Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/333

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 315 into committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and each time the motion was lost. Commenting on the first of these motions J. Q. Adams says, "that Duncan moved to take up the bill in committee and called for tellers who re- turned a vote of 30 to 95. "As I passed through the -tellers in the negative/' relates the veteran statesman, "I said to Duncan, 'Not quite yet, Doctor/ and I might have said, 'Not at all/ " 8 The truth of Adams' prediction was manifest when Duncan, just as the House was about to adjourn for the session in the latter part of May, announced that he would call up the Ore- gon bill and was greeted with a laugh. When it was seen that it would be impossible to get any affirmative action for Oregon in the House, either in the form of a resolution for notice, the passage of a bill for a territorial organization, or any other positive act, an attempt was made to secure an expression of opinion on a House resolution which read: 9 Resolved, "1. That it is the opinion of this House, the United States has a clear and indisputable title to all the country on the northwest coast of America, commonly called the Oregon Territory, from the forty-second paral- lel of north latitude, to fifty-four degrees forty minutes of north latitude. "2. That it is the imperious duty of the Government of the United States to take possession of all the country owned by it on the northwest coast and to organize such territorial government as will give ample and complete protection to our citizens in that quarter." A third article was proposed as an amendment and accepted by the mover, "3. That it is expedient and conducive to the best interests of the country, that Texas should be annexed to the United States as soon as annexation can be ac- complished on fair and legitimate principles." An attempt to separate the two propositions arose when it was moved to table the whole, but the Speaker ruled that a 8 Ibid., XII, 30-1., i .: i"._i.:U!.-J fcil .ijjdiclldldjJ 9 Globe, XIII, 443. 25 March.