Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/205

Rh Union. In such a conjuncture, I did not delay the interposition required for the occupancy of the territory west of the river Perdido, to which the title of the United States extends, and to which the laws provided for the Territory of Orleans are applicable.&quot;

In the Senate, December loth, so much of the President s message as related to the occupation of West Florida was referred to a committee consisting of Senators Giles, Pope, Crawford, Anderson and Bradley. This committee reported a bill, which passed first reading December 18th, declaring the Territory of Orleans to extend to the Perdido river. The bill was debated on the 27th and 28th and 3ist without action. It was advocated by Senators Henry Clay and Pope of Kentucky, and opposed by Senators Horsey of Delaware and Pickering of Massachusetts. It was found to involve questions connected with the admission of Orleans Territory as the State of Louisiana. Its consideration was laid aside for the present. It was taken up again February 8, 1811, and recommitted. (Annals of Congress, 1810-1811, pp. 12, 25, 27, 33, 129.)

Attention was now turned to the admission of Orleans Territory as the State of Louisiana. Mr. John Poydras, the delegate from Orleans Territory, presented a petition from the Territorial legislature praying admission as a State. This petition was referred to a committee of which Mr. Macon was chairman, and a bill for this purpose was presented by the committee December 27th. It was amended and debated in its several stages January 2d, 4th and l0th, and was put on its final passage January 14th, and after a debate of much sectional bitterness, reviving the old constitutional questions of 1803, was finally passed by the House January 15, 1811, by a vote of 77 yeas to 36 nays. (Ibid., 413, 466, 482, 493, 513 to 579.)

It was during the debate on this bill that Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, in words of eloquence and fire, gave vent to the sentiments which were widely entertained in the Northeast: &quot;If this bill passes, it is my deliberate