Oregon Treaty

TheOregon Treatywas a treaty between theUnited Kingdomand theUnited Statesthat was signed on June 15, 1846, inWashington, D.C.The treaty brought an end to theOregon boundary disputeby settling competing American and British claims to theOregon Country;the area had beenjointly occupiedby both Britain and the U.S. since theTreaty of 1818.

Oregon Treaty

Treaty between Her Majesty and the United States of America, for the Settlement of the Oregon Boundary
Map of the lands in dispute
Type	Bilateral treaty
Signed	15 June 1846(1846-06-15)
Location	Washington, D.C.,United States
Original signatories	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Full text
Oregon TreatyatWikisource

Background

Main article:Oregon boundary dispute

The Treaty of 1818 set the boundary between the United States andBritish North Americaalong the49th parallelof north latitude fromMinnesotato the "Stony Mountains"(now known as theRocky Mountains). The region west of those mountains was known to the Americans as theOregon Countryand to the British as theColumbia Departmentor Columbia District of theHudson's Bay Company.(Also included in the region was the southern portion of another fur district,New Caledonia.) The treaty provided for joint control of that land for ten years. Both countries could claim land and both were guaranteed free navigation throughout.

Original manuscript of the treaty (transcription), as kept by the U.S. National Archives.

Joint control steadily grew less tolerable for both sides. After a British minister rejected the offer ofU.S. PresidentsJames K. PolkandJohn Tylerto settle the boundary at the49th parallel north,Americanexpansionistscalled for theannexationof the entire region up toParallel 54°40′ north,the southern limit ofRussian Americaas established by parallel treaties between theRussian Empireand the United States (1824) and Britain (1825). However, after the outbreak of theMexican–American Warin April 1846 diverted U.S. attention and military resources, a compromise was reached in the ongoing negotiations in Washington, D.C., and the matter was then settled by the Polk administration (to the surprise of its own party's hardliners) to avoid a two-war situation, and another war with the formidable military strength of Great Britain.

Senate vote in June 1846

In early June 1846 the British offered to negotiate the boundaries between the United States and British North America in the region west of the Rockies. Some US senators such asCharles Gordon AthertonandBenning Wentworth Jennesswere combative and were in favor of rejecting British proposals to negotiate. However others, such as both Alabama senators (Arthur P. BagbyandDixon Hall Lewis) as well as both Massachusetts senators (Daniel WebsterandJohn Davis) were in favor of accepting British proposals. The Senate agreed that they would vote on whether or not to recommend President Polk accept British offers to negotiate. Watching closely, the British hoped this vote would pass the Senate. On June 12, the Senate voted 38–12 recommending that President Polk accept British proposals to negotiate this boundary. Votes in favor included 18 Democrats and 20 Whigs, whereas 11 Democrats and one Whig voted against. Three Democrats and three Whigs abstained.

Negotiations

The treaty was negotiated by US Secretary of StateJames BuchananandRichard Pakenham,British envoy to the United States. Foreign SecretaryEarl of Aberdeenwas responsible for it in Parliament.The treaty was signed on June 15, 1846, ending the joint occupation and making Oregonians south of the 49th parallel American citizens, with those north of it becoming British.

The Oregon Treaty set the border between the U.S. andBritish North Americaat the49th parallelwith the exception ofVancouver Island,which was retained in its entirety by the British. Vancouver Island, with all coastal islands, was constituted as theColony of Vancouver Islandin 1849. The U.S. portion of the region was organized asOregon Territoryon August 15, 1848, withWashington Territorybeing formed from it in 1853. The British portion remained unorganized until 1858, when theColony of British Columbiawas set up as a result of theFraser Canyon Gold Rushand fears of the re-asserted American expansionist intentions. The two British colonies were amalgamated in 1866 as theColony of British Columbia.When the Colony of British Columbia joined Canada in 1871, the 49th parallel and marine boundaries established by the Oregon Treaty became theCanada–US border.

In order to ensure that Britain retained all ofVancouver Islandand the southern Gulf Islands, it was agreed that the border would swing south around that area. Ownership of several channel islands, including theSan Juan Islandsremained in dispute. A bloodless confrontation known as thePig Warerupted in 1859 over ownership of the San Juans, which was not resolved until 1872. Ultimately, arbitration began with German EmperorWilhelm Ias head of a three-man arbitration commission.On October 21, 1872, the commission decided in favor of the United States, awarding the San Juan Islands to the U.S.

Treaty definitions

The treaty states that the border in theStrait of Juan de Fucawould follow “the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island.” It did not, however, specify which of several possible channels was intended, giving rise toownership disputesover theSan Juan Islandsbeginning in 1859.

Other provisions included:

• Navigation of "channel[s] and straits, south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, remain free and open to both parties".
• The "Puget's Sound Agricultural Company"(a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company) retains the right to their property north of theColumbia River,and shall be compensated for properties surrendered if required by the United States.
• The property rights of theHudson's Bay Companyand allBritish subjectssouth of the new boundary will be respected.

Issues arising from treaty

Territorial expansion of the United States;Oregon Territory in yellow

Ambiguities in the wording of the Oregon Treaty regarding the route of the boundary, which was to follow "the deepest channel" out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and beyond to the open ocean, resulted in thePig War,another boundary dispute in 1859 over theSan Juan Islands.The dispute was peacefully resolved after a decade of confrontation and military bluster during which the local British authorities consistently lobbied London to seize back the Puget Sound region entirely, as the Americans were busy elsewhere with the Civil War.The San Juans dispute was not resolved until 1872 when, pursuant to the 1871Treaty of Washington,an arbitrator (William I, German Emperor) chose the American-preferred marine boundary viaHaro Strait,to the west of the islands, over the British preference forRosario Straitwhich lay to their east.

The treaty also had the unintended consequence of putting what becamePoint Roberts, Washingtonon the "wrong" side of the border. A peninsula, jutting south from Canada intoBoundary Bay,was made by the agreement, as land south of the 49th parallel, a separate fragment of the United States.

According to American historian Thomas C. McClintock, the British public welcomed the treaty:

Frederick Merk's statement that the "whole British press" greeted the news of the Senate's ratification of Lord Aberdeen's proposed treaty with "a sigh of relief" and "universal satisfaction" comes close to being accurate. The Whig, Tory, and independent newspapers agreed in their expressions of satisfaction with the treaty. Though a few newspapers had at least mild reservations, completely absent was the strong condemnation that had greeted the earlier Webster-Ashburton Treaty (which determined the northeast boundary between the United States and Canada). Lord Aberdeen had been determined to prevent such a response to the Oregon Treaty, and obviously he was extremely successful in doing so.

See also

• Joseph Smith Harris' account of surveying the border
• Presidency of James K. Polk
• United Kingdom–United States relations
• Webster-Ashburton Treaty

References

Bibliography

• Anderson, Stuart. "British Threats and the Settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute."Pacific Northwest Quarterly66#4 (1975): 153–160.online
• Churchill, Winston S.(1958).The Great Democracies.A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Vol. 4.
• Cramer, Richard S. "British magazines and the Oregon question."Pacific Historical Review32.4 (1963): 369–382.online
• Dykstra, David L.The Shifting Balance of Power: American-British Diplomacy in North America, 1842-1848(University Press of America, 1999).
• Jones, Wilbur D., and J. Chal Vinson. “British Preparedness and the Oregon Settlement.”Pacific Historical Review22#4 (1953): 353–364.online
• Levirs, Franklin P. "The British attitude to the Oregon question, 1846." (Diss. University of British Columbia, 1931)online.
• Miles, Edwin A. “'Fifty-four Forty or Fight' – An American Political Legend.”Mississippi Valley Historical Review44#2 (1957): 291–309.online
• Merk, Frederick. “The British Corn Crisis of 1845-46 and the Oregon Treaty.”Agricultural History8#3 (1934): 95–123.
• Merk, Frederick. “British Government Propaganda and the Oregon Treaty.”American Historical Review40#1 (1934): 38-62online
• Pletcher, David M.The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War.(U of Missouri Press, 1973), a standard scholarly history
• Rakestraw, Donald A.For Honor or Destiny: The Anglo-American Crisis over the Oregon Territory(Peter Lang Publishing, 1995), a standard scholarly history.
• Winther, Oscar Osburn. "The British in Oregon Country: A Triptych View." ThePacific Northwest Quarterly58.4 (1967): 179–187.online

External links

• Map of North America at time of Oregon Treaty at omniatlas.com