FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON
85
2
of January third, which had told that Aberdeen, while denying the preparations were pointed at America, said Her Majesty's government had to consider the possibility of diffi-
letter
culties
over Oregon, accompanied the correspondence with Another incentive, in spite of the arbitration.
Pakenham over
pacific turn in the debate the Senate resolution of
President to state
on the
notice,
had been furnished by calling on the
March seventeenth whether there was anything
in the relations
of the United States which called for an increase in the naval
and military establishments. All these occurrences, together with the disquieting rumors from the Mexican border and newspaper accounts of British sentiment, made some Congressmen feel that some preparation was wise. On the other hand, many of the Oregon men were discouraged at what had happened in the Senate and openly stated their belief that the House, too, had lost its zeal for the Northwest Coast. Then, on March twenty-fourth, came the President's Message in answer to the Senate resolution. The next day the House, without
debate,
passed the
bill
for
the
mounted riflemen
8 by a vote of 165 to 15. In the Senate Benton had also introduced a bill for riflemen and for posts along the road to Oregon. He described it as a peace measure calculated merely for the defence of the frontier, and as such it was passed without discussion early in
January.
Further results of the conferences between the heads of War and Navy Departments and the Congressional Committees were also in evidence. Fairfield, chairman of the Senthe
ate Committee on Naval Affairs, by reporting a measure foi ten additional steam warships broueht about a discussion of the possibility of war with Great Britain, but no action was
Haralson, toward the end of January, brought before a sweeping measure by which the President would be authorized "to resist any attempt on the part of taken.
the
House
...
any foreign nation to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over any 2 Polk, Diary, I, 133-4; Globe, 3 Ibid., XV. 553 eq.
XV,
332.
