would persuade or coerce Mexico into selling us California. Local meetings were held in various parts of the Mississippi valley, and these resulted in the calling of an Oregon convention at Cincinnati in July. 1843.^ Nearly one hundred delegates were in attendance, and not only the Mississippi valley, but the entire country was interested in their proceedings.
Origin of the demand for 54° 40' as the northern boundary. This convention adopted resolutions declaring that the United States had an undoubted right to the country west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallel of 42° on the south and 54° 40' on the north. In other words, the line established in 1S24 to separate American interests from those of Russia was regarded as the rightful northern boundary of the United States in the Pacific Northwest. This would have shut Great Britain out from the territory west of the Rockies, notwithstanding the explorations of her Mackenzies, her Thompsons, Cooks, and Vancouvers; and would have left no beaver ground on the Pacific slope for her traders, who had controlled the commerce of that region for thirty years.
Fifty-Four-Forty or Fight. When the Democratic convention met at Baltimore in 1844 and nominated James K. Polk for President, it was the western
^ The idea of a Mississippi valley convention to consider the Oregon question originated at Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio Statesman for this period is the best source of information on the entire movement. Its files were consulted in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society at ]\Iadison.
