JEFFERSON, THOMAS. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. I: 1760-1776. Edited by Julian P. Boyd, Lyman H. Butterfield, and Mina R. Bryan. Pp. lviii, 679. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950. $10.00

• Author: Leslie Lipson
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625127400154
• Subject Matter: Articles

227

study

is

also

well

annotated

and

satis-

factorily

indexed.

GEORGE

D.

HARMON

Lehigh

University

MERK,

FREDERICK.

Albert

Gallatin

and

the

Oregon

Problem:

A

Study

in

Anglo-

American

Diplomacy.

Pp.

xi,

97.

Cam-

bridge,

Mass.:

Harvard

University

Press,

1950.

$2.50.

This

is

a

scholarly

and

well

written

monograph

on

the

negotiations

at

London

in

1826-27

between

Albert

Gallatin

for

the

United

States

and

the

ministry

of

George

Canning

in

an

effort

to

settle

the

Oregon

question.

Canning,

who

requested

the

negotiations,

had

been

stirred

to

action

by

officials

of

the

Hudson’s

Bay

Company

and

by

alarm-

ing

reports

from

Washington

that

the

United

States

was

about

to

establish

mil-

itary

control

of

the

Oregon

country.

He

now

hoped

to

obtain

a

division

of

the

territory

along

the

Columbia

River

from

the

forty-ninth

parallel

to

the

sea.

Yet

as

Professor

Merk

makes

clear,

there

there

was

at

the

moment

little

hope

of

any

such

agreement.

The

United

States

had

repeatedly

insisted

since

the

negotiations

in

1818

on

the

line

of

the

forty-ninth

parallel

to

the

sea.

Inspired

by

ideological

en-

thusiasm

for

the

expansion

of

democracy

and

by

a

deliberate

policy

of

containment

toward

British

North

America,

American

officials

consistently

adopted

an

attitude

of

stern

intransigence

on

the

Oregon

question,

acting

as

though

a

&dquo;national

interest

of

major

importance&dquo;

was

involved.

The

Canning

ministry,

for

its

part,

was

ani-

mated

by

a

prevailing

sentiment

of

hatred

for

the

United

States,

by

a

strong

sense

of

imperialist

expansionism,

and

by

a

convic-

tion

that

Oregon

would

some

day

become

important

in

the

China

trade.

Accordingly

the

negotiations

deadlocked.

The

resultant .

convention

provided

merely

for

the

in-

definite

extension

of

the

joint

occupation

of

Oregon,

subject

to

termination

by

either

party

on

a

year’s

notice.

However,

Canning

in

the

course of

the

discussions

gravely

weakened

the

British

claim

to

the

area

between

the

Columbia

and

the

forty-ninth

parallel

by

offering

the

United

States

an

enclave

in

the

region

roughly

comprising

the

Olympic

Peninsula.

Also,

Gallatin

successfully

defended

the

American

contention

that

the

conviction

for

joint

occupancy

was

a

mere

commercial

agreement

which

did

not

preclude

military

occupation

or

the

establishment

of

terri-

torial

government

by

either

party.

Finally,

the

indefinite

extension

of

joint

occupation

was

in

itself

highly

favorable

to

American

pretensions,

since

Oregon

was

virtually

cer-

tain

to

fill

up

mainly

with

American

settlers.

In

brief,

Gallatin’s

brilliant

defense

of

American

interests

was

an

important

step

toward

American

acquisition

in

1846

of

the

entire

region

below

the

forty-ninth

parallel.

ALFRED

H.

KELLY

Wayne

University

JEFFERSON,

THOMAS.

The

Papers

of

Thomas

Jefferson,

Vol.

I:

1760-1776.

Edited

by

Julian

P.

Boyd,

Lyman

H.

Butterfield,

and

Mina

R.

Bryan.

Pp.

lviii,

679.

Princeton:

Princeton

Uni-

versity

Press,

1950.

$10.00.

It

is

seldom

that

a

reviewer

is

fortunate

enough

to

encounter

a

work

which

excites

his

wholehearted

admiration

and

respect.

But

this

is

one

such

case.

We

have

long

needed

an

edition

of

the

writings

of

Thomas

Jefferson

that

would

be

both

com-

prehensive

and

definitive.

Such

a

task

was

called

for

both

because

of

the

historic

events

wherein

Jefferson

participated

or

pioneered

and

because

of

the

loftiness,

in-

ventiveness,

and

versatility

of

his

intellect.

A

happy

outcome

of

the

Thomas

Jefferson

Bicentennial

Commission

is

the

series

of

volumes,

of

which

the

one

under

review

is

the

first.

The

editor

and

his

two

as-

sociates,

to

whom

the

gratitude

of

the

world

of

scholarship

is

due,

received

the

aid

of

Princeton

University

and

its

Press,

of

.

a

distinguished

advisory

committee,

and

of

a

financial

grant

from

the

New

York

Times.

The

magnitude

of

their

efforts

can

be

gauged

by

the

fact

that

the

complete

pub-

lication

is

estimated

to

require

some

fifty

volumes,

each

of

seven

hundred

pages.

It

will

embrace

a

complete

coverage

of

all

that

Jefferson

ever

wrote-in

the

varied

forms

of

public

papers,

treatises,

essays

and

letters-and

of

much

that

was

written