Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/378

 360

LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

Nevertheless there were many who had footing in Oregon. that the hoped treaty would not only place the boundary at 54 40' but also oust both British companies as well; these

were much disappointed that they could not immediately posimproved lands held by those organiza-

sess themselves of the

Some

of the disaffected took revenge by squatting upon of portions McLoughlin's Oregon City, whereupon he brought suit for trespass in the court of Clakamas county. Claimtions.

jumping, however, did not meet with widespread approval for once it received sanction there would be no security for any claim in the territory.

Two years passed by and then the territorial act produced even greater dissatisfaction for it annulled the land laws of Government and put none in their place. The only persons who enjoyed legal title to their land claims were the missions, in the name of the religious bodies controlling the Provisional

them, and those

who

held under the treaty.

One

of the most

important things, then, for a territorial Delegate to secure from Congress was a land law and Samuel Thurston took ?

of

the British Company and everybody connected with them to win popularity and an election. He began his campaign in the House of Representatives on February sixth, 1850, by introducing a series of

advantage

the

hostility

to

resolutions. 25

In the form of an inquiry addressed to the Committee on Judiciary the resolutions raised the question of the meaning of "possessory rights"; could the United States, by

making payment, dispose of the lands occupied by the British Companies and British subjects; had any British subject "lawfully acquired" land at the time the treaty was made; how much land could be claimed by the Puget's Sound Agricultural

Company and

could the Hudson's

Bay Company import goods

free of duty through the port of Astoria? 26

While on the surface Thurston did not appear 25 Globe, XXII, 295.

House.

The Company's

to be taking an

This was his second attempt to bring them before the

to navigate the Columbia was under the same restrictions applying to American citizens, hence duty would have to be paid on imported goods, a fact which had been overlooked by the British when the treaty was made.

26

right