SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: OREGON BILL.
A CONVENTION between Great Britain and the United States of America was ratified by the Prince Regent on the 2d of November 1818, by the President on the 28th of January 1819. By the third article of that treaty it is stipulated, that " whatever territory may be claimed by one or other of the contracting parties on the North- west coast of America, to the West of the Rocky Mountains, as also all bays, harbours, creeks, or rivers thereon, shall be free and open to the ships, citizens, and subjects of both powers, for ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention." The term of ten years has by mutual consent of the two Govern- ments been protracted ; and the occupation of the territory West of the Rocky Mountains between the frontiers of the Russian and Mexican possessions is at this moment regulated in conformity with the stipulation just quoted. About the beginning of the present session of the Congress of the United States, the President, in reply to an inquiry from Congress, intitnated that he had taken steps to engage the British Government in negotiations for the purpose cf finally adjusting the claims of the two countries to the territory in question. While these negotiations are beginning or in progress, the Senate of the United States passes a bill for the establishment of a chain of military posts in the territory to which the third clause of the convention of 1818 refers, with a view to take possession of the whole of it. If the House of Representatives pass this bill which has been sent to them by the Senate, and the President do not negative it by his veto, negotiation will be at an end. The passing of that law will be equi- valent to a declaration on the part of the United States that they are determined not to listen to any arguments which Great Britain can advance in support of its claims to a part of the American coast West of the Rocky Mountains. The existence of these claims (be they valid or not) was recognized by the Go- vernment of the United States on the 28th ofJanuary 1819; Great Britain cannot give them up merely because the President and Congress have changed their minds and resolved not to argue the question. If the bill for the occupation and military organization of the Oregon Territory become a law of the United States, the British Ambassador must quit Washington. Plausible enough arguments there might be for yielding to unreasonable demands rather than go to war for a strip of territory of uncertain value; but no nation can submit to another's taking a part of its property without even af- fecting to establish a claim to it by argument. This dilemma will not have been sought by Great Britain ; the whole blame must rest upon the Government of the United States. The war will have been forced upon us without the shadow of pro- vocation on our part. That the United States is not a match for Britain at the game of war, cannot be doubted by any one who dispassionately estimates the resources of the two countries : on this score there is no ground for apprehension. But it will be lamentable to see the energies and resources which might be applied to promoting the happiness and enlighten- ment of our country and the world, diverted and misa?plied in hostilities, where we must inflict much misery and suffer a good
deal ourselves, solely on account of the petulant disregard of the laws and customs of civilized nations evinced by the legislators of the United States.
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