398 Documents. After the reading of the resolutions, the meeting was addressed by- Judge Semple, Judge Douglass, and U. F. hinder, in favor of their adop- tion, and by Mr. Baker in opposition. The meeting adjourned to meet again on Thursday evening. On that evening the Hall was crowded. The meeting was addressed at great length by General Hardin, in favor of the resolutions. Mr. Matheny of Springfield offered a substitute for the resolutions reported by the committee, which was read, and supported by Mr. Matheny, and Mr. Baker. Mr. hinder also addressed the meeting again, in favor of the resolutions of the committee. The substitute was laid upon the table, and the resolutions of the committee adopted. The meeting then requested the two papers printed in Springfield to publish the resolutions. The meeting then adjourned. JESSE B. THOMAS, Chairman. Newton Cloud, Secretary. SPEECH OF JUDGE SEMPLE. In this country, where public opinion not only governs the conduct of men in society, but the Government itself ; where the President and Congress of the United States look to public sentiment as a proper rule of action, it is a matter of importance to adopt some mode of ascertaining that sentiment, and giving it its due weight in the councils of the nation. I know of no means more effectual than those of public meetings, where the whole body of the people can meet together, and, after full discussion, express in the form of resolutions, the opinions which they entertain. Entertaining this opinion, I invited the attention of the public to the immediate occupation of the Oregon, at a public meeting of the people at Alton, in the month of November last. I found my expectations fully realized in the unanimous expression of opinion among citizens of all political parties on that subject. That, I believe, was the first public meeting ever called in the United States on the subject of the occupation of the Oregon. The proceedings of that meeting have been noticed and commented on in every part of the United States. This shows the interest that is beginning to be taken by the whole people of the United States on that subject. This question presents itself to us in many important points of view. One of the objections to the extension of our territory is, that the Govern- ment will become unwieldly, and that States situated on the Pacific can never be kept under the Government of the United States, but must become independent. I think this opinion is entirely unfounded. The nature of our Federal and State Government is calculated to extend itself. I am quite willing to admit that one central Government would never be able to make laws to satisfy any great extent of territory ; indeed, that now contained in the limits of the United States could never be governed by one and the same Legislature. But while the State Governments are maintained in the proper and constitutional exercise of individual sov- ereignty, they severally have all fhe powers necessary to an independent State, in the same manner, to all intents and purposes, as if the State
