THE
OREGON QUESTION.
BY
ALBERT GALLATIN.
NEW YORK:
BARTLETT & WELFORD, 7 ASTOR HOUSE.
1846.
R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 112 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK.
THE OREGON QUESTION.
NUMBER I.
I had been a pioneer in collecting facts and stating the case. The onlymaterials within my reach consisted of the accounts of voyagespreviously published, (including that of Maurelle, in Barrington'sMiscellanies), of the varied and important information derived fromHumboldt's New Spain, and of the voyage of the Sutil and Mexicano, theintroduction to which contains a brief official account of the Spanishdiscoveries. The statement of the case was the best I was able to makewith the materials on hand, and may be found defective in many respects.Since that time manuscript journals of several of the voyages have beenobtained at Madrid. New facts have thus been added; others have beenbetter analyzed, and some errors rectified. Arguments which had beenonly indicated have been enforced, and new views have been suggested.The subject, indeed, seems to be exhausted; and it would be difficult toadd anything to the able correspondence between the two Governmentswhich has been lately published.
Ministers charged with diplomatic discussions are not, however, in thoseofficial papers intended for publication, to be considered asphilosophers calmly investigating the questions, with no other objectbut to elicit truth. They are always, to a certain extent, advocates,who use their best endeavors to urge and even strain the[Pg 4] reasons thatmay be alleged in favor of the claims set up by their Governments; andin the same manner to repel, if not to deny, all that may be adduced bythe other party. Such official papers are in fact appeals to publicopinion, and generally published when there remains no hope to concludefor the present an amicable arrangement.
But, though acting in that respect as advocates, diplomatists areessentially ministers of peace, whose constant and primary duty ismutually to devise conciliatory means for the adjustment of conflictingpretensions, for the continuance of friendly relations, for preventingwar, or for the restoration of peace. It has unfortunately happened thaton this occasion, both Governments have assumed such absolute andexclusive grounds as to have greatly increased, at least for thepresent, the obstacles to an amicable arrangement.
It is morally impossible for the bulk of the people of any countrythoroughly to investigate a subject so complex as that of the respectiveclaims to the Oregon territory; and, for obvious reasons, it is muchless understood by the great mass of the population in England than inthe United States. Everywhere, when the question is between the countryand a foreign nation, the people at large, impelled by natural andpatriotic feelings, will rally around their Government. For theconsequences that may ensue, those who are entrusted with the directionof the foreign relations are alone responsible. Whatever may be thecause, to whomsoever the result may be ascribed, it appears from thegeneral style of the periodical press, that, with few exceptions, thepeople, both in Great Britain and in the United States, are imbued withthe bel