JAMES WILLIS NESMITH.

BY THE EDITOR.

HIS early pioneer of Oregon occupies a prominent place among the representative men of the Pacific Coast. He is one of the few surviving public men who sought the extreme west, impelled more by the love of adventure than by a thirst for fame or fortune. He came to these shores when a very young man, long before the discovery of gold in California, and made his home in Oregon, where he has passed the greater portion of his life.

His remote paternal ancestors migrated from Argyleshire, in Scotland, and settled in Ireland, in the province of Ulster, about the year 1612. His great, great grandfather, James Nesmith, emigrated from the valley of the river Bann, in North Ireland, to America, in 1718. He was one of the first sixteen settlers in the town of Londonderry, New Hampshire. In this town the father of James Willis was born, and passed his early boyhood. Before he had grown to man's estate, he moved to Aeworth, New Hampshire. Afterwards he married a Miss Willis of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and emigrated to the eastern frontier of Maine, where James Willis, their only child, was born July 23d, 1820. His mother died when he was but eight months old. At the age of nine years, the boy was thrown upon his own resources, his father, who was a merchant and trader, having been unfortunate and reduced to poverty some years previous. By hard work of various kinds he kept himself above want. At the age of fifteen he walked the entire distance

from Brooks, Maine, to Aeworth, New Hampshire. In summer, whenever he could find employment, he worked upon farms, and devoted his winters to study at the district school.

When eighteen years old he left Clearmont, New Hampshire, with all his worldly goods packed upon his back, and twenty-five dollars in pocket, and traveled on foot to Albany, New York. Thence he proceeded, partly on canal boats and partly on steamboats as a deck passenger, to Cincinnati, Ohio. Here his funds gave out. He obtained employment as a farm hand near the Queen City, and continued for some time to work at his old occupation, receiving twelve dollars per month for his services. When the "melancholy days" returned, he was no longer required upon the farm, and was compelled to look elsewhere for work. He soon secured a new "engagement" to cut cordwood, at fifty cents per cord.

From 1838 until the spring of 1843, Mr. Nesmith followed a sort of nomadic life in the States of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. During this period he learned the carpenter trade, at which occupation, being of a mechanical turn of mind, he became very proficient. During the latter part of 1842 and the beginning of 1843, the young carpenter assisted in the construction of Fort Scott, now in the State of Kansas.

In the spring of the latter year a number of men were preparing to emigrate to Oregon from Missouri. Mr. Nesmith determined to join them. He had concluded that his prospects of acquiring a competence by hard labor were dismal; and as he loved the adventures incident to a frontier life, he gladly embraced the opportunity which now offered to penetrate the solitudes of the wilderness, and explore the vast unknown regions which stretched to the west of the Missouri. The party started overland from Independence. Among its members were Peter H. Burnett, afterwards first Governor of the State of California, Pierson B. Redding, Samuel J. Hensley, and others who have attained distinction in the States of the Pacific. Being expert with the rifle and the shot-gun, Mr. Nesmith hunted for a mess of six or

eight men, whom he kept supplied with meat in regions where any game could be found. He arrived with his companions in the valley of the Willamette, Oregon, October, 1843. For two or three years thereafter he worked at the carpenter's trade. Soon after his arrival he determined to prepare himself for the legal profession. While following his trade he devoted his leisure hours to reading law.

In 1846, Mr. Nesmith was married, and settled on a farm, which he cultivated for about two years. He appears to have always cherished a fondness for the life and labors of a husbandman. But it was appointed that he should not remain secluded from the observation of his fellow men. From 1846 until 1866 he served the Territory and State of Oregon in many and varied capacities. During that period and since, he has also been engaged in many varieties of business pursuits: farming, milling and merchandising have alternately received his attention.

In 1848, he was a captain in the expedition against the Indians of Middle Oregon, during what was known as theCayuse War." In the latter part of that year he visited California, and worked for more than twelve months in the gold mines.

In 1853, he served as captain in the war with the Indians of Southern Oregon.

In 1853 and 1854, he was United States Marshal for Oregon.

In 1856, he commanded a regiment during the war with the Yackama Indians in north-eastern Oregon and Washington Territory.

In 1857 and 1858, he was Superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon and Washington Territory.

His patience and ability displayed in the management of the complicated concerns of this department, attested his practical wisdom and absolute integrity.

When the memorable controversy arose between President Buchanan and Senator Douglas, Mr. Nesmith adhered to the views expressed by the latter, to whose course and conduct he gave a hearty endorsement. Though holding a federal office, his sentiments concern

ing the events then disrupting the Democratic party were candidly asserted, without malice yet without reserve.

In June, 1860, President Buchanan removed him from the office he had held for more than three years, and in the administration of which he had given so much satisfaction. Three months had not elapsed thereafter, when the people of Oregon selected him to represent them in the national councils.

The Legislature of that State, convened in September, being divided into three nearly equal elements-the Douglas Democrats, Administration Democrats, and Republicans, with the first-named party in a small plurality. After a few ineffectual ballots, Mr. Nesmith was elected United States Senator for the full term of six years from the fouth of March, 1861. Col. E. D. Baker was chosen for the short term of five years. During his Senatorial term, Mr. Nesmith served on the committees on Military Affairs, Commerce and Revolutionary Claims. He was a "War Democrat," and supported most of Mr. Lincoln's measures for the suppression of the Rebellion. He opposed the Emancipation Proclamation on the ground that the Constitution did not warrant its issuance. He believed President Johnson's policy of reconstruction was right, and endorsed it. He sympathized warmly with Mr. Johnson in his disputes with Congress. In the last Presidential election he supported Seymour and Blair, and the weight of his name and influence, in that election, probably turned the well-balanced scales in favor of the Democracy in Oregon.

Mr. Nesmith is an earnest and forcible, though not an eloquent speaker. He never wearies his auditors, and has no difficulty in engaging their attention, no matter to what subject he addresses himself. His bold, plain and emphatic utterances carry the conviction that he is a practical and truthful man. He is a devoted son of the State where he has so long lived, and his popularity is very great throughout the new north-west. The speech which follows this sketch, in which he urged upon Congress the necessity of establishing a branch of the United States Mint at Dalles City, Oregon, will be found interesting on

account of the view it presents of the mineral resources of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, while his humorous attacks on the principal enemy of his favorite measure render its perusal anything but monotonous.

Speech of Hon. J. W. Nesmith,

DELIVERED IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, APRIL 1ST, 1864, ON THE PROPOSITION TO ESTABLISH A BRANCH MINT AT DALLES CITY, OREGON.

MR. PRESIDENT: Early in the present session, impelled by a sense of duty to the State which I in part represent, I introduced the bill which has just been read; it was referred to the Committee on Finance for investigation. That committee did my colleagues in this body and in the other House, and myself, the honor to invite us before them to present such facts as might be within our knowledge bearing upon the question under consideration; and we were not without hope that the reasons we then presented would induce the committee to give us a favorable report upon a measure of such vital importance to our State as well as to our neighboring Territories of Washington and Idaho.

It appears that the committee, deferring to a usage so venerable as to have almost become the common law of the Senate, after listening to the representations of our delegation, who were supposed to know something about the propriety of the measure, referred the question to the decision of the Secretary of the Treasury, who tacitly admitted that he had no information upon the subject, and who in return referred it to one James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, and who was the very man who knew less than any other party consulted, or likely to be consulted, about the question, and who has sent here a communication adverse to the establishment of the proposed branch mint in Oregon, and from which the following luminous extract is made:

"Coinage is one of the highest and most important attributes of national sovereignty, and should be exercised and controlled in such a manner as will tend to strengthen rather than weaken the national Government. It is respectfully suggested whether the providing of additional coinage establishments does not tend toward national disintegration."

While the fate of the measure rested with the unbiased judgment of the honorable Senators who compose the Finance Committee, I had no apprehensions of anything but a favorable result; but