1815.] THE UNITED STATES CLAIM ASTORIA. 307 



States, and the right of navigating it to the sea ; but the Americans 

 refused positively to agree to such a stipulation, and the question 

 of boundaries west of the Lake of the Woods was left unsettled by 

 the treaty. 



It was nevertheless agreed, in the first article of the treaty of 

 Ghent, that " all territory, places, and possessions, whatsoever, taken 

 by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken 

 after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter 

 mentioned, [in the Bay of Fundy,] shall be restored without delay ; " 

 and, in virtue of this article, Mr. Monroe, the secretary of state of 

 the United States, on the 18th of July, 1815, announced to Mr. 

 Baker, the charge d'affaires of Great Britain at Washington, that 

 the president intended immediately to reoccupy the post at the 

 mouth of the Columbia. This determination seems to have been 

 taken partly at the instance of Mr. Astor, who was anxious, if pos- 

 sible, to recommence operations on his former plan in North- West 

 America ; but no measures were adopted for the purpose until 

 September, 1817, when Captain J. Biddle, commanding the sloop 

 of war Ontario, and Mr. J. B. Prevost, were jointly commissioned 

 to proceed in that ship to the mouth of the Columbia, and there 

 ^to assert the claim of the United States to the sovereignty of the 

 adjacent country, in a friendly and peaceable manner, and without 

 the employment of force." * 



A few days after the departure of Messrs. Biddle and Prevost for 

 the Pacific, on this mission, Mr. Bagot, the British plenipotentiary 

 at Washington, addressed to Mr. J. Q,. Adams, the American 

 secretary of state, some inquiries respecting the destination of the 

 Ontario, and the objects of her voyage ; and, having been informed 

 on those points, he remonstrated against the intended occupation 

 of the post at the mouth of the Columbia, on the grounds " that 

 the place had not been captured during the late war, but that the 

 Americans had retired from it, under an agreement with the North- 

 West Company, which had purchased their effects, and had ever 

 since retained peaceable possession of the coast ; " and that " the 

 territory itself was early taken possession of in his majesty's name, 

 and had been since considered as forming part of his majesty's 

 dominions ; " under which circumstances, no claim for the restitution 

 of the post could be founded on the first article of the treaty of 

 Ghent. At what precise time this possession was taken, or on 



* See President Monroe's message to Congress of April 15th, 1822, and the accom- 

 panying documents, 



