The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 406
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406
CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
In his place he stood up and protested against the
passage of this bill; and he desired that it should be
marked and sent to the people of Wisconsin that
he said in his place, upon this floor, that nobody
would be benefited- by it except the speculators; that
it would deeply prejudice the people of Wisconsin;
that not one acre would ever Be sold; and that not
one stroke of this work would ever be done. The
whole effect of the bill would be to take the govern-
ment lands out of the market, and compel the peo-
ple to buy of the speculators, these lands through-
out the entire course, traversing the Territory from
the termination of Green bay down to the great Mis-
sissippi river. If the Senate chose, with these facts
before them, to pass a bill that, in its title, professed
to do a favor to the Territory; if, in the absence of
any representation on that floor from the Territoiy;—
if, under these circumstances, the Senate pass this
bill, all he had to say was, it would do a deep act of
injustice to the government of the Ifnited States by
making it an iustrument of imposture on the people
of Wisconsin. The 'bill professed to do good to that
people—it was doing them a vital injury. And he
desired that senators now might mark what he said,
and call him to account next session, and hurl it in his
teeth if he falsely prophesied in that, if one dollar's
worth of these lands would be sold, or one stroke
done towards the work. He saw the very memorial
to which the senator from .New York adverted—not
addressed to this body in 1841, nor now; but a me-
morial, addressed to this body many years ago.
In that memorial they spoke of a land company
having commenced cutting this canal of a mile and
a quarter. The speculators were going to do it
themselves several years ago. They found that it
was impossible to construct the canal in that way;
and that was the ground upon which the Territory
of Wisconsin predicated its memorial, prayin°*
that the general government might undertake the
construction of this canal; and that was the last that
was heard of the company's operations.
He now proposed making an open, an honest ces-
sion of this land to the people of Wisconsin; and if
they chose to let it fall through, it would be their
fault and not ours.
He proposed, in the amendment which lie had
submitted to the Senate, to place this cession of
land precisely upon the foundation of the cession
made by the distribution act. Charity towards
the Territory of Wisconsin ought to induce the Sen-
ate to adopt this course.
The memorial referred to by Mr. Allen was then
read.
Mr. SEMPLE remarked that the morning hour
had expired, and moved to lay the bill on the table
with the view of proceeding in the discussion of the
Oregon question.
Mr, CRITTENDEN desired, before proceeding
to that matter, to submit a resolution; which he did
and it was read as follows: '
Resolved by the Senate, That the Secretary of the
Wavy be, and he is hereby, requested to furnish
barmiel Colt with such facilities and assistance as
boats, anchors, men, &c., authorized by the joint
resolution of Congress, approved August 31, i842
as may be required to enable him to complete his
proposed submarine experiments for testing Colt's
submarine battery.
The resolution was agreed to.
OREGON QUESTION.
On the motion of Mr. SEMPLE, the Senate then
resumed the consideration of the following resolu-
tion:
Resolved, That the President of the United States
be requested to give notice to the British govern-
ment that it is the desire of the government, of the
United States to annul and abrogate the provisions
of the third article of the convention concluded be-
tween the government of the United States of Amer-
ica and his Britannic Majesty the King of the Uni-
tiA i of ®reat Britain and Ireland, on the
-20th of October, 1848, and indefinitely continued by
the convention between the same parties, signed at
London the fiih August, 1827.
Air. CHOATE expressed his obligations to the
honorable senator from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Buchan-
ithl'J v /vr r"?ly l"l0stP0ned bis remarks to en-
',un (Mr- c-) to proceed. It was not his pur-
edSafrw",r" 'Tv* dl?CUSR1°". been allow-
,t <S ' a opportunity of stating his
tioir all h* n.°" 'I16 under considera-
tion, all he proposed to do was, to offer a few expla-
nations, and to add a few illustrations in support of
his views as then expiessed. He considered it ne-
cessary in self-justification, to do so; and he ac-
knowledged his great anxiety to be allowed, in as
brief a manner as possible, to define, and (if the ex-
pression was not too magniloquent) to sustain the
theory then advanced by him. In reviewing the
sentiments delivered by him on that day, it would
be allowed that he did not advocate a determination
on the part of the Senate never to give the notice re-
quired by the motion of the senator from Illinois;
all,he said was, that it should not be given at the
moment; and he said so from a conviction that there
was-no immediate necessity for it; but he did not
say that it never should be given; for who amongst
them—the wisest or the best—could say what would
or might occur within the next six months to render
the giving of that notice absolutely imperative? He
certainly did say that, in the course of events, it
might never become necessary to give that notice;
but that was not calling on the Senate to say that it
never should be given. All that he asked was,
to let it rest for the present, and, keeping in the in-
terim a keen look-out on the movements of England
m regard to Oregon, to let that country continue to
fill up, as it was doing, with the arms and hearts of
America.
The only position he and those he acted with
contended for, was not to give the notice to-day.
They did not, in doing so, say it was never to be
given. So far, then, the only question at issue was
give the notice to-day, or not to-day. Senators on
the other side say, give it at once. We say, delay,
until we are convinced, by the failure of negotiation
that there exists a necessity for it. This is the en-
tire question for the Senate to decide.
_ It was apparent that the senator from Pennsylva-
nia and himself had, in their speeches, entered into
many matters wholly irrelative and immaterial; or,
if that was too strong, not very relative or material
to the main question. Whether the honorable sen-
ator was right in settling the character of the par-
ties interested, or whether he (Mr. C.) was right or
wrong m calculating on the fruits to be gathered
from the sanguine, restless, and enterprising dispo-
sition of his countrymen, whose energies, not to be
subdued as the waves on the beach by the retiring
tide,, led them over the Rocky mountains, and would
lead them to the borders of'the Pacific. Whether
the senator was right in supposing that, in regard to
Uregon, the British government had adopted'a new
policy, and that the Hudson Bay company had
found out, and turned their capital and attention to
a new trade—that of agriculture—were not matters
materially bearing on the present question.
He stood on this day, where he stood on the first
day that lie addressed the. Senate on this subject.
He stood againstgivmgthe notice, as called for by the
resolution offered by the Senator from Illinois; and
lie stood so for one single reason: that by giving it
there may be a possibility of its being productive
no good; but on the contrary, that it would be,
more likely to produce evil—as throwing an imped-
iment in the way of negotiation already commenced.
We have maintained a convention for six and twenty
years, which, until this session of Congress, has not
been made a matter of discussion or complaint: and
by suddenly breaking it, there may be a possibility
ot doing harm. He would say, for that single reason
alone, he advocated a delay of the notice; and if
he last addressed the Senate, any action had occur-
red through the mysterious Providence of God
which would increase the chances, or give greater
room to hope for a settlement of this question by
negotiation, he would impress on the Senate the
necessity of acting with due deliberation, and of
doing nothing m haste or rashness.
,Jllfr,S<>"al'lr from Pennsylvania, summed up his
(Mr. Ciioaii;'s) argument as neither more or less
than that, as the United States had slept on their
rights for a period of twenty-six year?, they
therefore required "a little mole sleep, a' little
more slumber, a little more folding of the
hands;-' but he begged to assure the'honorable
gentleman that he made no such assertion. He
however, believed that it was wrong to complain'
ot any refutation of argument offered by the
gentlemen opposite, as they took care not'to say
what the argument was which they attempted to
refute—thus leaving to themselves an unlimited
boundary, that almost defied contradiction. It whs
told to the honor of one of the greatest orators that
ever occupied a seat in the English House of Com-
mons, and to the honor of one of the greatest law-
yers that ever adorned the profession in the United
States, that they had the power of stating the argu-
ments of their opponents, and placing them in a
stronger light than they could be placed by the most
talented of their supporters; and then of turning
round and so completely demolishing those argu-
ments as not to leave, a shadow to rest on. Such
power he was far from possessing; but he thought
it not difficult to advance all the arguments given on
the other side, and then completely upset them on
the principles of common reason. The honorable
senator says that we- slept on our rights, as regard-
ed the Oregon question, for the last twenty-six
years. If, in saying so, he only gave indulgence to
a free phraseology, and merely meant that some
three quarters of an hour may have elapsed within
that twenty-six years without the question being
pressed on the attention of either government, lie
would perhaps be right; but in any other view he
was decidedly wrong, and must altogether have for-
gotten the uniformity and consistency which, for
twenty-six years, under every administration, and in
every aspect of affairs, our Oregon policy, as con-
nected with this convention, was carefully guarded
and attended to.
Mr. Choate here read an extract from a speech,
as reported in the Congressional Globe, delivered
by him twelve months ago, and expressed his sur-
prise that the Senator from Pennsylvania, knowing
his sentiments then, could have fallen into the error
relative to them which he had done. The only
difference which existed between this day and that
was, that now all the other differences between the
nations having been disposed of, this Oregon ques-
tion must be made, as a matter of necessity, a cause
of dispute. In reply to the assumption of Mr.
Buchanan, that in the treaty of 1842, there was an
offer made to cede to Great Britain from 49° north
latitude, he would give, as far as he was concerned,
a history of the transaction, and show that the hon-
orable gentleman, in such assumption, was wholly
in error. The honorable senator from Missouri
[Mr. Benton,]—who, to the sincere gratification of
every senator, was, on that morning, enabled to re-
sume his seat—had made a speech, the drift of which
was that Great Britain had no title to what he.
feared it was proposed to give her—south of 490
and having gone onto denounce the parties engaged
m the negotiation, lie (Mr. C.) intending to speak
on the subject, and wishing for authentic informa-
tion, addressed a letter to the Secretary of State,
meiely requiring to know whether such a proposi-
tion had been made to the minister representing
Great Britain. This letter was brief, and in writ-
ing it, he dreamed not of seeking any information,
more than a direct reply to his question. The an-
swer was as laconic as the letter itself; merely, but
distinctly, staging not only that such proposition was
never made, but never meditated. He therefore,
thought it his duty to assure the honorable senator,
that, if there was veracity m man, there was no
foundation for his belief that any such offer had
been made. Hastening from that digression, and
pledging himself never to offer another word rela-
tive to the treaty of 1842, he came back to tile ori-
ginal question. He repeated that the convention
which the proposed notice would break up, was
maintained by every successive administration since
its completion twenty-six years back. It was made
in 1818, and renewed in 1827. In the interim no
complaint was heard against it. In 1829, under the
administration of General Jackson—a hero whose
brow bore such a laurel of glory as seldom adorned
the forehead of an American citizen—the letter of
Clark and Cass was addressed to the senator from
Missouri, [Mr. Benton,] asserting, for tiie first
time, the murder of five hundred of our fellow-citi-
zens, at the head of the Mississippi or Missouri.
Yet even then in 1829, propitious as the time was
no man, in either brancli of Congress, was found to
hold his finger up, or offer the shadow of a threat
against England or her subjects, as the murderers
ai enow supposed to be. In 1838, the charter of
the Hudson s Bay company was renewed, with a
reservation on the part of the British government
empowering them, at any time within 20 years, to
colonize the Oregon, should they deem fit; and still
no man was found to stand up and declare they had
not poster to do so. Tn the years 1839 and 1840
reports were, received from the Indian Department
stating the very important fact of presents heino-
made by the British government to the Indians un-
der our jurisdiction; yet no man stood forth to com-
plain against England for so doing. No man under
any of those circumstances, raised a finger, or offer-
ed the shadow of a threat of even breaking the con-
vention, by giving the notice the Senate was new
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2367/m1/430/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.