Britain. By this arrangement we should yield to Great Britain the portion of Quadra and Vancouver's Island that lies south of latitude 490 Will Great Britain accede to this? I think she will."

The pamphlet of Mr. Sturgis, accompanied by a map on which the proposed boundary is marked, was read by Lord Ashburton and by Lord Aberdeen. To one who eminently enjoyed the confidence of both governments Lord Aberdeen pronounced it "a clear and Appendix No. 26, sensible view of the matter." Lord Ashburton, whose opinion P. 30, l. 3. on the subject carried the greatest weight, wrote to Mr. Sturgis :

Appendix No. 25,

D. 28, 1. 7-11.

Your treatise enables me every day to answer satisfactorily the questions put to me so often, where is the Oregon, and what is this dispute about? You have stated the case distinctly in a few pages, and, what is indeed uncommon, with great impartiality MR. BUCHANAN NEGOTIATES WITH MR. PAKENHAM.

Meantime the negotiation on the Oregon question had been transferred to the new British minister at Washington. Offers of arbitration had been rejected; emigration across the plains gave promise of founding States on the Pacific; and the Congress of the United States teemed with propositions to prepare for establishing a territorial government in Oregon. When the administration of Mr. Polk entered upon office, all parties in America were unanimous in insisting on a boundary at the least as favorable as the parallel of 49°; while a very large number, and seemingly the largest number, thought the time had come for America, as the heir of Spain, to carry its claims beyond the parallel of 19. But the new administration would not swerve from the moderation which had marked the policy of the country.

Appendix No. 27,

Appendix No. 28,

p. 31.

[15] Meantime both parties had received more accurate in*formation on the geography of that district. In July, 1841, Captain Wilkes had made a survey of the waters south of p. 31. 49°, especially of the channel of Haro; and in the early part of 1845 his narrative and accompanying map had been published both in America and England. Believing now that Great Britain would accept the line of 499, with the small modification for the southern end of Vancouver Island, the American administration, on the 12th of July, 1845, made to the British minister at Washington the proposal, "that the Oregon territory shall be divided between the two countries by the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean; offering at the same time to make free to Great Britain any port or ports on Vancouver's Island south of this parallel, which the British government may desire." A friendly spirit dictated the proposition, which it was sincerely hoped and expected might "prove the foundation of lasting peace and harmony between the two countries." The proposition, which excited surprise by its moderation, was rejected by the British plenipotentiary at Washington, who, Appendix No. 29, without even waiting to refer the subject to the ministry in P. 32, England, suffered the negotiation on his part to drop, expressing his trust that the United States would offer "some further pro- Appendix No. 30, posal for the settlement of the Oregon question."

p. 32, 33.

In consequence of receiving such an answer, the American Secretary of State withdrew the offer that he had made.'

On hearing of this abrupt rejection of the American proposal, Lord Aberdeen invited Mr. MacLane, the new American minister Appendix No. 31, at London, to an interview, of which Mr. MacLane made P

report:

Lord Aberdeen not only lamented but censured the rejection of our proposition by

Mr. Pakenham without referring it to his government. He stated that if Mr. Pakenham had communicated the American proposition to the government here, as he was expected to have done, he, Lord Aberdeen, would have taken it up as a basis of his [16] action, and entertained little doubt that he would have been enabled to propose modifications which might have resulted in an adjustment mutually satisfactory to both governments.

Appendix No. 34. p. 37-39.

The conduct of Mr. Pakenham was not censured in private only. Lord Aberdeen censured it in the House of Lords. In the House of Commons, on the night of Friday, the 23d of January, 1846, Lord John Russell condemned it as "a hasty proceeding." Sir Robert Peel was cheered, when on the same evening he observed:

It would have been better had he transmitted that proposal to the home government for their consideration; and, if found in itself unsatisfactory, it might possibly have formed the foundation for a further proposal.

And now that the re-opening of the negotiation was thrown upon his ministry, he was loudly applauded by the House, as he gave a pledge for his own future conduct in these words:

I think it would be the greatest misfortune, if a contest about the Oregon between two such powers as England and the United States, could not, by the exercise of moderation and good sense, be brought to a perfectly honorable and satisfactory conclusion.

Appendix No. 35,

p. 39-41.

FINAL PROPOSAL OF THE EARL OF ABERDEEN.

Lord Aberdeen confessed that it now fell to him to propose a peaceful solution of the long controversy. Mr. Everett had left him no doubt as to the utmost departure from the parallel of forty-nine degrees, which the United States, under the late administration, could have conceded. The only doubt was now, if the United States would still be willing to yield so much. The rude rejection of Mr. Buchanan's proposal had roused and united their people. Mr. Calhoun, the late Secretary of State, and the ablest Senator from one section of the country, declared himself in the Senate for the forty-ninth degree as the boundary line. Mr. Webster, the former Secretary of State, who had settled with Lord Ashburton the northeastern boundary, re[17] peatedly "said as plainly as he could speak, or put down * words in writing, that England must not expect anything south of fortynine degrees." All those members of Congress who were of a different mind, Mr. John Quincy Adams, a late President of the United P. 40, 1. 22-26, p. 41. States, Mr. Cass, afterward Secretary of State, Mr. Sevier, then the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, contended, not for less than the line of forty-nine degrees, but, under the heirship from Appendix No. 36, Spain, for very much more. The voice of England became loud for the line of the forty-ninth parallel. Mr. Bates, an American naturalized in Great Britain by act of Parliament, and much trusted by both governments, wrote from London:

P. 40, 1. 8-21.

p. 41. Appendix No. 33,

p. 36.

The forty-ninth degree, to the strait, giving Vancouver's Island to Great Britain, is as much as any American, be he Bostonian or Carolinian, will, I think, consent to give up. If Great Britain is not satisfied with that, let them have war if they want it. The British government sought anxiously to know what proposition the American Government would consent to receive, and the P. 35, 1. 11, 12. American Government proved its firmness by its moderation. To protect the rights of the country, Congress voted to give to Great Britain the twelve months' notice required by treaty, for terminating the convention of 1827, and thus open the region of the Northwest to the progress of American colonization. Meanwhile, on the 26th of FebruAppendix No. 37, ary, 1846, Mr. Buchanan answered, that the President would

43 1. 7-9, 17.

consent to consult the Senate on the proposition, to divide