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CHAPTER VI.

MEANWHILE, on the 2nd of February, 1847, the Senate of the United States passed a resolution in due form, directing Colonel (afterwards General) J. C. Fremont, of the United States army, who was then engaged, officially, upon a topographical survey of Oregon and Upper California, to construct a map of those regions, and Mr. Charles Preuss, who had also been engaged in such survey, was directed to assist in the construction of this map.(1)

General Fremont and Mr. Preuss gave their most assiduous attention to the work, which was not concluded until June, 1848, when it was presented to the Senate, together with a geographical memoir descriptive thereof, drawn up by General Fremont himself. The full title of the map was as follows:-

MAP OF

OREGON AND UPPER CALIFORNIA,

FROM THE SURVEYS OF

JOHN CHARLES FREMONT,

AND OTHER AUTHORITIES.

DRAWN BY CHARLES PREUSS,

UNDER THE ORDER OF THE
SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
WASHINGTON CITY, 1848.

The extent and character of this scribed by General Fremont in the

(1) Geographical Memoir upon Upper California. Fremont. Washington, 1818. P. 1.

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map was deGeographical

By John Charles

Memoir," and, inasmuch as his description contains highly important evidence in favour of the claims of Great Britain to the Haro Archipelago, I shall give his own language :(1)—

"In laying the map of Oregon and Upper California before the Senate, I deem it proper to show the extent and general character of the work, and how far it may be depended on as correct, as being founded on my own or other surveys, and how far it is conjectural, and only presented as the best that is known.

"In extent it embraces the whole western side of this continent, between the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and between the Straits of Fuca and the Gulf of California, taking for its outline, on the north, the boundary line with Great Britain, and on the south, including the bay of San Diego, the head of the Gulf of California, the rivers Colorado and Gila, and all the country through which the line of the late treaty with Mexico would run from El Paso del Norte to the sea. To complete the view in that quarter, the valley of the Rio del Norte is added, from the head of the river to El Paso del Norte, thereby including New Mexico. The map has been constructed expressly to exhibit the two countries of Oregon (2) and the alta California together. It is believed to be the most correct that has appeared of either of them; and it is certainly the only one that shows the structure and configuration of the interior of Upper California."

The position in which he placed the boundary line between the possessions of Great Britain and the United States is nowhere described by him as "conjectural, and only presented as the best that is known," and it must, therefore, be taken to be correct according to (1) "Geographical Memoir," p. 1.

(2) At the period of this survey that which is now called Washington Territory formed a part of the Oregon Territory.

the judgment of General Fremont and Mr. Charles
Preuss, no mean authorities.

The boundary line in this official map, published
by the direction and under the authority of the Senate
of the United States, starts from the middle of the
Gulf of Georgia, on the forty-ninth parallel of north
latitude, and runs thence southerly through the middle
of the Rosario "Channel," and through the middle
of Fuca Straits to the Pacific Ocean, thus, as I ven-
ture to submit, fulfilling to the letter the words of
the treaty of 1846.

On the 5th of June, 1848,(1) it was resolved by the United States Senate," that the Secretary of the Senate be authorised to contract for lithographing and printing 20,000 copies of J. C. Fremont's map of Oregon and California, reduced from the original according to the projection to be furnished by the said J. C. Fremont." It was also resolved that the same number of copies of the "Geographical Memoir" should be printed. On the 15th of June it was further resolved, that 100 copies of the map, and the same number of the memoir should be printed for the use of the Topographical Bureau. (A fac-simile of a portion of this map, showing the position of the boundary line according to the judgments of General Fremont and Mr. Preuss, is presented to the public with this volume.)

On the 21st of October, 1852, a second United States Government map was published, the full title of which is as follows:(2)—

() "Geographical Memoir." (2) American State Papers, p. 36.

× Fremont a Reus W's

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"A diagram of a portion of Oregon Territory. SarveyorGeneral's Office, Oregon City, October 21st, 1852. B. Preston, Surveyor-General. Scale, ten miles to an inch."

John

This map shows upon it the southern portion of the Gulf of Georgia, Vancouver's Strait, and the Straits of Fuca; the line of boundary, as in the former map, runs down the Rosario Strait, and thence through the Straits of Fuca into the Pacific.

In the year 1853 that conscientious and accurate geographer, John Arrowsmith, drew up a map of Vancouver's Island and the adjacent coasts, from the surveys of Vancouver, Kellet, Simpson, Galliano, Valdez, &c., and from the above-mentioned map of General Fremont, and the boundary line was described by him in accordance with the views which he believed to be held by the Government of the United States, and in accordance with the above-mentioned map of General Fremont.

Again, I take up an atlas published in Scotland in the year 1862, by those eminent geographers the Messrs. Black, and in a map of the Western States of America I find this region depicted with the boundary line distinctly traced as running through the Rosario Straits.

It appears, however, that, in spite of the admissions made in their official maps and surveys by the United States legislature, that a line drawn down the middle of the Rosario Strait was the boundary intended by the treaty of 1846, the legislature of the Territory of Oregon, the adjoining coast being within their jurisdiction, passed an Act by which they affected to conscient

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include the Haro Archipelago as a portion of one of the counties of the Territory.(1)

I am not aware whether this local Act ever received the sanction of Congress. Subsequently, in the year 1853, the Territory of Washington was created out of part of Oregon, and the coast opposite to the Haro Archipelago became a portion of that Territory; and by an Act of its legislature, dated 1854, the Archipelago was alleged and declared to form a part of one of its counties, named Whatcom County. This Act has, I believe, never received the sanction of Congress.

The relations between the Government of the United States and the particular districts called Territories are not easily to be defined or described, and I do not think they are clearly known to the United States jurists themselves. Territories are states in embryo, not having a population sufficiently numerous or powerful to admit of their being received into the great federation on terms of equality with the other societies which are dignified by the name of states. It appears that the Congress of the United States assumes to exercise supreme control over them, and the acts of a Territorial legislature are subject to the control of the Senate, which may annul the same, and if not annulled, it seems to follow that such acts become a part of the general law of the United States. The Territories send to the general Congress delegates, who take part in the discussions of the House of Representatives, but do not enjoy the right of voting.

(1) American State Papers, p. 3.

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