This Company was and remains a body corporate and politic, with provisions for the election of a Governor and other officers, who direct its business; and amongst other powers, the Company is empowered to build fortifications for the defence of its possessions, as well as to make war or peace with all nations or people, not Christian, inhabiting their territories, which now embrace the entire Oregon. By the act of Parliament of 1821, the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada is extended, in all civil and criminal cases, to the Oregon territory; provision is made for the appointment of justices of the peace within the said territory, with a limited jurisdiction, and power to act as Commissioners in certain cases, and to convey offenders to Upper Canada. It must also be observed that, although the Company is forbidden to claim any exclusive trade with the Indians, to the prejudice or exclusion of any citizen of the United States who may be engaged in the same trade, yet the jurisdiction above mentioned is, by the letter of the act, extended to any persons whatsoever residing or being within the said territory. The British Plenipotentiaries did, however, explicitly declare, in the course of the negotiations of 1826-1827, that the act had no other object but the maintenance of order amongst British subjects, and had never been intended to apply to citizens of the United States. It is perfectly clear that, since it has been fully admitted that the United States possess the same rights over the territory as Great Britain, they are fully authorized, under the convention, to enjoy all the rights which Great Britain claims for herself, and to exercise that jurisdiction which she has assumed as being consistent with the convention. The citizens of the United States have, therefore, at this time a full and acknowledged right to navigate the waters of the Oregon territory, _to settle in and over any part of it_, and freely to trade with the inhabitants and occupiers of the same. And the Government of the United States is likewise fully authorized to incorporate any company or association of men for the purpose of trading or of occupying and settling the country; to extend the jurisdiction of the courts of any of its territories lying within its acknowledged limits, in all civil and criminal cases, to the territory aforesaid; to appoint within the same justices of the peace and such other officers as may be necessary for carrying the jurisdiction into effect; and also to make war and peace with the Indian inhabitants of the territory, including the incidental power to appoint agents for that purpose.