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Indiana University 
made for the union of the United States and British America, 
he proposed in detail a plan which provided organization of 
states, construction of canals and railways, payment of Can- 
adian debts, and surveys of public lands. 'The United States 
may interpose with the requisite guarantees”, said he, "and 
if so why shall we not combine to extend an American union 
to the Arctic circle?” He concluded as follows : 
I cannot resist the conclusion that events have presented to the 
people of the government of the United States the opportunity — let me 
rather say, have developed the duty — of interposing by an overture to 
the people of the English colonies on this continent, upon the fullest con- 
sultation with Great Britain, to unite their fortunes with the United 
States.^^ 
On July 2, Banks, chairman of the committee on foreign af- 
fairs, reported a resolution which was not acted upon, suggest- 
ing that when the Department of State should be informed of- 
ficially that Great Britain and the several British provinces 
in Canada accepted the proposition of annexation, the Presi- 
dent should declare by proclamation that Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, and the territories 
of Selkirk, Saskatchewan, and of Columbia should be admitted 
to the United States as states and territories.^® 
When Russell refused to arbitrate the Alabama claims many 
members of Congress were disposed to favor the Fenians, 
who for several months had threatened to carry the green 
flag into Canada. Mr. Ancona of Pennsylvania, in the House, 
on June 11, 1866, offered a resolution for the repeal of the 
United States neutrality laws (of April, 1818) under which 
the President had issued a proclamation against the recent 
Fenian projects. When this resolution was lost by a vote 
of 69 against 30, Schenck of Ohio offered a substitute resolu- 
tion declaring that the President should reconsider his policy 
toward the British government and the Irish and request- 
ing him to adopt the exact procedure pursued by England in 
1861 by the recognition of both parties as lawful belligerents. 
Harding of Illinois proposed a substitute directing the com- 
mittee on foreign affajrs to report that the House "sympa- 
thizes with the Irish in their struggle and that the United 
States may recognize them as belligerents and will aid as 
far as the laws of nations modified by the conduct of Great 
Britain will permit.” A motion of Hale to lay the resolutions 
House Executive Documents, No. 128, 39-1, Vol. XII, June 12, 1866 (36 pp.). 
^^Congressional Globe, 39-1, p. 3548; American Annual Cyclopedia, 1886, p. 78. 
