career. He allowed the land bill to drift along, making only some practical suggestions, until his resolutions had had time to sink into the minds of members of both houses. When the bill was well on its way he proposed amendments, such as to strike out of the fourth section that portion which gave every settler or occupant of the public lands above the age of eighteen a donation of three hundred and twenty acres of land if a single man, and if married, or becoming married within a given time, six hundred and forty acres, one half to himself in his own right, and the other half to his wife in her own right, the surveyor-general to designate the part inuring to each;[1] and to make it read "that there shall be, and hereby is granted to every white male settler, or occupant of the public lands, American half-breeds included, members and servants of the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound companies excepted," etc.
He proposed further a proviso "that every foreigner making claim to lands by virtue of this act, before he shall receive a title to the same, shall prove to the surveyor-general that he has commenced and completed his naturalization and become an American citizen." The proviso was not objected to, but the previous amendment was declared by Bowlin, of Missouri, unjust to the retired servants of the fur company, who had long lived on and cultivated farms. The debate upon this part of the bill became warm, and Thurston, being pressed, gave utterance to the following infamous lies:
"This company has been warring against our government these forty years. Dr McLoughlin has been their chief fugleman, first to cheat our government out of the whole country, and next to prevent its settlement. He has driven men from claims and from
- ↑ This was the principle of the donation law as passed. The surveyor-general usually inquired of the wife her choice, and was gallant enough to give it her; hence it usually happened that the portion having the dwelling and improvements upon it went to the wife.
