FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON and then diverted to service
in the
Mexican War, was one
tangible evidence that Congress recognized some of the danThe regiment, however, had been of little service to gers.
Oregon.
In 1852 Lane brought in a resolution calling upon House what steps had been taken
the President to inform the
for the protection of emigrants, and in case nothing had been done to request him to order the regiment placed on duty within the Territory of Oregon. The resolution, as was intended, did nothing more than call attention to the fact that the regiment had been withdrawn from Oregon, much depleted, in 1851.
At
the same session (July, 1852,) the Senate had before a definite and elaborate measure for the protection of emigrants. Douglas had brought in a bill which would provide it
three ten-company regiments, with one hundred
men
to the
company, guard and protect emigrants on their way to and California. The bill also proposed to allow H. Oregon the of O'Reilly privilege erecting at his own expense a teleof line each the routes, to be protected, of course, graph along 39 the In troopers. spite of the numerous petitions and by memorials which were coming to Congress the bill found support only from one Senator besides Douglas; opponents like Senator Butler looked upon it as little more than a bounty of $4,000,000 per year granted to emigrants who were lured away by the promise of free lands on the Pacific Coast. Others opposed it on the ground of excessive cost, and still more because such a measure would tend to defeat any provision to
for a railroad.
The the
air.
project of a railroad to the Pacific had long been in It had come up in connection with the bills intro-
duced by Dr. Linn. At the time of the territorial bill agitation there were numerous petitions for rail communication. 40 The scheme most favorably mentioned in such appeals was that
which Eli Whitney had long had before Congress. As
Whitney
early 1848 Douglas had presented 39 Globe, XXV, 1683-6; 1758-60. O'Reilly's petition for telegraphic communication between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast. 40 There were memorials and petitions from the legislatures of Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
as
