transported to the western base of the Rocky Mountains would be hopelessly removed from a source of supplies on either side of the continent for at least half the year.
Soon after the resolution above referred to had been reported to the senate, Linn was placed in possession of Farnham's letter to the secretary of war, with the petition which accompanied it, and which was drawn up during his visit to the Willamette Valley, complaining of the introduction of English emigrants by the Hudson's Bay Company, the pretended recent extension of the laws of Canada over the inhabitants of Oregon, and exhibiting alarm lest the company entertained hostile intentions toward American settlers. Acting upon this information, Linn introduced, on the 28th of April, a bill to extend a portion of the laws of the United States over the territory of Oregon. On the 24th of May, on his motion, the Oregon resolutions were made the special order of the day for a fortnight thence; but by the advice of other senators, were posponed for the time, lest their consideration by the senate at this juncture should prejudice the adjustment of important questions then pending between the United States and Great Britain.[1] In the mean time, Captain Spaulding's report had reached Washington, and although the same cause for silence existed, on the 8th of January, 1841, Linn brought the topic, of which he was now the acknowledged apostle in the senate, to the attention of that body, by moving a joint resolution to authorize the adoption of measures for the occupation and settlement of the Oregon Territory, and for extending certain portions of the laws of the United States over it. The resolution was referred, as before, to a select committee of which Linn was chairman, who reported it to the senate, without amendment,
- ↑ The settlement of the Maine boundary, so long deferred, the right of search, the liberation of slaves, and the burning of the Caroline, besides others. Only a few of the affairs were settled by the treaty of 1842, known as the Ashburton treaty.
