and after making their appeal to the people they resigned, and another board was appointed by legislative act, consisting of A. L. Lovejoy, Hugh Burns, and W. H. Willson. The new commissioners were not able to collect funds, but were obliged to take orders on the stores in Oregon City, in consequence of which it was impossible for the commissary-general to obtain articles for the use of the army, money being required to purchase axes and spades to make a road for the wagons to pass up the Columbia River; and the commissioners were in some cases obliged to discount twenty-five per cent of the subscriptions, in order to obtain cash. What the commissioners could not furnish, the volunteers and the citizens supplied out of their private resources, taking receipts for any considerable amount of property.
The company destined for the Dalles were chiefly from the late settlers. It took somewhat longer to move men located on farms far up the valley. They did move, however, with surprising quickness, considering the difficulties to be overcome.
On the day following the departure of the Dalles company, the legislature proceeded to elect officers for the army, the election resulting in the choice of Cornelius Gilliam, colonel commandant, James Waters, lieutenant-colonel, H. A. G. Lee, major, and Joel Palmer, commissary-general. Their next act was to pass a bill to provide for a messenger to be sent to the United States,[1] their choice falling on Joseph L. Meek, who
- ↑ The bill which passed authorized him to proceed with all despatch by the way of California to Washington City, and lay before the executive of the United States such official communications as he should be charged with. It also required him to take an oath faithfully to perform his duties to the best of his abilities; leaving him to be compensated by the government of the United States; and authorized him to borrow, if he could, on the faith of the Oregon government, $500 for his expenses, while he was made to give bonds to the governor in the amount of $1,000, for the faithful execution of his trust. Or. Spectator, Jan. 6, 1848. This was making the office of special messenger an onerous one; and so the legislature must have perceived, for another act was passed appropriating $500 in addition to the first appropria-
the merchants of Oregon City. Report of Loan Commissioners, Grover's Or. Archives, 332–3. Waldo says in his Critiques, MS., 6, that he and Applegate contributed $1,000, and that he went around the valley soliciting subscriptions.
