Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/391

385 NOTES ON THE COLONIZATION OF OREGON. 385 gon, are gradually being reprinted in the QUARTERLY of the Oregon Historical Society. The Linn and Gushing reports were for some years the most widely read works on Oregon (aside from Irving's Astoria) and were special favorites among the frontiers- men of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and other sections of the West. When the wagon companies began crossing the plains Linn's report and the Bible often formed the entire library of a migrating family; but the latter book, as well as the former, was sometimes missing from the collection. As a result of all this new information concerning the Oregon Country, of the agitation re-begun in Congress by Doctor Linn in 1838, and of other causes the idea of colo- nizing Oregon was by 1840 firmly fixed in many minds. It was looked upon as the true method of solving the bound- ary dispute with Great Britain, whose theoretical claims were supported by nothing better than a commercial oc- cupation of the country. In January, 1840, some citizens of Kentucky petitioned Congress to plant a colony at the mouth of the Columbia, (as Floyd had long before urged and as Linn was again urging,) and to protect it with a garrison ; and also to open a road* from western Missouri to Astoria, and plant at convenient distances across the mountains military posts for defense against the Indians. The idea of opening a highway to Oregon was felt in government circles to be eminently practicable. It might be doubtful whether the United States could, under the treaty of joint occupation, maintain a military establish- ment at the mouth of the Columbia; but they could at least open a road into the trans-Rocky Mountain territory and thus facilitate the movement of pioneers thither, which would indirectly serve the same purpose. Begin- ning with the year 1841 this policy was advocated by a succession of war secretaries, whose arguments are con-