by nine sturdy associates, set out from the headquarters of the army at Waiilatpu on the 4th of March, 1848, and in just sixty-six days reached St. Joseph, Missouri. Six days later (May 17) he arrived at St. Louis, and now the dreadful story of the Whitman massacre was flashed all over the land, producing a feeling of sympathy and anxiety for the Oregon people that nothing in their previous history had been able to excite. Meek went to Washington and laid his dispatches before President Polk. They were at once sent to Congress, together with a message calling on that body to act, and act quickly, in order that troops might be hurried to the defence of Oregon before the end of the summer. Great haste was not possible, for the question of slavery was beginning to overshadow all else, and the strongest passions were aroused on this subject in the course of the debate on the Oregon bill. Yet so much general interest was felt in the safety of Oregon that the measure was finally passed, just before the adjournment of Congress, August 13, after a continuous session of twenty-one hours.
The territory of Oregon; General Lane governor. President Polk signed the bill and appointed General Joseph Lane of Indiana governor of the territory of Oregon. Joe Meek was given the office of United States marshal in the new government. Governor Lane, Meek, and a number of others started for Oregon by way of Santa Fe and California late in August. They succeeded, though with much difficulty, in reaching San Francisco, where the governor and marshal
