Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/93

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON

85

2

of January third, which had told that Aberdeen, while denying the preparations were pointed at America, said Her Majesty's government had to consider the possibility of diffi-

letter

culties

over Oregon, accompanied the correspondence with Another incentive, in spite of the arbitration.

Pakenham over

pacific turn in the debate the Senate resolution of

President to state

on the

notice,

had been furnished by calling on the

March seventeenth whether there was anything

in the relations

of the United States which called for an increase in the naval

and military establishments. All these occurrences, together with the disquieting rumors from the Mexican border and newspaper accounts of British sentiment, made some Congressmen feel that some preparation was wise. On the other hand, many of the Oregon men were discouraged at what had happened in the Senate and openly stated their belief that the House, too, had lost its zeal for the Northwest Coast. Then, on March twenty-fourth, came the President's Message in answer to the Senate resolution. The next day the House, without

debate,

passed the

bill

for

the

mounted riflemen

8 by a vote of 165 to 15. In the Senate Benton had also introduced a bill for riflemen and for posts along the road to Oregon. He described it as a peace measure calculated merely for the defence of the frontier, and as such it was passed without discussion early in

January.

Further results of the conferences between the heads of War and Navy Departments and the Congressional Committees were also in evidence. Fairfield, chairman of the Senthe

ate Committee on Naval Affairs, by reporting a measure foi ten additional steam warships broueht about a discussion of the possibility of war with Great Britain, but no action was

Haralson, toward the end of January, brought before a sweeping measure by which the President would be authorized "to resist any attempt on the part of taken.

the

House

...

any foreign nation to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over any 2 Polk, Diary, I, 133-4; Globe, 3 Ibid., XV. 553 eq.

XV,

332.