Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/360

 352 CLARENCE B. BAGLEY W. H. Gray, J. M. Garrison, Abijah Hendricks, David Hill, H. A. G. Lee, Barton Lee, John McClure, Robert Newell, J. W. Smith, Hiram Straight, members of the Legislative Council. Ability on the part of its author and moderation in its prepara- tion are apparent in every paragraph. It recites the condition of the people, "the fact that the temporary government being lim- ited in its efficiency and crippled in its powers by the paramount duty we owe to our respective governments, our revenues being inadequate to its support and almost total absence apart from the Hudson's Bay Company of the means of defense against Indians. . . . The citizens of the United States are scat- tered for a wide extent of the territory without a single place of refuge. We have neither ships of war, nor of commerce, nor any navigation of the rivers of the interior." It asked for a distinct territorial government, for means of protection against Indians, for Indian agents, and the acquire- ment of the lands from the Indians ; for donations of lands to settlers then in Oregon and to come; for navy yards and marine depots on the Columbia River and Puget Sound (this was before an American settler had reached Puget Sound) ; for proper commercial regulations ; for adequate military pro- tection to emigrants or by military escort ; for "a public mail to be established to arrive and depart monthly from Oregon City and Independence, Mo., and that such other local mail routes be established, as are essential to the Willamette country and other settlements." December 23, 1845, it passed "an act to create and establish a Postoffice Department, under which William G. T'Vault became Postmaster-General. February 5, 1846, he advertised in the Spectator for the carrying of mails on the following routes: (1) From Oregon City to Fort Vancouver, once in two weeks by water. (2) From Oregon City to Hill's in Twality County; thence to A. J. Hembree's, in Yamhill County; thence to N. Ford's, Polk County; thence to Oregon Institute, Champoeg County; thence to Catholic Mission and Champoeg to Oregon City, once in two weeks on horseback.