Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/101



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By the close of the year 1819 all the essential properties for setting of the stage of the "Oregon question" were prepared. With the exception of the slight difference, removed with little difficulty, with Russia as to the extent of claims upon the Northwest Coast of America, there were brought forward no new factors during the long diplomatic controversy which extended to 1846, although certain relatively unimportant but irritating residual questions persisting for many years after. The Spanish aspect of the matter as such no longer existed after 1819. With Great Britain the matter stood in June of 1846 on exactly the same footing as it had in October of 1818, despite the interchange of numerous diplomatic communications between that government arid the United States, despite more than one measure in Congress, a body which occupied weeks, even months, in debating the ever-resurgent "Oregon Question."

The interval between the ending, as between the United States and Spain, of the claim of the latter to the region north of 42∘ north latitude and west of the Rockies, and the admission of Oregon as a State of the Union in 1859, was one in which may be perceived the gradual development of interest