The west shore., August 01, 1885, Page 249, Image 21

THE WEST SHORE.
249
EARLY DAYS ON PUGET SOUND.
EXTRACTS from the annual address dolivered by the
Hon. Elwood Evans, at Tacoraa, June 1G, 1885, at
the Second Annual Reunion of Washington Territory
Pioneers. To the old settlers of the original Oregon
Territory, of which at the time of the incidents related
the Puget Sound region was a portion, they will be espe
cially interesting:
Hon. William P. Bryant, the first Chiof Justice of the
organized Territory of Oregon, held the first court north
of the Columbia River at Fort Steilnooom, on the 1st day
of October, 1849. It was a special term, authorized by
' an act of the Oregon Legislature, for the purpose of try
ing the murderers of Leander C. Wallaoe. Lewis County,
in which the murder had been committed, oxtonded
northward to the forty-ninth parallel, and included the
whole of the present Washington Territory north of Clarke
and Pacific counties, and for the purposes of this trial
hod been attached to Judge Bryant's diHtrict ( the First
Judicial District of Oregon). The Court oonvened in
one of the old log-houses on the site of the present Terri
torial Insane Asylum, in a room inadequate to seat either
grand or petit jury, and adjourned to an open shod, used
as a carpenter shop in the progress of erecting quartors
for the soldiers.
Those houses which had been built for and until re
cently occupied by the herders of the Pugot Hound Agri
cultural Company were the most remote of the outposts
of the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Nisqually, honoe
the ultima ihule of the civilization of Northorn Oregon.
Three such log shanties with a barn constituted the
officers' quarters and guard-house, the soldiors being
camped in tents near at hand. These huts were rented
by the United States of the Puget Sound Agricultural
Company for a military post, at which waa stationed
Company M, Fourth Artillery, Captain Bennett II. Hill,
to defend Northern Oregon. Such was Fort Steilaooom
in the fall of 1849. The site of the presont city of Steil
acoom was primeval forest, and not an American settler
disturbed the virgin quietude of the shores of our magni
ficent inland sea from the mouth of Sisquahtchew Creek
to the Pacifio Ocean. ' .
Leander C. Wallace, who had located a claim mwn
the island now bearing his name, was the murdered
pioneer; his murderers were Snoqualmie Indians, ine
tragedy iteelf, the first murder by the natives of an
American settler on Pugot Sound, the first appeal to the
courts to redress by law the wrongs upon our rf F -petrated
by savages, then so greatly ft
little handful of Americans who were here, not only
invest that trial with the greatest interest, but manifest
triumphantly the regard for law and right of those prim-
"TtaE. U- cub. they lead up to. that first
tragedy native characteristic o th. .hjnguj bj
come Apparent We acquire an idea of tha race y
whom tft American pioneer was .arrouud.Hlw.th whom
he waa reauired to come in aauy vmu,
Uhnr incident to occupying the
of the nalure of the later, incident te , occupying
Ronntrv his cond t on of uie as an Aiuor.wu -
A S": ' r,:u 0ti.n that the North
Fdo not Durpoee te 'discos theaasumpt on that the flurui
lSSSt belonged te , the JJ
such race had WWto iU to V
seas. Practical expermm.
premacy means tho very best civil isiation; that it meana
recognition of man's individuality; that it can only be
extended by Americans utilizing tho whole continent aa
the lluliHh tit Almil iimu limli, Ykulmili uml ulil'dioU. Suult
is tho lifo-leHHon of the American pioneer
tin In hill m lh InMrnmml nf Hwtm) i
Ilia wnrk it not dniin, but Doolinjr.
His faith that Infinite wisdom beneficently purposed
that this continent should become the abiding placo of
civilization, science and the arte, a hind of homes - home,
"The resort of love, of joy, of jwaoo and plenty, where
Bupjxirting and supported, polished friends and dear
relations mingle into bliss." That the march of civiliza
tion steadily supplants barbarism and ignorance, necesal
tating a oonflict between an obstructing race and that
one whose advance is marked by progress. The former,
savage, oontent to live as have lived his progenitors; no
advancement is sought; the very earth which he inhabiU
partakes of lethargy; the region remains in It virgin
wildness. The sggressive race, obedient to the first great
commandment, "Subdue the earth and replenishes it,"
levels the forest and makes it yield life and bread to limn.
Thus civilization drive More it the savage, together
with the wild game which has furnished him sulmistonoe.
The earth thus sulxlucd promptly respond to tillage and
abundantly affords sustenance t man. Tho very pre,
enoe of our race mean aggressive civilization. If pres.
ence is the standing menace that the earth shall afford
homes to civilized men and women. In tho very nature
of things tho Indian must recede before the advancing
civilization or be ahsortd by and merged into the ad
vancing oolumn. No rovision of the Old Testament will
diminish tho broad significance of the Almighty fiat at
the dawn of creation "To suImIuo the earth and replenish
it" The New Testament wdl forever command, "do ye
into all lands and preach iU gospel" of civilization ami
succeeding peace. If those keynote of civilization be '
error; if it was wrong to establish the United Slates of
America; if it waa wrong for John Adams, in 17H7, to
have predicted "That the United State of America wore
destinod to spread over the northern Jiart of this whole
quarter of the glole"; if it waa wrong "To go forth and
preach the gospel unto all nations,'1 "To sulsltio the
earth and renlonish It," then wa it wrong for the pioneer
to have wended their perilou way to the shore of the
Pacific, and for u to be here to-day t commemorate
their deeds; then American settlement, which mean
only American civilization, i wrong. But if such be
right, if manifest destiny be right, if the great command
of the Old and New Disonsations le right, then, Indeed,
is the calling of the pioneer a rightful one, hi presence
in new countries i obedience to the highest of duties,
hi mission the most justifiable. But for the pioneers,
those who have in all age pavod tho way for civilisation,
the great United State of America would not be the
greatest nation upon the map of the world. It territory
would simply have been left in the condition it wa when
Columbus disoovnrod the New World. The pioneer
rightfully settled here; the ultimate purpose of hi pres
ence wa proiNir; the nwult of that prwrouoe ha proven
or incalculable benefit to humanity. The right, the pur
poe and the result of that preseuoe are all suggested a
matter of reflection by that first uiurditr; that lirst court
uism Puget Hound; that flmt emmrtiiui of criminal juri.
diction, under tho form of law, in adjudicating Uxm the
wrong botwwn the raw present in the country.
The murdnred victim wa a good man, a quint, unof
fonding citizmi. He gave no provocation for hi taking
off. He waa simply kuown to the Indiana a a " listen.
He wa lawfully, and in pursuit of hi businc, outside
of the stockade of Fort N usually. Ho wa there wan-