The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 3, September, 1900Oregon Historical Society
History
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 3, September, 1900
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon -- History -- Periodicals
We have it on the authority of Mr. Polk’s diary that the concluding
paragraph is of the President’s own wording; that Mr. Buchanan urged the
President so to couch his answer as to encourage the British government
to make an offer on their part; that this the President positively
declined to do, saying that if the British government wished to make an
offer they must do so on their own responsibility. It was a matter of
regret on the part of Lord Aberdeen, on hearing of the matter, that this
proposition of our government had not been referred by Mr. Packenham to
his government. Later, Mr. Packenham, on receipt of a communication from
Lord Aberdeen, approached Mr. Buchanan with a view of getting from the
President encouragement to present another proposition on behalf of
Great Britain. This, though repeatedly urged to do so by Mr. Buchanan,
the President firmly refused to give. And thus the question stood at the
convening of congress in December.
The President’s message had, on the question of the Oregon Territory,
been prepared with special care. The several paragraphs bearing on this
subject were read and discussed in cabinet, and amended, until they
embodied the President’s policy in its maturest form. Again Mr. Polk was
besought by the Secretary of State to soften the tone of his message on
this point, but he refused, preferring, as he said, “his own bold
stand.” After reviewing briefly the history of negotiations on the
question under his predecessors, and noting that these had uniformly
been maintained on the part of the United States on the compromise line
of the forty-ninth parallel; and after stating somewhat particularly the
reasons that had induced him to take up the negotiations as he found
them pending on his entrance to office, and to continue them on the same
line in spite of his own personal convictions that the United States had
a just claim to the whole of the Oregon Territory, the President
proceeded to recommend to the favorable consideration of congress five
measures, all of which he thought clearly within the right of the United
States under the terms of the convention of joint occupancy. The first
and capital one of these recommendations was, that congress authorize
the President to terminate the convention of joint occupancy by giving
the British government the required notice. In accordance with this
recommendation a resolution to that effect was promptly introduced in
congress, and thereupon the Oregon Question was thought by all to have
assumed a grave aspect. Many men within congress, and without, some of
them Mr. Polk’s best friends and advisors, felt that while the measure
was clearly within the terms of the convention it was neither wise nor
safe at that time to adopt it. To every representation, however, of this
view of the case made to the President, he returned the uniform answer
that in his judgment the notice should be given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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