Canada many settlers who had regarded themselves as citizens of the United States. Ashburton ultimately offered to fix the accepted instead of the real parallel as the boundary between the two countries, provided that a strip of territory between the Francis and the St. John which commanded the military road between Quebec and St. John, and which had been assigned by the King of Holland to the United States, was surrendered to Canada. In money value the land which Ashburton surrendered was of more importance than the territory which he acquired, but the strip of ground which he gave up was given up to New York, Vermont, and other adjacent States; the strip which he acquired was taken from Maine and Massachusetts. The negotiation, in consequence, nearly failed from the reluctance of these States to sacrifice their own interests for the purpose of enriching other territories. Happily, however, the States of Maine and Massachusetts agreed to accept a sum of money in return for their territory, and the question of the north-eastern boundary was thus finally settled.1

The settlement of this question removed the chief diffi culty which the negotiators had to encounter. Ashburton, in justifying the destruction of the Caroline, admitted that the violation of American territory was "a most serious fact," and expressed regret that "some explanation and apology for this occurrence was not immediately made." Conciliatory language of this kind disarmed the American Government. "Seeing that it is acknowledged," wrote Webster, "that there was a violation of the territory of the United States, and that you are instructed to say that your Government consider that as a most serious occurrence; seeing, finally, that it is now admitted that an explanation and apology for this violation was due. at the time, the President is content to receive these acknowledgments and assurances in the conciliatory spirit which marks your lordship's letter, and will make this subject, as a

1 The negotiation will be found in State Papers, vol. xxx. pp. 136-181. Cf. Quarterly Review, vol. lxxi. p. 573 et seq. The money payment from the United States to Maine and Massachusetts was arranged by Article V. of the treaty, which is printed in State Papers, vol. xxx. p. 360.

complaint of violation of territory, the topic of no further discussion between the two Governments." "1 With equal ease the embarrassing question of the right of search was compromised. The British claim was dropped; the two Governments agreed to maintain sufficient and adequate squadrons on the coast of Africa to enforce separately and respectively the laws, rights, and obligations of each for the suppression of the slave trade, and to unite in all becoming representations and remonstrances with any and all the powers within whose dominions markets for the sale of slaves were allowed to exist.2

The Ash

Ashburton might fairly boast that he had composed the differences which had agitated two great and kindred nations. Peacemakers, however, are rarely appre- burton Treaty. ciated at their true worth. The treaty which Ashburton and Webster had signed was publicly denounced in the United States as "a humiliating surrender;" in this country it was described in a Tory periodical as a shameful capitulation; it was attacked by a Liberal orator as the most ignominious treaty ever made by any minister.3 "Nobody," said Palmerston afterwards in Parliament, "thinks it a good treaty; there is nobody who does not think it a bad and disadvantageous bargain for England."4 Whatever everybody might think, however, few people were prepared formally to condemn the work. On Palmerston's motion the House of Commons devoted two nights to its consideration. But, on the second night, the discussion came to an abrupt termination by the House being counted out. A little later the Lords, on Brougham's motion, voted their thanks and their approval, and in the beginning of May a vote of thanks to Ashburton was accorded by the Commons.5

Yet, well as Ashburton had done his work, peace was not

1 State Papers, vol. xxx. pp. 199, 201.

2 See Articles VIII. and IX. of treaty.

3 Quarterly Review, vol. lxxi. p. 574; and Hansard, vol. lxvi. p. 113. Ibid., vol. lxvii. p. 1163.

5 For Palmerston's motion, ibid., pp. 1162, 1290; for the count out, ibid., p. 1313; for Brougham's motion, ibid., vol. Lxviii. p. 599; for Hume's motion, ibid., p. 1159.

VOL. V.

Y

assured. Webster and he had fixed the boundary on the eastern side of the American continent. The boundary on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains was still uncertain. The entire empire of the Pacific coast of North America was originally claimed by Russia and Spain. Russian jurisThe Oregon diction extended over the whole coast to 54° 40′ north dispute. latitude; the nominal authority of Spain stretched southwards from this parallel over a territory inhabited only by the Indian and the buffalo. In 1788, Meares, a British subject sailing under a Portuguese flag, temporarily settled at Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island, for the purpose of building a vessel. The Spanish Viceroy of Mexico, in 1789, took possession of the settlement, and Meares appealed to the British Government. England was strong, Spain was weak; and the Spanish Government consented to restore the building which it had taken, to pay Meares an indemnity, and to agree that the subjects both of Spain and England should in future be undisturbed and unmolested in navigating and fishing the Pacific seas or in settling on the unoccupied Pacific shores. In 1795 Spain voluntarily retired from Nootka Sound.1 In 1818 England and the United States agreed at Ghent to make the 49th parallel their common boundary from the Rocky Mountains on the west to the Lake of the Woods on the But they failed to arrive at any agreement respecting their boundary on the Pacific slope, and decided to hold the territory in joint occupation. Twelve months afterwards, the United States acquired, by the treaty of Florida, the whole of the rights of Spain north of the 42nd parallel.

east.

This acquisition, though it gave the United States such rights as Spain had previously exercised, did not materially strengthen the American claim. British and American statesmen, who had ignored the rights of Spain while they were framing the treaty of 1818, could hardly be expected to admit, or entitled to assert, the validity of the Spanish title.

1 State Papers, vol. xxxiv. p. 94.

In

2 The arrangement of 1818 lasted till 1828; it was then continued with a year's notice on either side.

default of a Spanish title, each nation had to urge the discoveries of its own subjects. It was beyond all question that Meares, a British subject, had settled at Nootka Sound in 1788; that Captain Vancouver, another British subject, had sailed through the straits which separate Vancouver Island from the mainland in 1792; and that Sir Alexander Mackenzie, another British subject, had, about the same time, followed the course of the Fraser River from its source to the sea. It was equally beyond doubt that Captain Gray, an American subject, had anchored in the Columbia River in the same year, and that in 1805 two other American subjects, Lewis and Clarke, had crossed the Rocky Mountains, discovered the head-waters of the Columbia, and followed it to the sea.1 On the faith of these discoveries the Americans claimed the whole territory in dispute, or at any rate the whole of the Columbia Valley. The British, on the contrary, relying on the discoveries of Meares, Vancouver, and Mackenzie, insisted that portions of the territory belonged to the British Crown.

With much wisdom Aberdeen desired to seize the opportunity which the conclusion of the Ashburton treaty afforded for terminating every difference, and he accordingly invited the American Government to enter into a new negotiation respecting the western boundary. In November 1842, Webster, on the part of the United States, assented to this suggestion, and in December the President, in his annual Message to Congress, expressed a desire for a settlement, but omitted to mention that the British Government was already urging agreement on the subject. The impression was thus produced that America was promoting, and Britain obstructing, the conclusion of an arrangement; and some Americans, conscious of the growing importance of the disputed territory, decided on dealing with the matter without further negotiation. In 1843 a bill was introduced into the Senate of the United States for the organisation and occupation of the Oregon territory. It passed the Senate by a small majority, but it was abandoned in the House of Representatives.3

1 State Papers, vol. xxxiv. p. 107, 108.

3 Ann. Reg., 1843, Hist. p. 316.

2 Ibid., pp. 49-55

In December 1843 the President again drew attention to the dispute, declaring that he had "submitted to the British Government propositions for its settlement," but again omitting to mention that the British Government had originated the negotiation. The discourtesy of the President, however, did not diminish Aberdeen's anxiety to effect a reconciliation. Pakenham, the British Minister at Washington, was told to make the negotiation one of his "first objects ;" and Upshur, the American Secretary of State, assured him of his desire to carry on the discussion in a fair spirit of compromise, and to avoid anything that might produce a quarrel. Unfortunately, almost immediately after making this promise, Upshur died; 3 his successor, Calhoun, immersed in other business, had either little leisure or little disposition for the negotiation. Towards the close of August 1844, Pakenham and he met to talk, and to separate. The British Government proposed, on its part, that the disputed territory should be divided about equally between the two countries by following the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia, the Columbia from this point to the sea. The American Government, on the contrary, claimed the whole valley of the Columbia, and, affecting to believe that negotiation had not exhausted its resources, declined an offer, which Pakenham was instructed to make, to refer the matter to an arbitrator.

In the spring of 1845 President Tyler completed his four years' tenure of office. . His successor, President Polk, owing his election to the Democratic party, and anxious to gratify his supporters by an uncompromising policy, declared in an inaugural address "that it was his duty to assert and maintain, by all constitutional means, the right of the United States to that portion of our territory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains. Our title to the country of the Oregon is clear and unquestionable, and already are our people preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with their wives and children." 4

1 State Papers, vol. xxxiv. p. 56.

2 "If we should not succeed in effecting an arrangement, there shall be no quarrel." Ibid. p. 58. 3 Ibid., p. 61. Ann. Reg., 1845, Hist. p. 279.