_Brief Sketch of Discovery and History of Oregon Country. When
Discovered! Who Owned It! By What Title! The Various Treaties,
and Final Contest._
Upon the opening of the year 1792, the Oregon country was an unknown
and unexplored land. It had been believed that a great river entered
the Northern Pacific, and several nations had, from time to time,
made investigations. It had been reported that ancient navigators had
discovered it a century previous, but if so, it had no place upon any
map. It was in that year that Captain Robert Gray, a merchant trader,
whose ship was fitted out in Boston by a syndicate of merchants
achieved the honor. Captain Gray was a native American, born in
Tiverton, Rhode Island, in 1755, and died in Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1800, eight years after his discovery. He was an
observant sailor, as well as a Yankee trader, and as he was sailing
leisurely in a gentle breeze, from forty to sixty miles from the
shore, he observed a change in the color of the water, and upon
testing it, found it comparatively fresh. He at once reached the
conclusion that he had found the mysterious, long-sought river.
Turning the bow of his vessel toward the shore, and keeping as near
what appeared the middle of the fresh-water current, he, at first
venture, entered the mouth of the river, and luckily one of its most
easily navigated outlets (for it has several). He sailed up the
river, anchored in its wide bay near where Astoria now stands, and
raising the American flag, took possession in the name of the United
States. He was impressed with the immense volume of water pouring
into the ocean, and the grandeur of the great harbor, from six to ten
miles wide, and the wild beauty of the new land. He sailed up and
down the river, sounded its depths, traded his goods with savage
tribes for furs and skins, got fresh supplies of pure water, fish,
and venison. After a more than usual prolonged stay for a trading
vessel, he again put out to sea, having named the great river after
his staunch vessel, "The Columbia."[2]
[2]
................"He was the first,
That ever burst, into that silent sea."
It so happened that a week or more before making his great discovery
he had spoken, at sea, to Captain Vancouver, of the English navy, who
was upon a voyage of discovery on the Northern Pacific Coast. A few
days after emerging from the river he again came in hailing distance
of the English ship, and announced to Captain Vancouver his great
discovery, giving him all the bearings which had been accurately
taken. Captain Vancouver immediately changed his course, found the
entrance, entered the river, sailed up the Willamette to its falls,
up the Columbia to the rapids, and formally took possession in the
name of England! It is a singular fact that both Spain and England
that year each had a ship along the coast upon voyages of discovery.
We are accustomed to call such events as "it so happened," but
whether accidental or providential, America was ahead. It will be
well to keep these facts in mind, for upon them hinges all claims
England had upon Oregon! Yet, weak as they were, she held supreme
possession of all Oregon for nearly half a century, and as we shall
show, had it not been for the heroic work of the old pioneer
missionaries, would probably have held the whole fair land for all
time to come. England owned the territory northward from the United
States, whose boundaries were not accurately defined. Even those
along the borders of the New England states were not definitely
fixed, and were a source of constant conflict until settled by the
Ashburton treaty as late as 1846. The line between the United States
and Canada ran westward to the Rocky Mountains, and there ended.
Thirty-five years later, while England was in full possession of
Oregon, by a treaty signed in 1818, to run for ten years (and was
renewed in 1827 for ten years more), her commissioners claimed that
they were "the owners of Oregon by discovery." They argued that
"Captain Gray only discovered the mouth of the river, while Captain
Vancouver made full and complete discovery"; that "Captain Gray's
claim was limited to the mouth of the river, and that he was only a
merchant, sailor, and trader, and not a legitimate discoverer, while
Captain Vancouver was a commander in his Majesty's navy."
Mark, then, the discovery, in 1792, as the United States' first claim
to Oregon. When the United States purchased the claims of France to
all the great possession west of the Mississippi River, it was
supposed at the time to reach the Pacific Ocean and include the
Oregon country, and was so marked on the maps until the publication
of the latest government map, which marks "The Louisiana Purchase,"
reaching only to the Rockies. So, by the after-light of history, we
can make no claim to Oregon from that purchase. But President
Jefferson, who had a more enthusiastic interest in the Oregon country
than did any other of the statesmen of his day, evidently believed
his purchase from France included the Oregon country, for he at once
began to plan a voyage, for survey and discovery, of all the lands
from the Mississippi to the Pacific.
Jefferson looked much farther into the future grandeur of the nation
than his fellows. While minister to France he met the great traveler
and ornithologist, Audubon, and became deeply interested in the
mysteries of the Western wilderness. He attempted upon his return to
America, by private subscription, to send out an exploring expedition
under the guidance of Audubon. But the death of the great naturalist
defeated the enterprise.
Jefferson, in 1800, was elected President; he made the great
Louisiana purchase; he believed it extended to the Pacific; and it
was through him that the Lewis and Clark expedition was fitted out in
1804, and sent on its mission to explore the land. My young readers
who desire the complete and thrilling story of the Lewis and Clark
expedition can find it in "The Conquest," by Mrs. Eva Emory Dye of
Oregon City.
The third claim for American ownership was the settlement at Astoria
by the Astor Fur Company, in 1811. It had but a short life, as it was
captured by the English early in the year of 1812, and not returned
until after the final treaty of 1846.
Spain held an old fort on lands south of the Oregon country, really a
shadowy and uncertain title. In 1818 a general treaty with Spain was
signed in which she gave to the United States all claims she
possessed in the Oregon country. This made the fourth claim to
ownership. Mexico, which was a part of Spain at that time, in her
northern possessions, laid claim to the same, and this was quieted by
the treaty with Mexico in 1828. This made the fifth claim to
ownership. It will thus be seen that the United States had but one
competitor for title to Oregon, and that was Great Britain.
I have thus in the briefest way recited the important historical
events relating to our title to the now valued country beyond "the
great stony mountains." No facts of American history are stranger or
more interesting, and the reader must catch the spirit of that period
to find interest, and give due credit to the pioneers of that distant
land for their grand work of rescuing it from a foreign power.
It is well to bear in mind that American statesmen, who in 1802-1803
arranged for the purchase of the territory west of the Mississippi
River from France, had but two objects in view: one was to get
possession of the mouth of the Missouri River, upon a demand made by
the commerce of the western states; and the other was to get
possession of the rich, alluvial bottoms of Louisiana for slave
labor. It was those two elements combined which enabled President
Jefferson to get the measure through Congress, in spite of the
united opposition of New England, which was opposed to expansion. It
is also a notable fact, worthy of remembrance, that sixty years
later, all the great states carved out of the Louisiana Territory,
except two, were solidly massed behind the flag and the Union to
crush human slavery.
It reads like romance, but is true history, and caught in its spirit,
shows an overruling Power dominating the nation's destiny.
The great Louisiana purchase not only failed to make slavery strong,
but it eventually, and within half a century, was one of the strong
agents for slavery's destruction.