|
Four year after the end of the War of 1812,
Great Britain and the United States agreed
their citizens could trade in the Oregon country
without prejudice to either nation's claims.
Both countries strived for the extra influence
which could blossom into sovereignty. The
"Oregon Question" became an issue of greater
concern, accelerating to a salient dispute by the
early 1840s. Polk's 1844 presidential campaign
was based on the question printed
to the right. Polk was not a volatile statesman;
the activist Northwestern U.S. Senator, Lewis
Cass, coined the slogan "All Oregon or none,
54-40 or fight." The United States and Imperial
Russia agreed in 1823 to limit their spheres of
influence to fifty-four degrees, forty minutes
north latitude - today's boundary between
Alaska and Canada. War between Great Britain
and the United States was avoided on June 15,
1846 with completion of the Convention of
Washington which resolved the Oregon
Question by establishing the 49th parallel as
the international boundary.
|
There are four great measures… which
are to be measures of my
administration: one, a reduction of the
tariff; another, the independent
treasury; a third, the settlement of the
Oregon boundary question; and lastly,
the acquisition of California.
James K. Polk
11th President of the United States
|