Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/443

392 commerce which could relieve this plethora of production; and to make matters worse, these lands were about to come into market, and their occupants could not pay for them. This state of affairs among a body of men whose fathers had emigrated step by step from the Atlantic seaboard to the Missouri frontier; who had fought the savages and the British, and feared neither man nor devil; who were democrats or whigs upon principle, loved politics, and were intensely patriotic; who would march across a continent to assert American rights, and rather sought than avoided a contest—to men so strong, restless, aggresive, the condition of affairs on the Mississippi and Missouri borders from 1841 to 1845 was intolerable. And to these, statesmen addressed themselves through Linn's bill, by talking of lands which should be ample and free in Oregon.

The land in itself might be little temptation after their experience in mid-continent, but the idea of seaboard was attractive, including as it did the dream of commercial relations with the islands of the Pacific and with China. To found a new state on these shores, in direct communication with the most populous nations of the globe, was the ambition awakened in them by the frequent reports received from travellers and missionaries of the natural resources and favorable situation of the Oregon Territory.