The Washington times., 1901-10-13

| as ceded to the United States by
| France, are the River Perdido on the
east and the River Bravo on the west,
and they add that "the facts and prin-
ciples which justify this conclusion are
! so satisfactory to our Government as
to convince it that the United States
have not a better right to the island of
New Orleans, under the cession referred
to, than they have to the whole dis
trict of territory which is above de-
scribed.'
! Down to the conclusion of the Flor
ida Treaty, in February, 1919, by which
this territory was ceded, the United
States asserted and maintained their
| territorial rights to this extent" In
stances of such assertions are then
| given in the message.
From Benton's abridgement of Sena-
tor Buchanan's speech on the resolution
/ to give notice of the abrogation of the
| joint occupation clause of October 20,
1878, between the United States and
| Great Britain, is taken the following:
Mexico has an undisputed claim and
is in undisputed possession of the
| country up to latitude ~ degrees north.
BY a treaty between Russia and the
| United States, and afterward between
Russia and England, the dominions of
Russia were limited to 81 degrees 40
minutes north latitude, so that the ter
ritory in dispute between the two ma
tions (England and the United States)
embraced the whole northwest coast of
America from AZ degrees to 54 degrees
40 minutes north. extending east to the
Rocky Mountains. Now, to the whole
, OF this territory-to every foot of it
from latitude ~ degrees north to lati-
tude 81 degrees 40 minutes north. he
believed most firmly we had a clear and
conclusive title. Under the public law
OF Christendom, which had existed
since the establishment of the Continent
of North America, he thought it could
be demonstrated that we had this clear
and conclusive title He himself in
tended on future occasion, when the
bill should come before the Senate for
establishing a territorial government,
If no one else rose, to establish such a
claim as no power on earth could gain
say. From the time when Lewis and
Clarke crossed the mountains in 1905
until the present day we have been al
ways agitating this question.
We were in possession of this territory
before the war, but in fatal moment
we agreed to this joint occupation
treaty in 1915 - The useful and
honorable life of the Senator Linn of
MissourD, who had sat so many years
"
for the last five years in asserting our
claims TO this title"
Benton himself is thus quoted on the
same resolution in June, 1874:
When Louisiana was purchased Mr.
Jefferson recommended a free grant of
land to the first 10000 emigrants to the
west of the Mississippi. Liberal princi-
pies were not sufficiently advanced then
to sanction the grants proposed by Mr..
Jefferson. Let the emigrants
go on and carry their rifles We want
$1,000 rifles in the valley of the oregon.
They will make all quiet there in the
event Of a war with Great Britain for
the dominion of that country.
Thirty thousand rifles on the Oregon
will annihilate the Hudson Bay Com
pany, drive them off our Continent,
quiet their Indians, and protect the
American interests in the remote re-
gions.of the upper Missouri, the Platte,
the Arkansas, and all the vast region
of the Rocky Mountains. Besides, the
the recovery of what was lost or teo-
pardized by our diplomacy of 1878, the
settlers in Oregon will also recover and
open for US the North American Road
to India
Note the expressions our continent"
the North American road to India
Also President Polk's apology in his
message of December, 1S45, for permit
ting boundary negotiations on basis
of compromise at a time when he al
ready had the Mexican war bearing
down on him, as follows:
Though entertaining the settled con-
viction that the British pretensions of
title could not be maintained to any
portion Of the oregon territory upon
any principle of public law recognized
by nations, yet in Difference to what
had been done by my predecessors and
especially in consideration that propo-
siucns Of compromise had been made
by two preceding administrations TO
~ degrees, and in two of them yielding
to Great Britain the free navigation of
the Columbia, and that the pending ne
gouatiOns had been commenced on the |
basis of compromise, l deemed it to be
my duty not abruptly TO break il off"
Representative of the West in those |
days were always in arms against any
proposition initiating against our title |
TO Louisiana purchase which included
not only Louisiana and Texas bat
everything else between the Mississippi
and the Rio Grande and west to the Pa
cific Ocean between the forty-second
parallel and Russian America. The
plains, the mountains. and the Pacific
coast we're lands of mystery, romance,
and promise to the youth of the West
Every Missouri boys dreams were of
future adventure In that region Their
fathers looked upon it as ours because
we needed 1t for our children and for
the millions Of emigrants coming across
the Atlantic-Ours because we alone
could soon make it an empire of civili-
zaton and production-ours by the
highest of titles. a title bearing the sign
manual Of Manifest Destiny"
oFFICIoUS ENGLISH CoRoNERs.
a Novel Point Raised by an Ameri
can Naval officer.
-.