CHAPTER XLIV

IN CONGRESS.--VINDICATING HIS COURSE

Passing Superintendent Nesmith's accounts--Obtaining funds for Indian service--President recommends confirmation of the treaties--Welcomed back by old friends--General Lane a tower of strength--Demands that military deliver Yakima murderers to punishment--They abandon their protégés--Takes house and moves family to Washington--Mr. James G. Swan, secretary--Circular letter to emigrants--Appeals to Indian Department to establish farms promised Blackfeet--Has Lieutenant John Mullan placed in charge of building wagon-road between Fort Benton and Walla Walla--Exposes memoir of Captain Cram--Convinces Senate Indian committee that treaties ought to be confirmed--Advocates Northwestern boundary commission--Speeches on Indian war--Pacific Railroad--Defends Nesmith--Matters engaging attention--Resists exactions of Hudson Bay Company in memoir to Secretary of State--Steptoe's defeat--Colonel Wright punishes Indians--General Harney placed in command of Washington and Oregon departments--He revokes Wool's order excluding settlers from upper country--Address on Northwest--Walter W. Johnson, private secretary--Treaties all confirmed March 8, 1859--Dictates his final report on Northern route before breakfast 271