MANIFEST DESTINY:
The Oregon Country
RIVALRY IN THE NORTHWEST
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The Oregon country was
the huge area that lay
between the Pacific Ocean
and the Rocky Mountains
north of California.
It included all of what is
now Oregon, Washington,
and Idaho plus parts of
Montana and Wyoming as
well as half of what is now
the Canadian province of
British Columbia.
In the early 1800s, 4
nations laid claim to this
region: the United States,
Great Britain, Spain, and
Russia.
ADAMS-ONIS TREATY
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In 1819 Secretary of State
John Quincy Adams
negotiated the Adams-Onis
Treaty with Spain which
set California’s northern
border and resigned any
Spanish claim to Oregon.
In 1824 Russia also
surrendered its claim to the
land south of Alaska.
In 1818 Adams worked out
an agreement with Britain
for joint occupation,
which meant that people
from both countries could
settle there.
In the following years,
thousands of Americans
streamed into Oregon.
MOUNTAIN MEN
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The 1st Americans to reach the
Oregon country were not farmers
but fur traders who had come to
trap beaver pelt which was in great
demand.
Merchant John Jacob Astor of New
York established trading posts in
the region and in 1808 organized
the American Fur Company which
became the most powerful of its
kind.
Most of the men who settled in the
region were a tough, independent
breed called mountain men.
Many had Native American wives
and adopted Native American ways.
In late summer they would all
gather for a rendezvous, or
meeting.
At the annual rendezvous, they met
with trading companies to sell or
trade their skins.
It also became a social event with
games and contests.
SETTLING OREGON
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In the 1830s, reports of fertile land
and economic troubles back East
caused more people to begin moving
West.
As the numbers of beaver dwindled,
many of the mountain men who
lived there served as guides to lead
the parties of settlers.
A number of missionaries also chose
to move West in order to bring
Christianity to the Native
Americans.
Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife
established a mission in 1836 near
present day Walla Walla,
Washington.
New settlers unknowingly brought
measles to the mission, though, and
an epidemic killed many of the
Native American children.
Blaming the Whitmans for the
sickness, the Cayuse attacked the
mission and killed them and 11
others
THE OREGON TRAIL
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In the early 1840s, with the
depression caused by the Panic of
1837, the “great migration” had
begun.
These pioneers were called
emigrants because they left the
United States to go to Oregon.
Before the difficult 2,000-mile
journey, these pioneers stuffed their
canvas-covered wagons, called
prairie schooners, with supplies.
Gathering in Independence or other
towns in Missouri, they followed the
Oregon Trail across the Great
Plains, along the Platte River, and
through the South Pass of the
Rocky Mountains.
On the other side they took a trail
along the Snake and Columbia
Rivers into Oregon country.
MANIFEST DESTINY
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Many believed that the
United State’s mission was
to spread freedom by
occupying the entire
continent.
In the 1840s New York
newspaper editor John
O’Sullivan put the idea into
more specific words
declaring it was America’s,
“Manifest Destiny to
overspread and to possess
the whole of the continent
which Providence has given
us.”
Between 1840 and 1845, the
number of American settlers
in the area increased from
500 to 5,000 while the
British population remained
at 700.
“FIFTY-FOUR FORTY OR FIGHT”
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James K. Polk received the
Democratic Party’s
nomination for president in
1844 partly because he
supported American claims
for sole ownership of Oregon.
Democrats campaigned using
the slogan “Fifty-four Forty or
Fight,” meaning that they
believed the this should be
the nation’s northern border.
Henry Clay of the Whig
Party, Polk’s principal
opponent, did not take a
strong position on the Oregon
issue, and the anti-slavery
Liberty Party took so many
votes from Clay, that Polk
REACHING A SETTLEMENT
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Britain would not accept a
border at fifty-four forty
because to do so would
mean giving up its claim
entirely.
Instead, in June 1846, the
2 countries compromised,
setting the boundary
between the American and
British portions of Oregon
at latitude 49 N.
During the 1830s
Americans also sought to
fulfill their Manifest
Destiny in another
direction as well…Texas.