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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1888)
THE WEST SHORE. 1" .u,m;fcLiM in for" ir Mg UeW"B r t 17 J jir.rtM.U. - 1. .4 lha nanftl When the moUon was m - w itornoon fnr 8 burnrnent, me u.- - rffihUl.rbgUd daring w hch a personal action l,iw,,n Jadgo BotlcT and Senator Len Um r. in blows. General oot , ,h, p, JJg0- of J, IT I)vi, then rase, and in a drawl ir Us tMntntl fur the occasion, said hw powers of wloraw. Le Uliewl, would enable him to continue tin d In U lb annate until Monday, 12:00 o'clock w.,wi! although Le could not promise to say much i.Q the ml'j'ft of the Oregon bill, he could not doubt tUl U ould able to interest and greatly edify kmIoii. Th" friond of the bill, seeing what was Uhtp Wim, M a pge in the doorway opening hUt m of thr retiring room, and then, after detail fog i f their numlx r to keep wstch and ward on U IUr of the m nate, withdrew into the room of Lich I jli'n,ti) chat and tell anecdotes, and U drfok win'', or erhnpn something even much lroip'r, and thus to wear away the slowly and heav ily pwuii.g houri of that memorable Saturday night Kin great fluids of smoke filled the room, and from it iMiind the miand of the chink of glasse?, and of liul vn venation, almost drowning the eloquence of U MiwiMippi wnator, aa he repeated the bible sto y of lh (vmrnegmy of the world, the creation of man, l talfog fmm hi tide of the rib from which Eve u raale, h r biking with the 'Bnake,' as he called ti. tA oic, the fall of man, etc, etc The galleries ae , ,a JriM-rtiiL Many of the aged senators pros-iLrjuw-lvri upon the sofas in one of the retir ut and lumtNTiNl soundly, while 'thoughts tUt bn-atUi ku word that burned' ,11 in glowing rl.-ia.w from the lip of the Mississippi Benator, as 1" MticuM thui to instruct and edify the few atclttg fri. n l f lh, biU( Mh JH of evenly year,, pressed heavily upon ofthem-rei. ,v ,u aeata. watch ,,,,, i. - ,u'" -u, waicmng ljuc-)v,ev(tymuvem,ntof the adversaries of , UU" itootum for fclumrnmf adjournment, cominn o w-ntinel pare wnnl.1 ;--Tj.it:oiL TL,a th the in.li.-i, I,. iU i -a aMt ;.RklIi'or8in the retiring b', a I i TK''m the Blum- JW Ao ilhnreat emphasis. Tf hardened, however, on more occasions than one that a Bleeping senator, not yet quite awake, even after getting inside the bar, voted 'aye then, nay,' and then 'aye,' and finally 'nay' again, to the great amusement of those who were sufficiently wide awake to see where the laugh came in. " Occasionally Southern senators, toward Sunday morning, relieved General Foote by short, dull speech es to which the friends of the bill vouchsafed no an swers ; bo that Mr. Calhoun and his pro-slavery sub ordinates had things, for the most part, all their own way until Sabbath morning, August 13, 1848, at about 8:00 o'clock, when the leading opponents of the bill collected together in a knot, and after conversing to gether a short time in an undertone, the Mississippi senator, who had been so very edifying and entertain ing during the night, said that no further opposition would be made to taking a vote on the bill. The ayes and nays were then called and the bill passed." Not alone to Mr. Thornton is due the honor of representing Oregon and Washington during that long struggle for j astice. Another delegate, one with even better credentials than the first, was there to aid in the work. This was Joseph L. Meek, the moun taineer, whose name is indelibly inscribed upon the early annals of the Pacific coast. When the massa cre of the martyred Whitman and his associates, at Waiilatpu, plunged the settlers into a state of mingled grief and alarm, it was thought necessary to dispatch a messenger at once to Washington, to impart the in telligence, impress the authorities with the precarious situation of the colony, and appeal for protection. Winter had set in with all its rigors in the moun tains. The terrible journey made at that season six years before by Dr. Whitman, on his patriotic mis sion, the same person whose martyrdom now rendered a second journey necessary, was fresh in the minds of all, and appalled the stoutest heart. Mr. Thornton had taken the longer, but safer, route by sea; but time was too precious, too much was at stake, to admit of the delay such a journey would impose, even if the vessel were at hand to afford the means. Nothing but a trip across the thousands of miles of snow bound mountain?, plains and deserts, would be of any avail. Iu the emergency, all turned to Joseph L. Meek as the one man in their midst, whose intrepid courage, great powers of physical endurance, long ex perience iu mountain life, and familiarity with the routes of travel and Indian tribes to be encountered, rendered him capable of undertaking the task with a good prospect of success. Unhesitatingly, he accept ed the mission, resigned his seat in the legislature, received his credentials as a delegate from that body, 8et oa the fo-rth of January, for Washing ton, accompanied by John Owen and George Ebbert