Judge Douglass has been quite ill, but is just recovered; he will help all he can; Mr. Hardin likewise. But Major Semple says that he does not believe anything will be done about Texas or Oregon this session, for it might have a very important effect upon the presidential election; and politicians are slow to move when such doubtful and important matters are likely to be affected by it. He says that there are already two bills before the house for establishing a territorial government in Oregon, and to protect the emigrants there; and now he says, Were your bill to be introduced, it might be looked upon that you claimed the sole right of emigrating to and settling that new country to the exclusion of others. He was in favor of the Oregon being settled, and he thought the bills already before the house would extend equal protection to us; and equal protection to every class of citizens was what the government could rightly do; but particular privileges to any one class they could not rightly do. I observed that the bill asked for no exclusive rights. It asks not for exclusive rights in Oregon, neither do we wish it. Other people might make a move to Oregon, and no prejudices bar their way, and their motives would not be misinterpreted. But, said I, Missouri knows her guilt; and should we attempt to march to Oregon without the government throwing a protective shield over us, Missouri's crimes would lead her first to misinterpret our intentions, to fan the flame of popular excitement against us, and scatter the firebrands of a misguided zeal among the combustible materials of other places, creating a flame too hot for us to encounter--too desolating for us to indulge the hope of successfully prosecuting the grand and benevolent enterprise we have conceived. We have been compelled to relinquish our rights in Missouri. We have been forcibly driven from our homes, leaving our property and inheritances as spoil to the oppressor; and more or less in Illinois we have been subject to the whims and chimeras of illiberal men, and to threats, to vexatious prosecutions, and lawsuits. Our government professes to have no power to help us, or to redress the wrongs which we have suffered; and we now ask the government to protect us while raising our volunteers. And when we get into Oregon we will protect ourselves and all others who wish our protection. And after subduing a new country, encountering all its difficulties and hardships, and sustaining the just claims of our nation to its soil, we believe that the generosity of our government towards us will be equal to our enterprise and patriotism, and that they will allow us a grant or territory of land, which will be both honorable in them and satisfactory to us.