It will be important during your present session to establish a
Territorial government and to extend the jurisdiction and laws of the
United States over the Territory of Oregon. Our laws regulating trade
and intercourse with the Indian tribes east of the Rocky Mountains
should be extended to the Pacific Ocean; and for the purpose of
executing them and preserving friendly relations with the Indian tribes
within our limits, an additional number of Indian agencies will be
required, and should be authorized by law. The establishment of
custom-houses and of post-offices and post-roads and provision for the
transportation of the mail on such routes as the public convenience will
suggest require legislative authority. It will be proper also to
establish a surveyor-general's office in that Territory and to make the
necessary provision for surveying the public lands and bringing them
into market. As our citizens who now reside in that distant region have
been subjected to many hardships, privations, and sacrifices in their
emigration, and by their improvements have enhanced the value of the
public lands in the neighborhood of their settlements, it is recommended
that liberal grants be made to them of such portions of these lands as
they may occupy, and that similar grants or rights of preemption be made
to all who may emigrate thither within a limited period, prescribed by
law.
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