§ The Earl of ClarendonI yesterday gave notice that I should bring the subject of the Oregon Territory under the consideration of the House; and I did so in those terms, not because I propose to enter into the question, or to occupy the time of your Lordships at any length, but because it has recently appeared to be the wish of your Lordships, in compliance with a suggestion which proceeded from the noble Duke opposite, that the practice of putting questions to the Government, or, as it was termed, of making speeches not meant to conclude with a formal Motion, should be abandoned; and I have no intention of departing from any rule which your Lordships may see fit to adopt upon this subject although I myself can see no inconvenience in the practice. On the contrary, it seems to me the most simple mode of 116 obtaining the information which your Lordships are justified in asking of the Government, or the country has a right to possess, upon matters of public interest, with regard to which Papers or Correspondence may not exist, or when their production might be inconvenient. If, however, my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs prefers, either in conformity with what is to be an established rule of this House, or because it would be more satisfactory to your Lordships and the country, that Papers should be laid upon the Table, I shall be prepared to move for them; but whether or not this course be adopted, I am sure your Lordships will consider that we should not be performing our duty if we did not avail ourselves of the earliest opportunity of calling the attention of Her Majesty's Government to the Inaugural Address of the President of the United States, and of asking from my noble Friend such information as he may think it consistent with his duty to give upon that part of the President's Address which has a direct and immediate bearing upon British interests. With respect to the annexation of Texas, announced in the President's Speech, as it may be said to bear but remotely upon British interests, and as our rights in a case so unprecedented, and the obligations of Texas towards us may not as yet be clearly defined or understood, I shall not think it necessary to trouble your Lordships at the present moment, beyond the expression of my surprise and deep regret that a body of men so just and enlightened as those who usually compose the Senate of the United States should have sanctioned a measure which was brought about by such unwarrantable means, which will be so deeply injurious to the cause of humanity, and which may at no distant period endanger the peaceful relations of the United States: for the restless and encroaching people by whom Texas is henceforward to be inhabited will not long be content without gratifying the national taste for a boundary quarrel, or establishing a case for war with Mexico, which they may rest assured will, in this quarter of the world, not be viewed with indifference. It is, however, with the Oregon Territory that we are immediately concerned; and it is most important we should know in what position we really stand in reference to that question; and what course Her Majesty's Government 117 will be prepared to adopt under circumstances which seem but too probable from the extraordinary tone of the President's Address, and the apparently studied neglect of that courtesy and deferential language which the Governments of different countries are wont to observe when publicly treating of international questions. It is hardly possible to believe that any negotiations upon this subject are pending, or that they have ever been commenced or even proposed, if we are to draw from the President's Speech the inference which it must naturally suggest; for not only does he not make the slightest allusion to them, but he formally announces that the right of the Americans to the Oregon Territory is clear and unquestionable: and it is consequently difficult to understand upon what ground he could justify to the citizens of the United States the right of their Government to negotiate at all upon a matter not doubtful; for whatever predilection they may have for acquiring what does not belong to them, they certainly exhibit none for giving up what is indisputably their own; and if their Government accordingly did consent to negotiate, it would seem that it could only be upon the basis that England was unconditionally to surrender her pretensions to whatever might be claimed by the United States. In short, the whole question is treated by the President as one completely settled—as if all negotiations were concluded, or none had ever been contemplated; and he announces that the wives and children of their citizens are now on their way to occupy the territory. I say this is the only deduction which it would be possible for a person ignorant of the circumstances—and the great majority of the people of this country are ignorant of the circumstances—to draw from the President's Speech; but on the other hand it is so much more imposssible for us here to believe that Her Majesty's Government should have neglected this question, knowing as they must its importance, and the excitement which for a long time past has prevailed upon it in the United States; it is so impossible that they should not have used their best endeavours to bring it to a satisfactory and amicable adjustment, that I am sure my noble Friend will be desirous either now on the present occasion, or by the production of such correspondence as he may think proper, to 118 satisfy the people of England that their rights have not been neglected, and that they will be upheld. As regards the past and the future the public are entitled to this information; and it is for the purpose of obtaining it, and satisfying the great and natural anxiety which prevails upon the subject, that I have taken the liberty of occupying your Lordships' time for a few moments. I do not consider this a fitting opportunity for discussing the justice of the British claims to the Oregon Territory; but I will, with your Lordships' permission, say a very few words upon them, in order to render more intelligible the nature and extent of the President's assumption. In the first place, as far as discovery can be said to constitute a claim, ours is clearly the indisputable one; for Sir Francis Drake first visited that part of the country in 1578, and found all the land north of the thirty-eighth parallel of latitude unappropriated; he took possession of it, and gave to it the name of New Albion. This, however, cannot really be said to constitute a claim, as we made no settlement there till the year 1792; when, after the dispute respecting the British vessels seized by Spain at Nootka, it was agreed by the Convention of the Escurial in 1790 that the subjects of the respective contracting parties should not be molested in navigating, fishing, or making settlements in parts not already occupied. In 1792, Vancouver took possession of the country adjacent to the thirty-ninth parallel of latitude, and of the Columbia river, which he is believed to have explored for 100 miles from its mouth. In 1813, the North West Company was established at Fort St. George, and an authorized Colony of British subjects, governed by British laws, occupied the country on the River Columbia; it was the first of a national and legal character recognizable as such by foreign nations, and it continues there to this day. Now the claim of the American Government is derived originally from the sale of Louisiana by Napoleon to them in 1803 for eleven millions of dollars. France had nothing but Louisiana to sell; but nevertheless there was inserted in the Treaty—having for its object to define the boundaries of Louisiana—a reference to a perfectly undefined line to the Pacific, having no definable boundary to the north or south or on the east. In the Treaty, however, with Spain in 1819, called the Florida Treaty, this undefined line was 119 then defined to run from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific to the forty-second parallel of latitude (Spain never having occupied any point north of Cape Mendocino, in latitude forty-one degrees); and a sweeping clause was introduced by which Spain ceded all claim to territory lying north of such boundary, which had never belonged to her; and the Americans then contended that we had no right to territory north of the forty-second degree of latitude, because Spain alone had a right to cede it, although we had formally taken possession of it in 1792 under our Treaty with Spain and the North West Company, and a legally established Colony had been in the occupation of it since 1813. In 1818, a Convention was ratified between Great Britain and the United States, by which a northern boundary line was agreed upon, and that the country westward—I beg your Lordships to mark this—of the Rocky Mountains, should be free and open for the term of ten years to the vessels and subjects of both Powers, without prejudice to the claim of either country; and in 1827, another Convention was signed, renewing the provisions of the one of 1818, and extending it for an indefinite period until either party should annul it on giving a year's notice. Yet it is in this state of things—and I say nothing of subsequent or pending negotiations—that the President of the United States, by the very first act of his administration, thinks himself justified in announcing that it is his duty to assert and maintain the right of the United States to the territory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains—that their title to the country of Oregon is clear and unquestionable—that the people are already preparing to perfect that title by occupying it with their wives and children—and that to the Government belonged the duty of adequately protecting them, and extending to them the jurisdiction of American law and the benefits of republican institutions in the distant countries which they have selected for their homes; and which by the increasing facilities of communication must soon be brought within the sphere of the Federative Union. I rejoice to think that the whole question is viewed in a far different spirit here—that we are influenced by no desire for territorial aggrandizement; but that we are actuated by a sincere love of peace, and the most friendly feeling towards the people of the United States. 120 As far as I am acquainted with the circumstances, I believe no assertion is made that our own case is free from all doubt, and I am sure there will be no want of readiness to concede whatever can be justly claimed by the Americans; but on the other hand I am equally sure that the people of this country will be determined not to yield their own undeniable rights to encroachment, or clamour, or menace; and although I doubt not that my noble Friend will leave no efforts untried to bring the question to an amicable issue, yet if those efforts should unfortunately prove ineffectual, I trust that Her Majesty's Government will not shrink from adopting that course which may become necessary for vindicating the national honour and protecting the national interests.
§ The Earl of AberdeenMy Lords, I think it is perfectly natural that in such a conjuncture as the present, the noble Lord should reasonably expect to receive such information from Her Majesty's Government as they in the discharge of their duty may feel it possible to give. And I am far from objecting to the course of putting questions to Ministers upon any matter of public importance—certainly not on one of such paramount interest as this. My Lords, if I followed my own inclination in this matter, I should be disposed at once to lay on the Table of the House every part of the negotiation which has taken place upon this subject from the period of the Treaty of Washington up to the present day; and I am sure that, if I did so, I should not only receive from the candour of my noble Friend opposite an opinion approving the course which has been pursued, but I might fearlessly appeal to the public at large, and to the whole of Europe, for its confirmation. A time may come when such a course may possibly be necessary: at present, it would clearly be unsuitable and impolitic. I could wish for an opportunity of explaining a little more at length the state of this question, as affects the interests and the claims of Great Britain to the disputed territory. The noble Lord has cursorily described the claims of this country and of the United States with sufficient accuracy, as far as he has gone. They, however, would admit of a much more detailed examination; and although I might now enter into that examination without injury to the public service, I feel that I could not do it without inconvenience to your Lordships; and this also I think it better to defer to a future occasion. I shall, therefore, only address 121 myself to the inquiry of my noble Friend. I wish to state, that the negotiation which has taken place, and which is still pending, upon this subject, was commenced immediately after the signing of the Treaty by my noble Friend near me, commonly called the Treaty of Washington. Without, of course, explaining to your Lordships any of the steps that have been taken in the progress of that negotiation, I wish to draw your attention to the last act of the late President of the United States before his resignation of office. The Senate of the United States having addressed Mr. Tyler so long ago as the month of December, requesting him to communicate with them and inform them on the progress of this negotiation, Mr. Tyler, in his answer, which was not delivered until the 19th of February, makes this statement. After reciting the resolution and request of the Senate, he says,—
In my opinion, as this negotiation is still pending, the information sought for cannot be communicated without prejudice to the public service; but I deem it, however, proper to add, that considerable progress has been made in the negotiation, which has been carried on in a very amicable spirit between the two Governments, and that there is reason to hope that it may be brought to a close within a short period. I have delayed answering the resolution of the Senate, under the expectation expressed in my Annual Message, that the negotiation would be terminated before the close of the present Session, and that the information called for by that resolution might be communicated.I am bound to say, that I think the late President took somewhat too favourable a view of the state of the negotiation when he made that answer to the Senate; at the same time, as an indication of a friendly feeling, and of a desire to bring it to an amicable termination, such a declaration must be highly satisfactory. My Lords, in a fortnight after the delivery of this answer to the Address of the Senate, the new President made the Inaugural Speech referred to by my noble Friend. I wish to observe that this speech is not an address made to Congress—it is a speech made to the public, the Congress not being sitting. Undoubtedly, no speech of such a nature could be made by the President of the United States without drawing towards it the most serious attention. Nevertheless, it does not possess the importance of an official message, forming part of the legislative proceedings. I do not mean to undervalue its importance; 122 but I must observe, that it has not quite the character of an address made to the Congress as the foundation of any legislative measure. I have already mentioned that that declaration of the late President is the last act of which we have any knowledge, as far as the negotiation is concerned. The new President had no Ministry at the time he made his speech; his Administration was not formed, and no communication had taken place between Her Majesty's Ministers and those of the Government of the United States since the resignation of the late President and of his Administration. We therefore stand precisely in the position in which we stood at the time of the answer of the late President, with the exception of such a character as the relations may have received from the speech pronounced upon his inauguration by the new President. My Lords, I wish also to state, that our position is precisely such as it has been for the last eighteen years with respect to our rights, under the Treaty which was made in 1827, renewing, or rather continuing, the Treaty of 1818, which was for ten years. The Treaty of 1827 continued that Treaty for an indefinite period, but with the provision that either party might terminate it by a year's notice. There is nothing whatever, therefore, to prevent the Government of the United States or Her Majesty's Government, if they thought proper, from terminating that Treaty of 1827, by giving a year's notice for the purpose, which, however, the President has not said he means to give; but if he does mean it, he cannot effect his purpose without a Vote of the Congress authorizing him to exercise that power. The Congress will not meet, unless specially called together, until the month of December; and even then the Treaty cannot expire without a year's notice being given from the time at which the President receives the necessary authority to give such notice. Your Lordships will see, therefore, that in point of time the matter is not so urgent as might be supposed. I need not say, that Her Majesty's Government will continue to avail themselves of the intervening period which may be thus afforded, in the hope of bringing the negotiation which is still pending to an amicable conclusion. The negotiation was founded upon the principle of an amicable adjustment by the mutual concession of extreme claim on both sides; and on that principle, as far as we are concerned, it will be continued. My noble 123 Friend has by no means expressed any censure of the mode of proceeding that Her Majesty's Government have adopted in this matter; at the same time, I may say that I have seen, in other places, some intimation of an apprehension of too great concessions—of an abandonment of what is called the "high tone" which this country ought to maintain. I am accustomed almost daily to see myself characterized as pusillanimous, cowardly, mean, dastardly, truckling, and base. I hope I need not say that I view these appellations with indifference; I view them, indeed, really with satisfaction, because I know perfectly well what they mean, and how they ought to be and are translated. I feel perfectly satisfied that these vituperative terms are to be translated as applicable to conduct consistent with justice, reason, moderation, and with common sense; and I therefore feel, as I said before, really not indifferent, but positively satisfied, when I see such observations. I believe I may conscientiously say that no man ever filled the high situation which I have the honour unworthily to hold, who felt more ardently desirous than I do to preserve to the country the blessings of peace, or who would be disposed to make greater sacrifices, consistent with propriety, to maintain it. [Cheers.] My Lords, I consider war to be the greatest folly, if not the greatest crime, of which a country could be guilty, if lightly entered into; and I agree entirely with a moral writer who has said, that if a proof were wanted of the deep and thorough corruption of human nature, we should find it in the fact that, war itself was sometimes justifiable. [Cheers.] It is the duty, and I am sure it is the inclination, of Her Majesty's Government to preserve peace: at the same time, there are limits which must not be passed; and I say that, without attaching too much weight to questions of national honour—for I think, fortunately for this country, that we need not be very sensitive on these matters—it is not for us, God knows, to "seek the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," or any where else; our power, our character and position, are such as to enable us to look with indifference on that of which other countries might be, perhaps, more jealous. [Cheers.] But our honour is a substantial property that we can certainly never neglect, and most assuredly we may owe it to ourselves and to our posterity to adopt a course contrary to all our desires—to all our inclinations. My Lords, 124 from what I have said, your Lordships will perceive an earnest of the spirit of peace which shall pervade this matter, if I continue to conduct this negotiation; and I cannot bring myself to think that at this day any civilized Government would desire to see any other course pursued; and I hope, therefore, and fully believe, that we shall have the happiness of seeing this important question brought to a satisfactory because an amicable conclusion. [Loud cheers.] Should it be otherwise, I can only say that we possess rights which, in our opinion, are clear and unquestionable; and, by the blessing of God, and with your support, those rights we are fully prepared to maintain. [The noble Earl resumed his seat amidst loud and general applause.]