[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 11, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6106-S6107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
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OREGON TREATY SESQUICENTENNIAL
Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, Saturday, June 15, marks the
sesquicentennial of the Oregon Treaty, which extended the domain of the
United States across lands that make up my home State of Oregon and the
States of Washington and Idaho. With the ratification of this treaty,
the United States for the first time spanned the American continent,
from sea to shining sea. Nevertheless, this treaty is more than just a
significant chapter in our young Nation's westward expansion. It also
represents--perhaps more importantly--the victory of peace and
compromise over ill will and nationalistic fervor.
On June 15, 1846, when the representatives of the British Crown and
the United States signed the Oregon Treaty, the two nations concluded a
long-standing but uneasy truce over the disposition of the Oregon
country, the area bounded by the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean
on the east and west, and Russian North America and Mexico on the north
and south. Previously, a joint-occupation convention signed by Great
Britain and the United States in 1818 and renewed in 1827 guaranteed
both nations' citizens free and equal access to the Oregon country.
Trappers and traders of the British Hudson's Bay Company and settlers
from the United States navigated the same rivers and used the same
resources, without common allegiance or uniform system of law. Charles
H. Carey's ``General History of Oregon'' offers the definitive
description of this era, during which conflicts between British
subjects and the Hudson's Bay Company on the one hand and American
citizens on the other sometimes flared--and did so ever more frequently
as thousands of American settlers followed the Oregon Trail into the
region beginning in 1843.
Throughout the United States, public sentiment flared as well.
Indignation at the continuing British presence on Western American soil
and concern for the rights of the United States citizens there
compelled private individuals and politicians alike to demand the
withdrawal of Britain from the Oregon country. On February 22, 1839,
Senator Lewis Linn of Missouri exhorted this body to rush to the
defense of Oregon settlers by annexing the Oregon country, saying,
``Great Britain through the medium of the Hudson's Bay Company, has
opened a trade with all the tribes of Indians on the western slope of
the Rocky Mountains, as far south as the Gulf of California. Their
hunters and trappers have penetrated all the valleys and glens of the
Rocky Mountains, scattering arms, munitions of war, and fomenting
discontent against the United States in the bosoms of those distant
Indian tribes. They have driven our people from the Indian trade, which
yielded seven or eight hundred thousand dollars per annum, and even
pushed their operations east.
In this increasingly volatile atmosphere, the Democratic presidential
convention of 1844 nominated former Tennessee Governor James K. Polk,
despite his relative obscurity on the national stage. Polk won the
general election against the much more prominent Whig, Henry Clay of
Kentucky, by capitalizing on the expansionist mood of the country. Polk
proudly invoked the United States' manifest destiny to span North
America and ran on the famous campaign slogans ``All of Oregon'' and
``54-40 or fight!'', arguing that the United States should go to war
with Britain if she did not withdraw entirely and absolutely from the
Oregon country.
Once Polk entered the White House, there was substantial political
pressure to honor his fiery campaign rhetoric. By 1845, as Charles
Carey described in his seminal study, the Oregon country was welcoming
new American settlers at a dizzying rate--and with each one, the need
for a common government increased. In addition, several influential
Members of Congress, including Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan--who was
favored over James Polk as the expansionists' candidate going into the
1844 Democratic presidential convention--were loudly advocating
Britain's immediate withdrawal from the region.
Another factor also invited President Polk to assume a relatively
belligerent posture with Britain. Numerous attempts by previous
administrations to compromise with Britain over a permanent boundary
had failed due to British demands for all the lands north of the 45th
parallel, including the Columbia River. Despite contentions that the
United States' contiguity with the Oregon country gave it natural title
to the region up to the 54th parallel, Presidents James Monroe and John
Quincy Adams had offered both to settle the boundary at the 49th
parallel and to permit British vessels free and equal navigation of the
great Columbia River. As Polk's Secretary of State, James Buchanan,
advised his chief negotiator with the Crown, Louis McLane, in
correspondence dated July 12, 1845, British negotiators flatly rejected
this offer on three different occasions (in 1818, 1824, and 1827).
Thus it was that, when his administration began anew to seek a
boundary settlement with the British, President Polk confronted a
dilemma. British negotiators had shown repeatedly that they were
uninterested in a compromise--but if the president succumbed to
political pressure to annex all of Oregon he risked a western war with
Britain just as America's recent annexation of Texas was threatening to
ignite a southern war with Mexico.
In response to this dilemma, the Polk administration exercised the
self-restraint, caution, and peaceful spirit of compromise in
international relations of which the Oregon Treaty endures as a lasting
reminder. President Polk instructed his Secretary of State, James
Buchanan, to offer once more the compromise border of the 49th
parallel. This time, however, President Polk refused to offer British
ships free navigation of the Columbia; instead, he invited Britain to
take whatever lands and ports she desired on Vancouver Island that were
south of the 49th parallel. Once again, the British negotiators refused
the compromise. President Polk then withdrew the offer, indicating that
the onus was therefore on the British to draft their own compromise. To
ensure that one was indeed forthcoming, the president called, in his
first State of the Union Address--on December 2, 1845--for Congress to
support him in giving Britain 12 months' notice that the Joint-
Occupation Convention of 1827 was to be abrogated and nullified.
Congress obliged, passing a joint resolution to that effect on April
27, 1846.
The United States' move to vacate the Joint-Occupation Convention
successfully inspired in the British a conciliatory and cooperative
spirit--without imperiling the peace that existed in the Oregon
country. On June 6, 1946, Richard Pakenham, the British minister
plenipotentiary, offered a proposal almost identical to President
Polk's and transmitted it to him through Secretary of State James
Buchanan. In accordance with the constitutional requirement that all
treaties are negotiated with the advice and consent of this body,
President Polk conveyed the proposal to the Senate on June 10. On June
12, the Senate voted 38-12 to advise the President to accept the
British offer.
One hundred and fifty years ago this Saturday, Secretary of State
James Buchanan affixed his signature to the Oregon Treaty. With this
stroke of a pen, the administration of James Knox Polk peacefully
secured for our young Nation the fruits of its manifest destiny--and
made Oregon a great and lasting tribute to the power of cooperation and
compromise.
[[Page S6107]]
ALABAMA ``TEACHER OF THE YEAR''
Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to one
of Alabama's most outstanding teachers. Harriet Tyler, a sixth-grade
teacher at Springwood School in Lanett, AL, was recently selected as
Teacher of the Year for the State of Alabama by the Alabama Independent
School Association.
Harriet Tyler--a native of Decatur, AL, and a graduate of Butler High
School--has influenced the lives of countless elementary students since
she graduated from Auburn University in 1965. As a sixth-grade teacher,
she has had the unenviable task of preparing the senior members of the
playground for the traumatic transition to junior high school.
Sometimes we think our work here in the Senate is difficult, but I
don't think that it compares to the difficult job that Harriet Tyler
has done year after year for over 30 years. Her commitment to her job,
her school, and most importantly, to her students is truly inspiring.
Mr. President, teachers like Harriet Tyler represent the key to
America's future. As our children face the challenges of the 21st
century, it is dedicated educators like Harriet Tyler who accept the
challenge of turning the young people of today into the leaders of
tomorrow.
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