Editing Point Roberts, Washington (section)

=== Treaty history specific to Point Roberts ===
After years of joint occupation of the disputed area between [[Mexican California]] and Russian America (now [[Alaska]]) known as the [[Oregon Country]] to the Americans, and as the [[Columbia District]] to the British, American expansionists like U.S. Senator [[Edward A. Hannegan]] of Indiana urged [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[James K. Polk]] to annex the entire Oregon Country up to latitude [[Parallel 54°40′ north|54°40′N]], as the Democrats had been elected on the slogan "[[Fifty-Four Forty or Fight]]".

While his government asserted that the title of the United States of America to the entire territory was unquestionable even though there was only one U.S. resident (a former Briton) north of the Columbia basin, Polk and Secretary of State [[James Buchanan]] made an offer of a boundary at 49 degrees with the line straight across [[Vancouver Island]], with no commercial privilege to be granted to the British south of the line, with the exception of free ports on Vancouver Island. The British rejected the offer and the U.S. soon withdrew it.

On April 18, 1846, notice was forwarded to London that the [[U.S. Congress]] had adopted a joint resolution abrogating the [[Treaty of 1818]] which provided for joint occupancy.

The British emissary, [[Richard Pakenham]], had been advised that the last concession he could expect of the United States was to bend the boundary at the 49th parallel around the southern end of Vancouver Island. [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] was viewed as the future center for settlements on the island. It was deemed necessary around this point in time to give up territory on the [[Lower Mainland]] to keep Vancouver Island part of [[British North America]].

[[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Lord Aberdeen]], British [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]], proposed a treaty making the 49th parallel the boundary to the sea, giving the UK the whole of Vancouver Island. The [[Oregon Treaty|Treaty of Oregon]] was concluded on June 15, 1846.

The acceptance of the 49th parallel as the international boundary was concluded without precise knowledge of its effects. Later, as the Boundary Commission surveyed the line, the British government realized the peninsula of Point Roberts would be an isolated part of the United States. The [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|British Foreign Office]] instructed [[James Charles Prevost|Captain James Prevost]], the British Boundary Commissioner, to inform his U.S. counterpart of the situation and request Point Roberts be left to Britain, because of the great inconvenience it would be to the United States. If the American Boundary Commission was reluctant, Prevost was instructed to offer "some equivalent compensation by a slight alteration of the Line of Boundary on the Mainland". It is not known how the U.S. commissioner responded, but Point Roberts remained part of the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last= Hayes |first= Derek |title= Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of exploration and Discovery |year= 1999 |publisher= Sasquatch Books |isbn= 1-57061-215-3 |pages= 161}}</ref>
<gallery widths="150px" class="center">
File:US-border-notice.jpg|Notice at the international boundary between Canada and the United States in Point Roberts
File:Warning sign at Point Roberts.jpg|Boundary post in Point Roberts, Washington at the boundary between U.S. and Canada; photo taken at English Bluff Road, Delta facing Marine Drive, Point Roberts
File:Boundary Marker No.1 Point Roberts.JPG|Boundary Marker No.1 on the [[49th parallel north]] on the western shore of Point Roberts, erected in 1861
</gallery>