Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1842-12-14
NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY.


subject OF our North-W estern Boundary,
which IS published in the London Morning.
Chronicle
10 the Editor Of tie Morning Chronicle:
S!R:--ln the communication published
in the Times Of the first instant, :. School-
crafts Narrative Of Travels in North Anne
RIGA, in 1920" is quoted for a geographic
cal TACT, in such manner as to leave the
impression, that were the great chain of
lakes damcd up at their eastern passage at
the head OF Niagara river, they would flow
westward into the gulf of Mexico, by the
communication of the St. Croix and Brule
rivers Nothing could be wider from the
Tact. For, although these rivers are con-
nectcd as it is stated by a short portage,
forming channel Of communication of
considerable practical Importance, yet such
is the relative elevation Of the several sum-
mlts, parting at different points, the lake
from the Mississippi waters, that on the
supposition Of q dam the overflow would
take place at Chicago, St. Josephs, and nu
merou5 other places long before it could
reach the St. Croix and Brule summit.
The question OF turning the lake waters
into the Mississippi valley, for the sugges-
ton OF which the Foreign Quarterly is re-
terred to, is, indeed, one OF pure specua-
ton, the possibility Of which, as q gcologi-
cal rather than geographical problem, is
all that the writer could have intended
There is, it is true, hardly any elevation OF
country which can be called an ancient
barrier, between the Illinois river and the
head of Lake Michigan. Violent storms
acting from the north, appear to have been
the agent in hcaping up sand dunes, which
are barely held together by a few trees and
shrubbery; and a rise Of forty feet would
! apparently drive the entire contents Of lake
Michigan, Huron and Superior, down that
valley into the Mississippi. Yet such re-
suit might be opposed by Rock strata be-
meath the sands; and, at all events, to pro-
dace The barr;cr across the st. Clair Or Nj
| agara. would be i Iic.culean labor, equal
the construction Of the Pyramids And as
a means of Military defence in a war with
Canada, it would be cheaper for the Uni
ted States to bridge Lake Ontario with
ships, between Sacke;'s lIarbor and Kings
ton, or TO line the whole frontier wth brass
cannon from Plattsburg to Detroit.
1t is asked, in the same article, whether
Lord Ashburton has, in his recent negota-
ton secured the Fox and Wisconsin Port
age! This portage being several hundreds
OF miles south OF the definite boundary of
the peace of 1888, could have constituted
no part of the business of Lord Ashburton.
But while the public is anxiously awaiting
the promul CATION Of the late Treaty it may
be pertinent to inquire whether the boun-
dairy line west from the Lake Of the Woods
to the Pacific has been adjusted 1t is here
IN the view Of most men 1T all acquainted
with the subject, that the real bone of future
contention lies. And the longer the line
is left unsettled, the greater will be the
practical difficulties attending its salistacto-
ny adjustment.
Ii there be any ore just right more than
anot er, upon which Americans will prove
themselves pert;nacious, it is The right to
territory. While eighteen millions Of an
active population are daily sending their
surplus, or cntcrprising members west, ana
hat region constitutes the great theatre Of
expansion for the Saxon and Celtic races,
It would be utterly in disregard Of the past
Il we did not anticipate pertlnacity for the
'uture. Territory is, in more senses than
one, the lle-bood of an agricultural people,
The rapidity with which population doub-
les in America, must keep up the demand
for new land; the circle of settlement is
daily widening and spreading west of the
Alleghanies, and it must not only reach the
; Pacific in u few years, but spread literally
to the north and south. That they will bat
tic for the Territory, the time comes,
let no one doubt.
AT present, however, the active field for
emigration is still confined to the Missis-
sippi Valley. The Oregon Territory is
chiefly known to hunters and fur traders.
y very small American population is sea-
ted south Of the Columbia. A few mission
aries planted corn here, while the natives
demanded but part Of their labors. The
leading interest is the fur trade, which is
divided between the parties claiming terri
tory. But no one who does not shut his
eyes to the facts can doubt that, from the
capture of Astoria, in 1912, the American
interest and trade with the tribes has de-
clned, while that Of the British Companies
have greatly increased. Are the latter pre-
pared to give up the territory they occupy
north of the Columbia! 1t is not the spirit
Of those who, in the thirst for gain, muir
dercd keveney and shot Semple, their own
kindred, to spare their American rivals the
moment they shall enter the possessed ter
rltory.
Those American editors deceive them
selves, who affirm that while the settlement
o! the boundary is left untouched, it is inn
perceptibly being settled by the progress of
emigration. There is not, ii is believed,
solitary American settler or trader north
of the Columbia. Yet it is the general and
settled belief in America, that their right
to the entire valley Of that river, north as
well as south, as far as the remotest tribu
taries reach, is indisputably just. Mr.. Gree