Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 2, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 July 1846 — Page 2

tcntQ-3?tntl) Congrces. Speech or Mr. Benton, or MlSSOCKI, J Senate, May 23, IS 16 On the Oregon question. (Contlnvti.) Mr. rEsiniT : In Üie propres of my speech I find another little bit of rubbish in my path, just thrown into it from the other side of the sea from London which I must clear away before I proceed further. It is in the form of an article in the London Times newspaper. A friend has just sent me some numbers of ihat paper, in which a furious war is waged upon the Utrecht line of forty-nine, motived by the conversational debate which took place in this chamber iome two months ago, and ia which the Senator from Michigan, (Mr. Cans,) and myself were speakers, and in which the existence, or non-existence, of that line was the point of contestation. The Times takes part with the Senator from. Michigan, and carries into his subject the usual quantity of his fierv zeal. It so happens, Mr. President, that 1 pos

sess a Terr delicate scent, and smell things, especialJy of the rat species, at an immense distance, oo, when I read these article in the London Times, I smelt them smelt the beaver that was in them ! and, the scent coming upon roe very strung, I was struck with an idea.- It is the same which struck the worthy Dr. Primrose the second time that he met the accomplished Ephraim Jeukinson, and heard from l.im a second rehersal of his Greek learning on the cos- . mogony, or creation of the World. "Pardon me sir, - said the doctor; for interrupting so much learning, but I think Hiave heard all this before." " The apparition of the fair, with all the catastrophe of the colt and Blackberry, immediately rose upon the mental vision of the learned commentator on Sanconiathon, Manctho, Lucellus Ocanus, and Ifcrosus. Seeing he was caught, he confessed; fop -Jeukinson had some redeeming points about him, and never lied when there was no use in it. He confessed the whole ; and the doctor's "idea" received the seal cf its confirmation from bis candor. In like manner, I must beg the pardon of the editor of the Times, with the suggestion that I have seen all this Utrecht learning before ; that it is nn old acquaintance of mine; all fj miliar lo rae from the time that President Jefferson's Governor of Louisiana drove the British traders across the line of Utrecht across 49 and kept them" there, regardless of all their, cries and lamentations. I recognized this old acquaintance in these new articles in the Times nothing changed in spirit, only in form. The Earl of Selkirk, and his associate sufferers, in forensic language, confessed and avoided, that is to say, they admitted the line of Utrecht, but -plead its abrogation by war, and its supersedeas by the consent and connivance of the Spaniards ; but the nevir articles, improved by the intrepidity, if not by the profundity, of Greenhow's book, (accredited as it is on this floor by the Senator from Michigan,) boldly taking the short cut to the object, and. now deny, out and out, what was confessed and avoided before. In other respects, the Times articles now are the memorials of the British fur-traders at the epoch of the acquisition of Louisiana, and the expulsion of these traders from it by virtue of the Utrecht line of 49. And now I want to ask the Senator.. from Michigan, (Mr. Cass,) if, at seeing himself thus applauded by the London Times, he does not feel tempted, Lke the Athenian of old at seeing himself a pplaudc-d by a rabble that he despised, to turn rouni to his friends and ask what he had done amiss to bring this applause upon him ! (Mr. Cass nodded assent.) I can tell him what he has done amiss : he has taken the British fur-traders side of the fine of Utrecht. And as for the editor of the Times, if he wishes light on the subject, I can refer him to authentic sources of information just at Lis hand, namely : the king's map, with the Utrecht line upon it, (all written in the old king's own hand,) which so marvellously disappeared from the foreign office at the time of the Ashburton treaty ; and also to the thin quarto, with red edges, printed at the corner of St. Martin's Lane, Charing Cross, lndon, anno Domini MDCCLIII, prepared by Thomas Jeffreys, esq.V Geographer to the Prince f Wales, and intended for the instruction of the heir apparent to the dominions whose boundaries he was defining to him. Upon Jenkins's principle, theTime3 editor should confess, after seeing this map of Georgo the Third, and this geography, in which that king studied the boundaries of his dominions. This bit of rubbish being .removed" from my path, I now go on with my subject. The value of the country I mean the Columbia river and its valley (I must repeat the limitation every time, lest I be carried, opto 54 40) has been questioned on this floor and elsewhere. It has been supposed to be of little value- -hardly worth the possession, much less the acquisition ; and treated rather as a burden to be got rid of, than as a benefit to be preserved. This is a rreat error, and one that only prevails on this side of the water : the British know better; and if they held the tithe of our title, they would right the world for what we depreciate. It is not a worthless country, but one of immense value, and that under many aspects, and will be oc cupied by others, to our injury and annoyance, if not by onrsclves tor our own benefit and protection. Forty years ago it was written by Humboldt, that the banks of the Columbia presented the only situation on the northwest coast of America fit for the residence of a civilized people. Experience has confirmed the truth of this wise remark. All the rest of the coast, from the Strata of Fuca out to New Archangel, (and no thing but a rur trading post there,) remains a vacant waste, abandoned since the quarrel of Nootka sound, and become the derelict of nations. The Columbia only invites, a possessor : and for that possession, sa gacious British diplomacy has been long weaving its web. It is not a worthless possession ; but valuable . under many and large aspects ; to the consideration ' of some of which I now proceed. It is valuable, both as a country to be inhabited, and as a position to be held and defended. I speak of , it, first, as a position, commanding the .North Pacific ocean, and overlooking the eastern coast of Asia. The North Pacific is a rich sea, and is already the seat of a great commerce ; British, French, American, Russian, and ships of other nations, frequent it. Our whaling ships cover it : our ships of war go there to protect our interest ; and, great as that interest now is, it is only the beginning. Futurity will develop an immense, and various, commerce on that sea, of which the far greater part will be American. That commerce, neither in the merchant ships which catry it on, nor in the military marine which protects it, can find a port, to call its own, within twenty thousand miles of the field of its operations. The double length of the two Americas has to be run a stormy and tempestuous cape to be doubled to find itself ia a port of its own country ; while here lies one in the very edge of its field, ours by right, ready for use, and ample for every purpose of refuge and repair, protection and domination. Can we turn our back upon itl and in turning the back, deliver it up to the British! Insane and suicidal would be the fatal act ! To say nothing of the daily want of smh a port in time of peace, its want in time of war becomes ruinous. Commodore Porter has often told me that, with protection from batteries in fie mouth of the ColumLia, he never would have put liirn.-elf in a condition to be attacked iindcr. the weak or collusive guns of a neutral port. He hw told me that, with such a port far the rccepflon"ofiis prizes, he would not have-sunk in the ocean, or hid in islands where it was often founJ, the three millions of British property captured in his three years' daring and dauniless cruise. Often has he told me, that with such a port at Lis hand, he would never have been driven to spill upon the waters that oil, for want of which, as a member of the British Parliament said, London bad burnt darkly had beul in the dark for a whole year. What happened to Commodore Torter and his prizes what hap-tened to all our merchant ships, driven from the North Pacific during the warall thii to bapprn arain and upon a far larger scale, is but half the evil of turning our backs nw upon this commanding position : for, lo do tojis to deliver it into the hands of a power that knriws the value of positions the four quarters of the iitibe, and our own coasts attest that and L het rfc,a (hi this one. The rery year aficr the renewal of tire delusive convention ol ISIS in the year 1919 a master ship-carpenter was despatched from. London, to Fort Vancouver to begin, there the repair of vessel, ami even tJic construction of email nes ; and this work has been going -Dn ever since. vSlic resists our possession now ! If we abandon, he will retain ! And her wooden walls, bristling with cannon, and issuing from the mouth of the Columbia, will give the law to the North Pacific, permitting our ship to sneak about in time of peace sinking, seizing, or chasm" them away fa time of war. As a position, then, and

if nothing but a rock, or desert point, the possession of the Columbia is invaluable lo us ; and it becomes our duty to maintain it at all hazards. Agriculturally the value of the country is great; and, to understand it in all its eatent, this largccountry hould be contemplated under its different divisions the threefold natural geographical divisions under which it prmnts itself: the maritime, the middle, and the mountain districts.

The . mritimc region the fertile part of it is the Ion" valleV between the Cascade and the coaet ranges of mountain, extending from the head .of .the Wah-lah-math, near the latitude of 4:i degrees, to the stfaits of FUv-a, near latitude 49. In this valley lies the rich tidewater region of the Columbia, with the Wah-la h-mat h river on the south, and the Cowelisfce, and the Olympic district on the north. It is a valley of near tire hundred miles long, north aud south, and above one hundred miles wide ; rich in soil, grass, and timber sufficient of itself to constitute a respect able State, and now the seat ef the British commercial and military post of Vancouver, and cf their great farming establishment of Nisqually. The middle district, from the Cascade range to near the base of the Rocky mountains, is the region called desert, and which, in the imag nations of many, has given character to the whole country. In some respects it is a desert barren of wood sprinkled with sandy plains -melancholy under the sombre aspect of the gloomy artemisia and desolate from volcanic rocks, through the chasms of which plunge the headlong streams. But this desert has its redeeming points much water grass many oases mountains capped with snow, to refresh the air, the land, and the eye blooming valleys a clear sky, pure air, aud a supreme salubrity. It is the home of the horse ! found there wild in all the perfection of his first nature beautiful. -.and fleet fiery and docile patient, enduring, and affectionate. . General Clark has told me thatof the one hundred and seventy horses which he and Lewis obtained in this dietrict, he had never seen the match in any equal number ; and he had seen the finest which the Eporting course, or the warlike parade, had exhibited in Virginia. It is the home of that horse the horse of Persia which gallops his eighty miles a day swimming the rivers as he comes to them finds his own food at night, the hoof scraping away the snow when it hides the grass gallops his eighty miles again the next day ; and so on through a long and healthy life ; carrying his master iu the chase, r the fight, circumventing the game, and pursuing the foe, with the intelligence of reason and the fidelity or friendship. General UarK nas informed me that it was necessary to keep a scout ahead, to drive away the elk and buffalo, at the sight of .Ahk-hall the horses immediately formed for the chase, the loose ours dashing fT to surround and circumvent the game. The old hunters have also told me their marvellous stories about these horses, and that in war and hunting they had more sense than, people, aud as much courage, and loved it as well. Thcxöuntry that produces such horses must alto produce men, and cattle, and all the inferior animals, and must have many beneficent attributes to redeem it from the stigma of desolation. Tle: mountain division has its own peculiar fea tures, and many of them as useful as picturesque. At the base of the mountain a Ionjj, broad, and higL beach is seen three hundred miles l-ng, fifty miles wide the deposite of abraded mountains of snow and ver dure through thousands of years. Lewis and Clark thus describe this great bench of land, w hich they twice crossed in their expedition to and from the Pacific ocean : The cuuntiy along the Rocky mountains, for several hundied miles in leng'h and about fifty wide, is high level plain i ia all its parts extremely fertile, and in many places covered with a ciowth of tall, Jong-leafed pine. This plain is chiefly interrupted near the stieams of water, wbeie the hills ue steep aud lofty; but the toil is good, being unen cumbered by much stone, and possesses more timber than the level country. Under shelter or these nrilt , the bottom lands skirt the margin of the river, and though barrow and confined, are still fertile aud raieljr inundated. Nearly the whole of ibe widespread tract is covercd-with a profusion of gias aud plants, which aie at this time (May) as hih as the knee. Among these aie a variety of esculjnt plants and roots, acquired without much difficulty, and yielding sot only a nutiicious, but a very agreeable food. The air in pure and dry, the climate quite as mild, if not milder, Iban the same parallel of latitude in the Atlantic Slates, and must b cauallr healthv. for alt the disorders which we have wit nessed may fairly be imputed more to tbe natuie of the diet . . . . rr I . L than to any intemperance Ol cnmiie. i nis general ooervaticn is of coarse to be qualified, since in the same tiact of country tbe degrees of the combination oi neat ana cold obey the influence of situitiou. Thus the riins of the low grounds, near our camp, are snows in the high plains; and w Due me sun sninei h ud intense ui iu me ivuuucu vuitonis. the D'.ains enjoy a much colder air, and the vegetation is retarded it lean lifteen days, while at the foot of the mountains the snows are still many feet in depth ; so that within twenty miles of our camp we observe the rigors of winter cold, tbe cool air or spring, and tbe oppressive heat of midsummer. Even on the plains,' however, where the snow has fallen, it seems to da but little injury to the grass and other plant, which, though apparently tender and susceptible, are still blooming, at tbe height of nearly eighteen inches tbrough tne snow, in snon, mis district aiuius many advantages to settler, and if properly cultivated, would yield every object necessary for the subsistence and support oi civilized man." Other and smaller benches of the same character are frequently seen, inviting the farmer to make his healthy habitation and fertile field upon it. Entering the gorges of the mountains, and a succession of everything is found which is seen in the alpine regions of Switzerland, glaciers only excepted. Magnificent mountain scenery lakes grassy valleys snow-capped mountains clear Etreams and fountains coves and parks hot and warm springs mineral waters of many varieties salt in the solid and fluid state salt lakes and even hot salt springs wood, coal, and iron. Such are the Rocky moun tains in the long and broad section from the head of the Rio Grande del Norte, of the sunny South, to the head of the Athabasca, of the Frozen ocean. This ample, rich, and elevated mountain region ia deemed, by those unacquainted with the Farthest West, to be, i . c .i l i . l c i J. and to be forever, the desolate and frozen dominion of me wnu ueasi aim wie savage, un uie cumrary, x view it as the future scat cf population and power, where man is to appear in all the moral, intellectual, and physical endowments which ennoble the mountain race, and where liberty, independence, and love of virtue, are to make their last stand on earth. Thus, agriculturally, and as producing the means of human subsistence as sustaining a population, and supplying the elements of wealth and power, as derived from the surface and the bowels of the earth I look upon the region drained by the waters of the Columbia as one of the valuable divisions of the North American continent. . No reason to undervalue it on the score of commerce. But this brauch of her advantages is attacked through another channel in the supposed unfitness of the mouth of the Columbia for the purposes of a port, commercial or naval. An expedition of our own (Captain Wilkes) has fostered this opinion; but fortuuately furnishes the correction to its own error. The narrative of the expedition condemns the port: the chart that accompanies it proves it to be good. This chart was constructed upon the seventy days' labor of three young gentlemen, midshipmen in the expedition, whose numerous soundings show the diligence and the accuracy of their work their names are, Knox, Reynolds, and Blair. I read., what was written in the narrative : it differed from all that I had read before. I examined the chart: it appeared to me to present a fine harbor. But, being no nautical man, I put no faith in my own opinions, and had recourse to others. ...Mr. James Blair, one of the three midshipmen who had surveyed the port, was in this city, son of my friend, Francis P. Blair. I talked with him. His answers were satisfactory. I addressed him written queries. He answered them; and his answer supported by facta and reasons, placed the harbor above that of . New York. . But a New York pilot was in the city Mr. John Ma ginn for eighteen years a pilot there, and that upon an ap prenticeship of ten. years, and now the president of the New York Association of Pilots, and their agent to attend to the pilot bill before Congress; lie was here, and 'made my acquaintance. I asked. -him. to compare the charts cf the two harbors. New York- and the mouth of the Coltirubiaaud give his opinion in writing, detailed and reasoned, of their. respective merits. He did so: and these answers place the port of the Columbia fur above that of New- -Ydrkrin every particular, without v exception, which constitutes a pood harbor. In depth of water and in width of channel in directness tr channels, one being exactly straight, the other. with an elbow only in, the form and character .of the bar, which is narrow, with a hard sand bottom, and. jcntly sloping-to the shores vjn rend.ncss,qf access to the sea, bing in the very edge of the ocean -in freedom from ice in winter and great heats in sommer in steadiness of winds and currents in -freedom from shelters outside of the harbor, where enemy's ships or fleets in time of war can hide, and lie in wait fur returning or outgoing vessels in

number, extent, and safety of anchoring places, sufHcient for any number and any class of vessels, immediately within the harbor in dcfensibility, being, from the narrowness of the mouth and the high points which overlook it, Eusccptible of absolute defence. And in this respect, the mouth cf the Columbia stands out pre-eminently distinguished over all the rivers of the Atlantic, and most of those of the world. Jo seven mouths, like the Nile, or three like the Mississippi no broad outlets through low sands and marshes no wide expanse of water at its mouth, but a bay within, large enough to hold ten thousand vesi-els, a narrow gate to enter the sea, ard promontories on J each side to receive batteries to defend it. In short, in a state of nature, without pilot, light-houses, buoys, beacons, steam tow-boats, an excellent port : with these advantages, superior to New York for every vessel, from the merchant 6ervico to the ship-of-the-line. Such is the harbor at the mouth of the Columbia, which has been undervalued for several reasons; among others to find an argument for going to 51 deg. 40 min. to search for harbors in the depths of volcanic chasms, often too deep for anchorage, too abrupt for approach, and always seated in sterile lands to which geography has attached the name of Desolation. Like the other disadvantages attributed to the Columbia, that of the.harbor at the mouth of the river vanishes at the touch of examination! not only vanishes, but turns out to be one of its great and positive superiorities. I would read the statements of Midshipman Blair, and the pilot, Mr. Maginn, but find them too long for a place in a speech: they will appear in an appendix. All the capacities of this harbor are well known to the British. Oftehkhiave their government vessels surveyed it three Firnes, that I know of, and never with a disparagingrcport. 13ut why argue? While I speak,. the work is going on. . Vessels have been entering the port since 179'J a period of fiftysix years without pilots, lights, buoys, beacons, strain tow-boats: without any of the aids which the skill and power of civilization gives to a port. They are entering it now; and, counting from its first discovery, there is not a day in the year, iior an hour in the day or night, in which they have not entered it, and entered it safely. A few have been wrecked, and a very few; the great mass have entered safely, and this in a state of nature. What will it be then, when aided like the c stablished ports of the civilized world! The carrying trade between eastern Asia and western America will be another of the advantages belonging to the Columbia. It is the only position between the Isthmus of Darien and Behring straits on which a naval power can exist. Mexico has no timber, few ports, and none of the elements of ship building. The Lower California is the same. Northern California, with the bay of San Francisco, and the magnificent timber of the Sierra Nevnda, is now shown, by the discoveries of Captain Fremont, to be geographically appurtenant to the Columbia, and in time must obey its destiny. The Columbia river is the seat of a great naval pre-eminence; magnificent timber the whole tide-water region of the river, ISO miles in length, fit for a continuous &hip-yard supplied with every thing from above secure against the possibility of hostile approach fr m below. North of the Straits of Fuca it is a continued volcanic desolation, where ships will hardly go, much less be built. During three hundred years, it has remained, and still remains, the derelict of nations. Russian fur traders alone have seated themselves upon some of its hyperborean islands. There is no scat for a naval power on the western coast of North America, except on tbe Columbia. The Asiatics have no taste for the sea ; they never seek the great ocean. The people on the

Columbia, then, will be the carriers, almost exclusive ly, between eastern Asia, and its myriad of islands. on one side, and all Mexico, California, and Northwest America, on the other; and rich will be the . profits of such carrying. I set it down as another of j the great advantages cf the Columbia. The grasses of the country, indigenous as they are, ' and in the wild state, are named by Captain Fremont as among its natural advantages, sources of national and individual wealth, and the means of chamrinsr the mode of military operations, by dispensing with the heavy commissariat of European armies. Horses for the men to ride on, and cattle for them to feed on, would both find their support in these grasses, and permit the most rapid and extended movements of mounted gun-men, cavalry, and horse artillery. He says : "Referring to myjoornal for particular descriptions, and for sectional boundaries between good and bad ditiicU, I can only say, in general and comparative term, that, in that bianch of agriculture which implies tbe cultivation of grain and staple crops, it would be infeiior to tbe Atlantic State, though many parts are superior for wheat; while, in the rearing of flocks and heidn.it would claim a high place. Iu grazing capabilities are great; and even in the indigenous grass now there, an element of national and individual wealth may be found. In fact, the valuable grasses begin within one hundred aud fifty miles of the Misouri fioutier, and extend to the Pacific Ocean. East of the R cky mountains, it is the short curly grass, on which the Buffalo delights to feed, (whence its name of buffalo,) and which is still good when diy and apparently dead. West of those mountains, il is a larger growth, in clusteis, and hence called bunch grass, and which bas a second or fall growth. Plains and mountains both exhibit them ; and I have seen good pasturage at an elevation cf ten thousand feet In this spontane ous product, the trading or travelling caravans can find subsistence for their animals and, in military operational any number of cavalry may be moved, and any number of cattle may be diiven; and thus men and horses be suppoited on long expeditions and even iu winter in the sbelteted situaiions." (P. 277.) Militarily, its advantages are vast, and are graphically sketched by Captain Fremont. In his extended explorations, he has viewed the country under every aspect of natural or physical geography, and thus v. .. .r .... 1 .... MAa,Ai .m n..K. r presents it under its military aspect in a state of nature : The Columbia is the only river which traverses the whole breadth of the country, breaking through all the ranges, and enter ing the sea. Diawing its waters frtm a section of tea degreee of latitude in the Ito.-ky Mountains, which arc col lected into ore stieam by three main foiks, (Lewis's, Clrk..'s, and the noith foik,) near the centie of the Orcgn valley, Thij grcat river the'nce rroceeJj by , tingIe chaIfne, ,Q th'e sea, while its three links lead each to a pa?s in the mountains, which opens the way into the interior of the continent This fact in relation to the rivers of thii legion, gives an immense value to the Columbia. Its mouth is the only inlet J kiiu uuuei iu anu nuiu in, sea j us iure i'Jis ieaa 10 me passes in the mountains; it is, therefore, the only line of communication between the Pacific and the interior of North America, and all operations of war or commerce, of national or social intcrcouise, must be conducted upon it. This gives it a value beyond estimation and would involve irreparable hjury if lost. Iu this unity and conrentiation of its waters, the l acifie side of oor continent differs entirely from , the Atlantic side, where the waters of the Al'eghany mountains are dispersed into many rivers, having their different entrances it to the sea, and opening many lines of communication with the interior. ... .. a The Pacific coast " is equally different from that of the Atlantic. The coast of tb -Atlantic is low and open, indented wi'h numerous bay, founds, and river estuaries, accessible every where, and opening by many channels into tbe heart of tba couutiy. The Pacific coast, on the contrary is high and compact, with few bays, and tilt one that open into the heait of tbe couatiy. The immediate coast is what the seamen call iron-bound. A little within, it is skirted by two successive ranges of mountains, standing as ramparts between the sea and the interior country, and to get through which thcie is but one gate, and that narrow and easily defended. Tbis stiucture of the coast, tracked by these tw o ranges of mountaius, with its concentration and unity of wateis, gives to the country an immense militaiy strength and will probably render Oregon the most impregnable country in the world." (pp. 274-5.) Commercially, .the advantages of Oregon will be great far greater than any erjual portion of the Atlantic States. The eastern Asiatics, who will be their chief customers, are more numerous than our customers in western Europe more profitable to trade w ith, and less dangerous to quarrel with. Their articles of couimerce are richer than those of Europe ; they want what the Oregon will have to spare bread aud provisions and have no systems of policy "tö prevent them from purchasing these necessaries of life from those who. can supply them. The sea which washes their shores is in every way a better sea than the Atlantic richer in its whale and Other fisheries in the fur regions which inclose.it U-lJiefnorth more fbrlunate io the tranquillity uf it$ .cjiiractcr," in its freedom from Ftorms, gulf-streams, and icebergs in .its perfect adaptation to steam navigation in its interniediateor half-way island and. its myriad cf f ich islands on its further tide in its freedom from maritime powers on its coasts, except the, American, which ia to grow t:p at the mouth of the Columbia. Asa people to trade with ds a sea to navigate the Mongolian race of eastern Asia, and the North Pacific ocean, are far preferable to the Europeans and the Atlantic. But enough of this. The country is vindicated error is" dispelled. Instead of worthlcssncss, the region of the Oregon is proved to have all the capabilities of an immense power. Agricultural capabilities .tö'nustain a great population, and to furnish the elements of commerce and manufactures a vast and rich commerce and navigation at its hands a peaceable sea to navigate gentle and profitable people to trade with them a climate of supreme and almost

miraculous salubrity a natural frontier of mountain ' ramparts a triple barrier of mountains to give her I

mihtary impregnability. Having cleared away the errors which undervalued the country, and pointed out the advantaged peculiar to it, I now come to another advantage, common to all North America, and long since the cherished vision of my young imagination. A Russian empress paid of the Crimea: "Here lies the road to Ryzantium." I say to my fellow-citizens : Through the valley of the Columbia lies the North American road to India. T.enty -eight ) ears ago I wrote something on this head, and published it. A quarter of a century cf experience and observation has given., me nothing to detract from what I then wrote nothing to add, except as derived from the progress- ef the arts, and especially omnipotent steam. .- The trade of the East has alvrays been the richest jewel in the diadem of commerce. . AM nations, in all ages, have sought it ; and those which obtained it, or even a share of it, attained the highest degree of opulence, refinement and power. The routes through which it flowed fertilized deserts, and built up cities and kingdoms amidst the desolation of rocks and sands. Phcnicia, Egypt, Persia, wero among the thoroughfares of this commerce ; - Constantinople and Alexandria among its modern channels ; vand Venice and (ienoa in the south, and Bruges and Antwerpen the north, the means of its distribution over Europe. All grew rich and powerful upon it ; and, with wealth and power, came civilization and refinement. The Cape of Good Hope became the recent routej .'with wealth to its discoverers, the Portugese, and to 11 their rivals and followers the Dutch, English, French and others. The commerce of.'Asia, always dazzling to the Oriental nations, became the intense object of desire to the western European, from the time that the crusaders visited Constantinople and Vasca di Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope. The dazzling attraction of this commerce was the cause of the discovery of the New World. Columbus, going west to Asia, was arrested by the intervention of the two Americas. From his day to the present, skill and power have exerted themselves to get round, or through this formidable obstacle. All the attempts to discover a north-west passage were so many attempts to discover a western road to India. All the discoveries of the French among the interior lakes and great rivers of North America were with the same view. La Salle, th? great French discoverer, parting from his friends eight miles from Montreal, for his last word, exclaimed, La Chine ! (China,) as the word which displayed the object and end of his adventurous enterprise ; and by that name the spot is kno.wn this day. He had all the qualities of a great discoverer but one : he knew not how to conciliate the feelings of his people, and fell a sacrifice to their resentment on the Arkansas. The Jesuit fathers, courageous and pious missionaries, to whom the world was indebted for all its early knowledge of the interior of North America, (I am speaking only cf this interior,) seeing the waters of a thousand lakes held in equilibrii1rm a vast plateau in the centre of the continent, fruin which three great rivers went off north, south and east, to the Atlantic ; and hearing the Indians speak of a river of the west, in their language Oregon a spelling which Humboldt follows naturally Mipposd that, from the same plateau a fourth great river went off west, and actually sketched an Oregon from Lake Winepec to the Pacific, Etill to be seen on some old maps. They were right in the fact of the river, though mistaken in its source; and this is the first knowledge which history has of OreEonl Mr. Jeßorson, that man of rare endowments and common sensrj of genius and judgment, philosophy and practice whsse fertile mind was always teeming with enterprises beneficial to his species: this rare man, following un the grand idea of Columbus, and taking up the unfinished enterprise of Ia Salle, und janjii"' - 8 to crowd into his administrator, a galaxy of : brT. tents, early projected the discovery Oi an ' inlanuVrrcte to the Pacific ocean. The Missouri river was 10 ue one long niift in mis mum oi communication : the Columbia, or any other that might serve the purpose, on the other side of the mountains, was to be another. Lewis and Clark were sent out to discover a commercial route to the Pacific ocean ; and so judiciously was their enterprise conducted, that their return route must become, and forever remain, the route of commerce : the route further south, through the South Pass, near latitude 45, will be the travelling- road ; but commerce will take the water line of their return, crossing the Rocky mountains in latitude 47, through the north pass. With the exception of a small part of the route, the Hudson Bay Company now follow, and have followed for thirty yfurs, the route of Lewis aud Clark. These eminent Uiixverers left the Columbia river near the mouth of Lewis's fork, went up the Kooskooske thence over a high mountain to the forks of Clark's river ; and thence through the north pass to the great falls of the Missouri.',-.The Hudson ly Company have discovered a better -route to Clark s river, fol lowing the Columbia higher up, aud leaving it at the Upper Falls, in latitude about 49 J, and where they Jiave established their depot tor. the mountain trade, called Fort Colville. From these falls it is sixty I . . ... . r miles overland to. Clark s river, whence the river is navigable to its forks', three hundred miles up. and within one hundred and fifty milea of the great falls oi tue .Missouri. Along tins route me iiuason my Company have carried on their trade for near thirty years, even quite through to the cast side of tbe Rocky Mountains; paying no duties, using our river and territories, poisoning the minds or the Indians against us, and exhausting the country of its furs. Their goods arrive at Fort Vancouver in ships from London ascend the Columbia to Fort Colville in batteaux make a portage of sixty miles to Clark's river, the lower part of that river being unfit for navigation; then ascend Clark's river to its forks. three hundred miles, and thence to the head waters of the Missouri. The only part cf this'-route with which I have but little acquaintance is the sixty miles i or portage trom the upper lalls of the Columbia to the point where Clark s river can be navigated. It may be mountainous ; but that it is practicable, is proved by the lact that the Hudson Uay Company have used it for thirty years ; that it is the beet route, is proved by the further fact that long acquaintance with the country has not induced them to change it. "With this slight deviation, the Hudson Bay Company follow the return route of Lewis and Clark ; and this will be the route of commerce to the end of time. The Columbia river is decried for its navigation not by the British, who know its value, and struggle to maintain its possession, but by those who see the whole country beyond the Rocky Mountains through llie medium -ot depreciation.- It is, even in a state o nature, a practicable river for navigation. The tide flows up it one hundred and eighty miles : and to that distance there is 6hip navigation. - Batteaux ascend it to Fort Colville, at the upper falls, making more,or fewer, portages, according to the state of the wa ter ; and beyond that point they still ascend to the " Boat Encampment," opposite the head of the Athabasca; where a pass -m". the mountains leads to-the waters of the Frozen ocean. Periodically ,-tbe river is flooded by the melting of the snows in the mountain; and then, many of 'the falls and rapids are buried in deep water, anj no trace of them seem This is even the case with the. Great Falls, where a pilch of twenty-eight feet, at low water, disappears wholly. Under the Hood. Sixty feet is the rise,-and that annual and punctual.- No ice obstructs its surface; no sunken trees encumber its bosom. Art will improve the navigation,1 and steam-vessels "will undoubtedly run to the Upper Falls the pitch sixteen feet a distance' fromtide-water of some six hundred tiiiles; and the poiut where the land carriage of sixty miles begins. Clark's river has.' a ...breadth of one hundred and fifty yard3 up to its forks, teingmear thewidth' of the-Cumberland at Nashville. ' -.The melting, of the 'snows gives.it a periodical flood. The valley through which this river flows is rich and handsome, in pieces fifteen miles wide,' well wooded and grassy, ornamented with th; beautiful FlaC Head Lake a lake of. thirty-five milesin length, seated in a large fertil?cove, and, embosomed, in snow-capped mountains: .Hot and warm t-prings, advantageously compared by Lewis and Clark to those in Virginia, also enrich it ; and when the'.East India trade has taken its course through this valley, here may grow up, not a Palmyra of the desert, but a Palmyra, Queen of the Mountains. From the fork's of Clark's river, nearly due east, it is about ninety miles to the North Pass, along a well-beaten buffalo road, and over a fertile, grassy, and nearly level mountain plain. The North Pass is as easy as the South practicable by any vehicle, in a Btate of nature, and no obstacle to the full day's march of the traveller. Lewis and Clark made thirty-two miles the day they come through if, and without being sensible of any essential rise at the point of separation between the Atlan

tic and Pacific waters. To the right and left the mountains rose high ; but the Pass itself is a deprcs-

fion in the mountain, sinKing o me ievei oi me country at their base. From this Pass to the Great Falls of the iUissoun, and nearly east irom it. is sixty miles in all, one hundred and fifty miles from the forks of Clark's river to the Great Falls of the .Missouri, which, added to sixty miles from Clark's river to the Upper Falls of the Columbia, gives two hundred and ten miles of land carriage between the larre navigable waters of the Columbia and Missouri. This is the sum of my best information ou the subject, the result of thirty years' inquiries, and believed to be correct; but an accurate topographical survey of the country between the two rivers, and a profile, as well as a superficies map, with barometrical geological, botanical, astronomical, and meteorological tables and observations, would solve every question, and be a large contribution to the science of the age, and to the future transaction of business. If enow during some months, should be found to impedo the steam car in this elevated region, (guessed to be seven thousand feet above the. level of the sea,) that same enow becomes the basis fur the next best land conveyance af ter the steam car thesleish. So that this little inter vention of dry ground between Canton and New York will prove to be no obstacle cither in surr.mcr or win ter. Arrived at the Great Falls of the Missouri, the East India merchant may look back and say, my voyage is finished ! He may look forward and say, a thousand markets lie before me, of all which I may take choice. A downward navigation of two thousand five hundred miles carries him to St. Louis, the centre of the vallcr of the Mississippi, and the focus to w hich converge all the steamboats now thousands, hereafter to be myriads from oil the extended circumference of that vast valley. Long before he reaches St. Louis he is running the double line of American towns and villages seated on either bank of the river. The Missouri river is said to be the best steamboat river upon the face of the earth the longest retaining its water best at all seasons, and periodically flooded at a known day free from rocks, and, for nearly two thou sand miles, free from sunken trees; fur it is on ap proaching the heavy forest lands vl the lower Missouri that this obstruction occurs. All above is clear of thist danger. The river. js'Jarge from the Falls down ; the - mountain strcaia?. almost innumerable, ourinff dowu such ample contributions At the Mandan villages, and after the junction with the Yellow Stone, itself equal in length to the Ohio, it presents the same majestic appearance to the eye that it does towards its mouth. Coal lines its banks in many places ; fertile land abounds. A miliary post will doubtless soon be established at the Great Falls, as also ou this side, at the Yellow Stone, and beyond, in the valley of Clark's river, and on the Columbia, at the Upper Falls : every poet will be'the nucleus of a settlement, and the future site of a great city. The East India merchant, upon the new North American road, will find himself at home, and among his countrymen, and und :r the flag and the arms of his country, from the moment he reaches the mouth of the Columbia say within fifteen days after leaving Canton! All the rest, to the remotest market which he can choose, either in the ast interior of the the Union, or on its extended circumference, will be among friends. What a contrast to the time and the penis, the exposure and expense of protection, which the present six mouths' voyage involves ! Arrived at the Great Falls of the Missouri, the East India merchant, upon this new road, will see a thousand markets before him, each inviting his approach, and of easy, direct and ready access. A downward navigation of rapid descent takes him to St. Louis and New Orleans, and to all the places between. A continuous voyage, without shifting the position of an ounce of his cargo, will carry him from the Great Falls to Pittburg; a single transhipment, and three days will take him. to the Atlantic coast; omnipotent steam flying him from Canton to Philadelphia in the marvellous space of forty-odd days ! I only mention one line, and one city, as a sample of all the rest. "What is said of Pittsburg and Philadelphia may bo equally said of all the western river towns towards the heads of navigation, and of all the Atlantic, Gulf, or Lake cities, with which they communicate. Some sixty days, the usuil run of a bill of exchange, will reach the most remote : so that a merchant may give a sixty days' bill in his own country, after this route is in operation, and pay it at maturity with silks and teas which were in Canton on the day of its date. This is the North American road to India, all ready now for use, except the phort link from thu mouth of the Columbia to the Great Falls of Missouri ! all the rest now ready made ready by nature, aided by private means and individual enterprise, without the aid, or even countenance of government ! And will government now refuse its aid ; nav, more, obstruct the en terprise of individuals, and frustrate the designs of uature, by leaving the Columbia where it improvidently placed it, in the year 1818 in the hands of a foreign power, and that power, Great Britain ! Forbid it, every principal of right and justice every consideration of policy and interest. Now is the time to decide this great question, and to redeem' the error of ItilS. My voice denounced the error therw and was unheed ed. It was solitary, and received no response. A nation now demands it; and it is not fur a nation's representatives to dieregard a nation's call. But even if it ehould be so, it may defer, but cannot defeat, the great event. There is an order in the march of human events which the improvidence of governments may derange, but cannot destroy. Individuals will accomplish what governments neglect, and events will go forward without law to guide them. So U has been already with this Columbia. In 1792, a private individual of Boston discovered this river: he revealed its existence to the world: government took no notice of his splendid revelation. In 1800 Lewis and Clarke returned from the Columbia: government sent no troops there to occupy and retain the domain which they had nationalized. The seat of a future empire lay a derelict on the coast of its rich and tranquil sea. An individual adminetercd upon the vacant domain. A man of head Mr. John Jacob Astör sent a colony there. During two years his batteaux, carry-up goods, and bringing down für, traversed every water of the Columbia; his ships visited Canton, New Archangel, the coasts, of California, the Sandwich and the Polynesian islands. Aßtoria was in communication with the commercial world. The name of the young Tyre future queen of the New World was known to nations. Then came the acts of government to baulk, delay, defer the great commencement. I do not mean the war that was a brief aud necessary eveut but I epeakof tlie acts of government after Die war. The commissioners did their duty at Ghent: all posts, places, territories,' taken from the' United States during the war; were, by the first article of that treaty, to be restored. The posts or places of Astoria, ihe Oka-nag-an, the Spo-kan, the Wah-lah-math, and the whole territory of the Columbia river and its valley came under the terms of the treaty, and were bound to be restored. The fate of the restoration ot all western posts attended the posts on the Columbia. After the peace of 1783, the northwestern po6ts were retained: British-traders, backed by their government, retained them : the Indian wars of 1791, 1793, und 1791, were the fruit cf that retention ; and the war of 1812 found one of its roots hi the same cnue. This was the fate of western posts tfter the war of the revolution. : After the war of 1812, a far worse fate awaited the western posts on the Columbia. A fictitious restoration of one post was tranacted to be accompanied; in the very moment of ;he transaction, by the surrender of the yhole country to the British. I say the surrender of tne w-bole ; for nothing less was, or could be, the effect ji,f a joint use possession between the weak and thetrong; between the scattered and dispersed American "traders, abandoned by their government, and the organized British companies supported by theirs ! A quarter of a century the Eritish have .held the Columbia, the government doing nothing..: Four years ago the people began to move. Tliey"cros5cd the Rocky mountains; they have gone dowit.. into the tide-water region of tbe Columbia. Without the aid of government, they are recovering what government lost, andienewing the phenomenon of mere individuals exploring the bounds of distant lands, and laying the foundation of distant empires. The question of American colonization of the Columbia is settled ! The people have settled it ; they are now there, ond will stay there. The trade with India will begin. If no more John Jacob Astors shall arise to commence the trade upon a great scale, it will proceed upon a small one grow up by degrees find an emporium in the mouth of the Columbia, and spread itself all over North America, through the line of the Columbia and of the Missouri. The North American road to India will be established by the people, if not by the government. The rich commerce of the east will find a new route to the New World, followed by the wealth and power which has always at-

tended it; and this will be another of the advmtagcs resulting from the occupation of the Columbia. And now, Mr. President, this is the exact reason why the British want the Columbia. They want it as the indispensable link in their own projected North American route to India. Thi is shown ia McKenzie's history of his voyages of discovery in 17s9 and 193. On both occasions he was seeking a river line of communication between Hudson's bay od the Pacific. In the first voyage he followed up Unjigah, or Tcace river, bearing northwest through the Great Slave lake and the Great Dear lake, and after two thousand miles of navigation, found himself at the Frozpn ocean, north or rather east of Behring' straits. That was too far north to answer any purpose. In the year 1793, he set out again to find a more southern river to the Tacific. On both voyages he set out from the same point Fort Chipewyan, on the Athabaca lake. Instead of descending; the Unjigah, he now ascended it went up to its head in the Kocky mountains passed through a low gap found a stream flowing west, and followed it from its source in 55 deg. of north latitude, and followed down to 52

deg. Finding it to bear south, and becoming a large nnjfnuvui; WTJICVU It 1 UC lliC VOIUUIOIB, aiready discovered by Gray; and thereupon left it, and crossed over direct to the Pacific ocean, which he reach ed some distance north of Vancouver's island. This voyage, like the other, had failed in its object: it found no navigable British river leading to the Pacific. And then a new idea struck the disappointed explorer, which he gave to the country, and impressed upon the Eritbh government, eight years afterwards, in his History of the Fur Trade. That work, published in London in the year 1801, after lamenting that a northwest passage could not be found, and declaring that the Columbia was the only line of interior communi cation with the Pacific ocean, boldly proposed to take it : on no other ground than that it was indispensable to the commercial communication between Hudson's bay and the Pacific, and no obstacle in the way but American adventurers, who would instantly disappear from before a well-regulated trade ! that is to say, before the power of the British fur-trading companies, backed by the power of the British government. Here is the extract from McKenzie's History, which very coolly recommends all this policy, as if the taking an American river, and making the Americans disappear from it, was as justifiable an operation as that of catching a beaver, and killing him for his skin. Here is the proposition of McKenzie, earnestly pressed up on his government : "The Russian, who first diicoveied tht mlonir th -nifa of Am no useful or icgular navigation existed, oprned an laienur commuucation ty rivers, kc. and throuca that lun and wide-extended coniinent. to the atrait that ntnante Asia from America, over which they parsed to the American coDtioeoL Our situation is at 1 reih, in iome decree, imilarto tbeiisi tbe oon-exUtenoe of a practicable rassa?e br sea, and the existence of one through tbe continent, are clearly proved, and it requires only the countenance and support or tut Untish government to merease, ia a very ample pmportion, this national advantage, and secure tb trade of that country to its subjects." "By the rivers that discharge themselves into Hudson's Bay, at Toit Nelson.it is proposed to cairy on the trade to their ource at the bead of the Saskatchiwine rirer, which rises in the Rocky mountains, not eight degrees of longitude fiom the Pacifäc ccean. Tbe Columbia flows fr m tbe same mountains, and discharges itself fiom the Pacific iu north latitude 46 20. Both of them are capable of receiving ships at their mouths, and are navigable thioughout for boats." But whatever course may be taken fiom the Atlan ic, Ihe Columbia it Ihe line of communication from the Pacific Mean pointed out by nature, as it is the only navigable river io the whole extent of Vancouver's minute suiTeyoftbar coast ; its bank, also, form the first level country in all tbe southern extent of continental coast from CwokN entry; and, consequently, tbe most northern situation suitable to tbe residence of a civilized people. By opening this intercourse between the Atlantie and Pacific oceans, acd forming regular establishments through the interior, ai d at both extremes, as well as along the coast and islands, Ihe entire command of the fur-trade of North Ameiica might be obtained, from latitude 4S to the pole, except that portion of it which the Russians have in the Paf ific. To this may be added, the fishing in both seas, and the market of the four quarters of the globe. Such would be Ihe field for commercial enterpiise, and incalculable would be the produce ot it when supported by tbe operations of that credit and capital which Great Britain so pre-eminently possesses. Then would this country begin to be enumerated for the expense it has sustaiued ia discovering and surveying the coast of the Pacific ocean, which is at piesent left lo Ameiican adventurers, wbo, without regulaiity or capital or the desire of conciliating future confidence, look altogether to the interests of the moment. Such adventurers (and many of them, as 1 have been informed, have been very successful) would instantly disappear from before a wellregulated trade." "Many political reasons which it ia not necessary here lo enumerate, must present tbcmselvea to the minds of every man acquainted with tbe enlarged system and capacities of Biitish commerce, in support of the measure which I have briefly suggested, as promising the most important advantages to the trade of tbe United King doms." "For a boundary line between tbe United States and Great Biitain west of the Mississippi, McKenzie proposes the latitude of 45 degrees, because that latitude is necessary to girt the Columbia river to Great Britain. His words are: 'let the line begin where it may on tbe Mississippi, it must be continued west till it terminates in tbe Pacific ocean, to thetouth of the Columbia. n (To he Continued. J Head Quarters Indiana Militia. Executive Dcpartmeht or Ihdiar,) .Yen? Albany, Ind., June 24, lü-lG. y GENERAL OKDEIl SO. VII. Whereas, The thirty companies of Volunteers called for from Indiana are now assembled at this place, fully provided with commissioned cfiicers, (according to existing laws:) and Whereas, The commandant of the different companies, having been requested by the undersigned to organize the same into three Kegunents, and not having been able to effect the same, have in a joint meeting requested the Executive to make such organization : Mow, therefore, in pursuance of such request, and of the authority in me vested, I, Janes Whitcomi, Governor of the State of Indiana, do hereby declare that th said three Regiments shall be organized as follows that is to say : One Regiment shall be composed of 'the Mad Anthony Guards, Allen county, Capt. J. W. AlcLane; Wayne Guards, Allen county, Cnpt. D. W. Lewis; Wabash Rangers, Miami county, Capt. J. W. Wilson ; Ca Co. Volunteers, Cass county, Capt. S. S. Tipton ; Wabaah Invincibles, Carroll county, Capt. R. II. Milroy ; Fountain Volunteer, Fountain county, Capt. R. M.Evans; Montgomery Volunteers, Montgomery county, Capt. II. S.Lane; Putnam Blues, Putnam county, CpL J. II. Roberta; Hendricks County Volunteers, Hendricks CO., Capt. C. C. Nave; Marion Volunteers, Marion county, Capt. J. P. Drake. One Regiment to be composed of the Johnson County Volunteers, Johnson countr. Capt. 1 County Blues, Brown county, Capt. if. Riflemen, Shelby county, Capt. V.M iiuaras. xiionroe couniv. Vapi. i. ciusjr v .. . . . a c I t unteers, Dearborn county, Capt. J. II. Lane ; Switzerland Riflemen, Switzerland county, Capt. S. Carter; Washington Guards, Jefferson county, Capt.T. L Sullivan ; Cl.irkVounty, Capt. T. W. Gibson. i And one regiment to be composed ot the Sullivan Volunteers, Sullivan county, Capt. J. W. Brings; Clay Co. Volunteers, Clay county, Capt. J. Osborn ; Green County Volunteers, Green county, Capt. L. II. Rosscau; Lawrence Greys, Lawrence county, Capt. II Davis; Uoosier Boy, Orange county, Capt. V. A. Dowlf Washington Riflemen, Washington county, Capt. A. Dennis; Towy Guards, Posey county, Capt. K. Kimball; Indiana Riflemen, Vanderburgh, Capt. W. Walker, Spencer. Greya, Floyd county, Capt. WV L. Sanderson ; LanesVille Legion, Harrison county, Capt. C. Grisham. The election of the Colonels, Lieutenant-Colonels, and Majors of the said regiments will take place to-morrow; the manner of conducting which, according to the lawa of the State, will, for general convenience, be communicated through the medium now adopted, during tbis day. The rank or number of tbe regiments will be determined bv the rank of the commandants of tbe same, when elected and commissioned. Given under my hand on thia dny and year, and at the place aforesaid. JAMES WHITCOMB, Governor of Indiana. Gexejul TAroH ano rnz TKEsiPExcr. The meeting called to nominate Gen. Taylor for the Presidency proved a complete failure, not more than forty or fifty persons having attended it. The Hon. George Folsom, a Native American, Democratic Republican, Whig; or something equivalent, was the presiding genius of the vast assemblage, and he performed the duties with all tbe grace and ease of an old veteran m such service. We have sufficiently testified our respect and esteem for Gen. Taylor in hia capacity fa military chief ain, and we would have it understood that no remar k that could injure him or wound the feelings of his real friends will ever be recorded by our pen. When the news the niirht before last shall have reached him, we arc ! sure that he will express his entire disapprobation of lit. The "Natives" have lost Scott through the unlucky interposition of a "hasty plate of soup." J"dge .McLean will not be their candidate, and now they are endeavoring to run Gen. Taylor. The trick is palpable. N. Y. Neu. A private letter received in Baltimore from Fort Brown, states that the General officer, known to have been killed in the battle of Keaca de la Palma, was General Torrrjon. .

lion Hrnisvn