Page:History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.djvu/115

 Next in importance was a memorial relative to the extinguishment of the Indian title, congress being urged to make provisions for the immediate pur- chase of the lands occupied by the natives; and this request was granted, as I shall soon proceed to show. Congress was also asked to change the organic act of the territory, which apportioned the legislature by the number of qualified voters, so as to make the appor- tionment by the number of inhabitants, which was not allowed. Not less important than either of these was a memorial concerning the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and the difference of opinion existing be- tween the company and the citizens of Washington in relation to the rights of the association under the treaty of 1846. The memorial set forth that the then present moment was an auspicious one for the extinc- tion of their title, and gave as a reason that ^^build- ings, once valuable, from long use are now measurably worthless; and lands once fertile, which paid the tiller of the soil, are now become destitute of any fertilizing qualities; that said farms are now less valuable than the same amount of lands in a state of nature;" and congress was entreated to save the country from this

Whidbey Island in the latter part of July 1858. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Aug 6, 1858; Land-office Bepty 1858. The held of operations in 1858 was on Shoalwater Bay, Gray Harbor, Whidbey Island, and the southern coast of the Fuca strait. As there was but one land-office in the territory, and that one situated at Olympia, the land commissioner, at the request of the territo- rial legislature, recommended the formation of three new districts. No action was taken, and in 1858 the legislature passed another resolution asking for three additional land districts, one to be called Columbia River Land Dis- trict. The commissioner again made his former recommendation, the house committee on lands recommending two new districts. IT. S. Misc. Doc, 130, vol. ii., 34th cong. 1st sess.; Id., doc. 114; fd., doc. 30, vol. i., 35th cong. 2d sess.; U. S. If. Com. Rept, 376, vol. iii., 35th cong. 1st sess. On the 16th of May, 1860, congress passed an act to 'create an additional land district in Washington territory,' but provided no appropriation for carrying out its purpose until the following year, when the office at Vancouver was established. In 1857 a bill was brought before the house of representatives to extend the public surveys east of the Cascade Mountains. The senate referred the mat- ter to the secretary of the interior, who declared there was no necessity for the bill, and that it would render emigration overland dangerous by exciting the Indians. U. S. >Sen. Misc., 28, 34th cong. 3d sess. It was not until the close of the Indian war east of the mountains in 1858 that the land laws were extended to that region. In 1862 the legislature memorialized con- gress for a land-office at Walla Walla, which was established. Wash. Stat., 1861-2, 139.