The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 354
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354
CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
the way all questions of the kind ever were, and ever
would be, settled. War never did, and never could,
settle a boundary line—experience taught us so; for,
after our two wars—the War of the revolution and
Ae last war—'when peace was restored and our
rights admitted, the question of extent of boundary
was left to be settled by convention. Look to the
treaty of Ghent, and section after section will be
found providing for the appointment of commission-
era to settle boundary lines, and pointing out the du-
ties of an officer to arbitrate on ail differences arising
between such commissioners. The line of our
north western boundary, he was convinced, could
never be settled by war. Your arms (he said) may
bo successful; you may, at the sacrifice of life and
wealth, attain all the honor and glory of conquest;
but when peace arrives, the boundary question will
be found in the same shape, and have to be then set-
tled by convention. The manner of settling the mi-
nor differences of nations had changed within the
last half century. War was no longer the only
means of adjustment; that time had passed; and
(thanks to the influence of the Christian religion, the
progress of civilization, and the advancement of the
arts and sciences) peace was now the arbitrator.
He submitted to the Senate and the nation at
large, if anything could be more disgraceful than
for England and America to suffer themselves to be
driven into open hostility on a question which ad-
mitted of honorable settlement by peaceable negotia-
tion. The offending nation would never stand ex-
cused in the face of the world. t
Much had been said about England as our ancient
enemy. ^ He thought, as public men, they should
speak of no enemy but a present one. What hap-
pened between both countries was on record. The
mother and child conflicted in the field and in the
cabinet; and though they did, he, for one, believed
they entertained toward each other still the kindly
feelings of relationship. He allowed that conflicts
between this countiy and England still existed; but
they were con/liets which, he hoped, would continue
to exist. They were conflicts calling into action all
our moial energies as a nation—conflicts for the
furtherance of commerce, the opening a wider field
for labor, and for the advancement of civil and
religious _ liberty. In those conflicts we were
engaged in what was now ^oing on in Biazil, in
China, and in all the islands of the sea. Our navy
was to be found in all parts of the world—flitting
with her white wings, like the water-fowl, in
every sen—striving with noble emulation to outvie
England in all that is good and honorable. Will
you then, he asked, call this navy home-r-will you
send forth the trumpet blast across the mighty deep,
to put a stop to commerce and enterprise, and call
home your navy to contend for a few thousand acres
of wild and unprofitable land beyond the Rocky
mountains? This country, he felt confident, would
pursue no such destructive policy. England and
America were, he contended, the most free and hap-
py countries on the face of the earth. Wherever
good was to be done, the one principle actuated
them; and wherever oppression existed, they were
found redressing it. From that little island went
foi th men and principles which caused a revolution
tin oughout the world: from that holy mission sprang
ioith .seventeen millions .of freemen, now peopling
tiny fertile and happy land. Bring, he said, these
great divisions in mortal conflict, and from that mo-
ment you endanger both English and American lib-
erty. lie. however, anticipated no war; it
was not the interest of eitltw country fo go
id war oil any subject that could be avoided.
War was not our policy. We stand a nation too
gieai, too powerful, with a name too much re-
spected, to require the tinsel glory wluch even suc-
cessful war bestows, it was said the notice sought
to be given by this ie\>olutioji was necessary to pro-
'cct our title, by putting an end to the joint occu-
pancy 11c would not go into the question of title,
l'i;t would consider what effect giving this notice
would have on our title. By the comention of
18i3, it was agieed, after settling- a line there laid
down, that any claim on the northwest coast of
America should be open for ten years, without pie-
jndice to the rights of either. This clause was re-
newed by the convention of 1827, and so remains,
and may lemain without our title being in the slight-
est degree weakened. But let the proposed notice
be given, then both counti ies are thrown on their
title; and as things stand at present, Great Britain
would have decidedly the advantage: she would
have more occupancy; she would have more pos-
session; and the only way to counteract her advan-
i, would be then to meet occupancy with occu-
pancy, possession with possession. This would
be the right course to take, if the interests
of the nation, or the will of the people,
so require. In that case it would be right to
give the proposed notice; but if, on the con-
trary, the interests of the nation, as well as of
the people, called* not for it, how then would the
ease stand? Our title never depended, like that of
England, on occupancy; it rested on a better founda-
tion—that of contiguity, early discovery, and trea-
ties, ceding to us the undisputed right of other na-
tions. Suppose you abrogate the convention, and
follow the notice by the bill to take possession; and
that England will not meef you, but allow you to
proceed, erect stockades and forts, dnd form a set-
tlement, civil and military, at the mouth of the Co-
lumbia: would that settle the boundary either at
49° or 54° 40'? No. The boundary question would
still remain open to be settled by convention. He
did not conceive there was any necessity for the
feverish heat with which gentlemen opposite pressed
on for immediate occupation. He, on the contra-
ry, thought, if any thing could cast a doubt on our
title, it was the avidity with which some persons
seemed to rush on, to establish it by force. This
anxiety expressed a doubt in our own mind of its
validity, and showed us to be afraid of time.
Whereas, viewing the matter in its true light, time
would rather strengthen that title, and give English
improvements, and the fruits of English enterprise,
to the United States.
Mr. M. then proceeded to examine what effect
the proposed action would have on our domestic
policy. The Senator from Illinois had declared his
object, in offering the resolution, to be to prepare
the way for the bill providing for the occupation of
Oregon.
The resolution was, in professional language, a
notice to quit, while the bill was the writ of eject-
ment. This bill proposed to extend our territory
from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific—to possess
and people an area of some thousands of square
miles, guarded and defended throughout by a con-
tinuous line of stockades and forts; and, as an in-
ducement to our citizens, it promised to every male,
over eighteen years, 640 acres, with an additional
160 acres for eveiy wife and child. This was, no
doubt, a magnificent project, full of adventure, and
full of enterprise—an appeal to our love of dominion,
and all the glory fallowing in the train of an Indian
war. But, before the adoption of this chivalric en-
terprise, it would be wise to consider the effects it
would have on the great interests of the country, the
national wealth, the prosperity of the Union, the
habits and character of the people, the public treas-
ury, and our Indian relations. These great ques-
tions, which are not sectional, but national, and in
which the East, West, North, and South, are equal-
ly interested, seem wholly to have been overlooked
by the promoters of the measure.
Mr. M. went on to argue on the injury all these
would sustain by adopting the policy of the gen-
tlemen who advocated possession.
He would not speak of the nature of the country,
whether it was a steril, worthless soil, or a land
flowing with milk or honey. Its occupation in
either case for agricultural purposes must take from
the wealth of the nation ; but if possession was de-
manded by the people, would it not be wise to imi-
tate the children of Israel, who, before proceeding to
take possession of the promised land, sent forward
from among them men commissioned to spy it out,
and report to them its nature. It would be well to
do this before we sent ourpeople to Oregon, where,
although they would not have to dread meeting with
a fiery serpent, they might meet worse in the un-
tutored and revengeful Indian. The land of Ore-
gon was (he contended) a land of reserve, which
never could be profitably occupied by us until we
first settled and fertilized the valley of the Mis-
sissippi.
Whilst the United Stales government holds such
a vast public domain of fertile lands, to bring Ore-
gon now into a state of cultivation would' be like a
farmer beginning with his pooiest soil, directing his
labor and that of his family and servants to the im-
provement of Ins worst lands, neglecting the best
and most fertile. To send our population, or any
part of it, to Oregon, to bestow its labor on a distant
and steril soil, would be acting equally imprudent
with the farmer in the case cited. What wealth
can we gam by the occupancy of Oregon? The pro-
ject is nothing more nor less than a project to make
a distant colony. But what excuse have we For
this, with the vast valley of the Mississippi—with
lands of unequalled fertility, in great part yet unoc-
cupied? He could not see the policy or wisdom of
a farmer passing by the rich lands of the Mississippi
valley, to go into Oregon and waste his labor upon
a steril soil, distant from all markets and civiliza-
tion.
We have an abundance of lands yet to dispose of;
capable of sustaining 100,000,000 of inhabitants.
Our sin had been to waste this abundance. A cru-
sade upon the wilderness has been got up of late
years. Peter the Hermit never congregated such a
number of enthusiastic adventuers as the mania for
emigrating to the West, in search of new lands.
That would all be very well if those lands were to
be occupied, cultivated, and improved. But that is
not the case. They are coveted and bought up for
generations to come. Futurity is to see them occu-
pied and cultivated.
Mr. M. went into statistical statements showing
that 260,000,000 of acres east of the Mississippi are
yet unsold; beyond the Mississippi 700,000,000—
making, in all, 1,000,000,000 yet unappropriated,
belonging either to the government or the Indians.
In the old States there are 30,000,000 of land locked
up and unoccupied. The nine States and Terri-
tories, where the immense body of unoccupied land
lies, contain only 5,000,000 of population. Did
not this leave ample room for all the emigration
wanted by the United States for generations to
come? It had been proved that the advance
of population west, had been by a regular
progress—something like 17| miles a year; at
which rate it would take 100 years yet to get over
our western lands, to the eastern foot of the Rocky
mountains. With all this in view, what possible
utility to the United States could it be to occupy
Oregon with a division of our agricultural popula-
tion? The strength and wealth of a nation did not
consist in having a vast territory of unoccupied
lands; but on the profitable cultivation of its soil,
and the productive industry of its inhabitants. A
country may be weakened and impoverished by too
large an extent of territory, and by endeavoring to
spread its population over too great a space. The
evils of too dense a population, on the other hand,
are, to cause the people to fly off from the govern
ment, and seek out new colonization. The medium
line is the only desirable line.
Mr. M. then showed the rate of population in
this country for each square mile, distinguishing the
ratio of the respective States.
His object was to show that there was no neces-
sity for colonizing Oregon, on the ground of scarci-
ty of lands, or on the ground of too great density
of population.
Looking to our national strength and union, what
would be the effect of colonizing the Columbia
valley? Nature had fixed boundaries and land-
marks for nations. This great extent of territory,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the North to
the South, had been considered by philosophers as
intended by nature for three great nations. He
thought nature had pointed out boundaries for two
nations only—one east of the Rocky mountains,
and the other west. The Alleghany mountains were
not of the same character, and had not all the attri-
butes of national boundaries so strikingly charac-
teristic of the Rocky mountains. Besides, all the
country on this side of the Rocky mountains is our
own, with established boundaries, and connected by
roads, rivers, canals, and railroads. Nobody dis-
putes it with us. We enjoy it in peace, and happi-
ness. Let this country, thus united by nature and
art, be still more knit together by the labor of the
citizens from the north to the south, and from the
east to the west. A shadowing forth of a division
of it into three parts had been made; such a division,
however, never could take place. But he had too
much faith in the patriotism of the senator who drew
the figure to believe lie would even desire such a di-
vision. He was sure that senator would be among
the first to resist it.
This country had enough to do for fifty years to
come, m taking care of and improving the territory
east of the Rocky mountains, and should not dilate
or distract its resources by attempting to carry em-
igration beyond that barrier.
The bill to follow this resolution offers a bounty
for emigration. But what sort of emigration would
it be? It could, in practice, encourage nothing but
the wild spirit.of adventure. No one would go to
Oregon really for agricultural or mercantile purpo-
ses; it could be for nothing but to gratify this spirit
of adventure. There was too much of that spirk
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2367/m1/378/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.