Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/410

Rh and authority being confided to a military chieftain, in whose hands were placed the legislative, judicial, and executive functions of the country, subject only to the control of the president; and this he denounced as unconstitutional, also denying the right of congress to colonize. Or if it was pretended that the step contemplated was preparatory to admission into the union within any short period, had the promoters of this scheme thought of the probable consequences? Were they prepared to go to war to protect the territorial or commercial rights of Oregon, and to extend to that state equal laws, and afford it equal rights and privileges, when there could not be any community of interest with the rest of the confederacy? He looked upon the proposition as impolitic and dangerous; upon the appropriation to carry it out as entirely inadequate; upon the troops who should be stationed on the Columbia as the prisoners in their own fort of the beleaguering Indians, unless, indeed, a naval force, should be stationed there for their protection. He doubted if the possession of the country would add anything to the validity of the claim of the United States; or that if it should fall into the hands of a foreign power, that would weaken the title of the United States, He was opposed to emigration while the population of the states and territories was not yet sufficient to occupy the public lands within their boundaries. Not until their posterity, he said, should occupy the seats in congress which the supporters of the bill under discussion now filled would the measure proposed be justifiable.

On the 27th the yeas and nays were taken to decide whether the house were really determined to act upon the subject at that session, when it was found that the vote stood sixty-one for, to one hundred against, taking up the bill. The influence of the discussion was observable, however, when on the 22d of February Little of Maryland presented a memorial from eighty farmers and mechanics within his district, praying congress