ment would be pushed by the Oregon advocates in the West into an aggressive policy which might result in war with England.[1] The appearance of a solitary missionary in Washington advocating what a majority of the Senate had already voted, and what State legislatures were demanding in resolutions[2] was a mere drop in the bucket. That Whitman influenced American diplomacy in any way at Washington is not only destitute of all evidence but is intrinsically improbable. The belief that he did so originated with Spalding, and the ever-present stamp of his invention in all the varying narratives is the reference to "trading off Oregon for a cod-fishery." That Whitman's visit to Washington was an event without political influence or historical significance is clear from the fact that no contemporary mention of his presence there has ever been found. There is nothing in the Globe or the National Intelligencer among Washington papers, or in Niles's Register, although its pages for 1843 contain many
- ↑ Lord Palmerston said in the House of Commons, March 21, "if that bill [i. e., the Linn Bill] passed into a law, an event which he conceived to be impossible, it would amount to a declaration of war." London Times, March 22, 1843, p. 3, col. 4.
- ↑ "There were militant resolutions of the Legislatures of Illinois and of Missouri, relating to the Territory of Oregon!" J. Q. Adams's memorandum of a meeting of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, Feb. 25, 1843. Diary, XI, 327. Feb. 9, Representative Reynolds, chairman of a select committee on Oregon, reported a bill for the immediate occupation of the territory. His report asserted the right to all the territory up to 54° 40′ and the expediency of immediate occupation. Reports of Committees, 27th Cong., 3rd Sess., Vol. II, Rep. No. 157. The report is summarized in Niles's Register, XLIII, 397; see also Adams's Diary, XI, 314.
urged his proposed military stations "if we intend to maintain our right to the territories on the Pacific belonging to us, which, it is supposed, does not admit of question." Exec. Docs., 27th Cong., 3d Sess., I, 186. Cf. Dr. White's Commission, 67, supra. Du Flot de Mofras commented as follows on the public documents relating to Oregon published before 1843: "Les documents officiels que nous avons cités prouvent assez l'importance que le cabinet de Washington attache à la possession de ces vastes contrées." Explorations du Territoire de l'Orégon, etc., pendant les Années 1840, 1841, et 1842, Paris, 1844, II, 242.
How the situation impressed another foreign writer will appear from this contemporary remark: "Quoiqu'il arrive, les Etats-Unis ne laisseront pas les Anglais s'établir impunément sur le territoire de l'Orégon." Les Territoires de l'Orégon, par P. Grimblot, Revue des Deux Mondes, Mai 15, 1843, 538.
