1842.] BILL IN THE U. S. SENATE FOR OCCUPYING OREGON. 379 



countries, yet I shall not delay to urge on Great Britain the impor- 

 tance of its early settlement." The treaty was ratified and defini- 

 tively confirmed by both governments ; the exclusion of the Oregon 

 question from it, however, increased the excitement respecting that 

 country in the United States, and an excitement on the same subject 

 was soon after created in Great Britain. 



The part of the president's message above quoted was referred 

 to the committees on foreign affairs in both houses of Congress ; 

 and, a few days afterwards, Mr. Linn, one of the senators from 

 Missouri, who had always displayed the strongest interest with re- 

 gard to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, and had 

 assiduously endeavored to effect their incorporation into the 

 republic, brought a bill into the Senate for the occupation and 

 settlement of the territory of Oregon, and for extending the laws 

 of the United States over it. This bill proposed that the presi- 

 dent cause to be erected, at suitable places and distances, a line 

 of forts, not exceeding five in number, from points on the Missouri 

 and Arkansas Rivers, to the best pass for entering the valley of the 

 Columbia, and also at or near the mouth of that river ; that six 

 hundred and forty acres of land be granted to every white male 

 inhabitant of Oregon, of the age of eighteen years and upwards, 

 who shall cultivate and use them for five years, or to his heirs at 

 law, in case of his decease, with an addition of one hundred and 

 sixty acres for his wife, and the same for each of his children under 

 the age of eighteen years ; that the jurisdiction of the courts of 

 Iowa be extended over the countries stretching from that territory, 

 and from the states of Missouri and Arkansas, to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and over all countries west of those mountains, between the 

 42d and the 49th parallels ; and that justices of the peace be 

 appointed for those countries, as now provided by law for Iowa, 

 who shall have power to arrest and commit for trial all offenders 

 against the laws of the United States ; provided that any subject 

 of Great Britain, who may have been so arrested for crimes or 

 misdemeanors committed in the countries west of the Rocky 

 Mountains, while they remain free and open to the people of 

 both nations, shall be delivered up to the nearest or most conve- 

 nient British authorities, to be tried according to British laws. 



This bill, it will be seen, contained nearly the same provisions as 

 that which had been discussed in the House of Representatives in 

 the session of 1828-29,* with the addition of the promise of grants 



* See p. 355. 



