Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/651

CHAPTER XXII.

POLITICS AND PROGRESS.

1846–1847.

Waiting for a Territorial Government—The Question of a Delegate to Washington—Attempts to Provide for the Ejectment of British Subjects from their Land—Legislative Proceedings—Memorial to Congress—Public Reproof to Trespassers—Reëlection of Abernethy—Douglas' Bill for Establishing a Territory, and its Failure—Action of the People—Private Delegate to Congress—Biographical Notices—The Immigration of 1847.

With the news that the notice bill had been passed, and before it was known that a treaty had been concluded, the subject of sending a delegate at once to Washington to make known to congress the wants of Oregon began to be agitated; for it was not doubted that immediate action would be taken to adopt the colony as a territory, and there were those who were solicitous as to the changes which must follow, and for official positions for themselves or friends. They said that thousands of people had been induced to emigrate to Oregon by a promise of land, which had been selected and located under the land law of the provisional government; and they wanted these claims confirmed as they were, before any United States surveyor should arrive with power to alter their boundaries in conformity to section lines and subdivisions.

They needed a delegate to represent the matter in congress, and to give the cooperation asked for to the scheme of a national railroad to the Pacific; an agent who should go armed with a memorial signed

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