Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/429

 Speech of Senator J. Semple. 401 America. Civilized nations have generally admitted the right of dis- covery, and agreed that any civilized people might justly occupy a country inhabited by savages. Discovery was the foundation ot right or claim of the Spaniards ; several of their navigators having sailed along the coast of America, in the Pacific ocean, as far as Cape Mendicino, and on some occasions, as far as the forty-ninth degree of north latitude. The Spaniards were undoubtedly the first who ever sailed on that coast. There never has been any definite limits set as to how much of any country was acquired by discovery. If the Spaniards sailed along the coast as far as California, which they most unquestionably did, before any other nation or people, they might lay claim to the whole coast. Californ'a was discovered as early as 1534, and Cabrillo sailed as far along the coast as the forty-third degree, as early as 1540 ; while the first English ship, under the command of Sir Francis Drake, did not visit the northwest coast until 1578 — nearly forty years after. Whatever right the Spaniards may have had was ceded to the United States by the treaty of 1819. We have, then, by purchase, all the right which the Spaniards ever could have had. The French claim was also founded on discovery. La Salle first discovered the mouth of the Mississippi, and laid claims to all the waters of that river. After the French colonies in Canada had increased, and their trading posts had extended from Quebec to New Orleans, they claimed not only all the waters of the Mississippi, but extended it indef- initely west, to all places not actually occupied by any other civilized nation. This was generally understood to include the Oregon. In support of this idea, the Louisiana extended to the Pacific, I will only at present mention, that this was admitted by England, at least ; for by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, the boundary between Canada and Louisiana on one side, and the Hudson's Bay Company on the other, was fixed to commence on the coast in latitude fifty-eight degrees thirty-one minutes north, thence to run in a southwest direction to latitude forty-nine degrees north, and along that line indefinitely westward. So far, then, as England is con- cerned, she is prevented from saying that Louisiana was bounded by the waters of the Mississippi. After Canada fell into the hands of the English, Louisiana still remained in possession of the French until it was ceded to Spain in 1762, in whose hands it remained until 1800, when Spain receded ii to Fiance; and in 1803, France ceded it to the United States. The words of this cession are : "In extent the same as it now is in the hands of France, as it was in the hands of Spain, and as it formerly was in the hands of France." All these transfers of Louisiana were without any specific limits. The ultimate purchaser, therefore, had a right to what ever could be shown to be, properly speaking Louisiana. It is not my intention to enter into a minute statement of these several claims on the part of Spain and France, nor do I consider it at all important, as both these nations have relinquished all their claims to the United States. It is only necessary to mention them as showing the extent of the claim purchased. Mr. Jeffer- son, that truly sagacious politician, understood the purchase of Louisiana as giving the right as far as the Pacific ; for immediately after the negotiation was closed he sent Messrs. Lewis and Clark to explore those regions, whose visit to the mouth of the Columbia may not only be con- sidered in the light of a discovery of that river, (which had, in part, been discovered by Captain Gray so early as 1787,) [sic] but may also be con- sidered as an expedition, in the name of the Government, to take possession of Louisiana as purchased from the French.