The Washington times., 1901-10-13

No periodical publication can find
room for the carloads of official docu-
ments, correspondence, and records
which show how uniformly and tena-
ciously the Government of the United
States and the representatives of our
people have contended. since 1903. that
the territory bought from France in
that year was bounded on the south by
the Gulf of Mexico, from the mouth of
the Perdido to the mouth of the Rio
Grande; that the boundary further fol-
lowed this river from its mouth to its
source; thence due north to the parallel
of AZ degrees; thence west along that
parallel to the western boundary was
the Pacific from ~ degrees to 54 de-
grees 40 minutes north.
France had occupied and explored on
ly a little of this territory. Conflicting
claims to parts of it, based on discov-
cry of coast lines, etc, had been assert
ed by other nations that had no more
occupied and explored il than France
had. 1t was necessary to strengthen
the title we had obtained from France,
and the work of exploring, occupying,
and possessing was promptly begun.
SO Mr.. jefferson sent out the Lewis and
Clarke expedition in 1S04, which made
the first exploration of the Missouri
River to its sources; then crossing over
the divide discovered the Clearwater
River, built boats on its banks and nav
igated it to the Snake River, the latter
to the Columbia River, and the Column
bia to the Pacific, which they reached
in December, 1905 This exploration
completed the work of Capt. Robert
Gray, of Boston, the first discoverer Of
the mouth of the Columbia, who had
sailed up it fifteen miles in 1892 and
named the river after his ship. Captain
Kendrick, an American navigator, had
sailed through the Straits of Fuca, the
Gulf of Georgia, and Queen Charlotte
Sound to the Pacific, in 1883, and was
the first to make known the true char
acter of those wonderful inland waters.
All this was set forth as more than
countervailing any claim to the basin
of the Columbia which England might
base on the prior discoveries of Drake,
Cook, and Vancouver.
The first house in all that country
was built on the Columbia in 1910 by
Captain Winship. a New Englander,
and in 1911 John Jacob Astor estab-
lished his trading post at Astoria, fif-
teen miles from the ocean, his men get
ting there just ahead of the expedition
sent out for the same purpose by the
British Northwestern Fur Trading
Company In 1913 his agent sold out TO
this company on account of the war
and tho na-oa Astoria xvac cha arpad RI
Fort George. Though the site was re-
stored to the United States after the
war. the fur company held the property
till it sold out to the Hudson Bay Com
pany in 1921. The operations of these
fur companies not only afforded basis
for England's claim of occupancy, but
were held responsible for the many In
dian outrages that warned back immi-
grants to Oregon from the United
States.
England claimed the whole country,
but offered to compromise on the line
of the Columbia, giving US what is now
the State of Oregon as our only outlet
to the Pacific. This was steadily re-
fused, but in 1918 entered into conven-
ton for the joint occupancy of the
whole country by English and Ameri-
cans, leaving the claims of both nations
for future settlement without prejudice
TO either. This joint occupation con-
tinued TO be denounced by our Western
statesmen, till the cry "Fifty-four,
forty or fight in 1S44-5 brought US to
the verge of war with England-a war
which was averted mainly by our an
nexation OF Texas, which meant war
with Mexico; and not wishing to fight
England and Mexico both at once on
territorial questions we compromised on
the line OF the i9 degree in 1916 and the
backdown from ''Fifty-four forty or
fight" had great deal to do with the
defeat of the Democrats by the election
of Taylor over Cass in 1S4S.
The late ex-Mayor and Ex-Governor
r. NJ Bishop. of Cincinnati, was run
ming a store in a Kentucky village in
1875. and the writer remembers that the
dry goods advertisements of Bishop
were all headed "Fifty-four forty or
fight"
In 1919, the year after the joint Occur
pancy convention with England, we
were so eager to obtain Florida from
Spain that we surrendered to her the
whole of Texas. This surrender was
denounced then and thereafter by
Thomas II. Benton as "a parricidal
act" But the swap did Spain no good
Mexico seeded from Spain and gained
her Independence with Texas, settled by
Americans, as enc OF her States. The
autonomy of the Mexican States was
abolished by the decree of a usurping
dictatorship and Texas, thereupon Sc
ceding from Mexico, gained her Inde-
pendence and annxed herself to the
United States.
A very few extracts from the mes
sages of President Polk, the Speeches of
President buchanan, and Thomas H.
Benton VIII show the claims upon
which our Government has always
stood with reference TO these boundary
and title questions.
In a speech for the annexation of
Texas Omitted States Senate, June 10,
1S4f), Senator Benton is thus reported
by himself in his abridgement:
Texas and the country between the
Red River and the Arkansas, had been
dismembered from the United States in |
the year 1919, and had since remained
Under foreign dominion. Denounced
that parricidal act in the moment of its
preparation and had sought 10 undo it |
ever since
From President Polks annual mes
sage, December 1916: