on the north-west coast of America. This magnanimous proposition was immediately met by the two powers in a corresponding spirit; and, the ukase being voluntarily relinquished by the Emperor, a convention was quickly signed by Russia with each power, settling, so far as Russia was concerned, with each, all their territorial claims in North-west America. The Emperor Alexander had proposed that it should be a joint convention of the three powers -a tripartite convention-settling the claims of each and of all at the same time; and if this wise suggestion had been followed, all the subsequent and all the present difficulties between the United States and Great Britain, with respect to this territory, would have been entirely avoided. But it was not followed: an act of our own prevented it. After Great Britain had consented, the non-colonization principle-the principle of non-colonization in America by any European power-was promulgated by our Government, and for that reason Great Britain chose to treat separately with each power, and so it was done. Great Britain and the United States treated separately with Russia, and with each other; and each came to agreements with Russia, but to none among themselves. The agreements with Russia were contained in two conventions, signed nearly at the same time, and nearly in the same words, limiting the territorial claim of Russia to 54° 40', confining her to the coast and islands, and leaving the continent, out to the Rocky Mountains, to be divided between the United States and Great Britain, by an agreement between themselves. The Emperor finished up his own business and quit the concern. In fact, it would seem, from the promptitude, moderation, and fairness with which lie adjusted all differences both with the United States and Great Britain, that his only object of issuing the alarming ukase of 1821 was to bring those powers to a settlement; acting upon the homely but wise maxim, that short settlements make long friends. These are the circumstances out of which the British and American conventions grew with Russia in the years 1824-25. They are public treaties, open to all perusal, and eminently worthy of being read. I will read the third article of each-the one which applies to boundaries-and which will confirm all that I have said. The article in the convention with the United States is in these words: "ART. 3. It is moreover agreed, that, hereafter, there shall not be formed, by the citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the said States, any establishment upon the north-west coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of fifty-four degrees and forty minutes of north latitude; and that in the same manner, there shall be none formed by Russian subjects, or under the authority of Russia, south of the same parallel." This is the article which governs the American boundary with Russia, confined by its preVOL. XV.-34 [MAY, 1846. cise terms to the islands and coasts, and having no manner of relation to the continent. The article in the British convention with Russia, governing her boundary, is in the same words, so far as the limit is concerned, and only more explicit with respect to the continent. Like our own, it is the third article of the convention, and is in these words: "ART. 3. The line of demarcation between the possessions of the high contracting parties, upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of America, to the north-west, shall be drawn in the manner following: Commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54° 40′ north latitude, and between 131st and 133d degrees of west longitude, (meridian of Greenwich,) the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Canal, as far as the point of the continent, where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude. From this last-mentioned point, to the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude, will prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean. The limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line parallel to the windings of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom. And the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude, (of the same meridian;) and, finally, from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the limit between the Russian and British possessions on the continent of America to the north-west." These are the proofs, these the conventions which established limits on the north-west coast of America between the United States and Russia in 1824, and between Great Britain and Russia in 1825. They are identical in object and nearly in terms; they grow out of the same difficulties, and terminate in the same way. By each the Russian claim is confined to the coast and the islands; by each the same limit is given both to the United States and Great Britain; and that limit was fixed at the south end of an island, to the latitude of which (supposed to be in 55°, but found to be in 54° 40') the Emperor Paul had granted the privileges of trade to the Russian American Fur Company. It was a limit wholly in the water, not at all on the land. The American line never touches land, the British only reaches it by going north through Portland Canal to 56°, and thence to pursue the coast at ten leagues from it northwardly to 61°, and thence due north to the Frozen Ocean: leaving to the Russians only the projecting part of the continent which approaches Asia, and narrows the ocean into the strait which Behring found, and which bears his name. This is the Russian line on the continent with Great Brit ain; the United States have no continental line either with Russia or Great Britain. I have shown you the limits established with MAY, 1846.] Oregon Jurisdiction Bill. [29TH CONG. Here is the offer, in the most explicit terms, in 1823, to make fifty-five, which was in fact fifty-four forty, the northern boundary of Great Britain; and here is her answer to that proposition. It is the next paragraph in the same despatch from Mr. Rush to Mr. Adams: "Mr. Canning expressed no opinion on any of these points; but his inquiries and remarks, under that which proposes to confine the British settlements between fifty-one and fifty-five, were evident Russia in 1824; I have produced the treaties | by which the whole of that country westward of which established them; and here also is a map the Stony Mountains, and all its waters, would be which illustrates them, and shows every thing free and open to the citizens and subjects of the precisely as I have read it from the treaties. three powers as long as the joint convention reI set out with saying, that although this fifty- should be for the term of ten years. 2. That the mained in force. This, my Government proposed, four forty was never established as a northern United States were willing to stipulate to make no boundary for the United States, yet it was pro- settlements north of the fifty-first deegree of north posed to be established as a northern boundary, latitude on that coast, provided Great Britain stipunot for us, but for Great Britain-and that pro-lated to make none south of fifty-one, or north of posal was made to Great Britain by ourselves. fifty-five, and Russia to make none south of fiftyThis must sound like a strange statement in the five." ears of the fifty-four-forties, but it is no more strange than true; and after stating the facts, I mean to prove them. The plan of the United States at that time was this: That each of the three powers (Great Britain, Russia, and the United States) having claims on the north-west coast of America, should divide the country between them, each taking a third. In this plan of partition, each was to receive a share of the continent from the sea to the Rocky Mountains, Russia taking the northern slice, the United States the southern, and Great Brit-ly of a nature to indicate strong objections on his ain the centre, with fifty-four forty for her northern boundary, and forty-nine for her southern. The document from which I now read will say fifty-one; but that was the first offer-forty-nine was the real one, as I will hereafter show. This was our plan. The moderation of Russia defeated it. That Power had no settlements on that part of the continent, and rejected the continental share which we offered her. She limited herself to the coasts and islands where she had settlements, and left Great Britain and the United States to share the continent between themselves. But before this was known, we had proposed to her fifty-four forty for the Russian southern boundary, and to Great Britain the same for her northern boundary. I say fifty-four forty; for, although the word in the proposition was fifty-five, yet it was on the principle which gave fifty-four forty-namely, running from the south end of Prince of Wales Island, supposed to be in fifty-five, but found to have a point to it running down to fifty-four forty. We proposed this to Great Britain. She refused it, saying she would establish her northern boundary with Russia, who was on her north, and not with the United States, who was on her south. This seemed reasonable; and the United States then, and not until then, relinquished the business of pressing fifty-four forty upon Great Britain for her northern boundary. The proof is in the Executive documents. Here it is-a despatch from Mr. Rush, our Minister in London, to Mr. Adams, Secretary of State, dated December 19, 1823: "I at once unfolded to him (Mr. Canning) the proposals of my Government, which were: 1. That, as regarded the country lying between the Stony Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Great Britain, the United States, and Russia, should jointly enter into a convention, similar in its nature to the third article of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818, now existing between the two former powers, side, though he professed to speak only from his first impressions. It is more proper, I should say, that his objections were directed to our proposal of not letting Great Britain go above fifty-five north with her settlements, while we allowed Russia to come down to that line with hers. In treating of this coast, he had supposed that Great Britain had her northern question with Russia, as her southern with the United States. He could see a motive for the United States desiring to stop the settlements of Great Britain southward; but he had not before known of their desire to stop them northward, and, above all, over limits conceded to Russia It was to this effect that his suggestion went." This was her answer, refusing to take, in 1823, as a northern boundary coming south for quantity, what is now prescribed to her, at the peril of war, for a southern boundary, with nothing north!-for, although the fact happens to be that Russia is not there, bounding us on the north, yet that makes no difference in the philosophy of our fifty-four-forties, who be lieve it to be so; and, on that belief, are ready to fight. Their notion is, that we go jam up to 54° 40', and the Russians come jam down to the same, leaving no place for the British lion to put down a paw, although that paw should be no bigger than the sole of the dove's foot which sought a resting-place from Noah's ark. This must seem a little strange to British statesman, who do not grow so fast as to leave all knowledge behind them. They remember that Mr. Monroe and his Cabinet-the President and Cabinet who acquired the Spanish title under which we now propose to squeeze them out of the continent-actually offered them six degrees of latitude in that very place; and they will certainly want reasons for this so much compression now, where we offered them so much expansion then. These reasons cannot be given. There is no boundary at 54° 40′; and so far as we proposed to make it one, it was for the British, and not for ourselves; and so ends this redoubtable line, up to which all 1ST SESS.] Oregon. [MAY, 1846. true patriots were to march and marching, | times by its title. But the bill before the Senfight and fighting, die! if need be! singing all the while, with Horace "Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori." Sweet and decent it is to die for one's country. And this is the end of that great line! all gone-vanished-evaporated into thin air-and the place where it was, not to be found. Oh! mountain that was delivered of a mouse, thy name shall henceforth be fifty-four forty! And thus, Mr. President, I trust I have exploded one of the errors into which the public mind has been led, and which it is necessary to get rid of before we can find the right place for our Oregon boundaries. I proceed to another of the same family-the dogma of the unity and indivisibility of the Oregon title, and its resulting corollary of all or none. After examining this point at much length, Mr. B. proceeded. I have now got to the end of the errors which I propose to correct at the present time. I have consumed the day in getting ready to speak-in clearing away the rubbish which had been piled up in my path. On another day, if the Senate pleases, I will go to work on the Oregon question, and endeavor to show how far we shall be right, and how far we may be wrong, in exercising the jurisdiction and sovereignty which this bill proposes (which is not a copy of the British act, but goes far beyond it) over an undefined extent of territory, to which we know there are conflicting claims. Light upon this point, at this time, may be of service to our country; and I mean to discharge my duty to her, regardless of all consequences to myself. Mr. B. then gave way to a motion for adjourn ment. MONDAY, May 25. Oregon. The Senate then proceeded to the consideration of the special order, the motion pending being that of Mr. WESTCOTT to postpone the further consideration of the bill to establish jurisdiction over the territory of Oregon until the first Monday in December next. Mr. BENTON rose and addressed the Senate as follows: In resuming my speech on this subject, I wish to say, Mr. President, that the bill now before the Senate is not the one recommended by the President of the United States. He recommended that the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the United States be extended to our Oregon territory to the same extent that Great Britian had extended her sovereignty and jurisdiction to the same country. In this recommendation | I fully concur; and I venture to say that if such a bill was brought in, it might pass the Senate (leaving out unnecessary speeches) in as little time as it would require to read it three ate is not of that character. It goes far beyond the President's recommendation. It proposes many things not found in the British act of 1821-things implying exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty in us, and that to an undefined extent of country, and under circumstances which must immediately produce hostile collisions between our agents and the British agents on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. I am opposed to all this; but I am not in favor of the indefinite postponement of the bill. I wish to see it amended and made conformable to the President's recommendation. If gentlemen who have the conduct of the measure here will bring in such an amendment, and put it on its passage without speeches, I will stop my speech until it is passed. I will now proceed to show, as well as I can, the degree and extent of our just claims beyond the Rocky Mountains. To understand what I mean to say, it is necessary to recollect the geography of the country in question, and see it presenting, as it does, three distinct geographical divisions, to each of which a different claim and a different degree of claim attaches, and which cannot be confounded under any one general view, without a general mystification and total confusion of the whole subject. The Columbia River and its valley is one of these divisions; the islands along the coast is another; Frazer's River and its valley (called by the British New Caledonia) is the third. Under these three divisions Í now propose to speak of the country. Under these divisions I have always spoken of it; and what I have said of one part had no application to another. When I spoke of the great river of the West and its valley, either by its American name of Columbia or its Indian name of Oregon, I never intended Frazer's River and its valley, or Vancouver's Island, or the Gulf of Georgia, or Desolation Sound, or Broughton's Arch. When I speak of the coast and the islands, I do not mean the continent and the mountains; and when I speak of Frazer's River or New Caledonia, I do not mean the Columbia River. I repudiate all such loose and slovenly verbiage; and, desiring to be understood according to my words, I go on to speak of the country beyond the Rocky Mountains under the three great geographical divisions into which Nature has formed it, and to which political events have so naturally adapted themselves. I begin with the islands. From the Straits of Fuca (in fact from Puget's Sound) to the Peninsula of Alaska-a distance of one thousand miles-there is a net-work of islands an archipelago-some large, some small, checkered in together, and covering the coast to the extent of one, two, and even three hundred miles in front of the continent. They are most of them of volcanic impression, and separated from each other and the continent by deep bays, gulfs, and straits, and by long deep chasms, to which navigators have given the MAY, 1846.] Oregon. name of canals. This long checker-board of islands, and the waters which contain them, have been the theatre of maritime discovery to many nations, and especially Spanish, British, and Russian; but, except the Russians, no nation made permanent settlements on any of these islands; and they only as low down as latitude 55. The British and Spaniards both abandoned Vancouver's Island after the Nootka Sound controversy; and from that time had no settlement of any kind on the coast or islands, north of Cape Mendocino, latitude 41°; and the British had none anywhere. In this state of the case the question came on between Russia, Great Britain, and the United States, in which the distinction between the islands and the continent was acknowledged by all the powers, and Russia excluded from the continent, and confined to the islands, because her discoveries and settlements were not continental, but insular. The convention with Russia (British and American) of 1824-25 were framed upon that principle; and now I proceed to read the instructions from our Government under which this distinction between the islands and the continent was asserted and maintained. I read from Mr. Adams's despatch to Mr. Middleton, July 22d, 1823: "It never has been admitted, by the various European nations which have formed settlements in this hemisphere, that the occupation of an island gave any claim whatever to territorial possessions on the continent to which it was adjoining. The recognized principle has rather been the reverse; as, by the law of nature, islands must rather be considered as appurtenant to continents, than con tinents to islands." And again, in Mr. Middleton's communications to the Russian Government: "The Russians have an establishment upon the island of Sitka, in latitude 57° 30'. This fort, built in 1799, was destroyed three years after by the natives of the country, and re-established in 1804 by Mr. Lisianki, who called it New Archangel. Russia cannot, however, avail herself of the circumstance of that possession to form a foundation for rights on the continent, the usage of nations never having established that the occupation of an island could give rights upon a neighboring continent. The principle is, rather, that the island ought to be considered as appendant to the continent, than the inverse of the proposition." These were the instructions to our Minister, under which we treated with Russia in 1824, and upon which the conventions of that period were formed. They establish the fact that these islands in front of the north-west coast were considered a separate geographical division of the country, governed by national law applicable to islands; and that discoveries among them, even perfected by settlement, gave no claims upon the continent. This is the way the two powers settled with Russia. Apply ing the same principle to themselves, and no discovery of Vancouver's Island, or any one of the thousand islands along that coast, can give The [29TH CONG. | any territorial claims on the continent. I have considered it a cardinal error, in all the recent discussions on Oregon, to bottom continental claims upon these insular discoveries. Spaniards, as so well shown in the speech of the Senator from New York, (Mr. Dix,) were the predecessors of the British in these discoveries; but I did not understand him as claiming the continent out to the Rocky Mountains, and up to 54° 40', by virtue of these maritime discoveries; and I am very sure that I limited my own sanction of his views to the tracks of the ships which made the discoveries. I consider Spanish discoveries along that coast as dominant over the British, both for priority of date and for the spirit of ownership in which they were made. The Spaniards explored as masters of the country, looking after their own extended and contiguous possessions, and to which no limit had ever been placed: the British explored in the character of adventurers, seeking new lands in a distant region. Neither made permanent settlements; both abandoned; and, now, I see nothing, either in the value or the title of these islands, for the two nations to fight about. The principle of convenience and mutual good will, so magnanimously proposed by the Emperor Alexander in 1823, seems to me to be properly applicable to these desolate islands, chiefly valuable for harbors, which are often nothing but volcanic chasms, too deep for anchorage and too abrupt for approach. In the discussions of 1824, so far as they were not settled, they were considered appurtenant to the continent, instead of the continent being held appurtenant to them; and the reversal of this principle, I apprehend, has been the great error of the recent discussions and has led to the great mistake in relation to Frazer's River. I dismiss the question, then, as to this geographical division of the country, with saying that our title to these islands is better than that of the British, but that neither is perfect for want of settlement; and that now, as proposed in 1824, they should follow the fate of the continental divisions in front of which they lie. It is Frazer's River and its valley, known in northwestern geography as New Caledonia, is the next division of the disputed country to which I shall ask the attention of the Senate. a river of about a thousand miles in length, (following its windings,) rising in the Rocky Mountains, opposite the head of the Unjigah, or Peace River, which flows into the Frozen Ocean in latitude about 70. The course of this river is nearly north and south, rising in latitude 55, flowing south to near latitude 49, and along that parallel, and just north of it, to the Gulf of Georgia, into which it falls behind Vancouver's Island. The upper part of this river is good for navigation; the lower half, plunging through volcanic chasms in mountains of rock, is wholly unnavigable for any species of craft. This river was discovered by Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1793, was settled by 1ST SESS.] Oregon. [MAY, 1846. the North-west Company in 1806, and soon "The whole of this vast country is in fact so incovered by their establishments from head to tersected with rivers and lakes, that Mr. Harmon mouth. No American or Spaniard has ever thinks one-sixth part of its surface may be considleft a track upon this river or its valley. Our ered as water. The largest of the latter yet visited claim to it, as far as I can see, rested wholly is named Stuart's Lake, and is supposed to be about upon the treaty with Spain of 1819; and her 400 miles in circumference. A post has been esclaim rested wholly upon those discoveries tablished on its margin in latitue 54° 30' north, longitude 125° west. Fifty miles to the westward of among the islands, the value of which, as conthis is Frazer's Lake, about eighty or ninety miles in ferring claims upon the continent, it has been circumference; here, too, a post was established in my province to show in our negotiations with 1806. A third, of sixty or seventy miles in cirRussia in 1824. At the time that we acquired cumference, has been name McLeod's Lake, on the this Spanish claim to Frazer's River, it had shore of which a fort has been built in latitude already been discovered twenty-six years by 55' north, longitude 124° west. The waters of the British; had been settled by them for this lake fall into the Peace River; those flowing twelve years; was known by a British name; out of the other two are supposed to empty themand no Spaniard had ever made a track on its selves into the Pacific, and are probably the two rivers banks. New Caledonia, or Western Caledonia, pointed out by Vancouver, near Pont Essington, was the name which it then bore; and it so as we had occasion to observe in a former article. happens that an American citizen, a native of The immense quantity of salmon which annually Vermont, respectably known to the Senators their communication with the Pacific; and the abvisit these two lakes, leave no doubt whatever of now present from that State, and who had sence of this fish from McLeod's Lake, makes it spent twenty years of his life in the hyper- almost equally certain that its outlet is not into borean regions of North-west America, in that ocean. The river flowing out of Stuart's Lake publishing an account of his travels and sopasses through the populous tribes of the Nate-otejournings in that quarter, actually published a tains, who say that white people come up in large description of this New Caledonia, as a British boats to trade with the A-te-nas, (a nation dwelling province, at the very moment that we were between them and the sea,) which was fully proved getting it from Spain, and without the least sus-by the guns, iron pots, cloth, tar, and other articles picion that it belonged to Spain! I speak of found in their possession. Mr. David Harmon, whose Journal of Nineteen Years' Residence between latitudes 47 and 58 in North-western America, was published at Andover, in his native State, in the year 1820, the precise year after we had purchased this New Caledonia from the Spaniards. I read, not from the volume itself, which is not in the library of Congress, but from the London Quarterly Review, January No., 1822, as reprinted at Boston; article, WESTERN CALEDONIA. "The descent of the Peace River through a deep chasm in the Rocky Mountains first opened a passage to the adventurers above mentioned into the unexplored country behind them, to which they gave the name of New Caledonia-a name, however, which, being already occupied by the Australasians, might advantageously be changed to that of Western Caledonia. This passage lies in latitude 56° 30'. Mackenzie had crossed the Rocky chain many years before in latitude 544°, and descended a large river flowing to the southward, named Tacoutche Tessé, which he conceived to be the Columbia; but it is now known to empty itself about Birch's Bay of Vancouver, in latitude 49°; whereas the mouth of the Columbia lies in 46° 15'. Another river, called the Caledonia, (Frazer's River,) holding a parallel course to the Tacoutche Tessé, (Columbia,) falls into the sea near the Admiralty Inlet of Vancouver, latitude 48°, and forms a natural boundary between the new territory of Caledonia and the United States, falling in precise ly with a continued line on the same parallel with the Lake of the Woods, and leaving about two degrees of latitude between it and the Columbia. Its northern boundary may be taken in latitude 57°, close to the southernmost of the Russian settlements. The length, therefore, will be about 550, and the breadth, from the mountains to the Pacific, from 330 to 350 geographical miles. Most of the mountains of Western Caledonia are clothed with timber trees to their very summits, consisting principally of spruce and other kinds of speaking, all those which are found on the opposite fir, birch, poplar, aspen, cypress, and, generally side of the Rocky Mountains. The large animals common to North America, such as buffalo, elk, moose, reindeer, bears, &c., are not numerous in this new territory; but there is no scarcity of the beaver, otter, wolverine, marten, foxes of different kinds, and the rest of the fur animals, any more than of wolves, badgers, and polecats; fowls, also, of all the descriptions found in North America, are plentiful in Western Caledonia; cranes visit them in prodigious numbers, as do swans, bustards, geese, and ducks." This is the account given by Mr. Harmon of New Caledonia, and given of it by him at the exact moment that we were purchasing the Spanish title to it! Of this Spanish title, of which the Spaniards never heard, the narrator seems to have been as profoundly ignorant as the Spaniards were themselves; and made his description of New Caledonia as of a British possession, without any more reference to an adverse title than if he had been speaking of Canada. So much for the written description : now let us look at the map, and see how it stands there. Here is a map-a 54° 40′ mapwhich will show us the features of the country, and the names of the settlements upon it. Here is Frazer's River, running from 55° to 49°, and here is a line of British posts upon it, from Fort McLeod, at its head, to Fort Langley, at its mouth, and from Thompson's Fork, on one side, to Stuart's Fork on the other. And here are clusters of British names, imposed by the British, visible everywhere |