CHAPTER XI.

POLK AND OREGON The most spectacular as well as the most critical episode in the history of Oregon's relations to the Federal government of the United States is inextricably bound up with James K. Polk.

Any

study of the Oregon Question in its last diplomatic makes President Polk the central figure,

stages necessarily whether the topic

is

viewed as an issue

in

Congress or an

international controversy between Great Britain and the United In fact, adequately to treat the subject in the period States. from March, 1845, to June, 1846, necessitates an attack from

three points the diplomatic, the Congressional including the Senatorial action in executive capacity and from the plans

of President Polk. it

is

The

difficult to deal

three phases are so interwoven that with one and not introduce the others,

and yet each has its individual stamp and must be followed out by itself if a clear picture is to be presented. Having, in the foregoing chapters, taken the Congressional and diplomatic sides, it remains to consider the problem of Folk's attitude on the

Oregon Question.

And

a problem it is. Polk has left us his diary, which in four good sized volumes, with an intimate account makes print of his life while he was President, with the exception of the

The diary is an period between March and August, 1845. invaluable document for throwing light upon most sides of national political activity during one administration, and it was the Oregon Question itself that suggested keeping such

a record, for, says Polk, in the entry of 26 August, 1846

!

"Twelve months ago this day, a very important conversation took place in Cabinet between myself and Mr. Buchanan on the Oregon Question. This conversation was of so important a character, that I deemed it proper on the same evening to reduce the substance of it to writing for the purpose of retaining 1

it

more

II, 100-1.

distinctly in

my memory.

...

It

was

this