Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/75

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON and naval preparations

To

all

way

England

as reported

18 by McLane.

whom

Senators with

the best

in

67

to settle

he talked he gave his opinion that the whole matter was first to give the

notice, and he wished his authority in this to be unhampered in

any manner.

On

the tenth of February, the day set for taking up the Oregon resolutions, the joint resolutions on this subject were

received from the

House and referred

to the

Committee on

Foreign Relations. Those who were for immediate action succeeded by a vote of 23 to 22, in having all previous orders 19 From this day until postponed and the resolutions taken up. the resolution for notice was adopted on April sixteenth there was no topic other than Oregon seriously considered in the Senate.

At

the outset the

should be given at

all;

main

later

it

what form the resolution should

issue

changed take.

was whether

notice

to the question of

War

possibilities occu-

pied the attention of the earlier speakers ; Allen's speech, opening the debate, took the stand that there was no longer a question of title to discuss, it was merely a question whether or not the United States would act or be deterred by a war scare such as Great Britain had manufactured in 1842 to secure

a portion of Maine. This theme, with variations, was running through most of the speeches. There were few Senators who did not share in the debate,

and fewer

still

of the features of the situation which were

not touched upon. The dry straw of the title was threshed over again by many. One of the interesting speeches of the

was that delivered by Benton on February nineWhile Benton had not ceased to urge conciliation he now took the stand that arbitration was inadmissible, and argued for all the Oregon recommendations of the Message. He denounced the system of joint occupation as "always unjust, unequal, and injurious to us"; he believed that the time was ripe for negotiation, and that the United States should take advantage of it. It was a speech of such a nature that earlier debate

teenth.

18 Polk, Diary, I, 257.

19

The Senate debate

is

found in the Cong. Globe, XV, 350

seq.