OREGON; BRITISH RIGHTS AND AMERICAN TRICK&
THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
London, 8th December 1845.
Sin—Will you permit ale to make a few remarks on Mr. Webster's speech re- specting the Oregon question. He advocates the line of 49° of latitude as the boundary between the British and American possessions, on the grounds, first, of its being an extension of the present boundary reaching to the Rocky Moun- tains; and secondly, for this reason- " It is well known," says he, "that about where the Columbia river crosses the 49th parallel, it makes a turn and flows nearly Southward. Very well: suppose it made as sudden a sweep to the Northward. England would then naturally say= This river, which has been making Westward, sweeps to the Northward: instead of making with it a pelt bend [as the line of boundary] to the North, we will leave it and go on straight to are Pacific Ocean, on this parallel of 49 degrees.' For the same reason, is it not natural for the United States to say— 'Since it proves that the river makes a circuit to the South, instead of following that circuit, we will go straightforward upon the 49th parallel till we meet the shore of the Pacific Ocean.'" What Mr. Webster here assumes that Great Britain, in the given state of facts, would say, is contradicted by her conduct on the Eastern boundary question. There is no doubt that our right to navigate the river St. John was an exclu- sive right, undisputed by the Government of the United States. But, admitting the importance of the navigation of the river St. John to the settlers on the Amerhan territory inland, we conceded to them the permission to navigate that river. We did that with reference to a most important river, clearly our own, which the Americans refuse to assent to with reference to the Columbia, and which refusal Mr. Webster sustains by an imaginary case of what would be the supposed conduct of Great Britain—the very case he puts being contradicted by Our conduct in an affair in which Mr. Webster himself was an active agent.
If Mr. Webster had argued from past events, he would have said—" This river Columbia is a natural high-road, the canal made by Nature for the enjoyment and benefit of the inhabitants of Oregon. Let us not deprive the settlers of it: let us cultivate through this happy circumstance of a common road the peaceful relations of all who live in Oregon, whether British or Americans, and imitate the liberal and peaceful policy of the British Government, which enables our citizens to navigate the river St. John, from which it had the undisputed right to exclude them."
In proposing to extend the line of 49° beyond the Rocky Mountains, the Ame- rican Government not merely intends to exclude us from the navigation of the Columbia river, but also from the strait of St. Juan de Fuca, on the South of our island of Quadra and Vancouver; the importance of which it knows to be as great as that of the navigation of the Columbia river itself. It forgets in this attempt that the line of 490 on this side of the Rocky Mountains was a con- cession on our part. It is usual in America, and the National of Friday the 5th adopts the error, to suppose that the line of 49° was fixed as the boundary of Canada under the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. But this was not so. The dis- pute of that year related to the boundary between Canada and the Hudson's Bay territory. Canada Proper, at that time, reached as far South as the mouth of the Illinois river, and belonged to France. We are not now discussing the limits of the Hudson's Bay territory, but of Canada. At the time when France, by the treaty of 1763, ceded Canada to Great Britain, that province extended to "a peat distance" (Greenhow, p. 277) from the West bank of the river Mississippi, including all the bead streams. But by that treaty the source of the Mississippi in lat. 470 10' was declared to be the highest point of Louisiana. All above this pint which formed Canada, on both sides of this point, was ceded to England. That is, supposing that in 1713 the boundary of the Hudson's Bay territory was 49_,° in 1763 the Southern boundary of Canada was fixed in the lat. 47° 10'. By the treaty of 1818, Great Britain ceded the vast tract of country between 470 10' and 49° to the -United States, as far as the Rocky Mountains. But nothing beyond the mountains was ceded; and if the parallel of 470 10' was taken as a boundary line, to be extended West of the mountains to the Pacific, this would secure to us the strait of St. Juan de Fuca.
This is a very important fact; but I do not rest our title to the land on the West of the Rocky Mountains on this argument. The Americans laid claim to Astoria in 1814, or five years before they made the treaty with Spain, called the Florida treaty of 1819, under which they pretend to allege a title to the whole Western coast That is, in 1814, they alleged the same right to make settle- ments on the West coast which in 1790 had been sanctioned by Spain when the treaty of the Escurial was made with Great Britain. With the Florida treaty We have nothing to do. We were not parties to it; and even if it distinctly con- tradicted, which it does not, the terms of the treaty of the Escurial, it would not affect us. We have to settle a dispute with the United States resting on facts as they existed in 1814, when the discussion first arose. The neglect of this consideration has misled American writers, as well as an Edinburgh Reviewer. There is no doubt that the question is one capable of pacific settlement, if Mr. Polk does not succeed in getting supported in the mistake which be committed when he accepted office: and no argument that has been written on the subject Is more deserving of his consideration and attention than the very able one which
lately appeared in the Journal des Debars. T. F.
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