chapter 3._

See, also, LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1198-1199.

ORDERS, Monastic.

See AUSTIN CANONS; BENEDICTINE ORDERS; CAPUCHINS; CARMELITE FRIARS; CARTHUSIAN ORDER; CISTERCIAN ORDER; CLAIRVAUX; CLUGNY; MENDICANT ORDERS; RECOLLECTS; SERVITES; THEATINES; TRAPPISTS.

ORDERS IN COUNCIL, Blockade by British.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1806-1810; and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809.

ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD.

See KNIGHTHOOD.

ORDINANCE OF 1787.

See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1787.

ORDINANCES OF SECESSION.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER); 1861 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

ORDINANCES OF 1311.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1310-1311.

ORDOÑO I., King of Leon and the Asturias, or Oviedo, A. D. 850-866.

Ordoño II., King of Leon and the Asturias, or Oviedo, 914-923.

Ordoño III., King of Leon and the Asturias, or Oviedo, 950-955.

ORDOVICES, The. One of the tribes of ancient Wales.

See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.

----------OREGON: Start--------

OREGON: The aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHINOOKAN FAMILY, and SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.

OREGON: A. D: 1803. Was it embraced in the Louisiana Purchase? Grounds of American possession.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.

OREGON: A. D. 1805. Lewis and Clark's exploring expedition.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1805.

OREGON: A. D. 1844-1846. The Boundary dispute with Great Britain and its settlement.

"The territory along the Pacific coast lying between California on the south and Alaska on the north —Oregon as it was comprehensively called—had been a source of dispute for some time between the United States and Great Britain. After some negotiations both had agreed with Russia to recognize the line of 54° 40' as the southern boundary of the latter's possessions; and Mexico's undisputed possession of California gave an equally well marked southern limit, at the 42d parallel. All between was in dispute. The British had trading posts at the mouth of the Columbia, which they emphatically asserted to be theirs; we, on the other hand, claimed an absolutely clear title up to the 49th parallel, a couple of hundred miles north of the mouth of the Columbia, and asserted that for all the balance of the territory up to the Russian possessions our title was at any rate better than that of the British. In 1818 a treaty had been made providing for the joint occupation of the territory by the two powers, as neither was willing to give up its claim to the whole, or at the time at all understood the value of the possession, then entirely unpeopled. This treaty of joint occupancy had remained in force ever since. Under it the British had built great trading stations, and used the whole country in the interests of certain fur companies. The Americans, in spite of some vain efforts, were unable to compete with them in this line; but, what was infinitely more important, had begun, even prior to 1840, to establish actual settlers along the banks of the rivers, some missionaries being the first to come in. … The aspect of affairs was totally changed when in 1842 a huge caravan of over 1,000 Americans made the journey from the frontiers of Missouri, taking with them their wives and their children, their flocks and herds, carrying their long rifles on their shoulders, and their axes and spades in the great canvas-topped wagons. The next year 2,000 more settlers of the same sort in their turn crossed the vast plains, wound their way among the Rocky Mountains through the pass explored by Fremont, Benton's son-in-law, and after suffering every kind of hardship and danger, and warding off the attacks of hostile Indians, descended the western slope of the great water–shed to join their fellows by the banks of the Columbia. When American settlers were once in actual possession of the disputed territory, it became evident that the period of Great Britain's undisputed sway was over. … Tyler's administration did not wish to embroil itself with England; so it refused any aid to the settlers, and declined to give them grants of land, as under the joint occupancy treaty that would have given England offense and cause for complaint. But Benton and the other Westerners were perfectly willing to offend England, if by so doing they could help America to obtain Oregon, and were too rash and headstrong to count the cost of their actions. Accordingly, a bill was introduced providing for the settlement of Oregon, and giving each settler 640 acres, and additional land if he had a family. … It passed the Senate by a close vote, but failed in the House. … The unsuccessful attempts made by Benton and his supporters, to persuade the Senate to pass a resolution, requiring that notice of the termination of the joint occupancy treaty should forthwith be given, were certainly ill-advised. However, even Benton was not willing to go to the length to which certain Western men went, who insisted upon all or nothing. … He sympathized with the effort made by Calhoun while secretary of state to get the British to accept the line of 49° as the frontier; but the British government then rejected this proposition. In 1844 the Democrats made their campaign upon the issue of 'fifty-four forty or fight'; and Polk, when elected, felt obliged to insist upon this campaign boundary. {2403} To this, however, Great Britain naturally would not consent; it was, indeed, idle to expect her to do so, unless things should be kept as they were until a fairly large American population had grown up along the Pacific coast, and had thus put her in a position where she could hardly do anything else. Polk's administration was neither capable nor warlike, however well disposed to bluster; and the secretary of state, the timid, shifty, and selfish politician, Buchanan, naturally fond of facing both ways, was the last man to wish to force a quarrel on a high-spirited and determined antagonist, like England. Accordingly, he made up his mind to back down and try for the line of 49°, as proposed by Calhoun, when in Tyler's cabinet; and the English, for all their affected indifference, had been so much impressed by the warlike demonstrations in the United States, that they in turn were delighted …; accordingly they withdrew their former pretensions to the Columbia River and accepted [June 15, 1846] the offered compromise."

_T. Roosevelt, Life of Thomas H. Benton,