LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE
180
The American
cause, he felt, had been hurt by the long delay over the notice, as well as by the opinion of some American
writers
who
belittled the pretensions of the
United
States.
An
North American Review, especially, had produced in England the feeling that the claims of the United States were not, even in the minds of Americans, as good as had been stated. 17 Henry Wheaton, then on his way to Berlin as American minister to Prussia, had felt the British pulse as he stopped From there he wrote Calhoun 18 that he did not in London. believe the government or the people were inclined to push article
in
the
matters, nor did he think that the passage of the resolutions He told the for notice would be taken as a hostile measure.
"great mediator" (his own appellation) that he always let it be understood when anyone talked to him about Oregon that
49
must be adhered to as the most equitable boundary that there was no possibility of modifying this basis. This letter, and possibly the one from McLane, was in Calline,
houn's possession
when he made
his great speech in
March
and undoubtedly added to the conviction with which he urged a conciliatory course. Arbitration had been and
was being urged in England outIn the July (1845) issue of the Edinburgh Review Senior had exhaustively examined the Oregon quesside official circles.
tion
and had come to the conclusion that arbitration was the
only way out. The newspapers, when in a conciliatory mood, looked upon it as a most satisfactory solution. The London
Quarterly Review, however, believed that in the end a line 19 following 49 and the Straits of Fuca would be selected.
"We
more and more convinced by the advices which we American cabinet will not and if it would could not make any larger concession. It is, we believe, all that any American statesman could hope to carry, have
are
lately received, that the
and we are equally satisfied, that on our part, after so much delay and complication, and considering it in its future effect Bown's article, Jan., 1846. Other articles of the same tone are found in Feb., 1846. 8 10 Feb., Correspondence of Calhoun. 1071. 19 March, 1846, VoL XLVTI, 603. 17
American Whig Review, Jan. and 1
