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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I3p,2.;2 ^•.sw. /I <^ ■WnSTBTTTT h <^ OF MR. GUSHING, OF MASSACHUSETTS, ON •f" ■m* . • i- * .4 * 41 THE SUBJECT OF THE OREGON TERRITORY. ^ DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, May 17 and 22, 1838. WASHINGTON: rUINFRD HY GAL7.S AND SKATOiV. 1833. . • • r^Hjj^K • ^i ' ■ -> ': ' aJ '♦'. •v,* '^ % .il^ 1 '> ,•^- >'ft *i^ a: / h* "^ SPEECH. THE OREaON TERRITORY. House of Representatives, May 17 and 22. The President of the United States having communicat- «d to the House on the 3d of May, 1838, a message on the flubject of the territory of the United States beyond the Rocky Mountains, Mr. Ct^sRiNQ moved that said message, and the report of the Secretary of State accompanying the same, be referred to the Committee on Foreign AflTuirs, with instructions to inquire into the expediency of establishing a post on the river Columbia, for the detience and occupation of the ter- ritory of the United States watered by said liver, and also to consider the expediency of making further provision by law to prevent the intermeddling of the efHcers or subjects of foreign Powers with the Indians of the United States. Which motion coming up for consideration on the 17th of May, 1838, Mr. CUSHINQ spoke in support of the same, as fol- lows: Mr. Speaker ; I rise to call the attention of the House to a subject very different from what has for some time past occupied its time; neither a party nor a personal ques- tion, but one greatly concerning the national honor and the rights and peace of the country ; a question of deep inte- rest between the United States and a foreign Power. In discussing it, I shall have to go over many dry details of treaties and facts, to the consideration of which it may be difficult to gain the ear of the House. But impressed as I am with the importanceof the question to the whole nation, I shall proceed to speak, addressing myself to the country as much as to the House. Thegreatseaof public opinion — that public opinion which, in all the civilized communities of our day, and more especially among us, governs the Gov- ernment — is composed of drops, and every particle infused into the general mass modifies the composition. I may, therefore, without presumption, hope to be of some service in reviving, at least, an important question which has al- ready slumbered too long, and the continued neglect of which would be most prejudicial to the interests of the United States. My proposition has, for its main object, to assert the rights of the United States to the country watered by the river Columbia, which will require of me to speak with freedom and plainnessof the cenduct of Great Britain, who alone disputes the title of the United States. I shall do this in no unfriendly feeling towards Great Britain, but, on the contrary, with entire respect for her, and in the convic- tion that now is the time, of all others, when the conflicting rights of the two countries may be debated without the least hazard of disturbing their amicable relations. If any such hazard existed, it would become us to encounter it manfully, rather than to abandon the rights and sacrifice the honor of the country ; but no such hazard i oes in tact exist, nor any cause whatever to deter the House from probing the matter to the ver^ bottom. Great Britain is at this moment under large obligations to the United States for the forbearance manifested by our Government during the late troubles in her American colonies. She knows, and feels, and avows it. And having approved ourselves just, nay, generous, towards her )» the hour of her need, we may well demand ofhertobe jt towards us, and to ab- stain from those persevering cncro Imenis on our rights by landandsea,whichhaveinallpa imeschnracterized her foreign policy. Now is the accepted time to adjust espe^ cially our respective territoilal pretensions upon this conti- nent. In the first place, I shall endeavor to exhibit a summary view of the title of the United States tdCthe Oregon Terri- tory ; after which, I shall state the considerations which, in my judgment, render it an imperative duty to take im- mediate measures for the occupation of that Territory. It is a principle, adopted by European nations in their settlements on this Continent, that prioriry of discovery, followed in a reasonable time by actual occupation, confer* exclusive territorial jurisdiction and sovereignty. It is also held that an establishment, once made, extends by conti- guity into the neighboring regions, if the discovery be of an island, it has, in most cases, been regarded as giving a title to the whole island; if on the coast of the continent, then as reaching indefinitely along the coast and into the interior, with limits to be decided by actual occupation, by compact between conflicting claimants, or by force. Whe- ther this be just or not, as regards the Indians inhabiting America, is another question. I speak of it only as the conventional rule, recognised in the negotiations, and prac- tised upon in the colonial enterprises, of the chief nations of Europe ; and thus constituting a part of that somewhat uncertain mixture of conventions and of national equity, which is called the Law of Nations. This general principle, which enters into the present question in all its parts, includes a particular principle, which is still more specifically applicable to it. The disco- very of the mouth of a great river, or the exploration of it, followed in a reasonable time by the actual assertion of ter- ritorial sovereignty, gives an exclusive right to all the coun- try watered by that river. Without referring to various foreign cases of the application of this doctrine, it will bo sufficient for the satisfac'ion of the House to show how it has been treated by the United States. In the letter of Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney to Don Pedro Cevallos, April 21, 1805, it is said ; " When any European nation takes possesaion of any extent ofseacoast, that possession is understood as extending into the interior country to the sourres of the rivers emptying witbia that coast, to all their branches, and the country they cover, and to give it a right, in ejtclusion of all other nations, to the same." This position is adopted by Mr. Adams in his letter to Don Luis de Onis, March 12, 1818; and by Mr. Gallatin, in his discussion of the present question. (Executive Docs. 20th Con. 1st Ses. No. 199, p. 61.) Now, whatever rights, more or less, are derivable from discovery, belong to the United States alone. The river Columbia was first discovered in 1793, (ex- cepting whether it may have been previously discovered by the old Spanish navigators,) by Captain Robert Gray, of the American ship Columbia, fitted out in Boston, and re- ceived from him the name of the ship he commanded. In the same year, but confessedly subsequent to this, and up- on information derived from Captain Gray, it was visit- ed by Vancouver, in behalf of Great Britain. Priority ot unn /g'7779 Jiiico\ery, therefore, ia cirarly with Ibc United Stulep, as against Great Britain. Indeed, Gray had previously, in 1788, explored the strait of Juan de Fucn, north ot the Columbia. So that, leaving out of view the rights of Spain by discovery, and of Spain and France bi' contij^uity and pxtenHion.. the United States cl.tim the Oregon Territory by rii;ht of discovery. By cession fmin France, in 180:{, the United States ac- quired Louisiana, and all the right j of France in that di- rection. What are the northwestern limits of Louittiana? Extension by contiguity would carry the pretensions of France to tiie Pacific. By Great Britain herself, the pos- session of the body of the continent was always treated as stretching across the entire breadth of the continent. Her grants to Massachusetts and to other colonies reach to the Pacii:c. Conflicts of pretension thus grew up between France and Great Britain, which were adjusted, in 17G3, by tlic treaty of Versailles, by which Great Britain ceded to France all claims to land wrst of the rviisMsaippi. Prior Jo which, by^ the treaty of Utrecht, concluded in 1713, France and Great Britain agreed to appoint commissioners to describe and settle the boundaries between the French and English colonics in North America ; which resulted in the establishment of the parallel of 49 degrees north as the northern limit of Louisiana. As between Great Britain and France, then, Louisiana was bounded, east by the Mississippi, north by latitude 49 deg. N., and westward by the Pacific ; and by the Louisiana treaty, tlie United States added to her own rights of discovery the [ire-cxisting rights of France. Iri this state of the case, Mr. Jefferson devised and au- thorized, in 1805, the celebrated expedition of Lewis and Clark, who ascended the Missouri, crossed the Rocky mountaini>, reached the head-waters of the Columbia, de- scended the river, erected the works called Foit Clatsop, and in the most formal and authentic manner asserted the rights of the United States in and to the whole country. No establishment of any other Power existed at that time on the waters of the Columbia. But the enterprise of colonizing that country was un- dertaken in 1811 by John Jacob Astor, of New York; one of those truly noble merchants "who, by their great commercial enterprise, have enriched nations, peopled wil- dernesses, and extended the bounds of empire ;" a man of fareseein^ mind, with plans covering the globe, and with results as grand as the plans ; a merchant, in wealth and greatness of desigri equalling the Medici of Florence, the Dorias of Genoa, and the Foscari of Venice, without the political ambition which rendered their wealth a curse to their country. The narrative, by Washington Irving, of that magnificent undertaking, belongs to the classic litera- ture of the world, combining the truth of history with the stirring interest of mmance, Mr. Astor's establishment at Astoria, having for its immediate object the prosecution of the fur-trade, was anterior to any establishment on the Columbia by any Power other than the United States. It was broken up by the war of ISISJ, and taken possession of by Great Britain in the course of her belligerent opera- tions; but again formally surrendered to us in 1818, in expre— obedience to the treaty of Ghent.— ( Doc. 17th Con. 1st Ses. Exec. No. 328.) What was the character of this transaction clearly appears from the explanations on the sub- ject exchanged by Mr. Rush and Lord Castlertagh. Mr. Rush says : " I told hira, &c. ♦ * Granting that she (Esgland) had a claim, was the lawfulness of the t.tep taken by the United States (that is, resuming the possession of Astoria) to be ques- tioned? That the post was in tlieir possession before the war of 1812, was admitted ; and, also, that it had fallen, by capture, into the hands of Britain during the war. How, then, under a treaty of peace, the first artiche of which stipulated the mutual restitution of all places reduced by the arms of either party, was our right to restitution to be impeached? ♦ * ♦ * His lordship admitted our right to restitution, and our claim to be in possession, when negotiations far the title were going on. —(Bush's London, p. 74.) Or, as stated in Mr. Rush's official despatch : " LonI Cui-ilerengli (•dmilted, in iIk^ (TiosI aniple exttnt, oiir right to l)c reinstated, and tu be the party in poasef'xion while lieulint; of the title."— (Letter Feb. IS 18.) Hero, then, wo have the oiiginal title of the United Slates by discovery, fortitied by the rights of France, con- tinued by the exploration of Lewis and Clark, by the for- mal taking of possession, and by regular occupation, and completed by the recognition of Great Britain. Nor is this the whole strength of our case. By the Florida treaty, crmcludcd in 1819, Spain ceded to the Uni ted States all her claims on this continent north of latitude 12 degrees north, And this was a most important cession. Indeed that treaty was rather a convention of mutual ces sions than of pecuniary indemnities merely. Mr. AdamSj who, in all cases where in the course of a long life of pub- lic service he has been called to maintain the rights of hi";) country, has done it ably and thoroughly, and who negoti- ated that treaty, deserves universal credit for its favorable conditions in this respect. In conHideration of the cession to Spain, made under the positive instructions of President Monroe, of our claims to the Riodel Norte, which claims Mr, Adams defended strenuously to the last, the United States obtained, in addition to East and West Florida, a cession ol all the rights ofSpain in the valley and coast of the Oregon ; rights which alone could seriously conflict with our own pretensions on the Pacific. Spain, prior to 1819, claimed that whole country to Prince William's sound, in the GOth parallel of latitude. She did this, in right of the extension of her Mexican pos- sessions by contiguity, and in right of early discovery and repeated explorations and acts of occupation. Hernan Cortes, the great conqueror himself, in the prosecution of his own splendid designs, explored, in 1526, the northwcs- I em coast of America to the northern limits of California. The Spaniards, also, point to various other expeditions fit- ted out from Acapuico or San Bias in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; as that of Gali in 1582 to latitude 57 degrees north; Juan de Fuca in 1592, who is said to have discovered, and certainly gave his name to, the bay and strait still bearing if, and the account of whose voy- age in the trust-worthy Purchas, though formerly dispu- ted, seems now to be admitted, (Murray's N. Am. Dis. vol. 2, p. 80 ;) Vizcaino, in 1602, who is believed by some of the Spanish writers to have discovered the Oregon ;* De Fonte, whoissaid to have reached She latitude 54 degrees in 1640. Why these accounts, or any of them, should be disputed, I know not. Some of them, it is perfectly cer- tain, rest upon the most ample evidence. Instead of be- ing ■nstrinsically improbable, it would, on the contrary, have been strange indeed if Spain, being in tranquilpos- session of New California, had never extended her voy- ages a few degrees to the north of that province along the same coast. However this may be, no English navigator, prior to Cook, has any pretension to antiquity of discovery in that quarter, except Sir Francis Drake. He was a pirate,, cruising along the coast and in the seas of Spanish Amer- ica as a bucaneer and a plunderer, making private war, and cafturing prizes on his own responsibility, landing to ravage and burn the towns, and hold the peaceful people to ransom j a gallant pirate, to be sure, brave and enter- prising ; but still a pirate, and knighted as such Cot the mis- chief he had thus done to Spain. Whether the cruises of a bucaneer can confer any title of discovery I will not stop to inquire ; it is unnecessary ; for no credible accoanS ♦Torquemada, in the authentic account of Vizcaino's expedi- tion, given by him in the Monarquia Indiana, says that Martin de Augila, who commanded one of the vessels of the fleet, having passed northward of Cape Blanco, se hallo un rio muy caudaloso y hondable * * Q,ueriendo entrar por el, los corrientes nodiolugara ello. — (Lib. v. c. 55.) Humboldt, how- ever, does not consider this to have been the Columbia; but thinks the Columbia was first visited by the'Spaniaids in l77C>, its hay having been entered by the expedition of Heceta and Quadra, and called by them Entrada de Heoeta.— (Humboldt's New Spain, v. iii, c. 8, s. 15.) ■ •;st anifile exlf-nf, our y in iiosseHnion while '•) title of the UriitpJ jhls of Franco, coii- cl Clark, hy the for- iar occupation, and Britain. our cage. By the n ceded to the Uni nt north of latitude t important cession, ition of mutual ces- rely. Mr. AdamSj fa long life of pub- n the richts of hii ly, and who nrgoti- lit for its favorable ion of the cession to ctions of President e, which claims Mr, the United States Florida, a cession ot last of the Oregon ; iffict with our own whole country to mrallcl of latitude. ' her Mexican pos- arly discovery and :upation. Hernan the prosecution of 52G, the north wes- mits of California, her expeditions fit- the sixteenth and n 1582 to latitude 92, who is said to i name to, the bay unt of whose voy- [h formerly dispu^ ' ay's N. Am. Dis. ^ believed by some the Oregon ;* De latitude 54 degrees if them, ehould be it is perfectly cer- c. Instead of be- on the contrary, g in tranquiKpos^ (tended her voy- )rovince along the avigator, prior to ' discovery in tha^ He was a pirate,. )f Spanish Amer- king private war, iibility, landing to le peaceful people brave and enter- s such for the mis- lether the cruises covery I will not credible accoant Vizcafno's cxpedi- ), says that Martin essels of the fleet, ICO, se hallo iin rio eiitrar por el, los ) Humboldt, how- :he Coluinbia; but 'Spaniaids in 1775, on of Heceta and leta.— (Humboldt's \ii his vova^je curriis it beyond latitude i2 or 43 ; and the landing tnat he miidc in order tu claim title was in latitude 38 decrees 30 minutes— within the acknowledged limits of the Spanish province of Californa. And without dwelling upon these old voyages in the sixteenth and scvcnti'eiilh centuries, we have that of Pe- rez in 1774 to latiUide 54 dr-rrces, and of Cluadra in 1775 to latitude 57 degrees— both anterior to that of Cook ; fol- lowed by Arti-aga in 1779, Martinez in 1788, Elisa in 1790, and Maluapina in 1791, carrying up the Spanish disco- veries to the strait of Juan de Fuca, and even to Prince William's Sound, all of them preceding Vancouver. All the title of Spain, acquired in the various modes usual in Buch cases, is now vested in the United States by the Flo- rida treaty; and, united with the oiher sources of title |ios- feessed by us, constitutes a right ol dominion not to be shaken by any European Power, In aldition to, and independent of all which, the natur- al progress of population westward by extension, on the ground of contiguity, would give us a claim of title supe- rior to that of any other nation, we occupying and settling indisputably to the very heart of the continent. In fact, our title saulli of latitude 54 degrees is practically admitted by all the rest of the world, except Great Britain. An old agreement existed between Russia and Spain, by which the former was left undisturbed in the extreme northern latitudes of Alaska. (N. Amer. Review, No. 61, p. 506.) After the conclusion of the Florida treaty, a convention was entered into between the United States and Russia, whoso deportment towards this country has always been distinguished by dignity and liberality— the conven- tion of the 17th April, 1821, which closed the door against any diflerence between us in that quarter, by an agreement that Russia would make no settlement on the northwest coast of America south of latitude 54 degrees, and the United States none to the north of it ; thus fixing that parallel as the line betwixt our respective pretensions. But the conduct of Great Britain has, I am compelled to say, been marked by rapacity, illiberality, and gross disregard of our just rights, strikingly contrasted with the honorable procedure of Russia. Desirous of settling this matter fairly and liberally with Great Britain, the United States, in 1823, under the authority of President Monroe, and in 182G, under that of President Adams, while justly entitled to claim, by virtue of its own title, and that of Spain and France, to latitude 54 degrees, offered to Great Britain to compromise the question by extending the northern line of Louisiana— that is to say, the parallel of 19 degrees— to the Pacific : thus conceding to Great Britain five degrees of latitude on the Pacific, and enabling her to accomplish her desire to ex- tend her posessions across the continent from sea to sea. In so doing, we should, in fact, cede a portion of our just rights, which cover the whole of the vally of the Columbia ; but the love of peace, and the consideration that Louisiana Was bounded by latitude 49 degrees, would have justified such an arrangement. To this Great Britain obstinately refused to accede. And I must now ask the attention of the House to the nature and extent of her pretensions. I assume, as the result of the arguments which I have Hius cursorily presented to the Housj;, that the United States have a clear title to the Oregon 'I'erritory, as against any and every FiUropean Power, erUending from latitude 42 degrees, the line of the Mexican Republic, to latitude 54 degrees, the line adjusted with Russia. I admit, in pursuance of the negotiations of 1S23 and 182G, that it may De wise to settle the matter, as between us and Great Bri- tain, at latitude 49 degrees, striking the Pacific in the strait 6f Juan do Fuca. And I hold that the United States can- not, in safety or in honor, concede any thing more than this. Between these limits Great Britain is unable to claim any territory, by merely sailing along the coast and touching here and there, because preceded in that by navigators in the service of Spain ; all whose right is vested in the Unit- ed States by I lie Florida treaty. ,: Great Britain cannot claim it as a dependency of the ri- -*'■• ver Columbia, because anticiputid in the navigation dfthat river by Gray ; in the exploration of it by Lewis and Clark; in the occupation of it iiy Lewis and Clark and by Mr. Astor. Great Britain is precluded from claiming it as residuary territory ofhers, under the title by which she formerljr held this CDiritry, because prevented by the tJeaty of 1763 be- tween lierand France, in which she disclaims irrevocably beyond the Mississippi; the seventh article being in these words ; "The confines between the Uritisli and French posscsaion* in North Anirricu sliiill be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along iho middle of the Mi.^sishippi fioni its source tu the river Ibervillr, and from thence, by the middle of the river UiPivillc andihe lakes Maurcpnaniid Pontchartriiin, to the sea."— (Chal- uier's Tr. vol.1, 473.) Great Britain is forbidden to claim it as parcel of the old North American possessions still retained by her in virtue of the treaty of Paris, because the decision of the commis- sioners under the treaty of Utrecht establishes the line of 49 degrees westward of the Lake of the Woods. The rule of extension by contiguity would, to b sure, if no other con- siderations intervened, carry her possessions to the Paci- fic ; but it would be along the parallel of 49 degrees, because the same rule of extension would carry us to the Pacific. That is to say, Great Britain is, upon all principles of in- ternational law, and by her own solemn contracts, debarred and estopped from any and every species of exclusive right or claim whatsosver, south of latitude 49 degrees, and west of the Lake of the Woods, to the Pacific. Accordingly, conscious of the utter futility of any such claim. Great Britain makes no claim to sovereignty over any part of the territory in question. Her pretension ex- tends to the whole of the territory, but is preferred by her in the shape of a pretended right of joint occupancy of eve- ry part of it in common with other Powers, leaving sus- pended in abeyance the right of exclusive dominion as to any part of it. This extraordinary pretension of hers is grounded on the Nootka Convention as it is commonly called — a treaty extorted by her from Spain in 1790, under circumstances of passionate injui=lice, which, even at that stormy period, when the Powers of Europe were accustomed to fly to vio- lence upon the smallest real or imaginary injury, was barely tolerated by the world, and which, in the present more en- lightened times of general aversion to war, could not es- cape the severest reprobation. This convention confers a claim as against Spain only, and so much of our right as we derive from Spain. The substance of it is, that subjects of either of the two parties. Great Britain and Spain, are not to be disturbed by the other, whether in navigating or fishing in the Pacific ocean, or in landing on the coast, in places not already occupied, for the purpose of carrying on commerce with the natives, or of making settlements there. I shall not trouble the House with the multiplied details of this question, as between Great Britain and Spain. Inde- pendently of the force and eflcct of it in that relation, there are several answers to it on the part of the United States. It settles no definite limits of territorial jurisdiction. It leaves the question of sovereignty upon the titles of Spain or France. Being a convention of usufruct only, ana not of territorial jurisdiction or of sovereignty, it might be ob- ligatory on Spain so long as she retained the jurisdiction, but not upon her successor in sbvereignty. Beyond which the United States hold under France as well as Spain ; and still more by discoveries of their own, followed by ac- tuaf occupation, that occupation having been recognized by the authorities of Great Britain. It only remains, for the disposal of this part of the di- plomatic question, that I should state the actual position of it upon the treaties between the United States and Great Britain. By the treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783, our boundary is, beginning at the Lake of the Woods; "thence through the said lake to the most northwestern point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi ; thence, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said i* * I- I f river MiMi^sippi," in confurniity with the proviaions of the treaty of Vemailiei before cited, and so proceeding; down the rivor to the bounds of Louisiana and Florida in that direction. The annexation of Louisiana to tho Uiiilcd States changed, of course, our northwestern frontier. But no new convention was immediately concluded, difining this on the side of Great Britain. The treaty of Ghent, De- cember 24, 1814, proceeds on tho assumption of limits ac- cording to the sia^us ante bcllum. It provides for ascer- taining the norlliwestern point of the Lake of the Woods; but it goes no farther westward. In that direction the line is continued by the convention of October 20, 181d, " from the Lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains, along tho parallel of 49 degrees," in just application of the treaty of Utrecht. By the samo convention, it is agreed, that any country that may be cluiiiied by either party on the northwest coast of America, westward of the Stony iVloun- tains, shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within tho same, be free and open, for the term often years, to the vessels, eitizens, and subjects of the two Powers; this agreement not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of tlie parties may have to any part of the said country. Which agreement, by the convention of August 6, 1837, was con- tinued indefinitely, subject to be terminated by either ! party on twelve months' notice. I Idesiretosecthisagreementterminated as soonas possible. { Itgivesnothingtothe United States; for we have no occasion to ask the consent of Great Britain to use the harbors, bays, I creeks, and rivers of our own territory. It gives every thing \ to Great Britain ; because without it her vessels and sub- jects would be mere intruders and interlopers in a country which belongs to us. I desire to .see the treaty notice given by the United Slates, and provision made by law for the occupation of the country by its rightful sovereign. The notice, we may rest assured, will never bo given by Great Britain. Her policy is proi^rastination, in this case, as in that of our northeastern frontier ; and for precisely the same reason. In both cases she has, under guise of tem- porary agreements, availed herself of our neglect, or at least of our unsuspecting good faith, to insinuate herself into actual possession of the territory in dispute. To set- tle the question, is to oust the intruder. To be sure, there ia a stipulation that the agreement shall not prejudice the rights of either party; but it does prejudice our rights, deeply, fatally, as I will prove to this House by the most authentic factb. Before I enter upon this, the more important and inte- resting part of this subject, I have a concluding suggestion to make on the question of title. I derive ray knowledge of this from books; especially the negotiations of 1823 and 1826, (Doc. 19lh Congress, 1st sess.. Exec. No. 65; and Doc. 20ih Con. 1st ses. Exec. No. 199,) and the reports of Mr. Bavlies, of Mass., who, with Mr. Floyd, of Va., was instrumental in bringing this topi<', before a former Congress. (Rep. 19th Cong. 1st ses. Nos.3S> and 213.) But there is an individual present (Mr. Adams) who is a living record of the diplomatic history of the country, and who was personally conversant with some of the most material of these nego- tiations. With permission of the House, I would respect- fully appeal to my colleague to state whether I have pro- perly represented the facts and treaties bearing upon our rights in this matter; since, if I have erred in any essen- tial point, I wish to be corrected on the spot, by one to whose ampler knowledge of the subject I shall cheerfully defer. [Mr. Adams then rose and addressed the House in a speech of considerable length, on various interesting topics appertaining to this question, to the Louisiana and Florida treaties, and to our relations with Great Britain ; after which Mr. Cushin-o resumed his speech, and continued and concluded it on the 22d of May.] Mr. Speaker: I feel under great obligations to my col- league for his prompt compliance with my request, and for the information he has communicated to the House. Hiis the inc the ret b«twc( MUlili M alo trade fisrth, have that possei for th( the CO can ad dre intcre Ml iastan opinion of the validity of our title to the country beyond the Rocky Mountains will deservedly have great weight in *■ B the public estimation. And 1 do not perceive that he andColum I differ materially in regard to the sources of that title : for, pointei if he understood me au maintaining the aliutract justice of whole tho right of discovery, absuined by European Powers to bank* justify their conquests and acquisitions in the New World Jj"\" as against the aboriginal inhabitants, it must have been be- ' cause I did notex|iresB myself with sullicient fullnesson that head. What I meant and mean to advance in thiaresjiect is, only, that au a conventional rule, by which to adjust claims of territory on this continent among thcin«elves, the right of e for the aid and e of the rights and of North America, >ble rivcrd, continu- f mountain ran^^es, is familiarly known ith which the coun- 3 marketable wealth sred over those parti lelJ Canada, down iid the collection of tnd the great lako&, nadians themselves, the Enalish Hud- [able trade, on the Is of Great Britain ong without acom- lontreal, formed in uced deadly feuds, while they distract- turn wad given to ir Alexander Mac- after his return to look, published in from ifs very nature, ery large capital, or J, consequently, an 1 men of enterprisa rmed on such prin* succeed the former, "lie junction of such I's Bay Company ia pose ; and the trade igree of advantage, ge of their charter, i charter, though but ho would be willing, the p.'oposed corn- most complete and 16 fultilment of ita the same time, be of trade on the Co- 3 into Hudson's bay, trade to their source li rises in the Rocky U) the Pacific ocean. Dountains, and dis- 6 degrees 20 min. a at their mouths. " But, whatever course may be taken from tho Atlantic, the Columbia is the lino of communication from the Pacific ocean pointed out by Nature, as it in tho only navigable river in tho whole extent of Vancouver's minute survey of that coast. Its bftnkx, also, form tho first level country in oil the southern ex- tant of continental coast from Cook's entry, and, consequently, the most northern situation fit for colonization, and suitable for the residence of a civilized people. By opening this intercourse between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and forming regular ••tablishmenlB through the interior, andat both extremes, ns well •i along tho coastd and islands, the entire command of the fur irade of North America might be obtained from latitude 48deg north, to tho pole, except that portion of it which the Kussians have in ttio Pacific To this may be added the fishery in both Mas, and the nmrketH of the four quarters of the globe. Such would be the field fur commercial enterprise : and incalculable would bo the produce of it, when supported by tho operationsof (hat credit and capital which Gteat Britain so pre-eminently possesses. Then would this country begin to bo remunerated ror tho expenses it has sustained in discovering and surveying the coast of tho Pacific ocean, which is at present loll to Ameri- can adventurers, who, without 'regularity or capital, or tho de- sire of conciliating future confidence, look ultogetlier to the Interest of the moment. Such adventurers — and many of them, M I have been informed, have been very successful — would iostantly disappear before a well-regulated trade." " Many political reasons, which it is not necessary to enumer- ate here, must present themselves to the mind of every man acquainted with the enlarged system and capacities of British commerce, in support of the measure which 1 have very briefly auggested, na promising the most important advantages to the trade of the United Kingdoms." — (Mackenzie's Trav., vol. 2, p. 338-02.) Meanwhile the United States acquired tho country beyond tho Rocky Mountains, by discovery, purchase, cx- idoration, and tho formalities of occupation. Mr. Astor, himself extcHsively engaged in tho fur trade Bout'.i and itBBt of the Lakes, became fully aware of the great value of the Oregon country, and the importance ot a line of irade to be carried across tho continent, by ascending tho fiver Missouri, and descending the Columbia to the Paci* fie, and thence communicating directly with China; ond, in the promotion at the same time of his own interests and those of the United States, organized the establish- ment of Astoria. The Northwest Company took the Alarm. They foresaw what would bo the effect of this •nterpribc, if successfully prosecuted. They despatched •missaries of theirs to the Columbia, who, availing thorn- iKlves of the war between Great Britain and the United States, which fdlowed in the year after the foundation of Astoria, induced McDougall, one of the agents of Mr. Astor, to make a fraudulent sale of his factory, furs, and Other property, to the Northwest Company ; and the sloop of war Racoon came and took formal possession of Astoria in the name of Great Britain, and changed the name of the post to St. George. This formal possession, however, Was an act of war ; and was annulled, as I have before itatcd, by the restoration of the post to Mr. Prcvost and to Commodore Biddlc, in the Ontario, afler the conclusion of peace. But still the Northwest Company retained the actual possession of the country, under the purchase from l^cDougall; and, in 1821, the Northwest Company and ttte Hudson's Bay Company, having compromised their difTerences, were united ; the operations of the new asso- ciation being continued down to this lime under the char- ter of the Hudson's Bay Company. This purchase from McDougall, and the possession un- der it, could, it is evident, confer no sovereignty on Great Britain as again.<>t the United States. But tlie continued to'erance of the presence of tho Northwest Company there, after the conclusion of the war, was a capital error, impu- table to the supineness and culpable neglect of our Go- vernment. Mr. Astor offered to renew his enterprises on the Columbia, provided the Government would establish a military post there, with the most trifling force, even a . lieutenant's command ; needing only the countenance and the flag of the United States. If his advice had been 'iidopted^ tho question would have been settled then, before the Hudson's Bay Company had struck root in the Terri- tory. What the actual result has been, I will state in the words of Major Pilcher. (Sen. Doc. 1830-'!, No. 39.) It has been to realize, in all respects, tho plan marked out by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in 1801, for undermining our influence and our trade in and beyond the Rocky Moun- tains. " 1. Tho Hudson's Bay and Northwest Cmnpanins have been united, and ore now trading under the name and charter of the former. 2. The trade has lioen extended to the Columbia river. 3. A colony of civilized people is forming on that river. 4. A lino of forts and posts is established across tho continent. 6. The mouth of the Columbia is occupied, ships enter it, boats ascend it, the mountains are crossed, and the communication i:i regular, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, tj. American adven- turers have almost disappeared, and the Biitish have the com- mand of the fur trade north of 19 degrees, ond tho chief enjoy- ment of it for some degrees snuili. " The political odvantages of all these events are considerable (to Great Britain) in time of peace, and must become infinitely more so in time of war, when the command of all the North- ern Indiana may harass the settlements on the Uirper Mis- sissippi I and the possession of a. naval and viilitary sta- tion and a colony on the estuary of the Columbia rieermay lead to the annihilation of our ships and commerce on the Pacific ocean.^' The Hudson's Bay Coinpany, as now organized, 1 pre- sent to the notice of the People of the United States, as being in itself a great foreign power, most injurious and hostile to their rigtits and interests. It is to America what the East India Company is to Asia. Dean Tucker des- cribes it as one of the corrupt monopolies of the reign of Charles II. (Tucker on Trade, p. G8.) And it is natural enough that a corporation, born of corruption, should sub- sist by usurpation. Though chartered for a limited time, which has long since expired, and though never conflrmed by Parliament, (Chitty on Com. vol. 1, p. 679,) and so existing, as a corporation, by sufferance only, it claims a more than imperial sway as appurtenant to the grant of the trade of Hudson's Bay, commencing midway in the north- eastern coast of the continent, reaching from Labrador down to near the shores of Lake Superior, thence alon^ the high lands which divide the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri from those of Lake Winnipeg, and so sweeping around by the easterly side of the Rocky Mountains to the Slave Lake, and back to the shores of the Atlantic. (Bou- chette's Brit. Dom. vol. 1, p. 32, et seq.) This enormous ter- ritory, indeed, encroaches directly on the United States, for the Company undertook to sell to the Earl of Selkirk a large tract of more than 100,000 square miles, the country of the Red River of Lake Winnipeg, which is found to be cut off by our boundary. Not content with which, the Company has even seated itself down as the mistress of the great valley of the Columbia. Yet its rights are limit- ed to the power which its establishments give it, and the monopoly which it usurps of the trado of the interior, overbearing the competition of private enterprise. I have English authority to attest the general character of the dominion exercised by these mercantile sovereigns, the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies. There is a work published by a servant of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, in 1770, who styles it " a baneful monopoly," who details what he plainly calls its tyranny and its frauds, and who says the associates " have undoubtedly forfeited every just pretension" to continue a corporation, " by the ill use they have made of this royal favor." (Umfreville'n Hud. B. Com. p. 98.) And what the Northwest Com- pany has been, we learn from the friends of the Hudson's Bay Company ; for (the late) Lord Selkirk says that, in the wide range of country occupied by their forts and tra- ding-posts, they " eatabhshed a viore despotic rule than could be found to exist even in any Asiatic Government," (Claims of the Hud. Bay Cotn. p. 39;) and we are further advised that "the intercourse of the Northwest Company with the Indians, ■•■ * under the semblance and diaguise of commerce, is an orf: ' '"^ system of rapine." And these are the companies we liuffer to remain in the intrusive oc- cupation of the Oregon, most injuriously to us ! '■■ V if. ^ * For I liavA abnndaiit (iroofi of the incon)|iatil)ility of their conduct with tho rights and peace of thr Uiiitt'd btateii. In the Execulivu Mcnaaijc of thu 'Jlid December, it it tuld UD, in addition to Moait< utiit.'r facts . "Tho Hudion'ii H.iy C(iiii|i(iny have ulioHevernl depotH, »itu- Blod on wutorcniirni'i*, in thn iiitnrior iil' (ho rouiitry i iho prin- cipal one in ul Foit Vuricimvrr, on ihc norihcrii b ink of tho t'uluinbia river, qI.oiU einhly or oiio hundred miles from ill njoulh. It iii known, by inlorinalion roorntly nblnincd, that the Eiixli^ji conipiiny huvc u RloriinljDat on this rivur, mid thut they have a SHW-ruill, and iiru cutiin)( tinibor on liic teriilory ciaiuiiul by (he Uiiiiod Siaten, and ore ithipping it in conaiderablc qiiun- tities to tho P'ndwicii lalanda," The Presiucnl did not see fit to communicate the parti- culars of tho " infoiniation recently obtaiiit-d ;" but we reach these by tho memorial from Mr. William A. Slacum, thu a({ent employed by the Government to obtain informa- tion concerning; the settlements in the Orcfroii, which me- morial was presented to the Senate on the I8th Decembei, 1837, in aid of a claim preferred by Mr. Slacum. This do- cument exhibits in detail the farts tiiat the Hudson's Bay Company have a military post on the Columbia ; that they •upply munitions of war to the Indians; that they seek to alienate the Indiana from us; and thut they occupy tho country as if it were theirs: illustrating, also, the great value and importance of that country, as well tor itself, as for its uses in the trade of the Pacific seas. It exhibits a fact, also, which I commend to the notice of Mr. O'Con- nell, who heaps such unmeasured invective on the People of this country because of the existence of slavery in a portion of the United States ; namely, that, while Great Britain is applauding herself on the emancipation of the African race in her West India Colonies, the Hudson's Bay Company is introducing a new form of slavery in the Northwest, by npplyini; it extensively to the American In- diana. That this abuse is practised by the Hudson's Bay Company cannot excuse the British Government, any more than the'perpet ration of similar and worse abuses in Asia hy tho East India Company. There is, in the document before me, (Sen. Doc. 1628-'9, No. 67,) a great body of evidence similar to that of Mnjor Pilcher, which I have quoted, consisting of letters of Gen. Ashley, W. L. Sublette, Mr. Astor, Gen. William Clark, Gen. Cass. &c. showing how fatal the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company is to our own free trade. I will read an extract from one of these letters, (that of Mr. Cam- brcleng,) with his consent. This totter, addressed to Mr. Benton, and dated January 12, 1829, says : " I have in my possession the actual returns of the furs col- lected by the Hudson's Bay Company fur the year 1823, which, according to a vnluation made by one who has a thorough know- ledge of the trade, amount to 8S94,879 85. The shares of ihat company have increased from £60, or 40 per cent, below par, to jC240 sterling, or HO per cent, above par. The business of the company has continued to increase at tlie rate of from 60 to $100,000 annually. The prosperous condition of the Hudson's Bay Company may be attributed, iti some measure, to tho ad- vantages enjoyed by the British traders, who procure their ma- nufactures without duty, while the American traders pay 40 per cent, und upwards ; and who can send their furs to the Ameri- can market, while our traders pay a duty in tho British market. But the most important advantage enjoyed by the Hudson's Bay Company is the admirable harbor at liic mouth of thu Columbia, vrhicli we virtually and unfortunately granted them by ourtrea- ty of 1818. That settlement atthe mouth of the Columbia river IS now the centre of an immense trade in furs, and, unless we take some step to place our traders on an equal footing with the British, and secure to the former the privilege of trading in safety within our own dominions at least, our Indian tiade must decline, and we must make up our minds to surrender the whole Indian country to Groat Britain." This gri«)vance, the injurious influence of the Hudson's Bay Company upon our fur trade in and about tho Rocky Mountains, on both sides of them, has been earnestly re- presented to Congress by the Legislature of Missouri, as well as in the communications of the individuals above mentioned. It is fblly disclosed, also, in Washington li- ving's Astoria. He says, with particular reference to the Oregon Territory ; " 111 our liondii, bcaiJa the lovinff bamls uf trappers JompiJ trader.'*, Ihn country would huw^ bcuii tixplou'd an I Rclllcd apircf industrioUH liu>X pogtH from tho MittiiRoippi and llio Misnouri acroniihu Korl'lUCIi Mountuiiis, loriniiig a high-road from 'he greiit region* of I'^y '■*! Wfstto tin; Bhoresof thu Pacific. We Klioiild liavc had a fui lei, hed post ami [)nrt at the mouth of the C'olumbiu, coiiinwindir aing the tradu uf lliil river and its tributaries, und jfii vvidu cxiiJoOipal of country ond seuroail, carrying on an active and [irolituljlitt, it J cuintnerco with the Sandwich Isl.ind.i, nnd a direct and frequt'lfgat coiniiumication with China."— (Astoria, vol. 2.) If thj Mr. Irving also justly condemns tho conduct of our Gaave ad vernment in leaving this matter so long unsettled, nntrpri8e| says : Arecr " Kvery year this litigated claim is growing into importanc.'iUon There i^ no pride lo jeitlousand irritable as the pridn of terrii ■••OCiaa ry. rts one -vavc jf emigration alter another rolls into tiie viih* neil region of the Wen, and our settlements stretch towards tl.slM ml Rocky Mountains, tho eager eyes of our pioneers will pry beh« CoaJ yoiid, and they will brcoiiio impatient of any barrier or inipediortjessj inoiit in the way of what they consider a grond outlet of uui en.^ tvcrj pire. Should any circumstance, therefore, unfortunately occiig|npj^1 to disturb the present harmony of the two nations, this ill-aJnj ^^^gl justed quoslion, which now lies dormant, may suddenly slatyj^^ A upintooneofbelligerant import, and Florida become ^be watrls J^^j word in a contest for dominion on the shores of the Pacific."- -. (Astoria, vol. 2.) «|JJ-j; Mr. Irving rci-srs to the subject in a later work of h'ojindo^l (thenarrative of Captain Bonneville'sexptdition,) in whid^^j je„ he exhibits the value of the fur trade and fisheries, an4[^Q,|jj^| the agricultural capabilities of the Oregon Territory; an>vaters. upon the political question says : y^gi gf " Though the [Hudson's Bay] Companv, by treaty, have islands, right to a participation only in the trade of these regions, [be-jjoode, yond the Rocky Mountains,] and are, in , but tenants in suf-,™ I^jJ ferance ; yet have they quietly availed themselves of the origi,^j,,g ^jj, nal oversight, and subsequent supinencss of the American Gov-j^jj^jg ernmeiit to establish a monopoly of the trade of the river ['^c.QW.jt | lumbia] and its dependencies ; and are adroitly P'""'^*^'!'"^ ",„„_♦ j fortify ihcmrelves in their usurpation, by securing all tho strong'"" ? points of the country. "** ^ -^ " Nor is it likely the latter [the American traders] wifl evef'SOn* be able to maintain any footing in the land, until the question oi'»hwe tii territoriol right is adjusted between the two countries. Tliciffeet on sorter that takes place, the better. It is a question too serious traeilU national pride, if not to national interest, to bo slurred over ; anciitdiffere every year is adding to the difficulties which environ it. m to m "The resources of the country ♦♦ in tho hands of America, eti-nto tith joying a direct trade with the East Indies, would be brought in- gj, j to quickening activity, and might soon realize the dream of Mi.,gyj„'pg Astor, in giving rise to a flourishing com'uercial empire."— ^j^j ^^^^ Rocky Mountains, tol. 2.) >h»sical The convention of 1818 is any thing but reciprocal ii^sminent its actual operation. Not only diil it give the use of thcjerity a river Columbia to Great Britain, we getting nothing in re- and cat turn— not only did it enable the British traders to intro-jerpow duce goods into the interior of the continent free of duty sation i those of our traders having paid duty, and so to undersell jueit ; U8 in all trade with the Indians— but, in addition to all and an this, under cover of the convention, the British dag do WWlst minates over the whole country ; and at Fort Vancouver, ient» h about one hundred miles up the river, is a regular military >thn c post, a fixed establishment of several hundred persons tre not Can the U-ited States send and establish a military post on M,. i the Columbia, without giving notice of the termination of ion of, the convention? I suppse there may be gentlemen who t hat < will say we cannot. And yet Great Britain has done this, ["he oj without giving notice to us. Am I to be told that the •onfine Hudson's Bay Company has done this, and not the Go- rappin vernment 1 I reply, that the British Government cannot nto, if antl shall not separate itself from the acts of this Com- \^fj hi fany. That game England played long ago in the East he Itic ndies, conquering millions after millions there, and throw- indgca ing all the Wame of the fraud and violence by which the ,th||r v conquests w^re gained upon the servants of the East India ag iie ^'Js> w Imiuls u( iruppors Jompiiny, and even impeaching them for the plunder of Bxiil.iitcl an I ittiled nipir,,s while sho condeBCcnded to retain the empireu they I'' ^ull'-y" l">nl'•rin^ jj |y;,j^,,,.j| It iM uHtulo device. It will no lonjjer pass , woiiM huv9 bien in. J Whatever thfse ureat fnipirc-seckina corporo- •"•'""'"''""""'*'^«'ionido, theydo, or profess to do, under their charters ; have had n line o^ uM '*' 1'^ "'*-' "r'"' """""'^Hy.'" "(/|'?,*lu*'B"rrlm' liMo,iriacroi.ithoK.Ml'hlch they are the cieature.. The Uud-on • Bay Corn- lie grciit regions of i '»ny i< rich, strong, and rapaciouH, with nninenBO territo- oliouid have had a fm'm, ond numcroua tribci of Indiunn Buhjcct to lU rule ; C'olumhiu, coinnwinditeing ttiialonoua in all these renpecti to the Euat India i», und af !i widu cxtiJoBipany, and second only to that in power ; and, like III active ond [)rofituii|]at, it muat, for all political purpunes, bo considered as id a direct and I'req.aJignt Britain. > "^'^ '^) If the Unilfd States would retain the independence they 10 conduct of our G.iavc achieved, they must look well to the coin nercini en- > long unsettled, nnirprises of Oreat Britain. Other nations have pursued a arecr of comiuest in the undisjjuiHed nitn of military an>- jwing into imporlanc.'iUon : with her, it is comnicrcial ambition supported by ad ilie pride of terrii«»ciatcd arts and arms. This very question illustratea ndier rolls into tlie vuJi* necessity of wiilchfulnetts on our part. The British u Btrcich towards tl,slM may be assimilated to great citadels and workshops on pioneers will pry Leha coast of Europe. The ships of her navy arc floatinu any barrier or inipedioriresscs, with military stations dotting all over the globe grand outlet of oui eiiiQ ,very sea. She has Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian re, unforiiinately pcci,,|^„j^ for jhg Mediterranean ; Sierra Leone, St. Helena, vo naiions. this .l|.uJ„j j^e Cape, for Afriua. With Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 1 In h^^ ^a^^t'll ^'T"0k, and Bermuda, she menaces the Atlantic coast of ore, onhe Pacific •-^^« United States; ^ith Jamaica, she flanks the Gulf of ' Mexico; and by the St. Lawrence and the lakes, she pe- , t r I wlffttes into the innermost recesses of North America. a later work »>» hio-iindostan and Ceylon give to her the control of southern i;xprUition,)inwhicf^^jgp„jj^, ^g,j^ gj^^ possesses the antarctic world of e and hsheries, an^^^tj^li^ ^^ Singapore, she overlooks the Indo-Chinese ?gon lerrilory; uni^^^^g Lately.sho has leaped across to the Bonin Islands, veil of Japan. She seeks the dominion of the Sandwich nvt by treaty, have -slands, as exemplified in the doings of Lord Byron in the of these regions, [lje3[(mtie, and the more recent visit of the Actccon commanded droiity proceedilft><»We»tbay andhnrbor on the Pu-inc coast of America ; ecuring all tho stronr'^*' "* '^'^"^ ^° **^® region, when , m defiance of our rights, "ihe has already planted herself on the waters of the Ore- can traders] vviFI evef'gon- What effect is u!l '.his to have on our all-important until the question oi^hale fisheries and other commerce in the Pacific 1 What two countries. TlicifTaet on the business and the tranquillity of our settle- uestion too serious trnenU on the Missouri and the Arkansas 1 Does not our bo slurred over ; ancudifference stimulate her cupidity 1 Our neglect enable ;h environ it. i^f i^ magnify claims into rights, and to convert intrusion lands of America, eu-nto title 1 wouJd be brou^t in- gj,^ j hon^r the Anglo-Norman race; its energy, perse- imerckl emoire ''J.'e""ce, Uve of liberty, courago, and civilization ; its vigor ind Bteadineiis of mind, its masculineness of moral and ihjsical organization. We are of the same slock. Its g but rfciprocal iniminent traits are developed in our own growth and pros- iye the use of the )erity as colonies and as independent States. Lei Ei.j- ting nothing in re- and carry her commerce into every sea, and push forward h traders to intro-ier power, if she will, in " the gorgeous Orient." Civili- nent free of duty sation accompanies her progress from conquest to con- nd so to undersell ^aMt; and her triumphs are the triumphs of our father '"tj *.''.''*''''" *•* oil and and our kindred. But on us she must not encroach. British Hag do iVhllRt our territorial expansion is restricted to this conti- Fort VancotJiver, lent, hers must be excluded from it. There can be no 1 regular military »thet conditions of harmony between her and us. We lunured persons ire not suns that may culminate together in the same sky. a military post on m,. Speaker, thus far I have discussed this as a ques- ne termination ol \f^ of commerce, and a question of territorial rights. But gentlemen who t ^^i other relations not less, perhaps more, important, in has done this, r|,j operations of the Hudson's Bay Company are not ^^ u^ A 'onfined within the Oregon Territory. Extending their :h le and not the Go- mpping and trading expeditions as they do, far eastward, yernment cannot jiXq^ jf not across, the mountains, they may continue, as ts of this Com- hfljr have done, to furnish arms and hostile passions to ago in the East i,, Indians of the far West. Remember, that when the here, and throw- (migrated Indians shall be added to the Pawnees, and "f C VI V ^ '^''*^ *"^^* *'^^'^** region, there will be 60,000 fight- of the East India ag^en accumulated togetner on the frontiers of Arkan- sas and Miuouri , too many of them with no fdendly feeN ings for the Qovernmrnt of the United States. Wilt it be usefiil and convenient to u» to hate them backed fry the po\ccr and injluence of (ircat Uiitain } To answer this question, I must rntrcut the House to c insider how that [tower and that influence aflVct, and have affected, our In* dian relations, as proved by the records of the country. Prom the last message of the President relative to the Oregon Territory, (that which is now before m,) we learn that " no recent communication on this subject has naised between this Government and any I' reign Power, that is to say, none since IH'27. For more than ten years the question has been allowed to slumber. I shall not indulge in any ]iari\j reflections on this. I wish to discuss the sub- ject as between Great Britain and the United States ; not as a topic for censure of the Administration, unless pro- voked to do it. But if any reasons, and whatever reasons, have seemed to the Administration to justify this long si- lence in the matter, the crisis to which our Indian pdic^ has now arrived would, if nothing else, demand of the Uni- ted States instantly to resume the negotiations, and bring themlo a just conclusion, Sir, the facts to which I am about i» allude are discre* dilable to Great Britain. If my public duty did not ro" quire of me to biing them before the House — ifthegrea^ interests of the country did not require them to be recalled to memory now — I would willingly pato them by untouch- ed. But the use of the past is to guide the present and warn the future. " History," it has been justly said, in reference to this subject, " history, and even modern his- tory, is already sufficiently fabulous, without a suppressio ceri,' which will leave to jposterity little more than u know- ledge that battles were fought, and kingdoms won." It would be absurd to 8l'"t mr eyes upon things affecting so closely our future peace. 'Vnd a time of profound peace, ofall others, is the true oiu to discuss the sore points in the foreign relaliona o*'th> country. In the wars of th's continent, anterior to the Revolution, the Indians were freely employed us auxiliaries by Great Britain and by France. When the Colonies revolted, our fathers were anxious to have tiie Indians continue neu- tral ; hut Great Britain willed otherwise, though the walls of St. Stephen's rang with the eloquent denunciations of Lord Chatham, appealing to the laws of morality and hu- manity in reprobation of tho policy of his Government. Still, those were belligerent acts; and let them pass for such. But how was it after the solemn conclusion of the treaty of peace 1 Did Great Britain adopt a policy of peace 1 It is written in letters of blood and fire upon every page of the annals of the countiy, that Great Britain did not cease to nurture and keep alive the hostile spirit of the Indians , towards us. She continued, in violation of the treaty, to hold the military posts along the northern line of the Unit- ed States, from Lake Champb.in to Lake Michigan, for years. The most important, those of Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Michilimackinac, and Fort Miami, were not delivered until 1796, thirteen years after the treaty of peace; and this only by virtue of an express article of the new treaty of 19th November, 1794, (Jay's.) Doubtless, England looked still to the recovery of the Colonies, or a part of them, anticipating, perhaps, civil war among our- selves, or some other contingency favorable to her views. In pursuance of which, availing herself of her posts in the Indian country, and through the instrumentality of traders and others, she instigated the Indians of the Northwest to make war against us, and to demand the river Ohio as a perpetual boundary to divide the United States from the Northwestern Indiana. Hence, from the close of the Re- volutionary war to the signal defeat of the Indians by Gen. Wayne, there was perpetual hostility between them and the United States, cnequered by all the usual incidents of savage warfare, as the burning of house?, andthe massa- cre of women and children, not forgetting the defeat of Har- mar and of St. Clair. The stale of things is described in a work of authority before me : " From 1783 to 1790, not less than three thousand persons were murdered or dragged into captivity from the frontiers of TT *% *i i» ' I^ABiuiylTania, Virginia, and Kentucky. The acalps and the pritonara travelled the old war-patba. The British Indian De- partment was numerous and active. A personal inspection was UMida by Lieutenbnt-Governor Hunter, and a fort was com- menced on the Miami. The hopes ef the Indians were elated by the celebrated war-talk of Lord Dorchester. Profuse issues of clothing, provisions, and ammunition were made to them. Several intercepted letters of British officers were published, which leave no doubtof the influence exerted upon the Indians. Gen. Wayne, in his official report, states that ' he had obtained a victory over the combined force of the hostile Indiana and a con- siderable number of the volunteers and militia of Detroit,' (then occupied and held by Canadians.) And this, too, in a time of profound peace between the American and British Govern- menu."— (N. A. Rev. vol. 24, p. 380) Nay, BO flagrant was the conduct of Great Britain, that Wayne's victory, and nothing else, it would seem, pre- served u from war with her ; for immediately ui on the news of that victory reaching London, and not before, was Jay'o treaty signed. Eighteen years of nominal peace followed ; during which time Great Britain continued to keep the Indians of the Northwest under war-pa^. The fact is referred to by Mackenzie, in 1801, as if it were in the ordinary course of things. Speaking of the British post on the island of St. Joseph, he says : "It is a place of no trade, and the greater part, if not the whole, of the Indians, come here for no other purpose but to receive the presents which our [the British] Government allows them. They are from the American territory, &c. —His. Pur Trade, p. 45. Complaints, however, of the interference of England continually occurred in the United States, particularly in 1804 and 1807 ; occasioned by the conduct of British tra- ders and emissaries on the Lakes, the Miami, the Illinois, the Wisconsin, and the Upper Mississippi, This conduct had reference partly to trade, and partly to war. To se- cure a monopoly of the Indian trade, the British traders spared no pains to embitter the minds of the Indians against the United States. And in long anticipation of hostilities, the Indians were bribed with presents, and supplied with arms and munitions of war, to have them in readiness to strike our frontier settlements at a moment's warning. Hence the Tecumseh war of 1811, instigated by Great Britain, in which the gallant Gen. Harrison, in command of the militia and other forces of the United States, and Col. Johnson, with the mounted troops of Kentucky, cained their laurels. All the histories of that period, McAfTee, Dawson, and the rest, are full of the subject. And, in the years that followed, the barbarities perpetrated in the TTortuwcst by the Indian allies of Great Britain, under the immediate eye of her officers, such as Proctor and others, will tarnish the honor of the British name in- delibly and forever. When the commissioners of Great Britain and the United States assembled at Ghent to negotiate a treaty of peace, at the very first interview, the British commission- er brought forward as a sine qua non, that the Indian al- lies of Great Britain, who had deserved so well of her, should be included in the pacification, and that a boun- dary be settled between the territory occupied by the Indians and the United States, Who were these Indian allies of Great Britain? They were tribes within the limits of the United States, as defined by the treaty of Paris. What woulu have been the efTect of a boundary for them, stipu- lated in the proposed treaty of peace 1 To place, within the limits of the Uni.ed States, a body of Indians, having determinate possessions, open to Great Britain, and held under her guaranty and protection ; that is, to cede, lor all practicalpurposeB, to Groat Britain, the whole of the United States north and west of the Ohio and Missouri, That such was the object of Great Britain at that time, though not openly professed by the commissioners, is prov- ed by Mr. Atchesjn's Compressed View of the Points to be discussed in treating witn the United States ; sugges- tions derived from which work came up constantly in va- rious branches of the negotiation of Ghent. " The next im portant point to be attended to in a treaty of pi' ' with the United States is a new boundary for the Indians. |,.| " The boundary line which appears best for the protectin .uF Indian rights, and which would add to the security of Can|iuJ would be to run a line from Sandusky, on Lake Erie, to;. ^ nearest waters falling into the Ohio; then down that nveriigiy] up the Mississippi, to the mouth of the Missouri ; thence up|,.r Missouri to its principal source, confining the IJnited Stai^^g the Rocky Mountains, as their western boundary, and excliir them from all the country to the northward and westward o^ lines here designated, which, from those lines to that ^^ifglj should be agreed on as the British boundary of Canada, sli ^^ remain wholly for the Indians as their hunting grounds, ^gj boundary between the United States and the Indians, as f _g1 by the treaty of Greenville, before alluded to, would p(^r^«||[(^ answer as the new boundary line for the protection of the Ind(|^« if extended so as to run up the Missouri and to the Rocky Mi<[^£g1 tains, provided that all the reservations and conditions in \ ^^ treaty relative to the various tracts of ground within that i«iitii| for the advantage of the United States, and all theother^^g ditions attached to them by it, be wholly done away, andain I American Government (and probably also reciprocally theb^t^ tisli) excluded from having any forts, military posts, territf fgg(^ jurisdiction, or public property of any kind, within the In^gj line : but the bona fide property of white people, in lands w^ ^l in that boundary, where the Indian titles shall have been fi|ont ^ extinguished previous to a new treaty with America, might ott*!, haps be safely allowed under the territorial jurisdictioi^ie, of Great Britain. rm," " This would of course obviate the necessity of any feservja^^t as to the right of the British to carry on trade with the Indi *^ whose independence being thus established, they would b t!ie right to admit or interdict whom they please; and we ^ J**** know to whoin they would, both from inclination and inter*^ ,•■* give the preference. This is the more desirable, as the infUO l( course with the Indians of that quarter by the I3ritisb, biion ti carried on by permission, as it were, of a jealous andhostilel to « tion, has been the fruitful source of innumerable exactiiele: continued disputes, and incessant broils. : gjg ] " For men whose friendship has been recently shown to I mMm such great importance to us, we cannot do too much. We fiti:{f ^^r see ail their wrongs redressed, their territory restored to th territ and themselves rendered forever secure from American vrert a croachment. But the independence of the Indians canno:^ ^m- effectually preserved by the articles of any treaty which sy any provide security for Indian territory or Indian rights, uni) pnae what is indispensable for their due execution. Great Bri:.*^^ become the avowed guarantee and protector of those rif^^^ and that territory y so as to have both the right and the po*^*"®' of instant interference, in case of any encroachment oi vi'^PK ' tion, and not, as hitherto, be a silent spectator of wrongs : Ollt-C( injustice, more immedittely injurious to the aborigines, olutfit eventually as ruinous to the security of the Canadas." — (Fndad 1 phloteer, vol. 5, p. Il6.) the g Such was the plan, in execution of which the Brf* ** commissioners proposed to give a fixed boundary to •*??' Indians, with a guaranty in effect of their indepcnaem'*"'8 . the United States, and even a stipulation forbidding ii^'^'l,' treat for their lands ; a plan, as developed by Mr. Atc^^l son, covering a large part of Ohio and Missouri, anil "^^^ whole of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, ^nJ JjfjL'^, wa, as well as Oregon. lunlai These propositions of the British commissioners "JISSl steadily and unanimously resisted by the American ii*_^. missioners, from whose communications I following passages, for consideration hereafter : transcribe Ij^Jj?' iT.lf " No maxim of public law has hitherto been more univer^Utlin f^stablishcd among the Powers of Europe possessing terrime tenri in America, and there is none to which Great Britain has ni/^Jiy uniformly and inflexibly adhered, than thut of sufl'ering dom^ ^ terposition of a foreign Power in the relations between tlie:^ „ | knowledged sovereign of thi; territory and the Indians situeJ l.u upon it. Without the admission of this principle, there wc. . be no intelligible meaning attached to stipulations, establJEli , boundaries between the dominions in America of civilized t* ^^ tions, possessing territories inhabited by Indian tribes." ^^v' ♦ ♦ " The Indians residing within the limits of the ^'"',]59*' States * * are so far dependent, as not to have the right uMyi dispose of their lands to any private persons, nor to any Po< .Mlt' other than the United States, and to be under their piotecu 'MA alone, and not under that of any other Power. Whether cul! . J J , . . , . teti. or by whaterer n&m* deugnaud, iucL is the rekuon tended to ID a treaty of p,^^' ^^^^^ a„j jje United States. • ♦ These principle* ndary for the Indians. |,.j„ uniformly recognised by the Indian* themseWes ♦ ♦ irs best for the protecti^'^g , » treaties between them and the United Stales. to the secuntyof Canjuii United States cannot consent that Indiana leeiding leky, on Lake Erie, toj^j^gj^ boundaries as acknowledged by Great Britain shall ; then down that river„p|„*'^""'^^'«P'"P''?"'""' Which the British com- th the right and the pcT^o", without venturing to discuss it, rejected by encroachment oi T|i«H!NI (Against the article in the projet of trea'y presented spectator of wrongs ^ OOCCOinmissioners the word " inadmissible." We must 3 to the aborigines, obwity suppose that hostility to the United States has of the Canadas."— (Ffiilad the eyes of Great Britain, from that time to this, iho gross inconsi. '" bound on the savages of and Missouri and "S*'*^* against its Christian and civilized inhabitants 1 It an Wisconsin and '''V"^^'^ *o the Government of the United States as a ' ' BMn of neutrality, if we do not, of our own motion, by h commissioners Tv^l^'y !,»«^- /"'I ^^'''^""^ '»">' express treaty stipulation by the American .^^ »' f "^ restrain our people from crossing the ?;•«». «;«na f «,»n.,...:k„ >WPi and bearing arms into Canada. And yet Great tiona 1 transcribe jaIs _ r j • . .• . i l • i- .• n hereafter ■ 'ittHI refused, in treating, to promise, and, by implication, 17,11 she please, decline, to restrain the Indians living to been mure univer• W»tory of her cond-ict towards us during and after sti'iSns', e'mbli>~r f.<;»^« "'^ °/,l,]l^'/"'^*"L*"° .!*"'* ^^^iov^l to merica of civilized * •"<" of the vyar of 1812, furnishes the answer. And y Indian tribes." '^ *^^^ transpired since the peace of 1814, corresponds be limits of the Uiii. '^t happened after the peace of 1183. To refuse ex- ot to have the right i|M^, as Great Britain did at Ghent, to aj^ree mutually rsons, nor to any Poir flkrain the Indians, vrs, in spirit, a thing esscntial- e under their protecu ^||piendly to us. And though she did not succeed in owcr. Whether calli expressly withdrawing from our Mverei(;nty the InditM of the if nited States, and placing them under the gMtr* anty and protection of herself, yet she has in part attaiaad the same object, by indirect means, through the negUgenca of the United States. During the several years immediately consequent on tha war, we trace the hand of British traders crd agents oo various occasions amonc the Indians of the Soutn. The Creeks made a formal claim of her protection. bShe had easy access to the Southern tribes through Florida. (Am. St. Pap. For. Rel. vol. 4, p. 552 ; Ind. Aff. vol. 2, p. 156.) In explaining to Lord Castlereagh the execution of At • buthnot and Ambrister, Mr. Rush said, with uiuuuwer< able truth : "My Government, resting upon sufficient proofs, was satisfied that our Indian wars generally, with the massacres on the frontier, always their preludes, had originated in one and the same cause. That they had beenprodiiced by British trad- ers intruding themselves, with evil intentions, among tht Indians." — (.Rush'b London, p. 104.) Happily the acquisition of Florida by the United Statea shut out the influence of Great Britain as well as Spain from those Indians. Suppose it had been otherwise; sup< pose the English trader to have had free access to the Southern Indians during the last ten or fifteen years ; sup- pose her to liavc held possession of Florida, so as to be at the very back of the Indians, supplying them with arms and ammunition, and with incentives of ill-will towards us, would not the presence and intrigues of her traders there have been fatally injurious to the peace and welfare of the United States on that side 1 Well, the same influences which we have rid ourselves of in that quarter by the acquisition of Florida, and th« scaling up of the Indiancountry of the South hermetically against foreign Powers, those very same prejudicial in< fluences are to this day exerted against us in the North- west. To prove this, I have a great mass of evidence, from which I select, in the lirat place, a joint letter of General William Clark and Gen. Casa, who, after describing the untiring eflbrta of British traders near to and even within our limits, to maintain and acquire influence over the In- dians of the United States, proceed thus : " It is certainly not uncharitable to suppose that the preaer- vation of this influence is important to the British Canadian au- thorities. No other motive can be rationally assigned for the large distribution of goods which is annually made at Amherst- burgh ai.d Drummond's Inland to the Indians living within our jurisdiction. We have not the means of ascertaining the num- ber of Indians who visit these places, nor the value of the goods which are given to them ; but we believe that a large propor- tion of the Indians east of the Mississippi annually resort there for presents ; and about sixteen months since, one of us actual- ly saw 160 canoes at one time crossing the western extremity of Lake Huron to Drummond's Island. E^ch man receives a blanket, shirt, legging, and breech-cloth, and each woman a blanket, stroud, dnd leggins. Tu the children similar articles are given; and ammunition, guns, and kettles, and other things, are freely distributed. The tribes who principally make this annual pilgrimage are the Oltawas, Pottawatamies, Chippe- was, Wyandots, Shn^vnees, Miamies, Menominies, Winneba- Sacs and Fo s. Of these the four last tribes reside west of Lake Michigan, and extend to the Mississippi and be- yond it. * * It is no part of our duty to investigate the right which a foreign Power has of thus subsidizing, in cfTect, a budy ofuen living within our territories, but we have no hesitation in say- ing that its practical operation is seriously injurious. * * The Indians are kept in a state of excitement, they are taught to look to a foreign Government for advice and protection, and, above all, they believe that present benefits on the one side must be repaid by future services on the other." (Sen. Doc. 1823-'9, No.67.) These views are confirmed by the m<'norial of the Le- gislature of Missouri, in 182!), (Senate Doc. 1828-'9, No. 52 ;) by a report on it, made in the Senate the same year, (ibid. No. 67,) and by a variety of specific fliets which appear in the documents appended thereto. Amon(( these, are the supply of arms and ammunition, by tho 1 1 >i4 n :• HudaAn's ]Bay Company, to the Blackfoot and other prcda- ' tory tribes ; and the attack on the Santa Fe caravan by In- dians armed from the same source ; it being stated, also, in the report, that " the loss of lives by Indian hostility, believed to be instigated by British traders, is computed at 500 men, for the last tvrenty years, on the upper waters of the Missouri, and in or beyond the Rocky Mountains." And the report indicates, as the primary remedy for these evils, " the exclusion of all British traders from our [Indian] territories;" and. "that the project of a joint occupancy by the BritishandAmericanSjOf the country west of the Rocky Mountains, ought to be abandoned, and a line of demarca- tion amicably established, with as little delay as possible. " Which is the very point to which I arrive. And these evils are not'confined to the western frontier of Arkansas and Missouri, though rendered particularly serious in that quarter at present, by the location of the emigrated Indians there. The injurious influence of the Hudson's Bay Company pervades the entire Northwest. In a letter of Mr. Schoolcrafl to the Indian Department, of 13th February, 1832, written from the Upper Mississippi, I find it stated that the control of the company over the Indians is " irrespective of an imaginary territorial line." And so it has continued down to the present time. I had occasion to cite the proofs of this, in remarks, made some time since in this Housq, on another question ; and that the view of the subject which I now present may be com- plete in itself, I must repeat the citations 1 then made from the public documents. (Exec. Doc. 1837-8, No. 2.) Mr. Schoolcrafl, superintendentof the Indians of Michi- gan, reports: " 10. Visits of the lake tribes to the Canadas, — In closing this report, I take the liberty of calling the attention of the De- partment to this subject. Not only are time and health wasted by numbers of the tribes, in performing these annual visits to the principal summer stations of the Indian Department of a for- eign Government, but the visits and circumstances attending them are calculated to foster sentiments of hostility lo the United States in the Indian mind. The generation is yet living who opposed our arms, as allies of the Canadian forces during the late war; and the very reason fur assembling them, and issuing presents as an annual stipend, is based un a remuneration for service and losses incurred by them during the war. But is such a course compatible with the princi|)los of amity existing between the two Governments?" Mr. Fulkcrson, sub-agent of the Upper Missouri, says : *' The Assinaboines, Crees, and the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, roam in pursuit of game over the vast plains extending from the mouth of the Yellowstone to Lake Winnipeg and the sources of the Mississippi. A portion of their trade is carried on with the traders at Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellow- Stone ; but much the greater part of their trade is done wi».h the British traders on north Red river, whicli empties into Luke Winnipeg. Many picsents are given them by the British traders and Government, and much pains taken to conciliate their friendship, and to secure a monopoly of their trade. The consequence is, that they consider themselves much more close- ly allied to the Bi'if.ish traders and Government than to the Amer- ican. This operates powerfully to the disadvantage of the Amer- ican traders at the present time, whom it ought to be the policy of Government to foster and protect, and may, in some future w&rtf, be attended with the most fatal and disastrous conse- quences." Lord Glenelg, in a desnatch addressed to the Earl of Gjssford and Sir F. Head, of 14th January, 1836, says : "The annual expenditure incurred by this country [Great Britain] on account of Indians in Upper and Lower (Junnda h«8 been limited, since the year 1830, to £20,000 ; of this sum, JC15,850 has been considered applicable to the purchase of presents, and £4,150 to the pay and pensions of the Indian Department. "Deferring, for the present, any observation on this latter branch of expenditure, I feel bound, after n)uch consideration, to express my opinion, that the time has not yet arrived, at which it would be possible, consistently with good faith, alto- gether to discontinue the annual presents to the Indians. It appears that, although no formal obligations can be cited fur such issues, there is yei ample evidence that on every occa- sion when this country has been engaged in war on the North American continent, the co-operation of the 7;i United tribes has been anxiously sought, and has been obta^ •rtic This was particularly the case in the years 1777 and liat Brit and I am inclined to believe that it is from these pe-rcourse respectively that the present annual supplies date before ; commencement. ♦ * ♦ ^ ^^^ " Of the sum expended in presents, there h, bower Qf 27t portion which would appear to be placed under peculiar cir^j qjj^ stances. It has often been represented, and lately on 'aj:-- ™; authority, that, qf the Indians who receive presents froi]^ .,■ British Government, a considerable number reside iff! |^ ' the United States, and only resort to Canada at the perii'J ,i ^ 1836, aalhor issue." — (Parliamentary Accounts and papers, , ... . No. 212.— Colonies.) ' into ei For so much of this distribution of annuities or P'*S'-,^%^ as takes place under the authority of the British Goi'p ment, and by compact with the Indians, it is a manife^^t' '^'^'^ palpable violation of the sovereignly of the United St? p.*> 1 and of our neutral rights, according to the principles Vl down and successfully maintained by our comanasii'',*"*' at Ghent. To have two opinions on this point is imp' ""'^B' ble. It is a question with but one side. And for so d"'» *^ of the distribution of presents, as goes on by enticing*" Indians within the British lines for that purpose, as' ^xj^y^ the other doings of the Hudson's Bay Company cxj"* *» J by me, they are a violation of the spirit, it not the 'etii^. * our treaties, just rights, and laws regarding the Intl?j?»' ^j Jay's Treaty contained the following article ; j Pacific " Art. 3. It shall at all times be free to subjects of (^^ ^^ ^ Britain, and to the citizens of the United States, and also t' ^jtk Indians dwelling on either side of the said boundary line,f: . lo pass and repass, by land, or inland navigation, into tlit P A spective territories and countries of the two parties on the •'oniier tinent of America, (the country within the limits of the p fonner son's Bay Company only excepted,) and to r.avigatc allthitood lakes, rivers, and waters thereof, and freely to carry on ''nt omci and commerce with each other." er We, This was a most unequal and inconvenient provi;thorizinj It is unequal in regard to space, because it exceplet'**''^'*®) extensive country within the limits of the Hudson's'*"**'*® Company. It was still further unequal by reason of™**'*", duties paid by our traders on the importation of i'''*'*'^'' goods. But the main objection tp it was the faciliti:'^'*^P^ afforded to British officers and traders for tamperiniji * conch the allegiance of the Indians subject to the United Sti® to meel The traders have paramount influence over the Indii^^^Sft ™^ and it was unsparingly used by the British against us '••* ^'.""^ consequence of the presperity of the Northwest Comp™ " '^' there grew up another on the same plan, called the IVh**"^*' * ' naw Company, which established its head-quarter-'"*** . ' Michilimackinac, and trapped and traded in the greai"*. •• 8' • gion west and southwest of that point, in Michigan, V' *J*y sH cousin, Illinois, and on the waters of the Misssigt'? Utpitc Missouri, and Arkansas, all within the acknowledge'"****' '^^^ mits of the United States. — (Irving's Asforio, vol. 1, p 136.) Prior to Jay's treaty the laws of Indian intercc. do not appear to have had much, if any, political bean: but, after the conclusion of that treaty, there is a vi- change in the policy of our Indian intercourse. Thr ly acts, as that of 22d July, 1790, seem not to have I ed beyond the questions of trade and police. Bui comparing the acts of 18th April, and 19lh May, 1" we shall discern political objects in their provisions. ; especially the strong desire to counteract the influenc British traders in the Indian country by establishing \ of our own there, and promoting the trade of Americ: Actuated by these inducements, our Governm >nt enci aged Mr. Astor in the prosecution of the fur-trade him along the lakes and the Mississippi, because it ti ed (o the substitution of an American influence among Indians in place of a British. The war of 1812 changed materially the relations of parties. By the annexation of Louisiana to the Un States the English line was removed from the Mississi: The United States was relieved from the troubles clauses of Jay's treaty. In the negotiations for the c mercial intercourse between the two countries, which} Juccd the successive conventions of 1815, 1818, and 1? ^-operation of the ;« Unite J States refused to renew the stipulations of the ;, and has been obta^ article of Jay's treaty. Since the war, therefore, the years 1777 and l*t Britain has enjoyed no peculiar treaty privileges of it is from these percourse with the Indians of the United States, as she lual supplies date before ; and it is left to stand upon general principles. * a had purchased wisdom by dear experience. Hence (he enta, there is, liowcr ^f 27th April, 1816, based upon the principles assum i.irrir_» xMi ^ [„ ' 1-. 1- /• ; ._ . u:u:i.«.l <■_»„ ced under peculiar cir^t Ghent, by which foreignerri were prohibited from recehTvretel% "/Vo';""* '^"'» """^ I"'^'""^' ^^^" ^'°°'^« ^^l"^ subjected to bfeZrberresid^^^^^^ f^ their, persons (ui.Tess fortified with a pass- Canada at the peritO *© a fine and imprisonment ; and the President be- ind papers, 1836, vol aolhorized to employ the military force to carry the r into effect. 1 of annuities or pre«.^'**'^ provisions, needful as they are to the peace of the J of the British Go\***^ States, are evaded, by the InHians being inveigled ians it is a manife>^i'' Canada to receive stipulated war subsidies or annual itv of tliP TTni««.l «,8ent8, as proved by the evidence of Mackenzie, of Gen- la to the prSlS" Clark and Cass, of Mr. Schoolcraft, of Mr. Fulker- l by our comaiissic'' *"'' "*® avowal of Lord Glenelg ; they are evaded by on this Doint is iinn' ^'•'eg"*' »'' »"' boundary, so easy in those vast re- side And for so n"*» *^'ending from the Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, fjoes on by enticino^^ the line, though designated by treaty, has not been for that Burpose a°* " marked ; and they aro nullified, and utterly set at Bay Company 'cxM^' ^V ^^^ '"^rusion of the Hudson's Bay Company spirit if not the 1611®*°* *'°""'''y °^ ''^® Columbia river, debauching, cor- I recardinc the Inil^**°'' ^"'^ arming against us, the numerous tribes in- winc article • hitin^ the immense country between the Mississippi and - *= , ■ , .5 Pacific ocean. It is impossible to reconcile these things . !.%!°. ^""^i^T, ^th the neutral obligations of Great Britain. Her prac- 'i:titrdu7/.in:. ."''•^r ^"^"h^ "" •^ g-r'^f^^^^ ?u'T'''' ■1 navigation, into fh,»? "^7 *'""§ ™'^"=*' ?".' "'''"^"^ ^."''^ ''""^ ?" *'>•' P^"?" iH two parlies on the froBt'^r; the latter being a transient popular outbreak, in the limits of the P fonner an organized system ; our Government having and to navigate all^hatood and suppressed this, while the British Govern- i freely to carry on snt officially and publicly participates in that. What- er we, the Congress of the United States, can do, by inconvenient provi^^'^O'izing ^^^ establishment of a post on the Columbia, or )ecause it exceplec'^^'^'BCi to put a stop to these abuses, should be done, s of the Hudson's ''•'®*'i6 Executive should be invoked to exert to the icqual by reason 01™^ •"•^ ^^^ peculiar powers conferred on him by the de importation of i'""t'*"t'on- I it was the facilitii^'* ^P^aker, I hasten to bring these protracted remarks lers for tamrjerim/ '^ conclusion. I feel sensible of the difficulties I am lia- ct to the United Su® *® meet in bringing beforre the House a subject which, jenccovrr the In(lk**^8i^ much and ably discussed in former Cowgreases, has British against us '*•* thrust aside by more engrossing domestic questions, e Northwest Comi **•! ^ '^> *<* n»any intents, and especially in its present re- plan called the Ms****"*" * "^^ °"^' ' ''^ve now done my duty. I have ex- d its' head-quarter-"®^ (BiCts which seem to me important to be understood; traded in the greai"' *• S'*^ '^^^ effect to which, I have deemed it necessa- int, in Michigan, V^ *5^«y .^hp^'lgo fo'i^i.to ^he country from the Halls of rs of the Missig"'® Capitol. The whole of our fur trade; our whale fish- n the acknowledjre"»«5 ou'f intercourse with Asia, giving profitable employ- 's Astoria, vol. 1, p s of Indian intercom any, political bean eaty, there is a y'n > intercourse. The leem not to have I and police. But. and 19th May, i: II their provisions, teract the influem y by establishing p le trade of Americ; Governm >nt enci of thti fur-trade sifjpi, because it ti n influence amon^ ment to so many millions of our capital, and to the \ tion of all parts of the country, are at stake in thii lion. Our Indian relations are involved in it. Upoii its issue depends the fate of a noble domain, the seat, in no Jletant time, of prosperity and of power. It is important if! all points of view. That wide region, the interior plateau of the continent, with its wild mountains and its romantic scenes of chase and war; that ocean of the prairies, with its peril, its adventure, its hardihood of life, so analogous to the sublimity of spectacle and the stirring vicissitudes of the sea itself; those rich valleys of the Oregon, through which the same bright banner which sparkles on the At« lantic may carry the stars of our civilization westward to the Pacific — all this will be possessed and peopled ere lung, either by England or by us. Which shall it be 1 Can the sense of our true interest, can the honor and pride of the nation hesitate? It is a country ours by right ; ours by the necessities of geographical position j ours by every con- sideration of national safety; and ours it will be in tranquil possession, if we temperately but firmly assert our rights. The world is wide enough for England and for us. We have much to gain by a cordial intercourse, conducted as becomes nations of the same blood and the same tongue, each at the head of civilization in its proper hemisphere; much to hazard, by practieing or suffering encroachments on either side. Off-shoots of that dominant race, which, starting from the mountains of Caucasus, has proceeded in opposite directions, east and west, encircling the globe, if we are to confront each other on the adverse shores of Asia and of America, there let us meet in confident good-will, imbued with that just consciousness of each other's power, and that mutual respect for each other's rights, which are the only sure foundation of stable peace. [After some remarks from Mr. Howard, of Maryland, and Mr. Ei.more, of South Carolina, the original resolu- tion was adopted by the House without a division, together with an addition moved by Mr. Elmore, as follows ; " Resolved, further. That the Comniitiee on Foreign Affairs be instructed to inquire into tfie e.ttent of the country claimed by the United Slates west of the Rocky Mountains, on the north- west coast of the Pacific Ocean ; the title under which it is claitned, and the evidence of the correctness of the title ; the extent of seacoast, and the number and description of its har- bors ; the nature of the climate, soil, ,jroductions, and trade ; and, also, whether it is expedient to t ^tabtish a Territorial Go- vernment, or one or more military posts, as possession for the same or any part thereof; and wliat will be the expense neces- sary to establish the same, and the annual expenses for its sup- port ; what fortifications and ships will be required for saic' Territory, and what number of soldiers and sailors will be neces- sary for its protection, both in time of peace and in case of a war with any foreign Power; and that the committee report thereon to this House."] lly the relations of uisiana to the Un I from the Mississi: "rom the troubles, rotiations for the c countries, which [ 1815, 1818, and 1?