Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/826

Rh this government, was the free navigation of the Columbia River. Later, negotiations were resumed, but not until the establishment of a collection district in Oregon had shown the British government and the company that the free navigation of American waters was of little consequence, associated as it was with the obligation to pay duties on English goods, on the same footing with citizens of the United States. When that discovery was made, the value of their possessory rights was much lessened, and senators were not so ready to buy. The reader who will remember Benton's remarks on the 2d article of the treaty of 1846, in secret session, knows that even at that time he comprehended the importance of the blunder made by the British embassador in regard to this article; and it does not appear likely that Thornton was better informed on the subject than senators who had for years been engaged in the discussion of the Oregon Question from all points of view, or that the Hudson's Bay Company regarded his opinion as worth $25,000. The publication of a letter containing a charge against the president of bribery, or of consenting to bribery, whether written by himself, or by another, as he has since declared, but emanating from him, would be very good reason for regarding him with disfavor.

Soon after the adjournment of congress Thornton received a little more than the sum allowed by the territorial bill for mileage of a delegate, and repairing to New York, took passage on the Sylvie De Grasse for Oregon, where he arrived in May 1849.