the country to stifle the efforts at settlement. In 1845 he sent an express to Fort Hall, eight hundred miles, to warn the American emigrants that if they attempted to come to Willamette they would all be cut off; they went, and none were cut off… I was instructed by my legislature to ask donations of land to American citizens only. The memorial of the Oregon legislature was reported so as to ask donations to settlers, and the word was stricken out, and citizens inserted. This, sir, I consider fully bears me out in insisting that our public lands shall not be thrown into the hands of foreigners, who will not become citizens, and who sympathize with us with crocodile tears only.[1] … I can refer you to the supreme judge of our territory[2] for proof that this Dr McLoughlin refuses to file his intention to become an American citizen.[3] If a foreigner would bona fide file his intentions I would not object to give him land. There are many Englishmen, members of the Hudson's
- ↑ The assertion contained in this paragraph that the word 'settler' was altered to 'citizen' in the memorial was also untrue. I have a copy of the memorial signed by the chief cherk of both the house and council, and inscribed, 'Passed July 26, 1849,' in which congress is asked to make a grant of 640 acres of land 'to each actual settler, including widows and orphans.' Or. Archives, MS., 177.
- ↑ Bryant was then in Washington to assist in the missionary scheme, of which, as the assignees of Abernethy, both he and Lane were abettors.
- ↑ Thurston also knew this to be untrue. William J. Berry, writing in the Spectator, Dec. 26, 1850, says: 'Now, I assert that Mr Thurston knew, previous to the election, that Dr McLoughlin had filed his intentions. I heard him say, in a stump speech at the City Hotel, that he expected his (the doctor's) vote. At the election I happened to be one of the judges. Dr McLoughlin came up to vote; the question was asked by myself, if he had filed his intentions. The clerk of the court, George L. Curry, Esq., who was standing near the window, said that he had. He voted.' Says McLoughlin: 'I declared my intention to become an American citizen on the 30th of May, 1849, as any one may see who will examine the records of the court.' Or. Spectator, Sept. 12, 1850. Waldo, testifies: 'Thurston lied on the doctor. He did it because the doctor would not vote for him. He lied in congress, and got others to write lies from here about him—men who knew nothing about it. They falsified about the old doctor cheating the people, setting the Indians on them, and treating them badly.' Critiques, MS., 15. Says Applegate: 'Thurston asserted among many other falsehoods, that the doctor utterly refused to become an American citizen, and Judge Bryant endorsed the assertion.' Historical Correspondence, MS., 14. Says Grover: 'The old doctor was looking to becoming a leading American citizen until this difficulty occurred in regard to his land. He had taken out naturalization papers. All his life from young manhood had been spent in the north-west; and he was not going to leave the country.' Public Life in Or., MS., 91.
