If the claim of the United States to the whole of the contested territory can be sustained against Great Britain, or if the pretensions of this Power can to their full extent be maintained against the United States, it must be, by either party assuming that the other has no opposite claim of any kind whatever, that there are no doubtful and debatable questions pending between the two countries. This, if true and maintained, must necessarily lead to war, unless one of the two Powers should yield what it considers as its absolute right. But, if there be any such debatable questions, the way is still open for negotiations; and both powers may recede from their extreme pretensions, without any abandonment of positive rights, without disgrace, without impairing national honor and dignity. It has been asserted that the title of the United States to the whole Oregon territory was maintained by irrefragable facts and arguments. These must be sought for in the correspondence lately published. They consist--first, of the assertion of the ancient claim of Spain to the absolute sovereignty over the whole north-west coast of America as far north as the 61st degree of north latitude. Secondly, of the cumulated proofs which sustain the claims of the United States to the various portions of the territory (whether in their own right, or as derived from the acquisition of Louisiana and the Spanish discoveries), and of the refutation of the arguments adduced by the other party. The first mentioned position would, if it could be sustained, be sufficient to prove, and is, as I think, the only one that could prove, the absolute and complete right of the United States to the whole contested territory. It is undoubtedly true that "Spain considered the northwest coast of America as exclusively her own;" that this claim "had been asserted by her, and maintained with the most vigilant jealousy, ever since the discovery of the American continent, or nearly three centuries, as far north as her settlements or missions extended." There were two ways of examining the soundness of that claim; an investigation of the principles on which it was founded, and an appeal to precedents. The Secretary of State has abstained from discussing the principle; but he has said that the claim of Spain to sovereignty "had never been seriously questioned by any European nation: that it had been acquiesced in by all European Governments." This appears to me the most vulnerable part of his arguments.