on the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and that an
adequate force of mounted riflemen be raised to guard and protect them
on their journey. The immediate adoption of these recommendations by
Congress will not violate the provisions of the existing treaty. It will
be doing nothing more for American citizens than British laws have long
since done for British subjects in the same territory.

It requires several months to perform the voyage by sea from the
Atlantic States to Oregon, and although we have a large number of whale
ships in the Pacific, but few of them afford an opportunity of
interchanging intelligence without great delay between our settlements
in that distant region and the United States. An overland mail is
believed to be entirely practicable, and the importance of establishing
such a mail at least once a month is submitted to the favorable
consideration of Congress.

It is submitted to the wisdom of Congress to determine whether at their
present session, and until after the expiration of the year's notice,
any other measures may be adopted consistently with the convention of
1827 for the security of our rights and the government and protection of
our citizens in Oregon. That it will ultimately be wise and proper to
make liberal grants of land to the patriotic pioneers who amidst
privations and dangers lead the way through savage tribes inhabiting the
vast wilderness intervening between our frontier settlements and Oregon,
and who cultivate and are ever ready to defend the soil, I am fully
satisfied. To doubt whether they will obtain such grants as soon as the
convention between the United States and Great Britain shall have ceased
to exist would be to doubt the justice of Congress; but, pending the
year's notice, it is worthy of consideration whether a stipulation to
this effect may be made consistently with the spirit of that convention.

The recommendations which I have made as to the best manner of securing
our rights in Oregon are submitted to Congress with great deference.
Should they in their wisdom devise any other mode better calculated to
accomplish the same object, it shall meet with my hearty concurrence.

At the end of the year's notice, should Congress think it proper to make
provision for giving that notice, we shall have reached a period when
the national rights in Oregon must either be abandoned or firmly
maintained. That they can not be abandoned without a sacrifice of both
national ho