22-i THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



iiortliwcst coast of Aincrica, Vancouver's Island and 

 British Columbia can not ever be of special in)j)or- 

 tauce to her cither as a military post or as a colony. 

 Nor can they be of any militanj advantage to tho 

 Canadian Dominion, and may, on the contrary, con- 

 stitute in her hands a temptation to needless expense 

 in fortifications, notwithstanding which, owing to tho 

 remoteness of those countries by land and tlieir in- 

 accessibility to her by sea, the Dominion would find 

 them ([uite untenal)lo in the j)resence of the jiowerful 

 American States on the shores of the Pa^ilic Ocean. 



To the United States, on the other hand, it is im- 

 j)()rtant to have had the question decided in our favoi*. 

 Wo are now a real j)osver on the Pacific coast, which 

 Great 15ritain is not and can not Ije. Holding tho 

 Territory of Alaska to the north of the British pos- 

 sessions, the Territory of Washington, the State of 

 Oregon, and the great and rich State of California 

 ceded to us by the ^lexican Bepublic, with the grow- 

 ing States and Territories on their rear, it would have 

 been to us intolerable to be excluded from the great 

 channel between Vancouver's Island and the. main- 

 land, or to traverse it only \uider the guns of British 

 fortresses on that island. Such a settlement would 

 liave had in it tho germs of war: the present affords 

 assurance of stable peace. 



lla]ii)ily the United States and Great Britain are 

 now delivered from the complications in their rela- 

 tions occasioned by the e2*orbitant power of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company. By other provisions of the same 

 Treaty of 184G, the United States had made to Great 



