Oregon Treaty Ratified
The Oregon Treaty, ratified on June 15, 1846, marked a significant milestone in the territorial expansion of the United States, resolving a long-standing dispute between the U.S. and Great Britain over the Oregon country. This vast region, which included present-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of British Columbia, was jointly occupied by both nations after Spain and Russia relinquished their claims. The concept of "manifest destiny," which promoted the belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across the continent, heavily influenced political discourse during this time.
The treaty established the 49th parallel as the boundary between U.S. and British territories, allowing for the peaceful resolution of tensions that had heightened during the 1844 presidential campaign. American settlers increasingly moved westward along the Oregon Trail, driven by opportunities for land and settlement. The successful negotiation of the Oregon Treaty demonstrated the complexities of diplomacy and territorial claims in the context of 19th-century expansionist ideals. The resolution also reflected broader themes of American identity, ambition, and the often contentious interplay between nations over land and resources.
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Oregon Treaty Ratified
Oregon Treaty Ratified
Asserting the “clear and unquestionable” title of the United States to all of the Oregon country, a vast region occupied jointly by the United States and Great Britain, the Democratic platform of 1844 pressed for what it called the “reoccupation” of Oregon. It thus placed the party squarely in favor of what an 1845 magazine article was to call the nation's “manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” The phrase “manifest destiny,” written in connection with the annexation of Texas, was applied to the Oregon dispute in an influential newspaper editorial and in the halls of Congress. It soon swept the entire nation.
The Oregon country, which stretched from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and from the 42nd Parallel on the south to the 54th Parallel and 40' on the north, included what are now the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming and Montana, as well as Vancouver Island and much more of what became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The United States and Great Britain found themselves in joint possession of this huge tract after Spain and Russia abandoned their own conflicting claims to the area. Spain, which had once claimed the whole Pacific coast, in effect surrendered all rights north of California to the United States in the Florida Purchase Treaty of 1819. Russia, which once claimed the coast as far south as San Francisco, abandoned all rights below the parallel 54-40' in a treaty concluded with the United States in 1824.
Both of the remaining contenders had substantial claims to the region. Britain based its claim on an agreement with Spain in 1790 and on the explorations of Captains James Cook and George Vancouver, and Sir Alexander McKenzie. Also supporting the British claims were the early fur trading enterprises of the Hudson Bay Company and the establishment of Fort McLeod as the first settlement in the Oregon interior in 1805. The United States rested its claims to the Oregon country on the Spanish and Russian treaties previously mentioned, on Captain Robert Gray's discovery of the Columbia River in 1792, on Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's extensive expedition of 1804-1806, on the fur-trading post with which John Jacob Astor founded Astoria, Oregon, in 1811, and on the presence of thousands of American settlers who streamed over the Oregon Trail beginning in the 1840s.
As joint occupants of the huge area, Britain and the United States found themselves unable to agree on how to divide it. They sidestepped the issue in 1818 with a treaty providing for ten years' joint occupation. In 1827 they renewed the understanding indefinitely, but agreed that either party could terminate the agreement on one year's notice. In the meantime, negotiations went on. Beginning in 1826 the United States repeatedly offered to agree to a boundary along the 49th parallel, which already marked the country's border from what is now northern Minnesota to the Rockies. The British preferred the Columbia River, largely below the 49th Parallel, as a boundary. They also wanted access to Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Vancouver Island and what later became the state of Washington.
An event that had a marked effect on the Oregon question took place late in 1841, when Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri brought before the Congress a bill that had it been enacted would have provided military protection for the Oregon Trail and a grant of free land to every adult male immigrant who found his way to Oregon. Though the bill failed to pass in the final showdown two years later, the discussion surrounding it did much to encourage American settlement of the Oregon country. While the matter hung in the air, many a land-hungry settler set out for Oregon in anticipation of the bill's passage. As the Oregon Trail began to swarm with immigrants, British apprehensions rose. So did Americans' interest in the new land. When Oregon became an issue in the presidential campaign of 1844, expansionists welcomed the uncompromising stand of the successful Democratic candidate, James K. Polk, and the campaign slogan of Fifty-four Forty or Fight.
With friction between the two countries intensified by the campaign and the British stand stiffened, Polk asked Congress's permission to give the required one-year's notice to end the agreement for joint occupation. Between Polk's request (in his first annual message to Congress, on December 2, 1845) and the introduction of the appropriate resolution in the House of Representatives on January 5, 1846, Britain asked the United States to renew its earlier offer to settle along the 49th parallel. Polk refused, but he did allow his secretary of state, in late February, to advise the American envoy in London that negotiations would be reopened if Great Britain initiated the step.
While Britain waited for a politically feasible moment to conciliate on this point, debate dragged on in Congress. Finally, on April 23, 1846, the resolution for ending the joint occupation of Oregon was passed by both chambers and transmitted to President Polk. He delivered the required one-year's notice on May 21. The notice was followed shortly by action from the British, in the form of a draft treaty, which reached Washington on June 6. It suggested that the contested boundary be along the 49th parallel to the Pacific, with Vancouver Island going to Britain. It also sought to guarantee free navigation of waters neighboring the island for both parties and of the Columbia River below the 49th parallel for Britain. Polk felt that the treaty was reasonable, but in view of his own strong stand on the whole Oregon question, he took the unusual step of asking the advice of the Senate before formally submitting the treaty for that body's ratification. Senate reaction was favorable and formal submission of the treaty followed. It was ratified on June 15, 1846.