Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/237

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 225 Caleb Gushing, in the House, and Lewis Linn, in the Senate, were exerting themselves to secure legislative action on Oregon. Oregon by that time was in the air; more than one com- munity was discussing its promises and prospects. Among the more pretentious of the organized efforts to promote the Oregon propaganda was the Oregon Emigration Society, organized in Lynn, Massachusetts. This society proposed to send two hundred men with their families as the first group of some thousands whom they hoped to persuade to migrate in order to clinch the title of the United States. The society by its secretary, the Reverend F. P. Tracy, published a little paper called the Oregonian which was used to spread information and to obtain members who were assessed at three dollars apiece to finance the undertaking. The society never came to the point where it could carry its ambitious plans into opera- tion, although it is possible that the persons subsequently led to Oregon by Lee were influenced directly by its activity. Lee did not accomplish in Washington any of the more ambitious plans which he had, such as securing positive action by Congress, but an appropriation from the secret service fund was granted by the President in order that Lee might charter the Lausanne to take his pioneer band to Oregon. It was not until after the Treaty of 1846 was ratified that this fact was divulged. Not all the activity of the early 'Forties was on the side of the Americans. The directors of the Hudson's Bay Company sent Sir George Simpson to the Northwest Coast in 1841 to look into the affairs of the Company there and also to con- sider the advisability of attempting to acquire the Russian post in California. His report gives a rather full account of the situation in Oregon at the time. 16 He found that the four establishments of the American Board, the five missions of the Methodists, the three established by Catholics from St. Louis, together with the Hudson's Bay Company servants and some Americans not connected with the missions afforded a non- 16 Given by Schafer, Am. Hist. Rev., XIV, 73-82.