Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-01-24
NATIONAL ~ TELLIGENCER.
rHE OREGON QUESTIONING. II.
New York, JANUARY Is, ls4f

sovereignty over the whole Oregon territory in vir-
me of the ancient exclusive Spanish claim, is wholly
unfounded. The next question is, whether the
other facts and arguments adduced by either party
establish complete and absolute title of either to
the whole for the United States claim il expli-
city; and although the British proposal of COM
promise did yield part, yet her qualified claim ex-
tends 10 the whole. Ii has been stated by herself
in the following words " Great Britain claims no
exclusive sovereignty over any portion OF that tern
tory. Her present claim not in respect to any part
but TO the whole is limited to right of joint occu-
pancy, in common with other States, leaving the
right of exclusive dominion in allegiance" And,
again The qualified rights which Great Britain
now possesses over the whole of the territory in
question, embrace the right to navigate the waters
of those countries, the right settle in and over
any part of them and the right freely to trade with
the inhabitants and occupiers of the same. = y
1t is fully admitted that the United States possess
the same rights; but beyond they possess none.'
In the nature of things, it seems almost impossi-
BILE that complete and absolute right to any por-
ton of America exist unless it be by prescrip-
tive and undsputed actual possession and settle
ments or by virtue of treaty.
AT the time when America was discovered, the
law of nations altogether unsettled. More than
a century elapsed before Grotius attempted to Law
its foundation Natural Law and the moral pre-
cepts of Christianity; and. when sustaining it by
pfecedents he was compelled to recur to Rome and
Greece 1t was in reality new case, to which no
ancient precedents could apply for which some
new rules must be adopted. Gradually, some gen
eral principles were admitted, never universally, in
their nature vague and often conflicting For in
stance, discovery yaries from the simple ascertain
ing of the continuity of land, to minute explora-
lion of its various harbors, rivers, &C.; and the
rights derived from it may vary accordingly and
may occasionally be claimed to the same district by
different nations. There is precise rule for re-
guating the time after which the neglect to occupy
would nullify the right of prior discovery nor for
defining the extent of beyond the spot discov
cred to which the discoverer may be entitled, or
how far inland his claim extends. The principle
most generally admitted was that, in of river,
the right extended to the whole country drained by
that river and It's tributaries Even this was not
universally conceded. This right might be affect
ed by simultaneous or prior discovery and occu-
pancy of some OF the sources of such river by
another party; or IT might conflict with general
claim of contiguity. This last claim, when extend
ing beyond the Of rivers discovered and oc-
cupied, is vague and underlined though it would
seem that it cannot exceed in breadth that of the
territory the coast originally discovered and oc-
cupied. "A few examples will show the uncertainty
resulting from those various claims, when they con-
ficted with each other.
The old British charters extending from sea to
sea have already been mentioned They were found |
ed, beyond the sources Of the rivers emptying into
the Atlantic, on no other principle than that Of
tiguity or continuity The grant in 1921 of Nova
Scotia, by James the First is bounded on the north
by the river ST. Lawrence, though Cartier had more
than eighty-fye years before discovered the mouth
OF that rIver and assembled il high up as the pre-
sent site of Montreal, and the French under Cham
plain had several years before 1921 been settled at
Quebec. But there is another case more impor-
tant, and still more in point.
The few survivors of the disastrous expedition of
Narvaez, who, coming from Florida, did in a most
extraordinary way reach Culiacan on the Pacific,
were the first Europeans who crossed the Missis-
sippi. Some years later, Ferdinand de Soto, COM
ing also from Florida, did in the year I541 reach
and cross the Mississippi, at some place between
the mouth of the Ohio and that of the Arkansas
He explored portion Of the river and of the ad-
jacent country and after his DEATH Moscoso, who
succeeded him in command, did, in the year l543,
build seven brigantines barques, in which, with
the residue of his followers, he descended the Mis-
sissipp, the mouth of which he reached in seven
teen days Thence putting to sea with his frail
vessels, he was fortunate enough to reach the Span
lsh port of Panuco, on the Mexican coast. The
right of discovery clearly belonged to Spain but
she had neglected for one hundred and fifty
years TO make any settlement the great river or
any of its tributaries. The French, coming from
Canada, reached the Mississippi in the year 1850,
and assembled it as high up as ST. Anthony's Falls |
and La Sale descended it in 1852 to its mouth |
The French Government did, in virtue Of that
second discovery, claim the country, subsequently
founded New Orleans, and formed several other |
settlements in the interior, the Mississippi or its
waters Spain almost Immediately occupied Pen |
sacola and Nacogdoches, in order to check the pro-
gress of the French eastwardly and westwardly |
but she did not attempt to disturb them in their set
dement's on the Mississippi and its tributaries We
have here the proof of prior right Of discovery
being superseded, when too long neglected, by that
Of actual occupancy and settlement
The French, by virtue Of having thus discovered
the mouth Of the Mississippi, of having assembled
1t more than fifteen hundred miles, of having ex
plored the Ohio, the Wabash and the Illinois. from
their respective mouths TO their most remote
sources, and of having formed several settlements
as above mentioned laid claim to the whole coun
try drained by the main river and its tributaries.
They accordingly built forts at lie Bpuf high up the
Allegheny river, and the site where Pittsburg
now stands. On the ground of discovery or settle
nent, Great Britain had not the slightest claim.
General, then Colonel Washington, was the first
who, at the age Of twenty-five, and in the wear
1894, planted the British banner on the Western
waters The British claim was founded princi-
Pa'y on the ground Of contiguty enforced by other
considerations. The strongest of these was that il
conid not consist with natural law that the British
colonies, with a population OF near two millions.
snouid DC confined TO the narrow belt of land ba