How familiar these scenes and experiences with the old pioneers! The vast plains, the uncountable herds of buffalo; the swift-footed antelope; the bands of mounted, painted warriors; the rugged snow-capped mountain ranges; the deep, swift, and dangerous rivers; the lonesome howl of the wild wolf; the midnight yell of the assaulting savage; the awful panic and stampede; the solemn and silent funeral at the dead hour of night, and the lonely and hidden grave of departed friends,—what memories are associated with the Plains across!
CHAPTER VIII
Conflict of Nations for Possession of the River
The Six Nations at First Engaged in the Conflict—The Three Left in it—Claims by Sea of Spain, England, and the United States—Claims by Land—Rivalries of the Great Fur Companies—Capture of Astoria by the English—Its Restoration to the United States—Appearance of Fort George in 1818—Joint Occupation Treaty of 1818—Florida Treaty of 1819—Treaty with Russia in 1825—Forces on the Side of England and those on the side of the United States—American Triumph Inevitable—Policy of the Hudson’s Bay Company in Contrast with that of the American Immigration—Indifference of the American Government—Utterances of Some American Statesmen—Doings of the American People—Gathering of the Little American Colony in the Willamette Valley—Need of Government—First Meeting at Champoeg—Advice of Commodore Wilkes that they Delay—The “Wolf Meetings”—Second Meeting at Champoeg, and Establishment of the Provisional Government—Its Chief Provisions—Thornton’s Account of the “Hall” at Champoeg—Peter H. Burnett—Dr. McLoughlin’s Position—Triumphs of the American Immigrant over the Great Fur Company—McLoughlin and Whitman—Movements of Diplomacy between England and the United States—Webster, Linn, Benton, and Calhoun—Inconsistent Positions of the Democratic Party—Polk and the Platform of 54 Degrees 40 Minutes, or Fight—Near Approach of War—Compromise on the Line of 49 Degrees—Momentous Nature of the Issue—Triumph of American Home-builders.
Earlier chapters of this volume have already developed some of the essential elements in the complicated strife of the maritime nations of the world for possession of the land of the Oregon. This brief chapter will endeavour to recapitulate and group those steps, and to trace the course of events by which the line finally was drawn on the parallel of 49 degrees.
As we have seen, the many-named river, and the fact that it was the key to a vast region and that the shores of the ocean contiguous to it seemed to abound in the finest of furs, was a lure to Portuguese, Frenchman, Russian, Spaniard, Englishman, and American. The first three became early eliminated from the conflict, and the last three fought the triangular battle to its ending with the final result that Uncle Sam inserted his broad shoulders between Mexico and the 49th parallel, and thus controls the choicest land of the sunset slope of the continent.
Spain, England, and the United States each had a valid claim to Oregon. Spain, by the partial discovery of the River by Heceta in 1775, by the voyages of Bodega and Arteaga in the same year and again in 1779, and by the voyage of Valdez and Galiano around Vancouver Island in 1792, together with many other voyages of a less definite nature by illustrious navigators, as Malaspina, Bustamente, Elisa, and others, had a strong position. Yet she had failed to clinch her discoveries or to take effective possession.
Great Britain could point to the elaborate examinations of Cook and Vancouver. The latter had made a minute investigation of the noble group of waters whose outlet preserves the name of the old Greek pilot of Cephalonia, Juan de Fuca; and his Lieutenant Broughton had entered the Columbia River and proceeded over a hundred miles up the stream. The nomenclature given to both the River and the Sound regions by Vancouver had been the first in any sense complete. So England, too, had a strong claim.