1840.] EXCITEMENT IN THE U. STATES RESPECTING OREGON. 377 



or to take immediate civil and military possession of that country ; 

 and bills, having for their object the accomplishment of one or both of 

 these ends, were annually introduced into the Senate or the House of 

 Representatives of the Union. The members of the executive branch 

 of the government, particularly Messrs. Forsyth and Poinsett, the 

 able and energetic secretaries of state and of war, were likewise 

 assiduously engaged in collecting information respecting the nature 

 and grounds of the claims of the United States, and the most 

 effective means of enforcing them, in order that the government 

 might, when necessary, act with vigor and certainty, and be justi- 

 fied before the world. The information thus obtained was, from 

 time to time, published, by order of Congress, for the instruction 

 of the people on points so important ; * but no bill relating to Ore- 

 gon was passed by either house before 1843, nor was any decisive 

 measure on the subject adopted by the American government. 



The British government was, meanwhile, not unmindful of its 

 interests in the territories west of the Rocky Mountains. Its views 

 and intentions were not proclaimed to the world annually, in par- 

 liamentary speeches or executive reports : but the Admiralty caused 

 the lower part of the Columbia River, the Bay of San Francisco, 

 and the adjacent coasts of the Pacific, to be carefully surveyed, in 

 1839, by Captain Belcher ;f and the Colonial Office, and Board of 

 Trade, were in constant communication with the governor and di- 



* Among these documents, the principal are the following, viz. : Report to the 

 Senate, with Maps, and a Bill for the Occupation of Oregon ; presented by Mr. Linn, 

 _June 6th, 1838 — Reports of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of the House of 

 Representatives, respecting the Territory of Oregon, with a Map, presented Jan. 4th 

 and Feb. 16th, 1839, by Mr. Gushing, accompanied by a bill to provide for the pro- 

 tection of the citizens of the United States residing in that territory, or trading on 

 the Columbia River, and various documents in proof — Memoir, Historical and Polit- 

 ical, on the North- West Coast of North America, and the adjacent Countries, with a 

 Map and a Geographical View of those Countries, by Robert Greenhow, Translator 

 and Librarian to the Department of State ; presented Feb. 10th, 1840, by Mr. Linn 

 (see Preface to this History) — Report of the Hon. J. R. Poinsett, Secretary of War, 

 in relation to the establishment of a line of Military Posts from the Missouri River to 

 the Columbia, 1840 — Report of the Military Committee of the House of Representa- 

 tives, on the Subject of the Occupation and Defence of the Columbia Countries; 

 presented by Mr. Pendleton, May 25th, 1842. 



t Narrative of a Voyage round the World, performed in her Majesty's Ship Sul- 

 phur, during the Years 1836—1842, by Captain Sir Edward Belcher, R. N. This 

 large and expensive work, though very amusing to the general reader, abounds in 

 misstatements and inconsistencies, and contains scarcely a single fact or observation 

 of importance with regard to the different places visited. The^results of the scientific 

 investigations, especially the geographical positions of many important points, which 

 were determined, doubtless, with the utmost accuracy during the voyage, are omitted. 



48 



