Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/225

FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 213 own government Gallatin stated his opinion 52 that he had so impressed this view upon Messrs. Huskisson and Grant (who had taken the place of Addington) that there would be no objection to the erection of a territorial government having its eastern boundary within the known limits of the United States, provided ( 1 ) no customs duties or tonnage taxes were levied, (2) the law specifically stated that the jurisdiction of the United States extended only to its own citizens, and (3) no military post was erected. Great Britain would feel herself under the same restrictions. In the United States the new treaty was accepted for the most part as a good enough solution of the whole problem; it was recognized as a temporary measure, but time did not press. In official circles there was sufficient confidence in the claims of the United States to engender the belief that time would work for it rather than for Great Britain. 53 So long as the American contention had been maintained, and since nothing in the negotiations could be considered, formally at least, as binding upon future statesmen, there was no reason to feel other than complacent at the outcome. So, too, in the country at large, insofar as there seems to have been any interest in the question, satisfaction predominated, although it would perhaps be more correct to say that indifference was maintained. Oregon was still too far away and nothing had as yet happened to create a lively interest in a place so remote. There was, however, one region which did not altogether share the prevailing sentiment. From this time Missouri be- gins to show her maternal interest in the country along the Columbia; from about 1827 the Oregon Question becomes a Missouri Question, slowly expanding into a Western issue. Senator Benton notes, 54 in commenting upon the new con- vention, that he had perceived the delusive nature of the Con- vention of 1818, and, then a lawyer in St. Louis, had written against the pact as wholly one-sided and against the interests 52 Gallatin to Clay, 10 Aug., Ibid., 694-6. In a private letter to Clay (Writ- ings, II, 382-3) Gallatin stated that he believed the change of ministry would not change the policy of Great Britain. 53 Clay to Adams, Works of Henry Clay, IV, 171-2. 30 Aug. 1827. 54 Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 108 seq.