FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 131 those inchoate political aggregations of the time parties. 35 The Oregon issue had not entered into the presidential cam- paign of 1828 and it did not figure as a party matter at this time when the election was over and General Jackson had been "vindicated." In the course of the discussion in the House three separate requests for grants of land had been presented and supported by the Congressmen most interested. The notion of granting anything like monopoly privileges was not kindly entertained by the House, and proposed amendments which would modify the bill in that direction were not adopted. The vote of 99 to 75 by which the ordering of the bill to the third reading was lost settled the matter for this Congress and for some years to come. After this there was a period dur- ing which other matters occupied the attention of the legisla- tors to the exclusion of the distant Columbia River country. Outside ofi Congress during this period of Oregon agitation there was some interest in the question, but it has to be borne in mind that as compared with all the other matters which oc- cupied public attention Oregon commanded but a place of minor importance. This is evidenced by the small amount of newspaper space devoted to it as well as by direct testimony from other sources. At the beginning of this period, 1819-29, something of the popular sentiment is mirrored in an editorial paragraph in the National Intelligencer. 36 "A bill was reported in the House of Representatives yes- terday, the title of which is 'a bill to authorize the occupation of the Columbia River/ Yes, reader, you may believe it, for it is true, that a bill is before Congress, and for aught we know ought to pass, for establishing a Colony now, to be hereafter a Territory, at the mouth of the Columbia, about forty degrees 35 The vote, on ordering to a third reading, was by sections as follows: For the bll Against the bill New England ....15 19 North i.... 20 33 South 26 30 West 19 17 The "North" includes New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware; the "West" includes Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. 36 19 Jan., 1822.
