William Slacum joined the US Navy in the summer of 1829 at the age of 30. Two years later, he served as the purser aboard the USS Potomac. A naval purser served as a supply and financial officer aboard ships. He acted both as the maintainer of ship’s pay and muster roles but also ran a ship’s store from which a sailor’s pay would be deducted for articles of clothing or luxury items like tobacco, sugar, tea or coffee. Purser positions were highly sought after. The title of purser in the American navy would change in 1860 to paymaster. Today, they men and women officers belong to the Pay Corps of the navy.

Aboard the Potomac, he spent four years circumnavigating the world. In December 1833, Slacum found himself posted as Special Agent of the Pacific Squadron in Valapraiso, Chile. This gave him time to recover from a bout of trigeminal neuralgia – tic douloureux. His posting was subject to confirmation from Washington, which he failed to obtain when the Navy appointed someone else to fill the post.

ON TO MEXICO

Before being able to return, William Slacum spent several months suffering from a recurrence of the neuralgia.  Hoping to journey back to the US from the west coast of Mexico to Veracruz, he embarked upon a small brig, the Weston which he chartered. Coming north to Guaymas in Mexico in December 1834, selling his cargo through a local agent, though his payments made as drafts of the local Sonoran government. Those revenues would become seized the following year by President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, funds to help fight off the Texan Revolution.

Slacum’s ship crew, in the meantime, raided some of the ship cargo and deserted ashore. The local port captain then held the ship responsible for debts rung up by the deserters whom he arrested. Slacum, in full uniform, demanded immediate return of the crew which was promptly granted. Several American citizens living in Guaymas were impressed by the young lieutenant. They requested the US Charge d’Affaires in Mexico City to appoint Slacum as a temporary Vice-Consul. He served as such until April 1835. Finally, he returned to Washington at the end of July.

OREGON ON THE US RADAR

At the time of the War of 1812, the Oregon Country featured very little in the halls of government both in Washington or London. Outside of occasional ships trading along the coasts for furs, the Canadian North West Company – a sometime bitter rival of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) – was instituting a series of trading posts along the Columbia River hoping to gather in furs from Native Americans and their own trappers across the Columbia River drainage regions. John Jacob Astor created his own American Fur Company at the time, as well. With his subsidiary Pacific Fur Company – PFC, he sent one team by sea and another overland to create a small trading post near the mouth of the Columbia River, Fort Astoria.

FORT ASTORIA

The problem for the PFC was the year of establishment was 1811. 

Two years later, the Astorians became aware of the war between Britain and the US. There is no such thing as an American navy in the Pacific, but there are British gunships in the area. It is not long either before on 30 November 1813 that the HMS Racoon crosses the river bar ready to scoop up the American fur post. Well, that didn’t happen because two months before, the men at the PFC sold the fort to the North West men with whom the Astorians were well acquainted from before the war. 

The British captain still rowed over to the fort smashing a bottle of madeira on the flagpole renaming the post Fort George in honor of the king. The wasted wine did not, however, change the fact that the fort remained in private hands.

After the war, the Treaty of Ghent specified anything captured during the war would “be restored without delay.” 

The US informed Britain it intended to restore Fort Astoria sending a ship to the mouth of the Columbia in late 1817. In the end though, no Americans had any interest in occupying the fort and the North West Company ownership of Fort George remained.

John Floyd and the 1820s

Possibilities for expanding the United States to the West gained a major push with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. After the purchase, President Jefferson wanted to assess the potential for commercial exploitation and to exert U.S. control over the territory. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, enlisted by Jefferson, led an expedition through the newly purchased territory. The men traveled across the North American continent and established relationships with many Indian tribes, paving the way for fur traders like John Jacob Astor to later established trading posts solidifying U.S. claims to Oregon.

a virginian stands for origin

In a nutshell, that tended to be American interest in the Oregon Country through much of the 1820s. Representative John Floyd from northwestern Virginia became the first champion for Oregon (he wrote “Origin”) inside the halls of Congress. Serving from 1817 until 1829, he put up four different bills pushing for American occupation of Oregon. In his first bill – 1820, he called for military installations erection at the mouth of the Columbia River.  This bill went nowhere since the recently signed Treaty of Ghent included a provision which prohibited such installations by either nation.

A second bill in 1822 came after a call from President Monroe suggesting reconsideration of US rights to the Pacific Coast. This bill called Oregon a “territory of the United States” also granting land to prospective settlers. The bill suffered defeat by a vote of 61 for to 100 against. Three years later, Floyd passed a similar bill 115 to 57 following more comments from President Monroe regarding the mouth of the Columbia. The bill gained a vote from the Senate, so nothing happened. Floyd continued to push for Oregon until he left the House in 1829, becoming the governor of Virginia the next year.

1820S BECOME THE 1830S

Only by the late 1820s and into the 1830s did Oregon begin to appear in the minds of Americans. People like Hall Jackson Kelley, Nathaniel Wyeth and Jason Lee slowly put the idea of the Willamette Valley as a sort of agricultural paradise waiting with empty lands. The only enemy seemed to be the “tyrannical” rule of the HBC. 

With only a couple years more to run on the ten-year co-occupation of the Oregon Country in 1825, British and American diplomats began to try and work out a more permanent agreement. In the end, both sides, unable to come up with a compromise, renewed the joint occupation for another ten-year period.

President Andrew Jackson’s presence ruled the US during the late 1820s into the early 1830s.  Manifest destiny was not a term used to describe American expansionist thought until the mid-1840s, but the sentiment simmered and pushed the country since the initial days of European colonization in the 1600 and 1700s. Jackson, himself, stood at the forefront with his 1818 invasion of Florida leading to the Adams-Onis Treaty with Spain in 1819 giving the US an unambiguous southern border which included the future Sunshine State as part of the new expanding United States. As president, however, Jackson proved to be more moderate seeking to focus upon expanding trade opportunity for American commerce.

BEGINNING OF MANIFEST DESTINY

He, and his handpicked successor Martin Van Buren, both opposed the annexation requested by the Republic of Texas after their successful revolt from Mexico in 1835. They did not want to unleash sectional unrest by adding another slave state to upset the narrow balance of power in Congress. Those fears would disappear in the 1840s with John Tyler and James Polk for whom both the annexation of Texas became a paramount feature. But fear of upsetting the sectional balance of the country did not mean Jackson remained completely opposed to American expansion. As he left office in 1836, he even called for the end to the joint occupation of Oregon by which time movements of American settlers were just beginning to make an impact upon the Oregon scene.

BACK TO PURSER SLACUM

William Slacum wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Forsyth when he returned to Washington in 1835 regarding the desirability of San Francisco Bay as a potential seaport. He probably wrote from the reports he heard second-hand as he probably never visited San Francisco previous to his note. 

His brother, George Washington Slacum, was back in Washington working with the State Department after a somewhat tumultuous prior service as consul in Buenos Aires. The Slacum family were from Alexandria, Virginia – father George had, himself, been a sea captain. 

John Forsyth, formerly a Congressman, Governor and Senator from Georgia though having spent so much time in Washington, he probably knew the Slacum family. Forsyth was well acquainted with Latin America as one of the men helping to forge the Adams-Onis Treaty with Spain in 1819 giving Florida to the US. President Andrew Jackson heard about the letter somehow and decided the harbor should become American. Some think the letter resulted only after direct talks between Slacum and Forsyth – and maybe even Jackson.

A NEW MISSION FOR PURSER SLACUM

William Slacum went on leave from the navy and sailed off to Mexico in November 1835 possibly because of the threat of the central Mexican government regarding the threat to his Sonoran government drafts. Hearing of Slacum’s plans, Jackson, through Secretary Forsyth, appointed Slacum as a special agent to investigate conditions in the Oregon Country.

Leaving Louisville on 27 November he reached Mexico City in February 1836. To Forsyth, Slacum wrote at length about conditions in Mexico especially touching upon conversations he had with Baron Ferdinand Wrangell, the former governor of the Russian American Company. With the establishment of Fort Ross a little north of San Francisco, William Slacum thought Mexico might be worried about Russian encroachment. He thought Mexico might cede San Francisco in return for liquidation of American claims against Mexico. But as Slacum himself noted, tensions between Mexico and the US were such that the trade of part of California was probably off the table for the moment.

Before setting off to Oregon, Slacum tried to unravel his lack of unpaid Sonoran drafts. Unsuccessful, he appealed to the US Chargé d’Affaires for Mexico for help in to gaining payment on the drafts. 

SLACUM’S JOURNEY TO THE OREGON COUNTRY

At the same time, he began to organize his trip to Oregon. A first attempt to go overland with mules went for naught when advised the time of year was not right for an overland journey. One boat he found was not seaworthy. The one boat he did charter ran into stormy weather off Cabo San Lucas forcing him to land in Mazatlán. By now, October 1836, he gained passage on a British ship – Falcon – to go from La Paz to the Sandwich Islands – Hawaii.

Reaching Oahu in November, Slacum chartered the brig Loriot to take him to Oregon and serve as he needed there in order not to be dependent upon the Hudson’s Bay Company for transportation help. He spent $1,500 of his own money by the time he left Hawaii – $700 a month for the charter of the Loriot alone. Included in his purchases were trade goods like blankets and tobacco which he hoped would hide the nature of his mission. Late in November, the Loriot pushed off to Oregon reaching Fort Vancouver in January 1837.

MCLOUGHLIN RECEIVES THE AMERICAN SPY

The trade goods fooled no one, especially since the amount was minimal and the boat was relatively empty. Slacum told the HBC Chief Factor John McLoughlin he visited Oregon in a private capacity, hoping to visit with other Americans in the Oregon Country. McLoughlin realized Slacum’s true mission being one to gain intelligence as to conditions in Oregon for those back in Washington.

William Slacum spent three weeks in the Oregon Country filling in figures for HBC agricultural products and numbers of workers present at Fort Vancouver. He also went up the Willamette River to visit retired French-Canadian HBC workers who now had farms on the French Prairie near Champoeg. Slacum writes of thirty men living nearby, 13 had French surnames.  Slacum’s visit estimated 750-800 people living at Fort Vancouver with 1000 stock 700 hogs 200 sheep 450-500 horses 40 yoke of working oxen.

SLACUM AND THE WILLAMETTE CATTLE COMPANY

He was instrumental in founding the Willamette Cattle Company, by which locals could obtain cattle for themselves and become independent of HBC’s cattle monopoly. HBC maintained the only cattle in the country. Their herd started in 1825 with some 27 cows.  Those numbers increased to nearly a thousand according to Slacum. 

Noting the problems settlers had in obtaining cattle, the sailor proposed for the settlers to buy cattle from Alta California. Then they could drive them north. This led to the establishment of the Willamette Cattle Company, a joint-stock company. The company aimed to send a team of men to California to buy as many cattle as they could. This team was led by early settler Ewing Young. 

A CATTLE DRIVE

The men gained free transport on the Loriot, leaving at the end of January from Oregon to California. Gaining permission from Mexican authorities, they purchased 746 cows along with 40 horses in May. By June, the men began driving the cattle north. In his report to Forsyth, Slacum does not mention HBC officers such as McLoughlin were among those putting up money in which to buy the cattle. McLoughlin simply wanted to increase the number of HBC herds. They reached Oregon in October with about 630 cattle and 15 horses left, losing some along the way. The animals were then divided among the investors. Young gained the largest number – 135, but Lee’s mission also enjoyed the fruits of the expedition.

Interestingly, half of the shares had been purchased by McLoughlin, even though the result of the cattle drive helped settlers to break the HBC monopoly. Young’s share made him the wealthiest settler in early Oregon. His death in 1841 without an heir would eventually lead to the development of local government. McLoughlin and the Lee mission also owned most of the rest of the over 600 cattle.

SLACUM’S REPORT

Leaving in late January 1837 on the Loriot, William Slacum went ashore at Fort Ross in February. He went on through Mexico eventually reaching Washington in September. His report noted politics, statistics, trade, Indian slavery, Indian statistics, climate and timber.  “I am now more convinced than ever of the importance of the Columbia River , even as a place where, for eight months of the year our whalers from the coast of Japan might resort for supplies… a custom house established at the mouth of the Columbia would effectually protect the American trader from the monopoly which Hudson’s Bay Company Enjoy at this time, and a single military post would be sufficient to give effect to the laws of the United States, and protect our citizens in their lawful avocations.”  

His notes and expenses gained acceptance from Secretary Forsyth and the now-President Martin Van Buren with only one slight correction. 

A CONGRESSIONAL MEMORIAL

Not satisfied with payment only for expenses since no money set aside allowing for his personal services, William Slacum took his complaint directly to Congress in the form of a Memorial.

To defend the cost of chartering the Loriot, Slacum wrote “American settlers from the Wilhamett, whom I conveyed from that river to Bodega, were taken aboard the Loriot free of expense, as the agreement of the settlers, now on file in the Department of State, shows; and the benefit that will result in the United States from that measure alone, will be, nay is, at this moment, more than ten times equivalent to all the expenses incurred in my journey.” In the regard of increasing cattle in Oregon, Slacum did help the locals – even the HBC – by giving locals their own cattle separate from the HBC. This undoubtably had long-term ramifications when it came to attracting more settlers to the Willamette Valley.

While the matter of payment rested with Congress, William Slacum received orders to join the steamer USS Poinsett in May 1839. This ship worked with the army in Florida during the Second Seminole War. Illness intervened and he died in November at St. Augustine at the age of only 37.