The Washington correspondent of the Journal of Commerce writes as follows of the results of the exploring expedition:
The universal opinion here on the subject of the conduct and results of the exploring expedition is highly favorable to the officers who had charge of it. It has certainly given to Lieutenant Wilkes a reputation as an accomplished seaman and an energetic and scientific officer.
He delivered before the national institute a course of lectures, at the request of that body, on the subject of the expedition, which gave satisfaction and instruction to a numerous and enlightened auditory—among whom were Mr. J. Q. Adams, Mr. Poinsett, Mr. Woodbury, the members of the cabinet, and many scientific gentlemen from every portion of the union.
At the close of his last lecture the honorable Secretary of the Navy (Mr. Upshur) rose and addressed the assembly in the warmest terms of commendation of the successful labors and efforts of Captain Wilkes, and the officers and scientific corps under his command. He adverted to one fact which of itself spoke strongly of the skill with which the expedition had been conducted—that it had visited the remotest quarters of the globe, traversed the most dangerous seas, surveyed the most impenetrable coasts, and encountered the vicissitudes of every climate with so little difficulty or loss.
The secretary also remarked on the immense treasures in natural science which the officers of the expedition had collected and transmitted to the government in such admirable order, and which now formed the basis of the museum of the national institute.
He commented, also, on Captain Wilkes’ report upon the Oregon Territory, and declared that this report was alone an ample compensation to the country for the whole cost of the expedition. He expressed the opinion, in fine, that the results of the expedition were highly valuable and honorable, not to this country alone, but to the cause of civilization in the world.
[From the Tribune (New York), August 10, 1842.]
Correspondence from Washington.
Points of the treaty. * * * The boundary line agreed upon runs to the Rocky Mountains, and leaves unsettled the question of the Oregon Territory. There is nothing lost by this, for our emigrants are daily settling this question. We grow stronger there by time, and become nearer, too.