There was, indeed, much ignorance about Oregon, in Congress and out.  To the popular mind Oregon was the country drained by the Columbia River, a vast region on the northwest coast.  As defined by the authority whom Douglas summoned to the aid of his colleagues, Oregon was the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of 42 deg. and 54 deg. 40’ north latitude.[202] Treaties between Russia and Great Britain, and between Russia and the United States, had fixed the southern boundary of Russian territory on the continent at 54 deg. 40’; a treaty between the United States and Spain had given the forty-second parallel as the northern boundary of the Spanish possessions; and a joint treaty of occupation between Great Britain and the United States in 1818,—­renewed in 1827,—­had established a modus vivendi between the rival claimants, which might be terminated by either party on twelve months’ notice.  Meantime Great Britain and the United States were silent competitors for exclusive ownership of the mainland and islands between Spanish and Russian America.  Whether the technical questions involved in these treaties were so easily dismissed, was something that did not concern the resolute expansionist.  It was enough for him that, irrespective of title derived from priority of discovery, the United States had, as Greenhow expressed it, a stronger “national right,” by virtue of the process by which their people were settling the Mississippi Valley and the great West.  This was but another way of stating the theory of manifest destiny.

No one knew better than Douglas that paper claims lost half their force unless followed up by vigorous action.  Priority of occupation was a far better claim than priority of discovery.  Hence, the government must encourage actual settlement on the Oregon.  Two isolated bills that Douglas submitted to Congress are full of suggestion, when connected by this thought:  one provided for the establishment of the territory of Nebraska;[203] the other, for the establishment of military posts in the territories of Nebraska and Oregon, to protect the commerce of the United States with New Mexico and California, as well as emigration to Oregon.[204] Though neither bill seems to have received serious consideration, both were to be forced upon the attention of Congress in after years by their persistent author.

A bill had already been reported by the Committee on Territories, boldly extending the government of the United States over the whole disputed area.[205] Conservatives in both parties deprecated such action as both hasty and unwise, in view of negotiations then in progress; but the Hotspurs would listen to no prudential considerations.  Sentiments such as those expressed by Morris of Pennsylvania irritated them beyond measure.  Why protect this wandering population in Oregon? he asked.  Let them take care of themselves; or if they cannot protect themselves, let the government defend them during the period of their infancy, and then let them form a republic of their own.  He did not wish to imperil the Union by crossing barriers beyond which nature had intended that we should not go.