with his settlement of the Maine boundary, the west was howling about his Ashburton Treaty. Senator Linn had introduced a call for information as to why Oregon had not been included in this last treaty. Fifteen days ago Linn's bill was carried in the upper and lost in the lower House and now here comes this Oregon man to reopen the whole discussion.
Webster was not a foe to Oregon, but had he not heard, time and again, that the Americans must be crazy to think of trying to cross unbroken wastes of desert and impassable mountains to occupy a country fit only for the beaver, the bear, and the savage? Had not the "London Examiner "said the whole territory in dispute was not worth twenty thousand pounds to either power? Had not the Senator from South Carolina just said in the Senate that he would not give a pinch of snuff for the whole territory? That he thanked God for his mercy in placing the Rocky Mountains there to keep the people back? With all this in mind Webster was inclined to misinterpret that rapid utterance and that positive tone.
"You are an enthusiast, Mr. Whitman; you certainly are an enthusiast. Sir George Simpson says wagons can never get over the Rocky Mountains, and he must know. He has traversed those wilds from his youth. Besides, the country is good for nothing, the papers are full of it."
"All from English reprints," added the doctor, quickly. "The Hudson's Bay Company has flooded Great Britain with such reports to keep the land to themselves. It is to their interest to keep it a wilderness."
Secretary Webster endeavored to change the subject.
"How did you get to Oregon, Mr. Whitman?"
