Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/318

 300 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE and six Whigs voted against reconsideration, that is in support of the bill. Thus it was very nearly a party division. The Whigs who voted against reconsideration were Clayton (Del.), Henderson (Miss.), Merrick (Md.), Morehead (Ky.), Phelps (Vt), and Smith (Ind.) Of the three eastern Whigs Phelps was a member of the special Committee on the Oregon Territory. Taking Benton's charge that the North was will- ing to sacrifice the interests of the South and the West, that is by opposing any definite action for Oregon, it is interesting to analyze the vote from that point of view, taking as South the States below Mason and Dixon's line and as West the three north of the Ohio River, and Missouri, Arkansas, Ten- nessee and Kentucky. The result is this : For the bill Against the bill North 9 11 South 5 10 West 10 3 The only outstanding fact apparent is that the West sup- ported the bill ; the only westerners opposed were Crittenden (Ky.), and Porter and Woodbridge of Michigan, all Whigs. Crittenden's statement that he believed the bill contrary to the spirit of the treaty is a sufficient explanation of his stand. Neither Porter nor Woodbridge took part in the debate, and in the absence of direct evidence there can be only the surmise that party allegiance explains their vote. The charge that the North was against the proposition because it was willing to let the West pay for what it had gained by the Webster-Ash- burton Treaty is not shown by the vote, and the South clearly did not look upon the Oregon Question as particularly its own. It was not until the Oregon bill had made considerable progress in the Senate that the House took any formal notice of the Oregon issue. In the middle of January, 1843, Rey- nolds of Illinois moved an amendment, rejected without a division, to the appropriation bill whereby a sum of $20,000, instead of being for "surveys west of the Mississippi" would be for a military survey from Council Bluffs to the mouth of the Columbia. Nearly all agreed that this method of ap-