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 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON

47

Lord Aberdeen to see that anything less than 49 with the possible exception of the tip of Vancouver's Island would never be accepted by the United States. 30 But Aberdeen had not been brought to this view. The short session of

to bring

Congress was drawing to a close and it had already become evident that the "notice" as passed by the House would not be accepted by the Senate; consequently he felt that the final disposition of Oregon was of no immediate or pressing interest to either party;

on the other hand the

"artificial ex-

citement" in the United States and the "violent proceedings" in the House of Representatives tended to hinder negotiations, 31 consequently arbitration was the best way out. Accordingly, Pakenham was authorized, as soon as the House resolution had been rejected in the Senate, to offer arbitration again, if

in the meantime no reasonable proposition has been brought forward by the United States. Before Pakenham could receive these instructions the old government was out of office and the Polk Administration was The Inaugural Address had been pronounced at the helm. and the people of the United States expected the President to maintain an uncompromising attitude. It is doubtful whether the advice Lord Ashburton transmitted through Everett would have produced any effect had it arrived before March 4,

words of a and who knew pretty well the temper of his own people. Everett had been telling Ashburton his confident opinion that the United States would never accept any compromise which gave his country a less favorable boundary than 49 to the sea, for he evidently 1845.

Nevertheless

man who had

it

is

interesting to read the

helped to tide over one

crisis

took every possible occasion to impress this line upon all influential men with whom he was on terms of intimacy, and said, "he did not think there would be much difcoming to an adjustment unless steps were taken on our (United States) side which wore the appearance of defiance and menace. Any such step would put it out of the

Ashburton ficulty of

30 Everett to Calhoun, 28 Feb., No. West Bound. Arb., 35. Aberdeen to Pakenham, St. Papers, 34:90.

31