Mr. HhNDERSON. Mr. Speaker, I perceive that the committee has reported in favor of an assay office in the State of Oregon instead of the removal of the branch mint there. I have no doubt that the policy proposed to be pursued by the committee in general is correct; that is, to establish assay olIices in the different localities instead of branch mints. But, sir, there are certain localities where this policy should not. be carried out. There are certain points that demand from their natural location the establishment of branch mints, while other positions would be well suited for the establishment of assay offices. And I will say to you that Portland in Oregon, is one of those points that demand the establishment of a branch mint. An assay office will not an swer the demands of commerce of that station. Consequently I am under the necessity ofobjecting to that feature which proposes to substitute an assay office. Mr. Speaker, we have a large country, extending from ocean to ocean, and from the Lakes in the North to the Gulf in the South; more than 3,000 miles from east to west, and more than 2,000 miles from north to south, with an extensive variety in climate, soil, and productions; one section adapted to one kind of business, a 2nd to another, and a 3rd to something else. Maine has her fish eries, lumber, &c., Vermont her grazing and wool growing. Massachusetts hermanufactu res, Pennsylvania her iron and coal, Louisiana her sugar and cotton, Illinois her agriculture, california her mines, commerce, and vineyards and Oregon her agriculture, commerce, an mines. Each has its peculiar interests and necessities; and I take it as an admitted fact that the people of each section understands its own local wants best; or shall we take the ground that the people of some particular sections not only understand their own wants best, but those of everybody else? Shall we, the members of this Congress, sanction the doctrine that the people of certain portions of our country are not only to judge of their own local interests, but those of a1 others? Now, Mr. Speaker, I most heartily detest and repudiate this whole theory of special rights and special privileges. I most licartil and cheerful y accord to the people of the di ferent States and sections of our common country the right to judge of their own necessities, sufferings, and remedies. I have freely cast my vote here in favor of measures of large expense to the General Government that I did not consider to be of the slightest possible advantage to the State and people that I have the honor to represent on this iloor.‘ But. sir, I consider that the wants and wishes of the people of other sections are to be regarded as well as those of my own. I recognize the equality of their rights, the superiority of their advan tages for judging in the case, and their equal claims to honesty and credit in the matter. This Gavernment is not intended to foster and protect the interests of one section more than another, but each and every one alike. The bia valley, know what we want. And when we State of Oregon, far off from this capital as i, ask for an assay office, then we will thank conshe is, has just as many rights in this Govern uion. I most cheer fully concede to Pennsylvania the right toment. as any State in the shape legislation in reference to her iron, coal, and general interests, and to NewYork her commerce. immigration, km, and to every other State the same right to promote and protect its own peculiar welfare. This, however, is to be so accomplished as not to damage others more than itbenctits itself. Now, Mr. Speaker, I take it for granted also that the correctness of the principles I have here laid down is admit ted that there is no controversy upon them. More than 3 years ago the Legislature of the State of Oregon petitioned Congress to establish a brunch mint at the city of Portland, in that State. The 1st session of the 30 Eighth Congress passed an act for the location an‘d establishment of a branch mint of the U.S. at Dallcs City, in Oregon, 100 miles distant from Portland, and on the east side of the Cascade range of mount ains, and appropriated $100,000 for the ercction and establishment of the same. wh the prayer of the people of that country was isre garded I have never learned. The result was, as might have been antincipatd, the people were isappointed and disp eased. From if ferent or several considerations the SecyTreasury has not as yet ordered the execution of the law in its establishment; so the work has not been commenced. The Legislature of Oregon, at its last session, again prayed Congress to relocate the mint, to place it at Portland, the great commercial emporium for the valle of the Columbia the 2nd largest river in orth America. Portland bears precisely the same relation to the valley of the Columbia that NewOrleans does to the valley of the Mississippi. A bill was accordingly introduced at the dast session of the 38th Congress for its removal to Portland, but it was permitted to sleep itself to death in the committee, and the people were again disappointed and mortified). At the commencement of the present session of Congress I receivedacertifled copy of a joint memorial of the legislature of the State of Oregon, once more prayin this honorable body to render that important acility to our exten sive and rowin commerce. I accordingly, at an ear day in the present session, introduced a bififor the purpose, which was referred to the Committee of “I ays and Means, and this short bill, of one section, has lain in the hands of that committee some 4 or 5 months, and now, after all the pleadingand urging that a modest man like myself felt jiistified in cm ploying, the committee comes forth with a bill proposing to give us what; the mint at Port an, as we have prayed for it for years? No but an assay office, and repealing the mint bili altogether. Now, Mr. Speaker, I have no disosition to speak a word in disparagement o the committeethathas reported this bill. Individually, I have a high personal regard for them. I appreciate their talents and indness of heart, and they have my sympathies in the perplexities they have had to endure in performing the Herculean labors of the ComWays apd Means; but they have committed an egre gious error in proosing to take the mint, that meager bit of tar yjustice, from the people of the growing, promising, and important young State of Oregon. Why should their hopes be thus tautalized and trified with? Are their rights less sacred than those of other portions of the Union? What crime have the people of loyal Oregon committed that they should be thus snubbed by a loyal Congress? But it may be said that an assay officeis asgood as a mint. I answer, that may be so, but we do not see it in that light; and even if it was far better, that is not what we ask for. We ask for a mint, and we claim to know our own wants infinitely better than those who were never within 3,000 miles of the country. I repeat it emphatically, that we, the people of the clum gress to give us one; but when we ask for a mint, we mean a mint. The Great Teacher proposed this question: “ If a son ask of his father bread, will lie, for bread, give him a stone; or if he ask a fish, will he, for a fish, give him a serpent?” We ask bread, but you offer us a stone. lfthe people of any portion of the U.S. ask for an assay office in reference to a mipt, I say, by all means give it to them; and no member here will vote more cheerfully to comply with their wishes than I will; but when an organized and self sustaining State like Oregon asks foramint, do not attempt to force an assay office upon it. It. has been said by some that we have no need ofainint, that all we want is the $100,000 appropriated for erecting the necessary buildings to expend at some particular place. I reject the mean insinuation with disain. What do we care for the pitiful sum of $100,000, when we are, right from the city of Portland, flooding this whole nation with gold at the rate of a million and a half to 2 millions permonth? As far as the collection and dispensing of gold is concerned, the city of Portland is nowfulfilling the same functions for the nation that the heart performs for the body. The blood finds its way through1,000 veins from the surface to the heart, and then is thrown out through the arteries to all the extremities, refreshing and strengthening every part. So the gold is pouring into Portland through 10,000 small streams from the various mining camps, and then is thrown out through the dit ferent express lines to the extremities of the nation, replenishing and sustaining all. What do we care for the contemptible sum appropriated for building the mint? Nothing at all. All we wrfut is the authority from the U.S. to coin our own gold and silver into legal currency of the Government. We claim that it is our moral right and legitimate business to reduce our meta s from their crude state to a circulating medium at home. Where is the justice of taking this business of coinage out of our hands and sending it to others, 1000s of miles distant, to create business for them at our loss? Congress has just as much moral right to say that the people of Oregon shall not manufacture their woo, but put it up in bales and send it to Lowell to be manufactured, and thereby create business for the people of Massachusetts, as to say that we shall not coin our own old and silver, but we may run it into bars an send them to Philadelphia to be coined there, to create business for the benefit of a set of officials and laborers at that point. To show that an assay office will not answer our purpose in that country, let us an pose that a citizen buys up a drove of beef catt e on time, from 50 or 100different persons, drives to the mines and sells out to the miners for “dust, ” (as miners are not expected to have anything else to buy with;) he returns down the Columbia to Portland with his 50 pounds of “dust, ” calls at the assay office and ets it run into “bars andingots, ” “ marke and stamped.” Now, sir, how is he to pay off his creditors with these slugs? Or suppose a citizen buys up a drove of 100)ac animals, lades them with the produce o the country, flour, bacon, fruit, lar, butter, eggs, &c., purchased froni scores of different persons, drives to the mines, peddles all out to the miners of various camps, returns with his “ dust" to the assay office, gets his bars andingots; now, sir, how is he to pay off his 100 creditors who are anxiously awaiting his return? And I now inform the members of this House that this kind of commerce and traffic is pouring in one continual stream from the agricultural to the mining regions; ack ani mals, road wagons, and steamboats t rong the route for 100s of miles in this trade. Now, sir, how will an assay office meet the wants of such commerce? You had about as well give us Lycurgus‘s iron money, and then furnis ox carts to transport itin. But itmaybe said that we may deposit our “dust” at the of fice and take a certificate; but I ask how much better will that answer as a circulating medium than bars andingots? Not a whit. The dust, with all its waste and inconvenience, is incomparably better than either of them. It is said we maysell our certificates, bars, oringots at a discount and a loss; as a matter of course brokers will not buy except for speculation. Ifthere is a spot in America that the laws of nature and of commerce point out as the proper place for the location and establishment ot a branch mint of the U.S., that place is Portland, in the State of Oregon. We want no assay office; we want no stamped and markedingots; we want no certificates of deosit as a circulating medium; we want our go (1 and silver coined into lawful money. Give us that or nothing. And I now, asthe Representative of the intelligent, industrious, enter prising, and loyal people of the State ofOregon, respectfully reject the offer of an assay office and in the name of justice and equality demand the establishment of the branc mint at the city of Portland, where the fourfold interests of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and mining all call for it. As an evidence of the amount of business done at that place, I will inform the House that there are 9 gentlemen in that city who pay over $18,000 0 special income tax annu ally, and the Oregon Steam Navigation company, whose headquarters are at Portland, have one warehouse on the river 900 feet long by some 30 or 40 feet wide. But it is said the Superintendent of the Mint at Philadelphia and the SecyTreasury recommend the establishment of assay offices for our benefit. Now, sir, I inquire, in the name of common sense and common propriety, whether they are qualified to judge of our wants and necessities. Things are very different upon that coast from this. When you cross the summit of the Rocky mountains grav itation turns; the rivers run the other way, the climate is different, soil and reductions different;'water, timber, beasts, birds, and fishes, all different; occupations, trade, and commerce, all different. Then how improper the idea of calling upon heads of Depts here to learn whether we, of a country 3,000 miles distant, need the establishment of a new land office, the opening of a military road, or the establishment of a branch mint at a given point. Ifgentlemen desire information in reference to our necessities in that country let them apply to our Sens&Reps from that coast, who are here for the exress purpose of affording such information. f Congress sees proper to establish assay offices for the Territories under her immediate control, all right; I have nothing to say; butI hope they will not so treat the State of Oregon. We are not mine rs, but of age, and claim the right to choose for ourselves; when we desire the advice of Government officials we will be thankful to receive iti but in reference to our wants upon the Pacific we feel that we are much better qualified to judge of our wants and that we are equally as honest as they. Neither do we think that branch mints ought to be established at every town and mining cam in the country, but at great centers, where the laws of nature and commerce unmistakably. oint them out. And such is the city of Port and, in Oregon, nearly 1,000 miles distant from any branch mint of the U.S., and it the center of trade for a rest and growing commercial country. Port and is situated at the head of ocean navigation, upon the 2nd largest river in North America; enjoying by steam the commerce of the world, an internal or river navigation of 1000s of miles, at the junction ot the Columbia and Willamette valleys; the one embracin the most extensive and rich mining region ont eglobe; the other combining more of the real elements of wealth, health, and happinessthan any country ofwhich I ever heard or read. It might well be called “Los Angelos, " the land of angels. In the V amount and quality of its agricultural products to the acre, I believe it stands unrivaled and alone; in the health and rapid increase of its useful animalsI know of no country that equals, it. Its manufacturing resources are unbounded; its abundant and immense water power, its extensive and inexhaustible forests of timber, its extensive beds of iron all ready for use. The city of Portland already contains some 10,000 inhabitants, with arapid increase; and I repeat the statement that it bears the same relation to the valley of the Columbia that NewOrleans does to the valley of the Mississippi. Between this point and SanFrancisco a trimonthly line of steamers regularly ply; here, too, ends the great overland daily stage line from Omaha City, by way of Sacramento, to the Columbia river. Here also ends the railroad survey from Lincoln, in California, which is but an extension of the great Union and gentral Pacilic railroad. Through this city passes the telegraph wire which is to ring this ea ital within speaking distance of the capital of us sia, over which now flashes the history of our daily labors in this Hallto the reading room in the Lincoln House in Portland with as much regularity as we meet and adjourn. Here, too, is to end the southern branch of the great Northern Pacific railroad, over which in a few years Euro cans will be passing with their valuable mere andise to and from India and China. This city is the natural depot of supplies for all the mines west of the crest of the Rocky mountains. From this point they draw their clothing, provisions, and tools, and here their quartz mills are manufactured; and you might as well undertake to change the channel of the Columbia river as to turn the trade and commerce of its valley from that point. These facts prove that the vast commercial interests of that country will soon compel the establishment of a brunch mint at Portland, in Oregon.