country from the mountains to the ocean, between latitudes 42° and 54°, but provided for the delivery of such criminal subjects of Great Britain as might be arrested under the act, to the most convenient authorities having cognizance of the offence by the laws of that nation. Two associate justices of the supreme court of Iowa, in addition to those already authorized by law, were by the terms of the bill to be appointed for the duties of the two judicial districts to be organized out of the territory described, these district courts to possess all the powers and authority invested in the other district courts of Iowa, and in like manner to appoint their clerks. The bill also provided for justices of the peace and constables, with power to arrest offenders. By these means it was intended to furnish that protection which had so often been demanded by the Oregon colonists.
The bill was referred to a select committee, which instructed the chairman to report it back to the senate with a recommendation that it pass, and it was placed in its order on the calendar; but before it came up for consideration, Lord Ashburton, the British plenipotentiary, arrived in Washington, and out of delicacy as well as diplomacy, the senate refrained from any further discussion on the subject for the time. On the 9th of August, 1842, the treaty framed by Lord Ashburton and Mr Webster was concluded, and early in the following session Linn brought up his bill, pressing it with great ardor, and enlisting the best talent of the senate in the debate.[1] After a heated discussion, it passed the senate by a vote of twentyfour to twenty-two, February 3, 1843, but failed in the house.[2] Thus, like Floyd, after a struggle of
- ↑ Calhoun, Archer, McDuffie, Crittenden, Conrad, Choate, and Berrien were adverse to the passage of the bill. Benton, Young, Sevier, Buchanan, Walker, Phelps, and Linn were its advocates. Benton said: 'I now go for vindicating our rights on the Columbia, and as the first step toward it, passing this bill, and making these grants of land, which will soon place thirty or forty thousand rifles beyond the Rocky Mountains.' Thirty Years' View, ii. 470-82; Grover's Public Life in Or., MS., 99.
- ↑ Cong. Globe, 1842-3, 297.
