The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-09-18
THE PRESIDENTS COURSE ON THE OREGON
QUESTION

THE PRESIDENTS COURSE ON THE OREGON
QUESTION
1t is a fact very significant, and well worth no.
ting, that the wing journals most inscriptions ~
their hostility 70 the administration, can now hnd
no more hopeful method of attack against it than u
most vain an futile attempt 10 convict the President
of sslEeontradietion inconsistency in the conduct
Of the Oregon negoation-and this, too, after thai
whole matter has Eeen finally settled in accordance
with the preliminary advice and subsequent rati6-
cation, OF more than t1o-ihirds Of the Senate-the
coordinate branch of the treaty-making power!
What tribute ID thus unwillingy paid to ths merit
Of the administration by its rancorous enemies,
when, for very want of other pretexts, this old and
settled topic--now among the "by-gones"-i is thus
raked up in the delusye and desperate hope that It
may at least furnish something weak and
false--for the leading opposition journals to say
against the official course of the President Yet this
Is just the case. Both the National lntelgeneer
and Baltimore American, among other journals
come to this morning with long leading articles
devoted to this subject, which, by the way the In
teligencer has been laboring at for several days
And yet neither of their articles shakes at ALL nor
indeed makes what can be called any serious at
tempt To shake, any Of the positions taken by in
our brief explanation upon the subject published on
Tuesday last.
Now, at the risk Of depriVing these journals
of their last broken weapon Of sttaGk-their one
spawned and faded ehsUal de baiGils-we will meet
them this field once more.
We confidently assert-and we will prove bya
full citation Of c6ieial documents and Instructions
running through the whole period intervening be-
tween the inaugural address on the 4th Of March,
lS45 and the Presidents last message to the Senate
submitting to Them according to their advice, the
Oregon treaty for ratification on the 10th Of June,
l546-that the whole position and of the
President in relation to the Oregon negotiation, have
been entirely uniform and consistent
We will show in the same manner that the
President continually reiterated as occasion re-
CURED, and in various forms Of official statement,
throughout this whole period his settled conviction
that title to the whole Of the Oregon Territory
up to $40 40, was clearly and PROFESSIONALLY the
best title in existence.
We will show, in the same manner, that with this
full conviction as to our title, the President did yet
hold himself, as the representative Of the American
government obligated and constrained by the action
of his predecessors and the previous course of the
government to make a proposition in the frat in
stance for the partition Of that territory on the line
of ago.
We will show, in like manner, that the President,
from the first to the last deemed any other settlement
of the question any basis substantially more una-
vorable to the United States entirely nadmissibe
under any circumstances and at any hazard.
We will show in the same manner, that after the
proposition of partition the line OF 49, as first
made by the President solely in Difference to the
previous action Of government had been reject.
ed and thereupon. withdrawn the President at once
falling back upon valid title to the
whole territory as always asserted by him,
signihed to our minister in London that any other
proposition emanatng from the British government
and not admitting right to the whole territory
could only be submitted by the President to the
Senate for its previous approval, and that the only
question which the President would undertake to
decide with regard to any such proposition from
England, would be the propriety of such a submis-
sion of it to the Senate.
And lastly, we will prove in the same manner
that the language held by the President to both
houses OF congress, In all MS ofnclal communlca-
tons to them the subject, subsequent to his with
drawa of his proposition for partition of the terri
tory, was in strict conformity to this intimaton so
given to minister in London.
These positions, if they can be established, put
the question of the Presidents consistency in ref
erence to the Oregon question at rest forever. We
will establish them to the letter by citations from
the documents at an early day
We may add, farther, that after the proposition
for partition of the territory made by the Presi-
dent had been withdrawn, the "Notice," which
he then recommended to be given, became, in his
view, the main instrument by which the negotia-
ton must be brought, if brought at all, to a salts
factory conclusion. And we believe that all candid
and intelligent men are fast coming to believe
that if this great measure mad been promptly carried
out by Congress as recommended by the President,
it would have been effcctual to procure for the
United States an adjustment of the controversy on
terms even more advantageous to this country than
those which have been now obtained.