the Rocky Mountains. The project of a trans-continental railway was not long afterwards suggested by Asa Whitney. In the Western States a clamor arose for the enforcement of the American right to Oregon. Western Senators demanded that notice of the termination of the joint occupancy be served on Great Britain. The subject became fit for the manufacture of political capital, and could no longer be ignored.
Negotiations were resumed under Tyler's administration between Calhoun and Pakenham, the British Minister, Calhoun repeating the offer of the forty-ninth parallel, but the British government insisting upon the Columbia as the boundary line. The British Minister suggested arbitration, but Calhoun declined. The Democratic National Convention of 1844 took up the question, demanding the “reoccupation” of the whole of Oregon, which was made to include the country up to 54° 40′, a line which had been fixed twenty years before as the southern boundary of the Russian possessions in America. Polk, in his inaugural address, repeating very nearly the language of the Democratic platform, spoke of “the American title to the country of the Oregon” as “clear and unquestionable.” Lord John Russell called this a “blustering announcement,” and the reply of the American Democrats was “Fifty-four forty or fight!”
On July 12, 1845, Buchanan, while affirming the American right to “the whole of Oregon,” admitted, in a note to the British Minister, that
