Our citizens who inhabit that distant region
of country are still left without the protection of our laws, or any
regularly organized government. Before the question of limits and
boundaries of the Territory of Oregon was definitely settled, from the
necessity of their condition the inhabitants had established a temporary
government of their own. Besides the want of legal authority for
continuing such a government, it is wholly inadequate to protect them in
their rights of person and property, or to secure to them the enjoyment
of the privileges of other citizens, to which they are entitled under
the Constitution of the United States. They should have the right of
suffrage, be represented in a Territorial legislature and by a Delegate
in Congress, and possess all the rights and privileges which citizens of
other portions of the territories of the United States have heretofore
enjoyed or may now enjoy.
Our judicial system, revenue laws, laws regulating trade and intercourse
with the Indian tribes, and the protection of our laws generally should
be extended over them.
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