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

in that respect is that il any one claim IS alone sui
ficent to establish complete and indisputable title
| an appeal to others is superfuous Thus far, and
no farther, can the objection be maintained. The
argument on the part of the United States in reality
was that the Government considered the title de-
rived from the ancient exclusive Spanish claim as
indisputable; but that, if this was denied all the
other Just claims of the United States taken toge-
Their constituted complete title, or at least far SUI
perior to any that could be adduced on the part OF
Great Britain.
Ii is not intended TO enter into the merits Of the
question, which has been completely discussed,
since the object of this paper is only to show that
there remain on both sides certain debatable ques-
tons and that therefore both Governments may,
if SO disposed, recede from some of their preten-
sions, without any abandonment of positive rights,
and without impairng national honor and dignity.
Although Great Britain seems, in this discussion,
to have relied almost exclusively on the right de-
rived from actual occupancy and settlement, she
cannot reject absolutely those derived from other
sources. She must admit that, both in theory and
practice, the claims derived from prior discovery,
from coniiguity, from the principle which gives to
the first dlscOverer of the mouth of river and of
its course claim to the whole country drained by
such river have all been recognised to certain,
though not well-defned extent, by all the European
nations claiming various portions of America And
she cannot deny the facts, that las Mr.. Greenhow
justly concludes) the shore had been generally
examined from the AID, and infinitely from the 45th
to the 4s.h degroe Of laiitnde Nootka Sound disco
vered, and the general direction of the coast from
the 4sth to the 5Sth degree Of latitude ascerained
by the Spanish expeditions, in the years l774 and
ITS, of Perez, Heceta, and Bodega y Quadra !;
that the American Captain Gray was the first who
in 1892, entered into and ascertaned the existence
of the River Columbia and the place where it emp
tied into the sea that prior to that discovery, the
Spaniard Heceta was the first who had been within
the bay, called Deception Bay by Meares, into
which the river does empty; that, of the four navi-
gators who had been in that bay prior to Gray's
final discovery, the Spanard Heceta and the Ame-
rican Gray were the only ones who had asserted
that great river empted itself into that bay, He
ceta having even given name to the river, (St.
Roc,) and the entrance having been designated by
his own name, (Ensennada de Heceta,) whilst the
two English navigators, Meares and Vancouver,
had both concluded that large river had its mouth
there; that, in the year 1905 Lewis and Clarke
were the first who descended the river Columbia,
from of its principal western sources to its
mouth that the first actual occupancy in that quar-
ter was by Mr.. Astor's company, on the oath of
March, 1911, though Mr.. Thompson, the astrono-
mer of the British Northwest Company, who ar
rived at Astoria the 18th of July, may have win
tered on near some northern source of the river
in SO degrees north latitude that amongst the fac
tories established by that American company one
was situated at the confluence of the Okanagan with
the Columbia, in about 40 degrees of latitude; that
the AID degree is the boundary, west of the Stony
Mountains, established by treaty between Spain,
now Mexico, and the United States that the 10th
degree is likewise the boundary from the Lake of
the Woods to the Stony Mountains established by
treaty between Great Britain and the United States
and that therefore the right of the United States,
which may be derived from the principle of CONT
guilty or continuity embraces the territory west of
the Stony Mountains contained between the 42d
and 49th degree of latitude.
Omitting other considerations which apply prin-
cipaly the territory north Of Fuca Straits where
the claims of both parties are almost exclusively
derived from their respective discoveries including
those of Spain, il may be nationally inferred from
the preceding enumeration that there remain va
rious questions which must be considered by Great
Britain as being still doubtful and debatable and
that she may therefore, without any abandonment
of positive rights, recede from the extreme preten
sions which she has advanced in the discussion
respecting division of the territory. But although
conjectures may be formed, and the course pursued
by the Government of the United States NAV have
an influence on that which Great Britain will adopt,
it does not belong to me to discuss what that Gov
eminent may or will do, This paper is intended
for the American, and not for the English public
and my attention has been principally directed to
those points which may be considered by the
United States as doubtful and debatable
II was expressly stipulated that nothing contain
ed in the conventions of 1918 and 1927 should be
construed TO impair, or IN any manner affect, the
claims which either Of the contracting parties may
have TO any part of the country westward of the
Stony or Rocky Mountains. After the most cool
and impartial investigation of which am capable,
| have not been able to perceive any claim on the
part of Great Britain, debatabe question, respect
ing the territory south of Fuca's Straits, but the
species of occupancy by the British Fur companies
between the year 1913 and October Goth, 1918;
and this must be considered in connexion with the
restoration Of all territory, places and possessions
whatsoever, taken by either party from the'other
during the war;" provided for by the treaty Of
Client. To this branch of the subject belongs also
the question whether the establishment of trading
factories with Indians may eventually give right
to sovereignty. My own opinion expressed in
the American counter-statement Of the case, dated
10Th December, 1926 " II is believed that mere
factories, established solely for the purpose Of
trafficking with the natives and without any view
to cultivation and permanent settlement cannot of
themselves, and unsupported by any other consi-
deranon, give any better title to dominion and alb
soute sovereignty than similar establishments
made in civilized country" However true this
may be in an abstract proposition, it must be adj
mitted that, practically the modest British factory
at Calcutta has gradually grown up into absolute
and undlsputed sovereignty over a population of