claim than that above mentioned was that based on the explorations and assertions of sovereignty by the early Spanish navigators on the northwest coast; but, though the United States placed great stress on this source of title after its acquisition of the Spanish rights in 1819, it is clear that both the United States and Great Britain had made claims of discovery and occupation which impugned the Spanish title. In resuming the thread of the diplomatic Early Negotiations. negotiations, which was dropped at the conclusion of the Hawkesbury-King convention in 1803, it is important to bear in mind the dates of the principal acts by which the United States acquired its claims to the Oregon territory, viz, the exploration of the Columbia River by Captain Gray in 1792, the conclusion of the Louisiana Treaty in 1803, the expedition of Lewis and Clark of the same year, the settlement at Astoria in 1811, and the treaty with Spain in 1819. In consequence of the conclusion of the Louisiana Treaty, the Senate advised that the Hawkesbury King convention should be ratified without the fifth article, relating to boundaries. Great Britain declined to accept this amendment,' and the subject remained in suspense till 1807, when Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney endeavored to adjust it. On the 31st of December 1806, the commercial articles of the Jay Treaty being about to expire, they signed, as commissioners of the United States, with Lords Holland and Auckland as British commissioners, a treaty of amity and commerce. After this treaty was concluded the British commissioners proposed certain additional and explanatory articles, by the fifth of which it was provided that the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude should form the boundary westward from the Lake of the Woods "as far as the territories of the United States extend in that quarter," provided that nothing in the article should be construed to extend to the northwest coast of America, or to the territories belonging to or claimed by either party, on the continent of America, to the westward of the Stony Mountains." The American commissioners objected to the words "as far as the territories of the United States extend in that quarter." and proposed to omit them. The British commissioners in turn proposed to substitute the words, Treaties and Conventions of the United States, 1776-1887, p. 1324; Am. State Papers, For. Rel. II. 584; III.90–97. "as far as their said respective territories extend in that quarter," and to this proposal the American commissioners assented. The proviso in regard to territories westward of the Stony Mountains they accepted in the form in which it was proposed. The Government of the United States accepted the article as thus agreed upon, though it expressed a desire for the omission of the proviso on the ground that it was unnecessary and could have "little other effect than as an offensive intimation to Spain" that the claims of the United States extended to the Pacific Ocean." However "reasonable" such claims might be "compared with those of others," it was, said Mr. Madison, impolitic, especially at that time, to strengthen Spanish jealousies of the United States. The additional and explanatory articles, however, were not coucluded. President Jefferson refused to submit the treaty itself to the Senate, on the ground that it contained no renunciation by the British Government of the claim of impressment, and the negotiations at London came to an end. Ghent. In the negotiations at Ghent the AmeriNegotiations at can plenipotentiaries proposed, in respect of boundaries, the article agreed on by the commissioners of the United States and Great Britain in 1807. The British plenipotentiaries offered in turn the article first proposed by the British commissioners, Lords Holland and Auckland, with an additional paragraph stipulating for free access by British subjects through the territories of the United States to the Mississippi, and for the free navigation of that river. In the conferences that ensued the substance of an article, so far as it related to the boundary line, was agreed upon; but as the American plenipoten' iaries would not accede to the additional paragraph, the article was finally omitted altogether." The next attempt to settle this boundary Convention of 1818. question was made during the negotiations that resulted in the conclusion of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain of October 20, 1818. John Quincy Adams, in his instructions to Messrs. Gallatin and Rush of July 28, 1818, observed that by correspondence with the Spanish minister at Washington it appeared 1 Am. State Papers, For. Rel. III. 165. 2 Papers relating to the Treaty of Washington, V. 23–24; Am. State Papers, For. Rel. III. 185. Am. State Papers, For. Rel. IV. 377. that the claims of Spain to territory on the Pacific extended to the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude, but he also observed that there was a Russian settlement in latitude fifty-five and a temporary lodgment connected with it as far south as the fortysecond degree. It was not known, said Mr. Adams, on what grounds the British contested the settlement at Astoria, which was formed before the war, and broken up by the British sloop of war Raccoon in the course of it, but which was restored in consequence of the treaty of peace. Mr. Adams authorized Messrs. Gallatin and Rush to accept the line agreed on in 1807. When on the 20th of October 1818 a convention was concluded, the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude was adopted as the line from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, but no agreement could be reached as to the boundary westward. The American plenipotentiaries proposed to extend the line along the forty-ninth parallel due west to the Pacific Ocean. That line, they said, had, in pursuance of the Treaty of Utrecht, been fixed indefinitely as the boundary between the northern British possessions and those of France, including Louisiana, now a part of the United States; and so far as discovery gave a claim, the title of the United States to the whole country on the waters of the Columbia was, they argued, indisputable, since the river was discovered by Captain Gray, an American, and was first fully explored by Lewis and Clark. Moreover, the settlement at Astoria was, they maintained, the first permanent establishment made in that quarter. The British plenipotentiaries, on the other hand, asserted that former voyages, and principally that of Captain Cook, gave to Great Britain the rights derived from discovery, and they also alluded to purchases from natives south of the Columbia, which they alleged had been made before the American Revolution. They did not make any formal proposal for a boundary, but intimated that the Columbia was the most convenient that could be adopted, and that they would not agree to any arrangement that would not give them a harbor at the mouth of that river in common with the United States.' At the fifth conference the British plenipotentiaries proposed an article to the effect that the country lying between the forty-fifth and forty-ninth parallels of latitude should be open to the trade and commerce of both parties, without prejudice 1 Am. State Papers, For. Rel. IV. 381. to the claims of either of them to its possession. The American commissioners declined to accept any arrangement which, without settling the question of title, might seem to imply a renunciation by the United States of any of its claims to territorial sovereignty; and in the end it was agreed that any territory claimed by either party should for a period of ten years be free and open to both parties, without prejudice to either's claim of sovereignty. This agreement was embodied in Article III. of the convention, which reads as follows: "It is agreed, that any country that may be claimed by either party on the nothwest coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two Powers: it being well understood, that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim, which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other Power or State to any part of the said country; the only object of the high contracting parties, in that respect, being to prevent disputes and differences amongst themselves.” Ukase of 1821. Before the term for which this article was to remain in force had half expired, the question of territorial rights on the northwest coast of America was suddenly revived by the famous ukase of 1821, by which the Emperor of Russia assumed to exclude foreigners. from carrying on commerce and from navigating and fishing within a hundred Italian miles of the coast from Bering Straits down to the fifty-first parallel of north latitude. As the ukase was founded upon and necessarily carried with it an assertion of title to all the territory north of that parallel, both the United States and Great Britain protested against it. Their protests. were received by Russia in a friendly spirit, and it was agreed that an effort should be made to settle the territorial claims of the parties by negotiation. By this time the United States had, as we have seen, by the treaty of February 22, 1819, acquired all the territorial rights of Spain on the Pacific north of the forty-second parallel of north latitude. On the 22d of July 1823 Mr. Adams, in an instruction to Mr. Rush, then minister of the United States at London, authorized him "to stipulate that no settlement shall hereafter be made on the Am. State Papers, For. Rel. IV, 391. northwest coast or on any of the islands thereto adjoining by Russian subjects south of latitude of 55°, by citizens of the United States north of latitude 51°, or by British subjects either south of 51° or north of 55°. I mention the latitude of 510," said Mr. Adams, "as the bound within which we are willing to limit the future settlement of the United States, because it is not to be doubted that the Columbia River branches as far north as 51°, although it is most probably not the Taconesche Tesse of Mackenzie. As, however, the line already runs in latitude 49° to the Stony Mountains, should it be earnestly insisted upon by Great Britain, we will consent to carry it in continuance on the same parallel to the sea." "The right of the United States," said Mr. Adams in another place, "from the forty-second to the forty-ninth parallel of latitude on the Pacific Ocean we consider as unquestionable, being founded, first, on the acquisition by the Treaty of February 22, 1819, of all the rights of Spain; second, by the discovery of the Columbia River, first from sea, at its mouth, and then by land by Lewis and Clark; and, third, by the settlement at its mouth in 1811.”2 On December 17, 1823, Mr. Rush had an Rush's Negotiations interview with Mr. Canning, who was then indisposed, at Gloncester Lodge, the latter's residence. This interview was solicited by Mr. Canning in order that he might learn the views of the United States in regard to the northwest coast before preparing his instructions on the subject to the British ambassador at St. Petersburg. A map of the coast was produced, and Mr. Rush pointed out the lines by which the claims of the United States were bounded. "Mr. Canning," says Mr. Rush, "went into no remarks, beyond simply intimating that our claim seemed much beyond anything England had anticipated. I said that I had the hope of being able to show its good foundation when the negotiation came on. Further conversation of a general nature passed on the subject, and on coming away I left with him, at his request, a brief, informal statement of our claim in writing."3 In this memorandum Mr. Rush said that the United States would agree to make no settlement north of 510 on Great Britain's agreeing to make none south of that line or north of at London. Am. State Papers, For. Rel. V. 446, 448. |