LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
182
which he thought he should make. The proposition as outlined and as reported to Washington by McLane included ( 1 ) a boundary line following 49 to the seat and the Strait of Juan de Fuca with free talked over with
him the
offer
navigation of the Straits confirmed; (2) security of British and American property rights north and south of the proposed
boundary; and (3) free navigation of the Columbia for the Hudson's Bay Company, although Great Britain would claim no right to exercise any police or other jurisdiction for itself or the company the navigation rights would be under exactly
the
same conditions which should apply
"It
is
way
to
scarcely necessary for me to state," of comment, "that the proposition as
not received
my
countenance.
...
I
American citizens. added McLane by
now
submitted has
have therefore
felt
duty to discourage any expectation that it will be accepted by the President, or, if submitted to that body, approved by the Senate." 22 The two points, of free navigation of the Columbia and the claim to all Vancouver by Great Britain, seem it
my
to have impressed
McLane
with the fear that no adjustment
could be expected. He reported that Lord Aberdeen seemed to have the impression that the Senate would advise the President to accept these terms and the latter would not take the responsibility of rejecting them without consulting the Senate.
The same steamer which brought McLane's letter to the United States also bore instructions to Pakenham. After a careful review of the course of the British government on the Oregon Question and including a statement of the situation of the previous summer, Lord Aberdeen said that Her Majesty's government would "feel themselves criminal if they permitted considerations of diplomatic punctilio or etiquette to prevent them from making every proper exertion to avert the danger of calamities which they were unwilling to contemplate, but the magnitude of which scarcely admits of exaggeration." The legislature of the United States, moreover, had, in com-
plying with the recommendations of the President to terminate 22 To Buchanan, 18 May, No. West Bound. Arb., 49-5. wrote in similar vein. Correspondence of Calhoun, 1073-4.
To Calhoun he
