OREGON TERRITORY.
The session of 1820-21 is remarkable as being the first at which any
proposition was made in Congress for the occupation and settlement
of our territory on the Columbia River--the only part then owned by
the United States on the Pacific coast. It was made by Dr. Floyd, a
representative from Virginia, an ardent man, of great ability, and
decision of character, and, from an early residence in Kentucky,
strongly imbued with western feelings. He took up this subject
with the energy which belonged to him, and it required not only
energy, but courage, to embrace a subject which, at that time,
seemed more likely to bring ridicule than credit to its advocate.
I had written and published some essays on the subject the year
before, which he had read. Two gentlemen (Mr. Ramsay Crooks, of
New-York, and Mr. Russell Farnham, of Massachusetts), who had been
in the employment of Mr. John Jacob Astor in founding his colony
of Astoria, and carrying on the fur trade on the northwest coast
of America, were at Washington that winter, and had their quarters
at the same hotel (Brown's), where Dr. Floyd and I had ours. Their
acquaintance was naturally made by Western men like us--in fact,
I knew them before; and their conversation, rich in information
upon a new and interesting country, was eagerly devoured by the
ardent spirit of Floyd. He resolved to bring forward the question
of occupation, and did so. He moved for a select committee to
consider and report upon the subject. The committee was granted by
the House, more through courtesy to a respected member, than with
any view to business results. It was a committee of three, himself
chairman, according to parliamentary rule, and Thomas Metcalfe, of
Kentucky (since Governor of the State), and Thomas V. Swearingen,
from Western Virginia, for his associates--both like himself ardent
men, and strong in western feeling. They reported a bill within six
days after the committee was raised, "to authorize the occupation
of the Columbia River, and to regulate trade and intercourse with
the Indian tribes thereon," accompanied by an elaborate report,
replete with valuable statistics, in support of the measure. The
fur trade, the Asiatic trade, and the preservation of our own
territory, were the advantages proposed. The bill was treated with
the parliamentary courtesy which respect for the committee required:
it was read twice, and committed to a committee of the whole House
for the next day--most of the members not considering it a serious
proceeding. Nothing further was done in the House that session, but
the first blow was struck: public attention was awakened, and the
geographical, historical, and statistical facts set forth in the
report, made a lodgment in the public mind which promised eventual
favorable consideration. I had not been admitted to my seat in the
Senate at the time, but was soon after, and quickly came to the
support of Dr. Floyd's measure (who continued to pursue it with zeal
and ability); and at a subsequent session presented some views on
the subject which will bear reproduction at this time. The danger
of a contest with Great Britain, to whom we had admitted a joint
possession, and who had already taken possession, was strongly
suggested, if we delayed longer our own occupation; "and a vigorous
effort of policy, and perhaps of arms, might be necessary to break
her hold." Unauthorized, or individual occupation was intimated as
a consequence of government neglect, and what has since taken place
was foreshadowed in this sentence: "mere adventurers may enter
upon it, as Æneas entered upon the Tiber, and as our forefathers
came upon the Potomac, the Delaware and the Hudson, and renew the
phenomenon of individuals laying the foundation of a future empire."
The effect upon Asia of the arrival of an American population on the
coast of the Pacific Ocean was thus exhibited: "Upon the people of
Eastern Asia the establishment of a civilized power on the opposite
coast of America, could not fail to produce great and wonderful
benefits. Science, liberal principles in government, and the true
religion, might cast their lights across the intervening sea. The
valley of the Columbia might become the granary of China and Japan,
and an outlet to their imprisoned and exuberant population. The
inhabitants of the oldest and the newest, the most despotic and the
freest governments, would become the neighbors, and the friends
of each other. To my mind the proposition is clear, that Eastern
Asia and the two Americas, as they become neighbors should become
friends and I for one had as lief see American ministers going to
the emperors of China and Japan, to the king of Persia, and even
to the Grand Turk, as to see them dancing attendance upon those
European legitimates who hold every thing American in contempt and
detestation." Thus I spoke; and this I believe was the first time
that a suggestion for sending ministers to the Oriental nations was
publicly made in the United States. It was then a "wild" suggestion:
it is now history. Besides the preservation of our own territory
on the Pacific, the establishment of a port there for the shelter
of our commercial and military marine, the protection of the fur
trade and aid to the whaling vessels, the accomplishment of Mr.
Jefferson's idea of a commercial communication with Asia through
the heart of our own continent, was constantly insisted upon as
a consequence of planting an American colony at the mouth of the
Columbia. That man of large and useful ideas--that statesman who
could conceive measures useful to all mankind, and in all time to
come--was the first to propose that commercial communication, and
may also be considered the first discoverer of the Columbia River.
His philosophic mind told him that where a snow-clad mountain,
like that of the Rocky Mountains, shed the waters on one side
which collected into such a river as the Missouri, there must be a
corresponding shedding and collection of waters on the other; and
thus he was perfectly assured of the existence of a river where
the Columbia has since been found to be, although no navigator had
seen its mouth and no explorer trod its banks. His conviction was
complete; but the idea was too grand and useful to be permitted to
rest in speculation. He was then minister to France, and the famous
traveller Ledyard, having arrived at Paris on his expedition of
discovery to the Nile, was prevailed upon by Mr. Jefferson to enter
upon a fresher and more useful field of discovery. He proposed
to him to change his theatre from the Old to the New World, and,
proceeding to St. Petersburg upon a passport he would obtain for
him, he should there obtain permission from the Empress Catharine
to traverse her dominions in a high northern latitude to their
eastern extremity--cross the sea from Kamschatka, or at Behring's
Straits, and descending the northwest coast of America, come down
upon the river which must head opposite the head of the Missouri,
ascend it to its source in the Rocky Mountains, and then follow the
Missouri to the French settlements on the Upper Mississippi; and
thence home. It was a magnificent and a daring project of discovery,
and on that account the more captivating to the ardent spirit of
Ledyard. He undertook it--went to St. Petersburg--received the
permission of the Empress--and had arrived in Siberia when he was
overtaken by a revocation of the permission, and conducted as a
spy out of the country. He then returned to Paris, and resumed his
original design of that exploration of the Nile to its sources which
terminated in his premature death, and deprived the world of a young
and adventurous explorer, from whose ardour, courage, perseverance
and genius, great and useful results were to have been expected.
Mr. Jefferson was balked in that, his first attempt, to establish
the existence of the Columbia River. But a time was coming for
him to undertake it under better auspices. He became President of
the United States, and in that character projected the expedition
of Lewis and Clark, obtained the sanction of Congress, and sent
them forth to discover the head and course of the river (whose
mouth was then known), for the double purpose of opening an inland
commercial communication with Asia, and enlarging the boundaries of
geographical science. The commercial object was placed first in his
message, and as the object to legitimate the expedition. And thus
Mr. Jefferson was the first to propose the North American road to
India, and the introduction of Asiatic trade on that road; and all
that I myself have either said or written on that subject from the
year 1819, when I first took it up, down to the present day when I
still contend for it, is nothing but the fruit of the seed planted
in my mind by the philosophic hand of Mr. Jefferson. Honor to all
those who shall assist in accomplishing his great idea.