stefansson-wrangel-09-37-040

-39-

given the name of Juan de Fuca because a Spaniard of that name
discovered it some two hundred years before the English captain
sailed.

Despite the elaborate argument, however, each party re-
mained unconvinced that the other was right, and repeated pro-
posals for arbitration made by the British were refused by the
Americans. Meanwhile, popular temper in the United States was
dangerous: the slogan of the people was ”54° 40 " or fight.”
In this state of affairs, Great Britain yielded, and, by a
treaty ratified by the President June 19, 1846, 1 Malloy, 656,
the boundary was fixed.

By Article I: "From the point on the forty-ninth parallel
of north latitude, where the boundary laid down in existing
treaties and conventions between the United States and Great
Britain terminates, the line of boundary between the territories
of the United States and those of Her Britannic Majesty, shall
be continued westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of
north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the
continent from Vancouver1s Island; and thence southerly, through
the middle of said channel, and of Fuca ' s straits, to the Pacific
Ocean."

On a review of what has actually been done in instances
where there has been a dispute over territory, taken in comparison
with the opinions of the text-writers, the following conclusions
are suggested. To begin with, it seems that there is no settled
law, setting a standard of conduct, undeviatingly predicating
certain results from certain facts, with regard to t he question.
The text-writers seem to set forth, not so much a rule of law,
as a cmtnsel of perfection. This counsel they draw from such of
the cases as they deem to have had a proper conclusion. For
example, we find that the decision of the Queen of Spain with
regard to Aves Island has been disregarded by the writers, when