Special Providence_ American Foreign Policy and How It Changed World - Walter Russell Mead

TheAmericanForeignPolicyTradition 2 I

ULTIMATUMONTHEOREGONQUESTION

Farfrombeingisolatedandignorantaboutthewiderworld,nine-

teenth-centuryAmericansoftenfollowedforeignaffairswithclose

attention.This 1846 cartoonpresentsanargumentthatBritain's

domesticproblemsweresodirethattheUnitedStatescouldaffordto

ignoreBritishthreatsandpressformoreterritoryinOregon.AsQueen

VictoriawarnstheAmericansto"BewarehowyourousetheBritish

Lion!,"herthreatisundercutbytheevidentreluctanceofthelionto

stirunlessthegovernmentagreesto"Unloosemychainsandfillmy

belly!"-thatis,toagreetoradicals'demandsfordomesticpolitical

reformsandbettereconomicconditions.ThecartoonistportraysRussia

andFrance(representedrespectivelybytheirthen-rulers,CzarNicholas

I andKingLouis-Philippe)aswishingeithertostayneutralorto

supporttheUnitedStatesinanyclashoverOregon.TheIrishleader

DanielO'ConnelltellsVictoriathatwithoutpoliticalconcessionsto

IrishdemandstherewillbenoIrishsoldiersforherarmy.Edward

WilliamsClay.LibraryofCongress,PrintsandPhotographsDivision,LC-USZ62-7722

BesidesTexasthemajorissueintheelectionof 1844 wastheOregon
boundaryissue,with"Fifty-fourFortyorFight!"thesloganofthosewho
wishedtofighta warwithGreatBritainoverconflictingclaimstowhat
isnowBritishColumbia.