256 John H. Mitchell—Oregon 
Laughlin was the true friend of the American pioneer. Braye, 
generous, noble, his house, his larder, his horses, his cattle were 
all at the service of the poor travel-worn, weary and discouraged 
emigrant. But for this disposition and these noble qualities 
he was ostracised by the company and the British government, 
driven into exile at Oregon City, there to end his days, yet re- 
spected, venerated, honored by the pioneers,of Oregon and all 
who knew him and his history. 
Doctor Marcus Whitman. 
It was at this critical period in our history that the great mar- 
tyr to the cause of the vindication of American rights and the 
advancement of national development and Christian civilization 
caine to the front, and in the grandeur of American manhood 
in its sublimest sense rose equal to the great emergency, and 
by his memorable trip across the continent, from Oregon to 
Washington, in the dead of winter in 1842-’43, prevented the 
contemplated barter of that great empire for a cod fishery bank 
on the shores of Newfoundland. Dr Marcus Whitman, whose 
name must be forever associated with the early history of Ore- 
gon, had in 1835, under the auspices of the American board of 
foreign missions in Boston, accompanied by his faithful wife, gone 
to what was then a distant wilderness, and in 1836 established 
there a mission. Though 48 years have passed since he and his 
wife and nine of their household, on November 27, 1847, fell 
victims to savage outlawry on the plains of Walla Walla, and 
gave up their lives* as a part of the cost of preserving as our 
rightful heritage that great territory, his name still lives and will 
continue to live in the history of his country, imperishable as the 
stars, honored, respected, admired. 
Dr Whitman, being deeply impressed that the government at 
Washington, through false information received from British 
sources—among others, from the British minister at Washington 
- and the reports of the governor of the Hudson Bay company— 
to the effect that the whole of Oregon territory was comparatively 
worthless, was about to barter the whole thing away for a cod 
fishery interest on the coast of Newfoundland, determined to 
proceed to Washington at once at all hazards, for the purpose 
* Five of the Indians concerned in the Whitman massacre were tried, 
convicted, sentenced and hung at Oregon City in May, 1850. 
