Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/266

250 quiring from the Americans any recognition or guarantee of His Majesty's rights thereto, might tend to cast doubt upon a title which was already sufficiently clear and incontestable." [See entire letter below.]

And James Monroe, for America, had written to the pleni potentaries, under date of 22nd March, 1814, "On no pretext can the British Government set up a claim to territory south of the northern boundary of the United States. It is not believed that they have any claim whatever to territory on the Pacific Ocean. You w, however, be careful, should a definition of the boundary be attempted, not to countenance in any manner, or in any quarter, a pretension in the British Government to territory south of that line."

So the road to difficulties lay wide open. Hardly was the ink dry on that Treaty of Ghent than John Floyd of Virginia brought in, 1815, the first of his annual bills for the occupation of the Columbia. The bill did not reach a third reading.

That same year, 1815, Admiral Porter was urging the exploration of the Pacific. Two frigates, the Guerrière and the Java were to have been placed under Porter to explore the Pacific and the North West Coast. This was Admiral Porter's own idea, outlined in a letter written to John Madison, then President. The expedition was never sent out; the idea was revived again in the late 1820s, a commander and ships assigned, but actually the scheme was carried out only in 1840 by Commander Charles Wilkes

But the race for the possession of the North West Coast had begu under governmental sanction. No longer was it merely a question of the fur trade.

On July 18th, James Monroe sent a message to Anthony St. John Baker, then British Chargé d'affaires at Washington, following it up by a letter evidently requested by Baker: [Monroe to Baker]