The New York herald., 1845-11-07
View OF the American Administration on
the Oregon Question.


question of national identity the question as to what
and where country shall henoeiorth be " SO Tar as
the Texan discussion is concerned that question Is now
substantially settledthe recent unsuccessful attempt
at protest by the wings Of New York city to the con-
rary Notwithstanding But the same great question as to
what and where our country shall be- may come up IN
another and still more imposing shape IN the APP
preaching Congress and if So it will form the great
Land Question Of this generation.
We allude of to what call with the fullest
confidence the American territory OF Oregon On this
great subject within the last three or four years public
sentiment has ripened fast In the judgment OF vast
majority ofths nation the time is rapidly approaching
or say rather has now come-when clear right in reia
ton TO this territory should embody itself in positive
law. For more than twenty years the people Of the
United States have what they regard their inds
puabe title to this immense territory swamped in Dego-
tiaton twas TO be expected from the wisdom and true
policy the British that this negoton bar
heretofore ofgood result, when entered upon with
administration, which, in its identity OF opinion on
this subject is and which is sustained in that
opinion by overwhelming and mastery OF public
sentmen-it was justly to be hoped OF the wisdom oil
England that the negotiation under such auspices,
and in such hands would ere long begin at least to
cure instead of deang In past years it has defeated
the great ends Of international justice
But, however this may be, whether the negotiations
succeed fail there can be no doubt that the democra
tic Congress now about to assemble will have great
duty to do in relation to Oregon and we believe that
coming to Washington fresh from conference with their
constituents, they will come together resolved to do it.
With the strong resolutions of the Baltimore convention
and the manly and patriotic inaugural words OF the re
the administration is fully prepared to perform with firm
its constitutional duty of recommending to Con-
gress all such may be deemed essential to
the full and efficient protection OF all our rights over
every rod Of that great domain the shore OF the Pac
fc which is by accumulated mass OF title the right
ul property of the United States
OF these measures-a indeed, Of this whole topic of
the American territory of Oregon-we shall have fire.
quent occasion to speak And may be well enough to
consider for moment in the outset the nature and the
value of this great territorial possession This ter
ritory lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pa
cifc Ocean-drained mainly by the Columbia river
bounded the north, the east and the south by noun
tain chains and the west by the ocean-exends from
latitude AZ deg to latitude 81 deg 40 min north II con-
tains than 100000 square miles-that is, is more
than twice large France and about hall as as
all the States subject to the Federal constitution
The American people claim against all other nations
this whole domain part OF their own soil. The
climate throughout nearly its whole extent mild and
temperate Accounts vary somewhat as to its fertility
and its natural advantages but man doubts that it s
capable of sustaining immense population nor that
when SO peoped it will control the commerce of the
Pacific and the oriental trads of the world
The present legal condition-the polity-of this i'm
portan region, is quite extraordinary as II exists in
theory but il far extraordinary it stands III
fact. In theory and by treaty stipulation, this land
with all its navigabs waters has been since ISIS open
to the free and undsurbed and enjoyment OF the sub
jecs of England and the citizens OF the United States
To terminate this state of thing at the will of either
the parties, only years notice is necessary
This enjoyment by the two nations Of all the
advantages of territory more than twice as large as
France being the somewha singular theory and stpu
lated law of its condition. stands in yet more singular
contrast to the state Of things which has, in fact grown
up there within the last twenty years Laying out Of
view Indian tribes which make this territory part
their range of find its present civilized population to
consist OF about eight nine hundred British subjects
and about half as many thousand citizens Of the United
States. The bulk of this population both British and
American is concentrated around the lower waters OF
the Columbia river occupyn ing, in its mass region no
much than hundred miles in length from east to
west and probably not much more than fifty miles III
BREADTH from north to south The eight or nine hun
dred men who compose the British portion of this peo
pie all of them understood to be in the service OF
the Hudson Bay Company and are engaged as hunters
trappers, or factors in the fur trade These men have
their principal station al trading post and fort,
called Fort Vancouver-on the river Columbia, about
eighty miles in straight line from It's mouth There
may be three farms in the possession OF these
British SUBJECTS but general rule, they live by the
fur trade and do not till the soil at all Besides Fort
Vancouver, the Bay Company has some twenty other
stations in various parts Of the territory But these
merely fortified stopping places for hunters and traders
| nifty OF from three or four to about fifty souls
| The American population OF Oregon, on the Other
hand, numbering probably some four thousand, is col
flows from the south into the Columbia Fort Van
couver These Americans farmers, graziers and me
ng the soil These men. having waited for years il
vain for action in Congress, which should give
date of the last advces from them setting up prov
sonal government for themselves after the Americas
fashion, and dividing out their new homestead into towns
and counties such they had left in the United States
Such being practically the present political condition
OF the American farmers in Oregon under the treaty s
puaton Of 1915 how lis it with the British hunters and
trappers of the region The answer may be given
in few words These few hundred British subjects in
the service of the Hudson Bay Company govern by their
laws enforced either in the Courts of Canada or by judi
ca officers of the Company the spot every inch OF the
whole territory OF Oregon the few square miles acu
ally under tlage by theAmercans Nor is this all These
servants of the Company have entirely monopolized
for twenty years past the whole OF the most lucra
tive occupations in Oregonurhuntng and fur trading
They have driven every American citizen out of the bu
sness Let an American trapper or hunter appear any
where in the territory and instantly two or three agents
OF the company establish themselves by his side furnish
ed amply with specie and nero handse, to outbid him
for furs to call in Indian white competitor and SO
break up his business The individual cannot stand
is broken up and he goes to farming in the valley
of Willamette This is now the regular course oil
ment of Oregon stipulated by the treaty-this, viz the
entire monopoly Of the great fur trade there by
the parties added to the exclusive government by the
party of the whole of the soil of that vast terri
tory, only the farms which some four thousand
Americans tilllng with their hands. As early
1928 the Hudson Bay COMPANY had found their trade
under these circumstances quite thriving The pro
ceed of their trade for that year were round numbers
900 dollars Their shares then stood 40 per cent
above par.
Our readers will remember that when the bill to ex.
tend territorial government Oregon was before
Congress last session. its opponents protested against it
because they aeg it violated the stipulation OF ISIS
How it, then that the other party to that stipula
tion-admtng itself to be as Great Britain has time
after time admitted, and admits herself to be- the
party out OF possession pending the negotiaton-how
it, then, that this other disseized party at this
moment has extended its laws in full force the
whole unoccupied territory The mechanism by which
this trick OF political legerdeman has been played Off
at once very ingenious and thoroughly English. The
British cabinet has practised the manpuvre in ASIA till
1t has become wonderfully adroit II is simply the
Great East Indian uggle tried again in the West.
The apparatus machinery and fixtures are Just alike in
the two cases. great trading corporation welding
millions of captal-with power to pass laws to main
tain civil establishment to maintain military estab-
lishment to collect to hoist flag Of its own
not the Queens flag to build forts to keep six or
eight armed vessels the coast to possess territory
all in the way of trade of and to do all this under
the eye the British Parliament acting for itself when
Parliament chooses TO disavow the responsibility of its
acts acting for Parliament just when Parliament
chooses to accept that responsibility-n one word
great Empire Corporation in fact, with power to
change itself at the waving of the minister's wand
C'presto," as the jugglers have it,) into most de-
mure smple harmless partnership of painstakng indi-
vduas trying to turn honest penny in the way Of the
fur trade This is the mechanism by which the miracle
is easily wrought In the time of the merrie monarch
easy King Charles-English policy amused itself with
building two OF these magnificent playthingsone for
the east, which il called the East India Company