OREGON
Extent of Oregon and Claims to it--The Nootka Convention--Louisiana
and Oregon--Astoria--The Joint Occupation Agreement of 1818--Spain's
Claims on Oregon Ceded to the United States--Renewal of the Convention
of 1818--The British Policy in Reference to Oregon--The Ignorance of
Oregon in the United States--Dr. Marcus Whitman--Dr. Whitman's Mission
to the United States Government--Dr. Whitman's Colony--The Democratic
Party on the Oregon Question.
[Sidenote: Extent of Oregon and claims to it.]
At the close of the eighteenth century, Oregon was universally
recognized as the territory lying along the North Pacific Ocean from
the forty-second parallel of latitude to that of fifty-four degrees
and forty minutes, and reaching inward to the Rocky Mountains. At that
time it was claimed by Spain both by discovery and first settlement.
[Sidenote: The Nootka Convention.]
In the year 1790, Great Britain advanced claims upon it. A diplomatic
discussion arose between the two Powers, which ended temporarily in an
agreement called the Nootka Convention, by which no territorial or
sovereign rights or powers were recognized by Spain to Great Britain,
but only certain easements, so to speak, in and upon this territory,
such as the right to navigate the waters and to fish in them, to trade
with the natives, and to make such temporary {312} settlements as
might be necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of these rights.
In the year 1796, war was waged between Spain and Great Britain, and,
according to the British principles of that day, every agreement
between the two Powers was abrogated in consequence thereof; so that
Spain, while retaining her sovereignty over Oregon, was now relieved
of the encumbrance of the British rights.
[Sidenote: Louisiana and Oregon.]
This was the status of Oregon when Spain ceded Louisiana to France in
1800, and when France ceded the same territory to the United States in
1803; and the matter of first concern to the United States was the
question whether Louisiana contained Oregon or any part of it. It is
probable that President Jefferson thought it did, since the Lewis and
Clark expedition, sent out by him to examine the new purchase, crossed
the Rockies, discovered the sources of the Columbia River, followed
this stream to the Pacific, and made report thereof to the President.
But if he did, he was certainly mistaken. It is true that Louisiana
had no western boundary positively fixed by any agreement between the
Powers, but the general principles of international law, to which
recourse must always be had in the absence of specific agreements,
made the water shed of the Mississippi the western boundary, and the
Treaty of Utrecht, of 1713, to which France and Great Britain were
parties, made the forty-ninth parallel of latitude the northern
boundary, westward from the Lake of the Woods.
[Illustration: OREGON, as Determined by the Treaty of 1846.]
[Sidenote: Astoria.]
The founding of Astoria, in 1811, on the south bank of the Columbia
River, about nine miles from its mouth, is also evidence that the
Government of the United States thought it had a claim upon Oregon as
a part of Louisiana, since the undertaking {313} proceeded upon an
understanding between Mr. John Jacob Astor and the Government.
[Sidenote: The joint occupation agreement of 1818.]
The British Government now did a thing which seemed to acknowledge a
claim of some sort by the United States upon Oregon, so far as Great
Britain could do so. Having taken forcible possession of Astoria in
the War of 1812, it restored the place, at the close of the War, to
the possession of the United States; and in a convention, concluded on
October 18th, 1818, the two Powers agreed upon the forty-ninth
parallel of north latitude as the boundary between their territories,
from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, and upon joint
occupation, as it was termed, in all territories and waters claimed by
either party in North America west of the Rocky Mountains, without
prejudice to any claims which either party might have to any part of
the said territory, or to any claims which any other Power might have
to it, or to any part of it. This agreement was to run for ten years.
[Sidenote: Spain's claims on Oregon ceded to the United States.]
An event happened the following year which made the Washington
Government doubt the wisdom of basing its claims upon the Louisiana
cession. It was the Treaty with Spain ceding the Floridas. As we have
seen in one of the earlier chapters of this work, this Treaty
contained a provision ceding to the United States all the rights and
sovereignty of Spain in and over the territory lying west of the Rocky
Mountains and north of the forty-second parallel of north latitude.
Here was a much better claim, both as to quantity of territory and
quality of right, than could be founded on the Louisiana cession. If
the United States had possessed this claim in 1803, it is doubtful if
we should ever have heard of the notion that Oregon was a part of
Louisiana.
{314} [Sidenote: Continuation of the convention of 1818.]
In 1828, the agreement of 1818 was indefinitely continued, but might
be terminated by a twelvemonth's notice by either party, at any time.
The United States, was, however, in a better position than before, on
account of having now the Spanish claims to all territory above the
forty-second parallel on the Pacific.
The element of greatest importance in the settlement of the question
was, of course, colonization within the territory, and neither party
had really undertaken that. The hunters and trappers and agents of the
Hudson's Bay Company had temporary abodes within the territory,
especially north of the Columbia, and there was one settlement on the
south bank under the protection of the United States, and that was
all.
[Sidenote: The British policy in reference to Oregon.]
For some fourteen years longer, now, this indefinite status continued.
In the negotiations between Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton, in 1841
and 1842, Mr. Webster sounded Lord Ashburton on the Oregon question,
and found that the Queen's agent had received no power to deal with
the matter, but drew the conclusion that the British policy in regard
to Oregon was to prolong the existing _modus vivendi_, give the
Hudson's Bay Company time to settle the country north of the Columbia,
and then agree to a division on the line of that river.
[Sidenote: The ignorance of Oregon in the United States.]
It was well for the United States that the Oregon question did not
enter into those negotiations, for down to that moment the Government
at Washington knew almost nothing about the character of Oregon north
of the Columbia. The officers of the Hudson's Bay Company had
continually represented it as a worthless waste, fit only for hunting
and trapping ground, and almost worn out even for those purposes. It
is more than probable that the {315} Government at Washington credited
these statements, and it is quite possible that, in 1842, it would
have compromised with England on the line of the Columbia. The delay
in the settlement of the question now gave the Government the
opportunity to learn something more about Oregon from one who knew the
region better than any other living man, and whose interests did not
lie with those of the Hudson's Bay Company and Great Britain.
[Sidenote: Dr. Marcus Whitman.]
The actor who now came upon the scene was Dr. Marcus Whitman, a man of
great intelligence, courage, energy, and high purpose. He had been
sent out by the American Board of Missions, in the year 1835, as one
of the exploring delegates among the Indians in Oregon. Dr. Whitman
soon made up his mind in regard to his life work. He returned to the
East in the summer of 1836, married, and went back to Oregon,
accompanied by his bride and by the Rev. H. H. Spaulding and wife.
This was the beginning of the settlement of Northern Oregon.
[Sidenote: Dr. Whitman's mission to the United States Government.]
In some way, we know not exactly how, Dr. Whitman learned that the
United States Government might be induced to sacrifice Northern Oregon
in ignorance of its true value; and, in the latter part of the year
1842, he set out from the mission on the Walla Walla to go to
Washington and inform the Government of the real character of the
country which he had explored. He arrived in Washington in March of
1843, and gave President Tyler such full and truthful information
concerning the great value of Oregon north of the Columbia as settled
the fate of that region.
[Sidenote: Dr. Whitman's colony.]
Dr. Whitman had come also for another purpose. He saw clearly that the
way to get Oregon was to colonize it. President Tyler's Administration
supported him {316} in this view and purpose. The Administration
caused Dr. Whitman's descriptions of Oregon to be printed and
distributed throughout the United States, and also his offer to lead a
colony to take possession of the country. The place of rendezvous
appointed by him was Westport, near the site of the present Kansas
City, and the time was June of 1843. Nearly a thousand people, with
two hundred wagons, met him there, and were successfully led by him
back to the Walla Walla. He arrived there with this large colony in
October of 1843; and news of his safe arrival reached Washington in
January of 1844.
The decisive movement for the possession of Oregon was thus made.
Claims based upon discovery, or treaty, or privileges for hunting,
trapping, or trading, must all give way before actual colonization.
British diplomacy was confused by the success of the movement, while
the people of the United States were filled with pride and enthusiasm
at the achievement.
The moment had come, at last, when the United States could deal with
Great Britain from the basis of actual conditions, instead of from the
point of view of international theory. The connection of the Oregon
question with the question of the annexation of Texas in the
Democratic platform of 1844, was, therefore, by no means far fetched
or artificial. It was, indeed, a clever stroke of practical politics,
but it was suggested by existing conditions.
[Sidenote: The Democratic party on the Oregon question.]
The Democrats had struck a high note in the international questions,
one which was bound to catch the ear of the younger men throughout the
country. Moreover, the policy in both cases rested upon sound national
principles. Texas, at least to the Nueces, and Oregon, at least to the
northern water shed of the Columbia, belonged {317} geographically to
the United States, and they were settled, so far as they were settled
at all, by Anglo-Americans. On the other hand, the slaveholders of the
South were not particularly pleased with the connection of the two
questions. Some of them had already come to doubt whether the
annexation of Texas alone would subserve their interests, since the
slave population might be thereby drawn away from the border
slaveholding Commonwealths, and these Commonwealths might then abolish
slavery by their own several acts; and now that it must be paid for by
the addition of a region to the Northern side, large enough to hold a
dozen such Commonwealths as New York, the price appeared to them too
great. Mr. Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina, the Minister to the
Mexican Government, was decidedly of this opinion; and from an
original friend of annexation he became a determined opponent. To the
far-seeing mind, it was certainly very questionable whether the
annexation of Texas would prove any advantage to the slavery interest,
and it was certain that the possession of Oregon would not.
But they would subserve, they have subserved, the interests of a true
national development. The Democrats of 1844 builded better than they
knew, when they made the "re-annexation of Texas and the re-occupation
of Oregon" the issues of the campaign of that year. In the platform
the Oregon question was given the precedence. The country, however,
understood the stratagem, and the question of annexation assumed the
foremost place in the great contest.
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