Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/191

FINANCIAL HISTORY OF OREGON. 183 There were disturbances, depredations and the loss of a num- ber of lives annually in the Rogue River country and several attacks upon defenseless and worn-out companies of immi- grants when in the last stages of their long overland journey. In these cases there was naturally great slaughter. In the fall of 1855 a general uprising took place throughout the sur- rounding belt of Indian country on the north, east and south. National troops were not present in sufficient force, and so stationed, as to command the situation when the crisis arose. It thus devolved upon the Territorial Governors of Oregon and Washington to call for volunteers and to contract for supplies, transportation services, etc., etc., relying in each case upon a future settlement of the accounts by the National Government, for the duty of providing for the defense of the lives and property of its citizens belongs to it and it had uniformly met that responsibility. The territorial legislature, however, at its session during the winter of 1855-6, when the situation for the border settlements seemed grave, went so far as to specify the pay each volunteer should receive and the compensation for the use or loss of his horse ; it also provided for the auditing of all other claims that might be incurred though it made no provision for paying any. 91 The claims for services rendered and losses sustained in connection with the earlier recurrent attacks upon the immi- grants upon the Oregon trail and on mining parties and way stations on the Oregon and California trail were settled in- sofar as there was any reimbursement at all in accordance with the usual method of adjusting such claims against the National Government. The Secretary of the Treasury would be " authorized and directed to adjust and settle, on just and 91 Oregon Laws, Seventh Session, 1855-6, pp. 26-29.