# The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811–1912/Volume 1/Chapter 9

​{{c|CHAPTER IX
1792—1846
PAPER TITLES OP SPAIN, FRANCE AND ENGLAND GRAY'S DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER — THE PURCHASE OP LOUISIANA THE DOCTRINE OP CONTIGUOUS SETTLEMENT — THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPLORATION — THE PURCHASE OF THE SPANISH TITLE THE CAMPAIGN OF "FIFTY-FOUR FORTY OR FIGHT"—THE
The vast region west of the Rocky mountains fronting on the Pacific ocean from the northern boundary of California up to Alaska became known to the world under the name of "Oregon," about the year 1770. And the lirst tangi- ble acts to obtain title to this vast territory date back to the voyages of Spanish explorers in 1774; followed by the English navigator, Cook, in 1776, the year the American colonists declared themselves independent of Great Britain. Six- teen years after the Englishmen filed a discoveiy claim to the country. Captain Robert Gray, the American trader, discovered the Columbia river, which prac- tically drains the whole region and laid the foundation for the claim of the United States.
Here then are the claims of the three nations — Spain. England and the United States — mere paper titles, founded on the trifling incidents of landing on the sea coast of a vast country of then unknown extent. Neither of these parties had contributed anything whatever to the value of the country, or to any ex- tent worth mentioning, made known to the world its resources, population or boundaries. The law or custom, upon which any shadow of title to the country could be founded by either of these parties, was nothing more than the comity of courtesy conceded among the maritime nations of the world down to that period ; a right, comity, or courtesy which was always ignored and repudiated by the strongest, whenever it was their interest to do so.
The Indians were the original possessors of the country, and held their title from occupancy for unknown thousands of years. But all three of these so- called civilized nations united to deny and overthrow the title of the native barbarian. To deny the title of the Indian, because he was ignorant, super- stitious and a barbarian or savage, was to found rights on educational oppor- tunities rather than upon the foundation set forth by the American Declaration of Independence. To deny the rights of the Indian, and then concede his hu- manity by offering him the teachings of the Bible, was an inconsistency too absurd for argument. And so the moralist and publicists were forced to take grounds with the defenders of African slavery and boldly proclaim the doctrine that neither the red man nor the black man had any rights which the whitr man was bound to respect. ​
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Aiid so this couclusion gives a clear field to consider what nation had the title to the vast region of old Oregon under the facts hereinafter stated.
On the 25th of January, 1774, about two and a half years before the American Declaration of Independence, the Spanish sloop of war, Santiago, sailed from San Bias, Mexico, under command of Lieut. Juan Perez. The Spanish viceroy in Mexico directed Perez to sail northward along the Ore- gon coast up to sixty degrees of north latitude; which would be a few miles above the extreme southern limit of the present United States territory of Alaska. And from that point Perez was directed to survey the coast southward to Monterey (now in California), and landing at convenient places take pos- session of the same in the name of the King of Spain. Under these orders Perez sailed with the king's ship, and the king's men on June 16th, 1774. On the 13th of July, he made the land in fifty-four degrees north (now known as Queen Charlotte's Island), and named the point Cape Santa Margarita — the Cape North of our geography — then rounded the north point of the island and sailed into Dixon's Channel. From this point Perez turned south, coasting along the shore and trading -with the natives. On the 9th of August he made ' the land on the west coast of Vancouver Island at the point known as Nootka Sound. From Nootka Sound again coasting southward, the pilot claimed to have seen what is recognized now as the opening to the Straits of Fuea, and still further south made out, and named Mount Olympus, passed Cape Men- docino and the Oregon coast August 21st, and reached Monterey on August 27, 1774.
On the return of Perez, the Mexican viceroy decided to send another expedi- tion to the north, and made preparations to send the schooner Senora along with the Santiago, giving to Captain Bruno Heceta the command of the Santiago, and to Angala the command of the little schooner. This expedition sailed from San Bias for the north, and on June 10, 1775, made a landing on the coast in an open roadstead at forty-one degrees, ten minutes north, a little below the present south boundary of Oregon. Here they spent nine daj's and claimed the country for Spain. Again sailing north, the expedition made land the second time at forty-eight degrees, twenty -six minutes north, which is a little south of the en- trance to the Straits of Fuca. From this point they cruised southward looking for the straits. On the 14th of Jul,y, in latitude forty-seven degrees, twenty min- utes north, which is a little north of Gray's Harbor in the state of Washington, seven men of the crew of the Senora in their only boat landed on the mainland to get fresh water and were overpowered by the natives and all killed ; and the schooner itself was surrounded by hundreds of Indians in canoes who made un- successful attempts to board her. Here Heceta desired to return to California, but was overruled by Perez, Bodega and Maurelle, and the expedition again sailed northward, making their next landing at forty-nine degrees, and thirty minutes north, which is thirty miles north of the present north boundarj' of the United States, but being on the west side of Vancouver Island, is still on Brit- ish territory. From this point Heceta turned southward, and at about forty-six degrees and ten minutes, discovered a great bay, July 17, 1775. On account of the currents and eddies, setting out seaward, he could not enter it with his ship, but recorded the event in his log book as "The mouth of some great river, or a
THE CENTENNIAL iriSTORY OF OREGON I'O'.i
how close the Spaniard came to making the discovery which lias made lioliert Gray famous. The Spaniard kept on south and made Monterey on August :!. 1775, a few days after the never-to-be-forgotten battle of Bunker Hill.
We have been thus ptirticular to set out the facts constituting the rights of Spain to claim the Old Oregon country from the California line clear up to Alaska. According to the theories of the European nations in vogue one hun- dred and tifty years ago, the King of Spain had done everything necessary to give his nation a good title to the Oregon country; for according to this histoi-i- eal record, the Spanish naval ofBcer and ships flying the flag of Spain, in lawful exploration of the high seas, were the first discoverers of the Oregon country.
It was doubtless the fact that Captain Francis Drake had been on the Oregon coast befoi-e the Spaniard. But he was here, as has been before stated, as a freebooter or pirate, plundering Spanish merchant vessels, and as such his acts could not confer any title on the English government; and for that reason his government never took advantage of any discoveries he made.
And. notwithstanding the fact that the Spaniards were the first discoverers of the Oregon coast, for some reason, never explained, they did not make these discoveries known to the world at that time; but waited until after Captain James Cook, as the representative of Great Britain, made his famous voyage to the Oregon coast in 1778. Cook sailed from Plymouth, England, eight days after the American Declaration of Independence had been signed up by the Conti- nental Congress, a fact which could not have been at that time known in Eng- land. These dates are given to show that the new-horn nation of the United States had not, at the time the Spanish and English claims to Oregon were set up, yet achieved a national organization, existence of recognition before the world ; and was not, therefore, bound by the comity laws of nations which gave away great countries on rights of discovery.
But Captain Cook saw no part of the coast of America on this voyage, which had not been previously seen by the Spanish navigators, Perez, Heceta and Bodega.
The question was raised later on by England that Spain had negotiated away its rights to Oregon by a treaty entered into October, 1790, which provides that Spain should restore to Great Britain the possession of property and ships taken from the British by force at Nootka Sound by the Spanish Captain Martinez, in May, 1779. And as this incident has figured prominently not only in the history of those times, but also in the diplomacy and treaty rights of the Ignited States and England, a resume of the facts therewith connected will now be given.
From a trifdiug incident of Captain Cook's voyage to the west coast of Ore- gon in 1778 the attention of all the trading nations was attracted to this coun- try. Cook got from the Indians, and carried away to China, a small bale of furs, which, on being offered for sale, at once dazzled the eyes of all traders in Chinese ports for their superiority to anything of the kind ever seen before and the vast fur trade of Northwest America started right there.
But when the British sea-rovers and independent traders sought to start into the fur trade they were handicapped by the regulations and franchise grants of their own country. In pursuance of its immemorial policy of granting special privileges to royal favorites, the British government had divided up the earth between two chartered cmiipanies. and had granted to the South Sea Company ​
210 THE CENTENxNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON
the sole right to trade in all seas and countries westward of Cape Horn ; and to the British East India Company the sole right to trade in all seas and countries east of the Cape of Good Hope ; and bj^ these grants all British subjects not con- nected with either one of these gi-eat monopolies, were prohibited from trading in all seas, territories and islands in that vast portion of the world lying between the Cape of Good Hope eastward to a line drawn north and south through Cape Horn, or vice versa, westward from the meridian of Cape Horn to the meridian passing through the Cape of Good Hope ; and British subjects desiring to en- gage in Pacific ocean commerce or Pacific coast fur trade in America, or in China or East India trade, were obliged to obtain permission of one of these great companies and fly their flag, or not trade at all. If old England has not set the pace for monopolies, where did they begin?
Of course, these monopolies could not prevent the Chinese, as an independent nation, from trading here, or from granting ships rights to trade. But old China was not slow at a bargain, and put up the price of grants and port charges to excessive prices on everybody except the Portuguese.
To evade these exactions of the Chinese, and the prohibitions of these British charters, several British merchants residing in India, desiring to engage in the rich fur trade on the west coast of America, associated themselves together under the name of a Portuguese merchant and prociired from the Portuguese govern- ment of Macao a license for two ships — the Felice and Iphigenia — to sail under the Portuguese flag to the northwest coast of America. To further carry out their enterprise, these British merchants procured Lieut. John Meares, of the British navj^, on leave, to command this fur-trading expedition. Meares' char- acter in the venture was further complicated by the fact that he was at that time in the British East India Company service as an English subject, which company held the sole right to trade in these parts, and which company had given Meares the license of its company to make a trade venture to the Oregon coast on his own account. To further complicate matters, the adventuring merchants took out the papers of the two ships in the Portuguese language, and in the name of Portuguese eajstains, who were to go along as figureheads, and who were referred to in Meares' reports as "second captains."
And in the letter of instructions issued to Lieut. Meares by these merchants, they tell him; "That if any Russian, English or Spanish vessel attempt to seize him or his ships, or to carry him out of his way, you must prevent it by every means in your power and repel force by force ; and should j'ou, in such conflict, have the superiorit.y, you will then take possession of the vessel that attacked, as also her cargo, and bring both, with the officers and crew, to China, that they may be condemned as legal prizes, and their crews punished as pirates."
And thus officered and authorized, the two ships — Iphigenia and Felice — sailed for the Oregon coast and reached Nootka Sound on the west coast of Van- couver Island, ]\Iay 13, 1788. A few days after their arrival, the Indian Chief Maquinna, who claimed the island as his real estate, granted to Meares "a spot of ground in his territory whereon a house might be built for the accommoda- tion of the people intended to be left there, and promised also the assistance of his Indians in building houses, and the protection of the Indians for the people who were to remain during the absence of the ships. In return for this permis- sion to build the house, Meares presented Maquinna with a pair of pistols : and ​
to secure the further attachment aud protection of Maquinna, lie was promised that when the people of those ships tiually left the coast, he should enter into the full possession of the house and all the goods belonging therewith."
This was the tirst house built in all the vast region of old Oregon, and these were the circumstances under which it was erected. It wfus a mere temporary shelter from the weather, with some stockade defense against an attack from the Indians.
Hearing of these operations of the I'ur traders, great uneasiness was aroused in Spain. And in 17S9 the Spanish vicei'oy in Mexico dispatched two ships to tile uortli with instructions to proclaim and enforce the rights of Spain to the country. These ships — the Princess and San Carlos — commanded by Lieut, ^lartinez. reached Nootka Sound, j\Iay 5th, 1789, and found there the American ship Columbia, and the ships Iphigeiiia and the Felice, with Captain Meares, arriving a few days afterward.
The Spaniard promptly announced his business, and the Americans as promptly recognized the rights of Spain to the country. The captain of the Iphi- genia gave an evasive and untruthful reply, saying he had put in there in dis- tress to await the arrival of Captain Meares. But the Spaniard hearing that the Iphigeuia carried orders to capture any Russian, Spanish or English vessel, he seized the ship, and subsequently the Northwest America, another ship in the same service as the Iphigenia.
Captain Meares. not returning on account of a reorganization of the ad- venturing merchants, which has not replaced Meares, with Captain Colnett, also holding a commission in the British navy, now off on leave, events dragged until Colnett came into Nootka off the ship Princess Royal. Colnett's instructions di- rected him "to establish a factory to be called Fort Pitt for the purpose of permanent settlement, and as a center of trade around which other stations may be estaldished." And he informed the Spanish captain. Martinez, that he should take possession of Nootka Sound in the name of Great Britain and hoist the Brit- ish flag. The Spaniard replied that possession had already been taken in the name of Spain, and that he would resist any attempts to take possession in the name of Great Britain. The Englishmen inquired if the Spaniard would object to building a house; the Spaniard: "Certain, I will object; you can erect a tent to get wood and water, but no house." The Englishman replied that he would liuild a block house ; whereupon the Spaniard arrested the British cap- tain and all his crew, and seized the ships — Princess Royal and Argonaut — and sent them down to San Bias. Mexico, as prizes.
Here, then, was a veritable "tempest in a teapot." Consider for a moment the surroundings of these men and the future weight given to their acts. Here they were in a little pocket of a bay on Vancouver island ; the Americans twenty thousand miles from their home port; the English-Portuguese merchant ad- venturers no better than pirates, as they were sailing imder false eoloi-s, six thousand miles from their base of operations, and the Spaniard three thousand miles from his governor: with an onlooking audience of hundreds of savages and not a single civilized man within thousands of miles. The Spaniard bravely asserts the rights and authority of his king, and the bluffing British captain tamely submits to arrest.
It was ten months after the capture of the British ships before the news ​
reached Europe; whereupon Eugiand demanded of Spain immediate repara- tion for the insult to her flag, and thus assuming responsibility for all the crookedness which had set afloat the so-called Portuguese merchant fur trad- ing ships. To the outburst of England the king of Spain issued a proclama- tion to all other nations on June i, 1790, temperately reciting the rights of Spain to the continents and islands of the South sea, concluding with: "Al- though Spain may not have establishments or colonies planted upon the coasts or in the ports in dispute, it does not follow that such coast or port does not belong to her. If this I'ule were to be followed, one nation might estab- lish colonies on the coast of another nation — in America, Asia, Africa and Europe — bj' which means there would be no fixed boundaries — a circumstance evidently absurd." Such were the hard facts of the case down to the begin- ning of the dispute between Spain and England, as to the title of Old Oregon.
And now we reach the chapter of diplomatic negotiations between these two nations to settle that dispute. Spain opened the negotiations with a proposi- tion to refer the dispute about the insult to the British flag to the sovereign of some European nation, and England declined the proposition. Then Spain ap- pealed to France for assistance in resisting the power of England should war ensue out of these matters. But France declined to commit her government to any assistance. Down to this period, England had not set up any claim to or ownership of Vancouver island covering the spot where Captain Martinez seized the ships. Hope of assistance from France being abandoned, Spain Avas forced to a treaty with England. October 28, 1790, whereb.y the buildings and tracts of land on the northwest coast of America, of which British subjects had been dispossessed in 1789 by Martinez, were to be restored to the British subjects; and the ships and other property of British subjects were to be re- turned with compensation for any losses sustained hy reason of the acts of the Spanish officer. In addition to these provisions, a right in common with Spain was to be enjoyed by the subjects of both Spain and England to navi- gate the Pacific ocean and the South seas ; and to land on places on the coast thereof not already occupied; to carry on commerce with the natives, and to make settlements with the following restrictions : ' ' The King of Great Britain agreed to prevent navigation or fishery in those seas being made the pretext for unlawful trade A\-ith the Spanish settlements. No British subject was to navigate or carry on a fishery in said oceans within ten leagues of any part of the coast occupied by Spain. "When settlements were made by subjects of either power, free access to, and full privilege to trade, were confirmed without molestation."
Such was the treaty between Spain and England about Old Oregon. At the very most, it was only a treaty of joint occupancy for trade ; no provisions having oeen made by either party for the policing or government of the country. Spain did not renounce the sovereignty of the country, and neither of the parties or both combining could make an effective treaty to bar out other nations ^vhile themselves pretending to hold the country in common. It is a fundamental principle of the law of nations, that the territorial boundaries and limits of sovereignties shall be definite and fixed, so that the nation claiming jurisdiction over any country can be held to accountability for conduct within or proceeding from such country. Joint occupancy defeats that principle of law. and is. there-
The British government appointed Captain George Vancouver commissioner to receive the personal property seized by the Spaniards, and carry out the provisions of the treaty on the part of England; and Spain appointed as Spanish commissioner Senor Bodega y Cuadra and the two representatives of their respective countries met at Nootka Sound on August 28, 1792. After haggling and negotiating over the matter for two weeks, the Spaniard refused absolutely to deliver possession of any land except the. ground on which the British house had been erected, probably about an acre. The ships and personal property had been returned to the Englishmen more than a year before, and the Spanish commissioner now refused to give up more land than what was used with the one temporary house, and would not permit the English commissioner to raise the British flag over even that. This, the English commissioner refused, and sailed away. The English were never put in possession of a foot of the Pacific coast by Spain, and its territory was never surrendered to England in any manner whatever.
There was. after the disagreements of Cuadra and Vancouver a subsequent effort to settle the matter at Nootka, in which, according to the British version. General Alva, on the part of Spain surrendered the ground on which the British buildings stood to Lieut. Pierce of the British navy. But the English never took possession or occupied the place. And commenting on these facts, the British historian, William Belsham, says:
"But though England, at the expense of three millions, extorted from the Spaniards a promise of restoration and reparation, it is well ascertained — First, that the settlement in question was never restored by Spain, nor the Spanish flag at Nootka ever struck; and, secondly—that no settlement had been subsequently attempted by England on the Oregon coast. The claim of right set up by the court of London, it is therefore plain, has been virtually abandoned."
Spain's title to Old Oregon by the right of prior discovery, whatever that amounts to, and continuous possession and assertion of that right, as against England, is therefore found to be perfect and indefeasible.
But this was not all of Spain's title. In the year 1763, thirteen years before the American colonies threw off their allegiance to Great Britain, England entered into a treaty with Spain, defining the boundaries of the respective territorial rights and possessions in North America. And by that treaty, the Mississippi river, flowing from north to south in a direct course for fifteen hundred miles, was declared to be the perpetual boundary between the possession of Spain, and the possessions of Great Britain in America; and the entire country west of that river was declared to be the territory of Spain.
And now having set out the historical facts which conclusively show that Spain had, according to the law of nations, a good and sufficient title to the whole of Oregon, from Mexico clear up to the Russian possessions of Alaska, at fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north latitude, we will give the record showing Spain's transfer of that title to the United States.
On February 22, 1819, the United States made a treaty of a ​mity, settlement
and limits with Spain in which tlie king of Si^aia ceded to the United States all the rights of Spain to all the territory on the American continent east of the Ar- kansas river, and all north of the forty-second parallel of north latitude ; and the United States ceded to Spain all claims and pretensions to territory west of the Arkansas river and south of said parallel of north latitude. This gave to the United States all of Spain 's rights to old Oregon ; being all the territory west of the Rocky mountains lying north of said parallel of latitude and up to fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north.
In a treaty with the Russian empire signed at St. Petersburg, April 17, 1824, Russia recognized this right of the United States in the third article of said treaty, which reads:
"Article 3. It is, moreover, agreed that hereafter there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the said states, any establishment on the northwest coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent to the north of fifty-four degTees and forty miniites of north latitude; and that in the same manner, there shall be none formed by Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same parallel."
No nation has ever been more careful of its treaty obligations or better in- formed of the boundary rights of other nations than the empire of Russia ; and it is not to be thought of for a moment, that Russia would in this manner recognize the rights of the United States to make settlements up to its own south boundary on the Paciiic, if we did not possess such right.
In addition to the grant from Spain, the United States had the further grant from France in the sale of Louisiana in 1803. By that purchase from France the United States acquired the rights founded on the doctrine of continuity, the right arising from holding contiguous unclaimed lands. In the treaty of Utrecht, made between England and Prance in 1713, Prance was confirmed in all the territory from the Mississippi line westward to the Pacific ocean. By that treaty England received Canada and Illinois, and renounced to France all tvest of the Mississippi AND FBOM THE HEADS OF ALL STREAMS EMPTYING INTO HUDSON'S BAY CLEAR OVER TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN, subject, of course, to any claims of Spain. For the integrity of this principle of continiiity of territorial rights. Great Britain waged the war of 1763 against France, and by the treaty which ended that war. Great Britain transferred to France whatever rights or benefits that might accrue from the recognized doctrine of continuity, and forever barred England from assert- ing any claims to anything west of the north and south Mississippi line. And when the United States made the treaty with England, in 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary war, this country became the successor of Great Britain to all territorial rights west of the Mississippi line, and in purchasing out the rights of Prance in 1803, in the Louisiana purchase, this country fui'thermore became the sole owner of all rights of both England and France to all the region west of the Mississippi. So that the only tract of territory that there could be any possible dispute about so far as discovery titles could settle it, was that part of Old Oregon west of the Rocky mountains, north of the 49th parallel of north lati​
tude up to Alaska. Ami that, as we have showu clearly belonged to Spain and was transferred to the United States by Spain in the Florida ti-eaty of 1819.
But notwithstanding this clear record title, when our government came to deal with the actual possession of the country, when American citizens wanted to come in for settlement and trade, it made a sorry mess of the business. When President Thomas Jeft'erson purchased Louisiana of France, and hastily sent out Lewis and Clark to explore the couuti-y, he unquestionably believed the United States had a right to colonize the country. As has been stated before, his mind had for a long time been studying the future of the "Far West."" Cap- tain Gray had discovered the great "'River of the West" in 1792, and his dis- covery had been hailed by our people as settling the title to a vast and important territory. xVud the same spirit which had taken possession of, and held the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, w-as ready to move on to the Pacific when the advance was necessary. The report of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1S05, had electri- fied the whole nation with the wonders of the far west they had made known to the world. The Napoleonic commercial spirit of John Jacob Astor leaped across a continent, and without national recognition or protection, founded the semi- military post at the moutii of the great river, and fiuug the Stars and Stripes to the world in claiming for his adopted country its most valuable and grandest national outpost.
And while England made a pretense that Captain Gray did not really enter the Columbia river, but had only sailed into a bay into which the river emptied, and that an English ship, had, subsequent to Gray, sailed up the Columbia a hundred miles, and therefore the English discovered the river, yet that pretense had to be abandoned when actual sea-faring men proved that the Columbia was a real irresistible river clear down to the ocean bar.
And England never disputed the right of Lewis and Clark as a government expedition to explore this region in 1805, nor did the British object to the found- ing of Astoria until the war of 1812 gave them an excuse to rob American citi- zens of their property wherever they could find them ; and so they robbed Astor of what his treacherous partnei-s had not already stolen. But this gave Eng- land nothing but a robber's title to Astoria, which tlu'v surrendered after the close of the war.
President Jefferson attempted to get the northern boundary line settled with England in 1807, and because the English negotiators attempted to insert a paragraph in the treaty that would make Spain believe that the United States and England intended to claim Spanish territory west of the Rocky ^Mountains, Jefferson rejected the whole business as an unfriendly intimation to Spain.
In 1814, after the close of the war of 1812, President iladison renewed the effort to have the northern boundai-y line settled, and offered the proposition of 1807, to-wit: that the boundary should run west from the most northern point of the Lake of the Woods (at the head of the Mississippi river) to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, but "that nothing in the present article he construed to r.rfend to the northicest coast of Aynerica, or to the territory claimed by either party westward of the L'ocky Mountains."
The British ministry offered to accept this article, provided, England was granted the right of navigation of the Mississippi river from British America to the Gulf of Mexico. And this, of course, was rejected by the Americans. ​
In 1815 our government notified the British that immediate possession would be taken of Astoria and the mouth of the Columbia river, and ordered the sloop of war, Captain James Biddle, to make ready to sail for the Columbia. The British minister at Washington objected and remonstrated, but finally agreed to the unconditional surrender of Astoria by the British, and that the status quo before the war should be restored ; and that in treating about the title to Old Oregon, the United States should be in possession.
And again for the third time, 1817, negotiations were renewed to establish the boundary line. President Madison offering to extend the 49th parallel of north latitude boundary from the Lake of the Woods through to the Pacific ocean, but without prejudice to the rights or claims of Spain. But to this propo- sition, the British would not agree unless they could have free navigation of the Mississippi river. And this was again rejected by the Americans.
And again, for the fourth time, 1818, negotiations were renewed to settle the northern boundary, James ]Monroe having become President, he appointed the two able statesmen, Albert Gallatin, and Richard Rush to manage the business. The whole history of the discovery and exploration of the North Pacific coast was again gone over, and every argument and consideration that could be pro- duced or invented was brought forward. Agreement was impossible and the negotiations brought to an end by the treaty of October 20, 1818, which deter- mined the boundary line of the United States westward to the Rocky mountains, but no further; and then adopting the following third article of the treaty: "It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the north- west coast of America, westward of the Stony (Rocky) mountains, shall, to- gether with its harbors, bays and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of this treaty to the vessels, citizens and subjects of the two powers. It being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim, which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of said coun- try." This is the treaty of joint occupancy.
Immediately after the treatj^ of joint occupancy with England, President Mon- roe renewed negotiations with Spain, and on February 22, 1819, concluded the treaty by which the 42nd parallel of north latitude from the meridian north of the head of the Arkansas river, Avest to the Pacific ocean, was made the boundary line between Spain and the United States, and in this treaty Spain ceded to the United States "all rights, claims and pretensions to any country north of the said forty-second parallel." And this gave to the United States all the rights of prior discoverj^ to all the country west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California, clear up to the Arctic ocean AND MADE PERFECT THE TITLE OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE WHOLE OF OLD OREGON.
Thus far the question of title had been left to the executive department of the Government. But in the winter of 1820-21 the matter was called up in Con- gress for the first time by John Floyd, who was an officer in the army in the war of 1812, and a member of Congress from Virginia in 1820. Floyd had met Ram- say Crooks and Russell Parnham of the Astor Expedition to Astoria, and be- came imbued with the great value of the Oregon country. He moved the ap- pointment of a committee to repoi-t on the subject. The committee was granted
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THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON 1'17
luittoe was coinposed of Floyd, TJioinas, ^Metcall' ol' Kentucky and Thomas V. Swearingeii ol' Virginia, all anli'iit western men. Within six days they reported a bill to .iiitliorize the innniMJiate occupation of the Columbia River valley, and to rci^iilatc trade with the Indians therein. Jkit no action was taken on their icport.
The ten years of joint occui)aucy expiring in 1S2S, the clit'ort was renewed by our govei'nnieut to secure a settlement of the boundary line west of the Rocky mountains. The Russian government had by ti'eaty, conceded the rights of the United States up to fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north. John Quin^iy Adams had become president and made Henry Clay secretary of state. Clay now renewed the negotiations for a settlement of the northern boundary line with England, being the fifth attempt by the United States to get the vexed question settled.
In an able letter to the American minister at London, Richard Rush, ^Ir. Clay points out that, ' ' Our title to the whole of the coast up to the Russian Pos- sessions is derived from prior discovery and settlement at the mouth of the Col- umbia river, and from the treaty which Spain concluded on the 22nd of Febru- ary, 1819. The argument on this point is believed to have conclusively estab- lished our title on both grounds. Nor is it conceived that Great Britain has or can make out, even a colorless title to any portion of the northern coast. By the renunciation and transfer contained in the treaty with Spain of 1819, our rights extended to the sixtieth degree of nortii latitude."
No conclusion having been reached by these negotiations, the joint occupancy treaty was extended indefinitely, with a proviso that it might be terminated by either party on giving twelve months' notice to the other party to the treaty. On this indefinite, uncertain position Oregon was left by our government from October 2Sth, 1828, to April 28th, 1846, when by direction of Congress, Presi- dent James K. Polk was instructed to notify the government of Great Britain that the treaty of joint occupancy would be terminated in twelve months from that date. And thus we see that for twenty-eight years the legal position and sovereignty of Oregon was up in the air ; and the people did not know to whom, or to what government their allegiance was due. or what government, if any, would protect their rights.
The vacillation and feeling of uncertainty with which Congress, presidents and cabinets had well nigh smothered and buried the first claims of the United States to Old Oregon was in marked contrast to the vigorous efforts of the hand ful of brave pioneers who sought to hold the country for their native land.
It does not appear that either the executive department of the government, or the Congress of the United States, ever took any official notice of the great achievement of Captain Robert Gray in the discovery of the Columbia river. The action of President Jefferson in sending the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific coast in 1805 was very largely the act of Jeffei'son himself. And while Congress did make an appropriation of $2,500 for the expedition, it never otherwise sought to secure to the countrj- any positive or immediate benefits there- from. It was assinned by American business men — Astor, Wyeth, Winship and Bonneville — that because of Gray's discover}-, and the Lewis and Clark explora- tion, that Old Oregon must of right belong to the United States, and therefore it was open to American settlement. And even after Astor 's unfortun ​ate adven-
ture, and the loss of liis property and the capture of his fort by the British, our Congress took no action to assert its paramovint rights to this country.
In the treaty with Great Britain made by Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, in 1818, in the third article of said treaty : " It is agreed that any coun- try that may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America west- ward of the Stony (Rocky) mountains, shall together, with its harbors, bays and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of this signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens and subjects of both powers. It being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two liigh contracting parties may have to any part of the said country; nor shall it be taken to affect the claim of any power or state to any part of said coun- try ; the only object of the high contracting parties in that respect being to pre- vent disputes and differences."
The provisions of the above article were renewed between the two nations in 1827, and continued in force down to the 28th day of April, 1846, three years after the formation of our Provisional Government at Champoeg, when, in per- suance of a resolution of Congress, President James K. Polk notified the Britisla government that the period of joint occupancy of the Oregon territorj' had been terminated.
When the venerable Adams, who had, as Secretarj^ of State under President James Monroe, negotiated the treaty of 1818, and afterwards as President of the United States in 1827, renewed that treaty, was called on as a member of Con- gress in 1846 to explain the treaty, said: (February 9, 1846) "There is a very great misapprehension of the real merits of this case, founded on the misnomer which declared that treaty to be a treaty of joint occupation. It is not a con- vention of joint occupation. It is a convention of non-occupation — a promise on the part of both parties that either of the parties will occupy the territory for an indefinite period ; first, for ten j^ears ; then until the notice should be given by the one party or the other that the convention shall be terminated, that is to say, that the restrictions, the fetters upon our hands, shall be thrown off, which pre- vents occupation."
Here, then, is a treaty that deliberately renounced the right of the American emigrants to come here and establish homes. They might come and catch fish, trap wild animals for furs, and trade with the Indians, but "they must not hoist the American flag, they must not open farms, they must not build homes or school houses, or do anything to establish a settlement ; Oregon was a country for free trade, but not for free settlement. England, Spain, France, Russia, and every- body else had the same rights in Oregon as the Americans. Oregon is thus dis- tinguished as the first and only free trade country that now belongs to the Union of States.
And while this treaty of 1818 tied the hands of the respective governments, it did not provide for the arrest of independent movements of traders or settlers. It left the question of occupancy and final disposition of the country right where Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, under President Tyler, predicted it would be when he wrote to the American minister at London (Edward Everett) in 1840, saying : ' ' The ownership of Oregon is likely to follow the greater settlement and the larger population." ​
TlIK CKXTKNXIAL IITSTORV OF OKMOGON 219
"We iUT thus parliriihir h. |Hiiiil nut the fac-ts showing' the r\:\r\ \r'^:i\ :t\\i] po- litical status oT the (•(iiiiili'\. so tli;it tli.e reader may get ,-i i'li';ii' iilc:i of lln' niaji-- nitude of the work achieved by the early Oregon Pio7ieers. Oregon was from 1818 down to 1S4G practically and substantially in tiu- jwsition of Itcing the
first and only instance in the United States of an alisohildy IVec Irad intry:
no custniii houses, no lax eollcrldrs. no offii-ials. no hiws ami a
NO MAN S LAND
and open to the application of
"The good old rule, the simple plan.
That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can."
And now we reach the point when the pioneers coming in from Iowa and Mis- souri commenced to drive stakes, and settle down to hold fast to something. A little band coming in the Autumn of 1842 found here Robert Newell, Joseph L. Meek and a few other Americans scattered around, less than a hundred all told, and twenty-five or thirty Missouri people. This was the nucleus of the Ameri- can state to be. There was no law except what the Hudson 's Bay Company chose to enforce through the justices of the peace, appointed by the British govern- ment in Canada, and their jurisdiction extended no further than enforcing pen- alties for violation of criminal laws.
These lonely settlers in the far distant wilderness of Oregon were loth to as- sume the great responsibility of establishing a goverinnent to govern themselves ; especially when they were opposed by_ an equal number of Canadians opposed to government, which opposition was backed up b.y the all-powerful Hudson "s Bay Company with unlimited resources for effective opposition.
The Americans in Oregon had now reached a point where they were com- pelled to act. To retreat they could not. To go forward and establish a govern- ment of their own for mutual protection was the only alternative of common sense and brave men. They had sent their petitions to the American Congress as the colonists of the Atlantic coast had sent theirs in 1775 to "The King's most Excellent Majesty." And like the King, the Congress had "been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity." And here we see the self-reliant, inde- pendent dignity of character, and the heroic courage of the pioneer of 1843. They woidd organize a government of their own, "appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions." They did organize it. and carried it on for five years and ten months, protecting the lives and prop- erty of all the people without distinction of nationality, administering justice, preserving order, promoting education and morality, and attracting and receiv- ing the good name it deserved both in the United States and in foreign lands. And by this act of organizing and maintaining a government by American citi- zens, the pioneer Oregonians did more to settle the title to the country, and save Oregon to the United States than all other acts in the history of his region.
The title to Oregon was carried into the political arena of 1844. The national Democratic convention meeting at Baltimore on the 27th of May, 1844. adopted the followino- resolution : ​
"Resolved — That our title to the whole territoi'y of Oregon is clear and un- questionable, that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power; and that the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas, at the earliest practicable period, are great American measures which the convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of the Union. ' '
Upon that platform, James K. Polk was nominated for president, and ac- cepted the nomination, promised if elected, to make good the claim to Oregon as set forth in the platform. He was elected over the "Whig candidate, Henry Clay, by a majority of sixty-five votes in the electoral college. Before Polk's nomina- tion or election, the Oregon question came up in the United States Senate for dis- cussion, and on January 4th, 1844, James Buchanan, afterwards president, de- clared in the Senate: "I will never agree to relinquish one foot of Oregon. If we rested our claims on discovei'y, it would not extend beyond the valley of the Oregon. But our claim is good as this book shows (referring to Greenhow's His- tory) for it rests on the old Spanish claim. Here in this book are translated copies of old Spanish voyages and documents, proving their title ; and thus also ours, by abundant testimony up to fifty-four degrees and forty minutes to a certainty."
Senator Thomas H. Benton speaking at the same time said: "As to the char- acter of our title to Oregon, there was a much broader and clearer claim than any mentioned by Senator Buchanan. We settled that territory. The settlement of it was the basis of our claim. The British never saw or heard of Oregon till we discovered it and put a badge of our sovereignty on it. Then Great Britain jumped down on Oregon, and now she was going to fight us for it. He would assure the gentlemen that we are not going to have another Massachusetts and Maine boundary question. There was to be no trembling and yielding in this case, as there was in the former one. No trembling hearts were to be found in the West. This was a western question, and the west had a regard for the National honor. ' '
Much more could be given of the same cjuality showing the temper of the western people, and the right of the nation to the whole of Oregon. The presi- dential campaign of 1844 was fought out on the Democratic cry of
."fifty-pour, forty, or fight."
The writer of this book remembers distinctly seeing those words emblazoned on the Democratic banners; and the hue and cry of the campaign orators de- nouncing the British in their attempt to steal a part of old Oregon, and appeal- ing to the voters to rally to the support of Polk and drive the British out of the Oregon wilderness, root and branch.
And after Polk was elected, and in his inaugural address on March 4th, 1845, he repeated the declaration of his party that nominated him in the very words of the platform on which he was elected. And then after being thus overwhelm- ingly elected on this very issue, on a direct referendum to the people, he hauled down the national colors, and made the treaty of June 15, 1846, which gave away to the British all the territory now included in British Columbia. And here is what the United States lost by Polk's treachery.
The British Columbia Year Book gives the area of the several political divis-
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No. 1— DANIEL WEBSTER, Secretary of State under President Tyler—did not want any more territory for new states—did not want Oregon
No. 2— PRESIDENT POLK, elected on the platform of "54°, 40' north or fight"—but backed down and wouldn't fight
No. 3— GENERAL JOE LANE, the "Marion of the Mexican War:" first U. S. Governor of Oregon; first U. S. Senator from Oregon; last candidate of the pro-slavery democracy for Vice-President, and would fight any time for what he considered a good cause ​
Comax .■ 7.100 square miles
N'ancoTivcr Island 16,400 square miles
'I'otal 409..300 squar.' miles
The territnry wiiieli the Oreuou ])ioueers with (heir I'mvisidiial (loverument saved to the I'liited States is as follows:
Oregon IKj.Oiid s(juare miles
Washington 69,180 square miles
Idaho 84.600 square miles
Western Montana 28,000 square miles
Northwestern Wyoming 13.000 square miles
Total 290,810 square miles
This tabular statement shows, that the British secured, by bluffing President Polk, 119.100 square miles more of the Old Oregon Territoi-y than did the United States, when in fact Enfrland was not in law or equity entitled to a single acre of it.
The surrender of the northwest Oregon territory to the British was the most humiliating piece of diplomacy that ever disgraced our country. Fortunate that it is, it stands alone in the history of the Republic. Cowardly, truckling, and damaging, alike to national interests and national honor, the reason and excuse for it was even more infamous. The whole north and west was so outraged and incensed bej'ond any words to describe the public sentiment that Robert J. Walker. Secretary of the Treasurj' under President Polk, was compelled to give an excuse for the great wrong ; and in doing so admitted that the southern slave state president and senators (with, of course, their northern dough-faced sup- porters ^i had given up northwest Oregon to England, for the reason, it might at some future time come into the Union as an anti-slavery state.
We can have no conception now of the bitterness of the fight against Oregon, by the slave holders on one hand, and the British on the other; and of the tre- mendous odds and forces the friends of Oregon in Congress and the pioneers on the trail had to overcome. As a sample of the public sentiment in large portions of the eastern states we give two extracts from speeches of United States Sena- tors. Senator W. L. Dayton, of New Jersey in the Senate on February 23rd. 1844. said :
■'What there is in the territory of Oregon to tempt our national cupidity, no one can tell. Of all the countries on the face of the earth, it is one of the least favored of heaven. It is the mere riddling of creation. It is almost as barren as the desert of Africa, and C[uite as unhealthy as the Campania of Italy. We would not be subjected to all the innumerable and indescribable tortures of a journey to ​
Oregon for all the soil its savage hunters ever wandered over. All the writers- and travelers agree in representing Oregon as a vast extent of mountains and val- lej^s of sand dotted over with green, and cultivable spots. Russia has her Siberia, and England has her Botauj' Bay, and if the United States should ever need a country to which to banish its rogues and scoundrels, the utility of such a region as Oregon will be demonstrated. ' '
And then the wise Senator from Jersej' ventilates his wisdom on the possi- bility of a railroad to this ' ' riddling of creation, ' ' and says :
"The power of steam to reach that country has been suggested. Talk of steam communication — a railroad to the mouth of the Columbia ! A railroad across twenty-five hundred miles of desert prairie and mountains ! The smoke of an engine through these terrible fissures of that great rockj- ledge, where the smoke of the volcano has rolled before! Who is to make this vast internal^ rather external improvement 1 All the mines 'of Mexico and Peru, disembowelled would scarcely pay a penny of the cost."
Dayton lived long enough to become the candidate for Vice-President on the ticket with Fremont in 1856, and died in Paris in 1864, after the railroad had started across the deserts of Kansas and Nebraska towards Oregon ; and if he could arise from his grave and see the two railroads on the Columbia, river daily carrjang more freight than is produced in the state of New -Jersey in a year, he would give up the delusion that Oregon was a desert.
But Dayton was not alone in the opposition, from the northern states to se- curing the territory of Oregon. As great a man as Daniel Webster made open as well as secret opposition to the acciuisition of Oregon. In a public address on November 7, 1845, at Faneuil Hall, in Boston, in discussing the Oregon question, said : "That the vast importance of peace with England, he took for granted; but the question that now threatened that peace and was causing a great alarm, was of forty years' standing, and was now coming to a crisis. It is a question that is a fit subject for a compromise and amicable adjustment, but one which in my opin- ion can be settled on an honorable basis bj^ taking the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude as the boundary line ; the two countries would then keep abreast on that line to the Pacific Ocean."
Later on Mr. Webster declared that the title and government of Oregon would go to the people which had the greatest population in the territory. And still later on, in the United States Senate, as showing his position generally, he de- clared in a speech on March 1st, 1847 :
"In the judgment of the Whig part.y, it is due to the best interests of the country, to declare at once, and proclaim now, that we want no new states or ter- ritory to form new states out of us. as the end of conquest. For one, I enter into this declaration with all mj' heart. We want no extension of territory, we want no accessions of new states. The countrj^ is alreadj^ large enough."
This shows why Dr. Whitman could not move Webster, while Secretary of State, to help Oregon, and shows the under current of apatlij^ not to say dis- loyalty to the West, with which Benton, Linn, Semple and other western states- men had to contend to save Oregon to the nation.
And after all these declarations of Webster has become settled history, Dr. John Fiske, a historian of Yale University attends the Gray Centennial at Astoria in 1892 and puts forward the following excuse for Webster: ​
THE CENTENNIAL HISTOKY OF OKEfiON 223
In J^tl. Miir foruiyn relations were in a very rritical nindil imi. Daniel Welislrr was Secretary- of State. Wise, practical statesman that he was, he saw that the only way to a peaceful adjustment was by the balancing of equivalents: that is, by giving ami taking on both sides. To this end he reihiced the related issues to the fewest number, and these to their vital points. He found the Oregon boundary anu)ng ([uestions at issue. He saw that this was an issue wholly unrelateil to the other and more pressing ones, th.at it could afford to wait until its consideration could Ije taken up entirely independent of other issues and settled on its own merits; that its introduction alongside the older and more pressing ones would inevitably lead to siune unfavorable cominoniise on the Oregon issue itself, or compel an unfavorable compromise on the other issues in its behalf. He there- fore rejected it entirely from consideration, and sul)sei|UeMt events fully justified hiis action in doing so. He was comjiletely successful in adjusting the other issues in the memorable treaty of 1842; and four years later, wiien the Oregon Treaty came before the Senate, amicably proposing the forty-ninth parallel as the boundary line of the two governments in the territory, Mr. \\ebster was there as Senator from Massachusetts to give the treaty his hearty sujiport. The history of the diplomatic negotiations between England and the United States over the Oregon boundary question shows that our govern- ment from the beginning maintained that the forty-ninth parallel w-as the proper boundary line, and that the key-note of Mr. Webster's policy Avas this line and nothing else. The people of the region of the Columbia, therefore, owe a special debt of gratitude to Mr. Webster for his wisdom in keeping the Oregon question distinct from the unrelated issues with which lie had to deal in the perplexing negotiations of 1842.
The plain, iiifoutrovertible historical facts were, that Webster was preferring to settle the dispute about the eodfisheries on the New Foundland coast before he took up the Oregon question. And when Fiske says, "that our government from the beginning maintained that the forty-ninth parallel was the proper boundary line," he ought to have said that our government as represented by Daniel AVebster held that view. For when the_ question was referred to the voters of the United States in the Polk campaign, the people overwhelmingly decided, that the position of Daniel Webster on the Oregon boundary line was not the position of the people of the United States.
Now, sixty years after that disgraceful surrender to England, the commer- cial interests, and all the people of this state, and the Pacific Coast, can see the damage wrought to national interests by having a British state sandwiched in between the state of Washington and our territory of Alaska. Here is our old inveterate and historical enemy with all its forts, and harbors and battlesliips, and transcontinental railroads, ready to harbor the Japanese and combine against American interests, and Oregon commerce, and do us more damage from these advantages cowardly given away by the Polk administration, than any army of a hundred thousand men could do attacking us from anj' point east of the Rocky mountains. If our government had courageously held on to all of Oregon, as the people told them to do in the presidential election of 1844, and as Senators Bentou and Linn vainly besought them to do, we would have had all of old Oregon today, and the Pacific ocean with all its vast commercial advantages would be practically an American lake. And for just retribution of this great wrong, some day the American people will rise up and place another Andrew Jackson in the presi- dential chair, and then look out, if the British flag is not pulled down from New- foundland to Vancouver Island, and the Canadians told to go it alone or come in under the Stars and Stripes.
And now, after reviewing the history of the iMiuntry for over sixty years, and considering the desperate and horrible course of the slave states in plunging the nation into all the horrors of the civil war, and putting the life and existence of the nation at stake, there can be but little doubt that had it not been for the Amei'ican settlements in the Willamette Valley, and the organization of the Pro​visional Government, which had declared against slavery, the pro-slavery President and his supporters would have given up the whole of Oregon to England to prevent the addition of another free state to the Union.
THE MERITORIOUS FACTS
Putting aside all quibbles and technicalities in the international diplomacy which disposed of the greatest question of the nineteenth century, four real and great national facts tower above all others.
First. The discovery and entrance of the Columbia river by Captain Robert Gray on the 11th day of May, 1792. The great significance of this fact consists in the importance of first a lauding on the main land of the old Oregon region, and secondly, in the fact that the river drains nearly all the territory in dispute. Neither the Spanish, English or French ships or navigators had ever landed on the main land of Old Oregon. They had all been at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island and upon Queen Charlotte Island. But Capt. Gray had been there as well. Gray's discovery makes Oregon the only territory held by the United Stat-es under the right by discovery.
Second. The exploration of the Oregon territory by Lewis and Clark before any other nation ever attempted to explore it. And both the discovery of the river by Gray and the exploration by Lewis and Clark had been done under written authority of the presidents of the United States.
Third. A bonafide settlement of the country by American citizens for the purpose of peopling and occupying the country for permanent settlements, and not for temporary trade purposes with the Indians. These three facts making plain to the country had all been executed openly before the whole civilized and commercial world, before Great Britain had a shadow of a claim under the occupation by its fur companies.
Fourth. Lastly, and strongest of all the claims. American settlers had, with public notice, called all persons, settlers and citizens to meet and organize a government to protect life and property; the meeting had been publicly held, and at which all persons, including subjects of Great Britain, had been given full and free opportunity to express their will, and at which meeting the subjects of Great Britain did take a part, and at which a majority had decided in favor of, and had organized a government that had all the powers of any government in any civilized nation—officers, courts, legislature, laws and military authority and power to defend its existence and protect its citizen members from private wrongs and public enemies—and no citizen, subject or government had denied the authenticity, legitimacy, legality or authority of such government. There never was a stronger ease upon which to base a right to jurisdiction and sovereignty over territory. And yet it all went for nothing when weighed in the scales of justice held and manipulated by a president and congress already tainted and corrupted with the virus of pro-slavery disunionism.
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to the count i-y '.' That nutioii got absolutely nothing hy the bullying of its pirat- ical fur trailing ship at Nootka Sound. The record shows that the Spaniard was the first discoverer of the North Pacific Coast, that he never surrendered his claim in the least, and whatever it was by right of discovery and actual occupation of Vancouver Island he held it intact until it was turned over to the United States l>y the treaty of February 22, 1819. Then what other right had England? .Mackenzie, a British subject, with an exploring party came over the Rocky Moun- tains in 1793, floated down part of the Eraser river, and reached the Pacific Ocean in July, 1793, more than one year after Gray had sailed into the mouth of the Columbia. If there was anything in that sort of discovery Capt. Gray with the American flag was more than a year ahead of the British claim. What else, then? "When Astor's party under Wilson Pi-ice Hunt started for the Pacific Coast in 1811, the British Northwest Company started a rival expedition across the continent to seize and hold Oregon as ,against the Astor (Pacific) Fur Company. But before Thompson, the British agent got over the Rocky mountains and put up his notice claiming the country for England, the Astor party had built a fort at Astoria, mounted cannon, run up the American flag, and Hunt with the overland party had got into the Snake river valley, and Levris and Clark had been over here up and down the Columbia six years before the Thompson part.v had posted their notices. So that England could claim nothing on that acount. How then did England get British Columbia, a part of Old Oregon, and as much the territory of the United States as was Utah and Kan- sas? How? Simply by bluffing a weak-kneed president, and pulling the slave- holding interests of the South into a surrender of the just rights of the United States to a territory as large as the three states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and giving the traditional enemy of this country a foothold on the Pacific Ocean where they can annoy this country and cripple and demoralize its com- merce for all time. That this position is correct, and that the English govern- ment well knew that it had no just claims to Oregon, is manifest from what came to the surface in 1818 when the treaty of joint occupancy was agreed to. In that negotiation Richard Rush and Albert Gallatin represented the United States and John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State to President James Monroe. Neither of these men had any love for old England. Mr. Adams was very careful in his instructions to Rush and Gallatin ; in the course of which he says : "From the earnestness with which the British government now returns to the object of fixing this boundary (The Oregon boundary) there is reason to believe that they have some other purpose connected with it, which they do not avow, hut which in their estimation gives it an importance not belonging to it, considered in itself. ' '
What was that "other purpose" which the British government would not avow? What was it that our traditional enemy was concealing from President Monroe? We don't have far to look to find it. President Monroe was the author of what is called "The ilonroe Doctrine." and which was authoritatively an- nounced to the world in 1823; Monroe had negotiated the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon for Jefferson. His secretary of state. Adams, had been the United States andiassador to Russia and had negotiated the treaties with that country which had secured its friendship to the United States for a hundred j'ears. These two men, then working together, had learned the secret aims and ​
objects of old England, and were prepared to check thera. And they clearly foresaw that England was scheming to get Oregon, or all of it that they could get ' ' by hook or crook, ' ' not for the sake of the land, or the furs, or the timber, or the mines, but for a great naval position on the Pacific coast, where, with its largest fleet of war ships in the world; it could dominate the commerce of the Pacific, and dictate terms to Russia, China and Japan, and to American interests on the west coast of America. But when the British agents met Rush and Gal- latin in 1818, they soon discovered that they had statesmen to deal -with who could not be deceived or over-reached. Then commenced the play for time, and a more favorable opportunity. They gave up Astoria, they kept the peace at Van- couver, they let the pioneers organize at Champoeg, putting in only a mild ob- jection. But when they saw the North and South of the American States divid- ing on the question of slavery they saw their long sought for opportunity, and encouraged the breach.between the free and the slaveholding states. Eng- land had tried to purchase Texas from Mexico, and after Texas had declared its independence of Mexico, England had been the first nation to recognize the in- dependence of Texas and make a treaty with that state before it had a settled government. Texas was annexed to the United States by the Tyler administra- tion and pro-slavery votes in congress for the express purpose of adding slave- holding territory to the Union. Giving voice to the southern sentiment on this subject, Henry A. Wise, a member of Congress from Virginia, said in the House of Representatives January 26, 1842 :
"True, if Iowa be added on the one side, Florida will be added on the other. But there the equation must stop. Let one more Northern state be admitted, and the equilibrium is gone — gone forever. The balance of interests is gone — the safe- guard of American property — of the American Constitution — of the American Union vanished into thin air. This must be the inevitable result, unless hy a treaty with Mexico the South can add more weight to her end of the lever. Let the South stop at the Sabine river while the North may spread unchecked beyond the Rocky Mountains, and the Southern scale must kick the beam."
JACKSON LETTER :
The opinion of Ex-President Andrew Jackson was called out on this subject ; and his reply to a letter of Congressman Aaron V. Brown of Tennessee is here published to show how the Southern statesmen were looking far ahead to protect the institution of slavery, and how clearly they saw the intrigues of England to checkmate the advance of the United States to the Pacific. Here follows Jack- son 's letter never before printed outside of the Southern Confederacy :
"Heemitage, February 13, 1843.
"My Dear Sir — Yours of the 23d ultimo has been received, and vrith it the Madisonian, containing Gov. Gilmer's letter on the subject of the annexation of Texas to the United States.
"You are not mistaken in supposing that I have formed an opinion on this interesting subject. It occupied much of mj^ time during my presidenej', and, I am sure, has lost none of its importance by what has since transpired.
"Soon after my election in 1829, it was made known to me by Mr. Erwin, formerly our minister to the Court of Madrid, that, whilst at that Court, he had ​
11
laid the foundation of a treaty with Spain for the cession of the Floridas and the settlement of the boundary of Louisiana, fixing the western limit of the latter at Rio Grande, agreeably to the understanding of France; that he had written home to our government for powers to complete and sign this negotiation; but that, instead of receiving such authority, the negotiation was taken out of his hands and transferred to Washington, and a new treaty was there concluded by which the Sabine, and not the Rio Grande, was recognized and established as the boundary of Louisiana.
"Finding that these statements were true and that our Government did really give up that important territory, when it was at its option to retain it, I was filled with astonishment. The right of the territory was obtained from France; Spain stood ready to acknowledge it to the Rio Grande ; and yet the authority asked by our minister to insert the true boundary was not only withheld, but, in lieu of it, a limit was adopted which stripped us of the whole of the vast coimtry lying be- tween the two rivers.
"On such a subject, I thouglit, with the ancient Romans, that it was right never to cede any laud or boundary of the repul)lic, but always to add to it by honorable treaty, thus extending the area of freedom; and it was in accordance with this feeling that I gave our minister in Mexico instructions to enter upon a negotiation for the retrocession of Texas to the United States.
"This negotiation failed; and I shall ever regret it as a misfortune both to Mexico and the United States. Mr. Gilmer's letter presents many of the con- siderations which, in my judgment, rendered the step necessary to the peace and harmony of the two countries; but the point in it, at that time, which most strongly impelled me to the course I pursued, was the injustice done to us by the surrender of the territory, when it was obvious that it could have been retained, without increasing the consideration afterward given for the Floridas. I could not but feel that the surrender of so vast and important a territory was attributed to an erroneous estimate of the tendency of our institutions, in which there was mingled somewhat of jealousy as to the rising greatness of the South and West,
"But I forbear to dwell on this part of the history of this question. It is past, and cannot now be undone. We can now only look at it as one of annexation, if Texas presents it to us ; and, if she does, I do not hesitate to say that the welfare and happiness of our Union requires that it should be accepted.
"If. in a military point of view alone, the question be examined, it will be found to be most important to the United States to be in possession of the ter- ritory.
"Great Britain has already made treaties with Texas; and we know that far- seeing nation never omits a circumstance, in her extensive intercourse with the world, which can be turned to account in increasing her military resources. May she not enter into an alliance with Texas? And, reserving, as she doubtless ivill, the noo-fhivestern boundary question as the cause of -war with us whenever sJie. chooses to declare it, let us suppose that, as an ally with Tesas, we are to fight her? Preparatory to such a movement, she sends her 20,000 or 30,000 men to Texas; organizes them on the Sabine, where supplies and arms can be concen- trated before we have even notice of her intentions; makes a lodgment on the Mississippi ; excites the negroes to insurrection ; the lower country falls, and with it New Orleans ; and a servile war rages through the whole South and West. ​
"In the meantime, she is also moving an army along the western frontier from Canada, which, in co-operation with the army from Texas, spreads ruin and havoc from the lakes to the gulf of Mexico.
"Who can estimate the national loss we may sustain, before such a movement could be repelled with such forces as we could organize on short notice ?
"I return you my thanks for your kind letter on this subject, and subscribe myself, with great sincerity, your friend and obedient servant,
Ai^DREW Jackson.
"Hon. a. V. Brown."
This question was also brought before the legislatures of the slaveholding states for expression of opinion. A committee of the state of Mississippi re- porting thereon, said, "Your committee are fully persuaded that this protection to her (slaveholding) interests will be afforded by the annexation of Texas; an equipoise of influence in the halls of congress will be secured which will f uiiiisli us a permanent guarantee of protection."
And so by one subterfuge after another the settlement of the Oregon boundary line was held back until after Texas was admitted to the Union as slave ter- ritory, and upon the express provision of Congress that four slave states might be carved out of Texas. The annexation of Texas and its proposed division into four slaveholding states was mainly the work of John C. Calhoun who had served as secretary of state in the Harrison-Tyler administration from 1841 to 1844. Calhoun saw nothing wrong in the institution of slavery. In his eyes it was not only good, but a positive good to both the white and the black race. He regarded slavery as a perfectly natural relation ; and that if the abolition move- ment then in 1840 being first agitated, should ever succeed, the fate of the southern people would be worse than that of the native Indians. Calhoun was an Irish Presbyterian of the most rigid, arbitrary and unyielding faith, and be believed in his pro-slavery sentiments with his whole soul. He was a bold, brave leader of men of great ability, and of an uncompromising disposition. He swayed the Harrison- Tyler administration to his purposes, forced the annex- ation of Texas, brought on the war against Mexico to seize more slave territory and xised neglected Old Oregon as a pawn on the international chess board to keep the British from seizing Texas or California. The annexation of Texas was formally completed on the 1st day of March, 1845, three days before James K. Polk was inaugurated the eleventh president of the United States. The ques- tion had been carefully nursed along during the entire administration of Tyler and Calhoun. Tyler, a very common-place man, had been extremely anxious to hasten the annexation of Texas as a matter of great moment to distinguish his administration; but Calhoim had been as equally anxious to hold the project back to the last minute, shrewdly seeing that it might arouse such a bitter anti- slavery sentiment in all the northern states as to endanger the election of a southern man to succeed Tyler. And to forestall any such a political revulsion, Calhoun cooked up the war-cry of ' ' Fifty-Four Forty or Fight, " as a platform for James K. Polk to run on to succeed Tyler. It was a great game, shrewdly and successfully played — "A good enough Morgan until after the election." And in all this double-dealing and duplicity the British agents had played into the hands of the slaveholders; as they always did, believing that sooner or later ​
the slavery qucstio.n wuuld divide the couiUrij and break up the Umcni of the States. Warre and Vavasour had been out here to Oregon surveying the country, piekhig out suitable sites for British forts and making recommendations as to the number of soldiers and cannon needed to seize and hold the country. And follow- ing up this recommendation, Her ]\lajesty's government ordered a regiment of the Royal Sappers and Jlinei-s to report from different parts of England to the "Woolwich Arsenal in readiness to proceed to America and go to Oregon territory for active service. And all this time Calhoun, on the part of the Soutli, and the Northern "doughfaces" under the lead of Dayton, of New Jersey, was de- nouncing Oregon as the "riddlings of creation," and not worth fighting about. The slave states had now got Texas, and forced Mexico into a war that in the end would add New Mexico and Arizona and a large slice of California south of the Mason-Dixon line of division between free and slave territory. Sloat had seized upper California ; and there was no reason to longer hold back the settlement of the Oregon boundary line with England. If there ever was a fair referendum of a political question to the people of the United States, it was the Oregon question. The people had passed on the question, and elected James K. Polk to carry out their sovereign will. It was to be the whole of Ore- gon — or fight. But no sooner is Polk safely seated in the presidential chair than he presents a compromise boundary line — a line that had been repudiated hy every president and every treaty that had preceded him. His secretary of state, James Buchanan, could ill conceal the disgust and humiliation he felt in making such an ofifer, and when England declined it he made haste to with- draw it. If Buchanan had now stood firmly by Oregon, he might have forced Polk to keep his pledges to the people, for the secretary of the treasury, Robt. J. "Walker, a Southern man, hotly opposed giving up an inch of Oregon to Eng- land. But Buchanan was wheedled into yielding with Polk on a promise of the presidency by the slave power, which he got in 18.56, and thus betrayed Oregon, just as he betrayed the Nation of 1860. The offer to give up half of Old Oregon, had been thus dishonorably made. Polk's administration was committed to it, and England took time to see what was best to do. An English representative was sent to Oregon in the person of a titled lady in disguise; and then it was discovered that the preachers, mountaineers and missionaries had organized a formidable government of their own, and were holding the fort under the Stars and Stripes; and that they were not good material to make British "subjects". And then it was that England accepted the line offered by President Polk, know- ing that Polk was giving away one-half the territoi-y the United States was justly entitled to. That the United States lost one-half of the Oregon territory, and gave our traditional and historical enemy a foothold to annoy us for all time on the Pacific is to be charged up to John C. Calhoun, President Polk and the slaveholders of the South. And that this History is fully justified in making this statement the reader is asked to consider the following letter written by Robert J. "Walker, who was socrelary of tlie treasury in President Polk's cab- inet. "When the purchase of Alaska was before Congress after the Civil war was over and twenty -three years after the settlement of the Oregon boundary, and after Polk was dead and buried and the institution of slavery abolished, Mr. "Walker, in his old age, wrote a letter to the "Washington City Daily Chronicle, published January 28, 1868, in which he says : ​
"We own now the whole western Pacific Coast from lower California to the Arctic Sea, except British Columbia, which (against my earnest protest in the cabinet) was ceded to England in 1846. I say ceded, for our title to the whole of Oregon from the forty-second parallel northward to Russian America was in truth clear and unquestionable. British Columbia was lost to us by the most unfortunate diplomacy extending through a long period of time. * * * The opposition to the acquisition of Louisiana was geographical and anti-slavery. In 1821, Texas was relinquished partly from geographical, but mainly from anti-slavery opposition. In 1845 the opposition to the annexation of Texas was based mainly on anti-slavery grounds. In 1846, in connection with the unfor- tunate action of preceding administrations, Oregon, north of the forty-ninth parallel, was lost to the Union. While the history of annexation in the United States shows various obstacles by which it h^s been retarded, yet the chief among these was the discordant element of slavery. Thus it was that, while the free states to a great extent opposed the acquisition of slave territory, the slave- states opposed the acquisition of free territory. But for these opposing prin- ciples, our area would be far greater than it is now. On extinguishing slavery, we have removed the principal cause which retarded annexation. We see already the good effects of the disappearance of this institution in the almost unanimous vote of the senate by which the Alaska treaty was ratified. Before the extinc- tion of slavery, that treaty luould have been defeated, upon the same pnnciple that Oregon north of the forty-ninth parallel was ceded to England." That is the testimony of a statesman, and a southern man, too, who was on the ground in the cabinet, and knew all about the whole base betrayal of the rights of the United States to the whole coast up to Alaska; — and that settles the question. That the United States saved anything of the Old Oregon, and gave the nation a foothold on the Pacific ocean, and an open roadway on American territory across the continent is to be credited to the Oregon Pioneers and their provi- sional government. The Oregon that was saved to the Nation, is the Oregon that was organized and claimed by the provisional government that was organ- ized by the fifty-two heroes at old Champoeg on May 2nd, 1843. And no words, or monuments can ever express or manifest the honor and respect due to those men from the people of Oregon.