Delivered by pioneer physician and politician Anson G. Henry, Rogue River War Speech captures a fiery public address given in Corvallis, Oregon, in December 1855 to rally support for military action against Indigenous tribes during the height of the Rogue River Wars. The speech plays upon frontier anxieties, detailing alleged atrocities and framing the violent subjugation of local native populations as an urgent, righteous defense of American settlers. Through contemporary rhetorical appeals, the text preserves the raw, unmasked political panic and racial animosity that drove territorial policy during the Pacific Northwest's Indian wars. A keen insight drawn from the work is how wartime rhetoric deliberately inverted the roles of aggressor and victim; by casting preemptive military campaigns of displacement as defensive humanitarian rescue missions, pro-war leaders successfully mobilized civilian volunteers and legitimized state-sanctioned violence under the banner of civic protection.

1815-1875, Indians of North America, Indians of North America Oregon Territory, Indians of North America Wars, Indians of North America Wars 1815-1875, Peuples autochtones Guerres États-Unis 1815-1875, Rogue River Indian War, 1855-1856, United States Oregon Territory

Includes indexReprint: originally published, 1855

Includes indexReprint: originally published, 1855