CHAPTER V.

OREGON TERRITORY.

measure.

The fur trade, the Asiatic trade, and the preservation of our own territory, were the advantages proposed. The bill was treated with the parliamentary courtesy which respect for the committee required: it was read twice, and committed to a committee of the whole House for the next day-most of the members not considering it a serious proceeding. Nothing further was done in the House that session, but the first blow was struck: public attention was awakened, and the geographical, historical, and statistical facts set forth in the report, made a lodgment in the public mind which promised eventual favorable consideration. I had not been admitted to my seat in the Senate at the time, but was soon after, and quickly came to the support of Dr. Floyd's measure (who continued to pursue it with zeal and ability); and at a subsequent session presented some views on the subject which will bear reproduction at this time. The danger of a contest with Great Britain, to whom we had admitted a joint possession, and who had already taken possession, was strongly suggested, if we delayed longer our own occupation; "and a vigorous effort of policy, and perhaps of arms, might be necessary to break her hold." Unauthorized, or individual occupa tion was intimated as a consequence of government neglect, and what has since taken place was foreshadowed in this sentence: "mere adventurers may enter upon it, as Æneas entered upon the Tiber, and as our forefathers came upon the Potomac, the Delaware and the Hudson, and renew the phenomenon of individuals laying the foundation of a future empire." The effect upon Asia of the arrival of an American population on the coast of the Pacific Ocean was thus exhibited: "Upon the people of Eastern Asia the establishment of a civilized power on the opposite coast of America, could not fail to produce great and wonderful benefits. Science, liberal principles in government, and the true religion, might cast their lights across the intervening sea. The valley of the Columbia might become the granary of China and Japan, and an

THE session of 1820-21 is remarkable as being the first at which any proposition was made in Congress for the occupation and settlement of our territory on the Columbia River-the only part then owned by the United States on the Pacific coast. It was made by Dr. Floyd, a representative from Virginia, an ardent man, of great ability, and decision of character, and, from an early residence in Kentucky, strongly imbued with western feelings. He took up this subject with the energy which belonged to him, and it required not only energy, but courage, to embrace a subject which, at that time, seemed more likely to bring ridicule than credit to its advocate. I had written and published some essays on the subject the year before, which he had read. Two gentlemen (Mr. Ramsay Crooks, of New-York, and Mr. Russell Farnham, of Massachusetts), who had been in the employment of Mr. John Jacob Astor in founding his colony of Astoria, and carrying on the fur trade on the northwest coast of America, were at Washington that winter, and had their quarters at the same hotel (Brown's), where Dr. Floyd and I had ours. Their acquaintance was naturally made by Western men like us-in fact, I knew them before; and their conversation, rich in information upon a new and interesting country, was eagerly devoured by the ardent spirit of Floyd. He resolved to bring forward the question of occupation, and did so. He moved for a select committee to consider and report upon the subject. The committee was granted by the House, more through courtesy to a respected member, than with any view to business results. It was a committee of three, himself chairman, according to parliamentary rule, and Thomas Metcalfe, of Kentucky (since Governor of the State), and Thomas V. Swearingen, from Western Virginia, for his associates-both like himself ardent men, and strong in western feel-outlet to their imprisoned and exuberant populaing. They reported a bill within six days after the committee was raised, "to authorize the occupation of the Columbia River, and to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes thereon," accompanied by an elaborate report, replete with valuable statistics, in support of the

tion. The inhabitants of the oldest and the newest, the most despotic and the freest governments, would become the neighbors, and the friends of each other. To my mind the proposition is clear, that Eastern Asia and the two Americas, as they become neighbors should become friends;

posite the head of the Missouri, ascend it to its source in the Rocky Mountains, and then follow the Missouri to the French settlements on the Upper Mississippi; and thence home. It was a magnificent and a daring project of discovery, and on that account the more captivating to the ardent spirit of Ledyard. He undertook it— went to St. Petersburg-received the permission of the Empress-and had arrived in Siberia when he was overtaken by a revocation of the permission, and conducted as a spy out of the country. He then returned to Paris, and resumed his original design of that exploration of the Nile to its sources which terminated in his premature death, and deprived the world of a young and adventurous explorer, from whose ardour, courage, perseverance and genius, great and useful results were to have been expected. Mr. Jefferson was balked in that, his first attempt, to establish the existence of the Columbia River. But a time was coming for him to undertake it under better auspices. He became President of the United States, and in that character projected the expedition of Lewis and Clark, obtained the sanction of Congress, and sent them forth to discover the head and course of the river (whose mouth was then known), for the double purpose of opening an inland commercial communication with Asia, and enlarging the boundaries of geographical science. The commercial object was placed first in his message, and as the object to legitimate the expedition. And thus Mr. Jefferson was the first to propose the North American road to India, and the introduction of Asiatic trade on that road; and all that I myself have either said or written on that subject from the year 1819, when I first took it up, down to the present day when I still contend for it, is nothing but the fruit of the seed plant

and I for one had as lief see American ministers going to the emperors of China and Japan, to the king of Persia, and even to the Grand Turk, as to see them dancing attendance upon those European legitimates who hold every thing American in contempt and detestation." Thus [ spoke; and this I believe was the first time that a suggestion for sending ministers to the Oriental nations was publicly made in the United States. It was then a "wild" suggestion: it is now history. Besides the preservation of our own territory on the Pacific, the establishment of a port there for the shelter of our commercial and military marine, the protection of the fur trade and aid to the whaling vessels, the accomplishment of Mr. Jefferson's idea of a commercial communication with Asia through the heart of our own continent, was constantly insisted upon as a consequence of planting an American colony at the mouth of the Columbia. That man of large and useful ideas-that statesman who could conceive measures useful to all mankind, and in all time to come-was the first to propose that commercial communication, and may also be considered the first discoverer of the Columbia River. His philosophic mind told him that where a snow-clad mountain, like that of the Rocky Mountains, shed the waters on one side which collected into such a river as the Missouri, there must be a corresponding shedding and collection of waters on the other; and thus he was perfectly assured of the existence of a river where the Columbia has since been found to be, although no navigator had seen its mouth, and no explorer trod its banks. His conviction was complete; but the idea was too grand and useful to be permitted to rest in speculation. He was then minister to France, and the famous traveller Ledyard, having arrived at Paris on his expedition of discov-ed in my mind by the philosophic hand of Mr. ery to the Nile, was prevailed upon by Mr. Jefferson. Honor to all those who shall assist Jefferson to enter upon a fresher and more use- in accomplishing his great idea. ful field of discovery. He proposed to him to change his theatre from the Old to the New World, and, proceeding to St. Petersburg upon a passport he would obtain for him, he should there obtain permission from the Empress Catharine to traverse her dominions in a high northern latitude to their eastern extremity-cross the sea from Kamschatka, or at Behring's Straits, and descending the northwest coast of America, I was a member of the bar at St. Louis, in the come down upon the river which must head op- then territory of Missouri, in the year 1818,

CHAPTER VI.

FLORIDA TREATY AND CESSION OF TEXAS.

from Mr. Monroe's letter lifts the curtain which four months after the purchase of Louisiana― concealed the secret reason for ceding Texas- he wrote to Dr. Breckenridge: "Objections are that secret which explains what was incompre-raising to the eastward to the vast extent of our hensible-our having refused to accept as much boundaries, and propositions are made to exas Spain had offered. Internal difficulties, it change Louisiana, or a part of it, for the Floriwas thus shown, had induced that refusal; and das; but as I have said, we shall get the Florithese difficulties grew out of the repugnance of das without; and I would not give one inch of leading men in the northeast to see the further the waters of the Mississippi to any foreign aggrandizement of the Union upon the South nation." So that Mr. Jefferson, neither in 1803 and West. This repugnance was then taking nor in 1819, would have mutilated Louisiana to an operative form in the shape of the Missouri obtain the cession of Florida, which he knew controversy; and, as an immediate consequence, would be obtained without that mutilation; nor threatened the subversion of political party lines, would he have yielded to the threatening disconand the introduction of the slavery question into tent in the east. I have a gratification that, the federal elections and legislation, and bring- without knowing it, and at a thousand miles ing into the highest of those elections-those of from him, I took the same ground that Mr. JefPresident and Vice-President-a test which no ferson stood on, and even used his own words: southern candidate could stand. The repug- "Not an inch of the waters of the Mississippi to nance in the northeast was not merely to terri- any nation." But I was mortified at the time, torial aggrandizement in the southwest, but to that not a paper in the United States backed my the consequent extension of slavery in that quar- essays. It was my first experience in standing ter; and to allay that repugnance, and to pre- "solitary and alone; " but I stood it without vent the slavery extension question from becom- flinching, and even incurred the imputation of ing a test in the presidential election, was the being opposed to the administration-had to true reason for giving away Texas, and the true encounter that objection in my first election to solution of the enigma involved in the strange the Senate, and was even viewed as an opponent refusal to accept as much as Spain offered. The by Mr. Monroe himself, when I first came to treaty was disapproved by Mr. Jefferson, to Washington. He had reason to know before whom a similar letter was written to that sent his office expired, and still more after it expired, to General Jackson, and for the same purpose that no one (of the young generation) had a to obtain his approbation; but he who had ac- more exalted opinion of his honesty, patriotism, quired Louisiana, and justly gloried in the act, firmness and general soundness of judgment; or could not bear to see that noble province muti- would be more ready, whenever the occasion lated, and returned his dissent to the act, and permitted, to do justice to his long and illushis condemnation of the policy on which it was trious career of public service. The treaty, as I done. General Jackson had yielded to the have said, was promptly and unanimously ratiarguments of Mr. Monroe, and consented to the fied by the American Senate; not so on the cession of Texas as a temporary measure. The part of Spain. She hesitated, delayed, procraswords of his answer to Mr. Monroe's letter tinated; and finally suffered the time limited were: "I am clearly of your opinion, that, for for the exchange of ratifications to expire, withthe present, we ought to be contented with the out having gone through that indispensable Floridas." But Mr. Jefferson would yield to no formality. Of course this put an end to the temporary views of policy, and remained inflexi- treaty, unless it could be revived; and, therebly opposed to the treaty; and in this he was upon, new negotiations and vehement expostulaconsistent with his own conduct in similar cir- tions against the conduct which refused to ratify cumstances. Sixteen years before, he had been a treaty negotiated upon full powers and in conin the same circumstances at the time of the formity to instructions. It was in the course acquisition of Louisiana-when he had the same of this renewed negotiation, and of these warm repugnance to southwestern aggrandizement to expostulations, that Mr. Adams used the strong contend with, and the same bait (Florida) to expressions to the Spanish ministry, so enigmatempt him. Then eastern men raised the same tical at the time, "That Spain had offered more objections; and as early as August 1803-only than we accepted, and that she dare not deny

it, and senators holding themselves committed by previous votes; but the progress of events soon justified my opposition to it. The country being in possession of Mexico, and she at war with Spain, no Spanish commissioners could go there to join ours in executing it; and so the act remained a dead letter upon the statutebook. Its futility was afterwards acknowledged by our government, and the misstep corrected by establishing the boundary with Mexico her

it." Finally, after the lapse of a year or so, the treaty was ratified by Spain. In the mean time Mr. Clay had made a movement against it in the House of Representatives, unsuccessful, of course, but exciting some sensation, both for the reasons he gave and the vote of some thirty-odd members who concurred with him. This movement very certainly induced the letters of Mr. Monroe to General Jackson and Mr. Jefferson, as they were contemporaneous (May, 1820), and also some expressions in the letter to General Jack-self. This was done by treaty in the year 1828, son, which evidently referred to Mr. Clay's movement. The ratification of Spain was given October, 1820, and being after the time limited, it became necessary to submit it again to the American Senate, which was done at the session of 1820-21. It was ratified again, and almost unanimously, but not quite, four votes being given against it, and all by western senators, namely: Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky; Colonel John Williams, of Tennessee; Mr. James Brown, of Louisiana, and Colonel Trimble, of Ohio. I was then in Washington, and a senator elect, though not yet entitled to a seat, in consequence of the delayed admission of the new State of Missouri into the Union, and so had no opportunity to record my vote against the treaty. But the progress of events soon gave me an opportunity to manifest my opposition, and to appear in the parliamentary history as an enemy to it. The case was this: While the treaty was still encountering Spanish procrastination in the delay of exchanging ratifications, Mexico (to which the amputated part of Louisiana and the whole of Texas was to be attached), itself ceased to belong to Spain. She established her independence, repulsed all Spanish authority, and remained at war with the mother country. The law for giving effect to the treaty by providing for commissioners to run and mark the new boundary, had not been passed at the time of the ratification of the treaty; it came up after I took my seat, and was opposed by me. I opposed it, not only upon the grounds of original objections to the treaty, but on the further and obvious ground, that the revolution in Mexico-her actual inde-It extinguished or cut off the slave territory pendence had superseded the Spanish treaty in the whole article of the boundaries, and that it was with Mexico herself that we should now settle them. The act was passed, however, by a sweeping majority, the administration being for 2

adopting the boundaries previously agreed upon with Spain, and consequently amputating our rivers (the Red and the Arkansas), and dismembering the valley of the Mississippi, to the same extent as was done by the Spanish treaty of 1819. I opposed the ratification of the treaty with Mexico for the same reason that I opposed its original with Spain, but without success. Only two senators voted with me, namely, Judge William Smith, of South Carolina, and Mr. Powhatan Ellis, of Mississippi. Thus I saw this treaty, which repulsed Texas, and dismembered the valley of the Mississippi—which placed a foreign dominion on the upper halves of the Red River and the Arkansas-placed a foreign power and a wilderness between Missouri and New Mexico, and which brought a non-slaveholding empire to the boundary line of the State of Louisiana, and almost to the southwest corner of Missouri-saw this treaty three times ratified by the American Senate, as good as unanimously every time, and with the hearty concurrence of the American press. Yet I remained in the Senate to see, within a few years, a political tempest sweeping the land and overturning all that stood before it, to get back this very country which this treaty had given away; and menacing the Union itself with dissolution, if it was not immediately done, and without regard to consequences. But of this hereafter. The point to be now noted of this treaty of 1819, is, that it completed, very nearly, the extinction of slave territory within the limits of the United States, and that it was the work of southern men, with the sanction of the South.

beyond the Mississippi, below 36 degrees, 30 minutes, all except the diagram in Arkansas, which was soon to become a State. The Missouri compromise line had interdicted slavery in all the vast expanse of Louisiana north of 36