Oregon Treaty

The Oregon Treaty, formally the Treaty with Great Britain in Regard to Limits Westward of the Rocky Mountains, was concluded at Washington on 15 June 1846 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Signed for the United States by Secretary of State James Buchanan and for Britain by the envoy Richard Pakenham, it ended the uncertainty over sovereignty and government in the territory on the northwest coast of America lying west of the Rocky Mountains. Article I continued the boundary along the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel separating the continent from Vancouver Island and then southerly through the middle of that channel and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific, keeping navigation of the channel and strait south of the parallel free and open to both parties. Further articles protected the navigation rights of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia River and the possessory rights of British subjects and of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company south of the line.