The Log School-House on the Columbia

by Hezekiah Butterworth

  III.

  GOVERNOR STEVENS.

  In the long line of brave American soldiers, General Isaac Ingalls Stevensdeserves a noble rank in the march of history. He was born at Andover,Mass., and was educated at West Point, where he was graduated from theMilitary Academy in 1839 with the highest honors. He was on the militarystaff of General Scott in Mexico, and held other honorable positions inthe Government service in his early life.

  But the great period of his life was his survey of the Northern route tothe Pacific, since largely followed by the Northern Pacific Railroad, andhis development of Washington Territory as a pioneer Governor. He saw theroad to China by the way of the Puget Sea, and realized that Washingtonstood for the East of the Eastern Continent and the Western. He seems tohave felt that here the flag would achieve her greatest destiny, and heentered upon his work like a knight who faced the future and not the past.His survey of the Northern Pacific route led the march of steam to thePuget Sea, and the great steamers have carried it forward to Japan, China,and India.

  His first message to the Legislature at Olympia (1854) was a map of thefuture and a prophecy. It was a call for roads, schools, a university, andimmigration. The seal of Washington was made to bear the Indian word_Alke_--"by and by"--or "in the future." It also was a prophecy.

  He created the counties of Sawanish, Whatcom, Clallam, Chehalis, Cowlitz,Wahkiakum, Skamania, and Walla Walla. Olympia was fixed upon as the seatof government, and measures were taken by the Government for theregulation of the Indian tribes.

  Stevens was the military leader of the Indian war. He reduced the tribesto submission, and secured a permanent peace. He was elected to Congressas a Territorial delegate in 1857, and sought at Washington as earnestlyas on the Puget Sea the interests of the rising State.

  He was a man of great intellect, of a forceful and magnetic presence--aman born to lead in great emergencies. He carried New England ideas andtraditions to the Pacific, and established them there for all time tocome, creating there a greater New England which should gather to itsharbors the commerce of the world.

  Governor Stevens was a conservative in politics, but when the news of thefall of Sumter thrilled the country, he said to the people of Olympia, "Iconceive it my duty to stop disunion." He went to Washington and enteredthe Union service.

  He fell like a hero at Chantilly, and under the flag which he had takenfrom his color-bearer, who had received a mortal wound. His was a splendidcareer that the nation should honor. We recently saw his sword andhistoric pictures at the home of his widow and son at Dorchester, Mass.,and were impressed with these relics of a spirit that had done so much forthe progress of the country and mankind.

  The State of Washington is his monument, and progressive thought hiseulogy. His great mind and energy brought order out of chaos, and set theflag in whose folds he died forever under the gleaming dome of theColossus of American mountains and over the celestial blue of the Pacificharbors of the Puget Sea.