11: Organizational Communication Last updated Save as PDF Page ID 42830 Scott T. Paynton & Laura K. Hahn with Humboldt State University Students Humboldt State University Learning Objectives After reading this chapter you should be able to: Define organizations and organizational communication. Explain how the study of organizational communication developed. Explain the five theoretical perspectives for understanding organizational communication. Understand the challenges to organizational communication. Explain the future directions of organizational communication. 11.1: Organizational Communication Overview 11.2: What Is Organizational Communication? 11.3: A Chronological Look at Understanding Organizational Communication 11.4: Challenges in Organizational Communication 11.5: Organizational Communication Summary 11.6: Organizational Communication References Thumbnail: www.pexels.com/photo/businesswomen-businesswoman-interview-meeting-70292/


11.7: Islam
Islam was not the first foreign religion to arrive in Central Asia. In fact, the region had already been exposed to many foreign systems of belief prior to the coming of Islam in the seventh century. Local merchants conducting long-distance trade along the Silk Road came into contact with many different religious doctrines; the trade route served as a conveyor of not only goods but also concepts. Generally, intellectual diffusion is not a one-way street, as western ideas traveled eastward and eastern concepts filtered into the west. In this manner, the Silk Road carried Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism (an Iranian religion with both monotheistic and dualist elements), Siberian Shamanism, and even Nestorian Christianity to Central Asia. The great number of religions found in the area at the introduction of Islam testified to the great tolerance of the region. By the tenth century, however, all of the non-monotheistic faiths had disappeared from Central Asia in the aftermath of Islamic conquest.
It was Qutayba ibn Muslim (669 – 716) who expanded the presence of Islam in Central Asia during the eighth century, as the general’s forces swept into the area, defeated the Persians, and by 715 CE completed their conquest of Transoxiana , the region located beyond the Oxus River. A decisive Arab Muslim victory over the Chinese at the Battle of Talas River in 751 secured Central Asia and repulsed the only major challenge to Islamic rule. The triumph over the Chinese made it possible for Islam to become entrenched in the region. The Persian Samanids ( 819 – 999) made Islam the official state religion and established a school of theology in Bukhara. But Islamization did not take place overnight; instead, it took centuries. Transoxiana slowly Islamicized, though it never Arabized. The peoples in the area remained culturally Turkic and Persian. Central Asia retained its Turkic and Persian languages, albeit with a heavy Arabic influence in religious vocabulary.
It took generations for Islam to become fully ingrained in the culture of Central Asia. Unlike other places, where the religion filtered into society from the bottom up, as was the case in Southeast Asia, Islamization in the region occurred from the top down. The process incorporated native peoples, who took part in the process of conversion. Local leaders submitted to the faith in order to maintain their social status and elite position in society. The conquerors offered the Central Asian nobility important positions in the administration so long as they professed Islam, providing the opportunity for the native elite to rule in their own right.
Islam also displayed a remarkable ability to assimilate indigenous Central Asian frontier customs as it advanced through the area, allowing some traditional practices to remain so long as it accelerated conversion. By accepting certain harmless practices in order to Islamicize Central Asia, these Muslims mirrored Christian efforts to Christianize Eastern Europe.
Sufism
The Islam of Central Asia differed greatly from that which originated in the Arabian Peninsula. This vast region embraced Islam, remaking it into a syncretic faith that was culturally its own. Essentially a sort of mysticism, or folk Islam, Sufism in the area emerged from the fusion of Islamic sedentary civilization and Buddhist nomadic culture. Central Asians were generally receptive and tolerant of foreign beliefs, but in order for the faith to take root in the area, missionaries had to make some concessions to the native, specifically pastoral-nomadic culture. The urban-dwelling and agricultural populations of the region generally accepted Sunni Islam and the law of the Sharia; however, the culture and lifestyle of the itinerant peoples of the steppe did not readily conform to the rigors of Islamic law. Sufism helped convert these tribes to Islam, in part due to its doctrinal flexibility. What arose from the mix of orthodox Islam and Turkic pastoral nomadism was a uniquely Central Asian brand of Sufism.
In this context, Sufis evangelized to groups on the frontier of Central Asia. Actually, Sufi merchants were largely responsible for bringing Islam to the region. Central Asian Sufi orders such as the Yasaviyah established themselves along trade routes in order to reach out to travelers. These missionaries also proselytized to the Turkic communities on the steppe. Meanwhile, the Naqshbandi Order , operating in travel lodges, spread Sufism by ministering to Iranian and Tajik peoples. The followers of these Sufi orders believed that they could better disseminate a form of the faith that was more loving and caring.


1.1: Introduction
Systematic health assessments are performed regularly in nearly every health care setting. For example:
- A health history is taken when a patient is admitted and whenever additional subjective information is required to inform care.
- Comprehensive head-to-toe assessments are done when a patient is admitted, at the beginning of each shift, and when it is determined to be necessary by the patient’s hemodynamic status and context.
- Brief physical assessments are done as necessary and to identify changes in a patient’s status and for comparison with the previous assessment.
- Focused assessments are done in response to a specific problem recognized by the assessor as needing further assessment of a body system.
- Emergency assessments are done in emergency situations.
A routine physical assessment reveals information to supplement a patient’s database. The assessment is documented according to agency policy, and unusual findings are reported to appropriate members of the health care team. Ongoing, objective, and comprehensive assessments promote continuity in health care.
The ability to think critically and interpret patient behaviours and physiologic changes is essential. The skills of physical assessment are powerful tools for detecting both subtle and obvious changes in a patient’s health. The assessment skills outlined in this chapter are meant to provide a framework to develop assessment competencies applicable and salient to everyday practice as recommended by Anderson, Nix, Norman, and McPike (2014).
Learning Objectives
Physical assessment objectives include being able to:
- Describe the purposes of physical assessment
- Discuss nursing scope of practice and standards of care
- Describe the different types of assessment and when they should be used to inform care
- Discuss techniques to promote a patient’s physical and psychological comfort during an examination
- Make environmental preparations before an assessment
- Identify data to collect from the nursing history before an examination
- Incorporate health promotion and health teaching into an assessment
- Use physical assessment techniques and skills during routine nursing care
- Document assessment findings according to agency policy
- Communicate abnormal findings to appropriate members of the health care team


3.2: Observing and Reporting Changes
As Home Health Aides/Personal Care Aides work with elderly patients, they may come to have first-hand knowledge of the physical and psychological changes that occur during the aging process. They may also come to recognize and be the first to notice signs of a new disorder or disease process that is not related to the aging process, but which can be mistaken for and disregarded as “just aging.”
For example, it is not a normal part of aging to have dementia. If a patient suddenly begins to show signs of forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, or disorientation (an inability to recognize themselves, where they are, what year or season it is or events that are occurring), the HHA/PCA should immediately report these signs to their supervisor. These signs are not necessarily due to “just aging”. They could be signs of a stroke or dementia related to Alzheimer’s or a vascular (blood vessel) problem, such as changes in oxygenation within the brain. Confusion and delirium could also be the result of side effects from medications, drug-drug interactions, dehydration, or infection (Mauk, 2008). It is important to remember that aging in and of itself is normal, and not part of a disease (Leahy, Fuzy & Grafe, 2013).
It is also not a normal part of aging for older adults to experience incontinence (loss of control of bowel or bladder). These could be signs of medication side effects, urinary tract infections or imbalances of electrolytes in the body (Mauk, 2008). It is also not a normal part of aging for adults to fall. Falls can be the result of medication side effects, medication interactions, or a sign of an acute (sudden) illness (Mauk).
If Home Health Aides/Personal Care Aides notice any of the following, especially if they occur suddenly, they should immediately report them to their supervisor:
- Disorientation (to self, place, time, event)
- Difficulty concentrating
- Difficulty speaking
- Difficulty chewing/swallowing
- Depression
- Suicidality (statements of wanting to die or hurt oneself)
- Mood changes or sudden shifts in mood from happy to depressed
- Insomnia (difficulty getting to or staying asleep)
- Anorexia (lack of appetite/eating)
- Inability to use a limb (arm or leg)
- Drooping of the face, either one side or both sides of the face or mouth
- Lack of balance or coordination
- Changes in grooming or self-care
- Incontinence (loss of bladder or bowel)
If something just doesn’t seem “right” to them based on what they know of the patient
True or False?
1. Forgetfulness, disorientation, incontinence, and mood changes are signs of aging. True or False. _________
2. It is normal for older adults to fall. True or False. _________
- Answer
-
1. False
2. False
FEEDBACK :
1. Forgetfulness, disorientation, incontinence, and mood changes are not signs of aging. They may indicate a serious underlying issue to which the health care team should be alerted.
2. It is not a normal part of aging for older adults to fall. This could be a sign of a problem with a medication or an illness.
Confidentiality
It is important for Home Health Aides/Personal Care Aides to remember to protect their patient’s privacy at all times. This means providing privacy during self-care such as bathing, toileting, and dressing. It can be easy to forget to do this if they are rushed, or if family caretakers are around. But remember, Home Health Aides/Personal Care Aides are there to care for and protect their patient.
It is also important to remember to maintain confidentiality of what their patient tells them and about their health care. Only share information with family and friends whom the patient wishes to share with. Just because a patient is elderly does not mean that they do not have the right to privacy and confidentiality. Do not be dismissive of their wishes, even if they are forgetful. It is up to the Home Health Aide/Personal Care Aide to protect them.
True or False?
1. Even people who are forgetful have a right to confidential and respectful treatment. True or False. _________
2. It is important to protect patient privacy at all times, especially when bathing, toileting, or dressing. True or False. _________
- Answer
-
1. True
2. True
Feedback :
1. Every person has the right to confidential and respectful treatment. Just because a person is forgetful or elderly does not mean they lose these rights.
2. It is always important to protect a patient’s privacy. This is especially true when patients are vulnerable and exposed, such as times of dressing, bathing, and toileting.


5.5.1: Solving Equations with Rational Numbers
Lesson
Let's solve equations that include negative values.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\): Number Talk: Opposites and Reciprocals
The variables \(a\) through \(h\) all represent different numbers. Mentally find numbers that make each equation true.
\(\frac{3}{5}\cdot\frac{5}{3}=a\)
\(7\cdot b=1\)
\(c\cdot d=1\)
\(-6+6=e\)
\(11+f=0\)
\(g+h=0\)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\): Match Solutions
Match each equation to a value that makes it true by dragging the answer to the corresponding equation. Be prepared to explain your reasoning.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\): Trip to the Mountains
The Hiking Club is on a trip to hike up a mountain.
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The members increased their elevation 290 feet during their hike this morning. Now they are at an elevation of 450 feet.
- Explain how to find their elevation before the hike.
- Han says the equation \(e+290=450\) describes the situation. What does the variable \(e\) represent?
- Han says that he can rewrite his equation as \(e=450+-290\) to solve for \(e\). Compare Han's strategy to your strategy for finding the beginning elevation.
- The temperature fell 4 degrees in the last hour. Now it is 21 degrees. Write and solve an equation to find the temperature it was 1 hour ago.
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There are 3 times as many students participating in the hiking trip this year than last year. There are 42 students on the trip this year.
- Explain how to find the number of students that came on the hiking trip last year.
- Mai says the equation \(3s=42\) describes the situation. What does the variable \(s\) represent?
- Mai says that she can rewrite her equation as \(s=\frac{1}{3}\cdot 42\) to solve for \(s\). Compare Mai's strategy to your strategy for finding the number of students on last year’s trip.
- The cost of the hiking trip this year is \(\frac{2}{3}\) of the cost of last year's trip. This year's trip cost $32. Write and solve an equation to find the cost of last year's trip.
Are you ready for more?
A number line is shown below. The numbers 0 and 1 are marked on the line, as are two other rational numbers \(a\) and \(b\).
Decide which of the following numbers are positive and which are negative.
\(a-1\qquad a-2\qquad -b\qquad a+b\qquad a-b\qquad ab+1\)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{4}\): Card Sort: Matching Inverses
Your teacher will give you a set of cards with numbers on them.
- Match numbers with their additive inverses.
- Next, match numbers with their multiplicative inverses.
- What do you notice about the numbers and their inverses?
Summary
To solve the equation \(x+8=-5\), we can add the opposite of 8, or -8, to each side:
\(\begin{aligned}x+8&=-5 \\ (x+8)+-8&=(-5)+-8\\x&=-13\end{aligned}\)
Because adding the opposite of a number is the same as subtracting that number, we can also think of it as subtracting 8 from each side.
We can use the same approach for this equation:
\(\begin{aligned} -12&=t+-\frac{2}{9} \\(-12)+\frac{2}{9}&=\left( t+-\frac{2}{9}\right)+\frac{2}{9} \\-11\frac{7}{9}&=t\end{aligned}\)
To solve the equation \(8x=-5\), we can multiply each side by the reciprocal of 8, or \(\frac{1}{8}\):
\(\begin{aligned} 8x&=-5\\ \frac{1}{8}(8x)&=\frac{1}{8}(-5)\\x&=-\frac{5}{8}\end{aligned}\)
Because multiplying by the reciprocal of a number is the same as dividing by that number, we can also think of it as dividing by 8.
We can use the same approach for this equation:
\(\begin{aligned}-12&=-\frac{2}{9}t \\-\frac{9}{2}(-12)&=-\frac{9}{2}\left(-\frac{2}{9}t\right) \\ 54&=t\end{aligned}\)
Glossary Entries
Definition: Variable
A variable is a letter that represents a number. You can choose different numbers for the value of the variable.
For example, in the expression \(10-x\), the variable is \(x\). If the value of \(x\) is 3, then \(10-x=7\), because \(10-3=7\). If the value of \(x\) is 6, then \(10-x=4\), because \(10-6=4\).
Practice
Exercise \(\PageIndex{5}\)
Solve:
- \(\frac{2}{5}t=6\)
- \(-4.5=a-8\)
- \(\frac{1}{2}+p=-3\)
- \(12=x\cdot 3\)
- \(-12=-3y\)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{6}\)
Match each equation to a step that will help solve the equation.
- \(5x=0.4\)
- \(\frac{x}{5}=8\)
- \(3=\frac{-x}{5}\)
- \(7=-5x\)
- Multiply each side by \(5\).
- Multiply each side by \(-5\).
- Multiply each side by \(\frac{1}{5}\).
- Multiply each side by \(\frac{-1}{5}\).
Exercise \(\PageIndex{7}\)
Evaluate each expression if \(x\) is \(\frac{2}{5}\), \(y\) is \(-4\), and \(z\) is -0.2.
- \(x+y\)
- \(2x-z\)
- \(x+y+z\)
- \(y\cdot x\)
(From Unit 5.4.1)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{8}\)
- Write an equation where a number is added to a variable, and a solution is -8.
- Write an equation where a number is multiplied by a variable, and a solution is \(\frac{-4}{5}\).
Exercise \(\PageIndex{9}\)
The markings on the number line are evenly spaced. Label the other markings on the number line.
(From Unit 5.3.1)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{10}\)
In 2012, James Cameron descended to the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench; the deepest point in the ocean. The vessel he rode in was called DeepSea Challenger.
Challenger Deep is 35,814 feet deep at its lowest point
- DeepSea Challenger’s descent was a change in depth of \((-4)\) feet per second. We can use the equation \(y=-4x\) to model this relationship, where \(y\) is the depth and \(x\) is the time in seconds that have passed. How many seconds does this model suggest it would take for DeepSea Challenger to reach the bottom?
- To end the mission DeepSea Challenger made a one-hour ascent to the surface. How many seconds is this?
- The ascent can be modeled by a different proportional relationship \(y=kx\). What is the value of k in this case?
(From Unit 5.3.5)


8.1.1: Mystery Bags
Lesson
Let's make predictions based on what we know.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\): Going Fishing
Andre and his dad have been fishing for 2 hours. In that time, they have caught 9 bluegills and 1 yellow perch.
The next time Andre gets a bite, what kind of fish do you think it will be? Explain your reasoning.

-
Follow these instructions to play one round of the game:
- Everyone in the group records the color written on the bag in the first column of the table.
- Without looking in the bag, one person takes out one of the blocks and shows it to the group.
-
If they get a block that is the same color as the bag, they earn:
- 1 point during round 1
- 2 points during round 2
- 3 points during round 3
- Next, they put the block back into the bag, shake the bag to mix up the blocks, and pass the bag to the next person in the group.
- Repeat these steps until everyone in your group has had 4 turns.
-
At the end of the round, record each person's score in the table.

- Repeat the previous steps to play rounds 2 and 3 of the game.
- After you finish playing all 3 rounds, calculate the total score for each person in your group.
Are you ready for more?
Tyler’s class played the block game using purple, orange, and yellow bags of blocks.
- During round 1, Tyler’s group picked 4 purple blocks and 12 blocks of other colors.
- During round 2, Tyler’s group picked 11 orange blocks and 5 blocks of other colors.
- During round 3, Tyler forgot to record how many yellow blocks his group picked.
For a final round, Tyler’s group can pick one block from any of the three bags. Tyler’s group decides that picking from the orange bag would give them the best chance of winning, and that picking from the purple bag would give them the worst chance of winning. What results from the yellow bag could have lead Tyler’s group to this conclusion? Explain your reasoning.
Summary
One of the main ways that humans learn is by repeating experiments and observing the results. Babies learn that dropping their cup makes it hit the floor with a loud noise by repeating this action over and over. Scientists learn about nature by observing the results of repeated experiments again and again. With enough data about the results of experiments, we can begin to predict what may happen if the experiment is repeated in the future. For example, a baseball player who has gotten a hit 33 out of 100 times at bat might be expected to get a hit about 33% of his times at bat in the future as well.
In some cases, we can predict the chances of things happening based on our knowledge of the situation. For example, a coin should land heads up about 50% of the time due to the symmetry of the coin.
In other cases, there are too many unknowns to predict the chances of things happening. For example, the chances of rain tomorrow are based on similar weather conditions we have observed in the past. In these situations, we can experiment, using past results to estimate chances.
Practice
Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\)
Lin is interested in how many of her classmates watch her favorite TV show, so she starts asking around at lunch. She gets the following responses:
\(\text{yes yes yes no no no no no no no yes no no no}\)
If she asks one more person randomly in the cafeteria, do you think they will say “yes” or “no”? Explain your reasoning.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{4}\)
An engineer tests the strength of a new material by seeing how much weight it can hold before breaking. Previous tests have held these weights in pounds:
\(1,200\quad 1,400\quad 1,300\quad 1,500\quad 950\qquad 1,600\qquad 1,100\)
Do you think that this material will be able to hold more than 1,000 pounds in the next test? Explain your reasoning.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{5}\)
A company tests two new products to make sure they last for more than a year.
- Product 1 had 950 out of 1,000 test items last for more than a year.
- Product 2 had 150 out of 200 last for more than a year.
If you had to choose one of these two products to use for more than a year, which one is more likely to last? Explain your reasoning.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{6}\)
Put these numbers in order from least to greatest.
\(\frac{1}{2}\qquad\frac{1}{3}\qquad\frac{2}{5}\qquad 0.6\qquad 0.3\)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{7}\)
A small staircase is made so that the horizontal piece of each step is 10 inches long and 25 inches wide. Each step is 5 inches above the previous one. What is the surface area of this staircase?
(From Unit 7.3.5)


14.7: Summary
14.1 Lamaze International Childbirth Education
Lamaze International provides evidence-based education to people all over the world. The organization provides childbirth education to families, provides recommendations for health-care providers and practices, advocates for birthing rights, and proposes ways to protect physiologic birth. Nurses can learn a great deal by becoming active in Lamaze International.
14.2 Bradley Method
The Bradley Method is childbirth education that includes nutrition, exercise, knowledge of medical interventions, and continuous labor support. This method supports unmedicated birth. Essential to the Bradley Method is the support person for the laboring person.
14.3 Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method
HypnoBirthing is a childbirth preparation technique that teaches self-hypnosis to utilize during labor and birth. The philosophy is grounded in the fear-tension-pain cycle, the idea that fear causes tension, which then causes pain; therefore, if a person can reduce fear, they can reduce pain. Persons are taught to release fear through affirmations and relaxation. Techniques to use during labor, such as deep breathing, relaxation, and visualization, are practiced daily to prepare for use in labor. During labor, the person will desire no interventions, no interruptions in the hypnosis process, and use of supportive language. Persons who use HypnoBirthing report their births were beautiful and transformative, regardless of the outcome.
14.4 Alexander Technique
Alexander Technique is used for pregnancy, birth, postpartum period, breast-feeding, and the rest of the person’s life. The technique revolves around relaxing muscles to allow them to work properly. It also involves keeping the appropriate posture while walking, sitting, standing, and engaging in any type of movement. The technique describes inhibiting, not rushing into movement, and directing, preparing the body prior to movement. Instructors for this technique can provide hands-on assessment and instruction in movement and alignment. Online classes can provide instructions for those unable to find an in-person instructor. This technique allows the birthing person to use their body posture to increase relaxation and decrease discomfort to enhance the process of labor.
14.5 Birth Plans
Birth plans allow the birthing person to express choices and desires for their labor and birth. These plans act as the communication between the laboring person, significant other, nurse, health-care provider, and staff. Birth plans can be developed during childbirth education classes, or templates can be found on websites. Nurses are crucial in helping support the person’s wishes.


15: In situ hybridization
Summary
In situ hybridization shows where in a tissue sample an RNA of a specific sequence is found or where in a set of chromosomes a DNA of a specific sequence is found.
Also known as
In situ , ISH
Usually when a specific DNA sequence (instead of RNA) is the target, this method is referred to as fluorescence in situ hybridization, or FISH. Usually, if someone refers to the method as just “ in situ ,” they mean they are probing for RNA, and if they say “FISH,” they mean they’re probing for DNA, but it’s best to clarify.
Samples needed
Fixed whole tissue, fixed tissue sections, or fixed cells
Method
Here, we will focus on how in situ is used to probe for an RNA sequence in a tissue sample, but the principles are the same across applications. First, the sample is chemically fixed, meaning that any living cells are killed and all metabolic activity ceases, and the tissue structure is chemically preserved. Next, the sample is permeabilized to allow the probe access to the nucleic acids in the sample. The sample is then incubated with a nucleic acid probe complementary to the RNA of interest. The probe binds the RNA transcript if present. The probe must be attached to another molecule that allows for visualization, whether that be a radioactive label, fluorescent label, etc.
Controls
The probe binding specificity should be tested through the use of positive and negative controls.
Interpretation
This image comes from a methods paper detailing how to perform in situ hybridization on Arabidopsis tissues, but a very similar photograph was generated in another study by some of the same researchers on SPATULA function [2] . The study showed that SPATULA encodes a transcription factor that controls the growth of certain reproductive structures during flower development, including the carpels, which produce female gametes, and anthers, which produce male gametes. One step in showing that SPATULA regulates the growth of these structures was demonstrating that SPATULA is expressed there. The in situ hybridization results in Figure 1 display staining in the relevant structures, indicating that SPATULA mRNA is present.
Image Descriptions
Figure 1 image description:
A stained longitudinal section of a developing flower. The tissue is shaped like a hollow bulb with two finger-like projections inside, and one more bulbous projection on either side of the fingers. The “fingers” are the carpels, and strong staining can be seen at the “fingertips.” The bulbs are anthers, which have lighter staining.
Thumbnail
"Xenopus laevis embyro.jpg" ↗ by Emily is licensed under CC BY 4.0 ↗.
Description: In situ hybridization of MRF4 (myf6) gene in X. laevis embryo.
Author
Katherine Mattaini, Tufts University
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Brewer, P. B., M. G. Heis ler, J. Hejátko, J. Friml, and E. Benková. 2006. In situ hybridization for mRNA detection in Arabidopsis tissue sections. Nature Protocols 1:1462–1467. ↵
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Heisler, M. G. B., A. Atkinson, Y. H. Bylstra, R. Walsh, and D. R. Smyth. 2001. SPATULA, a gene that controls development of carpel margin tissues in Arabidopsis, encodes a bHLH protein. Development 128:1089–1098. ↵


28.0: Chapter Objectives
-
- Last updated
- Save as PDF
Learning Objectives
- Understand the components and chemical structure of nucleotides, and their role in forming DNA and RNA molecules.
- Analyze the principles of base pairing and hydrogen bonding in nucleic acids, and how they contribute to the stability and specificity of DNA and RNA structures.
- Examine the chemical mechanisms involved in nucleic acid synthesis (polymerization) and degradation (hydrolysis), and the enzymatic processes of DNA replication, RNA transcription, and repair.
- Explore the different conformations of nucleic acids, including their impact on function and interactions with other molecules.
- Learn about analytical techniques used to study nucleic acids, and how they provide insights into structure, function, and interactions.
Nucleic acids are biopolymers found in all living organisms, serving as the essential molecules for the storage, transmission, and expression of genetic information. These complex macromolecules are composed of repeating units called nucleotides, which consist of three main components: a nitrogenous base, a five-carbon sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), and a phosphate group.
There are two primary types of nucleic acids: deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). DNA is the genetic blueprint of an organism, encoding the instructions for the synthesis of proteins and the regulation of cellular activities. It exists in the form of a double helix, with two complementary strands held together by hydrogen bonds between the nitrogenous bases adenine (A) and thymine (T), and guanine (G) and cytosine (C).
RNA, on the other hand, plays diverse roles in gene expression, including messenger RNA (mRNA) which carries genetic information from DNA to the ribosomes for protein synthesis, transfer RNA (tRNA) which brings amino acids to the ribosomes during protein synthesis, and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) which forms the structural and catalytic core of ribosomes.
The structure and function of nucleic acids are intricately linked. The sequence of nitrogenous bases along the nucleic acid chain determines the genetic code, with each triplet of bases (codon) encoding a specific amino acid or serving as a signal for regulatory functions. The ability of nucleic acids to undergo replication, transcription, and translation enables the faithful transmission and expression of genetic information from one generation to the next.
Beyond their role in genetics, nucleic acids also participate in various cellular processes, including DNA repair, RNA processing, and gene regulation. Moreover, advances in biotechnology have led to the manipulation and engineering of nucleic acids for applications such as genetic engineering, molecular diagnostics, and gene therapy.


1.3: Oregon Fever and Western Expansion- Manifest Destiny in the Garden of Eden
OREGON PIONEERS and MANIFEST DESTINY
In 1905 The Oregonian published a biographical article on one of the more prominent Euro-American pioneers of Oregon’s past, Joseph Meek, as the “man who saved Oregon.” The newspaper adulated him as “a frontiersman of the highest type. Six foot two of magnificent manhood an inspiration and exemplification of American citizenship.” [1] Joseph Meek was the epitome of the rugged frontier individualist that shaped the Oregon experience and provided a push for settlers to hit the Oregon Trail. Newspapers and other media outlets, never hesitated to elevate the pioneers of the West in hagiographies, especially individuals like Meek, who was a relative of President James Polk’s wife, the first lady Sarah Childress Polk. Oregon’s pioneers were reconfigured in narratives of saint-worship whereby the people of the frontier represented the assimilationist forces of civilization and progress, buttressing Jefferson’s mission of an empire of liberty built on an agrarian republic.
Oregon, like other states of the greater Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions, cultivated the archetype of rugged frontier folk who tamed the “savage wilderness”, mastered its natural resources, and were icons of individualistic self-reliance. “The first ideal of the pioneer was that of conquest. It was his task to fight with nature for the chance to exist. The rifle and the ax are the symbols of the backwoods pioneer. They meant a training in aggressive courage, in domination, in directness of action, in destructiveness. To the pioneer the forest was no friendly resource for posterity, no object of careful economy.” [2]
In the mid-nineteenth century, John O’Sullivan was an influential political writer, journalist, and advocate for the Democratic Party. He stated that the United States already held legal title to Oregon. He was the author of an infamous essay titled Manifest Destiny . It justified American expansion through divine providence and claimed the United States owned the “true title” to the Oregon Territory. Native American claims and rights to their ownership of the land were elided and excluded from his argument.
“Our claim to Oregon would still be best and strongest. And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence had given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us…The God of nature and of nations had marked it for our own, and with His blessing we will firmly maintain the incontestable rights He has given, and fearlessly perform the high duties He has imposed.” [3]
Politicians and other influential people who contributed to Oregon Fever and settlement spoke of America’s Manifest Destiny in their arguments for national expansion and the settlement of the West. The nationalist myth of the rugged frontier individual would serve as a potent symbol of American individualism in the West, but it materialized through a morbid tragedy; the genocide of Native American communities.
Early settlers in the Willamette Valley viewed the prairies as their agrarian future and often spoke of them in positive pastoral terms that were conventional in the nineteenth century. The prairies were viewed as a Garden of Eden based on a social and racial utopia for Euro-Americans. To encourage settlement in the region, exaggerations of the size of harvests were common: beets two feet in size and turnips that weighed thirty pounds. [4] For Jefferson’s dream of an empire of liberty, nothing could have done better to fuel his dream than to speak of a destiny guided by divine providence. Government policies aimed toward a bullish run in land speculation and disbursement brought on the actualization of the settlers’ utopian vision, and the removal of Native Americans from their landholdings.
OREGON FEVER and MISSIONARY ZEAL
Between 1820 and 1840, an upsurge of religious awakening coincided with Oregon Fever and movement of people out West. Protestant and Catholic missionary societies focused their sights on pioneer communities. In November 1843, missionaries watched an eruption of Mount St. Helens in awe and fear and sang “This awful God is ours” from the hymn “Marching to Zion.” [5] The Canadian Methodist missionary Jason Lee and the Oregon prospector and entrepreneur Nathaniel Wyeth went overland to Oregon along with a group of Methodist missionaries and arrived in Fort Vancouver. Missionary activities piqued the curiosity of the Nez Perce Indians. In 1832, three Nez Perce and one Flathead Indian journeyed to St. Louis looking for William Clark of the Corps of Discovery. They requested the “book” and the “black robes” for their people. The Nez Perce looked for the source of the white man’s power by sending representatives to St. Louis. European American whites, in their evangelical fervor, interpreted the Nez Perce and Flatheads who had come to St. Louis seeking “the white man’s Book of Heaven” as a call for spreading their faith in the West. This story, along with the volcanic eruption, would be retold in missionary circles as a note of encouragement to bring others to the Oregon Territory to further the goals of the civilization program, and the conversion and cultural assimilation of American Indians.
Chief Factor John McLoughlin persuaded Lee to start his mission in the central Willamette Valley where Hudson Bay Company employees lived. Lee established his mission ten miles north of Salem near French Prairie, an agricultural enclave. When the Methodists and Lee arrived they entered an area of human tragedy in the Willamette Valley: a vast malaria epidemic had broken out and decimated the Kalapuya population. The missionaries, unlike the fur traders, were interested in transforming the Indians’ religious beliefs and cultural practices. Native Americans had looked to the missionaries in a time of a humanitarian crisis to gain consolation and understanding of the trials they had undergone with the wave of epidemics that wreaked havoc upon the region. Lee established an assimilation school to convert Kalapuya children to Christianity and impose punishments for traditional cultural practices viewed as “uncivilized”. When he left, “there were more Indian children in the mission grave yard…than alive…in the manual labor school.” [6]
The Oregon Country represented unlimited possibilities for development and personal enhancement for Euro-American whites. During 1838 and 1839, Jason Lee went on a lecture tour through the East and Midwest, extolling the natural wonders and economic opportunities of Oregon with an evangelical fervor. He brought back fifty-one settlers, known as the Great Reinforcement, to Oregon, and they set up towns such as The Dalles, near Celilo Falls.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sponsored the Whitman and Spalding missionary parties upon the urging of Marcus Whitman. In 1836, Whitman and his wife Narcissa, established a mission at Waiilatpu “The Place of the Rye Grass” in the Walla Walla Valley. Both the Spaldings and Whitmans claimed they were helping the Cayuse and Nez Perce “develop a better way of life,” but the Christians and non-Christians were segregated from each other. Narcissa Whitman, the wife of Marcus, disliked the Cayuse people, and like many on the Oregon frontier, she rarely interacted with them. The Cayuse were alarmed by the waves of pandemics in measles and smallpox that arrived with Euro-American settlers. Their suspicions grew regarding the onset of disease in their community and they thought the Whitmans were poisoning them. In a matter of time, Narcissa and Marcus Whitman’s missionary settlement at Waiilatpu met its demise in 1847.
Henry Spalding, a Presbyterian missionary, arrived into the Northwest along with the fur traders. His family established themselves among the Nez Perce, also known as Nimipu, or “The People” in the Sahaptian language. Spalding supported cultural assimilation of the Nimipu in the Oregon country. He urged them to adopt an agrarian lifestyle and abandon nomadic traditions. Spalding brought in a printing press and published the biblical book of John in the language of the Nimipu. Spalding, like the Whitmans, was paternalistic and punitive in his relations with the local indigenous peoples. He attempted to enforce the prohibition of their ritual dances and ceremonies, and he grew frustrated over private property disputes with the tribe. Asa Bowen Smith, another missionary associated with Spalding, was critical of his attempts to turn the Nimipu into farmers, and ultimately failed to convert them to Euro-American lifestyles.
French Prairie, located in the Champoeg region, and St. Paul became epicenters of Catholic missionary work upon the invitation of Chief Factor John McLoughlin and the encouragement of his French-Canadian Catholic employees in the Hudson’s Bay Company. Francois Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers were French Catholic missionaries who responded to McLoughlin’s invitation. The Bishop of Quebec sent them to “regain from barbarism and its disorders, the savage tribes scattered over that country” and to extend their help “to the poor Christians who have adopted the customs of the savages and live in license and forgetfulness of their duties.” [7] They established two missions, one north of Fort Vancouver in Washington and the other in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
With the establishment of Catholic missions and activity, religious tensions arose between Protestants and Catholics in Oregon. Catholics and Protestants, similar to the American experience in the eastern regions of the United States, felt distrust and animosity toward one another because of their religious and political differences. Marcus Whitman viewed Catholics in Oregon with suspicion and stereotyped them as crusaders of expansionist papal states, “Romanism stalks abroad on our right hand and on our left, and with daring effrontery boasts that she is to possess the land. I ask, must it be so?” [8] Until his death, Henry Spaulding was convinced Catholic missionaries and the Jesuits conspired with Hudson Bay employees and spurred the attack against the Whitmans. Catholics in turn were suspicious that Protestants ultimately wanted to control the trade and commerce of the area all to themselves, and they feared the Protestant authoritarian approach to indigenous people would harbor their resentment and animosity. But both Christian faiths felt without spiritual conversion, Native Americans were doomed to perdition.
OREGON and THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING
Charles Grandison Finney, who was one of the most celebrated revivalists of the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant movement of the time, was a large man who had a commanding presence and intimidating visage comparable to John McLoughlin. Finney experienced a soul-wrenching conversion during which God told him to plead his cause to others. Finney’s preaching style was forceful and imposing, and he represented the age of Jackson with a focus on the individual. Finney’s impact swept across the east and provided a religious fervor that fueled westward migration. He focused on the individual with a representation free of ornamentation and pomp. Arguably, Finney provided spiritual fuel for Oregon Fever. Finney and the Second Great Awakening held a cultural worldview based on temperance and abolitionism. Finney constantly preached the sins of slavery and how the United States must repent for its transgressions against mankind. This represented a significant cultural force in the European American construction of Oregon.
OREGON FEVER!
Senators Lewis Linn and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri were two of the chief architects of Oregon Fever and the push to incentivize settlement in the area. Linn viewed Oregon as an opportunity for “finding and founding empires for us,” namely white politicians and landowners. [9] Linn was one of the earliest proponents of the Land Donation Act in the Senate. The senators promoted the idea that colonists, incentivized by the federal government, conquered new areas not “by physical conquests [and] fleets and armies” but because these regions and people “have sought the blessings of our institutions; not we who will have coveted the enlargement of our territory by conquering.” Linn articulated a nationalist vision built on expansion articulated in a hagiography of William Clark. He is described as an empire builder and visionary, like Alexander the Great of Macedon, when he stood on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in 1805 and “saw through the dim vista of the future rising states of his countrymen spreading along the Pacific shore…the chain is complete from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.” [10] Settlers, along with Benton and Linn, thought they were, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, the “germe of a great State,” spreading the influence of Americanism and civilization. The imperial bravado politicians and missionaries brought an enthusiastic corps of volunteers and settlers who were ready to answer the call of Manifest Destiny on the Oregon Trail.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, a convention of prospective pioneers clamored for the immediate occupation of the Northwest territory in Oregon. They were guided by their political prophet Lewis Linn, and demanded for speedy occupation and settlement of the Oregon county according to international law. A fire was set under the feet of Congress to move things forward with the colonization of Oregon. Prospective settlers listed their resolutions and demanded Congress to provide military outposts on the trail, preserve naval and commercial independence at the mouth of the Columbia, and “that there should be no negotiation regarding the Oregon [Territory], except as the time the Hudson Bay Company should have to quit the country.” [11]
Thomas Hart Benton was an ally of Andrew Jackson, and an Oregon Fever zealot who actively pursued a militant stance on Western settlement. He promoted the idea that Oregon could be saved only by white Americans. Benton belonged to the expansionist wing of the Jackson Coalition in the federal government, which included James Polk and Martin Van Buren. They adhered to a jingoist stance of western expansion in the American frontier and an aggressive diplomatic position of the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America. They felt American presence in Latin America was warranted and necessary. American influence, in their paternalistic view, would support those nations development into democratic republics. In their western expansionist vision, Oregon was a providential place for white settlers and according to officials’ imperial hubris, Euro-Americans would improve the human condition of the American West. According to Senator Benton, Euro-Americans were burdened with the civilizing task to enlighten the American West to their political, social and cultural institutions. It is a political philosophy that dominated international relations through the Spanish-American War. It was a nakedly Social Darwinist ideology fueled by a militant evangelism spreading Americanism to cultures perceived as needing indoctrination for their own benefit.
“The effect of the arrival of the Caucasian or White race on the western coast of America, opposite the eastern coast of Asia, remains to be mentioned among the benefits which the settlement of the Columbia will produce; and that a benefit, not local to us, but general and universal to the human race. I know of no human event…which promises a greater more beneficial change upon earth than the arrival of the van of the Caucasian race (the Celtic-Anglo-Saxon division) upon the border of the sea which washes the shore of eastern Asia.” [12]
With the arrival of Euro-American settlers, the Indian Question was born. “Should Indians assimilate to the “Caucasian race” or face their own extinction?” Federal and state policies, during this historical era, never considered whether indigenous peoples should retain their cultural heritage or their sovereign rights. [13] Instead Oregonians normalized the tragic plight and widespread death of indigenous peoples without much objection. Linn County resident Ms. James Miller wrote in 1852, “They are dying here as elsewhere, where they are in contact with civilization. I used to be sorry that there was so much prospect of their annihilation…Now I do not think it is to be much regretted. If they all die, their place will be occupied by a superior race.” [14] For the many Euro-Americans, they had not seen themselves as a contributing factor to Indian genocide, nor did they hold much empathy towards their situation.
Benton’s thoughts on racial predestination were part of his call for the settlement of Oregon:
“The Mongolian, or Yellow race is a race far above the Ethiopian, or black, above the Malay or brown, above the American Indian, or Red: it is a race far above all these, but still far below the White, and like all the rest, must receive an impression from the superior race whenever they come in contact.” [15]
Benton saw the settlement of Oregon as the gateway to providing racial improvement to Asians, Indians, and African Americans. It is clearly a white supremacist ethos. He declared that whites have an imperial prerogative to “subdue the earth,” as a providential call from God:
“It would seem the white race alone received the divine command, to subdue and replenish the earth! For it is the only race that has obeyed it, the only one that hunts out new and distant lands, and even a New World, to subdue and replenish. (On the shores of the Pacific) a great population will grow up there, luminous with the accumulated lights of European and American civilization.” [16]
Benton’s jingoist views on western expansion hinged upon Anglo-Saxon superiority, racial purity and rigid gender roles as a prescriptive civilizing force that would be a benefit to humankind. According to the tenets of imperial hubris of the mid-nineteenth century, “It is the duty of enlightened nations… to protect the rights and to cherishing the interests of the Indians, if it exerts itself for the good of the Indians. As a father would benefit his children to diffuse the benefits and blessing of civilization among them.” [17] This encapsulates federal Indian policy until the latter half of the twentieth century. Indians were considered a ward of the state, and Congress, enshrined in its paternalistic duties, protected the Indians under a condition of subservience.
The premise of Oregon Fever was fueled by an evangelism that hinged upon Anglo-Saxon superiority as the moral and cultural ideal that would bring forth Jefferson’s vision of an assimilated class of Indians who would become productive, faithful citizens in the agrarian republic of the American West. Settlement of Oregon would provide European Americans the ability to enlighten and civilize the “rude and suffering people” [18] —the Indians. It would be the duty of Americans to protect Indians under their own newly found sovereignty by uprooting Native America cultural heritage and traditions, their landholdings and legacies. “The moral condition of the Aborigines, if blessed by the influences of a refined and religious community will be improved. The attempt to enlighten the minds and to dignify the nature of this unfortunate race may no longer be defeated by injudicious plans.” [19] Clearly Benton and his visionaries paved the way for Indian assimilation as a necessary tool of colonization, and perceived under nineteenth century liberalism, their education according to Western values and Americanism would allow their integration into society.
Benton viewed the settlement of Oregon as one of the greatest achievements of mankind comparable to Christopher Columbus’ possession of the Caribbean Islands. He saw the “settlement of the Columbia River by the van of Caucasians as the most momentous human event in the history of man since his dispersion over the face of the earth.” [20] Historians later in the twentieth century caught up with the mythistory of Columbus and have revealed other civilizations had explored the American continents before the arrival of Columbus and the Spanish Empire. The jingoists of the Jackson coalition thought Oregon would provide what Columbus had intended, a “North American Road to India.” [21] Another zealous proponent of Oregon colonization, Hall Jackson Kelley also venerated the exploits of Christopher Columbus and used the “heroic narrative” of the European explorer as a torch bearer of civilization and progress, disregarding the indigenous cultures that had established themselves for millennia. [22]
Hall Jackson Kelley was a New England school teacher who was obsessed with Oregon and wrote extensively about Euro-American settlement. Kelley was a jingoist at heart, and personally was an ambitious opportunist driven by wealth and visions of grandeur. He led an expedition to Oregon with a few less than savory individuals on the Oregon Trail. Motivated and emotionally stirred by Lewis and Clark’s journals and conversations with other explorers, Jackson Hall Kelley asserted that “active sons of American freedom” ought to make their way to Oregon. Nicholas Biddle and Paul Allen’s History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark , the first edited copy of their journals published in 1814, inspired Kelley to “go and labor in the field of philanthropic enterprise and promote the propagation of Christianity in the dark and cruel places about the shores of the Pacific.” [23] Meriwether Lewis held the view that the Pacific Northwest was a prison, a “dreary wilderness” devoid of civilization. [24] Kelley’s negative perception of the Northwest was shaped by the Corps of Discovery’s writings on the region.
Jackson Hall Kelley was a vocal proponent of mass migration to Oregon as early as 1815. He has been called the Prophet of Oregon. “In the year 1824, I announced to the world my intention to settle in Oregon. Nothing is wanting, but a second Daniel Boone to lead the way.” [25] With the increased speed in the production of printed material, Kelley spread Oregon Fever through pamphlets and letters to newspaper editors, and personally encouraged Congress to occupy and govern Oregon. He viewed Oregon as “the most valuable of all the unoccupied parts of the earth,” and organized the American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of Oregon Territory in 1829.
In 1834, he persuaded a party of hunters to accompany him to Oregon through the Applegate Trail, named after famed pioneer Jesse Applegate. The famous trapper, Ewing Young, along with Kelley and fourteen additional men made their way north from California with 100 livestock. During their course along the Applegate Trail, the party routinely murdered Natives along the way, including two along the Rogue River. Kelley and his men arrived at Fort Vancouver on the north side of the Columbia River on October 27, 1834, “depressed in spirits and under great bodily weakness, then recovering from the fever and ague. He found himself an unwelcome guest at the place. Calumnies and slander were propagated about him, and the persons whom he had induced to come and settle there, were turned against him; and bloody men more than once threatened his life.” [26] Kelley lamented about his negative experience at Fort Vancouver. He never met with the Chief Factor John McLoughlin who ordered Kelley to stay in the laborers quarters at Fort Vancouver. A messenger told Kelley he could not stay in the fort and sent him to a cabin for butchering animals, which was “extremely filthy” and “mixed with animal putrescence.” [27]
He became convinced from this experience that the “agents of the Hudson Bay Company [sic], resident in the United States, have by all means, and with a settled hostility, done all they could to counteract his plans for the colonization of Oregon.” [28] Kelley was strong-armed by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and was sent on his way to Hawaii, and eventually returned to Massachusetts. Kelley held deep grievances against the Chief Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, “Doctor John McLaughlin [sic] the chief officer of the company in Oregon, was kept informed of my movement in the states. The persecuting monster, anticipating my coming to the place of his abode, was ready, with sword in his hand, to cut me down; and I was treated at and after my arrival, with every demonstration of inhumanity.” [29]
OREGON FEVER: NATHANIEL WYETH
Another aspect of Oregon Fever and its expansionist zeal was on the economic front. The Panic of 1837 was an economic depression that lasted for several years. The panic was based on a variety of factors, including a speculative real estate boom that occurred after Indian removals in the American West, declining cotton prices, and erratic banking practices. Thomas Benton and President Andrew Jackson promoted an economic policy of land acquisition based on hard currency called the Specie Circular, which required payment for land in gold and silver. This in part spelled trouble for the markets and contributed to the collapse. The financial crisis affected the global markets as well, in particular Chinese trade. It negatively affected farmers who were unable to pay their mortgages. Actions taken to move from the collapse included shifting financial investment into development of the railroads. This brought on further land speculation and a furious land grab from Native American holdings and possessions. Hard currency flowed from New England merchants, and bankers to the nascent railroad industry who gobbled up Native American lands. Nathaniel Wyeth built his financial empire from the fur trade and as an ice merchant. He shifted his investments to the blossoming railroad industry, and possible opportunities in the Oregon Territory as many other Northern capitalists in antebellum American.
Hall Jackson Kelley, like other European and American prospective explorers needed to find investors, convinced Wyeth of the business opportunities waiting for him in Oregon. Wyeth was enticed by opportunities in the fur trades and the salmon industry. Kelley intended to have Wyeth sponsor him on expeditions to Oregon, but Wyeth led his own expeditions without him not trusting the erratic personality of Kelley. It did not seem to have occurred to Kelley that in Nathaniel Wyeth possessed leadership qualities that he himself so conspicuously lacked. In the 1830s, Wyeth was leading expeditions to expand his developing business interests. He helped establish Fort Hall in present-day Idaho and Fort William on Wapato Island near present-day Portland. The Chinook people called the island Wapato, a reference to an edible bulb, the “Indian potato,” that grows there. Wapato Island is today known as Sauvie Island named for the French Canadian dairy farmer Laurent Sauvé, a Hudson’s Bay employee who settled on the west side of the island in the 1840s.
OREGON FEVER and 54’40” or FIGHT!
In 1836, President Andrew Jackson asked Congress to cancel the Oregon joint-occupation treaty with Great Britain. Thomas Hart Benton’s militancy over the issue had grown. He told Congress he wanted to “vindicate our rights on the Columbia” and that his bill would provide “thirty or forty thousand rifles beyond the Rocky Mountains, which will be our effective negotiators.” [30] American western expansion was reaching a fever pitch during the Polk presidency. Congress authorized James Polk to revoke the treaty on his own initiative when he took office. Polk and Benton put forth the rallying cry “Fifty-four forty or fight!” to meet British challenges and claim the Oregon Territory as its own. Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, whose efforts were instrumental in the diplomatic settlement of American sovereignty of Oregon, along with President Polk, wanted to get ahead of a forthcoming diplomatic dispute that was unfolding with Great Britain.
President Polk, continuing the push for American expansion out West, would inaugurate the internal migration out west to Oregon. Along with American embroilment in the Mexican-American War, the chief executive willed the people of America to fortify American claims in Oregon through settlement and a hardline stance against the British Empire with its economic claims in the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. Following the establishment of the provisional government at Champoeg in 1843, some 5,000 Americans were living in the Oregon region in 1845. Democrats demanded “clear and unquestionable” rights to the Oregon Territory. Polk would carry the motto “Fifty-four forty or fight!” to the southern tip of the Alaskan panhandle.
In his inaugural address in 1845, President Polk declared that American title to Oregon was “clear and unquestionable.” Polk proposed to the British that Oregon be divided at the forty-ninth parallel. When the British balked at accepting that boundary, Polk resumed his belligerent stance. He stated to Congress that he was no longer willing to compromise and that national honor and interest were at stake in Oregon. Besides Polk and Benton, and some members of the Democratic Party, very few truly believed the entire Oregon Territory belonged to the United States. According to Benton:
“There is no boundary at 54’40”; and so far as we proposed to make it one, it was for the British, and not for ourselves and so ends the redoubtable line, up to which all true patriots were to march! And marching fight!  If need be! Singing all the while, with Horace, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori . I proceed…to the dogma of the unity and indivisibility of the Oregon title, and its resulting corollary of all or none…all the way from 42’ to 54’40”no break in it, and consequently all or none.” [31]
During this time, very few Americans actually lived north of the Columbia River; that area was mostly occupied by Hudson’s Bay Company employees. Between the forty-ninth and fifty-fourth parallels, there were no Americans. The Treaty of 1818 offered joint occupancy of the Oregon Territory to American and British interest, in particular the Hudson’s Bay Company, which still held commercial supremacy of the fur trade. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 was Polk’s proud creation. It settled the international dispute with Britain once and for all. Benton provided the animus to move the Oregon Treaty on the congressional floor. Polk was using his political clout in this diplomatic battle not only to secure the Oregon Territory but to stake claims up to the forty-ninth parallel and the state of Washington. The Oregon Territory was secured through diplomatic channels rather than military conquest in the Treaty of Oregon.
OREGON BECOMES AN AMERICAN TERRITORY
America was able to avoid war with Britain during a time when things were heating up over Mexico and the annexation of Texas. The Senate ratified the Oregon Treaty in 1846, and the boundary along the forty-ninth parallel was extended from its previous terminus in the middle of the Rocky Mountain to the Strait of Georgia. The Hudson’s Bay Company would retain the right to navigate the Columbia River south of the forty-ninth parallel, and it was promised protection for its possessions in American territory.
The settlement and colonization of the Oregon Territory was achieved by an inner circle of movers and shakers with overlapping political connections. John C. Fremont, who had achieved military notoriety gained the patronage of political circles within the Democrat Party. He was an ally of President Polk and Thomas Hart Benton’s son-in-law, and gained government sponsorship to embark on a Western expedition with the elite Corps of Topographical Engineers. The army commissioned Fremont to map and survey the trail to Oregon to facilitate American settlement. He set out on his mission from St. Louis, Missouri, and eventually traversed the high desert of Oregon. He was the first to identify the Great Basin region in eastern Oregon. Fremont was also responsible for providing the means of settlement that would serve in Polk’s diplomatic claims for the Oregon Territory: a detailed map of the Oregon Trail.
But the story of Fremont is like many others in the formative period of Oregon’s history. Fremont and other critical players, such as Joseph Meek, were interconnected in a political web of opportunism. Fremont was married to Senator Benton’s daughter, and Meek was a relative of the President Polk’s wife, Sarah Childress Polk.
Joseph Lane started out as a state legislator from Indiana, along with many others from the Old Northwest, who settled in the Willamette Valley. He came to the region along the Oregon Trail in 1849. Previously he served as a general and was considered a hero of the Mexican American War. Polk appointed him governor of the Oregon Territory. Later during the 1860 presidential election he ran as John Breckenridge’s vice president, and as part of a pro-slavery wing of the Democrat Party. Lane was a devout defender of African slavery, and was a powerful figure in Oregon and the Democratic Party. Lane’s political career ended when his venture into White House failed and Lincoln won the presidential election. Lane returned to Oregon a beaten man and spent the rest of his years isolated in Roseburg, Oregon until he died in 1881.
RACE AND THE OREGON LAND DONATION ACT
Oregon was created during a time of national tumult over slavery. The West was considered a “free soil” land for white labor, and a white racial utopia as well. The Compromise of 1850 had designated California a free state, meaning free from slavery, but like other states in the American West, California and Oregon were to be “free labor” states—the rightful domain of white laborers free from competition of nonwhites. This established a foundation in exclusionary racist policies in Oregon that guided state legislation until the twentieth century.
American laws founded on racial discrimination were established in western states during expansion while white settlers and their families arrived in the Oregon Territory by middle of the nineteenth century. The Oregon Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 was a racially hued land settlement scheme subsidized by the federal government, and excluded a vast swath of nonwhites from obtaining land. Black pioneers in Oregon regarded the Donation Act as encouraging the settlement of a particular race of people, not themselves. In a letter to the renown Frederick Douglass, the African American abolitionist and the editor of The North Star, one of the earliest black residents of Portland wrote to him, “Even in the so-called free territory of Oregon, the colored American citizen, though he may possess all the qualities and qualifications which make a man a good citizen, is driven out like a beast in the forest, made to sacrifice every interest dear to him, and forbidden the privilege to take the portion of the soil which the government says every citizen shall enjoy.” [32]
The Donation Act severely curtailed the territorial claims of Indians and overrode treaties that had been established between Euro-Americans and indigenous people of Oregon. The public domain was generally considered to be an inexhaustible source of wealth, and the availability of unsettled and unclaimed land, according to Euro-American perceptions, was seen as a solution to overcrowding and financial autonomy. During the American colonial era, frontier settlers and land speculators promoted growth and expansion of the colonies, and brought concomitant violence and tensions between Euro-Americans and Native Americans. Government authorities responded to political pressures by either attempting to bar limits on the spread of the western frontier, which always met with resistance, or provide funding for military protection and security of settlers who intruded within Indian territorial borders established by agreements and treaties. It was a double-edged sword; frontier agitation promoted western expansion and settlement for the United States, but gradually eliminated Indian hunting grounds, the traditional customs and livelihood of indigenous tribes, and their sovereign rights. The Land Donation Act was a teleological means to eradicate Native Americans from Oregon soil either by relocation or elimination.
While the history of the rugged individual archetype has become a critical ideological thread in the making of the West, it is an image that must take into account how reliant the pioneers were on government support and subsidies, and military support. Settlers in Oregon looked to the federal government to help them achieve solutions to the problems of land titles. The Donation Land Claim Act recognized the generous land claims of Oregon’s provisional government and set up a system for acquiring additional land. It was an early homestead act. Each white male citizen eighteen years or older was entitled to 320 acres of land if single; if he married by December 1, 1851, his wife could claim another 320 acres. A person had to live and use the land only for four years in order to have the right to gain title to the land, a narrow reading and interpretation of the legal precedent, res nullius . This created an open-ended ruling of Native land claims which frequently declared them as “abandoned property” according to Western laws. Prospective claimants needed only two witnesses to prove whether a contested plot of land was considered “in use” by the fruits of labor of its owner.
GENDER, PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT and LAND DONATION ACT
Generous land provisions within the Land Donation Act promoted more immigration and marriages within Oregon. Within a few years, little of the Willamette Valley was left unclaimed, and this spurred development in eastern Oregon in 1860. Oregon’s skewed sex ratios and the provisions of the Donation Act meant that many women married men twice their age or more which was starkly different than communities of Northern European origin. According to the historian Dorothy Johansen, “This did not assure their [women’s] independence but it did assure any woman of barely marriageable age a husband.” [33] Until 1849 women accounted for only 15 to 20 percent of travelers on the Oregon Trail. Men outnumbered women by a ratio of 2.5 to 1 in 1850. The American West scripted a different age disparity between men and women in marriage. Men in their twenties and thirties greatly outnumbered women, and marriage could double the amount of land men and women could farm. Marriages were made at a young age, often without women’s input, and abuse was not uncommon. “What could a girl of 14 do to protect herself from a man of 44,” wondered a woman whose husband “used to beat me until I thought I couldn’t stand it.” [34] Abigail Scott Duniway, a pioneer of women’s suffrage in Oregon, cast a critical eye upon the vast age disparity between husbands and wives due to the mechanism of the Land Donation Act, and women’s subservient condition, “The result is subjugation on one hand and despotism upon the other.” [35] But the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act was a watershed event in women’s property rights, and many wives were able to keep legal titles to their lands. During the Donation Land Act’s five-year existence, 8,000 claimants acquired three million acres. Most of the land that was claimed was in the Willamette Valley, whose landscape would be forever altered from the way the Indians had shaped it.
Land grants were given to settlers without the agency of the territorial government. The intention was to promote migrants from the Midwest, Appalachia and southern states to wrest control of the region from the Hudson Bay Company and the residing indigenous tribes. Homesteads in Oregon tended to include log cabins, an architectural form that pioneers had carried over from the colonial period, bringing traditional building styles and cultural practices from the Midwest and upper South. [36] According to nineteenth century liberalism, the act was intended to stimulate land settlement and benefit the country by the means of racial improvement through civilization and progress. [37]
SAMUEL THURSTON and LAND DONATION ACT
The pioneer and lawyer Samuel Thurston was the first delegate from the Oregon Territory to serve in the House of Representatives in the United States Congress. The voters of the Oregon Territory relied on him to secure federal lands for Oregon. He was one of the chief architects of the Land Donation Act. A donation bill like Oregon’s had only been encountered one other time in the federal land system, and that was in the state of Florida which served as an Indian defense mechanism against the Seminole tribe during the Seminole War. In 1824, the land donation law of Florida permitted Euro-Americans to acquire land titles up to 640 acres from Seminole holdings and Spanish claims. Similar to the Oregon land donation act, the intention was to claim indigenous land holdings and induce white settlement. Thurston insisted the donation bill was necessary to compensate the settlers who made the journey. Several homestead bills were being passed by influential senators like William Seward, known for the purchase of Alaska from Russia, and Daniel Webster. Thurston failed to get the support of newspaper magnate Horace Greeley who felt the apportionment of 640 acres was too much for families. But Thurston pressed on to pass the bill in the House and the Senate.
A second provision of the Donation Act limited the grants of land to white settlers only. Thurston intended to exclude Pacific Islanders and African Americans from Oregon. The congressional debate over this provision revealed the sectional divide between abolition-minded representatives and southern representatives who delivered fiery speeches on the natural inferiority of African Americans. The amendment to exclude blacks from the state of Oregon was adopted by Congress and passed by a vote of 68 to 51. [38] Eventually Thurston was able to get the Land Donation Act to pass the House and Senate in 1850.
While Oregon would become primarily a settlement and a trading interest with East Asia, the pioneers who came to the region brought their illusions of self-reliance and motivations of individualism and autonomy to Oregon. The federal government showed generous gratitude to settlers of Oregon by legislating huge tracts of land through the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, which was a profoundly racially hued mandate of land settlement in Oregon that would exclude a slew of nonwhites from gaining property in the region. The foundational establishment of exclusivity and racial privilege became a significant constitutional precedent during the formative years of statehood in Oregon, and carried on into the twentieth century.
[1] Schwantes, Carlos: Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History , (University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 2000)
[2] Turner, p. 269.
[3] Miller, Robert: Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies, (Oxford University Press: Cambridge, 20120 p. 83.
[4] It is a phenomenon that continued in the expansion of the American West that drove prospective farmers in the Southern Plains before the Dust Bowl. It was the promise of bountiful harvests that seemed too good to be true. Boag, Peter: Environment and Experience, p. 88.
[5] Johansen, Dorothy: Empire of the Columbia, A History of the Pacific Northwest (Harper and Row Publishers: New York, 1957) p. 43.
[6] Peterson del Mar, David: Oregon Promise, p. 47.
[7] Schwantes, Carlos: Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History, p. 95.
[8] Ibid. p. 98.
[9] Congressional Globe 27th Congress 3rd Session, p. 117 (February 2nd 1843)
[10] Ibid.
[11] “Oregon-Adjourned Meeting,” The Ohio Statesman, March 5th, 1844, issue 51.
[12] Thomas Hart Benton, On The Oregon Question , Speech delivered in the Senate of the United States May 22,25,28 1846, (Blair and Rives: Washington, 1846)
[13] American Indian policy would not begin to experience any significant changes at the federal level until the Indian New Deal of John Collier during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency. By the 1960s, the protection of Native American sovereign rights was becoming the established norm in American politics.
[14] Boag, Peter: Environment and Experience, p. 58.
[15] Benton, p. 28
[16] Benton, p. 29
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Kelley, Jackson Hall, p.72-76.
[20] Thomas Hart Benton, p. 30.
[21] Ibid.
[22] The historiographical consensus has been reached by which Columbus’s work is no longer seen as heroic and beneficial to American civilization since it has been thoroughly documented by Dominican friars like Bartolomeo Las Casas that Columbus tortured, maimed, raped and killed Carib and Taino Indians in the Caribbean. See James Loewen, Lies My History Teach Told Me (New Press: New York, 2008).
[23] Powell, Fred W. (ed.): Hall Jackson Kelley on Oregon: a collection of his published works,
(Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1932) p. x
[24] David L. Nicandri, “The Columbia Country and the Dissolution of Meriwether Lewis: Speculation and Interpretation,” Oregon Historical Quarterly , Vol. 106, No. 1 (Spring, 2005), pp. 6-33
[25] Ibid, p. 10.
[26] Fred Wilbur Powell: Jackson Hall Kelley On Oregon: a collection of his published works (Princeton University Press, 1932) p. 98
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Miller, Robert: Native Americans, p. 148
[31] Benton, Speech to Congress, p. 24.
[32] McLagan, Elizabeth: Peculiar Paradise , p. 46
[33] Johansen, Dorothy O., and Charles M. Gates. Empire of the Columbia: a History of the Pacific Northwest , (New York: Harper & Row, 1967)
[34] Peterson del Mar, Oregon Promise: An Interpretive History (Oregon State University Press: Corvallis, 2003) p. 75
[35] Peterson del Mar, What Trouble I Have Seen: A History of Violence against Wives, (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1996) p. 11
[36] Boag, Peter: Environment and Experience, p. 58.
[37] Nineteenth century liberal ideology commonly embraced the ideas of imperial expansion, racial betterment and civilization as intertwined concepts throughout Western Europe.
[38] Bergquist, James: “The Oregon Donation Act, and the National Land Policy,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Mar., 1957), pp. 17-35


12: Thermodynamics
Among the many capabilities of chemistry is its ability to predict if a process will occur under specified conditions. Thermodynamics, the study of relationships between the energy and work associated with chemical and physical processes, provides this predictive ability. Previous chapters in this text have described various applications of thermochemistry, an important aspect of thermodynamics concerned with the heat flow accompanying chemical reactions and phase transitions. This chapter will introduce additional thermodynamic concepts, including those that enable the prediction of any chemical or physical changes under a given set of conditions.
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- 12.2: Spontaneity
- Chemical and physical processes have a natural tendency to occur in one direction under certain conditions. A spontaneous process occurs without the need for a continual input of energy from some external source, while a nonspontaneous process requires such. Systems undergoing a spontaneous process may or may not experience a gain or loss of energy, but they will experience a change in the way matter and/or energy is distributed within the system.
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- 12.3: Entropy
- Entropy (S) is a state function that can be related to the number of microstates for a system (the number of ways the system can be arranged) and to the ratio of reversible heat to kelvin temperature. It may be interpreted as a measure of the dispersal or distribution of matter and/or energy in a system, and it is often described as representing the “disorder” of the system. For a given substance, \(S_{solid} < S_{liquid} < S_{gas}\) in a given physical state at a given temperature.
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- 12.4: The Second and Third Laws of Thermodynamics
- The second law of thermodynamics states spontaneous processes increases the entropy of the universe, \(S_{univ} > 0\). If \(ΔS_{univ} < 0\), the process is nonspontaneous, and if \(ΔS_{univ} = 0\_, the system is at equilibrium. The third law of thermodynamics establishes the zero for entropy at 0 for a perfect, pure crystalline solid at 0 K with only one possible microstate. The standard entropy change for a process is computed standard entropy values for the species involved.
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- 12.5: Free Energy
- Gibbs free energy (G) is a state function defined with regard to system quantities only and may be used to predict the spontaneity of a process. A negative value for ΔG indicates a spontaneous process; a positive ΔG indicates a nonspontaneous process; and a ΔG of zero indicates that the system is at equilibrium. A number of approaches to the computation of free energy changes are possible.


6.5: Geography and Topography of Rome and the Roman Empire
As the title of one recent textbook of Roman history puts it, Roman history is, in a nutshell, the story of Rome’s transformation “from village to empire.” 1 The geography and topography of Rome, Italy, and the Mediterranean world as a whole played a key role in the expansion of the empire but also placed challenges in the Romans’ path, challenges which further shaped their history.
Before it became the capital of a major empire, Rome was a village built on seven hills sprawling around the river Tiber . Set sixteen miles inland, the original settlement had distinct strategic advantages: it was immune to attacks from the sea, and the seven hills on which the city was built were easy to fortify. The Tiber, although marshy and prone to flooding, furthermore, provided the ability to trade with the neighboring city-states. By the mid-Republic, requiring access to the sea, the Romans built a harbor at Ostia , which grew to become a full-fledged commercial arm of Rome as a result. Wheeled vehicles were prohibited inside the city of Rome during the day, in order to protect the heavy pedestrian traffic. Thus at night, carts from Ostia poured into Rome, delivering food and other goods for sale from all over Italy and the Empire.
One of the most surprising aspects of the history of early Rome is that, despite constant threats from its more powerful neighbors, it was never swallowed by them. The Etruscans dominated much of northern Italy down to Rome, while the southern half of Italy was so heavily colonized by the Greeks as to earn the nickname “ Magna Graecia ,” meaning “Great Greece.” In addition, several smaller tribes hemmed the early Romans, mainly, the Latins, the Aequi, and the Sabines.
The topography of Rome—the advantage of the hills and the river—likely was a boon in the city’s struggles against all of its neighbors. Likewise, the topography of Italy proper, with the Alps and the Appenines providing natural defenses in the north, hampered invasions from the outside. Indeed, the most famous example of an invasion from the north, that of Hannibal during the Second Punic War, is a case in point: he selected that challenging route through the Alps in order to surprise the Romans, and it proved even more destructive for his forces than he had anticipated.
As Rome built a Mediterranean empire, the city itself grew increasingly larger, reaching a population of one million by 100 CE. While Italy boasted fertile farmlands, feeding the city of Rome became a challenge that required the resources of the larger empire, and Egypt in particular became known as the breadbasket of Rome. As a result, emperors were especially cautious to control access to Egypt by prominent senators and other politicians, for fear of losing control over this key area of the Empire.
During the rule of the emperor Trajan in the early second century CE, the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent, stretching to Britain in the west, slightly beyond the Rhine and Danube river in the north, and including much of the Near East and north Africa.
Topography, however, played a role in the Romans’ ultimately unsuccessful struggle to hold on to these territories after Trajan’s death. The natural frontier offered by the Rhine and Danube rivers made it difficult for the Romans to maintain control over the territories on the other side of them. Struggling to fight off the warrior tribes in northern Britain, two second-century CE emperors— Hadrian, and later on Antoninus Pius—built successive walls, which attempted to separate the un-Romanized tribes from the territory under Roman control. Finally, a persisting challenge for Roman emperors was that of the location of the empire’s capital. When the Roman Empire consisted of Italy alone, the location of Rome in the middle of the Italian peninsula was the ideal location for the capital. Once, however, the empire became a Mediterranean empire that controlled areas far in all directions, the location of Rome was a great distance from all the problem frontiers. As a result, emperors over the course of the second and third centuries spent increasingly less time in Rome. Finally, Diocletian’s split of the Empire in 293 CE into four administrative regions, each with a regional capital, left Rome out, and in 330 CE, the emperor Constantine permanently moved the capital of the empire to his new city of Constantinople, built at the site of the older Greek city of Byzantium.
The large area encompassed by the empire required a sophisticated infrastructure of roads and sea routes, and the Romans provided both. By the first century CE, these roads and routes connected the center of the empire (Rome) to the periphery, providing ways for armies, politicians, traders, tourists, and students to travel with greater security and speed than ever before. As primary sources reveal, travel was never a fully safe undertaking, as bandits lurked on roads and pirates on seas, greedy locals were always eager to fleece unsuspecting tourists, and shipwrecks were an unfortunately common reality. Still, the empire created an unprecedented degree of networks and connections that allowed anyone in one part of the empire to be able to travel to any other part, provided he was wealthy enough to be able to afford the journey.
1 Mary Boatwright, Daniel Gargola, Noel Lenski, and Richard Talbert. The Romans: From Village to Empire: A History of Rome from Earliest Times to the End of the Western Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).