Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/68

 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

60

plored Gidding's sectional attitude, extolled the "Texas Invincibles" who, at the last session, had brought in that republic.

Then he went on to sound the note uttered by all westerners all Oregon; no more negotiations if that meant loss of any part no war, he hoped, but if war did come, there was Canada



to be thought of. Rhett, of South Carolina, a opened for the opposition with the arguments which

Democrat, were used,

all those who were against the Adgiving notice would be to oust Great Britain and that meant inevitable war resulting probably not in all

in

one form or other, by

ministration



of Oregon, but none of Oregon. Both North and West wished for war, said Rhett; it was a part of the political game in which the northern Democrats, disappointed at the defeat of their favorite

Van

Buren, were determined to play a double government and punish the South.

part, get control of the

The debate continued on

into the next day ostensibly on the of reference to the Committee of the Whole but question In itself. on the issue order to allow other business actually

of a routine nature to

go

on, reference

was made and the

debate proceeded. 4 From the sixth of January to the sixteenth of February, this topic occupied the attention of the House. Extended as it was the debate was participated in by more

than half the Representatives it grew in intensity all the time even though it was impossible for either side to bring up new arguments on the merits of the question. The discussion on

one side consisted largely

must



in assertion of the title of the

United

of Oregon, give notice and let war come if it the opposition asserted a colorable title by Great Britain,

States to

all

the necessity of negotiation, the unpreparedness of the United States for war, and the disaster which would follow hostili-

Jefferson Davis added a variation when he asked what would be gained if, on account of the excitement aroused by the debate, Mexico should make unreasonable demands, defeat the acquisition of California and so cause the United ties.

4 Globe, XV, 150. Many of the speeches, which were in most cases "extended," appear in the Appendix to Vol. XV.