70 Marie Merriman Bradley. should have the right to navigate them to the ocean. The old grounds of our clainks were gone over, the chief points being, (1) our claims by right of discovery, (2) the settlement of Astoria, (3) the Louisiana Purchase (contiguous territory), (4) the Spanish treaty of 1819. The British claimed that the whole question had been settled by the Nootka Sound Conven- vention, no agreement could be reached, so a compromise was arranged by continuing indefinitely the treaty of 1818, sub- ject at any time to abrogation by either party on twelve months' notice. Then for some fourteen years the Oregon question was but slightly agitated. England, beginning to realize that delay hurt her cause, proposed a conference which was held in 1846. This conference settled the northern boundary on the 49th parallel to the ocean. The President's message of 1847 recommended that the Oregon territory should have the privilege granted under the constitution, that it should be given a legal government and a territorial representation. There was a fierce struggle over the bill, the opposition tried to kill it by postponing it until the end of the session, but Benton, always Oregon's best friend^^ in the Senate, finally brought it to a vote. The people of Oregon had twice before that time voted down the slavery question. They declared that slavery should not exist in Oregon, so in drawing up the bill the anti-slavery clause had been taken from the Ordinance of 1787, to fully represent the wishes of the people. The slavery interests made overtures to the Oregon supporters to consent that the bill should remain silent on the subject, and promised unanimous support in case that was done, but the supporters of the bill, knowing the wishes of the people of Oregon and determined to win the fight on the line they had started, refused and the anti-slavery clause remained a part of the Oregon bill.^^ 11 Letter from Benton to People of Oregon, copied in Brown's Political History of Oregon, Vol. I, p. 811. , 12 Brown, Political History of Oregon, Vol. I, p. 355.
