Extract from the:

TWENTY-SECOND REPORT
OF THE
AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY

1854

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE "FAR WEST."

Presented through their Chairman, Rev. O. C. Wheeler, of California.

Your Committee would make no invidious comparison between the different portions of the Home Mission field. In presenting their report, therefore, upon the "Far West," they make for it no other claim than appears from the following statement of facts:
The "Far West" now embraces all of our possessions upon the Pacific slope extending from the Sierra Nevada mountains on the east, to the Pacific ocean on the west, and from the thirty-second to the forty-eighth degree of north latitude; including the territories of Washington and Oregon, and the State of California. The chief elements which give importance to that field are found in -1st. THE EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY. - California possesses an area of 188,981 square miles; Oregon and Washington have an area of 341,463; making a total of 530,443 square miles. But these numbers will convey no adequate idea of the extent of territory they express, unless elucidated by a comparison with other and more familiar districts of country. Oregon and Washington contain territory enough to form seven states, equal in size to the seven largest of our northwestern states, viz., Illinois, Indiana; Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; or an area about equal to that embraced in the original thirteen states of our Union. California embraces an area equal to that contained in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and Delaware. California has 970 miles of sea-coast, and Oregon 480 miles, making a total of 1,450 miles, being nearly equal to our entire Atlantic coast. Such is the extent of the region we denominate the "Far West;" and the resources of that region are upon a scale of equal magnitude.
The mineral wealth of those territories is of exceeding richness, and is almost inexhaustible in amount. The gold mines of California, and the immense deposits of cinnabar found through a large portion of that state, will be sources of wealth for many years, while the coal fields of Oregon and the quarries of granite and marble in California will yet afford profitable employment to thousands.
The agricultural capacities of the Pacific slope are equal to those of any portion of the world. The soil, of virgin richness, yields, with limited culture, the most liberal harvests, and is admirably adapted to nearly every variety of vegetable and farinaceous production, while all the fruits of the temperate zone, and many of tropical varieties, attain the highest perfection. Possessing such advantages, united to a genial climate and an atmosphere of unsurpassed salubrity, these states can scarcely fail to become the prosperous home of millions. Did their importance rest solely, or even chiefly, upon the deposits of gold there existing, it might lessen, and the country now teeming with life and energy might again become a solitude if time should exhaust that source of wealth. But it is not so. While the possession of such treasures gives present prosperity, the continued progress of the "Far West" depends not alone upon the continuance of its mineral wealth; its guaranty is found in its genial climate, its fertile soil, its forests and fisheries, its coal fields and quarries, and in its manufacturing and commercial facilities. The ample resources which cluster there are the material from which the wealth and power of a nation is produced.2d. THE CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF ITS POPULATION. - In this respect the "Far West" possesses a character peculiar to itself. The number of the Population may be set down at 350,000, but of these fully 300,000 are men. This fact stands without a parallel. Here, in a population of 350,000, we find the active element ordinarily existing in and diffused through one and a quarter millions of people! In other words, there are already as many adult males in California and Oregon as there were at the time of the last census in the five states of Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Delaware, with an aggregate population of one million, two hundred and thirty-nine thousand. The effect which this compression of vital energy must exert in intensifying the life and increasing the vigor of the community is apparent. Imagine the power, physical, mental and moral, of four men compressed into one, and the colossal intellect and giant frame thus formed would illustrate this people in the comparison with other communities. A nation of MEN, in the prime of life, in the full strength of manhood's perfected powers! Nor is this all they are, in some respects, the choice men of our land, - if not always in the loftier elements of man's moral nature, yet in the possession of those qualities which give force to communities. The timid, the indolent, the dullard, have seldom ventured thither; those difficulties and dangers which have stimulated the bold and adventurous spirit have deterred them, and comparatively few remain there, save men of courage, energy, and determination. Viewed in this aspect, the world presents no nobler material upon which the moulding influence of the gospel can act. As a state draws the nature of its entire life from the character of its early settlers, it is only rational to anticipate for the future of the Pacific States a life of intense energy, such as has never yet been exhibited in the progress of the human family. Never before has a state been founded under such auspices, and never before has such enterprise, energy, and progress marked the early history of any land. Upon that distant shore stand cities which again and again have been destroyed by fire or inundated by floods, only to be again and again rebuilt, each time in superior beauty, until now the chief commercial city of that coast rivals, in the number, elegance, and permanent character of its buildings, cities whose growth has been the development of a century. Its harbor is crowded with vessels of every commercial nation on the globe, while its warehouses, which equal in character and capacity those of any city in the older states, are filled with the richest merchandize from every portion of the world. Such is the character, and such the present position, of the people of the "Far West;" and the same features which give to those distant territories so great a social, commercial, and political importance, impart to it, as a Missionary field, corresponding interest. Let this far-reaching enterprise, this keen intelligence, this unconquerable energy, be directed into the higher avenues of philanthropy and religion, and that young people, whose influence has already been felt by the commerce and industry of the world, will exert an influence of equal power upon the religious interests of mankind.
In the population of the Pacific coast there is one important feature, which finds no parallel in any other portion of the home field. It is the infusion of a large and constantly increasing Pagan element. Never before has God thus cast masses of idolators into the very bosom of a Christian nation, separating them from the influences which had bound them to the altars of a Pagan worship and placing them where the gospel is enthroned in the laws and institutions that surround them! And with what purpose has He done it now? Politicians and philanthropists have seen in this unlooked-for immigration the means of extending the influence of liberal principles through Asia. May not the Christian see therein the means for bearing the gospel also? In a recent memorial to Congress, referring to the first-named point, the following language is employed: - "California, by the discovery of gold within her borders, has become the residence and home of people ‘from out of all nations on the earth.’ We see people who have long dwelt under monarchical and despotic sway, now thinking and acting under the blessings which they feel result from our free institutions, and we cannot but see that these influences will work a great revolution in the nations of the earth; and, if the golden moment is secured; if at the appropriate moment of time, the word is fitly spoken; if our nation seizes the opportunity now offered to it, - eternity alone can reveal the blessings which this nation has it in its power to bestow upon those who come to this portion of our rich heritage from every nation of the earth.
"We believe there never has been a period in the history of any nation, when so glorious an opportunity has been given to bestow so great a boon, and to throw so humanizing and Christianizing an influence over so many people, and of so many different nations, as is now offered to the people of these United States." "The benighted of other nations are coming to us to receive those lessons that shall be borne back to those they have left behind them, for good or for evil, for freedom or for servitude, as this great country by her people and institutions instruct them."
We, occupying the stand-point of the Christian, and regarding the movements of Providence in their higher aspects, those which contemplate the moral and spiritual renovation of the world, may adopt and elevate that language. California may be made a great Mission ground, a point for the world-wide diffusion of loftier principles and sublimer truths than those which belong to civil polity; the principles of the gospel, the truths of SALVATION! Doing this, "seizing the opportunity now offered - the golden moment," effects will be produced, the influence of which will be felt in other continents. To cherish doubts of such a result would evince a narrow view of the purposes of Him who has drawn these multitudes of Pagans to our shores. It was not that, extracting the gold from our soil, they might bear it back to lavish it upon the shrines of idol deities; not for this did God draw them to a Christian land; but rather, let us believe, that they might be prepared here to aid in fulfilling His own declaration, "The idols will I utterly abolish!"
According to an estimate made by the Secretary of State for California, there were in that State, one year ago, 25,000 of Asiatics and kindred races; of these, 23,175 were Chinese; the remainder were Australians, Sandwich Islanders; Malays, Manillos, Hindostanees, &c. Since that time the number has increased, especially of Chinese; nor is it unlikely that the revolution in China will have the effect of augmenting the number of those who will be led to seek our shores. In connection with this topic, so many reflections arise, and so much of interest is associated with the probable results of this idolatrous immigration, that we scarcely know where to restrain the pen. Yet we must pass to direct attention to another feature of this field.3d. THE INADEQUACY OF THE MEANS EMPLOYED. - The combined efforts of all the evangelical denominations upon the field do not reach much more than half the American population; there are scores, if not hundreds, of gorges and mining districts, where the gospel is seldom or never preached; while, for the foreign Pagan population, the labors of a single man, located at San Francisco, is all the direct effort made. But by far the larger portion of that class are to be found congregated in camps throughout the mining districts, where all that they learn of Christianity is derived from the conduct, oftentimes immoral and oppressive, of their American neighbors.
With this view of the wants, the importance, and the promise of the field before us, let us see what we, as a denomination, are doing to meet its demands and reap its rewards; and without other design than to bring the facts vividly before the mind, we give a comparative table of what is being done in the leading States of the North-west, and in California and Oregon, using as our basis the last Annual Report of this Society.*
From the table referred to, the following facts are deduced: Illinois, or Indiana, with an adult male population no larger than that of the Pacific States, has each six times the number of Missionaries of this Society. Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and New Mexico, with an adult male population inferior to that of California, have more than twenty-two times the number of Missionaries of this Society!- or sixty-eight to three. Yet in California a greater proportionate number of Missionaries to a given population is needed, than in any other state, as the people have to be sought in the mountain gorge, in the ravines, by every river side, and upon hill, plain, and valley, throughout the entire state.
While your Committee would leave these facts to make their own appeal, they cannot refrain from saying, that either they have grossly erred in their estimate of the importance of this field, or we, as a denomination, have fallen far short of its demands.
But we have not yet done. All that has been said is based upon the "Far  West" as it is. If we look to the future of those territories, the field assumes an aspect of surpassing magnitude and grandeur. God has gathered upon those shores every element necessary to build up one of the mightiest nations on the globe; and He has called there, for their development, a people who will suffer no one of them all to slumber in inactivity. California and Oregon possess territory enough to give homes to all the present population of the United States, and sources of wealth sufficient to enrich them all. The success of those who have emigrated thither will continue to attract multitudes, until the dormant wealth of all that coast shall be developed, and the richest and most powerful states of our Union will be those which lie beyond the Rocky mountains. They possess what never before has been granted to a new state in this age - the capital to develop all the resources of the land, and to carry out the most enlarged schemes for their advancement. Already has the commercial enterprise of San Francisco reached forth the hand after that prize for which the nations of the World have striven in all ages - the commerce of the Orient, the trade of the distant East - a prize which she will surely win. And should the Japanese expedition be successful in its object (and if not now; it will one day be attained) that same commerce, occupying the vantage-ground of position, will be the most powerful competitor for the new and enriching trade that will at once be created. Already the commercial relations of the Pacific coast are disclosing the elements of future power.
But there is still lying incalculable wealth undeveloped, unsought, upon those distant shores. South of California, and in the possession of a people too feeble to protect themselves from the inroads of savages, and too indolent to extract the treasures from the soil, are mines of invaluable richness. And that would be a short-sighted view, which, in estimating the future progress of the "Far West," should leave out of sight the certain development of that material wealth. The Apache will not, for many years, lord it over a soil where the precious metals teem, nor will the immense grazing regions and fertile valleys of Sonora be left to his devastating inroads. Already is a strong current of emigration setting towards the South of the "Far West," and it is a current which will gather strength as it flows.
Such is a brief outline of the character and prospects of this great field. Upon it the Church of Christ has a mighty work to do, and it were well that, measuring it in its magnitude and importance, she should arise and gird her
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* In this table, to obtain the present number of population, 20 per cent. is added to the Census of 1850 , for the first five named; the others are estimated.

for the task. There, all the grand circle of institutions flowing from and founded upon the gospel are yet to be reared. Churches are to be gathered, nurtured, and built up. Church edifices are to be erected. Institutions of learning are to be founded. To bear and plant the gospel there is a work for which no pigmy's hand is fitted. Infidelity in its most boastful aspect; vice in its most open forms, there meet and mock the effort of the Christian laborer, and the truth grapples with errors of every form upon a soil where Romanism for a hundred years has been dominant, and still is powerful. The work to which God here invites us is a great work, and its importance should incite us to efforts commensurate alike with its magnitude, and with the far-reaching results that will follow successful labor. Our denomination has not pastors enough there to supply the churches already gathered. The materials for new churches exist, ready to be combined into efficient organization. Scattered amongst the mountains, camping in the ravines, or occupying positions of influence in the towns and inland cities of California are our own brethren; but they are, too often, as sheep without a shepherd!
We need more Missionaries for this field! We need them to reclaim those once members of our Churches, who have wandered; we need them to stand by the sick-bed of the miner, dying far from kindred and from home, to point him to riches brighter than the wealth for which he has toiled; we need them to feed the scattered members of the flock, brethren whose names stand upon our own Atlantic church books; we need them to seek out the thousands of young men who have rushed to those tempting shores, and who now, far from their father's house, and removed from the hallowed influences of a Christian home, are exposed to unnumbered dangers and temptations: greatly, urgently we need them; nor do we believe that this need can be too solemnly pondered by the ministry and the membership of our Churches.
Long as is this Report, not the half has been said which a full statement of the subject would demand; and your Committee close by expressing the conviction that the "FAR WEST" presents a field for Missionary effort such as GOD opens to his people BUT ONCE IN CENTURIES! And that, to neglect the call which His providence here makes on us, will result in loss to ourselves as a denomination.

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