aty was promptly confirmed by the Senate,
and the long controversy over the Oregon question was at rest. It
had created a deep and wide-spread excitement in the country, and
came very near precipitating hostilities with Great Britain. There
is no doubt whatever that the English Government would have gone
to war rather than surrender the territory north of the 49th
parallel. This fact had made the winter and early spring of 1846
one of profound anxiety to all the people of the United States,
and more especially to those who were interested in the large
mercantile marine which then sailed under the American flag.

UNWISE AGITATION OF THE QUESTION.

In simple truth, the country was not prepared to go to war with
Great Britain in support of "our clear and unquestionable title"
to the whole of Oregon. With her strong naval force on the Pacific,
and her military force in Australasia, Great Britain could more
readily and more easily take possession of the country in dispute
than could the United States. We had no way of reaching Oregon
except by doubling Cape Horn, and making a dangerous sea-voyage of
many thousand miles. We could communicate across the continent
only by the emigrant trail over rugged mountains and almost trackless
plains. Our railway system was in its infancy in 1846. New-York
City did not have a continuous road to Buffalo. Philadelphia was
not connected with Pittsburg. Baltimore's projected line to the
Ohio had only reached Cumberland, among the eastern foot-hills of
the Alleghanies. The entire Union had but five thousand miles of
railway. There was scarcely a spot on the globe, outside of the
United Kingdom, where we could not have fought England with greater
advantage than on the north-west coast of America at that time.
The war-cry of the Presidential campaign of 1844 was, therefore,
in any event, absurd; and it proved to be mischievous. It is not
improbable, that, if the Oregon question had been allowed to rest
for the time under the provisions of the treaty of 1827, the whole
country would ultimately have fallen into our hands, and the American
flag might to-day be waving over British Columbia. The course of
events and the lapse of time were working steadily to our advantage.
In 1826 Great Britain declined to accept the 49th parallel, but
demanded the Columbia River as the boundary. Twenty years afterwards
she accepted the line previously reject