382 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



An exemplification of the " Polk Doctrine " was further 

 given in the matter of the Oregon territory dispute, to which 

 the President referred in the same message of December, 1845. 



The terra, " Oregon," was applied to a large district of 

 territory lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific 

 Ocean, and embraced, in part, what now constitutes the pres- 

 ent province of British Columbia and the states of Washing- 

 ton, Oregon and Idaho, a total area of about six hundred 

 thousand square miles. The United States' claim to this 

 territory was based upon the Louisiana Purchase, the explo- 

 rations of Captain Robert Gray in the Columbia River (1792), 

 the discoveries of Lewis and Clark (1804-06), American 

 settlements at Fort Hall and Astoria in 1808 and 1811, and 

 the treaty of 1819, by which all Spanish title along the Pacific, 

 north of latitude 42, was surrendered to the United States. 

 In 1824 Russia agreed to limit the southern boundary of 

 her American possessions at latitude 54 40', and the United 

 States at once set up a territorial claim to that line. 'I' Ins 

 was contested by Great Britain, but an agreement to exer- 

 cise joint sovereignty over the territory from the Columbia 

 River on the south to 54 40' on the north, the disputed por- 

 tion, temporarily suspended the controversy. Immigration 

 of American and British subjects into this disputed territory 

 began, and it was tacitly understood by these early settlers 

 that eventually a majority among the residents would control 

 in the final determination of sovereignty. With a better 

 knowledge of this great territory came an appreciation of its 

 value, and the Democratic party in 1844 took up the battle- 

 cry of the "whole of Oregon or none." With " Fifty-four 

 forty or fight" upon its l.anm-rs, James K. Polk was elected. 

 He at once entered upon negotiations for the acquisition of 

 the entire extent of his party's territorial claim, as far as 

 the Russian frontier. 



In his inaugural address, he asserted that the American 

 title was " clear and unquestionable " and " already are our 

 people preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with 

 their wives and children." An earnest attempt was made 

 by the President in the summer of 1845 to reach an under- 



