Lions of the West by Robert Morgan

Author:Robert Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2011-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

MEANWHILE POLK still had to resolve the Oregon question. Using the cries of “54°40′ or Fight” and “All of Oregon or None” that swept the country, repeated in newspapers and speeches and on banners, to put pressure on the British, Polk waited for London to make the next move. Polk had the patience and toughness we associate with the pious, with those who are certain they are always right. Thomas Hart Benton might warn of the danger of war with John Bull over “54°40′ or Fight,” but Polk waited as the wagon trains of immigrants into Oregon and California swelled. It is estimated that by 1845 there were about five thousand immigrants in the Oregon Territory. The president told Benton he would consider a settlement at the forty-ninth parallel boundary, but Britain must make the first move. Like his mentor, Andrew Jackson, he thoroughly distrusted the British.

On April 11, 1846, the Senate finally passed a resolution giving Great Britain a one year termination notice of the joint agreement to oversee Oregon. The resolution, couched in diplomatic, conciliatory language, elicited a quick response from the British government, offering to settle at the forty-ninth parallel if the United States would cede to London Vancouver Island. With a war with Mexico looming, Polk decided to accept the proposal and submit it to the Senate, even as Buchanan reversed himself yet again and became an advocate of “54°40′ or Fight.” When Polk sent the final draft of the proposal to the Senate, the vote was 41 to 14 to accept. Polk had gotten what he had wanted all along. And now he was free to concentrate on the question of the southern border. It was unlikely he could settle things so easily with Mexico. An editorial in the New York Herald crowed, “We can now thrash Mexico into decency at our leisure.”

By settling for only part of the Oregon Territory and declaring war on Mexico, Polk proved to many northern expansionists that he was more interested in expanding southern power and slavery than anything else. As James M. McPherson tells us, “When Polk . . . compromised with Britain on the 49th parallel but went to war with Mexico over the southern boundary of Texas many northern Democrats felt they had been sold out.” Polk was more interested in promoting “Southern valves and interests than [they had] recognized.” The sectional bitterness that would lead to civil war was already evident and growing.

Polk won another victory when the House of Representatives passed the Tariff Act of 1846 on July 3 by vote of 114 to 95. The next day the Senate approved the Independent Treasury Bill by a vote of 28 to 25. Three of Polk’s four main goals had been accomplished in less than two years of his administration. The fourth, settlement of the boundary of Texas with Mexico and the acquisition of California and the land in between would take a little longer and lot more effort.

Now Polk took up Colonel Atocha’s proposal

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