Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/33



During twenty-five years prior to June, 1846, the history of Oregon included as its principal theme the dispute between the governments of the United States and Great Britain as to where the boundary line should be located between their respective future territories. On the part of the United States the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude was early proposed and quite consistently held to although the political cry of "fifty-four forty or fight" was not unheard for a time. On the part of Great Britain the course of the Columbia river was considered a fair compromise line, but without entire disavowal of rights to the country north of California or the forty-second parallel. In the two previous issues of this Quarterly attention has been directed to the first overt act of the United States government toward asserting sovereignty over the Columbia River Country or Northwest Coast of America, as it was then called; and the influence of that act in the later discussions of the boundary question. Mention was made in the Quarterly for December, 1918 (pp. 276-7) of an early request by the Secretary of the Foreign Office of Great Britain to the Hudson's Bay Company for the removal of the principal trading post of that company from the south to the north side of the Columbia river. It is now proposed to present the document which contains the authority for that interesting statement.

This publication has been made possible through the courtesy of Dr. Otto Klotz, chief astronomer of the Dominion of Canada, who during years of service has accumulated in his office at Ottawa much valuable data relating to the scientific and physical location of this boundary line as established by treaty and the diplomatic discussions leading up to it. The Amer. Geographical Review for May, 1917, contains an interesting article by Dr. Klotz entitled "The History of the Forty-ninth Parallel Survey West of the Rocky Mountains."