Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/97

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON

89

war

in the face of our demand of the British government ? uncandid and dishonorable must the conduct of the President and his Prime Minister appear in the eyes of all honest men." The feeling that the Administration had blundered was expressed on every side.

for

How

"The administration,

no cordial support important branches at the present time, considering the state of our foreign relations, of State, war and navy, the general and prevailing sentiment certainly is that they are wanting in nearly every qualification that the emergency requires. I do not think it is well in either

house of Congress, and

as such, has

in the three

possible to have mismanaged more completely the negotiations either about Oregon or with Mexico; for certainly all the international occurrences both in England and Mexico have

been such as to have aided our views had they been judiciously 8 taken advantage of .".

.

The mounted

riflemen, intended originally for Oregon, were used in the conflict with Mexico, and this is a good illustration of the fate of the measures dealing with the Northwest Coast.

The House bill for extending jurisdiction of American laws over Oregon was thought by the Senate Committee on Terrialthough Westcott, for the comwas believed Congress should provide a organization and gave notice that he would move a

tories inexpedient at the time,

mittee, reported that territorial

it

postponement of consideration until the following December. Benton took occasion (it was the twenty- first of May, while all were awaiting news of the British reception of the notice) to prepare the Senate for an offer of 49 from Great Britain. In a speech which occupied several hours on each of three 9 days he proceeded to demolish, to his own satisfaction at least, the fiction that 54

40'

was a

line for the

northern boundary he was, said, the intention in 1824 to divide the Pacific Coast between Russia, Great Britain and the United States, Great Britain taking the middle portion from 49 to 54 40'. The plan did not work out, owing of the United States' claim.

It

8 H. D. Gilpin to Van Buren, 24 May, Ibid. This speech was in line with Benton's g Globe, XV, 847, 850-62, 913-20. proposition when he consulted the President on April ninth. Polk, Diary, I, 325.