Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-01-24
THE OREGON QUESTIONING. III.



Beyond the naked assertion of an absolute right
TO the whole territory, little in the shape of argu-
ment has been adduced, and so much warmth has
been exhibited in the discussion of the subject that
il cannot be doubted that the question has be-
come, on both sides, one of feeling rather than of
right This in America, grows out OF the fact that,
in this contest with European nation, the con-
tested territory is in America and not in Europe II
is identc with the premature official annunciation
that the United States could not acquiesce in the
establishment of any new colony in North America
by any European nation. This sentiment was al
ready general at the time when it was first publicly
declared; and now that it has been almost univer-
sally avowed, there can be no improperly in any
private citizen to say, now do, that share in
that feeling to its full extent For the Americana,
Oregon is or will be home for England, it is but
an outpost which may afford means of annoy vance,
rather than be source of real power. In America
all have the same ultimate object in view we diff
fer only with respect to the by which it may
be attained.
Two circumstances have had tendency TO nour-
ish and excite these feelings The British fur
panies from their position, from their monopolzing
character from their natural influence upon the In
dams, and from that much greater than might have
been expected, which they have constantly had
upon the British Government in its negotiations
with the United STATES, have for sixty years been
perpetual source of annoyance and collisions, The
vested interests of the Hudson Bay Company are
at this moment the greatest obstacle to an amicable
arrangement. 1t is at the same time due to justice
to say that as far as is known, that company has
acted in Oregon in conformity with the terms the
convention, and that its officers have uniformly
treated the Americans, whether vsiters emgrants,
not only courteously, but with great Kindness. "
1.-THE British colonies on the continent OF Amer-
indapandapf or wpr how
placed in their commercial relations, at least with
the United States, the footing the British
possessions in Europe, these relations would be
regulated by the reciprocal interests and of
the parties Immediately concerned. Great Britain
has an undoubted right to persist in her colonial po-
icy but the result has been extremely vexatous,
and to the United States injurious. All this is true
But feelings do not confer right, and the indul-
gence of excited feelings is neither virtue nor
wisdom.
The Western States have no greater apparent
immediate interest in the acquisition of Oregon than
the States bordering on the Atlantic. These stand
in greater need of an outlet for their surplus emf
grating population, and to them exclusively will for
the present the benefit accrue Of ports on the Rac
6c for the protection Of the numerous American
ships employed In the fisheries and commerce Of
that ocean. 1t is true that in case Of war the In
habitants of the Western States will not if naval
superiority shall be obtained on the Upper Lakes,
feel those immediate calamites of war to which the
country along the shore is necessarily exposed;
but no section of the United States will be more
deeply affected by the impossbiity Of finding dur
ing the war market for the immense surplus of
its agricultural products. 1t must also be remem-,
bered that direct tax has heretofore been found
productive than the aggregate of all the other
internal taxes levied by the General Government
tl.a in of war, it must necessarily be imposed;
and that, 1t must in conformity with the Constitu-
ton, be levied in proportion to the respective popu-
lation of the several STATES, it will be much more
oppressive those which have not yet accumulat-,
ed large amount of circulating or personal capital
The greater degree of excitement which prevails in
the West is due to other and more powerful causes
than regard for self-interest. n
Bordering through the whole of their northern
frontier on the British possessions, the Western
people have always been personally exposed to
those annoyances and collisions already alluded to
and it may be that the hope of getting rid of these
by the conquest of Canada has some influence upon
thelrconduct. Independent of this the indomitable
energy of this nation has been and is nowhere dis
played so forciby as in the new States and settle
ments. 1t was necessarily directed towards the
acquisition of land and the cultivation of the SOIL
In that respect it has performed prodgies. Three
millions Of cultvators of the soil now found be-
lWeeu te Lakes anu tle onlO, Wnere, little more
than fifty years before, save only three or four half
Indian French settlements, there was not single
white inhahitant. Nothing now seems impossible
to those men: they have not even been sobered by
fresh experience. Attempting to do at once and
without an adequate capital, that which should have
been delayed fve-and-twenty years, and might have
then been successfully accomplished, some of those
States have had the modification to find themselves
unable to pay the interest the debt they had con-
tracted, and obliged to try to compound with their
creditors. Nevertheless, undiminished activity and
locomotion still the ruling principles the West
ern people leap time and distance ahead they
must co. il is their mission. May God speed them,
and may they thus quietly take possession Of the
entire contested territory
All this was as well known to the British Gov
eminent as to ourselves. A public and official de-
caration by the President of the United States was
and at least premature. Mr.. Rush's
Of 1924 bears witness of its unfor
tunata effect the negotiations Of that year. These
feelings had gradually subsidized. But, whatever
may be the cause, the fact that an extraordinary
excitement on this subject has manifested ITSELF and
does now exist on both sides, cannot be denied. I
Time is absolutely necessary in order that this
should subside. Any precipitate step now taken
by either Government would be attended with the /
most fatal consequences. That which, if done
some years ago, might have been harmless, would
now be highly dangerous, and should at least be
postponed for the present.
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