THE CITY OF PORTLAND I43
nomination, promised if elected, to make good the claim to Oregon as set forth in the platform. He was elected over the Whig candidate, Henry Clay, by a majority of sixty-five votes in the electorial college. Before Polk's nomination or election, the Oregon question came up in the United States senate for dis- cussion, and on January 4th, 1844, James Buchanan afterwards president, de- clared in the senate :
'T will never agree to relinquish one foot of Oregon. If we rested our claim on discovery, it would not extend beyond the valley of the Oregon. But our claim is good as this book shows (referring to Greenhow's history) for it rests on the old Spanish claim. Here in this book are translated copies of old Spanish voyages and documents, proving their title; and thus also ours, by abundant testimony up to fifty-four degrees and forty minutes to a certainty.
Senator Thomas H. Benton speaking at the same time said :
"As to the character of our title to Oregon, there was a much broader and clearer claim than any mentioned by Senator Buchanan.. We settled that terri- tory. The settlement of it was the basis of our claim. The British never saw or heard of Oregon till we discovered it and put a badge of our sovereignty on it. Then Great Britain jumped down on Oregon, and now she was going to fight us for it. He would assure the gentlemen that we are not going to have another Massachusetts and Maine boundary question. There was to be no trembling and yielding in this case, as there was in the former one. No trembling hearts were to be found in the west. This was a western question, and the west had a regard for the national honor."
Much more could be given of the same quality showing the temper of the western people, and the right of the nation to the whole of old Oregon. The presidential campaign of 1844 was fought out on the democratic cry of,
"fifty-four, forty or fight."
The writer of this book remembers distinctly seeing those words emblazoned on the democratic banners; and the hue and cry of the campaign orators de- nouncing the British in their attempt to steal a part of old Oregon, and appealing to the voters to rally to the support of Polk and drive the British out of the Oregon wilderness, root and branch.
The democratic convention which nominated James K. Polk for the presi- dency, proclaimed one of its party principles that "our title to the whole of Oregon is clear, and unquestionable, and its re-occupation at the earliest prac- ticable period is a great American measure, to be recommended to the cordial support of the democracy of the Union." And after Polk was selected, and in his inaugural address on March 4th, 1845, he repeated the declaration of his party that nominated him in the very words of the platform on which he was elected. And then after being thus overwhelmingly elected on this very issue, on a direct referendum to the people, he hauled down the national colors and made the treaty of June 15th, 1846, which gave away to the British all the territory now included in British Columbia.
The surrender of the northwest Oregon territory to the British was the most humiliating and disgraceful piece of diplomacy that ever disgraced any nation. Fortunate that it is, it stands alone in the history of the republic. Cowardly, truckling, and damaging, alike to national interests and national honor, the reason and excuse for it was even more infamous. The whole north and west was so outraged and incensed beyond any words to describe the public senti- ment that Robert J. Walker, secretary of the treasury under President Polk was compelled to give an excuse for the great wrong; and in doing so, admitted that the southern slave state president and senators (with of course their northern dough-face supporters) had given up northwest Oregon to England, for the reason, it might at some future time come into the Union as anti-slavery state.
We can have no cenception now of the bitterness of the fight against Oregon, by the slaveholders on one hand, and the British on the other ; and of the tremendous odds and forces the friends of Oregon in congress and the pioneers
