*No. 16.[16]
Mr. Upshur to Mr. Everett.
Sir: The President directs that you take an early occasion to bring again to the attention of Her Majesty’s government the subject of the claims of the two countries respectively to the territory west of the Rocky Mountains. The difficulties which the conflicting claims of Russia to a portion of this territory have heretofore interposed, are now happily removed by the treaty of April, 1824, which defines the limits within which that power engages to restrict its settlement; so that the questions now to be settled rest exclusively between Great Britain and the United States. * * *Full powers are sent to Mr. Everett to negotiate on the Oregon boundary.
The offer of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, although it has once been rejected, may be again tendered, together with the right of navigating the Columbia upon equitable terms. Beyond this the President is not now prepared to go. * * * * *
You will receive herewith the necessary powers to negotiate upon the subject. If, however, the British government prefers that the negotiation shall be conducted in Washington, that arrangement will be perfectly agreeable to the President.
Edward Everett, Esq.