Autograph Letter, Signed, to US Consul in London Discouraging War with England over "Oregon Question": War Over Oregon Question Averted; A Final Polk Puzzle-Piece Added to Map of USA : The Fourth Corner

Washington City. March 30, 1846. Two-pages of manuscript letter in ink written on [4] pp. single sheet, bifolium, measuring 7 3/4 x 10 inches (15.5 x 10 inches unfolded). Docketed on verso. Small chip to right margin, not affecting text. Old, mellowed fold lines. Ink stamps faded. Letter is marked as received April 28 [1846].

Two full pages of holograph text in Pickett's legible hand in which he reports on his recent return voyage from Liverpool to Washington City ("a rough passage") before addressing his optimism that war between the US and England will be avoided "in favor of a fair and equitable adjustment of the Oregon Question."

A vital letter that underscores the precipitous threat of war with England over the boundary dispute, known as "the Oregon Question," separating Oregon Territory and Canada. The obvious border would have been the Columbia River, especially considering the insignificant population of Americans living north of the Columbia, in present-day Washington State: In 1846 the Puget Sound country was populated by only five American families and two American individuals, whereas the region remained a stronghold of the Hudson's Bay Company. Not least among the myriad pressures influencing the US government's land-grab north of the Columbia was the need for maritime access to the region in lieu of the treacherous mouth of the Columbia, by then earning the sobriquet "Graveyard of the Pacific." Thus, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, serving as a conduit between the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound and points south, including the increasingly populated Willamette Valley, became a choice prize.

James Chamberlayne Pickett (1793-1872) was born in Virginia, graduated West Point, and served in the Kentucky legislature before assuming several South American diplomatic posts, notably as Chargé d'Affaires in Peru. He then returned to Washington, D.C.; at the time of his trip to London, Pickett was editor of the Congressional Globe, which reported in detail the congressional machinations surrounding the Oregon Question. While Pickett's relationship with President James Polk remains unknown, we know they corresponded. As such, one can only speculate as to motives precipitating Pickett's London meeting with Consul Aspinall. Pickett writes "the President I have no doubt is for peace if it can be maintained without a sacrifice of national honor ... ." Polk's 1844 presidential campaign famously focussed public attention on the looming boundary dispute by use of the popular the battle cry "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" After tense negotiations, in August 1846 the present boundary along the 49th Parallel was settled as the border between the British and American lands, fleshing out the map of the contiguous United States. Of the shelf of books devoted to the Oregon Question, Winning Oregon by Melville Jacobs (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, 1938) remains the most concise overview. That book informed this annotation.