Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/723

672 Cuminings, 1st corporal; J. H. McMillan, 2d corporal. By noon of the 9th the company were equipped as far as it was possible for them to be from the resources at hand, and assembling at the City Hotel, received a flag from the ladies of Oregon City, which was presented by Mr Nesmith, with an appropriate address. Two hours afterward the company was on its way to Vancouver, having been cheered on its errand by the firing of the city cannon and the shouts of excited spectators. Governor Abernethy accompanied them, and also the commissioners appointed by the legislature to negotiate a loan which should enable the government of Oregon to prosecute, if necessary, a war with the natives by whom the settlements were surrounded. The letter of the loan commissioners is as follows: ', Dec. 11, 1847. 'To James Douglas, Esq. Sir: By the enclosed document you will perceive that the undersigned have been charged by the legislature of our provisional government with the difficult duty of obtaining the means necessary to arm, equip, and support in the field a force sufficient to obtain full satisfaction of the Cayuse Indians for the late massacre at Waiilatpu, and protect the white population of our common country from further aggression. In pursuance of this object they have deemed it their duty to make immediate application to the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company for the required assistance. Though clothed with the power to pledge, to the fullest extent, the faith and means of the present government of Oregon, they do not consider this pledge the only security of those who, in this distressing emergency, may extend to the people of this country the means of protection and redress. Without claiming any especial authority from the government of the United States to contract a debt to be liquidated by that power, yet from all precedents of like character in the history of our country, the undersigned feel confident that the United States government will consider the murder of the late Dr Whitman and lady as a national wrong, and will fully justify the people of Oregon in taking active measures to obtain redress for that outrage, and for their protection from further aggression. The right of self-defence is tacitly accorded to every body politic in the confederacy to which we claim to belong, and in every case similar to our own, within our knowledge, the general government has promptly assumed the payment of all liabilities growing out of the measures taken by the constituted authorities to protect the lives and property of those residing within the limits of their districts. If the citizens of the states and territories east of the Rocky Mountains are justified in promptly acting in such emergencies, who are under the immediate protection of the general government, there appears no room to doubt that the lawful acts of the Oregon government will receive a like approval. Should the temporary character of our government be considered by you sufficient ground to doubt its ability to redeem its pledge, and reasons growing out of its peculiar organization be deemed sufficient to prevent the recognition of its acts by the government of the United States, we feel it our duty, as private individuals, to inquire to what extent, and on what terms, advances may be had of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company, to meet the wants of the force