Northwest boundary of the United States; Oregon question
The measures applicable to the territory within the acknowledged limits
of the U. States have generally been recommended by the President. A
very moderate appropriation will be sufficient to improve the most
difficult portions of the road: and block-houses or other temporary
works, erected in proper places and at convenient distances, and
garrisoned by a portion of the intended additional force, will protect
and facilitate the progress of the emigrants. However uninviting may be
the vast extent of prairies, destitute of timber, which intervene
between the western boundary of the State of Missouri and the country
bordering on the Stony Mountains, it seems impossible that there should
not be found some more favored spots where settlements may be formed. If
these were selected for military posts, and donations of land were made
to actual settlers in their vicinity, a series of villages, though
probably not a continuity of settlements, would soon arise through the
whole length of the road. The most important place, that which is most
wanted, either as a place of rest for the emigrants, or for military
purposes, is one in the immediate vicinity of the Stony Mountains.
Reports speak favorably of the fertility of the soil in some of the
valleys of the upper waters, within our limits--of Bear's river, of the
Rio Colorado, and of some of the northern branches of the river Platte.
There, also, the seat of justice might be placed of the new territory,
whose courts should have superior jurisdiction over Oregon.
The measures which the United States have a right to carry into effect
within the territory of Oregon must now be considered.
The only positive condition of the convention is, that the territory in
question shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the
navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open to vessels,
citizens, and subjects of the two Powers.
For the construction put on this article by Great Britain, it is
necessary to recur again to the statement of her claim, as given by
herself, and to her own acts subsequent to the convention.
The acts of England, subsequent to the convention of 1818, are to be
found in the various charters of the Hudson Bay Company (observing that
some of their most important provisions, though of a much earlier date,
stand unrepealed), and in the act of Parliament of the year 1821, which
confirms and extends a prior one of the year 1803. It must also be
recollected that, by grants or acts subsequent to the convention, the
ancient Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company of Montreal have
been united together, preserving the name of Hudson Bay Company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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