Mobile register and journal., 1845-12-05
HON. CALEB CuSnING'S LECTURE ON
 OREGON

There is, at the present inoneOt, no subject ol snch deep and genera interest To ihe OHted States aad here Is at tho time egard to which, judging from the language ol many of he pubic jour nas, sut;h complete and extraordinary misapprehen- sion prevails among us, as thai oi Oregon. Havug been Iaach connected with Iiis question myself while ln Congress, ny atennJn has been drawn ye- D naturaiiy 10 the passing acussIons regarding it. find some persons ol opnen that the British tile lO parl, or even the whole oi Oregon IS equal nay superOf, to that of the Uuite States, although as appears from official public documents, the British government, in its correspondence with ours, has never preiended, but the contrary has expressly and uneqaVocIlly dsaYowed, title tn sing le of ground in Oregon. A respectable newspaper now before me, published III thi5 slate, in which it is as snned by ourselves at least, lhdl great degree of knowledge is dIilused through all classes of men, de- lIberatcly afirRs that, if possibly the British and American cinims be equal noth of latitude 49, ye, 10 the soMh ol that parallel. the British claim is clearly better than the 4 aietican, when the exact reverse of this is the fact One writer argues, with perfect self complacency Of bect that the establish. ments of lhe Huison's Bay Company ia Oregon give title 10 Eng land, notwithstanding the contrary is positively agreed by treaty between the two govern menis. How often it is said also, that Great Br- lain would willingly compromise this quest tion and that the unreasonabcness and obslnacy of the Ame- rican government Is preciptang the United States into war; when to the contrary of ths the United States have, several stages of the controversy, made he most liberal of1els of compromise, such as 10 divide the disputed territory into two equal parts by continuing our present boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, although our gov ernuent thinks have a good title to the whole of Oregon, and the British government admits that England has title to any part of t, which offers Ina, been most unreasonaby refused by Great Fri. tain. l am unwilling to ascrbe all these and host oi other prevailing errors on the subject 10 mere par. ty prejudice; and am sure they cannot come from of patriotism, and apprehend the evil to arise from the deplOrabIe tendency which exists among Us to copy our ideas irom Eng land; from the many pop uar English essays on this question winch have been republlshed and widely circulated in the Ualted States and from the consequence that, under the in sensible influence of our want of intellectual nde pendence, Americans have suffered their judgments el the merits of controversy between and Great Britain be fixed by the interested, disingenuo false, and let me add profoundly ignorant arguments oi our adyersarys press, regardless of what said by statesmen, and ol the truth of the as exposed in the official correspondence of the two governments And in view of all this, 1 feel conf dent there Is nothing l could say on the present casion more well-timed and useful, or trust more acceptable, than briefly To explain the real nature and present state of the Oregon question.
 beg leave in advance to say to the gentlemen present that, in the discussion of his question, shall of course avoid all party matters; the iudiss that, historical and diplomatic the subject is
 trust they cannot be unwilling 10 understand the i it's of question upon which their fathers and hus. bands may one day possibly be summoned to the bat tie field in defence of their country against foreign 1 invasion; and 10 all, of either sex, that shall say nothing in this matter which do not deem to be true, and which should moi be free and glad to say l to an assembly of Eng glishmen, of course cannot presume that any American will shrnk from listen. ing 10 frank but temperate exposition oi the rights of the United States.
 There is great region of this continent washed by the Pacific Ocean, and bounded by the possess sions of the Mexican republic on the souih those of Russia on the norh and those of the United States and of Great Britain the east, which k not yet subjected 10 the lawful government of any European or A Amercan power, and il Is the only remaining part of North America which continues in such aous condition. In superficial extent il Is of nearly 400 900 square miles; that is, more than three times as large the aggregate of all the British Islands, and about equal m extent 10 Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode lslaud, Connecticut, Vermont, 1 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina. South Carolina and Georga-(393 000 square miles)- other words, 10 the original thirteen United States and shall presently show that it's value is conme with its extent. This is Oregon.
 | To what government does this great territory be- ' longl Great Britain says--It belongs 10 nobody that il is in the same condition with Massachusetts before the discovery of America; that II is unappro- priared savage lands, and that, such, she has d right to come and take it:-she the general con. queror, she the universal ursurper sine the excns. i've appropraor of all parts of the erraqueous globe which may seem convenient to her commerce, or de- sirable to her ambition She pretends lille to no part of it she claims the right 10 inuade aud OccRpy any. part of H. her discretion. The United States say the other hand, have good and valid title to the whole of It, we think and believe; we are sure we have perfectly indspuable title to all that part of it which adjons the United States, namely, from the 42d to the 49th parallel of ali. Jude; Great Britain, admits, we know, that she has no title to any part of il; and if there be the shad. ow ot any ground claim of right, under which she can justly invade and possess any part of it, (which we constantly deny) still such claim ap- pl, onl, tc much of il, and no more, as, being north of the 18th parallel, adjons her existing pos ! sessions in America.
 Such is plain and unvarnished statement of the general of the preensons to this territory put forth by the British and American governments re- spectvely No government except the United States alleges preends any title to the territory; and no government, except Great Britain. itself up as the occupier and master by right of these (and of all | the oihcr) nnappropriaIed parts of the earth.
 RetIecting on thls statement ot the case, you may say the case IS Il very extraordinary one How ld it possible that Great Britain should advance such extravagant pretensions, and should obslnately re- fuse al the same tune, all ther tender of compro- mise from the United States, l repeat ihe state ment of the is nevertheless TRUE. l assure you that, in making ths statement do
 | "NothIng e1tenuate; aught
 l Set down ill malce"
 And this proceed to show you by brief analy- sis of inc voumInous oficial documents in the case as they have been published by congress, though suppressed by the British government.
 When this continent first became known to Eu- ropeans, and in proportion the several powers oi Europe proceeded make settlements here, it was necessary to establish certain rules by which their conflicting pretensons to territory should be adjust ed. These rules not fixed all at once; but in the course of colonization, of discussion, and of treay they became be at length fully and unver- sally recognised and admitted both in Ebrope and America. These rules lie at the basis of lhe Ore | gon question, and are as iollows:-
 | l. First, the European title is in no case consid, cred ns derived from the savages of America. and IS | regulated by considerations wholly irrespective ol 1 them. Our own government has adeed uniformly acted the principle of paying 10 the Indians a far, nay a very large compensation, for their hunt ing rights, temporary occupancy of the lands bni neither Ike government any citizen ot the United | States does or can derive title from the lndians.- I must not stop discuss the grounds of this doc trine suffice it say that such is the public Iav oi | all the Christian nations of Europe and America, and such is the nunicipal law and the practice un- der it, as we'll of our colony, province and State | of Massac chusetts, of tle federal government. | ?. Secondly, one Enropean government may ac- quire territory rom another by conquest, as Eng.
 land did the Canadas, or by treaty, as ihe United l I nd Ana