The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-09-27
TEXAS AND OREGON INCLUDED.


No periodical publication can find room for the cart
loads Of official documents correspondence and records
which show how uniformly and tenaciousy the government
OF the United States and the representatives Of our people
have commended since 1903 the territory bought from
France IN that year bounded south by the Gulf Of
Mexico from the mouth Of Perdido 70 the mouth of the
Rio Grande that the boundary further followed this river
from its mouth to its thence due north to the par
ae OF AZ degrees thence along that parallel to the
Paee and that the boundary was the Pacific from
az degrees to 81 degrees 40 minutes north
France had occupied and explored but little this terri
tory Conflicting claims parts Of on discovery of
coast lines etc. had been asserted other nations that had
no more occupied and explored it 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 the Lewis
and Clarke expedition in 1904 which made the explora-
ton OF the Missouri river its crossing over
the divide discovered the Clearwater river built boats on
its banks and navgaed it to the Snake river the latter to
the Columbia river and the Columbia the Pachc which
they reached in December 1906 This exploration completed
the work Of Captain Robert Gray Boston the first dcov-
erer of the mouth of the Columbia who had saed I'D If
teen mics IN 1893 and named the river after his ship Cap
tam kendrick an American navigator had sailed through
the Straits of Fuca the Gulf Georgia and Queen Char
oe sound the Pacific 800 and was the first TO Make
known the true character Of wonderful inland waters
All this was set forth as more than countervang 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 Co.
umba in 1870 by Captain Wnshp, Neg Highlander and
in 1871 John Jacob Asor established his trading post at AS
ora fifteen miles from the men getting there lust
ahead Of the expedition the same purpose by the
British Northwestern Fur Trading company In 1874 his
agent sold out to this company the war and
the name Astoria was changed to Fort George Though the
site was restored to the United States the war the fur
company held the property till it sold the Hudson Bay
company in 1891 The operations of these companies not
only afforded basis for Englands claim occupancy but
were held responsible for the many Indian ouages that
warned back immigrants to Oregon from the United States
y
England claimed the whole country but offered 70 COM
promise on the line of the Columbia giving what is now
the State of Oregon only outlet the Pacific This
We steadily refused hut in 1878 entered into convention
the Joint occupancy Of the whole country by English and
Americans leaving the claims both nations for future set
Element without prejudice either This joint occupation
continued to he denounced by Western statesmen till the
cry OF Fyfom forty fight" in 18444s brought us to
the verge OF with England which was averted
mainly by annexation Of Texas which meant war with
Mexico and not wishing fight England Mexico both
at once territorial questions compromised on the line
of the 49 degree in 1896 and the backdown from Fifty
four forty fight had great deal do the defeat of
the democrats by the election of Taylor Cass in r848
The late exMayor and Ex-Governor r. n. Bishop Gin
cinnau was running store in Kentucky village in 1875.
and the writer remembers that dry goods advertisements
OF Bishop all headed Fifty four forty or fight"
In 1870 the after the joint occupancy convention
with England we obtain Florida from Spain
tina we surrendered to her the whole OF Texas This suen-
der denounced then and thereafter by Thomas H. Benton
as "a parrciia act But the swap did Spain no good
Mexico seeded from Spain and gained her independence
with Texas settled by Americans of her States The
autonomy OF the Mexican States abolished by the de-
gree of usupns dictatorship and Texas thereupon scced
ing from Meco gained Der independence and annexed her
self to the United States
very few extracts from the messages of President Polk
the speeches of President Buchanan and Thomas H. Benton
will show the claims upon which government has always
stood with reference to these boundary and title questions
THE GULF BOUNDARY
In speech for the annexation of Texas UNITED States
senate June TO- lS Senator Benton thus reported by
himself In his a5rdgmcrt:
Texas and the country between the Red river and the
Arkansas had been dismembcred from the United States
the year SIo and had since remained under foreign
minon He had denounced that parrcda act in the mo-
ment of its preparation and had sought undo it ever
since"
From President Folks annual message December, 1870
Texas constituted portion Of the ancient province of
louisiana coded to the United States by France in 1903
the 1870 the United States by the Florida treaty ceded
to Spain all that part Of Louisiana within the present limits
OF Texas Texas, ceded the United States by
france in 1903, has been always claimed extending west
to the Rio Grande Rio Bravo This fact established by
the authority Of eminent at period when
the question well better understood is at
present During Mr. Jeersons administration Messrs Mon
roe and Pncney who had been out on special mis-
sion to Madrid charged other things that adjust
ment Of boundary between the countries in note adj
dressing the Spanish minister of foreign affairs date
January 2S 1906 that the boundaries of Louisiana
as ceded to the United States by France the river
dido on the and the Bravo west and they
add that The facts and principles which justify this conc
sion are so satisfactory government convince it
mat the United States have not better right to the island
OF New Orleans under the cession referred to- than they
have to the whole district OF territory which de-
scribed'
Down to the conclusion of the Florida treaty in February
1870 by which this territory was coded the United States as
serted and maintained their territorial rights this extent
Instances of such are then given the message
THE PACIFIC BOUNDARY.
IFrom Benons abrdgment of Senator Buchanans speech
on the resolution OF the abrogaon OF the joint
occupation clause OF October 90 1913, between the United
States and Great Britainl
Mexico has an undsputed claim and is in undisputed
possession of the country latitude degrees
BY treaty between Russia the United States and aer