Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/631

580 The newspaper mail of the Fisgard, however, revealed the fact that there was a majority of the democratic party in the United States house of representatives of nearly two to one, and in the senate a majority of six. This latter circumstance was regarded as indicating that the president's policy would be carried out as defined in his message.

On the 23d of August, 1844, said President Polk, the negotiations on the subject of the Oregon boundary, which had been pending in London since October 1843, were transferred to Washington. The proposition of the British plenipotentiary was to divide the Oregon Territory by the 49th parallel, from the Rocky Mountains to the point of its intersection with the northernmost branch of the Columbia River, and thence down that river to the sea, leaving the free navigation of the river to be enjoyed by both parties; the country south of this line to belong to the United States, and that north to Great Britain. In addition to this, it was proposed to yield a strip of coast north of the Columbia extending from Bullfinch Harbor to the Strait of Fuca, and from the Pacific to Hood Canal; and to make free to the United States any ports they might desire, either on the Mainland or on Vancouver Island—a proposition identical with one offered in 1826, with the exception of the free ports, and which was promptly rejected by the United States plenipotentiary. A request was then made that the United States should frame a proposal. Nothing, however, had been done when the administration changed, and Polk came into office.

The president said that though he held the opinion that Great Britain had no title to the Oregon Territory that could be maintained upon any principle of public law recognized by nations, he had felt it his duty to defer to the opinions and acts of his prede-