1843.] CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONVENTION OF 1827. 389 



take precautions for their defence against attacks from those 

 savages, by military organization among themselves, and by the 

 erection of the fortifications necessary for that special purpose ; 

 and it here again became the duty of the contracting parties to 

 settle by compact the manner in which their governments might 

 jointly or separately aid their people in such defence. 



As the advantages offered to the citizens or subjects of the two 

 nations are not denned, the terms of the convention relating to 

 them are to be understood in their most extensive favorable sense ; 

 including the privileges, not only of fishing, hunting, and trading 

 with the natives, but also of clearing and cultivating the ground, 

 and using or disposing of the products of such labor in any 

 peaceful way, and of making any buildings, dams, dikes, canals, 

 bridges, roads, &c, which the private citizens or subjects of the 

 parties might make in their own countries ; under no other restric- 

 tions or limitations than those contained in the clause of the con- 

 vention providing for the freedom and openness of the territory 

 and waters, or those which might be imposed by the respective 

 governments. 



This appears to be the amount of the permissions, requirements, 

 and prohibitions, of the convention ; and, had the two governments 

 done all that is here demanded, no difficulties could have been 

 reasonably apprehended — so long, at least, as the territory in ques- 

 tion remains thinly peopled. These things, however, have not all 

 been done ; not only has no supplementary compact been made 

 between the two nations, but the government of the United States 

 has neglected to secure the protection of their laws to their citi- 

 zens, who have thus, doubtless, in part, been prevented from 

 drawing advantages from the convention equal to those long since 

 enjoyed by British subjects, under the security of the prompt and 

 efficient measures of their government. 



If this view of the existing convention between the United 

 States and Great Britain, relative to the territory west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, be correct, and embrace all its permissions and 

 prohibitions, neither of the parties could be justified, during the 

 subsistence of the agreement, in ordering the erection of forts at 

 the mouth of the Columbia, where they certainly are not required 

 for protection against any third power, and in promising to secure 

 large tracts of land in that territory, by patent, to its citizens or 

 subjects. Had the bill passed by the Senate in 1843 become a 

 law, the convention would from that moment have been virtually 



