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28 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.

colonizing that country, and of introducing into it the various business and benefits of civilized life.

"The expense and labor necessary to the accomplishment of this work, planned by Providence, made easy by nature, and urged and encouraged by the persuasive motives of philan- thropy, are in no degree, commensurate with the national bles^ sings to be derived' from it ; among which are enumerated the following ; viz. :

"The moral condition of the Aborigines . . . will be improved. . . . Their unjust and tmequal alliances with another nation may be broken, and their friendship secured to this.

"By means, thus honorable, that valuable territory would be held from possession of an unfriendly power.

"Ports of Entry, and Ship and Navy Yards, might be estab- lished with great advantage, on the waters of Oregon, and thereby, the trade and commerce of both the Pacific and At- lantic Oceans would become extended and enriched. Capital- ists and Mariners might pursue, with more profit and safety, the whale and other fisheries in the Western Seas, and the salmon trade in the Columbia.

"A portion of the virtuous and enterprising but not least faithful population, whom misfortunes have thrown out of employment, and who throng our villages and sea-ports, and seek a better home, — might there find opportunities, under the paternal kindness of the government, to succeed to a happier condition, and to greater usefulness to themselves and to their country. . ..

"These are objects so obvious, so vast and valuable, as need not be urged . . . and seem necessarily embraced within the scope of a wise policy. They are yet deemed practicable. Another season — ^their possession will be thought expedient — but not so easily wrested from the grasp of British power.

"The Society view with alarm the progress, which the sub- jects of that nation have made, in the colonization of the Or- egon Territory. Already, have they, flourishing towns, strong