New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-07-19
Settlement of Oregon.


pcrils and privahons Of the journey be at all equa
to ours. We do not believe nine-tcnths of then
will ever reach the Columbia alive How such ;
company can be subsisted is serious problem
we do not believe they can be kept from the very
verge of starvation. When we consider wlla
small parties of active, resolute men, Injured t.
the wilderness, and expert in hunting, have amos
uniformly suffered in crossing the Rocky Noun
1ains, and that game grows annually scarcer, W.
are appalled, at the temcrity Of exposing some
seven hundred women and children to the pcrils
of thai rugged passage. Where can they find
food True, they have 1000 head Of cattle
with them, but how are these to live They
will eat wide swath through fertile and grassy
country, and can only be driven forward very
slowly. Fifteen miles day on gently rising
plains will be good progress-ten will be the more
probable pace. Grant that they will do well enough
till they reach the base of the Rocky Mountains,
and that two-thirds of them are killed and eaten
by that time, how are the rest to be taken over
We presume some arc to be driven through, or so
many would not be taken; but some must be
driven over the Mountains or the starvation Of the
party is inevitable But how driven over How
fed on their way We know that there is pass
far more favorable than that described by Mr.
F7rnham but take that by which Mr.. Parker
1rayerscd the Mountains, and can any man sup
oose that FIVE hundred head Of cattle can be got
over alive? In the long dreary descent of the
n If
mains. here and there dotted with little tufts Of
bunch-grass, but for miles producing nothing but
wormwood; the entertainment Tor man and
beast'-especially for several hundreds OF men
and cattle-w here be of the most mcagre des-
cription. We shall be agrceably surprised and
gratfed to hear that three fourths of this adven-
furious company have reached the lower + als
of the Columbia alive.
= But, did they not foresce all these perils p
says an inquirer How idle to imagine they have
rashly encountered them without due prcpara-
ton All, sir. the South American expedition
OF Miranda, the Santa Fe expedition, Warfcld's
late adventure in the same direction, with count
less other rash enterprises Of the kind, were un-
dertaken with equal confidence, and with like be-
lief that they had provided for every obstacle,
and were advancing TO certain success. To the
sanguine vision of adventures on such under
1akings, nothing appears forbidding or formidable,
and they awake from their cherished delusion
only when prudence is too late.
But it is tic Settlement of Oregon, mainly by
sldycnturers from this country, that we had pur-
posed to speak of, and that is inevitable. No
matter who owns or who governs Oregon, our
people will subduc and possess 1t. England and
we prefer claims respectively to ownership, and
neither without some show of right. Our claim
TO all South OF the Columbia appears the far
stronger; north of that river, title Is not so
clear The honest truth is that neither of us have
4 very good title--except by possession. There
a1e British subjects and British interests there on
the one side, American citizens, settlements and
possessions on the other; and we have mutually
agreed hitherto that each government should
govern and protect its own people. This JOINT
possession cannot much longer continue. One
party must give way, the two must divide and
each take share Some adjustment of the con
ficung claims mus. be effected speedily, or de.
porable collisions of authority will ensuc.
There is one plan of compromise that would
suit US exactly, and that is to declare the whole
country West of the Rocky Mountains, from the
dominion of Mexico on one side to that of Rus
STA on the other, entirely INDEPENDENT of all othe,
nations, but under the Joint protection, during It's
minority, of the United States and Great Britain
Let all foreign jurisdiction be withdrawn, but lie,
Immigration be free, the commerce of all nations
treated with equal favor, ana the Government
such as the People choose to adopt. Then, after
the country had attained some pith and Vi gor, lei
all protection or interference be withdrawn, and
OREGON left to manage itsown affairs precisely like
any other country.
Such an adjustment would suit us far better
than an unqualified surrender OF her claims by
Great Britain and general acknowledgement o.
the title of the United States We confess VIC
look with apprehension 10 the extension OF the
Jurisdiction OF the United States over that remote
reion. 1t is measure traugh, with dangers, Il
not with unavoidable calamity, A Republic car
only exist in any tolerabe degree OF purity by
virtue o: vigilan, supervision exercised by the
People over their rulers; 50 soon as this super
vision fails, the forms OF Democracy exist but &c
cover the sinews of Despotisn. Now 1t appears
evident that the ready and quick intelligence o.
tic nature and bearing of official acts which is
the vitality of Freedom, could not be expected &c
exist in country numbering Maine and Oregon
among its political divisions, and that our Repub.
JIG, thus extended, would become what the no
man commonwealth was after the conquests OF
Cesar.
We viii not here speak of the inevitably great
expense of line of Military posts across the
Rocky Mountains and down to the mouth of the