Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/807

756 and light-houses, besides Indian agents, and the extinction of the Indian title.

Thornton says that he had an interview with the president on the 13th of May, having previously conversed with Stephen A. Douglas, to whom he carried a letter from Abernethy, and that soon after the visit to the executive he prepared a memorial to congress, which was presented by Benton to the senate May 25th, and ordered to lie on the table and be printed. In this memorial Thornton prayed for the establishment of territorial government, and for various appropriations, the most important of which was one asking congress to set apart, in addition to the 16th section, the 36th section in every township of the public lands in Oregon for school purposes.

Douglas having introduced a bill to establish a territorial government, Thornton decided, in order to save time, to have incorporated in that bill things in his memorial not asked for in the bill especially in reference to land grants for schools. On July 26th the bill passed the" senate, with a provision giving to the schools the 36th and 16th sections.

On August 14th the bill became a law, just two months and a half after the senate had ordered the printing of Thornton's memorial, containing the first prayer for such a grant for Oregon.

It will be remembered that Meek did not leave Walla Walla until the end of the first week in March. He arrived in Washington the last week in May, having performed the journey across the continent in the stormy spring months in less than half the time occupied by Thornton in sailing around it. The party had found the snow on the Blue Mountains not so deep but that a trail could be broken by the men walking and leading their horses and pack-mules. Beyond Fort Hall in the mountain passes travelling was more difficult, but they were assisted by some friendly natives and by a man famous among trappers, Peg-leg Smith,