"The Illegality of Doctor McLoughlin's Claim rests upon the following Grounds:—
"1st. He is a British Subject, owing allegiance to a Foreign Power, and has so continued to be ever since the Spring of A. D. 1840. For this reason alone he could not acquire preemption to lands in the United States.
"2d. He is the Chief Officer of a Foreign Corporate Monopoly. For this reason alone he could not acquire preemption to lands in the United States.
"3d. He does not now and never did reside on the land in question, but on the contrary, he resides and has always continued to reside on the North side of the Columbia River, the Section of country actually in dispute between the two Governments, about Twenty miles from the land claimed by Mr. Waller, and there he is obliged to remain, so long as he continues to be Chief Factor.
"4th. He is not in fact the Claimant. The Hudson's Bay Company, a Foreign Corporation, is in fact the Claimant while Doctor McLoughlin only lends his name; well knowing, that a Corporation even though it be an American one, can not acquire a preemption. This is evinced by the employment of men to be his Agents and to sell lots for him, who are at the same time partners in and receiving dividends and Salaries from the Company.
"5th. The pretentions of Doctor McLoughlin arose, if at all, two years and six months after the actual Settlement of Mr. Waller; and therefore they are in direct violation of the Treaty of A. D. 1827: Converting the mutual and joint occupancy into an exclusive occupancy by British subjects.
"6th. The Treaty of joint occupancy [1827] does not and was never intended on the part of the United States, to confer any rights of citizenship upon Foreigners. The Power to confer such rights is by the Constitution reserved to Congress. And the right to acquire title by preemption is peculiar to citizens.
"Those fellow citizens are the Facts and some of the Points of Law in my client's case. Upon the same principle contended for by Dr. McLoughlin, any of you may incur the risk of being ousted from your Farms in this Colony, by the next rich foreigner who chooses to take a fancy so to do, unless in the first instance, you come unanimously forward and resist these usurpations. It is not my client's intention to wrong any who have purchased Lots of the Doctor, and to guard against the injury which might result to individuals in this respect, I have carefully drawn up the Form of a Bond for a Warantee Deed, which Mr. Waller is at all times ready, without any further consideration, to execute to any person who has, in good faith, bought of the Doctor, prior to the date of this notice, by being applied to at his residence. Mr. Waller does not require one cent of money to be paid to him as a Consideration for his Bonds—the trouble, expense and outlays they have already incurred, with the desire to save all such persons harmless from pecuniary loss, is a good and sufficient Consideration in Law to bind him in the proposed penalty of One Thousand Dollars. See Comyns. Digest, Assumpsit B.
"I am of opinion that Mr. Waller has rights in the premises, which neither Doctor McLoughlin nor even Congress by any retrospective legislation can take away from him;—and therefore, fellow citizens, in sincere friendship, I would counsel you to lose no time in applying to him for your new Bonds.
"John Ricord,"