Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/52

32 "England is desirous of possessing the whole country, with all its invaluable privileges. She has evinced this, by that bold and lawless spirit of enterprise, by which she has acquired so great a monopoly in the Indian trade; by which, in the year 1812, she took from American citizens, the town of Astoria (now called Fort George), and still retains it. . . . In this presumptuous way; in defiance to treaties and obligations, to the paramount claims of this country, and by alliances with the Indians, she hopes to secure a hold upon it, which the physical power of the American Republic, exerted in the plenitude of its energies, cannot break

"Second. A free and exclusive tradte with the Indians, and with a colony in Oregon, would very considerably increase the resources, and promote the commercial and manufacturing interests of our country.

"The fur trade has been and still is found vastly lucrative to those who pursue it. The contemplated colony would find it productive of great pecuniary advantage, and a fruitful source of their prosperityEnglish traders, at the present time possess the country. The will of the Hudson Bay Company, is the supreme law of the land. The natives are subservient to it, and American traders dare not resist it. Hence, the inland trade is fast on the wane, and has become disastrous, if not in most cases, ruinous. While it is so constantly exposed to the rapacity of treacherous Indians, and to the avarice of the English, it must remain utterly valueless. It might, however, be reclaimed, and forever protected by a colony occupying the shores of the Columbia

"Third. The fisheries might be more extensively and profitably pursued

"Fourth. A port of entry, and a naval station at the mouth of the Columbia, or in DeFuca straits, would be of immense importance to a protection of the whale and other fisheries, and of the fur trade; and to a general control over the Pacific ocean, where millions of our property, are constantly afloat