Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/362

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346
W. D. Fenton.

tion was made that it lie on the table, the democrats voting in the affirmative and the republicans in the negative, but the motion was lost by a vote of eight to fourteen. It was made the special order for Friday, September 14, and Mr. Crawford, of Linn, a democrat, moved to amend the resolution by referring the same to the people of Oregon, to be voted on at the next general election, and upon this motion eight of the nine democratic senators voted for the amendment, and the thirteen republicans voted, with one democrat, against the same. The resolution passed the senate on the same day. Thirteen senators voted in the affirmative and nine against; all the democrats voting in the negative. The action of the senate was communicated to the house on Monday, September 17, and the joint resolution referred to the judiciary committee. Cyrus Olney was chairman of the judiciary committee, and on Wednesday, September 19, he reported the same back to the house with the recommendation that the house concur in the same, and moved that the house concur. A motion to lie on the table was defeated by a vote of twenty-one to twenty-six; the republicans voting nay and the democrats in the affirmative. The minority moved to postpone further consideration, and this was defeated. Thereupon, and at the evening session of Wednesday, September 19, Mr. Worth and seventeen other democrats made a written protest, which was spread upon the journal, solemnly protesting against the passage of the resolution upon the grounds,—first, that the resolution had been hurriedly reported to the house by the chairman of the judiciary committee without consulting two members thereof; second, because there were seats held by persons in the house who were not entitled to the same, and that, therefore, the will of the people could not be expressed; and, third, that the resolution had come before the house without