With heroic selfsacrifice they organized for defense against the hostile Indians and to hold the country for the United States. organized a provisional government. with legislative. judicial. and executive powers. established law and order. so that when. by the tardy action of Congress a Territorial government was established for Oregon Territory. the officers of the Territory found an organized comirlunity. governed by laws selfimposed. by which order was maintained and individual rights protected. That grand man. Doctor Whitman. who left his family exposed to the perils of a faroff. isolated region and with a heroic fortitude and patriotic devotion unsurpassed in history. crossed the continent in midwinter to give his testimony to the administration as to the value and resources of that region and prevent. as he supposed. the ignominious surrender of the United States to the claim of Great Britain and to incite emigration to that country to hold it for the United States. and who afterward lost his life. as believed by many. on account of his loyalty to American interests. is but a conspicuous example of the heroism and patriotism which animated that whole band of pioneers. And. whatever the true basis of our legal claim to that region may have been. we are indebted more to the pioneers who settled. occupied. and held it as the property of the United States for. the settlement of the controversy in our favor. than to all our claims of purchase and discovery combined. I have read with great interest the report of the junior Senator from South Carolina. made at the first session of the Fortyseventh Congress. to accompany the bill to provide a Territorial government for Alaska.
Keywords matched
emigration