Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/430

Rh, for extending certain portions of the laws of the United States over that territory, and for other purposes, following it on the 4th of January, 1842, by a resolution similar to that of the preceding August, requesting the president to give notice to Great Britain of an intention to terminate the treaty of 1827. It was about this date that Elijah White was urged to return to Oregon with all the powers the government could at that time confer, and with assurances to the settlers on the Willamette that congress would remember them, and the hope expressed that in the pending negotiations the Oregon boundary might be determined, and that at all events it would be determined at an early day. About this time, also Lieutenant Frémont was despatched upon an expedition for the purpose of ascertaining the best location for a line of military posts from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, and to collect information concerning the country on his route.

Linn's bill contained a section authorizing a line of forts from the Missouri into "the best pass for entering the valley of the Oregon," and also a post at or near the mouth of the Columbia River besides one granting six hundred and forty acres of land to every white male inhabitant of eighteen years of age or over who should cultivate the same for five years. These were its popular features. It also authorized and required the president to appoint two additional Indian agents, with a salary of $1,500 each, to superintend the interests of the United States with all the tribes west of any agency then existing. This was the promise of promotion held out to the Oregon sub-agent already appointed.

The bill extended the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the supreme and district courts of the territory of Iowa over all the territory west of the Missouri River, south of latitude 49°, north of the boundary of Texas, and east of the Rocky Mountains; and also over all the