LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
276
which was common property Mr. Smart took the opposite ground and said that Congress had legislated for territories from the beginning, thereby exercising an undoubted constitutional preto take
up
their residence in that
of all the States.
rogative. stricting
Besides, said he, the opponents of the clause reOregon from allowing slavery admitted that the
climate there
was such
statement was spoken
that slavery could never exist;
in sincerity there
if this
would be no objection
to legal prohibition.
With personal
variations these sentiments were those which
charactized the debate throughout; on the part of the opponents of the extension of slavery the purpose was to have included in the bill a specific prohibition of it in Oregon;
those from the South preferred that no reference whatever should be made to slavery, thus upholding Gayle's contention that Congress could not legislate up the subject. If, however,
should prove impossible to obtain this, the next best thing would be to obtain some kind of a statement which recognized the extension of the line of the Missouri Compromise to the it
Pacific.
Nothing further was done with the House bill until the first day of May when there was an attempt to have it made a The House, however, like the Senate, in addispecial order. tion to have more pressing business (the appropriation bills), was unwilling to proceed seriously with this measure before it
was apparent what general principle, if any, was to be established with reference to territories, consequently it was nearly a
month before any further mention
of the
Oregon
bill
was
made.
Meantime there had arrived messengers sent from Oregon
in
Washington one of the two
to
present the pleas of that
Quinn Thornton had arrived in May with a letter from Governor Abernathy to Douglas. On the basis of this letter Thornton had drawn up a memorial, dated May 25th, wherein was a brief history of the Oregon colony, and a description of the establishment and work of the Provisterritory to Congress.
J.
