A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic InformationGray, W. H. (William Henry)
History
A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information
Gray, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Oregon Territory -- History
We come now to learn all we can of a something that has assumed the name
of Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and under that name, through the
paternal influence of a bastard corporation, presumes to ask an immense
sum of the American government, whose country they have used all their
power and influence to secure to themselves, by acting falsely to their
own. We do not claim to be learned in the law of nations, therefore we
can only express such an opinion in this case as we would were the case
argued before a learned court and we one of the jurors, giving our
opinion as to the amount the parties were entitled to receive. We will
suppose that the lawyers have made their pleas, which would, when
printed, with the testimony on both sides, make a volume of the usual
size of law books of one thousand pages. Of course the fourth article of
the treaty would be read to us by both the lawyers, and explained by the
judge, who would doubtless say to the jury the first question to decide
is, whether there is sufficient evidence to convince you that the
company claiming this name have any legal existence outside the wording
of the fourth article of this treaty. Our answer would be: "Your honor,
there is not the least word in a single testimony presented before us to
show that they ever had any existence, only as they assumed a name to
designate the place a certain branch of the Hudson's Bay Company's
business, outside of its legitimate trade; that this being a branch
legitimately belonging to a settlement of loyal citizens of the country,
we find that this Hudson's Bay Company, in assuming the _supreme
direction_, as per testimony of Dr. Tolmie, superseded and usurped the
prerogatives of the State; that the claim of this company, as set up in
the wording of the treaty, is for the benefit of a company having no
natural or legal right to assume _supreme direction_ of the soil or its
productions. Hence any improvement made, or stock destroyed, was at the
risk of the individual owning, or making, or bringing such stock or
improvements into the country, and subject exclusively to the laws of
the country in which the trespass occurred. The claiming a name
belonging to no legal body cannot be made legal by a deception practiced
upon the persons making the treaty, as this would be equivalent to
pledging the nation to the payment of money when no cause could be shown
that money was justly due, as neither nation (except by a deception
brought to bear upon commissioners forming the treaty by the mere
assertion of an interested party) acknowledged the reported existence of
such a corporation, thereby creating a corporate body by the wording of
a treaty." This, to a common juror, we confess, would look like removing
the necessity of a common national law, in relation to all claims of
foreigners who might feel disposed to come over and trespass upon our
national domain. A word in this treaty does not settle the matter, and
the claim should not be paid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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