240 John H. Mitchell—Oregon 
While making no pretensions as an historian, I confess I am 
still less a geographer; therefore what I shall have to say this 
evening will perhaps be more historical than geographic in its 
nature and would perhaps be more appropriate before an histor- 
ical than a geographic society. 
Discovery and Acquisition of Title. 
The Oregon of today, though one of the American states, 
clothed with all the attributes of that sovereignty which attaches 
to statehood, is widely different in respect to territorial extent, 
as also in very many other respects, from the Oregon of a century 
ago. Although the present state of Oregon includes within its 
boundaries an area of 30,000 square miles more than that in- 
cluded in the whole of the six New England states, it is buta 
fraction less than one-fifth in size of the original Oregon terri- 
tory as claimed at first by Spain and subsequently by the 
United States. Out of that territory, after losing about 200,000 
square miles by compromise, has been carved three great states 
and a large portion of a fourth, namely, Oregon, Washington, 
Idaho, and a part of Montana. 
The history of the various titles under which our government 
asserted claim to the territory of Oregon in the prolonged diplo- 
matic contest with Great Britain for the supremacy is interest- 
ing in the highest degree. Our title was of a triple character : 
First. Discovery and settlement by Spain, to which title we 
succeeded. . 
Second. Discovery in our own right in 1792, followed by scien- 
tific exploration and actual settlement. 
Third. Cession from France of the Louisiana territory. 
For nearly three centuries prior to 1790 Spain had been mak- 
ing claim, on account of alleged discovery, to all of Oregon 
territory extending from the forty-second degree of northern 
latitude not only to 54° 40’ but to the sixty-first parallel, and 
extending from Pacific ocean eastward to the central heights of 
the Rocky mountains. It was in dimensions a vast empire. Its 
geographic extent was about 760 miles from north to south and 
about 650 from east to west, embracing an area of about 494,000 
square miles, or seven and one-half times greater than all of the 
six New England States put together, two and one-half times as 
Jarge as the whole of Spain and more than 50,000 square miles 
more than all of Spain, France and Portugal combined. 
