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 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON

265

tage would have been made. The language of the gentlemen from the West and from New England, he continued, was 7 all. plain enough that the South must move then or not at Pettit, of Indiana, took issue with him on the power of the United States over territories which, he contended, was sovThe South was not ready to answer to Burt's call; ereign. the amendment was lost after little discussion by a close vote. Further consideration in the Committee of the Whole House resulted in minor changes only, except that the recommendation of the Committee on Territories for a grant of one section

per township for educational purposes was increased to two. When the bill was reported to the House it was adopted as it stood although Burt made another attempt to have his amend-

ment included. The final vote, however, had not been taken before the Wilmot Proviso and all that it implied had been brought before the House. Leake of Virginia had stated the position of the South: twice the South had been cheated by compromises, once in 1820 and again in 1833 (on the tariff), and now the House had deliberately rejected Burt's amendrent the adoption of which would have shown the good faith refusing to allow all mention of the Missouri Compromise in the Oregon bill it was obvious that there was shown the same spirit which had produced the Wilmot

of the North.

By

Proviso, and it must all be looked upon as an Ultimatum, not In that case, said Leake, it was a Protocol, of the North. well for the North to hear the Ultimatum of the South if the

Wilmot proviso should be engrafted upon any legislation part of a permanent policy, "They (the Northerners)

as a will

have put the South to the exercise of those reserved rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and which have not been and which shall not be wrested from us. We cannot, we will not,

we ought

not, to submit to

it.

You have

put us on the de-

we

will defend! For the fraternal bond that has hitherto connected us, you will have substituted the chain of

fensive and

despotism: 7 Globe,

we

XVII,

will sever

it.

178-9; Appendix,

By making 116-7.

us feel the union only