Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/320

302 by the legislature to audit the Cayuse war claims, and of retaining the warrants forwarded to him for delivery, to be used for political purposes. Lane had a different way of making the war claims profitable to himself. Gaines was informed from Washington that the report of the territorial commissioners would be the guide in the future adjustment of the Cayuse accounts. Lane procured the passage of an amendment to the former enactments on this subject, which made up the deficiency occasioned by the alteration of the certificates; and the different manner of making political capital out of the war claims commended the delegate to the affections of the people. The 33d congress concluded the business of the Cayuse war by appropriating $75,000 to pay its remaining expenses.

Lane urged the establishment of mail routes through the territory, and the better performance of the mail service; but although congress had appropriated in 1852 over $348,000 for the ocean mail service on the Pacific coast, Oregon still justly complained that less than the right proportion was expended in carrying the mails north of San Francisco. The appropriations for the various branches of the public service in Oregon for 1852, besides mail-carrying, amounted to $78,300, and Lane collected about $800 more from the government to pay for taking the census of 1850. He also procured the passage of a bill authorizing the president to designate places for ports of entry and delivery for the collection districts of Puget Sound and Umpqua, instead of those already established, and increasing the salary of the collector at Astoria to $3,000; but he failed to secure additional collection districts, as had been prayed for by the legislature.