THE importance of the Oregon Territory has not been duly considered, nor its value properly estimated by the people of the United States. In fact, until of late, very little has been known of its commonest geographical features, and less of its topography and immense resources, which have hitherto lain in obscurity, or been stealthily carried off by the grasping cupidity of a foreign monopoly. President Monroe did indeed refer to it in his last Message to Congress, and recommended the establishment of a military post at, or near, the mouth of the Columbia river, as a protection to our whale fisheries and our commerce with the Indians; and President Adams, at the commencement of the succeeding Congress, reiterated the same recommendation for the same reasons, adding the suggestion that a general exploration of the North-west coast was expedient; but neither of them hinted at the still higher importance of adopting measures for the settlement of the country by offering encouragement and protection to colonists. Little attention was paid to their suggestions by the Congresses to which they were addressed, nor has there been since-except an occasional resolution, report, or speech upon the subject. Within a few years, however, some definite measures have been proposed, and able reports and VOL. XII.-NO. LVIII.

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arguments been made in reference to the great value and political advantages to be attained by taking immediate possession of our Pacific frontier, and thereby affording a safe and easy protection to our commerce, and offering an inducement for private enterprise to direct its attention that way. But even now our people seem reluctant to be awakened to its great and growing agricultural, as well as political and commercial importance; or to the daily aggressions there made upon the treatyrights and honor of our nation by that mighty creation and secret engine of the English aristocracy, the Hudson Bay Company, which for power and disposition to do evil is second only to its elder sister, the monstrous East India Company.

The vast extent of unoccupied territory lying between the Allegany and the Rocky mountains has occupied so much attention that little thought has been bestowed upon what lies beyond. Parents have severely enough chided the roving dispositions of their enterprising sons and daughters who were not content to remain for ever within sight of the old homestead, but resolved to try their fortunes on the prairies of Illinois, or among the openings of Wisconsin and Iowa. It is not long since a resolution to settle on the banks of the Ohio was ridiculed

through all enterprising New England as dreamy and preposterous in the extreme. The good old Puritan mothers were active in circulating pamphlets and caricatures, depicting in the most glowing colors, the poverty and wretchedness of those fool-hardy emigrants who left the hills and rock-bound shores of their early homes to dwell so far away in the savage wilderness. We remember to have seen one, published within the past thirty years, which represented a family returning from the "barren and desolate West," so starved and forlorn that they could with difficulty retrace their foolish steps. The wife, with half a dozen sick children, was bolstered in a rickety cart, into which was harnessed, with cords and straps, an old raw-boned horse which was trying to feed at some low dry mullen stalks by the wayside; while the father, leaning on a crutch and a staff, was directing some ragged boys to go into a wretched log cabin to beg for food. The German Flats, on the Mohawk, in those times, were so far away from home, that whoever settled there could never be expected to return more than once in a life-time. The Genesee Valley and the Holland Purchase were quite out of the known world. But those clouds are all dispersed, and with them the huge bugbears which they shadowed. A few days of agreeable travel, at a trifling expense, now bring the once unapproachable West into next-door neighborhood with New England itself. Another quarter of a century, at the same ratio of advancement, will see our frontier settlements at the base of the Rocky Mountains, or, if proper steps are taken by cur government, on the shores of the Pacific; and weekly mails passing and repassing from Bangor to the city of "Chenook" at the mouth of the Columbia.

Some narrow-minded politicians have asserted that our territory is large enough already, without going west of the Rocky Mountains, and that the expense of settling that country, and of maintaining our rights against the assumptions of England, will cost more than it will come to; and hence, that our country had better relinquish all idea of ever occupying that beautiful and glorious region. It is better, say they, to make an offering of it to the avarice of English capitalists, and the

unbounded ambition of that haughty, overbearing, and wicked nation, than to contend about a territory of so little consequence: better placate their favor at such trifling expense, by granting all they ask-or rather demand, for England does not ask-than to hazard a rupture, perhaps another war, with our fatherland. Such men are both ignorant and unpatriotic. They neither know the value of Oregon, nor care for the rights and honor of their country. To correct the errors into which such minds have fallen, and to extend more generally correct information upon this subject, which is daily increasing in interest, we design in the present Article to present our readers a brief description of the position, extent, internal resources, and commercial and political importance of this beautiful, rich, healthy and magnificent portion of our national domain. We will also give a clear and reliable statement of the grounds upon which our claim to its ownership rests, and the reasons why we are bold in asserting that England has, rightfully, no claims at all upon the Pacific coast.

By the Florida Treaty, concluded at Washington, February 22, 1819, Spain agreed that the boundary line between her possessions and the United States, after reaching the Arkansas, “shall follow the course of the southern bank of that river to its source, in latitude 42° north; and thence by that parallel of latitude to the South sea." Mexico confirmed the same boundary by the treaty of January 12, 1828. This fixes the southern boundary definitely and beyond cavil. The treaty with Russia concluded at St. Petersburgh, April 17, 1824, establishes the latitude of 54° 40′ as the line south of which that nation had no claims, and would make no settlements, and north of which the United States should attempt none. These are the proper and legitimate boundaries of Oregon on the south and north, giving a length of 12° 40', or more than 800 miles. Its western boundary is the Pacific, its eastern the Rocky Mountains, on an average about 600 miles in breadth. By comparison, it will be seen that this territory contains nearly 500,000 square miles, or one-fifth more than the original thirteen States, including Maine and Vermont, and more than four times as much as England, Ireland, and Scotland, and is

undoubtedly capable of sustaining a proportionable number of people. Ore gon is not, as we have recently heard it spoken of, a poor, valueless tract of barren waste, a pittance so diminutive as not to be worth contending for; but an immense region, capable of becoming one of the finest, richest, and most densely populated portions of our country. Allowing only 50 persons to a square mile, (England has 291, Ireland 275, Holland 254, Massachusetts 98), it would sustain 24,000,000 souls, onequarter more than the present population of the whole United States.

By consulting the maps it will be seen that some geographers place the northern boundary at 49° north latitude. This is done in accordance with a suggestion made by Henry Clay, when Secretary of State, in a letter to Mr. Gallatin, then minister at the court of St. James, dated June 19th, 1826, to propose a settlement of this boundary by relinquishing our just claims to all land north of the same parallel of latitude which now forms our frontier line from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. This was offering to make straight work, by "splitting the difference" between right and wrong, justice and arrogant cupidity. England did not accede to the proposition; but, flattered by the offer of so much, she became characteristically insolent, and clamored for more, offering, on her part, to follow the 49th degree until it reached the Columbia river, then the channel of the same to its mouth. This would have carried off more than half of the extent, and three-fourths of the value of that territory. It was rejected, of course. Diplomatists should be cautious how they make, in their generosity, propositions to deviate from the direct path of the strictest justice in the case about which they are negotiating. There is no half way between truth, right, justice, and their opposites. If concessions and accessions are required, they should be mutual; otherwise, strict justice should be unyieldingly insisted on. The claim of the United States to the lands north of latitude 49°, and south of 54° 40', is, except in so far as that claim rests upon the purchase of Louisiana of the French, just as good as that south of the Columbia river, and depends upon precisely the same proofs for its establishment. If England can justly assert her

right to control one portion, she may on the same ground claim all the rest, for nothing was ever said or done about a division line except as a matter of compromise. Our right, founded on priority of discovery, occupation, cession, and extension by contiguity, is as good to one part as the other, as shall be shown when we come to consult the authorities on which our claim rests.

Before entering into an examination of the justice of our claims, a brief description of the country will not be misplaced, that we may ascertain whether it is worth the trouble of the investigation; or whether it would not be wiser to let it remain as it is, a beautiful wilderness, ravaged of its treasures daily by the emissaries of an overbearing and avaricious foreign monopoly, and its inhabitants cheated and enslaved by the subjects of a government which boasts so ostentatiously of its friendship for poor Africans, while it persists, in every quarter of its widespread empire, in deeds of the darkest oppression; and actually permits, in many of its colonies, the slavery of the natives whom it has first robbed of their lands, and made dependent upon the cruelty of its tender mercies, not only for protection but for existence.

Our means for preparing a brief description of Oregon, though rather limited, are sufficiently authentic and uniform to insure a correct outline of its general features and advantages, resting in every instance upon the testimony of personal observation. They will be found ample enough for our present purpose.

The surface of Oregon is broken and mountainous. It presents, however, many extensive valleys of the finest soil in the world, and some wide-spreading plains capable of being made exceedingly productive. It is not much more hilly than some parts of New England, though its mountains are on a much more magnificent scale. This diversified surface affords almost every variety of climate, from the mild and frostless Italian winters, where flowers bloom perennial, to the everlasting glaciers of its Alpine heights; and, hence, it is suited to nearly every kind of agricultural production. Its streams are innumerable, and so rapid as to afford the finest water power, unlimited in extent, and never failing, being supplied by the

melting snows which hang upon the mountain tops. An abundance of the most excellent timber grows upon the borders of the prairies, along the margins of rivers, and upon the sides of the hills. Marble, granite, clay, and coal have been found, and some of the common minerals. Little is known, however, except of some parts of its surface. Future explorations will develope its hidden treasures, and active industry will fit them for the use of that enterprising people who will, at no distant day, rejoice in the occupation of its fair and fertile expanse.

Rivers. It is along the banks of boatable rivers that the trapper and trafficker, as well as the explorer in new countries, most generally direct their course, because there communication is less difficult. Hitherto our knowledge of Oregon has been chiefly restricted to the rivers, and the valleys and mountains contiguous. Very little is known of the regions more interior. This will, in part, account for the unfavorable reports of some travellers, who have visited that country, respect ing certain portions being so broken and barren as to be uninhabitable. What opinion would a traveller form of the fertility of New York by passing up the Hudson River and thence to Lake Champlain; or of New England, by following the usual routes of travel? The Columbia is the great river of the west, the largest which falls into the Pacific from America. It is a noble stream, destined to become the great thoroughfare across the continent. Its branches are gathered from all parts of the territory except the north-west and south-west, which form valleys of intersection with this great channel, running nearly through the centre. It discharges an immense volume of water, as it is of great depth; but its navigation is occasionally obstructed by falls and rapids. Canoes and flat boats ascend it nearly 900 miles, with one or two portages. Large ships can ascend about 90 miles, and those of not over fifteen feet draught, to the Cascades, nearly 40 miles farther.

The entrance to the Columbia is at present difficult; and, for lack of pilots, light-houses, buoys, and correct charts, is rendered somewhat dangerous. The U. S. ship Peacock, attached to the Exploring Expedition, was lost in attempting to pass the bar which extends

from Point Adams towards Cape Hancock (Disappointment) on the opposite shore. It is said that the water is never less than 25 or 30 feet deep in the channel; but when the western winds prevail, heavy seas are rolled in, which, meeting the strong current setting out, present a terrific line of break-. There is no doubt, however, that good pilots would be able at all times to take vessels into the safe harbor behind Cape Hancock, especially if assisted by a steam tow-boat.

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The principal rivers falling into the Columbia are-on the south, the Willamet, Chutes, Lewis, Spokane, Clarke, and Flat Bow; on the north, the Cowlitz and O'Kanagan. These, with the exception of the Willamet and Lewis, are not of much consequence, except for rafting and manufacturing purposes, being boatable only short distances, and for small craft.

Mountains. In addition to the Rocky Mountains, which constitute the dividing ridge between the Atlantic and Pacific, and form the eastern boundary of Oregon, there are two other distinct ranges running nearly parallel to each other and the sea coast, which divide the territory naturally into three grand divisions, both as regards climate and productions. The first, or Cascade (California) chain, commences at a distance varying from 75 to 100 miles from the ocean, and is a continuation of the Snow Mountains of California. Some peaks in this range rise to the height of 14,000 feet, and are covered with eternal snow..

The Blue Mountains are 150 miles east of the former, and by no means so formidable. With the exception of the part near the Lewis River, called Salmon Mountains, none of their peaks, yet seen, reach the altitude of perpetual snows. Through them, as well as through the Rocky Mountains, several easy passes have been already discovered. From this chain several small ranges branch off laterally towards these on either side. Most of the mountains in this region are volcanic, and the marks of former eruptions are distinctly manifest. Other mountains are scattered over the territory. The coast is generally broken and hilly.

Climate and Productions.-All travellers agree in their testimony respecting the extreme mildness, equability, and salubrity of the climate of Oregon,