Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/202

 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

192 at the time

was

living in the neighborhood of Edinburgh,

and

in reply received a letter from Cord John, in which he stated his entire accordance with the proposal recommended by Mr.

Webster and approved by Mr. McGregor, and requested the latter, as he (Lord John) was not in a position to do it himMr. McGregor, self, to intimate his opinion to Lord Aberdeen. through Lord Canning, Under Secretary of the Foreign Department, did so, and the result was that the first packet that left England carried out to America the proposition in accordance with the communication already referred to on which the treaty of Oregon was happily concluded. Mr. McGregor may therefore be very justly said to have been the instrument of preserving the peace of the world, and for that alone, if he had no other service to appeal to, he has justly earned the applause and admiration not of his own countrymen only, but of all men who desire to promote the best interests of the

human

race."

Whether

it

was Mr. McGregor or Mr. Webster who was

the "instrument of preserving the peace of the world," or whether a further claim could be brought by Joshua Bates or any other, it is sufficiently obvious that no one man could

claim the merit of having brought about the adjustment. So far as the United States was concerned it is sufficient to point

out that events clearly showed that no one man, President or The Senator, was in a position to determine the outcome.

North and the South wanted no war, and they were lukewarm about Oregon. As the Charleston Mercury put it just after the notice had been authorized by Congress

"What

has Congress been doing? Why carry out western measures under western dictation? Oregon and 54, 40 with its kindred measures rifle regiments, mounted and un-

mounted

increase of the

establish our laws in

army bills to protect settlers and Oregon mail facilities to Oregon, to

be followed soon, we suppose, with a grand railroad to Oregon. then nearer home, their rivers and harbors, and that most magnificent of all humbugs, the Cumberland road a regular wagon road. Thanks to the economical sensibilities of the Yankees, this was too much for even their stomachs, and they

And

threw

it

up."

43 Quoted

43

in<

NileS Register, 16 May.