The Oregon Question

by Albert Gallatin

NUMBER IV.

The acts which the government of the United States may do, in conformity with the convention, embrace two objects: the measures applicable to the territory within their acknowledged limits which may facilitate and promote migration; and those which are necessary for the protection of their citizens residing in the Oregon territory.

It is a remarkable fact that, although the convention has now been in force twenty-seven years, Congress has actually done nothing with respect to either of those objects. Enterprising individuals have, without any aid or encouragement by Government, opened a wagon-road eighteen hundred miles in length, through an arid or mountainous region, and made settlements on or near the shores of the Pacific, without any guaranty for the possession of the land improved by their labors. Even the attempt to carry on an inland trade with the Indians of Oregon has been defeated, by the refusal to allow a drawback of the high duties imposed on the importation of foreign goods absolutely necessary for that commerce. Thus the fur trade has remained engrossed by the Hudson Bay Company; missionaries were, till very lately, almost the only citizens of the United States to be found in Oregon; the United States, during the whole of that period, have derived no other advantage from the convention than the reservation of their rights, and the express provision that these should in no way be affected by the continuance of the British factories in the territory. And, now that the tide of migration has turned in their favor, they are suddenly invited to assume a hostile position, to endure the calamities and to run the chances and consequences of war, in order to gain an object which natural and irresistible causes, if permitted to operate, cannot fail ultimately to attain.

The measures applicable to the territory within the acknowledged limits of the U. States have generally been recommended by the President. A very moderate appropriation will be sufficient to improve the most difficult portions of the road: and block-houses or other temporary works, erected in proper places and at convenient distances, and garrisoned by a portion of the intended additional force, will protect and facilitate the progress of the emigrants. However uninviting may be the vast extent of prairies, destitute of timber, which intervene between the western boundary of the State of Missouri and the country bordering on the Stony Mountains, it seems impossible that there should not be found some more favored spots where settlements may be formed. If these were selected for military posts, and donations of land were made to actual settlers in their vicinity, a series of villages, though probably not a continuity of settlements, would soon arise through the whole length of the road. The most important place, that which is most wanted, either as a place of rest for the emigrants, or for military purposes, is one in the immediate vicinity of the Stony Mountains. Reports speak favorably of the fertility of the soil in some of the valleys of the upper waters, within our limits—of Bear's river, of the Rio Colorado, and of some of the northern branches of the river Platte. There, also, the seat of justice might be placed of the new territory, whose courts should have superior jurisdiction over Oregon.

The measures which the United States have a right to carry into effect within the territory of Oregon must now be considered.

The only positive condition of the convention is, that the territory in question shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open to vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two Powers.

For the construction put on this article by Great Britain, it is necessary to recur again to the statement of her claim, as given by herself, and to her own acts subsequent to the convention.

The acts of England, subsequent to the convention of 1818, are to be found in the various charters of the Hudson Bay Company (observing that some of their most important provisions, though of a much earlier date, stand unrepealed), and in the act of Parliament of the year 1821, which confirms and extends a prior one of the year 1803. It must also be recollected that, by grants or acts subsequent to the convention, the ancient Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company of Montreal have been united together, preserving the name of Hudson Bay Company.

This Company was and remains a body corporate and politic, with provisions for the election of a Governor and other officers, who direct its business; and amongst other powers, the Company is empowered to build fortifications for the defence of its possessions, as well as to make war or peace with all nations or people, not Christian, inhabiting their territories, which now embrace the entire Oregon. By the act of Parliament of 1821, the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada is extended, in all civil and criminal cases, to the Oregon territory; provision is made for the appointment of justices of the peace within the said territory, with a limited jurisdiction, and power to act as Commissioners in certain cases, and to convey offenders to Upper Canada.