CHAPTER VII.
1818—1844.
It does not appear that either the executive department of the government, or the congress of the United States, ever took any official notice of the great achievement of Captain Robert Gray in the discovery of the Cohimbia river. The action of President Jefiferson in sending the Lewis and Clarke expedition to the Pacific coast in 1805, was very largely the act of Jefferson himself. And while congress did make an appropriation for the expedition, it never otherwise sought to secure to the country any positive or immediate benefits therefrom. It was assumed by American business men—Astor, Wyeth, Winship and Bonneville—that because of Gray's discovery, and the Lewis and Clarke exploration, that old Oregon must of right belong to the United States, and therefore it was open to American settlement. And even after Astor's unfortunate adventure, and the loss of his property and the capture of his fort by the British, our congress took no action to assert its paramount rights to this country.
In the treaty with Great Britain made by secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, in 1818, in the third article of said treaty: "It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America westward of the Stony (Rocky) mountains, shall together with its harbors, bays and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens and subjects of both powers. It being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country; nor shall it be taken to affect the claim of any power or state to any part of said country; the only object of the high contracting parties in that respect being to prevent disputes and differences."
The provisions of the above article were renewed between the two nations in 1827, and continued in force down to the 28th day of April, 1846, three years after the formation of our provisional government at Champoeg, when, in pursuance of a resolution of congress. President James K. Polk notified the British government that the period of joint occupancy of the Oregon territory had been terminated.
When the venerable John Quincy Adams, who had as secretary of state under President James Monroe, negotiated the treaty of 1818, and afterwards as president of the United States in 1827, renewed that treaty, was called on as a member of congress in 1846 to explain the treaty, said: (Feb. 9, 1846.)
