Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/420

Rh been recorded in previous chapters of this history. The enthusiast Kelley, having failed in securing a grant of land, finally reached Oregon, sick, and in poverty and unmerited disgrace, to be rescued from perishing by the foreign company he had beforehand determined to regard with suspicion and hatred. But the little company he persuaded to accompany him from California as colonists really became such, and together with the missionaries, formed the nucleus round which grew a population which soon rivalled the fur company. I have shown how this little colony was encouraged and fostered by the heads of the government; how President Jackson sent Slacum to inquire into their condition; how the Mission colony was assisted; the commander of the Pacific exploring squadron ordered to examine into their causes of complaint; and how Elijah White was commissioned sub-agent of Indian affairs to keep up their courage and loyalty.

Between 1829 and 1837 the people as well as congress had become comparatively well informed as to the value of the Oregon Territory, its natural resources, independent of the fur trade, and its commercial position with regard to the coast of Asia; nearly every person known to have returned from that quarter having been put upon the witness-stand. On the 16th of October of the latter year, a resolution was passed in the senate, requesting the president to inform that body at its next session of any correspondence between the United States government and any foreign power relative to the occupation of the territory of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains. The president's reply, made in December, was, that since the convention of 1827 no such correspondence had taken place; those negotiations being communicated in confidence to the senate in the early part of the 20th session of congress.