Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/436

Rh Another bill was introduced by Atchison, for "establishing a government" in the territory of Oregon, which was not pressed to a third reading. A resolution of Allen of Ohio, requesting the president to lay before the senate a copy of his instructions to the American minister in England on the subject of the Oregon title, since the 4th of March, 1841, with a copy of the correspondence which had passed, elicited extended debate on the powers of the executive and the senate, and was rejected by a vote of thirty-one to fourteen. The president had already declined a similar request of the lower house as inexpedient, owing to the prospect of negotiation; but the senate, it was contended by some members, had certain rights in the matter, not to be set aside by the executive. Another resolution by Semple of Illinois, requesting the president to give to Great Britain the twelve months' notice required, of a desire to annul the convention of 1818, caused yet more discussion, presaging war as it did, and the resolution was negatived by a vote of twenty-eight to eighteen.

In the house of representatives the same topics were prominent throughout the session. Hughes of Missouri introduced a bill for the organization of a territorial government, which being referred to the committee on territories, Brown of Tennessee chair-man, reported a bill extending the civil and criminal jurisdiction of Iowa Territory over Oregon, as far north as 54° 40', giving land as in the senate bill; providing for the appointment of a judge and justice of the peace; and appropriating $100,000 to build forts on the road to Oregon, and within it. Ten thousand copies of the bill and report were ordered printed, and that was the end of it.

Semple of Illinois offered a resolution requesting the president to give notice to Great Britain of the intended abrogation of the treaty of 1818, at the end