The herald., 1897-08-02


the line from the Lake of the Woods to
the mountains being the 10th parallel
Beyond the Rocky mountains lay the
land known then as the Oregon country,
including part Of what Is now Montana,
ton, and according to the claim of this
country very substantial portion Of
what is now British territory. This
Oregon country was claimed partly un-
der the treaties with France in 1903, at
the time of the Louisiana purchase, and
with Spain i'll 1919. and partly by rea-
son OF the discovery of the Columbia
river in 1892 by Capt. Gray, an Ameri-
can. Great Britain also claimed the re-
gion and by agreement there was joint
occupation for ten years. This was ex-
tended indefinitely in 1927, with the
provisor that either power might aban-
don the agreement after twelve months
notice. Great Britain had declined set
tlement that fixed the boundary at the
49th parallel, as on the eastern slope of
the Rockies.
THE OLD OREGON CLAIM
The status quo was maintained until
explorations on the part of the United
States began to demonstrate the value
of the Oregon country and the American
settlers complained of the conservative
policy of the British fur trading COM
pany The interests of the company
were such as to prompt it to discourage
immigration; while the farmers of the
east, having exhausted the soil by con-
tinuous planting of the one crop, were
eager to exploit the rich soil of the
west. Things finally reached such
point that the Democratic National
convention of 1874 demanded a reoccu-
patton of Oregon, which meant the GUST
ing of the British. and Polk, when on the
stump, urged with the fiery buncombe
that at times passes for eloquence, that
the boundary be fixed at "a degrees 40
minutes north. Simply put, it meant
that the party claimed for the United
States everything on the Pacific coast
that was neither Russian or Mexican.
Daniel Webster had thought the 49th
parallel just boundary, and so had
the cabinet of Monroe. Polk's secretary
of state, Buchanan, made overtures that
the 49th parallel be the boundary in
July, 1S45, but Great Britain again de-
clined and again urged the Columbia
river. In December, 1S45, the matter
was debated in congress and closed late
in April, 1886 after an enormous amount
of war talk in which the jingo congress-
men of that day fairly reveled. Daniel
Webster was earnest in his advocacy of
peaceful settlement, and as the
southern Democrats were more anxious
to go haymaking in Texas than in Ore
gon, the resolution giving Great Britain
notice that the joint possession must
cease was coupled with the friendly
declaration that the object of the reso-
luton was to prepare the way for an
amicable discussion and solution of the
difficulty. Soon after all further diff
Guilty was obviated by Great Britain
voluntarily offering to recognize the 49th
parallel as the boundary.
JINGOISM OF THE PAST
The new boundary question touched
upon in the Washington dispatches yes
terday really concerns territory con-
tiguous to the northern part of the re-
gion claimed by the bellicose advocates
of the 54 degrees 40 minutes boundary
over fifty years ago, and on the side of
the United States the ground for hold
ing to the present accepted Alaskan
boundary is practically and in effect part
of the old ground for insisting upon the
extreme claim of President Polk, namely,
the limitations of Russian America. The
treaty between Russia and Great Brit
ain in 1925 named so degrees 40 minutes as
the southern boundary OF Russia's pos
session on the Pacific coast and ran from
the south end of Prince of Wales island
along the Portland channel to the 56th
parallel of latitude. Then it followed
range of mountains east to the 141st
parallel Of longitude, then north to the
Arctic ocean. The line was to be at
no time more than ten marine leagues
from the coast and was to follow its
windings. No such mountain range as
described in the treaty existing. it has
been accepted by this country that the
line follows the coast at the prescribed
distance of ten leagues to the Arctic.
The Canadian contention. however, is
that the real starting point is Benin, and
not Portland channel, for the reason
that the Benin channel boundary COM
plies with the descriptive conditions of
the treaty of 1925, in that there is a
mountain chain about ten leagues from
the coast and that the real boundary be-
tween Alaska and British Columbia is
some twenty miles nearer the ocean
| than the existing line