Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/67

 OCCUPATION OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 59 came the subject of a message from the British king to his Parliament. Although much debate ensued, and some resent- ment expressed towards Spain for her treatment of the British subjects who were made prisoners, yet no claim was alleged on the part of England to territory there. Great Britain, in the course of that transaction, seems to have recognized the claim of Spain, and was willing to treat for the enjoyment of privileges on that coast, which she obtained, and was, by stipulations, invested with the further right to fish even as low down as the Gulf of California. The Spanish monarch, being in possession of the French title, regardless of that which the United States had obtained, according to the mode last adopted, felt great confidence in his negotiations with the British government, in the year 1790. But the territory, the title to which gave that confidence, has since, by the Treaty of Paris, come into the possession of the United States, and it is believed the Treaty of St. Ildefonso confirmed to France the full extent of boundary originally claimed, Spain taking no notice of the original error, if any existed. Under this view of the case, the United States, being pos- sessed of the title of France, and, by a just application of the law of nations, that of Spain too, if she ever had any, leaves them the undisputed sovereignity of that coast, from the sixtieth degree of north latitude down to thirty-six, which is believed to be the situation of the mountains of Mexico, alluded to in all the authors and charts before referred to. If, however, there should remain a doubt, that doubt is re- lieved by a reference to the subordinate principle recognized by the Treaties of Utrecht and of Paris, in 1763. When we know that all the formalities deemed necessary in the posses- sion of a newly discovered country have been complied with on the part of the United States; that, in the year 1785-6, an establishment was made at the mouth of the Columbia river, by Mr. Hendricks, the full and entire benefit of whose courage, enterprise, and success, results to this Union ; and at a later day, in 1805, Messrs. Lewis & Clark, in executing