The Oregon Question examined, in respect to facts, and the law of nations

Front matter

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Preface

. The object which the author had in view, in insti tuting the accompanying inquiry into the historical facts and the negotiations connected with the Oregon Territory, was to contribute, as far as his individual services might avail, to the peaceful solution of the question at issue between the United States of Ameri ca and Great Britain. He could not resist the conviction, on reading several able treatises on the subject, that the case of the United States had been overstated by her writers and negotiators ; and the perusal of Mr. Greenhow's Official Memoir, and subsequent History of Oregon and California, confirmed him in this im pression, as they sought to establish more than was consistent with the acknowledged difficulty of a question, which has now been the subject of four fruitless negotiations.

He determined, in consequence of this conviction, to investigate carefully the records of an cient discoveries and other matters of history connected with the North-west coast of America, concerning which much contradictory statement is to be met with in writers of acknowledged reputation. The result is, the present work, which has unavoidably assumed a much larger bulk than was anticipated by 1* VI

PREFACE.

. the author when he commenced the inquiry : it is hoped, however, that the arrangement of the chapters will enable the reader to select, without difficulty, those portions of the subject which he may deem to be most deserving of his attention. The expeditions of Drake and of Gali have thus necessarily come under consideration ; and the views of the author will be found to differ, in respect to both these navigators, from those advanced by Mr. Green how, more especially in respect to Drake. Had the author noticed at an earlier period Mr. Greenhow's remark in the Preface to the second edition of his His tory, that he has " never deviated from the rule of not citing authorities at second-hand," he would have thought it right to apologise for attributing the incor rectness of Mr. Greenhow's statements as to the respective accounts of Drake's expedition, to his having been misled by the authority of the article " Drake," in the Biographie Universelle.

He would even now apologise, were not any other supposition under the circumstances less respectful to Mr. Greenhow himself. In regard to Juan de Fuca, if the author could have supposed that in the course of the last negotiations at Washington, Mr. Buchanan would have pronounced that De Fuca's "Voyage " no longer admits of reasonable doubt," he would have entered into a more care ful analysis of Michael Lock's tale, to show that it is utterly irreconcileable with ascertained facts. As it is, however, the author trusts that enough has been said in the chapter on the Pretended Discoveries of the North west Coast, to convince the reader that both the

PREFACE.

. VII stories of Juan de Fuca and Maldonado*, to the latter of whom, Mr. Calhoun, at an earlier stage of the same negotiations, refers by name as the pioneer of Span ish enterprise, are to be ranked with Admiral Fonte's account, in the class of Mythical discoveries. In regard to Vancouver, the author, it is hoped, will be pardoned for expressing an opinion, that Mr. Greenhow has permitted his admitted jealousy for the fame of his fellow-citizens to lead him to do injustice to Vancouver's character, and to assail it with argu ments founded in one or two instances upon incorrect views of Vancouver's own statements. Mr. Gallatin expressed a very different opinion of this officer, in his Counter-statement, during the negotiation of 1826, when he observes that Vancouver " had too much probity to alter his statement, when, on the ensuing day, he was informed by Captain Gray of the existence of the river, at the mouth of which he had been for several days without being able to enter it."

The chapter on the Convention of the Escurial is intended to give an outline of the facts and negotiations connected with the controversy between Spain and Great Britain in respect to Nootka Sound, and the subsequent settlement ofthe points in dispute. The arguments which the author conceived them to furnish against the positions of the Commissioners of the United States, have been inserted, as the opportunity offered itself, in the chapters on the several negotiations. The author, * Maldonado's pretended Voyage bears the date of 15SS. In the copy of Mr Calhoun's letter, circulated on this side of the Atlantic, it is referred to the year 1528.

PREFACE.

. VIII however, has introduced in this chapter, what appears to him to be a conclusive refutation of Mr. Buchanan's statement, " that no sufficient evidence has been ad duced that either Nootka Sound, or any other spot on the coast, was ever actually surrendered by Spain to Great Britain." The chapter on the Columbia River attempts to ad just the respective claims of Heceta, Gray, and Broughton, to the discovery and exploration of that river. A few chapters have been next inserted on points of international law connected with territorial title, which, it was thought, might facilitate the examina tion of the questions raised in the course of the negotiations by the Commissioners of Great Britain and the United States. They do not profess to be complete, but they embrace, it is believed, nearly all that is of importance for the reader to be familiar with.

The chapters on the Limits of Louisiana, and the Treaty of Washington, were required to elucidate the " derivative title " of the United States. If the aulhor could have anticipated the publication of the correspondence between Mr. Pakenham and the Plenipotentiaries of the United States, he would most probably have adopted a different arrangement in his review of the several negotiations, so as to avoid an appearance of needless repetition. His manuscript, however, with the exception of the two last chapters, was completed before the President's message reached this country. As the earlier sheets, however, were passing through the press, one or two remarks have been

PREFACE.

. IX inserted which have a bearing on the recent correspondence ; but it should be observed, that a separate review of each negotiation was designedly adopted, for the purpose of enabling the reader to appreciate more readily the variety of phases, which the claims of the United States have assumed in the course of them. Some observations have been made in Chapter XII. and other places, upon the general futility of the argument from maps in the case of disputed territory. The late negotiations at Washington have furnished an apposite illustration of the truth of the author's remarks. Mr. Buchanan, towards the conclusion of his last letter to Mr. Pakenham, addressed an argument to the British Minister, of the kind known to logicians as the argumentum ad verecundiam : — " Even British geographers have not doubted our title to the territory in dispute.

There is a large and splendid globe now in the Department of the State, recently received from London, and published by Maltby & Co., manufactur ers and publishers to < The Society for the Diffusion of Useful knowledge,' which assigns this territory to the United States." The history, however, of this globe is rather curious. It was ordered of Mr. Malby (not Maltby) for the Department of State at Washington, before Mr. Everett quitted his post of Minister of the United States in this country. It no doubt deserves the commendation bestowed upon it by Mr. Buchanan, for Mr. Malby manufactures excellent globes ; but the globe sent to Washington was not made from the plates used on the globes published under the sanction of " The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," X

PREFACE.

. though this is not said by way of disparagement to it. The Society, in its maps, has carried the boundary line west of the Rocky Mountains, along the 49th parallel to the Columbia River, and thence along that river to the sea ; but in its globes the line is not marked beyond the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Malby, knowing that the globe ordered of him was intended for the Department of State at Washington, was led to suppose that it would be more satisfactorily completed, as it was an American order, if he coloured in, for it is not en graved, the boundary line proposed by the Commission ers of the United States. The author would apologise for discussing so trifling a circumstance, had not the authorities of the United States considered the fact of sufficient importance to ground a serious argument upon it.

In conclusion, the Author must beg pardon of the distinguished diplomatists in the late negotiations at Washington, Avhose arguments he has subjected to criticism, if he has omitted to notice several portions of their statements, to which they may justly attribute great weight. It is not from any want of respect that he has neglected them, but the limits of his work precluded a fuller consideration of the subject. London, Jan. 22, 1846. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. The Oregon Territory - - - - - -13 II. The Discovery of the North-west Coast of America- 26 III. The Discovery of the North-west Coast of America - 50 IV. The pretended Discoveries of the North-west Coast 64 V. The Convention of the Escurial 76 VI. The Oregon or Columbia River - -94 VII. The Acquisition of Territory by Occupation - - 1 1 1 VIII.

Title by Discovery 115 IX. Title by Settlement 123 X. Derivative Title 129 XI. Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain in 1818 141 XII. The Limits of Louisiana ----- 153 XIII. The Treaty of Washington 162 XIV. Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain in 1823-24 178 XV. Examination of the Claims of the United States - 189 XVI. Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain in 1826-27 207 XVII. Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain in 1844-45 224 XVIII. Review of the General Question - - - - THE OREGON QUESTION.

Chapter I. The Oregon Territory

North-west America. — Plateau of Anahuac. — Rocky Mountains. — New- Albion. — New Caledonia. — Oregon, or Oregan, the River of the West. — The Columbia River. — Extent of the Oregon Territory. — The Country ofthe Columbia. — Opening ofthe Fur Trade in 1786. — Vancouver. — Straits of Anian. — Straits of Juan de Fuca. — Barclay. — Meares. — The American sloop Washington. — Galiano and Valdes. — Journey of Mackenzie in 1793. — The Tacoutche-Tesse, now Frazer's River. — North-west Company in 1805. — The Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. — The First Settlement of the North-west Company across the Rocky Mountains in 1806, at Frazer's Lake. — Journey of Mr. Thomson, the Astronomer of the North-west Company, down the North Branch of the Columbia River, in 1811. — Expedition of Lewis and Clarke, in 1805. — The Missouri Fur Company, in 1808. — Their First Settlement on the West of the Rocky Mountains. — The Pacific Fur Company, in 1810. — John Jacob Astor, the Representative of it. — Astoria, established in 1811. — Dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, in July, 1813. — Transfer of Astoria to tho North-west Company, by Purchase, in October, 1813. — Subsequent Arrival of the British Sloop-of-War, tho Racoon. — Name of Astoria changed to Fort George.

North-western America is divided from the other portions ofthe continent by a chain of lofty mountains, which extend throughout its entire length in a north-westerly direction, in continuation ofthe Mexican Andes, to the shores of the Arc tic Ocean. The southern part of this chain, immediately be low the parallel of 42D north latitude, is known to the Span iards by the name ofthe Sierra Verde, and the central ridge, in continuation of this, as the Sierra de las Grullas ; and by these names they are distinguished by Humboldt in his account of New Spain, (Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, NOKTH-WEST AMERICA. 1. i., c. 3,) as well as in a copy of Mitchell's Map of North America, published in 1834. Mr. Greenhow, in his History of Oregon and California, states that the Anahuac Mountains is " the appellation most commonly applied to this part of the dividing chain extending south of the 40th degree of latitude to Mexico," but when and on what grounds that name has come to be so applied, he does not explain.

Anahuac was the denomination before the Spanish conquest of that portion of America which lies between the 14th and 21st degrees of north latitude, whereas the Cordillera of the Mexican Andes takes the name of the Sierra Madre a little north of the par allel of 19°, and the Sierra Madre in its turn is connected with the Sierra de las Grullas by an intermediate range, com mencing near the parallel of 30°, termed La Sierra de los Mimbres. The application, indeed, of the name Anahuac to the entire portion of the chain which lies south of 40°, may have originated with those writers who have confounded Anahuac with New Spain ; but as the use of the word in this sense is incorrect, it hardly seems desirable to adopt an ap pellation which is calculated to produce confusion, whilst it perpetuates an error, especially as there appear to be no rea sonable grounds for discarding the established Spanish names.

The plateau of Anahuac, in the proper sense of the word, comprises the entire territory from the Isthmus of Panama to the 21st parallel of north latitude, so that the name of Ana huac Mountains would, with more propriety, be confined to the portion of the Cordillera south of 21°. If this view be correct, the name of the Sierra Verde may be continued for that portion of the central range which separates the head waters of the Rio Bravo del Norte, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and forms the south-western boundary of Texas, from those ofthe Rio Colorado, (del Occidente,) which emp ties itself into the Gulf of California. The Rocky Mountains, then, or, as they are frequently called, the Stony Mountains, will be the distinctive appellation ofthe portion ofthe great central chain which lies north of the parallel of 42° ; and if a general term should be required for the entire chain to the south of this parallel, it may be convenient to speak of it as the Mexican Cordillera, since it is co-extensive with the present territory of the United States of Mexico, or else as the Mexican Andes, since the range is, both in a geographical and a geological point of yiew, a continuation ofthe South American Andes.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS. Between this great chain of mountains and the Pacific Ocean a most ample territory extends, which may be regarded as divided into three great districts. The most southerly of these, of which the northern boundary line was drawn along the parallel of 42°, by the Treaty of Washington in 1819, be long to the United States of Mexico. The most northerly, commencing at Behring's Straits, and of which the extreme southern limit was fixed at the southernmost point of Prince of Wales's Island in the parallel of 54° 40' north, by treaties concluded between Russia and the United States of America in 1824, and between Russia and Great Britan in 1825, forms a part of the dominions of Russia ; whilst the intermediate country is not as yet under the acknowledged sovereignty of any power.

To this intermediate territory different names have been assigned. To the portion of the coast between the parallels of 43° and 48°, the British have applied the name of New Albion, since the expedition of Sir Francis Drake in 1578-80, and the British Government, in the instructions furnished by the Lords ofthe Admiralty, in 1776, to Captain Cook, directed him "to proceed to the coast of New Albion, endeavouring to fall in with it in the latitude of 45°. (Introduction to Captain Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 4to, 1784, vol. i., p. xxxii.) At a later period, Vancouver gave the name of New Georgia to the coast between 45° and 50°, and that of New Hanover to the coast between 50° and 54° ; whilst to the entire country north of New Albion, between 48° and 56° 30', from the Rocky Mountains to the sea, British traders have given the name of New Caledonia, ever since the North-west Com pany formed an establishment on the western side of the Rocky Mountains, in 1806.

(Journal of D. W. Harmon, quoted by Mr. Greenhow, p. 291.) The Spanish government, on the other hand, in the course of the negotiations with the British government which ensued upon the seizure of the British vessels in Nootka Sound, and terminated in the Con vention of the Escurial, in 1790, designated the entire terri tory as " the Coast of California, in the South Sea." (Decla ration of His Catholic Majesty, June 4th, transmitted to all the European Courts, in tho Annual Register, 1790.) Of late it has been customary to speak of it as the Oregon territory, or the Columbia River territory, although some writers confine that term to the region watered by the Oregon, or Columbia River, and its tributaries. OREGON, OR OREGAN. The authority for the use ofthe word Oregon, or, more pro perly speaking, Oregan, has not been clearly ascertained, but the majority of writers agree in referring the introduction of the name to Carver's Travels.

Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut and a British subject, set out from Boston in 1766, soon after the transfer of Canada to Great Britain, on an expedition to the regions of the Upper Mississippi, with the ultimate purpose of ascertaining "the breadth of that vast continent, which extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, in its broadest part, between 43° and 46° of north latitude. Had I been able," he says, " to accomplish this task, I intended to have proposed to government to establish a post in some of those parts, about the Straits of Anian, which having been discovered by Sir Francis Drake, of course be long to the English." The account of his travels, from the introduction to which the above extract in his own words is quoted, was published in London in 1778. Carver did not succeed in penetrating to the Pacific Ocean, but he first made known, or at least established a belief in, the existence of a great river, termed apparently, by the nations in the interior, Oregon, or Oregan, the source of which he placed not far from the head waters of the River Missouri, " on the other side of the summit of the lands that divide the waters which run into the Gulf of Mexico from those which fall into the Pacific Ocean."

He was led to infer, from the account of the na tives, that this " Great River ofthe West" emptied itself near the Straits of Anian, (Carver's Travels, 3d edit., London, 1781, p. 542,) although it may be observed that the situation of the so-called Straits of Anian themselves was not at this time ac curately fixed. Carver, however, was misled in this latter respect, but the description ofthe locality where he placed the source ofthe Oregon, seems to identify it either with the Flat bow or M'Gillivray's River, or else, and perhaps more pro bably, with the Flathead or Clark's River, each of which streams, aster pursuing a north-western course from the base of the Rocky Mountains, unites with a great river coming from the north, which ultimately empties itself into the Pacific Ocean in latitude 46° 18'.

The name of Oregon has conse quently been perpetuated in this main river, as being really " the Great River of the West," and by this name it is best known in Europe ; but in the United States of America, it is now more frequently spoken of as the Columbia River, from the name of the American vessel, " The Columbia," which EXTENT OF OREGON. 17 first succet ded in passing the bar at its mouth in 1792. The native name, however, will not totally perish in the United States, for it has been embalmed in the beautiful verse of Bryant, whom the competent judgment of Mr. Washington Irving has pronounced to be amongst the most distinguished of American poets: — " Take the wings Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound Save his own dashings."

If we adopt the more extensive use ofthe term Oregon ter ritory, as applied to the entire country intermediate between the dominions of Russia and Mexico respectively, its bounda ries will be the Rocky Mountains on the east, the Pacific Ocean on the west, the parallel of 54° 40' N. L. on the north, and that of 42° N. L. on the south. Its length will thus com prise 12 degrees 40 minutes of latitude, or about 760 geographical miles. Its breadth is not so easily determined, as the Rocky Mountains do not run parallel with the coast, but trend from south-east to north-west. The greatest breadth, however, appears to comprise about 14 degrees of longitude, and the least about 8 degrees ; so that we may take 11 de grees, or 660 geographical miles, as the average breadth. The entire superficies would thus amount to 501,600 geographical square miles, equal to 663,366 English miles.

If, on the other hand, we adopt the narrower use of the term, and accept the north-western limit which Mr. Greenhow, in his second edition of his History of Oregon and California, has marked out for " the country of the Columbia," namely, the range of mountains which stretches north-eastward from the eastern extremity ofthe Straits of Fuca, about 400 miles, to the Rocky Mountains, separating the waters ofthe Colum bia from those of Frazer's river, it will still include, upon his authority, not less than 400,000 square miles in superficial extent, which is more than double that of France, and nearly half of all the states of the Federal Union. "Its southern most points" in this limited extent " are in the same latitudes with Boston and with Florence ; whilst its northernmost cor respond with the northern extremities of Newfoundland, and with the southern shores ofthe Baltic Sea."

Such are the geographical limits ofthe Oregon territory, in its widest and in its narrowest extent. The Indian hunter FUR TRADE. roamed throughout it, undisturbed by civilised man, till near the conclusion ofthe last century, when Captain James King, on his return from the expedition which proved so fatal to Captain Cook, made known the high prices which the furs of the sea otter commanded in the markets of China, and there by attracted the attention of Europeans to it. The enterprise of British merchants was, in consequence of Captain King's suggestion, directed to the opening of a fur trade be tween the native hunters along the north-west coast of Ame rica, and the Chinese, as early as 1786. The attempt ofthe Spaniards to suppress this trade by the seizure of the vessels engaged in it, in 1789, led to the dispute between the crowns of Spain and Great Britain, in respect of the claim to exclusive sovereignty asserted by the former power over the port of Nootka and the adjacent latitudes, which was brought to a close by the Convention ofthe Escurial in 1790.

The European merchants, however, who engaged in this lucrative branch of commerce, confined their visits to stations on the coasts, where the natives brought from the interior the produce of their hunting expeditions ; and even in respect of the coast itself, very little accurate information was possessed by Europeans, before Vancouver's survey. Vancouver, as is well known, was despatched in 1791 by the British government to superintend, on the part of Great Britain, the execu tion of the Convention of the Escurial, and he was at the same time instructed to survey the coast from 35° to 60°, with a view to ascertain in what parts civilised nations had made settlements, and likewise to determine whether or not any effective water communication, available for commercial pur poses, existed in those parts between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The popular belief in the existence of a channel, termed the Straits of Anian, connecting the waters ofthe Pacific with those ofthe Atlantic Ocean, in about the 58th or 60th parallel of latitude, through which Gaspar de Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, was reported to have sailed in 1500, had caused many voyages to be made along the coast on either side of North America during the 16th and 17th centuries, and the exaggerated accounts of the favourable results of these voyages had promoted the progress of geographical discovery by stimulating fresh expeditions. In the 17th century, a narrative was published by Purchas, in his " Pilgrims," professing that a Greek pilot, commonly called Juan de Fuca, in the STRAITS OF JUAN DE FUCA. 19 service of the Spaniards, had informed Michael Lock tho elder, whilst he was sojourning at Venice in 1596, that he had discovered, in 1592, the outlet of the Straits of Anian, in the Pacific Ocean, between 47° and 48°, and had sailed through it into the North Sea.

The attention of subsequent navigators was for a long time directed in vain to the redis covery of this supposed passage. The Spanish expedition un der Heceta, in 1775, and the British under Cook, in 1778, had both equally failed in discovering any corresponding inlet in the north-west coast, doubtless, amongst other reasons, be cause it had been placed by the author of the tale between the parallels of 47° and 48°, where no strait existed. In 1787, however, the mouth of a strait was descried a little fur ther northward, between 48° and 49°, by Captain Barclay, of the Imperial Eagle, and the entrance was explored in the following year by Captain Meares, in the Felice, who per petuated the memory of Michael Lock's Greek pilot, by giv ing it the name of the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Meares, in his observations on a north-west passage, p. lvi., prefixed to his Voyage, published in 1790, states that the American merchant sloop the Washington, upon the knowledge which he communicated, penetrated the straits of Fuca in the autumn of 1789, "as far as the longitude of 237° east of Greenwich," (123° west,) and came out into the Pacific through the passage north of Queen Charlotte's Island.

Vancouver's attention was directed, in consequence of Captain Meares' report, to the especial examination of this strait, and it was surveyed by him, with the rest of the coast, in a most complete and effectual manner. A Spanish expedition, under Galiano and Valdes, was engaged about the same time upon the same ob ject, so that from this period, i. e., the concluding decade of the last century, the coast of Oregon may be considered to have been sufficiently well known. The interior, however, ofthe country, had remained hither to unexplored, and no white man seems ever to have crossed the Rocky Mountains prior to Alexander Mackenzie, in 1793. Having ascended the Unjigah, or Peace River, from the Atha basca Lake, on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, to one of its sources in 54° 24', Mackenzie embarked upon a river flowing from the western base of the mountains, called, by the natives, Tacoutche-Tesse.