The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-05-23
TO THE EDITOR OF THE UNION.
WILMINGTON, May %, 1886.

WAsHRGToE, May %, ls46.
The honorable Thomas ii. Benton, senator il
| Congress from the State of Missouri, has beer
pleased, In his speech of yesterday, MAY ~ L
apply to me number Of hose eplthels, In the EN-
| ployment of which he is 80 expert, and which
usually supply the place Of facts and reason In hi
| productions. After seven weeks Of hard study
aided by the suggestions and contributions of numer
Gus friends, old and new, from all parts of the
Union, he has at length appeared with his long-ex.
pected defence ofthe posItlon-Laat the Ash parable
Of latitude 0as adopted the boundary beiiossn The pos
sessions If Great Britain, France, and the United Siaiss,
IN Ansicd By commissioners appointed agTtedbv 10 The
treaty Of Utrecht The result his first attempt 70
establish this position, and at the same time to
crush the humble individual who now appears be-
fore the public, Is well known. Few will fail 10 re-
member that, on the first Of Aprl-a day consecra-
ted by custom to deeeptions-the honorable gentle
man produced as piece OF evidence, calculated to
establish this grand fact, old map by John Bolton,
attached 70 Postlethwayt's Dictionary of Commerce,
published in London, in 1852, under the masquerade
| name Of dAnyille's map; although its English ORR
gin was Indicated by every line on it-even by the
note which the honorable gentleman quoted from
one OF Its sheets. The production OF this precious
document was accompanied, as in the present in
stance, by the application OF harsh and contemptu-
Gus terms to myself and to my History of Oregon
and California; in defence Of which, | inserted
an article in the Washington Union Of the follow
ing day, exposing the gross mssatements of the
honorable gentleman and turning upon himsslf
with perfect success, as have every reason to be
convinced, the ridicule which he attempted to cast
upon me.
On that occasion stated, what now repeat more
fully that the honorable gentleman's abuse was the
result Of malignant and vindictiye feelings, occa-
stoned by my having dared to write upon a subject
on which he claims 10 be Sir Oracle. Had l. in
stead Of labohously examining and comparing for
h. auT in he
true history Of Oregon was alone to be found
had in place Of this, taken the speeches Of the
honorable gentleman, and the numerous essays, on
all sides, under various names, with which he has
from time 10 time favored the public during the last
twenty thirty years-had studied his fifteen mum
beers OF Cethegus IN this paper, and endeayored 10
reconcile them with his fourteen Xandppes in an
other, or his Oil Sarah's in a thrd-hsd done all
this, say, perhaps might have merted the favor
Of the honorable gentleman. But | did otherwise
| indeed examined some Of the honorable gentle
mans speeches and essays, and thus soon convinced
myself that the knowledge which persons more g-
norsnt were in the habit of attrIbutng to him, was
only slender, superficial stratum, covering waste
Of egotsm, assurance, and concet, from which
could spring naught but blunders, or "humbugs"
dsregarded his opinions, and took my own course
as found it indicated by authorities. Hine ilG la
ehryma! Hence the hatred and abuse Of the honora-
bic Thomas II. Benton, senator from Missouri.
But TO proceed TO the point in question.
The honorable gentleman has, as he conceiyes, in
his speech of yesterday, "elsarsd ncay the rubbish
,ehieh has been piled up in his path" With his paths
have but little acquaintance; but II he has removed
rubbish from them he has certainly thrown great
deal in the paths Of everybody else. His conclu
sive evidence Of yesterday is worthless his
conclusive evidence Of the first of April. Ii con-
ssts with one or two exceptions, which will be
uced, Of references TO works to which poiniedy
refer, in the Statement attached TO my article in
the "Unon" Of the Cd of April; and Of opinions
and assertions proceeding, indeed, in many cases
from eminent and reyered men-but STILL merely
opinions and assertions, subject like those Of the
meanest individuals, to examination and discus
sion The opinions Of the honorable gentleman
himself may be thus examined and discussed
strange though the doctrine may seem TO him,
and bold as may appear in saying So there is no
law, or moral duty, which should compel to re-
ceve unquestionable, every assertion made even
by him. Homer mods sometimes, and even Benton
is not forever awake, as shall proceed to show.
The question at issue is one purely historical and
has been treated by me only as such. In 1913 it
agreed by the treaty of Utrecht that commissa-
ries of both nations should be appointed to settle
all the disputed questi ms of boundary between the
British and French possessions in America especial
" the boundary between Canada then belonging to
France, and the Hudson's Bay territories, which
were secured to England by the same treaty. We
learn, indirectly that commissaries appointed met
but what they did, remains to the present day a Sc
cret. Many years after, it was asserted in some
maps of little authority, and in books still less
thy of reliance, that line had been determined by
the commissaries, to separate Canada from the
Hudson's Bay territories, which extend from the At
antic of Labrador, south westward to the 49th
parallel and thence along that parallel westward.
In other maps of the same period, line totally diff
ferent, beginning at different point the coast,
and nowhere running along the 49th, or any other
lla1 ALI lin. III
Utrecht treaty; whilst in all the works in which
notice of such agreement should If made be found
nothing is said the subject. This is my assertion
and have maintained it in my History Of Oregon,
by facts and reasons which will not easily be over
thrown. That which Webster has attacked in
vain, will at least resist the pellets of Benton.
To question the accuracy of the opinions Of such
men Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, is task
which no one would voluntarily undertake. They
all undoubtedly believed that the line above men
toned had been adopted as the boundary under the
treaty of Utrecht; but fortunately know the his
tory of the formation and progress of that belief 1t
was first advanced by Mr.. Madison with diffidence
preaced by the qualification "here is reason to be-
iepe," and accompanied by the admission of "he
necessity Of recurring to the proceedings Of the commits
sioners as the sourcs of authentic information Whe.
Their Mr. Monroe did recur to those proceedings, we
know not. He could only have obtained sight OF
them IN the archives of Great Britain of France:
piled for arguments to be used against it; and France
then more nimical to the extension of the terri
tory of the United States than Great Britain. Certain
it is, that in the statement addressed by Mr. Monroe
to the British minister with whom he negotat
ing the boundary, he employs only and exactly
the words Of Douglass, as they appear in his
Summary of the British and French Settlements
in America" published in l749. The British gov
eminent never denied or admitted, or in any wa v
noticed the assertion; which was therefore quietly
assumed to be correct and continued to be so con-
sidered; no one having taken the trouble to inquire
into the matter until that duty devolved upon me.
| could not be unmindful Of the danger to which
should expose myself by questioning what Jcffer-
son, Madison, and Monroe had believed; but the
task undertaken and how performed will be
left for determination at future day. when the hon
orable senator from Missouri and his speeches shall
have been forgotten. The opinions of Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe, as expressed in their state
papers, form the main support of the honorable SEN
ator and his present friends and l may add, as
somewhat remarkable, that those who now lay so
much stress on these opinions, and are willing to
concede so much weight to them, are, with few ex.