Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/658

Rh Proceeding to the expression of their wants, the statement was made that bread-stuffs could on short notice be supplied to the amount of five thousand barrels of flour, and should a demand arise, salt beef and pork could be furnished to the amount of two thousand barrels—low estimates, it was declared, especially with regard to flour, which, were a market opened, could be greatly increased in quantity. Lumber could be furnished in abundance; and tar and pitch manufactured if required. Flax and hemp had been successfully cultivated in small quantities, and could be made articles of export.

This paragraph was a bid for contracts to furnish the vessels of the United States, and all American vessels in the Pacific; the purchasing of supplies at Vancouver by the commander of the Shark having been a subject of complaint on the part of the colonists, who thought it the duty of the government to patronize and encourage Oregon industry, in spite of the fact that American merchants required twelve per cent more for their goods than British merchants.

Congress was next deferentially reminded that the settlers of Oregon had been induced to make the difficult journey to Oregon and cultivate its fertile fields by the promise of the government that their homes should be secured to them; and they therefore thought they had a right to expect a grant of land; and not only they, but those who should come after them for the next few years. Their claims already taken were made under the organic law of the territory, and provided that any person might hold six hundred and forty acres of land. These claims they asked to have confirmed to them, in the same shape in which they were located.

They asked also that the insurmountable barriers which in new countries always presented themselves to the general diffusion of education, upon which were founded the principles of the republican government of the United States (whose extension over