Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/176

168 England, for a great tide of immigration to get in motion for the region on the, Columbia River.

"It has been often stated, and by persons who should have known the facts in the case, that in 1842, when the Webster-Ashburton treaty took place between England and the United States with reference to our northeastern boundary, the northwestern boundary to the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast was deliberately put aside as of little consequence, and that our government then was so indifferent to the whole question that it stood ready to trade away our rights to the better portions of the Oregon Territory for some fishery considerations on the Atlantic Coast. Let us look at the facts.

"It is a matter of common knowledge that between nations possessing extensive unexplored regions of coterminous territory and enjoying much commercial intercourse, there frequently arise international issues of varying degrees of importance, which through prolonged negotiation get diplomatically grouped as a distinct and interrelated body of issues. The first treaty between England and the United States, in 1783, which had to be very general along main lines, left a number of questions of minor importance to be settled by the "logic of events" in the future intercourse between the two peoples who were henceforth to be independent of one another. Among the unsettled or undefined questions were: A definite boundary line between the Northern States and Canada; the rights of sovereignty on land and sea as between the two nations; the rendition of fugitives from justice; fishery rights along the Atlantic Coast; the right of search on board each other's ships, etc. These were prolific sources for disputes, and for over fifty years—in fact, from the very beginning of our government—some of the disagreements had existed, until the diplomatic intercourse between the two nations had become so completely befogged with the various projects and counter projects for their adjustment, that at the beginning of the administrations of Presidents Harrison and Tyler, in 1841, our foreign relations were in a very critical condition. Daniel Webster was Secretary of State. Wise, practical statesman that he was, he saw that the only way to a peaceful adjustment was by the balancing of equivalents; that is, by giving and taking on both sides. To this end he reduced the related issues to the fewest number, and these to their vital points. He found the Oregon boundary among questions at issue. He saw that this was an issue wholly unrelated to the other and more pressing ones, that it could afford to wait until its consideration