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month.* It was immediately approved by the President, who, agreeably to the authorization, caused Mr. McLane to be instructed to give the notice as provided by the Convention of 1827, to the British government; and the notice was accordingly given on the 22d of May.

In the mean time, communications had been frequent between Mr. McLane and Lord Aberdeen; and as soon as the news of the passage of the Joint Resolution, in language so conciliating, reached London, instructions were sent to Mr. Pakenham, to propose to the American government, a form of a Treaty for the definitive settlement of the whole controversy. Upon this proposition, the President requested the advice of the Senate, which was given on the 13th of June, to the effect that the terms offered should be accepted; and accordingly, on the 15th, the Treaty proposed by Great Britain was signed by Messrs. Buchanan and Pakenham; it was con

* Joint resolution concerning the Oregon Territory, approved April 27 : Whereas by the convention concluded the 20th day of October, 1818, between the United States of America and the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the period of ten years, and afterwards indefinitely extended and continued in force by another Convention of the same parties, concluded the 6th day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1827, it was agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the Northwest Coast of America, westward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains, now commonly called the Oregon Territory, should, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers; but without prejudice to any claim which either of the parties might have to any part of said country; and with this further provision in the second article of the said Convention of the 6th of August, 1827, that either party might abrogate and annul said Convention on giving the notice of twelve months to the other contracting party :

And whereas it has now become desirable that the respective claims of the United States and Great Britain, should be definitely settled, and that said territory may no longer than need be remain subject to the evil consequence of the divided allegiance of its American and British population, and of the confusion and conflict of national jurisdictions, dangerous to the cherished peace and good understanding of the two countries:

With a view, therefore, that steps be taken for the abrogation of the said Convention of the 6th of August, 1827, in the mode prescribed in its second article, and that the attention of the governments of both countries may be the more earnestly directed to the adoption of all proper measures for a speedy and amicable adjustment of the differences and disputes in regard to the said territory:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized, at his discretion, to give to the government of Great Britain the notice required by the second article of the said Convention of the sixth of August eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, for the abrogation of the same.

firmed by the Senate of the United States on the 18th,* ratified by the President immediately afterwards, and by the Queen of Great Britain on the 17th of July.

By the first article of this Treaty,† the boundary between the territories of the two nations is continued from the point where it. previously terminated, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, in the. 49th degree of latitude, due west, along that parallel, to the middle of the channel, between Vancouver's Island and the continent, and thence southerly through the middle of that channel and of Fuca's Strait, to the Pacific Ocean. By the second article, the navigation of the great north branch of the Columbia, and of its main trunk, below the junction of the two great branches, with the use of the ordinary portages along that line, is to be free and open to the Hudson's Bay Company, and to all British subjects trading with the same, who with their goods and produce, shall be treated on the same footing with citizens of the United States; provided, however, that the government of the latter party shall not be prevented from making any regulations respecting the navigation of these streams, not inconsistent with this Convention. The third article secures respect for the possessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of all British subjects who may already occupy land or property, in the future appropriations of the territory south of the boundary thus established the fourth article providing particularly for the confirmation to the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, of all farms, lands and other property whatever on the north side of the Columbia; with the stipulation, that in case the situation of such farms and lands should be considered by the United States of public and political importance, and their government should desire to possess them, the property should be transferred to it, at a proper valuation, to be agreed on between the parties. The fifth article is for the immediate ratification of the Treaty.

With regard to these stipulations, the boundary established appears to be on the whole, a fair compromise between the pretensions of the two powers. A more equitable partition would perhaps have been made by a line drawn from the eastern extremity of the Strait of Fuca, northeastward, along the ridge separating the territories of the Columbia from those of Fraser's River, to the Rocky Mountains, and thence southward, along that chain, to the extremity

*The vote in the Senate was, in favor of the Convention 41, against 14; absent

one.

The Treaty will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, at page 482 of this volume.

of the line previously determined in the 49th degree of latitude; and the Americans may be dissatisfied that any portion of the Columbia regions, and the right to navigate any of the waters of that river, should have been allowed to the Hudson's Bay Company, or any other British subjects. There is, however, little reason to apprehend inconvenience in any way from this part of the arrangement: for the territory traversed by the Columbia north of the 49th parallel, is a rugged and frozen tract, of no value except for the few furs which may be drawn from it; and the British can never have interests in it sufficient to induce them often to undertake the tedious and laborious navigation of the streams, which they are authorized to use for the purpose. The reservations with regard to the farms and lands of British subjects, in the territory assigned to the United States, were intended of course to secure indemnification to the Hudson's Bay Company, to which, in a certain degree, it may be entitled; though objections might reasonably be alleged to the provision in favor of the Puget's Sound Company, which was merely a creation of the Directors of the other body, as an expedient to meet this very contingency of the surrender of the territory to the United States, by a nominal occupation of all the best spots north of the Columbia. These, and all the other objections to the arrangement, however, sink into insignificance when compared with the advantages secured by it, of extinguishing the only serious cause of dispute between the two most important nations of the civilized world, without any loss of honor on the part of either and the Treaty of June 15, 1846, may, in this respect, be considered as one of the most memorable acts of the present day.

The territory thus secured to the United States, indeed presents but a comparatively small surface, adapted for cultivation; but on the other hand, it offers great facilities for fishing and grazing, and a ready market will always be afforded, for its fine timber, in the Sandwich Islands, and on the coasts of Mexico, and of Central and South America, which are nearly all destitute of that indispensable article; while its harbors, in the Strait of Fuca and Admiralty Inlet, occupied by the energetic people who will soon surround them, may send forth shipping sufficient for the carrying trade of the whole Pacific. The idea of supplying the eastern United States with Chinese goods, carried over land from the ports of Oregon, however, could only be entertained by those utterly unacquainted with the circumstances of the case. The voyage between these ports and Canton, is nearly two thirds as long as that between Canton and New York, or New Orleans--and much more perilous;

and the cost of transporting the goods over a few hundred miles of land, by any mode of conveyance, would certainly exceed the whole freight from China to any part of America.

The northern boundary of the United States has thus been definitively determined, in its whole length, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through fifty-eight degrees of longitude, equivalent to nearly three thousand miles on a great circle of the earth, and to much more, following the sinuosities of the line. Their southern limits, on the other hand, have been, at the same time, unsettled, by the war with Mexico, consequent upon the annexation of Texas; but the results of the battles of the 8th and 9th of May on the Rio Bravo, must have convinced the most incredulous that the determination of this question rests entirely at the discretion of the United States, notwithstanding any plans of the French or any other European government, for the establishment of a balance of power in the New World. Every thing seems at present to indicate that California and New Mexico will soon be incorporated in the Federal Republic; and that the line of separation between the territories of the parties, will extend northwestward from the mouth of the Rio Bravo to the Californian Gulf.

The first part of the august conception of Coleridge, with regard to "the possible destiny of the United States of America," has now been realized; and the probability of the fulfilment of the remainder has been greatly increased. The territory of the Republic now unquestionably "stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific," and ere the end of the present century, it will be inhabited by "a hundred millions of freemen, living under the laws of Alfred, and speaking the language of Shakspeare and Milton," with such variations and improvements, as the difference of circumstances may render necessary. Whether these and the other adjoining regions, which may, within that period, be in like manner occupied by the Americans, will remain under one general government, is a question not to be discussed at present. Their inhabitants, however, will be of the Anglo-Saxon race, which has so triumphantly established its claim of preeminence in industry, perseverance, courage, love of order, and capacity for the development of all the advantages offered by nature to man; and experience fully authorizes, if not obliges us to expect, that any changes which may be made in their political system, will tend to the promotion of their general prosperity and happiness.

END.

PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.

ORIGINAL ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF THE GREEK PILOT JUAN DE FUCA ALONG THE NORTH-WEST COASTS OF AMERICA, IN 1592.

A Note made by me, Michael Lock the elder, touching the Strait of Sea commonly called Fretum Anian, in the South Sea, through the NorthWest Passage of Meta Incognita.*

WHEN I was at Venice, in April, 1596, haply arrived there an old man, about sixty years of age, called, commonly, Juan de Fuca, but named properly Apostolos Valerianus, of nation a Greek, born in Cephalonia, of profession a mariner, and an ancient pilot of ships. This man, being come lately out of Spain, arrived first at Leghorn, and went thence to Florence, where he found one John Douglas, an Englishman, a famous mariner, ready coming for Venice, to be pilot of a Venetian ship for England, in whose company they came both together to Venice. And John Douglas being acquainted with me before, he gave me knowledge of this Greek pilot, and brought him to my speech; and, in long talks and conference between us, in presence of John Douglas, this Greek pilot declared, in the Italian and Spanish languages, thus much in effect as followeth:

First, he said that he had been in the West Indies of Spain forty years, and had sailed to and from many places thereof, in the service of the Spaniards.

Also, he said that he was in the Spanish ship which, in returning from the Islands Philippinas, towards Nova Spania, was robbed and taken at the Cape California by Captain Candish, Englishman, whereby he lost sixty thousand ducats of his own goods.

Also, he said that he was pilot of three small ships which the viceroy of Mexico sent from Mexico, armed with one hundred men, under a captain, Spaniards, to discover the Straits of Anian, along the coast of the South Sea, and to fortify in that strait, to resist the passage and proceedings of the English nation, which were feared to pass through those

Extracted from the Pilgrims of Samuel Purchas, vol. iii. p. 849. The orthography of the English is modernized. The letters inserted are, however, given in their original lingua Franca. See p. 87 of the History.

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