of the British charge d'affaires, Crampton. The Hudson's Bay Company placed a high value upon their property and lands in Oregon as guaranteed to them by the terms of the treaty of 1846; and as the latter were liable to be occupied at any time by American settlers who held in no respect their possessory rights, they were anxious to sell. The United States did not deny their right to do so. The only question was as to the price that was set upon them.[1] Some of the senators, on political grounds, had favored the proposition from the first; but others, better acquainted with Oregon local affairs, as Benton and Douglas, called for information, and the secretary of state laid the whole matter before them, declaring that as adviser of the president he could not counsel its acceptance without first ascertaining the value of the property, but that if he were in the senate he should vote for the purchase, as it would prevent the trouble and annoyance likely to arise from the joint navigation of the Columbia River.[2]
In the following year negotiations on this subject were interrupted, Buchanan declining to entertain the company's proposition to sell, for the reason that the British government interposed an injunction upon its officers, restraining them from transferring to the United States any of the rights secured to it by the treaty, the principal of which, in the estimation of
- ↑ A correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce, under date of August 7 1848, says: 'The senate have before them in secret session the proposition of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Puget Sound Company for the conveyances to the United States of all their lands, buildings, improvements, fields of cattle, forts, etc., and all their possessory rights south of 49°, as well as the territory, etc., north of that parallel. The governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, Sir John Henry Pelly represented to Lord Palmerston the expediency of the transfer of the territorial rights, properties, and interests of the two companies to the U. S. government, and Lord Palmerston, readily embracing the project, instructed Mr Crampton, the British charge d'affaires, to bring it before this government. His letter to Mr Buchanan's is strong; and Mr Buchanan's communication to the senate, urging the acceptance of the proposition, presents incontrovertible arguments in favor of it. Mr Calhoun and Mr Webster are in favor of it; and to-day I learn that Mr Benton and Mr Hannegan have taken the matter in hand. Polynesian, v. 150; Niles' Reg., lxxiv. 97.
- ↑ Extract New York Herald, in Niles' Reg., lxxiv. 224.
