Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/411

360 to pass the bill, and intimating their desire to emigrate to, and for the improvement of that country.

At the next session of congress, in December, on motion of Mr Floyd, a committee on the expediency of occupying the Columbia was again appointed, consisting of Floyd, Gurley of Louisiana, Scott of Missouri, Hayden of New York, Bassett of Virginia, Frost of New York, and Baylies of the former committee, with leave to report a bill; and on the 19th of January, 1824, Floyd presented a bill to authorize the occupation of the Columbia or Oregon River, which was twice read, and referred to a committee of the whole house on the state of the union. This bill, unlike that immediately preceding it, authorized the president not only to establish a military colony, but to erect a territorial government whenever he might deem it expedient to do so— Floyd's first proposition, but one which was opposed by a majority of the friends of military occupation. The bill also granted a section of land to actual settlers, instead of the former amount.

On the 26th a resolution, of which Floyd was the author, was agreed to by the house, requesting the president to cause to be laid before the house an estimate of the expense which would be incurred by transporting two hundred troops from Council Bluffs to the mouth of the Columbia. The reply by the war department was that the transportation of the troops by the Missouri and Columbia rivers, with boats, horses, and equipments, would be $30,000; and the transportation by sea of the heavy baggage, ordnance, and supplies would amount to not more than $14,000 extra; the report being referred to the committee on the occupation of the Columbia or Oregon River, and by them laid before the house. The estimates contained in this report were made by Thomas S. Jessup, quartermaster-general. He recommended a post to be established at the Mandan villages, to control the