The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 397
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CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
lieved nothing conduced more to the surrender to
the United States of the strip of land on the borders
ofVermont and the State of New York, in the
treaty of Washington, than the fact that it was in-
habited by a democratic population. He believed
the British Government was glad of an excuse to
surrender it, because it was filled with democrats.
They did not want to have such a population near
them.
In Oregon we should have agriculture on our
side working against hunting; and the still stronger
implement of democracy uprooting what little of
British possession there was.
The honorable Senator from Illinois, [Mr.
Breese,] who acquitted himself with so much credit
and ability, on his first speech in the Senate, asked,
with great naivete, how it could be offensive to, give
the notice authorized by the treaty. The same
sentiment had been reiterated by the Senator from
Pennsylvania. Why should there be offence or
danger of war in this notice? It was not in the no-
tice itself that the offence or the danger lay; but in
the result—in the inevitable consequences to follow
that notice. Did the gentlemen mean to say that it
was their purpose, immediately after the notice was
given, to stop at that point? Did they mean to avow
that they intended to go no further than thai/ They
knew full well that, after giving the notice to termi-
nate the convention, they were bound to go on
and do exactly what the gentlemen of the West were
so strongly disposed to do—to take immediate pos-
session, by force of arms, of the territory. And
what but war could be the inevitable consequence
of that course? Much had been said of the
present condition of England as being opposed
to war. He did not undervalue the motives for
peace by which she would be actuated. He
was aware of the interests transcendantal to
England above all others—the interests of her com-
mercial relations with the United States, her best
and greatest customer; he was aware that she was
in a less favorable condition for war than she had
been for years; her internal disturbances in Wales
and Ireland, her embarrassed finances, and other
causes, would undoubtedly, as the senator from
Pennsylvania said, naturally make her most averse
to war with this country. But could the senator,
who had spoken so eloquently of the power and
pride of Great Britain, maintain that she could not
be driven into war? He could tell the senator that
though she is and may be averse to war, if the
pride of England was wounded, no British minister,
however impressed with the necessity of peace,
could for a moment hold his place and dare refuse
going to war. Such a thing might make it the interest
of the British minister to make concessions at home,
which would at once heal up all dissensions; and
Englishmen would unite as one man to avenge the
wounded pride of the country; just as we would do
here, if led by a point of honor to go to war with
her. Turn to the history of that government, and
it would be found that, no minister had ever shrunk
from his duty on such an occasion as would arise out
of any attempt on our part to take forcible possession
of a territory upon a disputed claim of twenty years'
standing. The British minister would be strength-
ened by his exhibition of national pride.
And how would it be with this country? After
supinely permitting a question of great difficulty to
rest for twenty yeais, and at the very momenta ne-
gotiator came to our doors, invited, too, by our own
government, we come at once to the conclusion of
repulsing all negotiation, and say to the minister of
peace, "We don't care; it is true you come here by
our invitation; but you may go back; we don't mean
to settle this long-pending discussion by treaty; we
want no further negotiation; we mean to take the
decision of the question into our own hands; we
will take what we say is our own by the power of
the strong hand." Was there any government m
the world, that possessed any strength at all, which
would sit down quietly under such treatment as
that' Suppose England adopted the same line of
conduct towards the United States: what would be
our feelings and resolves? Suppose she had invited
us to negotiate, and then met our negotiator at her
doors and told him that she had ordered her forces
from China to occupy the Territory of Oregon, and
therefore, she did not want to negotiate about it:
what would we do? What would be the course of
Congress? Would it not be disabled from any de-
liberation at all? Our just indignation would be so
strongly excited that we would be put beyond the
state of deliberation. And yet, according to the
senator from Pennsylvania, this course, which
should rouse the weakest people on earth, is not to
be offensive to England!
He (Mr. A.) had no doubt, that as a question of
mere policy, it would be better for England to surren-
der the territory, or twenty territories like it, than go
to war. _ But, when we do that which wounds her
pride, did not the Senate perceive that we rendered
war inevitable? This we would do in two ways
by adopting this resolution. First, by making it a
point of honor, on the part of the United States to
follow it up by the immediate occupation of the ter-
ritory, by force if necessary; and next, by making it
a point of honor on the part of England'not to let
us settle the question our own way by the strong
arm alone. We will override, for we will be
'obliged to override, every other consideration but that
of maintaining the position on which we have placed
ourselves. We place it beyond the policy, as it
would be beyond the power of the British minister,
were he ever so well disposed to make any con-
cessions. Pass this resolution, and follow it up as
you would feel compelled to do, and it must lead to
consequences which would place any British minis-
ter in a condition that he could not refuse to go to
war.
True, the senator from Pennsylvania had main-
tained that his proposition was that the adoption of
this resolution would preserve both the territory
and peace. Now, he(Mr.A.) held directly the reverse
of this proposition. He held that the passage of
the resolution would, in its consequences, render it,
to say the least, doubtful whether we could pre-
serve the territory, and impossible that we could
preserve peace. But suppose, fur the sake of argu-
ment, that no war would arise from this outrage:
would it not place us in the condition of being
obliged to prepare for that possible event' When we
pass this resolution, do we not know that Eng-
land, expecting we will follow it up by an attempt
to occupy the territory without negotiation,
will prepare for the contingency? And would
not this involve the necessity, on our part,
also, of preparing for what might occur? But
would there not be a great difference' She would
make her preparations immediately, and could fill
the territory with her forces fiom China and India,
while wc would have to wait till next year. She,
by that time, will have made all her arrangements in
advance of us. But if we pass the resolution with-
out either following it up or making preparations for
the consequences, we shall be acting foolishly in-
deed. It was clear, then, that, once it is passed, we
must provide for the inevitable contingency. Now,
he was not one of those who thought the United
States could not contend against England. He be-
lieved firmly, that in a just cause we could success-
fully contend against any power on earth. At any
late, he was willing to enter any contest in a just
cause, when necessary, and commit the event to
Providence. If, however, this question is to precipi-
tate a war with England, he should say it would
not be childs' play we would be engaged in. Eng-
land is not only the greatest power 111 the world, but
the greatest power that ever existed in the world.
She is greater than the Roman empire, in the zenith
of its prosperity; and yet this is the power against
which we will have to make our preparations. What
sort of preparations have we been making? Last
year we decided that our navy should not exceed a
certain limitation. We have reduced our army.
Our finances have been a good deal prostrated.
Was this a more appropriate crisis for enforcing
this question than when our navy and army were in
stronger force, when we had thirty-seven millions
of dollars surplus in our treasury, and when
we had a man at the head of our govern-
ment such as General Jackson? Is it a more
propitious moment now, with a diminished navy
and army, and an e-xecutive, into whose hands no
man of either party would choose to commit the
great destinies of war? He asked whether, under
these circumstances, it was desirable to provoke
war? And to provoke it for what end? What was
the purpose for which we were asked to incur all
the cost of preparations and peril of this inevitable
occasion of war? Was it to get the Territory of
Oreo-oil? It was not at all necessary for that; for
everybody says we are obliged to get it ultimately.
All that seems to be aimed at is to get it a little
sooner.
Mr. A. dwelt at some length upon the admission
on all sides of the Senate, that the Territory must,
in the national course of events, fall quietly into
our hands; and, on this admission, he urged
[ strongly the impolicy of embroiling the two gov-
ernments in difficulties by an,untimely, unnecessary;
and uncalled for interference op the part of- Con-
gress, with the proper treaty-making power .of the
government. , • 1
In conclusion, Mr A. stated that ho had come to
the determination of varying his motion. Instead
of moving to postpone the subject indefinitely, he
would, after giving ample time for the further dis-
cussion of the question, shoald gentlemen-feel dis-
posed to continue it, move to lay thg resolutio.it on
the table, with a view of calling it up, should the
negotiation now pending fail; and, in .the event of
so calling it up, he would then move to refer it to
the Committee on Foreign Relations, with a view
of having the advice of that committee as to what
course it would be proper for the Senate'to take in
reference to its action upon a resolution of sueb
moment.
Mr. RIVES did not rise for the purpose of ta-
king any part in the discussion. The subject, to
which the resolution giving rise to that discus-
sion referred, was, he believed, in process of nego-
tiation between the two governments, and it appear-
ed to him eminently inappropriate, inexpedient, and
even hazardous, for the benate to interfere, by word
or deed, in its present stage. What spectacle, he ask-
ed, did the Senate present for the last three or four
weeks? That body had assumed to itself the entire
power and office ol negotiator with a foreign power;
its members presented on that floor fifty-two plen-
ipotentiaries, each engaged in forming a treaty with
the most formidable power in the world—disagree-
ing among themselves, and each holding tenaciously
to his own opinion as to the manner in which this
treaty should be perfected;—while the other party,
the British minister, ensconced within his cabinet,
reads or hears every word that is spoken among
them; he looks into their hands, while, with the ut-
most caution and extreme care, he guards his own.
It would, in a manner, seem to be the wish to give
him the game. Such a line of conduct, he ventured
to assert, was as great an anomaly as could be found
in the history of the world.
Believing, therefore, the discussion to be idle, ir-
regular, and mischievous, he did not rise, as he be-
fore stated, to take any part in it; but he did rise
to correct one or two errors of fact relative to the
negotiation already consummated—errors into
which the honorable senator from Pennsylvania
had allowed himself to fall. It was well known that
the ill-fated negotiation of 1842—ill-fated he called it
from the animadversions and unfriendly criticisms
bestowed on it by certain parties—resulted in a com-
promise by which the troubles and difficulties aris-
ing from a controversy with a foreign power were
forever set at rest. That negotiation resulted in a
treaty which received the deliberate sanction of that
chamber. The vote which ratified that treaty was
not the simple constitutional vote of two-thirds of
the body, but was an almost unanimous vote—one
party voting for it to a man, with a majority of the
other—there being for it 39, against it 9. From the
moment that treaty was promulgated, it received,
and, up to this moment, continued to receive, the
sanction of the great body of the people. And yet
attempts are, and have, from time to time, been
made to unsettle the public mind, and to lead it to
suppose that, on this question, , there has been, to-
ward the interests of the people, on the part of the
executing or ratifying parties, criminal infidelity,
or gross neglect. This he denounced as an unjust
and unprincipled imputation on the honor of the
Senate.
He regretted that the honorable senator from
Pennsylvania was not satisfied with the conscien-
tious discharge of his duty in voting against that
treaty, and of afterwards entering into an elaborate
defence of that vote, without following t.he example
of others, and reviving a discussion which could
serve no single good effect, but tend only to injure,
impede, and embarrass the negotiation now pend-
ing He cannot, it is true, be accused of using of-
fensive language; he carefully forbears from doing
so; but his words, though smooth and polished, say,
sufficiently distinct not to be misunderstood, that
the negligence of the government has disgraced the
country. He may not have used the exact
words, but the effect and meaning is, that
government and the assenting parties to the
treaty of 1842 have, by ;t, grossly swindled
and surrendered away the rights and honor of
the nation. In support of this, he brandishes over
the heads of his fellow-senators a resurrectionary
map, said to be found in the library of the late King
Cteorge ill, and (ill which was traced, by no less thaw
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2367/m1/421/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.