The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-05-26
yENTY-NINTH CONGRESS,
First Session.
Mss0Ar, May IS, 1886.
In SENATE.
leoscLuDED.l
OREGON.

OREGON.
senals then resumed the considerations Of the
n rotect the rights Of American eitisens inhab-
g.. territory Of the United States west Of the
E.. mountains, and the motion submitted by
. ssreorr, that the further consideration Of the
o.. Dc postponed until the hnt Monday in De-
next.
IENToN rose and addressed the S enste AZ
uming my speech on this subject, wish to
.. e President, that the bill now before the Sem
the one recommended by the President OF
tho united States. he recommended that the soye.
eisnIy and Jurisdictions Of the United States be ex.
tended 10 our Oregon territory 10 tho same extent
that Great Britain had extended her sovereignty and
jurisdiction 10 the same country In this recon.
mendaton fully concur; and venture TO say that,
fsueh bill was brought in, IL might pass the SEN
ate leaving out unnecessary speeehes) in as little
time would requiro TO read three times by It's
title But the bill before the Senate 10 not Of that
character Il goes far beyond the Presidents rec.
ommendaton. IL proposes many things not found
in the British act OF l62l-things implying exclu-
siye jurisdiction and sovereignty in US, and that 10
an underlined extent Of country, and under eircum.
Stances which must Immediately produce hostile
collisions between our agents and the British agents
on tho other side OF the Rocky mountains. | am
opposed all this; but am not IN favor Of the in
definite postponenent Of the bill | wish TO sec il
amended aad made couformable 10 the Presidents
recommendation. n gentlemen who have the con-
duct OF the measure here will bring in such an
amendment, and put Il on It's passage without
speeches, will stop my speech until Il is passed.
| will now roceed to show, as well as | can, the
degree and extent Of our just claims beyond the
Rocky mountains.
To understand what mean to say, il is necessa-
ry TO recollect the geography Of the country in ques-
tion AID see presenting, Us It does, three distinct
geographical divisions to each Of which different
claim and different degree Of claim attaches, and
which cannot be COMPOUNDED under any one general
view, without general mysthcaton and total con-
fusion Of the whole subject. The Columbia river
and its valley is one Of these divisions; the islands
along the coast is another; Frazer's river and its
valley (caed by the British New Caledonia) is the
third. Under these three divisions | now propose
10 speak OF the country. Under these diyi ,ions
have always spoken Of IT. and what ! have said OF
one part had no application to another When |
spoke Of the great river Of the West and its valley,
either by its American name Of Columbia or Indian
name Of Oregon never intended FrsIer's river and
its valley, or Vancouver's island, or the Gulf of
Georgia, or Desolatisn Sound, or Broughton's
Arch. When | speak ofthe coast and the islands,
do not mean the continent and the mountains; and
when speak Of Frszer's river or New Caledonia, |
do not mean the Columbia river. repudiate all
such loose and soyeniy verbiage; and, desiring to
speak Of the country beyond the Rocky mountains
under the three great geographical divisions into
which nature has formed il, and to which political
events have so naturally adapted themselves.
begin with the islands.
From the Straits Of Fuca lin fact from Puget's
Sound) to the peninsula Of Alaska distance Of
one thousand mios--there is a network Of islands
An archipelago--some large, some small, Chez
quered in together, and covering the coast to the
exten Of one two, and even three hundred miles ia
front Of the continent They are most Of them oil
volcanic impression and separated from each other
and the continent by deep bays, CULTS, and straits
and by long deep chasms, to which navigators have
given the name of canals. This long chequer
board of islands, and the waters which contain
them, have been the theatre of maritime dis
covery TO many nations, and especially Spanish
British, and Russian; but, except the Russians, no
nation made permanent settlements on any ofthese
islands; and they only as low down as latitude SIS.
The British and Spaniards both abandoned Van
couvsr's island after the Noo,ka Sound controversy
and from that time had no settlement Of any kline
on the coast, or islands, north of Cape Mendocino
latitude Al; and the British had none anywhere
In this state of the case the question came on be-
tween Russia, Great Britain, and the United States
in which the distinction between the islands and tn,
continent was acknowledged by a the powers
and Russia excluded from the continent, and confn
ed to the islands, because her discoveries and settle
ventions with Russia British and American) o.
lS24-'25 were framed upon that principle; and nov
proceed to read the instructions from our govern
under which this distinction between the islands
and the continent was asserted and maintained.
read from MI. Adams's despatch to Mr.. Middleton
July 22d, 1923
1T never has been admitted by the various Europe ma
tons which have formed settlements in this hemisphere
that the occupation Of island gave any claim whateve
to territorial possessions on the continent to which wa
adjoining The recognised principle has rather been tn
everse by the law of nature islands must rather be
Islands," r..sa,efNs a. ....
And again, in Mr. Mddleton's communication
to the Russian government:
THE Russians have an establishment upon the island
sta in latitude 81 degrees 20 minutes This fort built
1892 destroyed three after by the natives
who called il New Archangel Russia cannot however
avail herself Of the circumstance OF that possession to form
foundation for right, on continent the usage of nation
having established that the occupation Of ISLAM
could give right upon neighhoring continent The prin
clpe is rather that the islands ought to be considered
is oS to the continent than the inverse the propose
These were the instructions to our minister, unde
which treated with Russia in 1894, and upo
which the conventions Of that period were formed
They establish the fact that these islands in front
the northwest coast considered a separate geo
graphical division Of the country, governed by ma
uonal law applicable to islands; and that dscovere
among them, even perfected by settlement, gave n
claims upon the continent. THIS is the way the tw
powers settled with Russia. Applying the sam
principle to themselves and no discovery of Van
couver's island, or any the thousand islands alon
that coast can give any territorial claims on the con
tinent have considered it a cardinal error, in a
the recent discussions on Oregon, to bottom cont
mental claims upon these insular discoveries. Tn
SPaniards, as so well shown in the speech Of tn
senator from New York, Mr.. Dx,l were the pre-
dccessors of the British in these discoveries but di
not understand him as claiming the continent out I
the Rocky mountains, and up to $40 40, by virtu
OF these maritime discoveries; and am very sur
that limited my own sanction Of his views to tn
tracks Of the ships which made the discoveries.
consider Spanish discoveries along that coast a
dominant over the British, both for priority Of dat
and for the spirit Of ownership in which they wei
made. The Spaniards explored as masters Of III
country, looking after their own extended and cor
tiguous possessions and to which no limit had eve
been placed: the British explored in the character
adventurers, seeking new lands in a distant region
Neither made permanent settlements; both abandon
dsnd now, see nothing, either in the value or III
title Of these islands, for the two nations to hgl
about The principle Of convenience and mutu
good will, 30 magnanimously proposed by the En-
peror Alexander in 1923, seems to me to be prope