MENT AND THE OREGON QUESTION. FINAL REPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE COURSE AND TERMINATION OF THE WHOLE OREGON QUESTION THEN FIRST DIS

NEGOTIATION.

CUSSED AT LARGE BETWEEN THE TWO NATIONS. CONFLICTING VIEWS OF EACH STATED.

IN the succinct, but I would hope intelligible, account, given in the foregoing chapter, of the fate of the Slave Trade Convention, only one subject of a complicated negotiation was disposed of. Six others remained, all of importance to the two countries, and some involving great interests of humanity and policy not less dear and permanent, and wider in scope, than those involved in the Slave Trade. To treat of such subjects with the necessary fullness of investigation, under all other calls upon the time of the British negotiators and my own, (for the current business of the Legation went on,) occupied the remainder of the spring and two

months of the summer; the final conferences running into the closing days of July. Twenty-six formal protocols were drawn up; and the intervals between the meetings at which the matter of them was canvassed and settled as authentic records of the negotiation, did not pass without toil on the part of the negotiators.

I made detached reports from time to time of its progress, having kept full minutes of every thing; but waited until its close for the transmission of a connected report of the whole, condensed and arranged from those minutes in ways which aimed at making the whole intelligible under one view. That report was dated on the twelfth of August, 1824, and was published by Congress. Having already given partial extracts from some of these minutes serving to show the spirit in which the negotiation on some of its points opened, and the forms under which it moved along, I now design to depart from that mode; which, if continued, and the minutes were given in full, might become too monotonous and tedious. Instead of that plan, I will insert the final report itself; with which document, followed by its essential adjuncts, the protocols, and a memorandum or two, made afterwards, this volume will close.

The negotiation was one of such extent, and embraced subjects of such magnitude, that its connected history can scarcely be without some share of inte

rest; and perhaps its exhibition in these pages may invest it with some chance of being more known, than if left to be ascertained from separate, and numerous official documents, piled away among the records of our Government; oftentimes, too, needing elucidation which the documents themselves do not afford. Some of the subjects were founded in the most expanded views and lofty patriotism. My share in this negotiation, was simply that of having aimed at fulfilling faithfully the instructions under which I acted, and I seek no other merit; but let its history duly speak to all American citizens, the merit of the Government of the United States at that epoch. Let its history convey the just award to that virtuous and honorable man, pure patriot, and wise chief magistrate, James Monroe; whose services and worth, too much overlooked, ought to be freshened in the eyes of his country. A noble-minded man he was, without a particle of selfishness or ill-directed ambition; the constant associate and friend of Madison and Jefferson, and identified in his public principles and policy with both. A man of Roman mould, honest, fearless, and magnanimous; who, having shed his blood in the war of the revolution, and risked it in that of 1812, the official prop of which he was, at the darkest crisis of Mr. Madison's administration, sought, with returning peace, to establish on the broadest foundations the relations of peace, and lessen

the calamities of future wars, when wars were to come. Let the just award be given to his Secretary of State, Mr. Adams; whose extraordinary endowments and fervent patriotism, are indelibly stamped upon the instructions I received. I do not republish them, as they would swell too much the bulk of this volume; but their great and enlarged ends under some views, and profound sagacity for his country's interests under others, will be sufficiently collected, in part at least, from my report.

It will be seen, that the whole subject of our commercial intercourse with the Colonial Empire of Britain, insular and continental, in this hemisphere, which still remains an unsettled subject, has never been put on better foundations for the United States, than were then contemplated; and that our trade and tonnage, are in danger of suffering, whenever those foundations are lost sight of.

It will be seen, in connexion with this subject, what large and statesman-like views were taken of our right to the navigation of the St. Lawrence, then becoming an international question of great magnitude; though since superseded by artificial water highways of our own, and other outlets and modes of transportation for the teeming productions of our soil and industry, in those vast portions of the Union for which the St. Lawrence, at that era, was the natural outlet to the ocean. I republish neither the

American nor British argument in detail on this broad question; but the nature of it will be seen from my Report, and cannot be without historical interest, any more than the manner in which it was taken up and urged, when believed to be advancing to practical importance, can be without its bearing upon the vigilant patriotism and just fame of Mr. Monroe and Mr. Adams.

It will be seen how prophetic, under some aspects, were the views taken of the North Eastern Boundary question, at that time; since settled by the treaty of Washington of 1842, after it had gone near to producing a war between the two nations.

It will be seen, under the head of "Maritime Questions," a subject of the deepest international interest, and still altogether unsettled throughout nearly the whole field of belligerent and neutral rights as between the two nations, what was then said. And, most especially, will it be seen, how expanded and beneficent, looking to the whole family of nations, were some of the proposals of the United States. It will be seen, how this enlightened American President, holding in trust, and exercising under a high estimate of political and moral duty, the executive power of the second maritime nation of the world, authorized and directed me to propose to the first maritime nation of the world, to abolish not merely Privateering, BUT ALL PRIVATE WAR UPON