Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/140

 128 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE be proved that all possible claims of the United States to the Pacific Coast had not been sufficiently urged. The Nineteenth Congress in its second* session was even more neglectful of the Oregon question ; it ignored the matter entirely unless a fleeting resolution relative to a route across the Isthmus of Panama may be construed as a sort of recog- nition of the Northwest issue. The Twentieth Congress was informed by President Adams that the Joint Occupancy agreement with Great Britain had been renewed, but at the moment this did not produce any response. A casual reference to Oregon came up in the first session by the introduction of a bill for "the punishment of contraventions of the 5th Article of the treaty between the United States and Russia," i. e., that portion dealing with the prohibition of the sale of fire-arms and liquor to the na- tives. While the measure did not become a law, or even arouse any particular attention, it raised the question of the relation of the courts of the United States to the disputed region.33 A resolution for exploration in the "Pacific and South Sea" passed the House. The second session of this Congress produced the first really serious discussion of the question of occupying the Oregon Territory, and the first debate which called for any notice wor- thy the name since the passage of Floyd's bill by the House in 1825. At the same time this was the last Congressional no- tice of any moment for nearly ten years. Dr. Floyd was once more chairman of the Oregon Territory Committee for which he brought before the House a new bill into which had been incorporated some of the features of his previous measures. 34 It authorized the President to erect forts upon the coast be- tween 42 and 54 40' and garrison the same; the country should be explored, and the criminal laws of the United States were to be extended therein. In the course of the discussion of the measure, taking place upon seven different days, the 33 Debates TV, Pt a, 2560-3. 34 The debate took place in the latter part of December, 1828, and the first of January. 1829. Debates, V, 125-53; 168-91; 192. The vote on the third read- ing occurred January pth.