384 DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. [1843. 



into effect ; all its other provisions he regarded favorably, and he 

 was resolved to contribute, so far as lay in his power, to the main- 

 tenance of all the rights of the United States which could be 

 exercised conformably with the convention of 1827. He believed 

 the possession of the countries of the Columbia to be important to 

 the United States in many respects ; but that the period was not 

 come when their occupation should be attempted at the risk of a 

 war with the most powerful nation of the earth. Time, he con- 

 sidered, would do more for the United States than they could do 

 by immediate action themselves: the advance of their citizens over 

 the western regions had been already rapid beyond all the calcu- 

 lations of the most sanguine statesmen ; no extraordinary means 

 were required from their government to accelerate it. He was 

 desirous to give to the bill all the attention which its importance 

 required ; and he hoped that it would be recommitted to the 

 committee on foreign relations, whose report would doubtless 

 throw additional light on the subject. 



Mr. Benton entered at length into the history of discovery and 

 settlement on the west coasts of North America ; reviewing, at the 

 same time, the various conventions between civilized nations with 

 regard to it. He considered the right of the United States to 

 the whole territory, as far north as the 49th parallel of latitude, 

 to be determined by the possession of Louisiana, the northern 

 boundary of which he asserted to have been fixed at that parallel, 

 by commissaries appointed agreeably to the treaty of Utrecht. 

 He painted in glowing colors the agricultural advantages of the 

 territory, which he regarded as inferior in that respect to none in 

 the world, and the importance of its rivers, which were, in his 

 view, destined to serve as the channels for the conveyance of the 

 teas and silks of China to the Atlantic regions of both continents. 

 He strongly recommended the passage of the bill, and he was 

 prepared for war, if necessary, rather than surrender any portion 

 of the country in question. 



Mr. Choate opposed the provision in the bill for grants of land ; 

 but in all other particulars he was entirely in favor of it. He con- 

 tended that, agreeably to the convention of 1827, still subsisting, 

 neither government, as a government, could do any thing to divest 

 the citizens or subjects of the other of the enjoyment of the 

 common freedom of the country ; and if the subjects or citizens 

 of either made establishments there, they did so at their own 

 risk, and neither government was called to interfere. If this bill 



