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CHAPTER XVI. 



1820 to 1828. 



Bill reported by a Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, 

 for the Occupation of the Columbia River — Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, with 

 Regard to the North Pacific Coasts — Negotiations between the Governments of Great 

 Britain, Russia, and the United States — Conventions between the United States 

 and Russia, and between Great Britain and Russia — Further Negotiations between 

 the United States and Great Britain relative to the North- West Coasts — Indefinite 

 Extension of the Arrangement for the joint Occupancy of the Territories west of 

 the Rocky Mountains, by the British and the Americans. 



Before 1820, little, if any thing, relative to the countries west of 

 the Rocky Mountains had been said in the Congress of the United 

 States ; and those countries had excited very little interest among 

 the citizens of the federal republic in general. 



In December of that year, however, immediately after the ratifica- 

 tion of the Florida treaty by Spain, a resolution was passed by the 

 House of Representatives in Congress, on the motion of Mr. Floyd, 

 of Virginia — " that an inquiry should be made, as to the situation 

 of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and as to the expediency 

 of occupying the Columbia River." The committee to which this 

 resolution was referred, presented, in January following, a long 

 report, containing a sketch of the history of colonization in Amer- 

 ica, with an account of the fur trade in the northern and north- 

 western sections of the continent, and a description of the country 

 claimed by the United States ; from all which are drawn the con- 

 clusions, — that the whole territory of America bordering upon the 

 Pacific, from the 41st degree of latitude to the 53d, if not to the 

 60th, belongs of right to the United States, in virtue of the purchase 

 of Louisiana from France, in 1803, of the acquisition of the titles of 

 Spain by the Florida treaty, and of the discoveries and settlements 

 of American citizens ; — that the trade of this territory in furs and 

 other articles, and the fisheries on its coasts, might be rendered 

 highly productive ; and — that these advantages might be secured 

 to citizens of the United States exclusively, by establishing " small 

 trading guards" on the most north-eastern point of the Missouri, 



