Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/84

72 Marie Merriman Bradley. Congress was to adjourn Monday, August 14, 1848. It was Saturday, the 12th, and the Oregon bill was under discussion when Butler of South Carolina moved to go into executive session. The friends of the bill had resolved to vote down every motion to adjourn until the bill should pass. Saturday night at ten o'clock Foote arose and announced his intention to keep the floor until Monday noon, the final hour of ad- journment. He commenced with a scriptural history and con- tinued until two hours after sunrise Sunday morning, only giving way to motions for adjournment. The friends of the bill were in the adjoining room, with a page on guard who gave notice of each motion to adjourn, when they filed in and voted it down. Sunday morning the opposition had tired themselves out and gave up the game. Foote was silenced by his friends. The bill passed, though by only a small vote, August 14, 1848, in precisely the same form that it passed the House. The long and trying ordeal was over and Oregon was a territory of the United States on her own terms. The rule disallowing bills to be presented for signature on the last day of the ssession was suspended, and this bill was signed August 14. The President returned it to the House with a message in which he reviewed the question of free and slave territory at some length, deploring the agitation arising from it, and predicting that it would, if not checked, dis- member the Union. Polk, of course, was anxious to have the question, which had been so vital an issue in his campaign, settled before his term of office expired, so lost no time in organizing the new territory and appointing the officials. The newly appointed Grovernor, Lane, accompanied by Meek —now holding a commission as marshal— set out at once for the scene of their labors, and arrived in Oregon City March 2, 1849, just two days before the expiration of Polk's term. The next day Lane issued his proclamation and the transition from a provisional to a territorial government was made. 15 The bill was similar to other territorial bills, one noticeable feature in that it was the first bill to set aside two sections of land in each town- ship in place of one for school purposes.