(Editorial.)
Congress may provide for the occupation of it--for the
formation of a territorial government--they may establish
posts and a military road across the mountains, and
encourage emigration in every possible manner, and the whole
will not contribute so much towards its settlement as the
negotiations of a treaty with China, opening to us a market
for our products in that country. If the one now before
Congress has done so, Great Britain may set her claim to the
Columbia--it will be a claim for but a short time. Our
shipping, farmers, merchants, and tradesmen will soon find a
road to a country possessing the advantages the west side of
the American continent would possess, in that event, and but
a short time would elapse before China would be supplied by
American skill and industry, from the mouth of the Columbia,
with all she would admit.
The _Weston Journal_, March 1, 1845, under heading, "Oregon
Territory," speaks of a bill introduced into the Senate proposing that
Oregon include: All the territory lying west of the Missouri River
south of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude and east of the
Rocky Mountains, and north of the boundary line between the United
States and Texas, not included within the limits of any State, and
also over the territory comprising the Rocky Mountains, and country
between them and the Pacific Ocean south of fifty-fourth degree and
forty-nine minutes of north latitude, and north of the forty-second
degree of north latitude, etc. [!!!]
* * * * *
From the _Weston Journal_, March 1, 1845.