1825. to enjoy forever the right of navigating all streams, which may cross the said boundary in their course from the interior of the continent to the sea. The navigation of the inland seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks on the coasts, for the purposes of fishing or of trading with the natives, is left free to both parties for ten years, under restrictions similar to those set forth in the convention between Russia and the United States; and the port of Sitca, or New Archangel, is opened to British subjects during the same period. These provisions were not renewed at the expiration of the ten years; all the other stipulations still remain in force. In these two conventions the Governments of the United States and Great Britain, separately and independently, yet equally and clearly, though implicitly, recognise the exclusive privilege of Russia to occupy all the coasts and islands of the Pacific side of America, north of the latitude of 54 degrees and 40 minutes, and to exercise sovereignty over the places thus occupied, but without acknowledging her absolute and entire possession of all that part of America. With regard to the territories extending southward from the said parallel, in which the Russians are to make no establishment, the right of occupation is claimed by both the other Powers; indirectly by the United States, but distinctly and to the exclusion of all other nations by Great Britain.

In December, 1824, President Monroe, by his last annual message to Congress, advised the immediate establishment of a military post at the mouth of the Columbia, and also the despatch of a frigate for the survey of the coasts contiguous to that point, and for the protection of American interests in the north Pacific. The same measures were in the following year recommended by President Adams, among the various plans for the advantage of the United States, and of the world in general, to which he directed the attention of the Federal Legislature, at the commencement of its session. In compliance with this recommendation, a com1826. mittee was appointed by the House of Representatives, the chairIman of which (Mr. Baylies) submitted two reports, containing numerous details respecting-the history of discovery and trade in Northwest America; the geography, soil, climate, and productions of the portion claimed by the United States; the number and value of the furs procured in it; the expenses of surveying its coasts, and of forming military establishments for its occupation; and many other points connected with those matters: and he concluded by bringing in a bill for the immediate execution of the measures proposed by the President.* This bill was laid on the table of the House, and the subject was not again agitated in Congress until two years afterwards; little or no interest respecting the northwest territories of America was in fact then felt by citizens of the United States, either in or out of Congress.

By this time, the period of ten years, during which the countries claimed by Great Britain, or by the United States, west of the Rocky Mountains, were to remain free and open to the people of both nations, was drawing to a close; and it was desirable that

* See reports of the House of Representatives, 1st session of the 19th Congress.

some definitive arrangement respecting those countries should, 1826. if possible, be made between the two Governments, before the expiration of that term. With this object, a negotiation was commenced at London; or, rather, the negotiation which had been broken off in 1824, was renewed in November, 1826; Mr. Albert Gallatin representing the interests of the United States, and Messrs. Huskisson and Addington those of Great Britain.

Before entering upon the details of this negotiation, it should be observed, that the difficulty of effecting a satisfactory arrangement for the partition of the disputed territories had been materially increased since 1818, in consequence of the great inequality which had been produced in the relative positions of the two parties, as regards actual occupation by their respective citizens or subjects. In 1826 the British were enjoying, almost exclusively, the use and control of the whole country beyond the Rocky Mountains, north of the mouth of the Columbia. The union of the two rival companies in 1821, and the establishment of civil and criminal jurisdiction throughout the division of America allotted to them, proved very advantageous to Great Britain, politically as well as commercially. The Hudson's Bay Company became at once a powerful body; its resources were no longer wasted in disputes with a rival association; its regulations were enforced; its operations were conducted with security and efficiency; and encouragement was afforded for the extension of its posts and communications, by the assurance that the honor of the Government was thereby more strongly engaged in its support. Many of these posts were fortified, and could be defended by their inmates-men inured to dangers and hardships of all kinds-against any attacks which might be apprehended; and thus, in the course of a few years, the whole region north and northwest of the United States, from Hudson's Bay and Canada to the Pacific, particularly the portion traversed by the Columbia and its branches, was occupied, in a military sense, by British forces, although there was not a single British soldier, strictly speaking, within its limits.

The United States, on the other hand, possessed no establishments, and exercised no authority or jurisdiction whatsoever, beyond the Rocky Mountains; and the number of their citizens in that whole territory did not probably exceed two hundred. This, however, is not to be attributed to want of enterprise in the Americans, but simply to the fact that they had already at their disposal much finer countries in their immediate vicinity.

Under such circumstances were the negotiations between the Governments of Great Britain and the United States, relative to these territories, renewed at London in November, 1826. The Novemb. British plenipotentiaries began by declaring the readiness of their Government to abide by its offer, made in 1824-to admit the Columbia as the line of separation between the territories of the two nations, west of the Rocky Mountains, securing to the United States all that lies east of that river, and south of the 49th parallel of latitude. To this offer Mr. Gallatin gave a decided negative; and then repeated the proposition which had been submitted by

1826. himself and Mr. Rush in 1818, for the adoption of the 49th parallel as the boundary from the mountains to the Pacific; with the additions that if the said line should cross any of the branches of the Columbia at points from which they are navigable by boats to the main stream, the navigation of such branches, and of the main stream, should be perpetually free and common to the people of both nations; that the citizens or subjects of neither party should thenceforward make any settlements in the territories of the other; but that all settlements already formed by the people of either nation within the limits of the other, might be occupied and used by them for ten years, and no longer; during which, all the remaining provisions of the existing convention should conDec. 1. tinue in force. This proposition was in like manner rejected by the British, who then expressed their willingness, in addition to their first offer, to yield to the United States a detached territory north of the Columbia, in the angle formed by the Pacific coast and the south side of the Strait of Fuca, embracing Port Discovery and Bulfinch's Harbor. Mr. Gallatin refused his assent to this, or any other arrangement giving to Great Britain the possession of territory south of the 49th parallel; and the negotiators, having no expectation of effecting a partition of the country in dispute, directed their attention solely to the subject of the continuance of the joint occupancy of the whole region.

Dec. 16,

1827.

For that object, the British proposed that the arrangement actually subsisting should be renewed and prolonged for fifteen years, with the provisions that neither Power should assume or exercise any right of sovereignty or dominion over any part of the country during that period; and that no settlement then existing, or which might in future be formed, should ever be adduced by either party in support or furtherance of such claims of sovereignty or dominion. This proposition was taken by Mr. Gallatin for reference to his Government; and the discussions were in consequence suspended until May of the following year. The President of the United States refused to agree to any modification of the terms of the joint occupancy; and Mr. Gallatin was at the same time instructed to declare, that the American Government did not hold itself bound hereafter, in consequence of any proposal which it had made, for a line of separation between the territories of the two nations beyond the Rocky Mountains; but would consider itself at liberty to contend for the full extent of the claims of the United States. The British commissioners made a similar declaration with regard to the proposals which had been advanced on the part of their Government; and intimated their readiness to agree to a simple renewal of the existing arrangement, provided an article were appended, explanatory of what they considered to be its true meaning and bearing. Mr. Gallatin was unable to assent to any addition, of that or any other nature; and Aug. 20. at length, on the 20th of August, a convention was signed, to the effect that all the provisions of the third article of the convention

* Convention of 1827 between the United States and Great Britain, in the Appendix [F] to this memoir.

of October, 1818, should be further indefinitely continued in 1827. force; either party being, however, at liberty, after the 20th of October, 1828, to annul and abrogate the engagement, on giving due notice of twelve months to the other. This agreement still remains in force, notwithstanding the many efforts which have been made in the Congress of the United States to procure its abrogation.

In the course of this negotiation, the claims of the respective parties to the territories were fully set forth, and thoroughly examined, not only in conferences between the plenipotentiaries, but also in written statements, submitted on each side. To review all the assumptions and arguments thus advanced, in detail, would be superfluous, as they have been kept in mind throughout this memoir; it will be proper, however, to present a summary of them, with remarks on points not already noticed, as the best means of showing the positions assumed by each Government at that time.

Mr. Gallatin claimed for the United States the possession of the country west of the Rocky Mountains, between the 42d and the 49th parallels of latitude, upon the grounds of

The first discovery of the Columbia, by Gray; the first exploration of the territory through which that river flows, by Lewis and Clarke; and the establishment of the first posts and settlements in the said territory, by citizens of the United States:

The virtual recognition by the British Government of the title of the United States, in the restitution of the post near the mouth of the Columbia, agreeably to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, without any reservation or exception whatsoever:

The acquisition by the United States of all the titles of Spain, which titles were derived from the discovery and exploration of the coasts of the region in question, by Spanish subjects, before they had been seen by the people of any other civilized nation: And, lastly, upon the ground of contiguity, which should give to the United States a stronger right to those territories than could be advanced by any other Power. "If," said Mr. Gallatin, "a few trading factories on the shores of Hudson's Bay have been considered by Great Britain as giving an exclusive right of occupancy as far as the Rocky Mountains-if the infant settlements on the more southern Atlantic shores justified a claim thence to the South Seas, and which was actually enforced to the Mississippi-that of the millions of American citizens already within reach of those seas, cannot consistently be rejected. It will not be denied, that the extent of contiguous country to which an actual settlement gives a prior right, must depend, in a considerable degree, on the magnitude and population of that settlement, and on the facility with which the vacant adjacent land may, within a short time, be occupied, settled, and cultivated by such population, compared with the probability of its being occupied and settled from any other quarter. This doctrine was admitted to its fullest extent by Great Britain, as appeared by all her char

* Document of the House of Representatives, 20th Congress, 1st session, No. 199.

1827. ters, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, given to colonies established then only on the borders of the Atlantic. How much more natural and stronger the claim, when made by a nation whose population extended to the central parts of the continent, and whose dominions were by all acknowledged to extend to the Rocky Mountains."

The British plenipotentiaries, on the other hand, endeavored to prove, as already stated

That the Columbia was not discovered by Gray, who had only entered the bay at its mouth, discovered four years previous by Lieutenant Meares, of the British navy:*

That the exploration of the interior of the country of the Columbia by Lewis and Clarke, could not be cited by the United States as strengthening and confirming their claim to that territory, because, "if not before, at least in the same and subsequent years, the British Northwest Company had, by means of their agent, Mr. Thompson, already established their posts on the head-waters or main branch of the Columbia :"+

That the restitution of Astoria in 1818 was accompanied by express reservations of the right of Great Britain to the territory on which that settlement was declared to be an encroachment:‡

That the titles to the territories in question, derived by the United States from Spain, through the Florida Treaty, amounted to nothing more than the rights secured to Spain equally with Great Britain, by the convention|| of 1790, namely, to settle on any part of those countries, to navigate and fish in their waters, and to trade with their natives. Whether Louisiana extended to the Pacific, or not, was of no consequence, inasmuch as it was a Spanish possession in 1790; and if a portion of it bordered upon the Pacific, such portion was, of course, included in the stipulations of the convention signed in that year:

That the charters granted by British Sovereigns to colonies on the Atlantic coasts, were nothing more than cessions to the grantees, of whatever rights the grantor might consider himself to possess, and could not be regarded as binding on the subjects of any other nation, or as part of the law of nations, until they had been confirmed by treaties; had the Government of the United States thought fit, in 1790, to grant by charter to Mr. Gray the whole territory bordering upon the Columbia, such charter would have been valid against all other citizens of the United States; but it would not have been recognised either by Great Britain or by Spain, as those Powers were in that year preparing to contest by arms the possession of the very territory which would have formed the subject of the grant. [With regard to these latter assertions, whatever may have been the ideas of British Sovereigns as to the extent of their rights in North America, certain

*The entire groundlessness of these assertions may be seen by reference to pages 93 and 128.

+ At page 153, explanations are given with regard to the just value of the words here quoted from the statement of the British plenipotentiaries.

See page 165.

For a review of the convention of 1790, and inquiries as to its bearing upon this question, see page 171.