Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress Page: 711
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711
GALES & BEATON'S "REGISTER
712
Senate.}
Occupation of the Oregon River.
[March 1, 1825.
buried it, and presented four feet of smooth water, wh sre,
in the afasense of the flood, there was a pitch of thirty-
eight. The passage through the mountains was free
from difficulty. For eight months in the year, snow and
sleighs could be relied upon. From the foot of the
mountains issued the Missouri river, navigable, without
the slightest obstruction, to its junction with the Missis-
sippi, two thousand five hundred and seventy-five mea-
sured miles, Mr. B. then adverted to two circumstances,
which would facilitate the introduction of East India
goods upon the line of the Columbia and Missouri rivers:
first, the goods to be introduced were of little weight,
small bulk, and great value ; secondly, the river to be
ascended was short, the one to be descended was long:
And he expressed the most confident belief, that, with-
in one year after the occupation of the Columbia, the
rich productions of the East Indies would flow into the
valley of the Mississippi, upon this new and truly nation-
al route.
5. But the greatest of all advantages to be derived
from the occupation of this country, is in the exclusion
of foreign powers from it. It is a country too great and
too desirable, to remain longer without civilized inhabi-
tants. In extent, soil, and climate, it is superior to the
old thirteen United Stntes. In 1804, it was written by
Humboldt, " that the banks of the Columbia invites Eu-
ropeans to found a fine colony there, for its banks afford
fertile land in abundance, covered with superb timber."
In 1805 Russia attempted to colonize it; but the ship
destined for that purpose, and carrying the Emperor's
chamberlain, and ambassador to Japan and China, the
Count Kesanoff, missed the mouth of the river, went
down upon the coast of California, and there commenced
a settlement. England now has her iron grasp upon it,
and it will require a vigorous effort of policy, and per-
haps of arms, to break her hold. Even if foreign pow-
ers had no desire to aggrandize themselves with this pos-
session, mere adventurers might enter upon it, as JEneas
entered upon the Tyber, and as our forefathers came
upon the Potomac, the Delaware, and the Hudson, and
renew the phenomenon of mere individuals laying the
foundation of a future empire. In the mean time, onr
President has proclaimed the principle, and the whole
nation has responded to it, that no part of this continent
is open to European colonization ; but what signifies the
proclamation of a just and noble principle, unless it is
supported by money and arms! When have the rights
pf nations been respected, merely because they were
just ? When has an individual, or a sovereign power,
gained respect or justice for itself, by a pusillanimous
desertion of their own rights?
Mr. B. proceeded to the next inquiry, The effect
which the occupation of the Columbia would have upon
this Unicn.
On this point he could speak for himself only, but he
would speak without reserve. lie believed that the
Union of these states would not be jeoparded by the
occupation of that river, but that it would be the means
of planting1 the germ of a new and independent power,
beyond the Rocky Mountains. There was a beginning,
and a natural progress in the order of all things. The
military post on the Columbia would be the liuceus of a
settlement. Farmers, traders, and artisans, would collect
about it. When arrived at some degree of strength and
population, the young society would sicken of a military
government, and sigh for the establishment of a civil au-
thority. A territorial government obtained, the full en-
joyment of state rights would next be demanded ; and,
these acquired, loud clamors would soon be heard against
the hardship of coming so far to the seat of Government.
All this would be in the regular order of events, and the
consequence should he foreseen and provided for. This
Republic should have limits. The present occasion does
not require me to say where these limits should be found
on the North and South ; but they are fixed by the
hand of nature, and posterity will neither lack sense to
see, nor resolution to step up to them. Westward, we
can speak without reserve, and the ridge of the Rocky
Mountains may be named without offence, as presenting
a convenient, natural, and everlasting boundary. Along
the back of this ridge, the Western limit of this republic
should be drawn, and the statue of the fabled god, Ter-
minus, should be raised upon its highest peak, never to
be thrown down. In planting the seed of a new pov. er
on the coast of the Pacific ocean, it should be well un-
derstood that, when strong enough to take care of itself,
the new Government should separate from the mother
Empire, as the child separates from the parent at the
age of manhood. The heights of the Rocky Mountains
should divide their possessions ; and the mother Repub-
lic would find herself indemnified for her cares and ex-
pense about the infant power, in the use of a post in the
Pacific Ocean, the protection of her interests in that sea,
the enjoyment of the fur trade, the control of the In-
dians, the exclusion of a monarchy from her border, the
frustration of the hostile schemes of Great Britain, and,
above all, in the erection of a new Republic, composed
of her children, speaking her language, inherit ing her
principles, devoted to liberty and equality, and ready to
stand by her side against the combined powers of the
old world. Gentlemen may think that this is looking
rather deep into the chapter of futurity ; but the contra-
ry is the fact. The view I take is both near and clear.
Within a century from this day, a population, greater
than that of the present United States, will exist on the
West side of the Rocky Mountains. I do not deal in
paradoxes, but in propositions as easily demonstrated as
the problems in Euclid. Here, then, is the demonstra-
tion : Dividing our portion of this continent into five
equal parts, and there will be found, in the valley of the
Mississippi, three parts; on the East side of the Alle-
gany Mountains one part, on the West of the Rocky
Mountains, one part. Population will distribute itself
accordingly ; three parts in the valley, and one part on
each of the appurtenant slopes. Within a century, the
population of the whole will be one hundred and sixty
millions; of which a hundred millions will drink the wa-
ters which flow into the Mississippi, and sixty millions
will be found upon the lateral streams which flow, East
and West, towards the rising and the setting sun. The
calculation is reducible to mathematical precision. We
double our numbers once in twenty-five years, and
must continue to do so until the action of the proli-
fic principle in man shall be checked by the same cause
which checks it in every race of animals—the stint of
food. This cannot happen with us until every acre of
our generous soil shall be put in requisition ; until the
product of more than a thousand millions of acres shall
be insufficient to fill the mouths which feed upon them.
This will require more people than a century can pro-
duce, even at the rate of doubling once in twenty-five
years ; a rate which will give us one hundred and sixty
millions in the year 1920 : that is to say, twenty millions
more than the Roman Empire contained in the time of
Augustus Cssar. A century is but a point in the age of
a nation. The life of an individual often spans it; and
many are the children now born, who will see the year
1920, and the accomplishment of the great events which
their nurses believe to be impossible.
Upon the people of Eastern Asia, the establishment
of a civilized power upon the opposite coast of America,
could not fail to produce great and wonderful benefits.
Science, liberal principles in government, and the true
religion, might cast their lights across the intervening
sea. The valley of the Columbia might become the
granary of China and Japan, and an outlet to their im-
prisoned and exuberant population. The inhabitants of
the oldest and the newest, the most despotic and the
freest Governments, would become the neighbors, and,
peradvenlure, the friends of each other. They have
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress, book, 1825; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30752/m1/360/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.