FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON

79

find his level. 'Little Ajax' let it be; but let me remind the Senator from Missouri that Agamemnon and the j axes were not the only actors at the siege of Troy. There was an Achilles there and we may have an Achilles here. Let the Senator from Missouri beware, lest he be the Hector who will grace the triumph of this Achilles."

A

may

It

be questioned whether the burst of applause from

the galleries which followed this speech was all due to the warlike temper^ of the auditors or in part to the too-true picture of the venerable Senator from Missouri, whom Calhoun

once called the "Great

I

AM THOMAS

H.

BENTON."

Benton's speech, and especially the argument based on Jefferson as the "discoverer of Oregon/' started again the subject of title which was debated for some three weeks more. In it Mangum, a Whig from North Carolina, with "botching" the whole business 33 President the charged the firebrand of the Oregon question (it had formerly been the "firebrand of the Texas question") had been thrown among a

course of

the

people prone to be warlike, and yet there was obvious contradiction between the Message and the lack of warlike preparations.

he

The Administration was remarkable

for

its

secretive-

the President had so placed himself on the question that could move in either direction without dislocating his

ness

any more than he would his physical struche could ture; agree to a compromise on 49 without being denounced by the mass of Americans. After this, absolutely the Chief Executive should be chosen from Mangum thought, political opinions

among

Had

the able

men

of the land.

the Senator from

North Carolina been present that same, evening at an interview between Colonel Benton and the President he would have been doubly convinced of his

own acumen. Benton

told Polk that it would be better to settle on the compromise line and asked the President whether it might not be well to ask the Senate whether the offer should be renewed. Benton thought this a good plan and believed he would make a speech on the subject. Polk told him it would 33 Ibid., 635-6.