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write a letter to the Oregon people encouraging them to expect favourable action at the next session of Congress (1847-1848), which was already at hand when the letter reached the Pacific. Buchanan made no clear statement of the reason for the failure of the Douglas bill. At about the same time, however, a letter was received in Oregon from Senator Thomas H. Benton, who threw the blame upon Calhoun, but declared: "You will not be outlawed for not admitting slavery. ... I promise you this in the name of the South, as well as of the North. . . ."
Congress again asked to pass a bill; startling news from Oregon. It was something to know that the leaders at the national capital still remembered them; yet the pioneers had been patient for a long time, waiting for the government to give them some sort of recognition; and now that the quarrel with Great Britain was closed, it was hard for them to understand why action should be longer delayed. President Polk was as good as his word, recommending strongly to the next Congress the passage of an Oregon bill. But the opposition was at work once more, as in the previous year, and might have been equally successful but for a piece of startling news carried across the mountains during the winter that roused public feeling in favour of Oregon, and practically forced Congress to act. This was the report of the Whitman massacre, into the causes and the history of which we must now inquire.
The up-river missions and their problems.
