218 VERNE BLUE
treasures, it cannot change the character of the country or the river ; the one will remain sterile and inhospitable, the other will continue hard to enter and harder still to navigate. . . . // you establish on that river a province with a population as dense as that of China, and build a fortress as strong as the seven walls of Constantinople you can do no more. The physical difficulties of the country forbid it."
In closing, however, he said one fairly good thing: "The progress of this debate has had, I believe, no other effect than to prove how ignorant we all are of the sub- ject matter of the bill, and how unfit we are, at this moment, to act understandingly." This was, of course, an exaggeration, but it indicated that a steady progress of knowledge, a "campaign of education," would be all that would win to the protagonists of the measure a pre- ponderance of popular and official opinion.
On January 6, 1829, when Floyd again brought the House in Committee of the Whole, the drama was rapidly drawing to its close. The bone of contention is now whether there shall be a military post or not. The bill has progressed in a certain order of attenuation: (1) settlement plus military protection; (2) military posts only; (3) exploring party sufficient; (4) straight out negation.
The proposal for an exploring party seemed for a moment destined to favor but by the time an amend- ment was offered and a vote taken on it, no quorum was found to be present, so the remaining members departed leaving the question undecided. On the 7th, as soon as the House had gone into committee again, it cheerfully voted the amendment down.
Then an amendment was offered providing for the
trial of American citizens by United States courts. Some
debate followed over this new turn given to the question
the legal protection of United States citizens. The
committee good-humoredly passed both this amendment
