Letter from a Future Civil War Senator as young Maine sea Captain fears imminent war with England over Oregon.

Autograph Letter Signed. Richmond, Virginia. Apr. 16, 1846. 3pp.plus address leaf. To his brother Joseph, East Thomaston, Maine. Some staining to last leaf, a couple of small holes at folds, small piece missing from last page affecting a couple of words, corner edge crease, normal aging; otherwise very good. About to sail his merchant ship to England, Farwell (1812-1893) fears imminent war with Britain over the Oregon dispute would make him a Prisoner of War."…As for coming home to spend the summer…I have no one here to take the Boat and she will be ready for Sea before you receive this…I have made nothing this winter and cannot afford to stay at home but mean to go to London and back as soon as possible… I really have some [qualms?] as I should not think strange if I were a Prisoner of War before I get home. I think England is proposing to bite before she barks, the British Lion is erecting his [mane?] and the Long Eared Gentleman J.K.P. [President James K. Polk] at Washington seems determined to Bray till the fatal spring is made...I fear really that this affair with England will not be settled in fact I hardly see how either party can now back out and we must have a war about a piece of [Rock?] farther from us in point of fact than any port of China and that in all probability in 10 years more will not acknowledge the sovereignty of either this country or England. But Democracy must have something to feed on, it can't live on air neither can it exist on wholesome food..."A conciliatory British proposal for resolving the Oregon dispute reached Washington six weeks after Farwell sailed for England. Polk, submitted the proposal to the US Senate, which recommended acceptance and ratified it on June 15, resolving the question and avoiding the war that Farwell feared. About 20 years later, during the Civil War, he would become a US Senator (1864-1865).