The North-Carolina standard., 1846-02-18
ARBITRATION REJECTED.

We publish on our first page today the Cor
respondence between the British Minister, Mr.
Pakenham, and the American Secretary OF State,
Mr.. Buchanan; and we invite to it the serious at
tention of our readers The British Minister, it
will be seen, has the second time offered to sub
nit the Oregon question to arbitration: and the
second time has the American government met
this offer with a prompt rejection.
We are inclined to think that this movement
means more than at first strikes the eye. Did not
Mr.. Pakenham have the strongest reasons to be-
lieve the proposition would be rejected2 Did he
really suppose that at This period of the contro-
versy such plan would be adopted by our Gov
ernment or that Mr. Polk would be less firm
than Mr.. Tyler in holding on to our rights
That Minister must have felt in common with
the civilized world, that Mr.. Polk, in again ten
dering the 49th parallel on the part of the Ameri-
can government, had put England deeply in the
wrong; and is it not, under all the circumstances,
reasonable TO infer that he came forward with The
proposition to arbtrate (knowing 1t would be re-
jected) with the view TO cast the blame of what
ever calamities may ensue, upon this country2
Several weeks since we had strong intimations,
from Senator Mangum we'll as the Whig press
generally, that arbitration would be the next card
in the game of British diplomacy; and the result
has proved that certain men in this country can
see as far and as we'll through English spectacles
as MI. Pakenham himself But this point we will
touch in another article.
Our eympathies and feelings, we are proud 10
say, were with the government of our own coun-
try; and on the 4th instant, the very day on which
Mr.. BuchaEan's admirable letter was written. we
took ground against arbitration We continue
and shall continue to occupy that ground. We
have full confidence in the President and not only
in him, but in the Senate and in the Cabinet he
has about him; and his action during the present
month, has made US the more willing to trust him
for the future.
The National Intclligencer of the 18th instant
makes the following remarks in relation to the
rejection of Mr.. Pakenham's proposition:
$50 far the public press and private advices
afford any indication OF pu6tic opinion, that opin-
ion is rery nearly unanimous in its condemnat ton
Of the last move of our government in the game
Of diplomacy"
Is it not surprising that paper which plays,
as the National Intelligencer does, oll0ays into
the hands of England and against its own coun-
try, should be encouraged and sustained by Ameri-
can citizens2 And then the provoking GOODNESS of
its misrepresentation Its Editor. closeted with
Federalists and EngIishmen in Washington, and
receiving information and "private advices" from
panic-makers in Boston and New York-he comes
forward to speak of PUBLIC OPINION! What
does he know of the bold hunters of the West or
of the millions of sturdy farmers and mechanics
of the country, who create public opinion, and
whose prowess has once and again made naughty
England tremble on her blood-stained throne7
The President has done right, and nine-tenths of
THE PEOPLE will sustain him. Most nobly and
gloriously has he met the crisis; and on strong
arms and stout hearts will he ride out the stolm.