The Oregon Territory, Its History and Discovery

by Travers Twiss

With much more reason might Great Britain have set up an exclusive title against the United States, which she has, in the spirit of moderation, forborne to do. She might have said, “We were entitled by the general law of nations to make settlements in this country, as being unoccupied by any civilised nation. We were the first civilised nation that established a permanent occupation of it, which has never been abandoned, by a settlement in the year 1806 on Frazer’s River. We have since that time, steadily occupied the entire country north and south of the River Columbia, as far as the sources of Lewis River, where Fort Hall, the most southern settlement of the Hudson’s Bay Company, supplies shelter and food to the wasted and famished settler from the United States, on his first entry into the promised land of Oregon.” She might have said, “Before 1833, American citizens, on the testimony of their own countrymen, had no settlements of a permanent kind west of the Rocky Mountains. Even in the valley of the Willamette, where Captain Wilkes, in 1840; found not more than sixty families, many of them being British subjects, and late servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the first settlements were made by officers of that Company, under the encouragement of the Company. It was owing to the report of the thriving condition of these farms having been carried to the United States by American trappers, that settlers from that country were led to undertake the long and perilous journey across the Rocky Mountains, which they would never have survived, had not the British settlements preceded their adventurous enterprise, and furnished them with supplies on their arrival.” Yet after an indisputable use and enjoyment of this country by British subjects for a greater period of time, than that which the United States admitted by treaty in 1824, to establish a valid title by prescription in favour of Russia, from 60° north latitude to 54° 40′, against their own Spanish derivative title, the President of the United States declares, in his solemn message, his “settled conviction that the British pretensions of title could not be maintained to any portion of the Oregon territory, upon any principle of public law recognised by nations.”

The plenipotentiaries of the United States, in their negotiations with Spain respecting the boundary of Louisiana, laid down this principle as adopted in practice by European Powers, in the discoveries and acquisitions which they have respectively made in the New World,—that “whenever one European nation makes a discovery, and takes possession of any portion of that continent, and another afterwards does the same at some distance from it, when the boundary between them is not determined by the principle above mentioned (viz., the taking possession of an extent of sea coast,) the middle distance becomes such of course.” (Cf. supr., Ch. XIII.) If we apply this rule to the settlement of the claims of Great Britain and the United States, either in respect to the conflict of their original titles, or in respect to the conflict of the title of Great Britain recognised in the Convention of the Escurial, with the title of the United States devolved to them by the Treaty of Washington, we shall find it confirm the reasonableness of the offer made by Great Britain. It was ascertained by Vancouver, who had been despatched by his sovereign with this express commission, that the northernmost part of the north-west coast already occupied by Spain, at the signature of the Convention of 1790, was the Presidio of San Francisco, in about 38° north latitude. Vancouver at the same time ascertained that the settlements of the Russians extended as far south as Port Etches, at the eastern extremity of Prince William’s Sound, a little to the south of 60°, and thus determined the extent of the common rights of Great Britain and Spain under the convention, which Mr. Pitt declared, as first Minister of the Crown of England, “he should esteem the Government of his Britannic Majesty highly culpable if they neglected to ascertain, by actual survey,” (St. James’s Chronicle, December 15, 1790.) Both the United States, however, subsequently to their acquisition of their derivative Spanish title, and Great Britain, have recognised, by separate treaties in 1824 and 1825, the territorial rights of Russia as far south as 54° 40′ north latitude, founded on the use and enjoyment of the coast by Russian subjects, during the intervening period between Vancouver’s visit and the publication of the Imperial Ukase of September 16, 1821; so that the rights of Great Britain to form settlements under the Convention of the Escurial, are thus limited by her own act to the parts of the coast between 38° and 54° 40′, and the United States, by a similar act, have confined their derivative title to the same northern boundary. When, however, the United States claim to hold in their hands the title of Spain against Great Britain, and upon the strength of that title propose to make a final partition of the territory hitherto the subject of a common occupation, if they would abide by their own rule, as solemnly propounded by their commissioners on two distinct occasions, the middle distance between 38° and 54° 40′ becomes the boundary line of course. The extremities of the country to be divided are thus marked out by the Presidio of San Francisco on the southern side, and by Fort Frazer on the northern, and nature seems to have accorded the embouchure of the Columbia River, in the latitude of 46° 18′, to meet the conditions of so reasonable a rule, as that which the United States then maintained to be grounded on an acknowledged principle of international law.

Such a rule might reasonably be resorted to on this occasion, as furnishing a solution to the problem of converting the common rights of the United States and Great Britain into separate rights. The United States, however, might admit that the principle was abstractedly sound, but that its application, as proposed, was inadmissible, as their claim commenced at 42°, and not at 38°. It is evident, however, that the derivative title from Spain as against Great Britain, if it be advanced as the basis of the negotiation, which has been the case, cannot assume a different form in the hands of the United States, from that which it would have presented in the hands of Spain herself: otherwise, the less Spain had ceded to the United States, the more the United States would be entitled to claim from Great Britain, which of course is untenable. But Great Britain has conceded to the United States more than the limits which this rule would assign to them, namely, the entire left bank of the Columbia River as far as the 49th parallel, thereby giving up to them the exclusive possession of the Lewis River and the Clarke River, and the intermediate territory.

The general character, however, of the proposals of Great Britain cannot be better described than in the words of Mr. Pakenham’s letter of Sept. 12, 1844:—

“It is believed that by this arrangement ample justice would be done to the claims of the United States, on whatever ground advanced, with relation to the Oregon territory. As regards extent of territory, they would obtain acre for acre, nearly half of the entire territory to be divided. As relates to the navigation of the principal river, they would enjoy a perfect equality of right with Great Britain: and with respect to harbours, Great Britain shows every disposition to consult their convenience in this particular. On the other hand, were Great Britain to abandon the line of the Columbia as a frontier, and to surrender the right to the navigation of that river, the prejudice occasioned to them by such an arrangement, would, beyond all proportion, exceed the advantage accruing to the United States from the possession of a few more square miles of territory. It must be obvious to every impartial investigator of the subject, that in adhering to the line of the Columbia, Great Britain is not influenced by motives of ambition, with reference to extension of territory, but by considerations of utility, not to say necessity, which cannot be lost sight of, and for which allowance ought to be made, in an arrangement professing to be based on considerations of mutual convenience and advantage.”

Great Britain has advanced in her offers on each separate negotiation. Let her make one step more in advance. Let her offer to the United States to declare the ports in Admiralty Inlet and Puget’s Sound to be “Free Ports,” with a given radius of free territory. The advantage which she would give to the United States, would far exceed the prejudice occasioned to herself by such an arrangement, and the proposal would be in accordance with the principle sanctioned by the 5th article of the Convention of the Escurial, which guaranteed a mutual freedom of access to the future settlements of either party for the purposes of trade. If her Britannic Majesty’s Government should deem it consistent with a just regard to the interests of Great Britain, as it would certainly be in accordance with the spirit of moderation which has hitherto influenced her Majesty’s councils, to make this further offer, and if the President of the United States should instruct his plenipotentiary to reject it, the attempt to effect a partition of the territory by treaty may be regarded as hopeless. It will then be best for both parties that the Convention of 1827 should be abrogated, and the future destinies of the country be regulated by the general law of nations. It would be idle to speculate upon those future destinies,—whether the circumstances of the country justify Mr. Webster’s anticipations that it will form at some not very distant day an independent confederation, or whether the natural divisions of Northern and Southern Oregon are likely to attach ultimately the former by community of interests to Canada, and the latter to the United States of America. When it is remembered that Mr. Calhoun declared in 1843, that “the distance for a fleet to sail from New York to the Columbia is more than 13,000 miles, a voyage that would require six months,” and that “the distance overland, from the State of Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River is about 2,000 miles, over an unsettled country of naked plains and mountains, a march, if unopposed, of 120 days,” the scepticism of such as doubt the inevitable absorption of Oregon into the United States, seems at least to be excusable.

THE END.

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INDEX.

Adams, J. Quincy, negotiates the Florida Treaty, [169].
Aguilar, Martin d’, [53], [58].
Alarcon, Fernando, [73].
Albion, New, [15].
Anahuac, plateau of, [14].
Anderson on Commerce, [148], [158].
Anian, Straits of, said to be discovered by Cortereal, in 1500, [18].
Argonaut, the, seized at Nootka, [81].
Arkansas River, [166], [170].
Astor, John Jacob, [23], [236].
Astoria, established in 1811, [24].
Transferred by purchase to North-west Company in 1813, [25], [192], [238].
Surrendered to the United States, [239], [252].
Sub modo, [241].
Not a national settlement, [237].
Atlantic Colonies, [213].
Barclay, Captain, first descries the Straits of Fuca, [19], [62].
Behring’s Voyage, [54].
Belsham’s History of England, [92].
Bernard, St., Bay of, [155].
Biographie Universelle, error as to Drake, [30], [36].
As to Gali, [54].
Bodega, Port de la, [42], [58].
Bodega y Quadra, [56].
Bracton de Legibus, [113].
Broughton, Lieut., explores the Columbia, [104].
Takes possession of the country, [105].
Bulfinch’s Harbour, [254].
Bynkershoek on Discovery, [118].
Cabrillo, Juan Rodrigues, voyage in 1542, [26].
Caledonia, New, [15].
Calhoun, Mr., letter of Sept. 3, 1844, [200].
Speech in 1843, [264].
California, peninsula of, discovered in 1539, by F. de Ulloa, [26].
A peninsula, [54].
Jesuit missions, [54].
A cluster of islands, [74].
Spanish possessions, [167].
Camden, Life of Elizabeth, [45].
Canada, limits of, [150].
Cession of, [211].
Carver, Jonathan, travels in North America, [16].
First announces a river called Oregon, or the Great River of the West, [16].
Cascade Canal, [20].
Castillo, Domingo de, [26].
Cavendish, Thomas, voyage of, [32].
Cavallo, Juan, [77].
Channing, Dr., [228].
Charters, [212].
Of Georgia, [197].
Carolina, [196].
To what extent valid, [157].
Of the Hudson’s Bay Company, [158].
Argument from, [159].
Clarke. See [Lewis and Clarke].
Clarke, River, discovered, [22], [233].
Source in 45° 30′, [190].
Clatsop, Fort, [22], [234].
Cliffe, Edward, his narrative, [28].
Colnett, Capt., [62], [79].
Instructions to, [204].
Colorado, Rio, del Occidente, [14].
Columbia, country of the, [17].
Mouth, [94].
Bay, [95].
River, [105].
Progressive discovery of the River, [108].
Proposed as a boundary by Spain, in 1819, [165].
Exploration by Gray, [243].
Northernmost bank, [191].
Course, [198].
Extent of valley, [198].
Columbia, merchant ship, [16], [62].
Log book, [101].
Congress, documents of, [208].
Contiguity, doctrine advanced by Mr. Gallatin, [218].
A reciprocal title, [127].
Convention of 1818, [145], [178], [241].
Of 1803, not ratified, [251].
Of 1806, ditto, [147].
Conventions, transitory, [129].
Mixed, [133].
Cook, Captain, instructions to, [15], [58].
Discovery of Nootka, [116].
Coronado, Vasquez de, [153].
Cortereal, Gaspar de, [18].
Crozat’s grant of Louisiana, [155].
Davis, John, the navigator, [44].
Descubierta and Atrevida, voyage of the, [66].
Discovery, title by, [116].
Not in the Roman law, [115].
Conditions of, [121].
Progressive, [122].
Requires Notification, [200].
An inchoate act of sovereignty, [230].
Dixon and Portlock, [61], [76].
Domain, eminent, [111].
Useful, [111].
Drake, Sir G., his voyage, [27].
French account, [30].
Knighted by Queen Elizabeth, [39].
Limits of voyage, [40].
His discovery maintained by British negotiators, [186].
Duflot de Mofras, [93], [160].
Duncan and Colnett, [62].
Elizabeth, Queen, reply to Mendoza, [118].
Speech of, [45], [259].
Escarbot’s Histoire de la Nouvelle France, [167].
Escurial, Convention of the, [86], [201], [244].
Mr. Greenhow’s view, [90].
British rights under, ascertained, [262].
Eyriés, M., error as to Drake, [35].
Gali, [52].
Factories, or comptoirs, [206].
Falconer’s treatise on the Mississippi, [155].
Family Compact, [86].
Felice and Iphigenia, [77].
Ferrelo, Bartholeme, [27].
Flag, on the, Dr. Chaning, [228].
Mr. Gallatin, [230].
Fletcher, World Encompassed, [28], [35].
Manuscript notes, [38].
Fleurieu, [30], [47].
Florida Treaty. See [Washington].
Fonte, Bartholemé, [70], [171].
Francisco, Port San, the northernmost possession of Spain, [42], [260].
Frazer’s River, [20].
Frazer’s Lake, [21].
Fort, [261], [262].
Fuca, Juan de, Straits of, [19].
Discovery claimed by Martinez, [56].
Discovered by Barclay, [62].
Story of, [66].
Not mentioned in Spanish archives, [69].
Spanish claim, [171].
Fur Company, American, [23].
Missouri, [23].
Pacific, [23].
Fur trade, [18].
Gali, Francisco, [50], [54].
Galiano and Valdes, [19].
See [Sutil and Mexicano].
Gallatin, Mr., his doctrine of discovery, [109].
Letter to Mr. Astor, [194].
His counter-statement in 1826, [208].
George, Fort, [143].
Georgia, New, [15].
Gray, Captain, first explored the mouth of the Columbia River, [62].
Crosses the bar, [101].
Extent of his researches, [108].
Hakluyt, Collection of Voyages, [27].
Hanna, Captain, [77].
Hanover, New, [15].
Hearne, journey of, [58].
Heceta, voyage of, [56].
Inlet of, [57], [94].
Discovery of the Columbia River, [95], [243].
Hennepin, Father, [157].
Henry, Mr., established a trading post on the Lewis River, [23], [236].
High lands, territorial limits, [196].
Horn, Cape, discovered, [54].
Hudson’s Bay Company, [20].
Title, [125].
Territory, [213].
Boundaries, [147].
Humboldt, Alexander von, [46], [233].
Iberville, D’, [155].
Illinois, the, annexed to Louisiana, [156].
Nation of, [210].
Ingraham, Joseph, pilot of the Columbia, [81].
Jefferson, President, letter on Louisiana, [146], [160].
Jefferys’ America, [154], [161], [210].
Jessup, General, [179].
Jesuit missions, [54].
Johnson, Dr., Life of Sir F. Drake, [46].
Jurisdiction, maritime, [184], [173].
Kerlet’s memoir on Louisiana, [164].
Kendrick, Capt., [63], [81].
King, Capt. James, first suggests a trade in furs with north-west coast of America, [18], [60].
King George’s Sound Company, [76].
Kluber, Droit des Gens, [112], [117].
Kooskooskee River, [22].
Lake of the Woods, [145].
Rainy, [149].
Red, [149].
Travers, [149].
Abbitibbe, [149].
Law, international rules of, at Treaty of Washington, [172].
Lewis and Clarke’s expedition, [22].
Encampment on south bank of River Columbia, [235].
Lewis, or Snake River, [22].
Liberties distinct from rights, [137].
Lorenzo, Bay of San, [55], [59].
Louisiana, limits of Crozat’s Grant, [155].
Jefferys’ America, [154], [210].
Declaration of France in 1761, [212].
Cession of, [147].
Western boundaries, [158].
Sold to the United States, [157].
Extent of, [210], [212].
Mackenzie, Alexander, first crosses the Rocky Mountains, [19].
Maldonado, pretended voyage, [65].
The author a Fleming, [66].
Maps, of Ortelius and Hondius, [45], [74].
Of the 16th and 17th century, [74].
Difficulty from incorrect, [150].
Questionable authority of, [161].
Melish’s, [166].
Inaccuracy of, [212].
Maquilla, or Maquinna, [79].
Marchand’s Voyage, [47].
Martens, Droit des Gens, [117].
Martinez at Nootka, [80].
Matagorda Bay, [155].
Meares, [61].
Sailed in the Nootka, [77].
In the Felice [78], [95].
Memorial to Parliament, [82].
Log book, [97].
Mendocino, Cape, [27].
Furthermost known land, [45].
Mississippi, sources of the, [146].
Company, [156].
Discovered by Hernando de Soto, [153].
Discovered by Spain, [153], [197].
Explored by British subjects, [154].
Free navigation of, [195].
Missouri Fur Company, first establishment of citizens of United States on the west of the Rocky Mountains, [23].
Monroe, President, declaration of, [178].
Monson’s, Sir W., Naval Tracts, [44].
Mountains, Snowy, [165].
Multnomah River, [166].
Incorrectly laid down, [166].
Proposed as a boundary by Spain, in 1819, [165], [170].
Sources, [190].
Natchitoches, [164].
National flag, [226].
Protection of, [193].
Mercantile, [227].
Sovereign, [228].
Mr. Gallatin’s letter, [230].
Dr. Channing’s pamphlet, [228].
National ship, Mr. Rush’s view, [184].
Mr. Buchanan’s view, [226].
Negotiations in 1818, [144].
New France, extent westwardly, [161], [210].
New Mexico, extent of, [171].
Nootka Sound, [73].
Discovery of, [116].
British colours hoisted at, [79].
Delivered up to the British, [92].
Controversy, [119].
British settlement, [203].
Nootka Sound Convention. See [Escurial].
Mr. Pitt’s view, [247].
North-west Company established, [20].
Their first settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, [20].
Occupation, title by, [111].
Distinct from occupancy, [114].
Ohio River, [159].
Okanegan River, [24].
Onis, Don Louis de, [164].
Oregon, or Oregan River, so called by Carver, [16].
Oregon Territory, extent of, [17].
Pretensions of the United States in 1818, [142].
First notice of claim, [147].
Pacific Fur Company, [23].
Dissolution of, [25], [192].
Not chartered, [192].
Panuco, the northernmost settlement of Spain on the Gulf of Mexico, [154], [176].
Partition, rule of, [261].
Patagonians, [39].
Perez, Juan, voyage, [55], [116].
Entrada de, [55].
Perouse, La, [60].
Pichilingue Bay, [73].
Poletica, Chevalier de, [179].
Pope Alexander VI., his bull, [27].
Pre-emption, right of, [177].
Prescription, title of, [124].
President Polk’s Message, [255].
Pretty, Francis, [28].
Not the author of the Famous Voyage, [32].
Purchas, Pilgrims of, [34].
Racoon, sloop of war, [25], [239].
Rio Bravo del Norte, [171].
Rivers, appendages to territory, [173], [195].
Common use of, [126], [176], [195].
Mr. Wheaton on, [195].
Rocky Mountains, [14].
Rolls Court, [131].
Rush, Mr., [180], [241], [251], [253].
Russia, establishments on north-west coast of America, [60], [262].
Claims on north-west coast, [120].
Russian American Company, in 1799, [200].
Salle, De la, [154], [197].
Santa Fé, [170].
Sea coast, discovery of, [172].
Possession of, [196].
Servitudes, permanent, [134].
Settlement, title by, [122].
Jurisdiction of, [172].
Conterminous, [175].
Not mere trading stations, [202].
Not factories, [206].
Intermixed, [218].
Priority of, [221].
Sierra Verde, [13], [166].
Silva, Nuño da, his narrative, [28].
Schoell’s Traités, [90], [92], [147].
Soto, Hernando de, discovered the Mississippi, [171].
South Carolina, laws of, [227].
Spain, claims to the north-west coast of America, [168].
Stow, the Annalist, [43].
Stowell, Lord, on rivers, [106].
On discoveries, [121], [200].
Sutil y Mexicana, voyage of, [48].
Tacoutche-Tesse River, held by Lewis and Clarke to be the Columbia, [19], [232].
Tchiricoff’s voyage, [54].
Territory in use, [221].
Texas, boundaries of, [171].
Thalweg, [176].
Thomson, Mr. David, the astronomer of the North-west Company, descends the north branch of the Columbia River, [21], [24], [171], [233].
Determines the latitude of the sources of the Mississippi, [146].
Tipping, Captain, [61], [70].
Title by Occupation, [111].
Discovery, [115].
Sea coast, [172].
Settlement, [124].
Prescription, [124].
Convention, [129].
Tonquin, ship, destroyed by the Indians, [24].
Treaty of Utrecht, [84], [144], [148].
Paris, of 1803, [147].
Paris, of 1763, [149].
Ryswick, [157].
Washington, [173].
S. Ildefonso, [157], [162].
The Escurial, [86], [201].
Ghent, [141].
Family Compact, [86], [92].
Paris, of 1783, [133], [146], [151].
Of 1794, [146].
Treaties terminable by war, [135].
Sometimes contain acknowledgments of title, [136].
Ukase of Russia respecting the north-west coast, [178].
Ulloa, Francisco de, [26], [54], [72].
United States, the President’s plan as to the Pacific Ocean, [169].
Use, innocent, [128].
Usucaption, title by, [124].
Utrecht, Treaty of, [211].
Commissioners under, [148].
Vancouver, Capt., [18].
Instructions, [98].
Names C. Orford, [98].
Observes Heceta’s River, [100].
Vindicated against Mr. Greenhow’s charges, [103], [107].
Vattel on Occupation, [173].
On Discovery, [193].
On Prescription, [125].
Vicinitas of the Roman law, [126].
Viscaino, Sebastian, [54].
Wabash River, or Ouabache, [156].
Washington, Treaty of, cession under, [172], [180].
Object of Spanish concessions, [170], [237].
Wheaton on Discovery, [118].
Wilkes’, Capt., expedition, [74].
Willamette, settlement on the, [256], [259].
Webster, Daniel, [264].
Wolffii Jus Gentium, [112].
Institutions du Droit, [113], [121].
Woods, Lake of the, [145].