Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1845-12-31

I<3sS - X5scfaeu lnat3 Hpainp sHfSt Oh ri
European powers made d settienlenl
and erected fort on Nootka Sound
We say that these facts might give
Spain pre,ensions, to disHnte titles with
the Unl,ed States; and that her preten>
sions, whatever they may be, being
vested in the United States, give addi.
tlonai force to our own proper ground
OF title.
g. We claim title in the right Of
France, especially as against Britain
We received Louisiana with limits un.
defined to the north and west, and OF
course with rights of exte nsion by con-
iigufsya until the bounds Of some pow
er should be reached. And whatever
rights in Limitation of Louisiana, Spain
might have on the west, Great Britain
could have none-because by the trea-
ty at Paris which gave the Canadas to
England, the latter agreed that the west.
ern limit Of British America proper
should be fixed irrevocably at the Mis-.
sissippi.
q. Finally on the supposi!ion Cf in.
deed, there be any foundation for the
supposition) that Oregon is unoccupied,
savage ,errltery, to which no other A.
merican power has a better title. we
claim title by extension Of centiguisy
from the United States.
The British government came for
ward after the conclusion of the last
war, (and not BEFORE and claimed title
in Oregon.
l. In virtue Of the voyage Of Drake
in 1880. We replied: lst, that Drake
was mere pirate, and could not con-
vey title; Cd, that Spanish navigators
had gone over all the seas which Drake
did, forty years before him; and Sd, that
England had made no settlement under
Drake. Whereupon, the British gov>
ernment gave up this ground Of title,
and snroceeded TO alledge--- a.s
q Cooks voyage to Nootka in TITS.
We showed that sundry Spanish navi.
gators had been there before Cook, in
l774, l775, and l776; and the British
government then gave up this ground,
and next relied on
3. Vancouver's voyage (by his lieu
tenanD up the Columbia, before Van
couver. Tor Boughton,) who, indeed
himself states that he proceeded upor
information furnished by Gray; and So
Great Britain was driven from al
grounds OF maratime title, and proceed
ed to allege
l. Mackenzie's journey across the
continent in 1892. But we proved from
Mackenzle's journal that it was the
head waters Of the Tacoutchee Tesso
not the Columbia, that he struck on hi.
way to the Pacific. Whereupon tht
British government said: Well, it mus
be confessed we have no title whatev
er in Oregon, either by discovery, set
tIement, or otherwise. We claim all ii
tie, and we set up claim as follows:
Great Britain claims no exclusive
sovereignty over any portion Of that ter
rilory. Her present claim-not in re
spect TO any part, but the whole--i
limited to right of JOINT occupancy, ir
common with other States, leaving {
right Of exclusive dominion in abey-
ance.'
Such are the precise words of the fl
nal claim Of the British government, af
ter all pretence OF title on the part O
Britain had been thoroughly refuted by
US, and gived up by herself. Or, as the
same point is stated by the American
minister in his official correspondence:
Great Britain considered the whole
of the unoccupied parts of America, a
being open to her settlements, as here
tofore. They included within thes'
parts, as we'll that portion of the north
ives, coast lying between the 42d ant
5lst degrees Of latitude as any othe
parts. The principle Of colonization or
that coast, or elsewhere, on any portion
of those continents not yet occpied
Great Britain was not prepared to re
inquish.'
Now all these facts are notorious
and accessible to whatsoever person
choose to seek them; and yet in the fac,
of the official disclaimers of the British
government, there are many persons If
the United States, who misled, apparent
y, by the British Foreign Quarterly
Review, and the British Edinburgh Re
view, and the British London Times
and the British Lord John Russell, hon
estly suppose, it would seem, that Great
Britain has probable, maya good ane
sound title to the whole or great part o
Oregon. No; she does not claim or pre-
tend any title whatever to Oregon; bul
only the general right to colonize, now
at this day, in North America.
To be sure, the Edinburgh Review
admitting as the writer is constrained
to do (for he had read the documents,
that Great Britain has no title whatev
er in Oregon, either by settlement ,trea
L