which the secretaryship of state came into new hands, opened negotiations with Secretary Calhoun, but again with no prospect of reaching results. For the most part, old arguments were repeated, perhaps in new forms, but with no increase in cogency. Pakenham learned, however, that the United States would accept nothing short of the forty-ninth parallel boundary, although they might be willing to let that boundary run to the sea-coast only, the line from that point deflecting southward around the southern end of Vancouver's Island, the whole of which, in that case, would go to Britain. Calhoun assured him solemnly that this was the largest concession our government could possibly make, and that the Senate could never be induced to ratify a treaty giving Great Britain a more favourable boundary.
Polk, Buchanan, and Pakenham. It was during the discussions between Calhoun and Pakenham that the election occurred which placed James K. Polk in the presidential chair on a platform declaring for "the whole of Oregon." Polk's inaugural address boded ill for the future negotiations, yet Polk and his Secretary, Buchanan, gave assurances that they wished a peaceful settlement, and the discussions went on much as before, though with some loss of mutual respect, confidence and forbearance on the part of the negotiators. After a good deal of preliminary sparring, Buchanan made a new offer of the forty-ninth parallel as a boundary, but with no modifications respecting either Vancouver's Island or the commercial priv
