the settlement of Oregon, and who had been agitating the question both in 'his own state and in the City of Washington for several years before it was taken up in congress.
While great credit is to be given the far-sighted and courageous advocates of the bill, it is not fair in a historical paper to minimize the efforts of the opposition. To characterize the opponents as ultra-conservative or selfinterested would not be just to the many weighty arguments which they brought forward, and which, looked at from the standpoint of their day, were weightier than they seem now, when conditions have so changed. For a new nation, with a new national machinery, hardly yet in smoothly running order, to attempt expansion into regions separated by natural barriers, and inaccessible before the application of steam to travel, might well require careful thought.
This first attempt, though it had failed of accomplishing its immediate end, was highly creditable to all who were engaged in it, and its results were not small. Interest had been awakened, not alone among the members of congress, but more particularly among the people throughout the country. Circulars containing all the information available, were prepared and sent to the constituents of congressmen, and the nation began to be committed to a policy which it would take time fully to realize. The people had gained the impression that the United States' title was perfectly clear to the whole valley of the Columbia; that the English were there only by sufferance until the formal settlement of a boundary at a more convenient time; and that the government was willing that American immigrants should occupy it, and would protect them as well as it could.
The debates which occurred at various times in connection with_these early bills are interesting, not alone
