Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/70

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LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

62

adopted by the committee and reported to the House contained two parts; the first part directed the President to cause the notice to be given, and the second added, "Resolved, That nothing herein contained is intended to interfere with the right and discretion of the proper authorities of the two contracting powers to renew or pursue negotiations for an amicable settlement of the controversy respecting the Oregon territory." The House by a vote of 172 to 46 concurred with the report of the Committee of the Whole, and the resolutions were ordered engrossed for the third reading by 163 to 54. The real test of strength came when the resolutions were reported to the House by a vote of 109 to 94, but as there was no call roll, no party, sectional or other alignment can be determined from it. The vote on the third reading, however, gives

of the

the following results

For

Whigs Democrats Native Americans

North South

West

resolutions

42

Against resolutions 34

117

18

4

2

68 36 59

24 7

Slave States

55

Free States

108

23

29 25

Of the Democratic votes against the resolution seventeen were from Virginia, South Carolina and Alabama. Of these Polk wrote a little later: 7 "By his (Calhoun's) influence he induced 16 Democrats in Virginia and South Carolina in the House to vote against the notice, and now that he is probably convinced of his mistake, and finds that he will not be sustained by either party in the country, he feels bound not to House whom he has caused commit the same mistake." One western Democrat, Caleb

desert the friends in the to

.

B. Smith, of Indiana, completed the total of eighteen. 7 Diary, I,

afig.

.

.

Of