The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-07

occupying the whole territory. "Fifty-four
forty or fight" became the shibboleth of the
Democratic campaign. Upon 1t they elected
Polk and an overwhelming majority in Con-
gress.
was leshing his sides in rage. England
promptly accepted the alternative raised by
the senseless battle cry of the Democrats
and prepared TO establish by force her
the Democrats, having secured a pro-
slavery President and Congress, had lost all
desire to fight. They cringed at The lions
roar, and with an imposing vote or only for
ty-six, mostly Wings, surrendered all their
noisy pretensions and pusillanimously
yielded everything north OF the forty-ninth
parallel, the present boundary.
BY unnecessarily precipItatins this quarrel
for mere party advantage. the Democrats
lost 20 the United States all the oregon
country between the forty-nlnth parallel
and that of "a degrees 40 minutes. Time
and rapid settlement were every year
strengthening our claim. Says Mr.. Blaine
in his Twenty Years of Congress-" 1T
is probable that if the Oregon question had
been under the treaty OF 1897 the whole
country would have fallen into our hands
and the American flag might to-day be
waving over British Columbia
Nearly all the historians agree that this
untimely demand and surrender
on the part of the Polk Administrations lost
to the United States an uninterrupted coast
line TO the Arctic sea. Schouler: Andrews,
Barrows and Benton freely admit ii. Even
Goodwin Smith. the Canadian historian, is
constrained to say: The adjustment OF the
Oregon boundary was made easier on our
part CEngIand's) by the Indifference of the
Southern hre-eaters TO extension of ter
ritory in the North, which would turn the
political balance in favor of freedom"
One of the senators who objected most
eloquently to raising the Oregon question
as a party shibboleth was John c. Calhoun:
Time he declared, lis acting for US, and
If we shall have the wisdom to trust its
operation, Ii will assert and maintain our
right to all Oregon without costing a cent
of money or a drop of blood" Calhoun
then made use of a clever expression, which
L. - $1,000 mr. fA hly va hAOn nninA6
by Roscoe Conkling. "All we want he
declared, Ito effect our object in this case
is a wise and mastery inactivity
Nothing can describe the rage Of the
Northern congressman when the duplicity
of Polk and his party became known, ana
the cowardly retreat from their bold mani
festo was uncovered Senator Hannegan
Democrat), of Indiana. declared on the
floor of the Senate: "Then IT was all ore
Texas, it is Just so much of Oregon as
England. in her kindness and condescen-
sion, thinks proper TO give US His pero-
ration was:
80 long as one human eye remains TO
linger on the page of history, the story
Aof the self-abasement OF James & POLK
Twill be read, sending him and his name
| together to an infamy so profound. a dam
nation so deep. that the hand of the resur-
rection day will never be able to drag him
But the cowardly surrender was complete:
BY the treaty of 1916 we retreated south or
the forty-ninth parallel: and then disputed
| over its proper delimitation until En-
peror William settled it more than twenty
five years later. 1t was supposed that the
question of boundaries between the United
States and Great Britain was forever ended.
But it was not then foreseen that Russian
Alaska would become the property of the
United States, and that a boundary line,
long acquiesced in when Russia was a
neighbor should be questioned when the
territory came to us. Nor could 1t be pre-
dicted that another Democratic Polk should
weakly assent to arbitrate a British claim
which had no foundation in fact, and en-
danger our possession of a strip OF Alaskas
seacoast six hundred miles long.
The Democratic party is rent in twain
and fastening to it's grave, but the evil
that it has done will long survive 1t.