miles velocity and ten pounds 
 
 I 
 
 sssmmm 
 
L'-) 
 
 ])<)Wt'r; and two winds of (lO miles velocity and eijj,-lit- 
 eeii ])ounds jiowor. 
 
 At eleven stations in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa 
 and Wisconsin, the reports show, that during twenty 
 six months, there were twenty five winds of 45 miles 
 velocity, two winds of 7-') miles velocity, and two hur- 
 ricanes of a velocity of 1)0 miles an hour. The force 
 of these frinditful winds is not u'iven, after it exceeds GO 
 miles an hour. 1 su|)[)Ose the Government observers, 
 were running down cellar al)out that time, holding their 
 liiiJ!' on their heads witii both hands. [Laughter] 
 
 Now if the pericds (hning which these observations 
 were made, afford a fair average, and I judge they do, 
 while in twenty one years, we have had in Oregon 
 three fort} live mile winds, in Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island and Connecticut, tliey have had twenty lour, 
 such winds, and sixteen winds of sixty miles velocity. 
 This avera<2:e wonhl also for the same time, <>:ive llli- 
 iioi<, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan two hun- 
 dred and twenty live foity live mile winds, eighteen 
 
 of seventy five miles, and eighteen of ninety miles 
 velocity. 
 
 Have vou ever read of those hurricanes out there, 
 that level brick buildings, blow a chew of tobacco ont 
 of a man's mouth, [Laughtei'] and nearly shear the 
 wool from the sheep? [Applause] If you haven't J 
 have, !ind have seen them too. [Laughter] And , yet 
 some men, in starting west to seek the pronnsed land, 
 stop and settle in tliis country, just as the leek and 
 onion eating Jews, fell in the wilderness, before reach- 
 ing Caanan. They find it a pretty good corn country, 
 and C(mclude to stop and go to raising hogs. It i.s a 
 good count ly to raise hogs in, but rather a poor coun- 
 trv to raise children in. A countrv where the niii'hts 
 are hot enough to make great corn, isn't just the coun- 
 
 1 
 
2r; 
 
 tiv to make Liical nu-ii in. [Applause.] While the 
 great iMissis,<ip])i valley is turning out large hogs we in- 
 tend to see Avhat we can do in the wa}'' of supplying 
 the world with great men. 
 
 I have told you we generally have a great deal of rain 
 in the winter in Oregon, and sometimes we have cold 
 weather. We not unjreciuently have winters that are 
 exceptions to this I'ulo. Last winter 1 was not in Ore- 
 gon, but I learn from a pamphlet just issued ))y the 
 " Oregon Agricidtiu-al Society" that, according to a 
 record ke])t hy Mr. Dufur, near Portland, it was one 
 of our mild winters. During November, December. 
 January and February, there were onlv eioht continu- 
 ous rainy days; ibity-two days that were variable 
 and r;eventy-three clear sunny days. There w'ere thir- 
 teen frosts and not snow enough to wdiiten the ground. 
 Only Ibiu' nights made ice as thick as a pane of glass, 
 and in February the bees were out gathering honey 
 irom the Howers. 1 have seen some winters in Oregon 
 periiaps with fewer fro.sts than this. I have seen green 
 corn, lettuce and greens taken from the garden Christ- 
 mas day, when melon vines were yet as green as they 
 were in July, — ^but this is not common. 
 
 Our common school system is good. A public 
 school fund defrays in part the expenses of schools. 
 A majority in every district can vote a tax to build a 
 scho'ol house and pay the teacher. In many places 
 the tax is voted and the schools are free. We have a 
 great many ''Colleges" scattered over the state — most 
 too many. We have no prohibitory liquor law, yet 
 we had one once, long before such a law was enacted 
 in Maine, or any where else in the United States. 
 Now no man can procm-e a license to sell liquor till he 
 obtains the signatures of a majority of the legal vot- 
 ers in his precinct to his petition (or a license. Many 
 
'^hilo the 
 g's we in- 
 Lipplviiig 
 
 il of rain 
 ive cold 
 that are 
 t in Ore- 
 
 by the 
 iig to a 
 vas one 
 ceniber. 
 !ontinu- 
 ^ariahle 
 ^re thii-- 
 ?rounfl. 
 f glass, 
 
 honej^ 
 Oregon 
 i green 
 Ohrist- 
 s they 
 
 public 
 'hools. 
 iiild a 
 places 
 ave a 
 -most 
 
 ', .yet 
 
 noted 
 tates. 
 ill he 
 ! vot- 
 
 fall in getting these sigiuitm-es, lienee there are many 
 sections in which there is no liquor solil. 
 
 OiU' wild game, consists of elk, bear, deer, rabbits, 
 coon, squirrels, swan, geese, brants, ducks, grouse, par- 
 tridges, (|uails, sage hens, and several other kinds ol' 
 birds. Ourniountain streams abound in speckled trout, 
 while in the Columbia l^iver, and in nearly all the riv- 
 ers emptying into the sea, vast quantities of salmon, 
 sturireon. smelt, and sonu' other kinds of fish are cauii'ht. 
 At the mouth of the Columbia, the salmon are of a su- 
 perior quality, and the supjily is unlimited. If you go 
 to Oregon, and bake one of these large salmon, and 
 you don't get a quartof oil in your bake pan, you just 
 send f)r me and 1 will agree to eat it. The land 
 around the mouth of the Columbia is much of it moun- 
 tainous, yet the clhuate is mild, and the soil is produc- 
 tive. I consider it the best grass land in the state. 
 Stock here is seldom if ever fed in the winter, yet 
 this part of the state is but little settled. The land 
 has been surveyed, but the Pi-esident has never to my 
 knowledge issued his proclamation throwing these 
 lands into market. Here are exhaustless quarries of 
 stone from which, on the right bank of the Columl)ia, 
 they are manufacturing hydraulic ceuient, said to I)e 
 of a superior quality. 
 
 [ lately travelled much through the State of Maine. 
 [ saw farmers everywhere toiling all summer to (ill 
 their barns with hay. so that they could work all winter 
 in feeding it out to a handful of stock. The nuigni- 
 tude of the haymows, coin])ared with the haudfulls of 
 stock, expected to eat it up before spring, lilled me with 
 amazement. I told the farmers up there, that I thought 
 vaisinc stock in Maine was rarher a hard way to serve 
 the Lord. I refen-ed to my statistics again, and began 
 to !i'.>MU'!' for them, a-: uoik' of them that I saw liadauy 
 
 any 
 
# 
 
 28 
 
 the same year pro.hico.I •>6 4 , / '"'I'' "'•<^'«"» 
 
 to 207.02.5 I.cai of ..to kir ■ 'r?'' "^ ''^'>-' ""'' ^'lit 
 <""■ l.orscs, cattle, ,m,l ,hoen . '°''\""'^' •!■"«' '"^''•e tliat 
 
 ;'ythe,.est.,toek„f^v^2;,,:;,ro""J^'' '"'•'-' 
 ""■"' •'..niu.i fiiirs are „ ,Tc.,m i "' "'" ■■'•''•'■«"'■ 
 
 I"M..ine,ench,.n™„leo „ ,°'^"""^ 
 l>o<nK).s of l,av. a.-ainst 1 1'"""' "" "" '"'^''••so 2.1 n; 
 
 Calling tl,is LnvC; , , "''r?,"-^''""^'' '" "'-^'O"- 
 
 of wmteringan'nnim i" A °""''^' " '""' ♦'"■■ ™«t 
 
 59 ot^, Ti """ ™"io "•a.'< #fi .5!) t„,i, 
 
 "•ere worth $15.437.5.5.a_or^l- '.?°"?'-'"' ""'"''■■'^ 
 '" Oregon was worth $0.2;2.S9t_;: Iri', '^''- •""* 
 -'Pi>o..ng tins ..toek to have b'een 1^ '^"■"^''- ^°''- 
 '■-•<Iy for niarket. The cost o "!''^°>-^"''^ «!''- ""'I 
 Maine worth §17..34, was §197/ '^7'^ "" ^"'-"^^ in 
 oneni Oregon, worth ^n/r, ^''« ^o^t of rai.sh.g 
 
 .-at ...re Orego.f:nt2a:;,^7^' ^.-^'r ^'^^ 
 nem Maine was <i^2.4.S P. r. The Jo.^.s on 
 
 one 
 iHal.s in 
 
 ic 
 
 $243. If I .should 
 
 gon $2,172, Lo 
 
 Pro/it 
 
 •s.s on 
 
 '^n one IiuiKlrod 
 
 till 
 
 lousnio., f^_.e,] 
 
 'n.2r, cle; 
 
 ■^'0 info noconnt th 
 
 one hundred in Mi 
 
 ani- 
 
 uue 
 
 e tniie nscd 
 
 ft-'d in Maine the bal 
 
 '»'"g ^tahle., etc., ami ,h 
 i»ce would he niucl 
 
 in 
 
 e LTahi 
 
 iii'cs to s 
 G 
 
 "Pport it who 
 
 '•^ •statement, ^-itl 
 
 ' gi'oater in 
 
 our 
 
 overninent made the fiiT 
 
 reot. S 
 
 the 
 
 ome of the M; 
 
 ^vould have believed 
 'Hid I believe tl 
 
 1 1 res 
 
 «iit the fi( 
 it? Tl' 
 
 le 
 
 y made 
 
 line men w 
 
 H'vareeor- 
 
 t'iej' fell beh 
 
 "P HI the value of h 
 
 ^^'^" inclined to think 
 
 J found thi 
 her ho 
 
 ind 
 
 on .-took. On ref 
 
 ome maniiihet 
 
 '''i(-'-S what 
 
 '^ '" 1^00 Maine had t\ 
 
 ^i-ni^ to m V statistic 
 
 "laiuifiict 
 
 0111 the 
 
 '"•^>^' gardens and orchard 
 
 pi'oduct 
 
 >s 01 
 
 '^1.72 t 
 
 o 
 
# 
 
 cat'Ii niiUi, womiuiimd cliild in tin- Slate wliik- (>rcL''<in 
 liiul from tlio saiii(> somci's s I !.'»7. Maiiu' piodiiciMl lo 
 e.'icli pei'M)!! ill tlit'Siate I 1.7 (|i:arts()t' wlicat — Ori'uou 
 produced l-l.V bushels. In Illinois. Indiana and Iowa, 
 the discrepancy is not (pnte so _i;i'eat ; but 1 can lake 
 tile figures and show that the cost of raisiuii' stock in all 
 these states, exceeds the value ol' it when raised. From 
 these Ii(i:ures, vou will readiiv see whv New Enuland 
 ['urnicrs wlio work hard and hardy live, i^eneiady make 
 ii better livimi; and Lict licli when they u'o to Oreu'on. 
 These facts will sci've in part to show why the])rices 
 of labor rule much higiicr on our Coast than here. The 
 Califoi'nia Labor Kxchan^e went into o])eration the-!'.Uh 
 of April JS-jS. The first of last June, the secietary re- 
 ported that they had ali'eady received S'iOcS orders call- 
 for 19.500 men. ( The exchan^^e has n(>thing to do 
 with Chiiianum.) The society had sui)plied 14.()()2 men 
 and 4.021 female laborers. The demand for tenuile 
 domestic service waslargely in excessoj' the su[)piy and 
 all kinds of labor had for months been steadily risino- 
 in value. The demand for men was principally for coiii- 
 moii laliorers, farmers, carpenters, nnners, blacksmiths, 
 cooks, hoys, &c. Of the prices paid in gold lor lahor, 
 the repot sa3'8 — 
 
 " Donuistic servants, wiio only ((.ir.niaiiil alicaa s-10 < r S.'O a yrar in 
 Great 13ritaiii and on tlu^ contini'ut n!' l-.m-diic, have Ijccn cii.ucily tMiuai;t'il 
 licre at tin; rate (if s:i() to .S-)(i jicr iiiiinlli, as la-l as tliry ]ia\v iH'cicd. 
 IJoy.s (12 to ](> years of age) for li,^lil wurl; or aiiin'ciitice.-liiii. are jiaiil 
 from ^I- to i^lTj iier nioiitli, and all classes ol iii(lu>irions iieix.ns are ['aid 
 at rales whicli wnuld iml at all lie ciiN'itaincd aiiy\\lieie (lUl.-ide the I'aeil'ir 
 States." 
 
 Now this may seem strange when we remember 
 that an army of laborers was disbanded upon the com- 
 pletion of the racilic liaihotid. and that there has been 
 ji constant stream of emigrants pouring over the moun- 
 tains, in wagons. 
 
 and on the raihoad. while tens of 
 thousands. Imve gone out bv water. Durinu- the nine 
 
months prectHling Octobor l.Si>8, tlie two liiu's of 
 steamers riinnln<^ from Now York to 8aii Fi'Miicisco 
 carried out over sixty tlioiisand souls. Every out going 
 steamer was loaded with from eight to twelve hundred 
 passengers. The ]):is,-enger list of the Pacific mail 
 Steamship Company alone embraced as high as five 
 thousand names a month. It is also estimated that 
 over one hundred and seventv five thousand Mon<i:oli- 
 ans have already reached our shores. 
 
 You may ask what has become of this vast throng 
 of people many of whom must have been laborers? 
 
 You nuist remember that they are building up an 
 empire out there. The Labor Exchange report, says 
 that the army of laborers discharged at the completion 
 of the Pacific Kailroad scattered off through the mines, 
 or found work on other railroads, so that they 
 afforded no i*elief to the clamor for laborers, as was 
 expected. 
 
 The women who go out there to teach school or do 
 housework generally change their minds, and get 
 married; [Applause] as in Oregon and California 
 there are about 7T,5U0 more nudes than females. 
 
 I have lately been informed that all the women 
 taken out there in the steamer Continental, by Mercer, 
 about two years ago, are married but one. About 
 seventeen hundred of us married men, had nuide great 
 calculations on getting domestic assistance when Mer- 
 cers cargo of girls, old maids, and grass widows should 
 arrive. But the bachelors, were too sharp for us. 
 
 They said we already had our share of women, and 
 Mercer s girls all said the bachelors were right. They 
 voted just as the bachelors, and widowers did, and we 
 were outvoted two to one, and had to give it up. A 
 few years ago Ex-Ctov, Slade, sent out to Oregon, a 
 lot of female school teacliers. from thirty to foi'tv 
 
"A 
 
 years of ngr. Sladc lliouiiiil tlicv wcw ;ill incorrigi- 
 ble vestals, and ]iol)0(ly over here snspieionerl that any 
 of them had ever liiinkered after matrimony, — and 1 
 have no reason to believe they ever had. They all 
 changed their minds a1»out the time the first qnarter 
 of their schools Avere half out. 
 
 In due course of time, one Avas married to ajndge, 
 one to an Episcopal clergyman, and one took the then 
 Gov^ernor of Oregon. The last one of them got mar- 
 ried and gave up teaching other peoples children, to 
 go to nursing their own. [Applans(>] and 1 don't blame 
 them, for 1 do tbink some of them had as bright little 
 cherubs as 1 have seen on onr coast. How can we 
 expect that the demand for female help will ever be 
 supplied, when we have neai'ly eighty thousand more 
 males than females, and the demand for wives is so 
 much more pressing? Besides girls only get in Ore- 
 gon, from $15 to $30 a month for doing housework, 
 seldom as low perhaps as $15. I have paid a woman 
 $40 a month in gold for doing housewoi-k and was glad 
 to get the help at that. 
 
 Fellow citizens 1 am about done with my descri])- 
 tion of the Pacific Coast. I have misstated no 
 fact. I have neither exaggerated or given to any- 
 thing a false color. If wdiat I have told yon is true, 
 isn't it a pretty good country? It isn't Heaven — you 
 can't find that in this world, every s])ot on this little 
 anthill that we call earth, has its drawbacks and imper- 
 fections. Sickness and sorrow, disappointments, pains, 
 and tears, woe and death, are incident to all climes, and 
 all countries. But there is as much dilTerence in conn- 
 tries as there is in anything else. Man has only one 
 life to live, then why spend his days in the bottom of 
 a well, when he can just as well dwell on a hilltop? If 
 he can fi)id no paradise on this earth, why not locate 
 

 jiisl iis m-iir I iK'^'iitesior rienvon its ])()ssil)!t'? [ApplaiiseJ 
 'L\vLMit\- one years ji^jjo last March,! started IVoni lUi- 
 iiois lor Oregon, willi a wife and two little ones — one 
 three months old, and tiie other three years. We crossed 
 thj L^iain>! In an ox wagon drawn by four yoke ol' cattle. 
 I drove the team when well, when sick my wife drove 
 it. We were six months to a dav iiom the Missouri 
 lliver to the lii'st house in Oregon. During the whole 
 time we weie among Indians, without seeing a white 
 man's dwelling. We ieiiied North Platte, and lorded 
 every other river on the route We tbrtled Snake Jiiver 
 
 »■' 
 
 twice whei'e it was nearly a mile wide. Atone ot these 
 crossings the current carried a team oC lour yoke of 
 cattle down stream, with a familv in the wagon, when 
 hi the middle of .Snake Kiver. This team was next to 
 my wau'on In which I carried luv own household u'ods. 
 We lorded many ra[)Id. rocky and dangerous streams 
 where we had to raise our wagon beds, half way up to 
 the top of the standards. Sometimes the roaring wa- 
 ters would run over the hacks of our small sized oxen, 
 and come near turning the wagons over. In crossing 
 some of these streams, children would cry and women 
 cover up their faces and scream. 
 
 Not a soul in onr compan^^ died on the way, or was 
 killed by Indians, as many were that came after us. I 
 passed over ground on Snake liiver in my late trip 
 across the continent, w here a whole company of men 
 women and children were massacred in 1857; their 
 wagons were burnt, the w^agon tires rolled down the 
 preci])ice, and the dead bodies thrown after them. Their 
 bones were still bleaching on the rocks below. 
 
 Our troubles were of a dilferent kind. Our cattle 
 became almost as wild as the buflalo that thronged 
 the road. We had many a terrible stampede. Some- 
 times the whole train of forty wagons, would diish off 
 
• I > ) 
 
 ■ )•) 
 
 in an instant and our catllf vwu liki' Imtliilo willi liidi- 
 an>'al'tt'r thoni. Durln*:: these stanipcfles wa<r()ns wore 
 turnofl ovei*, men's legs were broken, and many oxen 
 fiad their horns knoeked off elose to their heads, hv 
 I'allin'i' and being (b'agged by tiie rest o(" tlie team. 
 
 \Vr liad one .staiiiiMilc tliiit I sli.ill ik'Vcm' tup.'ct. It wiis on ii nai'i'ow ri(li;p 
 ov backliDiip of Hear Kivcr .Mountain. 'I'licrc was a yawning' prcciijii't' a 
 few steps to tlie right of us. Another as ni'ar to tlic k'f't of ns, and only lialt 
 a mile ahead of us the road led down tlie mountain, so steep that the descent 
 could only he inaile liy i-ough locking hoth hind wh(>els of the wayon. My 
 wile and I were walkins; wlieii I saw the tiain hehind me coming thunder- 
 ing over the rocky road. I barely had time to sprint; into my wagon, where 
 lay my two little ones, both sound asleep. Away wont my team. One of 
 my oxen broke his yoke, and ran oH' to tlie right, leaving me three yoke and 
 a half, running like crazy bulfalo. 
 
 I wa:; morally cei tain that my cn>/y team would run oH the precipice, in 
 which (Nise there wouldn't liave been a whole spoke in a wagon wheel, a 
 sound bone in an ox, or life in either of my inecioiis bal)i;s. I thoiiglit I 
 might possibly save one child by Jumping out of tli(> wagon with it. Three 
 times 1 reached back to lay hold of it, and three times the wagon sliiick a 
 rock and hounded so that I tailed to reach it. I Ihen thouglit that Jleaven 
 intended I should save all. I jinnpod from my wagon. iind succeeded l)y 
 liammering my tongue cattle over tli(^ head with the but of my wliip in 
 stopping the team just as they reached the very l)row of the mountain, 
 where my cattle stood and gazed down the frightful declivity. 
 
 I don't think that I am a coward, and 1 am not aware that I wa« over 
 afraid of tlie face of clay, white or rod ; Itut I must acknowledge that I be- 
 lieve I turned white then. 
 
 Our cattle stampeded wlien yoked up, and they were being watched by 
 herdsmen. ^lany ran oiriii the yoke that we never saw again. They often 
 stampeded in tlie night, and once over four hundred head were oveitaken 
 the next day nearly forty miles from camp, having travelled this whole dis- 
 tance through an alkali plain without grass or water. We lost so many 
 cattle this way, that many wagons were left in the wilderness. We cut 
 other wagon boxes down to eight feet in length, and threw away such arti- 
 cles as we could spare in order to lighten our loads, now too heavy for the 
 weak and jaded cattle we had left. Some men's hearts died within them, 
 and some of our women sat down by the roadside a thousand miles from 
 settlements and cried — saying they had al)andoned all hopes of everircaching 
 the promised land. 
 
 I saw women with babes but a week old, toiling up mountains in the 
 burning sun on foot because our jaded teams were not able to haul them 
 (Sensation.) We went down mountains so steej) that we had to let our 
 wagons down with ropes. My wife and I carried our children up muddy 
 mountains in the Cascades half a mile high, and then carried the loading of 
 our wagon up on our backs by piecemeal, as our cattle were so reduced 
 that they were hanlly able to haul up the empty wagon. 
 

 inwKwn.- "» 
 
 34 
 
 At Iciif^tli our six nioiitlis (il'toll and Jaiigcr were uvi-r. Wf drove up to 
 the door of" tlif lirst hoimo," ill llic! Willaiiittte valify. We wen- liagKard 
 and loll worn. My wife then wei^lied a inindred and ten — she now weighs 
 two lmn(h-ed pounds. (ApplauHc.) My wa;,'(»n cover on whicli was painted 
 the Ainerii'iin Eat^le ; under wiiich was inscrilied, " Westward the Star of 
 Empire inal<es its way," was torn into shreds. Our faces were iiterally 
 peeled liy the alkali of the saf;e plains. We lurgot our troubles when we had 
 Imiit our lir(! l»y the roadside, and begun to roast potatoes. The dear little 
 pi^s sipiealed around otu- camp tire, tlie cocivs crowed, and the hens cackled. 
 I thought it was the sweetest music I had ever heard. 
 
 The (irst winter we built a small log cabin, with a roof all sloping one 
 way to live in. It smoked terribly, l)ut we were happy. We boiled peas for 
 breakfast, dinner and supper; and ate them on tin plates. We browned 
 them for tea and coffee, and drank it in tin cups, without sugar or milk. 
 All the crockery there was for sale in Oregon was one set of cups and sau- 
 cers in Oregon City — price ?<2..'>0. I had oidy ten cents in money, (and that 
 was borrowed) and of course I did'iit buy that crockery. The neighbors 
 rolled up a small log house, and put a mud chimney in it. It would have 
 been a capital place to smoke meat in. In that house I taught school. My 
 left boot was pretty good— it let the water out as fast as it got in. My 
 right boot was tninus, excepting the leg and heel. I patched it out with 
 rawhide, sown on with buckskin "whangs." The patch had to be put on 
 every night; but beef hides were ph nty. My girl pupils dressed in common 
 shirting, colored with tea groimds. Many of tliem went baretbot. My boy 
 scholars dressed in buckskin pants, and one of them used to help mend my 
 boot every night— he called it " poulticing" it. In that school liouse I taught 
 winters, and my wife taught summei-s while I either worked in the gold 
 mines or on the farm. Of my boy scholars, one of them afterwards turned 
 out to be the editor of a medical journal. One became president of a col- 
 lege. One went to Congress from Oregon, and was afterwards by Lincoln 
 appointed Chief Justice in Idaho. Another is the present Governor of 
 Oregon, and one of the best stump orators on the American continent. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Then there were but two or three cabins on the bank of the river where 
 Portland now stands. I have tied my cattle to a tree and slept on the 
 ground by the side of my wagon in a dense forest of tal! timber, where you 
 will now find the heart of Portland, a rapidly growin^r ci y, witli its eight 
 thousand inhabitants. 
 
 Then, no steamer had ever disturbed those western waters. The Indians 
 had heard of them, and learned that they were commg; and I have seen 
 them standing on the hill where .John Jacob Astor built his first fort; and 
 gazing down the Columbia, in hopes to get a glimpse of the coming "fire ships.' 
 Now, a line of ocean steam ships connects with San Francisco every week. 
 Portland has direct trade by sailing vessels with New York, tlie Sandwich 
 Islands, Australia, China, and perhaps Liverpool. About forty steamers are 
 running on the waters of the interior, mostly owned by tlie Oregon Steam 
 Navigation Company, and the P. T. Company. These steamers are superior 
 in their accommodations, and in the gentlemanly conduct of their officers— 
 from the Presidents of the Companies down, to those of any steamers I have 
 found on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, ov the northern lakes. 
 
 
35 
 
 l"''>:;i-<;s* till, cuinir,.,. i ^ '• ' ''"\<' ill>o foM v ""^'" «^- 
 
 '^^ ^><3.-u ,;;'';•.. '"'r'''"'" '''"•"• which 1. 1., ,•,'', r*'^ "■"' "■•'^•'' -^ i-i...ia- 
 
 "•"'i">'^; in IS , s^: " "■'" '" '•"""" "urnber« ^^o,: " '" "'""^^ '^ uni- 
 ons; in S4, "• ""'"""^- '■» '■^-'". nino „ '""'"^•" '" ^'^"O- 'ive 
 
 '-■'•ease that lias h..|,l .. > '*"''"-'^'« "*' --^-'J- J hol.l n ' , ' '^f' ^''iHed 
 
 so.inr^To '^, '"-''^^""'^'•^'•s'H-eniv vears will '" this law of i„. 
 
 y^^rs i-^ce/t.: jr;;; :ir2;'^ """'o-^' a^r;:';!; r^: s^f ^^ 
 
 •" t'- wnlh.::;^ ^,;;:-^ --e T<.,n Moo.; : ^ :^;";^ «f y <- ".ilhon, 
 '•'••>-.. the h.,., t ; ' P ' .'"'" ''"' ••' ^'" t'n .u. h wot I ^^'-^^ '"'S'"'- C'ily as 
 '"-"• i" t'Hs . var o„^r" "'^ '""^'^- ^VJ>a " „ i:,,"? ' ;'"' '^^^-"l- 'o get 
 i" the wood, n V •■""'-'" ''"^"' '^'''.'U same v ' "^''^ ''''"'^ ''^^«" 
 
 hiive believed thu i. • ^'"'^ ^^""''1 'wve thPn , ' ''•^'i''o''>'ig 
 
 "o'Uage, cireii 
 
 '"■»■-' I'l't Indians, tl 
 
 ^>'-egon," where Le«' 
 
 piipers ; 
 Ifth 
 
 ;l3-5l* 
 
 ;"'^" l^'^'l come back fVo,„ thei 
 hem mil- tl>...., .. . ■' i-uej 
 
 i« and 
 '■'1 the English 
 
 daily 
 
 iiews- 
 
 Who sent them out there, that 
 0" thj,tcjast, in ivh 
 
 in 
 
 lioii? 
 
 'f.' in Lund 
 
 ,un 
 
 "-•h "i3i-chants wo 
 
 ■•li'd U.atagreat hi,h 
 
 , ''J'>eai»,there would be ciL 
 ■^^'•^ ^'^y n-om trudi 
 
 •uld 
 
 H't news e 
 
 way or nations wo'nlTJ 
 
 rson 
 
 cities 
 
 '.le o 
 
 'pened 
 
36 
 
 up across the Continent, on which sncn woiijfl travel from Occivn to Ocean 
 in six liiiys, Jctrcrsoii would have believed they were crazy, and that their 
 brains had been injured by the toils and sutlerings they had endured in the 
 snows of the mountains. 
 
 I tell you to-iliiy that, tluMMtio of our in:reas(>, prosperity and glory for 
 the next sixty years, is to be an accelerated one. What startling and benefi- 
 cial developments science may make in that time I cannot imagine, as I 
 have no data by which to \\<nk out the problem. Men may go round the 
 world in six days in balloons, for anything that 1 know; taking a cold lunch 
 on Mount Hood, boiling their coUee at the crater of Mauna-Kea, and bring- 
 ing home ciuiosities from the highest peaks of the Alps. [Applause) 
 
 1 hnce data however for the conclusion that many of you will live to see 
 Xew York rival liOndon ; and Boston rival Paris; wlieu Clucago will eclipse 
 I'ekin; and when there will be cities oi; the Pacific Coast, that will have 
 more wealth, more trade, and mcjre population than Boston has to-day. It 
 was long after I was born, (and I am nothing but a boy yet) that Boston 
 built a railroad out to (i)uincy, just three miles long. It cost you, exclusive 
 1)1' land, wharf, and cars, i?-!-!,!"))^.!)'). That was tlie first money that was 
 ever spent on a railroad in the United JStates. When Davy ("rocket, ix-p- 
 resented in Congress the district I once lived in in, West Tennessee, he took 
 a trip up into tlie Yankee nation to see the factories of Lowell, and the 
 wonders of the " l£ub," He mustered up courage while here to take a ride 
 on your railroad. When he got back among tlie natives of Obion County, 
 every body wanted to know about that railroad — what it was, and what it 
 looked like. Davy told them that it looked to him "just as if tliem Yankees 
 up in Boston, hail got hell in harness." [Applause] 
 
 If he had lived te see the telegraph wire flashing news almost around the 
 world, while ho was swallowing a glass of whisky, he woiUd have thouglit 
 that the Yankees had got Ilcucen " in harness"' too. [Applause] Fe low citi- 
 zens, you have actually lived to see the day, wlien the three worlds are " in 
 harness," and liitcheil to the golden car of civilization and human progress. 
 
 Our great interior; the country between tlie Kocky Mountains and the 
 Cascade Kange, and stretching from British America to Mex' 'o, is dotted all 
 over witli rich nnnes. Its stock raising facilities are illimital)le; as most of 
 tiiis vast area embracing OOO.OOO s-juare miles, is covered with bttter wild 
 grass than grows east of the Rocky Mountains. 1 hold that this great inte- 
 rior is capable of sup|)lying the cities on both seaboards, ,,ith beef, butter 
 and wool ; besides supplying the world with a circulating medium. Large 
 tracts of this count; y have been by many considoied worthless, being desti- 
 tute of water, and having an alkaline soil covered with sr-ge brusli. intelli- 
 gent travellers, such as Diike, and Baker, tell us that, in A'geria, Al)yssinia, 
 and Australia, just such lands becom» very productive when irrigated. 
 They assert that these alkaline lands, when v atered, niakt; tlie best corn 
 fields in the world — that under irrigation, the more alkali, the better tht; 
 corn crop. 
 
 The sole requisite lo devtiop this vast intra-montaue region, is water. 
 This will be supplied by artesian wells, and by means of dan-.s and dykes, 
 which will be made to husband the water running from the sno-.v-s of the 
 mountains, and carry it over barren wastes, which, at its magic t(Micli will 
 
 U 
 
v/ 
 
 I' 
 
 37 
 
 smiJ« with corn fields an,l i. , 
 n licit tins coiintrv iipprio • 
 
 »V e Iiave got to liave t/i 
 
 Vvhat we most wuif 
 
 *ace of the wnvWi , . *^'''''*' the sp hit ^f mm >. , '^Todoiice 
 
 ^'"ing its duty to i,s „, , ' ' '" -<>vorn:r,ent secures its .1 °" "' 
 
 small oBlcf, fori «.,„ , ™''^«>» '" 'Iran- tl.orr pava.i.l ]„il,., , '"' '"«■ 
 
 "•<■ Stan l,„vc :;:)•. 7t i o •" '"'"'MliiBMH. Wh„, ,,,, ^"^ ■' '^"'mtain,,, 
 
 -a.i ..r bo,,,„:4,',:,!:„f "■■"«■ » - ^- ..,„„ :',::,,:;:;:,':;--■". 
 
 ""'■ l"1ilil,ili.,„. I liav,. „„|,. , ■ '" '")■ '-"irnal,. ,„■ ,,„. ,.,„,. , . 
 
 'juuuvoi.ui,,,,.,,, ;;/''> ■■»'™»'«'i'!..M„,,ajii,,,,i,,; ;■'■''■■ ""■'■■■••■*•-• "!■ 
 -%.'a«o„ „.„,„ „- „, '„ ;•« '"•■ '»' .-».■» pr..„„: : ;;■« — 
 
 l.RW.aK): ajiil lb, ,1,; '-'-""""fs »-a, -,.-,2,(Kjrj. t, """- 'Mu.oii,- i,,,. 
 
38 
 
 the rest ol the world is in motion. This grey*, beeliive of 369.000.000, for the 
 first tiin(! in the history of the Avorld has begun to swarm. They are crowd- 
 ing tlirough tlie Golden Gate, entering the mouth of the Columbia, and scat- 
 tering tliemselves over all our mountains, and through all our vallies. They 
 now threaten to swarm over the Rocky Mountains, and down tlie Atlantic 
 Slope, till they find their way among all your cotton plantations. Koopman- 
 shaaf. tlieir great John Baptist, or forerunner has been over here and says 
 they are coming. 
 
 It is said that more than a liundred and seventy-five thousand have already 
 reached our shores, and that millions more are coming. In vain have stump 
 orators In Californiii inveighed against them, and excited tlie populace against 
 them. In vain have political conventions tried to drive back tlie swarm by 
 platform resolves. Phreusied mobs have tried to beat back tlie combing 
 wave with biickbats and " shilalahs" — but still they come. Every time one 
 is knocked on the head, or shot down, a hundred mount over liis dead body, 
 and press on towards the mines, railroads, toanytliingtliatotfers clieap labor 
 The unfriendly legislation of the whites, the unchristian and barbarous 
 treatment of tlie tax gatherer, and the rifle and tommahank of the Indian, 
 have all been employed against John Chinaman hi vain. He seems in.pelled 
 to our sliores, by a spirit that in moving over tlie world has at last scaled the 
 Chinese wall. He appears to nave a providential mission here and it looks 
 as tliougli it was manifest destiny tliat he should come. What that mission 
 is, and Avhat are to be tlie influences of this new element upon our people 
 and institutions, is a question that is now engaging tlie attention of states- 
 men. I have been asked this question by honest onqniriers many times. 
 
 I answer, ' ^cand still and see the salvation of the Lord!" If Sambo 
 choose? to talk politics and run for ofllce, John Chinaman must take his p'ace 
 in the cotton fields. [Applause.^ The cotton must be raised, i .1 raised as 
 as cheap as possible. The clieapc the better for the naked poor everywhere 
 1 regard this wonderful moving upon the Cliinese nation as providential. It 
 is going to inaugurate a new era between the relations of intelligent labor 
 and capital. It was well enough to try to reconcile intelligent men to their 
 lot, who were the servants of capitalists, when we had no other labor. But 
 there always has been an irrepressible conflict l)etween brains as a hireling 
 and tlie capitalist, — perhaps brainless — that it looked to for its daily bread 
 I have always beliovi -i that intellect was capital, and that tlie day wouUl 
 com'" vhcn intelligence would be so used. [Applause.] I have never doubted 
 but what there were higlier mansions fitted up for intelligence, than the 
 shanty into whicli such men as Abraham Lincoln, were thrust to eat and 
 s'lcep while making rails for him who had more money than they had. Tiiese 
 mansions, our books and orators have been silent about, as they have gener- 
 ally been deemed luiaginary. They are not. They have remained pretty 
 much locked up it is true, but they are to be closed no longer — for God has 
 sent John Chinam,an over here with the keys to open the doors. lie seldom 
 aspires to anything higlier thnn to work for small pay. lie has few wants, 
 and he is industrious; hence he seems to aim at notliing higher tlian servi- 
 tude, wliich seems to be his normal sphere. He is quiet, docile and tractable, 
 and as he leaves his women behind him, he does not endanger society here 
 with a disagreeable mixture of races. If our Southern planters never had 
 any female slaves, tlie country would not have been overrun witli mulattos. 
 
 sV 
 
 
 
— V 
 
 \"/ 
 
 .■)9 
 
 Coa.„ l,j a„,l by. «•,„„ „„,, ', J ? ;■•:' »'«l 'Viilwork for ,|,„, „Zt 
 
 Note. 
 
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 -Onp»geU,f„rNeb,,;t„^;^— ~^- 
 
ys- ^O^lC^m m TME. ^EESS; 
 
 .Mr A<liiin- treuttvl liis subject in a masterly manner, his twenty 
 years e\]»eri('noe in Oregon givinj; weiyht to arguments that would 
 1)0 received with caution as coming from a mere adventurer. — 
 : Boston Juitni'iL 
 
 I Cominj: with the endorsement of the leading men of Jiis State as 
 
 I a gentleman of the highest rejmtation. and fully qualified to give 
 
 reliable and valuable information in regard to the mineral and other 
 
 resources of Oregon, IMr. Adams' remarks w(!re peculiarly interesting. 
 
 The lecturer was listened to with evident appreciation and was 
 
 occasionally applauded. — Post. 
 
 I He treated his subject in a most interesting manner, speaking with 
 ' an experience of twenty years. — Tnirel/cr. 
 
 Mr. Adams cert;unly made an excellent argument to induce agri- 
 
 : culturists to emigrate to Oregon and the I'acitic Coast. The lecture 
 
 is full of interest, containing much valuable information which the 
 
 most modern geoi<;raphies ilo not afford. — Advertiser. 
 
 i The lecture was replete with valuab'e statistical information upon 
 
 the agricultural, mineral and manufacturing resources of the Pacific 
 
 I Coast. His figures relating to tire products of agriculture in Oregon 
 
 and the State of Maine were very significant. He spoke of the 
 
 •rreat and constant! v increasing de>>;and for labor that existed alone 
 
 the shores of the racific, and in tiiis connection gave to the young 
 
 ladies of New Kngland a mos*^ '.ressing invitation to emigrate, by 
 
 saying that such was the condition of atfairs there that it was almost 
 
 impossible ft)r a young lady to pitch her tent without securing a good 
 
 husband. Th" lecture was quit(i well received by all present. — Herald. 
 
 ^Ir. Adams jjroved to the satisfaction of his audience that he was 
 not drawing ui)on his imagination in describing the wealth and beauty 
 of the country; his statements were not an exaggeration of frjts, 
 but a truthful (lescrit)tion of a country yet unexplored and unknown 
 save by a few. He was listened to with the most profound attention, 
 and his remarks were frequently interrupted by bursts of applause. 
 He introduced .•^uUicient humor into his lecture to make it anuisinir 
 as well as instructive, and (arrii'd his audience with him over cra^jrv 
 mountains, through rich and fertile valleys, led them up the wooded 
 banks of sparkling streams, displayed to their gaze meadows of rich 
 pasture, fields of golden gi'ain and orchards ripe with luscious fruit. 
 He hit very severely the young man of the period, with the low- 
 necked shirt and diamond ])in, and showed that the rich country was 
 not for him,lHit foi' the hardy son of toil who woidd find comfort and 
 / aT^ plenty in exchange for his labor. — News and Tribune. ^/