But I must say that, whatever may be the ultimate destinies of the Oregon territory, I would feel great regret in seeing it in any way divided. An amicable division appears to me without comparison preferable to a war for that object between the two countries. In every other view of the subject it is highly exceptionable. Without adverting for the present to considerations of a higher nature, it may be sufficient here to observe, that the conversion of the northern part of the territory into a British colony would in its effects make the arrangement very unequal. The United States are forbidden by their Constitution to give a preference to the ports of one State over those of another. The ports within the portion of territory allotted to the United States would of course remain open to British vessels; whilst American vessels would be excluded from the ports of the British colony, unless occasionally admitted by special acts depending on the will of Great Britain. FOOTNOTE: [2] Grotius, however, sustains the right of occupation by a maxim of the Civil Roman Code. NUMBER III. Beyond the naked assertion of an absolute right to the whole territory, so little in the shape of argument has been adduced, and so much warmth has been exhibited in the discussion of the subject, that it cannot be doubted that the question has now become, on both sides, one of feeling rather than of right. This, in America, grows out of the fact that, in this contest with a European nation, the contested territory is in America and not in Europe. It is identical with the premature official annunciation, that the United States could not acquiesce in the establishment of any new colony in North America by any European nation. This sentiment was already general at the time when it was first publicly declared; and now that it has been almost universally avowed, there can be no impropriety in any private citizen to say, as I now do, that I share in that feeling to its full extent. For the Americans, Oregon is or will be home: for England, it is but an outpost, which may afford means of annoyance, rather than be a source of real power. In America all have the same ultimate object in view; we differ only with respect to the means by which it may be attained.