Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/810

Rh ment. The colony on the Pacific seaboard was now as then in need of federal aid, and was justly entitled to it. Again he called attention to the want of a territorial organization, recommending that a regiment of mounted men be raised for the relief of Oregon, that Indian agents be appointed to reside among the different tribes, and an appropriation made to enable them to treat for the restoration and preservation of peace. This he said should be done in time to allow troops to reach the territory that year.

Before entering upon congressional proceedings following Meek's arrival, I shall refer briefly to what had been done since the treaty of 1846, settling the boundary question. It was not because congress had been unmindful of Oregon that the colonists had been compelled to wait so long for the jurisdiction of the United States. The Oregon boundary was hardly determined before the even more momentous question was asked, How much, if any, of this new domain shall be slave territory? In these days no topic so engendered bitter contest on the floor of congress as that of slavery. It was enough to secure its failure in the senate that Douglas' bill for establishing a territorial government in Oregon, of which mention has already been made as having passed the lower