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
"And the claimants aver that the rights and claims of the Puget
Sound Agricultural Company, referred to and intended in and by the
said convention, are their rights and claims in and upon the said
lands, farms, and other property of every description which they so
held and possessed within the said territory, and which, by reason
of the said treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, and according to the
terms of the fourth article thereof, the United States became and
were bound to confirm. And of the said farms and other property,
they now submit to the honorable the commissioners a detailed
statement and valuation, as follows."
There have been twenty-seven witnesses examined to prove the claims
above set forth, and not a single one of them testified or gave the
least intimation that there ever was any such company as here set forth
in existence, only as connected with and subject to the control and
management of the Hudson's Bay Company, the same as their farming
operations at Vancouver or Colville, or any other of their posts. The
claim is so manifestly fictitious and without foundation, that the
learned attorney for the company bases his whole reliance upon the
wording of the treaty, and in consequence of the wording of that treaty,
"and according to the terms of the fourth article thereof, he says the
United States _became_ and _were bound_ to confirm." So we suppose any
other monstrous claim set up by a band of foreign fur traders having
influence enough to start any speculation on a nominal capital in our
country and failing to realize the profits anticipated, must apply for
an acknowledgment of their speculation, be mentioned in a treaty, and be
paid in proportion to the enormity of their demands. We are inclined to
the opinion that so plain a case of fraud will be soon disposed of, and
the overgrown monster that produced it sent howling after the Indians
they have so long and so successfully robbed, as per their own
admission, of £20,000,000 sterling. (See Mr. M. Martin's Hudson's Bay
Company's Territory, etc., p. 131.)
There is another question arising in this supposed Puget Sound concern.
Suppose, for a moment, the commissioners decide to pay the whole or any
part of this demand, who will be the recipients of this money? We doubt
whether the learned commissioners or the counsel of the supposed company
could tell, unless it is to be his fee for prosecuting the case.
Doctor William Fraser Tolmie and Mr. George B. Roberts are the only two
witnesses that appear to know much about the matter, and Mr. Roberts'
information seems to be derived from the same source as our own, so that
the writer, though not a member of the company, has about as good a
knowledge of its object and organization as Mr. Roberts, who was
connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, and also an agent of this Puget
Sound Company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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