The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1845-02-21
THE OREGON NOTICE.

The hill which rpcentlv pa&Seti The
Hous1 of Rcnresenta,;ves ofua1;zino
: ,err;,or;,l oovernment in OrsGon
contains i section nrovidin6 vhaf mo,
,;ce he given 10 Great Britainesto .ter.
inmate 5e, min, occuooncv with ne in
thof conntry
= The wbia press. Of course. is taking
ground AGAINST this measure. They
assert thai snch notice Is but COW
eft ,lealnratio6 Of wRr aaains, England; /;
and ever since the day when their par
s.tvsiu AtassachYsetts iiornal,y resolved
thai s.it i nni,eeomino moral and
religious .peools,s lto p Teieice in their
country 4 Victories II has been argu-
meot snounh with. them q aaainst any
measure. rs1 81 ,natter how iust. Isl nor how
rrysp,lv' needed thats 4 sn;;v.bt chance
ia eusbro,l a. with Great Britain.
W;tbept stouniino = ask whether.
s;aza..;ust cause. such risk oapht to
stav anr stems. We, denyathatrthe notice
in ouestion is. or may uroperly be
rcepsidefedobyf ENGLAND, as belIiGerent
in, its character. iii is NOT. as some
I have. viewed, II. a mo tice,,tot quit, adj
! dressed TO British emirrants in Oregon.
J lis language. as we translateIit, no. to
the British settler, ,l,but to- the, British
+, cabinet. is hut this, eSentlemen. there
lis n lona routstandinp Dispute between
at,s. touching our respective titles to
this Oregon territory. Twenty seven
years & ago. at your suggestion, we
agreed 10 ipostpone the settlement Of
these, conflicting claims for ten years.
Nine wears after That. we acceeded TO
a further ,postponement. 4 This matter
has now draGaed ,onfor quarter tof a
century. during which time we have
twice made TO YOU q pro position for a
ycompromise., We offered TO divide
with a youl the territory at the forty.
ninth degree of n orth latitude. This
.nroposal was. as Won yery vel. know.
"a most liberal one; far more liberal
than. as The case stands, YOU had
any right to EXPECT of ms. You can
I not have forgotten that. during the
negotiations Of 1891. your, plenipolen-
otiaTies. Mr.. Huskisson. and Mr.. Ad-
,linpton. virtually abandoning all prior
claims by right of, discovery or settle.
tment., fell back on the Nootka Sound
convention Of l7so--dec!arinr, that,
tuwhateyer that title no Oregon) NAV
have been. either on The part of Great
Britain or on the part Of Spain. prior
to the convention ofil7so. it was from
,thenceforward mo longer. to be traced
linsyague narratives of disco veries, sew
reral OF them appeared to be 1apochry-
.pba. but in the tex, and slipuIations
ofahat convention itself.' You know,
too. that in the debate which took
place IN your Parliament, in Decem-
rber. 1880, on this very convention, Mr..
Fox asserted that, by it. YOU obtained
no territorial claim whatever ON; the
northwest coast; that, by it, YOU were
utterly shut out from making gany set
element south of Nootka-sound. that is
in latitude forty-nine and 10 half, and
that. in, regard to all settlements north
OF that parallel you had but a right to
,participate in them equally with the
iSpaniards, whose title we now hold.
You know that yourown minister, MIR.
Pitt, BY the tenor ofhisreply, admitted
the Interpretation which Mr.. Fox had
nut on the convention in question, ,un-
der which you now claim. You know
that. the Duke of Montrose, in the
Lords. in moving an address ofthanks
to the King on This very convention,
expressly gput upoa il the same inter-
nrrtation. You know that our claims
ITO the Columbia Valley. north as well
,,,s7south ofthe stream, are strengthen.
!, ~ 81.