"In 1842 I had the claim surveyed by Mr. Hudspath, and laid off some lots; in the fall of 1843, there being better instruments in the country, I had my claim surveyed by Jesse Applegate, Esq., who more accurately marked its streets, alleys, lots, etc., etc. When the Oregon Provisional Government was formed, I recorded my claim in accordance with the provisions of its organic laws; this record covers the island and the site of Oregon City. In making this record, I circumscribed the limits of my claim, so that instead of extending down to the Clackamas River, as I had made it previous to there being any government in the country, I made it so as to extend only about half way down. This I did because the Organic Law provided that no one should hold more than six hundred and forty acres. This I did also for the sake of peace, notwithstanding Mr. Thurston is not ashamed to more than intimate a disposition to 'let loose upon them savages of Oregon.' Mr. Thurston says, 'He has held it by violence and dint of threats up to this time.'--That I have held my claim or any part of it by violence or threats, no man will assert, and far less will one be found to swear so, who will be believed on his oath, in a court of justice. I have probably no other enemy than Mr. Thurston, so lost to the _suggestions_ of conscience as to make a statement so much at variance with my whole character. "He says that I have realized, up to the 4th of March, 1849, $200,000 from the sale of lots; this is also wholly untrue. I have given away lots to the Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists. I have given 8 lots to a Roman Catholic Nunnery, 8 lots to the Clackamas Female Protestant Seminary, incorporated by the Oregon Legislature. The Trustees are all Protestants, although it is well known I am a Roman Catholic. In short, in one way and another I have donated to the county, to schools, to churches, and private individuals, more than three hundred town lots, and I never realized in cash $20,000, from all the original sales I have made. He continues, 'He is still an Englishman, still connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, and refuses to file his intentions to become an American citizen.' If I was an Englishman, I know no reason why I should not acknowledge it; but I am a Canadian by birth, and an Irishman by descent. I am neither ashamed of my birth-place or lineage--but it has always appeared to me that a man who can only boast of his country has little to be proud of: "'A wit's a feather, a chief, a rod-- An honest man's the noblest work of God.'"