OT New book reveals how the lie that missionary Marcus Whitman 'saved' Oregon from Great Britain

One of the American West's greatest hoaxes: New book reveals how the lie that missionary Marcus Whitman 'saved' Oregon from Great Britain in the 1800s with his famous ride across the country became part of history and endured for decades

• During the Second Great Awakening of the 1800s, many turned to Protestantism and other faiths. Missionaries went west to convert Native Americans
• In 1836, Protestant missionaries - Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, and Henry and Eliza Spalding - traveled from New York to the Pacific Northwest territories
• The Whitmans worked to convert the Cayuses; the Spaldings, the Nez Perces
• More missionaries came. But they didn't get along and sent scathing letters to the American Board, who funded them and decided to close Whitman's mission
• In 1842, Whitman rode across the country to save his mission and succeeded
• Members of the Cayuse tribe killed Whitman, his wife and 11 others in 1847
• Years later, Spalding, with the help of others, created a story that Whitman had made that 1842 journey to keep the territories from Britain, per a new book
• Whitman pleaded with President John Tyler not to exchange the land for a cod fishery. There is no evidence they ever met or any such deal was on the table
• After Congress printed the story in 1871, the legend made its way into history books and featured in the Encyclopaedia Britannica and The New York Times
• It was debunked in 1900, but persisted for decades in the Pacific Northwest
• A new book, Murder at the Mission: A frontier killing, its legacy of lies, and the taking of the American West, 'tracks the long and unlikely arc' of this falsehood

It was once as celebrated as Paul Revere's ride.

In 1842, missionary Dr. Marcus Whitman made the treacherous trek from the Pacific Northwest to Washington D.C. to plead with President John Tyler to keep the territory out of grasping Great Britain's hands. Tyler was convinced and decided not to exchange the land for a cod fishery.

Five years later, the doctor, his wife, Narcissa, and 11 men were murdered by members of a Native American tribe, the Cayuse, at the behest of the British Hudson's Bay Company and Catholic missionaries. The killings became known as the Whitman massacre.

Henry Spalding, a fellow Protestant missionary, later on spent years spreading the heroic story, which was printed by the US Senate in 1871 and then in books and newspapers like The New York Times. Whitman became a martyr who helped forge the continental United States by 'saving' Oregon, Idaho and Washington state. In the 1890s, he was lauded by many as a founding father and likened to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

But there were problems with this once well-known history: it was 'largely a pack of lies,' according to a new book.

There is no evidence the US was ever going to hand over the disputed territory to Great Britain nor that the doctor met President Tyler. The British Hudson's Bay Company and Catholic missionaries did not have a hand in the murder of the Whitmans, and, in fact, negotiated the release of the hostages taken that day.

Whitman rode across the country for a much more personal reason: he didn't want to be demoted and lose his mission.

Spalding 'was a twisted guy but also a gifted propagandist,' Blaine Harden, author of Murder at the Mission: A frontier killing, its legacy of lies, and the taking of the American West, told DailyMail.com. 'Congress printed up his story as if it were true.'

And even after it was debunked in 1900, the legend persisted for decades in the Pacific Northwest. Murder at the Mission, Harden wrote, 'tracks the long and unlikely arc of a great American lie.'

Starting in around 1800, there was a religious revival movement known as the Second Great Awakening that saw many Americans convert to Protestantism and other faiths.

A section of New York was key to the movement: the Burned-Over District. The central and western part of the state had so many preachers evangelizing that there was no more 'fuel' (i.e., unconverted population) left over to 'burn' (i.e., convert),' according to an article in The Chronicle-Express. (This is also where Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, got his start.)

It was in the Burned-Over District, Harden noted, that 'Narcissa Prentiss, Marcus Whitman, and Henry Spalding had come of age.'

The trio's entanglement started in the East and followed them in the West. Narcissa turned down Spalding's marriage proposal years before accepting Dr. Marcus Whitman's. This led to bitterness on Spalding's part even after he married a fellow seminary student, Eliza Hart, according to the book.

Nonetheless, the two couples made the journey together from upstate New York to the Pacific Northwest in 1836. They were sent there and funded by a missionary organization called the American Board, which was based in Boston.

Traveling about 20 miles a day, Harden wrote, the Protestant missionaries lived off of dried buffalo meat but 'by their own accounts… had a splendid time.'

By September 1836, the Whitmans reached Fort Walla Walla in Washington. Looking to buy supplies, they were told to go to Fort Vancouver – headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company – in Washington and across the river from present-day Portland, Oregon.

King Charles II granted a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, also known as HBC, in 1670. In the early decades of the 1800s, it 'dominated the region's social, economic, and political life while ensuring profit to its shareholders,' according to the Oregon Historical Society website. According to Murder at the Mission: 'The company traded ammunition, kettles, blankets, and guns for beaver pelts that were shipped to England to make felt hats.'

Oregon was occupied by both citizens of the United States and Great Britain because of a treaty signed in 1818. By the time the missionaries arrived in 1836, according to the book, the territory was 'a stateless frontier zone.'

While the journey may have gone well, the relationship between Spalding and Whitman had soured and the couples decided to go their separate ways. The Spaldings would build a mission among the Nez Perces in what is now Idaho while the Whitmans would work to convert the Cayuses near Walla Walla in Washington near the Oregon border, according to the book.

The Cayuses were a small but powerful and influential tribe who were quick to adopt rifles, steel knives and a very important resource, the horse. They were also allied with the Nez Perces, which was one of Columbia River's largest tribes, Harden noted.

Soon, more Protestant missionaries came to the Pacific Northwest. But the acrimony among them was so high that Harden wrote: 'Historians have described the behavior of these missionaries as 'envious and complaining,' 'smug and unbearably self-righteous,' and poisoned by 'crabby jealousies.''

And they wrote letters – vicious ones – about their fellow missionaries, especially Spalding, to the American Board, the missionary organization in Boston. The board made the decision to fire Spalding and demote Whitman, who was to close his mission and then assist other missionaries.

This is why Whitman hurried across the country in 1842.

He convinced the board to let him continue at his mission and saved Spalding's job. While Whitman had been successful in keeping his mission, he was not in spreading the strict Christian religion among the Cayuse. Harden said he was a 'failed missionary. They were there for 11 years and converted maybe two people.'

White settlers had bought disease like smallpox and malaria that killed many Native Americans among the Columbia River. In the fall of 1847, measles was tearing through the Cayuses and by November, Harden wrote that 'nearly half were dead' – and some blamed Dr. Whitman.

'Whitman was treating all its victims - Indians and whites - with equal ineffectiveness. Yet many of his white patients survived, while most of his Indian patients did not.'

Cayuse traditional law mandated that a failed medicine man be killed, according to the book.

On November 29, 1847, members of the Cayuse tribe killed Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 11 men. They took 47 hostages.

But the Cayuse had one more target: Spalding.

Spalding escaped because of the bravery of a Catholic priest, Father Jean-Baptiste Abraham Brouille, who at great risk warned him. The Hudson's Bay Company, eager to avoid war in what was now US territory, negotiated the release of the hostages with the help of Catholic missionaries. (The 1846 treaty ended the dispute over who controlled the territory and a boundary was established between the US and Canada at the 49th parallel, according to History.com.)

After the Whitmans died, Spalding became an expert on the massacre, Harden explained. 'It was really his ticket to notoriety and influence as a minister.'

Harden wrote that Spalding 'kept at it for a quarter century, successfully marketing his exaggerations and lies to newspapers, churches, politicians, and even the US Congress. His ginned-up versions of history were provocatively written, emotionally seductive, effectively timed, and clearly demagogic.'

Spalding took the 'bubbling prejudices' of the period – anti-Catholicism, nativism and those against Native Americans – and created a story that 'suited everybody's purpose,' Harden told DailyMail.com. The church was able to pass the collection plate and the missionary's namesake Whitman College was able to raise money.

After the Senate printed Spalding's falsehood in 1871, the story appeared in the 1884 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, school textbooks and scholarly books.

Reverend Stephen B L Penrose, Whitman College's president, wrote a pamphlet that turned the missionary into almost a Christ-like figure who had saved the Pacific Northwest from Great Britain. 'His job was to save the university from bankruptcy,' Harden said of Penrose.

Even after the story was exposed as a fraud in 1900, it continued to be considered history in the Pacific Northwest because of Penrose. Harden grew up in Washington state during the 1960s and once portrayed Whitman in a school play. This stuck in his mind, Harden said, and he started to research the story. Harden explained that the legend started to die out in the region in the 1960s through the '80s.

Harden extensively interviewed current leaders of the Cayuse tribe and the Whitman murders are still fresh for them. 'Everything about their lives were made worse because of the persistence of this lie.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-saved-Oregon-Great-Britain-1800s-lasted.html

 

Hmm, I don't think I've ever heard the cod fishery story until now, but good to know it's bullshit.

barfo