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Executive Document No. 37. 6O5 u:^\ jtoJ.f.l-v;fi,...r^- f tf/ ^;^f■*■^^i^»;v- ' '■■ t ' V.,? -H- > - ■[:,■ . ■ SEVERAL CALUMNIES REFUTED; OR, EXECUTIVE DOCUMENT No. 37.* In addition to the secular press, which seldom misses an opportunity of saying something ungracious of the Catholic Church, we have pub- lished in the United States over a hundred so-called religious newspa- pers, the principal stock-in-trade of which seems to be unlimited abuse of everything Catholic, and unquali- fied misrepresentation of all who pro- fess or teach the doctrines of our faith. No dogma or point of discipline of Catholicity ever finds favor in the eyes of the individuals who fill the columns of those publications, and no man or woman who may see fit to devote his or her life to the dis- semination of the Gospel is safe from the malice or scurrility of their pens. • Ex. Doc. No. 37, U. S. Senate, XLIst Cong , Illd Session. 1870-1. For the honor of the American char- acter we are sorry to say that we have daily evidence of this blind prejudice and reckle^'.s disregard of truth on the part of this class of editors, many of whom arrogate to themselves the title of '* reverend " ; but we have some con- solation in knowing that the more intelligent member? of the sects are fast growing tired and ashamed of such senseless appeals to their j)as- sions and ill-founded traditions nntl that the time is not far distant when such efforts to sustain a sinking and indefensible cause will be encourag- ed only by the ignorant and wilfully blind. These repeated and continuous at- tacks on the church are not the work of any one sect or confined to any particular locality, but are gene- ':im.¥JihW'imjm¥Aiikjm^mw-?& wmm 666 Several Calufnnies Refuted ; ral with all Protestants, and extended over the whole country. As long as they are confined to newspapers, and afford employment and remunera- tion to a number of persons who probably could not gain a liveUhood in any other manner, we scarcely consider them worthy of serious at- tention; but we have had recently placed before us an official document, printed at the public expense for the edification of the United States Se- nate — and no doubt widely circulated throughout the Union under the con- venient frank of many pioui niem- ■jers of Congress — in which are repro- duced calumnies so gross, and false- hoods so glaring, that we consider it our duty not only to call public at- tention to it, but to demand from our rulers in Washington by what right and authority they print and circu- late under official form a tissue of fiibrications, misrepresentations, and even forgeries, against the religion, and the ministers of that religion, which is professed by five or six mil- lions of free American citizens. This document, known as Execu- tive Document No. 37, XlAst Con- /rress, Illd Session, was furnished by Mr. Delano, Secretary of the Interior, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, passed February 2, 1871, and is composed exclusively of in- formation supplied by Rev. H. H. Spaulding to A. B. Meacham, Super- intendent of Indian Affairs, who in his letter of transmittal says : " I am respectfully requested by the Rev. H. n. Spaulding, the oldest living Protestant missionary in Oregon, to place on file in your department the accompa- nying documents, gi\^ing a history of the early missionary work and labors of Dr. Marcus Whitman, himself, and others ; the progress and civilization of the In- dians under their charge, without aid from the government ; also, a history of the massacre of Dr. Whitman and others ; also, resolutions of Christian associations in answer to Executive Document No. 38, House of JRepresentativcs, and x va- riety of historical information, which it would seem proper to have on file, or placed in some more permanent form for future history." It may be remarked that the let- ter from which the above is an ex- tract is dated on the 28th of Janua- ry, just five days before the passage of the Senate resolution, and evident- ly in anticipation of such action on the part of that body *' No one," says a distinguished senator, " except the few in the secret, knew anything of the matter until the document was printed. All the previous proceed- ings were as of course." The docu- ments that were thus to be " placed in a more permanent form for future history," apart from their uniformly infamous character, are perhaps the strangest in origin and composition that have ever been presented for the information of any deliberative body, much less one of the gravity and im- portance of the Senate of the repub- lic. They consist mainly of extracts from the religious press, so-called ; inflammatory letters from jealous and disappointed pireachers, including the Rev. H. H. Spaulding himself; de- positions written out by that indefa- tigable hater with his own hand, and changed in many essential points af- ter having been sworn to and remov- ed from the control of the depo- nents ; false quotations from The Ac- count of the Murder of Dr. Whitman, by the Very Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet, V.G., and others' statements of the massacre ; an address from the pro- fessors of that advanced educational institution called Oberlin College, Ohio; answers to leading queries ad- dressed to Oregon officials, based on a false and supposititious statement of facts; and, lastly, a report adopted and endorsed by eight associations, in- cluding the Old School, New School, mj SU£ tlK in affi mi so cio ,,•:«» ••r . 1 .*■ :,■■^r:^.l•■^fs*■^n^^>*•'■*•:••■i'^ •-j-.". one, or. Executive Document No. 37. 667 Cumberland, and United Presbyte- rians, Methodists, Baptists, Congre- gationalists, and the "Christian Church of Oregon," and claiming to represent thirty tho'':and brother members, all of whom, though differ- ing radically in other respects, are suspiciously unanimous in denouncing the " Jesuits," and equally positive in affirming a previous condition of affairs, their knowledge of which niust of necessity have depended solely on the statements of the vera- cious Rev. H. H. Spaulding. In style, the documents are unique, and have a very strong family resemblance. It is a judicious mixture of sanctimo- nious cant seldom heard outside of a camp-meeting, with ?, dash here and tliere of Shakespeare and the mo- dern poets, to give it variety, we sup- pose. Now, whence this solemn assembly of presbyteries and conferences, this pile of affidavits and newspaper ex- tracts, and the desire of the Senate to be enlightened as " to the early la- bors of the missionaries of the Ame- rican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Oregon, com- mencing in 1836" ? Simply this. On the week commencing on the 29th of November, 1847, more than twen- ty-four years ago, a certain missiona- ry to the Cayuse Indians, named Dr. \V^hitman, who had resided among them for several years, was, with his wife and twelve other Americans, brutally murdered by the savages ; and it is nov/ attempted by Spauld- ing, who was his friend, and mission- ary to the Ncz Pevces, a neighbor- ing tribe, to fix the guilt of this foul outrage on the missionary priests who in that yeai accompanied the Rt. Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet, Bishop of Nesqualy, to Oregon, and who, it is alleged, instigated the Indians to commit the deed in order to get rid of the Protestant missions. At the time of the slaughter, there was with others under Dr. Whitman's roof a young woman named Bewley, whom one of the chiefs desired to ha e for his wife ; and it is also asserted that not only did the priests encourage her to yield to the Indian's wishes, but forced her from the shelter of their home and refused her any pro- tection whatever. Other charges growing out of this r,ad calamity, such as baptizing children with the inno- cent blood of their victims on their hands, inhumanity to the prisoners left unharmed, attempting the pre- cious life of Spaulding, supplying the Cayuses with guns and ammunition, etc., are likewise alleged, but the first two are the principal counts in this clerical indictment. The slaughter of so many persons naturally created a great sensation in Oregon at the time, but for months after no one thought of attributing it to the interference of the Catholic mis- sioners. However, Spaulding, whose mind had become disturbed by the contemplation of the dangers he had escaped, and having to abandon his mission among the Nez Perces, and finding himself unemployed, gradual- ly began to give a new version of the affair, and in conversation, preaching, and writing at first hinted, and next broadly asserted, that the " Jesuits " were at the bottom of the whole mat- ter. Considering that the shock to his nervoiis system was so great that he never entirely recovered from it, and that the repetition of the falsehoods was so persistent, it is charitable to suppose that he eventually came to believe them as truths ; for no man in his right senses would persist in forc- ing on the world such a compilation of improbable statements and down- right falsehoods as are contained in Htb. Doc. A^o. 37. As there are always many persons, made credulous by ignorance or 163427 * 'rik«e*iS*^*.***'«iwaffcA.v. *ii)<'-sM«!.'«v>;r»'U[«<:4'»w'.:.>-wt5 668 Several Caltmnies Refuted ; prejudice, willing to credit any anti- Catholic slander, the Rev. Father Brouillet, the only priest near the scene of the crime, wrote and pub- lished, in 1853, a full and authentic account of the whole transaction, which was so clear and circumstan- tial that even the greatest opponents of the Catholic priesthood were si- lenced. In 1857, a special agent of the Treasury Department, J. Ross lirowne, made a tour in the far West, and in reporting on the condition of the aborigines, and the potent causes of war between them and the white settlers, embodied in his state- ment Father Brouillet's pamphlet, which together formed Pub. Doc. No. 38, against which all the powers of tlje presbyteries and conferences of Oregon, under the fitting leadership of a crazy preacher, are now directed, after a silence of more than ten years. Is it any wonder tliat it is so often remarked that the only bond of union, the sole vitalizing principles, of the sects are their hatred to Catho- licity ? A glance at the history of the early Indian mission in Oregon is ne- cessary to a clear understanding of the subject. It is well known that for many years that portion of our common country was debatable ground, and, while our government claimed the sovereignty and ap- pomted officials to administer its af- fairs, the Hudson Bay Company held possession and virtually controlled the inhabitants, nearly all of whom were Indians or half-breeds. Under the direction of the company, the natives were honest, peaceable, and well disposed. Captain Bonneville, who visited the Nez Perces in 1832, says of them : " Simply to call these people religious would convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which pervades their whole conduct. Their honesty is immaculate, and their purity of purpose, and the observance of the rites of their religion, are most uniform and remarka- ble. They are certainly more like a na- tion of saints than a horde of savages." " This was a very enthusiastic view to take of the Nez Perces' character," says a Protestant autho- rity, Mr'-. Victor, ** which appeared all the brighter to the captain by contrast with the savage life which he had witnessed in other places, and even by contrast with the conduct of the white trappers. But the Nex Perces were intellectually and morally an exception to all the Indian tribes west of the Missouri River. Lewis and Clarke found them different from any others; the fur-traders and the mis- sionaries found tlicm the same. To account for this superiority is indeed difficult. The only clue to the cause is the following statement of Bonne- ville. * It would appear,' he says, * that they had imbibed some notions of the Christian faith from Catholic missionaries and traders who have been among them. They even had a rude calendar of the fast^and festi- vals of the Roniish Church, and some traces of its ceremonial. These have become blended with their own wild rites, and present a strange medley, civilized and barbarous.'"* It was in this happy and quiet condition that the first Protestant missionaries from the United States found the Indians. They were Methodist, and arrived in 1834, remaining for ten years. " No missionary undertak- ing," says Rev. Stephen Olin, himself one of the laborers, '^has been prose- cuted by the Methodist Episcopal Church with higher hopes and more ardent zeal. . . . This particular mission involved an expenditure of forty-two thousand dollars in a single year. At the end of six years, there ♦ Victor's The River of the West, p. 400. we wit ch ty. "I fot gr< .■.•«. »t »-'.-J«-.»A-»jv«»i.;**.«*i«j«,v*»:;;wi',»'«M'<> V*i. '• tv ory Executive Document N^o. 37. 669 were sixty-eight persons connected with this mission, men, women, and children, all supported by this socie- ty."* And the same writer adds: " How such a number of missionaries foimd employment in such a field it is not easy to conjecture, especially as the great body of the Indians never came under the influence of their labors." iJr. K. White, Sub-Indian Agent, writes, in 1843 ; " The Rev. Mr. Lee and associates are doing but little for the Indians. . . . With all that has been expended, without doubting the correctness of the intention, it is most manifest to every observer that the Indians of this lower country, as a whole, have been very little bene- fited." t The two Methodist stations estab- lished at Clatsop's Plains and Nes- qualy were speedily abandoned, and that at the Dalles is described, in Traits of Amt/-ican Indian Life, as being iu a most fearful condition. " The occurrence," the author says, alluding to a murder by a converted Indian which he had witnessed, " is but the type of a thousand atrocities daily occurring among these supposed converts." And we have the authority of Mr. Gray for saying that *' the giving of a few presents of any de- scription to them induces them to make professions corresponding to the wish of the donor." The success of the missionaries at Willamette was, if l)Ossible, still more disheartening. Mr. Olin says that of those who held rela- tions with them none remained in 1842 ; and Alexander Simpson, who visited the valley about the same time, found the mission to consist of but four families, those of a clergy- man, surgeon, a schoolmaster, and an agricultural overseer. It is not strange, then, that two years aftcr- • Worki 0/ Stephen Oliii, vol. ii. pp. 427, 428. + Gray's Hist. 0/ Oregon, pp. 231, 246. wards the missions were entirely abandoned, and have never been at- tempted to be re-established. *' Had they met vice with a spotless life," says Gray, " and an earnest determi- nation to maintain their integrity as representatives of religion and a Christian people, the fruits of their labor would have been greater." We are forced, therefore, to conclude the"' the author of T/ie River of the IVest is justified in saying on this and other indisputable authority, " so far from benefiting the Indians, the Methodist mission became an actual injury to them" — the Indians. Thus ended the first chapter in the history of the progress and civiliza- tion of the Indians in Oregon, to which we desire to call the respectful attention of the United States Senate. We have the testimony of Captain Bonneville, endorsed by Mrs. Victor, regarding the honesty and piety of the natives in 1832, before the arrival of the Methodists. After nine years of missionary labor, we have the fol- lowing grave statement from no less an authority than one of their own clergymen : " The Indians want pay for being whip- ped into compliance with Dr. White's laws, the same as they did for praying to please the missionaries during the great Indian revival of 1839" (P- i57)- " As a matter of course, lying has much to do in their system of trade, and he is the best fellow who can tell the big- gest lie — make men believe and practise the greatest deception " (p. 158).* The Methodists having selected Lower Oregon as the field of their la- bors, the Presbyterians chose the upper or eastern portion of the territory. They arrived in 1836, three in num- ber, afterwards increased to twelve, and backed up by the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Dr. Marius Whitman settled at Wail- ' History of Oregon. By G. Hines. ♦•*->-.j-Mr»-i;ia'.*M»-^&.ftw^w*a.-;j •.(««^«.;:.ij««r;jQ*,«iBiWi)»(M'ik-.-r,iwri 670 Several Calumnies Refuted ; atpu among the Cayuses and Walla Wallas, and Messrs. H. H. Spaulding and W. H. Gray at Lapwai, with the Nez Pcrces. In 1838, the Spokane mission was established by Messrs. Walker and Ellis. Their prospects of success were at first most brilliant. 'I'he savages received them kindly and listened to them attentively. " There was no want of ardor in the Presbyterian missionaries," says The li'nrr of the West. " They applied themselves in earnest to the work they had undertaken. They were diligent in their efforts to civilize and chris- tianize their Indians." But they made a fatal mistake at the very be- ginning, which not only reflects on their personal honesty, but shows that they knew nothing of the character of the people they came to instruct. Mr. John Toupin, who was for many years interpreter at Fort Walla Walla, gave, in 1848, the following account of the establishment of those mis- sions : " I was there when Mr. Parker, in 1835, came to select places for Presbyterian missions ;. the Cayuses and Nez Perces, ano sk lands for these mis- sions. He u. . oyed me as interpreter in his negotiations with the Indians on that occasion. Mr. Pombrun, the gen- tleman then in charge of the- fort, accom- panied him to the Cayuses and the Nez Perces. Mr. Parker, in company with Mr. Pombrun, an American, and myself, went first to the Cayuses upon the lands called Wailatpu, that belonged to the three chiefs — Splitted Lip, or Yomtipi ; Red Cloak, or Waptachtakamal ; and Ti- lankaikt. Having met them at that place, he told them that he was coming to select a place to build a preaching-house, to teach them how to live, and to teach school to their children ; that he would not come himself to establish the mission, but a doctor or a medicine-man would come in his place ; that the doctor would be the chief of the mission, and would come in the following spring. ' I come to select a place for a mission,' s.iid he, ' but I do not intend to take your lands for nothing. After the doctor is come. there will come every year a big ship* loaded with goods to be divided among the Indians. These goods will not be sold, but given to you. The missionaries will bring ycu ploughs and hoes to teach you how to cultivate the land, and they will not sell, but give them to you.' " From the Cayuses Mr. Parker went to the Nez Perces, about one hundred and twentyfi/c miles distant, on the lands of Old Button, on a small creek which empties into the Clearwater, seven or eight miles from the actual mission, and there he made the same promises to the Indians as at Wailatpu. ' Next spring there will come a mi'^sionary to establish himself here and take a piece of land ; but he will not take it for nothing'*, you shall be paid for it every year : this is the American fashion.' In the following year, 1836, Dr. Whitman arrived among the Cayuses and began to build. The Indians did not stop him, as they expect- ed to be paid as they said. " In the summer of the year 1837, Split- ted Lip asked him where the goods which he had promised him were ; wheth- er he would pay him, or whether he wanted to steal his lands. He told him that, if he did not want to pay him, he had better go off immediately, for he did not want to give his lands for nothing." * But the doctor and his co-laborers did not pay for the lands, nor indeed fulfil any of the promises of Mr. Parker, and thus the expected neo- phytes received their first lesson in duplicity, which eventually destroyed all confidence in the honesty and truthfulness of their teachers, and led directly to the massacre of Whitman and some of his compa- nions, and to the total destruction of the Presbyterian missions. This latter event occurred late in 1847. Let us see what had been done in the eleven previous years by the agents of the Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions. In 1842, they had but three stations. "At each of these," says Tlie River cf the West, " there was a small body of land under cultivation, a few cat- • Murdtrc/ Dr. Whitman, pp. 23, 24. 1 «**ii:J3flrtl*.i«. r^f ory Executive Document No. 37. 671 tie and hogs, a flouring and saw mill, • and a blacksmith's shop." In 1843, Mr. Spauldiog writes to Dr. White, the Sub-Indian Agent : *' But two natives have as yet been admitted in- to the church. Some ten or twelve others give pleasing evidence of hav- ing been born again." * It seems, then, that it took tw'felve missionaries seven years to convert two savages, at an expense of over forty thousand dol- lars for one year at least ! Can the English Protestant mission for con- verting the Hebrews in Jerusalem show any return more preposterous than this ? But the years intervening between this time and their entire discontinu- ance show no converts at all. Busi- ness was entirely suspended, as far as spiritual affairs were concerned. Mr. Thomas McKay, an intimate friend of Whitman, under date Sep- tember II, 1848, says, "The doctor often told me that for a couple of years he had ceased to teach the Indians, because they would not listen to him " ; and John Baptist Gervais about the same time assures us that " Mr. Spaul- ding told me himself, last fall, that for three or four years back he had ceas- ed entirely to teach the Indians be- cause they refused to hear him" — a fact which that unscrupulous apostle corft)borated in a conversation with Dr. Ponjade, in the preceding Au- gust. " The Indians," he said, " are getting worse every day for two or three years back ; they are threaten- ing to turn us out of the missions. A few days ago, they tore down my fences, and I do not know what the Missionary Board of New York means to do. It is a fact that we are doing no good : when the emigra- tion passes, the Indians run off to trade, and return worse than when we came among them." t Even as ♦ Gray's Histary of Oregon^ p. 933. t Murder of Dr. Whitman^ p. 89. early as 1839, a missionary of the Spokanes, writing to Dr. Whitman, said that the failure of that mission was so strongly impressed on his mind, he felt it necessary " to have cane in hand, and as much as one shoe on, ready for a move." " I see," he adds, "nothing but the power of God that can save us." When we consider this condition of affairs in connection with the brutal massacre at Wailatpu by Dr. Whit- man's immediate neighbors and even some members of his household and congregation, at a time of profound peace, we can form some adequate idea of the benefits of the " progress and civilization of the Indians under their [Presbyterian] charge." Will the United States Senate, in its laud- able search after information, consult some of the authorities, who are with one exception Protestant, which wc have quoted ? The Catholic missions may be said to have commenced in 1838. In that year, two Catholic priests pass- ed Walla Walla on their way from Canada to Fort Vancouver. In 1839 and 1840, one of them, Father Dem- ers, occasionally visited Walla Walla, for a short time, to give instruction to the Indians, many of whom were in the habit of visiting him, particu- larly the Cayuses and Nez Perces at the fort. This presence excited the wrath of Dr. Whitman, and he pre- sumed so far as to reprimand in se- vere language the gentleman in charge of the post. " From the time the Jesuits arrived," says Gray, " his own [H. H. Spaulding's] pet In- dians had turned Catholics, and commenced a quarrel with him. These facts seemed to annoy him, and led him to adopt a course op- posed by Smith, Gray, and Rodgers." The visits of the Catholic mission- aries were, however, few and far be- tween, till the sth of September, 1847, •«i.««.'^<.«r^;«>j T4jr»t.iJ. Muv.-.f.nwtJUt 672 Several Calumnies Refuted ; when the Rt. Rev. Bishop A. M. A . lUanchet arrived at Fort Walla Walla, accompanied by the Superior of the Oblates and two other clergymen, to establish permanent missions in Easi- erii Oregon. It was the design of tlie bishop to locate a mission on the lands of Towatowe (Young Chief ), a Catholic Indian, who had offered him his own house for that purpose. The V'oung Chief, however, being absent hunting, Dr. lilanchet was delayed at the fort longer than he anticipa- ted, and while there was visited by Protestant missionaries and Indian chiefs alike. The former treated him with great incivility and disrespect. I^r. Whitman, we are told by an eye- witness, " made a furious charge against the Catholics, accusing them of JKiving persecuted Protestants, and even of having shed their blood wherever they had prevailed. He .said he did not like Catholics ; . . . that he should oppose the mission- aries to the extent of his power. . . . He spoke against the Catholic Ladder (a picture explaining the principal points of Catholic faith), and said that he would cover it with blood to show the persecution of Protestants by Catholics. He refused to sell pro- visions to the bishop, and protected that he would not assist the mission- aries unless he saw them in starva- tion."* The temper of the savages was milder than their would-be evangelizers. On the 26th of Octo- ber, Young Chief came to the fort, and asked for a priest to be sent to teach his young people. He repeated the offer of his house, but suggested as a substitute the lands of his rela- tive Tilokaikt, upon which Dr. Whit- man was settled. On November 4, the four chiefs of the Cayuses assem- bled at Walla Walla, and after a long " talk " agreed to let the bishop * Mnrdtr fiy Dr. IVAitmatt, p. ^6. have a site for a mission and as much ground to cultivate as was necessary to support the priests. The bishop " told them," says Father Brouillet, " that he would not make presents to the Indians ; that he would give them nothing for the land he asked ; that in case they worked for him he would pay ^hem for their work and no more." The author just quoted was sent among the Cay- uses to select a proper site, but, not finding one suitable, accepted Young Chief's offer, a camp fully twenty-five miles from Dr. Whitman's residence, in the midst of another tribe altogeth- er. As one of the many traits of Christian charity which distinguishes tht Catholic missionaries in every part of the world, it may be mention- ed that, duiing the conference at the fort, ciiC of the chiefs spoke of Dr. Whitman in very harsh terms, accus- ing him of dishonesty and mercenary motives. Bishop Blanchet reproved him instantly, sternly telling him that the doctor was a good man, and that he, the chief, had a bad heart to say so ; and when Father Brouillet was offered, by Tilokaikt, Whitman's own mission for Catholic purposes for nothing, he positively and peremp- torily declined it. And yet /V/A Doe. No. 37 would have us believe that the Catholics coveted Whitman's Station, and were resolved to have it at any cost. On November 27, the bishop, with his secretary and Father Brouillet, proceeded to the new station at Umatilla. On the day following, Sunday, they were visited by Whit- man, and on Monday by Spaulding, who remained for supper, both these gentleman, it seems, having modified their views during the previous two months' intercourse with the mission- aries. It was on this latter day, be- tween two and three o'clock in the afternoon, that Whitman and his companions were murdered. The J^^ • «», v«» f . ** *i aj^tu-** if i (♦vilit* i or, Executive Document No. 37. C73 n and as e as was ; priests, ys Father not make he would land he worked for for their le author the Cay- , but, not id Young venty-five residence, altogeth- traits of inguishes in every mention- ice at the ce of Dr. is, accus- lercenary reproved him that and that irt to say illet was an's own OSes for peremp- kt Pub. believe hitman's have it 27, the d Father "N Station )llowing, Whit- aulding, th these modified ious two mission- day, be- k in the and his The account of that horriblj event, as re- lated by Father Urouillet, wlio was on the ground two days after, is still l.ighly interesting. In a letter to Colonel Gilliam, three months later, when the facts vere fresh in his memory, and every resident of the neighborhood was in a position to ilisprove anything he might say that was false, he writes : " Before leaving Fort Walla Walla, it liad been decided that, after visiting the sick people of my mission on the Uma- tilla, I should go and visit those of Tilo- kaikt's camp, for the purpose of baptiz- ing the infants, and such dying adults as might desire this favor ; and the doctor and Mr. Spaulding having informed me that there were many sick persons at Iheir missions, I was confirmed in the resolution, and made preparations to go as soon as possible. " After having finished in baptizing the infants and dying adults of my mission, I left on Tuesday, the 30th of November, late in the afternoon, for Tilokaikt's camp, wlicie I arrived between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. It is im- possible to conceive my surprise and con- sternation when, upon my arrival, I learn- ed that the Indians the day before had massacred the doctor and his wife, with the greater part of the Americans at the mission. I passed the night without scarcely closing my e3'es. Early next morning I baptized three sick children, two of whom died soon after, and then hastened to the scene of death to ofTer to the widows and orphans all the assist- ance in my power. I found five or six women and over thirty children in a con- dition deplorable beyond description. Some had lost their husbands, and others their fathers, whom they had seen massa- cred before their eyes, and were expect- ing every moment to share the same fate. Tlie sight of those persons caused me to shed tears, which, however, I was ob- liged to conceal, for I was, the greater part of the day, in the presence of the murderers, and closely watched by them, and, if I had shown too marked an in- terest in behalf of the sufferers, it would only have endangered their lives and mine ; these, therefore, entreated me to be on my guard. After the first few VOL. XIV. — 43 words that could be exchanged under the circumstances, I inquired after the victims, and was told that they were yet unburicd. Joseph Sta Infield, a French- man, who was in the service of Dr. Whit- man, and h;d been spared by the Indians, was engaged in washing the corpses, but, being alone, he was unable lO bury them. I resolved to go and assist him, so as to render to those unfortunate victims tho last service in my power to offer them." The reverend father then goes on to relate how, after comforting the women and children as well as he could, and having been told by the chief " to say to them that they need fear nothing, they shall be taken care of and well treated," he set out to- ward his mission, in order to inter- cept Spauldjng and warn him of his danger. 1 le was accompanied by his interpretci, and closely followed by a son of the chief, who, it after- ward appeared, was going to his un- cle Camaslilo to acquaint him of the slaughter. His meeting with Spauld- ing is graphic, and, if not for the hid- eous surroundings, would be amusing.. He says : " In a few minutes after, while they were thus engaged in smoking, I saw Mr. Spaulding coming toward me. In a moment he was at my side, taking me by the hand and asking for news. 'Have you been to the doctor's?' he inquired. •Yes,' I replied. 'What news?' 'Sad news.' 'Is any person dead?' 'Yes,. sir.' ' Who is dead — is it one of the doc tor's children?' (He had left two of them very sick.) 'No,' I replied; 'Who, then, is dead ?' I hesitated' to tell. ' W.iit a moment,' I said, ' I cannot tell you now.' While Mr. Spaulding was asking me those questions, I h.id spoken to my interpreter, telling him to entreat the In- dian in my name not to kill Mr. Spauld- ing, which I begged of him as a special favor, and hoped that he would not re- fuse it to me. I was waiting for his an- swer, and did not wish to relate the dis- aster to Mr. Spaulding before getting it, for fear he might by his manner discover to the Indian what I had told him, for 6-j\ Several Calumnies Refuted ; the least motion like flight would have cost him his life, and probably exposed mine also. The son of Tilokaikt, after hesitating some moments, replied that he could not take it upon himself to save Mr. Spaulding, but that he would go back and consult the other Indians, and so he started back immediately to his camp. I then availed myself of this ab- sence to satisfy the anxiety of Mr. Spauld- ing. I related to him what had passed. ' The doctor is dead,' said I ; ' the Indians have killed him, together with his wife and eight other Americans, on Monday last, the 2gth, and I have buried them be- fore leavin/T to-day.' ' The Indians have killed the doctor — they will kill me also if J go to the camp !' ' I fear it very much,' said I. 'What, then, shall I do?' ' I know not. I have told you what has happened. Decide nowfor yourself what you had best do. I have no advice to give you in regard to that.' ' Why has that Indian started back?' hei inquired. 'I begged him to spare your life,' said I, ' and he answered me that he could not take it upon himself to do so, but that he would go and take the advice of the oth- er Indians about it ; that is the reason why he started back.' Mr. Spaulding seemed frightened and discouraged. ' Is it possible ! is it possible!' he exclaimed several times. 'They will certainly kill me.' And he was unable to come to any decision. ' But what could have prompt- ed the Indians to this?' he inquired. ' I know not,' said I ; ' but be quick and de- cide, you have no time to lose. If the Indians should resolve not to spare your life, they will be here very soon, as we are only about three miles from their camp. ' But where shall I go ?* 'I know not ; you know the country better than I. All I know is that the Indians say the or- der to kill all Americans has been sent in all directions.' Mr. Spaulding then resolved to fly. Hfc asked me if I were willing to take charge of some loose horses he was driving before him. I told him I could not, for fear of becoming suspicious to the Indians. I told him, however, that if the interpreter was will- ing to take them under his charge at his own risk, he was perfectly at liberty to do so. To this the interpreter agreed. I gave Mr. Spaulding what provisions I had left, and hastened to take leave of him, wishing him with all my heart a happy escape, and promising to pray for him. . . . The interpreter had not left Mr. Spaulding (after pointing out a by- road) more than twenty minutes, when he saw three armed Cayuses riding hasti- ly toward him in pursuit of Mr. Spauld- ing. Upon coming up to the interpicter, they seemed much displeased that I had warned Mr. Spaulding of their inten- tions, and thereby furnished him an op- portunity to escape. ' The priest ought to have minded his own business, and not to have interfered with ours,' they said in an angry tone, and started imme- diately in pursuit of him." * This Spaulding escaped to tell the tale, and to traduce the character of the priest that saved his life at the risk of his own. At first, he was in- clined to acknowledge the obligation, for in a letter to his " reverend and dear friend," as he styles Bishop Blan- ch et, eight days after, he writes : " The hand of the merciful God brought me to my family after six days and nights from the time my dear friend furnished me with piuvisions and 1 escaped from the Indians." This e^ fort of gratitude wa.strate at I saw my le bishop to ask it lands of )d of our ot to ask 3 foot up- y human and de- Here 1 enemy 53-55- of the missionaries, was certainly a violent opponent, whose life was sav- ed by one of them at a most critical moment at imminent danger 10 his own, who was shown the pathway by which he might escape the fury of the savages whose haf-ed he had awakened by long years of injustice, and who was even supplied with food from the poor priest's scrip, turning round on his benefactors when he at- tained a place of safety, and vilifying the church and religion to whose les- son of charity he owed his miserable existence. This is the man, too, upon whose authority the " Christian As- sociations of Oregon " have under- taken to brand the heroic priests of that section as instigators of murder ; and who has undertaken to inform the Senate, and provide Mr. Delano with matters for history " in a more permanent form." And here it may be well to dispose of some of the minor charges. Pub. Doc. No. 37, at page 30, says of the scenes of the Whitman massacre : "They [the Indian children] leaped .and screamed for joy, throwing handfuls of blood around, drinking down the dj'- ing agonies of their victims as a pre- cious draught. These blood-stained little saviiges were to receive the sacred ordi- nance of baptism a few hours after, at the hands of the priest of God — the man- gled bodies yet lying unburied around, the food of dogs and wolves by night, and of hogs and vultures by day, seem- ing to pay down to the Indians for what they had done." We are not aware that in the whole course of Protestant history there is to be found a more deliberate, cool, and atrocious tissue of fasehoods than the above. Two days, not a few hours, after the murder, three sick children were baptized, of whom two were so ill that they died the same day. Are those some of the children who leaped and screamed for joy ? The baptism took place two miles from Whitman's Station, so that the bodies of the slain could not well have been lying around. The dogs and wolves, hogs and vultures, are purely the creation of the Rev. H. H. Spaulding's imagination, and would, in vulgar parlance, be styled " piling on the agony." Before the arrival of Father Brouillet, Joseph Stainfield had already washed the corpses, and, with the assistance of the good priest, they were buried. The insinuation in the last line is worthy of Spaulding, and shows to what extremes a man will go whose sense of truth and even de- cency has become completely blunted. Another charge against the mis- sionaries is that they acted inhuman- ly with the captives, and that Father Brouillet, who promised to return to them, neglected to do so. It is true he did not do so, and the prisoners may thank Mr. Spaulding for his not returning. Had he not been as soli- citous about saving that individual's life, and thereby enable him to go down to the grave at an old age with a load of falsehood and forgeries on his soul, he would never have incurred the ill-feeling of the Indians of Wail- atpu, or be himself kept a prison- er in Young Chiefs tent for two or three weeks. But his thoughts and those of his fellow-missionaries were with the unfortunates, and his every effort was used, and successfully too, for their liberation. While Spaulding, from his mission with the Nez Perces, was writing lying letters to his " rev- erend and dear friend," Bishop Blan- chet, soliciting his good offices with the Indians with regard to the cap- tives, amongst whom was his own daughter, that ecclesiastic was calling around him the chiefs of the Cayuses, admonishing them to treat their cap- tives kindly, promising to write to the American governor for terms of peace, and attending a council at 676 Several Calumnies Refuted ; Fort Walla Walla, at which the In- dians consented and actually did lib- erate the prisoners, the ransom being paid by the agents of the much abus- ed Hudson Bay Company. Spauld- ing himself was then virtually a pri- soner among the Nez Perces, with whom he lived eleven years, and " was very much beloved," if we may believe his own statement. We MOW come to what we may be permitted to call the first grand false- hood, as set forth in JF^/Ik Doc. No. 37, for the information of the Senate and the benefit of history, namely, that the AVh'tman murderers were insti- gated by the "Jesuits." This cal- umny is repeated in several places and in many forms in this extraordi- nary public document, and may be supposed to be crystallized in the two following paragraphs : " When the Jesuits and English had, by means of Indian runners, excited the surrounding tribes to butcher the Pro- testant missionaries and American emi- grants at Wailatpu, and to exterminate the American settlements on the Pacific, the Nez Perces refused to join them, and rushed at once to the defence oi their beloved teacher, Mrs. Spaulding, and rescued her and her infants from a band of forty of the murderers ; then, second, tied to the scene of the eight days' car- nage, and by their influence stopped the bloody work of the Jesuits." {Resolutions adopted by the Pleasant Butte Baptist Church of Linn Co., Oregon, Oct. 22, 1S69.) "This Brouilette [Brouillet], it is prov- ed in part by his own testimony, was pre- sent at the massacre, doing nothing to save the victims, but baptizing the chil- dren of the murdering Indians, and oth- erwise stimulating them to their work of ^dcath." {Report of the Committee of the Presbytery of Steuben, adopted by the Chris- tian Associations of Oregon, 1869.) Surely this is history run mad. In fact, so gross are the misstatements that we are inclined to think that Spauld- ing either forged the signatures or in- terpolated the resolutions of the asso ciations — a proceeding which, it will appear further on, he was perfectly ca- pable of doing. Now, it is well known, and stated even by Spaulding {Rib. Doc. No. 37), that the so-called "Jesu- its," namely. Bishop Blanchet and his priests, had only been in that part of the country a short time — Father Brouillet says two months, but Spauld- ing reduces it to six weeks ; that no Catholic mission had been establish- ed within hundreds of miles of Whit- man's Station till two days previous to the mission, when one was com- menced at Umatilla, twenty-five miles distant, among a tribe of the Cayuses, who had no act or part in the crime ; that there never was a Catholic mis- sionary, Jesuit or otherwise, in the camps of Tilokaikt, where AVhitman resided till two days after the massa- cre, but once, and that for a short time when Father Brouillet was invit- ed by the chief to go and procure a site for a mission, in which he failed ; and, finally, that the Indians who did the bloody deed were near neighbors of the doctor, the worst being a mem- ber of his household ; and that evay one of them were Protestants, d& Spaul- ding himself partly admits* {Ex. Doc. No. 37). Even the Rev. Gustavus Hines, who is named as one of the ♦ The five Cayuses who wjre hung in Oregon City, June 3, 1850, as accomplices in the mas- sacre, were all Protestants, and remained so till they received their death sentence. All the oth- ers who are known as murderers, among whom were Lumsuky, Tamahas, and the two sons of Tilokaikt, were also Protestants. Joseph Stain- field, Jo Davis, and the other half-breed, who, it is said, plundered the dead, if anything, were cer. tainly not Catholics. Three of the cdndemned on the morning of the execHtion solemnly de- clared that the Catholic missionaries had nothing whatever to do with the murder. The following letter to the Bishop of Walla Walla, from the Archbishop of Oregon City, will be found inte- resting : Oregon City, June a, 1850. The supposed Cayuse murderers will be exe- cuted to-morrow. They have abandoned Dr. Whitman's religion and have become Catholics. I am preparing them for baptism and for death. F. N. Blanchet, Archbishop of OregonCity . m or^ Executive Document No. 37. 67; the asso ch, it will rfectly ca- ll known, Ing {Ihik 2(1 " jesii- ;t and his that part —Father it Spauld- ; that no establish- of Whit- previous i^as conn- ive miles Cayuses, le crime ; lolic mis- !, in the Whitman e massa- a short vms invit- )rocure a e failed ; who did eighbors ; a rnem- lat eve}y IS Spaul- * {Ex. ustavus e of the in Oregon 1 the mas- ined so till Ul the oth- ong^ whom 10 sons of leph Stain- ed, who, it , were cer- :dndemned emnly de- ad nothing I following from the bund inte- r. 1850. ill be exe- loned Dr. Catholics, ar death. CHET, egonCity. assistants in the compilation of this document, says in his History of Ore- gon^ in describing a council of chiefs in 1843 • " Tilokaikt, a Cayuse chief, rose and said, * What do you read the laws for before we take them ? We do not take the laws because Tanitan says so. He is a Catholic, and as a people we do not follow his worship !" The story of Father Biouillet having been on the scene of massacre stimu- lating the Indians in their work of death is a poor fabrication, for the doctor visited the bishop and his two priests at Umatilla, twenty-five miles distant, late on Sunday, the 28th, and on the 29th, the day of the slaugh- ter, Spaulding himself supped with them at the same place. The ridicu- lous reference to the Nez Perces, un- der the supposition that they were Protestants, is dimply absurd. The fact is that Spaulding says, in his letter to his " reverend and dear friend " the bishop, the Nez Perces only promised to protect him and the American settlers if troops were not sent against the Cayuses, and that they demanded and received from Mr. Ogden, of Walla Walla, clothing, ammunition, and tobacco before they would release their "beloved teacher," her husband and infants. The only Nez Perces who fled to the scene to stop " the bloody work of the Je- suits " were two messengers of that tribe who bore his treacherous letter to the bishop, begging him to assure the Cayuses that he would use every effort to prevent the troops from being sent against them, and which he after- wards declared was meant to deceive both the bishop and the Indians. * No sooner, however, was he out of danger than he used his best efforts to bring on a war. " I recollect dis- tinctly," says Major Magone, '* that he was not in favor of killing all the • Oregon Amtftcan. Cayuses, for he gave me the names of four or five that he knew to l)c' friendly, and another whom I mark- ed as questionable : the balance, if I am not very much mistaken, he would have to share one fate." Truly, this was strange advice from a minister of the Gospel of peace, and from one who wished the bishop to assure the Indians " that we do not wish Ame- ricans to come from below to avenge our wrongs," etc. But apart from the credibility of the witness Spaulding, and the impos- sibility of the Catholic missionaries stirring up the Protestant Indians to the work of death, even if they so de- sired, not to speak of their early, con- tinuous, and indignant denials of every statement and assertion put forth by the Oregon fanatics, we have the evidence of several persons, all Protestants we are inclined to be- lieve, who were either in the neigh- borhood at the time, or arrived soon after, R. T. Lockwood, an old resi- dent of Oregon and a prominent, con- tributor to the press, relates tie fol- lowing conversation which he had in 1851 with one of the Indians who was a spectator of the murder : " Q. Do the Indians gerif rally want tlie Catholic priosts amoni; i.cin, and, if so, why do they prefer them to such men as Dr. Whitman? "A. No, not generally ; yet a consider- able number do, and prefer them because they do not try to get our land away from * us. " Q. Did the priests that came among you, a little before the massacre, encour- .ige the killing of Dr. Whitman and the others? "A. No. The killing of Dr. Whit- man was resolved on before the priests came. " Q. Are you a Catholic Indian ?• *'A. No, sir." Some time after, Mr. Lockwood met a Mrs. Foster, one of the survi- vors. " I asked her," he says, " if she 6/8 Several Calumn ics Refuted ; If thought the priest had anything to do with the massacre, and she said she did not think he did, as he ap- peared very much pained, and was very kind and tender towards the survivors. I asked her, also, if she thought that the priest did all he safely could, and she answered, * I do.' " This impartial and well-inform- ed gentleman winds up his letter thus : " Suffice it to say that, in all I ever heard said in regard to this lament- able massacre (and it has been much) prior to the last two years, there was not the slightest intimation of you or any other Catholic priest being im- plicated, or in any way responsible therefor." * " Why is the Catholic exempt from danger ? Why can the Hudson Bay Company employee remain amid these scenes of blood and Indian vengeance against the white race, at peace, undisturbed, and, what is more loathsome, neutral in such a con- flict ?" asks the Hon. Elwood Evans of Spaulding, in 1868. The answer is simple. Because the Catholic priests treat the Indians with uniform kindness and justice ; because they neither deceive them with false prom- ises nor appropriate their lands and labor w::hout payment, and because, being ministers of peace, they are op- posed to strife ; all of which Whit- man, Spaulding, and his missionary companions did not and were net. And this brings us to the real cause of the massacre. For the sake of the Senate which desires information, and for Mr. Delano's future history, we will give a few extracts from autho- rities which, if at all prejudiced, would be on the side of the Protes- tant view : " ' I came to select a place for a mis- sion,' said he, ' but I do not intend to ♦Letter of R. T. Lockwood to v'ery Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet, V!G., Sept. 39, 1871. ftke jour lands for nothing. After the doctor is come, there will coma every year a big ship, loaded with goods to be divided among the Indians. These goods will not be sold, but given to you. The missionaries will bring you ploughs and hoes, to teach you to cultivate the land, and they will not sell but give them to j'ou.' . . . And there [among the Nez Perces] he made the same promises to the Indi.ins as at W.-iilatpu." {Air. John Toupin's Statement, in \i\%, of the Founda- tion of the Presbyterian Missions by Mr. Parker, in 1835.) "Two years ago, 1846, a Cayiise came to my house in the Willamette settlement, and stopped with me over two weeks. During that time he often spoke of Dr. Whitman, complaining that he possessed the lands of the Indians, on which he was raising a great deal of wheat, which he was selling to the Americans, without giving them anything ; that he had a mill upon their lands, and that they h.id to pay him for grinding their wheat, a big horse for twenty sacks. He said they told him to leave, but that he would not listen to them." {lb.) " A man of easy, don't-care habits, that could become all things to all men, and yet a sincere and earnest man, speak- ing his mind before he thought the se- cond time, giving his views on all sub- jects without much consideration, cor- recting them when good reasons were presented, yet, when fixed in the pursuit of an object, adhering to it with unflinch- ing tenacity. A stranger would consider him fickle and stubborn." {Character of Dr. Whitman by a brother missionaiy, Hev. W. II. Gray) " The Americans had done them much harm. Years before, had not one of their missionaries suffered several of their peo- ple, and the son of their chiefs, to be slain in his company, yet himself escap- ed ? Had not the son of another chief (Elijah), who had gone to California to buy cattle, been killed by Americans for no fault of his own? . . . So far as regarded the missionaries. Dr. Whitman and his associates, they were divided, yet so many looked on the doctor as an agent in promoting the settlement of the country with whites, it was thought best to drive him from the country, together with all the missionaries, several years be- fore. Dr. Whitman had known that the Indians were displeased with his settle- ment among th|pp. They had told him ot or, Executive Document No. 37. 679 Kter tlie every Is to be |e goods The l\\s and le land, them to |the Nez lises to ir. John \Fottnda- \by Mr. it; they had treated him with violence, they had attempted to outrage his wife, had burned his property, and had several times warned him to leave their country, or they should kill him." {Kiver of the JVest, p. 400.) "The fulfilment of the laws which the agent recommended for their adoption, . . . occasioned suspicions in the minds of the Indians generally that the whites designed the ultimate subjugation of their tribes. They saw in the laws they had adopted a deep-laid scheme of the whites to destroy them and take posses- sion of their countr)'. The arrival of a large party of emigrants about this time, and the sudden departure of Dr. Whit- man to the United States, with the avow- ed intention of bringing back with him as many as he could enlist for Oregon, served to hasten them to the above con- clusions, . . . The great omplaint of the Indians was that the Boston people [Americans] designed to take away their lands, and reduce them to slavery." (/it7j. Gtistavus Nines, D.D., assistant of Spauld- ing, in Pub. Doc. No. 37, on the Nez Perces in 1843. History of Oregon, p. 143.) "They [the Indians] were demanding unreasonable pay for their lands upon which the stations were erected, and pay- ing but little or no attention to their American teachers." (Grays History of Oregon, p. 365.) " The fact is also shown that, as far back as 1835, the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains protested against the taking away of their lands by the white races, and this was one of the alleged causes of the murder of Dr. Whitman." {J. Ross Browne, Special Agent of the Trea- sury, Report to the Com. of Indian Affairs, Dec. 4, 1857.) Thus we find that, whatever credit may be claimed for Dr. Whitman as a colonist, his course toward the peo- ple whom he was sent to evangelize Avas anything but just or Christian; for he not only did not pay for his own land, but helped others to steal also, and he admits himself that for some years he had utterly neglected the spiritual and mental duties of his mission. But there were other and not less potent causes at work. Of his " esteemed friencypr. Whitman," Sir James Douglass, chief factor of the Hudson Bay Company, writes on Decembe- 9, ten days after the mas- sacre : " He hoped that time and instruction would produce a change of mind — a bet- ter state of feeling toward the mission, and he might have lived to have seen his hopes realized, had not the measles and dysentery, following in the train of immi- grants from the United States, made frightful ravages this year in the upper country, ^any Indians have been carried off through tho violence of the disease, and others through their own impru- dence. The Cayuse Indians of Wailat- pu, being suflferers in this general cala- mity, were incensed against Dr. Whit- man for not exerting his supposed super- natural power in saving their lives. They carried this absurdity beyond the point of folly. Their superstitious minds be- came possessed of the horrible suspicion that he was giving poison to the sick instead of wholesome medicine, with the view of working the destruction of the tribe, his former cruelty probably add- ing strength to their suspicions. Still, some of the reflecting had confidence in Dr. Whitman's integrity, and it was agreed to test the effects of the medicine he had furnished on three of their people, one of whom was said to be in perfect health. They unfortunately died, and from that moment it was resolved to de- stroy the mission. It was immediately after* burying the remains of these three persons that they repaired to the mis- sion and murdered every man found there." Several other contemporary writers confirm this calm statement of events, which in themselves were enough to drive ignorant and desperate savages (for it must be borne in mind that Dr. Whitman had given up instruct- ing them for some years to attend to his wheat and horses) to commit any act of murder or rapine. To show that the *' horrible suspicion " of having been poisoned was not a mere groundless suspicion on the part of the Indians, we present the following testimony : 68o Several Calumnies Refuted ; " I spent the winter of 1846 in Dr. Whitman's employment. I generally work- ed at the saw-mill. During the time I was there, I observed that Dr. Whitman was in the habit of poisoning wolves. I did not see him put the poison in the baits for the wolves ; but two of his young men of tlie house, by his order, were poi- soning ijieces of meat, and distributing them in the places where the wolves were in the habit of coming, at a short distance around the establishment of the doctor. The doctor once gave me some arsenic to poison the wolves that were around the saw-mill. . . . Some In- dians who happened to pass there took the meat and ate it ; three of them were very sick, and were near dying. . . . Mr. Gray, who was then [1840] living with the doctor, offered us as many me- lons to eat as we liked, but he warned us at the same time not to eat them in- discriminately, as some of them were poisoned. 'The Indians,' said he, are continually stealing our melons. To stop them, we have put a little poison on the bigger ones, in order that the Indians who 'luill eat them might be a little sick.' " {Statement of John Young, coiToboraied by Augustine Raymond.) In addition to these acts of im- prudence, the doctor, it seems, had -earned for himself an unenviable un- popularity. He was constantly ex- torting overpay in horses from them, and threatening them with soldiers and emigrants if they refused it. Af- ter having a quarrel with them on one occasion, " during which they insulted him, covered him with mud," and even attempted his life, " he started for the United States, telling the Indians that he was going to see the great chief of the Americans, and that when he would return he would bring with him many people to chas- tise them; the Indians had been looking to his return with great fear and anxiety." * At another time, in the fall of 1847, he said to the In- dians at Walla Walla in the presence of several white men, ** Since you are so wicked, such robbers, we shall send * Toupin's statement. for troops to chastise you, and nej'.t fdll we will see here five hundred dragoons, who will take care of you." But even Doctor Whitman, *' fickle and obstinate " as he was, could not entirely overlook the dan- gers that beset him for so many years, and at the solicitation of his friend had been preparing to leave his station long before the arrival of the Catholic missionaries. Mr. Tho- mas McKay, whom the doctor had invited to stop the winter of 1847-8 with him for protection, says, *' He told me repeatedly, during the last two years especially, that he wished to leave, as he knew the Indians were ill-disposed toward him, and that it was dangerous for him to stay there ; but that he wished all the chiefs to tell him to go away, in order to excuse himself to the Board of Foreign Mis- sions." Dangerous and fatal mistake, which cost the lives of thirteen inno- cent people, and closed the unfortu- nate man's earthly career ! Now for the afifau of the young woman Miss Bewley, who is describ- ed in Bib. Doc. No. 37, p. 35, indiffer- ently as an " amiable young saint," a " dear girl," and " an angel." It is charged that, when Five Crows de- manded her for his wife, and she re- fusing to go with him, the bishops and priests urged her to go, and even thrust her out-of-doors when she refused. So little credence was given this specific calumny, for many years after the alleged occurrence, that the only mention we find made of it in The Murder of Dr. Whitman is the following paragraph : " Before taking leave of the chiefs, the bishop said to them all publicly, as he had also done several times privately, that those who had taken American girls should give them up immediately. And then all entreated Five Crows to give up the one he had taken, but to no pur- pose." or, Executive Docuvtent No. 37. 681 Now let us hear Father Brouillet's account of the affair m contradiction to Miss Bewley's deposition : " We did," sa)'S the reverend gentle- man, "all that charily could claim, and even more than prudence seemed to per- mit. We kept her for seventeen days in our house, provided for all her wants, and treated her well, and if she had minded us, and heeded our advice and entreaties, she would never have been subjected to that Indian. When she came first to our house, and told us that Five Crows had sent for her to be his wife, we asked her what she wanted to do. Did she want to go with him, or not ? She said she did not want to go with him. ' Stay with us, then, if you like ; we will do for you what we can,' was our offer. When the evening came, the Indian chief called for her. The writer then requested his interpreter to tell him that she did not want to be his wife, and that, therefore, he did not want her to go with him. The interpreter, who was an Indian, allied by marriage to the Cayuses, and knew the chiefs disposi- tion well, would not provoke his anger, and refused to interpret. The writer, then making use of a few Indian words he had picked up during the few days he had been there, and with the aid of signs, spoke to the Indian himself, and suc- ceeded in making him understand what he meant. The Indian rose furious- ly, and without uttering a word went away. The young woman then got frightened, and wanted to go for fear he might come back and do us all an injury. The writer tried to quiet her, and insist- ed that she should remain at our house, but to *. ? avail ; she must go, and off she went. The Indian, still in his fit of anger, refused to receive her, and sent her back. She remained with us three or four days undisturbed ; until one evening, without any violence on the part of the Indian, or without advising v.'ith us, she went with him to his lodge. She came back the next morning, went off again in the evening, and continued so, without being forced by the Indian, and part of the time going by herself, until at last she was told to select be- tween the Indian's lodge and our house, as such a loose way of acting could not be suffered any longer. That was the first and only time that she offered any resistance to the will of the Indiati ; but, indeed, her resistance was very slight, if wc can believe her own statement." This is a very different account from that sworn to by Miss Bewley, but written by Spaulding, as he says himself, Ex. Doc. No. 37, p. 27 : *' 1 would go to an individual, and take down in writing what he or she knew, and then go before a magistrate, and the individual would make an oath to the statement, the officer certifying." There is no mention that the parties were permitted to read what their amanuensis took down, and all who are acquainted with such ex-parie de- positions know how easily it would be to alter their sense and meaning by an unscrupulous person — which we are about to show Spaulding to be. In this very statement there are two interpolations, one of eight lines on page 35 of Ex. Doc. No. 37, beginning with the words " I arose," and one of six on the following page, at " The next day," which materially alter the whole meaning of the document. This alteration of a sworn statement by any but the affiant is at common \o>.\i forgery, and ought to entitle the person who makes it to the delicate attention of the prosecuting attorney of his county. Whether the saint and angel. Miss Bewley, is now aware of the forgery connected with her name we know not, but we trust that the Senate will make a note of it for the benefit of future historians. But Spaulding, who is described by his co- missionary Gray as " quite impulsive and bitter in his denunciations of a real or supposed enemy," in en- deavoring to make out a case, is not content with altering one affidavit. That of Mr. Osborne {Ex. Doc. No. 37, p. 32) is also materially changed in several places from the original, and the official reports of Mr. McLane {Ex. Doc. p. 33) and of Dr. White are 682 Affirmations. doctored in a manner that we venture to say would render it difficult for the writers themselves to recognize them. Even the plain statements of The Murder of Dr. Whitman are garbled in a most palpable and scandalous manner. As to the other auxiliary charges against the Catholic missionaries, and the answers of Abernethy and a few others to questions propounded by Spaulding, we do not consider them worthy of serious attention. They are all directly or indirectly the creatures of Spaulding's fertile imagination, who, if not crazy as Colonel Gilliam said, has allowed his hatred of Catholicity to carry him down to fearful depths of crime, to calumny, falsehood, and forgery. His motives are apparent, the gratification of his lust for re- venge, and his hatred of our faith; that of the associations who have signed his outrageous statements is the present flourtshing existence of the Catholic missions in every part of Oregon ; and the end proposed is to compass their destruction by ap- pealing to the religious prejudices of the authorities at Washington. We have too much confidence in the wisdom and good sense of the Execu- tive and Congress to suppose that they will be influenced by such inflammatory appeals — bearing on their face the palpable impress of dishonesty and prejudice — and attempts to disturb the good fathers in their labor of love, as well as of hardships and suffering; and we expect soon to hear of those fanatics receiving a fitting rebuke in our Senate for attempting to make that august body the vehicle of per- petuating the vilest sort of falsehoods and slanders against the Catholics of this country. / IS of )art is Jap- lices ton. I the tcu- Ihey lory the md the as ng; lose