th Pacific
coast was gone over, and every argument and consideration that could be pro- duced or invented was brought forward. Agreement was impossible, and the negotiations brought to an end by the treaty of October 20, 1818, which deter- mined the boundary line of the United States zvestzvard to the Rocky iiwiiu- tains, but no further; and then adopting the following third article of the treaty: *Tt is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America, westward of the Stony (Rocky) mountains, shall, together with its harbors, bays and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of this treaty to the vessels, citizens and subjects of the two powers. It being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the preju- dice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of said country." This is the treaty of joint occupancy.
Immediately after the treaty of joint occupancy with England, President Monroe renewed negotiations with Spain, and on February 22, 1819, concluded the treaty by which the 42d parallel of north latitude from the meridian north of the head of the Arkansas river, west to the Pacific ocean, was made the boundary line between Spain and the United States, and in the same article Spain ceded to the United States "all rights, claims and pretensions to any coun- try north of the said forty-second parallel." And this gave to the United States all the rights of prior discovery to all the country west of the Rocky moun- tains and north of California, clear up to Alaska; and made perfect the title of the United States to the zvhole of old Oregon.
The ten years of joint occupancy expiring in 1828, the effort was renewed by our government to secure a settlement of the boundary line west of the Rocky mountains. The Russian government had by treaty, conceded the rights of the United States up to fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north. John Quincy Adams had become president and made Henry Clay secretary of state. Clay now renewed the negotiations for a settlement of the northern boundary line with England, being the fifth attempt by the United States to get the vexed question settled.
In an able letter to the American minister at London, Richard Rush, Mr. Clay points out that, "our title to the whole of the coast up to the Russian pos- sessions is derived from prior discovery and settlement at the mouth of the Columbia river, and from the treaty which Spain concluded on the 22d of F.;b- ruary, 1819. The argument on this point is believed to have conclusively es- tablished our title on both grounds. Nor is it conceived that Great Britain has, or can make out, even a colorless title to any portion of the northern coast. By the renunciation and transfer contained in the treaty with Spain of 1819, our rights extended to the sixtieth degree of north latitude."
No conclusion having been reached by these negotiations, the joint occu- pancy treaty was extended indefinitely, with a proviso that it might be termi- rid^ted by either party on giving twelve months' notice to the other party to the treaty. And on this indefinite, uncertain position Oregon was left by our gov- ernment i/rom 1828 to April 28, 1846, when, by direction of congress. Presi- dent James \X., Polk was instructed to notify the government of Great Britain that the treaty^ of joint occupancy would be terminated in twelve months from that date. And-' thus we see that for twenty-eight years the legal position and sovereignty of th. jg Portland townsite was up in the air ; and the people did not know to whom^^ or to what government their allegiance was due, or what government, if any,^ would protect their rights.
The title to Or egon was carried into the political arena of 1844. The national democratic c convention meeting at Baltimore on the 27th of May, 1844, adopted a resolution J that the democratic party and its candidate for president would make good the-ir claim of the United States for the whole of Oregon territory up to fifty-fi^^ur degrees and forty minutes of north latitude. Upon that platform, James K Polk was nominated for president, and in accepting the
