Hudson's Bay Company, and since there was intercourse between the bands of natives north and south of 49 it would be very easy for persons inimical to the United States to In view of conexcite them to hostility towards Americans. ditions the department, soon after the adjournment of Congress the previous summer, had assumed the responsibility of appointing as subagent of Indian affairs an American citizen resident in Oregon. 3 This gentleman had been instructed to visit the different bands and endeavor to promote a feeling of friendship toward the United States and its citizens.
President Polk, in framing his Message, had also had in mind a recommendation that Congress provide for the survey and marking of the boundary between the possessions of Great Britain and the United States, but he had stricken out this paragraph on the advice of Buchanan, who told him it would revive another heated discussion of the international issue. Moreover, Buchanan added, it was well to recall the long delay and great expense of surveying the Northeastern boundary, for similar conditions might arise in the North west. 4
Polk's recommendation for territorial organization was referred to the appropriate committees of each house and at an early date bills were reported. In the Senate, Breese, and in the House, Douglas, for the Committee on Territories,
brought in measures for extending the laws of the United States over Oregon and for creating a territorial government.
The House took action first, on the eleventh of January. 5 The bill, in the ordinary form, was provocative of discussion on two grounds the franchise in the territory and slavery. The Committee bill extended to all free male white inhabitants of Oregon, over the age of twenty years, who had been residents of the territory at the time of the passage of the act, the right to vote in the first election and to be eligible for office;
3 Ibid., 8 Jan.,
1847.
Elijah
above and chapter XIII below.
White had previously
resigned.
See chapter
IV
4 Polk, Diary, II, 254. Walker thought this a reflection on him as a relative of his had been connected with the Maine survey.
5 Globe, XVII, 1 66 seq.
