While great credit is to be given the far-sighted and courageous advocates of the bill, it is not fair in a historical paper to minimize the efforts of the opposition. To characterize the opponents as ultra-conservative or self-interested would not be just to the many weighty arguments which they brought forward, and which, looked at from the standpoint of their day, were weightier than they seem now, when conditions have so changed. For a new nation, with a new national machinery, hardly yet in smoothly running order, to attempt expansion into regions separated by natural barriers, and inaccessible before the application of steam to travel, might well require careful thought. This first attempt, though it had failed of accomplishing its immediate end, was highly creditable to all who were engaged in it, and its results were not small. Interest had been awakened, not alone among the members of congress, but more particularly among the people throughout the country. Circulars containing all the information available, were prepared and sent to the constituents of congressmen, and the nation began to be committed to a policy which it would take time fully to realize. The people had gained the impression that the United States’ title was perfectly clear to the whole valley of the Columbia; that the English were there only by sufferance until the formal settlement of a boundary at a more convenient time; and that the government was willing that American immigrants should occupy it, and would protect them as well as it could. The debates which occurred at various times in connection with these early bills are interesting, not alone because they mark the beginning of a large and important national movement, but also because of the light they throw upon the times, because of the discussion of important principles which always come to the surface in large national questions, and the fine examples of courage and far-sighted aggressiveness on one side, and cautious conservatism on the other. Almost every point of view which it would seem possible to conceive of found expression in some form or other in the course of the debate; and almost every motive for or against the policy was voiced. In this first debate the question of the claim does not figure largely, as it was quite generally assumed by all that the American title was valid, and was so pronounced by those in whom the people had confidence. There had been, however, no critical examination of the subject as yet on either side, but the American government felt so confident that it did not realize any necessity for haste.