boundary-line were fixed and government provided for the immigrants, there would sooner or later come a clash of the diverse elements in the same territory, involving the likelihood of a war. That this did not occur before there was time to reach an agreement that should prevent it was due to the fact that the occupation of Oregon was not really joint in the sense which the terms of the convention of 1818 suggested—that of a general intermingling of the American settlers with the British. The Columbia was virtually the dividing-line, the British being mainly north of it and the Americans south. In 1838 a petition asking Congress to extend jurisdiction over the Oregon colony was signed by thirty of its inhabitants, ten of whom were connected with the missions and nine were French Canadians; and a like petition in 1840, urging Congress to establish a territorial government in Oregon, was signed by sixty-seven persons, who represented themselves as "citizens of the United States, or . . . desirous of becoming such." "

1

Some form of local self-government was a necessity for the immigrants from the United States; and it was not to be expected that they would remain long in Oregon without an endeavor to supply it. The occasion came in 1841 with the death among them of a man who left a large estate without having provided for its administration. Pursuant to a

1 House Reports, 25 Cong., 3 Sess., 101.

"Gray, Oregon, 194–196.

call made by a committee at the funeral, a meeting was held on February 17 and 18 at the Methodist Mission on the Willamette, "nearly every male inhabitant south of the Columbia, of full age, being present. A judge and other officers-not including a governor-were elected, and a committee was appointed to draught a code of laws.1 Partly through neglect, and partly because of the advice given by the officers of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, then in Oregon, the movement was suspended for a time; but in 1842 the coming of Dr. Elijah White, with a commission from the United States government as sub-agent of Indian affairs, revived it. The next step was therefore a meeting at Champoeg, May 2, 1843, where it was decided by the settlers-though not without opposition to organize, and certain officers were elected. In a meeting at the same place, on July 5, a constitution for a provisional government was adopted, which was to exist until the United States government extended its jurisdiction over the colonists. The constitution forbade slavery in the "Territory," and adopted the laws of Iowa, in cases "not otherwise provided for" and so far as they were applicable, for its government.4

By 1843 the work of Floyd and his coadjutors

1 Hines, Missionary Expedition to Oregon, 417 et seq. For the significance of this appointment as the settlers understood it, see Gray, Oregon, 215. Ibid., 279.

• Hines, Missionary Expedition to Oregon, 425-431; Gray, Oregon, 346-359.

began to bear abundant fruit. Petitions for the occupation of Oregon from legislatures and from the people began to pour in upon Congress in a full and ever-widening stream.1 Southwestward expansion, opposed by the more radical anti-slavery element, joined hands with northwestward, that the two might travel better. Agitation relative to both regions continued and increased, until by the time of meeting of the national conventions of 1844 the American people were thoroughly aroused. Under these circumstances the timid evasions of the Whig platform, the equivocations of Clay, and the Democratic utterance in favor of "re-occupation" and "re-annexation" can all be understood. The echoes which soon began to come from England, while on the whole conciliatory, were firm and contained a perceptible note of defiance.'

If the "re-occupation" of Oregon recommended by the Democratic platform in 1844 was to be accomplished directly by an act of the United States government, the term did not apply; for there had been no such act before. Astoria was, it is true, the first permanent settlement on the lower Columbia; but that was the work of a private association, intended to secure the trade of the country rather than territorial possession. The terms of the final agreement between the British and Spanish governments as to Nootka Sound would indicate

1 Bancroft, Oregon, I., 382 et seq., especially citation at 383, n. 43. 2 See Niles' Register, LXVIII., 113-115.

that Great Britain did not wish to see that country settled by any nation. After 1805, however, the British began the building of trading-posts, which continued to multiply till the tide of American immigration thither had fairly set in. By 1844 this immigration was well under way, and the "re-occupation" was actually going on without the help or the encouragement of any political party.

In September, 1844, another effort was begun to settle the Oregon question by negotiation. The offer made by Great Britain in 1826 was renewed in a slightly more liberal form, but was refused. Pakenham, the British minister at Washington, then proposed arbitration, but this plan was also declined. Polk's inaugural message forecast a decided stand on the claim asserted in the Democratic platform. July 12, 1845, Buchanan, secretary of state under President Polk, again offered the line of the forty-ninth parallel, but this time without the free navigation of the Columbia. The offer was rejected by Pakenham on July 29, without reference to his government and in terms that were rather offensive. On August 30 the negotiation was ended for the time by the withdrawal of the proposition.1

The situation was now ominous. Great Britain had hitherto steadfastly refused to accept the offer of the forty-ninth-degree compromise; and for the United States to withdraw that offer involved a

1 See the correspondence in Niles' Register, LXIX., 260–272.

prospect of war that roused great anxiety.1 The country rang with the cries "All Oregon or none" and "Fifty-four forty or fight." Buchanan's offer of July 12 was a temporary abandonment of the policy which Polk claimed was in deference to the action of his "predecessors," but the withdrawal on August 30 was a return to it. Buchanan doubted the expediency of making the issue with Great Britain while the relations of the United States with Mexico were so uncertain; but Polk himself saw in this no reason for delay.'

In his first annual message, December 2, 1845, Polk planted himself squarely on the ground of the platform. Besides committing himself to the idea involved in "re-annexation," by intimating that the western boundary of Texas was that which had been claimed by the United States under the treaty for the purchase of Louisiana, he recommended various measures for the uncompromising assertion of the claim to the whole of Oregon. First of these was provision by law for the year's notice to Great Britain required to terminate the convention of 1827. Then followed propositions which extensive discussion had already made familiar, to extend the laws and jurisdiction of the United States over the settlers in Oregon, to establish an Indian agency

1 Niles' Register, LXIX., 148, 187, 228, 289, etc.

? See his MS. Diary, August 30, 1845. This seems to dispose of Von Holst's "Stage Thunder"; see Von Holst, United States, III., 196.