FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 289 of the advantages of the region, for in this there was little new, but from its view of the action which was deemed neces- sary and of the claims it put forth on behalf of the United States. It stated that "it is due alike to the interests and the honor of the United States to take immediate steps to assert and secure the national rights in this matter." The "national rights" are indicated in this way : "The United States, then, claim title to the exclusive dominion, as against any foreign power, of the country extending east and west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and north and south from the limits of the Mexican republic in latitude 42, north of those of Russia in latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes north, with an offer to relinquish to Great Britain all north of latitude 49. They claim this on three grounds : 1. In their own right; 2. as successor to France; and 3. of Spain." The report flatly announced that American traders had been driven out by the Hudson's Bay Company; "the plan of the British to put an end to American enterprise in the valley of the Columbia has succeeded." This statement, which was not founded on any good grounds, was no doubt caused by the ad- vice McLoughlin gave all settlers to go into the Willamette val- ley. The bill accompanying the report was less pointed for it merely would direct the President to afford military protection to American citizens residing in or having business in Oregon. Nothing was done with this measure before the supplementary report appeared. This document was accompanied by a letter from Jason Lee, written from Connecticut, the Memorial from residents in Oregon, already presented by Linn in the Senate, a Memoir of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, Slacum's report to Forsyth, Hall J. Kelley's Memorial, and letters from the Secretaries of War and the Navy, giving estimates of the cost of military and naval establishments in the Oregon Territory. There was also a letter from F. P. Tracy, for the Oregon Pro- visional Emigrant Society, together with a copy of the consti- tution of that association. Deference to the same motives which caused the Senate to suspend action prompted the rec- ommendation of the committee :
