US Presidency
1848

They conclude their appeal to the Government of the United States for relief by declaring: If it be at all the intention of our honored parent to spread her guardian wing over her sons and daughters in Oregon, she surely will not refuse to do it now, when they are struggling with all the ills of a weak and temporary government, and when perils are daily thickening around them and preparing to burst upon their heads. When the ensuing summer's sun shall have dispelled the snow from the mountains, we shall look with glowing hope and restless anxiety for the coming of your laws and your arms. In my message of the 5th of August, 1846, communicating a copy of the convention for the settlement and adjustment of the Oregon boundary, I recommended to Congress that provision should be made by law, at the earliest practicable period, for the organization of a Territorial government in Oregon. In my annual message of December, 1846, and again in December, 1847, this recommendation was repeated.