Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/186



CHAPTER VIII.

1774— 1846.

The Title to the Country — Titles by Discovery — Paper Titles of Spain, France and England — Title by Contiguous Settlement and Possession — The Question in Politics and in Congress — The Treason of President Polk — Oregon Saved by American Settle- ments.

The vast region west of the Rocky mountains fronting on the Pacific ocean from the northern boundary of CaHfornia up to Alaska became known to the world under the name of "Oregon," about the year 1770. And the first tangible acts to obtain title to this vast country, date back to the voyages of Spanish ex- plorers in 1774; followed by the English navigator, Cook, in 1776, the year the American Colonies declared themselves independent of Great Britain. Sixteen years after the Englishmen filed a discovery claim to the country. Captain Robert Gray, the American trader, discovered the Columbia river, which practically drains the whole region and laid the foundation for the claim of the United States.

Here then are the claims of the three nations — Spain, England, and the United States — mere paper titles, founded on the trifling incidents of landing on the sea coast of a vast country of then unknown extent. Neither of these parties had contributed anything whatever to the value of the country, or, to any extent worth mentioning, made known to the world its resources, population or boundaries. The law, or custom, upon which any shadow of title to the country could be founded by either of these parties was nothing more than the comity or courtesy conceded among the maritime nations down to that period ; a right, comity, or courtesy, which was always ignored and repudiated by the strongest, whenever it was their interest to do so.

The Indians were the original possessors of the country, and held their title from occupancy for unknown thousands of years. But all three of these so-called civilized nations united to deny and overthrow the title of the native barbarian. To deny the title of the Indian, because he was ignorant, superstitious and a barbarian or savage, was to found rights on educational opportunities rather than upon the foundation set forth by the American Declaration of Independence. To deny the right of the Indian, and then concede his humanity by offering him the teachings of the Bible, was an inconsistency too absurd for argument. And so the moralist and publicists were forced to take grounds with the defenders of Afri- can slavery and boldly proclaim the doctrine that neither the red man nor the black man had any rights which the white man was bound to respect.

And so this conclusion gives a clear field to consider what nation had the title to the vast region of old Oregon of which the city of Portland is the commercial metropolis.