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Rh ence on the subject between the two governments having adverse claims, taking the American view of the question that the line between them could not fall below the 49th parallel.

He pointed out that the occupation by the United States of the Columbia River would secure the sources of vast wealth in the fur trade, the fisheries, the trade with China, Japan, and the Orient generally, and with the Hawaiian Islands and California. He dwelt on the importance of a harbor on the north-west coast of America, where the whaling fleet of the Pacific might refit, and prophesied that direct communication between the Atlantic and Pacific would soon be opened by a canal across the isthmus of Darien, by which the whole trade of the eastern hemisphere would be changed in its course, which would then be toward the shores of North America. He spoke of the ease with which the Rocky Mountains could be crossed by the passes discovered by the fur-hunters, of the magnificent scenery described by travellers, of the fertility of the soil, and the mildness of the climate, testified to by various authorities. To conclude, the title of the United States was asserted by the committee to be beyond doubt, the possession of the country important, and delay in occupying it dangerous. The committee therefore reported a bill authorizing the president to employ in that quarter such portions of the army and navy of the United States as he might deem necessary to the protection of the American residents in that country.

Although ardently labored for, the bill for the occupation of Oregon failed of its passage in the senate. But Linn's report furnished that kind of information to the American people in which they were deeply interested. Pioneer sons of pioneer ancestors, they delighted in the thought of founding another empire on the Pacific Ocean as their sires had done on the Atlantic seaboard. Resolutions began to be adopted by the legislative assemblies of different states favor-