"FIFTY-FOUR FORTY OR FIGHT" 319
they 're tomahawks, and you'll see 'em arming Indians, as they did in 1812. Down at Astoria, Birnie digs day after day don't tell me it 's a garden. I know better. There 's cannon buried down there at Tongue Point, and one of these days you'll hear 'em booming."
Douglas went over to Nisqually and found the warships burnishing their guns in Puget Sound.
"Ah," said the officers, as Douglas dined on shipboard. " If we could only be sent to the Columbia we 'd take the whole country in twenty-four hours."
That Oregon question had become the battle-cry of a presidential contest
"Fifty-four forty or fight."
"All of Oregon up to Alaska or war."
America listened for the drum-beat.
"A ' small meal ' will be made of the troops of the ' free and enlightened,' "said an editor on the St. Lawrence.
"The crows will soon be picking out their eyes," said an Indian chief on the northern border.
With clear vision Dr. McLoughlin saw the inflamed public of both countries. More than once he was discovered on his knees, praying that he might keep the people quiet in the disputed territory.
"I saw blood flow in 1812," he said to the son of England's premier, "I stanched the wounds of comrades at Sault Ste. Marie. As one born on the continent of America I feel that no foreign power has the right to fling her peoples into conflict. Suppose you take a ride up the valley and get acquainted with the people."
Well mounted on the best Vancouver horses, Parke and Peel went dashing up the Willamette.
It was harvest-time. Men dressed in buckskin
