Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/273

Rh It only remained to complete the formalities of diplomacy. June 15, the treaty was signed by James Buchanan on the part of the United States, and Richard Pakenham on the part of Great Britain. It was laid before the Senate for ratification June i6th and was ratified June 18th. Ratifications were exchanged at London, July 1 7th, and the President, in a message to Congress, August 5th, communicated the exchange of ratifications and recommended &quot;the organization of a territorial government for Oregon.&quot; (See Benton s Abridgment, vol. 15, pp. 652, 653, 641.)

The several measures proposed for the government of Oregon and the territories formed from the Mexican cessions of 1848, and for the further admission of States, aroused anew the slavery agitation, and provoked the &quot;irrepressible conflict.&quot; These questions, leading to the Confederate War, are discussed in another chapter of this work. Our investigation terminates with the acquisition of the territory.

No argument is needed to show that the South was the leading factor in the acquisition of Texas, in the Mexican War, in the cessions from Mexico, in securing from Spain the cession of her claims to Oregon, and in the final settlement of the Oregon question with Great Britain. In all this great work, the co-operation of the West was cordial and active. Even that portion of the -