Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/192

 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

182

which he thought he should make. The proposition as outlined and as reported to Washington by McLane included ( 1 ) a boundary line following 49 to the seat and the Strait of Juan de Fuca with free talked over with

him the

offer

navigation of the Straits confirmed; (2) security of British and American property rights north and south of the proposed

boundary; and (3) free navigation of the Columbia for the Hudson's Bay Company, although Great Britain would claim no right to exercise any police or other jurisdiction for itself or the company the navigation rights would be under exactly

the

same conditions which should apply

"It

is

way

to

scarcely necessary for me to state," of comment, "that the proposition as

not received

my

countenance.

...

I

American citizens. added McLane by

now

submitted has

have therefore

felt

duty to discourage any expectation that it will be accepted by the President, or, if submitted to that body, approved by the Senate." 22 The two points, of free navigation of the Columbia and the claim to all Vancouver by Great Britain, seem it

my

to have impressed

McLane

with the fear that no adjustment

could be expected. He reported that Lord Aberdeen seemed to have the impression that the Senate would advise the President to accept these terms and the latter would not take the responsibility of rejecting them without consulting the Senate.

The same steamer which brought McLane's letter to the United States also bore instructions to Pakenham. After a careful review of the course of the British government on the Oregon Question and including a statement of the situation of the previous summer, Lord Aberdeen said that Her Majesty's government would "feel themselves criminal if they permitted considerations of diplomatic punctilio or etiquette to prevent them from making every proper exertion to avert the danger of calamities which they were unwilling to contemplate, but the magnitude of which scarcely admits of exaggeration." The legislature of the United States, moreover, had, in com-

plying with the recommendations of the President to terminate 22 To Buchanan, 18 May, No. West Bound. Arb., 49-5. wrote in similar vein. Correspondence of Calhoun, 1073-4.

To Calhoun he