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On the institutions of the South were being attacked. no decision was bill was but reached. the discussed, days the
the tenth of
two
On
Senate convened for an evening
August and threshed over the slavery issue until the final vote was taken the next morning at ten o'clock. First the committee amendment was voted on, with the understanding that if it was lost a vote should be taken on an amendment, subsession
mitted by Douglas, extending the Missouri Compromise line The committee to the Pacific without reference to Oregon.
amendment was lost, 52 to 2, and the Missouri Compromise clause was inserted (33 to 21). The opposition to the amendment was nearly the same as that to the Compromise Bill which had passed the Senate a couple of weeks before; Atherton (New Hampshire Democrat), Breese and Phelps, who had voted for the Compromise Bill, now voted against the amendment Atherton and Phelps voted against the bill. Fitzgerald (Michigan) and Underwood had opposed the Compromise bill and now voted for the amendment and the bill Calhoun voted for the amendment but against the bill, which, he said, was
ambiguous.
During the night while the Senate discussion was in progHouse was in great confusion so long as it sat, and 47 the next morning the excitement was even more pronounced. When the Oregon bill was brought before it for concurrence the whole section dealing with the veto was rejected, for, it ress the.
be remarked, the veto might conceivably be used to promote pro-slavery interests, since the governor would be appointed by a southern President. The Missouri Compromise line provision was lost, 121 to- 82. The bill was now before the Senate again (12 August). Benton moved that the Senate recede from its amendment and spoke feelingly for action on the bill. He said he had voted
may
reluctantly for the
Senate had taken
compromise amendment, but now that the stand enough had been done for concilia-
its
47 So stated the reporter of the debates, and the President, who had gone to the Capitol late in the evening and had stayed until 11:30 P. M. in order to Diary, IV, 79. sign such bills as should be presented to him.
