of the same month President Polk laid before Congress the dispatches he bore, with a special message on Oregon affairs.[1] The financial backing for all this undertaking was an appropriation of $1,000—passed in two acts of $500 each—in the form of an authorization "to negotiate" loans for that amount with the power "to pledge the faith of the Government for the payment of them, provided, that before executing bonds on the part of the Oregon Government, he shall enter into security to the executive, in the amount of one thousand dollars." It was also provided that "said messenger shall receive as full compensation for his services, such sum or sums as the Government of the United States shall think proper to allow."[2]
It is thus clear that the hazardous policy of financiering a war solely with credit by a government already badly involved when the war began—having failed to meet the demands upon it in times of peace in a business-like way[3]—was not disastrous mainly because of the patriotic spirit of its people. Means to prosecute the war were all secured on patriotic loans. The people seem to have had little difficulty in identifying the needs of the Government as their own.
Consciousness of financial weakness, while making the Government cautious, did not deter it from undertaking any military movement deemed advisable, nor did it frustrate any undertaken. It did not hinder the strengthening of the forces in the field when occasion seemed to demand it.[4] Hardships were suffered in exposure and in lack of sufficient
- ↑ Victor's Early Indian Wars of Oregon, p. 180.
- ↑ Oregon Archives, Laws, pp. 9 and 11. The act establishing the territorial government of Oregon passed August 14, 1848, appropriated ten thousand dollars "to be expended under the direction of the President of the United States in payment for the services and expenses of the persons engaged by the Provisional Government of Oregon in conveying communications to and from the United States, and the purchase of presents for such of the Indian tribes as the peace and quietude of the country requires."
- ↑ See "Statistical Abstract" No. 2, in the Appendix to the Finances of the Provisional Government.
- ↑ See Governor Abernethy's proclamation, December 25, 1847. (Printed in Victor's "Early Indian Wars of Oregon," pp. 144-5.)
