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jurisdiction on the island, pending the negotiation between the United States and Great Britain, on the subject of their mutual claims to it under the treaty of 1846. The President fully concurs in the opinion expressed by Governor Marcy, that the island is a part of the possessions of the United States, and he confidently hopes that this may be soon established by friendly discussion, without further collision of any character between the citizens and subjects of the two countries residing in the vicinity of the island.

"Thinking it quite right that what has thus been stated in conversation should be repeated in a more distinct and formal manner, the President has instructed me to address to you this note, and to enclose to you copies of the instructions recently issued on the subject by the [acting] Secretary of War to General Scott, (') and by this department to the Governor of Washington Territory. In the transmission of these copies, I trust you will see renewed evidence of the desire of this Government to maintain the most frank and friendly relations with that of Great Britain.

"I embrace this opportunity of renewing to your lordship the assurances of my high consideration.

"Lord Lyons, &c. &c. &c."

"LEWIS CASS.

Subsequently Mr. Cass wrote to Mr. Dallas, United States Minister at the Court of St. James, a long despatch, reviewing the whole question ab initio.(2)

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"SIR,-When the treaty of 1846 had been concluded between the United States and Great Britain, it was believed that all controversy concerning the boundary between their respective possessions on the north-west coast of America was

() These instructions have been set out above.
(2) American State Papers, p. 231.

for ever set at rest. In order to accomplish this result, the United States had relinquished its title, which it regarded as clear and unquestionable, to all that portion of Oregon Territory which was included between the parallels of 49° and 54° 40′ north latitude, and, for the sake of peace, consented to a deflection from the forty-ninth parallel, so as to leave Vancouver's Island undivided to Great Britain. After these concessions, I need not explain to you with what regret and disappointment this Government now finds its title drawn in question to still other territory, south of the parallel of 49°, its right to which, it was thought, was beyond any possible dispute. When the first doubt concerning it was suggested, it was hoped that it might be readily determined by the Commissioners who should be appointed on the part of both Governments to survey and mark out the treaty line. You are aware, however, that the Commissioners appointed for this purpose were unable to agree as to that part of the boundary which lies between the point of deflection on the forty-ninth parallel and the Straits of Fuca, and that they reported their disagreements to their respective Governments. A new subject of difference has thus arisen between the two countries, the adjustment of which, we are admonished by recent events, cannot be long delayed without serious hazard to their friendly relations. It is doubtless in this view of it that the British Government has recently proposed to the United States to adopt what it regards as a compromise line of boundary between the conflicting claims of the two Commissioners. This proposal is made in a despatch from Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Lord Lyons, the British Minister, in Washington, dated August 24, 1859, a copy of which he was directed to furnish to this department, and of which a copy will also accompany this note.

"The President has not failed to consider this despatch with all that attention that is due to the importance of its subject, and he cordially reciprocates the desire expressed by Her Majesty's Government for a 'mutually satisfactory and honourable settlement of the question' in controversy.

He

concurs also with Lord John Russell, that after the gradual disappearance, one after another, of so many of these points of difference which have disturbed the relations of the two countries, no reasonable doubt should be entertained that this new question which has arisen will, in like manner, be amicably adjusted. It is impossible, however, to reconcile these just and friendly sentiments of his lordship with the declaration which is made in another part of the same despatch, that the British Government is already determined, under any circumstances whatever, to maintain its right to the island of San Juan: The interests at stake in connection with the retention of that island are too important,' it is said, ' to admit of compromise, and your lordship will consequently bear in mind that, whatever arrangement as to the boundary line is finally arrived at, no settlement of the question will be accepted by Her Majesty's Government which does not provide for the island of San Juan being reserved to the British Crown.'

"If this declaration is to be insisted on, it must terminate the negotiation at its very threshold; because this Government can permit itself to enter into no discussion with that of Great Britain, or any other power, except upon terms of perfect equality. And when Her Majesty's Government declares that it will never yield its right to the Island of San Juan, this Government has only to declare a similar determination on the part of the United States, in order to render any further discussion of the subject entirely fruitless. I cannot persuade myself, however, that any such result as this was contemplated by Her Majesty's Government, or that the United States could have been expected to enter upon a negotiation where its own claim was excluded in advance, and the only adjustment possible was that claimed by the opposite party. But for this confidence which he feels in the good intentions of Her Majesty's Government, the President, I am instructed to say, would not feel himself at liberty to entertain the proposition of Lord John Russell, even for the purpose of discussion; and it is only because he believes that the objectionable declaration by which it is accompanied will receive a prompt

explanation or withdrawal, that he has instructed me to offer some observations in respect to it.

"The proposition being a proposition of compromise, assumes, of course, that the difference between the two Governments, as to the meaning of the treaty, in that part of it which is in controversy, is wholly irreconcilable. The President is not prepared, however, to reach this conclusion until every reasonable effort has been exhausted to avoid it, and he cannot. help expressing his regret that the British Government should have thought it necessary to abandon the treaty line for a line purely arbitrary, before any discussion whatever had been had on the subject with the United States. It is quite true that the Commissioners of the two countries, who were appointed in 1856, failed to reach an agreement as to the water boundary between Vancouver's Island and the continent, but this very failure may have been induced by the conviction-with which the British Commissioner seems to have entered upon his work-that a disagreement was inevitable. Such a result was even contemplated in the original instructions under which Captain Prevost commenced his labours, and he was authorised, in view of it, to propose the very compromise which is now suggested by Lord John Russell, while he appears to have received substantially the same caution with respect to the island of San Juan, which is given to Lord Lyons in the annexed despatch. Without entering into any comment upon the peculiar character of these instructions, or undertaking to determine how far they influenced the course of the British Commissioner, I think they are calculated to explain, in some measure, the failure of the commission, and to justify the hope which the President still entertains, that the true line of the treaty may yet be agreed upon by the two Governments. The treaty provides that the boundary line shall be continued westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, and thence southerly through the middle of said channel, and of Fuca Straits, to the Pacific Ocean; provided, however, that the navigation of the whole

of said channel and straits south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude remains free and open to both parties.'

"It is much to be regretted, undoubtedly-inasmuch as the present controversy has arisen-that there was not annexed to the treaty of 1846 any map or chart by which the true meaning of the expressions made use of in this article could be authoritatively ascertained. Unquestionably, however, this subject was occasioned, and the terms of the article are less precise than they would otherwise have been, in consequence of the conviction of the negotiators of the treaty that their purpose in framing it was too clear to be misunderstood; and that, when this purpose was known, two great nations could never enter into conflict about the collocation of words, or the signification of a doubtful phrase. In this belief, I am persuaded that the negotiators were only just to their respective Governments, and that, if the purpose of the article can be at once determined in harmony with the general tenor of its language, this discussion will be for ever terminated. It is to this inquiry, therefore, that I shall first address myself.

"The Oregon negotiation, which resulted in the treaty of 1846, originally involved, as you are aware, the whole of that territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between the parallels of 42° and 54° 40' north latitude, which is now occupied south of the British line by the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington. When President Polk came into office, in 1845, he found this whole region still in the joint occupation of the United States and Great Britain, under the treaty of 1827. Repeated efforts had been made to accomplish an amicable division of the territory between the two countries upon the basis of the parallel of 49°, and a proposition for the compromise was actually pending in Washington when Mr. Polk became President. Under these circumstances he felt himself bound to continue the negotiation, although in his inaugural address he had declared his full conviction that we had a clear title to the whole territory. He repeated the offer, therefore, which Great Britain had previously declined, to adopt the parallel of 49° as the boundary between the United States and

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