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pletely and entirely at an end, that no amicable disposition of the question may be looked for hereafter from a diplomatic source. It is enough for me, in order to accomplish all the purposes of these few remarks, to say, that, while I am incapable of bringing myself to the belief that the President apprehends any immediate danger of war, I may be allowed to suppose, or to imagine, that he may entertain an opinion similar to that which has been expressed this morning by the Senator from Connecticut.* He may possibly, having communicated the ultimatum of this government, look for propositions to come from the other side. Whether it be in this view or upon other grounds that the expectation is entertained, it is enough for me to deprecate any false alarm that may disturb the tranquillity of the country.

The President may feel, as I am bound to suppose he does feel, the full weight of the responsibility which attaches to him in relation to every public interest, and the greatest of all interests, the peace of the country. I am bound to suppose that he understands the position in which he is placed, and that he judges wisely as to the extent to which he should go in submitting propositions to Congress. Therefore, I entirely concur in the opinion which has been expressed, that he cannot regard the present position of affairs as leading to any immediate danger of war.

Acting upon these conclusions, and entertaining these views, all the regret I feel at the introduction of these resolutions is, as I have said, that, accompanied with the remarks which fell from the honorable Senator when he called them up, they may have a tendency to create unnecessary alarm. I trust that every member of the community will perceive that it is expedient to prevent all alarm; at the same time, as far as I am concerned, if gentlemen think that the time has come for enlarging the defences of the country, for augmenting the army and the navy, I am ready to coöperate with them.

* Mr. Niles.

OREGON.*

Ar the first session of the Twenty-ninth Congress, the President in his annual message recommended to the two houses that the United States should give notice to Great Britain of their intention to terminate the Convention between the two countries, concluded in 1827, for the joint occupation of the Oregon Territory; in pursuance of the right reserved to either party by that Convention on notice duly given to the other party. A joint resolution to carry this recommendation into effect was introduced into the Senate by Mr. Allen of Ohio, and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. It was reported back to the Senate with amendments proposed by the committee, and other amendments were moved by individual Senators. Among other amendments the following, preceded by a preamble, was moved by Mr. Crittenden of Kentucky :

"That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized, at his discretion, to give to the British government the notice required by its said second article for the abrogation of the said Convention of the 6th of August, 1827; Provided however, that, in order to afford ampler time and opportunity for the amicable settlement and adjustment of all their differences and disputes in respect to said territory, said notice ought not to be given till after the close of the present session of Congress."

This amendment to the proposition of the committee was discussed on several successive days; and on the 26th of February, Mr. Colquitt of Georgia brought forward two resolutions, as a substitute for the resolution of Mr. Crittenden. The first was substantially a repetition of Mr. Crittenden's proposition. The second was in the following terms :

* Remarks made in the Senate of the United States, on the 26th of February, 1846, on the various propositions before the Senate relative to giving notice to the British Government of the intention of the Government of the United States to put an end to the Convention for the Joint Occupation of the Oregon Territory.

"And be it further resolved, that it is earnestly desired that the long standing controversy, respecting limits in the Oregon Territory, be speedily settled by negotiation and compromise, in order to tranquillize the public mind and to preserve the friendly relations of the two countries." The question being on the adoption of Mr. Crittenden's substitute for the committee's amendment, Mr. Webster spoke as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT, -I concur most cordially in the sentiments so beautifully expressed by the honorable Senator* who has just taken his seat. I do not differ with him a hair's breadth in the principles he has laid down, nor in his sense of propriety in regard to the present debate. My purpose has merely been, to ascertain whether the question to be debated cannot be put in a more convenient form than that which it assumes at present. The Senator from Kentucky moved an amendment to the amendment reported from the Committee on Foreign Relations. The Senator from Georgia then suggested another, slightly differing in form, which he intends to move, when it shall be in order, as a substitute for that of the Senator from Kentucky. To facilitate the action of the Senate, it has been proposed to the gentleman from Kentucky to accept the amendment of the Senator from Georgia; and he has now declared, that, in regard to the first part of the proposition of the gentleman from Georgia, he has no difficulty in accepting it in place of his own, or as a modification of his own. In regard to the latter part of that proposition, he considers it as in its nature distinct and substantive; he understands it as going further than his own proposition, and as not being, therefore, a natural substitute for it. Now, if it is the disposition of the Senate to act on this subject further than has been proposed by the honorable Senator from Kentucky, the only question will be, whether the Senator will not consent wholly to withdraw his own amendment, and suffer that of the Senator from Georgia to be moved in its place.

I do not, however, think it of particular importance that the Senate should express an opinion on this matter to-day or tomorrow, or this week or the next. I suppose, indeed, that the proceedings of the Senate on this subject are regarded with extreme interest at home, and looked upon with great respect abroad; and I feel more strongly, perhaps, than the Senator from

* Mr. Crittenden.

Kentucky the evils to which he has referred, because I live in the very midst of them, and witness from day to day the great injury sustained by the commercial interests of this country from the present uncertain and anxious posture of affairs.

Let me add a few words more. I shall vote for both portions. of the amendment suggested by the Senator from Georgia. I am prepared to do so. At the opening of the present session of Congress, the President, not called upon by the Senate, sent to the two houses the correspondence which had taken place between the Secretary of State and the representative of the British government here, recommending at the same time the giving of notice to that government of the termination of the Convention of 1827. The correspondence thus submitted has very properly been made a subject of remark in both houses. I will say nothing in regard to the propriety of sending that correspondence here. I suppose such a step could hardly be justified, save on the ground that the negotiation was ended by the rejection of the President's offer of the parallel of forty-nine degrees of north latitude as the boundary, and the immediate withdrawal of that offer; because, in the general practice of governments, it has been found very inconvenient to publish the letters which may pass between negotiators before the negotiation is ended. But as the President has sent us this correspondence, and as the Senate is called upon to act on the proposition of notice, I thought it would expedite our decision to have before us also any further correspondence which might have taken place subsequently to that first sent. I accordingly moved the call, and, in response to it, the more recent correspondence has been laid before us, from which we learn the offer by the British envoy to submit the question to arbitration, and the rejection of that offer by the executive.

Now, without meaning at this time to go into any sort of examination of the course of the President in this matter, or indulging in any remark expressive of an unfriendly feeling towards the administration, or any disposition to embarrass the government, for I feel nothing of the kind, and nothing is further from my intention, I must still be permitted to say, that the existing posture of affairs is such as to render it quite desirable that we should know what is the opinion of the executive in regard to this measure and its consequences. Nobody doubts

that the two houses of Congress have a perfect authority to terminate the Oregon Convention, without offence to any body. This is our specified right, and its exercise can present no just cause of complaint in any quarter. But, though this is an undoubted truth, yet it must be considered in connection with the circumstances which have been made to surround it. The resolution of notice has passed the other house of Congress with a qualification, or addition, or whatever else it should be called, which prevents it in some respects from being a mere naked notice of termination. It comes with that qualification or condition for adoption here. Other propositions are offered in the Senate, and are entertained as fit subjects of consideration. The Senator from Kentucky, in one part of his speech, says that he will leave the entire responsibility of this controversy where the Constitution has placed it, and contends that those who have the power to conduct the foreign diplomacy of the country are responsible to the country and to the world for the manner in which they shall exercise that power. This is certainly very just, but it raises a doubt whether we ought to do more than simply to give, or to refuse to give, the naked notice. But some modification of the mere naked notice has been already attached to it in the other house; and there is, as I believe, a conviction on the part of a large majority of the Senate, that it should, to a certain extent, be qualified. Now, I hold that, under these circumstances, we have a right to know in what point of view the executive himself regards this notice; what are the ends he has in view, and what are the consequences to which, in his judgment, the notice is to lead.

When speaking on this subject some weeks ago, I said it was most obvious that the President could not expect war; because he did not act as the chief magistrate of such a nation as this must be expected to act, if, charged as he is with the defence of the country, he expected any danger of its being assaulted by the nost formidable power upon earth. I still say there is nothing in the executive communications to show us that the President

does expect a war. He must, then, expect nothing but a continuance of the present controversy, or a settlement of it by negotiation. But how is it to be settled? On what terms? On what basis? All that we hear is, "The whole of Oregon or none." And yet there is to be negotiation. We cannot con

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