LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

180

The American

cause, he felt, had been hurt by the long delay over the notice, as well as by the opinion of some American

writers

who

belittled the pretensions of the

United

States.

An

North American Review, especially, had produced in England the feeling that the claims of the United States were not, even in the minds of Americans, as good as had been stated. 17 Henry Wheaton, then on his way to Berlin as American minister to Prussia, had felt the British pulse as he stopped From there he wrote Calhoun 18 that he did not in London. believe the government or the people were inclined to push article

in

the

matters, nor did he think that the passage of the resolutions He told the for notice would be taken as a hostile measure.

"great mediator" (his own appellation) that he always let it be understood when anyone talked to him about Oregon that

49

must be adhered to as the most equitable boundary that there was no possibility of modifying this basis. This letter, and possibly the one from McLane, was in Calline,

houn's possession

when he made

his great speech in

March

and undoubtedly added to the conviction with which he urged a conciliatory course. Arbitration had been and

was being urged in England outIn the July (1845) issue of the Edinburgh Review Senior had exhaustively examined the Oregon quesside official circles.

tion

and had come to the conclusion that arbitration was the

only way out. The newspapers, when in a conciliatory mood, looked upon it as a most satisfactory solution. The London

Quarterly Review, however, believed that in the end a line 19 following 49 and the Straits of Fuca would be selected.

"We

more and more convinced by the advices which we American cabinet will not and if it would could not make any larger concession. It is, we believe, all that any American statesman could hope to carry, have

are

lately received, that the

and we are equally satisfied, that on our part, after so much delay and complication, and considering it in its future effect Bown's article, Jan., 1846. Other articles of the same tone are found in Feb., 1846. 8 10 Feb., Correspondence of Calhoun. 1071. 19 March, 1846, VoL XLVTI, 603. 17

American Whig Review, Jan. and 1