On this basis matters stood in 1842, when the Ashburton Treaty was signed. There was joint occupation of the Oregon territory by British and American subjects, and freedom of trade for both. Lord Ashburton had been empowered to negotiate for a settlement of the North-Western as well as the North-Eastern frontier line; but the latter, which involved the question of the Maine—New Brunswick boundary, being the more pressing matter, it was thought well to allow the determination of the line West of the Rocky Mountains to stand over for the moment. As soon as Lord Ashburton’s Treaty had been signed at Washington in August, 1842, Lord Aberdeen, then Foreign Secretary in Sir Robert Peel’s Ministry, made overtures to the United States with a view to an early settlement of the Oregon question. A long diplomatic controversy ensued, complicated by changes of government in the United States, and tending, as is constantly the case in such negotiations, to greater instead of less divergence of view.
The rival claims.
The Americans contended that they had a title to the whole territory up to the Russian line, and they claimed the entire region drained by the Columbia river. As a compromise, however, they had already, in the negotiations which ended in the Convention of 1827, suggested that the boundary line along the 49th parallel should be continued as far as the Pacific, the navigation of the Columbia river being left open to both nations. This offer was repeated as the controversy went on, with the exception that on the one hand free navigation of the Columbia river was excluded, and on the other the American Secretary of State proposed
‘to make free to Great Britain any port or ports on Vancouver’s Island, south of this parallel, which the British Government may desire’.[243]
The counter British proposal was to the effect that the boundary line should be continued along the 49th parallel until it intersected the North-Eastern branch of the Columbia river, and that then the line of the river should be followed to its mouth, giving to Great Britain all the country on the north of the river and to the United States all on the south, the navigation of the river being free to both nations, and a detached strip of coast land to the north of the river being also conceded to the United States, with the further understanding that any port or ports, either on the mainland or on Vancouver Island, South of the 49th parallel, to which the United States might wish to have access, should be constituted free ports.
The arguments advanced on both sides, based on alleged priority of discovery and settlement and on the construction of previous treaties, are contained in the Blue Book of 1846, and are too voluminous to be repeated here. The controversy went on from 1842 to 1846; and, when the spring of the latter year was reached, the Americans had withdrawn their previous offer and had refused a British proposal to submit the whole matter to arbitration. There was thus a complete deadlock, but shortly afterwards a debate in Congress showed a desire on the American side to effect a friendly settlement of a dispute which had become dangerous, and, the opportunity being promptly taken by the British Government, a Draft Treaty was sent out by Lord Aberdeen, which was submitted by President Polk to the Senate, who by a large majority advised him to accept it.[244] The Treaty was accordingly Settlement of the Oregon boundary question by the Treaty of 1846. signed at Washington on the 15th of June, 1846. By the First Article the boundary line was
‘continued Westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of North latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver Island, and thence Southerly, through the middle of the said channel and of Fuca’s Straits, to the Pacific Ocean’,
the navigation of the channel and straits South of the 49th parallel being left free and open to both nations. By the Second Article of the same Treaty, the navigation of the Columbia river, from the point where the 49th parallel intersects its great Northern branch, was left open to the Hudson’s Bay Company and to all British subjects trading with the same. The effect of the Treaty was that Great Britain abandoned the claim to the line of the Columbia river, and the United States modified its proposal to adopt the 49th parallel as the boundary so far as to concede the whole of Vancouver Island to Great Britain. The news that the treaty had been signed reached England just as Sir Robert Peel’s ministry was going out of office.
The San Juan boundary question.
The delimitation of the boundary which the Treaty had affirmed gave rise to a further difficulty. The Treaty having provided that the sea line was to be drawn southerly through the middle of the channel which separates Vancouver Island from the continent and of Fuca’s Straits into the Pacific Ocean, the two nations were unable to agree as to what was the middle of the channel in the Gulf of Georgia between the Southern end of Vancouver Island and the North American coast. The main question at issue was the ownership of the island of San Juan, and the subject of dispute was for this reason known as the San Juan boundary question. The British claim was that the line should be drawn to the Eastward of the island, down what was known as the Rosario Straits. The Americans contended that it should be drawn on the Western side, following the Canal de Haro or Haro Channel. Eventually it was laid down by the 34th and Arbitration under the Treaty of 1871. following Articles of the Treaty of Washington of 8th of May, 1871—the same Treaty which provided for arbitration on the Alabama question—that the Emperor of Germany should arbitrate as to which of the two claims was most in accordance with the true interpretation of the Treaty of 1846, and that his award should be absolutely final and conclusive. On the 21st of October, 1872, the arbitrator gave his award in favour of the United States, and it was immediately carried into effect, thus completing the boundary line from the Atlantic to the Pacific.