310 PRETENDED RESERVATION OF THE BRITISH. [1818. 



above-mentioned treaty. The British flag was then formally low- 

 ered, and that of the United States, having been hoisted in its stead 

 over the fort, was saluted by the Blossom. 



The documents above cited — the only ones which passed 

 between the commissioners on this occasion — are sufficient to 

 show that no reservation or exception was made on the part of Great 

 Britain, and that the restoration of Astoria to the United States 

 was complete and unconditional. Nevertheless, in a negotiation 

 between the governments of those nations, in 1826, relative to the 

 territories of the Columbia, it was maintained by the plenipoten- 

 tiaries of Great Britain,* that the restoration of Astoria could not 

 have been legally required by the United States, in virtue of the 

 treaty of Ghent, because the place was not a national possession, 

 nor a military post, and was not taken during war ; but " in order 

 that not even the shadow of a reflection might be cast upon the good 

 faith of the British government, the latter determined to give the 

 most liberal extension to the terms of the treaty of Ghent; and 

 in 1818, the purchase which the British Company had made in 

 1813 was restored to the United States ; particular care being, 

 however, taken, on this occasion, to prevent any misapprehension as 

 to the extent of the concession made by Great Britain." In support 

 of this last assertion, two documents are produced, as having been 

 addressed, in 1818, by the British ministers to their own agents, and 

 which, though never before published, or communicated in any way to 

 the United States, were considered by the plenipotentiaries, in 1826, 

 as putting the " case of the restoration of Fort Astoria in too clear 

 a light to require further observation." One of these documents is 

 presented as an extract from Lord Castlereagh's despatch to Mr. 

 Bagot, dated February 4th, 1818, in which his lordship says, "You 

 will observe, that whilst this government is not disposed to contest 

 with the American government the point of possession, as it stood 

 in the Columbia River, at the moment of the rupture, they are not 

 prepared to admit the validity of the title of the government of the 

 United States to this settlement. In signifying, therefore, to Mr. 

 Adams the full acquiescence of your government in the reoccupa- 

 tion of the limited position which the United States held in that 

 river at the breaking out of the war, you will, at the same time, assert, 

 in suitable terms, the claim of Great Britain to that territory, upon 

 which the American settlement must be considered an encroach- 



* Statement presented by the British plenipotentiaries to Mr. Gallatin, among the 

 Proofs and Illustrations, letter H. See hereafter, chap. xvi. 



