Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-09-19
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, ls4s.
THE PRESIDENT AND THE OREGON QUESTION


THE PRESIDENT AND THE OREGON QUESTION.
II may be affirmed that if there was ever fact
connected with the public affairs Of country better
known than any other to the people OF ito every
man, woman, and child in it--that fact was Pres-
dent PoLK's avowed opinion of the American title
to the " whole of Oregon, and his reiterated asser-
ton of that title. So notorious was this opinion OF
the Executive, and so immoyabe was it believed
to be, that il produced the deepest anxiety in the
public mind and agitated the country from one end
to the other II were needless now to recount the
multiplied occasions on which This opinion Of the
President was announced, and the violence with
which it was justified and defended by the Execu-
tive organ at the seat OF government and by all the
other thoroughgoing partisans of the Administra-
ton. We have all the proofs at hand; but it
would be waste Of room TO recite them, as the
fact is not and will not be denied. !. Fifty-four
forty and " the whole Of Oregon or none, became
the wachwords Of the Presidents partsans through
out the country, and were emblazoned at the heads
of some Of the Democratic papers as standing
motto and symbol ofparty devotion. 4
In this state of things MIR. McLANE was sent as
pacific dispositions Of this gentleman, his appoint
ment was gratifying all the friends Of peace and
when we, uniting in this general feeling, ventured
a hope that he might be authorized to adjust the
dispute the basis of the forty-ninth degree of at
tude, the Executive organ denounced the idea as an
mputaton the consistency and fair-dealing Of the
President. Whatever our ethics might be, il said,
"lhe present Administration no forked tongue"
What were we TO think, them but that the President
remained nfexibe on the line of ffly-four forty"
twelve-month. however, rolled round, and through
the wise course Of Congress lin substituting con
ciliatory notice for the naked one recommended by
the President the dispute was settled by Treaty
the President declaring even to the last, when he
submitted the British proposition to the Senate, that
the opinions expressed in his December message
"remained unchanged"
Such was the public and indisputable position Of
the President in relation to the Oregon question up
to the 7th Of the present month, when, Mr.. McLANE
having returned home in his response to public
address on the subject of his recent mission, apd adj
verting the Oregon negotiations, he made the fol-
lowing deliberate, written statements
Having some knowledge from my official position that
me of the policy and objects of the convention Of 1928,
am quite persuaded that its main design to lead flu
ure partition of the territory the recognition of claim
the country, moi north, but south Of the 49th parallel and
between that and the Columbia river division of the
try upon that principles with reasonable regard rights
grown up under joint possession, always appeared
afford Just and practical basis for amicabe and honora-
BILE adjustment of the subject. Such also ,oas satisfied,
the peWs Of Government al The time Iengaged in
my and in earnestly and steadily labong
effect settlement upon that basis, but representing the
policy Of my Government and faithfully PROMOTING
INTENTIONS AND WISHES OF TIE PaEsnEsT"
Could we read this explicit declaration of the
Minister without surprise Has any man in the
whole country read it without similar emotion |?
Unless we doubted the truth of the Minister, how
was that truth to be reconced with the attitude oc-
cupied before the country by the President? 1t
was not for us to reconcile it: we could only re-
mark on the equivoca position, say the least in
which it placed the President. To have been ST.
lent would have been as equivocal ourselves; but
we only remarked in substance that the evidence Of
the Minister proved the views of the President to
have been more moderate than the government pa
per would admit them TO be; and, indeed, we be-
gan to think that the government paper meant by
its silence to admit the truth of our remark. In
this, however, we were mistaken. Its silence, we
must infer, proceeded from the difficulty of defence,
rather than from any contemplation Of frankness !;
for the Union of Tuesday night under cover of an
article in Baltimore paper, marked only by naked
contradiction and scurrility, ventures the following
reply to our brief comment on Mr. McLANE's dis
closure:
"The Administration in that whole negotiation, THE Ore
gon negotiation, from the time into power until it
was terminated pursued but course, and that
straightforward unsgused and this fact all the candid
men of all parties know and ought acknowledge. The
President held the language and expressed the
opinions the Congress Of the United States and TO the
country that he expressed through the Secretary of State
Mr. McLane, and none other
"Ths language and these opinions contained in the
official documents, which have been made public, and
before the whole country. And although il is manifest
that Mr. McLane, when he said in reply the address of the
Chamber of Commerce Of New York, that Minister
England, he represented the policy Of his Govern
men and promoted the intentions and wishes of the Pes-
dent meant only that he did of his nsruc-
TONS which made public yet the false and indous
inference covey attempted 10 be drawn in order
doubt upon the Presidents sincerity that he held Ian
guage Congress and the country another Mr. Mcane
Nothing be false than this nsnuation II is this
perverson Of the meaning Of Mr. McLanes language which
is Indignantly repelled by the article in the Baltimore Argus
"The Presidents opinion it is well known, was that the
American title to $40 4V valid one yet in difference
TO what has been done by his predecessors the conces
and offers which had been made by them July ls45
he offered To adjust the question the parallel Of 49o
Mr. McIanes instructions Of the 18th Of July IS45 which
before the world and from which the Baltimore Argus
makes an extract he informed of this fact and Of the
Presidents position the question being precisely the
fact which he stated and the position which he occupied