350 CLAIMS OF GREAT BRITAIN. [1826. 



country in which it was made " falls within the provisions of the 

 convention of 1790." They refused to allow that the claims of the 

 United States are strengthened by the exploration of the country 

 through which the Columbia flows, as performed in 1805-6 by 

 Lewis and Clarke, " because, if not before, at least in the same and 

 subsequent years," the agents of the North-West Company had 

 established posts on the northern branch of the river, and were 

 extending them down to its mouth, when they heard of the forma- 

 tion of the American post at that place in 1811.* That the restora- 

 tion of Astoria, in 1818, conveyed a virtual acknowledgment by 

 Great Britain of the title of the United States to the country in 

 which that post is situated, was also denied, on the ground that 

 letters protesting against such title were, at the time of the restora- 

 tion, addressed, by members of the British ministry, to British agents 

 in the United States and on the Columbia.! It is needless to add 

 any thing to what has been already said on these points, in order 

 to prove the entire groundlessness of the assertions contained in the 

 British statement with regard to them. 



The charters granted by the sovereigns of Great Britain and 

 France, conveying to individuals or companies large tracts of terri- 

 tory in America, were represented, by the British plenipotentiaries, 

 as being nothing " more, in fact, than a cession to the grantee or 

 grantees of whatever rights the grantor might suppose himself to 

 possess, to the exclusion of other subjects of the same nation, — 

 binding and restraining those only who were within the jurisdic- 

 tion of the grantor, and of no force or validity against the subjects 

 of other states, until recognized by treaty, and thereby becoming a 

 part of international law." The erroneousness of these views 

 is obvious, and was easily demonstrated by Mr. Gallatin, who 

 showed, by reference to the history of British colonization and 

 dominion in America, that the royal grantors of territories in that 

 continent did consider their charters as binding on all, whether their 

 own subjects or not, and with regard to countries first discovered 

 and settled by people of other nations, whenever they were found 

 to be within the limits thus indicated. These facts were cited, not 

 in vindication of the justice of those grants, but merely to prove 

 in what light they had been regarded by Great Britain : and, if the 

 principle thus assumed by that power, and maintained from 1580 

 to 1782, as relating to Atlantic colonies, were correct, she could not 



* See p. 297. t See p. 310. 



