Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/421

370 The 7th of February, 1838, Lewis F. Linn, senator from Missouri, introduced a bill for the occupation of the Columbia River, the establishment of a territory north of latitude 42° and west of the Rocky Mountains, to be called the Oregon Territory; the erection of a fort on the Columbia, and occupation of the country by a military force; the establishment of a port of entry, and requiring the country to be held subject to the revenue laws of the United States, with an appropriation of $50,000 for the purposes mentioned in the bill. This was referred to the committee on military affairs. After some discussion of the question of title, Benton procured the reference of the bill to a select committee of which Linn was chairman.

This led to a resolution that the secretary of war be requested to furnish the senate with all the information in his department relating to the Oregon Territory, and with a map embracing recent discoveries of all the country claimed by the United States in the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Out of a mass of material obtained from this and every other available source, Linn prepared his report, which was presented to the senate on the 6th of June. After referring to the message of President Monroe recommending that a military post should be established at the mouth of the Columbia, or at some other point within the acknowledged limits of the United States, which should afford protection to American commerce on the Pacific Ocean, and his suggestion with regard to an armed frigate to explore the mouth of the Columbia and the coast contiguous thereto, for which he advised an appropriation by congress sufficient for the purpose; and after alluding to the subsequent negotiations with Great Britain which ended in nothing definite concerning title; and after referring to the mission of Slacum—he entered on a history of the several treaties with Great Britain affecting the title, and the correspond-