minutes eastward, to the great inlet in the continent, called Portland Channel, and along the middle of that inlet, to the 56th degree of latitude, whence it shall follow the summit of the mountains bordering the coast, within ten leagues, north-westward, to Mount St. Elias, and thence north, in the course of the 141st meridian west from Greenwich, to the Frozen Ocean; "which line," says the treaty, "shall form the limit between the Russian and the British possessions in the continent of America to the northwest;" it being also agreed that the British should forever have the right to navigate any streams flowing into the Pacific from the interior, across the line of demarkation.*

That this treaty virtually annulled the convention, of the preceding year, between Russia and the United States, is evident; for the convention rested entirely upon the assumption that the United States possessed the same right to the part of the American coast south of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, which Russia possessed to the part north of that parallel: and the treaty distinctly acknowledged the former or southern division of the coast to be the property of Great Britain. It does not, however, appear that any representation on the subject was addressed by the American government to that of Russia; and the vessels of the United States continued to frequent all the unoccupied parts of the north-west coast, and to trade with the natives uninterruptedly, until 1834, when, as will be hereafter shown, they were formally prohibited, by the Russian authorities, from visiting any place on that coast north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, on the ground that their right to do so had expired, agreeably to the convention of 1824.

In December, 1824, President Monroe, in his last annual message to Congress, recommended the establishment of a military post at the mouth of the Columbia, or at some other point within the acknowledged limits of the United States, in order to afford protection to their commerce and fisheries in the Pacific, to conciliate the Indians of the north-west, and to promote the intercourse be

* See Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter K, No. 5. Some curious particulars relative to the negotiation which led to this treaty may be found in the Political Life of the Hon. George Canning, by A. G. Stapleton, chap. xiv. Mr. Canning, it seems, was anxious for the conclusion of a joint convention between Great Britain, the United States, and Russia, as regards the freedom of navigation of the Pacific, until the appearance of the declaration in the message of President Monroe above mentioned, after which he determined only to treat with each of the other parties separately.

tween those territories and the settled portions of the republic; to effect which object, he advised that appropriations should be made for the despatch of a frigate, with engineers, to explore the mouth of the Columbia and the adjacent shores. The same measures were, in the following year, also recommended by President Adams, among the various plans for the advantage of the United States and of the world in general, to which he requested the attention of Congress, in his message, at the commencement of the session. In compliance with this recommendation, a committee was appointed by the House of Representatives, the chairman of which, Mr. Baylies, of Massachusetts, presented two reports,* containing numerous details with respect to the history of discovery and trade in North-West America, the geography, soil, climate, productions, and inhabitants, of the portion claimed by the United States, the number and value of the furs procured there, the expenses of surveying the coasts and of forming military establishments for its occupation, and many other matters relating to that part of the world; in consideration whereof, the committee introduced a bill for the immediate execution of the measures proposed by the president. This bill was laid on the table of the House, and the subject was not again agitated in Congress until 1828.

Meanwhile, the period of ten years, during which the countries claimed by the United States or by Great Britain, west of the Rocky Mountains, were, agreeably to the convention of 1818, to remain free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations, was drawing to close; and a strong desire was manifested, on the part of the American government, that some definitive arrangement with regard to those countries should be concluded between the two powers, before the expiration of the term. The British secretary for foreign affairs also signified that his government was prepared to enter into a new discussion of the question at issue; and a negotiation with these objects was accordingly commenced between Mr. Gallatin, the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, and Messrs. Addington and Huskisson, commissioners on the part of Great Britain.

Before relating the particulars of this negotiation, it should be observed that the relative positions of the two parties, as to the occupancy and actual possession of the countries in question, had been materially changed since the conclusion of the former conven

* Dated severally January 16th, and May 15th, 1826.

tion between them. The union of the rival British companies, and the extension of the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada over the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, had already proved most advantageous to the Hudson's Bay Company, which had at the same time received the privilege of trading in that territory, to the exclusion of all other British subjects. Great efforts were made, and vast expenses were incurred, by this company, in its efforts to found settlements on the Columbia River, and to acquire influence over the natives of the surrounding country; and so successful had been those efforts, that the citizens of the United States were obliged, not only to renounce all ideas of renewing their establishments in that part of America, but even to withdraw their vessels from its coasts. Indeed, for more than ten years after the capture of Astoria by the British, scarcely a single American citizen was to be seen in those countries. Trading expeditions were subsequently made from Missouri to the head-waters of the Platte and the Colorado, within the limits of California, and one or two hundred hunters and trappers, from the United States, were generally roving through that region; but the Americans had no settlements of any kind, and their government exercised no jurisdiction whatsoever west of the Rocky Mountains.

Under such favorable circumstances, the Hudson's Bay Company could not fail to prosper. Its resources were no longer wasted in disputes with rivals; its operations were conducted with despatch and certainty; its posts were extended, and its means of communication increased, under the assurance that the honor of the British government and nation was thereby more strongly interested in its behalf. The agents of the company were seen in every part of the continent, north and north-west of the United States and Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hunting, trapping, and trading with the aborigines; its boats were met on every stream and lake, conveying British goods into the interior, or furs to the great depositories on each ocean, for shipment to England in British vessels; and the utmost order and regularity were maintained throughout by the supremacy of British laws. Of the trading posts, many were fortified, and could be defended by their inmatesmen inured to hardships and dangers-against all attacks which might be apprehended; and the whole vast expanse of territory above described, including the regions drained by the Columbia, was, in fact, occupied by British forces, and governed by British laws, though there

was not a single British soldier-technically speaking-within its limits.

Considering this state of things, and also the characters of the two nations engaged in the controversy and of their governments, it may readily be supposed that many and great obstacles would exist in the way of a definitive and amicable arrangement of the questions at issue, between the Americans ever solicitous with respect to territory which they have any reason to regard as their own, and the British with whom the acquisition and security of commercial advantages always form a paramount object of policy. To the difficulties occasioned by the conflict of such material interests, in this particular case, were added those arising from the pride of the parties, and their mutual jealousy, which seems ever to render them adverse to any settlement of a disputed point, even though it should be manifestly advantageous to them both.

In the first conference,* the British commissioners declared that their government was still ready to abide by the proposition made to Mr. Rush, in 1824, for a line of separation between the territories of the two nations, drawn from the Rocky Mountains, along the 49th parallel of latitude to the north-easternmost branch of the Columbia, and thence down that river to the sea; giving to Great Britain all the territories north, and to the United States all south, of that line. Mr. Gallatin, in reply, agreeably to instructions from his government, repeated the offer made by himself and Mr. Rush, in 1818, for the adoption of the 49th parallel as the line of separation from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, with the additional provisions, that, if the said line should cross any of the branches of the Columbia at points from which they are navigable by boats to the main stream, the navigation of such branches, and of the main stream, should be perpetually free and common to the people of both nations-that the citizens or subjects of neither party should thenceforward make any settlements in the territories of the other; but that all settlements already formed by the people of either nation within the limits of the other, might be occupied and used by them for ten years, and no longer, during which all the remaining provisions of the existing convention should continue in force. The British refused to accede to this or any other plan of partition which should deprive them of the northern bank of the

* President Adams's message to Congress of December 28th, 1827, and the accompanying documents.

Columbia, and the right of navigating that river to and from the sea: though they expressed their willingness to yield to the United States, in addition to what they first offered, a detached territory, comprised within a line to be drawn from Cape Flattery, along the southern shore of De Fuca's Inlet, to Point Wilson, at the northwestern extremity of Admiralty Inlet; from thence along the western shore of that inlet, across the entrance of Hood's Inlet, to the point of land forming the north-eastern extremity of the said inlet; from thence along the eastern shore of that inlet, to the southern extremity of the same; from thence direct to the southern point of Gray's Harbor; from thence along the shore of the Pacific to Cape Flattery ;" and also to stipulate that no works should at any time be erected by either party at the mouth or on the banks of the Columbia, calculated to impede the free navigation of that river. The Americans, however, being equally determined not to give up their title to any part of the country south of the 49th parallel, all expectation of effecting a definitive disposition of the claims was abandoned.

The plenipotentiaries then directed their attention to the subject of a renewal of the arrangement for the use and occupancy of the territories in question by the people of both nations. With this view, the British proposed that the existing arrangement should be renewed according to the terms of the third article of the convention of October 20th, 1818, for fifteen years from the date of the expiration of that convention; with the additional provisions, however, that, during those fifteen years, neither power should assume or exercise any right of exclusive sovereignty or dominion over any part of the territory; and that no settlement then made, or which might thereafter be made, by either nation in those countries, should ever be adduced in support of any claim to such sovereignty or dominion. This proposition was received by Mr. Gallatin for reference to his government, although he saw at once that the additional provisions were inadmissible; and the negotiation was, in consequence, suspended for some months.

During this first period of the negotiation, the claims and pretensions of the two nations respecting the countries in question, were developed and discussed more fully than on any previous occasion, not only in the conferences between the plenipotentiaries, but also in written statements,* formally presented on each side. As nearly

• The Statement of the British plenipotentiaries, and the Counter-statement of Mr. Gallatin, will be found entire among the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter H