398 Squatter sovereignty. Oregon divided. [i 846-8 slaves were property) into any territory would be a violation of the Constitution. These resolutions were never voted on by the Senate, but they were at once accepted by Calhoun's followers, and were reasserted in resolutions passed by the legislatures of Alabama and Virginia. When Congress met in December, 1847, Daniel S. Dickinson, a member from New York, went a step further, and introduced certain resolutions declaring that the spirit of the Constitution and the welfare of the Union would be best served by leaving all questions of the internal affairs of the Territories, even that of slavery, to the Territorial legislatures. In this respect the people of the Territories had, he claimed, the same sovereign rights as those of the States. This was the principle of "squatter sovereignty." At the same time Lewis Cass, a leader of the Democratic party in the North- West, and already anxious to be nominated by his party as a candidate for the Presidency, set forth the same doctrine in a letter which soon found its way into print. All this, as yet, was but the expression of the personal opinion of individuals, or of the ideas of State legislatures. But a serious attempt was now made to make the new Territories slave soil. The Democratic party, having by its action in 1845 made good its promise to re-annex Texas, had been called on to redeem its pledge respecting Oregon ; and in 1846 the year's notice of abrogation required by the treaty of 1827 was served on Great Britain. This brought the question of the ownership of Oregon definitely before the two countries. The more hot-headed members of the party demanded the cession to the United States of the whole territory in dispute, extending to latitude 54 40' North, and raised the cry " Fifty-four forty, or fight." The spirit of the country became so bellicose that at one time it seemed likely that the United States would go to war with Great Britain as well as with Mexico ; but fortunately a more pacific temper prevailed. In June, 1846, a treaty was signed, by which the parallel of 49 north latitude, running from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the coast and continued down the Straits of Juan de Fuca, was established as the northern boundary of Oregon, thus leaving Vancouver Island in the possession of Great Britain. The question of sovereignty having thus been settled, Congress was soon called on to provide a Territorial government. In 1847 a bill for that purpose passed the House, but was tabled in the Senate because it contained a provision excluding slavery. In the next session (1848) a bill appeared in the Senate without this provision. A Free-Soil member therefore moved an amendment intended to exclude slavery. This brought on a long debate, in which the slavery extensionists vigorously resisted the amendment, not because they hoped to introduce slave labour into Oregon, but because they feared the application of the principle to California and New Mexico. As the House was unable to agree, the subject was referred to a special committee, which reported a
