in March last, bound for Seattle and vicinity. Fifty unmarried and marriageable ladies; girls, female women—and this is leap year, too. Ye Gods! What has bachelordom done to incur this stupendous blessing! Coal is nowhere! Coal has declined. Coal on the brain has subsided, and woman on the heart rages. * * When the rumor was confirmed the spirit of men went up, and the spirits of rye went down to the profit of dealers in spirits generally. Cooking stoves and baby linens are much elevated and the demand for cradles was never greater in the biggest gold excitement in California."

* * *

About midnight on May 16 the girls arrived at Seattle. A reception in the town hall had been arranged. Pioneer homes were opened and all devoted hearty attention to the aim of making them feel that they had fallen among friends. Seven of the girls were soon teaching school, one Miss Josie Pearson, dying in the course of her first term. Miss Georgia Pearson, after a few years in the school room and as her father's assistant in the lighthouse on Admiralty Head, became the wife of Charles C. Terry. Miss Sarah Cheney taught school and later married Capt. Charles Willoughby; Miss Sarah J. Gallagher became a music teacher in Seattle and later the wife of Thomas Russell. Miss Antoinette Baker taught school in Pierce County, married a Mr. Huntington and moved to Monticello. Miss Aurelia Coffin taught school at Port Ludlow and married Mr. Hinckley, of that place. Miss Kate Stevens became the wife of Customs Inspector Henry Smith. Miss Kate Stickney married Walter Graham of Seattle. Miss Annie Adams married Robert Head, an Olympia printer. Miss Lizzie Ordway taught school for a number of years and died unmarried. Miss Ann Murphy, after a short stay on the Sound, went to San Francisco.

Mercer, who with Daniel Pearson accompanied the girls from New York, became even more popular than he had been before starting east for brides for Puget Sound bachelors. Friends nominated him for office and a few years ago he wrote a Seattle friend:

"I was nominated, without my knowledge, to the state's senatorship; and, without spending a nickel, making a speech, or buying a drink of whisky or a cigar for anybody, elected by a large majority."

In the Legislature Mercer laid plans for another and larger immigration. With letters from members of his first party, in which the writers told of the warmth of their welcome and of every promise fulfilled, Mercer set out for the East in March, 1865, and arrived in New York April 17. He was immigrant agent without pay and lost no time in getting to work. Circular letters were sent to newspapers and individuals throughout New York and the New England states. The agent guaranteed "every lady who joins the party at least $4 per week, payable in gold, and board, as compensation for her labor."

Of the difficulties encountered in raising recruits for this, his second party, Mercer several years ago wrote his old-time friend, Clarence Bagley, as follows: "My thought was to call on President Lincoln, tell him of our situation and ask him to give me a ship, coaled and manned, for the voyage from New York to Seattle, I furnishing the food supplies. This, I was confident, he would do. Having sat upon Lincoln's lap as a five-year-old lad and listened to his funny stories, and knowing the goodness of his heart, not a shadow of doubt existed in my mind as to the outcome.

"The steamer arrived in New York about noon and I arranged matters to

leave for Washington on the morning train. Reaching the hotel office at 6 o'clock so as to breakfast and be off, crepe greeted me from all sides, and a bulletin announced the assassination of the President at Ford's Theater the night before. I was at sea without a compass."

Governor John A. Andrew, of Massachusetts, was appealed to and sent Mercer to Edward Everett Hale, who gave him much help. Going to Washington, Mercer appealed to General Grant, who took the matter before President Johnson and his cabinet with the result that half an hour later Grant returned with the welcome news that the President endorsed the plan and would meet the request for aid, provided General Grant would assume the risk, the cabinet pledging itself to stand by the general's action. Grant issued the order for the ship "coaled and manned" and Mercer, thinking that settled the matter, hastened away to gather his passengers. The remainder of the story is best told in Mercer's own words. "Having interested and secured about all the passengers necessary to fill the ship, I returned to Washington to have the vessel made ready and turned over to me. Accompanied by Senator George H. Williams of Oregon, I called upon Quartermaster-General Meigs with Grant's order. Unfortunately, the man in line first ahead of Senator Williams was an individual who had furnished a horse to our soldiers and had taken a receipt for the same. The man had been paid twice for his animal already and General Meigs recognized him. The quartermaster flew into a rage, ordered the man arrested and filled the room with the smoke of vituperation and cuss words until breathing was an actual effort. Presenting an order at this time was fatal. Still black in the face from his recent experience, General Meigs looked at the paper a moment, then said: 'There is no law justifying this order and I will not honor it.'

"Crestfallen, I retired. Meigs was stubborn and the law was with him. Weeks passed and I was ready to give up the fight, when one day in New York I received a letter from General Meigs saying that he had ordered a special appraisement of the propeller Continental, a 1,600-ton ship, and that I could have her at the appraisement for carrying my people to Seattle, notwithstanding the law required the sale to be at public auction. Eighty thousand dollars was the price, cash in hand.

"That was not a price to 'stagger the world,' but it made me tremble. Sitting in my room at the Merchants' Hotel and canvassing every known avenue that gave the faintest hope of leading up to this sum of ready money, I was surprised to receive a card bearing the name 'Ben Holladay.' Inviting him up, he began the conversation by saying: 'I understand the Government offers you the Continental for $80,000, and that you have not the money. If you will let me have her I will fit her for the trip and carry your people to Seattle at a nominal figure.

"Drowning men catch at straws. I was the asphyxiated individual and caught for a minimum price, in consideration of turning over the ship to him. Laterat the extended straw. The contest was unequal. Mr. Holladay had two good lawyers pitted against an inexperienced youth, over-anxious and ready to be sacrificed. Result-a contract to carry 500 passengers from New York to Seattle too late-I saw where the 'little joker' came in. Had there been a clause stating that 150 passengers were to be carried free, and $100 for each additional passenger, all would have been well."

The contract was signed and hardly had Mercer left Holladay than the New

York Herald published a scurrilous story charging Mercer with intending to put the girls into western houses of ill-fame and declaring the men on the Sound were "rotten and profligate."

The story was copied by other papers and in a few hours Mercer began receiving cancellations from his prospective passengers. The Continental was practically a new boat, built of oak and hickory and worth at least $250,000. It was a prize well worth any man's scheming and best efforts.

"Armed with a handful of these letters," writes Mercer, "I called on Mr. Holladay and told him I was unable to carry out the contract as to numbers, but would be ready with perhaps two hundred people. For reply I was told that the contract was off. But as the ship was to be sent to the Pacific, they would take such passengers as I presented at regular rates. Then I saw the 'little joker' of the contract."

When Mercer started East, Governor Pickering told him if financial difficulties were encountered he would assist. At San Francisco Mercer had but $3 in his pocket, hotel bills to pay and transportation to Seattle to buy and he wired: “Arrived here broke. Send $2,000 quick to get party to Seattle." Next morning he received notice to call at the telegraph office, pay $7.50 and receive a message which the governor had sent, charges to be collected.

Before leaving New York Mercer had bought and shipped to the Sound $2,000 worth of agricultural machinery. Hastening to the shipping office, he found the machinery still in storage there awaiting shipment to Seattle. It was sold; hotel bills were paid, and Mercer, red-headed, freckled-faced and not to be beaten by scheming lawyers, arranged for the transportation of his people to the Sound. Governor Pickering's telegram contained about one hundred words of congratulation, but not one word about money.

Of the 125 passengers brought to the Sound, 75 were women. Of these Mercer says they "were selected with great care, and never in the history of the world was an equal number of women thrown together with a higher average of intelligence, modesty, and virtue. They are now (1901) going into the sere and yellow leaf of life with, as a rule, sons and daughters risen up to call them blessed. I have drifted away from them, but I know that their influence upon the state has been, as a whole, for good. God bless them and theirs."

CHAPTER XXIII

"SECESSION" ON THE COAST-LINCOLN'S ELECTION PRODUCES UPHEAVAL-ONLY ONE SLAVE IN THE TERRITORY-"SALUTE THE FLAG, UNCONDITIONALLY, OR HANG!" JOHN MILLER MURPHY'S COMING FIRST CLASH WITH GOVERNOR STEVENS— MURPHY STANDS STAUNCHLY BY THE UNION-A DEMOCRATIC LIGHT BEARER FOR FIFTY YEARS-SOME CURIOUS POLITICS-FRANK CLARK ACCUSED PUBLIC PRINTING SCANDAL-"POP" BAGLEY-BLINN'S POLITICAL DRIVE-WHY ELWOOD EVANS LOST.

Lincoln's election to the presidency, in the fall of 1860, produced a political upheaval in Washington Territory. All the territorial offices in the gift of the Federal Government were held by democrats. With one eye on the political weathervane at the national capital, these officers, as well as a number of men who desired to enroll their names on the Federal payroll, experienced a change of political faith. "Black Republican" as a political nickname lost some of its odium. In the slave states of the South Lincoln was called a "sectional President." His election was looked upon as the final blow to the bonds of Union; the bonds were broken and secession ensued. New political alignments became necessary. The democratic party for the time being became the party of the South-the party of secession-and its members "secessionists" or "Copperheads." Washington was "free" territory. Never but once had negro slavery been brought to the notice of its officials. That was in September, 1860, when Surveyor General James Tilton wrote the following letter to Acting Governor H. M. McGill:

"Sir:

"As a citizen of the United States and of Washington Territory, I beg to call your attention to an act, or acts, of the British authorities of Victoria, Vancouver Island, by which a slave boy belonging to my relative, R. R. Gibson, of Talbot County, Maryland, and for the last five years hired and employed by myself, by arrangement with the owner, was taken from the mail steamer, plying between this port and all ports of Puget Sound.

"On the 24th of September the slave secreted himself on board the mail steamer Eliza Anderson and on the 25th as the steamer touched at port of Victoria, was boarded by the civil authorities there and the slave forcibly taken therefrom.

"I therefore respectfully request that you bring the case before our Government at Washington City, to the end that the owner of the slave may have justice and the flag of our country be vindicated and relieved from the assumption of the right of search, thus made and enforced in this case.

"I am sir, very respectfully,

"JAMES TILTON.”