USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 38
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30 The settlement of the Maine boundary, so long deferred, the right of search, the liberation of slaves, and the burning of the Caroline, besides others. Only a few of the affairs were settled by the treaty of 1842, known as the Ashburton treaty.
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OREGON BEFORE CONGRESS.
on the 14th of January, nothing further being done at this session.
But at the extra session in August, Linn submitted another resolution, that the president be requested to give to the British government the twelve months' notice required by the convention of 1827, of a desire to put an end to the treaty of joint occupation of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains. This resolu- tion was subsequently amended so as to direct the committee on foreign relations "to inquire into the expediency of requesting the president" to give the notice. As the subject was permitted to drop there, it is presumable that it was pronounced inexpedient by that committee.
The president, however, in his essage to congress December 7, 1841, recommended to its consideration the report of the secretary of war, John C. Spencer, a strong advocate of the occupation of Oregon,31 who favored extending military posts as far as the Rocky Mountains; and who believed with John C. Calhoun that silent emigration would do the rest, and settle all disputes about that region.32 On the 16th of Decem- ber Linn again introduced a bill in the senate, the pre- amble to which declared that the title of the United States to the territory of Oregon was certain, and would not be abandoned,33 authorizing the adoption of measures for the occupation and settlement of Ore-
6) That part of the president's message relating to the establishment of a chain of posts from the Missouri to the Pacific was referred to the committee on military affairs, of which Pendleton of Ohio was chairman. His report, 27th Cong., 2d Sess., House Doc. 830, contains a review of the Oregon question of title, an estimate of the expense of erecting forts, a description of the country, a letter with information about the Methodist Mission, the Hudson's Bay Company, and other matters.
32 Niles' Reg., Ixviii. 162. Niles' Weekly Register was started in Septem- ber 1811, at Baltimore, Maryland, by H. Niles. It was a journal of sixteen pages octavo, devoted to the publication of 'political, historical, geographical, scientific, astronomical, statistical, and biographical documents, essays, and facts, together with notices of the arts and manufactures, and a record of the events of the times.' It was subsequently enlarged and was removed to Phil- adelphia, where it was edited by George Beatty. As a record of current events, it sustains its character well, and was among the most zealous advo- cates of the United States interest in Oregon. Almost a complete history of the Oregon emigrations could be drawn from its pages.
33 Linn and Sargent's Life of Linn, 232.
379
FAILURE OF LINN'S BILL.
gon, for extending certain portions of the laws of the United States over that territory, and for other pur- poses, following it on the 4th of January, 1842, by a resolution similar to that of the preceding August, requesting the president to give notice to Great Britain of an intention to terminate the treaty of 1827. It was about this date that Elijah White was urged to return to Oregon with all the powers the government could at that time confer, and with assur- ances to the settlers on the Willamette that con- gress would remember them, and the hope expressed that in the pending negotiations the Oregon boundary might be determined, and that at all events it would be determined at an early day. About this time, also, Lieutenant Frémont was despatched upon an expedition for the purpose of ascertaining the best location for a line of military posts from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, and to collect infor- mation concerning the country on his route.
Linn's bill contained a section authorizing a line of forts from the Missouri into "the best pass for enter- ing the valley of the Oregon," and also a post at or near the mouth of the Columbia River, besides one granting six hundred and forty acres of land to every white male inhabitant of eighteen years of age or over who should cultivate the same for five years. These were its popular features. It also authorized and required the president to appoint two additional In dian agents, with a salary of $1,500 each, to superin tend the interests of the United States with all the tribes west of any agency then existing. This was the promise of promotion held out to the Oregon sub- agent already appointed.34
The bill extended the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the supreme and district courts of the territory of Iowa over all the territory west of the Missouri River, south of latitude 49°, north of the boundary of Texas, and east of the Rocky Mountains; and also over all the
34 White's Ten Years in Or., 324
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OREGON BEFORE CONGRESS.
country from the mountains to the ocean, between latitudes 42° and 54°, but provided for the delivery of such criminal subjects of Great Britain as might be arrested under the act, to the most convenient au- thorities having cognizance of the offence by the laws of that nation. Two associate justices of the su- preme court of Iowa, in addition to those already authorized by law, were by the terms of the bill to be appointed for the duties of the two judicial districts to be organized out of the territory described, these district courts to possess all the powers and authority invested in the other district courts of Iowa, and in like manner to appoint their clerks. The bill also provided for justices of the peace and constables, with power to arrest offenders. By these means it was intended to furnish that protection which had so often been demanded by the Oregon colonists.
The bill was referred to a select committee, who instructed the chairman to report it back to the senate with a recommendation that it pass, and it was placed in its order on the calendar; but before it came up for consideration, Lord Ashburton, the British pleni- potentiary, arrived in Washington, and out of delicacy as well as diplomacy, the senate refrained from any further discussion on the subject for the time. On the 9th of August, 1842, the treaty framed by Lord Ashburton and Mr Webster was concluded, and early in the following session Linn brought up his bill, pressing it with great ardor, and enlisting the best talent of the senate in the debate.35 After a heated discussion, it passed the senate by a vote of twenty- four to twenty-two, February 3, 1843, but failed in the house.36 Thus, like Floyd, after a struggle of
35 Calhoun, Archer, McDuffie, Crittenden, Conrad, Choate, and Berrien were adverse to the passage of the bill. Benton, Young, Sevier, Buchanan, Walker, Phelps, and Linn were its advocates. Benton said: 'I now go for vindicating our rights on the Columbia, and as the first step toward it, passing this bill, and making these grants of land, which will soon place thirty or forty thousand rifles beyond the Rocky Mountains.' Thirty Years' View, ii. 470-82; Grover's Public Life in Or., MS., 99. 36 Cong. Globe, 1842-3, 297.
381
DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE PEOPLE.
years, he had the satisfaction of getting his measure through that branch of the national legislature of which he was a member, though it did not become a law. It was Floyd's last effort in congress; it was Linn's last effort in the senate, for he died October 3d of that year, and before the reassembling of con- gress. 37
The disappointment of the people of the western states was great when the results of the Ashburton- Webster treaty were made known, and it became cer- tain that the Oregon boundary had not been touched upon, the interest in the title increasing rather than diminishing. President Tyler, in his message to con- gress December 1842, felt called upon to apologize for the failure. "It became manifest," he said, "at an early hour of the late negotiations, that any attempt for the time being satisfactorily to determine those rights would lead to a protracted discussion which might embrace in its failure other more pressing mat- ters." He promised, however, not to delay urging a settlement.
The secretary of war in his annual report expressed himself favorable to a line of military posts, with the avowed object of making an exhibition of strength to influence the nativ s, and to show an intention to maintain the rights of the United States on the Pacific coast; and advised the extension of their juris- diction over the Oregon Territory; and also giving armed protection to the citizens of the United States already there, as well as making an appropriation to send out a colony who were anxious to undertake the enterprise.38 Resolutions of the general assemblies
37 Lewis F. Linn was born near the site of the city of Louisville, Ken- tucky, Nov. 5, 1795, being a grandson of William Linn of the revolutionary war, a son of whom emigrated from Pennsylvania to 'where wild Ohio's mighty flood rolled through Kentucky's twilight wood,' at a day when few white people lived on the banks of the Belle Rivière. Linn seems to have engaged the affections of those with whom he was associated, to a remarkable degree, and the eulogies pronounced at his death were numerous. See Linn and Sargent's Life of Linn, 341-441.
38 27th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 2.
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OREGON BEFORE CONGRESS.
of Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri were forwarded to congress, expressing their faith in the validity of the United States title to the right of domain and exclu- sive jurisdiction between latitude 42° and 49°, urging the immediate occupation of the territory; 39 and instructing senators and representatives to vote for the measure. These resolutions were read in the senate August 31, 1843. Nine memorials were pre- sented in December, from different parts of the western states, asking that steps be taken for the immediate occupation of Oregon. One memorial from Ohio, presented to the house, asked permission to occupy and settle "not over twenty thousand square miles of land in Oregon in one body;" the settlers not to number less than fifty men, one half of whom must have families." The request was referred to a special committee, who already had in hand a petition from Illinois asking that a section of land be granted to every man over twenty-one years of age who should settle in Oregon.
Petitions were received from Alabama, Iowa, Ken- tucky, Missouri, and Indiana, of a similar nature. Public meetings were held at Alton, Illinois, Cincin- nati, Ohio, and at Washington City, demanding the occupation of Oregon.41 Hundreds of letters poured in on Senator Linn, and continued up to the time of his death to make large demands upon his time. Nor did these petitions and memorials cease with the loss of Oregon's able champion. In the first session of 1843-4 petitions of the same nature were sent in from Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio.42 The citi- zens of Missouri desired that an appropriation be made for the survey and establishment of the boun- dary of Oregon Territory, and that the jurisdiction
39 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc., iii. 158; 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc., iv. 217; 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc., iii. 159; 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc., iii. 180.
40 27th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Jour., 260.
41 27th Cong., 3d Sess., Sen. Doc., 84; Semple's Occupation of Oregon, 8, 9, 18; Cong. Globe, 1842-3, 84, 88, 220, 267, 287, 340.
42 28th Cong., 1st Sess.,. H. Jour., 80, 107, 276.
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THE QUESTION OF TITLE.
of the United States should be extended over it as soon as possible. Moore of Ohio presented in the lower house a declaration of the citizens of the Mis- sissippi Valley in convention assembled at Cincinnati, on the 5th of July previous, and indeed, from this time forward till the final settlement of the Oregon boundary in 1846 the agitation increased, as I have already shown in the chapters on the Oregon title in the second volume on the Northwest Coast.43
The president in his annual message to congress, · December 5, 1843, in remarking on the subject of the Oregon boundary, announced the ultimate claim of the United States to be to all the territory north of 42° and south of 54° 40' on the Northwest Coast. Great Britain, he said, controverted this claim, and the American minister at London, under instructions, had again brought the subject to the consideration of the British government. A happy termination of the negotiations was expected; but in the mean time many citizens of the United States were on their way to Oregon, many were there, and others were prepar- ing to emigrate, and he recommended the establishing of military posts along the line of travel.
This was the first formal announcement of the in- tention of the United States to ignore any claim of Great Britain to territory on the Pacific; but it quickly became the watchword of a majority of the
43 Petition of the citizens of Licking County, Ohio, urging the government to take immediate possession of Oregon. Cong. Globe, 1843-4, 82. Resolu- tion of the legislative assembly of Ohio, to terminate the convention with Great Britain. 28th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Ex. Docs., ii. 56; with similar reso- lutions from New Hampshire, Missouri, Illinois, and Alabama. Resolution of the general assembly of Indiana to the same effect; 'peaceably if we can; forcibly if we must.' 28th Cong., 1st Sess., H. Jour., 423-4; Cong. Globe, 1843 4, 226. Petition of David Newkirk and 55 others of Seneca County, Ohio, asking congress to take measures to aid settlers in Oregon. Petition of citizens of Wayne County, Ohio, for the immediate occupation of Oregon Territory. The same from Carroll County and Medina County, that the ordinance of 1787 be extended over Oregon. Petition of the people of the state of Ohio, that the Oregon Territory be immediately occupied. Petition of the citizens of Ross and Pickaway counties, Ohio, praying for a territorial government in Oregon. Petition of the citizens of Oswego County, New York, for the set- tlement of the boundary and for the protection of emigrants to Oregon. Cong. Globe, 1843-4, 636; Id., 1844-5. 155; and probably others that have escaped my observation.
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OREGON BEFORE CONGRESS.
American people, and on this issue Polk was elected to the presidency the following year. Meanwhile con- gress was more than ever engaged in the discussion of the Oregon Question and Oregon measures, a bill for occupation being before both houses.
Early in the first session of the 28th congress, Atchison of Missouri introduced in the senate a bill " to facilitate and encourage the settlement of the terri- tory of Oregon," by a line of stockade or block-house forts, not over five in number, extending to the Rocky Mountains; the erection of fortifications at the mouth of the Columbia; a grant of six hundred and forty acres of land to every white male inhabitant of eighteen years of age or upwards who should culti- vate the same for five years; to every such cultivator who should be married, one hundred and sixty acres additional for having a wife; besides an equal amount for every child he might have under the age of eighteen years, or who might be born to him during the five years of occupancy and use of the land, which gave him title. The land should revert to heirs at law, though no sale of it would be valid before the patent issued. The territory of Oregon was declared to comprise all the country lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and within the parallels of 42° and 54° 40', and the sum of $100,000 was by the bill appro- priated to carry these measures into effect. After a long discussion, during which all the old arguments, with sundry new ones arising out of the altered con- dition of the Oregon Territory through colonization, and the alleged oppressions of the Hudson's Bay Company, together with the attitude of England occasioned by the proceedings of the previous con- gress, were fully entered into, the final consideration of the bill was postponed on account of the arrival of a British minister to carry on negotiations on the Oregon Question, and in the hope that the settlement of the controversy would remove all obstacles to the extension of jurisdiction and protection.
385
PROLONGED DISCUSSION.
Another bill was introduced by Atchison, for " establishing a government" in the territory of Ore- gon, which was not pressed to a third reading. A. resolution of Allen of Ohio, requesting the president to lay before the senate a copy of his instructions to the American minister in England on the subject of the Oregon title, since the 4th of March, 1841, with a copy of the correspondence which had passed, elicit- ed extended debate on the powers of the executive
and the senate, and was rejected by a vote of thirty- one to fourteen. The president had already declined a similar request of the lower house as inexpedient, owing to the prospect of negotiation; but the senate, it was contended by some members, had certain rights in the matter, not to be set aside by the executive. Another resolution by Semple of Illinois, requesting the president to give to Great Britain the twelve months' notice required, of a desire to annul the con- vention of 1818, caused yet more discussion, presaging war as it did, and the resolution was negatived by a vote of twenty-eight to eighteen.
In the house of representatives the same topics were prominent throughout the session. Hughes of Missouri introduced a bill for the organization of a territorial government,# which being referred to the committee on territories, Brown of Tennessee chair- man, reported a bill extending the civil and criminal jurisdiction of Iowa Territory over Oregon, as far north as 54° 40', giving land as in the senate bill; providing for the appointment of a judge and justice of the peace; and appropriating $100,000 to build forts on the road to Oregon, and within it.45 Ten thousand copies of the bill and report were ordered printed, and that was the end of it.
Semple of Illinois offered a resolution requesting the president to give notice to Great Britain of the intended abrogation of the treaty of 1818, at the end
44 28th Cong., 1st Sess., H. Jour., 1844, 168-9.
45 Cong. Globe, 1843-4, 366; 28th Cony., 1st Sess., H. Jour., 636. HIST. OR., VOL. L 25
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OREGON BEFORE CONGRESS.
of twelve months, which was referred to the commit- tee on foreign affairs, who reported adversely, not wish- ing to disturb the course of international discussions by such a step. This did not prevent members from ex- pressing their views with freedom, offering resolutions laying claim to the whole of Oregon, and declining to adjourn till a territory was organized in that region.
The second session of the 28th congress, 1844-5, opened with the Oregon Question, in the form of a resolution by Allen of Ohio, requesting the president to lay before the senate any instructions which had been given the American minister in England on the subject, since a former correspondence, which resolu- tion was passed by a vote of twenty-four to sixteen, showing the progress of public sentiment among the most conservative class. The president, however, thought fit to make no response; and the senate endeavored to act with circumspection; when a bill for establishing a government was presented by Mr Atchison of Missouri, and referred to a select com- mittee, who made a feint of opposing the measure by proposing to refer to the committee on foreign affairs, the attempt being defeated by a vote of twenty-four to twenty. The president himself, in his annual mes- sage, after informing congress that a negotiation had been formally entered upon between the secretary of state, Mr Calhoun, and the minister of Great Britain residing at Washington, renewed the recommendations in his previous messages that congress should take ineasures to facilitate immigration, by establishing military posts, "and make the provision of the exist- ing convention for joint occupancy of the territory by subjects of Great Britain and citizens of the United States more available than heretofore to the latter." As at the former session, there were a number of petitions to congress from the citizens and legislatures of several of the states, asking 46 a territorial govern-
46 Cong. Globe, 1844-5, 17, 155, 237, 277.
387
TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
ment for Oregon, and urging the government to give notice to Great Britain. 47
In the lower house the sentiment in favor of organ- izing a territorial government had also much increased during the summer vacation; and when Duncan of Ohio asked to introduce a bill for that purpose, the objections were overruled by a vote of one hundred and twenty-five to fifty-three. When the bill was reported back from its committee, it met little opposi- tion, and was finally passed February 3, 1845, by a vote of one hundred and forty to fifty-nine. Then it was sent to the senate, and adopted by the select committee in place of the Atchison bill, but being postponed when on the point of a vote, failed for want of time.
The effect of the objections to the Oregon bills defeated at the previous session was apparent in the bills offered at this. Atchison's bills enacted that a temporary government,48 with a governor to remain in office five years, and other officers necessary to a proper administration of law should be provided for ; with a legislative body consisting of the governor and judges, all of whose acts should be transmitted to the secretary of state of the United States by the secre- tary of Oregon every six months, to be annually laid before congress. The governor was made commander- in-chief of the militia, with power to appoint both military and civil officers, and lay off districts for civil and military purposes. As soon as there should be
47 The legislature of Maine claimed the whole Oregon Territory up to 54° 40', and closed a long series of resolutions with this one: 'That our senators in congress be instructed, and our representatives be requested, to use their best exertions to secure the annexation of Texas to the United States, and the occupation of Oregon, in conformity with the foregoing resolutions.' Texas was at this juncture frequently in the 'resolutions' both in and out of con- „gress, and was really one obstacle to the success of the Oregon measures; as the southern states cared more for its annexation than for the occupation of Oregon .. As the annexation of Texas seemed more probable, it was endeavored by coupling to carry the Oregon measure. See resolution of the legislature of New Hampshire, Cong. Globe, 1844-5, p. 100; of Ohio, p. 175.
48 It is remarkable that no allusion is made in the debates to a temporary government already existing in Oregon, of which information must have been obtained, officially or otherwise. Elijah White certainly reported on the subject.
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OREGON BEFORE CONGRESS.
five thousand free white male inhabitants over twenty .. one years of age citizens of the United States, they might elect a legislature, one representative for every five hundred voters, to serve for two years; the legis- lature to consist of a council and house of representa- tives, the council to consist of five members, elected by the whole legislative body, to serve five years ; the president of the United States to have power to re- move any member; the assembly to have power to make laws for the territory, not conflicting with the laws of the United States, the veto power being abso-
lute in the governor. A delegate to congress, with the right of debate only, should be elected immediately upon the appointment of a governor, the latter being also superintendent of Indian affairs. The bill provided also for a line of stockade forts and block-houses to the South Pass, and a fort at the mouth of the Columbia. The grant of land to settlers was promised 'hereafter ;' six hundred and forty acres to every white male in- habitant over eighteen, one hundred and sixty acres to the wife of every married man, and the same quantity to the father for each child under eighteen already in existence, or who should be born within five years after his settlement on a land claim. The president was authorized and required to appoint two additional Indian agents besides the governor. The territory over which this form of government was to be extended was confined to the limit of 49°. I have given this abstract of Atchison's bill to show the gradual progress toward the idea of a government for Oregon, in spite of the international question in the way.49
The bill which passed in the house, while claiming the Oregon Territory to 54° 40', contained several. clauses intended to guard it against the charge of ignoring the treaty obligations of the United States.
49 I have another object-to give the gradual growth of the donation land law, the chief new feature in this bill being that 160 acres were given to the wife, instead of to the husband.
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