Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/268



that office during all the darkest hours of the Revolution ; as such Governor he succeeded in sending to Clark such limited supplies of powder and lead as would keep the Ohio valley pioneers in ammunition to defend themselves. With this slight aid Clark exceeds all his instructions organizes his "hunting shirt" army, captures old Vincennes, and drives the British out of the Ohio valley, and holds it until the Treaty of Peace with England gives all the great valley east of the Mississippi river and north of the Florida line to the American Colonies. Both Washington and Jefferson were working together to hold the west — ^Washington as General in Chief of the armies, and Jefferson as Governor of Virginia. Wash- ington captures the British army; peace is declared and the Treaty gives the Ohio valley clear to the Mississippi to the United States. Washington is elected President, and while in that office sent out the Boston Skipper, Capt. Robert Gray, under the Stars and Stripes armed with the following authority :

"To All Emporers, Kings, Sovereign Princes, State and Regents to Their Respec- tive Officers, Civil and ililitary, and to All Others Whom It May Concern: '■'/, George Washingtan, President of the United States of America, do make known that Robert Gray, Captain of a ship called the Columbia, of the burden of about 230 tons, is a citizen of the United States, and that the said ship which he commands belongs to the citizens of the United States ; and as I wish that the said Robert Gray may prosper in his lawful affairs, I do request all the before-men- tioned, and of each of them separately, when the said Robert Gray shall arrive with his vessel and cargo, that they will be pleased to receive him with kindness and treat him in a becoming manner, &c., and thereby I shall consider myself obliged.

"September 16, 1790— New York City.

"Seal U. S. George Washington,

"Thomas Jefferson, President."

"Secretary of State."

Under that authority Capt. Graj^ discovers the Columbia river, sails in over its stormy bar and raises the American Flag for the first time in Old Oregon.

Time passes on and Thomas Jefferson succeeds Washington in the Presi- dential office. Now armed with the National authority he pushes his long cher- ished plan of getting control of the mouth of the Mississippi river. He succeeds beyond his greatest expectations, and gets the whole of Louisiana. The great transaction is scarcely completed than his ambition to get to the Pacific Ocean comes foremost in his thought; and we find him ^^Titing on August 12, 1803, a letter to John Breckinridge, who was Attorney General in President Jefferson's Cabinet from 1805 to 1806, from which is taken the following extract :

"Our information about the country (Louisiana) is very incomplete. We have taken measures to obtain a full report as to the settled part. The boundaries are the high lands on the western side of the Mississippi, enclosing all its waters, and terminating in the line drawn from the northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the nearest source of the Mississippi, as lately settled between Great Britain and the United States. We have some claims to extend on the sea coast (on the Gulf of Mexico) westwardly to the Rio Norte or Bravo, and later to go eastwardly to the Rio Perdido, between Mobile and Pensacola, t