Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Twentieth Congress Page: 151
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OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
151
Dec. 31, 1828.]
Occupancy of the Oregon River.
[H. or R.
"which composed so valuable a branch of their foreign corn
inei-ce, carried to Great Britain, and swelling up, with the
exportation from Quebec, the quantity ofthose commodities
imported into England, to the prodigious amount of six mil-
lions of dollars annually. The large profits on that vast
sum, would thus be lost to the Union, and contribute,
through the folly and fatuity of America, to the enrichment
of foreigners. It was necessary for him, at that protracted
period of the debate, to allude to points, which, viewed in
connexion with the great objects of the bill, were, perhaps,
of trivial moment; or, he might speak to them of the valu-
able produce of the fishery in the Columbia river, and
its harbor and bay. In the article of salmon alone, it was
an incontrovertible feet, that it could furnish sufficient for
the supply of more than fifty thousand men. In conclusion,
he expressed a fear that he had well nigh exhausted their
patience. He had, to the utmost extent of liis feeble pow-
ers, endeavored to place the subject before them in its
true and proper light, and to found the arguments which
he had adduced in support of his view of the question
upon a firm and solid basis. Whether he had succeeded
the attempt, to the conviction of the committee, as to the
expediency of adopting- the proposed measure, it was for
them to say; if so, as he would fain flatter himself was the
case, it remained for the House to act upon the bill before
them.
Mr. FLOYD subsequently submitted to the House
chart of the river and the country in its immediate vicinity,
which he had received from the Secretary of the Navy.
Mr. BATES, of Missouri, rose, and said he was right
glad that the gentleman from South Carolina [Sir. Diiay-
ton] had thought proper to offer his amendment. It
meets [said Mr. B.] my views in the most essential particu-
lar, and removes many of my objections to the bill. In-
deed, when I first had the honor of addressing the Com-
mittee, I suggested the propriety of substituting for the
original bill a scientific exploration of that immense re-
gion, of which we yet know so little. Many positive ad-
vantages might be gained to the nation from such an ex-
ploration, and we should at least be saved from the proba-
ble evils attendant upon a leap in the dark. As yet, we
know little of the geography of that extensive country,
and almost nothing of its topography and geological pe-
culiarities. The natives, too, are strangers to us. We
are very imperfectly informed as to their localities, their
numbers, their tempers, whether peaceful or warlike,
and their general character and habits; and I consider it
of great importance that we should acquire a competent,
fund of knowledge oil these particular subjects of inquiry,
before we attempt the establishment of social and civil in-
stitutions among- them. My objections to the military oc-
cupation of the country are fewer, and of a less decided
character, than to the establishment of a territorial go-
vernment, and the extension of our civil polity there. The
former may be a dangerous, and certainly will be an ex-
pensive. experiment; but the latter is, in my judgment,
pregnant with evils of an alarming character: for I should
consider it nothing short of an entering wedge to a system
of foreign colonization. But, if the country must be gar-
risoned by our troops, the amendment seems to me objec-
tionable, in requiring the forts to be established on the coast.
[Mr- DRAYTON explained, lie said his amendment
was misconceived: it was not imperative as to the location
of the forts, but left the question of locality subject to the
discretion of the President.]
Mr. BATES proceeded. I am glad it is so: 1 understood
it otherwise when read by the Clerk. If the object of
the military occupation be the. protection of the, fur trade,
it seems to me that the coast is an improper location of
the troops: for, if I am rightly informed, most of that traf-
fic is carried on far in the interior, on the tributary branch-
es of the Columbia, and in the distant valleys of the moun-
tains. Some of the outposts were, formerly, at. least
twelve hundred miles from Astoria. These outposts must
be, in a greater or less degree, fortified^ not, indeed, by
works capable of resisting the assaults of English or Rus-
sian cannon, but in a manner strong enough to repel the
attacks of the ignorant and ill-armed savages that surround
them. It is at these interior positions that the fur is colj
lected from the Indians, and afterwards concentrated at
the mouth of the river for exportation. A party for the
interior exploration of the country of the Columbia/
should be composed of very different materials, and or^
ganized in a very different manner, from one destined to
make an examination and survey of the coast. Indeed,,
the latter is wholly unnecessary: for the coast is already
known in its general aspcct, and 1 believe every bay and
harbor, from Cape Disappointment to Cook's Inlet, has
been surveyed and sounded. Not so with the interior;-
of that we are still lamentably ignorant/
Mr. B. said that he should have forborhe any further'
remark upon this subject, but he felt called upon te make'
a brief reply to some observations of the gentleman from
Virginia, the original mover of the proposition, [Mr.
I-do vit] who seemed to have misunderstood him in several
respects, and, in his argument, to have confounded sever-
al matters that had no necessary connexion with each
other. Any man, said Mr. 11. at all acquainted with the
Northwest section of this continent, or with the routes
commonly followed by the fur traders, and other explor-
ers of that extended region, must know that the country,
as a whole, is very imperfectly known, and that every
general characteristic description ought, in common jus-
tice, to be received subject to many petty exceptions. If,
therefore, the gentleman from Virginia had succeeded in
showing that there are some exceptions to the steril and
inhospitable character of the country, it would avail him
nothing in the argument. He might, prove a thousand lit-
tle green spots, at distant intervals, in that extensive de-
sert, and still the country would remain a barren and
cheerless waste—still my account of it would remain un-
impeached. I believe it is perfectly just, and I know it
is in accordance with the most respectable testimony.
The gentleman from Virginia has recently received
from General Clark what he considers a favorable ac-
count of the. Oregon country. General Clark is a good
witness on this subject, and I take it for granted that his
best evidence is embodied in his book, Lewis and Clark's
Travels; for the facts there related are ascertained by oc-
cular observation. Examine that book, sir, and you will
find a most appalling description of the country. They
say that the only good land for cultivation, in the valley
of Columbia, is sufficient, to support about forty thousand
agriculturists! And i have it on the authority of Mr. Hunt,
a gentleman surpassed by few in intelligence, and by none
in respectability, that even this meagre exception is sub-
ject to annual inundation in May and June.
The gentleman is utterly mistaken in his version of the
information which I gave the committee, as derived from
my enterprising townsman, General Ashley. His route
lies far south of the. sources of the Columbia. Cross-
ing the range of the Rocky Mountain, where it subsides
almost into a plain, presenting- few obstacles to wheel car-,
riag-es, and none to pack horses, he makes his trading
post at the Great Salt Lake, which I suppose to be the
reservoir of the Konaventura. I am sorry the gentleman
did not listen to my former remarks more attentively. If
he had, he would not have confounded what I said of an
exploring trip of one of Ashley's men from the Salt Lake,
southwest, towards the Gulf of California, with the de-
scription which I attempted of the gloomy mountains and
pathless valleys of the Oregon—valleys which, I say
again, and on the best authority, are impracticable for
horses or mules—valleys where the natives travel on the
water, and live .in the earth.
The gentleman from Virginia has so long and so zea-
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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 Twentieth Congress, book, 1830; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30754/m1/155/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.