In these attempts to adjust the controversy the parallel of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude had been offered by the United States to Great Britain, and in those of 1818 and 1826, with a further concession of the free navigation of the Columbia River south of that latitude.  The parallel of the forty-ninth degree from the Rocky Mountains to its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the Columbia, and thence down the channel of that river to the sea, had been offered by Great Britain, with an addition of a small detached territory north of the Columbia.  Each of these propositions had been rejected by the parties respectively.  In October, 1843, the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States in London was authorized to make a similar offer to those made in 1818 and 1826.  Thus stood the question when the negotiation was shortly afterwards transferred to Washington, and on the 23d of August, 1844, was formally opened under the direction of my immediate predecessor.  Like all the previous negotiations, it was based upon principles of “compromise,” and the avowed purpose of the parties was “to treat of the respective claims of the two countries to the Oregon Territory with the view to establish a permanent boundary between them westward of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.”

Accordingly, on the 26th of August, 1844, the British plenipotentiary offered to divide the Oregon Territory by the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude from the Rocky Mountains to the point of its intersection with the northeasternmost branch of the Columbia River, and thence down that river to the sea, leaving the free navigation of the river to be enjoyed in common by both parties, the country south of this line to belong to the United States and that north of it to Great Britain.  At the same time he proposed in addition to yield to the United States a detached territory north of the Columbia extending along the Pacific and the Straits of Fuca from Bulfinchs Harbor, inclusive, to Hoods Canal, and to make free to the United States any port or ports south of latitude 49° which they might desire, either on the mainland or on Quadra and Vancouvers Island.  With the exception of the free ports, this was the same offer which had been made by the British and rejected by the American Government in the negotiation of 1826.  This proposition was properly rejected by the American plenipotentiary on the day it was submitted.  This was the only proposition of compromise offered by the British plenipotentiary.  The proposition on the part of Great Britain having been rejected, the British plenipotentiary requested that a proposal should be made by the United States for “an equitable adjustment of the question.”  When I came into office I found this to be the state of the negotiation.  Though entertaining the settled conviction that the British pretensions of title could not be maintained to any portion of the Oregon Territory