Bay Company, who would file their intention merely to get the land, and then tell you to whistle. Now, sir, I hope this house, this congress, this country, will not allow that company to stealthily get possession of all the good land in Oregon, and thus keep it out of the hands of those who would become good and worthy citizens."[1]
Having prepared the way by a letter to the house of representatives for introducing into the land bill a section depriving McLoughlin of his Oregon City claim, which he had the audacity to declare was first taken by the Methodist mission, section eleventh of the law as it finally passed, and as it now stands upon, the sixty-eighth page of the General Laws of Oregon, was introduced and passed without opposition. Judge Bryant receiving his bribe for falsehood, by the reservation of Abernethy Island, which was "confirmed to the legal assigns of the Willamette Milling and Trading Company," while the remainder, except lots sold or given away by McLoughlin previous to the 4th of March 1849, should be at the disposal of the legislative assembly of Oregon for the establishment and endowment of a university, to be located not at Oregon City, but at such place in the territory as the legislature might designate. Thus artfully did the servant of the Methodist mission strive for the ruin of McLoughlin and the approbation of his constituents, well knowing that they would not feel so much at liberty to reject a bounty to the cause of education, as a gift of any other kind.[2]
- ↑ Cong. Globe, 1849–50, 1079.
- ↑ In Thurston's letter to the house of representatives he appealed to them to pass the land bill without delay, on the ground that Oregon was becoming depopulated through the neglect of congress to keep its engagement. The people of the States had, he declared, lost all confidence in their previous belief that a donation law would be passed; and the people in the territory were ceasing to improve, were going to California, and when they were fortunate enough to make any money, were returning to the Atlantic States. 'Our population,' he said, 'is dwindling away, and our anxieties and fears can easily be perceived.' Of the high water of 1849–50, which carried away property and damaged mills to the amount of about $300,000, he said: 'The owners who have means dare not rebuild because they have no title. Each man is collecting his means in anticipation that he may leave the country.' And this, although
