Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/349



The documents presented herewith are supplemental to that printed at pages 27-34 of this volume of the quarterly and are taken from the same source and very little need be said by of introductory comment. These are of special interest as showing the intimate connection of the Hudson's Bay Company with the British cabinet in 1825-26; Messrs. Henry Addington and William Huskisson being the two commissioners appointed by Secretary George Canning to discuss with representatives of the United States the question of the Northwest Boundaries. These are also of interest when compared with our own congressional reports and speeches during the period of 1821-27, showing that the British were then concerned only in the trade in this Columbia River Country while the attention of Americans was already being directed toward occupation and settlements. It was in 1825 that Senator Thomas H. Benton first uttered his oft-quoted declaration that the ridge of the Rocky Mountains should forever remain as the western terminus of the government of the United States an opinion which he later directly reversed.

At the time of reorganization following the coalition of the North- West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 Mr. George Simpson was placed in charge of all the properties, men and business of the last named company in North America, and hence came to be known as the "governor of Rupert's Land"; Mr. J. H. Pelly of London was governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Two years, 1822 and 1823, were necessary to reconcile differences and reorganize the business East of the Rocky Mountains, but after the regular summer council meeting in 1824 Governor Simpson started from York Factory on Hudson's Bay for his first personal visit to the Columbia District, Dr. John McLoughlin accompanying him to assume the duties