372 FEDERAL EBPORTBE. �out any intention of returning, because of a change of policy on the part of the society; and if the act of 1848 had not contained the clause making the grants of mission stations as it did, it is morally certain that we would never have heard of this manifest afterthought, that Whitman was to keep up the missionary work at The Dalles, in some sense as the rep- resentative of and for the defendant, and that upon his death the station would have been re-occupied and held by it as a mission but for fear of the Indians. �But it is urged that congress has recognized the validity of the defendant's claim to this land by the passage of the act of June 16, 1860, (12 St. 44,) "for the relief of the mission- ary society of the Methodist Episcopal Church," which pro- vided that there should be paid to said society "the sum of $20,000, upon filing in the proper department a release to the United States, to be approved by the attorney general, of ail claim to the land embraced within the limits of the mil- itary reservation at The Dalles, in Oregon territory, and of ail claim for damages for destruction of property on or near the said land by the United States troops or volunteers or Indians at any time anterior to' the date of said release. " �To fuUy comprehend the motive and scope of the act it is necessary to stato that in 1854 the military reservation at The DalleSj -which had covered & number of square miles, was, by an order of the war department, reduced to 640 acres, to be laid ofif in such a manner as least to interfere with pri- vate rights. In the execution of this order only 353 acres of "the mission station, as surveyed in 1850 by the defendant, including all the improvements thereon, were embraced in the reservation. The society availed itself of this circum- stance, and at once asked for compensation. The matter was referred by the department to Major G. J. Eaines, then the post commander at the Dalles, who reported in favor of pay- ing the society the sum of $20,000. On January 28, 1859, the bouse committee on military affairs also recommended Buch payment, which was to be in fuU satisfaction of the claim for the land, and also one for $4,000 for the destruc- tion of property upon the claim. The committee state in ��� �
