LAST PHASE OF OREGON BOUNDARY 213
in a despatch to the Admiralty, American squatters had been permitted to locate themselves without being warned off, also an American deputy collector of customs. 48 The only instruc- tions I have found were those issued before the Marcy cor- respondence of 1855, and these could hardly be appealed to with fairness. On the evidence, then, Harney would seem to hayjejheen technically atJauIt. but Pouglas must take his snare
of^the hn^-hf!} of Mame. Harney disturbed the status with- V out sufficient^cause, but Douglas would have brought about
blood-hoi over a teihnical 1 -reach that could ea-ily have been settled 1>y di[>li -nucy. and wa- so -ettled when wiser men than
rJouglas restrainedTum. We have seen that the aggressiveness
and greed of the Hudson's Bay Company had much to do with producing the state of mind in which the Americans of the region were prepared to take arms if necessary in support of Harney. The honors for preventing bloodshed should be shared among the British naval officers, cabinet officers at Washington and General Win field Scott. The General seems to have been amused by the heroics of his subordinates of the Oregon department. 49
PRESIDENT BUCHANAN'S ATTITUDE.
This San Juan seizure was looked upon as a very serious affair by President Buchanan, even though his administration was harrassed by domestic dissensions as serious as any that ever tortured this country. In correspondence with Lord Clarendon (whom he had known in London), among other matters, the action of Harney was referred to. 50 Lord Clar- endon wrote :
"This affair at San Juan, tho' more serious than the one at Nicaragua, is of a similar character. The over- zeal (which Talleyrand so much deprecated) and the over-slowness and the over-desire to make political cap- ital without reflecting on the consequences, of employes. have caused difficulties which put the firmness and good faith of both governments to the test. I am much mis-
48 Admiralty Dispatches.
49 See his Memoirs, or note in Moore: Internatnional Arbitrations, p. 222.
50 See Works of James Buchanan, Vol. 10.
