Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/136

124 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE Indians: it would establish a military post, allow a port of entry at the discretion of the President, grant bounty lands to settlers and provide for the erection of territorial organiza- tion by the President. In a lengthy speech (20 Dec. 1824) Floyd supported the measure on the grounds of the value of the trade, the strategic position of the Columbia, and the fear that if the United States did not act the country would be occupied by Spain, England or Russia. 26 As in his report he assumed that the title of the United States was clear from 42 to 53. Very little opposition was offered in the Committee of the Whole; Poinsett, of South Carolina, would leave to the President to determine what place in the region should be occupied by the post, while Cook of Illinois opposed the portion relative to a civil government as well as the grant of lands to settlers, a move, he said, to delude the people. The bill was reported to the House without amendment. Here some of the teeth were drawn. The section directing the President to erect a civil government was stricken out, not so much on account of possible international complications as because it would put out of the power of Congress a high legislative matter. Smyth of Virginia did, indeed, refer incidentally to the claims of other nations in his speech in general opposition to the bill, but that aspect seemed to cause little concern. The provision for bounty lands was also removed, so that the measure in its amended form as it passed the House became practically the recommendations of the President. No call for a record division was made at any stage of the passage of the bill, consequently it is not possible to see from what parts of the Union came the 113 votes for the bill or the 57 against it. Nor does the discussion, such as it was, throw much light on this point. While Floyd's measure went through the House in its emasculated form with surprising ease it met with difficulties in the Senate where from the outset there was apparently 26 The discussion is reported in Debates, I, 13-59, and took place on three days, 21-23 December.