“carry along with them the laws, education, and social improvements, which belong to the older states . . . worthily fulfilling the great destiny reserved for this exemplar American Republic.”[1]
Then carne the “fabulous forties” when American buoyancy reached its highest point. Now it was that the desire for territorial expansion came out into the open, unashamed and aggressive. During this decade the Oregon question was settled, after there had been set up that “redoubtable line” of 54° 40’, up to which, in the words of Benton, “all true patriots were to march! and marching, fight! and fighting, die! if need be! singing all the while, with Horace—‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.’”[2] Before the ownership of Oregon was determined there were abundant opportunities for enthusiasts to portray the inevitability of our possession and the wonders that were to follow. Benton, himself, though scorning our claim up to 54° 40’, was an ardent advocate of our right to the entire valley of the Columbia. “Such a country is formed for union, wealth, and strength,” he said in a speech in 1842, which dims into dullness the most glowing prognostications of the modern chamber of commerce promoter. “It can have but one capital, and that will be a Thebes; but one commercial emporium, and that will be a Tyre, queen of cities. Such a country can have but one people, one interest, one government: and that people should be American—that interest ours—and that government republican. . . Accursed and infamous be the man that divides or alienates it!”[3] A year later he declared that the white race had always gone for land and, said he, “they will continue to go for it, and will go where they can get it. Europe, Asia, and America have been settled by them in this way. All the States of this Union have been so settled. The principle is founded in their nature and in God’s command; and it will continue to be obeyed.”[4]
It was in the debate on the termination of joint occupancy in Oregon in January, 1846, according to J. W. Pratt, that Con-
