"Mr. Thurston says that on the 4th March, 1849, Governor Lane apprised Dr. McLoughlin and all others that no one had a right to sell or meddle with government lands. This is given as a reason why every man that has bought a lot since that time shall lose it. If by this statement anything more is meant than at that date the Territorial government was put in operation, then it is wholly untrue; but were it otherwise, what is the motive for the commission of such an act of injustice that necessarily involves in pecuniary loss half the inhabitants of this place, in addition to many who do not reside here? Mr. Thurston says, Abernethy's Island is in the middle of the river. Such a statement could only be made to persons unacquainted with this place, and conveys a wrong impression, as every one who knows the place will admit the island is not in the middle of the river, but separated from the main land only by a chasm over which there is a bridge about 100 feet long. In the dry season, the stream is not more than forty feet broad at the Falls, which separates it from the main land, and can the people of Oregon City and its vicinity believe Mr. Thurston did not know, some months before he left this, that Mr. Abernethy had sold his rights, whatever they were, to Judge Bryant, and therefore proposing to Congress to donate this Island to Mr. Abernethy, his heirs and assigns, was, in fact, proposing to donate it to Judge Bryant, his heirs and assigns. "JNO. McLOUGHLIN." "[At the request of Dr. McLoughlin, we stepped into the Clerk's office and read upon a paper filed in the office that on the 30th day of May, 1849, John McLoughlin filed his intention to become an American citizen, and that the said paper was duly certified to, by the then acting Clerk, Geo. L. Curry.--ED.]" DOCUMENT M _Letter by William J. Berry, published in the "Oregon Spectator," December 26, 1850._ "FOREST CREEK, Polk Co., December 15, 1850." "_Mr. Editor_: "Truth crush'd to earth, shall rise again: The eternal years of God are hers; But error, wounded, withers with pain, And dies among his worshippers." "Believing that the characters of public men are public property, I desire, with your permission, to speak through the columns of the 'Spectator' about some of the doings of our Delegate in Congress. "I am dissatisfied with his course in regard to the 'Oregon City Claim.' And now permit me to say, that I am not influenced in this matter by mercenary motives of any kind. I never owned any property in or about Oregon City, nor do I ever expect to; but I am influenced by motives of a certain kind, which are: the veneration I feel for the sacred principles of truth and justice,--and the mortification I feel at seeing these principles not only overlooked, but indignantly trampled under foot.