The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 74

74 The Southwesiern Historical Quarterly
script of opinion now ascendant in the United States. I by no
means assume that either the facts referred to, or the views in-
dicated, will be in the least degree novel to Your Lordship. I
take leave to submit them because my opportunities of observa-
tion have been good-and because I entertain the conviction that
these facts and these views can hardly be too frequent a subject
of reflection to the Statesmen who at present administer the
affairs of the British Empire.
William Kennedy.
The Earl of Aberdeen K. T.
[Enclosure].
Extract from a Speech delivered at St Louis, Missouri, by
Colonel Thos. H. Benton, Senator from Missouri to the United
States Congress, on the 14th of October, 1844.7
"In the year 1818, a Treaty was made to admit
the British to a Joint occupation of the Columbia river, and
another to cede the South Western part of Louisiania to the
King of Spain. A Southern President, and a Southern Cabinet-
a Democratic administration and a Southern administration made
those Treaties. The Senate ratified them unanimously. The
Newspaper Press saluted them with universal applause. The
whole Country applauded them. Solitary and alone I denounced
them. From the banks of the Mississippi, and from the station
of a private Citizen, I denounced those Treaties in which all
others concurred. And now I have the voice of a Nation repeat-
ing the self-same reasons for getting rid of those Treaties which
I gave then for not making them, and recounting, as matter of
history, the evils which I then foretold.
"Of the joint occupation Treaty, I then said-it was one sided
and partial, yielding our territory, our river and our sea-port to
the British, and getting nothing from them in return: that they
would kill and expel our fur-traders-occupy and fortify the
Country-set up a claim to the whole of it-and either fight us
for it,-or offer to compromise by dividing our Country into two
unequal parts, and taking the lion's share to themselves. This is
what I then said, and what the event now proves. And I then
proposed the termination of all that policy by putting an end to
'F. O. Texas, Vol. 14.