Collecting the companies. The approach of spring (1843) found numbers of men in various sections of the country preparing for the march. The companies had been organizing for many months. Correspondence committees in western Missouri received names of intending emigrants as early as September, 1842. An emigration agent from St. Louis, Mr. J. M, Shivley, spent the winter in Washington, kept the people of the West informed as to the progress of legislation respecting Oregon, and tried to induce the Secretary of War to provide a company of troops to escort the emigrants. Senator Linn once more brought up his bill for the estabhshment of a territorial government and the granting of lands to settlers. It passed the Senate on the 3d of February by the close vote of twenty-four to twentytwo. Although afterward killed in the House of Representatives, the enthusiasm and hope aroused by the passage of the bill through the Senate had much to do with starting new recruits to the place of rendezvous. So did, also, the public meetings held in various places, like Columbus and Chillicothe, Ohio, and Springfield, Illinois, to discuss the Oregon question and to adopt resolutions urging Congress to pass the Linn bill. A few men of large influence in the western communities had decided to emigrate, and they undertook to persuade others by means of newspaper articles, personal interviews, and public addresses. In Bloomington, Iowa, the entire population appears to have been affected by what men called the "Oregon fever "; they held several public meetings, organized an emigrating
