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their principles of government, have departed from the stage of human action.

Our Constitution gives men a power after death, (permitted, to a certain extent, over property,) for reasons wholly inapplicable to a Government such as ours professes to be. On this part of our system, I will again call your attention to Mr. Jefferson's opinions, in his letter to Mr. Barry:

"We already see (says he) the power installed for life, respon. sible to no authority, (for impeachment is not even a scarecrow,) advancing, with a noiseless and steady pace, to the great object of consolidation. The foundations are already deeply laid, by their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights, and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the ingulfing power, of which themselves are to make a sovereign part. If ever this vast country is brought under a single Goverament, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent, and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne; and you will have to choose between reformation and revolution. IfI know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable. Before the cancer is become inveterate, before its venom has reached so much of the body politic as to get beyond control, remedy should be applied. Let the future appointments of judges be for four or six years, and renewable by the President and Senate. This will bring their conduct, at regular periods, under revision and probation, and may keep them in equipoise between the General and special Governments. We have erred in this point, by copying England; where, certainly, it is a good thing to have the judges independent of the King. But we have omnitted to copy their caution also, which makes a judge removable on the address of both legislative houses. That there should be pub lic functionaries independent of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism in a Republic of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency."

I agree that it is essential to a correct administration of justice, that judges should be independent men. The Constitution proceeds on the hypothesis, that independence in men is a quality which can be created by legislation. It assumes, by giving office for life, to create wisdom and virtue, and give them certain duration; but this hypothesis is proved false by the common sense and experience of mankind. The independent man-or, in other words, the just and upright man-is not made so by operation of law, but by careful training from infancy, aided by a happy temperament. A man whose habits of thinking and acting are loose and vicious, cannot be transformed into a fit man for a judge, by giving him office for life, with any amount of salary. The independence the Constitution gives to judges, has an almost irresistible tendency to make them worthless; and, if such has not been the effect upon our judges, it is because they have been men of uncommon strength and energy of character. I assert that the best possible way of securing good judges is to have them elected by the people for short periods. If they are constantly dependent on the people, they will endeavor to make themselves acceptable to the people; and how is this to be done? What judges are the most popular everywhere? Are they those who are believed to take bribes? are they those who are known to be under the influence of other men, whose decisions are always governed by personal considerations? Are they not, on the contrary, those men whom the public believe to be disinterested, free from prejudice, free from personal or party influence? And if so, will not a dependence on the people, by compelling judges to seek popularity, compel them to take that course which will secure popularity? I hold that judge to be a fool, sir, who does not make it the great object of all his labors to acquire popularity; to gain the good opinion of his cotemporaries, "that his name may be honored in the land."

It is a great mistake to make our judges independent of the people; but it is a mistake made by all the States who formed constitutions for their government, during or at the close of the Revolution, as well as by the convention which formed the Federal Constitution. They knew from history the danger of the judicial tribunals being dependent on weak and profligate princes, and supposed that, to render them independent, it was necessary to place them above the power of the people. On this subject, it is very evident that the people of the United States have changed their opinion; they have experienced the evils which have resulted from making judges permanent, and are from time to-time changing their constitutions in respect to their courts, while the new States commence their Government upon the more correct principles. Eleven States now elect their judges for limited periods of time-Pennsylvania, fifteen years; Arkansas, eight years; Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Alabama, and Michigan, seven years; Mississippi, six years; Georgia, three years; Vermont, one year; Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ten

The Oregon Bill—Mr. Linn.

nessee, Louisiana, and Missouri, during good behavior. In some of these latter States, judges are removable on an address of three-fourths; in others, of two-thirds of both Houses of their Legislatures; and even in Rhode Island, where no one has looked lately for any improvement in government, the dominant party, in making their new constitution, have been so far controlled by the common sense of the country, and the example set them by some of the other States, as to place their judges altogether in the power of the people, by making them removable at every annual election, by a majority of the legislative body, although in form they hold their offices during good behavior.

I do not expect, Mr. President, that a majority of this body will now vote for this amendment of the Constitution; and I have not offered it with any hope of such result. I offer it to call public attention to the subject. Our courts of justice, particularly the United States courts, are not much known and observed by the people; for it is but a small proportion of our citizens who see these courts as suitors, witnesses, or jurors; and great abuses might prevail in them, and be long continued, unless the attention of the people was called to them by some such proposition as I have now made-a proposition which I shall continue to make while I have the honor of a seat in this body, unless its adoption shall relieve me from the performance of that duty.

SPEECH OF MR. LINN,

OF MISSOURI.

In Senate, January 26, 1843-In reply to Mr. McDUFFIE, on the Oregon bill.

Mr. LINN said the opposition to the measure which he had had the honor of introducing, had confined itself, except on the part of the Senators from South Carolina, to the grant of lands. One of those Senators made that his chief objection; but was averse, in addition, to all present action upon the matter. The other, who spoke yesterday, [Mr. McDUFFIE,] took still wider groundblamed the bill as to all its incidental parts, as well as its objects, and declared his fixed repugnance, not only to this scheme of settlement, but to all expansion of our population whatever. Certain remarks of the latter eloquent Senator demand a particular reply; and, in answering them, if I can sutficiently, I shall have met whatever else has been further objected to the bill.

It is with a want of consideration, of meditation, and preparation of the measure, that he more directly taxes it. To this objection, the history of the bill, and of its repeated introduction here, is the best answer. The measure was first introduced some twenty-two years ago, in the House of Representatives. It has, therefore, had all the time necessary to reach the legal age of discretion. A bill of like form and objects was urged again upon Congress in 1823, with much ability and research, by a distinguished member, (the late Governor Floyd,) one of whose favorite objects it continued to be up to the close of his honorable congressional career. Though he did not induce the Legislature to embrace his views, yet the measure commanded the attention of President Monroe, and was strongly recommended in his last annual message. His successor, (Mr. Adams,) in like manner, viewed it as a proper part of our national policy, and pressed it upon the attention of Congress. This was followed up by two reports from the accomplished pen of Mr. Baylies in support of the President's recommendation. In 1828, it was once more introduced, in a regular legislative form, by Governor Floyd, and passed the House of Representatives by a large majority, but failed in the Senate by a plurality of two votes. Since then, it has repeatedly, in one form or another, been the subject of executive attention and legislative discussion.

In 1836, Mr. Slacum, a young gentleman admirably fitted for this difficult service, was commissioned by General Jackson to examine the country, and report upon its inducements to occupation, state of the fur trade, commercial advantages, &c. The information which that gentleman personally collected was placed before Congress in 1838. In the mean time, (October, 1837,) during the extra session, I made a call upon the Executive for whatever it could communicate, in its possession, The answer, bethis interesting subject. upon sides other matter, brought us, at the regular ses the report of Mr. Slacum of his several jour

sion,

Senate.

neys and voyages from Mexico to California,, to the Sandwich Islands, and to the Territory of Oregon. I then moved the reference of the whole subject to the Committee on Foreign Relations, which was then opposed strenuously by gentlemen who are now in favor of its reference to that committee. Finding this opposition, I moved its reference to the Committee on Military Affairs, which was also strenuously opposed by all who took any part in the debate. It seemed to be the opinion of the Senate, that it should be referred to neither of the committees, but that it appropriately belonged to a select committee; which was accordingly adopted. Being the author of the proposition in regard to the Territory of Oregon, I was selected as the chairman of that committee. On the 6th of June, 1838, the committee submitted a report, accompanied by a bill.

While these proceedings were going on in the Senate, Mr. CUSHING, a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House of Representatives, presented the question to that body, followed up by a report made by him-a report which, it may be said with truth, exhausted the subject. Neither the Senate nor House bill was reached that session. Then came the Maine boundary excitement, and the political and party agitation of the years 1839 and 1840, in the midst of which there was so little hope of commanding the attention of Congress in a measure in no manner connected with the presidential election, that it was thought unnecessary to press it upon the consideration of the Senate. Notwithstanding this, I was not unmindful of its importance; and in January, 1840,* a resolution was, at my instance, sent to the War Department, as to the expediency of a line of military posts extending to the Rocky Mountains, upon which a favorable report was returned by Mr. Poinsett. That report I have already had the honor to cite to the Senate in my opening remarks upon this bill, when it first came up for consideration this session. When next I brought it forward, the foreign negotiations with Lord Ashburton, which ended in the late treaty, were about to be set on foot; and I was urged by all political parties not to embroil them with another difficulty, by a renewed effort to bring about the occupation of the territory. To these wishes I reluctantly yielded, consenting to wait for the results of the promised diplomacy. That diplomacy has suffered the occasion to pass almost without an allusion to the subject; and still, as before, the cry is, "Not now! wait a little longer! presently! By-and by we are certain to bring the whole business happily through, if you will not press it now!" Such has ever been the encourage. ment, or the argument, with which the measure has, for above twenty years, been met; and the Senator from South Carolina will, therefore, see that the purpose has been pursued with everything that could give it forecast, and that no indiscreet measure or issue has been pressed against Great Britain, or urged upon the Senate. It has been held back not only until it became, in point of time, appropriate, but indispensable, if we are ever to accomplish the object at which we aim.

The main subject was urged on the attention of Congress in President Tyler's first annual message, where it is also strongly sustained by the auxiliary reports of the Secretaries of War and the Navy; and the same recommendation was once more presented to Congress in the reports of Secretaries Spencer and Upshur, at the beginning of this session. The country is indebted to Mr. Pendleton for an excellent report in 1842, to the House of Representatives, accompanying a bill even stronger than the one now under discussion.

This succinct history of the measure must certainly acquit the committee of any indiscreet haste, any inconsiderateness, any precipitateness of plunging Congress into premature debate, or a rash issue with Great Britain; particularly as both Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison had originally been in favor of some action.

As to the apprehended effects of debate here, the Senator, I think, exaggerates to himself the na

'About the same period, I introduced another resolution in the Senate, calling for further information from the State Department. In reply to which, Mr. Greenhow's admirable Memoir, Historical, Political, and Geographical, of the Northwest Coast, and drawn up at the request of Mr. Forsyth, was sent in; and 3,000 copies were printed by order of the Senate. Mr. Greenhow's Memoir contains the most careful and correct information that could be obtained up to that period, including even the best British authorities; and it clearly proves, beyond all possibility of doubt or cavil, that the title of the United States to the country is incontrovertible.

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tional irritation which may be so produced. Great Britain-herself accustomed to the most unrestrained parliamentary discussion-surely better understands how debate, and the heats into which it naturally runs, are to be viewed. It is by our action-not our speeches-that Great Britain will be influenced. I shall therefore continue to speak, as I have spoken, freely; well convinced that what we say of her here will be of no more serious con. sequence in London, than what she says of us, in her legislative wrangling, is of weighty influence upon us.

I understand the Senator's objections to the bill to be three-fold: first, that it would, in its main provisions, be an infraction of the conventions of 1818 and 1827; secondly, that, when carried into effect, it must plunge us into all the expense of a remote military occupation; thirdly, that the territory itself is valueless, and must prove a disadvantage, not only through the enormous expense it must entail upon us, but by dispersing our population, from whose concentration alone a progressive and an elevated civilization is to be expected.

Nor

The Senator will pardon me if I say that the entire scope of his remarks yesterday proves him greatly to undervalue a territory as yet little known in his quarter. There is a mass of documentary information in regard to it, in which I am compelled to suppose him not versed. Even putting these minuter facts out of view, however, and supposing its surface steril, there are in its favor high and obvious elements of commercial value, of future commercial greatness, which I thought certain to strike a mind as capable as his of embracing these important considerations. It is plainly, at no distant day, the destined avenue of a great trade from all our territories to the Pacific and the East. does he less overlook its present and past importance. The inertness of our policy has already forfeited to us more than ten millions of legitimate trade. By the sheer neglect of our Government, our fur. trade on that coast-formerly affording at least half a million--has been suffered, under the operation of the existing treaty, to dwindle to some two thousand dollars a year. Examine, sir, the returns of our fur-trade, from the first settlement on the Columbia, by Astor, down to the present time; and you will find that it has sunk to the paltry amount I have mentioned, and that all the auxiliary commerce which was connected with it--the trade from that coast to China-is extinct.

These are matters easily established by documentary evidence before me, so copious that I dare not tax the patience of the Senate with its reading. I will venture only to cite a single document and letter, addressed to me by Mr. Pierce, while engaged in this trade of the Northwest:

"BOSTON, May 1, 1842.

"SIR: Thinking it may be interesting or important to you to know of some of the late operations and present plans of the British Hudson Bay Company in the North Pacific ocean, I beg leave to present to your notice some facts in relation to the same, and which have come to my knowledge from personal observation, or from sources entitled to the fullest credit.

"All that extensive line of coast comprehending the Russian possessions on the northwest coast of America, from Mount St. Elias south to the latitude of 54 deg. 40 min. north, (the last be ing the boundary line between the Russian and American territories,) together with the sole and exclusive right or privilege of frequenting all ports, bays, sounds, rivers, &c. within said territory, and establishing forts and trading with the Indians, has been leased or granted by the Russian-American Fur Com pany the British Hudson Bay Company for the term of ten years from January, 1842, and for which the latter are to pay, annually, four thousand fur seal skins, or the value thereof in money, at the rate of thirty two shillings each-say £6,400 sterling, or $30,720.

"In the abovenamed lease the Russians have, however, reserved to themselves the island of Sitka, or New Archangel; in which place, you probably are aware, the Russians have a large settlement-the depot and headquarters of their fur trade with the Fox islands, Aleutian islands, and the continental shore westward of Mount St. Elias. All the trading establishments of the Russians lately existing at Tumgass Stickene, and other places within said territory, leased to the Hudson Bay Compa ny, have of consequence been broken up. Thus the Hudson Bay Company, not content with monopolizing the heretofore profitable trade of the Americans, of supplying the Russian set tlements on the Northwest coast, have now completely cut them off also from all trade with the most valuable fur regions in the world.

"Whether the arrangements made between the Russians and English, above alluded to, are conformable to the treaties existing between the United States on the one part, and those na tions respectively on the other, I leave to your better knowl edge to determine.

With the doings of the Hudson Bay Company at Puget's sound and the Columbia river you are doubtless fully informed; those, however, lately commenced by them in California will admit of my saying a few words.

"At San Francisco they have purchased a large house, as a trading establishment and depot for merchandise; and they intend this year to have a place of the same kind at each of the principal ports in Upper California. Two vessels are building in London, intended for the same trade—that is, for the coast

The Oregon Bill-Mr. Linn.

ing trade; and, after completing their cargoes, to carry them to England. These things, with others, give every indication that it is the purpose of the Hudson Bay Company to monep. olize the whole hide and tallow trade of the coast of Califor nia-a trade which now employs more than half a million of American capital.

"At the Sandwich Islands the company have a large trading establishment, and have commenced engaging in the commerce of the country, with evident designs to monopolize it if possible, and to drive off the Americans who have hereto. fore been its chief creators and conductors.

"I have been informed by one of the agents of the Hudson Bay Company that the agricultural and commercial operations of the English at Puget's sound, Columbia river, Califor nia, and Sandwich Islands, are carried on, not actually by the Hudson Bay Company, but by what may be termed a branch of it-by gentlemen who are the chief members and stockholders of said company, and who have associated themselves under the firm of Pelby, Simpson, & Co. in London, and with a capital of more than $15,000,000.

"Seeing these companies, then, marching with iron foot. steps to the possession of the most valuable portion of country in the Northern Pacific; and considering, too, the immense amount of their capital, the number, enterprise, and energy of their agents, and the policy pursued by them, great reason is there to fear that American commerce in that part of the world must soon lower its flag. But, sir, it is to be hoped that our Government will soon do something to break up the British settlements in the Oregon Territory, and thereby destroy the source from which now emanate the most dire evils to American interests in the Western world. In the endeavor to bring about that desirable object, you have done much; and every friend to his country, every person interested in the commerce of the Pacific, must feel grateful for the valuable services rendered them by you.

"With great respect, your obedient servant, HENRY A. PIERCE."*

The Senator from Kentucky gave the other day a very striking sketch of the vast and widespread operations of the Hudson Bay Company. They may be yet more visibly traced in a map of their possessions before me. Here Senators may cast their eyes over a territory, stretching from the bay of the north Atlantic which has lent its name to the association, to the Pacific and the borders of Mexico. Over this wide dominion, dotted with their frequent forts, settlements, and factories, and over its many Indian tribes, they hold undisputed rule,

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This table, exhibiting a gradually diminishing trade in furs, from the period that the hunting and trading of British subjects in Oregon was authorized by the convention of 1818, is the best commentary upon the principles and provisions of that conven tion. Individual disinterestedness or generosity may surrender to general participation the advantages and privileges of an ex clusive right; but the wiser, safer, and more general rule of na tional action, is in every grant to demand an equivalent. The convention of 1818, was a departure from this salutary rule, and its consequences we read in the above table-the uncompensated transfer to the Hudson Bay Company of all that trade which our own citizens have lost. This simple statement af fords a lesson by which we shall do well to profit in time, before our own indifference, forbearance, and neglect shall render ut terly worthless the object for which we have so long contended. If the successful and beneficial assertion of our right shall ever be made, it must be made now. Further acquiescence in the exclusive possession of the Hudson Bay Company, (for north of the Columbia, it is in fact exclusive,) if not an absolute sur render of our claim, is what is almost equivalent to it--an abandonment of the game, which constitutes its pricipal value, to the annihilation of thriftless hunting and indiscriminate slaughter.

From six to eight hundred men annually go to the Rocky Mountains, on hunting and trading expeditions who collect a large amount of furs; the value of which, however, the com mittee has no means of ascertaining with any degree of accu racy. This trade would greatly and rapidly increase under the protection which the contemplated posts will afford.

Senate.

as complete as was ever exercised in Hindostan by the great company which was the skilful instrument of England in seizing upon her present empire there. The red spots on this map designate the various forts; the others, the settlements of the company's retired servants.

What landmarks, what signs of dominion or possession, has this Government affixed to the soil? None. How have your claims been vindicated? What care have you had of even the subordinate matter of your trade, usually not slighted by actively commercial nations? Your fur trade, as I have said, is gone; that with the Russian posses sions has been suffered to pass into foreign hands; that with the Sandwich Islands lies at the mercy of your watchful rival; and not a step is taken to stay her encroachments upon your soil, or her inroads upon your commerce!

It is not, sir, because I am a Western man, or because my immediate constituents take a deep concern in this matter, that I urge it. I regard it only as a national question. It is as a great and acknowledged interest of the whole Union that I would preserve it, let it directly benefit what section of the country it may. Nothing local, nothing sectional, enters into my feelings, or shall sway my judgment. I view it-and trust that every other Senator will view it-only in its broader relations to the whole country, and have aimed to treat it only in that way.

In regard to the particular interests involved in the question, I could read many documents, with which I will not weary the attention of the Senate. They will permit me, however, to cite from the excellent report of Mr. Pendleton to the other House, the following important letter of Captain Spalding, of the ship Lausanne, of New York, addressed to myself:

"At present, the company cultivate about three thousand acres of land, and raise about eighteen thousand bushels of wheat, fourteen thousand bushels of potatoes, three thousand bushels of pease, and have both flour and saw-mills; they have seven thousand head of cattle, two thousand sheep, hogs, &c., and have engaged to supply the Russians with eight thousand bushels of wheat annually, and I do not know how many thousand pounds of butter at 6d. sterling per pound; they have a large number of men in their employ, four ships, two schooners, and a steamboat; they have several forts on the south side of the Columbia, and take out of the river probably not less than five hundred thousand dollars in value per annum; while our Gov. ernment remains perfectly passive and unconcerned. I must confess, when I saw all this, I felt ashamed that I was an Amer ican. I am convinced that not another nation under heaven would submit to it, or could be so negligent of the interests of its people. The company have all the cattle, sheep, &c., but will not sell to a settler a single cow or a sheep; they will, I believe, sometimes sell a pig, but nothing else alive-not even a borse; nothing that breathes. They have now contracted to supply the Russians at Sidka, and all the northern parts, with goods of all kinds that the Russians require at twenty five per cent. advance on the London invoice, to be delivered at the ports where they are wanted, without charge for freight or expense of any kind; thus driving the Americans off the coast. It is also well under stood that they purpose taking possession of the Sandwich Islands, which the British Government claim under an old grant from Tamaahmaah. There is too good reason to believe (indeed the opinion is prevalent at Oregon) that the grasping ambition of the British will not with all this be satisfied, but that they intend to add even California to their possessions; mean ing and intending thereby to obtain possession of the bay of San Francisco, which is decidedly the best place on the whole west coast of America for a naval depot, and where the com bined navies of the whole world could anchor with perfect safety; being accessible at all times for vessels of any draught

of water.

"The colony from the United States is situated on the Walla met, a branch of the Columbia, about ninety miles from the mouth of the river, which is, undoubtedly, the finest grazing and wheat country in Oregon. At present, it consists of about seventy families, who raise considerable grain, and have about three thousand head of cattle. The mission last year raised one thousand bushels of wheat, and made butter, cheese, &c.. enough for their own use. They have five hundred head of cattle and two hundred horses, and last year they sowed four hundred bushels of wheat, one hundred and twenty bushels of pease, and planted a large quantity of potatoes and vegetables of all descriptions. They have hogs, poultry, &c., in abundance. Last year they raised over fifteen hundred bushels of potatoes. The extent of the country com prising the Wallamet Valley is about three hundred miles long and two hundred broad, interspersed with ravines of wood, gen erally of sufficient quantities for fuel and fencing. The land in its natural state is usually ready for the plough, and is very fer tile, producing from twenty-five to forty bushels of wheat to the acre; and the climate is so mild that the cattle subsist in the fields without fodder or shelter of any kind being prepared or provided for them through the winter. Salmon can be taken at the Wallamet falls (which, however, the British have taken possession of, and compelled our people to build their mills at the falls above) with little trouble, from May to September, in almost any quantity. I have no hesitation in saying that ten thousand barrels might be taken per annum. Probably no place in the world offers greater inducements for emigrants. Pro visions might readily be procured to support one thousand emi grants at any time Flour was this season high., in consequence of a want of mills-a difficulty that is now obviated by the erec tion of two new ones, viz, one by Mr. McKey, and one by the mission; as also two saw-mills. Wheat is nominally worth one dollar per bushel, beef six cents per pound, pork ten, cows fifty dollars each, oxen sixty, horses thirty-five. Potatoes being

27TH CONG....3D SESS.

about twenty five cents per bushel. Libor is worth about thirty-five dollars per month, the laborer being loud by his employer."

I have repeatedly alluded to the commercial and territorial cupidity of the Hudson Bay Company, its unjust encroachments, its unhesitating rapacity, the spoliations of our legitimate trade, and even the murders which have tracked its course as a company. But, in simple justice, let me say that these acts and this character belong to them only in a corporate capacity. As individuals, many of them are men highly humane and honorable. It is abundantly known, in particular, that there lives not a more generous, benevolent, and kind hearted gentleman than Dr. McLaughlin, the individual at the head of the company's affairs on the Columbia. His acts of voluntary kindness towards our citizens; his courtesy towards whomsoever cf our officers or public agents may have visited that country; the ready and liberal good offices which he has ever extended wherever they were needed, do him him great honor, and should not be mentioned without thanks. Í make, then, my charges against the collective company and its policy, not the individuals of whom it is made up. Let me, on the other hand, as freely remark, without desiring to diminish anything from this individual praise, that, as a company, they can well afford to be generous to us of the fruits of our own soil. An annual half million in the fur-trade may well mitigate a good many national prejudices. Out of an abundance which should be ours, they may well dispense some hospitality to our citizens and accredited agents. For training on their savage dependants to waylay our wanderers, to burn our settlements, to exterminate the settler, to shut out our traders from all participation in their traffic, these civilities are, after all, but a cheap equivalent. True it is, however, that in the former rivalry between the two companies, before they were merged into one, they were as rapacious and as sanguinary towards each other. And why should they be more just or more merciful towards an alien race?

Of these deeds the Senator from South Carolina may have some recollection, and of the time when, in their contest for the supremacy of that region, the employees of the two companies were led on to mutual outrages as detestable as any to which they now jointly instigate the savages against our helpless citizens and traders. He may perhaps recall the tragedies of 1819, when the Northwest Company made regular war upon that of Hudson Bay, to drive them from the trade; pitched battles being fought as between two fierce Indian tribes, with a loss of twenty men in a single affairGovernor Semple and Mr. Kevenny (another leading man) perishing in the contest.

I surely have not need to urge that they whom the sordid love of gain could thus urge to imbrue their hands in the blood of brother Englishmen, would little hesitate to inflame the natural antipathies of the savage, and turn his secondary ferocity to an easy and a general instrument for effecting those dark deeds by which the citizens of a rival power were to be put out of the way when they came between them and their gains.

I do not speak idly of these matters, but hold in my hand reports of men who personally knew the influence and the arts practised against us: such men as Governors Clarke and Cass, whose judginents and knowledge in Indian affairs were beyond dispute. They show that, up to 1829, at least five hundred of our people have been destroyed in this way, and that the rate of subsequent destruction has not changed. All the evidence shows that, wherever the British fur-trade is pushed, the Indians are subsidized. The terms of that subsidy have an index in the murders committed on our people. Trace up the butcheries in the Rocky Mountains and their plains, the ravages of our exposed settlements, and you will find them uniformly committed by Indians clad in British blankets and armed with British tomahawks and scalping-knives. Is not this proof enough for whom this work of blood is done? How long, sir, shall this innocent blood of your citizens call to you in vain? How long shall it be before you interpose to arrest these crimes? Are the lawful pursuits of your people to be thus left the spoil and the prey of foreign rapacity? Does not the very treaty which is so often pleaded, declare these pursuits legitimate; or is it, then, but an idle form? If legitimate, you are bound to protect your cit izens who engage in it; and the question of its

The Oregon Bill—Mr. Linn.

greater or less profitableness than other occupations, is not one to be considered, except by those who engage in it. The Senator from South Carolina, to disparage the trade, said yesterday that few men have grown rich in it. Now I apprehend that, comparing great things with small, his remark is equally true of manufactures. In these, what a disproportion between the few capitalists who get rich, and the multitudes of poor operatives who never can? It is but the same thing in either pursuit: the operatives amass not the splendid fortunes, nor does every hunter and trapper become a John Jacob Astor. Chance or taste leads them to adopt that pursuit; and it forms one of those national interests which we are bound to protect, in common with even the humblest branch of your industry or commerce. Whenever your sails whiten the sea, in no matter what clime, against no matter whom, the national arm stretches out its protection. Everywhere but in this unhappy territory, the persons and the pursuits of your citizens are watched over. You count no cost when other interests are concerned, when other rights are assailed; but you recoil here from a trifling appropri ation to an object of the highest national importance, because it enlists no sectional influence. Contrast, for instance, your supineness about the Oregon Territory with your alacrity to establish, for guarding the slave coast and Liberia, a squadron costing $600,000 annually, and which you have bound yourself by treaty to keep up for five years, with great exposure of lives and vessels. By stipulation, eighty guns (one-twelfth of your force afloat) is kept upon this service; and, as your naval expenditure amounts to about seven millions a year, this (its twelfth part) will make, in five years, three millions bestowed in watching the coast of Africa, and guarding the freedom of the negro race! For this you lavish millions; and you grudge $100,000 to the great American and national object of asserting your territorial rights and settling your soil. You grant at once what furthers the slave policy of a rival power, and deny the means of rescuing from its grasp your own property and soil!

[Here Mr. L. referred again to the letter of Mr. Spalding, which we have given at large.*]

The general objection to the bill has been confined to the grants of land. The South Carolina Senators alone have viewed the establishment of military posts as a violation of the convention. And I understood one of those Senators to assert even that, under the treaty, we could not extend over the territory our legal jurisdiction, as Britain has done.

[Mr. McDUFFIE here assured Mr. L. that he had misapprehended him: he held that we could ex

To show the operations of the Hudson Bay Company, to root out American fur-traders, public attention is called to the following extract of Mr. Townsend's excellent remarks upon the Territory of Oregon, recently published in the National Inteligencer.

"Within a few years, several Americans (of whom the writer of this notice is one) have crossed the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia, with objects entirely unconnected with trade or commerce. Mine was the desire to see a new country, a love of adventure for its own sake, and an enthusiastic fond ness for natural history.

"The party with which I travelled left Independence, Mis. souri, about the latter part of April, 1831, and arrived at the British Fort Vancouver in September, having performed the whole journey on horseback. From this time until October, 1836, (with the exception of the first winter, which I passed at the Sandwich Islands,) my residence was in the Territory of Oregon. Dr. McLaughlin, the chief factor, treated me with uniform and singular kindness, supplying all my wants, and furnishing me with every facility in the prosecution of my plans. This is, I believe, the uniform character of the superintendents of British forts in that country. Travellers, naturalists, and all who are not traders, are kindly and most hospi tably treated; but the moment the visiter is known to trade a beaver skin from an Indian, that moment he is ejected from the community, and all communication between him and the offi cers of the company ceases. When Captain Wyeth, with his party, arrived at Walla-Walla fort, on his passage down the Columbia, he was required by the superintendent to promise that during his journey from thence to Vancouver-300 miles -he would not buy a beaver skin; the functionary assuring him that, unless he consented so to bind himself, he would send a party ahead of him which should be instructed to purchase every beaver skin from the Indians on the route, at a price which he (Wyeth) could not afford to pay. It is a fact, notorious in that country, that the honorable company has a sum of money, amounting to several thousand pounds sterling, laid aside at Vancouver, for the sole purpose of opposing all who may come to interfere with its monopoly, by purchasing at exorbitant prices all the furs in possession of the Indians, and thus forcing the settler to come to terms, or driving him from the country. If it be an individual who is thus starved into submission, he then usually clears a piece of land on the Wallamet river, takes an Indian wife, and purchases furs of the natives, which, by previous contract, he is bound to sell to the company at an advance which is fixed by the Governor,”

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tend our jurisdiction over the Indians and our own citizens.]

Mr. LINN. Well, sir, I stand corrected. I now hold in my hand a copy of the contract which the Hudson Bay Company passes with its employees, by which it is agreed that when the employee has served a certain number of years, and wishes to retire, he shall have a grant of fifty acres of land, asuit of the company's clothes, &c., he binding himself to a sort of feudal tenure to muster and bear arms when needed.

Now, sir, does not this contract incontestibly establish, on their part, everything which it is denied that we can do? Is it to be supposed that the company does not keep these engagements? That cannot be; and we know that their retired servants have for some time had settlements and occupied lands, in conformity with these agreements Task Senators, then, are we always to argue against ourselves?-always to interpret our national duties in favor of other nations, and to our own detriment? Was it not thus in 1828, when gentlemen contended that we could not establish military posts in the territory, nor extend our jurisdiction over it? This, too, when Great Britain had already taken those steps over the whole northwest, and even over a part of our territory on this side the Rocky Mountains.

But gentlemen surely mistake when they imagine that this British jurisdiction can be confined to British subjects alone. Pray, sir, were an American to commit murder on an employee of the company, does anybody believe that he would not be tried and hanged under this British law? The English ministry, I know, has said (as Mr. Gallatin tells us) that it was not intended to be applied to any but British subjects and Indians. But what then? What will the opinion of this or that minister signify, a case having actually occurred? By settled law, any denizen coming within its jurisdiction, and committing a crime, will be punished; and if there is a British judge or justice of the peace there, he will be bound to execute this law, to its letter, against Americans as al! others.

My friend from Vermont [Mr. PHELPS] made it clear that, under this law, controversies likewise as to land titles between citizens of the two countries would pass under this jurisdiction. If so, why not as much criminal offences? But as to such scrupulous limiting of their legal assumptions, they are far more likely to enlarge them. I never heard of an Indian being hung under that law; but I have lately learned the occurrence of a case where a half-breed Indian, for the murder of an Englishman, was tried, convicted, and hung-a mode of death the most repugnant to all an Indian's prejudices. Why should this not have been done upon an American citizen? What have you done to insure his surrender to your own courts?what to protect his pursuits, doubly legitimate both by your territorial title and the stipulations of the convention?

You do not, probably, know the number of men of Massachusetts, of New Hampshire, of Missouri, and of other States, who would push their fortunes in that territory, and carry civilization thither, could they but expect from you the protection and the favor which England, through the Hudson Bay Company, grants to her people. Your States of the East and the West will not send forth their swarms, because they believe their Government too timid or too niggardly to protect or to assist them. They never will believe you in earnest till, by some measure as positive as this, you prove to them that you regard your title as indefeasible, and give, them a pledge of your intentions that cannot be retracted. I have seen many letters to this effect, and know that such is the general doubt which holds back numbers who desire to go. Your people require action of some kind; and I will feel that I have not lived in vain, if this bill should have the effect of bringing the subject to some definite conclusion.

These are the views of those who look only to the earthly rewards of hazardous enterprise. But the Eastern States furnish others, whom a sacred call has led to trace the pathless wilderness, careless of all human protection; who, in the true spirit of Christian philanthropy, have braved every privation and danger to carry to the valleys of the Oregon and the Wallamet the light of the Gospel, and its attendant, civilization; accomplishing there, by individual devotedness, those noble benefits which it was your part to have performed. The Christian spirit of men has outstripped the tardy

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policy and goodness of the Government; and these Gospel-bearers have at once formed a paradise, where your statesmen imagine nothing but steril sands, or a surface blackened by volcanic fires.

Of the horrors of such a sojourn the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. McDUFFIE] seems to have formed a particularly lively conception, and has conveyed it (as was to be expected) in a very powerful form. Had he (he said) an honest or deserv ing son, who desired to migrate thither, he would say to him, "Don't go! stay where you are!" But, had he one fit for a convict-ship or Botany Bay, he would tell him, without hesitation, "Go, by all

means!"

Now, for the Senator's information, I beg to read a few well-authenticated descriptions of this blasted land of his. The reports of the missionaries, and the narratives of Captain Wilkes and of Mr. Peale, the naturalist, give a very different picture. They agree that, for picturesque beauty, for exuberant fertility, and for salubrity of climate, no region of the earth, of equal extent, surpasses the vales and the table-lands of the Oregon. There, too, they tell you, instead of the dissoluteness of such a population as the Senator thinks it only fit for, are seen gentleness, piety, intelligence, and peace, which seem to have their chosen seat in the beautiful valley of the Wallamet. They are law-abiding and law-loving; they are active, yet quiet; no strifes or broils, suicides or murders. No compulsion of the law is needed to make them pay their debts-a contrast, on this verge of civilization, (as the Senator supposes it,) at which a portion of his constituents, not to say my own, might well blush. He is not less mistaken as to the mercenary motives which, he thinks, can alone have led these wanderers so far. Was it such that brought our sturdy ancestors to the rock of Plymouth? May not their descendants speed to this farthest West with like visions of some noble futurity to be realized? There is a fascination in these half-real dreams which I have witnessed and felt; and had I wealth to pay, or could such things be bought, I know not what I would give to have felt the wild and strange rapture with which Boon must have gazed, for the first time, from the summit of the Cumberland mountains over the matchless plain of Kentucky; or yet, again, when he had passed through that Eden-like wilderness, and, from the top of one of the mounds of a departed race, looked, in bewildered delight, over the magnificent banks and streams of the Ohio.

These, sir, are sensations not to be purchased. There is in them no touch of anything mercenary; and they animate men to ventures which no gain can repay, but which surely, in finding or founding empires for us, deserve encouragement and protection, as much as any labors of that more sordid kind which seek, and make themselves in safety, rewards at home. There are men who go forth to the wilderness like our first parents, when God sent them forth from the garden of Eden to subdue the earth. Such feelings, to our own immediate ancestors, shed an ideal beauty over the barren rock of Plymouth, one day, under their all subduing spirit, to blossom like the rose. The same impulse yet animates their race, and will bear them across deserts, as of old across the deep, give them only the protection of your laws and the countenance of the Government.

I recollect, Mr. President, at the last session of Congress to have heard a venerable and respected lady say that, when she removed, at the close of the Revolution, from Annapolis to Cumberland, in Maryland, she was looked upon as having gone out of the world, and as about to become a semisavage. In such a light were your forefathers [Mr. BATES of Massachusetts in the chair] viewed when, in their forlorn search for freedom, they abandoned the ease of civilized life, and, for freer homes braved the dangers of the deep and the terrors of a savage shore. They but obeyed the instinct of qur peculiar race-that invincible longing for liberty and space which impels those of Anglo-Saxon descent to trace the rudest tracts, the wildest seas, range the Atlantic and the Indian waste of waters, explore the vast Pacific, and break through the icy barriers of the polar oceans. With a spirit renewed from our virgin soil, and from Nature itself in this untamed continent, it looks back to the land of our forefathers, half ready to spread there the regeneration which constantly agitates itself Other nations may enlarge themselves by physical conquests; but we (I thank God for it!) can subdue only by the dominion of mind the moral empire of

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institutions. If neighboring countries are, at any future time to be added to our Union, it will be they who will have sought the blessings of our institutions; not we who will have coveted the enlargement of our territory by conquering fleets and armies.

[Here Mr. LINN proceeded to read a series of extracts from the documents to which he had referred; a letter from Alvan F. Waller, one of the missionaries on the Wallamet, dated 6th April, 1842, and published in the Christian Advocate and Journal of December last; which, after speaking in the highest terms of the agricultural, commercial, and other advantages of the country, refers to the disputes which have already occurred between the Hudson Bay Company and the recent American settlers. The company claiming, under the right of pre-emption, some of the choicest spots now occupied by American settlers; which proves, conclusively, the intentions of the company to occupy the best parts of the territory, to the exclusion of the Americans. Will not these land disputes, as well as all others, be brought under the operation of the British act of Parliament of 1821?

A series of thermometrical observations from Doctor Forry, by Mr. Ball, which may be found in the 25th and 26th volumes of Silliman's Journal; they show the average winter temperature at Fort Vancouver to be 41 degrees of Fahrenheit; the spring 48 degrees; the summer 65 degrees; the fall 52 degrees. This is probably a little milder than the climate of Norfolk, Virginia. Mr. L. also read a descriptive letter of Mr. Titian Peale, dated here on the 25th ultimo; another from Major Robert Moore, dated at Wallamet, (Oregon,) March 8, 1842; a statement from Mr. Waldron, in a late letter from the same place; a letter of Capt. Steen, of the United States dragoons, from Fort Leavenworth, in which he says: "I have lately had some conversation with Col. Battson of Jackson county, Missouri, who has returned a short time since from the Oregon Territory, and several other gentlemen from Missouri; they speak in the most exalted terms of the country, soil, climate, water-power, health, fine timber, and many other advantages that country has over Missouri."

A letter of the Messrs. Benson, of New York, transmitting the statement of Captain Spalding. All these are documents, not merely important, but interesting in themselves, though beyond our present command of space. He also referred to the well-known voyagers, Cook, Vancouver, Portlocke, Dixon, Krusenstiern, Langsdorf, as well as Lewis and Clarke, and some others. But, interesting as the matter becomes, in the view of the present national question, and important as are the materials thus brought together, we are compelled here to break off]

So little before 1813 or 1814 did Great Britain ever doubt your claim to the lately-contested territory in Maine, that in 1814 she proposed to purchase that part of it which she desired. She next treated for a right of way. It was refused; and she then set up a claim to the soil. This method has sped no ill with her; for she has got what she wanted, AND MADE YOU PAY FOR IT. Her Oregon game is the same. She has set her heart upon a strip of territory north of the Oregon, and seems determined to pluck it from us, either by circumvention or force. Aware of the political as well as legal advantages of possession, she is strengthening hers in every way not too directly responsible. She is selecting and occupying the best lands, the most favorable sites. These she secures to the settlers under contracts. For any counteraction of yours, she may take, aud is taking, possession of the whole territory. She has appropriated sites for mills, manufactories, and farms. If one of these has been abandoned for a better, she reverts to it, if a citizen of yours occupies it, and ejects him. She tells her people she will protect them in whatever they have laid, or may lay, their hands upon. If she can legitimately do this, why may not we? Is this a joint occupation of which she is to have the sole benefit? Had you as many citizens there as she, you would be compelled to protect them; and if you have not, why is it but because she keeps them off, and you refuse to offer them the inducements which she holds out? Give them a prospective grant of lands, and insure them [the shelter of your laws, and they will soon congregate there in force enough to secure your rights and their own.

The Senator from South Carolina somewhat inconsistently urges that the country is bleak, barren, volcanic, rocky, a waste always flooded when

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it is not parched; and insists that, worthless as it is, Great Britain will go at once to war for it. Strange that she should in 1818 have held so tenaciously to what is so worthless! Stranger still that she should have stuck yet closer to it in 1827, when she had had still ampler time to learn the bootlessness of the possession! And strangest of all, that she should still cling to it with the grasp of death! Sir, I cannot for my life help thinking that she and the Senator have formed a very dif ferent estimate of the territory, and that she is (as she ought to be) a good deal the better informed. She knows well its soil, climate, and physical resoufees, and perfectly comprehends its commercial and geographical importance. And know. ing all this, she was ready to sink all sense of justice, stifle all respect for our clear title, and hasten to root her interests in the soil, so as to secure the strong, even when most wrongful, title of possession.

As proof, among other things, of the worthlessness of the territory, the Senator yesterday maintained that, in the upper country, rain never falls; and in the lower, hardly ever ceases. Now, the facts derived from intelligent residents show that in those parts of the country where it seldom rains, copious dews supply the necessary moisture for vegetable life; while the streams and rills which on all sides descend from the mountains, entertain a perpetual freshness in the arable and pasture lands. It is shown, too, that, on the coast and lowlands, what is called the rainy season is one of gentle showers, not of deluges of rain. If they have more rain, they have less frost and snow than other countries, more fertility, and not less health.

But the documentary information accumulated here for some years past makes all who are conversant with it aware that the Senator mistakes the character of the plains on the east as well as the west side of the Rocky Mountains. He imagines that the vast plains which stretch from the base of that chain to the borders of our inhabited territories are desert sands, destitute alike of vege. tation and water. We all know that this is not so: that these great plains are principally rich prairie lands, sustaining countless herds of antelopes, deer, and buffaloes, and capable of most profitable culti vation. They are intersected by great rivers, fed by innumerable streams, supplied by lesser tributaries, diverging in every direction. Timber certainly is scarce; but it springs up and grows with the population, and the banks of the streams afford everywhere strips of wood, quite sufficient to supply any population that can, for a good many years, fix itself there. Mistaken, as the Senator is, as to what lies comparatively near, I am not surprised that he should misconceive what is so remote-the country of the Oregon. He appears, also, not to be aware that, from the lower Ohio to the eastern skirts of the Rocky Mountains, it is one vast coalfield, in its lower altitudes, intermixed with other mineral regions, whose value seems almost without a limit.

Sir, I confess that this wealth of the surface, and the still vaster natural treasuries that lie beneath, unmined but not unknown, have awakened in me, and seem to me to justify, the expectations which the Senator considers so visionary. Over such a region, the passage from the richest valley in the world--that of the Mississippi--to a new and wide commercial empire, that must presently start up on the Pacific, I cannot think railroads and canals mere day-dreams. The wonders which have, within the last twenty years, been achieved in those things, may well excuse those who look upon the results I have mentioned as possible, even within the compass of the present generation. All predictions, even the most sanguine, have in this country been so distanced by the actual progress of its prosperity, that gentlemen who foretell the other way should beware of the error of the Millerites, and not lay the accomplishments of their prophecies too close at hand. Even in the faith of the bold enthusiasts who landed at Plymouth Rock, was there one ardent enough to imagine that their descendants would, in five centuries, perform what has been effected in two? It was said by General Cass, in his discourse before the Historical Society of this city, "that he had conversed with those who had talked with the children of the pilgrims." In that mere space of time, what amazing changes! What an empire has risen up, like an exhalation from earth! A new people has been

27TH CONG......3D SESS.

added to the great household of nations, and is already among the first in the world! There are those amongst us who have talked with Daniel Boon, that overland Columbus who first explored the recesses of that immense wilderness in which we now count many States, teeming with population and wealth, and glad with all the gifts of civilization. What imagination has yet outstripped the gigantic pace at which improvement marches amongst us? Sir, I can well conceive the tumult

of delight which must have swelled the bosom of Clarke, when, from the bluff he had gained, he first heard the roar of the great ocean, and saw the surges of the Pacific bathing the territory he had explored. In the vision of that moment, he saw through the dim vista of the future rising States of his countrymen spreading along that shore, and the white sails of their commerce wafting along the bosom of that peacefu! sea the barbaric wealth of the East, in return for the more solid fruits of our own industry. One cannot read the warm and striking description of what he saw and felt, without sharing in his enthusiasm. Some of us now here have shaken hands with Boon, with Clarke, with Cass, who had often conversed with a rela tive, a contemporary of the first-born of the Pilgrim fathers. What a picture does this present for the contemplation of the statesman and philosopher! The chain is complete from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean-from the first-born of Massachusetts, to Clarke on the borders of the Western ocean.

But the Senator from South Carolina thinks the Rocky Mountains impracticable to road making. He is mistaken. Even in a state of nature, they have easy passes, well known for the last thirteen years to our traders and travellers. They who will venture unprotected, perform the journey readily in wagons, with their women and children, over beaten routes-by one principal one especially, established for the last fifteen years, along the smooth, even surface of the inclined plane of the river Platte. Along this many families have gone, threading the mountain defiles, descending the western slope, and arriving at the Walla-Walla, or Fort Vancouver, within three months of their departure from the Eastern prairies. These things have escaped the Senator's attention, and he sees only arid sands or volcanic rocks, and stern impassable barriers. Without meaning anything invidious, I would invite him to contrast these regions, as to their soil, climate, and natural advantages, with some of the old thirteen States as they now are. Oregon has its belts of sand: so has South Carolina. Oregon has its mountains: so has Carolina. Oregon has its rainy season: South Carolina has its hurricanes. Oregon has its season when dews alone supply moisture to the soil; but it has not the death-breathing swamps of South Carolina. Oregon has a genial climate, neither parched nor frozen: South Carolina has her fierce summer heats and her fatal fevers.

But I will not pursue the parallel; for all countries offer something which patriotism in each hails as a peculiar blessing denied to other lands. A word, however, of the climate of Oregon. From actual observations, skilfully recorded, its winter temperature, near the coast, is about that of Augusta, Georgia. It has its stated seasons of wet and of dry weather. Like the entire western coast, from 60

"There are four passes through the Rocky Mountains. The best one was discovered, twelve or fifteen years since, by huntertraders; and is described in reports to the War Depart ment by Messrs. Ashley, Pilcher, Sublette, Jackson, Smith, and others; but the one here given is from Missionary Parker's book:

"On the 10th of August, they were in the passage of the Rocky Mountains, at an opening recently explored, in latitude 42 degrees north, about 3 or 4 degrees south of the place where Lewis and Clarke crossed and recrossed with great difficulty, above thirty years before, under the direction of Government. The passage through these mountains is in a valley, so gradual in ascent and descent, that I should not have known that we were passing them, had it not been that, as we advanced, the atmosphere gradually became colder, and at length we found the perpetual snows upon our right hand and upon our left, ele. vated many thousand feet above us-in some places ten thousand. The highest parts of these mountains are found, by measurement, to be eighteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. This valley was not discovered until some years since. Mr. Hunt and his party, more thao twenty years ago, went near it, but did not find it, though in search of some fa vorable passage. It varies in width from five to twenty miles; and, following its course, the distance through the mountaing is about eighty miles, or four days' journey. Though there are some elevations and depressions in this valley, yet, comparatively speaking, it is level. There would be no difficulty in the way of constructing a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean; and, probably, the time may not be far distant when trips will be made across the continent, as they have been made to Niagara falls, to see nature's wonders.","

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degrees north to Chili, it has a much milder climate than the same parallel on the eastern shore of our continent. There is no part of the territory in which lands fit for cultivation do not abound;* for, in the tracts where rains do not fall, abundant dews compensate them; and great facilities for irrigation exist. Abundant and beautiful rivulets descend, on all sides, from the snow-capped mountains, always in view; and one gentleman-whose peculiar opportunities and fitness to form a correct judg. ment the Senate knows-declares that it is the finest pastoral country he has ever seen; and he has seen many. All intelligent observers speak with delight of the singular beauty of its scenery, unrivaled by any in the United States. As to maritime conveniences, where has South Carolina a port comparable to that of Puget's and others within the straits of De Fuen; where, well-sheltered, and in water only inconveniently deep, close to the natural sea-wall, a thousand men-of-war may lie? Has South Carolina a river like the Oregon? If the Columbia has impediments as its mouth, so has every harbor on our Eastern and Southern coast. I desire not to disparage other States, but only to show of what Oregon is capable for national and individual purposes, were its resources called out. When its great river shall have fleets of pilot-boats, lighters, barges, steam tow boats, light-houses, and all the commercial appliances of a busy population, the impediments of its entrance will grow no more alarming than those of New York, or of our other Eastern harbors. The loss of the Peacock at its mouth, for want of a proper knowledge of the channel, does not stamp it as a dangerous entrance or unsafe roadstead.

Though these statements have taxed both the time and the patience of the Senate, I could not avoid them. They were indispensable, to counteract the discouraging and disparaging opinions so strongly pronounced by the Senator from South Carolina. To these allegations of mere opinion and authority, it was necessary to oppose the wellsubstantiated facts furnished by intelligent eyewitnesses.

Allow me, to the same effect, to cite a description of the country lately communicated to me by Mr. Titian Peale, an accomplished naturalist, who is well known in science for the part which he bore in Long's expedition, as well as in the late explo. ring voyage under Lieutenant Wilkes. He recently favored me with the following letter:

[Mr. Peale says to the following effect: That the Hudson Bay Company has several extensive farms, with mills, &c., on the north side of the Columbia. They are in a very flourishing condition; supply usually about 2,000 bushels of wheat to the Russian

"I call the attention of the reader to the following extract of a statement of Mr. Townsend, the ornithologist attached to the National Institute, at Washington:

"The face of the country from Fort George (Astoria) to Vancouver-a distance of e ghty miles-is very much of a uniform character, consisting of alluvial mead ws along the river banks, alternating with forests of pine, oak, &c.; while behind are extensive plains, some of which receive estuaries of the river, while others are watered by lakes or ponds, many of them so large as to remain filled during the whole summer. The pine forests are very extensive, the trees being of great size, and the timber extraordinarily beautiful, straight, and free from knots. All the timber of the genus pinus, of which there are a great number of species, is gigantic, when compared with our trees in this part of the world; but occasionally one is met with, huge almost beyond comparison. I measured, with Doctor Gardiner, surgeon of the fort, a pine of the species Douglasii, which had been prostrated by the wind. Is height was above two hundred feet, and its circumference forty five feet! Large as was this specimen, its dimensions are much exceeded by one on the Umpqua river, measured by the late Mr. David Douglass. The height of this tree was, I think, nearly three hundred feet, and its circumference fifty six feel! The cones of this pine, according to Mr. Douglass, were from twelve to fifteen inches in length, resembling in size and form sugar-loaves. Oak tim ber of various kinds, and of the first quality, is abundant along the liver, as well as the buttonwood, (platanus occidentalis,) balsam poplar, (populus balsamifera,) ash, sweet gum, (iiqui. damber styraciflua,) beech, and many other useful kinds, but no hickory or walnut.

"The Governor of Fort Vancouver, who is an active agricul turist, has exerted himself for several years in raising whatever appears to be adapted to the soil, and I can therefore only make known the results of his experiments so far as I had an oppor tunity of observing them. Wheat, rye, barley, pease, and culi nary vegetables of all kinds, are raised in ample quantity. The wheat is particularly fine; tall, with long and well filled heads. I had an opportunity subsequently of seeing the Chilian wheat, which is deservedly celebrated; but I consider it decidedly infe rior to that grown on the Columbia. Fruits of various kinds, apples, peaches, plums, &c., do remarkably well. I remember being particularly struck, upon my arrival at Vancouver in the autumn, with the dis lay of apples in the garden of the fort. The trees were crowded with fruit, so that every limb required to be sustained by a prop. The apples were literally packed along the branches, and so closely that I could compare them to nothing more aptly than to ropes of onions as they are some exhibited for sale in our markets."

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colony, much lumber and produce of the dairy to the Sandwich Islands. He mentions their herds of cattle and sheep, kept on the south side of the river. Of the latter, 2,000 had been brought by land from California, just before the arrival of the exploring squadron.

The retainers (employées) of the company have numerous farms on the Wallamet, south of the Columbia. He had seen the contracts under which these lands are granted. They are to the effect which we have before recited.

He speaks very favorably of the Americans whom he found settled there. They cannot embark in commerce, for the powerful monopoly of the company would always crush them. They say, however, that, personally, it treats them very honorably.

The soil, climate, and productions are such as will, at no distant day, give the country the same commercial importance on the Pacific, as we hold on the Atlantic. For grain or lumber, it is nearly equal, if not quite, to the United States. These command ready markets on the Mexican and South American coast, and in the many islands. The salmon-shery of the Columbia can, he thinks, in a few years, be rendered as valuable as the fisheries on our Eastern coast. In this, he is supported by a united stream of testimony.

The country (he says) only wants the protection of our laws, to render it a desirable home for our hardy countrymen of the interior.]

Mr. LINN continued. In addition to the agricultural wealth which would be rapidly created in this fine region, the noble timber which it affords, its fisheries, and its general advantages of commercial position, its value as a resort for our marine in that distant sea, where we have such great interests afloat, should not be forgotten. Of these last, under the late events in China-certain as they are to bring about the most important commercial changes-it behooves us to be careful, in common with the other great trading nations. That France is already on the alert, we see in her late seizure of the Marquesas.

As to the question of expense, the Senator from South Carolina may have already seen that only half the sum he yesterday supposed-$100,000, not $200,000-is proposed to be employed. Whether or not the country is worth that sum, may, in addition to all other testimony, be judged from the report of your recent exploring expedition; of which (costly as it was) one of the most definite objects was minutely to ascertain the condition, value, resources, and capacities of the territory. Mr. Wilkes speaks in the most enthusiastic teims of all its elements of wealth and greatness.

The Senator from South Carolina yesterday asked, "What do we want with this territory?" To me, sir, it seems answer enough to say, that your just rights grossly neglected, commercial interests of great magnitude, and the wishes of your people, demand its occupation. They have pressed upon you petitions of two or three thousand persons at a time, anxious to migrate thither if assured that you will maintain your title. Nothing but distrust of your tardiness and timidity withholds them. I myself, while urging the measure-always, however, with that moderation of which I have, for my own justification, been forced to speak-have always felt that nothing but reiterated discussion would ever prepare minds here for action, until it be. came, perhaps, almost too late. At that last stage of procrastination I look upon ourselves as now arrived. Our foreign relations and especially such as can be artfully spun out--are little likely ever to be, in the lapse of many years, in a situation that will better allow us to proceed. Yet, gentlemen still answer me, as of old, "Wait! wait!" They still, after twenty-two years of postponement, find the moment inauspicious, the movement precipitate. As ever, there is "a lion in the path." When were ever such dilatory proceedings safe against a pow. erful, an active, a politic adversary, rapid to grasp, and slow only to relinquish? If we are ever to assert our rights, it must be most speedily, before they lapse into the hands of others, from long undisputed possession. For, mark, that be your reserves of treaties what they may, England has long enjoyed, and is every day completing and guarding, her exclusive possessions.

I have no personal interest in this measure --no motive but such as I have in common with all who are jealous of the rights and careful of the interests of our country. Political capital, it affords none; and if it did, I am no political capitalist,

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