Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/349

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 331 would interfere with the negotiation then taking place; more- over some parts of the bill would seem to assert a greater degree of authority than the convention allowed. Some men raised the point of title as far as 54 40' although no strenuous objections were made. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, touch- ing upon the title, said that the United States had twice offered 49 hence the British government would not dare to take less and the American minister, in view of the late elec- tion, would not dare to accept that line if the British govern- ment would. He could, then, do no more than say that in the time of peace the nation should prepare for war, although, of course, he was opposed to war in itself. The war note, however, was not heard often in the House debates. Instead there was a disposition to eliminate those sections of the bill which would be in flagrant violation of the spirit of the treaty. This was most clearly manifest in the adoption of an amendment whereby the President was author- ized to give notice for terminating joint occupancy, although there were some who believed that the bill should be passed as it was and this be made the subject of a separate action. A motion by Winthrop to amend the bill, by prohibiting slavery within the territory was passed by a vote of 85 to 56 in the committee of the Whole House. When the bill was reported to the House by the Committee of the Whole there was a demand for a separate vote on the slavery amendment which was supported, 131 to 69, and then, with no division on the other amendments, the whole measure was passed, 140 to 59. No roll was called at any stage in the proceedings, so it is impossible accurately to locate the opposi- tion to the measure. From the discussion, however, it is obvious that the opponents were northern Whigs who based their action on the international situation. In the Senate the House bill met with obstacles; it was referred to the special committee of the last session (that on the Oregon Territory) and by this committee was reported back with amendments. There the matter rested for nearly a month. On the closing day of the session Atchison moved to postpone all previous orders and take up the Oregon bill,