ates and Great Britain each
claimed to have the best right to Oregon. As they could not agree as to
their claims, they decided to occupy the region jointly. As time went on
American settlers and missionaries began to go over the mountains to
Oregon. In 1847 seven thousand Americans were living in the Northwest.

[Sidenote: "All Oregon or none."]

[Sidenote: Division of Oregon, 1846.]

339. The Oregon Treaty, 1846.--The matter was now taken up in
earnest. "All Oregon or none," "Fifty-four forty or fight," became
popular cries. The United States gave notice of the ending of the joint
occupation. The British government suggested that Oregon should be
divided between the two nations. In 1818 he boundary between the United
States and British North America had been fixed as the forty-ninth
parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. It was now
proposed to continue this line to the Pacific. The British government,
however, insisted that the western end of the line should follow the
channel between Vancouver's Island and the mainland so as to make that
island entirely British. The Mexican War was now coming on. It would
hardly do to have two wars at one time. So the United States gave way
and a treaty was signed in 1846. Instead of "all Oregon," the United
States received about one-half. But it was a splendid region and
included not merely the present state of Oregon, but all the territory
west of the Rocky Mountains between the forty-second and the forty-ninth
parallels of latitude.

CHAPTER 33

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

[Sidenote: Should Oregon and Mexican cessions be free soil?]

[Sidenote: The Wilmot Proviso. _McMaster_, 324.]

340. The Wilmot Proviso, 1846.--What should be done with Oregon and
with the immense territory received from Mexico? Should it be free soil
or should it be slave soil? To understand the history of the dispute
which arose out of this question we must go back a bit and study the
Wilmot Proviso. Even before the Mexican War was fairly begun, this
question came before Congress. Every one admitted that Texas must be a
slave state. Most people were agreed that Oregon would be free soil. For
it was too far north for negroes to thrive. But what should be done with
California and with New Mexico? David Wilmot of Pennsylvania thought
that they should be free soil. He was a member of the House of
Representatives. In 1846 he moved to add to a bill giving the President
money to purcha