Albert Gallatin - The Oregon Question

Omitting other considerations which apply principally to the territory north of Fuca Straits, where the claims of both parties are almost exclusively derived from their respective discoveries, including those of Spain, it may be rationally inferred from the preceding enumeration that there remain various questions which must be considered by Great Britain as being still doubtful and debatable, and that she may therefore, without any abandonment of positive rights, recede from the extreme pretensions which she has advanced in the discussion respecting a division of the territory. But, although conjectures may be formed, and the course pursued by the Government of the United States may have an influence on that which Great Britain will adopt, it does not belong to me to discuss what that Government may or will do. This paper is intended for the American, and not for the English public; and my attention has been principally directed to those points which may be considered by the United States as doubtful and debatable.

It was expressly stipulated that nothing contained in the conventions of 1818 and 1827 should be construed to impair, or in any manner affect , the claims which either of the contracting parties may have to any part of the country westward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains. After the most cool and impartial investigation of which I am capable, I have not been able to perceive any claim on the part of Great Britain, or debatable question, respecting the territory south of Fuca's Straits, but the species of occupancy by the British Fur companies between the year 1813 and October 20th, 1818; and this must be considered in connection with the restoration of "all territory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war," provided for by the treaty of Ghent. To this branch of the subject belongs also the question whether the establishment of trading factories with Indians may eventually give a right to sovereignty. My opinion was expressed in the American counter-statement of the case, dated 19th December, 1826: "It is believed that mere factories, established solely for the purpose of trafficking with the natives, and without any view to cultivation and permanent settlement, cannot, of themselves, and unsupported by any other consideration, give any better title to dominion and absolute sovereignty than similar establishments made in a civilized country." However true this may be as an abstract proposition, it must be admitted that, practically, the modest British factory at Calcutta has gradually grown up into absolute and undisputed sovereignty over a population of eighty millions of people.

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I allude here only to the compromise proposed by Great Britain. Her actual claim, as explicitly stated by herself, is to the whole territory, limited to a right of joint occupancy, in common with other States, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance.

Grotius, however, sustains the right of occupation by a maxim of the Civil Roman Code.