While the executive department was strongly urging the question, it was receiving attention likewise in congress. After the death of Senator Linn, new advocates of the subject came forward, both in the house and in the senate. Bills and resolutions were before the legislature continually. Memorials came in from bodies of prospective settlers, from city councils, and even from state legislatures. The provisional government sent petitions in behalf of the colonists, which were well worded statements of the situation. Atchison and Hughes, both of Missouri, introduced bills, in which the boundary line at fifty-four degrees, forty minutes, was asserted. The notice of the termination of the treaty of joint occupancy was given which led to the conference of 1846, and the settlement of the boundary. After the treaty, various bills were introduced for the establishment of a territorial government. For two years obstructions and delays prevented action, and the last session under Polk’s administration arrived. There were at this time two bills before congress, both practically framed by Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. The interest manifested by Mr. Douglas in this matter again illustrates how much the development of civil government in Oregon is connected with other questions. He seems to have been largely interested in the creation of new territories out of the possessions west of the Mississippi. In a conversation before his death he stated to a friend, who has reported it in a treatise, that this interest was caused by a conviction that there was a settled policy in the east to prevent the westward growth of the nation by settling the Indian tribes, as they were gradually being moved upon the public lands west of the Mississippi. Not only would this prevent a large part of that valley from being settled and becoming a part of the nation, but would completely cut off the line of emigration to Oregon, retarding its growth, or destroying it altogether.[17]