Extract from the speech of Mr. Webster, of Massachusetts, in the Senate, March 30, 1846. Great Britain cannot expect anything south of 49", I was not very far out when I took the precaution of reducing what I intended to say to writing. What I said was, (and I presumed not to dictate, or to speak as ex cathedra,) that in my judgment public opinion in both countries tended to a union on the general basis of the proposal made by this Government to that of England in 1826. * * [40] *What I meant, and what I said, was, that if 49° should be agreed on as a general basis, I was satisfied to negotiate about all the rest. But the gentleman from Ohio and the Senate will do me the justice to allow that I said, as plainly as I could speak or put down words in writing, that England must not expect anything south of forty-nine degrees. I said so in so many words. Extract from the debate on the Oregon question, in the House of Representatives, February 9, 1846. John Quincy Adams regards America's title as on the Pacific south of 54° 40'. Mr. T. B. KING: "I should like, with all respect and deference to the learned and venerable gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. Adams,) to ask whether, in his judg ment, our title to the entirety of the Oregon territory is clear to all territory 'clear and unquestionable?" Mr. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. construction we gave to clear and indisputable,' in relation to the question of right and wrong, I say that our title is clear and unquestionable." "According to the * Extract from the speech of Mr. J. Q. Adams, in the House of Representatives, April 13, 1846. "I am not for settling the question at the line of 49°." "If this House pass this, and instead of putting down 'south of the line of 49°,' as is proposed by this amendment, will say 'south of latitude 54° 40',' I will vote for it." "Great Britain had no claim whatever. Í believe she has no pretensions to any now." Extract from the speech of Mr. Cass, of Michigan, in the Senate, June, 1846 "We are seeking a doubtful good, at the certainty * "Those who believe that To accept the line of a great sacrifice." * our title to all Oregon is so 'clear and unquestionable' that of 49 regarded as a no portion of it ought to be relinquished, may well contend for its whole extent, and risk the consequences." sacrifice, [41] *Extract from the speech of Mr. Sevier, of Arkansas, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, in the Senate, March 25, 1846. Many Americans claim 54 40′ fight for 49. Sir, I am not sure but that a majority of the people. of the United States would rather fight Great Britain toboundary, and would morrow than yield up to her any part of Oregon south of 54° 40'. I am not sure but that a majority of the people of the United States are now ready to assert the title of the United States to the whole of Oregon, believing, as that majority do, that the title of their country to the whole of it is unquestionable; and with this assertion of their title, I am not sure but that this majority are not now ready, upon the slightest intimation from those who have control of our public affairs, to maintain it at all hazards. These people, * with these impressions, are now looking and reading about Oregon, and are quietly and firmly forming their resolves upon the subject. 54° 40′ are chalked upon doors and windows, and upon walls, pillar, and post, everywhere. These people are in no temper for unjust concessions, in the form of compromises. Is there, sir, a man in America, of any party or of any sect, that would not sooner fight Great Britain to-morrow than yield up any part of Oregon south of 49°? In support of our title, up to that line, and for everything south of it, we should find even our Quaker friends in uniform, with arms in their hands, crying aloud, in the highways and by-ways, "To your tents, O Israel!" No. 36. Extract from the [London] Quarterly Review for March, 1846, Vol. LXVII, 49 and Fuca's Straits. page 603. We believe that the proposition for a division by the The Quarterly in forty-ninth degree and the Straits of Fuca-which we have favor of the line of hitherto called Mr. Dargan's, but of which we hear no more under that name-would have been at any time and under any circumstances received with as much satisfaction as now. We are more and more convinced by the advices which we have lately [42] *received, that the American cabinet will not and-if it would— could not make any larger concession. It is, we believe, all that any American statesman could hope to carry, and we are equally satisfied, that on our part, after so much delay and complication, and considering it in its future effect on the tranquillity of the district itself, it is the best for our interests and sufficient for our honor. No. 37. Mr. Buchanan to Mr. McLane. SIR: The President may DEPARTMENT OF STATE, The President, since the date of his message, has seen no cause to change his opinion, either in regard to our title to Oregon, consent to consult or to the manner in which it ought to be asserted. But the British proposition. Federal Constitution has made the Senate, to a certain ex the Senate on any tent, a co-ordinate branch of the treaty-making power. Without their advice and consent no treaty can be concluded. This power could not be intrusted to wiser or better hands. Besides, in their legislative character, they constitute a portion of the war-making, as in their executive capacity they compose a part of the treaty-making power. They are the representatives of the sovereign States of this Union, and are regarded as the best index of the opinion of their constituents. A rejection of the British ultimatum might probably lead to war, and as a branch of the legislative power, it would be incumbent upon them to authorize the necessary preparations to render this war successful. Under these considerations, the President, in deference to the Senate, and to the true theory of the constitutional responsibilities of the different branches of the Government, will forego his own opinions so far as to submit to that body any proposition which may be made by the British Government not, in his judgment, wholly inconsistent with the right and honor of the country. Neither is the fact to be disguised that, from the speeches and proceedings in the Senate, it is probable that a proposition to adjust the Oregon question on the parallel of 49° would receive their favorable consideration. The President [43] *The President is desirous so to adjust the Oregon question as not to leave open any source from which might proceed new difficulties and new dangers, again to threaten wishes not to leave the peace of the two countries. * * * open any source of new difficulties. to submit The President Senate the line of 49° ard Fuca. The President would also consent, though with reluctance, to the Senate the second proposition suggested by you, dividing the territory in dispute between the two countries, would submit to the "by extending the boundary to the Pacific by the forty-ninth tie Straits of parallel and the Straits of Fuca;" but without the superadded words "with free ports to both nations." These words are indefinite, and he cannot infer from them the extent of your meaning. In case the first proposition to which you refer should be made by the British government, the President would not object to the terms of his offer of the 12th July last, "to make free to Great Britain any port or ports on Vancouver Island south of this parallel, which the British Government may desire." If the cape of this island should, however, be surrendered to Great Britain, as would be the case under the second proposition, then he would consider the question in regard to free ports as terminated. I need not enlarge to you upon the inconvenience, not to say impossibility, under our system of government, after one or more States shall have been established in Oregon, (an event not far distant,) of making any of their ports free to Great Britain, or any other nation. Besides, our system of drawbacks secures to other nations the material advantages of free ports without their inconveniences. There is one point which it is necessary to guard, whether the first or the second proposition should be submitted by the British government. The Strait of Fuca is an arm of the sea, and under the public law all nations would possess the same right to navigate it, throughout its whole extent, as they now have to the navigation of the British Channel. Still, to prevent future difficulties, this ought to be clearly and distinctly understood. LOUIS MCLANE, Esq., &c., &c., &c. * JAMES BUCHANAN. *No. 38. Mr. McLane to Mr. Buchanan. LONDON, March 3, 1846. I sought and obtained an interview with Lord Aberdeen Great on the 25th February. McLane re ports that Britain will assent to no better partition than the line of Straits. I have little or no expectation that this government will 49 and Fuca's offer or assent to a better partition than the extension of a line on the forty-ninth parallel to the Straits of Fuca, and thence down the middle of the strait to the Pacific; and if the line of the forty-ninth parallel should intersect the Columbia, according to Mr. Gallatin's proposition, at a point from which it is navigable to the ocean, with the free navigation of that river, at least for such a period as may be necessary for the trade of the Hudson's Bay Company, they will also, I am quite sure, expect some arrangements for the protection of the pres ent agricultural settlements of British subjects south of the forty-ninth degree of latitude, and north of the Columbia. If the Columbia River be not navigable from the point at which it would be intersected by the extension of a line along the forty-ninth parallel, I believe it quite certain that the navigation of the river would not be insisted on. * I must, however, repeat the opinion that, whatever may be the result of any present expectation, and according to any view it may take of the question, this government will not be likely to propose or assent to a basis of partition different from that I have already stated in the foregoing part of this dispatch. If there be a disposition on the part of our Government to treat upon that basis, I have great confidence that the negotiation would result in an amicable settlement of the question. * Hon. JAMES BUCHANAN, LOUIS MCLANE. Secretary of State. [45] The Oregon ques tion sure to be settied on the Ameri can basis. *No. 39. Mr. Bates to Mr. Sturgis. LONDON, April 3, 1846. MY DEAR SIR: The Oregon question is now as good as settled, provided the Senate, by a good majority, pass their pacific resolutions. Your pamphlet, by fixing public attention on a reasonable mode of settlement, on both sides of the water has done more than all the diplomatic notes. I claim the merit of suggesting the mode of getting rid of the question of the Hudson's Bay Company and the navigation of the Columbia, by allowing the company to enjoy it for a fixed number of years. Mr. McLane and the Government had not thought of it. In the Quarterly is an article written by Croker, which adopts completely these views. JOSHUA BATES. SIR: No. 40. Mr. McLane to Mr. Buchanan. LONDON, April 17, 1846. * wait for Congress to give tion of the treaty for My dispatch of the 17th of March, after an opportunity The British gov had been afforded of seeing and reflecting upon your final ernment answer to Mr. Pakenham's proposal to arbitrate, acquainted notice of the aboliyou that very soon after the date of the last note of the Earl the non-occupation of Aberdeen to Mr. Pakenham, I had positively ascertained that this government would take no further step toward renewing the negotiation until after Congress had finally acted upon the question of notice. Hon. JAMES BUCHANAN, of Oregon. LOUIS MCLANE. Extracts from the speech of Mr. Dix, of New York, in the Senate, February 19, 1846. "The historical facts are too well authen ** Wilkes's map of by the American Senate. ticated to be permanently misunderstood. They were so Oregon the map used well known at the time, that even the rivalry-not to say the detraction-of the day conceded to Gray the merit of the discovery by designating the river by the name he gave it-the name of the vessel that first entered its waters." "Look at the map of Oregon on your table, by Captain Wilkes, and you will find Gray's Bay, so named by Broughton, (see Vancouver's Journal, vol. 3, p. 92,) on the north side of the Columbia, and higher up than Astoria. According to Gray's own log, he anchored, the day he discovered and entered the river, ten miles above the entrance, and three days after he sailed twelve or fifteen miles higher up. He must, therefore, have been from six to fifteen miles above the site of the settlement at Astoria." * * Mr. McLane and cuss the Oregon In my last dispatch, dated on the 3d instant, after an interview with Lord Aberdeen, I informed you that as soon Lord Aberdeen disas he received official intelligence of the Senate's vote upon question. the resolution of notice, he would proceed finally to consider the subject of Oregon, and direct Mr. Pakenham to submit a further proposition. upon the part of this government; and also that it was understood that |