Page:History vs. the Whitman saved Oregon story.djvu/40

34 (3) he was positively forbidden to accept of the line of 49 degrees to the coast. (Cf. "Berlin Arbitration," pages 218-219.) The writer hereof called Dr. Mowry's attention, in 1887, to these positive denials by Webster himself through his life-long friend Choate of that totally false charge that in the Winter of 1842-43 and Spring of 1843 Webster was indifferent as to the acquisition of Oregon, which is the very cornerstone of the Whitman Saved Oregon story, and has called his attention to them several times since, but he never refers to them, but claims on the "memories" of Gray, Spalding and C. Eells that Webster,' in March, 1843, thought Oregon worthless to us.

(5) In the winter of 1842-43 there was a great debate 00 Linn's bill for the occupation of Oregon in the Senate (which, it must never be forgotten, is a part of the treaty-making power in our government), the report of which fills 165 columns of the Congressional Globe and its appendix, and in which out of 50 Senators 27 took part, and but one—McDuffie of South Carolina—spoke depreciatingly of Oregon, and he had then only been a member of the Senate 22 days, having been elected to serve for four years of a vacancy caused by death, and he was never able to secure re-election.

Over and over again it was declared in this debate, alike by those who favored and those who opposed the pending bill, that "The Senate was unanimous in the opinion that our title to Oregon was incontestable at least as far north as 49 degrees," — even McDuffie asserted this,—^and the chief opposition to the bill was from strong friends of the Oregon acquisition, who feared that to pass it without first giving the twelve monthsnotice (which was all that was needed to abrogate the treaty of 1827) would be such an unjustifiable action as to cause Great Britain to declare war, and that we might thereby run great risk of losing Oregon. The bill passed the Senate February 3, 1843, t>y 24 to 22, and of the four absentees two were declared to favor and two to oppose it. But when we come to analyze the vote, we find that of the 22 voting "No" nine had declared in their speeches that if the provisions which were in plain violation of the treaty of 1827 were dropped, they would support it, so that, without knowing on what grounds the other 13 voted "No," it is certain that 24 plus 9 plus 2 equals 35, or one more than two-thirds of the entire Senate, were ready on February 3, 1843, to vote for any legislation about Oregon which we had a right to pass without first giving the twelve months' notice and abrogating the treaty which preserved our rights to the territory and prevented Great Britain from strengthening its claims while the treaty remained in force. How does Dr. Mowry treat this great debate, in which occurred Webster's twice repeated explicit denial (by the mouth of Choate) of Benton's slanderous and baseless accusation that