the continuance of the treaty, can affect the claims to any territories North of that line.) right of the other. Spain, however, having lost by non-user the We now proceed to consider the Treaties rights which she had acquired by discovery. affecting Oregon. We have already stated had no claims to cede, except such as she was the material parts of the Nootka Sound con-entitled to by mere contiguity, or, as against Svention. Between the conclusion of that England, by the Nootka Sound convention. convention in 1790, and the restoration of In 1824 and 1825, the claims of Russia were Astoria in 1818, important events had oc-satisfied by a treaty with the United States, curred in the countries bordering on Oregon, which stipulates that the Russians shall conRussia had created a fur company, authorized fine their settlements to the North of latitude to settle and bring under the Russian sov-54° 40′; and by a treaty with England, by ereignty any portion of America unoccupied which a line beginning at 54° 40', is fixed as (by a civilized power. The company scat-the boundary between the Russian and Brit(tered their posts through the Aleutian Islands, ish dominions.

and along the North coast of the Pacific- These treaties, of course, affected only the fixed their head-quarters at Sitca, near the four nations who were parties to them. As fifty-sixth parallel, claimed all that coast as to those nations, the effect was to exclude Russian territory, and were preparing to ad- Russia and Spain, and to prevent England vance towards the South. The United States, and America from acquiring any title by setby the purchase of Louisiana, extended their tlement as against one another. To the rest Western frontier to the Rocky Mountains. of the world Oregon remains open; and, Oregon, therefore, became contiguous to four unfit as it is by situation, soil and climate, for great empires. To Russia on the North, to profitable settlement, it is probable that it (England and America on the West, and to will long continue open.

(Spain on the South.

Of the five sources of title, we have now Several questions were open between Eng-gone through three-discovery, settlement, Sland and the United States in 1818. One and treaty; and we have shown that under was that of fisheries. The treaty of 1783 had no one of them has a title to any portion of given, or rather continued, to the people of Oregon been acquired by any civilized nathe United States a general liberty to fish on tion. There remain two others—prescription the coasts of British America. America and contiguity. Prescription obviously does claimed the benefit of this stipulation as a not apply to a country which was not discov(permanent arrangement; or, to use the odd ered till the end of the last century. There (expression of jurists, a transitory convention. remains, therefore, only contiguity; and this) England maintained that it had ceased by the claim is confined to England and the United) War of 1812. A question also existed as to States-Spain and Russia, the other contiguthe Northern boundary line of the United ous States, having taken their shares and States. These points were settled by the retired. But neither England nor America Convention of the 20th October, 1818. The can claim a perfect title by contiguity. Nei liberty of fishing was confined within certain ther of them has a settlement within 2000 limits; the forty-ninth parallel was declared miles of the Rocky Mountains. Neither of to divide the British and American territo-them can maintain that the occupation of the ries, from the Lake of the Woods to the country to the West of those mountains is Rocky Mountains. The American negotia- necessary to, the security, or would even add tors, Rush and Gallatin, proposed to continue to the convenience, of her territories to the that parallel as the boundary line down to East of them; accessible as they are only by (the Pacific. This was refused by the British a land journey of between three and four commissioners, Robinson and Goulburn, and thousand miles, or a voyage of eight months. the Columbia suggested in its place. The But an imperfect title by contiguity-a title very undue importance attached at that time depending merely on geographical connecto the Columbia, probably was the circum-tion-each certainly has to the portion of the stance which prevented an agreement. As country which adjoins its own frontier; that the best expedient, the precedent of the is to say, England to the portion North of Nootka Sound convention was followed the forty-ninth parallel, and America to that and, as we have already stated, the use of South. This is, without doubt, the weakest the country was declared to be open to both of all titles; so weak, that when expressed parties for ten years-the sovereignty remain- in words it seems almost to disappear; for ag in abeyance. On the 22d of February, what can be less substantial than a claim to 1819, Spain and the United States, by the territory which is not yours, merely because Florida treaty, recognized the forty-second it is bounded by that which is? Still, it parallel as their mutual boundary, from the must be admitted to be a source of title, source of the Arkansas, on the Eastern side however slight, where there is no other. And of the Rocky Mountains, down to the Pacific; this is a case in point.

and Spain ceded to the United States all her The arrangements for joint occupation

made by England, first with Spain, and after-the part of England the Columbia as a bonn wards with the United States, were plausible dary, and on the part of America the 49th expedients for the suspension of immediate parallel-the second negotiation was as fruitdisputes, but could not have been practically less as the first had been. Another attempt Sacted on. Under such an arrangement, the was made in 1826. The American minister, sovereignty being in abeyance, there is no Mr. Gallatin, now offered a slight modifica ler loci unless it be the law of the aborigines. tion. He proposed that the forty-ninth parallel The Hudson's Bay Company and the Cana- should be adopted merely as a basis, subject dian courts have, under an act of the British to deviation according to the accidents of the Parliament, power over British subjects, but country: and farther, that if that line should over British subjects only. If an American cross any navigable tributaries of the Colummurder an Englishman under the lines of bia, the navigation of such tributaries, and Fort Vancouver, he cannot be legally pun- also of the Columbia, should be open to Kished. The British law cannot touch an British subjects. The British negotiators, American; the American law. cannot take Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, adhering Scognizance of a crime committed against a to the Columbia as the general boundary, foreigner beyond the sovereignty of the offered to America a detached peninsula, States. The only resource seems to be to bounded on the South by a line to be drawn hand him over to Casenove, to be disposed of from Hood's Inlet to Bulfinch harbor, giving according to Klackatack law. Joint settle-excellent harbors and the Southern coast of ment of the country by two independent the Straits of Fuca; and further, that a strip) nations, without common tribunals or a com-along the North bank of the Columbia should mon superior, would be obviously impossible. be neutral, and unoccupied by either nation. (Indeed, joint occupation is impossible even Neither proposal was accepted, and the result (for mere hunting and trading purposes. We was an indefinite prolongation of the conShave seen that in the Indian fur-trade the vention of 1818, terminable at the option of Scompetition of white men, even though be- either party on twelve months' notice. Slonging to the same nation and governed by As this was the last negotiation of which the same laws, is destructive to the Indians, the papers are printed, it may be worth while to the furred animals, and to the success of to show the position taken by each party. It both parties. The Hudson's Bay Company is contained in the British statement annexed) have acted, and continue to act, on this prin- to the protocol of the sixth conference; and ciple. They hold no trade to be worth having in the American counter-statement annexed (which is shared. British rivals they exclude to the protocol of the seventh conference.t Sby law; Russian and American by reckless The British negotiators disclaimed all right Scompetition. Nothing can be kinder than to exclusive sovereignty over any part of their conduct to their competitors as men. Oregon. But they maintained that no other They protect them, they clothe them, they power had acquired such a right; and therefeed them; but as traders they crush them. fore that the whole country must be open to If an American post is established, a Hud-settlement by any nation, and, among the son's Bay post instantly rises in its neighbor- rest, by Great Britain. They then refuted by hood. If an American vessel trades along arguments which we need not reproduce, the coast. a Company's ship follows in her (for we have already stated their substance,) wake. If an American offers goods for bar- the exclusive pretensions of America. And ter, the Company, whatever be the loss, un- they concluded by declaring the determina(dersells him. "We have compelled," says tion of Great Britain to maintain her qualified Mr. Pelly, in 1838, "the American adventu- rights under the Nootka Sound convention, rers one by one to withdraw from the contest, until a fair partition shall have been effected. and are now pressing the Russian Fur Com- The only parts of Mr. Gallatin's answer) pany so closely, that we hope, at no very which we need notice are as follow:-He) distant period, to confine them to the trade of maintained that the Columbia was first dis their own proper territory."" covered by the United States-that this dis The great error of all parties has been the covery was followed by an actual settlement importance attached to Oregon. But, assum-made by Mr. Astor within a reasonable timeing it to be of any value, the Americans and that this discovery and settlement gave a cannot be expected to rest satisfied with an right to the whole country drained by the arrangement which, professing to give them Columbia, and by its tributary streams-that equal rights, practically excludes them. We is, to the whole territory between the 52d and Shave seen that in 1818 they proposed a parti- 42d parallels. He contended that the Nootka) tion. They again proposed one in 1824; but Sound convention was purely commercialas the terms offered by each party were a that the settlements which it authorized were mere repetition of those of 1818-namely, on trading posts, not colonies, since colonies im* Letter to Lord Glenelg, House of Commons † 20th Congress-1st Session-Document No.S Paper, 1842. No. 547. 199, pp. 50-60.

ply exclusive sovoreignty-and that it termi-¡the settlement in respect of which it is claimnated by the war of 1796. He affirmed that ed. And we firmly believe in Mr. Gallatin's America, having purchased for a valuable prophecy, that under whatever nominal consideration the rights of Spain, had ac-sovereignty Oregon may be placed, whatever (quired a double title, and therefore was enti- its ultimate destinies may be, it will be almost tled to a double share; whereas the British exclusively peopled by the surplus popula proposal offered her only one-third. He con- tion of the United States." Stended that title by contiguity must have The negotiation for partition is now rereference to the magnitude and population sumed, and we trust with a fair prospect of of the settlement in respect of which it is success. It is much that the real worthlessclaimed, and the facilities and probabilities ness of the country has been established. All of actual occupation; and he urged that, on that any prudeat Englishman or American comparing the comparative population and can wish is, that the controversy should be rate of increase of the United States and of speedily and honorably settled. A week's British America, it must be evident that it is interruption of confidence-such, for instance, from the United States, not from Canada, as followed the reception of Mr. Polk's inthat the future population of Oregon will augural speech-costs each party twenty proceed. times the value of the matter in dispute. It is strange that a man of Mr. Gallatin's The obvious course is to refer the whole ability should have relied on the settlement question to arbitration. The decision of an made by Mr. Astor. Omitting, for the pres- arbitrator necessarily saves the honor of each ent, the fatal objection that it was a private, party; and in the present case there is nonot a government enterprise, it was a mere thing else to contend for. We have heard attempt to form a trading post. And in the that America objects to arbitration, and that very paper which we are considering, Mr. her objection is founded on her conviction Gallatin affirms, with reason, that mere facto- that the right is on her side. But as there are ries established for the purpose of traffic, and few disputes in which each party is not con(not followed by actual cultivation, give no vinced that he is in the right, it follows, that Stitle. And lastly, it was abandoned by its if such a conviction were a bar to arbitration, creator, and is now a ruinous log-house. that mode of adjustment could scarcely ever That the erection of a stockade by private take place. Assuming the honesty and inteltraders, and its retention for a few months, ligence of the proposed arbitrator, the only can give, thirty years after it has been aban-valid objection to arbitration, is the condoned, the sovereignty of a country nearly viction, not merely that we are in the right, twice as large as France, is a position which but that the opposite party knows that we no statesman educated on this side of the are in the right. If we believe this, we beAtlantic will seriously maintain. The con-lieve this, we believe his claim to be fraudustruction of the Nootka Sound convention is lent and vexatious; and we are justified, if (not free from doubt. It certainly resembles the object in itself, or as affecting our honor, the provisions of the treaty of 1783 respecting be adequate, in refusing to allow the question the right of fishing, which, according to the to be discussed. England would not allow English negotiators, was annulled by the war her title to Quebec, or America her title to of 1812; and, according to the Americans, Rhode Island, to be the subject of an arbitra. was a permanent arrangement. The con- tion-not merely because each nation is convention of 1827, however, seems to have vinced of the validity of her own title, but made this discussion unimportant. By that because each knows that its validity is known convention, either party may terminate the to the other. In the present case. America, present arrangement on twelve months' no- with that ignorance of international law tice. But as that arrangement and the Nootka which is the glaring defect of American Sound arrangement, are substantially the statesmen, may possibly be convinced that same, the power to terminate the one neces- her claim to the whole of Oregon is valid; sarily implies a power to terminate the other. but she cannot believe that England knows it The claim founded on purchase from Spain to be valid. She cannot deny that we honwas sophistical. The disputed territery-the estly believe it to be matter of controversy territory to which the Nootka Sound conven- and if a fourth negotiation should fail, she is tion applied, began in latitude 38°. By the bound by friendship, by prudence, and by Florida treaty, America ceded to Spain the regard to the welfare of the whole civilized part of it which lies between that parallel world, to allow it to be settled by arbitration. and 420. But as the ceded portion belonged Our readers have perhaps a right to ask just as much to England as it did to America, what in our opinion the decision of an honest to found on this cession a title against England arbitrator would be? We think that we was altogether childish. But we admit that have supplied premises from which it may there is a foundation for the premise, that title be inferred. We have shown that no nation by contiguity is affected by the importance of now possesses any title, perfect or imperfect,

by discovery, by settlement, by treaty, or by when it reaches the coast, and that thence the prescription. We have shown, too, that no boundary should be the sea. This would Snation possesses a perfect title by contiguity; give to us the whole of Vancouver's Island, Sand we have shown that an imperfect title which, if we are absurd enough to plant a by contiguity to the portion which lies North colony in the Northern Pacific, is the least of the forty-ninth parallel is vested in Eng- objectionable seat. It possesses excellent land-and to that part which lies South of ports, a tolerable climate, and some cultivable? that parallel, in America. We think, there-soil-an ascertained and defensible frontier -fore, that that parallel ought to be the basis of and the command of the important straits, by the boundary; but as, if prolonged indefi- which, to the East and to the South, it is sep nitely, it would cut off the Southern extremity arated from the continent. That its distance (of Vancouver's Island, with little advantage from Europe would render it a costly, unto America, and great injury, if we shall ever profitable incumbrance, is true; but that oboccupy that island, to England, we think jection applies with equal force to every part that it should cease to be the boundary of Oregon.

WHAT CONSTITUTES TEXAS?-ITS WESTERN BOUNDARY. Extracts from Senator Benton's Speech, May 6, 1844. sents to us, and declares it ours till the Senate re"These former provinces of the Mexican Vice- jects it! He calls it Texas! and the cutting off he royalty, now departments of the Mexican Republic, calls re annexation! Humboldt calls it Now-Mexlying on both sides of the Rio Grande from its head ico, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Nuevo Santandar, to its mouth, we now propose to incorporate, so far (now Tamaulipas ;) and the civilized world may) as they lie on the left bank of the river, into our qualify this re-annexation by the application of Union, by virtue of a treaty of re-annexation with some odious and terrible epithet. Demosthenes) Texas. Let us pause and look at our new and im- advised the people of Athens not to take, but to portant proposed acquisitions in this quarter. re-take a certain city; and in that RE laid the vir-S First: There is the department. formerly the pro-tue which saved the act from the character of spe vince of New-Mexico, lying on both sides of the liation and robbery. Will it be equally potent with river from its head-spring to near the Paso del us? and will the RE prefixed to the annexation le Norte--that is to say, half way down the river. gitimatize the seizure of two thousand miles of as This department is studded with towns and vi- neighbor's dominion, with whom we have treaties of lages-is populated, well cultivated, and covered peace and friendship and commerce? Will it legit with flocks and herds. On its left bank (for I only imate this seizure, made by virtue of a treaty with speak of the part which we propose to re-annex) Texas, when no man force-witness the disas is, first, the frontier village Taos, 3,000 souls, and trous expeditions to Mier and to Santa Fé-have where the custom house is kept at which the Mis-been seen near it without being killed or taken,( souri caravans enter their goods. Then comes to the last man, ?"

Santa Fé, the capital, 4,000-souls; then Albuquer "I wash my hands of all attempts to dismember que, 6,000 souls; then some scores of other towns the Mexican Republic by scizing e dominions in and villages--all more or less populated and sur-New-Mexico, Chihuahua, Coahuda and Tamauli rounded by flocks and fields. Then came the de-pas. The treaty, IN ALL THAT RELATES TO THE partments of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamauli BOUNDARY OF THE RIO GRANDE, IS AN ACT OF UN pas, without settlements on the left bank of the PARALLELED OUTRAGE ON MEXICO. IT IS THE SEIriver, but occupying the right bank, and coinmand- ZURE OF TWO THOUSAND MILES OF HER TERRI ing the left. All this-being parts of four Mexican TORY, without a word of explanation with her, departments, now under Mirrican Governors and and by virtue of a treaty with Texas to which she Governments-is permanently re-annexed to this is no party. Our Secretary of State, in his letter Union, if this treaty is ratified, and is actually re-to the United States Chargé in Mexico, and seven annexed from the moment of the signature of the days after the treaty was signed, and after the Mex-( treaty, according to the President's last message, ican Minister had withdrawn from our seat of to remain so until the acquisition is rejected by Government, shows full well that he was conscious rejecting the treaty! The one half of the depart-of THE ENORMITY OF THIS OUTRAGE; knew it was ment of New-Mexico, with its capital, becomes a war; and proffered volunteer apologies to avert territory of the United States: an angle of Chihua-the consequences which he knew he had pro-f hua, at the Paso del Norte, famous for its wine,voked."

also becomes ours; & part of the department of

Coahuila, not populated on the left bank, which "I therefore propose, as an additional resolu we take, but commanded from the right bank byon, applicable to the Rio del Norte boundary Mexican authorities; the same of Tamaulipas, the only the one which I will read and send to the ancient Nuevo Santendar (New St. Andrew.) and Secretary's table, and on which at the proper which covers both sides of the river from its raouth time, I shall ask the vote of the Senate. This is for some hundred miles up, and all the left bank the resolution:

of which is in the power and possession of Mex-| "Resolved, That the incorporation of the left bank ico. These, in addition to old Texas; these parts of the Rio del Norte into the American Union, by vir of four States-these towns and villages--these tue of a treaty with Teras, comprehending, as the said people and territory-these flocks and herds--this incorporation would do, a part of the Merican depart slice of the Republic of Mexico, two thousand miles maulipas, would be AN ACT OF DIRECT AGGRESSION ments of New-Mexico, Chihuahun, Coahuila and Ta-) long and some hundred broad--all this cur Presion Mexico; for all the consequences of which the dent has cut off from its mother empire, and pre-United States would stand responsible."