He would

too strongly in the Oregon negotiations. have been willing to continue in the department under Mr. Polk, but his independent and somewhat changeable career did not commend him favorably to that partisan chief.

James Buchanan, who succeeded Calhoun in March, 1845, was a man of large experience in public affairs. His fame is clouded by vacillating and unstatesmanlike conduct at a great crisis in our history, but in the direction of foreign affairs during the important period of Mr. Polk's administration, he displayed marked ability and prudence. He was well equipped for the duties of his post by long service in both Houses of Congress and by several years' residence abroad as minister to Russia. Later, under President Pierce, he served as minister in London, and returned home to be elected President in 1856.

In view of the impending war with Mexico, Mr. Buchanan, as Secretary of State, early addressed himself to the settlement of our long-standing dispute with Great Britain over the Oregon boundary. Four nations had advanced conflicting claims on the Pacific coast, based on early discoveries, Russia, Great

Britain, the United States, and Spain.

Great Britain and Spain first came into conflict on the northwest coast, because of settlement on Vancouver Island, and through the Nootka Convention of 1790 their respective claims were adjusted upon the basis of actual occupation. The Spaniards, as early as 1543, had made explorations as high as the fifty-fourth degree of latitude, but their settlements were much lower on the

coast. The Columbia River had been discovered by Captain Gray, of Boston, in 1792, and Vancouver, upon whose voyages the British largely founded their early claims, did not enter the river until the next year, when he reports that he found Captain Gray there. The Hudson's Bay Company reached the Pacific coast about 1793, but north of the forty-ninth degree. The United States had no well-founded claim to this coast through the Louisiana purchase, but that based on the discovery of the Columbia by Gray was strengthened by the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clarke in 1804-6, and by the permanent establishment at the mouth of that river of Astor's fur-trading post. The Florida treaty of 1819 transferred to the United States whatever rights Spain possessed on that coast north of latitude 42°. In 1818, by treaty with Great Britain, our northern boundary was fixed west of the Lake of the Woods on the parallel of the forty-ninth degree as far as the "Stony [Rocky] Mountains," and it was agreed that there should be a joint occupation of the territory "claimed by either party" beyond the mountains for ten years; and this agreement was renewed for another period in 1827.

When the Russian Emperor issued his ukase in 1821, we have seen that the United States and Great Britain protested against the claims of one hundred miles exclusive ocean jurisdiction and of territory on the northwest coast of America to the fifty-first degree of latitude. This protest was followed by instructions to the American and British ministers at St. Petersburg to unite their negotiations at the Russian court, with a

view to a joint or concurrent settlement of the questions; but when it became apparent that the United States would set up claim to territory on the coast north of the fifty-first degree, the British minister was directed by his government to withdraw from the tripartite negotiations, and thenceforth each government proceeded separately with Russia.1 The treaty with the United States fixed the limits of the respective territorial claims at the latitude of 54° 40', and the same line was agreed upon in the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1825. These adjustments left the territory on the northwest coast below 54° 40′ undetermined as between the United States and Great Britain.2

An attempt was made in London, while the St. Petersburg negotiations were in progress, to reach a settlement, and Mr. Rush proposed the line of the fortyninth parallel, but the British government put forth the claim of the line of the Columbia River from the point where it crosses the forty-ninth degree to its mouth, and no agreement was reached. Another attempt was made by Mr. Gallatin, our minister in London, in 1826; the same offer was made and met by the counter proposal of the line of the Columbia River.

While Mr. Webster was negotiating with Lord Ashburton as to the boundaries in 1842, news reached the

14 Fur Seal Arbitration Papers (1893), 415.

2 An interesting report by a special committee, submitted to the House in 1821, was one of the earliest discussions of our claim to the northwest coast of America, in which it was contended that the United States possessed "the undisputed sovereignty of that coast, from the sixtieth degree of north latitude down to thirty-six." H. Rep. 45, 16th Cong. 2d Sess.

American settlers in Oregon that the territory was likely to be gained by Great Britain, and Dr. Marcus Whitman, a pioneer missionary of Oregon, made a winter journey across the mountains and the continent, to lay before the government the far-reaching impor tance to our country of insuring this foothold on the Pacific. When Dr. Whitman reached Washington, the treaty, without any provision as to Oregon, had been signed and ratified, but he strongly impressed upon Mr. Webster and President Tyler the value to the Union of this Pacific possession; and his visit had a decided influence on the future attitude of the government.' It had not been possible to secure any provision as to this territory in the treaty of 1842, but Webster, immedi ately after its celebration, took steps to obtain a settlement on the line of the forty-ninth degree, but no progress had been made in the negotiations at the date of his resignation.

The subject remained in this state when the annexation of Texas was pressed forward into prominence by Tyler and Calhoun. This annexation was so manifestly in the interest of slavery extension that the partisans of the administration sought to allay opposition by joining with it a demand for the recognition of our claim to Oregon in its largest extent. To this end the Democratic National Convention in 1844, which nominated Mr. Polk, passed a resolution declaring for the “ occupation "of Oregon and the "re-annexation" of Texas, implying that we should take possession of that portion of the northwest coast now held by Great 1 For narrative of Whitman's journey, Barrows's Oregon, chap. 18.

re

Britain, and bring again into the Union the country west of the Sabine River, as a part of the Louisiana territory improperly conceded to Spain in the Florida treaty of 1819. With these as among the party cries in the campaign, Mr. Polk came to the presidency and delivered his inaugural address, in which he advocated the Oregon claim in its entirety.1

Mr. Buchanan, desirous of adjusting our differences with England before we entered upon the conflict with Mexico, early after assuming the duties of his department, opened negotiations with the British minister, and, regardless of the President's declaration in his inaugural, proposed as a compromise the forty-ninth parallel as the boundary. The British minister, doubtless nettled by the party cry and the President's declaration, rather tartly rejected the proposition, and argued for the line of the Columbia; whereupon Mr. Buchanan withdrew the proposition and set up our claim to the whole territory in dispute.

When Congress assembled in December, 1845, the President laid the correspondence before it, stated in his message that we had gone far enough in the spirit of concession, and asked Congress to consider what measures were necessary to protect our just title to the territory. His partisans at once took up the cry of "Fifty-four Forty or Fight," and a resolution was passed by Congress authorizing the President, in his discretion, to give notice, in accordance with the terms of the treaty, of the termination of the arrangement

1 4 Richardson's Messages, 381.

2 Ib. 392-398.