Hudson's Bay Company was, in most cases, by no means an enviable one.
Their letters to their friends and to each other--usually long and
neatly written documents--contained many a tale of dangers surmounted
and hardships endured. One wrote from Colville, in 1835, "we had five
or six hundred Blackfeet upon us and fought some hours"; another,
speaking of Fort Simpson in the same year, said: "A winter voyage on
that rugged stormy coast is both dangerous and unpleasant and, when
arrived, the matter is not much mended. The natives are very numerous,
treacherous, daring, savage and ferocious in the extreme." Separated
from his family, whom he would not expose to the dangers of the voyage,
he exclaims against the country of his exile. Such instances might be
multiplied and it is little matter of wonder that the burden of the
trader's letter was at all times an expression of longing for the time
when he hoped to "go out" to the far away civilized world and that he
invariably looked upon one already there as in a situation akin to
Paradise. The hope of promotion--which could not begin until after many
years of service--the heartburnings at sometimes being passed over, the
long waits of twenty or even thirty years for their "parchments," as
they termed their commissions as chief factors or chief traders--were
the subject of ceaseless thought and some grumbling. Now and again the
bullet, knife or tomahawk of some treacherous foe would put an end to
the earthly solitude of the trader at a remote post. In spite of all
their drawbacks, however, the Hudson's Bay factors, traders and clerks
formed a brotherhood of men, who, for courage, loyalty to the service
and good comradeship, were unexcelled perhaps anywhere. In Eastern
Canada, the Red River settlement and Vancouver Island, which formed
the chief havens of their retirement from service, the old Nor'westers
and Hudson's Bay men formed a confraternity of large-hearted and often
opulent veterans, full of affection for their families and old comrades
and of thankfulness to God for mercies vouchsafed them. That not only
the highest position in the company's service, but the highest imperial
honours as well, were open to the Hudson's Bay clerk possessing the
necessary ability, tact, vigour and perseverance is evidenced by the
case of the Hon. Sir Donald A. Smith, who, entering company's service
as a lad from Scotland, 18 years of age, has risen, step by step, to
the highest position in that service, has amassed great wealth, held a
seat for many years in the Canadian parliament, and occupies now the
important position of High Commissioner for Canada at London, where he
holds a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal.
As already stated, the Hudson's Bay Company withdrew headquarters
to the north of the present boundary after it became fixed in 1846.
Meantime settlement, especially in the Willamette valley, was going on
apace and cities and towns arose. Though the fur trade departed, the
fisheries have remained and the city of Astoria has been reared chiefly
on a diet of fish--for the salmon and sturgeon, as well as smaller
fish, of the Columbia, were ever justly celebrated. Ships of all
nations found their way in increasing numbers across that bar which has
ever been the chief drawback to navigation to and from the Columbia.
Across the broad river down which the express boat propelled by the
light-hearted, gaily-singing voyageurs, made its way in former times,
the swift express train now travels with passengers who mayhap have
crossed the continent in less time than would, in the early days, have
been consumed in a trip from Spokane to Fort Vancouver.
C. O. ERMATINGER.
FOOTNOTES:
[212] Mr. C. O. Ermatinger, of St. Thomas, Ontario, the writer of this
paper, is the son of the E. (Edward) Ermatinger and a nephew or the F.
(Francis) Ermatinger who are mentioned in the entry on Monday, October
31st, 1825, of the Journal of John Work, which is printed in this
Quarterly. Judge Ermatinger is a prominent member of the Elgin (County)
Historical and Scientific Institute of Ontario, Canada. This paper was
prepared for use in the East some years since; its publication in this
Quarterly has now been kindly permitted.--T. C. Elliott.
[213] The present writer's father.
[214] Now deceased. The paintings were purchased I believe by Mr. C. B.
Estes, M. P., of Toronto.
[215] The writer's father.
THREE DIPLOMATS PROMINENT IN THE OREGON QUESTION[216]
English-speaking people throughout the world are preparing to celebrate
the century of peace which was begun on Christmas Eve, 1814, by the
signing of the Treaty of Ghent. It is especially appropriate that here,
in the Pacific Northwestern part of America, we should join in such a
celebration, for it was by the Treaty of Ghent that the Oregon Question
first entered the realm of diplomacy. There remained thirty-one years
of struggle for sovereignty, during which war seemed imminent on more
than one occasion, and yet, at the end of that period, the case was
settled by diplomacy.
Many men took part in that struggle, but it is the present purpose to
call attention to three eminent American statesmen who were brought
into contact with the diplomacy of the case at each important stage of
its evolution. As a group, they deserve more credit than is usually
accorded to them in Northwestern annals. Their names are John Quincy
Adams, Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin.
It is not necessary to trace their early careers, except to point out
that they fairly represented the United States in the critical year
of 1814. Adams of Massachusetts was a New Englander. Clay, though
born in Virginia, removed to Kentucky, at the age of twenty, to
begin the practice of law. He thus represented the West as well as
the South. Gallatin, born in Geneva, Switzerland, came to America, a
boy of nineteen years, and passed through remarkable experiences in
Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia, settling finally in
New York City, a man of fame and wealth.
During the War of 1812, these three men were in public service as
follows: John Quincy Adams was United States Minister to Russia; Henry
Clay was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Albert Gallatin
was rounding out his twelfth year as Secretary of the Treasury. When
Czar Alexander offered to end the war by mediation, President Madison
took the proposal very seriously. He appointed Clay and Gallatin as
commissioners to join Minister Adams in the negotiations. The two
resigned their important positions to accept the new duty. When they
arrived at St. Petersburg, it was learned that Great Britain had
declined the Czar's offer of mediation.
There followed months of weary waiting. The victories over Napoleon
relieved the pressure on Great Britain, but she finally made the
proposal for commissioners of the two powers to meet in a neutral port.
Ghent was chosen and the United States added James A. Bayard and
Jonathan Russell to their commission.
The long and tedious record of the negotiation reveals many a discord
between the two sides but, much more unfortunate, it also reveals many
clashes between Adams and Clay within the American commission. Adams
insisted on protecting the fishing rights off British American shores
and Clay wanted to deprive England from the use of the Mississippi
River. Clay even tried to stop negotiations at the last moment. Adams
says: "Gallatin and Bayard, who appeared not to know where it was
that Clay's shoe pinched him, were astonished at what they heard, and
Gallatin showed some impatience at what he thought mere unseasonable
trifling."[217] Yet Gallatin surely did know where the shoe pinched and
he was determined that the larger interests should not be jeopardized.
His biographer says: "Far more than contemporaries ever supposed, or
than is now imagined, the Treaty of Ghent was the special work and
the peculiar triumph of Mr. Gallatin."[218] The biographer of Clay
also refers to Gallatin's resources as a peacemaker, adding: "At the
very last, just before separating, Adams and Clay quarreled about the
custody of the papers, in language bordering upon the unparliamentary.
But for the consummate tact and the authority of Gallatin the
commission would not seldom have been in danger of breaking up in
heated controversy."[219]
These quarrels of the pinching shoes had little to do with the
Oregon Question. They reveal, however, some of the qualities of the
men destined to cling to the question for many years. Oregon is not
mentioned in the completed treaty. In general terms it is included
in the following language of Article 1: "All territory, places and
possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during
the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty,
excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored
without delay, and without causing any destruction or carrying away any
of the artillery or other public property originally captured in the
said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange
of ratifications of this treaty, or any slaves or other private
property."[220] The islands mentioned were those in Passamaquoddy Bay
and Gallatin suspected that the British commissioners desired to pave
the way for securing in the future a part of Maine "in order to connect
New Brunswick and Quebec."[221]
That Oregon was included in the treaty's general terms is shown
by the instructions from Secretary of State Monroe to the American
commissioners under date of March 22, 1814: "Should a treaty be
concluded with Great Britain, and a reciprocal restitution of
territory be agreed on, you will have it in recollection that the
United States had in their possession, at the commencement of the
war, a post at the mouth of the river Columbia, which commanded the
river, which ought to be comprised in the stipulation, should the
possession have been wrested from us during the war. On no pretext
can the British Government set up a claim to territory south of the
northern boundary of the United States. It is not believed that they
have any claim whatever to territory on the Pacific Ocean. You will,
however, be careful, should a definition of boundary be attempted, not
to countenance, in any manner, or in any quarter, a pretension in the
British Government to territory south of that line."[222]
The American commissioners were therefore informed as to the determined
attitude of the United States as to Oregon and Adams declares that
the British understood that Oregon was included in the provisions
of Article 1 of the Treaty of Ghent. He says that Anthony St. John
Baker, Secretary of the British Commission, was to go to America with
the ratification of the treaty and, later, he says that Baker showed
in a letter to Secretary of State Monroe that the British understood
that Astoria was included in he terms of Article 1 of the Treaty of
Ghent.[223] Subsequently (21 February, 1822) it was revealed by the
publication of the report of the American commissioners, dated at
Ghent, 25 December, 1814, the day after the treaty was signed, that an
attempt had been made to settle the boundary from the Lake of the Woods
westward along the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. That would have
settled the Oregon controversy then. It was rejected because it was
involved with "a formal abandonment on our part, of our claim to the
liberty as to the fisheries, recognized by the treaty of 1783."[224]
That Oregon was included in the provisions of the Treaty of Ghent was
recognized in 1818 by the formal transfer of Astoria (Fort George of
the British) to J. B. Prevost, representing the United States for the
purpose of that transfer.
In the same year, 1818, was signed by Great Britain and the United
States an agreement that has since been known in the Oregon country
as the Treaty or Convention of Joint Occupancy. The official title
is Convention Respecting Fisheries, Boundary and the Restoration of
Slaves. Article III of this convention provided that "any country that
may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America,
westward of the Stony Mountains" should for the term of ten years
be free and open to "the vessels, citizens and subjects of the two
Powers."[225] There were no American settlers in Oregon then. The
Northwest Company of Montreal had a number of trading posts. The
convention was a mutual confession that the future would have to solve
the question of actual sovereignty. When that convention was signed,
John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State, Henry Clay was Speaker of
the House of Representatives, and Albert Gallatin was United States
Minister to France. But he was directed to go from Paris to London
to join United States Minister Richard Rush in the negotiations and
Gallatin's name is the first signature on the completed document.
On 22 February, 1819, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State,
signed with Luis de Onis, Spanish Minister to the United States, an
agreement known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cession of the Floridas,
and Boundaries. Just exactly two years elapsed before the treaty was
ratified and proclaimed. The delay was caused by Spain's fear that the
United States was about to recognize the independence of the revolted
Spanish American colonies. Article III of this treaty affects the
Oregon case in two ways. It fixes the southern boundary of the Oregon
country along the forty-second parallel of latitude and it passes
to the United States a quitclaim to any title that Spain may have
in lands lying north of that boundary.[226] Adams surely sensed the
importance of this item at the time. It was frequently cited and urged
in subsequent negotiations.
In 1821, the Czar of Russia claimed the coast of America from the
frozen seas in the North to the fifty-first parallel of latitude.
On 17 July, 1823, Secretary of State Adams told Baron Tuyl, Russian
Minister to the United States, that the time had passed for further
colonization by European powers in the lands of America. On the first
Monday of the following December, President Monroe gave to Congress
the famous message that embodies the Monroe Doctrine. Russia's claim
to part of Oregon provoked a part of that Doctrine. Henry Middleton,
United States Minister to Russia, was directed to begin negotiations
which resulted in the convention as to the Pacific Ocean and Northwest
Coast of America, bearing the date of 17 April, 1824. Article III of
this convention fixes the northern boundary of the Oregon country
at fifty-four degrees and forty minutes of north latitude. At this
juncture, Gallatin had returned to private life, but Clay was still
Speaker of the House and Adams was Secretary of State.
When the ten-year limit of the joint occupancy feature of the
Convention of 1818 was about to expire, our three diplomats were
sharply confronted with the Oregon Question once more. John Quincy
Adams had become President, Henry Clay was his Secretary of State, and
Albert Gallatin, who had refused a cabinet position and a nomination
for vice president, now consented to serve as United States Minister to
Great Britain. In sending Minister Gallatin instructions under date of
19 June, 1826, Secretary of State Clay said: "You are then authorized
to propose the annulment of the third article of the Convention of
1818, and the extension of the line on the parallel of 49, from the
eastern side of the Stony Mountains, where it now terminates, to the
Pacific Ocean, as the permanent boundary between the territories of
the two powers in that quarter. This is our ultimatum, and you may so
announce it."
There still were no American settlers in the region. The fixing of
the boundary was apparently impossible, but Gallatin succeeded in
concluding on 6 August, 1827, a convention to continue indefinitely
the joint occupancy feature and providing that either side could
terminate the agreement by giving the other side twelve months'
notice. President Adams felt that it was a compromise, but a good
one. Said he to Congress: "Our conventions with Great Britain are
founded upon the principles of reciprocity."[227] In the course of the
negotiations there was submitted a declaration prohibiting both sides
from "exercising, or assuming to themselves the right to exercise,
any exclusive sovereignty or jurisdiction over the said territory,
during the continuance in force of the present convention."[228] That
declaration was not made a formal part of the convention except so far
as it is covered by Article III, which provides that nothing in the
convention shall impair the claims of either party "to any part of the
country westward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains."[229]
Oregon was projected into the struggles of joint occupancy. It remains
to follow the interest of the three diplomats. Clay could not have
forgotten Oregon wholly during his campaigns for the presidency or
during his great fight for the Compromise of 1850, including the free
constitution of California. He did not, however, come into definite
contact with the Oregon case after his term as Secretary of State.
Gallatin entered permanently upon private life in 1831. For about eight
years he was a banker and then devoted himself to literature. There
is abundant evidence that he remembered Oregon. He wrote in the field
of ethnology about Indians of the west and, in 1846, when Oregon was
reaching toward a final struggle in diplomacy, he wrote his well known
pamphlet on The Oregon Question, beginning: "I had been a pioneer
in collecting facts and stating the case."[230] When he wrote that
pamphlet he was eighty-five years old and within three years of his
death.
Adams continued longest in the public service; indeed, his wish to die
in the harness was gratified. The ex-President entered Congress in
1831 and represented the same district in the House of Representatives
until his death in 1848. He knew the Oregon Question from end to end.
He knew how Doctor Floyd and others had tried, in 1821, to persuade
Congress to establish a settlement on the Columbia. He knew about
William A. Slacum's investigation and report, in 1837, as well as the
report of the Wilkes Expedition, in 1841. On returning from church on
24 July, 1842, he called on Lord Ashburton and spent an hour with him
learning about the negotiations with Secretary Webster for a treaty in
which, as he found, the "Oregon Territory and Columbia River question
remains open."[231] The Webster-Ashburton Treaty was concluded on 9
August, 1842, but there were further negotiations, for in March, 1843,
after an illness of eight days, Adams got to the State Department and
had a three hours' talk with Secretary of State Daniel Webster. He was
displeased. Webster seemed frank enough with him about some points,
but he admitted with apparent reluctance that Great Britain would not
object to the United States extending southward from the Columbia River
to San Francisco, at the expense of Mexico, if Great Britain was given
a free hand north of the Columbia. Remembering the Puget Sound region
as a part of such a sacrifice, Adams wrote in his diary: "What an abime
of duplicity!"
On 16 February, 1843, as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
he reported unfavorably Senator Linn's bill for the occupation of
Oregon Territory. For this he has been criticized, but no one knew so
well as he what lay behind that Article III in the Convention of 1827.
After the election of 1844, with its successful battle-cry of
"Fifty-four, Forty, or Fight!" Congressman Adams watched the Oregon
Question closely. He got through the House a call on the President
for papers in the case and his diary of 14 December, 1845, says: "My
chief occupation was to read the discussion between the successive
Secretaries of State, Daniel Webster, Abel P. Upshur, John C. Calhoun,
and James Buchanan, with the British Ministers Henry S. Fox and
Ricard Pakenham, concerning the contest of title between the United
States and Great Britain to the Oregon Territory. The most remarkable
reflection to which this correspondence gives rise in my mind is that,
notwithstanding the positive declaration of Mr. Polk in his inaugural
speech of the unquestionable title of the United States to the whole
Oregon country to latitude 54.40, notwithstanding a repetition of the
same declaration in his recent message to Congress, and notwithstanding
the constant professed inflexibility of his official newspaper in
support of this claim, he has actually repeated the offer heretofore
made by Mr. Monroe, and repeated by me, of continuing the boundary-line
between the British possessions and the United States in the latitude
of 49 from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, and that it has again
been rejected by Great Britain."[232] He was of opinion that the offer
ought not to be repeated or accepted if made by Great Britain, but he
felt that Mr. Polk "will finish by accepting it."
He was right, Mr. Polk did accept it. The treaty was concluded on
15 June, 1846, and it is a great blessing that the end came through
diplomacy without an appeal to arms. Few realized at the time how
close we had come to war. The cry of "Fifty-four, Forty, or Fight!"
was looked upon as mainly bluster for campaign purposes. But what of
the other side? Within the last five years were published for the
first time the Warre and Vavasour papers,[233] by which it is revealed
that the British Government had sent the two secret agents into the
Oregon country and they had shown how feasible would have been a war
of conquest in that region. Instead of war, Great Britain renewed the
offer of the forty-ninth parallel as a compromise boundary and it was
accepted.
Each of our three diplomats lived beyond the Biblical allotment of
years. Adams died in 1848 at eighty-one years of age, Gallatin in 1849
at eighty-eight, and Clay in 1852 at seventy-five. Grand old men, all
of them! The public annals of their day are shot through and through
with the records of their thoughts and deeds. Inadequate collections of
their works have been saved, the greatest of which is the monumental
diary of John Quincy Adams. He, himself, has written of that diary;
"There has perhaps not been another individual of the human race, of
whose daily existence from early childhood to fourscore years has been
noted down with his own hand so minutely as mine."[234]
It has not been possible to search every document for this occasion,
but enough has been gleaned to show something of the debt of gratitude
which the Oregon country owes to the diplomatic triumphs achieved by
the brains and hands of these three great men.
When the century of peace shall be rounded out on next Christmas eve,
it would be well to send to Quincy, Lexington, and Trinity churchyard
in New York wreaths of evergreens from the Oregon hills,--memorial
tributes to Adams, Clay and Gallatin.
EDMOND S. MEANY.
FOOTNOTES:
[216] Presidential address for the special meeting of the Pacific Coast
Branch of the American Historical Association, Seattle, 22 May, 1914.
[217] Charles Francis Adams: Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, 111, 121, 22
Dec., 1814.
[218] Henry Adams: Life of Albert Gallatin, 516. Quoted by John Austin
Stevens: Albert Gallatin, 335.
[219] Carl Schurz: Henry Clay, I., 113.
[220] William M. Malloy: Treaties, Conventions, International Acts,
Protocols and Agreements between the United States of America and Other
Powers, 1776-1909, I., 613.
[221] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, IV., 811. (Mr. Gallatin
to the Secretary of State, 25 December, 1815.)
[222] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, III., p. 731. The copy
of this document was submitted to Congress in response to the Senate's
request of 15 February, 1815. The statement was made that it was one
of only two documents that had been withheld from Congress. In a
former document under date of 21 March, 1814, there appears the line:
"(Confidential paragraph omitted.)," which may be the same as that
given above, though the date is one day later.
[223] John Quincy Adams: Memoirs, IV., 93-94; (15 May, 1818).
[224] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, IV., 808-811.
[225] Malloy: Treaties, I., 632.
[226] Malloy: Treaties, II., 1652-1653.
[227] James D. Richardson: Messages and Papers of the Presidents, ii.,
380.
[228] Public Documents, Serial No. 173; 30 Congress. 1st session. House
of Representatives. Documents 199, p. 77.
[229] Malloy: Treaties, I., 644.
[230] Albert Gallatin: The Oregon Question (New York. Bartlett &
Welford, 1846); reprinted by Henry Adams: Writings of Gallatin, III.,
489-553.
[231] John Quincy Adams: Memoirs. XI., 219.
[232] John Quincy Adams: Memoirs, XII., 220-221.
[233] The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society. X., 1-99 (March,
1909); also the Washington Historical Quarterly, III., 131-153 (April,
1912).
[234] John Quincy Adams: Memoirs, XII., 276-277. (31 October, 1846.)
DOCUMENTS
A New Vancouver Journal
Taking up the Journal from where it left off in the April Quarterly we
find the party approaching Restoration Point, opposite the present city
of Seattle. The record here given is much briefer than in Vancouver's
own official Journal, but it should prove of interest in spite of
that fact. It retells the discovery of this region in the style of a
mariner. In years to come this brief record is sure to be preserved by
the side of the larger official record.
EDMOND S. MEANY.
THE JOURNAL
(Continued from page 137, April Quarterly.)