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.
