and natural dependence for commercial and civil affairs, upon the several claimants. Oregon is more naturally dependent in these respects, on California and Mexico, than upon the Canadas, and the frozen regions of British America. We have purchased from Spain this right of contiguity. Therefore, for all the reasons ever assigned by Britain in such casesby the laws and customs of nations, and by grant from Britain herself, Oregon is ours.

The author of these pages desires to put a single question to his countrymen. He would do it with the deepest feeling which love of country can inspire. He would urge its consideration home, upon that mighty impulse of the American mind, which had the intelligence to perceive its rights, and the courage to defend them in the struggles of the Revolution. WILL YOU DEFEND, AT EVERY HAZARD, THE RIGHTS AND HONOR OF YOUR COUNTRY; OR WILL YOU YIELD THEM, AND YOUR OWN HONOR, TO THE INSO

LENT PRETENSIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN ? I believe the response from every hamlet in the land, will be an indignant negative. Shall we not hear everywhere uttered, in the firmest tones: "We demand what is clearly right; we submit to nothing that is wrong." The value of Oregon, to us, is inestimable. In an agricultural sense, that Territory would be worth little. But, when we remember that the genius of our government forbids us to establish colonies on the islands of the Pacific; that we can never own a harbor on that sea, unless we retain Oregon; that there is the finest group of harbors in the world on the northern portion of Oregon; that there are none south of latitude 47° north; that Britain claims that the Columbia River shall be the line between her and us; that by yielding to her demands, we shall not have a bay on that great Ocean, in which a common merchant vessel can find shelter from a storm; that the nation which shall own the ports in the north part of the territory, will control the whole maritime and commercial interest of the North Pacific; that the distance between the navigable waters of the Missouri River, and the splendid harbor of Puget's Sound, in latitude 47° north, is only about three hundred miles; that a rail-road, six hundred miles in length, costing less than the Erie Canal, will bring the commerce of the Indies into the heart of the Republic ;-we may well ask ourselves, if we will yield this most important of all our national wealth, to the unscrupulous and baseless claims of Britain? Shall it be done? It will not, until we cease to be Americans.

THE END.

APPENDIX.

The following Report of a Committee of Congress in 1843, is thought very valuable, as illustrating the title of the United States to Oregon Territory.

REPORT.

The Committee on Military Affairs, to which was referred so much of the President's message as relates to the establishment of a chain of military posts from Council Bluffs to the Pacific Ocean, submits the following report :

The Secretary of War, in his report accompanying the President's message, speaking of the "territory which extends from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico," has the following remark: “It is in immediate contact with numerous wild and warlike Indians, who are capable of bringing into the field a number of warriors estimated at from twenty to thirty thousand. From the intercourse which subsists between them and the traders, and emissaries of foreign nations, they may be rendered as formidable as any description of force that could be brought against us. To secure a proper influence over them in peace, and to counteract and control their dispositions in war-to secure our own territory, and to protect our traders, it is indispensable that a chain of posts should be established, extending from the Council Bluffs to the mouth of the Columbia, so as to command the avenues by which the Indians pass from the north to the south, and at the same time to maintain a communication with the territories belonging to us on the Pacific." In allusion to the same subject, the President, in his message, says: I recommend particularly to your consideration, that portion of the Secretary's report which proposes the establishment of a chain of military posts from Council Bluffs to some point on the Pacific Ocean within our limits. The benefit thereby destined to accrue to our citizens engaged in the fur trade over that wilderness region, added to the importance of cultivating friendly relations with savage tribes inhabiting it, and at the same time of giving protection to our frontier settlements, and of establishing the means of safe intercourse between the American settlements at the mouth of the Columbia River and those on this side of the Rocky Mountains, would seem to suggest the importance of carrying into effect the recommendations upon this head, with as little delay as may be practicable."

Thus invoked by these high authorities, whose especial and responsible duty it is carefully to have weighed all the circumstances which may justify this recommendation, and all the consequences to which it may lead, the Committee on Military Affairs has given to this subject the anxious consideration its importance demands.

Mr. Monroe, in his last annual message, referring to this subject, uses the following language:

"In looking to the interests which the United States have on the Pacific ocean, and on the western coast of this Continent, the propriety of establishing a military post at the mouth of the Columbia river, or at some other point in that quarter, within our acknowledged limits, is submitted to the consideration of Congress. Our commerce and fishing on that sea and along the coast have much increased and are increasing. It is thought that a military post to which our ships of war might resort, would afford protection to every interest, and have a tendency to conciliate the tribes of the Northwest, with whom our trade is extensive. It is thought, also, that, by

the establishment of such a post, the intercourse between our Western States and Territories and the Pacific, and our trade with the tribes residing in the interior, on each side of the Rocky Mountains, would be essentially promoted. To carry this object into effect, the appropriation of an adequate sum to authorize the employment of a frigate, with an officer of the corps of engineers, to explore the mouth of the Columbia River and the coast contiguous thereto, to enable the Executive to make such establishment at the most suitable point, is recommended to Congress.”

Mr. Adams, in his first message, in 1825, referring to this recommendation of Mr. Monroe, says:

"The interior of our own territories has yet been very imperfectly explored. Our coasts, along many degrees of latitude upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented by our spirited commercial navigators, have been rarely visited by our public ships. The river of the west, first fully discovered and navigated by a countryman of our own, still bears the name of the ship in which he ascended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed national flag at its mouth. With the establishment of a military post there, or at some other point of the coast, recommended by my predecessor, and already matured in the deliberations of the last Congress, I would suggest the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public ship for the exploration of the whole Northwest coast of this Continent."

The attention of the committee has been in the first place directed to the title of the United States to the territory claimed by them on the Pacific Ocean, and which is contested by Great Britain.

Russia, Great Britain, the United States, and Mexico, and in the order in which they are here named, from north to south, claim the possession of the whole western coast of North America. By the Florida treaty, concluded between the King of Spain and the United States on the 22nd of February, 1819, the forty-second degree of north latitude, from the source of the river Arkansas to the South Sea, is established as the boundary between the two countries in that quarter; and his Catholic majesty ceded to the United States all his rights, claims, and pretensions, to any territory north of said line; and for himself, his heirs and successors, renounced all claim to the said territories for ever. At the time of the ratification of this treaty, Mexico constituted a part of the Spanish monarchy, and, as such, was bound by its stipulations. Mexico, having established her independence of the Crown of Spain, to remove all doubts upon this subject, made a treaty of limits with the United States on the 12th January, 1828, by which the said forty-second degree of north latitude designated by the Florida treaty was recognized and confirmed as the boundary line between "the respective bordering territories of the United States of North America and of the United Mexican States." By these two treaties with Spain and Mexico, the southern boundary of the United States is permanently established, and there is no difficulty or dispute in that quarter.

By the third article of the convention between the United States and Russia, signed at St. Petersburg in April, 1824, it is "agreed that hereafter there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States, or under the authority of said States, any establishment upon the northwest coast of America, nor any of the islands adjacent, to the north of fifty-four degrees forty minutes of north latitude; and that, in the same manner, there shall be none formed by Russian subjects, or under the authority of Russia, south of the same parallel. In the convention between Great Britain and Russia, signed at St. Petersburg in February, 1825, the intersection of the same parallel of fifty-four degrees forty minutes of north latitude, and the southernmost point of Prince of Wales's Island, is established as the commencement of the line of demarcation between their possessions "upon the coast of the Continent and the islands of America to the northwest."

By these several treaties with Spain, Mexico, and Russia, the United States have limited their claim on the Pacific Ocean to twelve degrees and forty minutes of latitude; that is, to the space intervening between forty-two and forty-four degrees and forty minutes of north latitude. Great Britain asserts her title to the whole, or a large part of this territory. This title the committee propose very briefly to examine, fully convinced that it cannot be sustained.

By the second article of the convention of the 20th day of October, 1818, between Great Britain and the United States, it is agreed that the 49th parallel of north latitude shall be the line of demarcation of their respective territories, from the north

western point of the Lake-of-the-Woods to the Stony Mountains. In 1824 and 1826, the United States proposed to Great Britain to adopt this same 49th parallel of latitude as the line between their respective territories, from the Rocky Mountains west to the Pacific Ocean. To this proposal the British ministry refused to accede, and in their turn proposed "that the boundary between the territories of Great Britain and those of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains should be a line drawn from those mountains westward, along the 49th parallel, to the nearest headwaters of the Columbia, and thence down the middle of the stream to its termination in the Pacific-the British possessing the country north and west of such line, and the Americans that on the other side." This proposal the United States rejected, on the ground that it gave Great Britain territory south of the forty-ninth degree of latitude. The negotiation having thus failed, in 1827, Mr. Gallatin, the American minister, was directed to give notice that the " American Government did not hold itself bound hereafter, in consequence of any proposal which it had made for a line of separation between the territories of the two nations beyond the Rocky Mountains, but would consider itself at liberty to contend for the full extent of the claims of the United States." All efforts to settle by negotiation the conflicting claims of the two nations to the territory in question having failed, each is left to assert its right in such manner as its own honor and interest shall dictate.

The committee submits a brief abstract of the title of the United States, referring, for a more full and general view of it, to the several reports heretofore made to both Houses of Congress, to the correspondence with Great Britain, and an interesting memoir prepared in 1840, by Mr. Robert Greenhow, under the direction of the Hon. John Forsyth, then Secretary of State.*

The United States claim the territory in question in virtue of their own original discovery and possession, and as successors of France and Spain under the Louisiana and Florida treaties. The committee is therefore led to the investigation of the titles thus acquired; and, first,

OF THE FRENCH TITLE.

The treaty of Utrecht was concluded in 1713. By the tenth article it was agreed, between Great Britain and France, to determine within one year, by commissioners, the limits between the Hudson's Bay and the places appertaining to the French. The same commissioners were also authorized to settle, in like manner, the boundaries between the other British and French colonies in those parts. Commissioners were accordingly appointed by the two Powers, and there is strong reason to believe they actually established the boundaries according to the terms of the treaty, although no formal record of the fact now exists. The evidence that the boundaries were thus established is, first, the fact of the appointment of the commissioners for that express purpose; and that two distinct lines may be found traced on the different maps published in the last century, each purporting to be the limit between the Hudson's Bay territories on the north and the French possessions on the south, fixed by commissioners according to the treaty of Utreccht." One of these lines "is drawn irregularly from the Atlantic to a point in the 49th parallel of latitude, south of the southernmost part of the Hudson's Bay, and thence westward along that parallel to Red River, and, in some maps, still further west. This line is generally considered in the United States, and has been assumed by their government, as the true boundary settled by the commissioners agreeably to the treaty above mentioned." Thus we find Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney, at Madrid, in 1805, writing to the Spanish minister as follows: In conformity with the tenth article of the first-mentioned

*The first report upon "the expediency of occupying the Columbia River" was made by Mr. Floyd, of Virginia, to the House of Representatives, January 25, 1821, accompanied by a bill for that purpose. (House Doc. 1820-21, No. 45.) The second report came from a select committee, of which Mr. Baylies, of Massachusetts, was chairman, to which had been referred the subject of establishing a military post at the mouth of the Columbia River, etc., January 16, 1826, (Ho. Doc., 1825-26, vol. I., No. 35;) and a supplemental report from the same committee, May 15, 1826. (Ho. Doc., vol. 2., No. 213.) The third report was made by Mr. Cushing, of Massachusetts, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, in relation to the territory of the United States beyond the Rocky Mountains, January 4, 1839; and a supplemental report, February 16, 1839. (Ho. Doc., vol 1, No. 101.) The fourth report was made to the Senate, by Mr. Lynn, of Missouri, from the select committee to which was referred the bill to authorize the President to occupy the Oregon Territory, June 6, 1838. (Senate Doc., No. 470.)

The Memoir of Mr. Greenhow was printed by order of the Senate, and is to be found in Senate Doc.. 1839-40, vol. 4., No. 174.

treaty, (treaty of Utrecht,) the boundary between Canada and Louisiana on the one side, and the Hudson's Bay and Northwestern Companies on the other, was established by commissioners by a line to commence at a cape or promontory on the ocean in 58 degrees 31 minutes north latitude; to run thence southwestwardly to latitude 49 degrees north from the equator, and along that line indefinitely westward." These extracts are taken from the Memoir of Mr. Greenhow, who, it is proper to add, considers the opinion that these boundary lines were actually established by the commissioners "at variance with the most accredited authorities." In this opinion the committee does not concur; so far from doing so, it is thought the presumption that the 49th parallel was adopted by the commissioners under the treaty of Utrecht, is strengthened by the line of demarcation subsequently agreed on by the treaty of Versailles, in 1763, between France and Great Britain, and also by the treaty of peace of 1783, between the United States and Great Britain. By the former, the confines between the British and French possessions were irrevocably fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the Mississipi, from its source to the Iberville," etc. By the latter, that part of the northern boundary of the United States which is applicable to the subject is described to be through the Lake-of-the-Woods, "to the most northwestern point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the Mississippi river." The most northwestern point of the Lake-of-the-Woods is perhaps a few minutes north of the 49th parallel of latitude. By the convention of 1818, between the United States and Great Britain, in the second article, it is agreed that a line drawn from the most northwestern point of the Lake-of-the-Woods, along the 49th parallel of north latitude, or if the said point shall not lie in the 49th parallel of north latitude, then that a line drawn from the said point due north or south, as the case may be, until the said line shall intersect the said parallel of north latitude, and from the point of such intersection, due west, along and with said parallel, shall be the line of demarcation between the territories of the United States and those of his Brittanic majesty; and that the said line shall form the northern boundary of the said territories of the United States, and the southern boundary of the territory of his Brittanic majesty, from the Lake-of-the-Woods to the Stony Mountains."

This line, it will be observed, is a deviation from the boundary established by the treaty of 1783; for that was to extend due west from the northwestern point of the Lake-of-the-Woods, without any reference to its latitude. By this, we are, in the contingency named, to run by the shortest line from the specified point on the Lakeof-the-Woods to the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. Whence, it may be asked, the solicitude to adopt this particular parallel, except as it corresponded with preexisting arrangements, which could have been made under the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht alone? for under no other had any reference at that time been made to the said forty-ninth degree.

This coincidence between the boundaries established by Great Britain and France in 1763, and between Great Britain and the United States in 1783 and in 1818, can scarcely be accounted for on any other supposition, than that the said line had been previously established by the commissioners under the treaty of Utrecht. This conclusion is strengthened by a further coincidence in the boundaries fixed in the said treaties of 1763 and 1783. In both, the Mississippi is adopted as the boundary. One of the lines then (the Mississippi) previously established between Great Britain and France being thus, beyond all cavil, adopted between the United States and Great Britain, may it not be fairly inferred, in the absence of all proof to the contrary, and with strong corroborating proof in favor of the inference, drawn from the stipulations of treaties, lines of demarcation on old maps, etc., that the other line, (forty-ninth parallel,) equally beyond cavil established by the United States and Great Britain, was also the same one previously existing between Great Britain and France? but such line had no existence, unless under the stipulations of the treaty of Utrecht. For these reasons, the committee has adopted the opinion, that the forty-ninth parallel of latitude was actually established by the commissioners under that treaty. It may not be unimportant here to observe, that this forty-ninth parallel is not a random line, arbitrarily selected, but the one to which France was entitled upon the well-settled principle that the first discoverer of a river is entitled, by virtue of that discovery, to all the unoccupied territory watered by that river and its tribu

taries.