The two months which intervened between Thurston's arrival in Washington and the day when he introduced his resolutions had not been lost. He had studied congressional methods and proved himself an apt scholar. He attempted nothing without first having tried his ground with the committees, and prepared the way, often with great labor, to final success. On the 6th of February, further resolutions were introduced inquiring into the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company to cut and manufacture timber growing on the public lands of Oregon, and particuarly on lands not inclosed or cultivated by them at the time of the ratification of the Oregon treaty; into the right of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company to any more land than they had under inclosure, or in a state of actual cultivation at that time; and into the right of the Hudson's Bay Company, under the second article of the treaty, or of British subjects trading with the company, to introduce through the port of Astoria foreign goods for consumption in the territory free of duty,[1] which resolutions were referred to the judiciary committee. On the same day he introduced a resolution that the committee on public lands should be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reporting a bill for the establishment of a land office in Oregon, and to provide for the survey of a portion of the public lands in that territory, containing such other provisions and restrictions as the committee might deem necessary for the proper management and protection of the public lands.[2]
In the mean time a bill was before the senate for the extinguishment of the Indian title to land west of the Cascade Mountains. This was an important preliminary step to the passage of a donation act.[3]
- ↑ Cong. Globe, 1849–50, 295.
- ↑ Id., 295. A correspondent of the New York Tribune remarks on Thurston's resolutions: 'There are squalls ahead for the Hudson's Bay Company.' Or. Spectator, May 2, 1850.
- ↑ See Or. Spectator, April 18, 1850; 31st Cong., 1st Sess., U. S. Acts and Res., 26–7; Johnson's Cal. and Or., 332; Cong. Globe, 1849–50, 1076–7; Id., 1610; Or. Spectator, Aug. 8, 1850.
