Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/391

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON

373

large for a single government; that the region north of the Columbia was large enough for another territory since it con-

some 32,000 square miles; that the northern region on account of its distance from the seat of government and the preponderance of population in the Willamette valley and that the local nature of the laws enacted by the Territorial Legislature was against the interests north tained

was

at a disadvantage



of the Columbia.

While the question was raised in the House as to whether was sufficient population north of the Columbia to

there

warrant the creation of a new peared.

unit,

no

real opposition ap-

With "Columbia" changed

to

"Washington" the

House passed

the

bill.

2

In the Senate there was even

discussion than in the House.

less

one of the old-fashioned territorial bills," said some one, and the measure was passed without further comment. 3 "It

is

Oregon territory was thus bisected by a line which followed the middle of the Columbia River to a point, near Walla Walla, where the forty-sixth parallel cuts the stream; this summit of the Rocky MounWashington territory comprised what is now the State of Washington together with northern Idaho and the strip of Montana which lies between the main ridge of the Rockies and the Bitter Root Mountains. With the division of Oregon came the question of Statehood. While desultory discussion had raised the question from time to time, it was not until after Washington had been set off that the issue was seriously debated. During the latter part of 1853 and in 1854 interest grew. Answering this agitation, which was fostered by the Democratic party in Oregon, Lane introduced in the House a bill for an enabling act in April of 1854, at a time when the Kansas-Nebraska controversy was uppermost. When the measure came up in Committee of the Whole it was not seriously considered; the population of parallel

formed the

line to the

tains.

Oregon had been

less

than 15,000 at the time of the 1850 census

2 The memorial is in the Globe, 3 Ibid., 1020.

XXVI,

541.

Passage of the

bill,

555.