CHAPTER XLIX.
Message of the Executive Committee.—Observations on the message.—Generosity of the Hudson’s Bay Company.—The Methodist Mission.—The Oregon Printing-press Association.—George Abernethy, Esq.
To the Honorable the Legislative Committee of Oregon:
Gentlemen,—As the expectation of receiving some information from the United States relative to the adjustment of the claims of that government and of Great Britain upon this country, was the principal cause of the adjournment of this assembly from June last to this day, we feel it our duty to communicate such information as we have been able to collect on the subject, and likewise to recommend the adoption of further measures for the promotion and security of the interests of Oregon.
The lines defining the limits of the separate claims of the United States and Great Britain to this portion of the country had not been agreed upon when our latest advices left the United States, and as far as we can learn, the question now stands in the same position as before the convention in London, in 1818. At that time, the United States government proposed to draw the division line on the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude from the Lake of the Woods to the Pacific Ocean. To this Great Britain would only consent in part, that the line should run on the forty-ninth parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the dividing ridge of the Rocky Mountains; and it was finally agreed upon, between the parties, that all the country lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and on the Pacific Ocean, should, with its harbors, bays, and rivers, remain open for ten years to the vessels, subjects, or citizens of both countries. But it was at the same time expressly understood, that the said agreement was not to be construed to affect or prejudice the claims of either party, or any other power, to any portion of said country. Before this agreement expired, another convention was held in London, in 1827, by the two contracting powers, by which the former treaty was extended, with the provision, that when either of the parties thought fit, after the 20th of October, 1828, to abrogate the convention, they were at liberty to do so, by giving twelve months’ notice to the other contracting party; but nothing in the treaty of 1827 was to be construed so as to affect, in any manner, the claims which either of the contracting parties, or any other power, might have to any of the country lying west of the Rocky Mountains.
The subject has again been called up for investigation by the two powers, and a negotiation was begun at Washington in the early part of the present year, but was for the time being suspended on account of a disagreement between the parties; and notice of the abrogation of the convention of 1827 had not been given by either party when our latest information left the United States. And we find that after all the negotiations that have been carried on between the United States and Great Britain relative to settling their claims to this country, from October, 1818, up to May, 1844, a period of nearly twenty-six years, the question remains in the following unsettled position, viz.:—
Neither of the parties in question claim exclusive right to the country lying west of the Rocky Mountains, between the parallels of forty-two degrees and fifty-four degrees forty minutes north latitude, and bordering on the Pacific Ocean; but one claims as much right as the other, and both claim the right of joint occupancy of the whole without prejudice to the claims of any other state or power to any part of said country.
We have submitted to you this information, gentlemen of the Assembly, for two reasons:—
1st. To correct an error that occurred in our last communication to this body relative to the claims of the United States and Great Britain to this country.