Supplementary history of American Methodism ; a continuation of the author's Abridged history of American Methodism

Front matter

BOOKS BY

REV ABEL STEVENS, D.D., LL.D.

CENTENARY OF AMERICAN METHODISM. 12mo.$l 35

Preface

In a former volume I have given A Compendious History of American Methodism, abridged from the author's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The narrative culminates at the Centennial Jubilee of American Methodism, in 1866. This would seem to be its normal conclusion ; it has a sort of epic propriety, as the climax of the first hundred years of the Methodistic movement in the New World. I am reluctant to disturb what I conceive to be thus the legitimate chronology and befitting denouement of the extraordinary story — the story of the heroic period of the greatest popular religious movement in history since the Reformation. The singular success of the denomination has, however, continued since its centennial epoch, and there is an urgent and " official " demand that the record be continued from 1866 to 1890. It is necessary that a narrative like this should have definitive limits, and I have chosen the beginning of the last decade of the century, or rather the end of the preceding decade, as my terminal date. The calendar year does not always correspond with the ecclesiastical year ; the latter for 1890 sometimes becomes 1890-1891 ; but this difference is too slight to affect materially the date as a standpoint for the summarizing of results. Meanwhile the final summaries here given have been rapidly changing with the continuous advancement of the Church. I insert, therefore, in a short Appendix, the numerical aggregates, officially given, at the latest date since the completion of my manuscript.

This volume covers about a quarter of a century ; and, besides a sketch of the territorial progress of the Church on the

Pacific slope, and abroad, in its missions, shows in a succinct

8 PREFACE.

way the results of the labors and wise plans of the preceding hundred years, and also not a few important new institutions — the offspring of the new period. It is a grand harvest time — a period of culminations ; and the results it exhibits are, perhaps, hardly surpassed in any equal period of Christian history. I have been so impressed with this fact that I must beg the forbearance of the reader for any appearance of undue emphasis which portions of the record may bear. Its facts are given from authentic sources, are verified by official authorities, and stated in exact figures. But that they should appear exaggerated is inevitable, being, per se, marvelous and unexpected. Not unfrequently a single arithmetical sentence will be found to be more significant and eloquent than could be pages of dissertation. I have chosen to narrate these extraordinary results simply and directly, as I find them in the documentary authorities of the Church. They may well afford encouragement to the whole Christian world.

The plan of the volume is the only one practicable in a " compendium " like this. It has also high sanction. One of the ablest contemporary English historians (Lecky) says, in the Preface to \\\& Histo?>y of England in the Eighteenth Century ; " I have not attempted to write the history of the period year by year. It has been my object to disengage, from the great mass of facts, those which relate to the permanent forces of the nation, or those which indicate some of the more enduring features of the national life." Before seeing Lecky's successful exemplification of the plan I had used it partially in my preceding volume and entirely in the present one. By this plan I have endeavored to attain three aims : first, to make the book a legitimate continuation and completion of its preceding volume to such readers as may have read the latter ; secondly, to render it, as far as possible, complete in itself, an independent work, for readers who have not read its precursor — for,

PREFACE. 9

without material repetitions, necessary retrospective glances bring the entire history of the Church, more or less, into the purview of the reader; thirdly, to enable him to estimate comprehensively the actual condition and prospect of the denomination— which now comprises more than one third of the aggregate Methodism of the "world. To the intelligent inquirer who wishes to ascertain the present significance of the Methodist Episcopal Church, not only throughout Christendom but throughout the earth, the data here given will, I think, be sufficient.

I have attempted to give not only the form of organization and the numerical results of the institutions and other great projects which pertain to my chronological period, but their respective histories (though with extreme condensation), showing their correlation one with another as well as with momentous innovations in the denomination — such as lay representation, theological education, foreign missions, the fuller recognition of the church work of women, the organization of its youth in " Leagues," etc. The history of the Church is made up during this period chiefly of these respective histories. Its people, as well as its pastors, should appreciate this fact, for it has thus become more than ever a movement of the people. This is now its trend all around the world, and this popular and universal trend denotes its coming history. After more than threescore years and ten spent in the practical as well as passive study of Methodism I do not hesitate to believe that its greatest history can be wrought in the future, and that its prospects for the new century into which we are about to enter are such as should inspire it with devoutest ambition and heroic energy.

Contemporary history cannot be written, though annals, chronicles, etc., can, and must be, as resources for the future historian. Great events, involving, as they usually do,

10 PREFACE.

extensive controversies and agitations, require time for their right estimation ; the characteristic portraiture of their leaders (the best dramatis personce of history) cannot be impartially made while the chief actors or their families still survive. Feeling severely these restrictions, I nevertheless lay this, my last literary tribute, on the altar of the denomination, believing that its significant facts cannot fail to do good for our common Christianity.

And with this, his final offering, the author may be permitted humbly to give his final exhortation to his Methodist brethren : that, as they believe their denominational form of the common cause is, in its primitive simplicity and essential catholicity, best prepared for the predicted perils of Christianity in the coming century, they should more than ever be steadfast in their work, should confront the new century with unwavering courage, and march into it, and through it, with reunited ranks and the consciousness of a universal and invincible mission.

Los Angeles, Cal.

Chapter I. Territorial Progress

The Immigrant Founders of Methodism — Their Missionary Spirit — The New World — The French Voyageurs — Jeremiah Lambert — From the Alleghanies to the Rockies — Lewis and Clarke — Flathead Indians in St. Louis — The Pacific Coast' — Its Importance — The Oregon Mission and Missionaries — Its Results — Oregon " Saved to the Union" — Washington — California — The Rocky Mountains — The Third "New- World " — Pacific Slope Conferences. . . Page 17

Chapter II. The Episcopate

Additional Consecrations — Character of the Episcopate — Its Theory — Episcopal Residences — Salaries — Pastoral Appointments — Missionary Bishops — African Bishops — Semiannual Episcopal Meeting — Advantages of the Episcopate . . „ . . 37

Chapter III. Lay Representation

Lay Activity — Lay Representation — Early Agitation on the Subject— Revival of the Controversy — The Priesthood of the People — Dr. Bond — Radicalism — Mr. Stockton — Bishop Simpson — Progress of the Movement — Its Triumphs — Its Defects — Its Advantages — The Electoral College of Laymen. . ... .... 47

12 CONTENTS.

Chapter Iv- Lat Activity — Missions

Methodist Enthusiasm — Catalepsy — Old and New Methods — Success of the Missionary Cause — Wise Administrators — The Woman's Foreign and Home Missionary Societies — Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society — Board of Church Extension — General Missionary Committee — ' ' Mission Districts " — Results — Self-supporting Missions — Local Societies — Rev. Ebenezer Brown. . . . .Page 58

Chapter V Church Extension — Aid To Fkeedmen

Origin of the Church Extension Board — Its Scheme — General and Loan Funds — Its Success — Freedmen's Aid Society — The Negro Problem — Remarkable Statistics — Signal Success — Rev. Dr. Albert — Progress of the Freedmen. .... 74

Chapter VI. Women Op Methodism

Women of Early Methodism — Wesley on Their Church Relations — Sarah Crosby — Mary Fletcher — Wesley on Paul's Interdiction and on Quakerism — Ancient Restrictions on Women — Acts of the General Conference Regarding Them — Vote of the Annual Conferences — Their Present Activity in the Church. . . . .... . . 89

Chapter VII. Women Of Methodism. — Continued

Deaconesses — History of the Institution — Zenana Work — Bishop Thoburn — The Chicago Home and Training School — Recognition by the General Conference — Duties of Deaconesses — "Humanitarian" Beneficence — Methodist Deaconesses in Germany — Hospitals and Orphanages at Home and Abroad . . . .... 101

Chapter VIII. Education — Literature

Educational Institutions of Early Methodism — Their Great Increase Coincident with Lay Representation — Board of Education — Economical Management — Children's Day — Disciplinary — National University — Remarkable History of the Book Concern — The Publishing Agents — The Western House — Statistics. .. 114

CONTENTS. 13

Chapter IX. Education — Literature. — Continued

Sunday Schools — Their Connection with Methodism — Their Literary Relation to the Book Concern — The Work of the Tract Society — History of the Chautauqua Circle and Literature — ' ' University Extension " — Origin and Success of the Ep worth League . Page 130

Chapter X. Liberality And Resources Of The Church

Extraordinary Growth of the Liberality of American Methodism — To Education — To Literature — To Missions — Disciplinary Effect — Chalmers's Argument — Resources of the Church — Increase of the National Wealth — Denominational Proportion of It — " Board of Trustees " Instituted — Numerical Growth of Methodism 138

Chapter XI. Arminianism — Episcopacy

Important Phases of Methodism — Theological Revolution — Reprobation — Universal Atonement — Presby terial ' ' Nonprelatical " Episcopacy— Ordination Not a Sacrament .. 145

Chapter XII. Episcopal Necrology

General Conferences — Annual and Mission Conferences — The General Superintendency — Deceased Bishops — Thomson — Kingsley — Clark — Baker — Morris — Roberts — Janes — Ames — Gilbert Haven — E. O. Haven — Scott — Peck — Simpson — Wiley — Harris 150

Chapter XIII. Methodist Episcopal Church In The South

Attempts at Reconciliation of North and South — Organic Union — Methodist Episcopal Church Should Remain in the South — Its Success — Testimonies of Bishops Mallalieu and Bowman — Universal Mission of Methodism — Loyalty and Persistence of the Church 16?

14 CONTENTS.

Chapter XIV. The Church Abroad

The Methodist Episcopal Church "of the World" — Missionary Spirit in Boston and New York — First American Foreign Missionaries — Africa — Illustrious Names — Missionary Heroism — Bishop Taylor — Results and Outlook .. Page 174

Chapter XV. The Church Abroad. — Continued

Missionary Survey of South America — Early Struggles and Retreat — Work Resumed — Remarkable Incidents — Consecrated Workers — Results — Mexico — Historical Locations — Successes 179

Chapter XVI. The Church Abroad. — Continued

China — Large Mission Field — First to Enter — Foochow — Early Adversities — First Convert — Extension of the Work — Results — Japan Entered — A Notable Day — Extraordinary Changes — Korea, the Latest Foreign Mission Field. . . . . . . 186

Chapter XVII. The Church Abroad. — Continued

German Methodism — Nast's Mission — Jacoby in Bremen — Mission Established in Germany — Conflicts — Annual Conference Organized — Work in Switzerland — German Work in America — Scandinavian Methodism— In Norway — Denmark — Sweden — The Lutheran Church — Finland — Survey of the Work in Europe 198

Chapter XVIII. The Church Abroad. — Continued

Bulgaria — Delays and Discouragements — Heroic Workers — Condition of the Greek Church — Trials of the Mission — Annual Conference Established — Italy — Success of the Itinerancy — Native Laborers — The Church Enters Rome — Bishop Joyce Comments on Results. . 208

CONTENTS. 15

Chapter XIX. The Church Abroad. — Concluded

India — Extent and Importance of the Field — Dr. Butler — Joel — The Mutiny — Martyrdom — Reinforcements from America — Six Important Events — Success — Results — Outlook — The Missionary Problem. . . . ■ . . . . ... Page 217

Chapter XX. Ecumenical Conferences — Results

The First Ecumenical Conference — General Condition of Methodism — Various Methodists Within the Republic — Final Statistics — Second Ecumenical Conference . . . . 231

Chapter XXI. Pinal Views

Conditions of the Success of Methodism — Five Facts Accountable — A Ministry, but No Priesthood — Its Future . . .... ... 242

Appendix

I. Extracts from the Episcopal Address at the General Conference, May, 1896.-.. .. 258

II. Bishop Andrews's Anniversary Sermon, 1897. . . 256

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Bishop Matthew Simpson .

. . .Frontispiece.

Edmund S. Janes .

.. ..... .Facing page 28

' Levi Scott.

' Edward R. Ames . .

' Davis W- Clark . . ' Edward Thomson .

" " 100

' Calvin Kingsley .

" " 142

' Isaac W. Wiley

' William L. Harris.

' Gilbert Haven. .

' Jesse T. Peck .

' Erastus 0. Haven.

' John P. Newman.

HISTORY

OF THE

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

Chapter I. Territorial Progress

The immigrant founders of American Methodism were inspired by the missionary spirit, though formal missionary organization had not yet taken place in Protestant Christendom. Embury, Webb, and Strawbridge ; Owen, Williams, King, Boardman, and Pilmoor; Coke, Asbury, Whatcoat, and Wright; Rankin, Shadford, Garrettson, and Black — these, and their colleagues and immediate successors, felt that they were inaugurating in the New World the " great religious movement of the eighteenth century called Methodism," and that it was to be identified with the destiny of the country. Hence they were soon traveling and working mightily from Nova Scotia to Georgia. It seemed to them, even before the Revolution, that God had unrolled before them a grand map which should illustrate their apostolic labors and triumphs and profoundly influence the future history of the religious world. And after the Revolution this, hope rose into exultant assurance. As early as 1783 Asbnry wrote to a friend in England : " The Gospel has taken a universal spread. O America, America ! It certainly will be the glory of the world for religion."

But what was the New World to them at that early date ? It consisted of the Atlantic coast colonies. It was grand, indeed, to their vision, but it was bounded on the west by the Alleghanies. Beyond lay a vast dreamland, the future of which appeared too undefined to be taken into their scheme. The aboriginal savages roamed over it. The French, with their fur trade and Canadian voyageurs, had barely penetrated it.

IS HISTORY OF THE

Pittsburg had until recently been only a French post — Fort Duquesne. Some remote stations among the Indians had received French names — Detroit, St. Louis, etc. Braddock's forces, accompanied by the young Washington, had ventured across the mountains some eleven years before the introduction of Methodism, but were sent reeling back with defeat by the arms of the French and the Indians. Before many years, however, adventurous pioneers had found their way again, over the mountain barrier, on the " Braddock road " into western Pennsylvania, and others, through the mountain passes, into Kentucky and Tennessee. As early as 1783 Jeremiah Lambert was preaching, as we have seen, at the head of the Holston River on a long circuit which had but sixty church members. In the next year Redstone appeared in the Minutes as the first Methodist circuit in Pennsylvania beyond the Alleghanies. It was a great day in Methodism when, in 178S, Asbury scaled the Appalachian range and held, in Tennessee, the first Methodist Conference in the valley of the Mississippi — the future arena of the greatest successes of his Church — and, hastening onward, conducted the first Methodist ordination beyond the Alleghanies at Uniontown, Pa. Asbury seemed instinctively to perceive the future importance, for both the nation and the Church, of this apparently boundless area ; he continued often to ride on horseback through its mountain passes, though he had sometimes to be escorted by mounted armed men to protect him from the savages.

Thus the Methodist founders, to whom the Atlantic States had been the New World of their mission, had now entered what seemed a second "new world," extending from the northern lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Alleghanies to the Pocky Mountains, and comprising in square miles much more than one half of the whole present area of the United States or of even that of Europe itself.

This was, indeed, a second " new world " to the heroic itinerants. One of the three greatest rivers of the earth swept majestically beneath their wondering gaze, draining, together with the Great Lakes, a million and a half square miles of the richest soil of the earth, destined to be the granary of the nations. Here was evidently to be one of the grandest theaters of humanity. It was a magnificent field for moral heroism ; and the early Methodist preachers, who did so much to lay the moral foundations of its now mighty States, were as genuine heroes as have ever been recorded in ecclesiastical or military history. The names of Jeremiah Lambert, John Tunnel], Henry Willis, Francis Poythress, Francis McCormick, James Quinn, Peter Moriarty, Bishops Roberts and McKendree, Philip Bruce, Henry Birchett, Jesse Walker, Barnabas Mc- Henry, together with a host of later veterans — Scott, Lakin, Sale, Kobler, Parker, Blackmail, Collins, Young, Paper, Swaze, Cartwright, Finley, Winans, Gibson, Nolley, Strange, Bigelow, Akers — are embalmed in Methodist history, and are still household words in old Methodist families throughout the Mississippi valley.

Heroic souls have always in their very temperament an element of egotism, though never of sordid selfishness. They are strong in their convictions and have " the courage of their opinions." Believing their convictions to be right, they believe them to be invincible, and that they themselves, charged with the responsibility of their convictions, must be equally invincible; that even*apparent defeat, should it occur, must be ultimate victory. Roman pagan philosophy could declare with complacency, " Magna est ve?ritas, et prcevalebit" — " Great is the truth, and it shall prevail." The Methodist itinerants of the valley of the Mississippi had this sublime confidence. They believed that, not only their liberal theology, but their practical system of church government was especially adapted to this "new world" of the West; that, as I affirmed in my first volume,* the customary methods of a parish, a stated pastorate, and a ministry trained through a long preliminary education could not possibly meet the wants of this vast opening field into which hosts of immigrants were about to march, many of them w7ith the worst corruptions and semibarbarism of the lowest classes of Europe.

The Methodist extemporized ministry — wTith its itinerancy, its presiding elders, circuit preachers, local preachers, exhorters, class leaders — was to these evangelical heroes a divine provision for this exigency. A horse and saddlebags, with

* Page 22.

the Bible, Hymn Book, and Discipline, were their indispensable, in many cases their only, property. Their parishes were " circuits " sometimes five hundred miles long. Thev preached daily, from settlement to settlement, mostly in log cabins or barns. Few of them had homes; but they lived from house to house among the grateful people. They felt that they were building a moral empire throughout the great valley of the Mississippi ; and we witness to-day that they did so. They kept pace with its frontier immigration. They opened the way into it for tardier sects. They have dotted it all over with churches, academies, and colleges. They saved, as I have shown, the " Great West " from utter demoralization and barbarism.

Such was the second " new world " revealed to Methodism. But hardly had these first heroes, the legio tonans of Western Methodism, disappeared when a third u new world" was disclosed to their successors. As formerly the Alleghanies, so now the Rocky Mountains had been penetrated by hunters and trappers. The national government had sent an expedition (1S04-6) to explore their hardly known passes and the vast regions beyond ; Lewis and Clark had thus reached the Pacific coast. Long after their return, in 1832, a delegation from the Flathead Indians came all the way to St. Louis, two thousand miles, on foot, to see Clark, then superintendent of Indian affairs ; for their tribe had learned that the white man possessed a book which taught men how to live and die safely, and they came to beg for the wonderful oracle and for teachers of it to reside among their people. A sensation was produced bv this singular fact through all the religious circles of the nation. The Methodist Flathead Mission in Oregon was immediately projected, chiefly by Wilbur Fisk and Nathan Bangs. * The reports of trappers and especially of Lewis and Clark excited the spirit of emigration ; bands of hardy whites began to move toward the far-off country, some over the mountains, others around Cape Horn.

Here, then, was another, a third " new world " for the Methodist itinerants, who were never found lagging behind the van of emigration ; and in this case they preceded it. Thousands

* Christian Advocatr, March 1, 1833.

of us still living can remember those notable days, for rapid and marvelous indeed were the events with which this great new world of the Pacific coast opened to the wondering eyes, not only of the nation, but of all civilized nations. We, to whom those days seem a dream, can now travel to the Pacific slope with ease. Its magnificent States contain thousands of miles of railroads, with universal telegraphs, richly cultivated estates, and great cities, some of them comparable to those of the Atlantic coast or of continental Europe — a vast area replete with agricultural and mineral resources, dotted with thriving villages and towns, with churches, schools, colleges, courthouses, hospitals, and public libraries, and having lines of splendid steamers along its coast to South America, to Japan and China, Hawaii, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Here is now the Great West — a range of country which, including only the three coast States and Alaska, and exclusive of the portions of the coast that do not belong to the Republic, comprises 901,570 square miles, equal to nearly a quarter of Europe. The last, and what was supposed to be the poorest, but is found to be one of the most important of our acquisitions, Alaska, has a coast line of twenty-five thousand miles, including the islands * — more than the combined Atlantic and Pacific coast lines, including islands, of the rest of the United States ; it has a territory of 578,000 square miles ; a river, the Yukon, which rivals the Mississippi in the volume of its outflow ; and one of its many islands is said to be practically a mountain of ore and to contain mineral wealth enough to pay off the whole national debt. It is about equal in square miles to seventy States like Massachusetts, or to all New England and the Middle States, with Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. If placed on our Atlantic coast it would extend from Maine to Florida. But if thus much can be said of its most boreal section, what must be the importance of this immense Pacific world when Washington, Oregon, and California are superadded ?

Of the history of Methodism in the first and second of these great arenas I have given a somewhat minute record through

* Governor Knapp's report, 1892.

a hundred years in the preceding volume. Of the " new world " of the Pacific coast, still in its infancy notwithstanding its unparalleled development, I must write rapidly. The future historian of the Church, a hundred or even fifty years from to-day, will need volumes for its record.

It was in 1832 that the four Flathead Indian chiefs started for St. Louis. They were received with hospitality, especially by General Clark; two of them died there from the fatigues of their journey, and of the fate of the other two, who attempted to return, nothing has ever been known. Early in 1833 Gabriel P Disosway, president of the Young Men's Missionary Society of New York, appealed to the Church in behalf of this distant field, narrating the remarkable visit of its messengers. The sensation immediately produced by this appeal was intensified by a call through the papers of the Church from President Wilbur Fisk, of Wesleyan University, that " two suitable men, unencumbered with families and possessing the spirit of martyrs, throw themselves into the [Flathead] nation." "Money," wrote that great and good man, "shall be forthcoming. I will be bondsman for the Church." "Were I young and healthy and unencumbered," he added, " how joyfully would I go ! " * Bishop Emory consulted the War Department at Washington respecting the country, but it reported that it knew nothing of a tribe of Flatheads there. The Missionary Society therefore projected the mission under a general title, as an " aboriginal mission west of the Pocky Mountains," but in October, 1835, changed the name to the " Oregon Mission."

Fisk had known Jason Lee, a stalwart and devoted young man who at this time was a missionary among the Indians in Canada. He was summoned to the university at Middletown, Conn., to prepare under Fisk's eye for this remote field. Bishop Hedding admitted him on trial at the ensuing New England Conference, and appointed him, says the historian of Methodist missions, f "to this foreign mission, practically more distant then than India or China is now. In August followino- Daniel

* Christian Advocate, March 22, 1833 ; Methodist Episcopal Missions, by J. M. Reid, revised by J. T. Gracey, vol. i, p. 133.

+ Reid, Methodist Episcopal Missions, vol. i, p. 134.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 2a

Lee, nephew of Jason, was also appointed to tins field, and the Board engaged Cyrus Shepard and T. S. Edwards, laymen, to accompany them," for it was deemed expedient to introduce the arts of civilized labor among these remote savages. F L. Edwards, another layman, was later added to the little band. They departed in March, 1834, and reached Walla Walla, on the Columbia, in Washington, by the first of September. The first Protestant sermon on the Pacific coast was preached by Jason Lee at Vancouver on the 28th of September. The mission was located in the Willamette valley. Log cabins were immediately begun, the ground was broken for tillage, and a school for Indian children was established. Reinforcements arrived at brief intervals : Daniel Leslie, H. K. W Perkins and wife, and Miss Margaret Smith in 1835 ; Elijah White, a physician, and wife, Alanson Beers and wife, William H. Wilson, Miss Ann Maria Pitman, Miss Susan Downing, Miss Elvina Johnson in 1836 ; Joseph H. Frost, Alvan F. Waller, William W Kone, Gustavus Hines, Lewis H. Judson, Josiah L. Parrish, John P Richmond in 1840. In 1844 George Gary arrived to investigate and readjust the temporalities (the real estate and finances) of the mission and to be its superintendent. In 1848 William Roberts was appointed superintendent. Under his administration, says the historian, " the mission moved forward prosperously, and as the country filled up the Church became strong and the benefits of our early movement became apparent."

The missionary evangelists had been working more wisely than they knew They, together with later fellow-laborers from other denominations, especially Presbyterians, had opened the country ; and now immigration was about to pour into it and build magnificent States on the foundations they had been laying. Their Indian labors continued, but churches for white immigrants were soon in demand ; and it became evident that, though the native tribes might linger in ever-diminishing remnants, this third new world, like the two they had left east of the mountains, was quickly to become an immense field of civilized settlements. So deeply at last was this fact impressed on the pioneer evangelists that, while the statesmen at Washington had hardly more than dreamed of the distant terra in cognita, the missionaries began to see it was important that the national government should quickly define its authority over it, and thus save to the Republic this great Pacific empire.

Oregon was, in fact, the beginning of the nation on the vast range of its Pacific coast. It included, indefinitely, all our present northwest domain except Alaska, which was then an obscure and entirely unappreciated Russian possession ; while California, on the south, was yet an unthought-of outskirt of Mexico, with scattered Roman Catholic stations, or " missions," for the conversion of its Indians. Yet so distant and inaccessible did the country appear in those times preceding railroads and telegraphs that even Daniel Webster, who aftenvard pleaded well for it, declared that it was too far off to be governed by the United States. Nominally, by a treaty concluded between the governments of Great Britain and the United States in ISIS, and extended ten years later, the whole Pacific coast, from California to the Russian possessions in the far north, was to be occupied by the two nations jointly ; but this was not intended by either nation to be a final and permanent arrangement. Practically the Hudson's Bay Company was gradually but surely extending its operations to every part of the vast territory and so bringing it into the actual possession of Great Britain, as it had already brought the whole Hudson's Bay region ; while the United States had so far exercised no act of real sovereignty, and had hardly acknowledged, or even encouraged, any occupancy by American settlers, traders, or missionaries. These had now come in small numbers, and were living in a state of practical, though undefined and uncertain, independence. The danger was that the entire coast would eventually become British soil, under the immediate control of the fur- trading company, and that not only would this immense tract thus be lost to our Republic, but that missionary work among the Indians would be stopped, or at least rendered much more embarrassing and difficult.