The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 91
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Jan. 1844.
APPENDiX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOftB.
9i
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Oregon Territory—Mr. Wentworih.
H. of Reps.,
gions of our country to our right to every inch of
Oregon; that, knowing our rights, there may be a
common rush to their defence, and a common in-
dignation for him who may treat them away, or
a Senate who may ratify any such treaty. And
we thus speak in advance, because it is the
only speaking that will prove effectual. For,
when once negotiated away, the unanimous
voice of the House—the unanimous voice of every
legislature—ay, the unanimous voice of the whole
American people cannot recall it. It is gone forever.
To the friends of Oregon, then, this is not. the time
for silence. The question now pending is to give
the year's notice required by the second article of the
convention of 1827—to wit: that we wish to close the
joint occupancy; for such it has been called, though
lately England has had the country all to herself.
This vote should pass this House before the British
minister arrives, and then he will know somewhat
of the opinions and determinations of our people;
and then he and our treaty-making powers can
shape their course accordingly. The gentleman fiom
Kentucky has descanted on our weakness, as well
as the strength of Great Britain, who, he thinks, will
be provoked to war by any such vote as the one we
recommend. He thinks we had better wait ten
years, and'tlie Oregon settlers will have so multipli-
ed and strengthened themselves that they could take
the country without help. Sir, I wonder that this
modern temporizing policy never suggested itself to
our sagacious forefather!?. It was a rush act, throw-
ing that lea overboard in the Charlestown harbor!
The battle of Bunker Hill was entirely too early,
besides being contrary to the law and constitution!
Our revolutionary sires were too precipitate alto-
gether! Had they waited ten years, perhaps Eng-
land would have given up the country without fight-
ing for it! And there were men in those days who
cried out, "we are weak,"and wanted to wait awhile.
But the gallant Patrick Henry replied: "AVe are
weak, but when shall we be stronger? Will it be
next week or next year?" Apply this to Oregon.
When will we be better able to take possession of
it? Will it be when Great Britain shall have over-
run it with her troops, armed every Indian, and
built and manned a fort in every important position?
Every day's delay, in my opinion, only makes that
territory the more difficult for us to take possession
of. And the very remarks of the gentleman, as
coming from an American congressman, will but
kindle new ardor in British breasts, and make that
government still more haughty and imperative m its
requisitions. They were very impolitic, to say the
least, at this time; and I think he should not have
uttered them, under the circumstances, though he
believed them true. I wonder this advice—'"wait
ten years"—was not thought of before our last war,
when England was nabbing our gallant seamen. In-
deed, there were those then that not only cried
"wait, don't make war with the mighty kingdom
of England;" but who even went further, and refused
to vote appropriations for the war; and further yet,
who fed, for pay, clandestinely, the British army. I
hope, if gentlemen are not ffoms, to aid us in getting
Oregon, they are not gom<? lo join the other side,
and aid Britain to it. "Wait ten years! Away with
the proposition! Humanity revolts at it. It re-
minds me of a certain American statesman, who, m
his moments of patriotic feeling, indignarit^at Ins
country's wrongs, wanted a war by the 4th of July,
afterwards, cold-bloodnd policy gut possession of
him, and he explained it away by spying that he
meant some future 4ih of July. Sir, when we diall
have awaited these ten years, I fear gentlemen will
be as little ready to mete out justice to the hardy pi-
oneer of Oregon as they now are.
The gentleman from Kentucky has told us, that
the land in Oregon is poor and sterdc. He has
talked of ban en hills and sandy wastes. But, in the
name of patriotism, I ask, what portion of our coun-
try is so poor, is possessed by a tenant so mean,
that we are not bound to defend it? What land so
worthless as to be basely surrendered'' Though
pregon mi<?ht not be worth a single penny", w<>cn a
nation talks of forcibly taking it, I contend we are as
much bound to defend ii a,~ v. e are the spot upon
which we now stand. Tins u all our country, and
the fact that it is so, should make eveiy inch of it
valuable, worth fighting for, rather than to be basely
surrendered at the demand of any nation, The gen-
tleman ought to see that land* of mountain-rock
which our forefathers defended. At any rate, he
has read of the heroes and sages which it has pro-
duced. What he calls the "barren wastes of Ore-
gon" may yet be tenanted by patriotic, virtuous?
and intelligent persons. We intend, however, that
they shall be free citizens of the United States, and not
the subjects of Great Britain. But the gentleman is
mistaken, altogether mistaken, in 3iis character of
the country. It is the most inviting land in the
world; a very garden of Eden. As might be expect-
ed, much of the best of the land is in that portion
claimed by Great Britain, and much of the poorest
in that she allows us. It is natural, it is character-
istic, that she should want all the juice herself, and
leave the rind alone to us. But, poor as any por-
tion may be, it is all worth protecting against Brit-
ish invasion, because it is all our right. And here
the remark suggests itself, as showing how very
kindly she will allow us the shells if she can only
get the oyster, that England acknowledges that
there is not a single good harbor south of the
Columbia, and yet north of our line of forty-two de-
grees. So, as has been suggested by my friend
from Indiana, [Mr. Owen,] she, with great ostensi-
ble kindness, offers us the harbor of Port Discovery,
in Fuca's inlet, and a small rocky isthmus, lying
southeast from Cape Flattery, both north of the Co-
lumbia. These, he well says, are of no account.
But, however little or much they may be worth,
they arc both ours now, as well as the mouth of the
Columbia; and, though the game was well played
by Lord Ashburton with the Maine people, the
West will never allow persons to steal their oxen,
and then impudently come and trade them off for
their horses. For, ui the law of nations, nothing is
more definitely settled, than that the nation who dis-
covers the mouth of a river is entitled to all the land
that is watered by that river, its tributaries, and
head waters. Now, some of the head waters of the
Columbia-are above both those points (one is above
54°) which she is endeavoring to steal from us as
capital with which to buy the joint navigation of a
river at whose mouth, on the north, (and I am in-
formed there are insuperable obstacles to there ever
being a town on the south,) there must, some day—
and that not far distant—be one of the most opu-
lent and important cities in the world. And, were
we to adopt as our doctrine that by which England
justified her driving the Spaniards from the Falkland
'islands, the Dutch from 3Ncw York, or the Swedes
from Delaware, we should not only annul the article
foi joint occupation, but should order her from the
t'.rritory forthwith.
The country, for the most pait, is well inter-
spersed with prairie and timber, so as to facilitate
settlements; and the river regions, particularly,
abound with heavy timber, furnishing spars equal
to those of Kew Zealand, which are unsurpassed
by any m the world. And the mouth of the Co-
lumbia is within twenty days' sail of Peru or Chili,
which are destitute of all ship-budding materials.
The number of beautiful sites for large towns along
navigable streams, and along others possessed of
unequalled water-power for moving manufacturing
machinery, is very great. The streams abound -with
salmon weighing from 25 to 50 pounds, and 10,000
barrels can be taken out per annnm, without dimin-
ishing the stock. The Wallametie valley, where
the Methodist minion is, is laieer than the*Slate of
New York, and is said to be the finest country m
the world; and, though it is all below the most
southerly point claimed by Great Britain, yet the
Hudson*Bay company have drhen the settlers from
the valuable mill-sites at the falls of rhatriver, which
were much ne^Jed, and which, fioin their costly im-
provements, They were poorly able to losg, Such ia
its grasping avarice, which we are called upon to
check. The character of the < ountry more imme-
diately about the Oregon is too well known to need
description. But, says Slacum, 4<aside fiom the Co-
lumbia and Wallaniette valleys, the other valleys
furnish 34,000,000 acres of as good land a.: can be
got in Illinois or Missouri." The climate, though
various m the same latitude, is much milder, and
more ihnfoim west than east of the mountains; and
ploughing is done almost all avinfer, and now and
then there is a winter when the ground never
fiee7e% during all the time, enough to mtenupt the
progress of the plough. And e\ery kmd of prod-
uce raised in our western Stales is more easily
raised here, unless it may be Indian corn, which
seems not a favorite with the Oregon soil. It is,
however, the finest in the world for tobacco and
hemp. To all these facts, which gi\e importance to
that country, lei it be added that it is within thirty
days' sail, over an unruffled ocean, of China and
the East India seas, and ten of the Sandwich
islands; and it would be of great advantage to us |n
our Pacific fisheries, if we had an American town
and a strong fort at the mouth of the Columbia.
And k is not an over bold prediction, that there ndvr
are, on the stage of action, those who will live to
see steamboats making their regular trips from the
mouth of the Columbia to Canton.
To give instances of the iniquity practised, by the
Hudson Bay company, additional to their driving
our settlers from their mill-sites on the falls of the
Wallamette, I will mention that, in the country
which they expect England to get, they have laws
for the preservation of game; such as forbidding its
being killed out of season, &c.; whilst in the coun-
try which they expect will fall to us, they pursue
the game at all times, with a manifest desire to ex-
terminate it. Again, there is the same difference
with respect to their treatment of the Indians in the
two sections, committing every kind of depredation
upon those of the one, so as to make them quarrelsome
and hostile, whilst they are using all the soothing arts
of peace with those of the other. The company
have already taken possession of all the eligible
spots for factories, mills, or towns; and, even south
of the Oregon, they have forts out of which they
realize something like $500,000 per annum. They
have nineteen forts south of the Columbia. They,
too, are cutting all the timber that they can from
the south side of the Columbia; so that, if England
gets all north of the river, we must buy all our ship-
ping timber from her. Among the perquisites
claimed by the company, is the important one of
doing all the trading, all the buying and selling in
that country. The company lay aside a certain
per centage of their annual profits, to be used for
the express and avowed purpose of keeping Ameri-
cans out of trade; and this has been time and time
again used to persecute Americans who dared to
deal in furs. Indeed, they once sentenced a respect"
able American to wear skins for a number of years
for violating one of their arbitrary, unholy, ana op-
pressive regulations concerning trade. And the
main study of the company is, how it can best for-
tify itself m view of the gushing tide of emigration
s\liich they well know must eventually overrun the
country. The Cape and Tongue points are two
perfect Gibraltars on the Columbia; and this com-
pany hos already taken the latter, as they are pre-
paring to do every eligible spot on that river for
commanding its navigation.
In view of these facts and considerations, our
only safe and politic course is in doing as we did
by the original great northwest territory, and as wc
are now doing by Florida, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
We should extend our jurisdiction over Oregon,
and give it a territorial government, and let the
paltry thought that such a course may give um-
brage to Great Britain pass by unheeded. And
this we should do, although the gentleman tells us
that Lord Packenham is coming. But how does
he know that he is coming to treat on this subject?
Perhaps he may be coming to moke some remune-
ration for the burning of the Caroline, or the kidnap-
ping of Grogan. For my part, I hope he is. To
add to our terror on thi« occasion, to frighten us out
of our sympathies for the exposed Oregon pioneers,
the gentleman from Kentucky has told us that,
about die time our last treaty was made, Great
Britain had paraded about our coast a whole line
of steamships, ostensibly for carrying the mails to
East India, but really for battering down our cities,
as they were loaded with cannon, canmster, powder,
balls, grape-shot, and other ammunition of war. I
always wondered at the late tieaty, and so have our
western friends e-enerally. We mver have been
able to account for it. The gentleman did not tell
us that our treaty-making pown ? got & peep into
those West India mail-bag.-. But he has told his
story, and left us to draw our own inference. My
blood boils with indignation at the utterance of such
sentiments, knowing" as I do, that these remarks of
an American congressman will give a hint to
Gieat Britain how she cvm get another tt<-a?y signed
to suit her pui poses, ahcutfb pxnidin? lhai Iht right
folks art at iht head of our ^ovemawnt. -'{J i vc ear, oh
heavens!attend, ohearthr' hu-J>, yr ,-en.iiors and rep-
resentatives! Lord Packenham i* un hb' way to Ame-
rica: and very hkely he may t.ike aloft-; those West
India mail bags for limid treaty-makers to look into,
and see the dread pteparations for war, and then be
terrified into a wanton surrender of their own citi-
zens—a sale of a valuable part of their country. Sir,
I hope if, m any c\ent, this noble lord should as-^
snme a hostile attitude, as in days of yore, there
will not be those on our coast to burn blue lights in
order to give his cannon the proper direction for the
most mischief and destiucuon. But i have my
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/101/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.