men, what I consider to have been the causes of the great change which has taken place in public opinion itself; and it is vain for any body to say, that any local causes here, or local causes there, have brought about this result. That Anti-rentism in New York and some other ism in Pennsylvania have produced such important consequences, it is folly to say; there is nothing at all in it. The test is this. Do you say that questions of State policy or State elections only have influenced this result? If you say so, then look at the elections for members of Congress. Members of Congress have nothing to do with these State questions; and the truth is, that elections of members of Congress in this State and in New York have been carried by larger majorities than any other elections. These elections have been governed mainly by questions of national policy. There were counties in New York in which there was no Anti-rentism. There were others in which Anti-rent influence was as much on one side as the other. But take the test even in regard to them. I find it stated, and I believe correctly, that Mr. Fish, the Whig candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, a most respectable and honorable man, but certainly not a supporter of those who profess themselves in favor of Anti-rent doctrine,-I find it stated that he obtained more votes for the office of Lieutenant-Governor than Mr. Wright received as the Democratic candidate for Governor. That flattering unction, therefore, gentlemen cannot lay to themselves. There is, in truth, no getting over the result of the popular election, nor getting beyond it, nor getting around it, nor behind it, nor doing any thing with it, but acknowledging it to be the expression of public opinion against the measures of the present administration.

I proceed to make some remarks upon the occurrences of the session, connected with the previous course of the administration, since Mr. Polk assumed the office of President.

The question respecting the territory of Oregon is a settled question, and all are glad that it is so. I am not about to disturb it, nor do I wish to revive discussions connected with it; but in two or three particulars it is worth while to make some remarks upon it.

By the treaty of Washington of 1842, all questions subsisting between the United States and England were settled and adjusted, with the exception of the Oregon controversy. (Great

applause.) I must beg pardon for the allusion. I did not mean by any allusion of that sort to give occasion for any expression of public feeling in connection with my own services. As I said, the Oregon question remained; and it is worthy of remark, that its importance, and the intensity with which it was pressed upon the people of the United States, increased when every other subject of dispute was adjusted.

I do not mention it as a matter of reproach at all, for I hold every man, especially every man in public life, to have an undoubted right to the expression of his own opinion, and to discharge his own duty according to the dictates of his own conscience; but I hope it may not be out of place to say, that, upon his accession to the Presidential office, it pleased the President of the United States to intrust the duties of the State Department, which has charge of our foreign relations, and pending this Oregon controversy, to the hands of a distinguished gentleman,* who was one of the few who opposed-and he did oppose with great zeal and all his ability-the whole settlement of 1842.

The Baltimore Convention assembled in May, 1844. One of its prominent proceedings was the sentiment which it expressed respecting our title to Oregon. It passed a resolution in these memorable words:

"Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no part of the same ought to be ceded to England, or any other power."

Mr. Polk, in his inaugural address, makes the same declaration in the very same words, with marks of quotation, as if in acknowledgment of the authority of the Convention. Mr. Buchanan, by direction of the President, repeats the declaration in his letter to Mr. Packenham, of the 30th of August, 1845; and the President, in his message to Congress, last December, having made some apology for entering into a negotiation on the basis of former offers of this government, informs them, that our title to the whole of Oregon had been asserted and maintained, as was believed, by irrefragable facts and arguments. Through all the debates in the two houses, on all occasions, down to the

* Mr. James Buchanan.

"This proposition assumes the fact, that the title of Great Britain to a portion of the territory is valid, and thus takes for granted the very question in dispute. Under this proposition, the very terms of the submission would contain an express acknowledgment of the right of Great Britain to a portion of the territory, and would necessarily preclude the United States from claiming the whole, before the arbitration, and this too in the face of the President's assertion of the 30th of August, 1845, made in the most solemn manner, of the title of the United States to the whole territory. This alone would be deemed sufficient reason for declining the proposition."

To remove this difficulty, Mr. Packenham, on the 16th of January, 1846, addressed Mr. Buchanan, to inquire "whether, supposing the British government to entertain no objection to such a course, it would suit the views of the United States government to refer to arbitration, not (as has already been proposed), the question of an equitable partition of the territory, but the question of title in either of the two powers to the whole territory; subject, of course, to the condition, that, if neither should be found, in the opinion of the arbitrator, to possess a complete title to the whole territory, there should, in that case, be assigned to each that portion which would, in the opinion of the arbitrating power, be called for by a just appreciation of the respective claims of each."

Mr. Packenham proposed a reference to some friendly sovereign or state, or "to a mixed commission with an umpire appointed by common consent; or, to a board composed of the most distinguished civilians and jurists of the time, appointed in such a manner as shall bring all pending questions to the decision of the most enlightened, impartial, and independent minds."

This proposition, also, Mr. Buchanan, in a note of the 4th of February, declines; and for thus refusing it, he says one reason was alone conclusive on the mind of the President, and that was, "that he does not believe the territorial rights of this nation to be a proper subject of arbitration."

Now, Sir, how is this? What sort of new doctrine is here advanced? I take it, that every question of boundary is a question of territory, and that from the origin of our government, from General Washington's time, under all successive administrations, down to the present time, we have been in the habit of

applause.) I must beg pardon for the allusion. I did not mean by any allusion of that sort to give occasion for any expression of public feeling in connection with my own services. As I said, the Oregon question remained; and it is worthy of remark, that its importance, and the intensity with which it was pressed upon the people of the United States, increased when every other subject of dispute was adjusted.

I do not mention it as a matter of reproach at all, for I hold every man, especially every man in public life, to have an undoubted right to the expression of his own opinion, and to discharge his own duty according to the dictates of his own conscience; but I hope it may not be out of place to say, that, upon his accession to the Presidential office, it pleased the President of the United States to intrust the duties of the State Department, which has charge of our foreign relations, and pending this Oregon controversy, to the hands of a distinguished gentleman,* who was one of the few who opposed-and he did oppose with great zeal and all his ability-the whole settlement of 1842.

The Baltimore Convention assembled in May, 1844. One of its prominent proceedings was the sentiment which it expressed respecting our title to Oregon. It passed a resolution in these memorable words :

"Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no part of the same ought to be ceded to England, or any other power."

Mr. Polk, in his inaugural address, makes the same declaration in the very same words, with marks of quotation, as if in acknowledgment of the authority of the Convention. Mr. Buchanan, by direction of the President, repeats the declaration in his letter to Mr. Packenham, of the 30th of August, 1845; and the President, in his message to Congress, last December, having made some apology for entering into a negotiation on the basis of former offers of this government, informs them, that our title to the whole of Oregon had been asserted and maintained, as was believed, by irrefragable facts and arguments. Through all the debates in the two houses, on all occasions, down to the

* Mr. James Buchanan.

day of the treaty, our right to the whole territory was pronounced "clear and unquestionable."

In and out of Congress, the universal echo was, that "our title to the whole of Oregon was clear and unquestionable." The Baltimore resolutions, in sentiment and in words, ran through all documents, all speeches, and all newspapers. If you knew what the Baltimore Convention had said, you knew what all those who were attached to the party had said, would say, or might, could, would, or should have said.

I remember, Gentlemen, that when I was at school I felt exceedingly obliged to Homer's messengers for the exact literal fidelity with which they delivered their messages. The seven or eight lines of good Homeric Greek in which they had received the commands of Agamemnon or Achilles, they recited to whomsoever the message was to be carried; and as they repeated them verbatim, sometimes twice or thrice, it saved me the trouble of learning so much more Greek.

Any body who attended the Baltimore Convention, and heard this resolution, would, in like manner, be familiar with what was to come, and prepared to hear again of "our clear and unquestionable title."

Nevertheless, Gentlemen, the clearness of the title was a good deal questioned by a distinguished gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Benton), and the end was, I think, a just and satisfactory settlement of the question by division of the Territory; forty-nine carrying it against fifty-four forty. Now, Gentlemen, the remarkable characteristic of the settlement of this Oregon question by treaty is this. In the general operation of government, treaties are negotiated by the President and ratified by the Senate; but here is the reverse, here is a treaty negotiated by the Senate, and only agreed to by the President. In August, 1845, all effort of the administration to settle the Oregon question by negotiation had come to an end; and I am not aware that, from that day to the absolute signature of the treaty, the administration, or its agents at home, or its agents abroad, did the least thing upon earth to advance the negotiation towards settlement in any shape one single step; and if it had

* The claim of the United States, as asserted by President Polk, extended to 54° 40' of north latitude; the 49th degree was adopted as the boundary in the final arrangement.