"On no pretext can the British Government set up a claim to territory south of the northern boundary of the United States."[1]
While the commissioners were carrying on their negotiations at Ghent, a gentleman who represented Mr. Astor was at hand eager to learn what would be done and finally what was done about the Columbia River fort. He stated that if its restoration was agreed upon, it was Mr. Astor's intention to reoccupy it at once and resume the trade.[2]
What the treaty stipulated. The treaty did not mention Astoria specifically, but it provided, in general terms, that: "All territory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, . . . (should) be restored without delay. . . ." Mr. Astor seems to have thought that since his fort on the Columbia had been taken possession of by a British warship, the Northwest Company should now be compelled to give it up, without regard to the fact that, before the warship arrived, his partners had accepted from that company a sum of money in payment for the fort and its appurtenances.
Restoration of Astoria demanded. In July, 1815, six months after the signing of the treaty, Monroe as Secretary of State gave notice to the British govern-
- ↑ Am. State Papers, III, 731. Monroe was especially concerned for the safety of the Mississippi and the upper Louisiana territory, where earlier negotiations had failed to establish a definite boundary between American and British territory. He probably cared little for the Columbia region for its own sake.
- ↑ J. Q. Adams's Memoirs, XI.
