h ignorance about Oregon, in Congress and out.
To the popular mind Oregon was the country drained by the Columbia
River, a vast region on the northwest coast. As defined by the
authority whom Douglas summoned to the aid of his colleagues, Oregon
was the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of
42 deg. and 54 deg. 40' north latitude.[202] Treaties between Russia and Great
Britain, and between Russia and the United States, had fixed the
southern boundary of Russian territory on the continent at 54 deg. 40'; a
treaty between the United States and Spain had given the forty-second
parallel as the northern boundary of the Spanish possessions; and a
joint treaty of occupation between Great Britain and the United States
in 1818,--renewed in 1827,--had established a _modus vivendi_ between
the rival claimants, which might be terminated by either party on
twelve months' notice. Meantime Great Britain and the United States
were silent competitors for exclusive ownership of the mainland and
islands between Spanish and Russian America. Whether the technical
questions involved in these treaties were so easily dismissed, was
something that did not concern the resolute expansionist. It was
enough for him that, irrespective of title derived from priority of
discovery, the United States had, as Greenhow expressed it, a stronger
"national right," by virtue of the process by which their people were
settling the Mississippi Valley and the great West. This was but
another way of stating the theory of manifest destiny.

No one knew better than Douglas that paper claims lost half their
force unless followed up by vigorous action. Priority of occupation
was a far better claim than priority of discovery. Hence, the
government must encourage actual settlement on the Oregon. Two
isolated bills that Douglas submitted to Congress are full of
suggestion, when connected by this thought: one provided for the
establishment of the territory of Nebraska;[203] the other, for the
establishment of military posts in the territories of Nebraska and
Oregon, to protect the commerce of the United States with New Mexico
and California, as well as emigration to Oregon.[204] Though neither
bill seems to have received serious consideration, both were to be
forced upon the attention of Congress in after years by their
persistent author.

A bill had already been reported by the Committee on Territories,
boldly extending the government of the Uni