The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1846-01-23

uiCtiou, ana tney COuiu meet Thu!
Oregon question face to face direct
ly on its own merits, without an,
controversy as to whether it ough
J to have come from this or that com
mittee. He hoped, therefore, tina
this preliminary question would b,
settled, and that week after next, t,
which time he had consented tn,
Oregon question should be postpon,
ed, would not be occupied with tn.
discussion of these questions.
He repeated the expression of tn,
hope that not only this bill, but tn,
bill from the committee on Indiar
Affairs, and the notice from the com.
mittee on Foreign Affairs, would be
taken up next week, and disposed
of. He hoped, therefore, this mo-
ton would prevail. There could be
no objection raised that it would not
be necessary if no Oregon bill were
passed. If no Oregon bill passed at
all, it would be necessary to have
these Indian agencies west of the
Rocky mountains; it would be nee
essary to raise this force for the pro-
lection of our emigrants thither; and
the notice would be necessary.
Hence the necessity of these bills
did not depend at all upon the pas
sage of the Oregon bill. He hoped,
then. that gentlemen would not OBJ
Ject to these until the Oregon bill
came up, and then say that it was
not from the right committee. There
seemed to be game playing TO OBJ
Ject to the Oregon bill when it came
up, and to say to the committee on
territories, You have reported on
subjects which you ought not to have
reported on, and which belong to
other committees; and now. when
the military committee had reported
distinctly, appropriately, to object
to its being considered until after
the Oregon bill was acted on.
Mr.. G. s. HousroN, the floor be-
ing yielded by Mr.. Douglass for ex-
planation,) simply desired to say, if
the gentleman thought there was any
game playing-and certainly if there
was game playing he would be
presumed to have hand in it, as he
had made the objection to making
this bill the special order-and if the
gentleman thought he Mr.. H. } had
any hand in it, that he was, as usual.
sadly mistaken. And furthermore,
if these bills were all to be brought
up, and all made the special order
every one covering the object of
particular clauses of the gcntlcman's
bill-they would have too little of
the gentleman's bill left to occupy
the next week. =,
Mr.. DOUGLASS, resuming, had on
ly to say, if he was mistaken, it was
a sad mistake; and he hoped that
all the mistakes he made would be
Of the same character.
Mr.. VANCE here interposed with
the point of order, that this debate
was not in order, being on question
of the priority of business.
The SPEAKER said the question of
priority Of business was not debata-
BILE; the question of reference to
the committee Of the Whole on the
state of the Union, which was also
pending, was, however, undoubted-
ly debatable.
Mr.. DOUGLASS continued. He had
but. one word more to add. So far
as he had spoken of any game being
played, he had no personal allusion
to any gentleman; but he did saw
that in this house every little ques-
ton which could be seized hold of
was raised to postpone and prevent
action on this Oregon question.
There seemed to be terror in the
Oregon question that made gentle
men shrink from it, who had met the
Texas question boldly and without
shrinking, last year.
Mr.. HousToN (Mr. d. yielding the
floor simply wished to say, if he was
at all included in this allusion of the
gentleman, that he had told the gen.
tleman from Illinois that if he would
bring up his bill to-day he (Mr. H.
was ready to discuss it and vote on
it.
Mr.. DOUGLASS. Hence what |
said; that | had no personal allusion
when speaking of the game that W as
being played, because he knew the
gentleman was ready to meet the
question directly and boldly. At the
same time, he repeated, there seem.
ed to be some terror connected with
the Oregon question, so that gentle
men seemed to shrink from it, and
he wished to see gentlemen meet i,
boldly, fairly: If the objection wa.
that the military clause ought ia
have come from the committee on
Military Affairs, let them have the
bill as now reported from that COM
. H.. 4. L -